The Heart of a Prepper

Sir Knight was listening to a radio program the other day and was so taken aback by the content that he called to have me verify the information online.  He was listening to a heart surgeon (with over 5,000 open-heart surgeries to his credit) who unequivocally denied that heart disease was caused by a high fat diet or even high cholesterol.

Honest-to-goodness preppers realize that being prepared is a whole heck of a lot more than having a years supply of food in the basement.  Preppers are concerned with all aspects of survival including (but not limited to) homesteading, food preparation and storage, medical emergencies, physical fitness and preventative maintenance.  Our philosophy is that we need to keep up with the boring maintenance type things so that if everything implodes, we begin TEOTWAWKI without any major problems to contend with.  The reality is TEOTWAWKi will be enough of an adjustment without having to deal with a tooth ache.

Knowing that we are preparing for a potential future with limited or no medical care available, it would only make sense to take care of ourselves in such a way that we are less likely to encounter serious, health related problems.  And, realizing that heart disease is a major factor in sudden and unexpected death, Sir Knight found the heart surgeon's recommendations worthy of consideration.

Absolutely counter to conventional wisdom, Dr. Dwight Lundell claimed that elevated blood cholesterol did not cause heart disease, nor did high fat intake.  Quite to the contrary, he recommends adopting a diet that would have been the norm for your grandparents - in other words, real food.  Meat, vegetables, real butter and other animal fats, he contends, should replace a diet that is low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates.  Basically, Dr. Lundell claims that we have been fed recommendations for the last 60 years that are killing us.  His findings are fascinating and deserve to be read in their entirety - here is the link - please take a look.

The bakery flour bins that I use for bulk foods in the house

200 pounds of hard white wheat

The long and short of it is that we need to replace white flour with whole wheat (duh!) and white sugar with honey (double duh!) and get away from oils like corn oil and replace them with animal fats.  And so, I did some baking today!  Now, I have to preface this by admitting to the fact that we are food snobs.  We LOVE good food.  We probably aren't going to eat something just because it is "good" for us, it has to taste wonderful.  The recipes I used, I have had for years, I just made some adjustments.  The results were wonderful and I just had to share them (I think I've posted both of these recipes before, but I will show them again just for fun).

Whole Wheat Cake Doughnuts
2 eggs
1 C buttermilk
1 C brown sugar
4 T butter, melted
2 C whole wheat flour (freshly ground)
2 C unbleached flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Beat the eggs with the buttermilk (I used sweet milk with a splash of lemon juice) until light.  Add and beat in the sugar and melted butter.  Mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices together.  Blend with the liquid ingredients, mixing as little as possible.

The dough will be sticky so turn it out onto a well-floured board.  With a rolling pin, also well floured, roll out the dough until it is between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick.

Cut the doughnuts with a doughnut cutter and allow them to rest while you heat a frying pan of lard (I really used lard rather than Crisco or vegetable oil - it was great) to 365°.  It should be deep enough so the doughnuts will float.

Fry the doughnuts, giving them enough room to expand, until they're a golden brown on both sides.  Remove them to a paper towel to drain.  Roll them in cinnamon and sugar, if you are so inclined.

Bucket of lard that has been in storage since 2009

Lards stores very well

Doughnuts cut out and ready to fry

Rolling in cinnamon and sugar

Yum!

Yep - these are whole wheat doughnuts fried in lard

Light Pizza Dough (Whole Wheat Version)
1 3/4 C warm water
1 T honey
1 T yeast
2 C whole wheat flour (freshly ground)
3 C unbleached white flour (or a little less)
1/4 C olive oil
1 T salt

Mix together the water, honey, oil, salt and yeast.  Add the whole wheat flour.  Allow to "sponge" for at least two hours.  Add white flour a little at a time, until the dough is soft yet no longer sticky.

Put dough in a bowl with a little bit of olive oil in the bottom.  Turn over to coat dough with oil.  Cover with a towel and set in a warm place to raise.  Raise till double.  Punch dough down and turn over in bowl.  Allow to rise until almost double.  Punch down and roll out on pizza pans.  Cover with your favorite toppings and allow to rise.  Bake to perfection!

Water, olive oil and honey

Sponging with the whole wheat flour (makes a tender, light crust)

Ready for the rest of the flour

Smothered in olive oil and ready to rise

Ready to punch down

See the flakes of wheat?

Dressed and ready for the oven

Oh yeah!

The crust isn't the least bit dense or heavy

Dinner time!

Oh my goodness, both of these dishes turned out wonderfully!  I used hard white wheat rather than hard red so there wasn't an overpoweringly nutty flavor.  The flavor was just enhanced.  The doughnuts and the pizza crust were light - not the least bit heavy.

No doubt about it - I will be adding more whole wheat into our daily bread.

It Really IS all About You

My children, as they go about their business of growing up, provide my muse.  I was listening to the kids cleaning their bedrooms upstairs and one began to chide the other over some perceived offense or another.  I called them down and instructed the older to consider her words and her tone before she spoke to her younger sibling - I expected her to be encouraging and kind rather than flippant and degrading.  Much to my chagrin, my daughter responded in an unfailingly human manner - she blamed her sister.  "Mom, she wasn't doing what she was supposed to - she was just lolly gagging around not doing anything!"  Truth be told, that may well have been the case, however, my instruction was not directed to my younger daughter.  It had been to my older daughter and her attitude and tone of voice.  She alone was responsible for that, not her little sister.  Her little sister was responsible for her own self.

Isn't that the way of human nature?  When confronted with our own failings, we race to blame someone else.  "He made me do it", "If she hadn't done that, I wouldn't have had to react that way", "If they had done their part, I wouldn't be in this position right now".  But the truth of the matter is that we ARE responsible for our own selves.  WE alone control how we behave, what we do and how we do it.  When we cease to be responsible for our own actions, we give control of our lives to other people.  And by shirking responsibility for our own lives we, by default, become slaves.

Being responsible for ourselves is much easier said than done.  Swallowing our pride and admitting our shortcomings takes courage and fortitude.  It is by far easier to blame someone else for our poor behavior than to own it.  Learning responsibility begins at home.  It is taught by parents who love their children and never want them to become slaves.  Wise parents realize that when children don't learn to take responsibility for themselves, it opens the door for someone else to step in and take responsibility.  When we don't teach our kids responsibility, they grow up being, well, irresponsible.  They don't pay their medical bills, forcing the state to pick up the tab.  When the state picks up the tab, they will tell you what you can and cannot do with your body, thereby making you a slave.  It is happening already, in nearly every area of our lives.  We have shirked our responsibility, opening wide the door for government to step in and reduce us to little more than vassals.

And so you see, it really IS all about us.  The world does revolve around us, as individuals.  Our nation will go the way the individual goes.  When we choose to not take responsibility, our ability to take make our own choices will be stripped from us.  We are not a collective, reliant on each other for our prosperity - we are individuals, making our own future.  We are responsible.  It really is all about us.

Off-Grid Survival

There are days when I long for the soothing hum of power pulsing from the power lines directly into a transformer and into our house.  I long to flush the toilet just once, without having to plunge it.  I want to wash the laundry without starting the generator.  I want to listen to the gentle sound of the rain drumming on our metal roof without having to block out the constant buzz of a generator running at 3600rpm's.  I want to flip a switch without having to give a single thought to where that power is coming from and how to keep it coming.  I want a little dependence on someone other than us!

But then, I come to my senses.  In reality, I am thankful for the way that we live.  I am, after all, a survivalist at heart.  Had we never jumped off a cliff and gone non-electric, we never would have known how to truly survive if and when the grid went down.  Although it has been challenging, and more often than not, character building, I would not exchange our off-grid experiences for the world.  Our 11 years of off-grid living has taught us a thing or two.  Hopefully, our experiences will be of some value to you as well.

WATER
Obviously, water is an essential element for any homestead.  In a perfect world, an off-grid homestead would have a water system that relied solely on a gravity-fed spring.  When I was growing up, our property had an entire hill-side that bubbled with the sweetest water imaginable.  My mom and dad chose what to them looked like a likely spot and started digging.  They dug a hole about 4 feet x 4 feet square and 6 feet deep.  They lined the hole with cedar boards (to keep the dirt from sloughing back into the hole) and filled it with drain rock.  Then, they dug ditches, laid pipe and put a submersible pump in the spring and called it good.  They did have grid power, so electricity was not a problem, but they were incredibly fortunate to have such a wonderful water source.  That spring served our family (never running out of water) for over 20 years and required virtually no maintenance.  Another benefit of our spring was the fact that because of the size of the hole, the water was easily accessible, even if the power went out, and, had the grid ever gone permanently down, the spring was uphill from our house, making a gravity fed water system highly likely.

Unfortunately, Sir Knight and I don't have the option of a gravity fed spring system.  Our well is deep (435 feet) and our pump requires 220 volts to run.  We have run on two systems, neither of which is optimal for an extended grid-down situation.  For most of the years that we have been off-grid, we have had to run our generator in order to pump water from our well into a pressure tank.  The pressure tank holds about enough water to flush the toilet 3 times and fill the sink for dishes once or twice.  If we conserve (ie. not flushing the toilet very often) we can make our pressure tank of water last all day.  Doing laundry requires the generator to be on so that it can run the well pump.  When we run a large generator (10kw) we can easily run the well pump and also charge our batteries (at about 70amps), however, when we are running a smaller generator (5kw) we can only run the well pump or charge batteries - not do both simultaneously.  The other method we have used for pumping water (which is much more to my liking, not to mention much more tenable) is wiring both of our large inverters 180° out of phase so that they create 220 volts and run our well pump right off the batteries.  I love this option because we are not wasting gas running the generator and we can flush the toilet every time we use it!!!  And, of course, it is completely tenable in a long-term off-grid scenario.

There are currently low voltage pumps that operate in deep wells that were not available when we put our system in.  They run on either AC (alternating current) or DC (direct current).  They are expensive, but definitely worth investigating.  Another viable option, if your topography supports it, is a buried cistern, uphill, that you can pump into by either a generator or solar pump, creating your own gravity fed water system.  This is the best option for those of us without naturally occurring gravity fed water.

REFRIGERATION
When we first moved into our shouse, we were lucky enough to have found and old Servel propane refrigerator at a yard sale and scooped it up.  It was a 1950's model, and really pretty small, but after using a cooler filled with ice, it was enormous.  I loved the propane refrigerator.  It was silent, used very little propane and kept things very cold.  We used our Servel long before we had any electricity at all and proved to be incredibly reliable.  The "freezer" was tiny (it held about 6 ice cube trays) and wasn't capable of keeping ice cream frozen, but it did make ice and that was enough for us.  Being as old as it was, it did ice up considerable requiring thawing rather frequently, but, having refrigeration was well worth the effort.

After using our Servel for about 5 years, the burner began blowing out, forcing us to relight the fridge.  Finally, we were no longer able to keep the burner going, so we contacted a propane appliance repair center to replace the burner.  Our request was met with panic on the part of the repair man.  Apparently, this particular fridge was prone to wearing out after nearly 60 years in service and a few of them had killed some folks with CO2 poisoning.  Servel would not sell the parts required to fix the refrigerator.  The best fridge we ever had now went into the scrap pile.

After our Servel, we found a used Sunfrost, 19cf refrigerator/freezer.  It was an older model and looked like it was built in somebodies garage.  It was, however, built specifically for off-grid use, so we gave it a try.  Our refrigerator is AC rather than DC, which would have been much preferable for our off-grid system.  It is the largest user in our entire house, cycling off and on with unending regularity.  Because of the design, the refrigerator portion of the fridge was right on the floor and the freezer was at eye level.  Sir Knight built a stand to raise the fridge, so that the refrigerator portion was easier to get to, which made the fridge much more user friendly.  The freezer does not freeze particularly well, but it too makes ice, and does keep food exceptionally cold, so it serves its purpose.

If we had it to do over again, Sir Knight would build a refrigerator out of a 24 volt DC Nova Kool refrigerator kit.  He would build it using a highly insulated refrigerator body and even go so far as to cut holes in the back of the refrigerator (facing an outside wall), covering the holes with hardware cloth and make a sliding door that could be opened in the winter when the weather was cold, effectively cooling the refrigerator with outside air, possibly even using muffin fans on a thermostat.

Realizing the amount of power, either battery power or propane, required to keep refrigeration up and running, the most viable grid-down cooling option is an old fashioned root cellar.   Properly constructed, a root cellar easily keeps perishable foods at an appropriately cool temperature year round with a minimum of effort or maintenance.  Root cellars require no electricity, no battery bank and no propane.  They are truly an off-grid marvel.

WIND TURBINES
Our family is not the definitive authority on wind power, however we do have experience with wind turbines.  Our very first source of alternative energy (other than a generator) was a wind turbine.  Living in a very windy location, we were positive that wind was the perfect alternative energy source.  We bought an Air X wind turbine, built a tower, hoisted it into place and fastened 4 guy wires to secure the tower.  We dug a trench, pulled the wires through and hooked them into our charge controller.  We were so excited when we flipped the breaker, we ran to the kitchen to watch the Tri-metric (meter), expecting to see massive amounts of power coursing through our controller into our battery bank.  Nothing!  To be fair, there really wasn't much of a breeze, so our disappointment was tempered by the realization that there wasn't enough wind to make power - just yet anyway.  Later that evening, the wind kicked up and we knew we must be raking in the power, yet the Tri-metric only registered 17 amps.  Not bad, we thought - it was better than nothing.  Just then, the wind really began beating the shouse.  Outside, a noise, something akin to a wounded, screaming animal, began emanating from the wind turbine.  It got louder and louder until we thought the turbine might fly off the tower and rip through our house!  In reality, the turbine was secure and the noise we were hearing were the brakes coming on on the wind turbine due to the high wind.  What we came to learn was that although we had a lot of wind, it wasn't the right kind of wind.  Either we had a gentle breeze, producing no power or we had Gail force winds causing the turbine to put on the brakes, also producing no power.  At the very most, in exactly the right conditions, we would produce 20 to 25 amps of power, resulting in little more than a trickle charge to our batteries.

After using our wind turbine for about 2 years, we had an electrical storm and the composite blades built up an excess of static electricity and fried our inverter. Literally.  I mean we had flames and everything!  After spending a whole lot of money to buy a new inverter, we were more than a little leery of connecting the wind turbine back up to our system.  That turned out not to be an issue.  One day during a particularly breezy spell, I looked out the window just in time to see the tower begin to lean to port.  Running outside, the kids and I arrived just in time to catch the tower and gently lower it to the ground.  The guy wires had broken under the stress of the high winds and the weight of the tower and turbine.  We laid the wind turbine to rest, never again to flutter in the breeze.

Our experience with wind power is not unique.  Our local power company put up a testing facility near the airport (a very windy area).  They installed a 2500 watt wind turbine and also put up a 2500 watt solar array in order to determine what alternative energy source was the most reliable.  Completely confident in the fact that the turbine would noticeably outpace the solar array, they were stunned when the numbers were crunched and the results indicated that the solar system made more energy by far!  They, too, found that although they had a lot of wind, they didn't have the right kind of wind.  It was either too windy or not windy enough.  And they also noticed that the turbine required regular maintenance and repair (adding to the cost and reducing the efficiency) while the solar array required none.

We can say with certainty, that for us, wind turbines are not an effective alternative energy option.

SOLAR
We love our solar panels.  They are the only part of our off-grid system that never require maintenance and work no matter what (well, as long as it is bright outside, that is).  Solar panels require a system, complete with batteries, a charge controller and power inverters to work to their full potential.  The solar panels are wired into a charge controller.  The charge controller control the amount of current that goes into the batteries so that the batteries do not overcharge.  The inverter changes the power that comes out of the batteries from DC (direct current) to 120 volt AC (alternating current), which is normal household electricity, thus allowing you to use household appliances, computers, televisions and lights.  Alternative energy systems utilizing a battery bank have limitations.  They are great for using lights, small appliances, computers and televisions.  They cannot power anything with resistive heating, such as electric stoves, electric hot water tanks or electric furnace systems.  Solar systems can be very effective in the long term for household lighting and other small electrical users.  But, as with any mechanic system, things will wear out and things will fail.

In the 11 years that we have been off the grid, we have had two inverters fail.  The first inverter we bought used, so we can hardly count that one.  The second inverter failed after about 10 years of use, which we have since learned, is about the life expectancy of a power inverter.  Batteries are another weak link.  They require care and maintenance.  They must be watered, kept from freezing and even have their acid adjusted from time to time.  You have to run them low and then charge them up or they will develop a "memory" resulting in the loss of a significant amount of storage capacity.  Charge controllers and power inverters both have electronic components that can fail.

I believe that solar is the best, long-term grid down option, however, it is not infallible.  You have to know how your system works and how to keep it running.  You have to maintain it and, realistically, you have to prepare for it to fail.

Although we have a great solar system, we also have back-up plans.  We have a number of kerosene lamps and a stock of kerosene.  We have wind-up radios and rechargeable batteries (which can be recharged with just the solar panels, bypassing the inverters) and we have books (just in case there are no movies and no computer access).

All in all, there are many ways to plan for survival.  Have a back-up plan for your back-up plan.  We have tried a number of things and have found what works best for us.  You may want to explore what options are available to you and make plans accordingly.  There are all kinds of off-grid, you just need to find the one that is most viable to you.

Miss Serenity

Miss Calamity has turned 13.  With this milestone, we decided that she needed a new name - one that did not allude to great catastrophe.  And so, Miss Calamity has become Miss Serenity.

As is our custom, Sir Knight took Miss Serenity on a "Daddy Date" to celebrate her birthday.  They dressed up (in their best cowboy and cowgirl duds) and spent an evening enjoying each others company.  First, they went to Big R (a local feed store) to get some new Wranglers and have a look around, then, they made their way to the Outback Steakhouse for a steak dinner.  They talked and laughed and talked some more, enjoying just being together.  As they finished their meal, Sir Knight presented Miss Serenity with a ring - a ring that would knit their hearts together, only to be replaced when Miss Serenity's heart is knitted with her future husband and his ring replaces her fathers.

As Miss Serenity and Sir Knight spent an evening out, the rest of the family spent an evening in.  Since we didn't have a whole family to cook for, Maid Elizabeth and I made a treat that we rarely indulge in - Potato Skins!

First, we baked a number of potatoes (with the skins on, in the wood cookstove) until they were tender.  Then, we cut the potatoes in half and scooped out the flesh.  We melted butter in a saucepan and dipped each "potato boat" in the butter and placed it on a cookie sheet.  After each potato skin was well buttered, we filled them with grated cheddar cheese, bacon bits and chives (we prefer fresh, but had to settle for dried).  We put the potato skins in the oven just until the cheese melted (and started to turn slightly brown) and the skins crunched up. Ummm!  What a wonderful, tasty treat!  No one complained at all that we didn't have anything but potato skins for dinner (although Master Calvin did say "Is that all we are having?") and they were all gone by the time Sir Knight and Miss Serenity strolled through the door at the end of their evening.

Dipped in butter

Adding Cheddar Cheese

How could you go wrong with Cheese and Bacon?

Ready for the oven

Need I say anything?

We are thankful for our Miss Serenity and for the 13 years we have blessed with her.  May God preserve and keep her and grant her wisdom, knowledge and understanding as she walks into her future.

Tea Cozies are Here!

Finally - we have our tea cozies up on our website!  We have had these in the works for quite a while and I am so excited to share them with you.  They are very cute and fit almost any tea pot, all the while leaving the handle nice and cool.  They have quite a lot of batting in them, so they will retain the heat in the pot for a long time.

Every cozy is completely unique - no two are alike, some are even reversible.  As we expand our selection, we will post those on the site as well.

Tea time is such a wonderful occasion in our home.  I hope these tea cozies will be the foundation of a wonderful new tradition in your home or an addition to your already resplendent tea table.

Cowboy Cookies

One of my favorite cookies to make when I want to fill the cookie jar (and have a few left to give to folks in the neighborhood) are Cowboy Cookies.  I have no idea why they are called Cowboy Cookies but I do know that my favorite Cowgirl loves em!  They are simple, good and are easy to make with stored foods.  I always make a double batch.

Cowboy Cookies

1 C butter, softened (lard or shortening for stored foods)
1 1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C granulated sugar
2 eggs (or 2T egg powder + 6T water)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 C flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 C oatmeal (I use thick cut)
2 C chocolate chips (I use a little less)
1 C flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350°

In a mixing bowl, cream butter (or shortening/lard) and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat until fluffy.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt.  Beat into creamed mixture.  Stir in oatmeal, chocolate chips and coconut.  Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheets.  Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

When I bake cookies, I use the amount of flour listed in the recipe merely as a guide.  I always start with less flour than is recommended, slowly adding more until the dough is the correct consistency.  The amount of flour that is needed depends on many factors, including the humidity in the air.  With this recipe, I often add more flour than the recipe indicates.  If the dough is sticky, I add flour just until the dough no longer sticks to my hands, but is still soft.  If not enough flour has been added, the cookies will spread all over the cookie sheet and be flat as pancakes.  If too much flour has been added, they retain the shape they were when they were put on the cookie sheet and will be as hard as rocks.  Generally, I roll the cookie dough around in my hand to make round balls before I put them on the baking sheets.  Doing this gives me a good idea as to the condition of the dough.

Creaming the butter and the sugars

Adding the Chocolate Chips

Dough is still too wet

Just the right amount of flour

Ready for the oven

Ready to turn in the cookstove

These cookies, by themselves are very hardy, but when you use wheat flour rather than white flour, they will keep you going all day long!

Our Just Desserts

As I read a horrific story of a baby being killed in a drive-by shooting that stemmed from a seating disagreement at a baby shower the day before, I was taken aback by a statement so appalling that I had to read it twice to be certain that it said what I thought it said.  The statement (made by the grandmother of the slain baby) was "Life is not valued in Detroit.  It is a war zone here.  We need some ground troops patrolling these streets; they send them all oversees, but they need to be here."


Wow!  An (presumably) American citizen uttered those words.  "We need some ground troops patrolling these streets".  Am I completely missing the logic here, or did she just say that by having ground troops patrolling the streets, Detroit would look less like a war zone?  I am speechless.

So, this is what we have been reduced to.  A country whose citizens are so lacking in basic self-control and moral fortitude that we require an armed military presence just to keep us from killing ourselves and each other.  My very soul is grieved.

We have lost our way.  We have turned our back on all that is good and embraced evil in all its forms.  We no longer value self-control or encourage basic biblical principles such as turning the other cheek and putting other people before ourselves.  Wisdom, knowledge and understanding are openly ridiculed and regarded as weaknesses.  We don't encourage our children to overlook offenses.  Actually, our value system is quite the opposite.  When our children do poorly in school, we blame the teachers.  When they have been treated unfairly (or what they or we perceive as unfair) we tell them they don't have to treated like that and go to the wall to ensure that their precious feelings are never stomped on.  If someone hits them, we tell them to hit him back and to do it in such a way that they never mess with them again.  Our culture prides itself in never being pushed around or walked over. We are Americans and Americans don't take guff from anyone.  We are aggressive, presumptuous and entirely self-absorbed.  And yet, we cringe and gape when someone kills a 9 month old baby because they didn't get the seat they wanted at a baby shower.

We are reaping the consequences of the abandonment of our Godly heritage.  Rather than aspiring to a higher moral standard we are indulging ourselves in selfish and vain pursuits.  Rather than disciplining ourselves and living together as brothers we have become like a pack of rabid dogs.

To think that this once-proud nation has been brought to its knees by its own wickedness is heartbreaking.  Never would I have thought that our own people would be begging for armed men to walk through our streets to keep our undisciplined selves in line.

I am crying from the rooftops - I am standing at the city gates.  Turn from your evil ways.   Teach your children.  Don't demand justice, demand righteousness.  Don't let a military presence in our streets be our just desserts.

Raising Socialists

Master Calvin was fussing and Princess Dragon Snack was crying.  Obviously, they needed some adult intervention, so I called them both downstairs, determined to get to the bottom of their squabble.  With tears streaming down her face, Princess Dragon Snack told a tale of woe.  Master  Calvin had kicked her - and he meant to do it!  Master Calvin was emphatically denying the charges leveled against him, claiming that Princess Dragon Snack had gotten kicked as she was trying to drag him out of her "Hugglepod".  Concerned that Princess Dragon Snack was not being kind and sharing with her brother, I asked for more clarification.  I was informed that Dragon Snack had been reading contentedly in her Hugglepod and, having finished her book, slipped out for a moment to retrieve another.  Master Calvin, seeing a moment of opportunity, commandeered the Hugglepod and resolutely refused to acquiesce his position.  It digressed from there.  Dragon Snack started yelling, Master Calvin became defensive and now the perpetrators were on trial in the living room.

Wanting nothing more than a quiet afternoon, my first thought was to require Princess Dragon Snack to give up her cozy spot and enforce mandated sharing.  And then, it hit me - in doing so, I would be grooming future Socialists to take what they wanted by force and coercion.  They would have no concept of personal property rights and would view all property as something to take at will or expect to be granted rights to just because they wanted it.  This, I could not have.

Personal property rights begin the moment someone has something to call their own.  They are the owner of it, the person responsible for its care and maintenance.  While sharing is an admirable character quality it cannot be forced.  People (even little people) have to choose how they want to share and with whom.  If I forced Miss  Calamity (12) to share her water color painting supplies with Master Calvin (4) she wouldn't have usable supplies for very long.  Master Calvin would pour water over them, ruin the brushes and generally wreak havoc.  Due to the fact that Miss Calamity owns her water color supplies, she has to have the final say as to who she will share with and when.  If we don't guard her personal property rights, she will be left with little or nothing of value. And it wouldn't just be her that was affected, it would be our whole family.  No longer would she paint beautiful pictures or spend afternoons teaching her little siblings the finer points of water colors.  No longer could she carry her paints to the woods and study the world around her by painting it. The simple act of not guarding her personal property rights would send ripples of untold consequences.

Yet another consequence emerges from not enforcing or encouraging property rights.  When children know that their things are not really their own, they will cease to take care of them.  Why should they?  They don't have any real authority over them and the energy used to care for them would be counterproductive.

This is the world in which we live.  We have trained our children to "share" (whether it is appropriate or  not) and can't figure out why our society is hallmarked by an "entitlement mentality".  It begins with "we the parents".  It is essential that we teach our children the importance of personal property and the rewards of working for and earning our property.  As parents, it is our somber duty to guard our children's personal property rights, just as our government has been charged with ensuring ours.  We are the very foundation of the free world.

After considerable deliberation, I rendered my decision in the Princess Dragon Snack vs. Master Calvin case.  I ruled for Princess Dragon Snack.  I encouraged her to invite her brother to use her Hugglepod when she was finished with it (provided that he wasn't fussing or crying at her about it) and I instructed him to find something else to play.  Confident that her personal property rights were completely intact, Princess Dragon Snack chose to invite her brother into her Hugglepod with her and they spent the afternoon reading together happily.  Case dismissed.

I don't want to raise Socialists.  I want to raise contented children who strive to make their own way in the world and respect the rights of others in the process.  I want them to take responsibility for themselves and care for others as they would like to be cared for.

We are not a collective.  God made man to be individual.  We come to Him on a personal level, one by one.  We cannot stand before the throne of God and use someone else's salvation.  This is something Socialists do not understand.

When we encourage everything in our children's lives to be communal, we are setting them up for failure.  We are stealing their ability for happiness and contentment.  We are stealing their joy.  We are raising Socialists.

Investing in Technology Futures

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  In the new world we may be entering, the new high tech will be the old low tech....

Old technology

The Future

Old Technology

The Future

Old Technology

The Future

Old Technology

The Future

Old Technology

The Future

Preppers definitely have the inside track on this new investment opportunity.  Now may be the time to invest in technological futures!

The Sound of Silence

We live "off-the-grid".  We have a generator, solar panels, inverters and charge controllers.  We have a refrigerator that was designed for off-grid living and propane appliances.  We flush our toilet only when absolutely necessary and turn off lights when we leave a room.  We have a Tri-metric meter that shows us our current electrical usage and also lets us know how much power we are generating, either by the sun or the gas generator.  We have to start our generator to take a shower and to do laundry.  Our life is anything but silent.

But it hasn't been that way.  When we first began this off-grid journey, we were truly living non-electric.  We had no power, generated by the sun or otherwise.  We hauled our water, disposed of our waste in special plastic bags and used oil lamps for illumination.  Our refrigerator was propane and our heat source, wood.  Our home was silent.  No electric refrigerator cycling off and on.  No dryer humming in the background.  No music, no television, no fan whirling on the back of the computer.  No generator providing constant background noise. Nothing.  Silence.  It was wonderful.

When we lived completely non-electric, our bodies were tuned to the cycles of nature.  We rarely stayed up past 8:30 on a winter evening because we were tired and there was nothing else to occupy our time.  We woke with the sun because we were well rested.  Our minds were sharp and clear because we didn't have constant input from ipods, television, stereo's and computers.  We spent our time doing or reading.  Without the constant bombardment of advertising slogans and media input, we were quite content - not envious of the newest, latest must have.

But, as time went on, our life "improved".  A generator took the place of hauling water (and what a blessing that was!) and an electric refrigerator replaced the propane fridge.  Little by little, noise crept back into our lives.  The constant whirl of the wind turbine became a comforting companion.  Movies were an anticipated treat.  Soon, music, generators and the hum of electric fans replaced the quiet solitude of our non-electric life. Although technically off-the-grid, we were no long non-electric.

I appreciate running water.  I believe that an electric washing machine is a gift from God. But, I often wonder how much we give up to secure convenient comforts.  We exchanged quiet simplicity for modern convenience.  And there is a price to be paid.  The more plugged in we become, the more unplugged from each other we become.  Rather than spending time reading together, we spend time watching the television and puttering on the computer.  Rather than slowly doing one chore after another, intimately involved with the life we are living, we rush from one task to the next, missing the subtle yet significant joys of being connected.

Living the simple, off-the-grid life that we live is wonderful, yet even it leaves something to be desired.  I miss the days of "Little House on the Prairie" by lantern light.  I miss the calm pace set by the necessity of doing things the "hard way".  I miss the quiet of the propane refrigerator and the oil lamps.  I miss the gentle influence of a life filled with silence.

As Sir Knight and I prepare for the future, we purposefully look to the past.  Although I appreciate all of the improvements we have made and each hard-won step toward independence, I realize that technology comes with a price.  And that price could be too steep to pay.  If and when we are confronted with a societal collapse, all the technology in the world won't keep you afloat.  We, as a people, will have to get back-to-basics, and that really isn't all bad.  The very essence of preparedness is simplicity.  And, simplicity doesn't, by definition, imply easy.  Hauling water can be very difficult, however, it can be a lot more simple than keeping your generator running.  Oil lamps can be a pain to keep full and clean, but the cost and upkeep will be by far less than sustaining a wind turbine.  Rather than buying $5000.00 worth of solar panels, buying a generator and storing fuel, you could built an outhouse and be done with it.  Using an outhouse isn't any ones romantic ideal, however it is far more romantic than a full toilet and a plunger.

I encourage each of you to look toward simple.  Embrace and prepare for a non-electric life rather than an off-the-grid life.  Don't be afraid of a little hard work.  Although challenging, living a non-electric life has dividends that can't be measured by any monetary system.

Our future shouldn't arouse fear.  We should view it as a personal challenge.  Rather than trying to prepare for our future by implementing systems to ensure that our circumstances don't change, prepare for a great change of circumstances.  The key here is to prepare.  Be ready to haul water.  Build an outhouse.  Buy a whole lot of kerosene and lamps and wicks.  Be ready to hunker down in the storm - and thrive.  And most of all, embrace the sounds of silence.