This week’s guest on the BHM Radio Show is Linda Morehouse. Linda plans to talk about the health benefits of grass-fed beef, pastured poultry and their eggs, and pastured pork.
I figured that you would be interested so I am bring it to you
I am so sorry that I haven’t been posting lately. Our family has had a lot going on as far as deaths in the family and family friends, car trouble and I have been having health issues.
I was reading recently that some people believe that in just 5 years the cost of living could go up to 10 times what it is now. Even worse is that these same people are forecasting that even with this incredible increase in the price of everything that there may be no increase in salary.
OMG! That is a scary thought- isn’t it?
Now I have always said that you should prepare for the worst but hope for the best.
What can we do?
Well, some people think that there must be something that we can do to avoid this happening.
If you have any ideas about what we all can do to keep this dramatic price increase from happening then please post your ideas here and let’s see what we can all come up with.
What can you do to prepare for such and event?
First of all try to pay off any and all bills that you possibly can in the next few years. This will give you more of your income to be able to use in the even that this does happen.
Insulate your home to cut back on energy waste
Switch to fluorescent bulbs and shut off lights when not needed
Switch to solar and/or wind power
If you don’t already then you should try gardening. Don’t have room? Maybe you can find someone that does and you can work something out about the seed, plants and work and then divide up the produce accordingly
Plant fruit and nut trees, shrubs, vines NOW. Most of these will be producing something, even if it isn’t at full capacity, in 5 years. A friend of ours planted a cherry tree 3 years ago. They canned something like 30 quarts of cherries this year. That’s in just THREE YEARS!
My best advice right now would be to start planting as many different kinds of fruit and nuts in your yard as you can. With your own fruits and nuts and a vegetable garden you will know that no matter what happens in the world and with the prices of food that you will have something to feed your family. AND it will be good healthy food which can cut down on medical bills so it is a WIN WIN situation.
If you have the room and can afford to you should install a root cellar and build a greenhouse. This will help you to be able to feed your family year round with home grown fruits, nuts and vegetables
If you are on low income you might also want to try to become educated and/or certified in a career that will increase your income.
Cut down on wastes wherever and whenever possible.
Raise some chickens and rabbits. These don’t take up a lot of room but will provide you with eggs, chicken and rabbit meat for protein. Homegrown NATURALLY Raised meat is actually more filling than much of the meat that you buy at the market. Rabbit meat is also one of, if not THE, leanest meat that you can eat.
If you have a pond you can also grow your own fish. Fish is becoming VERY expensive and I am sure that it’s price will only continue to go up so this could be a very good investment for you if you have the room. A pond will give you entertainment, fire protection, you can use it to water your garden or your animals if needed AND you can grow fish.
These are just some suggestions for you. Anything that you can do to raise your income, lower your outgo and be able to provide for your family will help you to become more self-sufficient. Anything you can do to become more self sufficient will help to increase your family’s chances of survival and their comfort level during tough economic times.
As food prices soar, and especially the cost of meat, many are finding it to more economical to grow your own.
As someone interested in becoming self-sufficient you can never be truly self-sufficient until you grow your own meat.
If raising your own meat is something that you do not think that you can do you can start small.
As a means of becoming more self sufficient Josh & I decided to start with chickens.
We weren’t sure if we would be able to raise, and then slaughter, the animals for meat. By choosing chickens we were able to get dual purpose chickens. This way, if we were unable to process the chickens for meat, we could still benefit from their eating bugs, producing fertilizer for our garden, producing eggs for us to eat and they are fun to watch as they are very entertaining
Raising chickens is so easy that nearly anyone can do so. Chickens also eat mosquitoes which are prevalent in our area.
With the diseases that are transferred by mosquitoes raising chickens is an important part in becoming self-sufficient and helping to keep your family safe from diseases such as West Nile and Malaria- among others.
Our first chickens were Barred Rocks as they are a great dual purpose chicken that are also pretty calm and friendly. They produce brown eggs
This Spring we decided to try raising a few meat chickens. They are growing well and if we had continued to feed them corn we could have harvested them at any time.
But, to save money, get rid of more mosquitoes and produce a grass fed meat, rather than grain fed, we have switched them over to ‘free range’. They have been allowed to run around outside before but we fed them corn until such time as they were big enough to be able to eat the grass, and bugs, to feed themselves.
They still get scraps such as potato peels, apple cores, etc. but for the most part are self-sufficient as far as feeding themselves.
Other than making sure that they are let out in the morning, closed in at night for their safety and giving them fresh water- they are not difficult to take care of.
We clean their area when necessary and gather the eggs.
You can buy layers which are hens old enough to be laying eggs. This is a bit more expensive than buying straight run chicks and raising them yourself but it can be a time saver. It could also be cheaper in the long run as they would be of an age that they could be more self sufficient with feeding themselves and they would produce eggs sooner.
BUT, you would also lose out on the joys of raising chicks. They are a bit more work but nothing that difficult and a true joy and learning experience.