Lazy Sundays and Survival

Hello blog world, happy Sunday to ya!

 I am enjoying a lazy Sunday here with my son and my grandbabies all happily playing on the Wii in the other room.

 I am catching up on blog reading today and reading The Land of Painted Caves: A Novel (Earth's Children) by Jean Auel, my all time favorite author. Her stories are so well researched and written that it isn't hard to find myself drawn into a life before modern convenience.
The people she writes about become real and I find myself becoming very involved in the story line, rooting for the heroine and feeling tense when she is in a dangerous situation.
Since I am trying to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle I find the descriptions of the ways the characters are doing things informative, and when I am in the garden or especially when foraging for wild plants I think I know a little of how people back then must have felt. but alas only a little of what they felt, because nowadays we all know, even if we do grow some of our own food, and forage a little for food and medicinal plants, if we can't find what we are looking for it is only as far as the nearest store.

Most of us don't think about what ifs, how we would get by if what we wanted wasn't available but by our own hands.
What would you do if suddenly you weren't able to find shelter? Find food? Find help if injured or sick? Would you and your family be able to survive?
Lot's of folks have websites and blogs about survival topics, herbal medicine and food storage, this isn't one of them. This is just a blog about my trying to live a better, more fulfilling life without depending completely on someone else or the nearest store as much as I can.

I haven't been doing this long, only a few months really, since I started paying attention to the world economy more and wondering how long any of us really have before we are forced to take action to insure our own comfort and safety. I have found there are gads of people who are living the kind of lifestyle I am striving for. I have found so much information and help from their websites and blogs. I will be posting a separate page with lots of links to some of my favorite pages for learning survival skills and homesteading, my two favorite topics.

I hope all of you are thinking enough about the what ifs that if you find yourself in a situation like a natural disaster, economic failure, or other life-threatening situation that you know enough and have planned enough to survive.

Until next time, Deb~

Hello blog world, how are you today? Me, oh I am fine. At least that’s what I tell people. Truth is I am somewhere between fine and OMG but I know I will get through today and that’s what counts. I went out last night after the rain shower and took some pics of the garden for all to enjoy. Here are the first of the seasons tomato’s;

doesn't this look great!

gonna be fried green tomato's soon!

In fact, the whole tomato patch is looking very good, I can see lots and lots of jars of tomato’s and salsa being put up this summer and fall!

lots and lots of mater's

It won’t be long and I will have to do something more about staking them up a lil!

The other parts of the garden are doing well also, the pepper’s are growing and the beans are taking over their area. The cucumbers are getting big as well. I am hoping the rain will let up long enough for me to get out and do some weeding without slogging through mud to get the job done.

In other news, Bubba and I are going to try to make it down to the river for a day of paddling soon, we so miss being out around or in the water. It has been raining a lot again and since the early hot spell, it has been rather cool. I love it, no need for air conditioning just open the windows and maybe run a fan! I would much rather listen to the frogs, crickets and other creatures at night than have to listen to the loud hum of the AC wouldn’t you?

I am thinking about starting some “homemade tutorials” depicting some of the things my son and I create from natural found items, but with all the other things I have gotten into on the web lately I have to be somewhat choosy for now so I don’t wind up overdoing things. We are pretty crafty around here and love to find new materials when we are out, such as the driftwood and shells we find at the river. They are mostly different kinds of snails and mussels. I have also found interesting old mushrooms that dry out well and vines of all kinds.

I have found many new ideas from looking at pages like:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4cqXlt/craftgawker.com/popular/favorites/7-days/page/2/

I like crafts that use natural materials the best, but will use anything I can to upcycle or find a new use for many item around the house or found while roaming garage sales and rummages. What kinds of things do you like to make or do?

I hope you find time to have fun to many of us have so much going on we forget to take care of ourselves along with those we love. So make a date with yourself to do something fun today!

Until next time, Deb~

Learning to Walk

Hello blog friends, today has been an interesting day so far. I am learning all about setting up advertising and affiliate programs on my blog and am considering setting up a web store at some point. Like learning to walk, I am taking baby steps and learning as I go. I am hoping this will help me with a small income stream since I am unable to work outside the home due to my son's disability and our lack of transportation (I detest looking for used vehicles....) I am taking baby steps as I learn about ways to make an income from my home. There seem to me to be hundreds of possibilities with a web store, and I am only learning a few of them, I would be interested in hearing from any of you that have done this, I have no idea really what I am doing yet but I am enjoying learning a lot of new things.

In the garden today there are lots of little green tomato's popping up all over the plants, I will have some pics up soon! The pepper plants are showing signs of peppers soon to come. Our other plants are doing pretty well, all the extra stuff I planted is coming up and I think for the one end of the garden anyway, I will get lots of things to put up, tomato's, beans, pickles, salsa and such.

Bubba is working on anatomy in science this summer, I let him chose something he was interested in to learn about for science and that is what he picked. It has been a challenge to write lessons on his level about a subject that is so intense but we are learning and he is loving it!
I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying the summer, while keeping in mind that winter is coming soon enough and there are lots of things to get done to be ready.
Have a wonderful day!

Until next time, Deb~

A Question

Just a short post this morning to vent a lil frustration, I can't comment on blogs I follow or others because no matter how many times I log on it says I must be logged on to comment!?! Or it puts an anonymous heading on my comment!?! Do any others have this problem? Or know how to solve it??

So, until I get this figured out.....
@Cary Ann.. I am so happy to see that you are able to post again, I have missed the happenings around your place, hope your garden is getting some water and the chicks are doing well....

@Kalupe... I wish I had the kind of place you write about, it is such an inspiration to me to know that others are living the kind of life I am working towards.

@Leigh... I hope someday I will be able to purchase a couple of goats, I am enjoying reading about yours and learning a few tips and problems along the way...I do believe I am going to have to think about the whole horns or no horns issue as I am not sure which way I want to go, I am much more a "natural" leaning person, yet with no purpose on domestic goats and so many issues with them getting caught with them or hurting others both animal and human............. it is something to think about

@Muffy... I agree about the laundry its just not the same as doing things at home, however it does give you the opportunity to block time for doing your internet chores. lol

To all of my other readers and blog friends I haven't mentioned, I hope you are having a wonderful summer, and I hope I get my sign on issues figured out soon! Sorry if I missed anyone....

Until next time, Deb~

Garden Things

Hello blog world, sorry it has been a while since I sat down long enough to blog about anything. I have been working on the garden:

the tomatos are looking very good, I have a few different varieties some red some yellow, I will know better after this season which ones I want to grow again. I took the stakes out yesterday and will be staking a few of them that are leaning. you can also see the peppers, green, orange and yellow that are doing okay, there are buds everywhere. Then we move on to the cucumbers, some of them didn't come up so I planted some more seeds last week.

as you can see here only about six cucumber plants came up, but most of the whole row of bush beans came up, yay!! Like I said I did replant some seed so hopefuly more will come up, and even if it doesn't sprout, the six that did come up should produce enough cucumbers for my needs. Now we move onto the sad part of my garden......

Only 5 corn stalks came up and just a few squash, like the cuces the squash will wind up producing enough but the corn is my biggest disappointment! I did plant some more seeds but have for the most part given up on this end of the garden. (I suppose youcan see that)

I have also been pretty busy on other projects, including my book, I have written a few more chapters and am trying not to think about editing at the present time. I also have been working on ways to make a lil income from the house. Sadly with my son being disabled I can't work outside the home and our truck has decided to die a horrible death so I am pretty much stuck for the moment. I am trying to think of ways to generate an income from here and I am sure something will come along, it always seems to work out so I try not to worry to much about things.

Sooo.....what have you been working on? Do you have any ideas on income generation from home? Let me know what you have been doing, and I will try to be more regular about posting.

Until next time, Deb~

Paddling at the Reservoir

Today was a awesome day. I woke up this morning, saw what a great day it was going to be and decided to head out to the reservoir, taking my son, the canoe and paddles to have a good time for a couple of hours. It has been so hot here this week we really wanted to be on or in the water, however swimming was out as although the air temps have been in the upper 80's to low 90's this week the water has not warmed up to swimming temp yet.

Bubba mostly wound up sitting in the canoe with his paddle cross ways in front of him, resting on the spray cover in the front of the canoe. I wish he liked it more, but he was for the most part afraid that the boat would tip over and he would wind up in the drink! He still doesn't have a good sense of balance but I am hoping that will improve as he becomes more comfortable being on the water.

The water was very choppy today as we had a decent wind blowing, it kicked up some rather rough waves, and there were others out testing their boats and equipment, so occasionally we had to watch out for the wake of passing motor boats as well.

This is what our inflatable canoe looks like out of the box

It is a great little inflatable canoe/kayak that I purchased online a couple of years ago, we have had out several times a summer with no damage or needed repairs. I like the convience of being able to carry it in a tote almost everywhere. It inflates in a couple of minutes with a battery operated air pump and deflates in seconds. A regular canoe would be much to heavy for me to handle and I wound not be able to enjoy the convience of keeping it and all the accessories (life preservers, paddles, air pump, etc..) in the truck and ready to go all the time.

We spent about 2 hours on the water and I enjoyed every minute of it, including believe it or not, listening to Bubb complain, He was being a good sport about it even when I told him I was going to paddle him out to the middle of the lake and dump him in! Hahaha..  at least I was in a pretty spot and having a good time paddling, which has the side benefit of being good exercise. (Boy are my arms and shoulders going to be sore in the morning) and he just enjoyed being at the reservoir, he even managed to get in a lil swimming at the boat launch as I got things ready and as I was packing them back up!

I hope to spend many more hours in the coming months, either on the water at the nearby reservoir, or making our way, in segments, down the east fork of the White River.

I have always wanted to paddle down the river from Muncie, IN where it becomes navigable, to the end where it joins the Wabash before merging with the Ohio. I even have a guidebook that shows the recommended segments along with all the information we need to complete the journey, (Dam’s, bridges, unadvisable spots, and the like)

I am hoping that my son will come around and enjoy himself more, he does like being outdoors enough to be willing to be my prisoner in the boat for a little while…. J

I am hoping that as his paddling skill increases, so will his enjoyment.

In other news, the garden is progressing well, almost everything has sprouted except my corn. I am quite disappointed about that but, if there is nothing poking through the soil after a few more days I am going to hoe those 3 rows and replant more corn, hoping that the problem is with the seeds…

And finally, I know I haven't been posting as regular as I would like to, there is a reason and all will be explained in a future post, suffice to say I am not as healthy as I would like to be and it is going to take more that just a little exercise to feel better.

I hope all of you who read my blog regularly, and you stalkers too, will stay tuned and keep on reading, it WILL get better, and more regular as I am able, and I hope you will add your thoughts as well, as they help me make these pages better along with being encouraging for me!

What kinds of things do you do for fun and relaxation in your part of the world? Don't forget that along with becoming more self- sufficent we need to take care of the kid inside us all by having some fun!
Besides the fun we have in and on the water my son and I also like to have a good time with our friends. We are having our first "bonfire party" of the year in a couple of weeks and they are wonderful. A night spent outdoors with family and friends around a blazing fire with good food and good music we always have a good time and usually wind up sleeping in one of the tents we set up for those who do not wish to drive home late or come from out of town. I hope to post about that and have good pics to share when the time arrives.

Until next time
Deb~