Tuesday, March 25, 2008

SOCIAL CHANGES FOR SURVIVAL

SOCIAL CHANGES FOR SURVIVAL from Murph

The seemingly helplessness of individuals in our society to affect changes is endemic, or let’s put this another way; changes that have to do with sustainability and survival. Voices that make warnings of social chaos in some future are for the most part ignored, especially at the policy level of government, local and national. It is obvious to me that radical change in how the lives of the citizens are conducted of this country, and for most of the world for that matter, is simply going to have to take place. If we do not have the leadership or citizen involvement, the changes that are going to be forced on us will be chaotic at best.

The intellectual agreement that peak oil is upon us, or soon will be, has not really entered into the national consciousness, nor is the complete ramifications of this treated but for a very few authors and activists. Instead, when the subject is brought up in polite company, the subject is shut down by a collective denial that it can and will happen. This refusal to acknowledge that the era of cheap energy is about over and how it will change our lives simply will not be admitted to by either leadership or citizenry. The cult of “our way of life is non negotiable” is the predominate thinking. After all, what is the use of worrying about a few hundred caribou and our need to drill for 6 months of oil in Alaska?

We are already seeing the first results of expensive energy sources; at the gas station and at the grocery stores. Any expectation that this trend of increasing cost for eating and driving is going to reverse is denial in its extreme, and seems to be based on the idea that there is a never ending source of the energy needed to maintain how things are and have been for 3 generations.

Since the industrial revolution, there has been a constant shift from people involved in food production to urban living, to the point that we now have only 1% of the population involved in food production as compared to nearly 40% in 1900. This 1% is composed of nearly all commercial industrial production with its monoculture techniques. This has led to land degradation, monopolization of seed production, inhumane animal husbandry and excessive use of water to name just four of the consequences. For anyone looking at this it should be obvious that our method of producing food for the maintenance of a society is simply not sustainable.

If we look at a historical precedent, during WWII, when Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden on the white house lawn, (this forced the agriculture department to reverse its policies) and it ended up that nearly 40% of the food production in the nation was put out by these victory gardens. But it took an example by leadership to get it going since the agricultural department at that time was adamantly opposed to it. I’m not sure whether that is a condemnation of the thinking of the general population and foresight of leadership or not, but it was effective in a critical period. Despite any other weaknesses involved, Jimmy Carter made some warnings back in the day about eventual resource depletion and put up solar panels on the white house. Reagan promptly tore them out, right at the time when we should have been making serious policy decision for the eventuality that we would not have the cheap energy sources available any longer. But, what else can you expect from senile leadership? The fact that the man is eulogized today is a sickness and a joke.

I suspect that in the near future we are going to see an increase of historical fact finding, revisionist conclusions and more energy spent in suppression and marginalizing of these findings.

I have been coming across articles and books that take a look at what has happened in the last 200 years, especially dealing with European and American history, particularly how slavery has changed. Instead of a wealthy person owning a human and having to pay for the support while that slave contributed to your wealth, it was determined in the mid 1800’s that is was cheaper to pay a subsistence wage and have a company store where the wage earner had to buy all the stuff needed for survival, at a profit of course. Since choices were severely limited to non existent, the slave was now responsible for his own upkeep. When the big Irish migration took place during the potato blight in Ireland, the Irish laborer immigrants were considered less valuable than the black slaves. They were hired at subsistence wages to do the most dangerous work and the valuable slaves kept for the more benign labor. Still and all, slavery is still slavery. If you can convince people that they have choices (in reality nonexistent choices) and that they are in charge of their destinies, while at the same time eliminating any chance at owning wealth and land, it is still slavery. Your labor is still for the enrichment of the owners and the subsistence of yourself.

Even the middle class are not exempt. The middle class was a phenomenon of the industrial revolution and the fleeting opening up of economic ascension and ambitions to be something other than slaves. But in reality, they were slaves but with more toys, better living conditions and privileges. Sort of like the plantation owner with the household staff with more privileges and better living conditions for being more subservient.

As the title suggests, there are going to have to be some changes in social structure and general attitudes if we as a species are to survive, since how we are organizing society and economics can’t be sustained. It appears to me that the change does not have to be the picture of survival by hunting and gathering, although that is a very real possibility if we continue on this path for much longer. In any event, we are going to have to reduce population to a more earth friendly level. What population we end up with will have to be non centralized, the cities have to go. Cities by their very nature are not sustainable, and instead depend on the exploitation of the surrounding area; in our present case, exploitation of the entire rest of the world.

People’s attitudes about ownership will have to change. Ownership of land will also have to go, for ownership of land demands to be exclusive by imperative, not inclusive. Instead, there will have to be a group effort to preserve at sustainable levels the environment that we depend on to live. We will need to adopt more of the attitude of the North American Indian view that land cannot be owned, any more than water and air, and is treated with reverence rather than exploitation. Clear cutting of vast forest areas, damming of rivers, polluting of the air and water will have to cease. Paving over vast areas of prime growing land will have to cease and the areas now covered by concrete and paving has to be tore up and returned to natural habitat. Local communities will have to become self sufficient, out side of any control by a centralized patriarchal hierarchy. I suspect we will see a far more un-uniform social organization than what we experience now. You will have far more choices on how you wish to live. Those organizations that become self sustaining with no exploitive behavior will have the best chance of continuance. What you will give up is the slavery to wealth, to exploitation and forced labor to continue your life. Oh, and by the way, your free time will go up dramatically. Wouldn’t that be nice?

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

YEP!!!
mf

Anonymous said...

I second that "YEP!!!"

I read an article a while back that contrasted our 10+-hour, 5 or 6-day a week working for "The Man" vs. what the working world was like before corporations. One point raised was that since you didn't have to go (sometimes commuting for hours) to work, you stayed home, feeding livestock, tending to a large garden, fixing things and you actually were able to spend much more time with family and friends. A real bonding took place between family memebers and neighbors.

Sometimes I think the best thing that could happen to this world is for peak oil to happen and to happen quickly. The brontosurus SUV's passing me on the highway like I'm standing still just makes me want the price of gas to go through the roof -tomorrow.

But I'm wondering if the PTB are mixing-up a brew of WWIII involving Isreal, Iran, Syria and Lebonon with some freak'in bird flu thrown in to speed-up the process. A slow die-off is probably not in their plan. But then, the PTB might make a lot of money if things went slower. Gobble-up the small fry and consolidate power like in the first depression. I donno.

Maybe "The Omega Man" will be our future (was gonna say, "I Am Legend" which is the remake with Will Smith, but it sucked). If so, there'll probably be a collective sigh of relief from the creatures of this world. Maybe the whales and dolphins will be better stewards of this planet. I seriously doubt if they'd kill each other over some profit margin, gas, religion, favorite team, drugs, or some other stupid human shit.

Later -

Dude

Anonymous said...

God, we are heading for an “Omega Man” scenario so quickly, what with genetically engineered crops and probably diseases (bird flu?). I remember seeing the “Omega Man” on theatre billboards when I was a youngster in the ‘70s. Although I didn’t see the movie then, I kind of knew what it was about and I harbored a strange fascination for it. Today, the movie is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, we are rushing toward just such a scenario.

There is no question in my mind that peak oil is the driving force behind soaring gasoline prices (duh) and soaring food prices. Of course, reckless fiscal management by the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and so forth has played a huge role as well. We absolutely have to go back to a more agrarian lifestyle, with more people participating in the production of the food they eat. What could be more sensible than people growing food on their own property? Of course, the corporations that control food production today have deliberately infected many crop strains with their patented, genetically engineered genes. Since they have effectively succeeded in patenting “life” itself, they will increasingly be able to prevent us from growing food ourselves. Look at the music industry, the RIAA. They have ruthlessly and relentlessly pursued small fry who download copyrighted music. Will there be a similar organization someday to ferret out individuals growing “patented” crops?

You are absolutely correct that debt is the new slavery. Too bad so few people recognize that they’re slaves!

Based on these assessments, it’s obvious what one ought to do: move to the “sticks,” grow food on their own property, eschew all debt. I recognized these nostrums years ago and set about transforming my life accordingly. Today I live in rural Kentucky on a lot big enough to grow food, and I eliminated all my debts and canceled all my credit cards (thank god I don’t have one from BofA, which recently jacked up interest rates to 24% even for good customers in order to pay for the financial meltdown). I now pay cash for everything and I find it liberating. I no longer have to pay for things twice: once at the checkout counter, and once when I pay the credit card bill. Instead, I pay for things once and move on. And I don’t have to worry about someone usurping my credit card number for felonious purposes. Nor am I tempted to buy things without knowing for sure if I can pay for them when the credit card bill comes. Instead I look at the cash I have now and decide if I can afford to buy something. If now, I don’t buy it.

My refusal to play by the fascist rules will undoubtedly get me an expedited ticket to one of Halliburton’s internment camps.

Anonymous said...

You gotta a good point, Dude.
And, somewhere I read that the average Roman slave was treated better by their owners than an employee is by Walmart.
But, in the interim... I recently finished reading James Howard Kunstler's post-collapse novel entitled, "World Made By Hand." It envisioned several different adaptations to a cultural crash due to a couple of dirty bombs that took out Wash. D.C. and L.A. Then, a serious flu epidemic. No government, no transportation, no news. Small, isolated, communities with greatly reduced populations trying to make due. It portrays several adaptations: individualists, just getting by; a plantation arrangement, sort of Jeffersonian; the former biker gang types with tatoos who run salvage; a religious cult, sort of like Mormons with guns. Quite imaginative, although I would have imagined more leadership from at least one female, but that's me. A good story that gets you thinking in more detail about what it would be like. Nicer, in many ways. Like here without the traffic.

Anonymous said...

Now we've GOT to rent Omega Man...

Anonymous said...

angryindian.atspace.com/joural.h

Cherokee Nation Sells Out Tonight after reading some crap on the Cherokee Nation's website feel like I need to speak out.

As I understand it, the basic facts of the situation are this...

The Cherokee (along with many other Indian tribes) owned slaves prior to their removal in the Trail of Tears. In the removal, the Cherokee brought their slaves with them to their lands in what would someday become Oklahoma.

During the Civil war, the Oklahoma tribes were split as to who they would support North or South, but a sizable number allied themselves with the South. After the war, the North used the fact that some tribal members fought with the South to justify harsh reconstruction treaties in which the tribes lost about half of their lands.
However, a good result from reconstruction was the abolition of slavery among the Indian tribes. The Union insisted that the tribes either adopt their former slaves (the new "freedmen") as tribal members, or they would be required to give the freedmen substantial financial settlements and full emancipation. Most of the tribes (including the Cherokee) went with the first option.

In later years, the Cherokee have tried to renege on their treaty obligations (ironic, since it is normally the white man that breaks Indian treaties) by kicking the freedmen out of the tribe. This to me is wrong. The Cherokee were wrong (as were non-Indians of the South) when they owned slaves. But they did commit this great wrong. The Freedmen have now been part of Cherokee society for over 100 years as free Cherokee people. To kick them out now, is no different and no less wrong that what the Southern states did when they enacted Jim Crow laws to put their former slaves into virtual slavery and subjugation. And it is

Being an Indian is certainly about blood ties, but it is more than that. It is culture, it is tradition, it is language. To me the Freedmen suffered alongside the Cherokees and even under the Cherokees. To kick them out now is the ultimate insult.

and everyone thought we were perfect. ah shucks,
i heard that there were black folk in oklahoma with my last name but never met any, will have to check that out and see if i can get any of them back.
just kiddin for christs sake!!

aho
montana freeman

Anonymous said...

ah shit dude i was just about to say that!
mf

RAS said...

I'm still trying to figure out how to get out of the city myself.

Freeacre, there isn't more leadership by women in WMBH because of Kunstler's problems with women -he is very, very sexist. I hit the roof sometimes when I read some of his writings. That's why women are relegated to brothels and factories in WMBH.

I watched Manufactured Landscapes last night. I recommend anyone who hasn't seen it do. I was ready to vomit 10 minutes in.

Anonymous said...

Ras,

Other than WMBH novel, the stuff I've read by Kunstler has been his economic and political rants. I hadn't picked up on any sexist positions in those.

It has occurred to me that if civilization gets knocked down as far as the novel WMBH and women don't assert themselves and men get off their superior patriarchal position then women will have a subservient position. I'm not sure how an attempt to change this could happen or be initiated. A lot of history and attitudes embedded in us.

Might have some benefit to have a discussion on this subject.

Anonymous said...

I hadn’t picked up on any sexism in Kunstler’s writings, either, but a book reviewer -- posted online somewhere within the last several days, wrote that he’d bee divorced twice? and had just split with another woman. So, he evidently does have problems with the other sex. (I can’t live with men, including my own sons, so I’m not criticizing.)

But, that could explain why his other writings seem to cover all of the details but he missed that one in his book -- the need for women to be equal and effective partners.

And they will be needed -- all hands will be. Remember the stories about living on the frontier -- woman were very much needed. And during W.W.II, women took over for the men when they were drafted. Of course, when it was all over, they got patted on the head and told to go back to the kitchen, the men would take over now.

The author of the (fat) book, Liberty and Freedom, writes that the (ancient) northern European tribes had traditions of community and belonging to the group while the Mediterranean idea was separation and independence from each other. He writes that the Scandinavians were the last to give up the ideas of community. Aren’t they still quite socialist compared to our ways?

Anyway, that idea was new to me and then I realized the living was harder in the north than around the Mediterranean -- that would make a difference in how people organized, right?

So, in the coming hard times, I’m sure the women will be as valued as the men. The problem MAY come when things ease up and the men try to take charge again.

Gemini

Anonymous said...

I don't mean to condemn Kunstler's book. It has a really compelling story and it is important to read, in terms of preparedness and getting one's mind around collapse. It's a good book. Read Carolyn Baker's review of it. She loved it.
But, I think that the really valuable contribution that women have made traditionally with food production and preparation, nursing, child-bearing and rearing, communicating, building community, leadership, etc. will not be recognized and valued completely until the cosmology changes to include a sacred feminine as well as masculine. Mother Earth, Father Sky; Mother/Father God; Rhada & Krishna - something like that.
Personally, I think that a lot of people are ready to create a balance. Right here in our little neck of the woods, the Community Action Group that is so incredibly strong for a rural grassroots organization was begun and is still run by "mad housewives." They have been joined by their brothers, but they continue to get respect from the men, who seem to recognize and appreciate their leadership skills. It gives me hope that things can change.
But what is true of this group is that for the most part, the people are all retired. It's work and the almighty dollar that keeps us from being able to have the time to explore what it is to be human. retirement is a great leveler. You say, "I'm retired," and it doesn't mean too much whether you retired from being an engineer or a logger or a teacher or a retail clerk. Suddenly, we are all pretty much equal, we have more free time than we have ever had, and we find that we do, indeed, need each other.
So, the collapse of the damn dollar is what I think I am looking forward to the most. I want to stand on a piece of ground without having to pay rent or a mortgage on it, fish without a license, build without having to pay a fee. We won't know who or what we are until we are free.
Nice to have your input, Gemini.
aho

Anonymous said...

your right murph, my people were a matriarchal society and i for one have no problem with that what so ever but just try that now as a formula and i think we would be asking for hell on a stick. this process was put together over eons of time and came about as a result of many situations that arose as a result of just surviving. just exactly what brought it all about can be speculated on forever i expect but to me it makes sense if you look at the deeper level where women assert them selfs today? it looks ridiculous from some angles but before the wonderful industrial revolution came along to save all of us from the horrible existence that was our birthright, the natural order of things included for the most part a balance between men and women and the daily comings and goings of just staying alive, i mean a women can mount a horse grab a spear and go after a half ton or more of galloping mean but who actually ended up with the job,? walk up to a full grown buffalo and think about taking it out with a fucking stick!! i think the ladies were really smart saying you stick the mother fucker and i will skin it and cook it. you know some of those dudes were not as expert on a horse as needed to be and just boogied on off to the happy hunting grounds while trying to bring home the bacon.
i mean sure there were situations where the roles of men and women were exchanged in a moment of necessary like the world war where rosy rivet built the planes and out of that grew a movement by women that made their mandatory bitch chores, a thing of the past for many of them. hell i would too!! but this movement was a natural outcome of role, defined,and hated by many for the boundaries which were an intricate part of great ole civilization. women found out that they could make it without men and were shit full of being a house slave, and men of course enjoying their new toys had to keep the little women satisfied by giving them every device imaginable to keep them from nagging the living hell out of them about their shitty lives. electric everything to keep them quite , and when television and '' as the world turns'' came along, hah! that was the big one. but it weren't perfect was it?
so the way i see this whole scenario is that what is going on now is collapsing right along with every other mind disease that man has come up with and figured out on how to bring into being. and it is men that do this, right? for the most part anyway,
it is said that civilization will last as long as the next oil change, and if you look at it thats true, in fact most guys today cannot even find the dip stick to check the oil level!!

so bring on the revolution, and let the mother fucking system just crumble, its a sickness that has seen its time and its time for it go.
give me a handful of dirt and get out of the way. we will make it. and i think it will be fun also, as soon as everyone stops sniveling about the batteries running down in the fucking ipods and there are no replacements. hell learn to play an instrument, sing and dance and drum together. we shall live...........and we shall love, cricket says ok.

but also gemini, i don't think its about living with men or living with women, its about living period, our approach to life is fucked from the gitgo, i mean how can we relate with one another when our minds are filled with bullshit rules form the cradle to the grave? its no wonder that this world is insane because of this simple fact. these rules go totally against the natural being of a human being. we were not designed to sit in a fucking church all day and sing praises to some non existent entity and start off despising our good christian unsoiled bodies. i burn bibles with the children every chance i get. and if i had the power would destroy every church ever built.
would like to say i,m sorry about these words but am not, the slavery of the church is the most evil thing that man has ever created and must be destroyed as part of the new freedom gained with the collapse of the system, we will not go back to that bullshit!! never!!
i love you gemini, as i love each and every one that attends this council,and part of that love is the freedom to express what ever it is thats on ones mind with out getting beaten the crap out for that expression.
we are one people, we are brothers and sisters trying to establish a new state of mind that is the very meaning of freedom. to be free of all that humans have done to destroy mother earth,the creatures upon it and each other. and this includes our selfs first. for without that healing nothing else really matters anyway does it?

enough blither today
peace brothers and sisters
aho
mf


aho
mf

ps i feel some confusion about

Anonymous said...

mf,

You hear about the parents that tried to pray away their daughters diabetes? This little girl suffered for more than an month, wasting away in pain while her dip-shit parents prayed to gawd for her disease to go away. Club Gitmo SHOULD be for people like these parents. Yeah, this is off topic, but this just chaps my ass. The craziest thing is.... why on earth would the parents pray for their daughter to get well, when it was their god who gave her the disease in the first place -which means their god wants their daughter hanging-out with him/her on cloud nine?

Geezoy! I wish I could phone E.T to beg the little hommie to get me off this crazy place!

Later -

Dude

Anonymous said...

from Gemini --

MF wrote: its about living period, our approach to life is fucked from the gitgo, i mean how can we relate with one another when our minds are filled with bullshit rules form the cradle to the grave? its no wonder that this world is insane because of this simple fact. these rules go totally against the natural being of a human being. we were not designed to sit in a fucking church all day and sing praises to some non existent entity and start off despising our good christian unsoiled bodies. i burn bibles with the children every chance i get. and if i had the power would destroy every church ever built.
++++

I couldn’t agree with you more. We start out with separating our babies from their mothers and it goes downhill from there. We’re taught to get along without each other, where we are actually social animals, and need our families, biological or chosen, for our mental health. We now spend most of our time sitting in sealed and/or windowless buildings -- climate controlled -- and wonder why people are tense. We are made to use our muscles -- those between our ears, too. We should be working outside -- yes, in the cold and heat -- and relating to the earth in whatever fashion we have talent for. It’s no wonder people go bonkers when every basic instinct is denied by our society.

And good for you -- burning Bibles ! Did you read Joe Bageant’s comment that our religion is what makes us mean, cranky and vindictive? To borrow from the late Gracie Allen -- If Christ were alive today, he’d turn over in his grave. How thoroly organized religion has corrupted his ideas ! Now, before anyone thinks I don’t believe in a higher power of some sort, I do, but I don’t think organized religion presents whatever that power is authentically. Your “bug” has better ideas, I think.

And fa -- I didn’t think you were criticizing Kunstler’s book. Neither was I, nor was I criticizing him. I thought were we both saying, isn’t it strange that he’s been so thoro in studying and explaining our coming problems, that he’d miss something that big. Maybe it was so self-evident, he didn’t notice it? I haven’t read the book, and don’t plan to. I’m depressed enough already. I have his non-fiction books and check his web page several times a week -- his comments are so good.

And his monthly architectural monstrosities --!!! I wrote to him more than one month and said -- you’ve got to be kidding. He wrote back each time that, no, they were serious. Unbelievable what architects manage to sell people. I had many arguments with my architect husband about designing buildings for people instead of starting from some arbitrary measurement. And sealing the windows! Open them, for Pete’s sake -- let some fresh air in. But no, then we got “sick building syndrome”. I know -- off topic, but not really. It’s another example of trying to squeeze people into some artificial setting and then wondering why they’re neurotic.

Anonymous said...

Well, my agenda is to "shun the English." Collapse or no
collapse, it feels good to walk away as much as possible. It looks like we are not going to purchase a tipi this year. Rats. But, we do intend to set up our huge tent all summer. Plan to exercise and meditate and read in it as much as possible. Gardening is good, too, to get "grounded." Raising chickens, making bread, freezing homegrown veggies - all add to getting real. New project will be to raise rabbits as well. And, I'm thinking of making cheese. Hell, you do all that and you don't have time to shop and read "Cosmopolitan" and watch the tube and all that horseshit.
Even those who live in apartments can brew their own beer, bake their own bread, make cheese on the stove, grow lettuce & carrots in containers on patios, etc. It all helps. We keep hearing on the news that the food banks are depleted and people are not getting enough to eat. But, no one is suggesting that they grow some gardens and bake bread to cut costs. I think I'll start donating packets of seeds to the local food bank.
In terms of spirituality, I have my little alter set up with a candle and incense, and my little statues of Buddha and animals and nice stones, etc. And, even though I used to be active in a church, this seems to be enough for me now. When I want a miracle, all I have to do is contemplate a handful of seeds. That right there is enough to make me fall to my knees. Maybe I should put a steeple on my greenhouse...

Anonymous said...

Dear Kindred Spirits/Souls,

GOD's blessings and Power unto you all.

I have no doubt there are thousands (more!) like you.

Keep the Faith -- as you ask, as you think, believing, it shall be done unto you. You know, The Law of Creative Mind, Science of MInd, The Secret, etc., etc.

Send Light to that you perceive as Darkness, please!

You only get YOU! Your atmosphere filters, you only see YOU. So, treat YOU well, Love your neighbor as yourself -- for the simple reason, your neighbor IS YOU.

Alan

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the campfire, Alan. We kinda sit around here in cyberspace, passing the imaginary talking stick around. We find that sharing what is in our minds and hearts has become a sort of nourishment. Together, we are empowering, inspiring, impassioned, and often funny and outrageous. Good medicine.
aho

Anonymous said...

I third that murf! Your post makes me want to get out there and start planting some serious food and build a chicken coop. I'd have to mussle the rooster though. And now I will rent Omega Man too. Your campfire is an everlasting evergrowing inspiration.

On the subject of the women, it's interesting to hear what Echart Tolle says in his new book, A New Earth, about the collective egos and how they're awakening to a new kind of consciousness. mrsp

RAS said...

Freeacre, what you wrote about the greenhouse and church was beautiful. I agree wholeheartedly!

I was able to scrape together some money to order some 5 gallon food grade storage buckets and gamma lids. These will let me store larger quantities of food -particularly the grains, which are hard to fit into canisters! You should see the little pantry I have here. Most people would be horrified if they walked into my craftroom or laundry room. Yes, I really do have 100 pounds of dried beans. Why? Have you been to the grocery store lately?????

I've discovered that even with the housing collapse (which hasn't really hit here, any more than the boom did) I could sell my house for enough to pay for an acre or two of land. The problem is, that couple of acres wouldn't come with any place to live...

Rock and a hard place. But that describes the whole world.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Ras. Good for you on the buckets and beans! Hope you've got some rice and cornmeal, too. Put beans with a grain, and you've got a complete protein. You can grow more lettuce than you can eat by yourself in about a square yard of space if you plant mesclun mix for salads. Another square yard, planted with Swiss Chard, spinach, or kale can yield a lot more than you'd think. Plus, in your climate, you could get more than one planting per year. As you use it, plant some more. Even if you stay where you are, you could probably do pretty well. I watched this PBS program about the community gardens in San Francisco: Asian families growing enormous amounts of vegetables intensively on very small plots of ground. Hopefully, you'll find someone who would be willing to do it with you. There is a lot of work involved, and we need teamwork to get it done. Keep your eyes open for the right person to show up. You are doing good, Kiddo.

RAS said...

FA, yeah, I’ve got quite the little pantry here –cornmeal, flour, beans, some rice, vegetables, canned and dried fruit, some oil. Not as much as I want but better than nothing. I’ve been gardening for several years now. I have some fruit trees and berry bushes as well. Part of me wouldn’t mind staying where I’m at now; my friends and support are here and I have an okay set-up for this point. But, I can only stay here as long as I make the payments –miss one or two and I’m on the streets. This is also a major military town with all that entails. Part of that is that I have a hard time finding a job –I won’t and probably can’t work for the military or the myriad military contractors here, and I can’t work at a fast-food joint or a janitorial job (chemical sensitivities) so it’s tough. I’ve only made it so far since losing my last real job 18 months ago because of odd jobs and school financial aid. When I leave school I don’t know what I’ll do if I can’t get a job. I’m extremely sensitive to the pollution, the traffic, and the other environmental problems. Also, I WANT to live in the country and run a small farm. My dream home is 5 acres and an old farm house.