Could your family weather a depression?

[roosmom]

werblessd1us
I dont either - if it is comfortable, I will wear it.

 

[the1much]

Quote:
not coming yet,,hehe,,,if you want to "see" whats coming,, watch the u.s. dollars value. every day "our" dollar is worth less and less.we're the only country that doesnt have the "gold" to back "our" money.our money is only worth what other countries think we're good for,,,,,,credit,,,,,,,a u.s. dollar is worth how much in canadian now? ,, was 1 us $ = 3 canadian $.....that was last year,,,, look at what it is now.

 

[Queen Scoot]

with the deficit the way that it is...the war going on.....the loss of the value of a dollar.....the us needs some help i think

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

I've been interested in voluntary simplicity/self sufficiency for years - just now getting to put more of it into practice.

We are debt free - that was our biggest hurdle, I think. We now only buy with cash or we don't have it. It took us a long while to get to this point, but I am glad we made the restictions on ourselves to accomplish it. (even though at the time it sucked, and some days I felt very deprived).

We moved to a lower cost part of the country, on a 25 acre farm. We are raising our own cow this year for meat - but unless the world does go to sh#@ I think next year we will simply buy a half cow from the butcher to put up. (and a half pig, and my meat chickens, etc...)

I can buy cow milk from a nearby neighbor - but I would love a goat for milk (and her kids for meat, if I had to). I don't use enough milk to warrant having a milk cow (although I love jersey cows).

We've been canning everything we think we might actually use, and reading up on canning stuff we may need to use someday. I had a garden this year, just a small one, but my tomatoes, also did for nothing (like someone else said). One neighbor told me they have a lot of problems with blossom end rot down here, so I need to fix my soil. I also considered growing in containers, to control the soil better, and maybe putting in a small greenhouse.

I have chickens, thinking of getting some quail, turkey, and maybe some muscovy ducks. in addition to canning, I dehydrate a lot of stuff, too. We also have fantastic neighbors. All, or most, of our neighbors are also like minded, and we tend to barter with each other when we can. One neighbor had a HUGE organic garden this year, I traded him a lot of eggs for a lot fresh produce. We might be going in on meat chickens next spring.

Most of our land is hayfield - we need that for the animals, I don't want to have to buy feed for them. We have a spring on the property, but it isn't that big - however, another neighbor has a spring that has never dried up - not even last year during the drought. We could go to his place and tote water if necesary.

I have plans to try making my own laundry soap - am having a hard time finding the ingredients. Up north in the big city I could find them, but down here, I don't know why, but they are harder to find. I am considering ordering a lot of them online, to put into the pantry.

Speaking of pantry - I convinced hubby (didn't take much convincing) to turn our bedroom walk-in closet into a pantry. It is 7'x8' and we put in shelving units and have been stocking those up over time.

I've always been a do-it-yourself type of person, and thankfully, I married one, too. We've pretty much built this farm up all by ourselves. We bought a hayfield with an old stone milking barn - we now have a lot of outbuildings, and our house, and a spare trailer out behind (where our teenagers sleep and hang out) so we have room for guests and the like - or if everyone needs to move home someday.

We've learned a lot this last year, and we are still learning - that's part of the fun of it, though. I think we would do ok if a great depression hit - we wouldn't be living high on the hog, but we'd manage and get by better (psychologically) than most of the folks we've known our whole lives.

Peace -
Meriah

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

I think it is important to be prepared, however I will not be paranoid. I teach my kids to have faith that we will be taken care. But that doesn't mean I am not filling my pantry and have acquired many "country" skills over the years. I love living simple and am sure we would be fine. I have met many people who cannot boil water, that is scary. I have learned a lot about food storage and what to store (only store what you will actually eat) rotate, etc from a lot of our family members who are LDS. I do not think I will ever have 2 years stored but the principle of being prepared is a wise one. The internet is an incredible resource for getting this kind of information. My Grandparents survived the dust bowl and I never really saw them enjoy life, they always saved and scrimped and washed out their baggies, but they were not able to enjoy the money they accumulated being stuck in the depression mindset, I do not want to be like that.

 

[sundance]

Most people are talking about food and bullets to protect themselves, but if most of you remember, computers were supposed to crash when the year2000 rolled round. SO like most people we stocked up, but managing an apt complex at the time we had no place for growing ANYTHING but we did stock up on lots of things, esp, Baby wipes, and large bottles of hand cleaner, lots of paper towels, paper plates, and plastic forks. I knew if we had no water I would go crazy if I couldn't take a bath, but knew with the hand cleaner and baby wipes, i could stay clean.2000 came and went with no problems but we had lots of paper products for picnics for ages. Loved them. Still Keep baby wipes in the car to keep my hands clean and Keep bottles of purell by the wipes too. Terri Blackstock wrote a series of books on just this happening, last light series,good books. all theworld's electricity goes out and they have to cope. wonder what wewould do if all the electricy went out? marrie

 

[werblessd1s]

Global Warming is another thing to be concerned about. A lot of farmers had their worst year in a very long time. Rice and other foods have went up in price. Food prices in general have been going up and it's not going to get better.

 

[MagsC]

I have just been trying to stock up on non-perishables when I can, get the chicken project started. I do have all my seed for next years garden, some of which I saved from this years. I would like to have a couple of Nigerian goats, but thats in the future.

 

[tabsmonsters]

Sundance,

I LOVE her books!! I read that series and it was very eye opening. I don't know how likely an event like that actually is, but it gives a person something to think about. I was really mad at the author for awhile after reading the final book of that series. I really connected with the characters.

As far as being prepared, we are not as much as I would like to be. With my DH in the Marines and moving every 3 years, its hard to stockpile things knowing you will have to move. We should have orders by the first of the year and moving in the spring/early summer so I just don't know what to do. We put up a HUGE garden this year and I have been canning. Since this is the first year I had anything to can (or tried canning) except applesauce, it is hard to judge what is needed to last a year. Only debts we have are the mortgage, 2 cars (almost paid) and a CC with a very low balance that will be paid off this next payday. I keep praying that things will turn around but I guess I am not smart enough to really understand everything that is happening. I don't believe in blaming the President for our situation. I think it has been building for a long time and finally coming to a head. Let's pray it doesn't hit us real bad.

Tabby

 

[tabsmonsters]

Another thing I thought of was medicine. Is there any way to store up on basics like Tylenol, Motrin and say penicillin? I know they have an expiration, but something is better than nothing in my non- medical educated opinion.