Destruction Lust

Destruction Lust. What a great term! As I had eluded to in the past, I needed to find some new direction here on the blog to keep it going and to keep me interested. What I hope to do from time to time, is to share some of the writing and ideas I put down in my daily journals. Obviously, I am not going to go into all the psychology and just flat out processing of life, but when I come across ideas that strike me as important with respect to the reason for living the lifestyle that we do here, it seems appropriate to let it all hang out. After all, it is my truth, and considering that this place would be one hell of a build to just have it be some “hobby,” I thought I would use this platform to let folks see the horror of my mind. Our world view shapes a great deal of the farm. It seemed right, considering we have crossed that line to 2024 – where you will be filling out checks improperly for a couple of months- that I get down and into the bushes with some of my ideas. So hang on. This ain’t fluffy bunnies and unicorns – although many of you may now have trouble with unicorns. That will be come pertinent if you understand analogy and metaphor

A woman who goes by the name Teal Swan came up with this term: Destruction Lust. She is kind of a new age crystal worshipper, but I like listening to her from time to time. This morning she posted her prognostications for 2024 and used this term as the main descriptor of her video. It also fit in well with anyone who has read, “The Fourth Turning,” or understands what that term means. It is the idea that around every 4th generation, enough time has passed so that people lose the memory of the history of the preceeding generations that went through periods of crisis or tribulation. As a result, history repeats itself and a new period of upheaval results. According to the authors, we are in that period now. Destruction Lust is something I have been feeling down to my core. From the news to social media, to just driving in traffic and the people I have breakfast with, this lust seems to be becoming more and more pervasive. It is my opinion that people are being driven insane on such a scale (locally to globally) that towels are being thrown in and the predominant theme that humanity is troping now is, “Bring it all down.” It is a collective sub-consciousness that seems to be willing its own destruction. ”Destruction Lust” struck a cord and I am finding that it really fits in with my world view – the very core of why the farm is here. The pain and confusion is so crazy making to the population that they seem to want to delete it all. The Fourth Turning. No one seems to want to talk about what might emerge on the other side of such upheaval – if anything – but right now there is a palpable destructive lust in the collective psyche.

The preppers and homesteaders all know it and can feel it. The system as we know it and all of the global upheaval and economic oppression are making people mad, as every possible crisis seems to be trying to happen all at once, not to mention just trying to pay for their basic standard of living that seems to be moving farther and farther out of reach. People are being made mad to the point of collective suicide. One can’t hope for a peaceful world when the predominant theme of this globalist order is the brazen exploitation of one another, particularly by the ruling elite, hedge funds and corporations. Resources and the planet in general – Gaia, who holds all the cards for our own survival – is being laid waste. What’s more is that we all know it but refuse to do anything about it. The left – right divide in the U.S. and the more important top down oppression are all malignant manifestations of this massive Fourth Turning illness.

This is not hyperbole’, Given years and years of counseling and a background in such, humans are, in fact, diagnosably insane. We treat our world like we are children. When I was a very young toddler, my dad took me to the beach in California. My dad had a knack for making sand and snow sculptures. He spent a great deal of time there making a sand pyramid repleat with walls around it and gates and all manner of detail. Some kids, that we didn’t know, had taken up playing with me but they were constantly asking my dad if when he was done and it was built, if they could jump and stomp on it, rather than admiring it and leaving it for people to see. We are like those 3 year olds on the beach, stomping the sand castle after its been built. We built this colossus and instead of trying to make things beautiful and peaceful and perhaps even self-sustaining, we want to stomp it down to nothing.

So there it is, in addition to my own health issues, the reason to hunker down on the farm and do our own crafts and engage in creative expression.

Why does it all feel like chaos? Why does it all feel so dangerous? Because it is. Insane zombies exist and the virus of the mind (The spreading of psy-ops through the media) that made them that way is that Destruction Lust. Contrary to popular belief, people rarely think for themselves. Opinion is largely manufactured and distributed and then repeated millions of times – if that wasn’t true we wouldn’t have a multi-billion dollar advertising and infotainment industry. The truth is that they feel powerless to effect change through any other means. Their lives have been reduced to rubble and the lashing out has now commenced. So that, to me, describes the whole prepper/homesteader movement. We all want out of the line of fire and want to be left to live our lives while the rest of the world loses its collective minds. We want to escape the irrational and what will likely be a horrible Destructive Lust. As I have been diagnosed as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), I feel the emotional impact of this deeply. Deeply to the point of depression. Some people drop out and some people, like my friend Canadian Prepper on You Tube, get scope locked on the events on a daily basis. Of course, he is in his 40’s and has kids and is trying to make a living in preparedness, but it seems clear from his videos, by someone that has something of a skill at reading people and body language, that he is beyond stressed about it. While about 85% of my reclusion is because I need to heal from a lot of issues, the rest is absolutely because of this. I am finding the world increasingly unstable and as such, Zina and I live here at our hand built Shire as American Hobbits.

I will pre-occupy my time by staying away from social media and the need to know everything current event wise in the detail that my old job demanded. I will occupy the last third of my life doing my fiber arts, games, reading, astronomy, our animals, growing food and just keeping the farm safe and secure. Again, to quote The Whopper computer in the movie “War Games” – “The only way to win, is not to play.” Humanity has lost its mind and its outward manifestation is this destruction lust with the end result potentially being mass deletion. Weapons of mass destruction are simply a global cry for help from a population living and reacting at about the mental capacity of 11 year olds. People tend to stop developing emotionally around the age of 11. So if you come across an 80 year old, it is quite likely that you are dealing with someone with 69 years of experience at being 11. This is equally likely with those we have put in charge or who have seized power. Now they want to stomp the sand castles.

You have probably heard this reference in your life, that not being involved makes you part of the problem. I have come to the conclusion that this is utter bullshit and completely misguided. I agree with George Carlin who said, “If you think there is a solution, you are part of the problem.” I think that what we need is a mass resurgence of small farms, a return to subsistence living, cottage industries, local gathering places, communities unencumbered by religion, non-polluting transportation, homemaking and barn raising. Ever since the 80’s, Milton Friedman and the narcissistic, greedy, ego driven capitalists, used his trickle down economics theory as the excuse to lay waste to the living planet. People were sold this supply-side economics tripe and now that they are seeing what shit this has turned their lives into, they want everything and everyone to pay. This is the torches and pitchforks phase of the cancer stage of capitalism. I hate to have to say this, but I think there will be some kind of civil war or revolution. It matters not to me who starts it or why, but the fact that 1/6 was yesterday, it seems we have seen what may transpire when the spark really gets ignited. Whatever it looks like, it will get a very well vetted title for it by the media- which will be completely wrong, but it will keep the peasants enraged so the lust can continue. Lust will be unleashed and even promoted. Because this will happen at the same time hornets with nuclear weapons are converging on Eastern Europe, the Middle East and China, all at the same time, I see little room for much optimism especially when the weapon of mass destruction, equally as destructive, is debt and the collapse of the global economy. Food shortages, because of a refusal to admit or do anything about global warming will cause mass die offs that we are decidedly not prepared for. You can go into an air conditioned building, but you can’t cool a corn field, or water it when the droughts hit (probably in the next few years, if even that long). So I weave and spin yarn. This could all cost millions of lives of the pawns, the global infrastructure and this insane global supply chain system and the very eco-system we all need – that all life on Gaia, needs. The atmosphere cannot withstand the emissions that a global conflict will create. Proof of insanity is that militaries in these new spheres of conflict truly believe, and have stated unequivocally, that they think the use of tactical battlefield nukes in war can be winnable. Destruction Lust will leave Mother Earth no choice but to shut us all down. The Destruction Lust will be complete – proving that NONE of the human systems of governance and how we inhabit this planet were sustainable. Thus, they’ve ALL been wrong. The entire system, ALL of it, wrong. I fear that this is going to get down right awful.

A friend and I have started using “Hobbit” as a verb; i.e to hobbit. Its the way of living in the spirit of Tolkien’s Shire as being really the only way to have a chance of surviving – or at least maintaining some sense of peace while the Orcs ruin everything. I hobbit to heal. I hobbit for peace in a world not of my choosing. I hobbit to take refuge from the Orcs and Zombies that rip, smash and tear at everything on this beautiful Orb. I hobbit so I can create art in a world of glass and steel, smog, weapons, crumbling infrastructure and bombed out cities because they somehow contain the wrong kind of people. Considering how ineffective every single institution this species has created has been, being a recluse seems like a pretty sound alternative.

So far this haphazard evolution of civilization fashioned by 11 year olds has created overpopulation, the depletion of every resource on the planet, communism, democracy, socialism, dictatorships, capitalism, monopolies, concentration camps, genocide, nuclear weapons, massive defense spending because of greed, inept social programs, the U.N., trickle down economics, the Federal Reserve and central banks, human trafficking, drug cartels, wars over resources, for profit medical systems, insane immigration policies, denial of environmental issues, Jevon’s paradox, the fallacy of sunken costs, industrial agriculture, unrestricted fossil fuel development and use, massive species extinction and the death of the living planet. All of this is like a flat screen TV in its depth. There is no there, there. All is with no substance in truth, all is being fed to us so that we can turn the planet into digits on a screen and call it profit. But remember, your vote counts and the gods we all created, love only your side. Christians get a white Jesus and a completely white heaven and he came to earth so we can all become wealthy. Thus, even our gods allow for bigoted racism and the destruction of our very planet – but by all means, let the billionaire 11 year olds talk about colonizing Mars and the second coming (when the first one never happened). It is all too much.

How is it that me retreating into my cave like a kitten crawling into the safety of her box, then weaving, spinning and growing food is wrong compared to this nightmare of Destruction Lust? Things like golf is wrong, revenge travel and flying private jets is wrong, the Military Industrial Complex that rules everything is evil to its core and people are completely infected at all levels with this desire to destroy everything. Yet tonight, the self-appointed beautiful people will fly private jets, doll up in their finest and give each other awards lauding their talents in the entertainment/distraction industry. People who have retreated to the cottage and homestead life have seen the eye of Sauron. There is no one coming to save us from ourselves. Hobbiting, in all of its Shire metaphors, is still the only answer. We need millions more who are much, much, less motivated to further this death cult.

So that oughta give you some things to rage at me about. Have fun. I don’t care anymore. Did you really think I destroyed myself physically to build a farm just so I could have few chickens? Please.

Happy New Year From the JAZ Farm

Jan1

And away we go! 2023 is gone and I have yet to run into anyone that has said they will miss it. Given what a turbulent year it was for us, this morning we were very happy to see bright blue sky and moderately warm weather greeting us. It wasn’t like that last year. In fact, last year was quite the buzz kill.

One year ago today, during a blizzard and horrible cold, we lost Donovan to bladder stones, and because of him, Julio had to go on to find a new partner. I miss my boys. They were the gurus of the farm. They could teach you more about mindfulness, presence and enlightenment than any human could. All you needed was a handful of animal crackers as an offering.

On a happier note, TWO years ago today, this little nut came home with us. While a lab puppy will test every inch of your patience, she made it to year two and is turning into quite a friend. One needs to learn quickly on that there are basically only three things that can determine the reason for their behavior: 1. Food, 2. They have an unbelievable amount of energy and need to have their asses run off on a daily basis, and 3. They are crazy attached to their humans. Pepper is a bonafide member of the farm crew. No one is getting on this place without her knowing about it and passing it up the chain of command.

A sense of normalcy has settled in on the farm. As I have posted about ad nauseam in this space, we have been looking forward to nesting into the farm and simply living like the old fashioned couple we are. As such, we are switching a lot of gears. While Zina still has to work to keep our insurance (stupid system) we are tapping into our creative spirits. She is currently studying conversational Spanish, took a class on stained glass window making, and as I write, she is up coloring. I have finally gotten back to my loom. We have re-arranged the studio room in the basement and created room for the fiber arts creations to happen. I don’t know where this textile bug came from; Perhaps from my mother teaching me to sew way back in elementary school, teaching myself to crochet around that time or even the commercials about Rosie Greer doing needlepoint. Who knows, but I have laid down some plans to not not only do it as a hobby, but perhaps to even create a little Etsy shop and go around to local craft shows. Nothing is firm, but the seeds are being sown. In addition to that, I had always been pretty fascinated with spinning wool into actual yarn. One idea I’ve had is to use local fleece from sheep and Alpaca’s around here and spin it into yarn and use the yarn to make shawls and scarves.

Because of my mother’s holiday generosity, I was able to order a spinning wheel and the associated gizmos and bobs. The co-owner of my weaving shop is a nationally known spinner. I was able to get some guidance from both her, her book, and my weaving coach. The wheel is made here in Boulder and is the same brand as my loom. Now I am sitting here fidgeting, waiting for it to arrive…… 6 weeks!!! Oh well, in the meantime I have taken 3 different courses online and watched just about every spinning video out there. It doesn’t look exceptionally difficult, but they have all said it is like learning to play an instrument. Practice, practice, practice.

I am actually thinking that this will start to become a big part of my day. Stay tuned!

The rest of this posting is simply a collection of things I’ve put on Instagram. My life has changed an awful lot in the past 2 years. It wasn’t all expected. Some has to do with my physical health but a lot has to do with the fact that I have been journaling for almost that whole time. An author I am kind of enamored with goes by the name Jed McKenna. He, as well as Julia Cameron in her book, “The Artist’s Way” talks about writing as a way of connecting spiritually and trying to find your own truths. I also believe that it and my own reading and studying have been more effective than the therapists have been. Jed’s way of putting it is to “Sit down, shut up, and write until you know something that is true.” So I did. And I have. I’ve gone through over 1000 pages. Once you do that diligently, things change….. a lot. While I can’t adequately describe it you will kind of see both in a genuine way and more of an “I’ve run out of patience” kind of way, what I am getting at.

This is my rest of days. It seems fitting to demarcate it on a day of resolutions. I have 1000’s of pages of journaling that got me here. One should live authentically, unapologetically, knowing who you are and where you are going. I am in agreement with Socrates who said that the unexamined life is not worth living. I have gone from the depths to the heights, gone to over there and back again, I’ve overcome ferocious abuse and have gone over this weird ass universe with a fine toothed comb. I know me. Looking in a mirror at my soul doesn’t scare me in the least. This world, driven as it is by fragile egos, cannot understand it. In a world where most are operating on autopilot, programmed by someone other than themselves, I no longer give credence to the opinion or the gaslighting of others. I am awake and aware. The last third is mine, unapologetically. I’ve lost virtually all of my friends because of it and even still, I am content. One needs to die to the past, see the delusion that keeps everyone blind, see the man behind the curtain and, smiling a knowing smile, walk away into the mist. This world, that has been created out of fear and mental illness, holds no place for me and so I need to leave it all behind. I live to create, contemplate, find fulfillment in the natural world, and say goodbye to a world driven to destroy itself. Many search for ultimate reality their entire lives and fail. I can actually give thanks for an abused life as it set me on a quest to see clearly. I know first hand the terror of being in perpetual survival mode and complex trauma. I have better things to do than to waste my time on the subject matter of the slumbering fools: Religion (which is the Pre-K level of spirituality) lizard brained politics, war, and those that would destroy the living planet to turn the land and water into numbers on a screen and count it as power and wealth. This isn’t some Tik Tok infantile “new me” line, this has been a deep soul crushing examination. This was Jed McKenna style spiritual autolysis – a devouring of the self. It has been a decades long clawing away to find truth. I HAD to know. For me there was simply nothing more important than knowing what was true. I have detached. I have become quiet. I have walked away. I have no more questions.

No one is coming to save you. Here’s to hoping we aren’t totally fucked. We are, but here’s to hope anyway. Why do I say it like that? Because somebody has to say it. Might as well be me. I told the whole system to KMA a long time ago. What is unfortunate is that it seems everyone is getting more and more sucked into it on a daily basis.

Are you even a little bit ready? They make you think it is all “The Markets.” Instead, invest in stuff you need, like food and water and protection and medical and know how to use it all. Learn and invest in skills and barterable items, then get tangible commodities. Remember, as opposed to pre-collapse times, to quote Lynette Zang from ITM Trading, “Today, if you don’t hold it you don’t own it.” Digits on a screen do not make wealth. Even a can of beans has value. Navigating the aisles at Target ain’t a skill set. Don’t get Stockholm Syndrome. You will die broke as your corporate masters suck you dry.

In 2024 please invest wisely. Sincerely, a retired old financial guru. We are living in the age of convergence. Everything is trying to happen all at once.

Here’s a good one: I resolve to wake the fuck up in 2024 and detach from the system as much as possible.

Now repeat after me: I, ______, resolve for 2024 to learn how to grow and preserve my own food. Where I can’t, I resolve to buy bulk and buy locally.

Instead of Kroger, if you can’t do anything else, go here. These are farmers that are DOING. Give THEM your money instead of the poison industrial complex that only sells you chemicals and food like substances.

Can you do anything that someone might barter with you for? Do you do it?

Resolve to learn skills and then teach them.

So what is it, that at its core you can do that is actually worth a shit?

If you want to bring emissions down to pre-industrial levels, one must live pre-industrially. The number of people who have followed me to try to get there in the past 17 years? Zero. Here’s to more awakenings in 2024. Best of luck in the “New Year.” I’m pretty sure Super El Nino gots some schoolin’ cummin’ for most of the population. Even the birds aren’t migrating this year. Mandatory powering down will happen easy or hard. Learn some old timey skills if you can’t do anything else for self-reliance. Peace be with you when the freak out happens, because that’s what is coming to those with eyes wide shut. The Orcs rule the asylum. Resolve to get out if you can, live simply and deliberately, grow food and create local community. Decouple from the almighty devices.

“But JON! You just don’t get it! I live in a suburb and can’t do all those things you do!” Really? Wimp. Excuses are like a..h..s.. This picture was PRE JAZ Farm. If I could, you can.

Oh shut up with all this “I can’t” bullshit. You just need to be willing to be uncomfortable for awhile. The average age of a farmer in America is almost 60 (I’m 61). Someone, somewhere is more than willing to teach you. Unfortunately, it is hard to fill a cup that is already full, or show a head that is completely brainwashed by technograndiosity that tech won’t save you. The US Archery Coach used to say that the problem with the US archers wasn’t due to a lack of enthusiasm and drive, it was that they said “I know” way to much. Having to learn isn’t an insult or a blow to your ego unless you deem it so. Better to learn self-sufficiency now than to be dumb, broke and hungry.

“But you are being unfair JON! I live in an apartment and have limited space. I can’t! I can’t I can’t!! I have to get to WALMART for their cheap Chinese shit!” Ya? Tell me more about can’t. This was a 10X10 room. 100% hydroponic. We grew our salad and herbs year round.

What do you mean “You can’t?” We did it despite all the naysayers to the contrary. You want to change the system!? This is how ya do it! I started building this at 50! Its all a matter of priority, mind over matter and an understanding of what is of ultimate importance. THAT is a New Year’s resolution worth pursuing. Cutting back on buying shit and drinking less coffee and whiskey and eating less McDonald’s ain’t it. Bite off something worthy of your existence. Focus damnit. There are only so many heartbeats in a lifetime. Use yours wisely so that your children might have a chance.

Breathe, Live Simply, Move Slowly

Feb19

I read somewhere that sometimes trying to create a change or, as some say, having the universe tell you to change, that the indications will come in the form of some kind of pain. The idea that in order to make the change happen, give one determination and to help ensure that it has staying power, one must become so uncomfortable with the current situation that change must happen. I do believe that I we are getting that sort of message.

The next evolution in this great farm adventure is a powering down to a more residential speed limit from the full on throttle of the expressway that has been going on for more than 10 years.

The farm has come along in stages. I have written and spoken with others about the concept of entering “The Last Third” of our lives now that Zina and I have both entered our 60’s. All of the work going forward is now to simplify into our eventual retirement (Zina said I never retired. I just changed jobs). I know from several indications (including my wife’s demeanor – gasp!) that we are entering that phase of our homestead lifestyle. Also, and just as importantly (and it affects my moods as well) is that my body is pretty beat up. I am arthritic from my neck to my ankles. My breakfast friends have named that particular pain inflictor, Arthur (Arthur – itis). It can make life pretty unbearable. The inflammation makes things flair up and all I want to do is sit. Throwing 2000 lbs. of feed bags in a day is getting pretty ridiculous. Therefore, it is time to position ourselves for the phase of enjoyment and contentment in the Shire that we spent so long creating.

Phase 1 of the farm was, of course, to build it. I was compelled by a vision of what it should look like so that it could do almost anything we wished. Check that off the list. Mission accomplished.

Phase 2 was to have all of the rural preps (beyond food and water) available so that we could be safe out here in the sticks from injury, health issues, power outages and storms. Check.

Phase 3 was to use the farm to not only feed us but to feed us into the future. As they say in survivalist parlance, “Stack it to the rafters.” We learned how to dehydrate, can, freeze, ferment, dry pack and freeze dry. The freeze dryer was a game changer. Nothing from the gardens goes to waste anymore. Check. Next was to figure out the best way here to do water catchment. I would still love a below ground cistern, but given that Zina is now in charge of the home renovation projects, the tanks I have will have to suffice. We did find that by putting a livestock water trough heater in the 1000 gallon tank that we were able to keep it from freezing, which could have ruptured the valve that is used as a faucet. There is more to do, but as you will read, we now are to one step at a time and are eliminating the frantic pace of farm construction multitasking. As Tom Brady said after his last game of the season, “I am retiring…. This time for real.”

So now we are on to Phase 4. This stage is the move to simplify, de-clutter and to live at the level of a simmer instead of a full roiling boil; enjoyment instead of prepping and building. This is something I wish I could tell the younger families that have launched out on this homesteading journey. This kind of project can consume you. That isn’t a bad thing considering the screen mesmerized zombies of suburbia, but you MUST be able to see there being an end game to this craziness, or crazy is what it will drive you to become. You need to be able to see where it all ends up eventually so that all the pieces add up to a whole picture instead of a hodgepodge of things that don’t tie together. Planning is as important as having.

Sure, repairs will always be needed and things will need to be maintained, but the build out phase will and must end.

The accumulation phase will also end. If you keep piling things up for different tasks you will never be able to become the master of any of it. You will also have enough and you need to know what that level is. Defensive tools and gates, etc. are finite and will simply need to be maintained. Your pantry will also be filled at some point simply because no one has infinite space. Use it, and when needed, rotate it and replenish it. Use your gardens and buy in bulk to keep things leveled off, but at some point, it will be enough. Use water tank systems to hold water and cycle it out just like the food. Know how to purify it and have filtration systems. We hold around 1100 gallons currently and use the barn roof to catch more. Living in a drought prone area of the country makes this something of a necessity.

This does NOT constitute a complete life – unless of course you lack imagination. If you live this 24/7 I wouldn’t consider you a homesteader or even a simple a hobby farmer, I would classify you as a kind of a first class tinfoil hat wearing prepper. Hyper-vigilance about the crazy state of affairs in the world is one thing, an inability to create, thrive and live contentedly as a result of your efforts is quite another. If you can’t do that… what then is the point?

So our phase 4 then is to focus on the things that give our lives meaning and contentment; to use all of these prepper and homesteading skills (which are, in themselves, significant) to allow for what everyone in this country is always yammering on about: Freedom and Liberty – and I would add even as importantly – creativity and self-expression. Use your off – grid life to do the things in life that you love, without the complete despondence for and complete dependence on, a system that has proven time and time again to not care one bit about you. Use the farmstead, not hide like a scared mouse. Use it to break free of that which Kurt Anderson coined, “The Fantasy Industrial Complex” that you embarked upon all these years ago to escape. Create your safe place, then exploit that safety and self-sufficiency to live a life of purpose and contentment. You get to choose what that is. This is how the creative spirit (or just my receptive brain hating bodily pain) sorted things out for us; taking a roiling boil down to a self-sustaining simmer.

You see, in our case, knowing how to raise and store our own food doesn’t mean that it has to be all consuming in scope. It can be taken back up at any time and for any reason, especially if we see the shelves becoming too thin. It is ok if some of our pastures lay fallow or that the pig pens don’t always have pigs in them. We can do it again in the blink of an eye. It’s not like we will forget how. We are simply choosing to switch to other more creative elements of our lives. So the work this year will still be a LOT of work. It is just to decommission some of it to make way for other things. The turkeys need to be processed along with the stewing birds (all of which got delayed because of this pretty harsh winter we have been in). The layer flock will always need tending (and given the egg shortages is more valuable than the mutual funds I used to utilize)

The pigs, because of the cost of feed now, need to be reduced and then zero’d. BUT, as I say this to the younger of us venturing out, all of these meat and protein sources can be hatched out again or acquired from other breeders whenever we need to. If handled properly, just these sources I mentioned will be a year or more worth of food. I will likely end up freeze drying at least one whole pig. In addition, the greenhouse needs repairing so the gardens will be lighter this year. I do really enjoy having the goats for cheese and soap making so that will be ongoing. The house and the garage need arranging and de-cluttering. But as you can see, all of this is leading to the slow simmer, down from the boiling urgency of the past 10 years. Each subsequent task accomplished should lessen the ongoing tasks overall, thus bringing us down the highway off ramp, feeling the tension release of slowing down and getting back to the residential speed limits of an every day life. Interestingly though, it should still provide us with all the food we need and as such, keep all of this inflation under control. We have the bugs worked out of all of this. Younger homesteaders….. learn from your elders so that you don’t become yet just another flash in the pan.

Zina, WAY more than me, needs more social interaction (Nothing that I can provide). She has also toyed with volunteering, outdoor photography, and seems to have a knack for quilting. Anything hobby-wise works, but it is time to make space for such things. So we are moving to a reduction of some tasks and expenses (pig feed) that once served us so well, but that can now be put on a shelf to be brought back down when needed.

For my part, I need to feel more creative and also feel attentive to the gardens in preference over the livestock for awhile. I toyed with the idea of spinning yarn, but I don’t knit or crochet so I would need to learn how to spin for weaving. That is possible, so we will see if that evolves. In addition to my existing floor loom, I have a curiosity about tapestry weaving – specifically Navajo rugs, so the learning curve here would be never ending. I would also like to produce enough weaving textiles to have inventory to go to local craft fairs. I want to get out my telescopes again. Archery is done I fear. My shoulders hurt too much on an ongoing basis to subject them to that kind of pressure. Cooking and food storage goes without saying. It is one of my talents and it helps to fill the creative spirit niche that we are after here. I will also continue on with my herbalism studies. I have found it to be a lot of fun and quite interesting. I have in my head to build a smokehouse using an old wood stove we have and I love the idea of doing some Permaculture landscaping too. In all of this though, simply going for a walk with the dogs would be enough of a de-stressor to clear my head.

So to those who have asked just how long we think we can keep this up, you were asking the wrong question. The question is, how are you going to “live” at the farm once all the phases have been completed? The answer is that we are here. This new phase – to make the space and physical surroundings for the hobbies and creative endeavors we want in our lives – is here. Right now it is in about a year long transition, but transition it will. Things happen when you develop a plan and then work it. It has been the story of my career and of the farm creation. None of this happened by hook or by crook. If you aim at nothing, nothing is exactly what you will hit.. or worse yet, hit something you didn’t intend. We created a space of safety and self-sufficiency because the writing is sprayed in bright hunter orange all over the walls. Now we can use this behemoth we created to support a contented life in the last third to the highest extent possible. The last phase: Creating Space, is no small task; but it creates a clear vision of what we have been working toward for these strange and adventurous 10 years. After all, if you don’t have an end game to all of this, why bother? 11 years ago we sat on the porch of this dump and Zina said she could really see us retiring here. All of these phases have been the lead up to that point. Far be it for me to let her down.

A Rocky Beginning to 2023

Jan10

Crisis management seems to be the watchword so far for 2023. We kind of got ripped off with respect to our holiday vacation time. Aaron and I spent about a month prior to Christmas with an absolutely awful case of the flu. According to his test it wasn’t the bat bug, but Influenza A. I don’t really care what you call it, but it came pretty close to landing us up in the hospital. I would have self-diagnosed with a bad case of Bronchitis or even Pneumonia. Zina had time off so she took on the chore tasks and we boys laid around looking and feeling miserable. Before you get all insulting about “Man Flu,” keep in mind that I haven’t been down with any real sickness for 20 years that I can remember. This was pretty awful.

December 31st, 2022 marked the one year anniversary of our puppy, Pepper. I have never been around a dog with more insane energy than she has. She has become quite the sweetie, but OMG is she nuts! She has calmed down somewhat, which is probably that dad’s ferocity is overwhelming her hyper-activity (I’m glad we live out in the country – sailors would be embarrassed). Suffice it to say that she is now a part of the family and has successfully survived her first year here. She absolutely loves to play and gets so excited when we are out feeding that we have to put her in her pen in order to get anything done. However, when one of the boy goats got out of his pasture, Pepper was on the spot and had him back into his proper place in short order.

Leading up to the new year, we had a big ol’ propane delivery truck get stuck in our driveway. We had a big snow and it began to ice up. Of course, they sent him out to us and we got the rookie. 3 hours later, a tow truck capable of pulling a semi, came and got him out. About 5 days later he got in and did his job. Just another of a long list of comedic errors. We even had a visit from the local Sheriff because, well, lets just say, “People. Not a big fan.”

But then it really hit the fan. New Year’s day 2023. Regardless of the season, animals must be fed and cared for. This has been a rough winter weather wise as a result of these “Pineapple Express” snows that have been coming through pretty regularly. It hasn’t gotten very warm so it hasn’t melted away. We have experienced -18 degrees with wind chills of 45 below. The good news is that with the way we have things set up we know that the animals can withstand that cold. All of them, even the pigs, can get out of the elements and hunker down. Many of them naturally huddle together or burrow under straw together so their body heat keeps everyone warm. Farm animals are remarkable critters.

Unfortunately, after all the severe cold was said and done, Zina and Aaron went out to feed on New Year’s day. While I was getting breakfast going, Aaron came in and said that mom said to tell me that Donovan, one of our donkeys, was down in the wet muck in the barn, was shivering and wouldn’t get up. Anyone familiar with equines knows that when an animal is down like that and won’t get up, it isn’t going to be your best day. We initially thought that maybe his feet were frozen, but he had access to clean straw, so why would he lay down in the grunge? We managed to get him up and dried off. He had lost a lot of body heat so everything was kind of a matter of urgency. Zina put a big pile of straw on the floor for him to lay on and down he went again. So that prompted an emergency call to the vet. I could not believe that we got a hold of someone. I guess working with her for 11 years had some pull. Also, she is the lead vet for the donkey shelter we got the boys from 5 years ago. Doctor G got a hold of the shelter and then they all showed up out here! We will forever be grateful that they were around.

The vet and I wrestled Donovan into a stall and proceeded to treat him for what was presenting as Colic….. but, of course, donkeys don’t get colic. The vet went in both ends and then noticed that when he tried to pee, nothing was producing. Which, of course, means a blockage of some kind. She took blood and as the shelter folks had arrived, we took him and his partner Julio, got them on the trailer and evacuated them to the hospital barn at the shelter. The reason Julio went along is because donkeys pair up. If they are separated they can really have adverse reactions. Julio is 25 years old, Donovan was 18. They had been together a long time.

Donovan was under observation over night and in the morning was much, much worse. They had initially gotten him up and eating but that was probably only due to the fact that we had done so much at our place to get him hydrated and a bit more stable. We got the call from the vet that morning. Kathy, the shelter operator, Zina and I were all on the same page, surgery was really not an option. Donovan had to be put down. Of course, because of how sudden this all was, it was quite a shock. Zina and I second guessed ourselves pretty severely struggling to figure out if something we did caused all of this. The kick of it was that not a day before he was up and eating. Until New Year’s day, he looked healthy. Then we got the reprieve. The vet called with the results of the blood work and the numbers indicated severe internal muscle damage and when they put him down he passed a part of a bladder stone (The bladder is a muscle). He must have had many of them. It was something that even if we had known it, there was very little that could be done. Donkeys don’t do well under anesthesia.

This was quite an ordeal and it has left quite a hole here. Donovan’s passing was sad, but I was most worried about how Julio would do after losing his buddy. I guess he kind of knew there was a problem. They said it was almost as if he said his goodbyes, sniffed at him and then wandered out to be with the other senior donkeys in the donkey nursing home. We had to then monitor him because when they get older and lose a partner, they can give up and stop eating and drinking. Not Julio. Buck Owens was a brown mini that had lost his life long partner awhile back (She was another brown mini named Annie Oakley – not kidding). As serendipitous as this was, Julio and Buck took to each other right away. It didn’t take 3 days and they were palling around to the point of being inseparable.

Dovovan

Both Boys – Donovan in the front, Julio, the Guru, behind.

Julio and his new found friend – Buck Owens. Julio is the one mooning you!

The decision, however, had to be made by us as to whether or not to bring them back to the farm. These are old boys and old souls. Given that we are needing to streamline the farm to accommodate us also becoming old farmers and old souls we had to decide if we wanted to continue on knowing that they would require more and more from us as they age. We went out to the shelter and spoke with the owner. She listened to us and let us cry on her shoulder. We decided that this was a chapter that had to close. I never thought it would be this hard. We considered them the Guru’s of the farm. They were such gentle beasts. I like to think that maybe someday we will have donkeys again, but given the way life goes, I doubt that that will be the case. I miss Julio to the moon.

It did us a world of good to see Julio with his new companion. The information we got from the shelter was that donkeys aren’t dogs. Dogs really bond with their masters, donkeys bond with each other. He knew us, came up to us for butt rubs, but he seemed far more interested in hanging with Buck. That created some closure. Over the years of this farm project we had to continually decide what we wanted to bring ON to the place. This is the first time we had to decide what needed to go. It was the right choice. Right choices are always the hardest. They are in impeccably good care. Now we move on.

So 2023 is off to a questionable start. I am going ghost for awhile. Not in the modern sense of suddenly not texting someone, but in becoming more of a recluse in order to focus on the farm’s human livestock. If we don’t take care of ourselves and each other, this place does not function. This is going to be a bit of a different year I fear. I have the huge job of fixing the roof on the greenhouse so it won’t really get planted. It is pretty likely we have 4 pregnant does, so come April will have some little bouncers, and the milking will resume. All in all, we are striving for a more peaceful and calm existence compared to years past. I hope all of this finds you well. If you haven’t taken care of yourself, I hope you do. Things are getting a little weird; which is the reason we built the farm in the first place. Happy New Year. Peace.

OMG I Iz Famous!

Mar16

HAHA! Not really. However, I did have the honor of being interviewed on a podcast that is produced by a friend on Instagram and some of his compatriots. We have known each other for quite a while and have walked in some of the same “Peak Everything” and Climate Change circles. He has often said that his real curiosity is finding out what caused people to actually move their feet when it comes to world and societal issues where others simply complain about them or live in complete denial. Mike lives in a yurt in New Mexico. We share very similar views on life, the universe and everything (42). So when I was invited to be interviewed I was thrilled to be asked. The content is an overview of what got me (more to the point, us) to actually leave everything behind and start a farm out in a sea of grass on the high eastern plains of Colorado. It is my favorite kind of format. It is irreverent, I get to cuss, and we all laugh and share stories about the absurdity of our predicament. Mind you this isn’t roses, rainbows and unicorns. It was fun, however, to get to ramble and pontificate for an hour and a half with people who actually hear with ears that can hear. I have linked both the You Tube version and the Spotify link below. The roots of JAZ Farm come from not being able to turn a blind eye to the direction our world is taking. It was quite an honor and I look forward to coming back at some point. Let the bloviating commence!

NINE

Dec4

Today is December 4th, 2021. Happy ninth birthday JAZ Farm! What a year this place has seen. I am sure that most of you are feeling some of the exhaustion from the myriad issues that seem to all be converging all at one time in our lives. While yes things have been tumultuous, the farm has continued to provide projects, entertainment, sustenance, and peace in a world that has become certifiably insane. We won’t get into any of that here, but most of you who know me know that I do not ascribe to the common political and economic narratives that get thrown around at each other like so much worthless confetti. We live in a troubling age and we are so thankful that we made the decision to build this place and use it as our own family Shire against all the Orcs and Goblins that seem to inhabit the “civilized” world.

It is hard to believe that 9 years have passed. Not only has the farm changed since its inception as a dilapidated house on 40 acres, the surrounding area has seen massive changes as well. Sure, we can wax poetically that these things happen, but given my propensity to be able to connect dots and come to pretty accurate conclusions, it seems that forces have been set in motion that will see the start of significant exoduses from the urban and suburban world as people see the writing on the wall and understand the need to escape to more rural areas or places that will let them provide for a certain amount of self-sufficiency. For those who have done it here, you have my support. We are now one of the elder statesmen on our road. Because of the insane and meteoric rise of real estate prices, folks are selling out left and right (I guess if I had any sense we might do the same, but that isn’t why we moved here and built the Shire). People who never thought they would see a financial boon like this have been cashing out with hundreds of thousands in profit and moving to cheaper states, where, they say, they can live like they do now but with no mortgage and significantly cheaper costs of living. But what that means, however, is that for every seller there is a buyer and there are buyers in spades. After 9 years of practically no sounds coming from our neighbor to the south we now have loud music, gunfire, and now the introduction of their livestock (I only resent 2 of the 3). This has been a theme throughout the community. We all wish that the city folks that bit the bullet and moved would have left the city behind. Oh well, they will calm down eventually I guess. Interstate 70 is the main artery from us into Denver and the development has been following that corridor like a virus. The concerning issues with this have to do with the availability of water, and the digging up of wheat and cornfields to create this Oasis of suburbs in the countryside. I told Zina that other day that if we keep moving east to escape these Zombies, we will wind up in Kansas. The primary constant of the universe is that nothing stays the same. It is understanding these changes that prompted much of what we did here on the farm this year and is informing how we live here going forward.

THE COMPLETION OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE:

As you know, if you have been following along for any amount of time, the idea that I actually “retired” was a joke. I quit my job for any number of reasons, but at the age of 50 I became a farm construction engineer. Up until just a post or two ago, the physical labor involved with the farm design continued unabated and would have bested some folks half my age. Not only did we complete all the paddocks and pens we hoped to have, my body was there, towards the end, letting me know that it indeed was over and that I best not come up with any more cockamamy ideas. 2021 began with our finishing out our garden fencing, fencing in a second 5 acre grazing pasture, then enclosing the whole place along the back and south side with yet more fence (This last one being a way to feel like it had become a completed enclosure). It also allowed us to let the dogs out without having to wonder where the hell they went. They now have a good 5 acres to run around in.

It was a garden, now it is a pig pasture

As part of our effort to be as self-sufficient as possible we brought in a couple of American Guinea Hogs to breed. They are the most docile of animals, loving ear scratches and tummy rubs. As they will eat most anything, including grass, they are pretty low maintenance. However, it is ironic that if you leave the males and females together, their propensity to breed goes way down! We had two boars and 3 gilts (females) together and they put each other in the “friend zone”. No babies. So upon some advice and research we separated them like we have the bucks and does of our goat herd. We will probably try in early spring to breed them but in the meantime we had to have a place to put the boys. So this prompted the last small fencing project as seen above. You can see in posts from years ago that the space we have used was our original vegetable garden. It was already fenced on three sides so all I had to do was enclose it on the 4th and add a gate. It should have been a piece of cake, except the drought we have been in baked the ground to cement and I had a devil of a time getting the auger into the ground and ended up dulling it and having to replace the corkscrew unit that actually digs the hole. After pounding in the last of the metal posts, I limped away promising myself and Zina that the days of building fences have indeed become a thing of the past. All of it looks spectacular if you have an eye for such things; But one of my to do lists for this winter is to clean and straighten the garage and put all of the banging and clanking devices in their proper places and leave them to gather dust.

CLEAN UP:

To kind of punctuate the completion of all the construction, it was time to clean the place up. 9 years of building and adjusting accumulates a lot of remnants and crap. We called and had a roll off dumpster brought in and loaded the thing to the gills. If any of you have any experience with farms or ranches, you undoubtably have seen the boneyard junk piles that can accumulate on them. Some of them are hideous and show a certain level of slobbery that we didn’t want here. Old rolls of windbreak fencing, fencing remnants, sawed off sections of wood, and all manner of things no longer needed, were bid farewell. While I hate the idea of using the landfill, there were precious few options. We could have burned off a lot of the wood things, but because of the drought there has been a never ending burn ban, so off it went. It will likely be the only time we will need to do this and considering the amount of waste that is generated simply from people buying too much plastic, breakable and unwanted crap, I figure we are still much farther ahead.

SECURITY:

We value our privacy and security here almost as much as our ability to sustain ourselves. While the fencing was mostly to house and pasture our animals, the last close off to our east gave a feeling of completion. For some additional security (and to close off the last escape avenues for the dogs) Aaron and I installed an automatic gate opener/closer on the entrance gates. It was super easy to install and when it closes, it has something called a “Zombie Lock” that locks the two sections of gates together that can only be opened either with a key or one of the remotes. It is so nice to be able to go in and out and have the gates close behind you without having to get out of the truck and manually latch them. It is much the same as people that have automatic garage door openers. It is secure and very convenient. Well worth the money. If anyone is interested, the company we used is Ghost Controls. They work great even on our oversized ranch gates.

THE YEAR OF THE VET:

As you know, we lost our oldest lab (Basil) in August, but that was only one of several animal issues. We have been in to the vet and had the vet come out on several occasions. Our youngest lab had bladder issues, we had one of our baby goats break a back leg and we had a pig go lame with arthritis in her front ankles. Sage is fine, Basil died, Rosemary the goat healed up and Petunia the pig became bacon. Life on the farm. Just recently, we had the vet out again to have the donkey’s teeth brushed. This is called a “full float.” They give them some pretty happy drugs to sedate them. This proved to be a rodeo as they didn’t like the idea of being poked. It is intravenous so it is something they really don’t want to be a part of . Donavan, the youngest, had to have a dose for a full sized horse. Once sedated they have their head lifted with a rope, a bit put in their mouths to open it and then the vet uses a cordless drill (DeWalt) with a grinding device on it to smooth out the back teeth and remove any spikes. If the teeth get too rough it can cause abrasions in their mouth and get all infected and all sorts of other happiness. They pulled through without a hitch and it gave the young vet some experience. Fortunately, she had two techs with her and me. We were able to keep them relatively stabile so she could do her magic. Now the boys are good for another couple of years. It was nice to have them compliment us on how good our stalls and pens look. They said they have seen some pretty bad places.

All of the rest of the animals are doing great. We have rethought the way of raising our turkeys so we will be re-arranging their coop. For various reasons, hatching them doesn’t seem to be a good option, so we will just order them from the hatchery every year. We have hatched them before, but the hatch rate is ridiculously low. We have excellent incubators so it appears that the Tom’s just ain’t up to the task. We have hatched more layer chicks and they will fill in the gaps as our current girls are getting along in age. This past molt saw them stop laying altogether. These new ones should be old enough and laying come spring. The pigs are as happy as can be and seriously only care about food and the occasional scratching. We bred three of our goats in September. We should have babies sometime in February. We are getting to the point where we need to look into selling them. Between the bucks and the does, we have 13 head. They are eating machines so we certainly don’t need more. Fortunately, with all the new urban and suburban farming happening because of the pandemic and the economy crumbling, baby Nigerians fetch a pretty good price. Also, 4H is always looking for animals for the kids to raise. Our cheese making has been a fabulous success. We just had some cheddar that had aged 6 months and it was amazing. There are always tweaks to learn, but at this stage, we are impressed. We also built a goat breeding pen and then constructed a playhouse for them to hang out in. We got the idea from a You Tube channel we follow and the goats seem to love it. It is an A frame construction that gives them all manner of ways to jump and play. It also gives the does a way to escape should the buck get a little to aggressive.

THE GARDENS:

Without having to show you yet more pictures of baskets of produce and jars or preserved stuff, suffice it to say that the gardens, yet again, performed admirably. We made a switch to growing both the tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse. The peppers seemed to approve and we ended up having them coming out of our ears. Our Asparagus forest went crazy and again we were able to harvest a few hundred pounds of potatoes.

Because of the faux supply chain crisis and because it seems that everyone learned to can in 2020, Ball canning lids became almost unobtainable. We have a pretty large store of them, but because of not knowing how long the shortage would last, we investigated our options. We had currently been freezing, dehydrating and canning as much as we could. From some videos and articles, we happened upon a company called Harvest Right. They are one of the only manufacturers of household use Freeze Dryers. If you have ever gone backpacking you are undoubtably familiar with freeze dried meals from companies like Mountain House, Legacy, Augustan Farms, Thrive life, etc. They are great food storage options but a freeze dryer lets you store your own. We purchased their medium sized unit and the thing has been running non-stop since we got it. It is absolutely amazing how many things you can freeze dry. If stored properly the vegetables can last for up to 25 years. Because it can all be put through the machine, we have had virtually no waste from spoilage out of the garden. We have freeze dried bushels of beans, eggplant, ground turkey meat, potatoes, onions, cheese, fruit and things I am probably forgetting at the moment. For we homesteaders, this thing is a game changer. Oh yes, tomatoes. I wish I had gotten the larger unit, but this thing is serving us very well.

This is what tomatoes sauce looks like when it is done…. a tomato styrofoam.

SO WHAT IS NEXT?

That brings us to today, the end of the year. As I write this it is about 70 degrees. I just got back from the store wearing shorts, a T-shirt and Crocs. This weather is insane. Denver broke a record of over 225 days with no measurable snowfall. It is dust bowl era dry here and yet Hawaii is expecting a foot of snow and 100 mph winds. After having been out of the drought for a spell, we are now in an “extreme drought” according to NOAA and the USDA. This is a bit scary. While we have good water with our well, I will be ramping up the creation of our rooftop water catchment system. We had an issue (now resolved) with our solar system and battery back up. Should that system go down, as our well pump is electric, we would not have water. Sure the humans can get water and we have an apartment in the city, but watering the animals would become a significant issue. We have so screwed things up as a species that the north and east are bracing for a very snowy and cold winter and we are wondering if it will ever freeze. I still have Broccoli growing in the gardens and I have had to regularly water the apple trees, Blackberries, Asparagus and Garlic. Our solar guy said that not only did he wish more people had systems like ours, he wished more people would choose to live like we do. I have always been open to teaching these techniques but I largely get silence with just crickets in the background.

BUT!

As I stated earlier, nothing stays the same. The economy is collapsing, fuel and food prices are sky-rocketing and home heating is supposed to get out of hand. There are predictions of propane and natural gas shortages. The specter of the issues like happened in Texas last year, have the potential to spread everywhere. We are a nation under siege and I wish my giant YAWP into the universe would actually yield some results. But, alas, the Siren’s song of golf, theaters, malls, new cars, fast food, and shiny things, call too loudly and we are indeed screwed. So all we can. do is just live our lives and ignore the noise and criticism of others.

The one dependency I have always wanted to be rid of is propane delivery. While we are not tied to a natural gas line, some shmoe has to come out a couple of times a year and fill our propane tank. Given that we have been warned all over the country that propane shortages could indeed be a thing, and that our furnace runs on it, we decided this needed to be remedied. I am not going to get into the details of the BS we have endured trying to buy and install this thing (same as everything else we have had someone else do here), but we invested in a wood burning stove. It will be our primary heating source and the gas furnace will be set at about 50 degrees just to ensure that we don’t have issues with freezing pipes should there be no fire. We have about 10 cords of wood out back and the final installation (after having to report them to the BBB) will likely happen this coming week. That will be a relief. We found out through experience that while our battery back ups can run the furnace turbine if the power goes out, it can’t do it all night. So this way we will lower our propane consumption, take the burden off of the batteries and allow us the ambience of a fire and its soothing heat. We could probably be completely off of propane if we had a solar hot water system so if you are so inclined to do a Go Fund Me for the farm, we would appreciate it greatly! LOL.

Just need an outside chimney and we are all set

2022

As far as the rest of the world is concerned, it ain’t lookin’ pretty. The economy is in shambles and is only being held up by corporate share buy-backs and insane Fed money printing. People are leaving abusive employment in droves. The pandemic and inflation (being created by the fed) is taxing people’s purchasing ability to the hilt. Food shortages are starting to hit home and all that cheap Chinese crap everyone seems to like to buy at Walmart is languishing in a mathematically unsolvable problem called “The Whiplash Effect;” not to mention the many flying penises being launched into space who’s worth could solve world hunger. There is no way we will ever see pre-2019 “normal” again. Given the droughts and major climactic events, we will be lucky to have anything resembling a functional eco-system ever again. Here, let me just tell you where I am….. There will be precious few humans alive on this rock in about 10 years. You go ahead and live in denial. The data favors me.

So given this rosie news, I simply won’t involve myself in politics and social issues. They are pointless. I will help others as I can but I am not a crusader. If people want help doing what we do they need to seek us out. If not, it is nothing but a circus side show. I have my popcorn and a good seat. Bring on the show.

On a personal and familial note, we are indeed done building. The 10th year of the farm will be transitional, hopefully leading to a whole new life paradigm. We will be living the farm life always looking to de-stress and find peace. In my case, I have bent to the whim and scapegoating of sick people enough in my life. My family owes no one, including other family or anyone else. We did the virtuous thing and the kill ourselves thing to please others long enough. As we move into our sixties, the farm will be our oasis, our Shire, our place of reclusion and peace. The 10th year will help us to transition to this life, hanging up post drivers and screw drivers and hammers and pick up feed bags, hoes and hay. We will live and love and move away from this insane society and culture. In a philosophical/spiritual sense it is a death and rebirth. Personally, I am walking away from our virus of a species. I don’t have many in-person friends anyway and I have no desire to interact with the insanity that this abusive culture is inflicting on it’s citizens. There is peace in reclusion. There is virtue in being a hermit. There is love in being a hobbit. Animals love in a way that humans are incapable of. Nature heals, civilization destroys and if I have to die a hermit refusing to participate in a diagnosably mentally ill society then I am willing to do so either by natural or personally chosen ways. I am saying goodbye to all things except my efforts to heal our little piece of Mother Earth. We are at the toxic end of a badly damaged and corrupt empire. I refuse to participate anymore. I hope that my life not only helps to heal, but that it makes a statement. I hope from a personal note that this will rebalance me after a lifetime of abuse and living in survival mode. I gave enough to everyone. My wife has done the same. We now will work on healing ourselves and loving each other throughout the time we have left. JAZ Farm is our safe haven. She deserves our care and I am sure, she will care for us.

The Great Farmer Reset

Sep23

It has been some time since I did a musing of something a bit more personal about what is going on out here. Below is simply an unedited version of a journaling I did recently. I gave my 50’s do developing our farm. Most of this blog chronicles the building of the place and how things work. Anyone who has followed this over the years understands the ecological and social issues that made us drop out and build this place. For my part, there was a deeply personal aspect to it as well. That being disillusionment made violently manifest. I turn 59 in less than a week. While ages and dates don’t really mean much to me, there is a part of me that wants to see this farm work of art shine and support us in a way that the previous 58 years were not able to. Sure, I give thanks for the fact that I was a successful business person and yes, there is a certain privilege to being able to say the things I have here – so what? This is raw, unedited and hopefully will give you an idea what happened personally to drive us to go where very few have gone. It is my sincere wish that others can build their Shire and escape the trappings of a completely insane culture. We all deserve it no matter what our sociopathic society says. Peace.

THE FARMER’S GREAT RESET.

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF. CREATING NEW HABITS. LIVING THE LAST THIRD UNAPOLOGETICALLY AND AUTHENTICALLY. GOING INTO A YEAR LONG RETREAT TO ALLOW EVERYTHING TO TRANSFORM.

What Is Your Great Reset?

Living on and completely immersed in the farm like an artist or a writer is immersed in their craft. Leaving the world and going inward. Finally living without judgment or fear of belittlement. To transform physically and mentally to let the authentic self have life unapologetically.

I hate us. I can’t stand the state of affairs in the world any longer. Therefore, just like I went no contact awhile back, I am going to become a Hermit or Recluse in my 59th year. I can’t develop the way I want to as a farmer-artist, painting on my canvas, unless I can slow down, cut myself in half physically, and tune out the insanity of the U.S. We are a certifiably insane species. The Pandemic illustrated it, exposed people for who they are, and I want no part of it.

I gave my 50’s to creating this farm. It came out of me like a composition written out by Mozart. I just kept going and going and, suddenly, it is all here. The last piece is to let myself inhabit this canvas and live completely merged with what it can do. So the last year of my 50s is to restore my health, unleash my true self, and live here as a Hermit would – Cut off from the world, not leaving the Shire, using ordering methods to get things we need, and being the driver or conductor of the farm making this piece of art sing. I guess I am talking about the death of an old self. “Die before you die and then realize that there is no death.” – Eckhart Tolle. I deserve to have a life of peace and contemplation. I earned it. There is so much about this world in which I was raised and the experiences I have had, to prove it. Not being wanted, being abused, and the absolute whirlwind of an existence that brought me to this point and still be alive. This is now on my terms. The biggest task I have is to “decommission the warrior.” To let the Hulk go and let the warrior sit by the fire and smoke his pipe. I don’t need to be armored up like that any more and, as my therapist said, “there is no doubt that if the warrior is needed, you are so good at bringing him up, you will be able to call on him if and when needed.” I have the battle scars to remind me of it all. But from now on, the artist, the scientist, the painter, the grower of things, is now in charge. How that happens is the puzzle, because after 58 years, old survival habits die hard.

To paint on this canvas that I dedicated my life to must be a slow and simple life; A life without the stresses of the outside world; A life devoted to the simple pleasures that our farm affords us. It is going no contact with all of society, keeping in touch only to stay abreast of things of normal responsibility. People make everything up. They tell themselves stories in order to survive. In other words, it is all lies and I will not live in lies anymore. We are a psychopathic, uncaring, lot. One need only look at the history of the last century, all the wars and brutality and death, to see that humanity is certifiably abusive and insane. The only way to have a good and peaceful life is to leave.

Old habits to be rid of:

>Not caring for myself. Even writing like this feels foreign. It makes me shake and feel guilty because, after all, this is selfish according to that horrible Calvinist upbringing I was forced to endure. Priority number one has to be good diet and exercise. Not powerlifting or biking to god knows where. Simple stretching, walking and resistance exercises with the TRX Band. A diet based on JAZ Farm food and the foods we buy in bulk.

>Drinking wine to calm down. The substitute for the rev up with coffee and slow down with wine needs to be a complete slow down of my life. The Thich Nhat Hanh “Just drink your tea” habit applied to everything. This isn’t a substitute way of doing the same things that caused my pain, it is a complete redevelopment of me. Thus, I am going full on hermit for my 59th year. It is about controlling my thoughts, stop thinking, moving slowly and deliberately avoiding everything that has caused me such duress in the past. Calm, Quiet and Slow.

>As Jennifer Aniston said when asked how she kept in such good shape she replied, “Don’t eat shit.” That is the foundation of this. Taking the time to fix healthy food, not drink to escape, and allow myself to isolate and not flee the farm. After all, I am leaving the farm to eat crap under a tree to try to escape my thoughts and fears….. which, of course, I take with me because they are in my head. Replace the dopamine hits from fast food and wine with living deliberately, simply and slowly.

So these are the main habits to kick in this year long retreat: Don’t eat crap. Don’t drink wine to escape. Decommission the Warrior and cease the hyper-vigilance. Don’t neglect yourself.

So conversely then, what are the new habits to develop to allow the farm artist to flourish in the last third of his existence?

> Wake up slowly. Ease into everything and hurry nothing. Not even if Zina is raring to go. Let her do it and follow as you see fit. After all, you work on the farm every day. Wake slowly and catch the thoughts that create those awful mountains and make your whole existence seem insurmountable. Don’t think about all the things that “Have to be done” all at once. Arise, stretch, go about the morning tasks and chores and let yourself begin the day with a gradual re-entry into the world. You know that with your back’s side effects you can’t just jump out of bed and get moving anymore. Take it slow. You know it can take a couple of hours. Be accepting of that fact.

> Walk. Every day. Walk. Start slowly and over the course of this year long retreat, become the walker/hiker you used to be. In other words, embrace the things of your past that give you contentment and jettison the rest.

> Use the TRX Band to rebuild your legs (A TRX Band uses your own body weight as resistance instead of having to use weights or weight machines).

>Stretch

> Cut yourself in half. Your extra weight is the symbol of all the stress and abuse you have endured and how hard you fought and how much you denied yourself for everyone else. Lose the weight as the symbolic gesture of not needing the warrior and the armor. See shedding of weight as a victory dance, a giant “fuck you” to everyone that tried to destroy you. In order for you to paint requires your physical health. Do not let the world steal this from you any longer – NO fast food. NO processed food, wheat or sugar. Eat JAZ Farm food that you cook. There is no better diet than that. Stay on the farm and eat real meals and don’t eat snack food thinking that cooking or heating something up is too much work. All that is an excuse to neglect yourself again. It is what you did to survive. Stop self-loathing and your diet will come automatically and sustain you and clear your head.

> Slow your daily life down by an order of magnitude. While there are the daily chores and gardening, nothing HAS too get done in a hurry. Those days are over. Using the current pig pasture changes as an example: it needs to get done to accomplish the pig breeding goals, but it doesn’t need too all be done in a day. What you used to do in a day, do in a week. Enjoy the process and take care of your body. You need a lot of rest after your career and building the farm and overcoming things that should have killed you. Part of the self-care is doing just that, regardless of whether or not someone else wants to run. Move slowly and deliberately, doing what you want to do and not destroying yourself in the process. No one you know has done what you have done. There is nothing to prove…. Just be the farm artist. No Hurry.

> Stop thinking. Stop gluing yourself to the outside world via the news and such. There is nothing you can do for the world that you aren’t already doing. If you think of something new, great, then you can explore that, but for daily sanity, devote yourself to your craft. Drop out of society and thinking you have to stay hyper-informed like you did for work and the need to feel safe. You are safe here and should an event occur that needs your attention, you will certainly find out about it. As you have told others, “One could drop out just like not following a soap opera, come back in a year and not have missed a thing.” It is all awful and insane. Protect your own sanity and your own path of achieved enlightenment and ignore it. Pay attention only to those things that further your farm art and self-sufficiency. You owe no one anything. You tried that and it burned you for decades. Quit putting your hand in the fire now that you know it will always be hot.

>Continually walk away and leave the insanity to the outside world. They are not your concern.

To sum up the new habits:

Walk, stretch and resistance train.

Wake up slowly and ease into the day as you need to, keeping your mind calm so as not to catastrophize and build mountains.

Cut yourself in half and eat right using the foods you so expertly raise and process

Slow your daily life down by half, making life a meditation

Don’t think and stay present

Ignore the outside world and only leave the farm to hunt and gather as necessary (not running to escape – remember, your head comes with you) Escape comes from controlling your thoughts.)

Stop thinking and staying hyper-informed. Work methodically and when you don’t feel like it….don’t.

Use this journaling to help keep you focused and help keep your true self from becoming buried.

Don’t speak unless necessary. Don’t argue points because people and their opinions are usually ignorant and uninformed. Whether or not you are right…. It doesn’t matter.

Be reborn in the likeness in your head. Create yourself unencumbered. Create yourself in your own image. You deserve it.

After all, it isn’t that you don’t know who you are. The real you was just bullied into submission for most of your life. The time to keep doing that to yourself is over.

So who am I and where is all of this leading?

“Decide what kind of life you really want and then say “no” to everything else.”

I am:

An introvert that really thinks his species is a disgusting viral catastrophe incapable of regulating itself or doing things for the common good. As a result, I choose not to be with them.

Creative. After all, look at this place. There is nothing else to say.

Enlightened. In my reality, I know that the wider society is completely asleep. I don’t know everything but I know enough and hope to keep evolving towards my higher self. My old self was completely for defense. The self that was imprisoned, is real and awake.

A farmer and rancher

A painter on the earth canvas, a nurturer of the land and a rejector of human “progress” and its destruction of the planet. I seek to heal the small portion of the earth upon which I dwell.

A Prepper. The threats from modern society are real. I and the farm proved we are able to endure during this pandemic. My only hyper-vigilance is to make sure we continue to prepare for the hell scape that is civilization. If I have a mission that keeps me tied to staying informed it is that. Water, food, shelter, medicine, defense……. Repeat. I enjoy doing it and we are pretty far along that path, so it too, needs to be methodically maintained, not done out of panic.

A weaver. I want to create my weaving. I would love to have a presence where people can buy my wares like a painter sells paintings at fairs.

A Homesteader. I love raising animals and have them provide us food. I love gardening and preserving what we have grown. I love making cheese and making soap and butter and cooking delicious, healthy food. I love the old ways. I am just not able to work as hard to build things as I used to be at the beginning of this escapade and am completely burned out from it.

A believer in the here and now issue of catastrophic climate change. There is no prepping for this. However, the blinders that people have on regarding it also makes me need to drop out. Ignorance, without a desire to become educated, is one of the greatest disgusts I have for humans. They have completely exposed their true colors. Between denying climate change, the refusal to do anything about it and the stupidity revolving around the pandemic, I am through with humanity. It is quite likely that when I reinforce these new habits, this year long retreat may very well become permanent.

A lover of animals. I would have dozens of goats, chickens, turkeys, pigs, donkeys, dogs and cats. Human beings are not the most intelligent species on the planet. The animals are. If you doubt it, come spend an afternoon with the donkey farm gurus. They will absolutely set you straight. Shit, I’d take our goat bucks in rut year round over people in expensive cars and business suits. With the former, you know where they stand, the latter will stab you in the back when you aren’t looking.

So for the next year, I will be leaving the farm as little as possible. I will be working very hard at developing the new habits that I deserve and that the farm was designed specifically to support. I will still be posting and doing the occasional videos and things, but I created my own Shire after throwing the ring of power into the fiery mountain and I intend to take full advantage of that privilege. This is my promise and birthday gift to myself. It is high time someone lived up to their promises – even if it is me promising me.

There is nothing else I care about. I have, in my book, done it all. What I have accomplished and endured would have killed most people. The warrior, still, refuses to let me die. For that I am grateful.

Re-Stocking The Aisles

Mar24

I had a strange feeling this past New Year. It felt like the twenty teens were somehow the last “normal” decade we were ever going to see. Forces have been arising that seemed to have enough clout to really rock our world through the 2020’s. The markets were too long in the tooth, being held up by rubber bands and paper clips as well as massive amounts of money being fed into the system by the fed and companies doing the same thing that helped cause the Great Depression (Buying back their stock). This, and the fact that over half of this country didn’t participate in the recovery from 2008 and are incapable of handling an emergency that would require them to come up with $400.00. If you have read this blog for any time, I think Climate Change is the ultimate trump card. There is no escaping it and if the IPCC is correct, the talking points say that we only have this decade to turn things around (I am not of that camp. I don’t think it can be turned around at all). So the clock is ticking and the doomsday clock was pushed closer to midnight than it has ever been. I just didn’t think we would see it all happen in the first quarter of the first year of the new decade! I had been calling out warnings for a couple of years now that a life changing event was coming. I just didn’t know the catalyst was going to come from a bat. Welcome to the jungle. And you thought Mother Nature could be controlled and wasn’t in charge. Baaaa, baaaa, says the sheep.

(As an aside, it is remarkable to me that we could mobilize all of these logistics globally to fight a bug because it is killing and maiming people, but human extinction due to climate change? Virtually nothing. Save ourselves from the bat bug, so we can die from accelerated habitat loss. Humanity, if nothing else, is certainly a conundrum. But I digress).

Vacuum sealed and stored Black Beans.

We, like everyone, have been pretty scope locked on this infernal virus. But, because we live the way we live, we have been prepared for just about everything for many years. As I have some pretty hyper-vigilant situational awareness senses, we were out ahead of this thing. We filled in the gaps (Not Toilet Paper – because of where we live, you ALWAYS have extra) and instead of having to freak and scramble for basic daily rations, I went out and filled in the more comfort items: snacks, drinks, chips, etc. For any of the more long-term food storage items we simply add to it as a matter of course. My spidey senses told me that the window was closing fast to get prepared, so I went when all the others still seemed to think all was normal. Friends, relatives, neighbors at the cafe’, as usual, poo poo’d it because that thing we call media, was convincing everyone it was “over there” and it was just a bad case of the “flu” and those bad government doobies were just trying to scare us. We in the prepper and homesteader – verse were not convinced for a minute. Most of those I follow and are friends with were on the same page we were. The mantra was “get prepared now before everyone else suddenly realizes how serious this is.” And, of course, here we are.

It was the week after I did all of this that the hoards descended en-masse like the pictures and videos everyone is now familiar with (maybe you were even featured in them). We have always had some masks and gloves around (we use the masks to clean the chicken coop). We have always had an extensive first-aid supply so all I really did was pick up a bunch of cold, flu, nausea and cough meds for possible first response needs (Oh ya, and a new thermometer and finger mounted Pulse Oximeter). The weekend AFTER the first feeding frenzy was entertaining. I went to Costco to get some meat I needed for some canning I’m doing. I got to joke around with the staff amidst the empty shelves and cardboard boxes. They said that past weekend was worse than Christmas. The photo below is a clerk at our closest grocery store. She is a friend. She and I had gone to physical therapy together. The woman she is checking out had 3 carts loaded to over-flowing, and every check out aisle was similar. All I was after was some whole milk that we make yogurt for our pigs with!

Keep in mind this is a full size grocery store out in the sticks in a town of 2500 people. They did this to the shelves in 2 days:

Because we produce so much of our own food and because we always keep the things we don’t grow stocked up in the pantry or freezers, we were fortunate not to have to go out into the freak show for very much.

Our virus prepping was quite a bit different from the norm. Some of our food walks around and eats grain. In addition to this little pandemic surprise we are now confronting, climate change hasn’t gone away. Last year, for the blissfully unaware, was a terrible year for grain crops. Severe flooding prevented many farmers from planting. Many had their grain stores ruined or washed away and the freak freezes in the mid-west this past fall made harvesting a challenge. As a result, there have been warnings about possible grain shortages (potatoes too). We are expecting an El-Nino this coming summer which, at least here, usually means drought conditions and heat. Should we experience another poor growing season for crops, animal feed will get expensive. So in order to withstand this virus shindig and to get out ahead of potential grain price increases, we prepped for our critters more than we prepped for ourselves. For us, feed means a continuous source of eggs (a re-producing breakfast supply), feed means pork (we have breeding stock now so our pork will beget more pork). Hay means milk, cheese and yogurt from our goats. They all make compost and that means vegetables. We feed a lot of our eggs to our pigs as a protein source, so, in essence, the chicken feed gets used twice! Our goal is to have a year each of chicken and pig feed and a year or more of stacked hay (In a drought, hay gets ridiculously hard to find and, as a result, expensive). So while the citiots were out mobbing Costco, Sams, Walmart and Target, we were just up the road ordering skids of feed. With the eggs, pork, chicken and dairy taken care of, we are well situated, and it will help stretch the stored goods for quite some time.

Other preps have included, butchering 125 lbs. of turkey and grinding it up and putting it in the freezer; making gallons of turkey and chicken soup along with the ingredients to can loads of other meals. Now that the weather is turning for the better, we will be collecting our Jersey Giant meat bird eggs and hatching them out. We have Cornish Cross chicks due in in a month and they will add to the freezer in short order (they grow very fast). We have one goat in milk right now and will be breeding the others. They will kid in the fall and the milk faucet will continue on unabated.

We only milk once a day so we are getting about a quart per morning. Plenty for us.

We WEALLY Likes to Play!

The Single Dumbest Farm Animal In Existence…. and one of the tastiest. Both For Meat And Eggs

Like so many people who are privileged to be able to, Zina has been ordered to work from home for the foreseeable future. We are very grateful to her company to be out ahead of the problem as well. Aaron came home for spring break and it has turned into a year ending affair. He will be taking the remainder of his classes on line this semester and then he will be home for the summer. It remains to be seen if school starts back up in the fall. Given the blundering way the powers that be are handling this, don’t hold your breath. For those who can’t work from home, we certainly hope for the best. Too bad we can’t count on those living off of our tax dollars to do anything important. Isn’t it ironic that those who have the low “skill”, low wage jobs are now considered indispensable? Quite frankly, I think this bat virus is exposing “capitalism” for the two tiered sociopathic farce that it is.

So after getting hunkered down at the farm (which didn’t change much except that I’m not alone for most of the week now), we started looking to the long term. You see, it is my contention that if we are to survive not only through this virus, or if there are others (which there are sure to be), and the changing living conditions in which we find ourselves, there is going to be a re-ruralization – or at least a massive re-structuring of urban settings. The supply lines will become more localized. Globalism will be seen for the failure that it is (Who’da thunk that a virus from a poor wet market in Asia could get on a plane and kill people all the way around the world. Globalism….. the perfect model.). Knowing this, it makes sense to get out ahead of that curve as well. In World War II they were called “Victory Gardens”. Due to food rationing and military mobilization, people were called upon to farm their yards. It is currently going on in Russia and it is a large part of how Cuba has survived its sanctions and horrendous treatment at our hands. It is a remarkable thing, abundance. If you have the means and some space it is time to start growing a garden. It is great exercise, the taste of the food is without equal, and if you do it with your neighbors, the bartering and sharing (gasp!) creates community. Hey! You are locked up anyway, its something to do instead of shooting zombies on the PS4 and produces an actual result! If the supply lines get disrupted because of this, you will be ever thankful for taking this advice. We do save our seed every year, but for those we can’t we are even getting a supply ordered for 2021 ahead of time (seeds can last for several years in a fridge – we have a little one just for that purpose).

We are calling this year’s garden planting, “re-stocking the produce aisle”. While it hasn’t changed from what we normally do and because the building projects here are largely done, I have been able to give it more attention than years past. This is an aisle restocking for the late summer and fall. The seedlings are up and loving the basement “suns” as they get set to go into their pre-garden grow out pots. Later this week I am expecting 20 tons of planting soil to be delivered so that I can finish my last 2 48 x 6 foot row crop beds. Then the composting and amending begins in earnest for the planting to begin in the next 6-8 weeks.

I have also begun making tinctures. For those who don’t know what these are, they are extracts made by soaking an herb or spice in grain alcohol or vodka for about a month. The resulting filtered liquid can be used for many medicinal situations. For instance, our garlic tincture is great for regulating blood pressure, can act as a blood thinner, and has strong anti-viral properties (hint). Considering that 97% of our antibiotics come from China, learning the old medicinal ways only makes sense. Get ahead of the curve!

So, personally, I think all those that are acting like my eldest Lab when we put her out in her pen and then just stands there staring at the house like we have locked her in prison, lack creativity. This should be used to learn, to experiment, to develop new skills to adapt to a life that is certainly going to be different.

Learn to bake, cook, sew, knit, crochet, can, wood work, weld, garden…. anything! Get off yer butts!

I assert again that the twenty teens were the last “normal” decade. The new normal will be something akin to living like an Amish Hobbit in the 1850’s. You can prepare for it, or you can sit around like baby birds in a nest waiting for momma Robin to come stuff a worm down your gullet. Of course, that makes one dependent upon the same government they claim to hate. Hey, I just call em like I see ’em. As I learned to affirm in therapy, “I wasn’t wrong then, I’m not wrong now.” Given how many people are now contacting me about what to do, I get to feel a little smug. The days of insulting or dismissing homesteaders and preppers are over. We don’t engage in Schadenfreude, but there is some shaking of our heads. A certain amount of “I told you so” is well deserved. We earned it. We in the community do hope that there can be a civilized transition to the new normal and not Mad Max. But rest assured there is preparedness for that too. We are at a crossroads and where it goes from here and how it goes from here is destined to be incredibly entertaining. Keep your wits about you. Don’t believe any rosie short term forecasts, this is going to be with us for a very long time to come.

Hunker down. My favorite meme from this:

Food For Our Food

Nov15

BB0D5DA1-89B6-4CCA-9900-1BE35103A0F5 chickens-2016 Solar Oven 2015 wheat 3

So we are at the end of week three of our farm stress test. The goal of which to assess how both the farm itself and it’s inhabitants could manage should an LCE (Life Changing Event) require us to sequester ourselves here. I am happy to see that most of it has been positive; however, because this has caused us to look critically at the whole system, it has revealed some issues that need to be addressed.

The Off-Grid Infrastructure:

I see little issue with our off grid systems so far. We are on a well and that will be supplemented with water catchment and diversion systems. We have several water filtration techniques so unless we see both the well dry up and have a massive prolonged drought (which could certainly happen – we live in the western end of what was engulfed by the dust bowl) we are as good as we can get at this point. We need to add some more water tanks, but we already knew that. Our septic system has been checked out and is running as it should. We are contemplating a composting toilet system as well. The solar electric system continues to amaze. Should the grid fail, I don’t see much of a problem. Should the solar system fail, we also have a dual fuel generator to back that up and it is even more powerful than the panels. A weaker point has to do with heat and hot water. We are completely dependent upon propane. While there is no shortage of the stuff, it will not be getting any cheaper. I find it frustrating to no end to have to depend on a guy with a truck who may or may not get to us during an LCE. I would like to see us install a solar hot water system and a wood stove. While this wouldn’t eliminate our propane needs, it would drastically reduce it to the point where we’d be able to manage. We have multiple ways to cook, including solar. We know that if the grid goes down our electric range and oven will not function unless hooked to a generator (which can be done) but other than the oven (which would be replaced by our solar oven), we can do anything the stove can do via alternative means. Transportation would need to be drastically curtailed due to fuel scarcities and costs. I will not be getting a horse and wagon. I do too much already.
Off farm emergencies:

Well folks, you’d be on your own. Ironically, as I posted previously, we had the perfect storm of events that tested this issue. What a fiasco. Our farm hand had surgery, Zina had to leave town and I sprained my hip and could barely walk. It was touch and go as to whether or not the chores could get done. Had it been as serious as my back two years ago, this would have been an epic failure. This turn of events has spurred me on to really get a community together. We have a few folks that we can share tasks with now and I hope to expand that. You feed my goats, I’ll hay your horses, etc. However, in an LCE, if you can get here just don’t show up unannounced, we likely would do anything possible to not have to leave in the first place.

Human food:

Our food storage and our ability to grow food made this a solid foundation for us. So far this has been a no brainer. Between purchased dry goods, freeze dried and dehydrated food storage, vacuum sealed and bucketed items, canned and jarred preservation and pre-made meals, we could survive for a very long time. That, and knowing how to cook creatively and on a multiple of different sources, is a skill set to be valued. As long as we have our chickens, breakfast is made for us daily, thus taking some of the burden off of our pantry. BUT! That leads us to another discovery that will be leading us to a more in depth plan of action.

Food For Our Food:

If you have only been watching the corporate infotainment channels, you are likely pretty uninformed. Those corporate mind numbing displays of faux news have likely not let you know that we are on the cusp of some pretty serious food shortages and price increases due to the massive flooding this past spring and the freak freezes of the past month. This is likely to continue. If you think food prices have gone up a lot lately, hold on to your shorts. Between grain shortages and a massive swine fever in Asia that has destroyed close to half a billion hogs, this is going to get interesting to say the least.

If we can keep growing our own vegetables and greens, and as long as we can raise our own meat, eggs and dairy, we are in good shape. But that, itself, has a weak link too. We are incapable of growing the feed needed to keep breakfast miraculously appearing every day. While we won’t be fighting the insane citiot crowds at the grocery stores, hay and critter feed are the same sort of weak link as depending on the propane dude to bring us highly pressurized, explosive gas. We don’t have haying equipment and simply can’t afford it. A stout system to hay out our back 30 acres would cost in the neighborhood of $100,000.00. So we need to constantly be on the look out for sources of Alfalfa/Grass bales. Secondly, we can’t grow enough grain in diversified enough quantities to feed our turkeys and chickens year round. There are ways to make or purchase cheaper feed , but currently we feed all organic and that isn’t always easy to find. We are going to be switching to a new breed of pig that can be raised mostly on hay, which will bring down our feed costs, and we do have ways to mix our own chicken feed from bulk purchases, so we do have some alternatives. However, just as we rotate our food pantry to continually cycle the older food and replace it with newer, we need to do that with feed. We also need to fence in an additional pasture so we can take advantage of the grass we do have without having to bale it. We will be spending a tidy sum here to get about 6 months of poultry and hog feed stored and then rotate through it (Grains that have been milled and mixed have about a 6-8 month shelf life). From there, we will simply start at one end and back fill to replenish as we go. Because hay is a local search and we are prone to drought, not only will we keep the barn stocked, as you can see in the photo above, we will be stacking it and tarping it under the barn awning as well. If kept dry, hay can last about 3 years. This should help keep the eggs, meat and cheese flowing. Lastly, I need to do a better job of seed saving. I do some, but I need to be more diligent at it. Plants adapt to their environment over time and that gets passed on to through their seeds. That is important out here given the poor soil quality and hard water. Lastly, we are an hour away by vehicle, to the nearest hospital. We have ample first aid supplies, but I’m thinking that some improved herbal knowledge couldn’t hurt.

So this experiment has been fun. It has let us play the SHTF game, do some thought experiments, experience some of it in real time, and map strategy going forward. I would highly recommend that you give it a try in your own world. It can be an eye opener. I hope this also gives you some ideas as to what we could be facing and help you to develop some sort of plan of action. Don’t work panicked, work smart. The 7 year anniversary of purchasing this place happens in three weeks. It takes time. Do the best with what you have. To quote a friend: “It’s one Step at a time, one Thing at a time one Day at a time (STD), just don’t procrastinate.

Stay Tough

Nov7

A JAZ Farm truism:

It took a lot of grit and determination to create this life murdering colossus we call civilization. We extolled its virtues and named it progress. For we the people who have rejected this, tried to revive the old ways and live a life in the Shire, when you are virtually alone, the work required is just as arduous and is almost a super human endeavor. The forces are conspired against you. Be dedicated. Be driven. Rebel.

JAZ Farm Blog

The life of self-sufficiency and sanity in a world that is not

Category Archives: Philosophy and Thoughts