|
OK – since it was on the schedule to write for the January 2012 edition of the "Farm And Livestock Directory" the week of Thanksgiving, let’s assume Christmas is now over and even if you were really careful with your spending, some of you have shot the budget by the proverbial mile!
Christmas is my favorite time of year. I truly love getting things ready for the holidays. Decorating the house with natural findings from the fields and pastures, and making most of my gifts.
With the economy sitting in the ditch, this is not the time to spend megabucks on a costume the kid will wear once in his or her lifetime. Now is the time to challenge the kids to improvise with what is found in the old clothes bin, in a thrift store or purchased at a yard sale for 50 cents.
Dear readers: I would like to share with you a very special and thoughtful essay written by a friend of mine some time ago. Her words are timeless, and speak volumes.
Years ago, I discovered that the cheapest and easiest (well, sort of–canning is hot, hard work) way to have a full pantry was to raise/grow and can, dry or freeze as much food as possible for my family so that we were 'Food Secure'.
The unemployment rate in this country is officially almost 10%, and is probably double that if you count all the folks that have just flat-out "quit looking".
I think gardeners have been recycling since people first began gardening. Farmers spread the barnyard fertilizer on fields and on gardens; it adds tilth to the soil, as well as needed nutrients.
I wrote this just about the time everyone paid their income taxes in April, so, it just 'makes cents' to try and stretch those dollars we have left to us as far as we can.
"From the articles in the newspapers, radio, and other media about rising prices, methinks that it wouldn't hurt folks to figure out how to raise some of their own food supply."
