Homestead Acres » Preparing

Economic collapse? Riots & Greece California

Kim — Mon, 17 May 2010 02:21:39 +0000

Economic Collapse? Some Commentary And Personal Update

Kim — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:55:27 +0000

We have some new ideas with this series. And sharing a short story form a friend about the economic stance.

Winter Storms In Our Area

Kim — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:03:41 +0000

A winter storm came through Southern Ontario and the Eastern USA yesterday. We were just on the edge of it. For most of the day we had pretty steady snow and as the day went on stronger and stronger winds. All night we could hear the winds howling. Compared to many we are very lucky. We simply had a driveway to blow out as it had drifted in badly. Over a million people lost power in the USA from the storm, close to 5000 in Ontario. The news is reporting that not one highway in the Toronto area was accident free. Mainly from people not driving to conditions. We have had such a mild winter here and people seem slow to remember you need to slow down when the weather is bad.

Snow fall in Dutchess County New York

New York had 40cm of snow and for the 2nd time in a month (4th time in 6 years) had to close schools.

I do sit and wonder when I read the news how many people are really prepared for emergencies?

Especially in the Eastern USA that rarely gets heavy snow storms. They certainly have been hit hard this year. I have seen photos showing empty store shelves when heavy storms are predicted. If that is any indication, it is obvious that most people are not prepared for emergencies.

How many people wake up to no power and have no way to heat their homes? Or no food on hand that can be prepared easily? Many people don’t even own a manual can opener. It is so important to have our family’s prepared for emergencies. I honestly can’t count how many times having a well stocked pantry has helped our family. When a sudden job loss, storm, or blackout hits you don’t have to worry about how or what to cook.

Hubby took this vid this morning, having some fun blowing out our long driveway. The second video was shot last year. You can really see how much more snow we had then!

Economic Collapse? 2009 Almost Over, Arrow Trucking

Kim — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:22:31 +0000

Wow what a year! Lots of changes, things we thought a year ago never happened and things we never thought would happen did. Also a little bit about Arrow trucking.

4 Reasons To Keep A Pantry

Kim — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:39:04 +0000

I have always been inclined to have a pantry, perhaps it comes from being around my Grandma. Who’s generation lived through the depression and was very skilled at stretching things. It seems that more and more people have fallen into the practice of shopping weekly for all their grocery’s. Keeping just enough food on hand for a few days. Through out my live I’ve seen many times why this is not a good idea. You really never know when having some staples stored up will be a huge help.

Storms

We live in a snow belt. Just last week the schools were closed for 3 days and the roads also. Yes they did open for short spells, but do you really want to drive on bad roads and then get stuck at town when they close again? It’s a wonderful feeling to see the snow falling and not have to worry that your short on food, water and other supplies. In the summer like wise storms can knock power out for hours or days.

Job loss

Another good reason for stocking a pantry is income loss. I can’t count the times hubby has been laid off work with little notice, or weather has reduced his work hours. Even a tax mix up can happen leading to your refunds being cut off. Yes that happened to us a few years ago. We went to town to shop and found a bill in the mail. We knew we didn’t owe it but it took months to sort out. Our income was greatly reduced during that time and we were able to live almost entirely off our pantry stores.

Price increases

Prices are always going up. In the past few years we have seen more frequent price jumps as inflation affects all sectors. Do you remember the grain crises a few years ago? Almost over night a 8 kg bag of rice went from $6.00 to nearly $20.00! Like wise wheat berries, as well as processed flour more then doubled. With the price of grains rising it drove the prices of all grocery’s up. Having a good stock of goods at home can help protect you from sudden increases. It allows you time to save up to restock your goods, and to watch for sales.

Savings

Keeping a pantry saves a lot of money! I don’t buy the same things every week. Instead I have a master list of what our family uses. I keep a base amount on hand at all times. I mark off a list how many we have used and when I see a good sale I can replace them. It’s even better if you can use coupons on sale items. This helps since I normally don’t get caught having to replace all items that go up in price at the same time.

Check back soon to learn how to keep track of your pantry.

If the states go bust what does it mean for Canada

Kim — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:08:57 +0000

Some thoughts on what would happen to the Canadian economy if the US experiences a hyper inflation or dollar collapse.

Economic Collapse? Late Blight Affecting Potato And Tomato Crops

Kim — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:28:19 +0000

With an unusually cool and wet summer the fungus late blight is hitting early. For the first time plants sold in garden centers are contaminated and spreading the disease in home gardens.

Late blight shows up as black spots on the leaves also a white mold. As it spreads the stocks turn black and die. The fungus also causes the fruit to rot.

What is Late Blight?
http://www.nysipm.cornell.edu/publica…

Potato famine disease striking home gardens in U.S.
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienc…

Blight has tomato growers on alert
http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/2…

Late blight reaches Ohio, threatens potatoes, tomatoes
http://www.cantonrep.com/lifestyle/ho…

Late Blight Prediction in Maine (PDF fact sheet about late blight)
http://www.umaine.edu/umext/potatopro…

Organic Alternatives for Late Blight Control in Potatoes
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/lateb…

Organic Management of Late Blight of Potato and Tomato with Copper Products
http://www.extension.org/article/18351

The OMRI Products List Database
http://omri.org/OMRI_datatable.php?se…

Pest Management
http://attra.ncat.org/pest.html#disease

Homestead Series Beginning Menu Planning and Bulk Shopping

Kim — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:29:08 +0000

Sharing some tips and ideas that have worked well for us.

Economic Collapse The Whole Aproach

Kim — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:10:37 +0000

I’m really wondering about the economy as a whole and the link to how we are raised ie. responsibly with honor etc. I guess greed only brings destruction in the end. We were taught this by the age of 6, hope we can all learn from this.

Economic Collapse Peak Oil And Headlines

Kim — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:54:03 +0000

Some more referance on peakoil and resent headlines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ie2FK… Collapse?

Economic Collapse Checkmate? Part 1 of 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUkJLI…