The only redeeming aspect of this is that 95 percent of the people who support this live in the cities that will be targeted by Putin. I am not going to post about the Ukraine War in the future. It is not our battle, nor our neighborhood. Yes, we are at risk of annihilation from Putin as he moves west, and Xi as he moves east. They are pure evil. Yes, Ukraine is corrupt beyond repair and their regime deserves what they get for no other reason than playing with the Biden crime family.
However, we have a much more existential threat right here, right now from the invasion at our southern border. We are welcoming the barbarians through the gates with open arms. The monsters that we are letting in are killing Americans and turning cities into war zones. We are at risk of turning into a third world shithole because of the criminal proactive destruction of our country from our [un]elected leaders.
We are at risk of starvation because there is almost no fertilizer, and fuel costs to transport food will make what little there is unaffordable for most. By this summer it will be obvious. By this fall the food riots will be like nothing any of us alive have experienced.
I pray that everyone reading this has already planned accordingly, because it’s growing season and you best get your potatoes in the ground.
The 35% have no clue what suffering is, until they a endure nuclear fallout. Clueless morons.
“The living will envy the dead”
i guess it is obvious, that this 35% have never seen war or any form of armed conflict. To not know the horror, is not permission to wish it upon anyone. maybe they would like to come and spend a night in my dreams………………..
They think it will be someone else or someone else’s kids doing the fighting while they cheer on from the sideline. No to mention they have no problem supporting Nazis.
Yeah, this comment cannot be moderated high enough.
The laptop class of basket weaving gender studies grads thinks it would be swell if some deplorables made patriotic news bites for them to digest over their soy and grasshopper Frappuccino.
My only solace is knowing that living in the cities like that they will all get to intimately experience the light and warm glow they so richly deserve.
It’s not just city snowflakes, it’s NRA conservatives in my area that support this nonsense. Guys my age, how they evaded the VN draft is beyond me, but they pound the drums of war out of egoistic stupidity, and don’t realize their own grandchildren will be drafted and die.
Fuk’n arrogant morons.
Roughly one third of Americans are ok with risking nuclear war. That is almost certainly the SAME one third who ACTUALLY voted for Pedo Joe and the Ho in 2020. All the rest of the votes he got the DNC pulled out of thin air via “mail in voting”. This one third are the brain dead parasites that are responsible for the criminal lefts grasp on power for the past half century. America would do well to identify and eliminate this group for the good of society and the future.
Line em up, please…. I’ve got other options for when I run out of bullets.
I forecast this won’t be a popular view with everyone, but I’ll put it out there anyway. When farmers started using chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, they rapidly sterilised the natural soil biology and tied themselves to external artificial inputs and endless rounds of debt. There is another way -- its not as impressive as hauling big heavy machinery around the farm, compacting the ground and then tilling to further kill anything still surviving in the soil. The US Midwest is going through the process of desertification. It costs more every year to produce less, and lots of land is becoming to ‘marginal’ to work ‘commercially’ for a profit. That’s because the type of big agriculture we are used to seeing is an ‘extractive’ process -- and one can’t extract forever without giving back. Permaculture teaches a better way to produce abundant food.
With a balance of animals and crops, rotated appropriately, using mob grazing and converting manures into compost, a five acre holding can feed a family of 4 and produce sufficient products to sell to pay the necessary bills. 10 acres or 20 acres makes for an easier, more comfortable life.
Geoff Lawton shows / teaches how to heal the earth and product abundance. He next online permaculture course will be starting in a couple of months and meanwhile he has published a lot of free videos for getting started with permaculture. You can get a very good grounding in Permaculture from the really good materials published for free online. The Permaculture Circle | Geoff Lawton Online (discoverpermaculture.com). Even better is taking the course. Here is a link to some additional materials and the waiting list for his next course announcement. The Permaculture Circle | Geoff Lawton Online (discoverpermaculture.com)
Geoff’s course price for 2022 hasn’t been published yet, but given the $$ is likely to tank in the next few months, spending $1000 on personal education seems a pretty good survival investment. I’ve been on the course and my farm is being remodelled on permaculture and regen grazing lines. The principles and knowledge are applicable whether you have a patch of grass outside your house in a subdivision, or a broad acre farm. This is one way forward -- and a good way to refocus on the important things in life.
For the avoidance of doubt -- my only connection to Geoff is having been a student of his online course.
Thanks for posting and sharing some links!
I agree that modern large scale farming is a repeat of our mistakes during the dust bowl. We will reap the whirlwind again as well….
Permaculture seems to be a good thing, but its promoters and adherents come off as apostles some times. Its a technique, not religion. Some folks take it waaaaay too seriously. Put shit back into the dirt, got it.
Folks need to get serious about their personal food supply, whatever form or shape that takes.
Its funny to see the inversion that has taken place in humanity these last 300 years (we _will_ revert to the mean). Before the population was largely self sufficient, with a small segment living in cities as parasites (of a sort -- they don’t make their own food but consume what others produce). Modern times has a large population living in dense cities where a smaller population produces the actual physical goods elsewhere, and transports them to the cities for consumption. This pattern of big country and small cities worked for a long time. Now we have big cities and small country, and all kinds of problems.
Must be Putin’s fault.
There are obsessive folks in every walk of life. The vast majority of the trainings in Geoff’s courses are practical techniques based on science and observation that sadly these days is not taught in schools.
There is a fairly large following of entrepreneurs -- people within the Permaculture movement who are ‘farming’ the front and back yards of city dwellers. Home owners sign up to hand over use of their gardens for a period of time in exchange for fresh veg. At the end of the contract, their yards are reseeded to grass, if that is what they want.
I frankly could care less about preachings from those who tend to make permaculture into a ‘religion’ if the net effect is that they put their efforts where their mouths are and deliver useful results. Converting labor intensive grass into personal victory gardens, seems a useful and sensible activity to me.
A video I was watching a few years back depicted one such farmer who shared his business results showing he was making over $100k profit per year from his business. Admittedly, the video showed a guy putting his back into his ‘farming’ with enviable dedication -- more energy than I could muster. Beats having a gym membership! In due course, he made enough money from his city farming to buy a house.
Very useful post. Thanks!
The Bible is full of agricultural principles…
Hosea 10:12 “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8 “But I will bless the person who puts his trust in me. He is like a tree growing near a stream and sending out roots to the water. It is not afraid when hot weather comes, because its leaves stay green; it has no worries when there is no rain; it keeps on bearing fruit.”
Psalm 121:1-2 “I look to the mountains; where will my help come from? My help will come from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Be sure you know the conditions of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations. – Proverbs 27:34-35
Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. – Ecclesiastes11:4
Those too lazy to plow in the right season will have no food at the harvest. – Proverbs 20:4
Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. – Proverbs 21:5
Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both. – Ecclesiastes 11:6
The farmer knows just what to do, for God has given him understanding. … The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is a wonderful teacher and he gives the farmer great wisdom. – Isaiah 28:26, 29
The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. – 1 Corinthians 3:8
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. – Deuteronomy 8:10
Give thanks to God – He is good and His love never fails. – 1 Chronicles 16:34
Rest the land every seventh year
Exodus 23:10-13 and Leviticus 25:1-7, 20-22 1The LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying, 2“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD. 3‘Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, 4but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5‘Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. 6‘All of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you. 7‘Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat….
20‘But if you say, “What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops?” 21then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years. 22‘When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.
Don’t grow hybrids or “GMO”s (ie: mules, turken, better boy, hybrid corn, triticale)
Leviticus 19:19 “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.
Deuteronomy 22:9-10 “You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
Why? one reason… Most hybrids are sterile and will not reproduce
Share with the poor
Leviticus 19:9-10 9‘Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings (bits that fall to the ground during harvest) of your harvest. 10‘Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the imperfect clusters of fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God.
Biblical concepts applied to permaculture principles:
1. Observe and Interact – “Beauty is in the mind of the beholder” By taking the time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.
Job 12:7-10 7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; 8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. 9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? 10 In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
2. Catch and Store Energy – “Make hay while the sun shines” By developing systems that collect resources when they are abundant, we can use them in times of need.
Ephesians 5:15-16 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
3. Obtain a yield – “You can’t work on an empty stomach” Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the working you are doing.
Matthew 25:14-30 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money
4. Apply Self Regulation and Accept Feedback – “The sins of the fathers are visited on the children of the seventh generation” We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well. Negative feedback is often slow to emerge.
Self-control is the ninth and last of the fruits of the Spirit listed by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23. Though it is listed last, there can be no doubt about its importance to Christian living.
5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services – “Let nature take its course” Make the best use of nature’s abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”… “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”… “I am establishing my covenant with every living creature.”… According to the biblical witness, human beings are instructed by God to be stewards of the Earth. They are to oversee it; to manage it; to care for it; to appreciate it; to protect it; to help it to flourish. In Genesis 1:26-28, God gives human beings “dominion.” But “dominion” isn’t about domination.
6. Produce No Waste – “Waste not, want not” or “A stitch in time saves nine” By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
John 6:12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”
Ezekiel 16:49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
7. Design From Patterns to Details – “Can’t see the forest for the trees” By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
3 John 1:11 “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.”
1 Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,”
Ephesians 5:1 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;”
Philippians 3:17 “Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.”
8. Integrate Rather Than Segregate – “Many hands make light work” By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
Proverbs 16:4-9 “4 God made everything with a place and purpose; even the wicked are included -- but for judgment. …9 We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it. It Pays to Take Life Seriously
Isaiah 32:15-16 15until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high. Then the desert will be an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest. 16Then justice will inhabit the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in the fertile field.
Ecclesiastes 2:5 “I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees;”
BUT NOT things that will cross pollinate and make hybrids like wheat and rye make triticale. He tells us so that we will not do it by accident. God cares about the genetic purity of his creation. Man made combinations like GMOs and gene edited plants are abhorrant to him. We are not God and should not toy with the genes of that which he has made (plant and animal). Before the flood, the genes of man and beast were defiled by unholy gene modification from the fallen angels…let’s not make the same mistakes again.
9. Use Small and Slow Solutions – “Slow and steady wins the race” or “The bigger they are, the harder they fall” Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and produce more sustainable outcomes.
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Proverbs 13:16 In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly.
Romans 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Psalm 37:7-9 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
10. Use and Value Diversity – “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
Ecclesiastes 11:2 “Give thou (thy) parts (to) seven, and also (to) eight, (that is, do not put all thy eggs in one basket); for thou knowest not, what evil shall come [up]on (the) earth.”
11. Use Edges and Value the Marginal – “Don’t think you are on the right track just because it’s a well-beaten path” The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect
12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change – “Vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be” We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing and then intervening at the right time.
Isaiah 43:19 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
I have copied your text and added it to my growing collection of written knowledge. Thanks!
Totally agree…we do have some excellent farmers, like the Amish, but we are wearing out the land..
Yes good Sir, we agree for once!
I encourage you to keep Ukraine on your radar, it is not an anomaly, but an integral part of the larger picture. Whats happening there is not what the media reports, either, of course you know -- rather I mean there is far more beneath the surface than what is known.
Bought and cut up my seed potatoes yesterday as a matter of fact! Going to the co-op today to lay in some more triple-15.
Seed starting time is here, but I need a few more weeks before I can till and start making my furrows. Got extra diesel for the tractor, though.
As we say in my business “the number of non-zero probabilities has multiplied”
These people are obvious losers who want company and are desiring total destruction to get it. They’ll be screaming like a baby when the gamma falls.
A whole generation has grown up trained for instant gratification -- which one gets from videos and games instead of reading. When I was a youngster, I took books with me where ever I went, and always ‘had my nose in a book’. I’m loving to see articles such as the movement of parents in LA taking their kids out of state run schools and home-schooling instead. The subset of young people who have grown up home schooled is likely to be where our next great leaders arise from.
We’ll, they had better stock up on sunscreen
Putin absolutely needs to protect Russia’s western border from NATO, and the ethnic Russians in the eastern Ukraine from murder…Wish we had rulers who were interested in those things…
Pew still finds 43% think Biden is doing a good job. Don’t believe it. Don’t believe more than1 out of 3 Americans think pushing towards a nuclear exchange is a reasonable idea. As always, poll results are a function of who is asked and how the question is framed.
Let’s be honest. 35% of the voting electorate haven’t a clue about ANYTHING about those to rule them, and worse yet, at seem as if they could care less. PT Barnum once stated “No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public.” Churchill characterized it this way even though we’re a republic (thank God) vs a democracy the assessment is still perfectly applied: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter”. This is spoken Truth.
Sigh. Let it fall down, let it fall down, let it all fall down (H/T to James Taylor).
Yup, can’t fix this cancerous old horse. Best to let it collapse and rebuild anew. And yet, the voting public will continue begging their politicians for favors while the elites laugh themselves silly at our ineptitude, and cowardice.
Since when has a corrupt criminal given up his loot and power to behave himself just because his neighbors asked him to? The joke is on us for being so weak and gullible. And the elites are counting on us to keep doing the same as always, pleading for mercy.
The IRS is a perfect example of my point.
Good post and good readers’ comments. Adding one thing.
Make sure your companion critters have enough to eat. Yeah--table scraps in a pinch, but make sure they get good nutrition as well. Dry, wet, treats.
I know some that actually take the time to cook up food for their work dogs.
Stock up on what you need and can afford. My pack ‘o Beagles mean a lot to me. Great watchdogs and hunters--rabbits, squirrels, and game birds. They earn their keep.
Equines--you know the drill--plenty of potable water, good quality hay, alfalfa, dry pelletized feeds. Figure out long-term bedding needs--shavings, sawdust, whatever.
Oh--and med needs for the critters. GI stuff, coated baby aspirin, eye drops, pain meds, wound treatment, antibiotics, the whole deal.
Don’t get caught short on anything.
I’m in one those areas where 95% of the population has never been on a working farm (not a “hobby farm” bed and breakfast in the Berkshires). They have no clue what is required to produce food at the volumes required by modern society. Or what doubling diesel costs or tripling the cost of the 400-ish pounds of potash and ammonia needed per acre to maintain yields will do. I still remember in the 70s when spiking costs caused my grandfather to just clover some of his fields, the clover replenished the nitrogen for the cost of seed. And a neighbor grazed some cattle there in return for a share of beef. But it produced no corn or soybeans., Wait till the cost of finishing cattle in feedlots causes ranchers to slaughter down herds—you don’t call up Amazon and order new cows. Buckle up kids.
They think war is something you watch on television. Some where far away. They don’t realize it’s coming here this time.