Another early view of the Orchard

The orchard, early on…

   First things first today - THANKS to the additional commenter’s that sent me some feedback in the last 24 hours. I really appreciate your input, keep it coming! The main nugget that came from these comments was, I know you’ll all be surprised, I need to write my posts utilizing the more appropriate paragraph style. I will work on this and do keep the suggestions coming! 

   Alright, lets get down to business… What the heck is for dinner? I know we all have asked and been asked this question. Not really that big a deal right now with the grocery stores open. How much thought have you put into the question though? As preppers we all have or wish we had the food stocks in the basement. All good and fine but what happens after these are all gone?

   I was raised with a father that it turns out was a prepper of sorts although he probably didn’t consider himself so. We had Moms garden that got planted each year on Mothers Day, “Thanks Mom”! I really don’t remember much about those gardens but I wouldn’t be surprised if she did most of the work, even though it was Mothers Day, just another day in the life a mother… Sad, but all to often true! We also had the chickens, I remember them pretty well, especially the rooster. I saw a little of my fathers violent side in trying to deal with such a strong willed dumb animal. This was good practice for the poor fellow, he had three sons that would eventually grow into teenagers. Teenage Boys, talk about dumb animals, speaking only about his of course, yours are angels I’m sure! The chickens went over well as they did produce eggs for our growing family. I remember the neighbor had some as well and he would come by and brag about his chickens laying double yoke eggs, “good times”. Dad got me into raising rabbits, these were more pets than anything else but they did produce manure for the worm bin. He had the hutch(s) situated over the worm bins so the rabbits would go right into the bin, pretty good idea! We also had an apple tree but I think that was planted by Grandma years earlier. Anyway, I had a little exposure to this stuff growing up, wish I had paid more attention as I’m sure Dad was trying to teach us something the whole time, if only we would have been listening.

   Where I’m going with this is we all need to be thinking, self sufficiency. It can all start small, that’s the best way! What can we each be doing to increase the chances of feeding our family if those grocery stores were closed for longer than our food stocks lasted. I know this isn’t a concept that a prepper would consider, I’m probably preaching to the choir. Actually I know I’m preaching to the choir but I wonder what everyone is actually getting done? It seems like this is a tough subject. Its easy to store food, just buy it and stick it on the shelf. Do I want the Mountain House freeze dried or should I go with the much more cost effective dehydrated route. I could even do the wet packed cans from Costco or Sams… What to do? All these ideas are great and will work but only for a while. I was introduced to the concept of PERMACULTURE, or at least the word permaculture, over at www.thesurvivalpodcast.com. Jack Spirko, explains that its the cross between “permanent” and “agriculture”. So the name is new but not the concept I guess.

   These would be the trees and shrubs, etc. that we can plant today and have a harvest forever or more like 20+ years. Sound pretty good compared to that garden that needs to be planted, tended and watered each day of each year that its in production! Well, these are both going to be important aspects of what we will need to enable us to feed the family after the cans of Turkey Tetrazzini are long gone. An investment this year that literally grows each year and I might add much safer than those mutual fund returns.

   In todays video, we see that even in areas believed to be impossible to farm traditionally, things are getting done. Geoff Lawton has greened the desert, meaning he accomplished what the local experts said couldn’t be done. He took an area in the desert of about 10 acres and developed a “Swail System” that maximizes whatever precipitaion the area gets and allows him to produce food. This is in an extremely dry area of the Middle East. The point is the conventional expert only think inside the box, he got out of the box and produced results. I think that this should inspire us to get ourselves moving! Most of us will be able to see results without putting in the extra effort Geoff had to.

   As you know I’m in the process of developing my BOL, which would stand for Bug-Out-Land, for today’s purposes. This year we added 3 apple, 3 cherry and 2 pear trees. We put in 2 raspberry bushes, just as a test as well. These trees are all what are called Semi-Dwarf varieties, we’ll spend more time on this subject in the future, so they will only grow to about 10-15 feet tall. I referenced this “Permaculture” idea as an investment. I truly believe its one of the best investments for a prepper to make. However, it isn’t one that has immediate dividends, you have to wait 2-5 years for there to be fruit in any significant quantities. This is just so we are all on the same page, as far as the INVESTMENT is concerned. Still this is ”Storing up for the future” at its finest. Invest today and get returns for roughly a lifetime after only a few short years, not to shabby!

   I had taken some pictures of my fledgling orchard on my last trip to the BOL but somehow how Murphy got ahold of the camera and they disappeared? I’m sure that I’m the only one the gets visited by Mr. Murphy, so I will post the only photos I have right now and then update you again next week when I come back after Labor Day. Also, on the camera at the time were the before photos of my 4 wheeler project… When Murphy comes a callin, he gets the most mileage he can I guess. Oh well, we’ll make do with the photos I have and you’ll have to use your imagination for what I can’t provide…

Prepper