The last time we talked, we were discussing the downturn of our economy, and the steps Deb and I decided to take on this account. We told of our oldest son Josh, and his family, and how their income had decreased from slowdown of their workplace along with Shelly having Gavin and being home with him.

But, by those guys having the foresight to recognize the slowdown of our economy, they started putting up some food storage. Because of this, today, even with a good bit of their income lost for the time being, they’re eating, and eating well.

By not doing as they did, at this time they’d be experiencing a “double-whammy.” This being less money available to them to buy groceries, then once reaching the stores…they’d be paying more for what they needed, plus receiving less because of the price increase. So, those two have weathered pretty well.

So you see guys, our game plan within our family is basically to prepare for the worst, but the whole while hoping for the best. Once more, what food storage we’ve put away, we couldn’t come close to replacing with today’s pricing, AND, I don’t see this changing. AND, the worst case scenario simply being…we’ll eat it anyway!

You only have to look quickly at the events unfolding in our Country, and for that matter worldwide, to understand that “we the people,” could get hung up between a rock and a hard spot fairly easily…from a number of different scenarios.

Because of this, Deb and I decided to put as much into our own hands as possible when it comes to the well being of our family. Food, water, alternative power, fuel, firewood, meds, seeds, tools, camping supplies, firewood, cookware, and even toiletries.

We both like to fish, so we have plenty of tackle, and could supplement our diet with fish or game. We put the cows on the place, and are fixing to build a greenhouse. All because of our economy, number one, and our elected leaders in Washington failing to ease our doubts of our economy turning back around in the near future…or ever, without a good “housecleaning” by… “We the People!”

I’ve touched base before on this subject, but stop for just a second or two and contemplate a remark made by our President…”We’re going to spend our way out of debt!”

As a small business owner, a family man, and a guy who is pretty frugal with a dollar, I’ve never heard of a more ludicrous statement in my entire life!

This is one of our problems…too many in our government today, with little to NO business experience. Never made a payroll, and all their decisions, no matter how asinine, financed by what they used to consider a bottomless pit, financed by… “We the People.”

Although today, “their bottomless pit,” is now on the very brink of default. We’ve let our politicians, through their power, unaccountability, and personal gain, put the greatest Country on the face of the earth, our Country, into a perilous position.

They’ve taught that you don’t have to have a work ethic! No, No! Even if you don’t, we’ll see that the ones that do, will furnish your livelihood for you. Not only that, for those that don’t, the government is going to indoctrinate you in the belief that you deserve such treatment…YOU’RE ENTITLED TO IT!

Do you remember the First Lady explaining that you DESERVE your piece of the pie too?? Well, as far as you deserving your piece of the pie, shoot, I agree with her wholeheartedly on this point. BUT, I believe we are at odds in how you get your piece of this pie.

I believe once more, that yes sir, you should have a piece of the pie, but in order to get your piece of it, there is a price to pay. The cost for this slice of pie? Hard work, sacrifice, saving what you can, and being realistic in your lifestyle. YOU EARNED YOUR SLICE OF THE PIE!

An example…a family making $25,000 a year, buying a $300,000 home. Someone please make me understand the logic behind such thoughts. But this is what our politicians today have advocated, and in many instances, FORCED lending institutions to do such as this…or else!

This is but one example of our current administration’s idea of you getting your “piece of the pie!”

Through this, with Fannie and Freddie leading the way, we almost toppled our economy with loans that they knew could never possibly be paid back, given the incomes of the people who got so many of these loans!

You know, there is a reason for lending institutions to loan money on their so called, “good loans.” COLLATERAL! By you having to put up enough collateral, this states pretty clearly that under normal circumstances, you’ll see that this money is paid back, or…you LOSE your Collateral, and whatever you purchased with the loan in the first place.

BUT, by so many of our politicians today demanding our financial institutions make loans to people who could not pay these loans back, on top of having them put into these homes with little to NO money down, they just walked off.

WHY? BECAUSE THEY HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO LOSE!!

SO, what does our government do?? They start passing out billions of the taxpayer monies, or once again, money that belongs to “We the People.” Not to be given to “We the People,” but to their cohorts.

Mainly, they “bailed out” Fannie and Freddie, AIG, the Post Office, AmTrak, and the unions. The last being one of the main causes of our automotive industry’s downfall, YET, they end up with a 20% share of GM and Chrysler!

And you wonder why Deb and I decided that we just might want to start becoming a little more self-reliant?? Go figger!

Plus…these are just part of the problems we face today as a society. By you guys trying to put up a little extra each week, it may come to pass that not unlike our oldest son Josh, here in the near future, you just may be very glad that you did.

This is our point. We’re not trying to tell anyone what to do, how to do, or why you do in regards to your family. We are though, of the belief…that we are living in a very different situation as a Country today.

We’re living in a Country today that now borrows about 43% of EVERY dollar we spend. We’re living in a Country today that has debt over the $14 trillion mark.

On top of this, we’re living in a Country today that’s school systems are now “middle of the pack” worldwide. We’re living in a Country today that is slowly, but surely taking our religious freedoms away from us.

We’re living in a Country today, where a young boy in California was made to take a flag off his bicycle, for fear of it being offensive to some of the other students. His flag? THE AMERICAN FLAG!

We’re living in a Country today, where our President wouldn’t stand at attention during the playing of our National Anthem, and refused to wear a flag pin of an American Flag, for the longest time. Pressure forced him to do so, and he started doing both, BUT…it wasn’t because he wanted to! If so, wouldn’t you think he’d have done these things to start with?

We’re living in a Country today, where a gunman, a major in our armed forces, shoots and kills over 30 other soldiers on a US base… IN THE US! The gunman was Muslim, was in contact with radical clerics, and was shouting “Allah Akbar” during his massacre of his comrades in arms. Our President’s first response… “Don’t jump to conclusions.”

We’re living in a Country today, where our Speaker of the House (at one point), declared to the American people that in order for us to know or see, what was in Obama Care, we needed to…PASS IT FIRST???

We’re living in a Country today, while at probably the most lenient of times in our Country’s history in regards to racism, it is preached, advocated, pushed upon, and used incessantly by our administration, our media, community organizations, State and Local governments, and the far left. Far too many times these charges are nothing but blatant lies.

You do realize I could go on and on and on with these types of statements, but I think you see the point we’re trying to make. Also, to many I’m literally preaching to the choir, but to many more…they still seem to just…have no idea.

NO ONE, and I do mean NO ONE is better capable of taking care of their own families, than themselves! Yet our leaders have decided THAT THEY are really the only ones capable of this. My response…BULL!

Anyway, Deb and I see the goings on today in our Country, and I have to tell you all that we by NO means feel comfortable. So, these are some of the reasons why we’ve became advocates of living as much as possible in ways we can control as best we can. Self-sufficiency…that’s our goal, or as least as much as possible.

So in closing today, we’d like to ask you once more, please take a look around, and see for yourself the direction we’re headed in as a Country.

If you look long enough, and hard enough, you may decide for yourself that taking steps in your own lives to better prepare your own family may just be…the best course of action…at least for the time being!

We will continue on this topic for another time or two, then…it’s on to something else. God Bless you, and as Deb says, “Keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!”

Dub and Deb

I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I went to the grocery store for Deb last week and dad-gum, things sure are going up in price! I literally was astounded!

Whole chickens…anywhere from 9 to 11 bucks. I couldn’t even imagine this! Carnation canned milk…$1.85 PER can! I was like…WHOA!

These are exactly the reasons we started our food storage…availability, inflation, and concern over our own ability to purchase food, IF our business continued to experience such a dramatic slowdown, like we experienced in 08.

Back when our site was started, we talked a great deal about the state of our current economy. We explained that we are in the asphalt paving business, and what a hit we took in regards to our business back in 08.

It didn’t simply slow down…IT STOPPED! Plus, it stopped for 1-1/2 years. There was no gradual easing off, as once more, it was like you just slammed on the brakes in your car.

Well, Deb and I had seen this coming, and honestly we were already in “you better pay close attention mode,” in regards to the economy. We immediately started making, “lifestyle changes,” and today are so glad we’d done this.

We knew that without work, this could very well mean we didn’t eat as well. In our belief you can’t have one without the other. First off, our misfortune is not the fault of others, but is based upon the decisions and actions we made, not someone else!

With this being the case, after beginning to see the economic downturn, and shortly afterwards we DID see, once more, we were already doing everything in our power to become much more self-sufficient, and self-reliant than we’d ever been before in our entire lives!

Now, 2-1/2 to 3 years later, boy, are we ever glad we did the things we did!

Food storage was a big concern for us, and we started researching heavily the ways in which we could store food most effectively, as well as safely.

Our choices mainly were the home canning process, and a Food Saver system. Both fit nicely into our lifestyle, and I can’t say that we really prefer one more than the other.

From a storage standpoint we really like to home can, whether it be vegetables, fruits and jellies, or meats, soups or stews. Our big like in this regard is you CAN get by with no power, if this ever takes place.

As long as they’re stored in a fairly cool, dark spot, you really don’t HAVE to have power. This is a very big plus with the home canning process. I also have come to realize that not only is this type of storage very lenient if you were to undergo any extended period of power, but that Deb and I just really like putting food up in this fashion. We enjoy the process, for whatever that’s worth! LOL!

But let me be quite honest in another regard as well. The Food Saver system we like very well too, although we do prefer most of our food storage to be home canned.

In the Food Saver process, using vegetables or meats, it does one terrific job. We Food Saver those babies, and you have just increased the food life of whatever it was you “food savered.” I read up to 5 years, maybe even more, with no freezer burn.

Power though, to Deb and I, is really of little concern. When we built our house, we also bought a 45 KW generator that will run our entire household…electricity or not. So, in case of storms, or whatever the reasoning, we have the ability to keep all our freezers and refrigerators running, insuring no frozen food loss.

This too brings up a point…diesel fuel for our generator. We considered this too. We keep our generator topped off with fuel at all times, plus we have 425 gallons of diesel stored in a mobile tank. This can be pulled to wherever it’s needed.

Now, after letting you guys in on the fact we do have diesel stored, this indeed helps us out greatly, but without too much thought, it’s pretty obvious that if times REALLY got bad, we eventually WOULD run out of diesel.

With this in mind, WHAT IF, diesel wasn’t available after using up our supply? So as you can see, this too could present a very serious problem, and one you should not overlook…in our opinion.
Our plan, if any of this were to occur is simply…rationing our fuel. In other words, although our generator is capable of running our entire home…it would not be used in such a way.

We’d spend much more time outside, number one, and number two, we’d only run our generator, possibly two to three times a day, only for keeping our refrigerators and freezers cold enough to sustain what’s in them…that’s all.

In other words…you need to become very frugal. Now this is something Deb and I have always pretty much been, but we, unlike many others understand full well, we have the ability to continue to cut corners anyway we can.

Something else our Food Saver allows us to do, is to store complete meals in our freezers. This mainly for convenience.

If you’ll start cooking from time to time, meals that are heavy prep, heavy mess, and heavy time consuming…we make up more than we could possibly eat in just a sitting or two. This allows us to Food Saver up complete meals that only have to be taken out of the fridge, thawed, and then heated. In just a short period of time you have a complete nutritious meal! This is great for a household where both Mom and Pop are in the workplace.

Another thing we use our Food Saver for, is storing dried peas, beans, sugar, salt, corn meal, flour, pasta, and even grits.

We Food Saver these, and then we put them in food grade 5-gallon buckets with sealable lids. Each bucket we use for the storing of these items holds about 20 pounds of food. Each package we Food Saver holds about three cups of whatever item we’re storing at the time. This again is for…convenience and easy access.

Our procedure for these, are all simple, but with a few of these there are precautions to take. These mainly are your rice, flour, corn meal, and grits.

These we strongly suggest you freezing for 3-4 days. This kills any bugs, or eggs, that may have gotten into the items while they were being packaged, or even picked up through the shipping process while getting them to the stores.

I wouldn’t say that this is indeed mandatory, but it is something we practice at all times. We do freeze these before Food Savering, each and every time!

Let me give you a good example of the importance to try a pick up a little extra each week. This is pertaining to our family specifically, and shows the importance of what we’re discussing today.

Our oldest son Josh, and his family, have done really well in taking some of their income and putting up some food each week. Josh started storing extra about the same time that Deb and I did, and actually amazed Deb and I with the amount they put up in relatively a short period of time.

Josh works for a tire company, and was used to receiving bonuses on the number of new tires he sold monthly. Some of these checks were fairly considerable amounts, and supplemented their salary. His wife Shelly worked too during this time.

Well, the economy took a big hit, and all of a sudden the number of new tires being sold dropped off…A LOT! This had a big, big effect on his ability to supplement his income as he had been doing previously. Then Shelly became pregnant, and stopped working.

Suddenly they were faced with a big loss of income through no more or very little bonus, and the loss of Shelly’s income to boot. Things changed swiftly, and this had a huge consequence in their lives. BUT…they had food.

Again, those two had put up quite a bit, and what they couldn’t keep at their house, due to lack of room, the rest they brought down here to our place, and stored it in our food storage room we built.
As of today, their work has still not picked back up to anywhere near what it had been, people are now buying used tires mainly, again, this because of our economy, but Josh and family are still eating quite well.

Once more, they too had the best interests of their own family at heart, and took the initiative to do something about it. By doing so, they are weathering all this, pretty well. They did tell Deb that they had about eaten all they could store at their place, and before long they’d have to pick up some of their storage from here. This makes no matter at all, and we’re glad we had the room to store most of their food supply here for them.

But you see my point. Although they’re having it tough, they are still eating, and eating quite well to be honest. Only by having the foresight, and sacrificing many weeks I’m sure, to be able to put up some food, at this point today, they are very, very happy they had done so.

Through their own actions, they insured that they, and their three boys, had nutritious meals even though their income had dropped substantially.

So over the next few days, we’re going to drop back, and emphasis once again, the things that Deb and I have done in regards to our family and friends ability to survive, even in tough, tough economic times.

We hope that through this we may be able to help out others who aren’t sure of some of the things they need to be doing, or even why they need to be doing them. We don’t claim to know, by any means, everything you need to know, but we are pretty astute in many areas of this topic.

If you guys, during these next few conversations we’ll be having with you, have any ideas, suggestions, or experience in such as this, please feel free to express them. I know that what you have to contribute will be much appreciated by all!

In closing today, please know how grateful we are for your continuing to drop in a see us. We appreciate your doing so, and we wish each and every one of you the very best in all you do!

God Bless you guys, and Deb says to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

We haven’t posted in a few days now, but we have been busier than normal lately, and this is from our business slowing down some. So how does that work? We’ve slowed down work wise, yet we’ve been busier than usual??

This is simply because we utilize down time by performing preventive maintenance on our equipment. For those that don’t know already, we’re in the paving business. In the housing crash of 08, we didn’t work for nearly two years…no exaggeration.

We weathered that go round, and we hope we don’t see that again! The last year and a half though, we’ve held our own.

BUT, from the very initial slowdown, this is when Deb and I realized our need to “simplify” our lives some. Back to growing gardens, and producing enough food from our place to be more self-sufficient in our lives. We went back to canning, food savering, and freezing more vegetables, meats, stews, etc.

We installed the old style hand-pitcher pumps for water if we had a power outage. We picked up some cows, and we’ve built a chicken coop, but as of yet, we haven’t built their run, so the bottom line in regards to our chickens is…we ain’t got none yet!! LOL!

But these are but some of the things we did to insure our family eating if our economy got worse. In these times, in our opinion, it surely doesn’t hurt to put a little back.

Once more, the worst case scenario is, the economy grows and thrives again, which we ALL hope it does, then you eat the food you put back anyway. It simply is…an investment in an uncertain economic future.

Well, returning to the subject of preventive maintenance for just a few more minutes, we just tore down one of our sealcoat tanks to replace the bearings on the agitator shaft. The front bearing went out and this allowed a waste of sealcoat, as when we agitated our mix, some leaked around the shaft. So what we did was to replace both the front and rear bearings on the shaft.

Although the front seal was bad, we replaced both while we had the tank tore down. We have to take our main motor and air supply tank off. Even though this is quite a job, this is the first time we’ve had to replace the bearings. You can’t moan or groan too much over this because we’ve had this particular tank since…1995!

As far as our other equipment it is all getting maintenance. All chains are oiled, oil changed in our motors, all fittings are greased, any tires that need plugging or replaced have this done at this time also. We take care of the equipment, and in turn it takes care of us.

We’re still getting okra, but since the cooler weather, which isn’t very cool to most of you other readers considering where you guys are located, but to us, and our okra, in the low 50’s at night, is actually pretty cool considering where we’re at. We have though the last couple years seen 22 degrees on 3-4 occasions. To me the 50’s are “just right,” but you get in the 20’s, well, that’s just too dern cold!

Our okra that we were cutting once a day, and no longer than every other day, is now going about 3 days between cuttings. But, it will continue to make until the frost gets it. It keeps making, and I keep pickling any excess.

Our mustard greens are doing well too. This little garden of ours really produces the vegetables for us, and the more it makes, the better we like it. We’ve been sharing it with our family and friends and they sure aren’t griping over this.

Our garden has been so good for us on account of several things. The first is obviously the produce it shares with us. For those who don’t realize it, the fruit or vegetables you produce are so much better than store bought.

Stop and think about it for a second or two. The produce purchased from your nearby supermarket had to come from some part of our Country, or another one. It has to be picked, washed, packaged, THEN shipped.

From there, does it go straight to the market place? Sometimes it does, but many times it also is shipped to a warehouse, then unloaded, stored in a cooler, then reloaded and delivered to the stores at this point.

So, in Deb and my thinking, we feel there are times that we may pick and keep some of our vegetables in our refrigerator for a week, then cook, or can them. Now, we hardly ever, if at all do this, BUT, even if we did, we feel our vegetables would still be just as fresh or fresher, than you can possibly get from the marketplace. Don’t you?

Our garden not only provides us with the food it produces, but Deb and I literally find gardening therapeutic to us both. It gets us outside in the fresh air, and is good for us physically too. Throughout the life of our garden we are weeding, or fertilizing, spraying for pests and even the stooping over and picking the produce is good exercise.

We also take great pleasure in simply watching our garden grow. To see those seed popping up out of the ground, and then establishing themselves as small plants is in itself, very rewarding to us. Then as they start bearing their produce, we love watching the vegetables start to size up, change color, and then ripen for us to eat and share with our family and friends.

We then get the feedback from them as to how much they enjoyed eating our produce. This too we find very rewarding. In many cases life is about giving, and we as Christians believe this is God’s will. Help your neighbor if possible.

This is how our Country was built…helping your neighbor it times of need. This belief comes from the goodness of your heart, but for the last 40-50 years or so our government has bestowed the belief among far, far too many of us, that THEY should be the ones to help us out, and that we’re not capable of helping ourselves.

Is this how our Country became great? Of course it isn’t, and since the government has bestowed upon themselves the title of “our keepers,” our Country has rapidly become a “Nanny State.” This philosophy has nearly bankrupted the greatest Nation in the world…from within.

Political power is the driving force behind such thinking, and the amazing thing to me is the stupidity of so many of our citizen’s, that have become “indoctrinated” into such madness. How can these people, through giveaway programs think for even a split second their elected leaders are concerned with their plight…because simply put, they ain’t.

You cannot make me understand that through our government’s actions, such programs can be good for anybody. In reality, for a mere pittance, they are enslaving themselves to a political system that is all about the power of our politicians.

One quick look at this is the marriage of the Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea. How many millions did this cost? YET, they are fighting for the poor and oppressed. In reality, they want you poor and oppressed. Why…their power. NOT YOURS…theirs!

Since the “war on poverty” and the “great society,” startup, what has been accomplished? Are our inner cities any better off? Nope. Are the poor and oppressed better off? Nope. Has our government recognized this? Nope. Well, actually they have, but do they care? Nope.

This is all an ideology people, that’s all. It is about more government control, less freedoms and rights for “we the people,” and is basically the “communist oriented” ideology that has failed no matter where it has been tried. In the long run, this ideology bankrupts and destroys the Country and its citizens.

Throughout history this has been proven time and time again. For example, look at Cuba. What kind of standard of living does its people have? Not much of one if any. BUT, take a look at its leaders, and their cohorts. Using a Southern expression, ole Fidel and company live “high on the hog,” wouldn’t you agree.

The reasoning for this…they ARE the power. They have conjured up in their own minds that they are “the elites.” They know best, YET the people suffer a tough existence. Survival isn’t a term to these people…it is a reality!
My neighbor is from Poland. You ought to talk to him about the socialist ideology. For those that believe in such a system here in the U.S., he has but one statement for you guys…BULL! For the life of him, he cannot understand the thought process of many, many Americans today. Honestly, he cannot come to grips with our situation here at all.

He told me just awhile back, that we here in America are now literally, living under a socialist rule, and WHY, can’t we as Americans simply see from history past that this entire ideology is only a mirage.
He tells me that in Poland the people were promised the world. They were promised work, food on the table, a roof over their head, and life would be so much better with all living as a collective. They gave the people a little of this, a little of that, and by this the people “sold their souls,” to the communist propaganda,” or the “utopia” promised to all.

He says through the “buying into” of this ideology, before the people realized it, the system went bust…no money. This “promised utopia” became a nightmare to the people. You couldn’t find milk for your little ones, and meat and eggs were found only through the black market at a vastly inflated cost….IF, you could find these things period.

So, once more, the people were in a fight. It became all about SURVIVAL, and this, once again, is not an expression, but reality.

Many, many of us today see this happening here in the US, but the problem we are now faced with is potentially not having the numbers to continue to have much choice in regards to our election process, and sadly our power hungry politicians have known this for years.

This is why today all of these giveaway programs are out there. They are “buying the votes” of their constituents! I’ll say this one more time then shut up about it. Through a mere pittance being given to the people, the politicians are lining their own pockets, and it’s snowballed into literally theft of our tax dollars, for their agenda.

Why are they pushing so hard for the amnesty given for illegals, which by the way could easily top 20 to 30 million people, and who knows how many may actually be here? VOTES are the reason. The politicians are selling out our Country, it’s morals, and its standards…all for their power and greed.

The 2012 election is going to be a very, very important election in regards to our Country and its troubles. So, please try and educate your friends and neighbors of the agenda’s behind our politico’s today. It’s time for Americans to run their own lives again, and this next election is our chance to do our part at the polls, and elect leaders that have our Country, AND its peoples best interest at heart.

Let’s put an end to “the professional” politician as well. Let them serve a term or two, then, bye now, it’s back to the private sector workplace and earning their own way too. The politician’s today have established themselves as elites too, no different than dictators around the world.

They have extravagant, pensions, retirement packages, health care, and salaries. We allow double, and triple dipping among public sector employees. This is when they retire from one job, and go to another in the public sector workplace…often the VERY SAME job. This practice is appalling to me, and should be to EVERY taxpaying American. This is OUR money, not theirs!

You might like to read an article in the Canada Free Press from May 17, 2010 in regards to taxpayer cost of the public sector retirement plans…it is an eye opener.

Here.

Rick Scott, the governor of the State of Florida passed a new law advocating drug testing of people collecting welfare. I wholeheartedly agree with this. YET, the courts have shot it down for now. WHY??
Working people, who by the way are furnishing the money for these programs, many times have to undergo drug testing in the workplace. Why? Insurance, and safety reasons quickly come to mind, huh? Also wouldn’t you believe that through the use of drugs in the workplace job and product quality would have to suffer?

BUT, the people who don’t work, and I’m not talking about people who have just lost their jobs, but the millions who are on welfare programs and have been on them for years, don’t have to undergo drug testing. How does this make any sense at all. To me it doesn’t make any.

Our politicians look at this completely different than we the people. Once again it’s about…their power. Take a quick look at the fraud running rampant through these programs. This in itself costs us, the taxpayer, billions yearly! Billions, people!

Our politicians turn a blind eye to this. If they were to step in and stop it, why shoot, that would cost them votes, and they don’t want that to happen. Why? Because they know that most could not receive in compensation from private sector jobs, anywhere closer to what being an elected official can make anymore…Yet, if I were to jump on the bandwagon and start raping the system myself, guess what? I’d go to prison!

Fraudulently accepting food stamps, is a biggie. How bout the buying of food stamps from the recipients for cash, 50 cents on the dollar, and many times this being done by store owners. Where does this cash go? Many, many times for the purchase of drugs. But, once more, our politicos can’t enforce this, and WON’T. If so, they lose votes, and through this, their power and “gravy train!”

So today, here in America, our morals are being twisted. Right, many times is no longer right in our politicians eyes. This has been reversed, wrong today is many times right. Not that it is truly the case, but through their agenda, they shove it down our throats. Our politicians have sold their souls…at our expense!

They have taken the Cloward-Piven Strategy and have now entrenched it firmly in their agenda. This is to NOT get people off welfare, BUT instead, get more people ON welfare. Our economy cannot possibly sustain this, and believe you me, are politicians understand this inside and out. It is about the destruction of our Country as we’ve always known it.

Shoot, Obama told the world what he was going to do…”fundamentally change America!” I have to say this, and I promise you I’m closing this out.

How did we, as citizens of the United States of America, elect a man as the President of our Country, who refused for so long to salute our flag, refused to wear a flag pin, and stand there with hands folded in front of his crotch while our National Anthem was being played? I will never, never be able to fathom this.

But, from the liberal point of view, it’s only because that I’m a racist, redneck, right-wing extremist who advocates the Tea Party.

My only answer to these accusations is merely that IF, our election was held tomorrow, my selection at this point, although I am still considering my choices as we’re still early in the process, would be…Herman Cain.

So, as bad as the left likes to use color as a basis in our decisions, it is simply a lie, and they know this to be true among themselves, but using race accusations, they keep their constituents inflamed with conservative views. Alinsky taught…the ends justify the means.

But we, as true believers in our Country’s Founding Fathers Constitutionally backed standards, race has not been in issue for many, many years now. We believe in the morals and standards of our elected leaders, not their skin color, and from the polling done so far, Herman Cain is a fine example of this statement being factual!

In closing today I’d like to express two things. The first is for God to Bless you in your lives, and God to Bless America.

Also, Deb would get me good if I didn’t tell you all in closing, to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

The ole garden has been good to us once more. Deb and I have been canning peas for the last couple weeks now and man, we’re putting some up. As of last night, we’ve canned over 120 quarts. Not bad for a couple amateurs!

We’ve also pickled 21 pints of okra.

The black –eyes did really well, shoot, they all have, but the black-eyes were the first ones to come in, and they were the first to go. As a matter of fact we just pulled up all the plants, stripped what few peas remained, (two 5-gallon buckets full), and fed the plants to the cows.

They’ve been eating good the last couple weeks. We feed them all the pea hulls after we shell them, and now they just finished up the black-eye bushes. They kinda like Deb and my garden too!
We tilled the area where the black-eyes were, and today we’ll be planting mustard greens, 3 rows I believe is what we’ll plant. Once more, greens, like peas, our whole family loves…all but Deb (greens). She won’t eat them cooked, but she does use them in her juice.

I went to Summerlin’s Feed Store yesterday to pick up the seed. I asked her if she had any mustard seed and she said that they did. I picked up 3 ounces, and then asked if they carried ketchup and A-1 seeds as well. She just kinda looked at me.

So, when Dale and Bob get in to work this morning, they’ll soon find out we’ll be planting in the garden again. They’ll love hearing that, huh? We MIGHT be just a little late with these, but we’re gonna give them a shot. They like cooler weather, just as long as it doesn’t get too cold. I believe though, they’ll be fine!

I called and asked Dad about planting them now, and he said this will be no problem, they’ll be fine. I then got to thinking about what a crazy guy I was when much younger, and some of the grief I caused him while growing up.

Thinking about this, I wouldn’t put it past him for “setting me up!” You know, have us do all this work, then our mustard freeze and don’t make, while he sits back and goes, “Dern Ruth…can you believe that boy of yours planted those mustards so LATE in the year?? What in the world was he thinking??” Payback comes in all forms, huh? LOL!

He wouldn’t do that to me…would he? Hmmmm…

Our purple hulls and cream 40’s have done well also. They’re really giving us a good crop, and good quality peas as well. Very, very little bug problem, and they have actually been pretty much care free.
We fertilized them once, and sprayed for bugs once, and other than that, they’ve pretty much just taken care of themselves. An easy crop to grow. This is why we plant them on the full moon in August. Less bugs, and by the time they start coming in, we’re having cooler days to an extent. This means less need for water too.

We’ll have another good picking of purple hulls today, and we’ll get a few more cream 40’s as they’ll be the next to go to the cows. They’ve about had it. The purple hulls are capable of having another picking after today, and maybe two.

Our crowders we’ve gotten one pretty decent picking , but those things aren’t really quite ready. They’ve been the longest pea to make, BUT, this has helped us in our canning by them simply holding off a little making, thus not completely overwhelming us with sheer volume of peas coming in at the same time.

Look at it from this standpoint. Our pressure cooker holds 7 quarts at a time. To heat your water, get your peas jarred up and starting the pressure canning process takes, I’m guessing, 30 minutes or so. The cook time once the proper pressure is reached takes 40 minutes.

Then once you take your canner off the burner, and sit it somewhere to cool, this takes another 40 minutes or so. With this the case, for every 7 quarts canned to put up, you have approximately 2 hours in every 7 quarts canned.

The picking, shelling and washing is not included. So, there is some work involved, BUT, Deb and I both enjoy doing it, plus the benefits of doing so are numerous. Good quality vegetables, knowing exactly what you’re eating and where it came from, much fresher and better tasting by far than store bought, plus the convenience of having these stored to eat any time of the year. You always have them available.

Plus, once you purchase your pressure cooker, and the jars to can your vegetables in, the cost factor is pretty light from there on out. Your jars can be used over and over again. One other big point with the canning process…no electricity is needed. Only a dark, cool spot….

Deb and I will grab a pan, kick back in the recliner, shell peas, and watch TV. While doing this, we keep a pressure cooker pan full and cooking. It works out well, and once more, we both enjoy doing it. The benefits far outweigh the negative in our opinion. A good fresh mess of peas on a cold January evening sure has a tendency to…”hit the spot!”

I mentioned we’d pickled 21 pints of okra, and we did. BUT, the okra is JUST NOW starting to come in, and unless something happens, we’ll produce a bunch of this too. Deb and I absolutely love it fried, but we can’t have it fried now. So, we’re pickling the fire out of it!

We did “cheat” the other night and had one mess fried up. We just had to do it, and good gracious…it was so good! We satisfied our craving, and are good to go without eating any more fried for a while. Deb SURE better not take a little 4-5 day trip in the near future, cause if she does…I’ll be having me some MORE fried okra!! LOL!

In regards to our mustard seed we’ll be planting today, I’ve already “goofed up” in one regard…the moon. We always try to plant all our above ground vegetables a day or two PRIOR to the full moon. This is a rule of thumb we use, and it works well for us. The below ground producing vegetables we plant on the declining moon.

My granddaddy always told me to use the moon, because if you don’t, you may have beautiful vines or bushes, but little to no produce on them, so we just always try to keep this in mind.
In planting our mustards though, I just missed the full moon…I think it was the 13th. We’re going to try it anyway, though I don’t normally do this.

I’m figuring that the greens aren’t like most above ground vegetables in that they don’t produce pods of vegetables. You eat the leaves. With this being the case I’m hoping the moon will not deter our mustards to badly. We shall soon see! I am kinda curious about how well they do.

Anyway, we’ll share a couple photos of the peas and okra we’ve put up from the fall garden so far. We have three piece of cases of peas still in the house, that we’ll fill as we continue on with the peas.

You guys have a great day, and God bless! Deb says once more to keep a smile on your face and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

Shoot, even Brian of the Canada Free Press suggested my login name to be… “imadummee!” So, one sees pretty quickly ole Dub probably ain’t “the sharpest knife in the drawer!” Even this is an understatement of considerable truth, because in regards to many, many, things…I am a dummy!

But first…congratulations to all those LSU “Tiger” fans out there. You guys took my Gators to the toolshed. This followed up a visit to the toolshed the previous week applied by the “Crimson Tide” folks.
Two weeks…two big losses, with those dern Auburn Tigers up next. Woe is me?

Today we’ll talk about canning peas. Deb and I enjoy doing it, but when they start coming in, you have some work cut-out for you. You simply have to get em while the getting’s good! It is time consuming, but well worth the effort. Those little jewels taste so good anytime actually, but especially during the winter months when there is no fresh supply available.
In reality, I know of only two people that don’t like peas, and they’re both neighbors who live just down the road from us. I told Deb that we sure know how to pick a place to live, don’t we? Having neighbors who don’t eat peas is “right up my alley!” MORE FOR US!! LOL!!

Deb and I have been canning about 4 years now, but honestly, Deb wants NO part of the pressure cooker, and believe it or not, my Mother doesn’t either. They were both around pressure cookers blowing off the lids.

So, the pressure canning duty was handed to me. How is it that I’m always the “lucky one?”

Seriously though, I talked with my Aunt Ann who has been around canning all her life with no mishaps, and she convinced me there was no issue at all to canning, besides simply paying attention to what you’re doing. Her oldest son Danny grows a BIG garden every year and cans extensively too.
Yeah, if you’ve been reading us for very long, Danny IS the dern cousin of mine who used to bite me when we were just small children. It got to the point that guy would walk by me and smile, showing them dern canines of his, and I’d be headed the other way!
In my opinion, you need to start off canning something pretty simple, which after just a short period of time, canning as a whole is indeed pretty simple stuff. But peas are a good place to start, so here we go…
We can our peas mainly in quart mason jars. We do a few in pints, but most times if we run out of quarts, or doing some for a meal for just Deb and I. A pint is just about right for this.
First off we put the peas to be canned in a large pot, and bring them to a boil, turning the burner off after them coming to a boil. They sit in this hot water until ready to put them in a jar to can.
While this is taking place we put water in our pressure cooker to the first line nearest the bottom of the cooker and allow this water to start boiling too. We also boil a large pot of water that we “scald” our jars with. This by setting our 7 quart jars (the amount our pressure cooker holds) in the sink, and then pouring the hot water into them.
This disinfects our jars, plus has them hot when we’re ready to add our peas in them, as their water is hot as well.
We then pour out the water in our jars, and start filling them with peas with as little liquid as possible, to a level about 1 inch below where the lids sit. Once our jars are full of peas we add one teaspoon of salt per jar.
At this point we then dip out water from the pea pot, and fill our jars, but once more leaving about a 1 inch gap below where the lids sit. This also serves to breakdown the salt you’d just added, and distributes it throughout the peas.
We then wipe the rims down with a clean rag, add the rings (lids) and seals, and start putting them into the pressure cooker. Once this is done we put the cover on the pressure cooker and wait until steam starts streaming out of the vent pipe. This makes you aware to go ahead and place the **three-piece pressure regulator onto the vent pipe. Shortly after adding this, the air vent/cover lock, I call it the stem, will pop out of the pressure cooker cover letting you know…the cooker is now under pressure.
Once the regulator starts rocking hard, I call it jiggling, we then turn our burner down to about 5-1/2, or medium heat. The whole time prior to this taking place our burner is left on high. Again, once the regulator starts rocking, or jiggling hard, turn your burner down.
The cook time for fresh peas is 40 minutes. The time doesn’t start UNTIL the pressure jiggler is rocking hard. Then set your timer, and the canning process actually begins!
I then allow it to remain on this heat setting until the cooking time has been reached, and the pressure cooker is removed from the stove and set on several towels on the countertop.
At this point you just leave everything alone and wait for the pressure to bleed off. I’m guessing this takes anywhere from 40 to 50 minutes. Once you see the air vent has dropped down back into the cooker cover, you may take off the pressure regulator.
I do this as one more precaution prior to removing the cover of the cooker insuring there is NO more pressure in the cooker. THEN, and ONLY THEN, do you remove the cover.
We then remove the jars, set them on towels as well, and wait to hear the pinging noise of the jars sealing. Once they’ve “pinged,” you know the jars have vacuum sealed. Once they’re cooled, you test once more to make sure they have in fact sealed properly.
This is done by taking a finger and pressing down on the lids. If sealed properly, your finger will meet solid resistance, or they won’t give. If, in fact you do feel a give in the lid, this means the jar HAS NOT sealed as it should have…SO DON”T PUT IT AWAY AS FOOD STORAGE!! It will not keep…it WILL spoil! So, take that particular jar, and heat them back up for supper. Use it in the next day or two, and keep it refrigerated until you do use them.
That’s about it. ***The three-piece pressure regulator has weights. These are used to pressure cook in different elevations across the country. In Florida as an example, we pressure cook using ten pounds of pressure. But this varies as does the altitudes nationwide.
If you purchase a pressure cooker, it will come with a book telling you what weight to use on the regulator depending on your elevation in your area. Simple stuff…
I hope this helps you out some if you’ve never canned before. Deb and I both find it a good, safe way to put food up, and love the taste and convenience it provides us of having a good fresh meal that has already been cooked, and just needs to be warmed up a little to be ready to eat!
We’ll try and do you guys a step by step video of this process the first of the week, but today I have a couple for you to look at if you’d like. They just kinda touch base on this subject, but will at least allow you to “get your feet wet,” in the canning process.


Also, a video of the cows laid up under an oak by the house…life is good! They just ate a gator full of pea hulls.

Thank you for droppin by, and God Bless.
Once more Deb says to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!
Dub and Deb