Flea markets I Love them.

     Sunday morning I woke the wife and my son at 6 am for a trip to Mt. Top flea market. The unusual thing about this flea market is one its Sunday only and starts at 5 am and they start packing up at 2. It has been around since the early 70s and is going strong.
    My wife just wanted to look around I carried 3 axe's 2 mauls and 2 sledge hammers in need of handles. I also was on the hunt for 2 hens because one of my 2 hens didn't make it crossing the road last week. First I headed to the lemonade stand a friend has owned there since 1978 for a free lemonade. Them made it 3 rows up and across the field to the handle man .Ok the handle man has been there since day one he is about 80 and my grandfather bought handles from him when I went as a kid with him .I got him to pick me 7 handles for what I had for 28$ .One at ace is 12 $ ,he use to seat them for people but has got to old and to busy.

     After I walked a 1/2 mile to the jeep and back I went to livestock row. Livestock row has chickens ducks turkeys geese goats rabbits dogs and cats . saw a pair of dominicker hens for 20 each, nope I pass . The cheapest I found was 15 for Reds I Pass .They wanted 5$ for chicks or 3 for 12 . Well I didn't get the hens I wanted I planned on 10 ea. and just would go for what they wanted. I had parted with my wife and son so I went and called and  found them . On the way I found once used ammo cans for 10$ each I got 3. My son had found new boots for 20 a inverter for 12 and 5 boxes of Entmans doughnuts for 1$ each. The wife had a bag of navel oranges 3 dozen brown eggs and a flat of flowers all for under 12$.

   My son and I carried every thing to the jeep and went back got my wife before she made it back to the flowers again. As we headed to leave I stopped and got a Quart of honey ( local apple blossom bee hives) and we got out of there by 11 am .

     Now we had a good time got some great buys and exercise .Stores cost more and help local people less, we met and interacted with people as we bargained for deals, saw friends while there . Have you ever noticed in other country's this is everyday shopping/ life but here its looked at as red neck slumming not a normal way of doing business . Perhaps this is the way we should do business face to face interacting within our community.

Price of pork a sign of whats comming!!!

       What does the price of pork have to do with the future.Huge and rapid price increases!! On March 19th I bought pork butts for 1.32 $ a pound by the case a week later it was 1.48 then it jumped in one week to 1.98 now its 2.08 a pound case price.
     Beef has climbed .60 $ to 1.00 a pound and a lot of other items have increased.Processed meats will be following.Gas has gone up 40 cents a gallon in a month .
     If you still have food storage shortages you better act soon.Some of the prices are because of low inventory cattle herd is at 1952 levels  Hogs remember China owns Smithfield the largest pork producer in the nation.Even chicken is up 15 cents a pound and we all can say Tyson.
     We have all read about hyper inflation remember it starts slow then becomes a water fall.This may or may not be the start but why chance it. Stop and think what do you use or eat that has gone up this year more than 10% ,Then try to think what has decreased or stayed the same that you use.

My Mother is against me opening a legal food truck.

  Friday i called my mom i hadn't talked to her in a few weeks(I know i should call her more often)as we talked i told her i was probable going to licence up the food stand.Her response was not what i expected she said life is short your making it OK why did i want to take on the headache.You have time to camp you aren't as stressed as you was with a business(at the end of my last business i was kicking doors off the hinges rather than using doorknobs)you even look happy now.My 70 year old mom told me i was right in what i was doing.
     OK here is the back ground for years i said i was going to Quit work and take 3 years off and have a mid life retirement while i had good health and could enjoy living.She had always told me that wasn't how people were supposed to act.You were to work till you were 65 retire and then enjoy life.Well mom retired at 62 but the same year my stepfather got cancer they didn't get to do what they had spent years looking forward to doing.J.C. passed away after 2 years of poor health.After that mom felt cheated out of a good husband and their plans.She called me one day and said if you can survive and make ends meet take a Minnie retirement she wished they had.
     Mom did offer up an idea that i will probable wind up doing.Her idea was to cater company parties and open on Sunday's.Not any catering of fancy events just BBQ employee appreciation lunches stuff like that.Now i have done  few company lunches and tried a few Sunday's  maybe i gave up to soon and should build up that side.I would be able to do this without any cost increases or food inventory costs.

Why bib overall matter.

     Yesterday i made a comment on farmer in bib overalls.Well this is how i learned about the men that wear them.
     When i was about 12 my grandfather loaded up about 6 cows for the auction.We has 6 cows in a 68 model Chevy and i mean aload so off to the sale we went.For a 12 year old at his first cattle auction i was mesmerized by the cows and bulls the ring men and the cadence of the auctioneer.The place was full of old cattlemen with muddy boots and overalls telling lies and caring on and grand paw was right in the middle with them with me tagging along.Now you could spot the meat company men because they wore suits and sat on the front row.I still remember when a Brahma bull cleared the ring and the handlers jumped the rail and landed in the lap of the men in suits.All the ranchers and farmer roared laffing.When it was all said and done we went up to the office to settle up.As the bills were tallied my grandfather and a group was betting on coke bottles.The game went like this old coke bottles had a city and state listed on the bottom showing where it was made who ever pulled the bottle from the farther est point won the pool.There was about 10 overall wearing farmer playing at 5.00 a pull so it was a 50.00 pot and grand paw was right in with em.Well one of the girl hollered at one of the men his bill was toted he said who owes who she told him he owed almost 6000 for what he bought.Well he pulls a wad of hundreds out of that bibb pocket and tosses it to the ladie  tells her to peel it off of that he is busy playing.When she counts it out marks the bill paid she hands it back to him he shoves it back in the pocket.She asks him count it to make sure he just turns around and says it feels about right then he tells all the men  he has to go been fun.When we were in the truck i told my grand paw that roll of cash was more than i had ever seen and how could a man dressed in overalls carry it around like that.Old gran paw told me that that man could buy and sell most 10 times and had earned it the hard way.He told me tha if i ever dealt with a man in bibb overall and mud to his knees.He may be broke but his word was his bond and if he was buying he would have cash in his bibb pocket.Well in my life i have never been done wrong by a man in overalls and i have seen handshake and cash deals done in a minute that most men would need legal papers drawn.On more than one thing some of those old timers have used the phrase "just you wait and see if I'm right"I don't drought what life has taught the few that were old bibb overalls .Ever since that cattle sale i know never to make lite of those men.

What the term TEOTWAWKI realy mean to you vs your kids

    We have all read this term and in our mind an image appears.Its different to everyone.Some think of no electricity no gas for cars nothing that we use without thinking everyday.Now i got to thinking for my kids it would take just returning to the 70s for them to think the world had ended.Lets just look at the changes to everyday life in 40 years.
   
    1. A 19 in B&W TV  vs 55 in 1080dpi  plasma
    2  3 channels on a good day   vs  280 channels on cable
    3  2 dials to change channels    vs a remote control {do we miss the butt crack of the channel changer]
    4  pong video game was the bomb  vs Xbox PlayStation's
    5 the commode 64 and tandy1000  vs the laptop or net book
     6 5in floppies  vs  flash drives
      7 rotary phone vs cellphone
      8 notes on the fridge  vs texts
      9 110 cameras vs 10 mpix camera function
     10 going to the library vs the Internet.
     11 writing a paper letter   vs an e mail
     12 cash  vs a card
     13 a paper map  vs map quest or GPS
     14  a record or 8 track vs i tune or mp3
     15 using the stove oven  vs a microwave
  OK writers block is setting in but the list is verrry long between anyone 45 and up and our kids under 30.Give it some thought to us going back to the 70s would be easy sure we would miss what was gone but it wouldn't be mind altering.Think of our kids it would seem like they were in a totally  different  world.To anyone a change back to 40 years before they were born is TEOTWAWKI. It may be that the only ones that can adjust are  those that feel they were born in the wrong century.Me personally i love history and reading how they did things in the 1800s and i also read what people in 3rd world countries find benefit's them the most as far as modern tecknowledge.To survive after a TEOTWAWKI event the bottom rung in the world may be the ones that do best.The best we can hope for is that MAD MAX is short lived.
     Stop and think where in time your TEOTWAWKI is.Mine is around 1930 .

My grand parents told me about TEOTWAWKI and the good old days!

      A lot of my posts have been about camping and my teardrop trailer.I have a prepper mind set so camping is part of that mindset but lets face the facts.Camping is nothing like a TEOTWAWKI. A weekend at a park or in the woods is a nice break from everyday life but we know it will end and we can return to our home and all our modern convienaces.Now there is nothing wrong with this but most people cant seem to comprehend a permenent loss of modern convienaces.
          

Camping with power and water.

                                                  

living without power water and little else

       My grand mother was born in1910 and she told me many times if i heard someone wish for the "good old days" they had never lived them!!!She did, her dad was a coal miner and had a small company house and 2 acres for a garden.There was 8 of them and she told me the girls gatherd eggs and milked the cow before school the boys had to hoe and pick squash to feed the animals.She told me they raise about 3 pigs and had a calf for a family of 8 it didnt go far.What she said was the worst was the out house on winter mornings and a coal oven to cook on{the mine gave every worker a ton of coal every fall}and for heat.She was 12 before her first car ride and their house didnt get electricity till she was 19 and her brothers had to pay the bill. Grandpaw said his dad threatend to have the power shut off when the first bill was 1.85 but great granny asked him how he liked his own cooking if he did.
      Now my grand parents did Not have a modern house by anyones standards. My grand father was born and died in the same house. The place was a 4 room with a dogtrot hall down the middle it had 12 ft ceilings a kitchen was cut out of one room and a closet between the bed rooms became the bathroom.The house only had one space heater in the living room and quilts piled 4 thick was a winter normal. As bare bones as it was to me it was a modern home to them. To me looking back i dont know how they lived in it but my grand parents said it beat the "good old days".They had no washer dryer no running hot water and only a 30 amp fuse box for power.
       This was life as they knew it.To them it was a blessing what they had when i was a child.If TEOTWAWKI happened it could look like "the good old days" again for those that survive.Every time i see the phase "THE GOOD OLD DAYS" or TEOTWAWKI i think of my grand parents.They survived it but would not want to relive it!!!!!!!

A farm homestead {the bud ogle place]

      A few pictures of a mountain farm. They raised 10 kids farming on land the Tax assessor deemed unfit for crops or cattle.

the mt where this farm is

    The farm is about 2 miles above and to the right of the building.The town is a mile below this picture.


from the porch of house up to barn

         

the corn crib



the hogs and chickens house

                                                                   These pictures and what little has survived a 140 years only give a  hint of what life was like in the 1870s.A lot of people call themselves survivalists but these people didn't just survive they thrived and left us a rich and vast knowledge base.I guess thats why i love history.