It's pretty late, and for some reason, I can't sleep.  So, I thought I would blog a little bit.  Maybe I'll get more into it as we progress down this path of self reliance.  You see, we are preparing for the worst.  As the nation slipps deeper and deeper into debt, I believe that hard times ahead for the majority of our fellow countrymen are inevitable.  That said, we did actually go ahead and buy a house.  We are sitting on 2 and a half acres now, and boy do we have big plans.  There is already a pretty good sized garden plot, but we are considering expanding that.  We would like to get to the point where we can can all of our years vegetables from our own garden.  But on top of that,my personal goal is to establish a beer garden.  I want to grow my own barley, hopps, and a slew of other herbs that will go into my various other recipes. 

Also, we want to plant fruit trees, bushes, and vines.  and we would like to cap it all off with goats for meat and milk, as well as bee keeping for honey and wax.  We are still unpacking, but realizing that spring will be here soon, we will soon be working hard in the field. 

Now, 2.5 acres really isn't all that much space.  We are eyeing some other property, the two lots next to ours, but that will be a while out, AND, will probably take an act of God to bring that into fruition.  Though, I wouldn't put it past him to do something to that effect.  He has done it before, I trust that he will do it again.  After all, isn't he in the business of blessing? 

Anyway, Me personally, I just finished a juice fast.  I lost about 8 or 9 pounds in the process, and I feel extremely clean and healthy.  I started lifting some weights, and am working towards a level of physical fitness.  I guess that it was kind of a new years resolution... but really, I think that the poop is about to hit the fan, and I don't want to be out of shape for that.  I have been training in my aikido, and I believe that has improved... but still... more preparations need to be done.  At some point here, trouble will rear it's ugly head, and I intend to be ready for it.

This weekend, I am going to be training my wife and kids on fire arms use.  I heard a report that there was a pack of coyotes in the area, and that one sheep dog was torn apart and eaten by them.  That won't be happening on my watch.  This weekend, I will be mounting a rifle rack near the back door and leaving the little 410 out there, just in case.  I'll be keeping my side arm on me at all times from this point forward.  I am in the market for a Glock, and I think that I have a line on a glock 19, but I am keeping my feelers out there.

Beer brewing has been going pretty well.  For the first time, really, I have a batch in the fermenter, and a batch in the car boy.  The carboy has an Irish Stout in there and the fermenter, which I just brewed last weekend, is an amber ale.  The stout was a happy accidnt, and will be finished just in time for St. Patricks day.  I will be donning my kilt and drinking Irish Car Bombs.  As for the amber ale, well, I selected that for a nice spring beer.  This weekend, time permitting, I think that I will attempt a home made ginger ale.  The boys really want root beer, and since we don't drink sodas from multi national corporations any more, and since I have all of the equpiment for making beer, I thought that we might ALSO make soda.  I think that it will get the kids interested in the process of brewing something, and it will give them something fun to drink that isn't laced with mega corporation poison swill.

In the near future, after I finish reading the book "sacred and Herbal Healing Beers" by Stephen Harrod Buhner,I plan on getting away from beer kits, and just using local (as much as possible) and unprocessed ingredients.  My studdies in this field lead me to understand that the alcohol content is MUCH lower in these beers, and it can actually be implemented as a health food.  As I mentioned, I just completed a juice fast this week, but coming this fall, I will undertake a beer fast.  So, I think that week long fasts will be a part of my yearly life, doing a vegetable fast in the summer, when the fruits and veggies are the best, and a beer fast, in the winter, when the ingredients from the fall harvest that have been put into my beers are ready. 

Alright, I am sufficiently tired now.  I think that I ought to be drifting off to bed now... I expect to be waking up to a fairly soggy day tomorrow, and I think that we will be having Ivy over for some time together.  I want to see of she might be interested at all in watching "Time bandits."  I recall it being a very funny movie.  We Shall See.