[Sunstone]

Lol right on, the Democrats do like to pretend to be Santa Claus.

Before I had kids I didn’t think I would “play Santa Claus” as my friend’s kid puts it (they don’t “play” at their house). But once I had kids I relented to my husband’s wishes and let them believe, and I’m glad I did. We don’t make a big deal about X-mas as far as presents – we see it more as a time to spend with family, and some of my family members get the kids presents, and a couple of them are always marked “from Santa”. So we just play along. We don’t make a huge thing about it, we don’t make a point to go visit Santa at the mall or anything like that, but we will let them believe until they figure it out on their own (or until my son’s friend spills the beans…whichever comes first, lol). He’s almost 7 so he might figure it out soon anyway, but hopefully he won’t ruin it for his little sisters.

[Sunstone]

Sure, but there’s like 800 different potentially interesting rabbit holes I could dive down on any given day, and I only have a little bit of time to spend on such things. So if someone isn’t making a compelling argument that something is worth my time, I will generally move on to something that looks more promising. Not to suggest that it’s not a worthwhile topic, only that we all have our different areas of interest and can’t read every article or watch every video that might be interesting.

[Sunstone]

Sorry only just saw this – So sorry to hear about your house fire. That must be a devastating loss. I hope you’re able to get back on your feet soon and will be able to get some compensation through insurance…

I haven’t heard of KrisAnn Hall but I will check out the link.

if you’re still looking to rehome your hens I’d gladly take them. I’ve got a flock of about 30 plus a few ducks and turkeys. They’re semi-free range as we have a large fenced-in backyard (but some of the more wily ones jump the fence and forage in the surrounding fields). I feed them a homemade mix of fermented organic grains plus kitchen scraps and leftovers, and they get the rest off the land.

I’d also be happy to take any farm tools and seeds you have…I do know a few other homesteaders so I could ask around if any of them want to take some, so that you’re not just giving everything to one person.

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by  Sunstone.
• This reply was modified 2 years ago by  Sunstone.

[Sunstone]

I guess I’m not seeing where you’re going with this…I mean I could watch the video but I wish you’d explain your point more first. Why is it relevant that all citizens are nationals but a few nationals are not citizens? What is the functional difference? How does this relate to feudalism?

Your initial premise, that we’ve been tricked into a feudal society, is sound, for many reasons that you don’t enumerate here. So I’m interested in hearing your reasoning. I’m just not making the connection between the citizen/national thing and the feudalism argument.

[Sunstone]

No we could run on current reserves for a little while, but demand keeps increasing to fuel the debt-based economy. Eventually the cheap stuff will run out, and we’ll be stuck with the more expensive to extract, lower quality stuff. That’s why they are artificially choking off supply – the elites want to keep the remaining reserves for themselves, once they get everyone else either dead or brainwashed into the low-carbon, own-nothing-but-be-happy, insectivorious serfdom utopia.

[Sunstone]

Hence the global depopulation agenda.

[Sunstone]

I think at this point the CCP, WEF, and the Deep State are all working towards the same goals. Or perhaps it’s 2 against one…in any case, we’re all pawns being shunted back and forth, regardless of whether Oceania is currently at war with Eurasia or Eastasia.

[Sunstone]

Yeah I should probably do more meal planning…I’m usually deciding last minute based on what’s in the fridge, or at best in the morning when I take out some meat to defrost. It’s also hard to plan too far in advance because I might make plans for the last hunk of feta cheese, or the leftover potatoes, and then open the fridge at 5 PM and realize that someone already helped themselves to that ingredient, which blows up my plan for dinner.

I do repurpose leftovers though. If I can turn them into a new meal by adding other ingredients or changing the presentation I’ll do it, although many leftovers don’t make it past lunch the next day, so again, I often have to decide that at the last minute.

I am trying to get more into canning, but so far I’ve only been able to do the water bath since I don’t have a pressure canner. It’s at the top of my kitchen gadgets wish list.

[Sunstone]

That sounds very efficient…if it were just me I’d probably do that more. I used to make a quiche on the weekend and it would last me all week for breakfast. But my family is spoiled rotten and they turn up their noses at most leftovers. Sometimes I can squeeze out a second meal if a dish is really well liked and keeps well in the fridge, but in most cases just the storage container seems to make its contents undesirable, even when it’s from a meal they loved the night before.

Perhaps the day will come when we’re all much hungrier than we are today and have to be less picky. But as long as there’s fresh ingredients in the house (including ones they can scavenge if I refuse to cook for them), they’ll just eat cheese sandwiches and fruit and leave all the pre-made canned meals for me to eat by myself until I’m insane from the monotony. So for now it seems like I’m stuck cooking something different every day.

[Sunstone]

Wow I usually can’t get that much time in one block. I’ve had days where my husband takes the older kids for the day and I make Thanksgiving dinner, or special birthday dinner and cake, or some other long project with multiple items in it. But even then I’m lucky to get 5 hours, and even then I still have the youngest to attend to. Hoping when the kids are older I can do more of those big projects. I recently canned close to 40 lbs of tomatoes, but that took me 3 days from start to finish.

[Sunstone]

I do some of that stuff, too – I make my own granola (or cereal as we call it, but really it’s granola), sauerkraut, pickles and pepper relishes, chicken broth, even toothpaste. But it’s a struggle to find a window of time to do big projects because I’m busy with kids all day and often too tired at night to be on my feet anymore.

[Sunstone]

I love it too, but with 3 small kids and homeschooling, much of my time is already spoken for, so usually I’m doing triage between several things that need my attention. Makes it hard to do big projects like canning.

[Sunstone]

Need the sides, at a minimum, to add calories to the meal – I can’t afford to feed them just meat every night, it’s too expensive. I’ve never seen meat “on sale,” if that’s what you mean by meat sales – we buy from local farms so the best price comes from buying in bulk, but it’s still expensive. I’d like to eventually can some meat but I need a pressure cooker first – so far I’ve only done water baths. Plus some things, like steak, can’t be canned – at least not without compromising on taste. If I’m spending $15-20 a pound on steak I’d like to taste it. But for chicken and ground beef, sure.

I’ve let my oldest (6) help with cutting veggies a bit lately, but he’s very slow and still learnign how to cut evenly and utilize all the edible parts. The process of teaching abd assisting him actually makes the process take longer, though, and he’s often still doing school work when I’m cooking dinner anyway. Only other adult in the house works long hours so he’s not available to help.

[Sunstone]

I also buy meat in bulk, to the extent I can – we don’t have enough freezer space to do a quarter cow or anything but I’ll drop about $450 on a few dozen pounds of beef at once, and that’s with avoiding the more expensive cuts of meat. Even so that only lasts us a couple months. Sadly I haven’t found a way to save on poultry or fish buying in bulk, other than joining a CSA which we’re going to try as we really need to reduce our spending on meat.

I don’t know, maybe because we’re buying all pasture-raised hormone-free from local farms, or maybe because I need to cook 2-3 lbs of meat for dinner, in addition to sides, to have enough for everyone (and that’s with small kids who eat more the older they get). I mean if I took out all the vegetables and bread and beans and grains, I’d probably have to do 4-5 lbs of meat for dinner every night to ensure everybody gets enough to eat, so that would probably double our meat costs.

Meanwhile I don’t usually get sticker shock from buying local organic vegetables or organic bread, but as soon as I start shopping for meat or cheese, I start having to do triage and decide which items I can afford this month. Maybe our margin is tighter than yours, or maybe we’re feeding more people. We spend more on food than any other expense in our household, including rent.

[Sunstone]

Ah, so boot camp at home, regardless? Being a single parent is hard, though. I don’t know how anyone manages to do that, except that some people are forced into it and have to figure out a way. But those people who decide to have a kid on their own without a partner? I feel like they have no idea what they’re getting into. I often feel like we need at least one more parent in the house (or a grandparent) to help with the workload. I feel like in homes where the parent-to-child ratio is lower (as in only 1 parent, or 2 parents but lots of kids), the kids tend to be more self-sufficient, out of necessity.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Sunstone.