Path to Self Sufficiency

I am updating an old post and moving it to the Front.

“ARE YOUR VEGETABLES TOO BIG?”

By

Charles L. Evans

Update July 2010:

We have had a cool spring here and a lot of our seed rotted in the ground.  Our beds are now doing well about two months late.  It looks like the intensive beds will again out perform the conventional garden about 3 to 4 times.

Not to be bragging but one of my son-in laws says that the only problem I have with a garden is that I can’t grow anything small. This was after we harvested about 1500 pounds of potatoes out of a bed about 4 feet wide and 75 feet long. He thought two pound potatoes were a bit much. Off to the side in another bed there were three pumpkins about 100 pounds each all on one plant. These did not receive any special care. A couple of years ago one 4 foot square bed of beets produce all that we could eat in the summer and about 30 quarts of canned beets.

You asked, “How can you grow so much in a small space?” I could give you the long answer that starts out—the science of gardening has come a long ways in the last few years…several discoveries have been made. But the real answer is that I am sit on your butt lazy. I don’t mind doing the work but I only want to do it once. The first year of my intensive beds is a lot of work, unless I can get into the area with my John Deere 755 compact tractor. (I call this gardening by John Deere.) The secret is in the construction of the bed.

We dig a hole about 4 feet wide and two three feet deep. This is filled about half way with any kind of carbon waste that you can find. I use weeds, cardboard, wood chips, old hay, sawdust or anything else that I can get for free. Next soil that came out off the hole is placed in a layer about 6 inches deep. The rest of the soil is mixed with hay, straw, compost or anything to make it porous and easy for root penetration. This lay can be mixed with manure, commercial fertilizer, sand, peat moss wood chips or most anything. The secret of this layer is to mix a lot of nutrient in. This is the layer where your plants will get their nutrients the first year. Make it rich.

These type of beds work best for started plants but you can direct seed into the bed if you create a fine grained surface in the top couple of inches. I plant stuff as close as I can based upon my experience. The “SQUARE FOOT GARDEN” has a lot of good information about this type of planting.

After any seed I have planted has a good start I pull the weeds and mulch the bed with about 3 inches of shredded mulch. The plants are close together and will shade most of the bed soon reducing weed growth. The mulch pretty well takes care of the rest of the weeds. There in about 500 words I have shown you how to create a lazy man’s garden.

The next year and every year there after things a easy. Clean up the beds in the spring and spread a couple of inches of compost on the bed. Rack or spade the compost into the top layer of the bed and you are ready to plant.

P.S. I’m not a purist as I have been know to use Round Up to control the grass and weeds around and between the bed. This method is a grow method not a look pretty method.

Charles L. (Bud) Evans is a retired health physicist, owner and operator of a small repair shop, former school teacher with more education than good sense. He is active in the alternate energy field and currently specializes in self reliance and internet marketing. His web site (http://pathtoselfsufficiency.com) is a treasury of information on becoming self reliant.

Get great garden supplies here.

Bud’s Fast Track For Cash. Have you ever needed to make some extra cash for a special project?

I have this problem every so often, in fact more often than I care to admit. When you have your own business or a family this need for extra cash arises frequently.

The following seven formulas are a few of my methods to raise cash fairly fast.

Formula one:

My favorite method is to buy something, improve it and resell it at a substantial profit. This is a one time thing and it requires that you maintain a funds to buy things. My favorite thing to buy is an older VW car and fix it up and sell it. This requires a special skill. We all have special skills that we can market.

(Buy something) + (Fix it up) = Sell for a profit

There are way to apply this to digital products also. Buy the master resale rights to a product and make it better.

Formulas two:

Clean out the junk in your closet. We all have stuff that we don’t need anymore. Don’t throw it away, sell it. Our junk is someone else’s treasure. Use eBay, Craig’s List, local classified ads and other online classified services.

(Surplus item) +(ad) = Cash

SOME RULES TO FOLLOW WHEN YOU ARE SHORT OF CASH

1. Don’t borrow money short term. This means no credit card and pay day loans. This method will only make your situation worse.
2. Follow rule number one.

Formula three:

Market your special skills. Marketing your special skill requires that you identify a special skill. We all have them. A couple of mine are fixing mechanical things and the internet.

(Special Skill) + (Marketing Plan) = Cash

Your special skill can turn into a very profitable and satisfying source of income. Write a plan to make this happen.

Formula four:

Get a second job. This one I don’t like but it works for some folks.

(Second Job) – (personal and family time) = Cash

Formula five:

Do a crowd funding site. You are own your own on this one. Do your research and sign up for our list and tips at Fast Track for Cash and get more info.

(Crowd Funding Site) + (Promotion) = Cash

Formula six:

Develop a special service for a targeted group of customers. This requires some thought and marketing. A friend developed a shopping service for the elderly, the shut in’s, and busy people. This is now a major business.

(Special Service) + (Business Plan + Action) = Cash

Formula Seven:

Develop an internet business.

(Mini Site) x (Research + Promotion) = Cash

This is a great method but it must be approached with care. There are a lot of folks that want to sell you how to stuff for starting an internet business. (Me included.) See  Fast Track For Cash web site for more information.

By Charles L. Evans

We have talked of using solar and wind power on a commercial scale.  It has been implement and it works with one bad draw back.  When the wind does not blow or the sun does not shine you ain’t got no power–period.  Then you start up the fossil fuel generators for back-up.  Is there a better way?

There is a better way.  We have stated before that Nuclear Power is the back up needed for solar and wind power.  Many people have an objection to Nuclear Power due to a couple of disasters and the media and oil company hype about how bad it is.  Bad press has made our energy costs several times more expensive than it needs to be.

Did you know the the mission statement for the Fast Flux Test Facility on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation was “Power to cheap to meter.” This project produced more fuel than it used and was the closest thing to perpetual motion that I have ever seen.  I have been through that project before and after it was shut down.  It was an American Tragedy when that facility was shut down.

We now have another chance at inexpensive safe nuclear power. A recent development at the Los Alomos National Laboratory has made cheap safe nuclear power again an option.  These “Nuclear Batteries” could be use in conjunction with wind and solar power to provide an environmentally friendly energy source for this country.  We have the fuel source, the technology and will to do this.  We need to recognize the opportunity.  Check out this link for more information.