I realized not too long ago that I didn't really do a good job writing my "About Me" information because, well, I hate those small boxes Blogger gives you and I don't like how it feels to be redirected away from the blog I'm reading.
Since adding my name to the Survival Mom Blog Ring I've noticed an increase in traffic so I thought I might just throw my information out there so you know what kind of crazy you're dealing with. :)
I'm Lace. I'm 32 (in a few hours). I'm on my second marriage. I was married when I was 18 to my junior high school sweetheart. We divorced after 10 years of marriage because we really didn't have anything in common and didn't seem to interact at all with each other except for the occasional conjugal visit. I'm remarried to a wonderful man named Micah.
I work in Human Resources. I always feel like I have no professional "skills" when it comes to preparedness or survival but I am a heck of a people person and problem solver. When the SHTF we will see how that works out for me I guess.
Micah works in the oil and gas industry and is not into survival or preparedness at all. Except for the gun part. He likes that part. When I talk about it in detail it makes me anxious so I just talk about gardening. A lot.
We have three children.
K is 15. She dresses in black, listens to bizarre music by more bizarrely titled bands and every day I gain more clarity that I have, indeed, become old before my time. ("Who's that you're listening to? Snot Bucket?" "No Mom, it's Apocalyptica." "Same thing.") She's generally lazy but has a heart of gold. She should never have children of her own, however.
L is 6. She's just all around adorable and my only child not born with a midwife. She's in first grade, reads like a second grader and always wants to be my helper. She would be happy to spend every day with me all day if she could, at least for right now. She's in ballet and not very good but she keeps trying. I tried to get pregnant with L for 5 years before it actually happened. Considering how easy it was to get pregnant with the other two it was a little disturbing to try for so long with no results. L really is a joy to me. She is the person in our house that most other people are drawn too. She also looks the most like me which means she's gorgeous.
W is my son, my "Whoops, guess birth control pills really AREN'T 100% effective." surprise. He is 16 months old (at the time of this writing) and is an all around boy and daredevil. Before he could walk he could climb which frightens me, having 2 girls before him who didn't do that. He enjoys playing with L and avoids K when possible. I enjoy teaching him tricks like blowing kisses and giving high fives. He enjoys blowing out his diaper as we are walking out the door to daycare. And laughing at me because of it.
Micah is my husband. He is an all around geek and monitors oil well data for a living. We met on eHarmony, in case you're interested. He is from this Rocky Mountain region and has lived here all his life. His parents and sister live here. I include them in my prep planning.
My own mother is dead and I don't speak to my father. Some people just use up all their chances and eventually you realize that they don't deserve your time or attention anymore. My father is that person. My mother was a wonderful human being though and I miss her every day.
I was originally born in Alaska and was raised in a cabin for the first 5 years or so of my life with no running water. As a child that lifestyle truly seemed ideal. I wish I could do back to it but it's a process and a slow one at that.
So there, that's me. Questions? Comments? Concerns?
Showing posts with label About Me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label About Me. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Friday, November 5, 2010
Planning for next year
I know that often this seems like a garden blog more a survival or preparedness blog but it's really not.
It's just that in my mind self sufficiency is the path towards survival. Sure, I buy #10 cans of food. Not often. But I save up and do occasionally buy it. I do that though with the idea in mind that if a total economic/social/energy/EMP/whatever collapse were to happen I would have that stuff for TODAY because I am new to preparedness and I am, well, not totally prepared. I would like, in the future, to someday produce enough food from my small suburban lot to at least feel like I had a handle on survival if I had to. At least in the short term until I could get to somewhere bigger.
So I garden. I plan on fruit trees and bushes. I hide herbs both kitchen and medicinal into my landscape. I am slowly growing a preparedness library and constantly testing myself to see "can I do that without electricity?"
My family is not on board. Well. They are on board with the small containers of tomatoes, of pretty flowers in the front yard (can you say chamomile?) and the canning of local produce. But they are not yet into the bigger picture of powering down, of doing by hand, of going without or making due. Not yet.
Everything is a process. Just like learning to garden, can, cook from scratch is a process. And I'm getting there.
Next year will see big changes to my back yard. Right now it's large and has some very old tall trees (I think elm but I could be making that up). It's mostly grass or dirt with some trees and bushes around the perimeter. There are lilacs, that I love and other stuff, that I don't care about.
Next year though will see actual garden beds put in with a work table and an arch to a new path. My mother in law has it all planned out. I think she knows about the survival/preparedness stuff but has never asked about it. She has, however, seen my under stairs cold storage closet and I've talked at length about how I want to produce from my land but make it beautiful (to be deceptive). There will be more tomatoes next year, more beans, more cucumbers. She has promised there will be apple trees.
So I've already started looking at seed catalogs and researching heirlooms. I've started saving money for the materials. I've started planning meals.
I'm excited to plan, that's actually my favorite part of preparedness. The planning. I like to have a list, a plan, an idea.
This winter will find me focused on cooking from scratch and local. I'll be working on my library and working on my kids, trying to power down, trying to increase their attention spans.
It's exciting for me because I feel like I'm finally making progress.
And I'm ready for green beans straight off the vine.
It's just that in my mind self sufficiency is the path towards survival. Sure, I buy #10 cans of food. Not often. But I save up and do occasionally buy it. I do that though with the idea in mind that if a total economic/social/energy/EMP/whatever collapse were to happen I would have that stuff for TODAY because I am new to preparedness and I am, well, not totally prepared. I would like, in the future, to someday produce enough food from my small suburban lot to at least feel like I had a handle on survival if I had to. At least in the short term until I could get to somewhere bigger.
So I garden. I plan on fruit trees and bushes. I hide herbs both kitchen and medicinal into my landscape. I am slowly growing a preparedness library and constantly testing myself to see "can I do that without electricity?"
My family is not on board. Well. They are on board with the small containers of tomatoes, of pretty flowers in the front yard (can you say chamomile?) and the canning of local produce. But they are not yet into the bigger picture of powering down, of doing by hand, of going without or making due. Not yet.
Everything is a process. Just like learning to garden, can, cook from scratch is a process. And I'm getting there.
Next year will see big changes to my back yard. Right now it's large and has some very old tall trees (I think elm but I could be making that up). It's mostly grass or dirt with some trees and bushes around the perimeter. There are lilacs, that I love and other stuff, that I don't care about.
Next year though will see actual garden beds put in with a work table and an arch to a new path. My mother in law has it all planned out. I think she knows about the survival/preparedness stuff but has never asked about it. She has, however, seen my under stairs cold storage closet and I've talked at length about how I want to produce from my land but make it beautiful (to be deceptive). There will be more tomatoes next year, more beans, more cucumbers. She has promised there will be apple trees.
So I've already started looking at seed catalogs and researching heirlooms. I've started saving money for the materials. I've started planning meals.
I'm excited to plan, that's actually my favorite part of preparedness. The planning. I like to have a list, a plan, an idea.
This winter will find me focused on cooking from scratch and local. I'll be working on my library and working on my kids, trying to power down, trying to increase their attention spans.
It's exciting for me because I feel like I'm finally making progress.
And I'm ready for green beans straight off the vine.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Practical Skills
Today I read THIS blog post by one of my favorite Sustainability bloggers Wendy (who occasionally comments on this blog).
I have much to say on the subject and was just going to respond in her comments but decided to instead write this here.
I hated high school. HATED it. Passion of a thousand firey sun hated it. I hated chemistry, hated geometry, hated second semester of Algebra. Loved other subjects but was bored in most of them. But I couldn't drop out because I was white, middle class and expected to go to college. Which I did eventually do and I have a Bachelors to prove it.
I got pregnant my sophomore year. I was so OVER high school and had high ideals of what life would be like for me if I could just start LIVING already.
About 2 months into my pregnancy I happily chose to move over to our local "pregnant girl school" which was called Crossroads.
I had been taking Advanced English, Advanced History, Chemistry, Geometry, Personal Finance, gym, & had just started home economics but I don't actually remember doing anything in the class.
When I moved I began taking Children's Classics, Social Studies, Computers, Maternal Health, Personal Finance and other stuff I can't remember. (Cut me some slack, that was 15 years ago)
The glaring difference in the teaching styles between the two schools was, in one, it as all very abstract and I couldn't see how any of it mattered or applied at the "regular" high school. At Crossroads all of the subject matter (except I suppose for computers at the time) was practical, hands on, must have skills knowledge and it had to be tailored to fit 100 girls whose ages ranged from 12-19, who were in different grade levels, learning levels and had only pregnancy as the common thread. Oh and there were only 2 and a HALF teachers.
I learned all about my pregnancy, the baby, birth, labor and exercise and health through my maternal health class. I was better prepared than some adult women I've known in my lifetime.
Personal finance is the class that I always brag about though. In high school is was gear towards a macro economic learning model. At Crossroads I learned how money applied practically in my world.
Our Public School system forced the girls at Crossroads to clock in and out each day. Our instructors used this to a)prove we were there and b) pay us in pretend money.
It worked like this:
At the start of the school year we had to find a job that we would be qualified for, assuming we had graduated high school, and present it to our lead instructor. She would then interview us like a real job interview. We would get the job (or not and have to start over) and would receive a rate of pay. At the end of the week we received "paychecks" based on the number of hours we had been at school previously. The rate of pay was either stating in the job listing or she took an average of what the job paid.
We had to find an apartment and present it to her and fill out a rental application and fake rental agreement.
We opened fake bank accounts and had fake checks printed for us. We had checklists of bills we needed to pay and had to pay them each week. We had to reconcile our checkbooks. We had to pay bills we received from the lead teacher for electricity, gas and water (if it wasn't' included in our rental agreement). We had to pay for at least a bus token to show how we would get to and from work and had to figure out the bus schedules.
We had to make a menu for the month and it was based on flyer's from the grocery stores. We had to present them and if they did not meet the food pyramid they were reject or received a less than passing score.
That course taught me how to file my taxes when we had a real tax preparer come in and discuss it with us.
We consistently had guest speakers come in to give tips on how to interview for jobs, how to open a bank account, how to apply for public assistance (if needed), explain what the process was for food stamps or WIC, discuss nutrition and how to cook. (I didn't learn that, sadly, until much later). We had people from Job Corp come talk to us about their program, we had parenting coaches, we had real world situations to deal with.
My final semester in the school (last semester of my junior year) I WAS the bank for the personal finance program. I entered the checks the other students had written in their "bank accounts". I printed pay checks and distributed them based on the calculations from their time cards. I loved it.
That school was not college prep in any sense of the word. The teacher was very frank with me and told me their GOAL was to send out girls who were prepared to take care of their children. If they graduated from HIGH SCHOOL it was a resounding success. Of the girls that graduated from the school the same year I did (5), only 2 of us went to college. Another went back several years later. Only one has her bachelors, one has her associates. The other dropped out after her first semester. I've been told by that same teacher that 40% attendance to college is amazing and most years they don't have any that go.
It's not quite the same as the real world skills that Wendy talks about, growing food, fixing your own home or equipment.
But it's a glimpse into how schooling COULD be. It could be practical and skill focused. It could prepare those that leave it to become productive citizens instantly or at least sooner than those who don't.,
Don't mistake me, I don't have a problem with someone going to college and majoring in ANYTHING and getting a degree and I expect it of my children if that's their calling.
But if you can't balance a checkbook no amount of money is going to really be a support to you and you're never going to have a real appreciation for it. I suspect the same will be said about food soon but in a more dramatic fashion. If you can't grow your own food you wont have enough time to appreciate the skill it takes to grow it.
I have much to say on the subject and was just going to respond in her comments but decided to instead write this here.
I hated high school. HATED it. Passion of a thousand firey sun hated it. I hated chemistry, hated geometry, hated second semester of Algebra. Loved other subjects but was bored in most of them. But I couldn't drop out because I was white, middle class and expected to go to college. Which I did eventually do and I have a Bachelors to prove it.
I got pregnant my sophomore year. I was so OVER high school and had high ideals of what life would be like for me if I could just start LIVING already.
About 2 months into my pregnancy I happily chose to move over to our local "pregnant girl school" which was called Crossroads.
I had been taking Advanced English, Advanced History, Chemistry, Geometry, Personal Finance, gym, & had just started home economics but I don't actually remember doing anything in the class.
When I moved I began taking Children's Classics, Social Studies, Computers, Maternal Health, Personal Finance and other stuff I can't remember. (Cut me some slack, that was 15 years ago)
The glaring difference in the teaching styles between the two schools was, in one, it as all very abstract and I couldn't see how any of it mattered or applied at the "regular" high school. At Crossroads all of the subject matter (except I suppose for computers at the time) was practical, hands on, must have skills knowledge and it had to be tailored to fit 100 girls whose ages ranged from 12-19, who were in different grade levels, learning levels and had only pregnancy as the common thread. Oh and there were only 2 and a HALF teachers.
I learned all about my pregnancy, the baby, birth, labor and exercise and health through my maternal health class. I was better prepared than some adult women I've known in my lifetime.
Personal finance is the class that I always brag about though. In high school is was gear towards a macro economic learning model. At Crossroads I learned how money applied practically in my world.
Our Public School system forced the girls at Crossroads to clock in and out each day. Our instructors used this to a)prove we were there and b) pay us in pretend money.
It worked like this:
At the start of the school year we had to find a job that we would be qualified for, assuming we had graduated high school, and present it to our lead instructor. She would then interview us like a real job interview. We would get the job (or not and have to start over) and would receive a rate of pay. At the end of the week we received "paychecks" based on the number of hours we had been at school previously. The rate of pay was either stating in the job listing or she took an average of what the job paid.
We had to find an apartment and present it to her and fill out a rental application and fake rental agreement.
We opened fake bank accounts and had fake checks printed for us. We had checklists of bills we needed to pay and had to pay them each week. We had to reconcile our checkbooks. We had to pay bills we received from the lead teacher for electricity, gas and water (if it wasn't' included in our rental agreement). We had to pay for at least a bus token to show how we would get to and from work and had to figure out the bus schedules.
We had to make a menu for the month and it was based on flyer's from the grocery stores. We had to present them and if they did not meet the food pyramid they were reject or received a less than passing score.
That course taught me how to file my taxes when we had a real tax preparer come in and discuss it with us.
We consistently had guest speakers come in to give tips on how to interview for jobs, how to open a bank account, how to apply for public assistance (if needed), explain what the process was for food stamps or WIC, discuss nutrition and how to cook. (I didn't learn that, sadly, until much later). We had people from Job Corp come talk to us about their program, we had parenting coaches, we had real world situations to deal with.
My final semester in the school (last semester of my junior year) I WAS the bank for the personal finance program. I entered the checks the other students had written in their "bank accounts". I printed pay checks and distributed them based on the calculations from their time cards. I loved it.
That school was not college prep in any sense of the word. The teacher was very frank with me and told me their GOAL was to send out girls who were prepared to take care of their children. If they graduated from HIGH SCHOOL it was a resounding success. Of the girls that graduated from the school the same year I did (5), only 2 of us went to college. Another went back several years later. Only one has her bachelors, one has her associates. The other dropped out after her first semester. I've been told by that same teacher that 40% attendance to college is amazing and most years they don't have any that go.
It's not quite the same as the real world skills that Wendy talks about, growing food, fixing your own home or equipment.
But it's a glimpse into how schooling COULD be. It could be practical and skill focused. It could prepare those that leave it to become productive citizens instantly or at least sooner than those who don't.,
Don't mistake me, I don't have a problem with someone going to college and majoring in ANYTHING and getting a degree and I expect it of my children if that's their calling.
But if you can't balance a checkbook no amount of money is going to really be a support to you and you're never going to have a real appreciation for it. I suspect the same will be said about food soon but in a more dramatic fashion. If you can't grow your own food you wont have enough time to appreciate the skill it takes to grow it.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
What I am preparing for and what I need
In my fantasy world my family and I would move to a cabin/home in the semi-wilderness with about 5 acres of land. The house would be completely self-sufficient meaning wood burning oven, fireplace, well, composting toilets, root cellar, etc. BUT, we would also have solar and wind power for things like television, movies, computer, etc. That way when the shit hits the fan, as it were, we would be self sufficient and wouldn't suffer from the meltdown that society will experience.
We would have a garden that the entire family would work from, we would have a small farm yard, mostly chickens, maybe a milking cow (assuming someone has a bull down the road for pregnancy) and some goats.
If I win the lotto that will be a top priority.
However, I live in the real world. I have children that need a roof over their heads, food in their bellies and the History Channel. (Okay that's for me)
I also like my job, my profession. I want to work outside the home when feasible and possible.
I live in suburbia and I have friends and family. I don't need them seeing my "crazy" as I call it when it comes to this stuff and I don't want jokes about tinfoil hats or doomsday prophecy.
So...what am I preparing for?
I believe that a global meltdown is inevitable in the very near future. I predict it will be economic. But it could very well be caused by a biological agent such as a pandemic that decimates the worlds population leading to a complete shutdown of society as we know it.
Is that the psycho shower scene music playing in the background?
Anyways, I want to be ready if that happens.
I don't want to try and figure out how to cook for my family for the first time when the power goes out.
I don't want to worry about how to maintain household hygiene after the place is a mess and the water is scarce.
I don't want to worry about where to get food or the danger of trying to loot a grocery store if we run out.
I don't want to worry about security in those kinds of times. (I've turned that over to Survival Dad though. He heard guns and security and was good to go.)
I don't want to worry about drinking water in desperate times.
I don't want to worry about food storage and nutrition.
So - really this blog is for me.
I have so many things and ideas and needs that I want to get in order. This blog is to help me with that.
I need to learn how to garden.
I need to learn how to cook from scratch. And over a camp fire, wood stove or fireplace flame. None of which I have on hand.
I need to learn basic medical safety and guidelines and gather the materials necessary should I need them.
I need to learn how to can and dry food.
I need to teach myself how to eat better.
I need to learn how to become less reliant on fossil fuels and more reliant on natural energy.
I need to be debt free.
I need to learn how to entertain my family when there is no tv, iPhone or electronics.
I need skillz yo.
We would have a garden that the entire family would work from, we would have a small farm yard, mostly chickens, maybe a milking cow (assuming someone has a bull down the road for pregnancy) and some goats.
If I win the lotto that will be a top priority.
However, I live in the real world. I have children that need a roof over their heads, food in their bellies and the History Channel. (Okay that's for me)
I also like my job, my profession. I want to work outside the home when feasible and possible.
I live in suburbia and I have friends and family. I don't need them seeing my "crazy" as I call it when it comes to this stuff and I don't want jokes about tinfoil hats or doomsday prophecy.
So...what am I preparing for?
I believe that a global meltdown is inevitable in the very near future. I predict it will be economic. But it could very well be caused by a biological agent such as a pandemic that decimates the worlds population leading to a complete shutdown of society as we know it.
Is that the psycho shower scene music playing in the background?
Anyways, I want to be ready if that happens.
I don't want to try and figure out how to cook for my family for the first time when the power goes out.
I don't want to worry about how to maintain household hygiene after the place is a mess and the water is scarce.
I don't want to worry about where to get food or the danger of trying to loot a grocery store if we run out.
I don't want to worry about security in those kinds of times. (I've turned that over to Survival Dad though. He heard guns and security and was good to go.)
I don't want to worry about drinking water in desperate times.
I don't want to worry about food storage and nutrition.
So - really this blog is for me.
I have so many things and ideas and needs that I want to get in order. This blog is to help me with that.
I need to learn how to garden.
I need to learn how to cook from scratch. And over a camp fire, wood stove or fireplace flame. None of which I have on hand.
I need to learn basic medical safety and guidelines and gather the materials necessary should I need them.
I need to learn how to can and dry food.
I need to teach myself how to eat better.
I need to learn how to become less reliant on fossil fuels and more reliant on natural energy.
I need to be debt free.
I need to learn how to entertain my family when there is no tv, iPhone or electronics.
I need skillz yo.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Who am I?
When I was a child I briefly lived in a flood zone in Texas. Every time it would rain hard or there was a flood warning I would panic and tie my stuffed animals to my body. All of them. I would pile them in the bed and sleep with as many of them as I could get gripped tightly in my arms so as not to lose them.
I wasn't being selfish and not wanting to give up my toys. In my 6-7 year old mind my stuffed toys were counting on me to protect them. They were helpless (you know, because they aren't alive and stuff) and I needed to save them in case we were caught in a flood.
I did not count on my mother or grandparents protecting me in the floor. I was completely confident in my swimming abilities (I shouldn't have been) and I knew I would be okay in the way that every child believes they are invincible. But my children could not fend for themselves, they could not look after themselves and so they needed me. And I was committed to protecting them.
I see bad things happening every day in the world. I knew the housing boom had to bust. I know credit isn't a cure all. I've seen disasters happening on the movie screen and real life.
I believe that there will come a time very soon that we as a society will be rocked so hard that we will be forced back to basics and will only have ourselves to depend on. I want to prepare for that day.
But I am a city girl. Granted, when I was VERY young we lived in a cabin in the middle of nowhere until I was 5. But once that lifestyle stopped it completely stopped and I became familiar with the creature comforts of running water (of all temperatures), flushing toilets and grocery stores.
I still like those things. I still want to be able to watch my movies and play with my iPhone. I want to take a hot shower and grocery shop at 11pm. BUT, I also want to be prepared in case I can't do any of those things.
This blog will document my journey as I learn skills for surviving in case the world as we know it comes to an end.
I have 3 children, a husband, 2 dogs and a cat. Plus we have family members in the area. I need to plan for all of them to depend on me in our home in case of emergency.
I wasn't being selfish and not wanting to give up my toys. In my 6-7 year old mind my stuffed toys were counting on me to protect them. They were helpless (you know, because they aren't alive and stuff) and I needed to save them in case we were caught in a flood.
I did not count on my mother or grandparents protecting me in the floor. I was completely confident in my swimming abilities (I shouldn't have been) and I knew I would be okay in the way that every child believes they are invincible. But my children could not fend for themselves, they could not look after themselves and so they needed me. And I was committed to protecting them.
I see bad things happening every day in the world. I knew the housing boom had to bust. I know credit isn't a cure all. I've seen disasters happening on the movie screen and real life.
I believe that there will come a time very soon that we as a society will be rocked so hard that we will be forced back to basics and will only have ourselves to depend on. I want to prepare for that day.
But I am a city girl. Granted, when I was VERY young we lived in a cabin in the middle of nowhere until I was 5. But once that lifestyle stopped it completely stopped and I became familiar with the creature comforts of running water (of all temperatures), flushing toilets and grocery stores.
I still like those things. I still want to be able to watch my movies and play with my iPhone. I want to take a hot shower and grocery shop at 11pm. BUT, I also want to be prepared in case I can't do any of those things.
This blog will document my journey as I learn skills for surviving in case the world as we know it comes to an end.
I have 3 children, a husband, 2 dogs and a cat. Plus we have family members in the area. I need to plan for all of them to depend on me in our home in case of emergency.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
