Life As I See It

This third part of “Welcome To The New World” deals with what you can do to alleviate the pain that is sure to come with the New World. The energy shortages and the shortages and high cost of raw materials are going inflict pain on us all. If we are to have some semblance of the life that we have now, we have to make changes. The changes do not have to be harsh. With thought you will be able to live as good or better than you do now.

One solution for the new world is to live like the Amish. I don’t mean to embrace the Amish religion; although there would be nothing wrong with that. The Amish make do for themselves and either grow or make most of what they need to live. You won’t see a garbage truck picking up garbage in front of an Amish farm. The Amish reuse, recycle or compost whatever they can. This is why I say to live like the Amish:

1.The Amish believe that to rely on others for your survival, such as having to buy the majority
of your food, is sinful. They grow as much of their own food as possible and barter or trade with
other farmers for what they don’t grow themselves. All of us can grow much of our own food even if
we only have a small city lot. Check out the Garden Girl website and the Path To Freedom website
for ideas on what you can do.
2.Many believe that the Amish won’t use electricity. This is wrong. Many Amish are now putting solar collectors on their homes to generate their own electricity. They aren’t against electricity they just feel that you shouldn’t have to rely on a corporation for something as basic as power.
3.The Amish feel that if someone needs help it is sinful not to help them. We’ve all see pictures of the Amish getting together for barn raisings. What we don’t see too often are the pictures of the Amish helping their neighbors with the field work and home building. The Amish don’t wait for their neighbors to ask for help; if help is needed it will happen.
4.The Amish don’t have computers, IPods, boom boxes or other fads of the moment. If the item isn’t required for what is necessary, to live they don’t have any need for it. Contrary to popular belief the Amish do have electronic gadgets like computers if they are necessary for their business.
5.Usually you will find that the Amish have a source of income to bring in cash for the things they might need to buy. The Amish spend their money very frugally. Many of the Amish are skilled carpenters and they build houses and sheds for the “non-Amish.”
6.The Amish feel that to be in debt to someone puts you at risk of being dragged into sin. They feel that if you haven’t any debts no one can have control over your life. The Amish pay cash when they do have to buy something and if they don’t have the cash for a purchase or can’t barter for it they do without the purchase until they can afford to pay cash.

So how can living like the Amish help you to avoid the pain of the New World?

1.Eliminate all of your debt. Pay off all of your bills as quick as you can and avoid making new debt. Teach your children the real cost of living a life on credit.
2.Buy that small piece of ground that will allow you to grow as much of your own food as possible. If the ground is larger than you need you can rent out ¼ acre plots for gardens. You would be amazed to find that many people are looking for some ground for a garden. A ¼ acre garden is great for most people. Just ask anyone who has tried to have a one acre garden. If you had 10 acres and let people rent ¼ acre plots from you for one season at $100, although I am sure you could get more in most areas, you would have $4000 toward your mortgage.
3.Plan your garden carefully. Don’t plant what your family won’t eat. It doesn’t make sense to plant 20 zucchini plants. Think of what your storage needs are. Will you can the produce when it all comes at harvest time or will you freeze or dry it? In many places in the USA you will be able to grow your greens in the winter with only a simple raised bed covered by PVC hoops covered with plastic.
4.Work from home if you can. Working from home will save you a lot of the money that you would spend on gasoline, day care and the wear and tear on your vehicles if you had to drive to work. Sell you boss on the idea buy telling him/her that he will save by not having to provide office space and equipment for you. If you really think about your job I’m sure that 70% of the work being done could be done from home.
5.Get a second income. This could be money from doing what you are doing in your full-time job, making furniture, making wooden toys, repairing things, painting houses or rooms, etc. The next time that you see a house being built stop at the roll-off dumpster that is at every building site and look in it. You will find more scrap wood than you can use. That 8” 2 X 4 is pretty much worthless when you’re building a house but think of the nice wooden toy truck that you could make. Look on the Internet and see how much a bat house or bird costs. You’ll find that bat houses (shelters) sell for $75-$100 each. Couldn’t you afford to make and sell them for $25 if your raw material costs were nothing? Bird houses are priced out of this world in stores. Saturday and Sunday could be spent selling those “Nontoxic Finished Birdhouses.” Build the birdhouses out of the scrap lumber and finish them with a coat of vegetable oil or linseed oil. (Danger: linseed oil soaked rags will ignite by spontaneous combustion if thrown in a pile.) In this day and age people are looking for safe toys for their children. I can hear people right now saying that they’ve tried this and they couldn’t sell what they made. If you analyze your experience it will become obvious why you failed. When people buy handmade items from a roadside they are looking for a bargain. You have little or no material costs so you prices should be cheaper than what they would pay in a store. Your efforts should be to bring in a little extra money not to become an instant millionaire. How many times have you walked into a souvenir shop with your kids and found the prices were astronomical? You probably looked around and then bought a couple of $5 dollar items for the kids.
6.Forget about using your credit cards. Have you ever read the terms and conditions of the agreement? Did you get to the part that says they can change the agreement any time they want? Did you read the part that says if your payment is late the interest rate goes to 34.5% per annum? What is going to happen if the post office loses your payment and you don’t know it until the next bill comes? What is going to happen if a major bill that you didn’t expect happens? If you incur charges on your card pay them off right away.
7.Eat well, don’t smoke and exercise. Believe me; you can’t afford an unhealthy lifestyle. You must do everything in your power to be as healthy as you can be. It is many times easier and cheaper to remain healthy than to pay a doctor or hospital to make you healthy. Don’t forget your teeth. Bad teeth can affect many other parts of your body. A regular cleaning can go a long way toward oral health.
8.Be energy wise. Investigate solar to se if it would be cost effective for you. Caulk, insulate, repair and manage energy to conserve energy. Turn off lights, use CFLs, buy energy efficient appliances, investigate fuel coops, use compost instead of fertilizers, educate your children so that energy conservation becomes second nature to them, keep telling yourself every day that energy is costly and you must conserve it.