HOW TO SURVIVE IN HARD TIMES

Prices are soaring as currently, in 2008, we have had the beginning of huge stagflation which is a recession with increasing prices. Wheat was FOUR DOLLARS A BUSHEL A YEAR AGO, 9$ but today it is MORE THAN DOUBLE! in a single year. That means the bakery is really gonna sock it to you. TIME FOR BAKING our
own bread. Make four loaves, freeze three 1/2 and keep loaf ready to use.
Find a BREAD SLICE knife at a thrift store. Serrated teeth.
PRESLICE that half loaf, bag it, keep in fridge!
http://home.earthlink.net/~loveguru/makebread.htm

Get a VITAMIX and make bible bread. (Soaking grain overnight, rinse well,
drain; a vitamix turns the sprouting grain into dough)..no flour is used at
all. Sesame seeds add a great flavor. Try EZEKIEL a loaf all supermarkets
carry for about $3.50 and it is a TRIP! A family project!
Exquisite in every aspect. Smells great, increases your prestige. Can even
become an income source.

CHEAP FOOD  RECIPES:
http://www.masterjules.net/cheapfood.htm

But bread  and breakfast cereal isn't all that has doubled. Bacon doubled, ditto the eggs which have tripled. Gasoline doubled at the pump.

Time to get the habits that get you through stagflation depression. PRACTICE BARTER NOW for things you usually have to pay for in dollars. I put Craigs List ads up reading 'Free baby fruit trees for a bag of potting soil.: Then I describe all these nut and fruit trees in glowing prose. Daily someone comes with a bag of potting soil worth 8$ and some bring double size bags. I keep spitting out orange seeds and planting them in little pots.

Find yourself a small circle of favorite merchants for food, drink, clothing. Find the services you need, the yard work, cleaning people with the same, solid worker/friends.

A small scale circle of FRIENDSHIPS will become the way to survive in hard times when jobs are gone, money is gone, no earning under the table is even possible. when you have to have income on PLASTIC, which I will
never have... being sub rasa..... The way to survive would be to extend our friendships. Use internet lists, FREEGANS which is local, being in every city in the USA. Join free groups.

Talk to the people who serve you, the merchants, cafes. Perhaps I would bring in fruit for my grocer. I use an ethnic, small market as well as a major chain store, but it's time to just think small and smaller. If I were close to the owner of a small produce shop, I could bring oranges. Not worth much, but my girlfriend has a huge guava tree. She could bring guavas which retail for 4$ an lb. But she makes jam and sells each jar for 8$ so perhaps she could trade a gross of jam jars.

If there were an economic meltdown, I'd be bringing him my loquat and oranges packed in boxes, professional looking. I'd be trading a box of fruit, say once a week, for the basics that I can't grow. Coffee and grains.

If I could get a few more girl chickens,(very quiet, don't bother anybody,) I'd have all the eggs I'd need. Maybe enough to sell.

My 80 year old landlord is a really nice guy. He is overworked by the responsibilities of properties. He owns 22 cottages all of which he rents. In a metldown, my son could become his handy man and follow him around and do yard clean-up, plumbing, electrical, build fences, all of which the boy does well but he is a geriatric. Then we'd get some cut in our rent. The work would be an exchange for some of our rent.

That leaves the utilities. In a real crunch, I could cook on a brazier. In fact, I know how to make charcoal by setting hardword on fire, then burying it under ground. It smokes for two days, and voila, you have charcoal. The real deal, and you can cook glorious and very tasty meals on a grill or habachi with charcoal. What you can't do is heat a house as the fumes will kill you but maybe my son could build a fireplace and we'd burn wood.

Think now, what would you do for rent, heat, telephone bills. How much could you barter. (Trust me AT&T won't take oranges so you will need to work for cash. Remember the real depression? How people sold pencils on streetcorners? Nobody needs pencils anymore. What would you do to earn a few dollars.

1. HOLISTIC HEALING. HMO's are turning people away, refusing certain treatments. Hospitals all across the city are closing with the excuse that they don't meet federal guidelines. That crowds the remaining hospitals, so wait times become so lengthy that the federal government closes them, also. I had a friend waiting 14 hours in a waiting room.

2.) MANUFACTURE OF GARMENTS. Sewing, leather work. Sandals. All easy for beginners to do. Knitting.

3.)
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