Solar Flares - Do you have the Survival Skills to Survive the Predictions?

The news of late are solar flares. Do you have any traditional skills or country knowledge? Could you survive a worldwide disaster? Read the latest article on smart farming by Gypsy, our resident blogger.

It's summer here in the US and time most of us are outside rather then on the computer. I know this is the time of year you hear less and less from me. Holding down a farm by myself is time consuming at best. I do apologize for my absence during these warm seasons.

Something that has come into the news lately and has sparked an interest in survivalist type living as well as homesteading is solar flares. I'm hearing more and more from the groups I belong to about what will happen when the solar flares hit like they did in 1859.

NASA says that these predicted solar flares will literally take us back to the 1800s. This is something that scares the living crap out of some of us, while others won't really notice. For me personally, I can haul water, I can live without the Internet, I have a horse and buggy, but I will desperately miss my washing machine. It's a mile walk to the river, then down a steep bank that the county lined with huge rocks due to floods in the 90s, then the act of actually having to wash by hand. Oh how I admire my grandmother more and more, just thinking about it.

I have said many times I think this country would do better to have less. Our children and even people my age take so much for granted. I take so much for granted.

If we were taken back in time for only a month, what would we learn about ourselves? What would we learn about us as a nation? I don't think it would be a bad thing, I do think it would be very hard. This in itself is sad.

When we forget how to care for ourselves, be self reliant, depend on our own hands not the hand outs of the government to support us, fix us and parent us. If you stop and think, where did Betsy Ross get the materials to sew that flag from? It wasn't Wal Mart.

I'm not saying I want solar flares to happen. I really don't. I like my washing machine and running water. I'm saying that we in this time of plenty take so many things for granted. How many of us can make simple cheese, or soap? How many can butcher a deer or kill a rabbit? The things that grow in our yards that are edible are most likely what most people are killing with weed killer. Left with only grass, what will they eat? It's something to think about in deed.

I have thought about this for a while. I haven't acted on it, but I have given it much thought. Over time, three rabbits produce as much meat as one cow. One goat can provide enough milk and dairy products to support a family of 4. 12 hens and 1 rooster can supply enough eggs and meat for a family of 4. 6 geese can provide enough down to fill bedding and pillows as well as meat for a family of 4.

A well thought out garden of 70x70 can produce enough vegetation for a family of 4. You need 5 acres or a trip down the road hand cutting grasses to do this. This includes your living area.

It's more about knowledge then space. It's more about not being lazy then it is about what you actually have in front of you. Working smarter not working harder. I have heard from many people who have spent small fortunes on alternative energy and the like. If you think about it they didn't have solar panels in the 1800s so they weren't spending thousands to buy it.

You don't have to be rich, you have to be smart. Back in the day a normal wedding gift was a pair of geese. This was a symbol that the marriage would last as long as the geese lived. Geese live 75yrs and more. It was also a start for a home as geese supplied a soft bed, and meat. They weeded the garden, they fertilized it too. How many of us today weed our gardens instead of allowing a goose to do it while we do more important things?

Our lives are about the quality of our lives, not how hard we can work, but how much quality of life does our work bring to us?

Somethings to think about as we near the year NASA tells us solar flares will hit, the year 2012. Nope... I'm not a doomsday person. Nope.. I don't want solar flares to come. I do want to live better, work smarter and laugh more.

By Gypsy, our resident homestead blogger from One Sky Ranch Gypsy's Wanderings Homestead Blog

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