Sunday Review Week Three

I'm starting this early and saving it as a draft.  My days are running together, and I want to make sure I put down everything I've done during the week.

First, I made a decision on my family, and whether to save extra food for them or not.  I decided that God doesn't prepare us all in the same way.  My in-laws have the ability and resources to have a large garden.  They have the ability to compost, can, etc.  They will survive.  My brother in law is doing small things (he has an apartment in a major city) like collecting extra smoothie stuff, so he's taken care of.  My family lives a 10 hour drive away, so there's not much I can do for them.  If it got really rough, I don't think I'd be able to make it home in time to help. 

So, I transferred all the food that I had on a bookcase that I had into the cabinet I moved.  Originally I had just a few things in it in an attempt to start putting stuff away for my in-laws.  I moved just a few things (like beans and rice) to the book shelf and put it in my entryway.  That way, if someone comes to my door begging for food or wanting to work for food, I can give them a small amount and not let them know I have a larger amount in the house.  I can also store my weapons there (I have a couple machetes) so they can see I'm armed.  If things get bad, as in the food stamp system crashes, there will be "refugees."  Saturday night we had a storm that woke me up.  Once I'm awake, my husband's snoring won't allow me to go back to sleep, so I moved to my chair in the living room.  I had dream where I was sitting with a few of my friends and was explaining to one woman just that concept.  So I know it's what God wants me to do.

Right now I'm trying to decide whether to pay off my Discover card (it's only about $3,000) or keep prepping.  I'm leaning towards paying off the debt.  I have to think of the various scenarios, and it's a possibility that it could just be economic trouble as opposed to a total collapse.  If the economy totally collapsed, it really wouldn't matter if you had debt.  But if things just got tight, it would. If the economy totally collapsed, everyone would default on their bills, and I don't think they'd come take your house and vehicles, as they would have too many to round up.  If it's a creeping up in prices, they would, because people would drop off slowly.  As a prepper, I never feel I have enough.  I also want to be able to have a full shelf to "share."

As another thing, I ordered from Amazon.com a set of essential oils.  They were having a sale, where a set of 14 oils (normally $89.95) was on sale for $39.90.  Not only that but when I went to check out, they allowed me to use the $40.65 I had in bonus dollars on my Discover card.  So I basically only paid the shipping out of my pocket.  The kit comes with: Bergamot, Clary Sage, Cinnamon Leaf, Eucalyptus, Grapefruit, Lavender, Lemon, Lime, Patchouli, Peppermint, Rosemary, Spearmint, Sweet Orange & Tea Tree.  I don't know a whole lot about essential oils, only what a friend has told me, so my goal is to learn more.  I went on line with a list of ailments that my family already has, and I'll check to make sure the ones they suggest for those are on this list.  I can't wait until they come in. Update, since I started this in the middle of the week:  The essential oils came in.  I used some lavender on my extremely ADHD son (a drop on the palms, rub together and breathe in). He's really focused, more on that later.

I made a rocket stove, which I've already blogged about.  I plan on trying it sometime this week.

I ordered more heritage/non-GMO seeds.  I have some, but they don't all do well in Texas.  My son planted lettuce for a fall crop to see how it does.  It only produces in the spring, and then wilts in the Texas heat.  I didn't plant as big of a garden this year due to my health problems.  I plan on being better (mostly due to natural remedies) next summer so I'm planning on a bigger garden.

I started a homeopathic on line course.  I can only do 3 chapters a day, have 45 days to complete it and when done I take a test.  Supposedly they will send me a certificate, for a "nominal fee."  I don't need it since I'm not going to "practice," only doing it for personal growth.

I also researched the plants/trees in my yard to see if they would make good essential oils.  I started the process to make rose oil. rose hips oil, Rosemary Oil and my son started mint oil.

My son wants to raise a couple chickens.  Our city allows hens, just not roosters.  He has a friend who has a chicken, so he wants one, too.  I told him if he could build a coop out of scrap lumber, we'd do it.  The lavender I put on his hands has him totally focused on doing just that.  he got a couple sheets of plywood from a neighbor's son's father, and used scraps we had.  It's short, but covered and he's working on the screen door now.  All from found lumber, so no cost to us.  I guess now I'll have to buy either chicks or hens. We'll see how it weathered the storm we had last night.  At least it's still standing.