Why I Hate Obamacare

I try really hard to ignore politics.  It is all a show, and we don't really have any influence over any of it.  But, I can't ignore the comments of my friends on Facebook, gloating about the Affordable Care Act being approved by the Supreme Court, and making fun of people who want to move to Canada to get away from Obamacare.  Because, you know, if a system that forces people who can't afford health coverage to pay for it anyway is bad, then a system that spreads the cost of healthcare around based on income must be worse, right?  Except it's not, at least not for most of us.  If I weren't already planning to move to Mexico, I might want to move to Canada to escape this ill-conceived law. 

Let's suppose I'm a member of a financially typical American household a couple of years from now, and lack employer-paid health coverage.  Fewer and fewer of us are covered by employer plans as unemployment and downward mobility increase.  What happens when we're required to pay for health coverage, or pay a large fine, on top of the bills we're already struggling to pay?  First, if we eat healthy foods, that will probably have to stop.  Healthy foods are expensive; foods made from subsidized GMO corn are cheap.  Maybe we'll have to work longer hours or take a second job, or put up with a job we hate.  Maybe we'll have to give up vacations or hobbies.  Maybe we'll default on some debts, even our mortgage.  Is any of this good for our health?  I would suggest that, in fact, someone like me who eats homegrown organic vegetables and grass-fed meats, uses herbal home remedies, gets enough sleep and has time to relax, but has no access to medical care, is likely to be healthier than someone who is overworked, eating poorly, stressed, sleep-deprived, and under the care of a doctor.  It's not hard to predict that this law will make Americans overall less healthy.  So what will it accomplish? 

Well, one way or another, I guarantee you this law is designed to transfer wealth from the poor to the rich.  Maybe they're counting on a lot of people defaulting on debts, and will use it to push through another bank bailout.  Maybe they want to boost the health-care segment of the economy at the expense of our real health.  Maybe they want to crush the local and organic food movements.  Or make hospital care inaccessible to the undocumented.  Or all of the above.

If the government really wanted health care to be affordable, I have some suggestions for what they might do.  For one, eliminate multimillion-dollar malpractice awards.  Cut the lawyers and the insurance companies out of the deal.  For two, provide basic preventive health care very cheaply to everyone, but put a reasonable cap on how much subsidized health care anyone can consume.  It seems harsh to our modern sensibilities, but unlimited tests and life-extending medical treatments cannot be provided when their costs are too much for society to bear: this is like asking your grandchildren to carry you around on their backs for 20 years.  Just because medical science can invent it, doesn't mean we can afford it.  For three, stop subsidizing the industrial food system to produce cheap foods that make people sick. 

I actually don't think the Affordable Care Act will last very long, regardless of who is elected president.  I think enough people will simply refuse to pay for health coverage they can't afford.  The income limits to qualify for free coverage will have to be extremely low as people get poorer, because there have to be enough payers to support the added costs.  The pressure to overturn it will simply be too great.  But, I hope I won't be here to find out.  Good luck, America.

Food Storage for Short Timers

So, once you've decided to make a long-distance move in less than a year, what do you do with your long-term food storage?  I have buckets of grains, a handful of #10 cans of commercially dehydrated food, and canisters and jars of beans, grains, nuts, seeds, spices, and home-canned foods.  Other than possibly some empty Mason jars, I can't take any of this with me.  Very little of my large extended pantry is really set aside for long-term storage, most of it is already in rotation and is periodically replaced as we consume it.  The obvious solution is to eat this food and stop replacing our stores.  The problem is, if something happens, I might get caught with my pantry down.  We still need emergency food supplies, in fact now more than ever, the way things appear to be going. 

I've decided to make a couple of changes in the way I manage my pantry.  One is to stop buying in bulk: no more 50-pound bags of anything.  Another is to start canning fully prepared meals rather than ingredients, and to can things in smaller batches.  The idea is to diversify the pantry so that we can wait until our departure is very close to eat down our stored food.  We won't eat 100 pounds of grains or a dozen jars of pickles in 2 months, but we might eat an equivalent amount of diverse stored foods if they include plenty of convenience foods like home-canned chili.  Of course all this means more expense and more work, but the work I put in now preparing meals will be rewarded in the hectic days of packing, and will save us the expense of buying take-out during busy times.  Another strategy is to replace some home-canned foods in our pantry with commercially canned foods, and buy things like pasta in regular-sized packages, so that what we don't use can be donated to a food bank or easily distributed among friends.

Changing Priorities

I haven't written in a while, and I'm not sure what the near-term future of this blog will be.  I'm in a sort of transition from doing things I know to doing things that are new to me, and as such, I have little to share here other than personal updates.  

The spring planting had barely begun when I lost interest in gardening.  Oh, don't worry, we'll still grow an impressive garden by most people's standards, but it isn't my focus right now.  Maybe it was the arrival of the first hot, humid days (have I mentioned how much I hate this climate?), or the shift from planning to actual work, or just my contrary nature that wants to do things at the wrong time of year.  But it was also, at least in part, other things.  After my last post, I made a decision.  I finally committed, within myself, to the move to Mexico.  And once I had done that, I began to see a new life for myself, and to move towards it.  I challenged myself to learn a craft - or several crafts - that I can use to make a living, and I claimed one of the two now-empty bedrooms upstairs for a workshop.  I started doing some sewing - working on the mending pile to start - and catching up on the knitting projects I haven't wanted to touch since January. I started thinking about leathercrafting again, and trying to get my former roommate to bring my shoemaking book back to me.   

And another thing happened around that time.  Danny, the guy I lived with in Mexico, who I was nearly certain was dead (of AIDS, which he was diagnosed with 11 years ago), e-mailed me after almost 5 years of total silence.  Not just silence towards me - he totally abandoned his email account, which I had set up for him years ago and he never changed the password to - so the only thing keeping it from being closed down was that I would take a peek every 6 months to see if he had read or sent any messages.  Not because I'm a stalker, but just to see if he was still alive, because I had no other way to get in touch with him.  It turns out his girlfriend  had forbidden him to use email, out of jealousy, but they recently broke up.  I have no intentions of resuming any kind of romantic relationship with Danny, but it's nice to know that he's alive.  We parted as close friends and we both consider the other an important person in our respective pasts.  I was sad to think he had died, and I was also feeling like a bit of a "black widow", thinking I had two dead ex'es already at my age.  But it's also good to think that I know someone in Mexico, again.  It was enough to tip the scales of my indecision. 

It will probably be almost a year before I can go, because of my husband's immigration proceedings, and that's okay with me because I have a lot of affairs to put in order, and crafting skill to develop.  I'm not even at a list-making point yet, but this new vision of my future will affect all my decisions from here on out.  For example, it had occurred to me that I should buy a Kindle rather than try to ship my print library (of course I'll still take a few books).  So I jumped on a deal to get a refurbished one for $49 today.  Little did I know that practically every literary classic is available for free download for Kindle, which goes a long way toward solving my homeschooling-without-libraries problem.  I cringe at the thought of depending on another electronic device, but the thing only has to be charged once a month, and the alternative - shipping the books and moving them around until I settle into a permanent home - is unwieldy and energy-intensive. 

So, much of the time and energy I was putting into homesteading, food-storing, and other non-portable activities (of course, we still have to eat for the next year so there will be some gardening and preserving) will now be put into things like crafting, purging and organizing my belongings, and saving money.  If those things hold any interest for you, please continue to accompany me on my journey.  For me, it is bittersweet: this may be the beginning of a permanent separation from homesteading for me, which is something I love and have gotten quite skilled at.  On the other hand, because I have largely mastered the basics of homesteading, I've been longing for something new lately.

  

Prepping gets Personal

I've been depressed and unmotivated lately.  It has caused me to examine my lifestyle and motivations again, and to do some tweaking.  Things that work for me, that add something to our quality of life, or at least don't take much away from it, made the cut.  Some things that I was doing purely out of guilt or fear, or based on someone else's priorities, were set aside for now.  Life is too short to live by someone else's priorities.  Am I the only one who does that?  I tend to get on a certain intellectual and lifestyle track that I find appealing, read a certain type of blogs telling me how to live, and proceed to shove my square life into that round hole.  For the past couple of years, it's been the homesteading/DIY/prepper/declinist/peak oil community.

But my situation is unique, as is everyone else's.  I've been mostly trying to adapt to a future of food and energy shortages, climate change, economic collapse, and other universal, generic, and somewhat abstract concerns, the kind that are commonly discussed in the "blogosphere".  I've largely ignored the factors that are most likely to affect me and my family in the short to medium term, and the things that give us the most bang for our buck. 


For example, getting my husband's green card this year is a more important investment for us than, say, solar panels or a wood cook stove.  After that is done (because I can't move before it's done), deciding whether or not to move to Mexico by myself with my son should be my highest priority.  My inertia in regard to that decision has been bothering me for a long time, and I need to give it more attention.  While I don't make decisions based on pros-and-cons lists, I think they can help to organize my thoughts.  So I made some lists: pros of staying here, pros of moving to Mexico, concerns about staying here, and concerns about moving to Mexico. 

I found that the things on my list "concerns: moving to Mexico" were things I've already given a lot of thought to, like: being alone, far from family and friends; separating my son from his father; having to start from zero in finding a place to live; homeschooling without access to good libraries; depending on my husband to send money; and having to transport or replace all our stuff.  But the things on the "concerns: staying here" list are things I have been reluctant to think about, such as how we're going to get by on one income when my unemployment runs out; what we're going to do if the car dies before we can afford to replace it; my son not having kids his age to play with here; the probability of eventually needing medical care and not being able to afford it; and the possibility of losing the house we live in and becoming homeless (for example, if something happened to my mother, who owns it).  The list of pros for staying here is quite small so far - the principal one being that our homestead is fairly well established.  The list of pros for moving to Mexico include the fact that it is a more resilient society and much better adapted to living in poverty; a more pleasant climate (I despise our humid summers); being able to escape from my unhappy marriage; and my husband being free to take a traveling job (installing roofing, with some relatives) where he would require neither a car nor a home.  

Making decisions based on incomplete information and educated guesses about the future is hard.  It sure would be nice if there was someone writing a blog about my specific concerns, whose advice would be really helpful.  Of course, I'm on my own on this one. 

Canning Shad

Shad is my favorite fish, and my favorite springtime food.  An ocean fish that spawns in rivers, like salmon, it is a seasonal delicacy.  Its main drawback is that it is a very bony fish, so bony that it is difficult to debone even a small piece to feed to a small child.  The other day I had an inspiration: why not try canning it?  Of course, the internet provided a recipe.  It involved simply brining pieces of fish for one hour in a solution of one cup salt to one gallon water, then raw packing with the skin-side towards the glass, and pressure canning pints or half-pints (with one inch headspace) for one hour and 40 minutes. 

I had one jar fail to seal, so we had shad cakes for breakfast the next day.  My son loved the "fish burgers".  I expected it to be like canned salmon, with bones that are not dangerous but still present.  We could not find a single bone in the whole pint, and I assure you there were a lot of them in there!  They completely dissolved.  Of course I used the liquid from the jar so no nutrients were lost.  I also cooked the fins and backbones and fed those to my chickens, who left no trace behind!  (If I didn't have chickens, I could have buried them under a vegetable plant.)  So other than the scales and the head, which were cut off before I bought them, nothing of those fish went in the garbage.  And, we benefited from all the calcium in their bones.  Both high-quality protein and calcium sources are a weakness in my long-term food storage, so I will be canning another batch this week.  This time I won't bother to remove the backbone.

I purchased 3 fish and ended up with 8 and a half pints.  It cost me $13.43 at the locally-owned seafood store across the street from my house (for the fish, not counting 15 cents or so for salt, and not counting the electricity to run the pressure canner for nearly 2 hours).  If shad is a local food in your area, I encourage you to try canning some!

Why I'm Not a Survivalist (A Rant)

I recently joined a "prepper" group here in Richmond.  I was looking to broaden my social network and went browsing on Meetup, and this was the most active of several groups I joined.  Since my son was born, my main social interactions have been with through a local "crunchy mama" group, but it's not as good a fit as it used to be.  The prepper group has some very good classes, and they seem to be nice enough people.  Urban homesteading, which is my defining interest and activity these days, overlaps in many ways with survivalist "prepping".  Does this make me a survivalist?  I have a lot in common with many survivalists, but I do not consider myself one.  In fact, I often find hard-core survivalists really irritating.  For example, I keep hearing how great this guy is that writes the "Surviving in Argentina" blog.  Supposedly his experience surviving the economic collapse in Argentina makes him an authority.  But all he seems to write about is guns, self-defense, bugging out, and similar topics.  Although he lives in Argentina and has a Spanish name, his writings betray no interest in, participation in, understanding of, or respect for, the culture of that country.  He could just as easily be writing in Texas or Montana, and I'm sure that's why he's so popular. Admittedly, I haven't read very much of what the guy writes, because I get overwhelmed with disgust when I try.  

I have not experienced an economic collapse.  But, I have lived through personal crisis and extreme poverty in Mexico City, and if I were to write about that, it would look very different.  I would tell you about how I adapted to a very difficult situation, and how different it was in reality from what I expected, and how much courage I discovered in myself, and how the experience changed me.  I would tell you about the interesting people I got to know and the subculture my street-musician boyfriend introduced me to.  I would tell you about having only two changes of clothes, and going as long as 10 days without a shower.  I would tell you about taking care of my boyfriend, who was diagnosed with AIDS and tuberculosis after we had been together for a year, and who I alone supported.  I would tell you about the first time I got on a city bus to sell chocolate bars, because I could make as much in a few hours doing that as working an office job all day, and I couldn't leave my boyfriend alone all day when he was sick, and about how long I sat at the bus stop trying to get up the courage to do it.  I would tell you that in Mexico City, it's hard to starve to death, because there's always someone who will lend you a meal if you know how to ask.  I would tell you how we maintained friendships in a city of 30 million without knowing anyone's address, phone number, or email.  I would tell you about the homeless shelters and rat holes we slept in.  I would tell you about the wonderful food we ate, and the culinary revelation that is Mexico.  I would tell you about how I lost my fear, and even the police couldn't intimidate me.  I would tell you how I managed to live in the city that even most Mexicans are afraid to visit, and walk down its streets in the middle of the night alone, without being afraid.  I would tell you what things "preppers" worry about that are silly, and what I think they should worry more about.  I would tell you why it broke my heart to leave Mexico, and why I still want to go back. 

I do want to hear stories of economic collapse in other countries, just not the kind of stories this guy is writing.

Planning for Food Preservation, Part 2

In this second part, I'm using the term "food preservation" rather loosely.  These are the foods you don't have to do any work to preserve, but that form an important part of the winter and spring pantry.  While your canned foods tend to be heavy in condiments and sauces (important to sustain your spirit), these are the calorie crops that will really sustain your body.

First, the root vegetables.  Potatoes are critical, and we're planting more this year, but still not as many as we should.  That's because we had a total crop failure of potatoes last year, and we're being cautious about how much space we give them, until we find a reliable system of growing them.  Potatoes are supposed to be one of the easiest things you can grow, so getting a negative harvest (fewer than what you planted) is very frustrating.  Sweet potatoes also did very poorly for us last year, and we are trying them again this year, but I ordered some heirloom varieties, including one from right here in Virginia that is supposed to do well in clay soil (ordered from Sand Hill Preservation Center).  Sweet potatoes store really well at room temperature in my pantry (we keep our house around 62 degrees in winter).  In fact, I don't think I've ever had one go bad, though they will start sprouting in April.  I've got a box of them I need to finish off now, in fact.  

In the fall garden, turnips and winter radishes grow quite well for us, and, at least in winters like this one, keep right in the garden until spring.  I will be planting a lot more turnips and winter radishes this year, because we ran out of the latter and could have eaten more of the former.  These crops take so little work to grow, and whatever we don't eat can just be tilled in to add organic matter to the soil, so there is no reason not to grow plenty.  I cut up the turnips, radishes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and whatever else I've got and toss them with oil and/or butter and salt, and roast, for our basic winter side dish.

Collards are reliable and also overwintered well this year.  I will add kale, cress, and spinach next year to have more variety of greens.  Now, if I could just get someone in the house besides me to eat them....

I am growing some keeping tomatoes this year.  Keeping tomatoes are a type of tough-skinned tomato that keeps well in storage.  It's not a popular thing these days, because greenhouse tomatoes have replaced them.  But, I think it's important to preserve these varieties for our descendants, who won't have plastic greenhouses. 

Winter squashes and pie pumpkins are an important part of most local diets in winter.  I always end up buying some kind of winter squash seeds, because the descriptions are so wonderfully romantic.  The incredible variety of squashes, their beauty, their size, and their keeping qualities make them very appealing.  If I have a few big pumpkins in my pantry, I feel secure.  The problem is, I don't like eating them.  Other than in pie, I much prefer sweet potatoes to winter squashes.  And, I always end up with some winter squashes that I either can't resist buying at the market, or that someone gives me, so I have no need to grow them.  So, I'll be growing seed pumpkins instead.  Pumpkin seeds are the most expensive ingredient in a seeded granola recipe I like to make, and they are in ingredient in Mexican sauces.  I don't know how to shell the seeds from ordinary pumpkins, so I'm growing a naked-seed type called Lady Godiva.  This marvel is quite hard to find - of all my seed catalogs, only Sand Hill offered it this year.  The flesh of these pumpkins is good food for livestock, like goats.

Oilseed crops are an important part of our diets, which most of us don't grow.  In addition to the seed pumpkins, I'll be planting peanuts, sesame, sunflower seeds, and rapeseed this year, all of which, besides sunflowers, are new crops for us.  I want to buy a hand-cranked oil extractor and start making fresh vegetable oil.  Fats for cooking are something I wouldn't want to be without, and I don't have a way to produce significant amounts of animal fats on my homestead.  

Grains are also important.  We will be growing field corn, more seriously this year than we have in the past.  Corn is not only the easiest grain to process at home, but is central to my husband's food culture and therefore to his happiness.  This is the crop I have the hardest time narrowing down to only two varieties, and this year I've chosen a gourdseed corn, which I will plant early, and a flour corn, which I will plant late, both of which are supposed to be good for tortillas.  I'm growing sorghum Sudan as a cover crop this year, but next year I want to start experimenting with grain sorghums, which can also be used to make tortillas, are excellent chicken feed, and require less fertility than corn.  We will be experimenting with amaranth this year.  We will grow millet for the chickens.  I am planning to plant a little buckwheat as a cover crop, and since we don't like it, the chickens will probably get that too.  Feeding chickens is something I'm taking very seriously this year, because I'm tired of buying GMO grains for them.  The good thing about pressing oil at home is that the oilcake that is left over afterwards, which is high in protein, is a good ingredient for homemade chicken feed. 

Dried beans are also an important staple for us.  Growing dried beans is one of the least profitable uses of one's time and land that I can think of, considering what they cost, but it's something we want to know how to grow.  My husband loves fresh blackeyed peas, so those can't be skipped.  We're also going to experiment with planting the ubiquitous Central American bean, the red silk bean.  No one grows it in the USA that I know of, and we don't know how it will do, but we're going to try it.  There simply isn't any other dried bean we like as well for a simple bean soup and for refried beans.  I don't often have good things to say about Central American cuisine, but they do have the best beans.