Attack on Your Right to Garden!!!

I found this post over at American Preppers Network and ask Tom if it would be OK to repost it here. He and I both agreed that this is too important not to pass on to others. Keep in mind folks that this is real, VERY REAL !! Be sure to take a look at the GOOD work that is going on at APN and join the forum too.

Looking more into HR875

For those who think gardens and small farms are safe under this bill, you need to keep reading deeper into the bill....They've purposely made it so long and boring, that you miss the important parts. Therefore, I've taken out just one small but very important part for you to read.

First of all, "food production facilities" ARE regulated. Sure, Food production facilities are excluded from the same regulation as Food establishments, but fall under separate regulation under section 206. Now, as in the definitions: food production facility' means **any** farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation. That is so broad that it could include hobby farms and even gardens. Let's say you have a couple rows of grapes. Can that be a vineyard under their definition? Lets say you have 5 goats and a horse on a 5 acre piece of land. can that be considered a farm? Now go to section 206 Here is just a small part of it. This is where it gets scary....

I've highlighted my comments in Blue

SEC. 206. FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITIES.
(a) AUTHORITIES.—In carrying out the duties of the Administrator and the purposes of this Act, the Administrator shall have the authority, with respect to food production facilities, to—

(1) visit and inspect food production facilities in the United States and in foreign countries (overstepping their bounds a little eh?)to determine if they are operating in compliance with the requirements of the food safety law;

2) review food safety records (are you good at record keeping?) as required to bekept by the Administrator under section 210 and for other food safety purposes;

(3) set good practice standards to protect thepublic and animal health and promote food safety;

***Notice this part***

(4) conduct monitoring and surveillance of animals, plants, products, or the environment, as appropriate; and

5) collect and maintain information relevant to public health and farm practices.

(b) INSPECTION OF RECORDS.—A food production

facility shall permit the Administrator upon presentation of appropriate credentials and at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner, to have access to and ability to copy all records maintained by or on behalf of such food production establishment (Look at this one, I highlighted it in Green, these guys are so STUPID that they are intermingling 2 different defined terms "food establishment" and "food production facility" taking it into context I'm assuming they are talking about a food production facility) in any format (including paper or electronic) and at any location, that are necessary to assist the Administrator— (You want government prying in your personal life more than they already are?)

Plus there's tons more very restrictive legislation. This is an evil bill Co-sponsored by the wife of someone who works for Monsanto

Not to mention, even if it did specifically exclude gardens, hobby farms and organic farms, which it does not, the cost would be so enormous that our already high food prices would go through the roof....If Monsanto favors this bill, it cant be good.

Now, there are those people out there that think this is a good bill because it "protects us", or those that feel small farms and gardens are safe. But some of the problems are

1) They appoint industry leaders as experts. Who do you think will get to be the "expert" a small organic farmer or the CEO of a major corporate farm?
2) The wording is so broad that it's open to interpretation.
3) They appoint "food police" to enforce these regulations.

Now, when the food police come to your "farm" and fine you. You know what they will say? "Sorry, I don't interpret the law, I enforce the law" Can you afford an uphill legal battle to protect your farm, garden, vineyard, orchard, or livestock?

Here's The petition to fight this bill
HR875 Petition
Sign, copy and email this petition to everyone you know.
Drop a comment and let the world know you've done your part

Here's my personal declaration to fight this bill

http://americanpreppersnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/03/hr-875.html

**Note,
Please copy and forward this article to everyone you know and re-post it to your own websites, just make sure there is a link back to this site so we can get more people involved in fighting this bill

Thank you,
Tom

Super Nice Weather !!

We have had some GREAT weather the last two days. Along with the warm Sun comes a lot of work too, and that's fine by me. I love to be out working in the yard and garden, getting ready for planting once again. I can hardly wait for the smell of freshly turned dirt and wild onions to fill the air. This weather gets me so excited I can hardly stand myself, I know others have a hard time standing me too..lol The chickens have celebrated the first of spring with a bounty of eggs, gathered 11 eggs from my 7 layers in the last two days. I'm so proud of them girls and glad to have them back in action. Eggs have been scarce through the long winter months. Still not recovered the greenhouse, it's on the short list now, but will be starting some tomato's inside in our little mini greenhouse tray tomorrow. Would love to do it today but we have all played ourselves out for the day. Should sleep good tonight, with thoughts of seeds,bulbs and plants filling my dreams. There seems to be nothing that feels more at home in my hand than the well worn handle of a hoe or shovel, we become one if only for a short while. It's like shaking hands with and old friend, it's hard not to smile.

The goats and the girls had a nice day in the goat lot playing. Here's a few picks of my animals..LOL

Auto Repair and Sloopy Joe's

Well, my Jeep and I have been having some issues. The issue being that my charging systems was getting kinda wacky. Once the Jeep was started, the check engine light would come on and my volt meter would hit rock bottom. After referring to my repair manual I came to the conclusion that my alternator was bad. Two hours later I finally was able to get it off, pretty tough job on my Jeep. By that time all the auto parts stores has closed so I had to wait until this morning to go to town and try to locate one. First stop, Auto Zone. I took the alternator inside and ask if they had one in stock that would replace mine. The guy at the counter said he could check it first if I wanted. Hey, you bet man, check it out. Tested 100% Positive, my alternator was in perfect shape after only 212,000 miles. Great news, a new one was gonna set me back $105.00. The gentlemen then advised me to check all my connections at the battery and the alternator to make sure they were clean and tight. Well, I know they were tight but I'm not too sure about how clean the are. After getting back home (with my $105.00 still resting in my wallet) I began to clean all the connections, all of then. Needing it or not, they all got a good cleaning with a piece of sand paper. Now they are all nice and shinny. After I put everything back together I crossed my fingers and gave it a try. It started right up and the charging system was fixed with zero dollars out of pocket. All thanks to the good guys at Auto Zone in London Kentucky, thanks guys.

Well, after that was all over I had to have something to eat. I skipped breakfast to get an early start on the Jeep project. Nothing in the fridge seemed to catch my eye. It was then that I remembered I had bought some Sloppy Joe Sauce for my food storage. This seemed like a great time to try it out, anything sounded pretty good at this point. 1lb of ground beef, OK, maybe 2 lbs, and 1 can of sauce and I was in business. The smell made my mouth water, my eyes too. We had bought a loaf of Italian bread on sale yesterday and it seemed like a good combo, so I toasted the bread. After a long day under the hood all I can say is.......MMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Warm weather and time with the Goats

Been really nice here today, around 60 degrees and partly cloudy. This morning I could hear the birds singing their songs of spring and it really got me excited all over. I hauled several loads of sawdust to add to the garden today trying to build up the garden beds some. Most of the rest of the day has been spent with the goats. Katie just can't get enough of the goats and neither can I. I am looking forward to getting my hands in the dirt soon. I need to get some onions started and I also need to work on the greenhouse some too. The plastic that I used to cover it is pretty well gone now. Also have some ginseng roots and seeds on order and can't wait til they get here so I can get started on that project too. Just been trying to stay busy and do the things that will make my spring work a little easier. There is always something to be done here on the farm it's just trying to figure out which one to do next. Me and Katie have had a good day and we are going back outside to play. Sorry I have been so long posting but there has just not been a lot going on to post about, at least not anything anyone would want to read about. LOL

Picture of me and Katie in the goat lot. Liv took it with her phone and it's not very big. But anyway here we are enjoying the goats.

Thinking about a cash crop

Before you get too carried away I'm not planning on a pot field. (That's what closets and grow lights are for.) LOL But, from some research I've done on the Internet, one could make some pretty good money from raising ginseng. Although cultivated ginseng in no way demands the high price per pound that wild "seng" brings it is still a good investment of time, land and money to raise and harvest. From what I have read (and I will be reading much more) one can expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 to $100,000.00 from an acre of cultivated ginseng in about 5 to 7 years of growth. The idea is to plant some each year for maybe 7 years and then in the 7th year you harvest, sell and replant more in that spot. The 2nd year you do the same with your next plot of ground and on and on. This would give you an income each year after your first crop gets to harvest/market size. Now I have no plans for planting an acre but I would like to dedicate some land towards this venture. Property on a hillside under trees and out of the way would be great for my use. I'm not doing anything with this land anyway so why not put it to some use. You can plant seeds or small rootlets that you have found or dug yourself or you can order them here. There are many websites that sell these products.

My question is, do any of you raise ginseng and have you had any success with it? Is this a good idea? I would love to hear your comment or ideas on this subject, I think it would be a lot of fun. If I don't have enough to make any money at least I would have it for personal use. Below is some information that I found about Daniel Boone that I thought you my find interesting, I did.

Daniel Boone, often remembered as a pioneering woodsman in Kentucky for his fur trading prowess (among other things), made a good part of his fortune not only on furs and skins, but also on a small and unassuming plant known as ginseng that still grows throughout the forests of eastern North America.



Though Boone lost twelve tons of ginseng roots in 1788 when his boat overturned in the Ohio River on his way to market in Philadelphia, he did much better in subsequent years, amassing his fortune.

Birthday Girl

Friday, February 13th, my baby girl turned 3 years old. We had Katie a birthday party at a restaurant in town and all the kids attended a cooking class. Each child made their own pizza from scratch and had a really good time.

Here is Katie making her very own Pizza.

All the kids got their hands dirty in the process. We must have made 100 trips to the sink for them to wash their hands. If nothing else, they did learn that you must have clean hands if you're gonna cook.

Here is Olivia, Katie and Me too, lol. Katie was getting pretty tired by the time this picture was taken. Boy, I tell ya, I'm looking way too old to have a 3 year old. I guess that's what I get for having a woman that is 10 years younger than me. I'm too damn old for either one them . LOL

Walmart Zombies

You've seen them. Hands with a death grip on their shopping cart. I fixed straight ahead. Roaming the isles and stopping systematically to put items in the cart, half zombie half robot like. Answering the subliminal messages that that big smiley face sends out to them. MUST..SPEND...ALL...OUR ...MONEY...ON...WORTHLESS...JUNK...MADE...IN...COMMUNIST CHINA. You can sometimes hear them mumbling under their breath. Walmart is a scary place to me. I hate to even step in the door of that place. I had to get my medicine today, I usually always get it filled at my local Kroger. They were out and I had to venture in to Zombie Mart to get what I had to have. While waiting for them to fill my meds, I listened to three people talk about how much they were selling their pain pills for. They seemed rather proud of the fact that they were making a good second income from their medicine that Medicare was paying for. They too were of course..Zombies. I watched and listened in amazement at the actions of the people in there. It was in one way pretty funny, in another pretty scary. Even in the parking lot they were ever present. Nearly driving over top of people to get a parking spot close to the door. I could see that I was surrounded by Zombies everywhere. I was happy when my name was called so I could get out of there. Next time, if there is one, I will take silver bullets, a wooden stake and a cross. Not sure if any of these work on Walmart Zombies but it's worth a try. If you have to go to Walmart be aware that they are everywhere they. Please be careful. To see a video of Walmart Zombies be sure to watch the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG0MEZgxczk