It has been a while... Time to catch up on some things :-)

Sorry it has been a while since I have posted.  Life gets crazy.  I have lots to share, but I will break it up over a bunch of posts so as to not put you to sleep.

Welcome to 2015 everyone.  I hope and pray you are doing well and everyone is safe, sound, healthy, and happy! 

Lots and lots has happened.  I will get my news posts and current events data going again some time soon.  I know folks come by to check on a news article or something specific they are looking for that came up in a internet search.  So I will get those posts going again as soon as I can free some time up. 

I hope you are all preparing, planning, taking steps, and watching the events around us unfold.  We have to be watchmen and watchwomen as the case may be.  The saying we make hay while the sun shines.  Every day we have to prepare is a day of Thanksgiving! 

So what is up with the Be Prepared Channel?  Well lots and I hope you will join me in the adventure as we share what we are doing and hopefully you will too!  We are working on our urban homestead now and we have bought some land for our "not urban" homestead!  :-)  We will talk about the process for finding your land or finding others who are like minded that are willing to share their land with you for the purpose of building communities.  So lots of things to think about and look at your options.

Lots of good resources online these days compared to when I started doing this some years back.  So I will gladly share some of the links and channels that I enjoy and the information I am finding useful as I hope it will help you as much it is teaching and helping me.

It is so funny how the more I learn the more I realize what I don't know.  Every day is a challenge, adventure, and an opportunity to learn and grow.

My challenge to you and to myself this year is to be more of a PRODUCER and less of a CONSUMER.  You cannot buy your way out of the hard times that are upon us and getting worse by the day.  Speaking as an American I think we get this idea we can just buy something to make whatever the issue is go away, or magically will address whatever it is your facing.  Sure there is a need for tools and equipment.  But you need the mindset and skillset to use them.  The more I learn the more I realize that the more skills we have the less tools we need.  That appears to be the truth to the matter.  We need more dirt time... I know I speak for myself in that regard and the more I learn and do the less I find that I need "things" to get it done.   Frankly many times we over think and make things far more complicated than they need to be. 

I hope your thinking about your garden already, ordering seeds if you need them, mulching garden beds.  I have a bunch of seeds that I saved this past year, but I have several things that I want to try different this year so I am shopping for seed.  We can talk about seed selection and some things to consider if your a new gardener or just a ever learning one!

So get your shopping done!  Won't be long and it will be time to get some seeds started indoors where appropriate.  I had some volunteer plants come back this last year that did really well.  Some tomatoes and some squash.  Frankly it makes me wonder why we go through all this effort to start plants indoors when I witnessed such good results from some volunteers.... I will be promoting more of that and will be looking to put more seeds in the ground instead of messing with indoor plants this year.  I will still start some tomoatoes and peppers indoors, but I will be putting everything else out as seed in ground.

Ok, I better cut this short here... But I hope you will tune in and follow as we share what is happening at our homesteads and what we are sharing, doing, learning, and growing....  Take care, and God Bless you.  Shalom!

Longsnowsm