When the Power is Out

    The  year is 1962, civil rights protests are in full swing. Black people are beginning to stand up and be heard. Sit-ins were trending and on the rise. Gas at the pump was 32 cents a gallon. The following y ear, 1963, sets off a series of assassinations beginning with JFK.   Newspaper sales and TV ratings were skyrocketing as people were hungry for instant news. In my child's eye view, the whispers of neighborhood gossip was only second to all the adults gathered around the black and white TV breathlessly waiting for the national news. Buzzing in the background in that adut gathering, like a swarm of flies, was the talk of Mother and Dad's pending divorce. That gossip traveled faster than Walter Cronkite's "We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news". He debuted as head anchor of CBS in April of that year. Vietnam war was the first time Americans had the horrors of war brought into their own living rooms and by 1971 Nixon imposed price control...

"The two most important days in your life were the day you were born and the day you find out why." Mark Twain                                          The media is giving us a constant stream of fear porn, every day, be afraid, be afraid. They are feeding my anxiety beast a new  flavor of the day, with business killing lock-downs, real world death numbers, and voices of grief. I knew for a long time that something would happen to our over processed civilization. It had to. I just didn't know what it was going to be or which way the human destructive wind would blow. Can you feel it too? Fear has a stinky feel and a smell to it. It permeates our collective energy, and media is having a field day with this shit. They have expertly driven this fear on every electronic device known to man. That processed fear meant for your consu...

How to Survive and Thrive When the Power is Out - J.L. Noakes : Xlibris Now available in your local bookstore and on Amazon.com http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-001006390/How-to-Survive-and-Thrive-When-the-Power-is-Out.aspx When the power is out is a compilation of secrets, recipes, remedies and daily basic know-how for living at a time without electricity. Great Grandmother survived very well without electricity and passed on her household secrets, preserved here before they are lost to us forever. Take a look inside-----  ISBN:978-1-5035-4866-4 Section 1 Analyzing a disaster (natural and man-made) 35 Items that disappear first after a disaster 10 diseases seen first after a disaster Section 2 On your own Your sister, husband and 6 kids. . . . Section 3 Water and the human body Thirst and dehydration Collecting water To make a simple saline solution To make an oral hydration solution That water is not safe Filtering water the natural way S...

The temperatures this February evening dropped rapidly as the wind kicks up the powdery white stuff and lands it in places where it is least welcomed. The woodstove chimney shivers with protests as old man winter admires his own strength. It seems as if it were forever since the warmth of the sun comforted my old bones. I think I'd even welcome a huge wood spider stomping across the ceiling right now as opposed to this draft streaming through the cracks of our tired old cabin. Husband and I had a serious discussion last week about whether to continue the homestead or move to warmer digs. We even went as far as to contact rental agents, we felt this was the right move, at least at that moment.  When it came right down to it, what we discovered, we didn't have the heart to leave, to just abandon, our homestead children. So until or when our bodies finally have had enough, we will continue to dedicate ourselves and to nurture that which we have etched out of this foreste...