One thing that is absolutely essential is that we have to be thinkers and not accepting everything we are told.  One thing that has been on every media outlet and news source is that greenhouse gases and global warming is destroying our planet and it is our fault.  While I am not debating global warming, being that I am not an expert in environmental sciences or a climatologist, I have thought about one aspect of this global warming "they" say is destroying our environment.  "They" say that excess carbon dioxide, CO2, is causing a warming effect and could be comsuming the available oxygen in the atmosphere.  One thing I know is that plants use CO2 just like we use oxygen.  And plants through photosynthesis produce oxygen just like we produce carbon dioxide.  I think that is a balance that is self correcting.  The more CO2 in the air the better plants grow and mulitply.  The more plants participating in photosynthesis, the more available oxygen in the air.  While we do need to take care of our land and environment and am a big advocate for that, simply listening to someone say that this is the way it is without thinking about what we know and have learned through school or on our own, mostly the latter if we grew up in public schools, is not doing anyone any good except those who are telling us what to do.  Survival will depend on us thinking for ourselves, taking care of ourselves, and not simply believing everything we hear.  If we subscribe to only the things that media (read: large corporations and the wealthy) we might have to survive sooner than we wanted. 

This year marks my first attempt at gardening.  I've got tomatos, squash, okra, peppers, zucchini, and a single watermelon vine.  So far, I've got two zucchinis, about 20 small green tomatos, 5 or 6 good size squash, and a single pepper.

I'm trying to figure out how to grow a small garden that's best suited to my soil type and climate.  Ideally, it should cause minimal work and tending and provide a decent amount of fresh vegetables.  If I can figure out which veggies grow best, I'll expand the garden next year and plan to put up some vegetables using the methods my gramma used. 

My garden is just an 8x8 square sectioned off with landscaping timbers.  I pulled up all the grass (transplanting the sod to bare spots of course) and mixed in a few bags of garden soil and some black cow manure.  I covered it with landscaping fabric designed to keep weeds (and presumably cats) out but let water and nutrients flow through.  Rather than rows, I cut slits in the fabric and planted each plant building a mound around the plant to make sure it drains well.

So far so good.  My parents tell me my veggies are a little ahead of their much larger garden despite the fact they planted theirs earlier.  I'm situated only a little further south than they are, so I wonder if the cow manure made that big of a difference?

Does anyone have suggestions for vegetables that provide a lot of vegetables in a small space?  The largest garden I can probably support is about 24x8.

My brother-in-law came across "The Zombie Survival Guide" in my bathroom the other day and I think found himself moderately surprised at how good the book actually was.  Obviously, the book is a humor filled attempt at imagining what a Zombie Uprising would be like and doesn't even scratch the surface of how to prepare for full blown catastrophies, but it does get you thinking about the kinds of things you'd have to do without in major event - be it a zombie uprising, nuclear attack, viral pandemic, or major natural disaster.

For those of you who don't think it could get bad, just go have a look at tapes of what happened in New Orleans after being without power for a few days.  There are always going to be people who won't or can't prepare, people who are expecting to have someone else do it for them.  When the big one finally does hit, these people are going to suddenly realize the authorities who were providing for them are not even going to protect others anymore and the chaos ensues.

I'd highly recommend "The Zombie Survival Guide", because it's a good introduction to disaster planning and how to prepare your home, a safe house, and ultimately, a fortification for long term survival.  Once you're done with that, start looking for military manuals on topics like field medicine, establishing a temporary base, and start reading up on different types of weapons - because let's face it...there may come a day when you have to defend your homestead garden against raiders.