Corporate Food & Human Backlash

FDA, via AP

The current collapse of the world financial system has revealed some structural problems in our national economy that have flourished over a period of decades as corporate interests bought politicians and lobbyists to craft legislation to remove legal roadblocks to mass theft and market manipulation. And despite some changes in the D.C. political landscape, our government remains apparently helpless to do anything about corporate malfeasance on any level. With all the bad economic news dominating the public consciousness, some issues in the food supply sector are having a difficult time being properly correlated and attended to despite the serious level of danger they present to public health.

The food supply issues didn’t begin with the market manipulations on Wall Street and from there to exchanges all over the world. Though for many people the first alarms went off as the CDS fraud crashed the economy in 2008 and the financial players went looking for other markets to wreak havoc on. They seized on commodities – staple foods from the agricultural sector increasingly dominated by multinational corporations like Monsanto, ADM and Cargill. As a traceable beginning in 2008 to what this year became the “Arab Spring” movement across North Africa and spreading to the Middle East and southern Asia, food riots broke out in Egypt and Syria and portions of India as well as elsewhere when people could no longer afford to feed themselves and their families. Things have only gotten worse in the years since, and Americans are slowly waking up.

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Homestead Tools: Weaponry

The very idea of weapons – particularly firearms – can generate some emotional reactions from people who like to think about homesteading as some sort of idyllic back to the land type movement for the terminally idealistic. As opposed to a committed, hard-working and independent lifestyle aimed at handling as much harsh reality as nature (and sometimes society) care to deal out.

Yet as is true of all the ‘best’ tools to amass for homesteading purposes, the question of what type of weaponry one may need is tied to what type of situations any weapon will be expected to deal with. Sometimes that may mean firearms. The homesteader will have to take into consideration what types of wild animals are most likely to be encountered in their location, whether or not someone in the family hunts for food, the likelihood of having to put down injured livestock, and any property or personal protection needs the family may encounter. In many cases the best tool for the job – and the person wielding the tool – could be a BB or pellet gun. Which is surprisingly effective at discouraging bears from the trash or compost without actually hurting them so as to leave an injured bear on the property (a real, live danger). These can be well less than deadly, but also come with CO2 cartridges that can turn them into effective small game/bird hunting weapons.

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Bringing Home Baby – A Checklist for Expecting Parents

The big day is fast approaching, and as soon-to-be parents, you’re excited, a bit exhausted and somewhat overwhelmed. You want everything to be perfect when your little one arrives home.

There are many things you’ll need to consider as the due date draws near. Here’s a checklist that can help you make sure that the baby’s homecoming is happy and comfortable. Take some time to shop for baby items on eBay as well as in stores for everything you’ll need. Make sure you aren’t rushing around town with your newborn in the car while you’re still trying to pick up the essentials. That will only add to your stress of being a new parent.

• Prepare the nursery. This is where your infant will spend many hours sleeping and playing. It’s also the central location for his or her clothes and supplies. This room is where you’ll place the crib and changing table. The following is a list of other items that should be included in the nursery:

• Diapers
• Bottles, nipples
• Cleaning supplies for bottles
• Diaper pail for cloth diapers or garbage pail for disposable diapers
• Nursing bras

• Another new baby item you should purchase ahead of time is a diaper bag. It should contain:

• Diapers
• Blankets
• Bags for dirty diapers
• Baby wipes or wash cloths
• Extra sets of clothes
• Bibs
• Bottles

• Buy a car seat that meets federal safety standards. In addition, make sure it’s installed correctly and that you know how to use it properly.

While you probably think preparing the baby’s new room is the most important task, you should also think about making life easier for yourselves as new parents. Here are some tips that can help make the transition a less stressful one.

• When you’re painting the new baby’s room, consider painting the rest of your home. You may not have the time or energy to do such projects once the baby arrives. Take some time and do all those home improvement projects you’ve been meaning to do.

• Make sure you have additional help and support lined up for the baby’s arrival. You may need extra help getting into the swing of things. In-laws, parents, siblings and other family members and friends can be very helpful during this initial period of adjustment. Recruiting help is especially important if one parent may need to return to work quickly. Think about which people you really want to have around you for hours at a time. If you don’t want your overbearing sister to help, call on someone else.

This is a basic checklist to help you prepare for your newborn’s arrival. Don’t hesitate to ask your physician, friends or family for input, as well. If you’re well prepared, you’ll have more time to enjoy your newborn’s arrival!

Tips for Dealing With Life’s Biggest Events

Although life would be boring if it never changed, the biggest adjustments, like marriage, new babies, or career changes, often come with high levels of stress along with a certain amount of excitement. By preparing yourself mentally for the upcoming event, you can reduce the pressure to a tolerable level. If you have a change on its way, follow these tips to reduce your stress levels.

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Savvy Family Savings: Tips to Lower Your Expenses

The old adage is true – money certainly doesn’t grow on trees. In fact, when you have a family, money can seem to be scarce fairly frequently. As the number of people in your household goes up, unfortunately, so do expenses.

However, there are many ways you can help your family save some much needed cash.  These can be small savings like cutting down your dining out expenses to large savings like adding bundled services like satellitestarinternet to help you cut down costs.  Using the savvy saving tips listed below will help you keep an eye on that penny jar and watch it grow into some significant savings!

Extend Your Family Phone Plan

Most of the time, phone companies are quite happy to offer you savings depending on the number of people you have included in your phone plan. Why not take advantage of this by including external family members as well as your nearest and dearest?

Grandparents, aunts, uncles and even cousins can all be included to help you save money. So you don’t talk to them every week – so what? When you do, at least you can be sure that you are making some substantial savings by having them on your phone plan!

Make Coffee Yourself

Starbucks seems to come under a lot of heat these days. Whether people are blaming the company for deforestation or simply just complaining that it is taking over Main Street, someone always has something bad to say about it. Well, you can do your part by avoiding take-out coffee altogether!

The average cup of coffee from Starbucks costs around $3 – if you add up all the mocha lattes you’ve had over the years, that comes to quite a large amount. Make your own coffee at home if you simply can’t do without your caffeine fix.

Use Hostels Abroad

Every family needs a break once in a while, and it can be good for you to get out of your comfort zone and visit a new city or country. However, who says that it needs to cost you an arm and a leg? Although hotels are often relaxing and it can be pleasant to be waited on hand and foot, they can also be very expensive.

Hostels, on the other hand, cost a pittance compared to the price of an upscale hotel. Sure, you may have to share your room with a group of drunken backpacking German students, but at least your family will have an abundance of stories to tell in years to come!

Cut Your Own Hair

Every family needs to spend money regularly on necessities such as food and bills. Despite this, there are many everyday activities that cost money that can be eliminated altogether, such as going to the barber. Nobody is suggesting that you let your family become a gang of long-haired ‘flower children,’ but you can save a few dollars here and there by cutting your own hair.

This is particularly good if you have small boys, as they hate going to the barbers at the best of times. Of course, probably the cheapest and quickest way of doing this is to shave your head – but it would take a brave family to do this all at the same time!

Share Parties Between Two

Children’s birthdays can often be expensive occasions – what with the presents and the party favors, the costs can soon mount up. However, if you have two children, you can slim costs down by throwing two birthday parties on the same day.

This will ensure that you are only spending money on cake and ice-cream for one big event during the year, rather than two. If you are particularly skilled with a calendar, you could even try to conceive your children so that they are born around Christmas time – that way you can roll Christmas and birthday into one, as well!

Watch What You Eat

The weekly grocery-store shopping trip is one of the largest expenses a family can have. If you want to cut down on this large bill, you can make sure your family eats simple food like soup.

You can still put plenty of vegetables into the soup so that your family is getting the required amount of nutrients, but it is certainly better for your purse strings than buying steak once a week! So cut down the meat, and enjoy your vegetable soup.

Make Do And Mend

The sad fact is items like clothing wear out over time and begin to get holes in them. When this happens, the natural reaction is to throw out old garments and go on a shopping spree to replace them. However, this is a definite drain on your financial resources, so pick up a sewing needle and thread and darn, darn, darn!

If your clothes are really beyond saving, you can always use items like old shirts as rags for dusting or cleaning the house – anything other than simply throwing them out and having to buy new things!

Send Your Children Abroad(!)

It is a well known fact that school fees in the US cost a lot more than in other countries. Not only do most European students study for a shorter time than their US counterparts (which keeps their fees down), but the overall costs are usually much lower as well.

Of course, everybody wants the best education possible for their child, but if you find that you might be struggling to keep up with the tuition payments, it is worth considering colleges abroad where your child might get more brains for their bucks. Just make sure you keep the exchange rate in mind when signing up for a course!

CONCLUSION

Having a family is expensive in this day and age. However, by following the above tips you can help keep your essential expenses down and make it easier for everybody to make ends meet.

Images

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Tips to Mentally Prepare for the Stress of Parenthood

Becoming a parent is an exciting time for two people starting their life together… and also a stressful time.

Expecting parents quickly learn that they’re going to need a lot of things before the baby arrives; there’s plenty of ways to help you through this. Take a trip out to Barnes and Nobles to pick up some baby books… keep track of the time with a pregnancy checklist… go to classes… and just educate yourself in any way possible.

One of the fun moments of the pregnancy is planning the baby shower- with this comes a fun trip to baby stores to register for baby gifts.

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A Busy Midsummer Day

Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

The sun will rise over the Heel Stone at Stonehenge on June 21st to mark the Day The Sun Stands Still. Here at my homestead, looking directly east from the back porch (the cabin is cardinally oriented), it will rise above the peak of the springhouse roof before beginning its six-month journey toward the railroad’s gigantic wall, the precise middle of which marks the Winter Solstice’s sunrise.

In the Pagan world Midsummer is sometimes called Litha by moderns, taken from Bede’s De temporum ration, or The Reckoning of Time. Because the Solstice may come any time between the 20th and the 24th of June, it also coincides with the Christian’s feast day for the nativity of John the Baptist, also called the Feast of Saint John.

Despite Shakespeare’s most memorable fantasy play about fairy queens and woodland glamours, Midsummer is somewhat of a misnomer in that the Solstice actually marks the end of spring and the beginning of summer, not the middle. But there are certain things my household will be busy doing that will continue well into the rising of fireflies from the bottomland through the ferns after dark to mark this day the sun stands still, the longest day of the year.

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Feeding The Summer Hoards: BBQ

Some of the people who live on my homestead are vegetarian, while some are meat eaters. Some love fish or shrimp, some get queasy just thinking about it. A few will eat chicken, while others seem to want everything (including dessert) wrapped in bacon. During the summer when crowds of people from cities north, south and west of us come to the mountains for a little R&R, feeding them can be a rather large challenge.

Having purchased a nice new gas/charcoal smoker grill last year when the kitchen was being remodeled, I’ve become quite good at grilling various different meats, veggie alternatives and even vegetables themselves. No matter what kind of meat or alternatives are slated for dinner, I’ve discovered that THE most important ingredients for any such operation are the sauces and marinades. These need to be prepared well ahead of time, and some of what is going on the grill – like chicken breasts, all half-dried fish, peeled shrimp, etc. – needs to soak in marinade in the fridge for hours prior to firing up the grill.

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4 Things That Can Benefit Your Child While in College

It’s the day you’ve been waiting for the past 18 years – your child is ready to move out of your house and go to college! While you have been anticipating this day, just because your child is moving to college doesn’t mean you are going to stop being a parent.

Sure, there’s a certain amount of freedom and responsibility your child will learn now, but as a parent there are still ways you can guide and help your child navigate this new life.

Take a look at the four suggestions below for helping your child make the most of his college years.

Help Them Learn the Value of Money

When your child enters college, one of the first things he’ll encounter is the ease of credit cards. Credit card companies bombard students with easy applications and high credit limits. While everyone needs to build credit at some point, this easy access to credit cards can actually hurt your college student. Instead, help your child out with a prepaid credit card. For example, using the Reach Card will allow your student to practice using a credit card, with a pre-set limit. There will be no going over the credit limit, no interest charges and no late fees.

Teach Your Child to Cook

A balanced diet is really important during the college years. Eating right will not only help ward off the dreaded “freshman 15”, but cooking his own food will help your child save money and stay healthy. Send your child off to school with a list of favorite home cooked recipes and simple instructions on how to make them. When his friends are all eating Ramen noodles to survive, your child can have a piece of home with him.

Send a Care Package

No matter how hard you try to prepare your child, there will be days when he forgets his assignment or needs to stay up late to study for a test. These things are an inevitable part of college life. A care package from home, full of essentials like pens, notebooks, and even gift cards, will help your child stay focused when times are a little tough at school. When he goes to take that test but can’t find a pencil anywhere, your care package will be just the thing he needs.

Be Supportive

You are still the parent, so check in with your child at least once a week and be there as a listening ear. If your child is stressed with a lot of homework, remind him that this time will pass and he will survive. Sometimes all your child will need is to hear mom’s voice or get some solid advice from dad.

A phone call or even a Skype session will really help your child feel the love and support he’ll need that first year of school.

College is an exciting time in life. How will you help prepare your child for this challenging yet rewarding experience?

How Positive Leaders Affect Kids

Not everyone is born with good leadership skills, but these qualities can be vitally essential in rallying team members and getting them excited about the task at hand. Positive leaders, people capable of utilizing leadership attributes in a positive and team-building manner, can affect children in a wide variety of ways, most of them quite positive as well. When it comes to working in groups or teams, children can really thrive when working with a leader who is positive and motivating.  Here are some of the ways that positive leaders can make a difference in children’s lives.

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