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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Rising Cost of Living

Well, I went to the grocery store yesterday and the cost of living is definitely on the rise. I went to the bent and dent grocery store and the deals were still pretty good. Although, I remember not so long ago that I used to get a can of beans there for about 50 cents. Yesterday, a can of beans was 89 cents. Doesn't seem like much when you are talking about cents, but remember those cents add up to dollars real fast. I still have found that one of the best ways to hedge against rising food cost is to keep your pantry well stocked. That way you don't have to buy anything that isn't on sale. However, I think that it is getting harder and harder to do for many people. Feed cost for the critters is rising at a dramatic rate with the drought in most of the country. I am trying to make sure that I am as stocked as I can afford to be in that area. Since I can't afford to stock all that I need for a long period of time at once for all the animals here then what I do for psychological feel good is that I get enough stocked for one set of critters. So today I will be getting in enough feed to get the rabbits through the next several months and then a few more bales of hay and the rabbits will be set for most of the winter with greens from the garden. Then I will move on to the chickens and get feed in for them. They don't each much store bought feed but sometimes in the winter there just isn't enough forage and bugs for them so I supplement their free range. Two bags of feed will definitely last them. Then we will move on to stocking for the goats. By the time winter comes we will be somewhat ok to get through it. These days it seems that it gets harder and harder to get enough hay and such put up to get us through the whole winter for everyone. But at least I do feel a little better knowing when I have one group taken care of. Down here in the deep south we have hay available all year, but the cost does go up in the winter which is why I want as much laid in now as possible. Also, with the drought in the midwest many of our hay farmers will start shipping out hay to other states that are hard hit. I don't blame them as they can make more money doing so, but I don't want to be left in a pickle this winter with no hay. So we do the best we can with what we have. I will be planting extras in the winter garden to supplement with so that will help and we do always have some browse for the goats during the winter. I know that all of these rising costs are hitting so many families so hard. I read a news report the other day that 3 times as many Americans are getting on food stamps as are getting jobs. Laying extra by when we can is our way of ensuring taking care of our family's needs. I hope more people are thinking that way. It is the way that our ancestors thought on a regular basis and it is just a recent (relative to history) concept of living in the now without thinking about taking care of the future. I start planting the winter garden today and I pray that this will be the best one yet. Frankly because the last couple of winter gardens have been pretty poor. So we will see. I am also debating whether or not to plant grains again this year. I have done so in the past just as an experiment, but I think I would like to to a larger scale this year. So anyway those are some things that we are doing to combat the rise of the cost of living. What are you doing to ensure your family's continued survival? Blessings, Kat

4 comments:

Kelle at The Never Done Farm said...

Kat, let's see if it will let me post, tried to post on other blogs you've had and it blocked me!

Kelle at The Never Done Farm said...

Glad to see it's letting me in :o)
I agree and we're stocking up little by little for our farm animals and the dogs and cats too! Sure feel blessed to have the ability and knowledge to grow and preserve and raise our own. We went to the local grocery store to pick up sale stuff and I got to looking around and was amazed at how the prices have jumped but doublly bad they size has decreased too! Of course that's been going on for some time now but now it's everything! Our feed cost have more than doubled this year! Glad we hay our own, so we have less to purchase. We are however downsizing, when we butcher our steer we're selling our heifer( Dexter) too, so we don't have to find a buddy for her nor feed them all winter. Due to our drought hay is no place to be found! The goats are easy keepers as are the poultry and in the Spring we reassess getting a couple of yearling steers for beef. We've not even raised pigs( feeder sized) up for butchering for two years due to high grain costs. So we just eat less pork and have a good source for naturally raised... but it's expensive*sigh*
Love reading your blog, keep'em coming we are likeminded people :o)

Kat said...

Hey Kelle, Good to hear from you. I have been wondering what you were up to lately. I understand about selling the heifer and don't blame you at all, although I know it is a tough decision. Yeah, our feed costs have gone up tremendously also. We are getting rid of everything we can. One of our biggest costs is Thunder our old stallion. He will only keep weight on with senior horse feed which is really expensive and he needs a lot of it. I really hate to admit it, but sometimes I look at him and wonder if he is ever going to die?! I know that is horrible, but goodness our feed bill would drop to half what it is and he is 27 years old. We are still looking for pigs, but they aren't easy to find. Found several ads lately and each one I call has already sold them all. We have had a lot of pig breeders get out of pigs in the last few years because they couldn't make any money. While we have had a good hay year we are worried that much of our hay will be shipped out of state to states like yours hit by the drought. Prayers are with ya'll. I know how hard it is. We went through 5 years of drought quite a few years ago and it was tough. Hang in there, it will get better. Blessings, Kat

Kelle at The Never Done Farm said...

Kat,
I totally understand about your old horse, you love them but there is a point where it's a tough descision.
May I share some advise, if you have hay a plenty stock up if you have some place inside to store it, we did this and it is really the only thing that's saved us from having to get rid of everything, but poultry.
I miss getting the pigs but it's just not economical to raise them with feed costs so high, so we pretty much do without pork, except for the occasional bacon or sausage purchased from a friend who raises them on pasture and naturally.
Look forward to your book!
If you want to keep in touch you can email me at kellemt@yahoo.com, I'd love to hear from you. I do post from time to time on the blog, but simply have been so busy with, well..... life :o)
Blessings,
Kelle