Putting in a winter garden and Girl problems again

I had a realtor come over the other day and he gave suggestions to make the outside of the house and garden look good.  He was pleased with the clean up that we did.  He wants me to take down the front pasture fencing to open the front yard up.  OK, about a week or two before the house goes on the market.  Next week the animals are going out to the front pasture to eat all the mulberry leaves that are falling to the ground.  They save me lots of time by taking care of this task and I don't have to feed them any hay while they are cleaning up the leaves and brush. 

The realtor thinks planting the garden will evoke someone looking at the house to be able to imagine the garden belonging to them.  I wasn't thinking about putting in a winter garden because I didn't want to spend any time on it, but after looking at my empty garden space I realized that I have to put in a winter garden.  Where I live a winter garden is easy - as long as the goats don't get out and eat it all.  I am going to put in broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, cabbage, and all those "winter" crops.  Once they are planted I really don't have to do anything to them.  I'll keep the weeds down to give it the glamorous look.  After all, when the house goes on the market it will all be about "staging".

Girl is still being challenging both at school and home. After she was suspended for three days the school took away her I-pad. Now she is on the old-fashioned books, paper, and pencil routine.  She is also no longer able to access Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, and Twitter.  Because she is no longer occupied with the I-pad at home she is a bit more pleasant.  Just a bit.  She is doing her homework and reading again.  She still isn't helping with anything around the house or yard but at least the school attitude is better.  

Why do I write so much about the antics of Girl? Since my goal is to be self-sufficient as much as possible as well as to watch out for our safety when the SHTF as well as any time we leave our home, problems with family members have an impact on everything we do.  Even if it was a SHTF situation, she is still not an adult.  I can’t dump her on the street (although at times it crosses my mind).  I can’t pretend that her parents will somehow come to their senses and want to take back their obligation to raise their child.  She is still my responsibility.  How can I balance my preps with her actions?  She knows why we store things but she has an overwhelming need to do what she wants, no matter who it harms. 

So what is it this time with her?  I tell her that if she doesn’t keep her room clean then I will be happy to clean it.  I’m not really happy but it gives me the opportunity to go through everything.  Now I cleaned out her drawers just a few weeks ago.  Even with the house rule of only eating in the kitchen or dining room, she had eaten in her room and stashed 4 yogurt containers, a box of cake mix, 2 cans of beef stew, a container of frosting, a couple bottles of Gatorade.  She had a baggie filled with Ibuprofen, another with Tylenol, and another with aspirin.  Topping off my find was a container with over 100 pills.  There were about 15 different types of pills. She had gone into the medicine cabinet and taken some of everything she could find. 

I took all the pills back and put them back into the proper bottles.  (I was very tempted to get every type of laxative I could find and exchange her pills! Of course, she’d have gotten sick and I would have gone to jail!) I locked everything that was a prescription medication into the safe.  The rest of the medications are still in the cabinet.  I asked her why she had them.  She said that she wanted her own supply for when she needed them.  No, I have a bottle of the three main pills in the kitchen.  They are always available but you still need to ask before you help yourself.  Nobody needs a stash in the dresser drawer.  What about the container with mixed pills?  She said that she uses them to help her sleep.  What?  The doctor said if you can’t sleep then you should take a Benadryl.  For some reason Benadryl helps people sleep and is non-addictive.  I even offered that to her before.  I had also given her other tips if she can’t sleep – mainly get up and clean something.  You’ll be tired soon enough, and if you aren’t then at least something will have gotten cleaned.

Girl pulled her normal if I loved her then I’d let her have the pills.  No. Because I love you you cannot have the pills.  You cannot self-medicate.  She wanted to know why not since there’s no law saying she can’t.  I had to explain that it is against the law to use prescription medication in a way other than to who and what the doctor prescribed it.  She just complained that she doesn’t want to live with me anymore and that she wants to live with her friends parents because they would let her use whatever pills she wants. 

So with Girl constantly eating the preps and hiding what she eats, and now getting into the meds, I’m realizing that I have to keep things locked up from my own family, not just the roving masses.  I have to figure out how, in our next home I am going to arrange things so she can’t get into our preps.  While it’s normal to lock up dangerous items when you have little children around, it’s frustrating to have to do so for a fourteen year old.  At times she’s mature enough that she can really be counted on, but more often than not, her behavior is that of a temper tantrum throwing two year old.

UC Merced - It was a terrorist attack after all

My hunch was right.  Last weeks terrorist attack at UC Merced was just that, a terrorist attack.  I was not surprised by the comments that came from the students though.  The students were saying that they need to be more inclusive and make sure everyone is friendly to everyone else.  They shouldn't have kicked him out of their study group. After all, if everyone was more friendly then the student who stabbed four people certainly wouldn't have done what he did.  Right?  Wrong! 

The sheriff is still trying to state that it wasn't a terrorist attack.  Why, because his parents and family are not radical so he couldn't possibly be?  His family has apologized.  They didn't know he was taken in by radical Islam.  Unfortunately that doesn't mean it wasn't a terrorist attack.  Let's go over a couple of facts, not the twist it so people don't worry.  Faisal Mohammed carried an ISIS flag with him.  He had a manifesto which stated that this was an attack and praised Allah.  His plan was somewhat juvenile though.  He wanted to use the petroleum jelly not for making a bomb but to grease the floor so people would slip.  Easier to attack them I suppose.  He also wanted to confront the police and try to take one of their weapons so he could use it. 

What isn't known yet, at least by the public, is whether he was being directed by someone else or if he was doing this on his own.  Isn't that was the terrorists are asking for?  For people to strike on their own?  They don't actually have to have an association with the terrorist group, just want to participate. 

Individuals committing terrorist acts in this country has started.  The biggest may have been the Boston Marathon bombing but I'm sure they are happening all the time. They just aren't being publicized as terror attacks.  After all, most Americans want to put their head in the sand and pretend it's happening everywhere but here.  If we don't pay attention then it's not really happening so we are all safe.  Just as safe as those students and staff at UC Merced.


The other day I was doing some research and came across a vulgar website that was run by a "Christian" group who hated Jews and blacks and was pushing the same agenda as the radical Muslims.  Those "Christians" aren't Christian just as the radical terrorist "Muslims" aren't Muslim.  I just read that the man who killed the people in Kansas because he thought they were Jews (oops they were Christian!) has received the death penalty.  Good. 

Extra people means less supplies and the knife attack at UC Merced

Last week we had a family and friend gathering at our home for the weekend.  Some out-of-towners stayed with us, either sleeping on mats, extra beds, the couch, or in the trailer.  Feeding 25-30 instead of 3 uses up a lot of supplies really quickly.  I used 10 times as much food and supplies during that one 3-day weekend. Yes, that's equal to one month of food and supplies used up in 3 days.

While we plan to supply ourselves with food and household goods, and we daydream about having our family and friends join us when TSHTF, last weekend sure was a wakeup call!  If you open your house to extra people, are they bringing a full range of supplies? 

Future Spouse came out to California last weekend.  FS was asking some of the relatives, especially those in Southern California, what they plan on doing to prepare for a disaster, even if it's an earthquake.  The relatives gave responses such as they didn't need to do anything or they had a few days of food in the house.  I think they are complacent because they've lived through many earthquakes and haven't ever really been affected. 

FS is back in Colorado and now is planning on building my greenhouse.  I made it very clear that I wanted one big enough to grow all the vegetables that we would need.  I have never had to do intensive gardening as I've always had as much room for a garden as I wanted.  It's a different way of thinking.  I was asked how large of a building do I want.  How should I know?  As big as we can afford?  I was told that there is a greenhouse building boom in Colorado right now.  That's because they are being used for all the new pot farms. 

FS is also planning on building a root cellar.  I'm not sure if it's going to be built into the side of the hill or if it's going to be built like a storm cellar.  I don't always know what FS has in mind.  All I know is I'm pleased that FS is taking a proactive approach to the requirements needed for a full scale homestead.  While FS is an avid hunter, it's good to prepare for a well rounded diet.

On a different note, the person at UC Merced that slashed four people with a knife prior to being shot and killed by the police was being identified yesterday as "a Californian".  I knew there was something strange about that.  The person's identity couldn't be made public until the next of kin were notified.  Normally the news still says something about the person, just not their name.  Why was this person being identified as "a Californian"? Illegal alien perhaps?  No, it's because his name was Faisal Mohammed. 

He was described by one of his victims as looking scared but at the same time looking like he was having fun and he was smiling as he was stabbing people.  Now if this was just an attack by someone who was having an argument, he wouldn't have been looking like he was having fun and smiling.  Perhaps he was following the orders of the Gaza Imam?  I'm sure we will be told that he was just a lonely teenager who was unhappy because he didn't have a girlfriend. 

I wrote the above paragraph during my lunch break at work today.  Then I had to leave the office.  On my drive I listened to the news conference put on by the university.  They made it very clear this was not intended as a terrorist act. Yet, they said they have no idea because they couldn't find anything on social media nor through his family.  So that rules it out?  He had a backpack on him that the bomb squad had to neutralize.  After doing so they were able to go through his pack to see what was in it.  Zip-tie handcuffs, duct tape, and Vaseline and some other items.  The sheriff said the Vaseline could have been used as a poor man's napalm.  Really?  Why would the sheriff say that in one sentence and a minute later say it's not terrorism?  His dorm room was searched and they found his checklist of items needed to be included in the backpack.  The only thing on the list that they didn't find in the backpack was a pair of scissors. 

Due to privacy issues the neither school nor the sheriff can release the names of the victims. Now the contractor wasn't someone he planned on stabbing, the contractor walked in and interrupted the attack.  But Mohammed did attack two students in his class and then stabbed a staff member in the back. It would be interesting to note what sex, race, and religion the victims were.  I'm sure the results will be played down.