3 types of gardening

Even though winter is still here and spring seems far away you may want to start thinking of getting your gardening started.

When I say thinking of getting your garden started I mean the following:

*take a look at any garden tools you have and make sure they are in good condition

*look at your garden plot and see what if anything you may need to amend the soil based on what is currently growing in that area. Certain plants grow in certain types of soil, while others won't grow in that same soil.

*take stock of any seeds you have and order and look thru catalogs for this year and try a new or different variety of fruit or vegetable

*for those growing plants in containers get some potting soil  and verify the plants you have will grow in that type of potting soil. If not amend as necessary. Not all potting soils are as good as claimed. If you want you can make your own soil, just Google d.i.y. soil or make your own soil.

The above info is for 2 types of gardening. conventional and container.

The third type of gardening I suggest is aquaponics. This is similar to hyrdroponics but instead of using man-made liquid chemical fertilizers aquaponics uses fish poop to fertilize the plants. You are basically raising freshwater fish and instead of filtering the waste you use that waste to feed your plants. Just as with plants needing the proper soil PH the fish need the proper water PH to thrive.
As long as you can keep the fish healthy your plants should be health.

With the above being said about aquaponics there are certain garden plants that can't be grown aquaponically. Do a Google search on aquaponics for more info. Just remember that aquaponics uses electricity.

P.S. Container gardening and Aquaponics can be grown year round. 

Hopefully with these three types of gardening you can be reasonably guaranteed of having something to eat at the end of the growing season.

not posting in a while

Sorry for not posting in a while. I have been trying to earn money and pay bills. Basically go to work, come home tired, go to sleep and then start that process over again.

I have also had writers block. Because of this I would like you my readers to help with article suggestions or to write an article for me to post.

Thank you to all my current readers. Thank you also in advance for any suggestions or articles to help me keep this blog going.

Sincerely,

The Dependent Independent

P.S.  Hopefully in the next couple of months I will be building garden tables for my Mother-in-Law to use. I will do a post on this when I get them started.

Job Found

I finally found a job thru an temp agency. I actually get to use my educational knowledge and earned degree in this job. I'm putting together electrical/electronic control panels for various industries. So far this job has been great. For those of you out of work for a while you might consider going thru a temp agency. You would be surprised at how much some companies actually want to pay you even though you are a temp.

Just wanted to put this out there to let readers know there are still good paying jobs out there.

No Guarantees

Just to let you know I am now a casualty of Obama. I just lost my job yesterday. Hopefully this is only temporary. Your job just like mine is not 100% guaranteed.

2 Articles On The Future Of Medical Care

Here are 2 articles on what we can expect in the future regarding medical care, particularly in the E.R. Read both articles in their entirety and give me your opinions on each.

The first article link is from drudgereport.com

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/20/hospitals-face-whole-new-world-under-health-law/3078353/

This deals with how the government will pay for medical care in the future. The article basically says that the government will pay the hospitals based on quality of care not quantity of patients served.

The second article is from survivalblog.com

http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/10/-surviving-the-er-by-j-in-montana.html

Medical Supplies and Training

For those of you that don't have medical supplies on hand I would suggest you get some. Besides being used for the obvious cuts and scrapes they will be highly sought after during and after a collapse. I'm no doctor and don't claim to be one. These are just my suggestions.

Everyone should have basic medical supplies on hand. The basic supplies should include at the bare minimum of Isopropyl Alcohol, Hydrogen Peroxide, Neosporin (or equivalent), Band-aids, Gauze pads, and medical tape. With the above on hand basic cuts and scrapes which can happen anytime can be taken care of.

There are a lot more medical supplies and equipment you should probably have on hand but the above is what I recommend for everyday cuts and scrapes. For a more in depth list of medical supplies/equipment to keep on hand see the following sites.

http://thepatriotnurse.com/

http://www.doomandbloom.net/

As for training you can either sign up for classes from the above sites or take the basic first aid class from the red cross or a community college. Regarding the list of medical supplies/equipment they show most of them will require you to be trained before they can be used.

Do not use any medical supply/equipment you are unfamiliar with before you receive training on the proper use of said supply/equipment. Even if you do not plan to use any of the medical supplies/equipment or decide not to get medical training I would still recommend stocking as much of these supplies/equipment you can. Anything you have (especially food and medical supplies) can be used for barter.

In a Hurry to Get Somewhere

I have noticed over the years that people are now more in a hurry than ever before. I've also noticed that peoples driving habits have gone downhill. They drive more aggressively and speed a lot more. Drivers also seem to be getting into a lot more accidents.

I'm not the best driver out there but I don't take risks I see other drivers take. For example, I go the speed limit or about 10 over at the most and other drivers will pass me like I'm sitting still. Another example I see is drivers change lanes more frequently in heavy traffic just to get ahead 1 or 2 cars. Another example is drivers rely on their brakes more often, waiting till the last minute to use them. Some of them get in to accidents because of this.

Just thought I'd put this out there to see if this is the case where you live. I don't know if this occurs just in the city or do some of you living in the rural areas also see this happening?