Francis Berger
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Life in the Garden of Death

2/15/2023

4 Comments

 
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The Garden of Death - Hugo Simberg - 1896
My vegetable garden began as a hobby – a way to spend some constructive time outdoors in the spring, summer, and autumn. Household finances were not a primary motivator. I simply enjoyed the process of planting, nurturing, and growing a little extra food. The superior taste of the produce from my garden was reward enough for me.

Well, what began as a hobby is now somewhat of a necessity in this part of the world. The official food price inflation is above 40% at the moment, but the actual “real” food inflation is 100% and higher . . . in some cases, much higher.

My family can still afford to buy food at grocery stores, but at such ridiculously elevated prices, it is worth looking for cheaper options wherever they may be found. That’s where the necessity part comes in. Although I don’t really need to grow any of my own food, I would be foolish not to.

I am not a prepper. Nor am I a bunker-building survivalist hell-bent on surviving some much-vaunted zombie apocalypse. I’m just a common man attempting to lessen the impoverishing effects of inflation . . . ahem, cough, cough . . . price gouging.

I can’t fully escape the pressure the demons are applying via their economic, financial, trade, and supply chain tactics, but I can still do little things to ease the pressure here and there. Growing my own vegetables happens to be one of them. 

And these little things are nothing to sneeze at. For example, the dozen egg-laying hens I purchased last spring have saved my family between 700 to 800 dollars over the course of the year. To put that into perspective, that’s an average month’s salary after taxes in Hungary. The hens have been such a great success that I am already working to obtain at least a dozen more this spring. I may also begin raising quail. Perhaps some ducks, as well.

None of these things will make me self-sufficient or liberate me from the System. Nor will they fully protect my family from larger potential dangers or ramped-up demonic pressures. Yet they do offer some reprieve.

More importantly, they offer glimpses into reality’s independence of Ahriman. Those glimpses alone are worth the extra effort of digging and hoeing.

Revelations of life in a garden of death.  
4 Comments
bruce g charlton
2/15/2023 14:08:32

@Frank - from all you say, I am confident that your garden is a Good Thing - for yourself and the world.

But you have not made a generally-true economic case for it. If you were to claim it was economically helpful/ necessary, you would need to show that the money saved on (for example) eggs was also greater than the capital expenditure (including your time spent building, maintaining etc), the time you send on feeding, caring, collecting eggs etc.

Economically; time is money on the basis that you could have earned more by spending the same amount of time doing more money-making work.

For example, it used to be (in the US) that (on average) working an extra *six hours* per week above the national average, gave an average *fifty-percent* increase in salary! This mostly because the extra hours were anti-social (early, late, weekends) which were paid at a higher rate per hour - plus that jobs with longer hours were less desirable and needed to pay more.

My point is that economic arguments for self-sufficiency are not really what it is about. Especially for those who could earn extra income by working more hours at above the national average for hourly pay.

I think the point is that extra hours of money work are so much time subtracted from life - a negative loss; while your gardening work is (mostly) added to life - a positive gain.

Also, paid works expands and strengthens The System - while unpaid gardening shrinks and weakens it.

Plus, as bonus, you save a bit of money from expenditure, and get better food as well!

Reply
Francis Berger
2/15/2023 20:04:00

@ Bruce - When I jot posts like this down, I am never certain that the essence of what I am trying to communicate comes through. Your comment informs me that it does. Thanks for that.

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houska
2/16/2023 05:16:57

I would add that time spent taking care of chickens is equal to time spent going to the gym doing useless work.

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Sasha Melnik
2/20/2023 22:40:31

Quail and Chickens tend not to get along - the quail tend to get pecked to death, sadly since their eggs taste amazing. You gotta keep'em separated..! Ducks are fine though but do prefer a decent pond to hang about in part of the time, obviously.

In years gone by we'd keep a bowl handy in the kitchen for scraps and just take it out to the birds once a day. Also apparently if you want to 'bump up' the flavour you can add Chilli flakes, amongst other things.

I've been without chickens for too long and hope to rectify that with a suitable house purchase in the next year.

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