A little politics, if you allow, so we can get to a point: It's widely know that we borrow the money we need to operate our government and economy from China. What isn't widely known, though it should be, is that China is going to cut the cord. They are making plans to do so now. If you look for it, you will find information about this fact.
Many have speculated how this will pan out. I know this: If food and fuel aren't available for even a short time in this country in just one area, things get a bit out of hand, shall we say. The entire food system now depends on the trucking systems; which depend on fuel from foreign sources that we use our dollars to buy. If we can't, there will be grocery stores with empty shelves. My brother, Kenny, recently quoted someone as saying that every person is 3 meals away from being barbaric. Whoa. Militancy may come in handy after all.
Cory and I started talking about food. Where we'd get it, etc. Vegetables are nice but they won't cut it exclusively for a lot of reasons. We started talking about cows sort of jokingly. It became our silly explicative we'd declare out loud when we'd hear bad news. "WE"RE GETTING COWS!"
Then something conspiracy theory bizarre happened. We actually had a conversation with a military contact (we're in a major military area) who told us some things he knew. If I told you I probably wouldn't have to kill you, but he might have to kill us; so let's just say I decided to get a book about cows (more about that book another time).
It doesn't matter if the economy doesn't crash. I pay a pretty penny for good food. I'd rather feed my kids well than give them other things. Securing it isn't just about emergencies, it's an investment; so raising and growing your own makes you a commodities producer, actually; and it's more secure than your 401k because you can walk outside and see your investment...yep, it's still there... and walk back inside. Also, if you have it, you don't have to pay someone else top dollar to get it.
When I left my job and we became a one income family instead of two, trade-offs became in order. If a budget is tight, spend less or make more. I planned on starting a business and still do; but the economy of a cow caused me to pause and consider reducing our expenses first. Look at these numbers:
Grassfed beef is $6-9 per pound. We eat it maybe twice a week; more if we could. A cow produces one calf a year that will yield 400 lbs of beef to eat or sell. That's $2400. Organic milk, cream, butter, etc. costs us $200 a month. That's another $2400/ year and that's not even raw stuff. Raw is much better for you than anything you can get in the store. The going price for raw milk shares in our area equates to $8/ gallon. A cow produces 3-4 gallons a day; 21- 28 gallons a week. Even if I make gourmet cheese and yogurt I will still have enough left over to profit well over $150 per week or $7000 a year.
Altogether, that's almost a thousand dollars a month from our little Buttercup for the next 12 years or so- Moo.
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