Starting Over III

After moving back to Wisconsin and moving into a one room apartment, I continued my survival lifestyle. I built an under the bed storage unit for my guns and rented a storage unit for the rest of my belongings, such a my canoe, that would not fit in my apartment. I continued to write my survival newsletter, changing only the name. I had only the names of my subscribers on my mailing list, so I could not attempt to obtain more customers. I continued this, sending free copies to all of my subscribers until the last subscription ran out. I than sent out a notice that subscriptions were due. Not enough people renewed their subscription so I sent back the checks to the others and ended my newsletter. I never took full time employment, opting instead to work for a temp agency. This gave me time to write and to practice my survival skills. I had a half whiskey barrel just outside my door in which I planted several vegetables and I also made q window box garden for myself. After a couple years of this, I met a wonderful woman, a widow who actually believed in what I was doing. She owned a 35 acre hobby farm and enjoyed the survival type lifestyle. I moved there 13 years ago and we were soon married and we are still together and still living a survival lifestyle. While due to some illness which took place with her we do not live in the same place. She has had four major abdominal surgeries since 1997 and we could no longer keep the farm and all of the animals, gardens, orchards, etc. which we had. The farm also had a large two story farmhouse which she could no longer take care of. In fact one reason we left it was that she could not get up and down the stairs and could not do the housework. I took early retirement and we moved to a smaller house on five acres of woods. We still burn wood, raise a large garden and do most things for ourselves. I do a lot of hunting, fishing and food gathering to supplement our budget. My wife is now much better and works a few hours a day four days a week. I have gone back into writing and write for a weekly newspaper in the county as well as two outdoor magazines. In the years that I spent at the survival farm, I wrote approximately 12 books and booklets relating to survival. The ranged from 8 to 80 pages. It is from these books that I am drawing the info for this blog. Not only from them, but from what I have learned since. I wrote my last booklet before my wife got sick and there has been much changed in my life since. I also volunteer at a national wildlife refuge and am learning more about plants and animals that will help in a survival situation. Starting with my next post I will be using my booklets as the bacground for this blog. I will use them in the order of their importance. I will be doing one or two posts on attitude and then going to my books. While my two main books were "Sensible Affordable Survival Living" and "Stash It" I will be starting the posts from my booklet "Food for Survival" and follow with "The No Chemical Survival Garden". I am doing this in my belief that food and water are two of the most important items in surviving. The attitude post will be taken partly from my SASL book and I will return to the two main books from time to time as they contain info on all aspects of survival including food. So if you are new to survival living or need a quick refresher course, stay tuned.