My Farm Plan

My farm plan has been getting some hits which is cool. I plan on moving to Arkansas after my sons graduate high school. Why, you may ask. I think in the near future energy prices are going to be out of reach for everyone except the wealthy. I want to be able to grow a garden without having to water it all the time like I do here in the Southwest. I want to be able to chop down a tree on my own land for heat if I need to. An added benefit is I will be close to my father, mother, brother and sister. Hopefully I can get one of my kids to move out with me.

In Arkansas I think is a great place to do what I want and to be able to live in the mountains. A southern facing mountain or hill is what I want. With a spring or a creek. I want to be west of Russellville which is the location of the Nuclear plant. The recent Japanese earthquake/ tsunami  has proved the need not to be under the prevailing winds of a nuclear plant. I will probably settle for south of there also in the Ouachitas. Too many earthquakes in the Ozarks. The earthquakes in the Ozarks are natural or caused by the natural gas company pumping out the gas. Crazy. We are our own worst enemy sometimes.

I have been perusing some real estate companies in Montgomery county and the city of Mena. Mena has the cheapest land prices.

Water

A friend of mine told me that the next war will not be fought over oil it will be fought over water. I found an awesome article in the news. It is about the Ogallala aquifer. Here is the link. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/8359076/US-farmers-fear-the-return-of-the-Dust-Bowl.html  It is long but good reading. I did not know that the Ogallala aquifer was considered to be the largest body of fresh water in the world. According to the article it can never be replaced and framers in the plains are watering their circle fields with it. It is a shame because most of the corn grown there goes to foreign lands that are beyond their limits of growth. They can’t grow enough food to feed their people so they buy it from us. Once the price of oil goes through the roof like it is threatening to do they will not be able to afford as much and their people will starve. There will be food riots. People will die.

In the non powered future everyone needs a piece of land with a well that can be pumped without electric or gas power. “American” windmill pumps can pump water from about 100 ft. so the water table needs to be high. I think in the valleys between mountains would be the best spot to have some land. Water collects there naturally and some have springs and creeks. I have been looking on the web sites for land in Arkansas. Looking for a cheap one with a with a fixer upper shack or cabin.

Buy guns and land with water rights, store food

Book Review

I just finished the fifth book of 6 of S.M. Stirling’s emberverse series called the Scourge of God. It’s cool book. A non powered universe where physics have changed. Bullets won’t fire and gas engines won’t run. They use swords and bows and arrows. The 6th book is out but it is in hardback so I’m waiting for paperback. The way they organized themselves and the way they protected what they had is very interesting.
Makes me think about how I what I would do if TSHTF.

Peak Civilization

There is a great article called “Peak Civilization” – The Fall of the Roman Empire over at the Oil Drum. It overlays the collapse of the Roman Empire onto the graphs from “the “Limits to Growth” study. Very interesting. Collapse is coming to our great American “Empire” too family. I hope I can be powered down and on a farm before the non powered future smack us in the face.
Here is the link
Some of the comments are worth reading also, the part about Roman pottery shards in London got long winded and I quit reading.
I am adding The Oil Drum to my list of sites if it not there.