From the Desk of John Rourke is a regular dispatch from the heart of 1776PatriotUSA.com—where news, preparedness, personal insights, and a touch of humor all come together. Whether it’s current events, self-reliance tips, or a meme to lighten the mood, this ongoing series offers thoughts on survival and the world today.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
“May the 4th be with you.”
Yeah – I had to do that.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
There have been several positive comments on recent blog posts, including the series on Preparing for the Coming Struggle. Just want to let everyone know “The Coming Struggle” series will continue starting May 12th.
Stay tuned!
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Garden Update: Living in Central Maine, the season to plant most vegetables is approaching. Having a garden in South Carolina for many years, I always started planting in April. As we are in May, we’ve only planted peas and carrots. We have started some seeds indoors, however, in a week or two most of the rest of the garden will be planted depending on forecasts.
Going from left to right: Two rows of carrots in one of the raised beds. More will be planted today and over the next week. Next, one raised bed of sugar snap peas. Again, more to be planted soon. Third pic – we had 8 cubic yards of cedar wood chips brought in for our garden expansion, both in our established garden as well as the new garden area being put in the back yard. Last pic – I found a rotating compost bin in great shape on FB Marketplace and grabbed it. A good addition to the garden system.
Going from left to right: The first two pics are of the new expanded area of our original garden. This area was seriously infected with the horrible horsetail weed. We added a very high-quality weeding fabric and some cardboard to keep the weeds to a minimum. The weeds had been hit with an herbicide last year. We hope they do not return. Third – our chicken run and coop are 80% complete. We need to reinforce with hardware cloth, add perimeter ground security, then I will reinforce the roof. The fourth photo is of my grandson helping with seed starting. Teach them young!
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
In the News: There is so much going on, it’s hard to cover everything. For sure, the tariff situation is of extreme importance. If an agreement is not reached soon with China, I fear we will experience severe economic hardship. Supply chain issues will most certainly be seen. Bare shelves at Walmart and price increases for many goods. Remember – just because it says, “Made in America,” does not exempt it from tariffs. Most Made-in-America items have components that came from other countries, including China.
I recently mentioned trying to stock up on 1 year’s worth of certain frequently used items. Toothpaste, shampoo, body wash, deodorant, etc. I’m still highly recommending this approach and may expand on the idea in another post soon.
The political divide within the citizenship continues to grow. Regardless of the appearance of political winds shifting with the election of President Trump, the segment of the population against the Constitutional and more Conservative belief system is embedding even more deeply. The recent celebration of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders at recent rallies well outside their representative districts areas shows a trend on the Left towards far-left policies and NOT a movement towards centralism or middle-of-the-road America.
Time will tell.
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Appreciate everyone who stops by and visits. Appreciate to all those that comment and share posts with like-minded(or not like-minded).
Have a great week, everyone.
Rourke
I envy your raised beds! Question about the composter: Photos seem to show a lot of air holes, but I’ve never seen one in person. Would it work (with minor adjustments) as a manual clothes washing machine?
SingleMom – Very interesting question. There is a large “port” on the bottom for air and drainage. Unless modified I don’t think it would work. Probably would be easier to use a 5 gallon bucket to slosh some clothes in and then to a rinse bucket.
I hope the herbicide you used last year wasn’t glyphosate. If so it will destroy the garden’s value for years to come. I’ve seen tainted manure applied to gardens where the hay for feed or straw for bedding had been sprayed with Roundup and remains even after fully composting. Just ugly stuff to have in your vegetable garden soil.