Dear Friends,
Cousin Polly turned to the best expert she knows, Aunt Frankie, for help with some of your questions. Keep reading for her response when Cousin Polly asked her on your behalf for advice about weathering any economic downturns or food shortages some are anticipating. Here is her answer. –Cousin Polly

Cousin Polly,

How old were these 5 or 6 people? Were they around for the turn of the century? They don’t know that every 5 or 6 years we get promised that the world as we know it is going to end. No electricity, food shortages, all that stuff?

If they are serious about learning how to be self sufficient they should start with Mother Earth News. They will find all kinds of stuff and referrals in there. The Fox Fire books are good but not really instructional.

One of the things I would like to know is how to process sugar from beets. When there were sugar shortages people used honey. Now with the honey bees disappearing that may not be possible. You can grow wheat for flour or use corn flour and yeast is not essential for bread. It is much better with it however. Anyone that is worried could make some sourdough starter. The yeast will keep growing forever. You use a little of it. Put a little more flour in. Store it and next time you make bread you just keep doing that.

There are so many resources out there. They need to research homesteading. Making how to videos isn’t going to help if they have no electrity. People should learn to spin and weave. How to raise animals. How to use the vegetation around them. The sticks and twigs David says I always want to serve. Have any of those people ever eaten a dandelion? Oh, BTW there are recipes out there for jelly and jam that don’t use pectin (Sure-Jell).

People need to learn how to fish and hunt. How many of those people would be willing to eat a raccoon or an opposum or even a wild rabbit. Pigeons are what they call squab in a cookbook.

People need to have their own sources of energy such as windmills and if they have a water source how about the mills that used water as means to turn a wheel to produce energy.

The real crisis is that even our generation didn’t learn all these things and even what we do know our kids didn’t want to learn and we didn’t teach them.

Probably the only survivors will be those that live in a commune to share the knowledge and work together. Then we can learn enough to get right back to where we are now.

The most important thing to encourage anyone who is interested is to stockpile books. They may think they will never boil a cow hoof to make gelatin but it doesn’t hurt anyone for them to know how.

Whittling would be good to make utensils. Clay for pots.

One of the most important things people should do in my opinion is to eat natural foods now. It is my feeling that if they ever had a fresh egg from a natuarally grown chicken they would think it is spoiled instead of rich and nutritious. I have been saying for years that whoever have been dummying down our taste buds. Cardboard food is mostly what they sell.

Anyway if those people got together and one raised chickens, one rabbits, one grew wheat, etc. Bartering would be a necessity.

The sad thing is that we have turned into a nation of what is the government going to do about it. We didn’t teach our children and they will pay for it.

Enough of that.

Buy guns and goats not gold or stocks.

Yours truly, Aunt Frankie

Dear Cousin Polly,
My parents keep talking smack over the music I like. My youth pastor likes this music, too, so why can’t the old folks get over it, and remember that their parents probably didn’t like what they were listening to, either? –Jeremy, Illinois

Dear Jeremy,

You need to talk to your parents and find out what they think and why they are saying it. If they told you to get rid of some music, it might not be because they don’t like it, but rather, that they perceive some danger to you.  Sometimes, a particular song or group can influence your thinking and emotions in ways you might not realize.   Give your parents their props, they are doing their job when they look out for you. That’s God’s word.

I bet if you talk to your youth pastor, he/she would say that you need to obey your parents. Maybe the youth pastor should consider talking to your parents to understand their objections, too. Sometimes youth pastors try so hard to fit in with the bigger youth culture, to reach the lost, they forget to help Christian kids stay on course and OUT of that worldly system. This is where you can help your youth pastor understand you and your problems, too.

I don’t know how old you are, Jeremy, but you must realize that as you mature, you also have a responsibility to be a blessing to others around you, dig deeper into God’s ways for yourself, and make some hard decisions. Do you want to live your life for God, or your own comfort and pleasure? Sometimes, these are not the same things. I know for me, I would not want to let rebellion against my parents or some music I won’t even remember this time next year separate me (sin) from the love of God.

Faithfully yours, Cousin Polly

Dr. Dan is a busy surgeon who puts his faith into action.
He was widowed a few years ago and has no living relatives,
but he has many friends. His caring attitude is evident
in this poem.

Written and submitted to Cousin Polly by Suzanne Utts

Dr. Dan "The Bandage Man"
 -- by Suzanne Utts

A teddy bear came very close
To losing legs and arms and nose
As the family dog took him by the ears
Causing Lizzy so many tears.
Her Daddy and Mommy said "just maybe"
We can fix him after we have the baby"

Then into the driveway comes Dr. Dan
Home from his work as The Bandage Man
Hearing little Lizzy's cries
Seeing her tears, hearing her sighs
she held to her heart
with his legs that dangled
Her baby, her Teddy, a bear
Who'd been mangled.
 
"Would you like me to fix your bear?" he said
To the little girl whose eyes were so red.
As she nodded and handed her Teddy up
Her tears would have filled a tiny tea cup.
But with hope in her heart and trying to smile
She trusted the doctor all the while.

So into the house Dr. Dan went
And into the kitchen where he spent
The next few hours with needle and thread
Working on Teddy, legs, arms and head.
He became a furrier as he matched the seams
To give that little girl back her dreams
A little stitch here and a lot more there
He reattached the ear to her bear
He straightened the nose and reworked the smile
And restuffed the stuffing that sat out in a pile.
With the care of a surgeon he worked into the night
And Teddy Was ready by dawn's first light.

So working with words a poem I wrote
About Dr. Dan and his great mitzvot
Because the good deed he did
Will be told with reknown
As she grows into a woman
With a child of her own.
She will always remember her friend
Dr. Dan “The Bandage Man”

Dear Cousin Polly;

Why is the Pastor always trying to get people to sit up front?

Happy Where I Am in Stubbornville, IA

Dear Happy,

If your church leadership follows the custom of roping off the first rows whenever there is a special event, I am not sure why people are expected to choose those rows on Sunday morning. However, that aside, the polite thing would be to sit up front for the speakers’ sake. Save the back rows for late-comers who wouldn’t want to be in the embarrassing position of interrupting others trying to enjoy the service, and for people with special needs who may need to slip in and out of the service quietly.

Further, the closest spots in the parking lot should be left for the elderly, people with small children or others who may need special consideration but don’t qualify for “special” parking privileges. Had people followed these basic etiquette rules, we wouldn’t have government regulations and the accompanying expense for signage and enforcement imposed upon us.

Good manners and putting others above ourselves should be the hallmark of those professing to follow Jesus.

– Cousin Polly

I’ll put the kettle on and be right back with a fresh pot of tea and some mail that needs attended to. I am happy for your company and encourage you to post your own comments and questions, too.