I’m not feeling any “economic recovery”… are you?

Even in this season of record consumer sales, unemployment claims rose last week, rising above the 400,000 mark. The jobs market is showing more weakness than ever before. With the November jobs report from the Department of Labor, unemployment is still hovering above the 9% mark, and it seems more and more evident, day after day, that our government has no clue about how to get this economy going.

And now Uncle Sam has just asked more from you, in tax dollars, with the Federal Reserve’s intent to prop up the struggling euro to avoid a financial collapse across the pond. Wall Street reacted to this with the Dow jumping loops, closing above 12,000 in the single largest gain since August. I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to see Wall Street’s reactions and Dow ticker prices as being completely out of touch with reality. I’m not feeling any “economic recovery”… are you?

But regardless of whether there’s too much government interference or too little, too much regulation or too little regulation, that taxes are too high or that taxes aren’t high enough, the bottom line is that the U.S. Labor Department’s latest statistics show a country mired in high unemployment with no end in sight in the foreseeable future… no matter what exuberance the stock traders on Wall Street are showing.

Saddle Up the Horse, Ma…We’re Goin’ To Town!

You may laugh at the above absurdity, but in all reality, with soaring fuel costs, oil-producing countries in civil turmoil, and our own government blocking any oil or gas explorations in our own country, the days of hopping into the car to go wherever you want at a whim may be drawing to a close.

Gas is between $3 and $4 a gallon, depending where you live. And the price per barrel of oil has just started to rise again. That lovely price slide we’ve seen this past summer has stalled, and now the prices are on the upward climb. Our modern lifestyles have to adapt to emerging realities and empty wallets. You have to make your dollars and purchasing power go much farther than you’ve traditionally done before. It doesn’t matter if it’s turning off the cable, disconnecting the cell phones and keeping the land line (or vice versa), eating out less (or not at all!), or using coupons and “Double Coupon” days to stretch a family grocery budget…

…prosperity, as we’ve known it in modern times, may be at an end.

But it doesn’t mean that a different prosperity isn’t yours!

As a nation and society, we have always judged success by the toys and possessions that we have accumulated. Let’s admit it … we’re a VERY materialistic society. One only has to witness the bludgeoning at Walmarts across the nation on Black Fridays to realize this. People will trample each other to death (or pepper spray them!) to catch a deal on a toy or television, for heaven’s sake!

But the day is coming when a different type of possession will classify you as rich or poor. What am I talking about? It’s not something that any big box retailer has in stock. It’s not anything that any public or private school will impart to you in class. And it’s something that is so rare, that few people in this country possess it…

That possession is a back-to-basics knowledge…

…and your success at this lifestyle will determine whether you prosper or not in an economically depressed future.

And this Christmas, you can give that hope of prosperity to everyone on your Christmas list. Wouldn’t it be a comforting feeling for your children to know that they didn’t have to stand in line at a grocery store, dependent on the trucking industry, overseas suppliers, the agricultural industry, or any other adverse circumstance that could affect whether food is available?

When gasoline prices rise enough to make trucking foods cost-prohibitive, what you can get locally will be your only option. There are many areas of the country where small farmers are next to non-existent. Skills you learn about gardening and preserving food will be the skills that keep you and your family from going hungry. Gardening, however, is making a resurgent comeback, and more and more people are learning how to grow their own vegetables. Do the people on your Christmas list know how to grow one of their own?

And what about livestock? Do you, your family, or your friends have even a rudimentary knowledge about raising ducks or chickens? What about goats or sheep? Could you shear a sheep and spin the wool for yarn? Did you know that llamas can be used for wool as well?
Or if you or a loved one got sick, would anyone around you know which herbs to use to help comfort them? Could you make a tincture of herbs or use them cosmetically? Would you know how to build a composting toilet if the public sewage systems were to go offline?

Do you know how to build a smokehouse or a root cellar? Or how to make pickles or which vegetables should be eaten fresh as they don’t freeze well? The ability to pass on this information and put all this knowledge into action is one of the greatest gifts you can give to your loved ones this Christmas season.

These and many other questions are answered in the newest addition to the Solutions From Science library—The Homesteading Handbook: A Back to Basics Guide. This book is the perfect companion to your back-to-basics library. Concise and succinct, The Homesteading Handbook is an excellent resource for information on those lost arts and skills, those very skills you’re going to need in a world that will soon crumble under the weight of supposed “civilization.”

This 268-page book is packed full of information! For example:

• How to build a homemade hydroponics system
• Harvesting and canning your produce
• Identifying edible wild plants and mushrooms
• How to make butter, cheese, and yogurt… or brew your own beer!
• Livestock for your small backyard farm
• How to build shelters for your animals
• How to build a smokehouse and smoke meat
• Root cellar storage
• And so much more!

The Homesteading Handbook has tons of information packed in every page. You’ll learn about beekeeping, herbal medicines, and pottery making. There are so many different skills for the things in life that we take for granted, things that modern society has converted to large-scale production in the hands of a few. But this book is “the ultimate guide to self-sufficient living for country, urban, and suburban folks.”

Nowhere can you find a book so full of information and priced so reasonably. The Homesteading Handbook is yours for the low price of $14.95 plus shipping and handling. For $14.95 and the cost of shipping, you’re ensuring the prosperity of your family in the future, a future that will be harder on modern civilization than it was on our countrymen during the Depression. We’ve lost the arts and skills that those people knew, the knowledge about how to make it out of hard times alive, with food in our bellies and clothes on our back.

Don’t wait until all hell breaks and then wish that you had learned this information or had passed a copy along to your family. With more of us disgusted with the crass commercialism of this holiday season, now is the time to give a gift that can last a lifetime… no matter what that lifetime or future holds for your friends or your loved ones.

We’re only given this moment in time. We are never assured of the future. Click Here to order your copy of The Homesteading Handbook, and allow a $14.95 investment to today bring a prosperous future tomorrow.