Simply surviving a catastrophe or collapse is not enough. You need to consider what happens after everything has fallen apart and starts coming back together again. You need to start considering how you will support yourself and your family if your job is no longer there and government benefits like food stamps or unemployment insurance disappear. Even if civilization doesn’t collapse, we all know that jobs, investments, benefits, savings, and businesses can vanish in the blink of an eye in today’s economy. Almost anybody can be left with no salary or no income at almost
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Why do we sleep? What is sleep? The truth is, we don’t really know. All we know is that human beings, along with most animals, need sleep to survive. Good things happen when we do sleep, and going without sleep can eliminate our ability to function. Under normal circumstances, it’s actually impossible for us to not sleep. After a certain period of wakefulness, sleep becomes involuntary. When we try to fight the body’s natural need for sleep, serious consequences may result. In June 2012, a story appeared in the newspapers about a soccer fan who
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One of the benefits to being a teacher in a traditional school is that you get to go home at the end of the day. You don’t have that option, and that means you can get a serious case of burnout. Your kids are also susceptible to burnout when learning at home, but you can always give them a break to recover. You, again, don’t have that option. Homeschooling is a major undertaking. On top of that, you are probably responsible for cleaning and cooking as well. This is more than a full-time job. It’s
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With all of the things calling for your attention on the homestead, it’s all too easy to get distracted and procrastinate and never give certain jobs the attention they deserve.  Whatever those jobs are, they really do need to get done. Sometimes that need is to ensure success of your crop or the health of your animals; other times that need is for your own sanity. Let’s face it; it feels good to check a job off of the list! Here are some ideas that might make it easier to get the job done: Set
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With college tuition costs skyrocketing, community colleges are getting a second look from millions of families this year. Community colleges cut costs in a number of ways, some of which many students and parents forget to consider. Concerned with getting admitted to a college in the first place, families are overlooking five key ways community college can save students serious dough. Tuition Tuition is a beastly expense at both public and private four-year schools. For the 2009 – 2010 academic year, the latest year for which data was available, average costs were $12,804 for a
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The generation formerly known as Generation Y or the Millennials is now known as Generation Jobless. They are often presented as victims of a society going down the drain, betrayed by false promises about higher education guaranteeing them a job. Yet what’s the real story? Are these kids really victims, or are they just a
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In the modern family, most households are surviving on two incomes.  Many of us believe that both incomes are absolutely essential if we’re going to make it.  Unfortunately, the hard truth is that for many Americans, working just doesn’t pay.  Some 50 percent of us are making less than $26,000 per year, and it’s just not enough. Basically, by the time you add up all the costs associated with working, your paycheck isn’t covering your costs.  This can be a challenging moment, since we are all conditioned that the only way to get ahead is
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Living the homestead, back-to-basics lifestyle is fun, but it is a lot of work. There’s a lot to be said for the great satisfaction you feel when you eat a meal completely created by your own work, and produced from your own home. You don’t have to shoulder all that work and responsibility on your
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