GO Baby giveaway

Here is a chance to win a GO Baby! fabric cutter.  Details on Heirlooms By Ashton House blog:

http://heirloomsbyashtonhouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/accuquilt-go-baby-giveaway.html

How to make sour cream from raw milk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3NO2xWuF4Dc

Tell Secretary Vilsack NO!!!

Dear Friend,

I just took action, telling Secretary Vilsack and the USDA to stop letting Big Ag write rules that harm family farmers that grow our local and organic food. It's time that the Obama administration stood up for family farmers and the growing local food movement.

Today the USDA and Big Ag are conspiring to implement a set of rules that favor giant industrial growers while placing small, diversified farms at risk. Known as the National Leafy Green Marketing Agreement, this set of rules was designed by industrial growers to protect their market share while harming their main competition, the growing local and organic food movement. The Leafy Green agreement, drafted by the largest vegetable growers’ lobbyists in an effort to whitewash their growing food safety problems, would implement draconian practices that saddle farmers with one-size-fits-all rules and would drive local and organic farmers out of business with expensive regulations.

Tell Secretary Vilsack that it's time to protect family farmers and stop letting Big Ag write the rules.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/leafygreens/?referring_akid=.316027.i2JQ5M&source=taf

Wow it's been a while...

To catch you up - Last Thursday I went out to lunch with my friend Kathy, her daughter and granddaughter.  We went to Indian Cafe.  The food was great.  They use fresh ingredients.  The service wasnt so great but we didnt mind.  We talked and laughed and I played peek-a-boo with with a sweet little two year old.  What more could you ask for?  After lunch was finished, we exchanged promises to meet more often maybe even every month for lunch and I headed over to Hobby Lobby.  I told myself that I was NOT going to spend over $20 and I didnt!  I found some cute things in their clearance section.

It's been so hot here.  I know other parts of the country are experiencing this heat wave as well.  It has just seemed to linger so long though.  I pitted and canned some cherries I got on sale at Publix.  We went out several times to the grocery store.  Yesterday we went to Falls Mills for some pancake mix.  They grind it there and hubby loves his pancakes plus we get a 25 lb bag, store in the freezer and it lasts for a year.  Hubby rototilled finally and I planted sweet potatoes and regular potatoes.  I might have planted the sweets too late but we will see.  I had started them from an organic sweet potatoe I got from the grocery store.  To do this, you just cut the potato in half and put it in a small bowl of water.  It took a while for the sprouts to start to emerge.  You let them grow until they have about two sets of leaves on them and then I just popped them off and put the sprouts in water.  They get roots on them pretty quickly.  In fact the original sweet potato is still making sprouts!  Nature is amazing.

My clothesline finally broke with the clothes on it...:(  Luckily it happened while I was hanging clothes up so I just tied a few more knots so the clothes would stay up and then when they were dry, started taking down the rotted lines.  I cant complain cause the line lasted over two years.  We got another clothesline at Tractor Supply and we started to put it up but it was so blamed hot out that we quit after a few holes were completed.  It is so hard to get that clothesline through those holes.  Since it is cooler today I might go out with a lighter and singe the end so I can put up the rest of the line. 

On the way home from Falls Mills yesterday we stopped at Main Street Diner.  It's in a Piggly Wiggly grocery store.  Just a little hole in the wall but boy can they make the food.  I had a cheeseburger basket and hubby had a BLT with fries.   The burger was sooo big!  And you got a big side of fries.  Good thing we were hungry!  Their sweet tea was good too.  If the place doesnt have good sweet tea then usually the food isnt very good.  I wonder why that is?  We stopped at Tractor Supply as well and picked up some oyster shell for the chicks.  They didnt have any small bags at Fayetteville but did at the Winchester one.  We also picked up a hat for each of us.  Hubby's has a flap of material to cover his neck and my straw one had a big brim to do the same.  Hubby also picked up an oil pan on sale and a funnel.  We really enjoyed getting out from the house for a while and it rained while we were gone!  We got 2 1/2 inches.  Hubby said if he watered the garden before we left it would rain and it did...maybe we should wash the car someday soon so it will rain again LOL. 

I will be taking some pics and posting them later!

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are in the world!

Talk to ya later,

Denise

NIA New Email -

Bernanke is Wrong, Gold is Money

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke today said that the Federal Reserve is prepared to act with an additional round of quantitative easing if there is any weakening of the U.S. economy and threat of deflation. Bernanke also said that the Fed could act in other ways to stimulate the economy, such as cutting the interest rate that the Fed pays to banks on their $1.5 trillion in excess reserves that they currently keep parked at the Fed. NIA believes this $1.5 trillion alone would multiply into $15 trillion once it circulates through the U.S. economy and if Bernanke on top of that unleashes any additional quantitative easing, it will just about guarantee hyperinflation. Bernanke has made it very clear that he is prepared to print money until the U.S. dollar becomes worthless and the incomes and savings of all U.S. citizens are destroyed.

Ron Paul today asked Bernanke whether or not he watches the price of gold and if he thinks gold is money. Although Bernanke admitted that he does watch the price of gold, Bernanke said that gold is not money, but it is only an asset. Bernanke explained that central banks only hold gold as a "tradition". The truth is, gold has been accepted as money throughout all civilizations over periods of thousands of years. Bernanke doesn't want U.S. citizens to wake up and realize that they can opt-out of the criminal Federal Reserve system if they get rid of their U.S. dollars and store all of their wealth in gold and silver. To see a video of Ron Paul's exchange today with Bernanke, simply visit our blog at: http://inflation.us/blog/2011/07/video-of-ron-paul-asking-bernanke-if-gold-is-money/

The U.S. Constitution defined gold as legal tender and the current fiat currency system we have today where Bernanke can steal from the purchasing power of the poor and middle-class and redistribute this wealth to his banker friends on Wall Street is unconstitutional, immoral, and illegal. The U.S. dollar originally only had purchasing power because it was backed by gold. Today, the U.S. dollar is a fiat currency that is backed by nothing. Any remaining purchasing power the U.S. dollar still has is just an illusion and will soon evaporate due to Bernanke's actions.

In order for an item to function as money, it should be liquid and easily tradable, easily transportable, and durable. It should be divisible into smaller units without destroying its value and should also be fungible, meaning one unit of equal weight must be equivalent to another (which is why diamonds can't be used as money). The item must also be a specific weight, measure, or size, so that it is easy to count. It must be long lasting, durable, and not perishable or subject to decay (which is why food items can't be used as money).

Money must be easily recognizable and most importantly, it must be difficult to counterfeit. The U.S. dollar simply isn't real money because Bernanke has been counterfeiting trillions of dollars out of thin air. Money shouldn't require a mark or image to be valuable, but it should just be valuable based on weight and measure. Gold is valuable based on its weight and measure, and fits all of these other qualities and characteristics as well. Never do people explore shipwrecks hoping to discover U.S. dollars, because dollars that Bernanke can print at will even if they could survive the corrosion of the ocean, simply won't have any purchasing power left by the time explorers can locate them. People explore shipwrecks for gold, because it will last underwater for thousands of years and always retain its value.

When Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe ordered their central bank to implement exactly the same monetary policies that Bernanke has been ordered to implement here in the U.S., the Zimbabwe dollar became worthless and Zimbabweans were forced to pan their rivers for gold. Citizens of Zimbabwe who were able to find 0.1 gram of gold after a long hard day's work of shifting through thousands of buckets full of mud, were able to take that 0.1 gram of gold and exchange it for a loaf of bread. Those who were too old or weak to pan for gold simply couldn't afford food and starved to death.

NIA recommends to all U.S. citizens that they read this eHow article about homemade gold panning: http://www.ehow.com/how_7763218_homemade-gold-panning.html This is a skill all Americans will need to have in order to survive hyperinflation. Unfortunately, unlike in Zimbabwe, most gold in U.S. rivers has already been explored for, so Americans might not be as lucky as Zimbabweans.

In order for an asset to be considered money, its supply must be kept scarce. Bernanke has spent a total of $4.7 trillion since the financial crisis of late-2008, which has flooded the world with excess liquidity of U.S. dollars and led to massive inflation in the prices of food and energy, the two items that Americans need most to live and survive. The inflation problems in China are a direct result of their currency peg to the U.S. dollar and willingness to accept the dollars we print in return for the real goods they produce. As soon as the Chinese central bank decides to end their currency peg, China's currency will increase in purchasing power and all of the monetary inflation the U.S. has exported to them will flow back to the U.S. like a giant tsunami.

Ron Paul today pointed out exactly what we said in our last article. Since the last Presidential election about three years ago, the U.S. dollar has lost about half of its purchasing power priced in gold. Although the U.S. government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has reported only 2% annual price inflation over the past three years, when you account for how the U.S. government used to calculate price inflation before the implementation of hedonics and quantitative easing, annual price inflation has actually been closer to 9%. Soon when price inflation begins spiraling out of control, Bernanke will be forced to raise the Fed Funds Rate north of 10%, which will cause our interest payments on the national debt to soar to over $1 trillion per year. The U.S. government will then need to immediately end Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all other entitlement programs, to have any chance of survival.

 

 

I took a break...

for a couple of days but now I'm baaaaaak!  I didnt go on the computer for a whole 2 1/2 days!  I went on Friday and got some peaches and cream corn and canned that (see totals on side bar)...we even had a couple of ears for supper that night.  It was really good.  It was grown just down the road from me.  Nothing like local.  None of my popcorn came up this year :(  Oh well, there's always next year.  Sunflowers didnt come up either...but my squash and cukes are all over the place (have a couple of squash peeking out from under the leaves) and we have tomatoes!  They're still green but some of them are turning.  Still picking blueberries.  I ordered some more potatoes (fingerlings this time) and am waiting for DH to rototill up some rows for me.  Kinda hard for him to because of the rain we've been getting on and off.  Told him I had to plant them this weekend or they'll rot...got sweet potatoes growing on the windowsill and would like to plant them as well.  Dont know if we'll get too many, it is kinda late but worth a shot. 

It's been so hot and humid.  The air is thick....really thick.  Chickens have slowed down on the eggs which is a good thing really.  We had so many eggs and I have pickled all we will ever need that I had to throw a couple dozen in the compost.  At least it isnt wasting them but it still is upsetting.  I think for a couple of people 3-4 hens is all you need.  We have 8.  We ordered 15 but gave some of them away.  Cant imagine having all 15 laying can you? 

I go out in the morning to pick berries for a half an hour and come back in and that's when the sweat is just dripping off my face.  Never used to have that problem.  When I was young I didnt sweat too much, my face would get really red but not much sweat.  After I had my hysterectomy though something must have broke loose cause now I sweat A LOT.  It's good for my pores I guess LOL. 

After I canned the corn, I started sewing.  I almost have two quilt tops done.  Might get to work on them before the weekend and if I get the quilt tops put together I'll post some pics.  I'm on the last book (I think) of the Wheel of Time by R. Jordan.  He had died but made notes and another author worked on the last two books.  If you have never read his books, give it a try.  I really like the characters and it's getting really good in the last book.  Final battle coming up...

I'm really bored with food this week.  Do any of you have any good recipes?  Maybe I'm just tired of my cooking.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

A few days off...

and I'm tired...:)  Had to go back to work just to rest up LOL.  Anyway, I went ahead and canned some more, started weaving on my new loom and read.  Well of course I did pick blueberries and took care of the cats, chickens and hubby (not necessarily in that order) but I really enjoyed not being at the computer for a few days.

I canned some chicken soup which is a first for me.  Took me all day to do it too and that was just for 8 quarts.  My pressure canner only holds 4 quarts so had to do half and then do the other half while letting the canner cool down a bit between times.  The day before I did that I canned in the water bath some peach salsa and then while those pints were cooling and popping I started canning the corn which was also a first for me.  7 ears of corn made 4 pints, not bad.  I'll have to get some more and maybe add some red peppers and green peppers to it just for something a little bit different.

Quite a few neighbors had fireworks this year and they actually quit putting them off before 11 p.m. which was good.  Not that I dont like fireworks but when your hubby has to get up the next day to go to work and is kept awake by booming fireworks he's not a happy person :(  The neighbors with the most fireworks seemed to be the ones on the dole if you know what I mean...I know we couldnt afford buying that many fireworks on our pay.  These arent just sparklers and little smoke bombs but actual big fireworks with different colors and sonic booms.  In PA they arent allowed to sell them but down here it is the big thing.  Sellers set up tents, little trailers, etc just to sell them.  They must make quite a bit on them since they only sell them for about 4-5 months.  From what I understand they arent allowed to sell them after Labor Day but they start in June so that's what a little over three months?  I dont think you should be allowed to set them off in a subdivision.  We are in a drought but officials actually lifted the burn ban...like the fireworks werent going to burn anything down...  Anyway the fireworks are loud and really scare the dogs and cats.  My cats insisted on going out before dark and when the neighbors started firing them off last night before dark the cats were outside.  I called for them but they didnt come.  Then I remembered a couple of nights previously they hid behind the waterhose boxes and yep that's where they were.  Had to coax them in poor things.  Well enough about that.

We went out this morning for breakfast at Jack's.  Yum.  While we were out we took our glass recyclables to Star Market.  They have several barrels there for glass and they also have bins for donating clothing, books and shoes for the paralyzed vets.  Have to remember that so I can donate some of my clothes and books. 

Well all for now,

Denise

Picture and fabric giveaway

http://loveofquilts.blogspot.com/2011/07/250th-post-giveaway.html

Trish is giving away two pictures/notecards and purple quilting fabric.  Go to her blog to sign up for the giveaway and tell her which giveaway you are interested in.  And while you're at it, sign up as a follower, she has a great blog!

Denise

NIA New Email -

America's Oil Price Inflation Crisis is Yet to Come

NIA is very disturbed by President Obama's decision to sell off oil from the U.S. emergency oil reserve, in an attempt to drive down oil prices. One week ago it was announced that the U.S. and other oil-consuming nations that are a part of the International Energy Agency (IEA) will begin releasing 60 million barrels of oil from their reserves, with 30 million barrels coming from the U.S. government-owned reserve. They hoped that by flooding the market with excess supply, they would cause an artificial forced liquidation of oil futures contract holders who bought using leverage.

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the world's largest government-owned stockpile of emergency crude oil reserves and is maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). It holds 727 million barrels of oil reserves at four different sites along the Gulf of Mexico. Considering that the U.S. is releasing 30 million barrels of oil from these reserves, we are reducing the size of our emergency reserve by 4.1%.

After Obama's decision was announced on June 22nd, crude oil prices originally dipped as much as $5.71 per barrel from $95.41 per barrel down to a low of $89.70 per barrel on June 23rd. Oil prices declined slightly more during the next two trading days, reaching a low this past Monday of $89.61 per barrel and closing Monday at $90.61 per barrel. However, oil prices have surged $4.81 during the past three days and are currently $95.42 per barrel. Oil has recovered the entire dip that came after Obama's decision was announced and is now a penny higher than before his announcement. Unlike 2008 when most oil futures contract holders were hedge funds using leverage in an attempt to make short-term profits, today most oil investors are much stronger hands who bought with cash, because the world is now flooded with dollars thanks to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

It certainly wasn't worth jeopardizing the homeland security of this country by reducing our emergency oil reserve by 4.1%, just to see a $4 reduction in oil prices that lasted for only 3 days. If the White House had any faith whatsoever in Bernanke's assertion that rising oil prices are only transitory, there would be no reason to release 30 million barrels of oil from our emergency reserve. The rising oil prices we have experienced so far is far from an emergency. The emergency will come soon when the world turns its back on the U.S. dollar and we see a rapid decline in its purchasing power. The emergency will be here when the U.S. can no longer import oil from foreigners at any price due to hyperinflation, and we are forced to live with only the oil produced in this country.

At any time that they choose, China has the power to set off in our country the economic equivalent of a nuclear bomb. China can at any time announce that they are no longer going to buy U.S. treasuries, but they are going to take their $2 trillion in U.S. dollar reserves and use them to buy gold. The price of gold would double overnight, with the U.S. dollar immediately losing half of its purchasing power. The yuan would then skyrocket in purchasing power, automatically giving China the world's largest economy with the Chinese GDP soaring past U.S. GDP. There would be a massive rush out of the U.S. dollar with our trading partners unwilling to export any oil to us.

The U.S. currently produces only 5.5 million barrels of oil per day, but consumes about 19.3 million barrels of oil per day, with total input into refineries of 14.7 million barrels of oil per day. This means the U.S. currently needs to import 9.2 million barrels of oil per day. U.S. commercial crude oil stockpiles are currently 359.5 million barrels or enough to last for 24 days without any domestic production. In the event of hyperinflation where the U.S. is cut off from oil imports, if we were forced to live off of our own oil production of 5.5 million barrels of oil per day, our commercial stockpiles would be gone in 39 days.

Without an emergency oil reserve, in the event of a major oil shortage due to hyperinflation, after a period of just 39 days, farmers won't have enough oil to produce food, manufacturing plants won't have enough oil to process and package food, and logistics companies won't have enough oil to get finished food products into our supermarkets. This is why we have an emergency oil reserve, to prevent store shelves from becoming empty in our supermarkets due to a fuel shortage.

It takes 13 days for oil from our emergency reserve to begin entering the market and once it does, the most it can add to the market on a daily basis is 4.4 million barrels of oil. Therefore, in a crisis we must first use only our commercial stockpiles for 13 days, which would cause our commercial reserve to decline down to 239.9 million barrels of oil. Beginning on the 14th day of a crisis, 4.4 million barrels of oil per day can come into the market from our emergency reserve with 4.8 million barrels of oil per day entering the market from our commercial reserve.

 

After 50 additional days, our commercial reserve will be depleted and all that will be left is 507 million barrels of oil in our emergency reserve. That will give us 115 more days where we can withdraw 4.4 million barrels of oil per day, but the U.S. will be forced to reduce its daily oil consumption by 33% during those 115 days. This is based off of an emergency reserve of 727 million barrels of oil. With Obama this month prematurely releasing 30 million barrels of oil from our emergency reserve, we will actually only have 108 days where the U.S. will be able to consume 2/3 of its normal oil consumption, after 63 days of full oil consumption.

The solution to high oil prices is not more government intervention, but is less government interference in the free market. Instead of trying to manipulate oil prices down using artificial methods that will only last temporarily, the U.S. government should look at the root cause of rising oil prices. Oil is rising due to the U.S. government's deficit spending and the Federal Reserve's willingness to monetize our deficits and debts. If they want to see lower oil prices, the government should start out by eliminating the DOE. The DOE was created in 1977 to make the U.S. less dependent on oil imports. In 1977, we imported 44% of the oil used in U.S. refineries. Today, we import 63% of the oil used in U.S. refineries. Eliminating the DOE would save this country $27 billion annually.

Priced in terms of real money (gold), oil prices haven't been rising at all. The Federal Reserve's QE2, in which it printed $600 billion out of thin air, has created artificial demand for oil. If it wasn't for the Federal Reserve working tirelessly trying to prevent a much needed recession, Americans would be cutting back on oil consumption and oil prices would be declining. If the free market was allowed to operate, falling oil prices would make it easier for Americans to live with the real unemployment rate currently at 22.3%.

It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us

Nothing too new here...

Just same ol' same ol'.  This morning I got up at 7 and by 7:30 I had a chicken in the crockpot, one load of laundry washing and some celery drying in the dehydrator.  I plan on doing most of my laundry today, making salsa and oh yes getting my typing done for work.  Pesky work always seems to get in the way.  Why if I didnt have to eat, pay the mortgage, utilities and feed the animals there would be no need for work would there? LOL. 

Back to work for me!  I have off on the Fourth YAY!! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. 

Here's the link for more on our Fourth of July holiday here in the States...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_of_July


Talk to ya later!

Denise

Happy Canada Day!

To all my Canadian followers/readers!  I had to look this holiday up cause I wasnt sure what it was.  Here is what I found on Wikipedia.

Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada), formerly Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act (today called the Constitution Act, 1867), which united three British colonies into a single country, called Canada, within the British Empire.^[1][2][3] Originally called Dominion Day, the name was changed in 1982, the year that Canada gained full independence from the United Kingdom. Canada Day observances take place throughout Canada as well as internationally. 

Sounds a lot like our Fourth of July celebration, doesnt it?

Sock pics

These two pair I made for DH.  The pair on the right have aloe in them.  So soft to knit with.  He's already worn these pairs several times.

This is a pair I made for me.  I havent worn them yet but they are fairly thick and should be really warm this winter.

And this is the pair that I just finished for him.  He really likes wild colors and I think these are pretty wildly colored.  He hasnt worn them yet but its only a matter of time...

I started another pair for him and am working on another pair for me.  That will be all the socks I knit this summer, too much canning and other things to do like warping my loom for the first time.

And what would a post be without a gratuitous picture of the chickens huh?  Here it is.  The tarp is keeping them in the shade and as soon as I come out of the house they're looking for food...silly chickens it's not time yet for your watermelon or spinach.  They still have their old run attached to this one so they have plenty of room, enough room in fact to have the grass growing in the run and they seem happy enough.  When it rains I have to run out and take down that tarp and if it gets too windy it's not up since the sound of it flapping scares them.  Although you cant see it behind the coop is a fan to keep them cooler under the coop.  Like I said they are spoiled.

Canning pics

Here is a pic of the wheat that grew from our wheat grass.  DH went out and cut it and we are now drying it and maybe just maybe we might have enough to grind...maybe.

Here is a photo of the potatoes from our garden that I canned.  I just did pints...maybe I should have done quarts.

Here is a pic of the blueberries, boysenberries and raspberries that I picked.  The boysenberries are done but I wonder if they refruit in the fall.  The yellow raspberries keep fruiting throughout the summer and sure are yummy.  This year I might get enough to make some jam.  I did do some blueberry jam last night and some peach butter so that leaves me with one basket of peaches yet to do and 8 quarts and counting of blueberries.

This pic is of my lavender drying.  I just let it dry for a couple of weeks and then pull off all the buds and store in a jar.  I will be making some more lavender jelly and I did find a recipe for peach and lavender jam as well...mmmmm.

And finally pics of my hair, yes that's right I cut it off for the cancer patients.  The ponytails were almost 13 inches long.  I will be sending the hair out this week so they can make a wig out of it.  It was really bothering me, too hot for all the hot summer weather and hot flashes that I've been having.

I did even up the cut after I took this pic.

and it's really hard to take a decent picture of yourself by yourself...

Well gotta go back to work, hope your day is going well.

Denise

Everyday things

I know I dont post much but I think I do just very mundane things and dont want to bore you to death. But here goes:

On Tuesday we went and got two big baskets of locally grown peaches from Scott's Orchard. We got some lumber to build a grape harbor. Our grapes are so loaded this year that they are laying on the ground. We do have two small metal trellaces but they are now too small to hold all the branches. I harvested the rest of my small batch of beets. Now that I know that they will do well here I'll be planting more this fall. My popcorn didnt come up...darn. My sunflowers looked like they wouldnt come up either but with the rain everyday one finally poked its head up, well at least that's what I think it is. I will be very disappointed if it turns out that it's a weed instead...LOL. The rain has greened everything up and the garden is doing pretty good. I even got one small paste tomato today. It is from a volunteer that came up near the raspberries. I've been picking about 1/2 to 1 quart of blueberries every day. I'll be making some syrup, butter and jam out of it and I'll still have enough left over to make some blueberry pancakes.

The chickens are laying well, sometimes too well I must say. I will be making some more pickled eggs only this time with beet juice. The fence around the chicken coop needs shored up or something. We need to take a day and fix it but my DH has been so sick since Tuesday. Some intestinal bug. He even called off work two days. Poor thing.

Last night I canned some peach preserves and am planning on doing some more tonight. We went to get some oil and oil filters for the car and truck yesterday, ate at Mildred's Restaurant (buffet was really yummy) and after DH visited the bathroom stopped at the fruit market on the way home. Gotta keep those chicks in watermelon ;) In case you think this was my idea, think again, DH needed to get the oil before the sale ran out so even though he wasnt feeling well we went and got it. He had a coupon. We went to the wrong store. He noticed this when we were at the cash register and mentioned that we had come to the wrong store and he had a coupon for the other store. The manager honored the coupon! So we got $10 off our purchase. DH was happy about being able to use the coupon and we didnt have to stop anywhere else which was good considering.

I finished one pair of socks for him and started another for him. Havent been doing much crafting, been reading instead.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

New NIA email

Add billionaire "Bond King" founder of Pimco, Bill Gross, to the nearly 1 million people who have watched NIA's critically acclaimed documentary 'College Conspiracy'! In Gross' brand new July newsletter that he released today, he focused entirely on a college education in America being a waste and featured many of the facts, statistics, and viewpoints that NIA was the first to expose to the world in 'College Conspiracy'.



It is not a coincidence that before the release of 'College Conspiracy' 5 weeks ago, almost nobody in the U.S. was calling college education a scam. Since the release of 'College Conspiracy', in a period of just 5 weeks there have been literally hundreds of articles and stories in the mainstream media about how college is a scam and why American students are much better off avoiding college all together.



We would like to thank all NIA members who worked tirelessly to spread the word about 'College Conspiracy'. When we all work together to spread the facts and truth about the U.S. economy and inflation, our message is able to reach nearly every single American across the country!



We just posted Gross' July newsletter to our blog for you to see: http://inflation.us/blog/2011/06/bill-gross-appears-to-have-watched-college-conspiracy/

New NIA email

Bernanke to Invent New Term for Printing Money



When the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) reported their latest consumer price index (CPI) inflation data last week, everybody in the mainstream media worked tirelessly to spin the data in order to proclaim that U.S. price inflation is not a problem. Most articles in the media reported that inflation slowed in May due to falling gas prices. The truth is, gas prices rose last month and U.S. price inflation is spiraling out of control.



Price inflation based on the CPI on a year-over-year basis rose during the month of May to 3.57%, up from 3.16% in April, 2.68% in March, 2.11% in February, 1.63% in January, 1.5% in December, and 1.1% in November. The official rate of price inflation has more than tripled over the past 6 months. Yes, maybe the rate of year-over-year price inflation rose by slightly less in May over April, than it did in April over March, but this isn't good news at all. This U.S. dollar is still rapidly losing its purchasing power and the rate at which it is declining in purchasing power is accelerating.



On an unadjusted basis, gas prices rose 3.6% in the month of May. The media is reporting gas prices based on the BLS's seasonal adjustments. Only with the BLS's deceptive seasonal adjustments did gas prices decline by 2% in the month of May. The BLS's seasonal adjustments will actually reverse starting in the month of July and add to reported gasoline prices. NIA predicts that come August when the BLS releases its July CPI report, the media will begin focusing on unadjusted gasoline prices because the unadjusted gain will be less than the adjusted one. The media always reports the data that supports their agenda and ignores the data that works against it.



The media is obviously just saying what the U.S. government wants them to say. Larry Summers, a Keynesian economist who served for 5 years last decade as President of Harvard and was up until late-2010 director of President Obama's White House National Economic Council, just said last week that, "the underlying rate of inflation is still trending downwards". The media's favorite economist Paul Krugman, a Keynesian who has an op-ed column in the New York Times, said last week that, "There’s really nothing here to shake my view that deflation, not inflation, is the threat."



Krugman, who has been calling for massive price deflation the whole entire time that NIA has been predicting massive price inflation, is refusing to admit he has been wrong and is telling all Americans to ignore rapidly rising food and energy prices because he claims they are too volatile. He is telling the world to focus solely on the core CPI, which ignores food and energy, the two items that Americans need most to live and survive. Core CPI is weighed heavily by rents and America's Real Estate bubble still isn't done deflating. The only purpose of having a core CPI is for Keynesian economists like Krugman to use it to mislead Americans and deceive them into believing that inflation is not a problem.



Core CPI was an invention of the Nixon administration, which right there should tell you all you need to know about it. President Nixon's idea for creating core CPI, was to deceive Americans about price inflation by excluding the items that were rising the most, which he would justify by calling these items "too volatile". NIA has predicted from the very beginning that inflation will not effect all goods and services equally and that as inflation begins to spiral out of control, inflation would gravitate most towards the prices of the items that Americans need the most, and there is nothing that Americans need more than food and agricultural products, and to a lesser extent energy.



Whenever the mainstream media reports about global inflation and they show a map of the world, the map always shows massive inflation in Middle Eastern and Asian countries, with the U.S. having the least price inflation. The truth is, inflation in Middle Eastern and Asian countries isn't many times worse than the U.S., it is just that their governments are many times more honest and aren't as advanced in manipulating economic statistics as our government is. While all of the headlines from major American news organizations about U.S. inflation said last week that inflation is slowing and not a problem, those same news organizations wrote articles about Chinese inflation being at a new 34-month high of 5.5%. The fact is, official U.S. price inflation is also at its highest level in nearly three years and our real price inflation rate is actually higher than China's reported rate of price inflation.



Based on the BLS's CPI, year-over-year U.S. price inflation in the month of May of 3.57% was the highest year-over-year price inflation rate since October of 2008, right before the global financial crisis. If it wasn't for the global financial crisis of late-2008/early-2009 and the world's mistake of liquidating real assets and hoarding fiat U.S. dollars as a safe haven, it is likely that the official rate of U.S. price inflation would already be in the double-digits today. NIA estimates the real rate of U.S. price inflation, minus geometric weighting and hedonics, to currently be approximately 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. It is possible that the real U.S. price inflation rate will reach double digits in the second half of 2011. That will be devastating to the U.S. economy because at that point it will just about guarantee that the Federal Reserve will have to raise the federal funds rate to north of 10% by the middle of this decade.



The Federal Reserve's balance sheet just reached a brand new record of $2.832 trillion, up from $2.815 trillion in the prior week, as we approach the end of QE2 at the end of June. The stock market is already anticipating the end of QE2 with the Dow Jones currently down over 900 points from its high at the end of April. The declining stock market is pretty much sowing the seeds for a QE3. After all, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke doesn't want to see the phony U.S. economic recovery blow up in smoke.



Bernanke will do everything possible to disguise QE3 and will never admit to there being a QE3. Remember, this is the same Federal Reserve Chairman who lied to every single American on '60 Minutes' when he said, "We're not printing money." That is exactly what QE2 is, printing money, but just like how Bernanke won't admit to printing money, Bernanke is now going to retire the term "quantitative easing" and come up with a new term for the Fed's latest destructive policy of creating massive monetary inflation.



It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us

Just couldnt resist this one!

Father's day how it started...

Father's Day, in the United States, is a holiday (third Sunday in June) to honour fathers. Credit for originating the holiday is generally given to Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, whose father, a Civil War veteran, raised her and her five siblings after their mother died in childbirth. She is said to have had the idea in 1909 while listening to a sermon on Mother's Day, which at the time was becoming established as a holiday. Local religious leaders supported the idea, and the first Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, the month of the birthday of Dodd's father. In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge gave his support to the observance, and in 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson officially proclaimed it a national holiday. Observance on the third Sunday of June was decreed by law in 1972.

Although it was originally largely a religious holiday, Father's Day has been commercialized with the sending of greeting cards and the giving of gifts. Some observe the custom of wearing a red rose to indicate that one's father is living or a white rose to indicate that he is deceased. Other males—for example, grandfathers or uncles who have assumed parenting roles—are often also honoured on the day. Some Roman Catholics have continued to observe the feast day of Saint Joseph, on March 19, as a tribute to fathers. - History Channel

For a lot more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father's_Day

The link above also has Father's Day list for other countries. Very interesting...didnt know everyone celebrated it and Mother's Day as well...

P.S. - You'll have to copy and paste the link, dont know what happened to it, sorry.

Denise

Melons now a Monsanto "invention"

US corporation awarded a European patent on conventionally bred melons.

Recent research conducted by the coalition No Patents on Seeds! shows that in May 2011, the US corporation Monsanto was awarded a European patent on conventionally bred melons (EP 1 962 578). Melons have a natural resistance to certain plant viruses. It is especially evident in melons grown in India. Using conventional breeding methods, this type of resistance was introduced to other melons and has now been patented as a Monsanto “invention”.

“This patent is an abuse of patent law because it is not a real invention. It contravenes European law excluding patents on conventional breeding. Further, it is a case of bio-piracy, since the original and most relevant plants come from India,” says Christoph Then, a spokesperson for No Patents on Seeds!. “Patents like this are blocking access to the genetic resources necessary for further breeding, and basic resources needed for daily life are subordinated to monopolisation and financial speculation.”

In a precedent decision, the European Patent Office (EPO) decided in December 2010, that conventional breeding could not be patented (G2/07 and G1/08). However, in the Monsanto patent case, the EPO just excluded the process for melon breeding. The plants and all parts of the plant, such as the seeds and the melon fruit, have been patented as an invention. Therefore, the patent was only changed cosmetically but not in substance.

The actual plant disease, Cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus (CYSDV), has been spreading through North America, Europe and North Africa for several years. Monsanto can now block access to breeding material inheriting genetic conditions that confer resistance. DeRuiter, a well known seed company in the Netherlands, originally developed the melons. DeRuiter used plants designated PI 313970 – a non-sweet melon from India. Monsanto acquired the seed company in 2008, and now also owns the patent.

The coalition No Patents on Seeds! are calling for a revision of European Patent Law to exclude breeding material, plants and animals and food derived thereof from patentability. More than 160 organisations and about 15.000 individuals have already signed up to this call that was started in March 2011.


Wow, now they'll be getting into other veggies and fruits as well. Kinda scary isnt it? It's like the whole world is their laboratory. - Denise

New NIA email

Here are the top 10 most important economic questions that NIA answered during the past week.



NIAnswers is currently offline as we program the final version of our software. Up until now, NIAnswers was in the beta phase. The final version should be online by the end of June. Until then, please email your economic questions to us.



1) I bought silver when NIA declared it the best investment for the next decade at $17 per ounce. Should I get out now while I am still up big? For my friends who don't own silver, should I tell them it is too late to invest? What is your outlook for silver in the second half of 2011?
It is dangerous not to own gold and silver. Although the U.S. dollar seems like a safe haven to most Americans because it has a number on it that always stays the same, the U.S. dollar is a fiat currency with no real value because it is no longer backed by gold. The only reason the U.S. dollar still has any purchasing power at all is due to the public's perception that it will always be accepted as money. Gold is the world's most stable asset and silver possesses all of the same monetary qualities as gold, but is a lot more volatile than gold.

We believe silver is a much better bargain than gold because the gold/silver ratio is currently 42 and during periods of high inflation it always declines to 16, which is where the Coinage Act of 1834 defined their values until silver was demonitized in 1873. Ever since silver was demonitized, America has been a fiat country gone insane with Americans being brainwashed into believing silver is only an industrial metal and paper dollars are money. Bernanke's devastating inflationary monetary policies will soon wake Americans up to the truth and we will see a decline in the ratio back to 16 or below permanently, which means we will see at least a 2.625 times increase in purchasing power for those who own silver vs. gold from their current levels. We are 100% confident the gold/silver ratio will at least decline to 16 this decade.

Because silver has been so undervalued for so long with a gold/silver ratio averaging north of 50 for the past century, most silver produced in recent decades has been consumed by industrial purposes and there are actually much larger inventories of gold available above ground today. Most likely we will probably see the gold/silver ratio overcorrect to the downside, possibly down to 10 or lower. Only 10 times more silver has been produced in world history than gold so a gold/silver ratio of 10 is actually a very realistic possibility. This means those who own silver will likely more than quadruple their purchasing power from current levels this decade, while Americans with savings in U.S. dollars lose all of their purchasing power.

COMEX registered physical silver inventories have declined 30% over the past six weeks down to 28.8 million ounces or just $1 billion worth of silver. A major shortage of physical silver is developing. A COMEX default is likely coming in the near-future as those holding futures contracts demand physical delivery and COMEX can't deliver. This could cause an explosion in silver prices, possibly to $100 per ounce overnight.

Silver prices rose too far too fast during the month of April. When we announced silver as the best investment for the next decade at $17 per ounce, we never thought silver would nearly reach $50 per ounce in early 2011. We were looking for silver to reach $50 per ounce in late 2011 with a decline in the gold/silver ratio this year to 38.

When silver reached a new all time nominal high of near $50 per ounce in April, the gold/silver ratio temporarily declined as low as 30.5, far below NIA's outlook for 2011 of 38. Silver prices were due for a natural pullback, but because COMEX raised margin requirements on multiple occasions right when silver began to dip, we saw a very rapid and steep pullback in silver prices due to forced liquidations, profit taking, and panic selling. The timing of COMEX's margin requirement increases can be described in no other way than manipulation.



COMEX has been manipulating down the price of silver in order to help their friends at JP Morgan, who have a huge silver naked short position. The manipulation has allowed JP Morgan to decrease its silver short position to just about its lowest level since it was acquired in 2008 from Bear Stearns with the backing of the Federal Reserve. Without this manipulation, it is possible that after a brief pullback, JP Morgan would be covering its silver short position today above $50 per ounce.

Although the pullback in silver was steep, this was not unexpected. It is something that NIA has warned about on countless occasions. We believe the pullback in silver is now over and most of the silver sold by speculators is now owned by stronger hands that are holding for the long-term. In our opinion, silver will make another move towards $50 per ounce and instead of pulling back, this time silver will break $50 per ounce and reach new all time nominal highs. We don't see much downsize risk for silver, because there are many investors who are waiting to buy as much silver as possible on any kind of dip from these levels.

2) What do you think about the new Utah money where people will be able to pay taxes and each other in gold and silver coins? Do you think this will pass the U.S. Senate and what will that do to silver?

Utah just legalized gold and silver as a currency, which is something that NIA strongly supports. Gold and silver will now be exempt from state capital gains tax in Utah. However, Utah doesn't have the power to exempt it from Federal capital gains tax. We support Ron Paul for President in the 2012 election because he will eliminate Federal taxes on gold and silver. After all, when gold prices go up you actually aren't making money. You are simply retaining your purchasing power as the U.S. dollar goes down. Ron Paul is the only candidate who understands this and understands that the U.S. constitution mandated only gold and silver to be used as legal tender. Fiat currencies are unconstitutional. Ben Bernanke is a criminal who is stealing the wealth of all Americans through inflation and NIA will not stop until all Americans understand the truth.

3) At the price of gold and silver now, is it safe to continue to purchase these metals? When do you plan to sell?

We are still buying gold and silver, and we will hold our gold and silver until the Dow Jones/gold ratio at least declines to 1, the median U.S. home/silver ratio at least declines to 1,000, and the gold/silver ratio at least declines to 16. Only when these ratios are met will it be a sign that it is time to diversify from precious metals. However, we will never sell precious metals in order to buy a fiat currency. We plan to use our precious metals to buy dirt cheap Real Estate in the U.S. once the market has completely bottomed, which is still many years away from happening.

4) What do you mean when you say, "No amount of tax increases and spending decreases will ever allow the U.S. to balance its budget."? Is there no way out of this hole? Is there no way to turn this bus around and prevent it from going over a cliff and into the abyss of hyperinflation?

If the government acted immediately and cut expenses across the board by 50% including entitlement programs, and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to at least 5% or 6%, we believe hyperinflation could be prevented. However, the government doesn't believe inflation is a problem because the Fed looks at the core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes food and energy, because the Fed says food and energy inflation is transitory. The core CPI is mainly comprised of rents, which is very misleading because rents aren't going to rise by much in the short-term being that we just had the largest Real Estate bubble in history that still isn't done deflating.

Even core CPI will begin rising dramatically eventually. When price inflation becomes so large that the government realizes something must be done and can no longer ignore it, it will be too late. Our budget deficit as a percentage of annual government expenditures is at a level that many other countries were at right before they experienced hyperinflation. What triggered hyperinflation in prior instances is when foreigners stopped lending and a country's own central bank needed to print the money to fund the bulk of a country's deficit spending. We believe our two largest foreign lenders China and Japan are about to pull the plug on the U.S. and the Federal Reserve will become the U.S. treasury buyer of last resort. The Fed already owns more U.S. treasuries than China and Japan, but soon the Fed will be the only treasury buyer left.

If we wait another year to make dramatic spending cuts, it will be too late because soon we will have to deal with rising interest payments on our national debt. The annual interest we pay on our national debt is currently only around $200 billion per year due to our artificially low interest rates. When rates start to rise, annual interest on our debt could easily exceed $1 trillion and cause our budget deficits to explode even higher. The first place the U.S. needs to cut is the military. We need to leave Afghanistan immediately now than Bin Laden is dead and we must stop attacking countries that are no threat to us like Libya.

5) One of the issues that has propped up the dollar for decades is the ability of the U.S. government to "enforce" the dollar because of its enormous and superior military. What are your thoughts about this?

We don't think we can threaten other countries by force and make them continue buying U.S. treasuries because if they stopped buying our debt, the dollar would collapse and we won't have the resources to fund our military. Some people believe the world is buying our treasuries because they like the U.S. military policing the world, but we strongly disagree. We believe the world resents the U.S. for maintaining its 700 military bases in 130 countries. In our opinion, we are gaining enemies this way. China and Japan would be much better off using the money they spend on U.S. treasuries to expand the size of their own militaries. When the dollar collapses due to hyperinflation, no longer will the U.S. be the world's superpower due to its military. China's military will eventually exceed the size of ours. Our current military empire where we spend just about the same on defense as the rest of the world combined is unsustainable and over the long-term this wasteful spending is making us a lot less safe as a result. Having a safe and stable currency is the most important fundamental building block of having a safe and stable country.

6) We have a nation full of incredibly financially smart folks who should be concentrating on the solution instead of the problem. Where are they and why isn't anyone stepping up to the plate to try to save our country? I heard that Donald Trump had a plan to get us out of debt but don't know what that plan is. Have you heard about this plan and is it credible?

Donald Trump isn't very credible when it comes to getting out of debt, because his casino company is one of the most indebted companies in the world and it has filed for bankruptcy on numerous occasions. But then again, the U.S. is for all intents and purposes bankrupt so if Donald Trump changed his mind and decided to run for President, he could campaign based on his experience with reorganizing under bankruptcy and keeping companies alive and operating despite them being bankrupt. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has screwed over his shareholders countless times who were left with nothing, so he would probably also screw over holders of U.S. dollars who would be left with worthless pieces of paper that have no purchasing power.

7) When do you expect inflation to crimp the margins of consumer discretionary stocks?

Inflation is already hurting the margins of many consumer discretionary stocks that have been reporting earnings in recent weeks, which is something NIA predicted would happen late last year. Retailers are passing some of their rising costs on to their customers, but are reluctant to pass all of them on. Many retailers are passing on 1/2 of their rising wholesale costs by raising retail prices and eating the other 1/2 through shrinking gross margins. This same thing is happening to the product manufacturers who are seeing large raw material input cost increases. They are eating some of their rising costs to stay competitive and passing the rest on to their customers. Many manufacturers and retailers are hoping that Bernanke is right and that commodity inflation is transitory. Although some commodities have run too far too fast and will dip in the short-term as the dollar makes a possible temporary bounce, we can assure you that inflation is not transitory and the dollar collapse has just begun.

8) NIA says there is no chance of the U.S. ever balancing its budget, without eliminating the so-called untouchable entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. How exactly would the disabled live if these entitlement programs were gone? It sounds like retirement would have to be eliminated. Would a person basically have to work to death?

Retirement will become a thing of the past for Americans relying on Social Security to retire as well as Americans with their savings in U.S. dollars. Seniors who are not relying on Social Security and have at least one third of the savings necessary to retire, and are smart enough to invest their savings now into silver, we believe will be able to retire and stay retired as they will increase their purchasing power while the rest of America goes broke. NIA expects to see a major trend in the upcoming years of retired Americans reentering the workforce as their Social Security checks continue to buy less and less. Seniors haven't seen any Social Security cost-of-living adjustment increases in years, despite there being massive price inflation, especially for food and energy. Adjusted for real price inflation, Americans receiving Social Security today should be receiving almost triple the amount that they are currently receiving.

9) When the U.S. dollar drops to zero value and it becomes necessary to use gold for daily needs, how will the exchange of goods for gold be accomplished? How do I use a 1 ounce gold coin, with present value of about $1,500, to purchase a loaf of bread and/or a quart of milk, for example? How will these 1 ounce coins be broken down?

It is possible to buy American Eagle and Canadian Maple Leaf gold coins that are as small as 1/10 of an ounce, but NIA strongly recommends against buying these coins because you will likely end up paying a 15% premium for them compared to just a 4% premium for the 1 ounce versions of these coins. We believe silver will be more commonly used for bartering purposes, as silver is currently around $36 per ounce and a few ounces of silver can easily buy a week's worth of groceries for a family. In fact, with the gold/silver ratio currently at 42 despite the fact that only 10 times more silver has been produced in world history than gold (with most of this silver being consumed for industrial purposes never to be seen again), NIA believes silver is undervalued compared to gold and will increase around 3 to 4 times in purchasing power compared to gold this decade. Therefore, it is possible that only 1 ounce of silver could be enough to buy a week's worth of groceries for a family during hyperinflation.

10) One of your stock suggestions from August of 2009 was Capital Gold at $2.48 per share and it was recently acquired by Gammon Gold for $6.56 per share. Do you have any opinions on Gammon?



A few weeks ago one of NIA's co-founders had a meeting with the co-founders of Gammon Gold (they left Gammon years ago and we didn't know them until after Gammon had already acquired Capital Gold). They told us that they have strong confidence in Gammon's current management team. We believe Gammon is a solid company for the long-term, but we also believe there are much bigger opportunities out there. We liked Capital Gold because it was one of the lowest market cap publicly traded gold producers that was profitable with a strong balance sheet. Gammon was very smart for acquiring Capital Gold because it was accretive to their EPS. However, it will be very difficult for Gammon to grow organically. Gammon's future revenue growth will likely come from both rising gold prices and possible further acquisitions. It will be hard for them to find another amazing acquisition opportunity like Capital Gold was. Gammon is changing its corporate name and starting next week will be known as AuRico Gold.



NIA is not an investment advisor. NIA's NIAnswers are meant for informational and educational purposes only. Never make investment decisions based on any information contained in any of NIA's NIAnswers. Just because many of NIA's previous economic predictions and forecasts were accurate, doesn't mean NIA's future economic predictions and forecasts will be accurate. All of NIA's predictions and forecasts could turn out to be completely wrong.



It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us