Will this depression be all bad

I call this downturn a depression rather than a recession because I think the present incumbent at Number 10 doesn't want to own up to the truth. I'm not a political supporter of any of the parties believing that all of them will fill their own pockets then let the rest of us fight over what's left. Cynical yes, sad, even more so but who wants to be remembered as the prime minister who took us into a depression?

The current track is that "it's a worldwide recession that was started by the Americans so it had nowt to do with me guvnor... honest"

The sad part is that many people will suffer in this depression, mainly those who have lost their jobs and cannot keep up the repayments on the new beemer or jaguar, the credit card payments, the various loans and the purchases of T%&*0 Finest shopping basket.

But ask yourselves this question. Will it really be that bad ? I was one of the consumer is king brigade until my financial crisis in 2005 - 2008 when I eventually ended up escaping bankruptcy by the skin of my teeth but that focused my mind to ensure i never again had any credit cards, loans, debts i "might not" be able to repay etc.

I spent the first 3 months of 2005 in denial, then the next 3 months blaming everyone else then finally I owned up to it being my fault and my responsibility regardless of the fact banks and building societies kept offering me more money. Of course i took it and spent it but hell life's too short to worry isn't it? well isn't it ?

After a lot of Internet searching and reading, often in the early hours as I couldn't sleep with worry I eventually got to grips with the problems and started to sort them out. Only one of the 14 creditors ha ranged me but I got the better of them in the end and stuffed them well and truly which makes me smile even now.

I had to live on less than £75 a month on food for 3 of us... which we did, I had to be housebound as being disabled I couldn't afford petrol so couldn't use the car and it got so bad I resorted to scrounging the allotments for veg to make soup.

We cut back on everything, the creditors were king and got their money first before anything else bar the mortgage and council tax. I learnt to bounce Direct debits without incurring charges and running up debts on the electric and gas in order to buy food and stay warm as well.

We learnt to grow veg, make our own bread, butter, cheese, jams and pickles, sausages and burgers whilst also making do and mend with clothes and furniture etc. Many of the things we still have now would have been long gone had we had more credit cards or access to loans etc. We would sell anything we could but also demanding a fair price and thus not used eBay and the likes. We cancelled birthdays and Christmases, holidays and even chocolates from the corner shop.

We paid off a ver big debt in a little over 3 years through cutting back to the bare bones of an existence and making the best use of what we had. I say this as it has made me a much stronger person and also a stronger family. It's taught s to be a lot more cynical of society and government, to be helpful but not at our own expense and above all to be realistic and trade in cash. If we have the cash we can make a purchase.

So to the initial question, will this depression be a bad thing? I think not for the simple answer that it will make a lot of people sit up and look at what they buy, what they do and the way they do these things in a similar way our financial troubles made us. It will be most uncomfortable but it will make a lot of people come to terms with their predicament and never again will they buy into the consumerism that this "world " economy relies on to make the rich richer and the less well off feel good by buying products they don't need or worse still want!

We are now on the way to self sufficiency. We still shop at food stores as we are still meat eaters and don't keep our own livestock... yet but we have reduced our reliance on the power companies, we store water and still grow and make food as above. We are happier and healthier now, less stressed but still wary of what government can and often will do that may not be good and we will take that as it comes.

In my opinion becoming more self sufficient is going to be the way forward out of this economic crisis and the way forward to help combat global warming, food and power shortages that will come in the future as sure as day follows night. So if self sufficiency in whatever guise that presents itself is the answer where do we start? Everyone could install, or have installed micro generation for electric and hot water, even harvest rainwater and grey water but at what cost? £100,000, £200,000 ??

What we need to do is start of in the garden.

Simple as it seems but to grow a bit of your own food is a step that puts you in control, gives you a bit of time to be "at one with nature" and help you relax and unwind after a hard day at the work place but also it saves you money and the planet food miles. Obviously is you have a couple of acres as a back garden you can do an awful lot of growing your own food but you don't need much space, anything from a plant pot on the windowsill to grow a few herbs up to a full farm. If you have a back yard you can grow food in pots, if you have a bit of soil you can grow quite a few food plants in as little as a square meter of space. The native Americans used to grow three crops together. They grew sweetcorn and as it grew they under planted this with beans and used the sweetcorn as a climbing frame. After the beans were away they planted squashes or today we could plant courgettes as well. This became ground cover and so reduced the time spent weeding the ground. This method of planting is very hungry on the soil and attention needs to be given to the amount of water needed and also replenishing the soil with fertilizers.

Water harvesting

Which then neatly comes onto two other aspects of providing your own. Water harvesting and fertilizers. Water harvesting need not be grand sunken chambers the size of houses which cost £1000's of pounds but a few water butts in the garden. Having water butts is one thing you can't do on the windowsill but an average house roof is about 60 sq m and an average rainfall is about 1 metre of water per year so you could in theory harvest 60 tonnes of water per year or 60,000 Lt's. This water can be used to water your veg and fruit and also wash your clothes... and no they don't turn out grey and also you can flush the toilets and wash the car with the rainwater. If you go further you can filter the rainwater with a simple box of sand and there are many designs out there for this. Many offer purity of water in the 90% to 99% free of bacteria and germs but for even more safety you can use a set up of ultra violet scrubbers and then you can use this water to drink and bath in but please do your own research for the exact specifications of these methods.

Fertilisers As the cropping above is fertiliser intensive then you can use chicken pellets if you are going to grow organic but why not keep a few chickens in a small space in the garden and keep the guano or chicken much for a couple of years to mature then use this as a fertiliser.

The ideas keep coming from one leading to another and over time you can get a great deal of satisfaction out of being a bit savvy on where your food comes from and don't forget this all started with an idea to grow some herbs in a plant pot on the kitchen windowsill and costs nowhere near 100s of 1000's of pounds.....


Of course if the government really had their heads screwed on (proper like) instead of throwing billions at the banks they should offer free interest loans for environmentally friendly micro generation projects such as solar PV, solar Thermal and water harvesting but what do they know.........