There is an old saying, "Walk silently and carry a big stick."  How simple that sounds.  I took the passive road to discover that family took me to be a fool, stupid, or lacking.  Well that is family for you!

So now I no longer take the passive route and now I am a Captital B------ person.  So with family you really cannot win.  We do not get to pick and choose our family members.  And in truth we cannot always pick our in laws either.  Now I can see at times that walking peacefully along and carrying a big stick is well worth the effort.

So I made some interesting observations concerning family and for what it is worth here is my two cents on the situation.  Never give a direct answer to any question always leave them wondering if you agreed with them or didn't agree with them.  Never commit yourself in word in writing, and clearing state that No means No and you can't ague with NO!  (note here my yorkie Ming Ming will ague over everything and anything including no)

Never reveal a secret take it to your death bed, because the person who told you the secret tells everyone in the family.  I however tell people who say to me "don't tell so and so I told you this." I stop them at this point and tell them I don't want to hear it.  Walk away!

Always be honest, that doesn't mean be blunt and straight an attack their heart . If someone ask me "How's this suit fit," I always say honestly you should try another one on.

When All fails you simply cast a spell of what you sow so shall you reap on the family member smile and walk away.

If I have been absolutely no help to you it is a simple matter of non-committial of how to deal with family.  Now wasn't that easy ?

Always remember, "better to be thought a fool then to open ones mouth and remove all doubt.!"

    Shahban

I am thinking that their has to be something wrong with me.  I always seem to help people out all the time and my thanks is usually they take advantage of me.  That is just what happened a month ago.

I made arrangements to hunt and kill two buffalo.  A friend wanted one to put in her freezer she hates to kill animals, but she went a long paid for the animal and I shot it for her.  Then their was a friend of my husbands who said he would go half on a buffalo with us.  So my husband killed the buffalo.  Went to pay for the animal what  does this guy do.  He sits at the table, acts as if he doesn't care and tells me, "I didn't know I had to pay for my half."  I nearly dropped where I was standing.  Now I have to come up with an extra money for this buffalo.  I was so angry.  I said to this man, "What did you think they grow on tree's and you pick them for free."  He said,"no I know there not free I just didn't think I had to pay for my half."  I think what hurts most is the fact he didn't seem to care that he was cheating us.  He said it no different then he would of if he was saying no to a cup of coffee.

Well I paid for the entire buffalo hanged the buffalo, cut it up, and packed it up, and dropped his half off at his house two weeks later.  What this man doesn't realize this will be the last buffalo he will ever see from us.  He actually cut his own throat by pulling this crap on me.

I am now going to do up spell to protect me from people like this.  And do up a spell that he loses three times what I feel he stole from us.  I realize I didn't have to give him the half of the buffalo.  But I did not want any trouble from this man in any way to fall back on us because of him.  Just feel, better safe then sorry!

No more being good to people for me.  I just got burnt real bad this time.  And people wonder why there are so many women who are bitches.  Here is the answer to that question.  We get burned to many times.

Siobhand

We had a truck that we were sleeping in the back of with just a top on it. So not much room to move around. We purchased a second hand broken down camper and put it on the truck so we could travel around looking for work. We went to Medicine Hat, Edmonton, Calgary and places in between.

I learned to shoot a gun and become good at hitting what I aimed at. If I missed then we went without food. Never wasted anything because wasting could be something we would be in need of the next day or so. I learned to use tea bags several times before tossing them out. Little tricks like that.

Let me say at this point and I was hungry at the time I ate part of a porcupine. They are not good eating. You can survive on them for meat, but I do not recommend them. I think I would rather eat a prairie dog. I ate grouse, prairie chickens, ducks, geese, deer and gathered berry's learn to make mint tea and rose hip tea and to search for herb's.

Living in the camper in the spring right through the fall is great! I do not recommend doing it in the winter time in Alberta where the weather reaches -40F for several weeks out of the winter. Parked out in the middle of the woods it was ok, we just built a big fire opened the camper door and let the heat and smoke in. Regardless of the smoke we were nice and warm. This can only be done in the middle of the woods, you can't do this parked in a parking lot in the middle of a Walmart parking lot.

The second winter in the camper I managed to get my feet frozen at -40. We had five days of that kind of weather. My husband had finally found work and were putting together enough money to get an apartment when the weather took this cold spell.

Medical is free in Canada well sort of we pay a monthly charge. I went to the doctor and his idea of treatment was remove my toes. My attitude was no darn way. My toes were not black they were a dark purple, swollen and itchy. I could not afford the medication or cream the doctor wanted me to use. So I had heard about mixing willow bark and lard together. So I heated up the lard added small pieces of willow bark and some Aloe plant. I heated it until the bark turned brown and ugly and the liquid was a pretty soft green. Let cool after putting the liquid into a jar.

I put this mixture on my toes four times a day, just after a warm foot bath and then dried my feet and put on the mixture, added cotton socks, then added a couple pair of wool socks. I did this for months. Each winter there after four five winters. I did manage to keep my toes and no longer have to treat them in the winter time or when the weather turns cold.

The hardest part of being down and out is the way people treat you or don't treat you. They act like your some kind of disease and want nothing to do with you. They judge you to be something that crawled out from under a tree or a rock. Unfortunately I most likely did at the time trying to keep warm.

Dr.Phil's son dressed up one time as if he was down and out, and he was shocked that people avoided him and would not speak to him. My advice never judge someone because of the way they look.

My life style is simple.  I shoot my own meat, which means I clean it, skin it, and cool it down in a cool building.  Then I cut it up either into steaks, roasts, ribs, and chops.  Bacon if it is pork. The animals I put in the freezer each year are, mule deer, buffalo, pig (pork) rabbit, wild ducks and geese, tame ducks, grouse and rabbits and chickens.

I also dry foods in a dehydrator such as onions, tomatoes.  Dried tomatoes are used in soup, onions once dried I can shop up or break them up into small pieces, or grind into powder for cooking or use as a spice.  I make my own jerky instead of buying it.  I freeze some veggies like corn, carrots, pea's and string beans.  

 I collect mint for mint tea, also use rose hips for tea, buy beans instead of instant coffee so I grind my own coffee, grinding only what I will use in a day.

I purchase flour, sugar, coffee beans, use cream no coffee creamers or other coffee additives. I buy ice cream and chocolate and coco mix and some spices

Herbs that I can not find are purchased at a herb store. I do not take vitamins. I stick as close to living off the land as possible. 

My life style is simple, easy, and stress free to a great degree.  I am in fair health, but most of what is wrong is due to normal aging.

Siobhan Shadow