The December Project

11/24/08 - 2nd Day - After Breakfast. As some of you know, in my household, our December Project begins in just a week. As a part of our continuing effort to separate, and to train ourselves and our minds, and to wean ourselves from the world - we will be staying home for the whole month of December. No going to the stores. No running to town. Period.


This type of project has been pretty common for the members of my family. This is how we trained ourselves and weaned ourselves from grid electricity. It's a great experiment, and it will teach you quite a bit about yourself and your condition. Now, December is the perfect month for this project for us. We don't celebrate the christ-Mass, obviously. So we really dislike the whole commercial hubbub during the so-called "holidays". We also don't like the heathen, apostates, homosexuals, and other assorted worldlings telling us to have a "merry christ-mass" every 5 seconds. Although our flesh does like some of the sales (and we might miss out on turkeys at .39 a pound) we aren't in dire need of any of that stuff.

Also, December traditionally is a month that would be used for meat processing and preservation, and for the chopping and stacking of firewood. For a traditional Agrarian family in December, these would have been the main tasks for the month. Here in Texas, when we have many nice days in the 50's, 60's and 70's in December, the month would also be used for building or construction projects. Our december is going to be taken up mainly in butchering, processing and storing meat. Our goal is, if the Lord wills, by the end of January to have put up enough meat for a whole year. That would be a goal we have never yet accomplished in the 10 years we have been on our agrarian-separatist journey. We also hope to begin the construction of a community cold smokehouse. Brother Larry and I have been planning on starting the smokehouse for awhile, and we hope to get started on it in the next few weeks. It is our intention, subject to the approval and will of God, that we have the cold smokehouse built and operational by the middle to end of January. I will be giving more details on the plans, materials, etc. on the cold smokehouse as things move on.

Ok, back to the December Project. I want to suggest that you and your family participate at some level. Sure, I don't expect any of you who are not yet living off-grid, etc. to be able to just take the month of December off with no notice. But there are other projects you can do:

Make a list and write down all of your town/store trips. If you run to 7-11 for a slurpee, write it down (added bonus: write down the mileage for each trip). If you go to the grocery, write it down. If you go to the pharmacy, write it down. Anyway, keep copious notes on each entry. Then, go down and comment on whether this item or trip was needed. Maybe come up with a code (1-10 or something) that tells you how critical the item or trip was.

Do a "needs/wants" test. Get a journal, a notepad, or some type of record-keeping device, and every time you use ANYTHING during the month. Write it down. If you use a stick of butter, write it down. If you use a box of tin-foil, write it down. Anything you consume, write it down. This will provide you with a grocery list of things you normally use. Then go down each item with your family, and discuss what you would do if the economy/system collapsed and you could no longer procure this item. What would you do? This is one of the most critical exercises in which you will ever participate. WHAT WILL YOU DO IF THESE THINGS ARE NOT AVAILABLE for an extended amount of time? What things can you begin to provide for yourself? What projects (like keeping chickens or building a greenhouse, etc.) can you engage in that will help you produce some of these things for yourself? What things can you eliminate now, in order to avoid the pain of having to do without it during a period of stress or danger?

On your trips list, discuss with your family how many of your trips were necessary. How many could have been avoided or combined? How many could have been eliminated with proper planning and foresight? How much gas did you use on unimportant trips? How much did you spend on "wants" that are not "needs"? How many times did you eat out when you didn't need to? Then discuss how to cut out the fat. Pray about it alot, and see what you can do to eliminate unnecessary trips to town or to the store. Plan ahead, and see if you can make a huge dent in your costs.

Anyway, these are December Projects that you can do this year. I know it is short notice, but if a disaster or collapse comes, it will likely be with short notice as well.

We ask for your prayers and support during our December Project. We hope to learn more about ourselves and our situation throughout this project. I should not be off-line, so you may still contact me or send me your Q&A questions during the month. I hope to keep posting to keep you all filled-in on how things are going and what we are learning. If you have any questions about the December Project, feel free to comment here.


Hope all is well with y'all out there.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker