New blog topics today -- no focus on my challenge :-) I hope!

I almost forget this entry because I was watching the second documentary I rented at Amazon yesterday, along with 8 Kindle books!!!  (You will have to search at Amazon videos for Urban Farmers as I couldn't find a website to link you with.)

I don't think I will be good at saving money... not really. I had enough, and only bought 99-cent books, one was only 49-cents!  :-)  The documentaries were the overspend, but they were only $1.99 each.  :-(



URBAN FARMERS was the first one I wanted to watch.  Rural people have more options than big city people, especially the poor.  This film was about New York City's food issues... food deserts, no land for farming, farmer's markets, CSA's, and whatever else they have there.  One thing I discovered in watching the film is the distance they have to go for farm products.  The CSA speaker said they get food from a 250-mile radius.  I was trying to decide how to apply that information to Oregon, and remembering Los Angeles issues.

Someone was smart enough to save the last piece of farmland relatively close to the main city.  I think that was Queens County Farm.  It's 47 whole acres.  Since it's a county property now, they do school field trips and more.

One other really interesting part for me was the online site Cornell University put together to connect the farmers and the people who want their products.  I still have to find it online and see what it is doing these days, but the idea sounded wonderful.  I am all for LOCAL emphasis.  I have been trying to advocate for emergency planning to know what food sources are around their region so they know where to go for food in a crisis.  That kind of website would be really good for everyone to think about establishing.

I thought they would have some roof gardens because the main movie photo shows green on top of roofs, but they didn't show any.  The CSA's are helping provide a lot of good food for the city people and helping the farmer's survive.  The Farmer's Markets are growing.  One neighborhood farm project was on temporary space, I think.  That is a real problem in developing food sources in places that are just not able to be developed at the time.  They work so hard and then they get destroyed by the owner of the properties.



A SIMPLER WAY was filmed by someone I support (slightly) at PATREON right now... I think.  I haven't found out for sure yet because he hasn't answered my messages.  I suppose he must be busy if he's doing films like the two I have seen, this one and one called LIVING THE CHANGE, also set in Australia.  I have decided he must live there. His name is Jordan Osmond.  I wonder if he will be able to build a Patreon page like a Kickstarter page... this will be interesting to watch, for now.

I checked for the website and found a link to watch it free (as of tonight...).  See what you think of young people trying to make a community from not much.

Here's my Earth Day offering for this post.  I didn't make a new post.  On social media I shared the three graphics I have on Earth Day issues.  I still remember my previous effort to share a Canva creation here... it was way too big.  I will have to do more of the size above... right?!

I spent a lot of time today looking through some of the Kindle books I bought.  Some classics like As A Man Thinketh and The Greatest Secret.  Ones on publishing books, social media marketing, building email lists, selling, etc.  I am trying to decide what kind of books I want to publish, and how to do it... with my current situation.  One comment in a book I was browsing today was that no one has time to read anymore... so the online books seem to be very short.  He has a formula.  :-)  I am still checking it out.  Amazon has a "short reads" section and the limit is 100 pages I think.  That was my first book goal... to do a short read.

I think I am done for tonight.

Until next time,
May GOD help us all to be better people,
and to reach the goals He has put in our hearts to accomplish.
May He protect us from harms we cannot overcome,
and help us to find our way through the valleys we must go through.

In Christ,
Deb Martin

work2gather.us
patreon.com/DebsRetirementPlan
etsy.com/shop/work2gather

Wednesday, 25 July 2018

I have been too long at the computer today... so I need to get this done.

I was working on my budget file, guessing how I can find some money and how I would spend it if I did.  I read a small article last night about funding a business and part of the article mentioned the tax-free GIFT amount for 2018 -- $15,000.  More than the last time I checked on it.  I started wondering how I would spend that much in one year, then three years, if I found someone to help me that way.  It is becoming a great challenge, a kind of modified business plan.  :-)

I have considered that Working Together could use the GIFT option to support people in the future.  I expected to be further along by now, but the concept is still a good way to take care of Christians who will not be able to work in the ministry. I have been pondering the boundaries and options for it since.  Reading that article just woke up the challenge again.

In deciding my own needs, I came to see that $1500 a month would be sufficient.  And, not wanting to go past the gift limit in the full year for anyone, I am supposing that $1000 a month would be a safe amount in this tax climate.  Naturally, I have other opinions on the taxes we pay, but this is the government we have to work with... for now.  That would mean a support budget of $12,000 for each person we would want to support, whether in cash or in-kind benefits like housing and food, etc.  It means a huge need for business profits and that means we must create a product base that will be an ongoing source of revenue.

I think the products we need will be a great place to start the process, especially in a membership format.  Food, shelter, clothing, transportation, etc.  Food is a big one... and that is why large properties for farms and ranches will be essential... small communities of Christian members as staff, local hiring options, global spaces, etc.  Working Together is a big goal, but a necessary one.

So, last night I started a file to work on it... again.

Using myself helps me see if my basic needs can be applied across the business plan.  These are USA budgets and dependent on a lot of other factors... a growth goal for WT and taking care of Christians as we go.

I have always had a general idea of what to do to reach these goals, just never any money to get started.  I feel that GOD has to provide, and will do that at the right time.  As our world grows worse, my prayers for provision increase... and protection.  I see how we are being hurt and there is nothing I am able to do about it.  Then I try to remember the characters we know of in the BIBLE and history who also suffered, and died, for their faith.  We want to be different, but we are just as bound to stand for our faith as they were.  Finding inspiration and motivation and courage is sometimes a hard place for me these days.  In those hard moments, I cling to GOD and my relationship with Him over the years... and think of heaven.

Somehow, I will find my way to the future GOD has made me for...

So, right now, my budget has the income I already have, and I am working on the income I might have with an added $1000/month as a GIFT income, and then projections for wages as an employee of Working Together, and the increased possibilities for online sales income through my crafting efforts.  My GIFT income would be replaced by the other sources of income I would be able to generate through wages and crafts... and I am still guessing what the final amount would be after three years of GIFT income as a base... maybe more than my $1500 goal for a monthly income, but the taxes and expenses for food and healthcare would take care of the increases, for now.

Budgeting helps me to clarify the places I spend... what my goals can be... how I can change my past into a better future.  It has always been a challenge, worse in the early years of Welfare poverty, but the goals we have change, too.  We seem to expand our needs as our income expands.  I am hoping to keep myself in a regular kind of life and do some of the other things I have always hoped to do.

My first year would be gone in a flash on supplies and equipment and missing basics I have been seeking for years.  The second year would be the big change... I would be able to invest in the spaces that need it most, and make a real "emergency fund" for what I am not planning to happen.  The third year seems like a transition year into self-sufficiency... going from government poverty to a reasonable life.  Of course, this all depends on my health... what I can do both physically and with adaptation to any senior issues that come up.  :-)   There are always problems to deal with.  They have changed to senior issues from youthful dreams.

I don't know how long this will take, or how to share it (if I decide to).  I need to find the foundations that fund individuals, or an individual with money to fund an individual with none.  Maybe someone who wants to explore poverty changes through my efforts.  Maybe this would work for crowd-funding...  hmmm, I will have to think on that.

Let me know if you can refer anyone!  :-:

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us


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May GOD guide and provide for these deep financial needs.  Amen.