One thing rednecks love to do: eat. It's an old tradition, eating good filling meals with friends and a liberal dose of beer or other lubricants added. Unfortunately, a lot of rednecks have lost touch with the tradition of the pig roast and the fish fry, a great excuse to cook (destructively, as fire is often involved and sometimes not in a good way) some really good food and shoot the bull with your friends.
Both these great redneck traditions require one thing above all: a reasonably safe place to do the cooking and the gathering, preferably not close to anything flammable you treasure like your house. And to do it right, you'll need space for two different fires: a bonfire that everyone can sit around and use to dispose of their trash, and a cooking fire off to the side. This means the best place to set up is generally in a woods clearing, and you don't want to do it during a dry season.
Inviting people is the easiest part. Call a few friends and tell them to bring a few friends who can also bring a few friends - preferably female friends. It should be a BYOB affair, as you don't want to pay for all that beer and you also don't want the people who show up just for the free booze.
Set your bonfire and cookfire up the night before. If there are some good-size logs in the vicinity, pull them up; people will come and sit on them. Scout around to get an idea of parking issues, and if you're not familiar with the area do a quick check for things like snakes and other pesky critters that could interfere with your redneck party.
If you're doing a pig roast, you need to either butcher and clean a pig yourself or get someone to do it for you. Because the modern redneck tends to be a little more squeamish than his forefathers, you'll probably want to do the latter. Make sure there's some way to rig a suspension right next to (not over) the fire so you can roast the pig. Tradition dictates that you wrap the carcass in barb wire and set it up between two trees very close to the fire, and you need to be sure someone can turn the roast with a stick so it cooks fairly evenly. It will roast for hours. For safety's sake, get a meat thermometer and make sure it gets to 185 degrees all over. Local barbecue sauce is optional.
There are plenty of options besides the barb-wire technique. A Cajun microwave is an in-ground metal oven; you put the pig in with any seasonings, bury the box up to the lip, put the lid on, and build a fire on top. A lot of people are using injections too, where they take whiskey or marinades and inject them into the meatiest parts of the roast every couple of hours. And then there are the optional side dishes.
Fish fries are, surprisingly, easier and start out more fun. Catch a mess of fish, and clean and chill them. You'll need a big cooler to keep them in while you're preparing them. Your cooking tools in this case are a turkey deep frier (available in most outdoor stores and nearly everywhere at Thanksgiving), about 20 gallons of peanut oil, and enough of a ½ corn meal/ ½ flour / salt and pepper breading mix to cover all your fish. Rinse the fish, dip them in the breading, and drop them into hot oil to cook. They're done when they float to the top, and you can drain them redneck style by laying them out on a sturdy screen. Bring along plenty of buns and tartar sauce.
Trade off cooking duties with friends, and spend the day hanging out, listening to country music, chatting with your friends, and eating some of your tasty concoctions. Ideally, everyone should be able to park where bumpers and tailgates make handy seats, and you definitely want to encourage the talented rednecks in your group to bring along guitars to sing some good country music. The only other thing you're likely to need: plenty of ice for chilling the beer that will show up.
PREAMBLE: The only way to take control of your life, raise your standard of living and move beyond merely surviving is to create your own unique product or service that you offer to increasing numbers of people in exchange for the things of value that you desire. This simple formula applies to countries as well as people. A self-sufficient economy has its own products or services of value to export to the world. Similarly, a self-sufficient individual has something of value to exchange in the global marketplace. That thing of value is based on your natural talent, skill, or interest-in other words, your passion.
The greatest challenge to being successful in business is not the economy, it's not the market, your customers or anything external. The single greatest obstacle you will ever face in turning your dreams into reality is overcoming the way you currently think. Your thoughts determine your beliefs, your beliefs set your expectations, your expectations influence your actions, and your actions create your reality. So, the first place to start in changing your reality, is to change your thoughts.
The challenge, however, is that we live in a society which encourages and rewards the masses for thinking alike, acting alike, and following the same plan. Despite what anyone says about the economy, the market, or what's possible, with enough courage, creativity and commitment to doing things differently, you can change your situation.
So today I'd like to introduce you to some thoughts that can help you do just that. Every Friday, since 1997, I've written something I call a "Walt's Life Rhymes" which I send to my subscribers. Life Rhymes are simply thoughts that create success, written in poetic format. Today's Life Rhyme is especially for Saipanpreneurs who wish to break free from limiting ways of thought and change their realities. It's entitled
The Great Sheep Uprising
Walt's Life Rhyme #442
One day a young sheep woke
and faced a world he'd never known
He raced to tell the herd
and share the vision he'd been shown
The fence is down, the dog is dead
the shepherd's gone away!
We sheep will soon taste freedom
with no one to block our way!
What pastures shall we roam to?
Oh, what fields shall we explore?
Our day of choice has now drawn nigh
what greatness is in store?
We'll spread across the country!
Yes, expand our power base!
We'll maximize our numbers!
and reclaim our rightful place!
Imagine how we'll prosper
Yes, just think how far and wide
Our children spared enslavement
our own fate shall we decide
The sheep began to follow
with excitement this bold youth
But then an old sheep blocked their path
and spoke his only truth:
Contain your mad excitement
and now listen well, dear child
For sheep we are and sheep we'll be
and sheep do not run wild
Our master loved and led us
and this field is all we know
What lies beyond no one can say
this path may lead to woe
And so it was, that fateful day
the sheep fell back in line
No fence, no dog, no shepherd
just the limits on their minds
And so it is with sheep
And sadly so with us ourselves
That even blessed with freedom
all good sheep still herd themselves
COMMENTARY:
Today's life rhyme was inspired by author D. Icke (rhymes with hike) who wrote:
[BEGIN EXCERPT] When a few people wish to control and direct a mass of humanity, there are certain structures that have to be in place. These are the same whether you are seeking to manipulate an individual, family tribe town country, continent or planet. First you have to impose the 'norms' what are considered right and wrong, possible or impossible, sane or insane, good and bad. Most of the people will follow these norms without question because of the baa-baa herd mentality that has prevailed within the collective human mind for at least thousands of years. Second, you have to make life very unpleasant for those few who challenge your imposed 'norms.' The 'norms' or 'consensus reality' are essential to our control...
The most effective way to do this in order to ensure compliance with these norms is to make it difficult to be different. You make those who voice a different view, version of 'truth' and lifestyle, stand out like black sheep in the human herd. You have already conditioned the herd to accept your norms as its reality and, through arrogance and ignorance, they ridicule or condemn those with a different spin on life. This pressurizes the black sheep to conform and serves as a warning to those others in the herd who are also thinking of breaking away or challenging the prevailing reality. ...This fear of being different and voicing a view that challenges the 'norms' is overwhelmingly the fear of what other people will think of us. In reality, the fear of what the sheep around us will say and do if we seek to leave the herd and question its conditioned assumptions. This mentality means that the masses are policing themselves and keeping each other in line. The sheep become the sheepdog for the rest of the herd.
Once you have the herd mentally policing itself, there is a third phase in the entrapment of human consciousness. You create factions within the herd and set them to war with each other. This is done by creating different belief systems (which are not different at all) and bringing them into conflict. These belief systems are known as religions, political parties, economic theories, and isms of endless variety.
You bring these beliefs into conflict to ensure the divide and rule you so desperately need for control by the few. While the masses are busy fighting each other, and seeking to impose their beliefs and views on each other, they don't see...the...strings attached to all of them. [END OF EXCERPT]
Dare to be different. Dare to dream big dreams. Don't allow the mass consensus to restrain your thoughts and actions. Break free from the herd. Let the young sheep's vision of The Great Sheep Uprising live in you!
Both Fred Morris & Walt Goodridge are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Fred Morris has sinced written about articles on various topics from Food And Drink, Social Issues and Culture and Society. If you are looking for or a partner to share a redneck cookout with, there is no better place to find one than RedneckandSingle.com an online community of o. Fred Morris's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.
Walt Goodridge has sinced written about articles on various topics from Personal Finance, Food And Drink and Finances. Walt F.J. Goodridge is known as the Passion Prophet. He is author of 15 books including Turn Your Passion Into Profit, and helps people discover, develop and profit from the pursuit of their passions. Take his Passionpreneuer test at. Walt Goodridge's top article generates over 1600 views. to your Favourites.