This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

Outdoor kitchens are an excellent way to feed those farm interns! This video includes a lovely cob oven and cob bench.

And there is a quick peek at some amazing braided garlic.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

Alexia Allen of Hawthorn Farm tell us how she like using it as a poultice. We get to see bees and ants racing for the nectar of the comfrey blossoms. She also feeds it to her animals.

Toby Hemenway is the author of “Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture.” He calls comfrey “the queen of the multi function plants.” He talks a little about how easily it can spread when you don’t want it. And then he talks about how he is able to get rid of it through mulching – but why would you not want it? It’s a beneficial insect attractor; it is able to heal wounds; a dynamic nutrient accumulator; good for under fruit trees; good for a comfrey tree for soils; a huge biomass accumulator.

Tulsey Latoski of Portland, Oregon tells us about how comfrey makes a great green manure and living mulch. Mostly due to the tap roots that will pull nutrients up from down deep. She also shows us two different types of comfrey.

Norris Thomlinson of Portland, Oregon shares some observations about how comfrey fares as chicken feed; edible plant for humans; medicinal plant for humans;

Michael Pilarski is a famous wildcrafter and permaculture consultant. http://www.friendsofthetrees.net He tells us about how comfrey sluff material off into the soil to make for a richer soil. Apparently earthworms love comfrey! Michael tells us how comfrey is sometimes called “knit-bone” because it proliferates cell division – a great healer. His spring salads are loaded with comfrey leaves and blossoms. Michael talks about Dr. James Duke says that one bottle of beer has the same level of dangerous alkaloids as 100 cups of comfrey tea.

Matt from Feral Farm shows an understory heavy with comfrey.

Brian Kerkvliet of Inspiration Farm in Bellingham, Washington, talks about the challenges of getting comfrey out of an area where you don’t want it. He uses a hot compost pile on top of it. He also shares the idea that if you have comfrey, that’s a great place to plant a fruit tree! Then he shows a permaculture guild that includes comfrey.

Samantha Lewis describes how to tell the difference between comfrey, foxglove, mullein and borage.

Toby Hemenway wraps up with who is the king of the permaculture multifunctional plants (spoiler: bamboo!)

Relevant threads at permies:

http://www.permies.com/t/10864/organic-sustainable-practices/comfrey

http://www.permies.com/t/1174/permaculture/value-comfrey

http://www.permies.com/t/6888/permaculture/Comfrey-cultivars-life-expectancy

http://www.permies.com/t/11140/permaculture/Corn-Comfrey-Large-scale-polyculture

music by Jimmy Pardo

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This was filmed at sahale. As part of the washington state permaculture convergence.

Skeeter mentions why eucaluptus would make for a terrible wooden spoon (taste). Skeeter talks about serviceberry (I have a hand carved serviceberry spoon).

Skeeter talks a litle about cottonwood and yew.

My later research shows that maple might be the best, followed closely by apple.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

Splitting logs for several hours. This video is just a taste.

Most of the split wood was used for posts. Deer fencing could use super tall posts that you just can’t buy in stores.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

Video taken during an open house at the bullock brothers permaculture homestead.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

The music is by my friend Jimmy Pardo. To hear more of his stuff and part with money for an album, follow this link:

http://www.permies.com/t/13650/art-music-aesthetics/sandhill-cranes

http://www.permies.com/t/6301/art-music-aesthetics/china-pheasants-out-window

http://www.permies.com/forums/f-13/art-music-aesthetics

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

It’s a sturdy shed that is used for an honor system farm stand in the front and the “No Trash Bash Stash” in the back.

The “No Trash Bash Stash” is where folks in the Vashon Island community can come and borrow plates, forks, cups and all the fixins for a party without having to resort to plastic forks and the like.

Relevant threads at permies:

http://www.permies.com/t/10600/green-building/Pallet-Shed-Building-House

http://www.permies.com/t/6306/green-building/Slumtube-Affordable-Housing-Made…

http://www.permies.com/t/8617/critter-care/fence-made-pallets

music by Jimmy Pardo

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

A peek at their gardens.

A peek at their artistic deer fence.

There is an amazing chair carved from a solid block of wood.

And a bench that is made … in a very natural way.

There is a sink carved from one big block of wood.

The design of the roof is very interesting.

There is a cob oven.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

Complete with biotracking! This is where somebody moves the dehydrator several times a day to point at the sun better.

Brian mentions hooking up a rocket mass heater to it.

This is a permaculture farm. And he is trying to place the solar dehydrator in the zone one path.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This is an outdoor classroom where the people can meet outside even when it is raining and can have heat without smoke in their eyes.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This is the first phase of building this greenhouse. The focus is on the steps of building the rocket mass heater.

This video has an excellent demonstration of the sideways burn – or fire burning sideways.

Since this will be an oehler style solar greenhouse, then it probably won’t need much heat. But it will be a bonus. And the heated air could also be piped into the house.

A rockey mass heater is typically 10 times more efficient than a regular wood stove. And 20 times cleaner.

A mike oehler style greenhouse construction is probably the most efficient greenhouse known.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

One eco building has a cob rumford fireplace that is clear to see. Another has a cob rumford fireplace – but the video does not show it clearly.

The video whizzes by a cob oven at one point.

Lots of green roofs.

There is a good example of a heat trap.

Permaculture courses are taught here.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

Some stuff about polyculture is discussed.

Effects on kidneys is discussed.

Oat straw, comfrey root, horsetail and hawthorn berry are brought up.

Skeeter talks about how one could make lots of money with stinging nettles.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

A good example of an off grid tiny house build a long time ago.

Mike’s book is the ultimate “how to” tutorial on cheap underground housing. He said that if he could do it all over again, he would call it “earth integrated”. This book is the core to many other alternative building books.

PAHS

post shore polyethylene

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

Benefits include: less labor, less land, zero spraying for insects, less fertilizer, less weeding,

While organic farming focused more on managing crops, soil fertility, reduction of pests, and reduction of chemicals. A permaculture farm is more about managing natural inter-relationships with plants, insects and wildlife.

Relevant threads at permies:

• http://www.permies.com/t/2230/permaculture/Helen-Atthowe-goddess-soil
• http://www.permies.com/t/7027/permaculture/Conservation-Farming
• http://www.permies.com/t/5914/farm-income/permaculture-organic
• http://www.permies.com/t/8249/permaculture/Biodynamic-vs-permaculture
• http://www.permies.com/t/3679/farm-income/local-vs-organic

music by Jimmy Pardo

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This video is of their latest wood burning stove. They’ve had snow on the ground for months, and have seen a fair bit of sub zero temperatures. And they stay warm all day with just one small fire each day. We talk about how warm we feel indoors 19 hours after the last fire was burned.

This wood burning stove has some enhancements over other rocket mass heaters in that it has a barrel top that will come off, plus the barrel has an extension at the bottom. The heat riser core is made of firebrick. After a couple months of use you can see the ash build up inside.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

I’m happy to answer questions, but do ask that you first read the full article:

http://www.richsoil.com/cast-iron.jsp

Discussion at:

http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums/154_0/cooking-and-food-preservatio…

This post comes from the RichSoil.com Permaculture Blog.

Contents

• 1 Family
• 2 Security
• 3 Money
• 4 Major Disasters and Misconceptions
• 5 In Closing
• 6 Related Posts:

Family

If nothing else, we are preppers for family. There is no better feeling than knowing if something goes wrong you can support and provide for your loved ones. There is no better feeling than saying “everything is going to be okay” and actually meaning it. Would you be able to say that in a bad situation to your spouse and really mean it? Most people can’t. If you lost your job would you be able to say that and mean it? If you were no longer able to go to a grocery store? If the power went out in your town or city for two weeks? These things happen all the time. Most people hear about these things happening and say “glad I’m not them” or “that’s so far away from us”. I’m not going to be one of those people. I’m going to be the one telling my wife “There is nothing to worry about, if it happens to use we will be fine” and I will actually mean it. I won’t even have to tell her that because she will know it is true and won’t worry either.

If something happens can you take in your closest friends and distant family members? Can you support them in their time of need because they didn’t listen to your advice and prep? I will be someone who can. That brings me to the next topic.

Community

In our culture today we really miss out on establishing a good solid community. If you live in the city or go to a city look, stop in the middle of it, and observe. You will see most people ignore each other. If you see someone being friendly to someone else you will see a weird reaction. That person will be worried why the

other one is being friendly. “What the fuck is wrong with him? Is he going to rob me?” That is what is going through their minds. That is messed up people. Why is everybody living in so much fear? Maybe it is because we have lost the desire to have community. We would rather go inside after work and watch television than be outside talking to our neighbors. I urge you to go out into your area and start talking to people. Try and find like minded people in your area. A lot of times you can find these people in forums on the internet. Gardening is a great way to meet with people. Talk to vendors at your local farmers market. You can do this with anything you are into.

Start trading with people. Bring something into the community that you produced yourself. This is how you make community stronger. Later we will be talking about major disasters. Having a strong community is the best way to survive something like this. Having a strong community is the best way to survive the times we are in now. If you start producing your own produce, or anything, you can start saving a lot of money by simply trading those goods that you have with others. Not only will you be saving money but other people you have built a relationship with will now have those useful goods and they live near you. They are now more friendly towards you and are willing to make better trades.

Security

Being able to protect yourself, your family, and your community is one of the most important things you can do. Not only will you feel safe but your friends and family will feel safe around you. They will further gain your trust and want your companionship. Security does not have to be all about guns and ammo. I personally am a strong advocate of the 2nd amendment but I know a lot of people are not. I think people that aren’t are have good intentions. I think they believe in the world becoming a society of one where there is no violence. That’s a good thought and I would love for that to be true but it is never going to happen. Has it ever happened? Even in small societies? Tibet? Didn’t turn out so well for them. They are based on good ideas but are too big picture for the real world. The world where people and governments take from the weak. Security can be more than guns and ammo if you are not a believer in them. Security is a lot bigger than that. Security is about feeling safe. Security is prepping. If you grow a lot of your own food, have a strong community of friends and family, don’t rely on government to help you with most of your life, than you will start to feel very secure. The reason you will start to feel that way is because you are becoming more secure. Having a strong community of friends and family play a large role in security. The bigger the group the more power they have right? Power in numbers! Well your power in numbers is going to be a lot more powerful with a strong community than the power in numbers of rioters and scavengers. Be careful with this security and strong sense of community. You may start feeling independent. This is dangerous. This is how the colonies felt when they started shit with England. That is how America was born.

Money

Money and currency are very in depth topics that we will be covering in much more detail in the future. For the basics of why we prep we will just cover the basics today. If you do not already know this, our current currency is a debt backed currency. That means that there is nothing tangible that we base our money off of. No only do we not base it off of something tangible but we allow all money that is created to have interest attached to it. That means (for example) that if the US needs 1 million dollars the US has to pay 1 million dollars plus interest. We pay that money to a centralized banking system that works directly with the US treasury. The US treasury trades bonds for that money that the central banks create. How does the US treasury create those bonds? Out of thin air.

In summary the US tells the treasury we need 1 million dollars. The treasury says okay and prints some bonds up. It then takes those bonds to the banks and says I need 1 million dollars and I have these bonds that I printed up for trade. The banks say sure thing. We can take those bonds off of your hands for 5% interest. The bank then tells the Federal Reserve that they are going to take the bonds from the treasury at 5% interest and the Federal Reserve says okay sure, well just print those dollar bills for you and give them to the Treasury. So they print the bills out of thin air and give them to the Treasury and now the federal reserve holds those bonds at interest. The reason I say they are printing these bonds and bills out of thin air is because this is all done electronically. The damned bills don’t even exist. So now who is going to pay all of this interest that the Treasury owes? The people of the United States. The only problem is that it is impossible to pay off this debt. Where are we going to get the money to pay off this debt? We have to request the money from the Treasury to get the money to pay off the debt… and the whole cycle starts again. The only way out is unknown to me. The only man in politics that I even hear talking about it that actually understands the system is Ron Paul. As far as I can see he is the only one that is interested in getting rid of, or at least controlling, this system. He even has a book called End the Fed. I hope I got all of that explanation right. I am a bit rusty but we will be covering it in detail in the future once I can spend some more time researching the details for you.

The point is that our money needs to be backed by something besides debt. We cannot continue to be backed by debt. It doesn’t work because it can’t be paid off. How would you feel if you could never pay off your credit card. You just had to keep paying it for the rest of your life. Not too good right? That’s called slavery people.

I believe the greenback was the best currency we have had in America. Do some research and let me know what you think.

Major Disasters and Misconceptions

I have not focused on major disasters because I do not concern myself with those yet. I do not concern myself with those because they are on the bottom of my priority list. They are the least likely to happen to me. I will now speak about them a little because it is unfortunately what mainstream media focuses on and what people are afraid of. There is a reason to fear these major disasters, don’t get me wrong, I am just not ready to really prepare for them yet. I am however more than likely a lot more prepared for them just by the small preps I have done so far than most people can say they are.

Some misconceptions:

- I’m just going to go live off of the land. I will just wild harvest, hunt, fish, and grow my own food.

Well then why aren’t you already doing it? You are going to be far better off if you do it now. Think about the difference of being established to living in a completely new area. You may say it’s not new because you have gone there a lot. Well going there a lot is not freaking living there. If you already live there, then you have already got your land, established your surroundings and boundaries, have an established garden and source of food that already is proven to provide food. You also already have running water. You have already established a relationship with your neighbors. If a major disaster happens it’s not going to be the same as it is now. Thousands, or even millions, of people are going to be doing the same thing you think you are just going to do. They are all going to be leaving the city and hunting all the local population of deer and harvesting all the edible plants they can find. They are going to be hogging up all of the water; and not only that but they are all going to be panicking. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to be amongst a million panicking and hungry people. No gun is going to keep them away from wanting my damned gun and taking it!

If you are already established and are already getting the supplies you need in order to be 100% self sufficient while those supplies are readily available and cheap you are going to be a lot better off than the jackasses who said “I’m just going to go out and live off of the land”. Those guys probably won’t even make it “out” to the “land”. That is just back assward thinking.

- The major disaster that I am ready for is going to happen in one big explosion and everything bad will happen all at once. It’s going to be a major disease pandemic that sweeps the world. Zombies! Nuclear holocaust.

Not very likely. What will probably happen, and very possibly already could be happening, is a slow downward spiral. People will be naive and believe the news and other naive people that it isn’t happening or it will get better. They will think that until it is too late and they are already in the thick of it. It will more than likely go something like this:

Energy costs go up (oil, natural gas, coal and electricity). Banks both foreign and domestic will stop loaning the US money. Inflation will increase because the treasury and federal reserve pump out more and more bonds and bills backed by debt, all doing so just to keep buying energy. Government service begin to fail because the people can’t afford to pay their taxes any longer. The massive amounts of people that depend on those government services to feed them every month will find themselves without those services. What do you think they are all going to do? Sit in their house and die? Nope, they are going to take from whoever they can. People will begin to gather for massive protests and those will start to get out of hand. There will be riots. While all this is happening most people will still be saying “Wow, did you hear what’s going on in Houston, Texas? Glad we don’t live there.”. Then the protests and riots will finally start to come to your area and you will not be able to deny it any longer. You will finally start to think something is wrong and start worrying and panicking. And you may even be one of those people that start to go out and protest and riot because you are scared and angry that the government could let this happen. Then the riots will get out of hand and the police will start to try and uphold the peace by putting up curfews in inner city areas. Then you will finally know your fucked. You should have listened to IndependentJo and started just doing a little bit to help yourself five years ago. Too late now. The people don’t like the curfew. They get mad about the curfew and the riots get more violent and the police can’t handle it. Then it turns into all out anarchy. But you’re good, right? You got your gun, your water and your jerky. You got your bug out bag. Nope. More than likely you’re fucked just like everybody else. You can’t get more than four miles without being stopped and robbed by a group of people that see you got stuff they could use to survive. And they are going to take it. Maybe they won’t. Maybe you kill one or two and everybody leaves you alone. Now you’re off to go live in the woods where you are not established. Oh yeah, and you had to fucking kill someone? Think that won’t fuck with you while you’re living it up like a king under that log eating cooked fucking snails?

- There will always be a recovery.

How do people forget about history so quickly? Because it is no longer taught or emphasized in grade and high school? Because it has never happened to America? America isn’t that old. We forget that the Roman empire fell and never came back. Rome started around 625 BC and fell around 476 AD. That’s a lot longer than the US has been around. And how did Rome fall? Rome fell because of currency and inflation. Sound familiar? What happened in the fall of the Roman empire? The Dark Ages happened! The Dark Ages lasted over 800 YEARS. Horrible wars and untold amounts of death all due to the fall of an empire. Don’t think the US isn’t trying to build an empire. We have been trying to for at least the last twenty years.

- Were going to go out to the middle of nowhere and live. We are going to be 100% self reliant and live around nobody. We will provide for ourselves and won’t have to rely on anybody.

Well the being 100% self reliant isn’t a bad idea. It’s a good thing to strive for. But don’t do it away from everybody else. It is going to be a lot harder than you think for you alone or you and a small family to do. If a major disaster happens you are going to need community. It will be very difficult if you do not have this community. I covered the reasons why earlier so I’m not going to go into it more. The only major change will be that you will really need each other for security and to be able to get shit done.

In Closing

Join us tomorrow for part 5. Part 5 is the final article that will also include parts 1-4 as well as the video.

The first, and easiest, thing that you will find will help with your preps is food and water. In almost every disaster in your life that could occur, having a surplus of food and water will greatly help. Having those two major needs already taken care of relieves you of great stress and allows you to focus on resolving the situation instead of struggling to survive.

Up until about 100 years ago, every person in the world focused on storing food. Sense then, we have transitioned society into an on-demand lifestyle where most people have, at most, a week’s worth of food on hand at any given time. Most people only have seven days worth of food on one single day out of a week. The reason for this is because most people go shopping once every week.

For example: Lets say you do your weekly grocery shopping every Saturday. You buy enough food to get you by until you go grocery shopping next Saturday. What happens if something goes wrong on a Thursday or a Friday and you cannot make it to the grocery store for a week or maybe even two weeks? Well it’s a Thursday. That means you had enough food to make it comfortably until Saturday. That’s only two days worth of food and you can’t make it to the grocery store for another week. You might have enough to ration what you have and make it until then but you are not going to be comfortable by any means. If you have a spouse or a child who is used to having all that good food every day, they are going to be upset and you are going to feel like an ass for not being able to provide for them and at least keep them comfortable.

Storing food is a lot easier than people think. The next time you go grocery shopping, look at the items you are purchasing. If any of those items don’t expire for weeks or even months then buy double what you normally would. Usually these will be canned or boxed goods. If you want to take it further you can start storing even more goods. Start canning and dehydrating your fruits and vegetables.

Storing and accessing drinking water:
The first and easiest thing you can do to relieve yourself of worries about water is to purchase a good filter that does not require replacement filters. You simply clean the filter out and continue use.
The second thing you want to do is get two weeks worth of water together in 5-10 gallon jugs. Make sure this is enough water to get everything you need done for at least two weeks. This includes water for cooking, drinking, bathing / showering, and cleaning. If you have the water filter, this is extremely easy to do because you do not have to purchase the water jugs with water.

I hope you enjoyed this quick summary on the importance of food and water. Join us tomorrow for part 4.

The first mistake most people make once they have decided to become more prepared is that they invest their time and efforts into the most unlikely events that will occur. This is usually from receiving bad advice.

The first thing you should do when seeking out advice, buying items or services, or panicking about something you see or hear about is to step back and think of the odds of that disaster occurring to you.

Before taking any major actions or making any major decisions for you or your family make a list. Make a list of everything that could happen to you in your life. Everything you can think of from you getting a cold or  the power going out for two days to a nuke going off near you. Anything that would negatively effect you or your family. Write down everything you think of into a spreadsheet or some type of list you can keep available to you. Now take that list and organize all of those items by most likely to happen to you on top and the least likely on bottom of the list.

You will end up with something similar to this example:

Now when you are preparing, listening to advice, or gathering information you want to focus on the top of that list and work your way down. Worry about being prepared for the common cold before you worry about what you can do in case of a financial economic collapse or a nuclear holocaust.

First I would like to make a simple statement. Prepping is not political. Everybody can prep. It doesn’t matter if you are democratic, republican, libertarian, conservative, or a hippie. Everybody can do it and everybody can benefit from it.

History and Some Common Sense

If you came to this article in hopes of hearing a bunch of conspirator nonsense you will be disappointed. The prepper community has been misconstrued by the media as apocalypse fearing crazy people. This is far from accurate. Apocalypse fearing bunker builders are a small part of a very large prepper community and that aspect of prepping is more entertaining and therefore is more focused on in the media.

There are more preppers in the US that do not know they are preppers than there are people that call themselves preppers. Prepping is a normal activity and it has been practiced for thousands of years. It wasn’t until the last 100 or so years that our society began to ignore our history. The results of our society ignoring preparing has resulted in many deaths that could have been easily avoided. Our society has become reliant on assistance from government agencies to support and protect them. It doesn’t take much to be put into a bad position and it doesn’t take much to be ready for most every bad position that comes around.

Well, the prepper community is growing like crazy. People are beginning to realize that they cannot, and should not, rely on outside support when they are in a situation like being hungry or stranded on your rooftop during a flood. People have started understanding that they should start storing food and saving money. People now know that debt is not a good thing and are cutting up their credit cards! So jump on the bandwagon people. Start living a better and more stress free life. Start prepping!

Before I continue I want to make sure something is very clear to you. When I say disaster in this article I am not always talking about a major catastrophe. I am talking about small disasters that can greatly affect your life in either the short or the long term. A power outage for example could be a disaster. A death in the family could be a disaster. Breaking a fan belt on your car in the middle of the desert could be a disaster.

There is no downside to being prepared

Everything we do not only helps you be prepared but also saves you money, if you are a smart prepper. By saving all of this money it enables you to do the most important things you can in life – pay off debt and stay out of debt. Getting out of debt is a short term sacrifice for long term payout. Being debt free is the best savings plan you can have. Think about the interest you pay on your debt. Does it total more than 10%, 15%, 20%, or even 30%? You cannot find savings plans that give you back that much interest. It doesn’t make sense to even have savings if you have debt. Take the short term sacrifice of not spending and put everything you can into getting rid of debt. It will pay back huge! Not only will it save you money but it will enable you to easily and quickly continue prepping. It speeds things up. If you take smart advice about prepping and follow some basic things like food storage, growing your own food and staying out of debt, than you will save a lot of money and the world will begin to open up to you. You will feel freedom. Debt is slavery.

You are a human being. Prepping helps you be a healthy human. Being human does not include hating your job, being stressed out and running on a treadmill. You are not a pet gerbil people! You should evaluate what truly makes you and your loved ones happy. In most cases what ends up truly making you feel good and clear minded, is being closer to earth. Go out and garden. Grow some of your own food. I guarantee you will be happier. Prepping increases your mental health if done right. Increasing your mental health directly effects your physical health.

When you are prepping you enable yourself to make smarter decisions. For example:

If you have three months of food storage, when you see something at the grocery store you can decide to not buy it if the price is higher than it should be or you are used to paying. Once again you are saving money and you have the power to put that item back. You don’t need it now because you already have it, or something very similar to it, at home. It gives you a sense of power because that is exactly what you have.

A simple tip that we will discuss in future episodes is to build a spreadsheet that tracks everything you buy, when you bought it, and how much it cost. If you keep that spreadsheet up to date for a year you can see when the best time is to buy something and buy it in bulk when it is cheapest. Once again you are saving money.

Don’t think about prepping as only about surviving. Think of it as thriving.

To the Guy Who Tried to Mug Me in Downtown Savannah night before last.
Date: 2010-09-27, 1:43 a.m. E.S.T.

I was the guy wearing the black Burberry jacket that you demanded that I
hand over, shortly after you pulled the knife on me and my girlfriend,
threatening our lives. You also asked for my girlfriend’s purse and
earrings. I can only hope that you somehow come across this rather important
message.

First, I’d like to apologize for your embarrassment; I didn’t expect you to
actually crap in your pants when I drew my pistol after you took my jacket..
The evening was not that cold, and I was wearing the jacket for a reason..
my girlfriend was happy that I just returned safely from my 2nd tour as a
Combat Marine in Afghanistan .. She had just bought me that Kimber Custom
Model 1911 .45 ACP pistol for my birthday, and we had picked up a shoulder
holster for it that very evening. Obviously you agree that it is a very
intimidating weapon when pointed at your head … isn’t it?!

I know it probably wasn’t fun walking back to wherever you’d come from with
crap in your pants. I’m sure it was even worse walking bare-footed since I
made you leave your shoes, cell phone, and wallet with me. [That prevented
you from calling or running to your buddies to come help mug us again].

After I called your mother or “Momma” as you had her listed in your cell, I
explained the entire episode of what you’d done. Then I went and filled up
my gas tank as well as those of four other people in the gas station, — on
your credit card. The guy with the big motor home took 153 gallons and was
extremely grateful!

I gave your shoes to a homeless guy outside Vinnie Van Go Go’s, along with
all the cash in your wallet. [That made his day!]
I then threw your wallet into the big pink “pimp mobile” that was parked at
the curb ….. after I broke the windshield and side window and keyed the
entire driver’s side of the car.

Earlier, I managed to get in two threatening phone calls to the DA’s office
and one to the FBI, while mentioning President Obama as my possible target.
The FBI guy seemed really intense and we had a nice long chat (I guess while
he traced your number etc.).
;In a way, perhaps I should apologize for not killing you … but I feel
this type of retribution is a far more appropriate punishment for your
threatened crime. I wish you well as you try to sort through some of these
rather immediate pressing issues, and can only hope that you have the
opportunity to reflect upon, and perhaps reconsider, the career path you’ve
chosen to pursue in life.. Remember, next time you might not be so lucky.
Have a good day!
Thoughtfully yours, Semper Fi,
Alex

.50 is A lyrical snapshot of a fictional sniper, .50 Cal illustrates the edge of sanity that our brave men and women sometimes face in their service to our country-even in undeclared wars.

Check out his interview about the new song with Jack Spirko on The Survival Podcast. Here is the direct link to that interview.

Gregg Yows is a great song writer who wrote some of my favorite songs. Here are some of his others you should check out:

Revolution is You - The revolution IS you. Be an ant, not a grasshopper. Lyrics by Jack Spirko and Gregg Yows.

What Have You Done – (My Favorite) This one is written from the perspective of our fallen soldiers, appalled at what they are seeing in the country for which they gave their lives.

Snake in the Wood Pile – NAFTA Superhighway, global warming scams and world banks are the focus of this tune. The first song produced exclusively for Revolution Rock and Roll, Snake in the Wood Pile sets the tone for the project both literally and figuratively.

Make your own ejuice. Today we talk about what it takes to create your own electronic cigarette juice.

First thing you should know when reading this is that we in the ecig community like to refer to using an electronic cigarette as “vaping”. We refer to smoking a cigarette as “smoking”. The main reason for this is because of all the bullshit the government and tobacco companies are trying to push into law. They do not like the idea of electronic cigarettes because it is cheaper and much more healthy than regular cigarettes. Tobacco companies are not set up to sell electronic devices they are established in producing tobacco products. It is very similar to the push back car manufacturers had (and in most cases still do have) against the electric car. Making the change actually changes most of your business and assets. It costs a lot to make the change in both manufacturing and marketing.

So lets dive into what is in ejuice and how we go about mixing this stuff up.

What ingredients  you will need:
Flavors or essential oils
PG – Propylene Glycol
VG – Vegetable Glycerin
Nicotine optional
eJuice or eliquid calculator

That’s basically all you need to make your juice. There are only four main ingredients.

When you start buying juice you will see figures like these: 20/80, 30/70, 50/50, 70/30, 80/20

Most mixes of juice have about 10% flavoring and 10% nicotine. That means you have about 80% of stuff you need to add as filler. That 80% of filler will be you PG and your VG.

What exactly are PG and VG?

PG – Propylene Glycol is a thin and tasteless organic liquid that is usually used as a food preservative. PG burns quickly and hot. With ecigs this means that it will give you a harsh throat hit feeling like you would get from a real cigarette. Kind of a burning feeling in your throat. If you get a bad or allergic feeling from vaping, it is usually due to PG.

VG – Vegetable Glycerin is essentially vegetable oils or a more fine extraction of vegetable oils. Click the link to read more about the extraction process. VG is very thick and very sweet. VG is what produces the most vapor to fill your lungs.

PG is used mostly as a thinning agent and in my opinion is overused by ejuice manufacturers. The reason they like to use a lot of PG (in most castes) is because it is very cheap. They try and substitute the sweet flavor of VG with flavoring. I personally do not like a lot of PG. The only reason I use it is to thin out the VG which is very thick. I have thought about using alcohol instead but have not tried it YET!

VG is my favorite ingredient because I like the feeling of having a lot of “smoke” vapor in my lungs.

That about wraps it up for what PG and VG are for. Now we dive into flavors.

There are thousands of different flavors available for purchase. I try to only use flavors that come from natural and organic essential oils / extracts. So you get the flavor of whatever they extracted the oil from. Sometimes they have to mix multiple extracts from different sources to get the desired taste. I want what I am vaping to be as healthy as possible. A great place to purchase pure organic essential oils is from Kettle Care Inc. Just let them know you will be vaping this stuff and the CEO Lynn Wallingford will hook you up with the best stuff for it. I would also like to state that Kettle Care Inc. is a family company so I am promoting them They make “in my opinion” the absolute best organic body care products in the world.

They also make flavors that taste just like you favorite traditional cigarette. You can find Camel, Marlboro, Menthol, etc etc. at almost any ejuice selling site. I used a Camel tobacco flavor for about the first two weeks of quitting smoking and then found out I like fruit flavors better. As a “hard core man” I thought to myself that I would never vape that pussy fruity stuff but now that is all I like to vape.

Okay enough about flavors. The next ingredient is nicotine.

Nicotine, as most people know, is that addictive substance that is in cigarettes. Nicotine is actually an alkaloid found in nightshade plants like tobacco. A fun fact: nicotine inhibits chromatin-modifying enzymes (class I and II histone deacetylases) which increases the ability of cocaine to cause an addiction. Maybe its not the cocaine that is actually addictive? I wouldn’t know.

Okay so the nicotine you get for vaping is actually a plant extract. This is usually extracted from tobacco but can also be extracted from other nightshade plants. Usually you will not be dealing with straight nicotine. Instead you buy your base PG or VG with nicotine already in it. I purchase both so that I can get different variations of mixes. You will have to figure out what works best for you with the ejuice calculators. I recommend purchasing your base products from Vapure. Vapure is not a sponsor, I just know that their product is 100% made in the USA (including the nicotine). They also sell starter kits which is how I got started.

Now that you have all the supplies you need it is time to start mixing. To do this we found a couple of programs which are listed here:

eJuice Me Up is my wife’s favorite calculator but is a little more advanced. He has tons of options but is only available for Windows. Us Mac users out there are shit out of luck.
There is a basic calculator out on the iPhone app store called eJuice. This does okay but has limited in options.
My favorite calculator out there is Ahlusion. It is middle ground as far as all the tweaking you can do but it does a damned good job at getting the job done for me. Holly is the true ejuicing genius.
Another we found was from eliquid calculator. I did not have the patience to try and figure this one out but maybe it will work great for you.

Hopefully that is enough to get you started. You can find more calculators online by searching “ejuice calculator”.

The DIY kit I keep mention in the video can be purchased from Vapure. Here is a direct link to their DIY kit.

To build the entire kit I have in the video you need to get the DIY kit from Vapure and then get about 10 bottles of flavor extract from Kettle Care.

Leave us some comments and questions if you have any.

The Golden Greek electronic cigarette is bar none the best on the market.

The ultimate PV (Personal vaporizer). The GG, Golden Greek, personal vaporizer is an all mechanical PV. There are no wires to pinch, burn, or fail, everything inside each expertly crafted GG is user serviceable, removable, and replaceable.  Each GG is handmade in Greece using the latest techniques for shaping, coating, and threading fine metals. The GG is a piece of art, that you can vape.

Advantages of the GGTS

1. Button is in an ergonomic position.
2. Button can be locked when you carry it in pockets or bags.
3. Does not use wires, soldering, glues, epoxy, pushed objects and ready from stores products.
4. Very attractive with engraving on it (options for gold caps).
5. Works with any kind of batteries because of its telescopic system.
6. Works with 3 kind of volts (3.7 and 6 and 7.4) without buying 3 devices.
7. Light but still robust.
8. Will never need repair. Even the button is unbreakable. Unless you are trying of course.
9. Does not roll, it stays where you leave it.
10. Will never get damaged by accident or malfunction.

So how does this help us from a survival point of view? Lets do some match and look at some options:

If you are a smoker you probably average 1 pack per day. Each pack costs on average $4.00.
$4 a day for 365 days is $1,460 a year!

The GG costs about $250 (and of course you could go with a cheaper model and brand of ecig).
You will spend about $11 for a five pack of cartomizers. That five pack will last you about two months. So for a year you will need about 30 cartomizers. That will run you $66. That is being very lenient. Most cartomizers will last you a month each making a pack of five for $11 last you five months.
You will need some rechargeable batteries. Those run about $15 for two. Those two could last you all year but I like to keep about four sets on hand so lets say the cost of batteries is $60.
You will need a charger for the batteries and that will run you about $25 depending on the brand.
The last thing you will need is vaping juice. Juice runs about $5 for a 15 ml bottle. Each bottle will last about a month. So we are looking at a year’s supply costing $60.

Total GG cost per year:

1. The GGTS – $250
2. Cartomizers – $66
3. Batteries – $60
4. Battery Charger – $25
5. Vaping Juice – $60 (lets say you smoke it a lot and need double that so $120)

Grand Total for Vaping with the best vaporizer in the world: $521 /year

That’s a savings of $939 a year… and that’s including all the first year supplies to get you started. You won’t need to buy a new GGTS or battery charger next year. That means every year after your first you should be saving roughly $770 a year.

The next part of the equation that we haven’t even looked into yet is the cost of your health. We all know smoking causes cancer and cancer aint cheap! I can see where the nicotine in the vaping juice might cause you some health concerns but I am sure it is a hell of a lot healthier than smoking tobacco with all the additives. And with vaping you can reduce your nicotine intake by buying juice with less nicotine until you are off the nicotine completely and simply inhaling vegetable glycerin with some flavors added. These flavors can also be made with essential oils. Not bad huh?

Okay so that is the cost advantages. By saving money we can pay debt and save up to prepare for tough times. And if the tough times don’t come you are even better off!

The next big addition to the GGTS that is coming out soon is the iAtty 2. This thing is amazing! It is a tank and a cartomizer in one but it is also a lot more than that. Here is the description:

ODYSSEUS! The new updated iAtty 2! More vapor! More everything! Odysseus has the Iatty features and much more. So, the differences between those 2 models are: clear window future ability to add sections adjustable center pin to fit exactly to your connector no plastic inside, not even one to separate the center pin from the threads no o-rings around ceramic adjustable liquid control from zero to max accepts E2 atomizers accepts 510 atomizer with liquid control accepts cartos punched or not punched ability to be used as a single atomizer for dripping stopper on the adjustable liquid control to avoid overflooding by mistake liquid is adjusted via mouthpiece UFS compatible 75% more space inside ceramic to allow much easier installation of wick-wire bigger slot than E2 ceramic capacity with rebuildable atomizer=6,5ml capacity with 510 atomizer= 4,5ml capacity with E2 atomizer= 6,5ml capacity on extended UFS= 4,5ml capacity in short mode= 2ml Width=23mm Length: with 510 atomizer=61mm with E2 atomizer=61mm In short mode=38mm atomizer=27mm

Now that’s a pretty geek like description but that is what I like. It fills the gadget addiction I have. So as you can see you no longer need to buy cartomizers with this thing! You build your own using some wire and rope. That means all you need to worry about is getting some batteries to charge the thing and finding yourself some juice (or even making your own like we are now).

You can buy everything we talked about here at the Clouds of Vapor website.

My favorite batteries are the AW IMR 18350 3.7v 700mAh High Drain Li Ion Battery. They are $9.99 on Clouds of Vapor
I take two of these 3.7v batteries and stack them together to make my GGTS pump out 7.4v of power. This gives me a ton of smoke with the right cartomizer (below).

My favorite cartomizers (until I can get the iAtty2) are the 510 XL Dual Coil Cartomizers – Steel 3 ohm. They are $11.24 for a five pack on Clouds of Vapor
These are my favorite cartomizers (until I can get the iAtty2) because they are extra long so that I can add a tank to it and hold even more juice. They are dual coil so that I can get tons of vape (the smoke feeling). They are also 3 ohm which means they can handle my 7.4v of power really well.

The next thing I like to do is punch a hole in the side of my cartomizers so that I can fit a tank over them to store even more juice! To punch that hole I use a COV Carto Punch. You can pick one of at Clouds of Vapor for $40.

Enjoy the huge savings, better health, and gadgety fun.

The first big change is that in April I will either be moving to Montana or to Florida. I am expecting a job promotion which will require me to move to Florida. If we do end up in Florida we have decided on the St. Augustine area. We are hoping to find a nice 5+ acre piece of property there for about $500 a month rent.

The plan if we end up in Florida is to grow and raise as much food and livestock as we can to live off of. We will be visiting our homestead in Montana about 1 week out of every month to design and implement a Permaculture system into the land.

If I do not get the promotion I am quitting my job and moving to our existing homestead in Montana. The Montana homestead is on five acres of land and costs about $500 a month. All that needs to be paid there are property taxes and utilities, i.e. propane and wood.

It will be difficult to do the second option because we will no longer have my source of income but I think we can do it. I will be going to local businesses and either offering my help for free, like an internship, or for minimum wage just so that I can learn the skills. Some of the skill set jobs I will be trying to get there are:

1. Mechanical work on cars and trucks.
2. Furniture craftsmanship
3. Carpentry
4. Well and septic systems maintenance and installation.
5. Plumbing
6. Masonry
7. Butcher
8. Anything else I can think of. Let me know what you can think of.

I will also be taking trade classes or trade school and collecting from my G.I. bill to help with some of the expenses.

The second big change in our lives is that we are looking for a new dog in our life. Our current dog Sandy is now thirteen years old now and doesn’t have many years left. We are looking for a good livestock guardian dog. The problems we are running into with this is that we currently live in the opposite environment that our livestock guardian dog would live in. We are in an apartment complex now and that can be extremely difficult for a dog to get used to because dogs here find it difficult to find their boundaries and territories.

The dogs we are looking for are territorial by nature and have to be in order to stick around the homestead and to have the need to protect us and our livestock. In the apartment life there are lots of dogs and not a lot of territory. Also all dogs are on leashes which is not normal in Montana. Being on a leash makes them more stressed out and more protective of its owners.

We have had two big failures in finding dogs. We took in a half chow half pitbull (it looked like an Australian shepherd). We loved that dog but it would try to kill any dog that showed aggression. It almost killed our neighbor’s dog. So that dog went back to his foster home. The second dog we tried was a sweetheart German shepherd but hated our dog Sandy for some reason. That dog also went back to its current owner’s home. We will try again with this shepherd this week.

I have been researching the different breeds to look into and found these great resources:
http://www.lgd.org/
http://kerryg.hubpages.com/hub/Livestock-Guardian-Animals

The third big change if our lives is that we have started a primal lifestyle. I was looking for a diet and the more I read about diets the more I hated the idea of a diet. It’s all just a very big marketing scheme, it seems. Diets also look like they have a very high failure rate. I do not want to count calories, carbs, fat, etc, etc. I didn’t want a diet change I wanted a lifestyle change. The only diet that looked good enough and met my standards of what I believe to be healthy was the paleo diet. But I did not want a diet so I started investigating different people in the paleo world. I finally found three people that do paleo for a living. Those three were:
Robb Wolf from The Paleo Solution
Sarah Fragoso from Everyday Paleo
Mark Sisson from The Primal Blueprint and MarksDailyApple forums.

The books I showed were:
The Primal Blueprint
The Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals
The Primal Blueprint Cookbook

I have been listening to both Robb and Sarah for great information both scientific and practical. I love listening to their podcasts “The Paleo Solution” and “Everyday Paleo”. The one that really struck me as perfect was Mark Sisson and his MarksDailyApple forum. The Primal Blueprint isn’t the paleo diet, it is a lifestyle that changes the way you eat, live, and think about how you interact with the world. The way you eat in The Primal Blueprint is most closely related to a paleo diet.

The fourth big change is Permaculture! I really started getting into gardening and planning how I was going to build my garden in Montana and /or Florida. I started reading and listening to experts in the field and finally stumbled upon a GOLDMINE! Permaculture is, I believe, the way of the future in farming/gardening. I have been studying it greatly and taking a Permaculture design course.

I will have many more shows on all of these topics. I hope you like where things are headed. I know I am very excited for the future.

We are planting tomatoes, basil, garlic, potatoes, onions, radish, and spinach.

We begin with cheap containers. We used cheap Rubbermaid tubs we found for about $5 each, but most anything will work from old 5 gallon food containers to wood boxes. One thing about wood, you want to avoid pressure treated wood as it is treated with arsenic and you don’t want that in your garden. Newer treatments avoid using arsenic but if you are using something old, make sure it’s free of harmful chemicals.

Good drainage is important in container gardening. We have drilled about 8 small holes in the bottom of the tubs we are using. If you can’t drill holes in the bottom of your container, you can still use it, but you will need to add something to the bottom for water drainage. We added a thin layer of rocks to the bottom of our containers. This keeps the soil from plugging up the holes and improves drainage.  You can also use things like window screening cut to the size of the container, burlap, or an old broken pot. I’ve even read you can use packing peanuts, I would NOT recommend this. Polysterene leaches chemical into food and drinks, so it is reasonable to assume it will also leach chemicals into your soil – and therefore your plants.

Use organic soil. Don’t go cheap on the soil as this is something that will produce for you for many, many years. Good quality soil equals healthier, happier plants and better results. Also use organic fertilizer. There are many options out there. We are using a fish emulsion when first planting. You just mix about 1 tablespoon for every gallon of water. We use worm castings about a month later to fertilize. You can do the same thing, just mix it in the water, or you can actually just add it directly to the soil (which is what we will do for the potatoes as that works better)

Thank you for the emails of concern but everything is okay and more will be coming soon.

Electronic cigarettes are a great way to save money. If you like smoking and don’t care about quitting, these devices are a great alternative to smoking. You still get the smoke hit feeling in your lungs and the taste of a regular cigarette but at 1/4 of the cost. E-cigarettes don’t stink either, it is water vapor emitted when exhaling, so no smell. They also eliminate the hazard of second hand smoke.

Saving money and paying off debt is the first step to a self reliant lifestyle. Start saving your money now by using these e-cigarettes.

The e-cigarette I use in this video is the Prodigy V3 which can be found at PureSmoker

The Prodigy V3 from PureSmoker.com

Here is the data sheet for The Prodigy V3

The juice I am smoking in the video can be found at FreedomSmokeUSA
Another good source to check out is MyFreedomSmokes

For more information on e-cigarettes, visit E-Cigarette Forum

If you listen to any of the podcasts make sure you listen to these ones:

Shows for new listeners.

This video is not mine. This is a video from Jack Spriko and the members of TheSurvivalPodcast. I wanted to post this video for everybody to see what IndependentJo is all about.
It is a great video. Please give it a watch!