It is the second week after I purchased the land in West Texas. Posts have been mostly with a thought towards living off the land and/or the thinking that led to me to try it.
"Best of" additions for the week: NOTE: These do not have to be amongst the last week's posts. If I find one has been clicked on a lot and it's relatively old, I'll add it anyway, despite its age:
Whitney Houston - Greatest Love Of All [Lyrics]
Staying in the saddle
Update:
Musk goes for methane-burning reusable rockets
Al Fin: "Cowboy Commentary", aka "Eat your veggies" The Flag banner is posted in order to defy those who would make patriotic symbols illegal or disreputable.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Additional info about desert plants
Prev Next
A new post on the off the grid series.
The approach to how to use my land will be to disturb it the least that I can. I will make use of what is there, and minimize the introduction of new plants and/or animals. If it is necessary to bring them in, I want to keep that to a minimum.
Here are some useful links in support of that goal.
How To Process Native Plants For Eating
Survival Training: Mesquite Beans
She mentions a "hammer mill" to process the beans. So, I looked up hammer mills and got this.
A Few Edible and Useful Desert Plants
Water from a Dry River Bed plus purifying the water you find.
Update:
More plants to research
agave
buffalo gourd may be useful for oil
sage
yucca
A new post on the off the grid series.
The approach to how to use my land will be to disturb it the least that I can. I will make use of what is there, and minimize the introduction of new plants and/or animals. If it is necessary to bring them in, I want to keep that to a minimum.
Here are some useful links in support of that goal.
How To Process Native Plants For Eating
Survival Training: Mesquite Beans
She mentions a "hammer mill" to process the beans. So, I looked up hammer mills and got this.
A Few Edible and Useful Desert Plants
Water from a Dry River Bed plus purifying the water you find.
Update:
More plants to research
agave
buffalo gourd may be useful for oil
sage
yucca
Parabolic Mirror from a Trash Can Lid HACK Death Ray Solar do it yourself DIY
Greenpowerscience
This dude has a lot of great videos. I intend to make use of his "hacks" for my own purposes. A couple here that I may or may not use.
This dude has a lot of great videos. I intend to make use of his "hacks" for my own purposes. A couple here that I may or may not use.
Cloward-Piven
As you might see from the Twitter feed on the left sidebar, I retweeted Ann Barnhardt's tweet about Cloward-Piven.
It may be something of a self-delusion, but I think my idea of living off the land is the anti-dote for CP, and many other ills of the hyper state envisioned and practiced by the political left.
The left's assumption is that money can sustain them. Money cannot sustain them. What they wish for may prove to be their ultimate doom.
It may be something of a self-delusion, but I think my idea of living off the land is the anti-dote for CP, and many other ills of the hyper state envisioned and practiced by the political left.
The left's assumption is that money can sustain them. Money cannot sustain them. What they wish for may prove to be their ultimate doom.
Out and about July 5th, 2014
Prickly pear tree up close
I wanted to get a video of this sucker for a couple weeks now. Just getting around to it. What surprised me about it when I got up close and personal was the size of its tree trunk. It is a massive tree, with lots of fruit, which is edible. The "leaves" are edible as well. A crop that can be harvested on my land. What do you know about that? This was taken in Houston, by the way.
Update:
Why this is an important thing to find: 1) Eating cactus fruit 2) Growing Prickly Pear Cactus: Rooting Cactus Pads - Part 1 3) Growing Prickly Pear Cactus: Transplanting - Part 2 4) Food From Prickly Pear Cactus 5) Cooking With Prickly Pear Cactus Pads 5) How to Grow a Cutting From Prickly Pear Cactus
I wanted to get a video of this sucker for a couple weeks now. Just getting around to it. What surprised me about it when I got up close and personal was the size of its tree trunk. It is a massive tree, with lots of fruit, which is edible. The "leaves" are edible as well. A crop that can be harvested on my land. What do you know about that? This was taken in Houston, by the way.
Update:
Why this is an important thing to find: 1) Eating cactus fruit 2) Growing Prickly Pear Cactus: Rooting Cactus Pads - Part 1 3) Growing Prickly Pear Cactus: Transplanting - Part 2 4) Food From Prickly Pear Cactus 5) Cooking With Prickly Pear Cactus Pads 5) How to Grow a Cutting From Prickly Pear Cactus
Friday, July 4, 2014
The Yardbirds - Heart Full of Soul, Shindig!, 1965
Enough of this seriousness. Here's a golden oldie from the sixties to liven things up a bit.
Convergence: The New Left/Right Coalition
Convergence: The New Left/Right Coalition
Ralph Nader wrote this book, and Dick Morris has written an article about it to praise it. Well, it could be an optimistic sign that the country really can get together and work out its problems as opposed to being destroyed by them and the leadership's failure to solve them. That's one of the main themes of this here blog, if the truth be told.
Ralph Nader wrote this book, and Dick Morris has written an article about it to praise it. Well, it could be an optimistic sign that the country really can get together and work out its problems as opposed to being destroyed by them and the leadership's failure to solve them. That's one of the main themes of this here blog, if the truth be told.
Watch Worldwide Inflation for the Coming Gold Boom: Edward Karr | Kitco Commentary
Watch Worldwide Inflation for the Coming Gold Boom: Edward Karr | Kitco Commentary
From his vantage in Geneva, Edward Karr, the founder of the investment firm RAMPartners SA, tells The Gold Report why European bankers are destined to inflate their way out of structural crisis and why that is good news for the price of gold. Karr believes gold has bottomed and should explode upward.Not a bad idea to have land, either. Anybody want to buy some land? Yuk, yuk.
Idea about harvesting water
prev next
Ongoing series about going off the grid continues...
How busy am I? Not really busy, just sitting on my asterisk***. Yuk, yuk.
It seems that I am so busy, but I get little done. Well, at least I'm thinking about the things I want to do. Yes, and making plans. But plans have a way of changing.
Earlier this week, I obtained a copy of instructions on how to build a small cabin. As you may recall my brother "Worf" not only served in the Army, but after he got out, he built houses. I can't drag Worf's asterisk out to West Texas, but I suppose I could ask him for some free advice. Maybe I get it, maybe I don't. Maybe I can use it, maybe I can't. Either way, I got my own little asterisk out in the middle of nowhere trying to put together something of a shelter for my tired old wore out butt. I'm studying these building plans and this dude in his book keeps talking about how you need friggin' help. I thought he was supposed to show how to build it yourself without dragging in half of the friggin' world.
Before I can build the cabin, I have to set up some type of crude structure that can serve as temporary housing until I can get the real thing up and running. I think I got that one figured out, but it isn't ready for execution yet. In fact, none of this is nearly ready for execution yet. If I were to do any of this, I would have to take weeks off from work. That may be possible, but as of now, I'm not figuring on it. I'm burning through money like nobody's business. Have to keep working.
I've gots to have the cabin, I can'ts lives withouts it.
Meanwhile, I can educate myself on what I need to be doing when I am ready to do what I need to be doing. All very abstract for something that involves concrete. yuk, yuk
Also, I get ideas sometimes that may overturn my original plans. Like harvesting water from rain. Why wait for rain? If you can get water to condense, you can collect plenty of water. Once upon a time, I noticed how much water was pulled out of the thin air just from the a/c operations. I see that all the time with cars--- come to think of it---everyday, I see that their a/c's pull out a lot of water. Why not try to harvest water that way? Well, you might think the humidity won't support that in West Texas, but that may not be the case. At any rate, I'm watching the relative humidity numbers for the region in the weather forecast to see if the numbers will suffice for my idea.
Once you get that figured out and it's in the affirmative, you can figure out where to get the energy to make the water condense. That widdle pwoblem may be solvable with solar and wind power. I always said that if you have enough energy, you can do about anything. If this works, and I don't see why it wouldn't, you can cool off a room, or refrigerate a thing or two, while making water condense out of thin air and collecting it. We'll see.
What a country! ( don't know why I threw that one in )
Update:
Here's a video about harvesting rainwater. Looks pretty good, that's why I am linking to it.
Ongoing series about going off the grid continues...
How busy am I? Not really busy, just sitting on my asterisk***. Yuk, yuk.
It seems that I am so busy, but I get little done. Well, at least I'm thinking about the things I want to do. Yes, and making plans. But plans have a way of changing.
Earlier this week, I obtained a copy of instructions on how to build a small cabin. As you may recall my brother "Worf" not only served in the Army, but after he got out, he built houses. I can't drag Worf's asterisk out to West Texas, but I suppose I could ask him for some free advice. Maybe I get it, maybe I don't. Maybe I can use it, maybe I can't. Either way, I got my own little asterisk out in the middle of nowhere trying to put together something of a shelter for my tired old wore out butt. I'm studying these building plans and this dude in his book keeps talking about how you need friggin' help. I thought he was supposed to show how to build it yourself without dragging in half of the friggin' world.
Before I can build the cabin, I have to set up some type of crude structure that can serve as temporary housing until I can get the real thing up and running. I think I got that one figured out, but it isn't ready for execution yet. In fact, none of this is nearly ready for execution yet. If I were to do any of this, I would have to take weeks off from work. That may be possible, but as of now, I'm not figuring on it. I'm burning through money like nobody's business. Have to keep working.
I've gots to have the cabin, I can'ts lives withouts it.
Meanwhile, I can educate myself on what I need to be doing when I am ready to do what I need to be doing. All very abstract for something that involves concrete. yuk, yuk
Also, I get ideas sometimes that may overturn my original plans. Like harvesting water from rain. Why wait for rain? If you can get water to condense, you can collect plenty of water. Once upon a time, I noticed how much water was pulled out of the thin air just from the a/c operations. I see that all the time with cars--- come to think of it---everyday, I see that their a/c's pull out a lot of water. Why not try to harvest water that way? Well, you might think the humidity won't support that in West Texas, but that may not be the case. At any rate, I'm watching the relative humidity numbers for the region in the weather forecast to see if the numbers will suffice for my idea.
Once you get that figured out and it's in the affirmative, you can figure out where to get the energy to make the water condense. That widdle pwoblem may be solvable with solar and wind power. I always said that if you have enough energy, you can do about anything. If this works, and I don't see why it wouldn't, you can cool off a room, or refrigerate a thing or two, while making water condense out of thin air and collecting it. We'll see.
What a country! ( don't know why I threw that one in )
Update:
Here's a video about harvesting rainwater. Looks pretty good, that's why I am linking to it.
July 4th, no rest for the weary
For everybody else, this is a holiday. As for me, I'm my usual serious self. This is just another day, like any other day. For me, a holiday is when I don't have to work. At a regular job, that is. That doesn't mean sitting around at the bar-be-que pit cooking up weenies and steaks.
Nope, I'm always busy doing useful stuff that doesn't pay a penny. One of these days, the work may pay off, but I suspect that it won't be money that I'll be getting for my efforts. That is the type of thing that doesn't seem to want to come my way. The hell with it, then.
Nope, I'm always busy doing useful stuff that doesn't pay a penny. One of these days, the work may pay off, but I suspect that it won't be money that I'll be getting for my efforts. That is the type of thing that doesn't seem to want to come my way. The hell with it, then.
Out and about
Felt a bit restless this morning. So, I went walking about the property here where I live. I used to take walks on this property in order to get in some exercise. Once I began working full time again, I stopped that habit. It's very time consuming, and I have little time. I wanted the time for the blog, you see.
This blogging business is probably a bit too cerebral. Human beings are really designed to run all day. Did you know that? Human beings are a persistence predator. All prey for humans can outrun us, but we can run them down by sheer persistence. We can tire them out and then deliver the coup de grâce. That was one of our strong points that allowed us to survive as a species. As a contrast, civilization is really very unnatural, you know. Anything that deviates from our true natures will put a strain on our very existence.
But we are thinking creatures, too. There needs to be a balance between thought and action. Well, so much for that thought. What I did was to get some exercise in while I was thinking about my problems.
While I was doing that, I noticed how big the property is in the place in which I live, so I wanted to get some perspective on how big my newly acquired property is in comparison. I paced off 200 steps from south to north, and then 150 paces west to east. That gives me a rough idea of how much distance I covered. I made a note of these distances and will compare that to this property once I get the opportunity to go on my land and do some looking around.
It rained really hard late yesterday afternoon. As I walked about, I noticed that the pool was overflowing with water! As I looked around the area around the pool, I wondered how water could get into the pool like that. It sits higher than the surrounding area, but there must have been a lot of water to overcome that barrier. A type of mini flood, if you will. Houston is a very rainy place. When it rains here, flooding can be a problem.
When I think of all that water, I am amazed. A human only requires a small amount to survive, but look how much fell in so short of a time. Even in the desert, a small amount can be large. It's all a function of square footage. If you get the rain going downhill in a large area, it can flood even a dry region---provided that the region is in the way of the water. This actually does happen, and it did happen on my trip. A road was covered with water while I was trying to get to my property. Hard to believe that street flooding can happen even in a desert region. I did manage to get by that obstacle, but I failed to negotiate the bad roads so that I could see my property.
On reflection afterwards, I was really, really close to it. In fact, I may have stopped right at it and didn't know I had arrived. Great Scott!!!
How did I figure this? I made a video on the way out and calculated the distance that I had covered. I wanted to review this later once I got home. I did review it. Before I got back home, I calibrated the odometer according to the mileage markers on the Interstate. I discovered that the rent car was showing less miles than what the Interstate said I was covering. Assuming the Interstate's measurements were right, that tells me that I traveled further than what I thought while looking for the property.
I'm going to have to make another run out there in order to determine exactly where my property lines are. The next time will feature a guided tour. Whoop de doo. I might have done that and saved myself a lot of trouble. Yep. But I do get restless sometimes, and I want to DO things.
Although the trip wasn't a complete success, I did learn plenty. I intend to learn plenty more and I had better.
This blogging business is probably a bit too cerebral. Human beings are really designed to run all day. Did you know that? Human beings are a persistence predator. All prey for humans can outrun us, but we can run them down by sheer persistence. We can tire them out and then deliver the coup de grâce. That was one of our strong points that allowed us to survive as a species. As a contrast, civilization is really very unnatural, you know. Anything that deviates from our true natures will put a strain on our very existence.
But we are thinking creatures, too. There needs to be a balance between thought and action. Well, so much for that thought. What I did was to get some exercise in while I was thinking about my problems.
While I was doing that, I noticed how big the property is in the place in which I live, so I wanted to get some perspective on how big my newly acquired property is in comparison. I paced off 200 steps from south to north, and then 150 paces west to east. That gives me a rough idea of how much distance I covered. I made a note of these distances and will compare that to this property once I get the opportunity to go on my land and do some looking around.
It rained really hard late yesterday afternoon. As I walked about, I noticed that the pool was overflowing with water! As I looked around the area around the pool, I wondered how water could get into the pool like that. It sits higher than the surrounding area, but there must have been a lot of water to overcome that barrier. A type of mini flood, if you will. Houston is a very rainy place. When it rains here, flooding can be a problem.
When I think of all that water, I am amazed. A human only requires a small amount to survive, but look how much fell in so short of a time. Even in the desert, a small amount can be large. It's all a function of square footage. If you get the rain going downhill in a large area, it can flood even a dry region---provided that the region is in the way of the water. This actually does happen, and it did happen on my trip. A road was covered with water while I was trying to get to my property. Hard to believe that street flooding can happen even in a desert region. I did manage to get by that obstacle, but I failed to negotiate the bad roads so that I could see my property.
On reflection afterwards, I was really, really close to it. In fact, I may have stopped right at it and didn't know I had arrived. Great Scott!!!
How did I figure this? I made a video on the way out and calculated the distance that I had covered. I wanted to review this later once I got home. I did review it. Before I got back home, I calibrated the odometer according to the mileage markers on the Interstate. I discovered that the rent car was showing less miles than what the Interstate said I was covering. Assuming the Interstate's measurements were right, that tells me that I traveled further than what I thought while looking for the property.
I'm going to have to make another run out there in order to determine exactly where my property lines are. The next time will feature a guided tour. Whoop de doo. I might have done that and saved myself a lot of trouble. Yep. But I do get restless sometimes, and I want to DO things.
Although the trip wasn't a complete success, I did learn plenty. I intend to learn plenty more and I had better.
"Ann Barnhardt Counter Revolutionary"
comment:
I'll use quotation marks because I don't necessarily agree with the label. Revolutions are events in which people get killed. So far, I haven't heard anything like that from Miss Barnhardt. Moreover, she hasn't never done anything like that --- at least not in any event that she has ever discussed or that I have seen or heard her discuss.
All talk as far as I can see. We are become as society of thinkers and talkers as opposed to do-ers. As for me, I am going to do something, but I won't be shooting anybody. Even if I am tempted to, I will keep my peace.
Update:
What she could be referring to with this talk of insanity is remarkably similar to what Bill Whittle says here.
I'll use quotation marks because I don't necessarily agree with the label. Revolutions are events in which people get killed. So far, I haven't heard anything like that from Miss Barnhardt. Moreover, she hasn't never done anything like that --- at least not in any event that she has ever discussed or that I have seen or heard her discuss.
All talk as far as I can see. We are become as society of thinkers and talkers as opposed to do-ers. As for me, I am going to do something, but I won't be shooting anybody. Even if I am tempted to, I will keep my peace.
Update:
What she could be referring to with this talk of insanity is remarkably similar to what Bill Whittle says here.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Billionaire Tells Americans to Prepare For 'Financial Ruin'
moneynews
comment:
This looks like an old recycled story. It may get the reaction of "crying wolf" from most people. But it just may work out that way after all.
My theory is that they can manage this thing as long as something doesn't happen. But once something does happen, the entire financial edifice will come crashing down like the Twin Towers in New York City on 9-11-2001. This economy isn't built to withstand the kind of shocks that it may be subjected to in the near future. It is fragile. It is over-leveraged. Just one big disaster may be all that's necessary to send it into a tailspin. Unfortunately, this won't be prevented because these people running the show are incompetent and/or corrupt. You should prepare yourself if you are wise.
comment:
This looks like an old recycled story. It may get the reaction of "crying wolf" from most people. But it just may work out that way after all.
My theory is that they can manage this thing as long as something doesn't happen. But once something does happen, the entire financial edifice will come crashing down like the Twin Towers in New York City on 9-11-2001. This economy isn't built to withstand the kind of shocks that it may be subjected to in the near future. It is fragile. It is over-leveraged. Just one big disaster may be all that's necessary to send it into a tailspin. Unfortunately, this won't be prevented because these people running the show are incompetent and/or corrupt. You should prepare yourself if you are wise.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Family
A few posts back, I complained a bit about being alone in the world. That's not exactly true. What is true is that I tend to go my own way almost all the time. Nope, I didn't pop up out of the ground. I was born into a large family of six children and your standard issue Dad and Mom. There was a seventh that died as an infant long before I was born.
How does someone brought up in a large family turn out the way I did? I should be more gregarious, but I am most certainly not. Perhaps I do not appreciate how fortunate I am to have been born with five siblings. Appreciation is a good thing, which I do not practice often enough.
Let me go over the family briefly. I don't want to use names, so I'll use made up names. One of my brothers has posted here. He uses the handle "Wishbone-T". I'll use that name in referring to him. Well, today Wishbone had a problem with his van. He believes it is the catalytic converter, but why does he believe that? It turns out that the eldest brother, which I will dub "number one", is a mechanic. So, number one explained to Wishbone why it could be the catalytic converter. It just so happens that my catalytic converter is out too. It would be really bad to be in the middle of nowhere when your vehicle stops running because the metal inside the catalytic converter melted and clogged up the exhaust pipe. If the exhaust pipe is clogged, you aren't going anywhere.
I'm really glad number one was around to mention that to Wishbone, who in turn mentioned it to me. That's because I'm considering using my van to go out to my property again. That catalytic converter needs to be fixed before I go. I wouldn't want to get stuck out there.
Wishbone and I have not always got along well together. Call it a family trait, as two of the other brothers have something of a feud going. It's number one v "Worf". So, I need to explain who "Worf" is. Worf was a Klingon in the Star Trek universe. The Klingons were a warrior race, so my brother was in the military, and he was a warrior. Hence the name "Worf". Number one and Worf have a feud that happened shortly after Worf joined the Army. So, it has been going on a long time. I don't have problems with either of them, thank goodness.
Thanks to Worf, I got back on speaking terms with my mother before she died. Also thanks to Worf, I settled up on a minor feud with Wishbone that was threatening to get a bit more serious. He expressed the concern that we settle our differences before it got out of hand like it did between him and number one.
There are a couple of sisters. I have a younger sister which I'll call "Nurse Ratched". That's a bit of a joke that she may not appreciate much. It's kinda of mean to call her that because she has a heart of gold as far as I'm concerned. She was at the hospital watching over me when I had my wreck back in the early nineties. Lots of bad things could have happened and maybe didn't because she was there watching after my interests. Nurse Ratched is a registered nurse.
Then there's "Hillary". I'll call her Hillary because she's a big Democrat. Also, the name for her is for other things that Wishbone said about her, which I will not repeat here. But we get along great. She has always been very good to me.
My parents have passed away, with Dad going first while I was still in high school. He was very old school. So was Mom. My has the world changed since they were young. Not always for the better, as I mention so often.
I'm fortunate to have such a family background and let it not be said that I cannot be grateful for that.
How does someone brought up in a large family turn out the way I did? I should be more gregarious, but I am most certainly not. Perhaps I do not appreciate how fortunate I am to have been born with five siblings. Appreciation is a good thing, which I do not practice often enough.
Let me go over the family briefly. I don't want to use names, so I'll use made up names. One of my brothers has posted here. He uses the handle "Wishbone-T". I'll use that name in referring to him. Well, today Wishbone had a problem with his van. He believes it is the catalytic converter, but why does he believe that? It turns out that the eldest brother, which I will dub "number one", is a mechanic. So, number one explained to Wishbone why it could be the catalytic converter. It just so happens that my catalytic converter is out too. It would be really bad to be in the middle of nowhere when your vehicle stops running because the metal inside the catalytic converter melted and clogged up the exhaust pipe. If the exhaust pipe is clogged, you aren't going anywhere.
I'm really glad number one was around to mention that to Wishbone, who in turn mentioned it to me. That's because I'm considering using my van to go out to my property again. That catalytic converter needs to be fixed before I go. I wouldn't want to get stuck out there.
Wishbone and I have not always got along well together. Call it a family trait, as two of the other brothers have something of a feud going. It's number one v "Worf". So, I need to explain who "Worf" is. Worf was a Klingon in the Star Trek universe. The Klingons were a warrior race, so my brother was in the military, and he was a warrior. Hence the name "Worf". Number one and Worf have a feud that happened shortly after Worf joined the Army. So, it has been going on a long time. I don't have problems with either of them, thank goodness.
Thanks to Worf, I got back on speaking terms with my mother before she died. Also thanks to Worf, I settled up on a minor feud with Wishbone that was threatening to get a bit more serious. He expressed the concern that we settle our differences before it got out of hand like it did between him and number one.
There are a couple of sisters. I have a younger sister which I'll call "Nurse Ratched". That's a bit of a joke that she may not appreciate much. It's kinda of mean to call her that because she has a heart of gold as far as I'm concerned. She was at the hospital watching over me when I had my wreck back in the early nineties. Lots of bad things could have happened and maybe didn't because she was there watching after my interests. Nurse Ratched is a registered nurse.
Then there's "Hillary". I'll call her Hillary because she's a big Democrat. Also, the name for her is for other things that Wishbone said about her, which I will not repeat here. But we get along great. She has always been very good to me.
My parents have passed away, with Dad going first while I was still in high school. He was very old school. So was Mom. My has the world changed since they were young. Not always for the better, as I mention so often.
I'm fortunate to have such a family background and let it not be said that I cannot be grateful for that.
Quick post on hardiness zones
Prev Next
Interactive map that shows USDA hardiness zone for agriculture. Use that information to judge what kinds of plants can exist in your region.
This is a very barebones post. Follow the links for more information.
Interactive map that shows USDA hardiness zone for agriculture. Use that information to judge what kinds of plants can exist in your region.
This is a very barebones post. Follow the links for more information.
“The Ruling Class Went Down to Mississippi”
protein wisdom
comment:
Somewhat belabors the obvious. The question is: what do you do about it? You don't join the GOP, you split off from it. The GOP is ruled by money. Take that power away from them. The Dems can go ahead and raise taxes to the moon, who cares? If you don't need money, they can't tax what you don't have.
There needs to be some out of the box thinking amongst those who oppose this stuff. But nobody seems to want to do that. If such be the case, then it is time to do things on your own. Such is my own situation.
Bitching in and of itself won't do any good. Nothing can change if you don't act.
comment:
Somewhat belabors the obvious. The question is: what do you do about it? You don't join the GOP, you split off from it. The GOP is ruled by money. Take that power away from them. The Dems can go ahead and raise taxes to the moon, who cares? If you don't need money, they can't tax what you don't have.
There needs to be some out of the box thinking amongst those who oppose this stuff. But nobody seems to want to do that. If such be the case, then it is time to do things on your own. Such is my own situation.
Bitching in and of itself won't do any good. Nothing can change if you don't act.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
All the doo-dah day
Message from moi:
They sho' is good to us.
They sho' is good to us.
 |
| 2014 Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Maryland. Source: Wikipedia |
Published on Zero Hedge (http://www.zerohedge.com)
The Sham Boom
By Tyler Durden
Created 07/01/2014 - 13:55
What last week's figures tell us is there is no real recovery. Just a sham boom created by easy money. We've now got two months of figures for the second quarter. They tell us the same thing the first quarter's numbers told us. Consumers aren't spending like it was 2007. They're spending like it was 2009... or 2010... or 2011. In other words, they're spending as though they were reasonable people who have realized how the system works. The Fed creates a world where its friends and cronies can borrow at below the rate of consumer price inflation. The 1% gets richer. The other 99% struggles to keep up with the bills. Six years of "stimulating" the economy by giving it more of what it least needed has produced no real recovery... just more debt. It has also produced a corrupt money system in which almost every race is fixed. The 1% wins every time. The consumer is barely able to limp around the track.
Portable Solar Power Trailer
solarcabin
Published on Apr 29, 2013
Portable Solar Power Trailer. Design will be included in my new book "Ten Tiny Cabins." http://www.simplesolarhomesteading.com for more info.
comment:
Looks like an excellent resource.
Update:
This will be made into another post in the off-the-grid series.
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Published on Apr 29, 2013
Portable Solar Power Trailer. Design will be included in my new book "Ten Tiny Cabins." http://www.simplesolarhomesteading.com for more info.
comment:
Looks like an excellent resource.
Update:
This will be made into another post in the off-the-grid series.
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Something fishy
All time high on stock market. Rally based upon economic statistics. Not everybody believes that the statistics are accurate. What if they are not? I think Zero Hedge has something on the question posed here. Go over there and check it out.
The cost of neglect
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'll have a lot of dental work needed soon. This will be expensive, but there may be a way to handle it financially so that I won't even break stride. That's not an optimal solution, but it may work. I'll have to ask the dentist to be sure.
However, there's no getting around the fact that I'm going to lose a tooth. This is the third one that I will have lost, which could have been avoided if I hadn't been neglectful, as all three have been lost for the very same reason.
Not all of the news is bad. This allows me to mention a couple of practices that probably saved me from a worse outcome. I use Listerine, which helped my gums. My gums are in fairly good shape. Secondly, I use a floridated toothpaste, which kept the enamel in good shape on almost all my teeth. Unfortunately, these two practices didn't stop tooth decay, and the reason for it was that I don't floss often enough. The tooth that will be lost had a hidden cavity between the teeth that blossomed into a real problem without my knowledge. So, two practices could have avoided this loss: more frequent dental visits and more frequent flossing.
The loss of a tooth is like a death in the family. The tooth cannot be replaced. I am going to mourn the loss, as you might imagine.
People might think that only proves I'm a dummy. In this instance, yes. On other accounts too, probably true. But everybody is guilty of neglect, I suspect. It's all a matter of priorities. You could be great with your teeth, but terrible with other aspects of your life. One good practice doesn't change all the other bad practices. Only by changing all bad practices can progress be made. So, I feel good about what good practices I do have with my dental health, but I am not too happy about other bad outcomes. Taking the specific out to the general case, people should not get too happy with themselves. They could be neglecting something important, and they may regret it someday.
Just sayin'.
However, there's no getting around the fact that I'm going to lose a tooth. This is the third one that I will have lost, which could have been avoided if I hadn't been neglectful, as all three have been lost for the very same reason.
Not all of the news is bad. This allows me to mention a couple of practices that probably saved me from a worse outcome. I use Listerine, which helped my gums. My gums are in fairly good shape. Secondly, I use a floridated toothpaste, which kept the enamel in good shape on almost all my teeth. Unfortunately, these two practices didn't stop tooth decay, and the reason for it was that I don't floss often enough. The tooth that will be lost had a hidden cavity between the teeth that blossomed into a real problem without my knowledge. So, two practices could have avoided this loss: more frequent dental visits and more frequent flossing.
The loss of a tooth is like a death in the family. The tooth cannot be replaced. I am going to mourn the loss, as you might imagine.
People might think that only proves I'm a dummy. In this instance, yes. On other accounts too, probably true. But everybody is guilty of neglect, I suspect. It's all a matter of priorities. You could be great with your teeth, but terrible with other aspects of your life. One good practice doesn't change all the other bad practices. Only by changing all bad practices can progress be made. So, I feel good about what good practices I do have with my dental health, but I am not too happy about other bad outcomes. Taking the specific out to the general case, people should not get too happy with themselves. They could be neglecting something important, and they may regret it someday.
Just sayin'.
Connecting the dots
This society doesn't do that as well as it should. This is how you end up with disasters because there is nobody out there doing that vital function. Or those who do are being marginalized.
Examples? There are many. Consider Pearl Harbor. Not enough thought was taken into account that the kind of impression that was being left upon the Japanese so that they would not attack. We left the Japanese with the impression that we wouldn't fight to defend ourselves. If Pearl Harbor wasn't bad enough, 9-11 happened for primarily the same reason. A similar disaster will almost certainly strike now given the fact that the current political "leadership" has acted in similar ways that led to those two bad outcomes. It is almost if these people never learn anything from history. History shows that Osama bin Laden concluded that America could be beaten after the events in the Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia. The left tends to play down the significance of these events, but a show of weakness such as that always leaves a wrong impression upon those who must be shown strength and resolution. When bin Laden provoked a war with the 9-11 event, the appropriate response was not to reward his ilk with a victory in the War on Terror. Not connecting the dots will all but guarantee another attack in the future. Our current leadership hasn't connected that dot, nor learned from history.
But it goes beyond how the military is mismanaged. It goes all the way down to the nuts and bolts of how our society works. Consider the decisions on the Supreme Court this week on the issue of religious freedom. The problem with contraception is not only with religious freedom, but goes much deeper about the meaning of life. You could approach this with a religious point of view, which is deeper than our current pleasure obsessed society can manage anymore. Now consider the dot that isn't being connected: there aren't many babies being born---why? Babies aren't being born because sex is now considered only as a pleasure to be sought, not primarily as a means of procreation. Hence, a baby becomes a burden, and can be swept away by an abortion. The rot goes even deeper than this, for if sex is only a pleasure, it encourages thinking that leads to same-sex marriage. But this will all be denied as religious superstition, as a society cannot handle the religious approach, as it becomes obsessed with the temporal pleasures. You can deny that the dots as such exist, but there is no denying that babies aren't being born. The priorities must be wrong. A society cannot continue without a new generation, and thus procreation must be the primary purpose of sex.
How are babies and wars connected? The Islamic extremists see us as a society that is dying---and they are right. This encourages them to try to overthrow us. They'll do it with wars and/or with their own surplus of babies. Either way, if we don't begin connecting those dots, we aren't going to last as a society, and they know it. That question doesn't need answering for them, our enemy, but for us who can't seem to understand that we are destroying ourselves with our misplaced priorities. We haven't connected those dots.
Examples? There are many. Consider Pearl Harbor. Not enough thought was taken into account that the kind of impression that was being left upon the Japanese so that they would not attack. We left the Japanese with the impression that we wouldn't fight to defend ourselves. If Pearl Harbor wasn't bad enough, 9-11 happened for primarily the same reason. A similar disaster will almost certainly strike now given the fact that the current political "leadership" has acted in similar ways that led to those two bad outcomes. It is almost if these people never learn anything from history. History shows that Osama bin Laden concluded that America could be beaten after the events in the Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia. The left tends to play down the significance of these events, but a show of weakness such as that always leaves a wrong impression upon those who must be shown strength and resolution. When bin Laden provoked a war with the 9-11 event, the appropriate response was not to reward his ilk with a victory in the War on Terror. Not connecting the dots will all but guarantee another attack in the future. Our current leadership hasn't connected that dot, nor learned from history.
But it goes beyond how the military is mismanaged. It goes all the way down to the nuts and bolts of how our society works. Consider the decisions on the Supreme Court this week on the issue of religious freedom. The problem with contraception is not only with religious freedom, but goes much deeper about the meaning of life. You could approach this with a religious point of view, which is deeper than our current pleasure obsessed society can manage anymore. Now consider the dot that isn't being connected: there aren't many babies being born---why? Babies aren't being born because sex is now considered only as a pleasure to be sought, not primarily as a means of procreation. Hence, a baby becomes a burden, and can be swept away by an abortion. The rot goes even deeper than this, for if sex is only a pleasure, it encourages thinking that leads to same-sex marriage. But this will all be denied as religious superstition, as a society cannot handle the religious approach, as it becomes obsessed with the temporal pleasures. You can deny that the dots as such exist, but there is no denying that babies aren't being born. The priorities must be wrong. A society cannot continue without a new generation, and thus procreation must be the primary purpose of sex.
How are babies and wars connected? The Islamic extremists see us as a society that is dying---and they are right. This encourages them to try to overthrow us. They'll do it with wars and/or with their own surplus of babies. Either way, if we don't begin connecting those dots, we aren't going to last as a society, and they know it. That question doesn't need answering for them, our enemy, but for us who can't seem to understand that we are destroying ourselves with our misplaced priorities. We haven't connected those dots.
Studying the water problem
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Continuation of the series about going off the grid.
If you can't get water, you cannot sustain a life anywhere, much less on a desert. Such is the biggest problem confronting me as I contemplate the very prospect of settling on my newly acquired land.
I figured originally that I can collect water from rain as it falls. This may be problematical since it may be a bit of a problem with the sandy soil in the region. The sand shifts with erosion as the rain runs downhill. It turns out that some folks say that the topsoil is rather thin at the surface with a hard pan region about a foot deep below. That's good and that's bad. Good in that a solid surface can be found at about a foot deep worth of digging. Bad because a plant's root system cannot go beyond it. The ground won't support trees, yet I saw some out there on my visit.
The only way to resolve what kind of soil I have is to go out there. It turns out as well that this is the time of the year for rain. The rest of the year is really dry.
I thought of digging a well after watching a series of videos on the subject. Unfortunately, the water table in the region is much too deep for that. I will have to put off the idea of digging a well until I can get a much better idea of what conditions prevail on my property. Until then, I will have to figure out a system that enable me to gather up enough water to live on. It won't be much, as I don't intend to do large scale farming at all.
Update:
Still studying the water problem as of 9/17/2014. I'm pleased to say that progress has been made.
Continuation of the series about going off the grid.
If you can't get water, you cannot sustain a life anywhere, much less on a desert. Such is the biggest problem confronting me as I contemplate the very prospect of settling on my newly acquired land.
I figured originally that I can collect water from rain as it falls. This may be problematical since it may be a bit of a problem with the sandy soil in the region. The sand shifts with erosion as the rain runs downhill. It turns out that some folks say that the topsoil is rather thin at the surface with a hard pan region about a foot deep below. That's good and that's bad. Good in that a solid surface can be found at about a foot deep worth of digging. Bad because a plant's root system cannot go beyond it. The ground won't support trees, yet I saw some out there on my visit.
The only way to resolve what kind of soil I have is to go out there. It turns out as well that this is the time of the year for rain. The rest of the year is really dry.
I thought of digging a well after watching a series of videos on the subject. Unfortunately, the water table in the region is much too deep for that. I will have to put off the idea of digging a well until I can get a much better idea of what conditions prevail on my property. Until then, I will have to figure out a system that enable me to gather up enough water to live on. It won't be much, as I don't intend to do large scale farming at all.
Update:
Still studying the water problem as of 9/17/2014. I'm pleased to say that progress has been made.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Going Galt | Atlas Shrugged | The Atlas Society
Going Galt | Atlas Shrugged | The Atlas Society
comment:
The post and the phrase seems like weak tea. Whatever wealth you have won't be of any use to you in an emergency. For example, you can have a ton of gold, but you won't be able to eat it. Trading for goods with your gold may not be possible. That's the point. When trade breaks down, you have to have a backup plan, or all your wealth will not matter one whit.
People really do love their money too much. This is the source of evil that stalks the land.
comment:
The post and the phrase seems like weak tea. Whatever wealth you have won't be of any use to you in an emergency. For example, you can have a ton of gold, but you won't be able to eat it. Trading for goods with your gold may not be possible. That's the point. When trade breaks down, you have to have a backup plan, or all your wealth will not matter one whit.
People really do love their money too much. This is the source of evil that stalks the land.
Tungsten - Shield Yourself From Fake Gold | Kitco Commentary
Tungsten - Shield Yourself From Fake Gold | Kitco Commentary
In keeping with the rather dire prognostication that I've just made, just consider how rampant this kind of fraud could be and have it escape attention. Ever wonder why Germany wanted their gold back, which was stored in the good 'ol USA??? What happens if the fraud is indeed rampant and exists in so many places that confidence is irreparably shattered. The only thing holding up the value of the US dollar is confidence. Confidence has to be earned. Please consider that in light of everything that is happening. A word to the wise should be sufficient, but who knows these days.
In keeping with the rather dire prognostication that I've just made, just consider how rampant this kind of fraud could be and have it escape attention. Ever wonder why Germany wanted their gold back, which was stored in the good 'ol USA??? What happens if the fraud is indeed rampant and exists in so many places that confidence is irreparably shattered. The only thing holding up the value of the US dollar is confidence. Confidence has to be earned. Please consider that in light of everything that is happening. A word to the wise should be sufficient, but who knows these days.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
A brief note here
Look folks, things may be closer to falling apart than what even I think. Now I am wondering if I should just leave my job and start working on my land. This is really bad stuff here and there's not much help for it. As for me, I don't have much time to work on the project when I am working a "day job". But when the money stops coming in, the cash burn will become a problem. I was hoping for more time, but I may not get it.
Just sayin'.
Just sayin'.
Satellite phones, dirt bikes, and carports
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Off the grid topic again. Aren't you getting tired of this stuff?
Sat phones? Well, duh! It really isn't necessary in normal living, but if you are going to live on the desert in the middle of nowhere, maybe it is a good idea to have one of these phones.
They aren't cheap, by the way. But be glad to have one if you need one.
As for dirt bikes, it may be useful for moving about the property and as cheap transportation. The van can be used for hauling stuff, including the bike. The van may need to be modified somewhat so as to avoid getting stuck in the sand.
Carports? Those can be easily put up and can offer some shade. Not too expensive either.
Off the grid topic again. Aren't you getting tired of this stuff?
Sat phones? Well, duh! It really isn't necessary in normal living, but if you are going to live on the desert in the middle of nowhere, maybe it is a good idea to have one of these phones.
They aren't cheap, by the way. But be glad to have one if you need one.
As for dirt bikes, it may be useful for moving about the property and as cheap transportation. The van can be used for hauling stuff, including the bike. The van may need to be modified somewhat so as to avoid getting stuck in the sand.
Carports? Those can be easily put up and can offer some shade. Not too expensive either.
Practice v Theory
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This is the next installment of the series about going off the grid.
Right off the top with this post, I came to the realization that the kind of posts that I will be doing will be different. Up until now, most of my content was derived from what others were doing. I would comment upon what someone else had written. Then the idea came up to do this, and I researched a number of topics about what to do in order to make going off the grid work. But that's all theory. At some point, the theorizing has to end and there had to be a decision to make as to whether or not to do anything about all the theories. As mentioned, I decided to go ahead and make the purchase of the land, which is now a done deal. No more theories, it's time for the rubber to hit the road.
As a sidebar, I'll segue into the following: I've written a lot of stuff about space. To put it mildly, this property is like a moonshot. It is quite unlike any place that I've lived in before. I've been a city boy all my life. This is more than country, it is wilderness. Almost like being on the moon. One mistake and you're dead.
As a consequence, you want to keep things as simple as possible. All materials to get started with will have to be kept to a minimum. Trucking stuff in is to be avoided because of the expense and the difficulty, frankly, of getting it there. But I'm going to have bring stuff in. There's no avoiding this. The KISS method is to be kept in mind at all times.
That leads me to a decision not to dig a trench. Simplicity wasn't the only reason. The other reason is rattlesnakes. The last thing I want is to have a bunch of those critters crawling into my trench and setting up shop there. Rattlesnakes probably don't like open areas because it is too hot. They also like to hide in dark places. I want to able to see one of these suckers if one decides to show up.
Instead of a trench, there ought to be some sort of structure, maybe just a couple of walls that block the sun and give shade. You can just drive in between the walls and park.
It will have to be an RV type setup at first. The RV is where I'll live until I can get my adobe hut built. It should be possible to get something simple in there. The smaller the better. Not a good idea to have heavy vehicles in a place where the roads aren't the greatest.
With respect to roads, this could be a problem in this place. Since it is a hilly region, when the rain falls, as there exists many unprotected areas with no vegetation for cover, water can do a great deal of erosion. It can literally wash out the dirt roads.
Now for vehicles for these bad roads. I was thinking four wheel drive, but this would entail the purchase of a new vehicle, which is an expense I'm trying to avoid. That leads to another decision: to buy another vehicle or try to modify the existing one? The trouble with keeping my existing vehicle is that it's old with a lot of miles on it. Do you want to keep something old and have it break down? It needs to keep me going for awhile in the delivery business, but be good enough for some off roading.
I've got time for these decisions. It isn't necessary for me to move in just yet. The time table is flexible and that is where I'll leave off for now.
This is the next installment of the series about going off the grid.
Right off the top with this post, I came to the realization that the kind of posts that I will be doing will be different. Up until now, most of my content was derived from what others were doing. I would comment upon what someone else had written. Then the idea came up to do this, and I researched a number of topics about what to do in order to make going off the grid work. But that's all theory. At some point, the theorizing has to end and there had to be a decision to make as to whether or not to do anything about all the theories. As mentioned, I decided to go ahead and make the purchase of the land, which is now a done deal. No more theories, it's time for the rubber to hit the road.
As a sidebar, I'll segue into the following: I've written a lot of stuff about space. To put it mildly, this property is like a moonshot. It is quite unlike any place that I've lived in before. I've been a city boy all my life. This is more than country, it is wilderness. Almost like being on the moon. One mistake and you're dead.
As a consequence, you want to keep things as simple as possible. All materials to get started with will have to be kept to a minimum. Trucking stuff in is to be avoided because of the expense and the difficulty, frankly, of getting it there. But I'm going to have bring stuff in. There's no avoiding this. The KISS method is to be kept in mind at all times.
That leads me to a decision not to dig a trench. Simplicity wasn't the only reason. The other reason is rattlesnakes. The last thing I want is to have a bunch of those critters crawling into my trench and setting up shop there. Rattlesnakes probably don't like open areas because it is too hot. They also like to hide in dark places. I want to able to see one of these suckers if one decides to show up.
Instead of a trench, there ought to be some sort of structure, maybe just a couple of walls that block the sun and give shade. You can just drive in between the walls and park.
It will have to be an RV type setup at first. The RV is where I'll live until I can get my adobe hut built. It should be possible to get something simple in there. The smaller the better. Not a good idea to have heavy vehicles in a place where the roads aren't the greatest.
With respect to roads, this could be a problem in this place. Since it is a hilly region, when the rain falls, as there exists many unprotected areas with no vegetation for cover, water can do a great deal of erosion. It can literally wash out the dirt roads.
Now for vehicles for these bad roads. I was thinking four wheel drive, but this would entail the purchase of a new vehicle, which is an expense I'm trying to avoid. That leads to another decision: to buy another vehicle or try to modify the existing one? The trouble with keeping my existing vehicle is that it's old with a lot of miles on it. Do you want to keep something old and have it break down? It needs to keep me going for awhile in the delivery business, but be good enough for some off roading.
I've got time for these decisions. It isn't necessary for me to move in just yet. The time table is flexible and that is where I'll leave off for now.
Basic definitions for soil
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The next post in the off the grid series:
The following definitions need to be made note of in the blog because I tend to forget them. For example, I looked up the word "clay" awhile back. What does it really mean?
Here's a few basic definitions:
clay: a stiff, sticky fine-grained earth, typically yellow, red, or bluish-gray in color and often forming an impermeable layer in the soil. It can be molded when wet, and is dried and baked to make bricks, pottery, and ceramics
silt: fine sand, clay, or other material carried by running water and deposited as a sediment, especially in a channel or harbor.
loam: Rich, friable (crumbly) soil with nearly equal parts of sand and silt, and somewhat less clay. The term is sometimes used imprecisely to mean earth or soil in general. Loam in subsoil receives varied minerals and amounts of clay by leaching (percolation) from the topsoil above.
Also saw where an adobe house can be built for $75 per sq foot. The assumption is that people were paid to do the work. If you did it yourself, it should be much cheaper. At least, I would think so.
Before all of that can be done, it will be necessary for a lot of preliminary work. Actually, this is getting ahead of myself a whole bunch. I'm not even able to camp on the site yet.
The next post in the off the grid series:
The following definitions need to be made note of in the blog because I tend to forget them. For example, I looked up the word "clay" awhile back. What does it really mean?
Here's a few basic definitions:
clay: a stiff, sticky fine-grained earth, typically yellow, red, or bluish-gray in color and often forming an impermeable layer in the soil. It can be molded when wet, and is dried and baked to make bricks, pottery, and ceramics
silt: fine sand, clay, or other material carried by running water and deposited as a sediment, especially in a channel or harbor.
loam: Rich, friable (crumbly) soil with nearly equal parts of sand and silt, and somewhat less clay. The term is sometimes used imprecisely to mean earth or soil in general. Loam in subsoil receives varied minerals and amounts of clay by leaching (percolation) from the topsoil above.
Also saw where an adobe house can be built for $75 per sq foot. The assumption is that people were paid to do the work. If you did it yourself, it should be much cheaper. At least, I would think so.
Before all of that can be done, it will be necessary for a lot of preliminary work. Actually, this is getting ahead of myself a whole bunch. I'm not even able to camp on the site yet.
Recap of last weeks posts 6/22 to 6/28/14
What a week it has been. Finally committed to buying the land and now I have to make this work. This is going to make my life much more crowded than what it already is. Blogging has been lighter than normal this week, but it may become the new normal. I am going to be busy with this thing.
The economic and political situation has not gotten any better, which means things are getting worse.
As for "Best of" posts, there was one that may have made the grade this week ( or last week or what have you, meaning it took awhile to get there )
Experimenting with fonts, colors, ideas
The economic and political situation has not gotten any better, which means things are getting worse.
As for "Best of" posts, there was one that may have made the grade this week ( or last week or what have you, meaning it took awhile to get there )
Experimenting with fonts, colors, ideas
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