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Sunday, September 8, 2013

Survival Gardening Information

I have written a lot of the need for gardening - farming skills in the coming collapse. I have not written any on the "how to's" as I am pretty lame as to producing my own food through growing crops. I have had some small success and many failures. But this is a necessary journey in order to develop some experience to employ when it counts for real.

A couple of good information sites I recently found are:

Building a Small Greenhouse

I have a greenhouse kit, but right now it stays packed up ready to be transported out to our  Bug Out site during a controlled or planned bug out.  But I would not hestiate to construct it if we needed to stay Bugged In and supplement our stored food using my large supply of stored seeds to grow some vegetables.


Fertilizer



Although I have not yet read this book, it will be on my order of next Amazon order. 

Amazon's review: 
In his insightful new book, Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind, contrary farmer Gene Logsdon provides the inside story of manure-our greatest, yet most misunderstood, natural resource. He begins by lamenting a modern society that not only throws away both animal and human manure-worth billions of dollars in fertilizer value-but that spends a staggering amount of money to do so. This wastefulness makes even less sense as the supply of mined or chemically synthesized fertilizers dwindles and their cost skyrockets. In fact, he argues, if we do not learn how to turn our manures into fertilizer to keep food production in line with increasing population, our civilization, like so many that went before it, will inevitably decline.


Making your own fertilizer and compost.  Another is this video on organic gardening by making compost.






And yet one more site, in fact an excellent site, pertaining to feeding yourself in the coming collapse is FoodStorageAndSurvival, which posted this information on Dandelions. Dandelion is one of the most recognizable and widespread edible plants. You know that weed that pops up in your yard every spring with its sunny yellow flowers? That lovely yellow flower that then turns into a ball of fluff attached to seeds that get blown across the yard/town/nation by the wind and small children? Well, they are not just weeds, the entire dandelion plant is edible. Here is how to cook dandelion roots.

1. Gather dandelions. Be sure you are gathering from a source that has not been sprayed with herbicide. Younger dandelions are best as the older roots can become woody. The dandelion usually has one long tap root, so you may need to dig down a bit to get as much of the root out as possible.

2. Wash and trim. Trim off the plant tops and any small side roots.

3. Peel the roots. You can peel them with a sharp knife, or peel them like beets using the boiling water method. Put the roots in boiling water for about 2 minutes, then remove them and put them in cold water. Then the peels slip off easily.

4. Cut them into pieces if desired. You can slice them into button sized pieces or leave them long, whatever is more appetizing to you. If the roots are woody, I would suggest leaving them long and then you can strip the tender part of the root off the outside of the woody core as you eat them.

5. Boil the roots 7-10 minutes until they are soft.

6. Season and serve warm. I put salt, pepper, and butter on mine.

I am constantly reminded that I am in the electronic age, but I can't help but like hard copy books for references. While an iPAD or Kindle type device can store a lot of information, I tend to want books as my primary refernce library. In a perfect world, a person would have both. These are some of my favorite books for survival collapse based gardening and farming.


Friday, August 30, 2013

Are State Militias Preparing?

I was sent this article, 14 United States Governors: Prepare State Militia Defenses, To Be Ready Against Obama’s Rogue Federal Forces!, and asked what I thought of it.

I haven't been able to confirm. We know that the federal government can call up and federalized state national guard units and it seems there would be too many indicators if this was true as the article professes.

Obama fearing a revolution against him by the states, has moved swiftly by nationalizing nearly all National Guard Forces in multiple states; Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina – to name a few. The Governors of the Great States of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia still have under their Command-and-Control the State Defense Forces to go against U.S. Federal forces should the need arise. Also important to note: There are NO U.S. laws prohibiting National Guard troops from also joining their State’s Defense Forces. This dilemma occurred during the Civil War with many “citizen soldiers” choosing to serve their states instead of the Federal Government.

Obama is angered by the several State Governors who have reestablished “State Defense Forces.” These forces are described as: “State Defense Forces (also known as State Guards, State Military Reserves, State Militias) in the United States are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government; they are not regulated by the National Guard Bureau nor are they part of the Army National Guard of the United States. State Defense Forces are authorized by state and federal law and are under the command of the governor of each state. State Defense Forces are distinct from their state’s National Guard in that they cannot become federal entities.”

Mr. Obama is fearful of these State Defense Forces, in that he does not have control of said forces, and with the U.S. Military stretched to near breaking from multiple deployments and theatre actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, these State military forces would be under the direct command and authority of the Governors in which states have said forces. In essence, the Governors would have “de facto control” of the United States.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

The The Future Not Bright - More Reasons for the Impending Economic Collapse

From an article by Michael Synder, called "35 Facts To Scare A Baby Boomer", posted on the The Economic Collapse Blog, hich is a really good source for,..well,...news, predictions and reasons that we face a economic collapse.



If you have some people you are dripping prepping to, and we all know some of those people. Peeople who are can't stand by themselves,...people on the fence on gun issues, or just don't see the need for "military style" weapons in the hands of the common citizenry,....people who have maybe three days food in their house. Anyway,........without further ado, Michael Synder's excellent article.

If you want to frighten Baby Boomers, just show them the list of statistics in this article. The United States is headed for a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude, and we are woefully unprepared for it. At this point, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers are reaching the age of 65 every single day, and this will continue to happen for almost the next 20 years. The number of senior citizens in America is projected to more than double during the first half of this century, and some absolutely enormous financial promises have been made to them.

So will we be able to keep those promises to the hordes of American workers that are rapidly approaching retirement? Of course not. State and local governments are facing trillions in unfunded pension liabilities. Medicare is facing a 38 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years. The Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years. Meanwhile, nearly half of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.

The truth is that I was being incredibly kind when I said earlier that we are "woefully unprepared" for what is coming. The biggest retirement crisis in history is rapidly approaching, and a lot of the promises that were made to the Baby Boomers are going to get broken.

The following are 35 incredibly shocking statistics that will scare just about any Baby Boomer...

1. Right now, there are somewhere around 40 million senior citizens in the United States. By 2050 that number is projected to skyrocket to 89 million.

2. According to one recent poll, 25 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no retirement savings at all.

3. 26 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no personal savings whatsoever.

4. One survey that covered all American workers found that 46 percent of them have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.

5. According to a survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, "60 percent of American workers said the total value of their savings and investments is less than $25,000".

6. A Pew Research survey found that half of all Baby Boomers say that their household financial situations have deteriorated over the past year.

7. 67 percent of all American workers believe that they "are a little or a lot behind schedule on saving for retirement".

8. Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

9. More elderly Americans than ever are finding that they must continue working once they reach their retirement years. Between 1985 and 2010, the percentage of Americans in the 65 to 69-year-old age bracket that were still working increased from 18 percent to 32 percent.

10. Back in 1991, half of all American workers planned to retire before they reached the age of 65. Today, that number has declined to 23 percent.

11. According to one recent survey, 70 percent of all American workers expect to continue working once they are "retired".

12. According to a poll conducted by AARP, 40 percent of all Baby Boomers plan to work "until they drop".

13. A poll conducted by CESI Debt Solutions found that 56 percent of American retirees still had outstanding debts when they retired.

14. Elderly Americans tend to carry much higher balances on their credit cards than younger Americans do. The following is from a recent CNBC article...

New research from the AARP also shows that those ages 50 and over are carrying higher balances on their credit cards -- $8,278 in 2012 compared to $6,258 for the under-50 population.

15. A study by a law professor at the University of Michigan found that Americans that are 55 years of age or older now account for 20 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States. Back in 2001, they only accounted for 12 percent of all bankruptcies.

16. Between 1991 and 2007 the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy rose by a staggering 178 percent.

17. What is causing most of these bankruptcies among the elderly? The number one cause is medical bills. According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

18. In 1945, there were 42 workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits. Today, that number has fallen to 2.5 workers, and if you eliminate all government workers, that leaves only 1.6 private sector workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits.

19. Millions of elderly Americans these days are finding it very difficult to survive on just a Social Security check. The truth is that most Social Security checks simply are not that large. The following comes directly from the Social Security Administration website...

The average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker was about $1,230 at the beginning of 2012. This amount changes monthly based upon the total amount of all benefits paid and the total number of people receiving benefits.

Could you live on about 300 dollars a week?

20. Social Security benefits are not going to stretch as far in future years. The following is from an article on the AARP website...

Social Security benefits won't go as far, either. In 2002, benefits replaced 39 percent of the average retirees salary, and that will decline to 28 percent in 2030, when the youngest boomers reach full retirement age, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

21. In the United States today, more than 61 million Americans receive some form of Social Security benefits. By 2035, that number is projected to soar to a whopping 91 million.

22. Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.

23. As I wrote about in a previous article, the number of Americans on Medicare is expected to grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025.

24. Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.

25. Today, only 10 percent of private companies in the U.S. provide guaranteed lifelong pensions for their employees.

26. Verizon's pension plan is underfunded by 3.4 billion dollars.

27. In California, the Orange County Employees Retirement System is estimated to have a 10 billion dollar unfunded pension liability.

28. The state of Illinois has accumulated unfunded pension liabilities of more than 77 billion dollars.

29. Pension consultant Girard Miller told California's Little Hoover Commission that state and local government bodies in the state of California have 325 billion dollars in combined unfunded pension liabilities.

30. According to Northwestern University Professor John Rauh, the latest estimate of the total amount of unfunded pension and healthcare obligations for retirees that state and local governments across the United States have accumulated is 4.4 trillion dollars.

31. In 2010, 28 percent of all American workers with a 401(k) had taken money out of it at some point.

32. Back in 2004, American workers were taking about 30 billion dollars in early withdrawals out of their 401(k) accounts every single year. Right now, American workers are pulling about 70 billion dollars in early withdrawals out of their 401(k) accounts every single year.

33. Today, 49 percent of all American workers are not covered by an employment-based pension plan at all.

34. According to a recent survey conducted by Americans for Secure Retirement, 88 percent of all Americans are worried about "maintaining a comfortable standard of living in retirement".

35. A study conducted by Boston College's Center for Retirement Research found that American workers are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably.

So what is the solution? Well, one influential organization of business executives says that the solution is to make Americans wait longer for retirement. The following is from a recent CBS News article...

An influential group of business CEOs is pushing a plan to gradually increase the full retirement age to 70 for both Social Security and Medicare and to partially privatize the health insurance program for older Americans.

The Business Roundtable's plan would protect those 55 and older from cuts but younger workers would face significant changes. The plan unveiled Wednesday would result in smaller annual benefit increases for all Social Security recipients. Initial benefits for wealthy retirees would also be smaller.

But considering the fact that there aren't nearly enough jobs for all Americans already, perhaps that is not such a great idea. If we expect Americans to work longer, then we are going to need our economy to start producing a lot more good jobs than it is producing right now.

Of course the status quo is not going to work either. There is no way that we are going to be able to meet the financial obligations that are coming due.

The federal government, our state governments and our local governments are already drowning in debt and we are already spending far more money than we bring in each year. How in the world are we going to make ends meet as our obligations to retirees absolutely skyrocket in the years ahead?

What is going on in Detroit right now is a perfect example of what will soon be happening all over the nation. Many city workers stuck with their jobs for decades because of the promise of a nice pension at the end of the rainbow. But now those promises are going up in smoke. There has even been talk that retirees will only end up getting about 10 cents for every dollar that they were promised.

Monday, August 19, 2013

78 Survival Skills Everyone Should Know

This is an article written by Jeremy Knauff on "How to Survive It.com"

While I applaude his workmanlike efforts to build a survival skills task list, this list is not complete as Jeremy admits. I don't think one person could build a complete list,...at least not in a short period of time. I decidely to post Jeremy's list and add my own, in italics, as his tasks generated thoughts of my own. Undoubtably the readers of this will have many more.

Jeremy's aticle:

Survival is based largely on two things: a positive mental attitude and knowledge. With those two covered, you can make up for any lack of tools. Knowledge doesn’t break, wear out, and short of forgetting a thing or two, you generally can’t lose it.

Below, I’ve compiled a list of skills I think everyone should know. This is by no means a “complete” list because there is always room to learn more, and the more you know, the greater your chances of survival. But this will give you a solid foundation and a far broader skill set than most people. Everyone should know how to:

Drive a stick shift. Jump start a car; siphon or procure fuel from a disabled/abandoned vehicle.
Swim. Make an improvised flotation device.
Start a fire without matches or a lighter. Use flint and steel, a magnesium fire starter, a magnifying glass and the bow method to build a fire.
Build a garden
Use herbal remedies
Produce beer/wine
Build your local community. Develop an early warning system(s) and communications methods within your neighborhood.
Tan leather
Cure/smoke meat
Make soap
Construct animal/fish traps. Construct and emplace booby traps and early warning devices.
Make activated charcoal
Survive hypothermia. Recognize and treat Hot and Cold weather injuries.
Properly load a backpack
Conduct basic repairs (home, auto, equipment, etc.)
Operate a ham radio. Develop and use a radio brevity code system.
Defend yourself without a weapon
Identify surveillance
Build a rainwater collection system
Weld
Accurately fire an arrow
Dehydrate food.
Construct snowshoes
Build a raft with a tarp
Navigate using the stars. Navigate with a compass (dead reckoning); read a map (terrain features and marginal information; perform intersection and resection using a compass and a map.
Right an overturned raft Build with stone/brick (basic masonry)
Cut down a tree with an ax
Forage for food. Identify edible (and poisonous plants).
Sew and/or make clothing
Pilot a boat
Shoot a firearm accurately. Be able to disassmble, clean, assemble and perform a functions check on firearms. Be able to perform remedial actions on stoppages.
Find water
Utilize camouflage. Build a single fighting position. Build mutually supporting fighting positions. Build a camouflaged and concealed observation/listening post.
Construct a pond
Can food
Ski
Dig a latrine
Build with wood (basic carpentry)
Determine authenticity of gold and silver
Rappel
Follow a trail/tracking. Sterilize your trail - employ counter-tracking measures.
Use less-lethal weapons (baton, stun gun, pepper spray, etc.)
Metal working (blacksmith)
Lose a tail
Operate power tools
Construct a splint. Build a field expedient litter.
Open a can without a can opener
Drive a motorcycle
Construct a net
Identify animals by tracks and/or scat
Patch a tire. Fix a flat by plugging a tire.
Reload ammunition
Build a bow and arrow
Administer first aid. Perform CPR; Treat for a gunshot wound; emplace a torniquet; treat a sucking chest wound;
Identify venomous snakes. Treat for poisonous snake bite.
Accurately fire a slingshot
Make candles
Raise fish (for food)
Distill water/alcohol
Hot wire a car
Cook without a stove. Build a solar oven.
Survive heat injuries
Raise livestock
Find tinder
Create fertile soil. Develop a compost system.
Make charcloth
Properly store food
Survive a riot
Sharpen a knife
Butcher livestock. Field dress and butcher wild game.
Purify water
Make leather products (sheathes, holsters, boots, etc.)
Hunt and fish
Cast bullets
Maintain a bee hive
Use hand tools
Tie a knot. Be able to tie these knots: square knot, bowline and clove hitch


On his site, Jeremy advertises: "Are there any skills you think should be on this list? Let me know (in the comments box below)." Go to the link and give him some suggestions.