Episode-115- A Survivalist View of Christmas [22:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today we pause and take a moment to reflect on Christmas and how it has become the Holiday we celebrate today.  Many American’s have no idea just how Christmas became unique here in America, the role it played in bringing our nation together after two wars of independence and the civil war.  Christmas is special and a time to pause and reflect.  Christmas is indeed a special time of year, today I will cover many aspects of it that may make this Christmas just a bit more special.

Tune in today to hear about…

• Christmas was banned in England at one time and even parts of America
• Early Americans didn’t really celebrate Christmas, (congress was in session on Dec 25th, 1789)
• In the early 1800s Christmas was a rowdy holiday spurred by class conflict, turmoil and unemployment
• In 1819, best-selling author Washington Irving wrote The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon bringing us many “ancient customs”, he simply invented
• Leading up to the Civil War, Christmas was a “southern holiday” and Thanksgiving a “northern holiday”
• How Christmas and Thanksgiving together helped to heal a young America
• Today is a time to pause, reflect and just be, prepping, planning and stress will all wait patiently for you
• Different ending music for today’s show!  The most beautiful version of Oh Holly Night I have ever heard, just pause, listen and realize what really matters while it plays.

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show.

Please get involved with Stockings for Soldiers as well.

 

 Episode-114- Setting Self Sufficiency and Survival Goals for 2009 [1:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today’s survival podcast discusses setting plans and goals for self sufficiency in 2009 including how to improve your odds of succeeding with your goals and being accountable to yourself.  This won’t be your typical news years resolution type of thing.  Get ready to really ramp up your planning, preps and self sufficiency in the coming new year.

Tune in today to hear

• Simple ways to track your progress and be accountable to yourself
• Why most new years “resolutions” fail
• What we can learn from having to take a person to a hospital
• How finding the joy in your activities can drastically improve your accomplishments
• How setting more goals then you can achieve at first can help  you learn to prioritize what you really can do
• Using free resources like Google Docs in your planning
• How we can look back fondly at childhood and recess and learn from it
• The lessons of the Great Depression (much of it was quite positive)
• As always you must work and strive to meet your plan not mine or anyone else’s
• Be it a garden, range time, money or weight oss the formula for success is the same

Resources for Today’s Show

• Stein’s Garden Planning Spreadsheet (right click and select save as)
• Forum thread with instructions to use Stein’s Spreadsheet
• Backwoods Home Article about The Great Depression (great read)
• Google Documents

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show.

Please get involved with Stockings for Soldiers as well.

 

 Episode-113- Eleven Non Typical Crops for the Survival Garden [42:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I decided to do a show today totally devoid of any economics, politics, etc.  We are close to Christmas and this is a good time to de-stress and just have fun with family and friends.  It is also a great time for garden planning and even a bit of winter gardening.

So today I bring you 11 crops that are either unknown, underrated or simply considered to be hard or impossible to grown in North America.  Just about all of these can be grown in most of or all of North America.  I tried to bring in a good mix of short term argriculture and long term permaculture crops.

Tune in today to learn about…

• Amaranth the lost grain with many uses
• Belle Isle Cress a winter green that can stand extremely cold weather but is ready to eat in 50 days from seed
• Fennel a easy to grow herb with many uses often over looked by most gardeners
• Purslane which comes in many cultivated varieties and thrives in heat that kills most “greens”.  Also a great source of vitamin C and Omega 3 fatty acids.
• Red Malabar and Red Aztec Spiniches - great plants that handle the heat and don’t easily bolt in warm weather
• Orach a wonder burgundy “green” that thrives in summer heat and adds a great flavor and texture to summer salads
• Arugula the source of “dandelion leaves” in those spring salad mixes, a nice spice and bitter balancing green, also good sauted in pastas.  It grows so fast it is called “rocket salad” and handles cold and moderate warmth as well.
• Kiwis are not just for New Zeland and they are not “tropical” tune in today to learn about varieties hardy down to -25 F
• Kiwis produce about 25 lbs per vine and will produce for more then 25 years once established and can be propegated with cuttings
• Pick Kiwis early and they store very well in the fridge or in a cold root cellar
• The forgotten gooseberry, self fertile, hardy in zones 3-8 and can be reproduced with cuttings
• Figs will grow in much of North America (zones 7-11)
• Fig trees can produce for over 100 years and often two crops a year
• Tea isn’t just for China you can grow tea in much of the south and in containers in the north

Resources for today’s show

• Excellent source of Organic Amaranth
• Great Video about Wild Amaranth
• Good video about “Giant Amaranth” - Really “Giant”
• Source and Info on Belle Isle Cress
• 20 Cool Recipes that use Fennel
• Great source and some info on Purslane
• A source of Red Malabar Spinach
• Source of Red Aztec Spinach - scroll about 25% down the page
• Awesome Variety of Organic Orach
• Some great Arugula Recipies
• Good article on growing Kiwi Fruits
• Excellent source of many varieties of Kiwi
• Good cultivation info for selecting and growing Kiwis
• Information and a source of Gooseberries
• Source and Info for Fig Trees
• Great Article on Fig Trees
• Good info on varieties of Fig Trees
• Tea Plants

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show.

Please get involved with Stockings for Soldiers as well.

 

 Episode-112- Planning Your Spring Garden Now [33:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

OK we often say “be an ant not a grasshopper” here at the survival podcast.  We also often say that “winter is coming” so get prepared now.  Today we take an oppsite look (sort of) on that.  Winter is now here in much of the nations and the warm days of summer seem a long way off, but they will be here before you know it, now is the time to plan for your spring garden before you get behind the power curve.

Tune in today to hear,

• Today’s is a listener contest day so I will announce a code word to win one of two in car gun safes from Center of Mass
• An announcement, I will be on vacation from Dec 24th - Jan 5th
• Thoughts on planning your garden now including setting dates for starting seeds, putting out plants etc
• Calculating your frost dates, planting dates, etc.
• Now it a great time for building beds and getting them ready for the warm days that will be here soon
• February is a great month for stating seeds, it will be here before know it
• Using seed catalogs in your research and planning
• If you plan to garden for survival needs now is the time to make mistakes
• What we learn from people that really go all out with self sufficiency
• A bit of a rant on the “cult of environmentalism”
• Planning and installing drip irrigation systems
• In Colorado you don’t own the rain water that runs off your roof, REALLY!
• An announcement about a special Christmas show I will be broadcasting on Christmas Eve

Resources for today’s show

• The Online Farmer’s Almanac
• Sources of Seeds and Seed Catalogs - Over 24 print catalogs you can request sent to your house for free
• 9 Cool Catalogs for Permaculture - Grape Vines, Trees, Berries and more
• Square Foot Gardening

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show.

Please get involved with Stockings for Soldiers as well.

 

 Episode-111- Listener Questions for 12-18-08 [47:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today will be another listener questions answered show. Today we will answer questions about…

• Two gun safes going out in tomorrows Listener Appreciation Contest
• Getting involved with our forum
• Please vote in a poll for our coming TSP T-Shirts
• Advice for a young pair of survivalists “stuck” looking for what to do next
• Don’t fall into the “you deserve it trap”
• Getting started with hunting
• Recreational hunting is the way to learn to hunt, don’t wait until you need it eat
• Basic and advanced water storage options
• Thoughts on rain barrels, swimming pools and wells
• Why the UAW active worker isn’t the problem for GM, Ford and Chrysler and who really is (it is still the UAW)
• A great alternative to the auto bail out?
• The lesson of unintended consequences that applies to everything from survival situations, to economics to politics

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show.

Please get involved with Stockings for Soldiers as well.

Due to the road conditions (read that ice) I will not be broadcasting today.  Given the current weather conditions broadcasting from the highway simply is not safe to do today.  We will resume our regular broadcasts tomorrow.

~ Jack

 

 Episode-110- The Second Economic Minefield [37:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today I decided to do another economy based show before going back to some more practical preparations type of content.  Why?  I am afraid the average person is being lulled into a false sense of security that is telling them, we have reached the bottom of the down turn.  Note that today’s show is a very large file compared to most shows because it was recorded on Audacity.

Tune in today to hear…

• The Auto Makers will be bailed out, whether the people want it or not
• The stock market may or may not have bottomed but that doesn’t mean the economy has
• If you think the sub prime loans were bad wait until you see what is waiting with Alt-A and Option ARMs
• Putting ARM loans in perspective 5.5% isn’t good a “good rate” if you can’t afford it
• Obama’s new stimulus package to be over 1 Trillion, he isn’t even in office yet!
• The dangerous precedent of “we will bail you out” and how far it is going
• Every city in the US is now lining up to be “bailed out”, will they take private jets
• But our city is, “to big to fail”, where have we heard that before?
• Bloomberg asks the Fed, where is our 2 trillion dollars at?
• Don’t get to attached to low oil prices OPEC and Russian to cut production by 1.5-2 million barrels a day!
• Russian just devalued the ruble twice in one week, two more devaluations are coming, what can we learn
• 45 Dollar oil + Russia’s Economy = bad voodoo +1
• All bail outs lead back to your wallet
• More thoughts on a Mad Max type survival scenario, don’t bet on it, plan for the worst but start close to home, very close

Resources for Today’s Show

• A second mortage melt down, you bet
• More on resetting ARM loans
• Obama Stimulus to top 1 Billion Dollars
• Bush Administration working on the Auto Bailout
• Instead of a “Bail Out” for Detroit a Government Backed Bankruptcy
• No I did not make it up, Big City Mayors meeting for their Bail Out Requests
• Bloomberg Sues the Fed, Where Did the 2 Trillion Dollars Go?
• OPEC to Cut Production of Oil
• Russian needs the reduction in production but doesn’t want to be the one to reduce - they can’t afford it
• Russia on Economic Defense with Rouble Devaluations
• Russian pumps in another 5 billion trying to prop up the Rouble

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show.

Please get involved with Stockings for Soldiers as well.

Just a quick note that we will not be publishing a show today.  Things are pretty busy at this time of year so I decided to skip Monday this week.  I will be publishing shows every day for the rest of this week and right up until Christmas Eve next week.

I will then be taking a vacation up to our Arkansas retreat after Christmas.  Hence there will be no podcasts from December 25th, 2008 - January 4th, 2009.  Just so you guys don’t think that they “came and got me” or anything like that.

I actually plan on recording a show or two up in Arkansas but will not be able to publish them until I return.  I do suggest tuning in this week and next as one of those shows will give away the last key lock in car gun safe from Center of Mass and another will give away the biometric in car gun safe as well.  We also have a few more slings from SOE Tactical Gear and as always please consider supporting “Stockings for Soliders”