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Episode-2127- Listener Calls for 12-7-17

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jackspirkoToday on The Survival Podcast I take your calls on real estate, reloading, cooking, silver, aquaculture, guns, outbuildings and more.

Remember to be on a show like this one just pick up your phone and call 866-65-THINK.

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Also please do your best to call from a quiet area with a good connection and speak up so you can be well heard.

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Join Me Today As I Respond to Your Calls and Discuss…

  • Should you get an agent when you sell your house
  • How long can you safely store gun powder
  • Making the decision on buying cast iron cookware
  • Can you do anything with a bacon press other than cook bacon
  • The smart way to sell or exchange silver
  • More on turning an old septic tank into an aquatic system
  • What is the barrel life of a typical 30-06
  • Building an out building

Resources for today’s show…

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Comments

Episode-2127- Listener Calls for 12-7-17 — 32 Comments

  1. Looking at athe bacon press reminds me of the old antique clothing irons that some people collect for display. Clean one up to use and put it on display when not in use. The bacon grease would keep it from rusting.
     
     

  2. The OutBuilding Question.
    i would put an Anaerobic Biodigester, its the best solution, or a mix of biodigester, septic tank and reed bed.

  3. I recently acquired some cast iron from Aldi, and I swear the surfaces felt like they were milled.  In fact, when my husband first showed it to me, I thought it was Teflon coated.  I got a 12″ skillet and a grill pan along with an enamel coated braiser with lid.  Definitely good finds.

    Also, regarding Lodge quality, I have two Lodge pans that frustrated me to no end when I first got them.  I got one from Amazon (so I was buying without being able to touch it) and I got one from Rural King.  The 14″ skillet that I got from Rural King drove me crazy for ages until I just used it for frying bacon.  That improved the surface surprisingly well.  The same thing happened with the 12″ skillet that I got from Amazon.

    Believe me, I was cooking plenty of greasy foods in these skillets to improve the surfaces, but it wasn’t working and it was REALLY frustrating.  These two skillets still aren’t my favorites in my cast iron arsenal, but they improved greatly just by cooking bacon in them. 🙂

  4. A quick comment on the attack on Pearl Harbor and the US declaration of war.

    The US declared war on the empire of Japan on December 8th.

     

    On the morning of December 11th, Germany and Italy declared war on the US in retaliation for declaring war on their ally Japan.

     

    The US declared war on German later in the day on the 11th in response.

     

    The US didn’t declare war on Germany and Japan at the same time, but most people knew it was inevitable that we would become involved in the war in Europe.

    • Wow, thanks for that, I will have to let Paul know he just had the wrong tool.  I am thinking if you chuck this into a drill  press it may work even better.  No, need to do the edges, just the cooking surface.

      Is this what he was using, his looks thicker, http://amzn.to/2iEjQk7

      Classic case of a great video missing a way to monetize itself.

  6. Thanks for the heads up Jack!

    I did this a couple times.   The guy in the video was WAY faster than me.  But one of the pans I did this to cracked after a month of use.

    I found that just knowing that you want a smooth surface for cast iron puts you on the lookout.   And then you seem to start finding cast iron skillets in all sorts of places.

    Jocelyn found this one next to a dumpster, and you can see that I season cast iron the same way the guy in the video does.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjgP-6W_YN4

     

    • I don’t think you had the same tool Paul, and he seems to be on to something, I really think a drill press is the way to go on this. I agree with you on skillets, easy to find them and far easier to rehab an old grizwold then grind a lodge, BUT the key is some stuff is hard to find or they want a kidney for it.

      Like deep pans, found ONE they didn’t want a kidney for but had friends with us and one of them really wanted it so I let her have it. Also old Dutch ovens are way high priced when and if you can even find them. Griddles are all but impossible. I have a large square Lodge Griddle like this, http://amzn.to/2kbidL0 I love it but it could be better, I’ve never found anything similar in an antique.

      • Just looked up griswolds and wagners.  You’re right.  About $60 to $80 for a #10 skillet.  Yowza.

        At the same time, it seems that for a long time I was finding two or three a year for $2 to $10.  And the one that jocelyn has in that video turned out to be a wagner.

        A quick search on amazon …  $24 for polished cast iron http://amzn.to/2y8vlFT

        • Yea and at that price you may as well spend 50 more and get one of these https://fieldcompany.com/p/cast-iron-field-skillet/

          BTW Paul the price on old cast online, is likely guess who’s fault? You dude. That article has created a cult and cults spend money, cults spending money creates a market and entrepreneurs recognize markets.

          But you can still find good deals at antique malls and what have you. That is where all the shit on ebay comes from. People find one for 25 bucks and sell it for 50-70.

          Like I said it is the things other than a skillet they always want a kidney for.

        • I bought a Field Company #10 when the Kickstarter was running. There were a number of delays associated with getting the product out, but when I finally got my pan I was impressed. It is lighter weight than a Lodge of the same size (my wife likes that) and the finish out of the box is amazing. They are pricey but very close to the old Griswalds if you can’t find them.

  7. I cook bacon in the oven at 350 on a cookie sheet cooks everything evenly. I flip it a few times comes out perfect every time

    • It works great if you have the time, in general if I am frying up a few slices for breakfast I am done frying it before the oven would be preheated.

  8. Here’s another bacon cooking tip.

    Of course for obvious bacon law reasons, cast iron NEEDS to be used.  Just b cuz.

    2nd.  Cook at a lower heat for a longer time.  And put the bacon in at the same time you turn on the heat.  Flip them over back and forth as it slowly softens.  Cooking one side before the other is what causes the excessive curling.

    • Oy vey, I think the IRS would totally disagree with that, time for an email to Michael at JM.

  10. A couple questions about your bitcoin thoughts.  Are you not concerned with the high fees?  Granted the fees aren’t always $36 for transferring about $1000 out of my node wallet to shapeshift like it was when I had enough of its uselessness last month and got out of it entirely.  Had to pay extra to get it to shapeshift in a reasonable amount of time before the deal timed out.  Bad investment decision in the short term?  Most definitely.  But how can a currency that can no longer compete as a currency with other leading crypto’s last much longer?  I did wait an extra 6 weeks after making the decision but I’ve always been astonishingly bad at understanding the mainstream.  At any rate, I just checked, the lowest fee available if you don’t mind waiting at least a day or several days is 73 cents.  The bare minimum allowed by the network is 17 cents and comes with a strong warning that eventual confirmation is unlikely.   These are expensive rates.    Even a credit card is only 2-3 cents for a dollar transaction.  All the other currencies I’ve used (Dash, Bitcoin Cash, Zcash and even Litecoin)  are way less and often fractions of pennies.  I bought some VPN service recently using Bitcoin Cash and the fee was only a third of a penny.  When most of the world’s population is lucky to make 5-10 dollars per day these fees (not even counting the confirmation rates) make Bitcoin completely useless as both a currency and incapable of achieving its intended goal of usurping this power from banker elites.

    Second.  There is talk that wall street is setting up a loan system so people will be able to do shorts on bitcoin. Supposedly this will be open for business this coming week or the week after.  One theory I’ve heard is that the current pumping that has facilitated the current exchange rate is intentionally being pushed by the msm and wall street in order to both make huge bank by pulling out and starting a panic.  All these new ignorant people who don’t even really understand what bitcoin is for or why it was invented lose their shirts.  You hear about these idiots putting in all their life savings and even taking out 2nd mortgages a hell of a lot on r/bitcoin these last couple months.  MSM spotlights a couple of these useful idiots and provide the excuse for some really nasty legislation on fiat to crypto exchanges.  I don’t know about you, but it has struck me really odd that so little fighting back has seemed to be coming back from the federal reserve types.  Maybe they have been but it hasn’t come to the surface yet.  It would certainly bugger belief that a group of people with such a huge amount of power and with everything to lose if crypto really succeeds wouldn’t be working to do everything possible to fight it.  It has been too many years to suggest that they “just don’t understand it” yet.

    So.. what’s your opinion on these issues?  Am I a crazy conspiracy theorist because everyone knows nobody actually works together with other people to achieve their goals?   Or am I misreading things?  Unaware of other documented facts that kill some of these theories?  Overly paranoid?  Not paranoid enough?

    Either way I’m totally convinced that bitcoin is no longer a useful currency compared to so many other better options.  That doesn’t mean bitcoin will fail, or at least not any time soon.  I can easily say that as things are at the moment it logically should most definitely fail, but I have always been horribly bad at understanding the way most people think.  So who knows what is going to happen.   It has gone up so much since I got out and it really does hurt to watch.  But when I’m able to look back at my mistakes objectively, the huge majority of the always happen when I second guess myself.  So I’m trying to keep reminding myself of that and stick to my guns.  But based on past experience, if I have a week moment and buy back into bitcoin core, that will definitely be when it crashes.  ;/

    Good luck everyone.   Sorry for the huge splurge of text.

    • Again the fee argument is generally bullshit, and mostly political. The fees are NOT high at all if you are willing to wait say30-40 minutes for a transfer, if you will wait up to a day they are almost as low as when bitcoin was for geeks only. It is a setting in the wallet, it is that simple. NO ONE BUYS BUBBLE GUM OR COFFEE with bitcoin, so a 5 dollar transaction is of no concern in the real world. If you want to do small transactions with NO FEE get something like a shift card. I at one time got sucked into this and its what “everyone says” but it didn’t take much research to see that it simply isn’t true. It is political is what it is.

      The futures market, everyone is sure that it will “crash bitcoin” but almost no one saying that knows how futures trading works and what future traders actually do. What it will do is create more volatility in BTC which is great for traders. But futures traders make money on volatility not on something just crashing, that is NOT HOW THIS WORKS, not how any of this works. Have futures traders completely trashed any of the million plus markets they are always trading in and have been for over 100 years.

      What this will do is as follows, it will legitimatize crypto and someone will take another shot at an ETF, the FCC will have to approve it after allowing it on the futures market (the real reason it was done) once that ETF gets approved it opens up IRAs to Bitcoin or any other crypto index they make one out of and get approved but bitcoin will be first. Once that happens about a trillion dollars of investable money can now target some small portion of their money at bitcoin, IE your grandma.

      At that point we will have about 13.5 million BTC in circulation. About 3 million lost and likely a few million in the hands of holders that won’t sell. Once that happens, John Macafee’s 500K prediction, won’t sound so crazy.

      You really should listen to this https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/the-crypto-show-juan-galt-defending-bitcoin-vs-bitcoin-cash

    • I have listened to that podcast and many others on both sides of the issue.   I find it incredibly hilarious how the Crypto Show can both be a couple of goof balls and yet have the most informative interviews and an amazing ability to ask really really good questions when needed.  That totally compensates for the heavy breathing.  ;]

      That was a very good interview.  I actually backed up and re-listened to most it. Juan made some very good points.  I look forward to listening to that debate with Roger Ver that they were talking about doing.

      There are 2 parts to my argument.  The viability of its use as a currency and my little “conspiracy theories”.  The latter may affect the former, but it is the former that is the main issue.  Bitcoin’s use as an investment is completely irrelevant in regards to where we disagree in our discussion.

      In regards to the fees, bitcoin is a lesser tool for transactions when compared to most of its competition in most situations.  Even credit cards at a 3% rate are cheaper up until $167+ transactions.  And when you compare to many other crypto’s that are much faster and profoundly cheaper then the only thing that will cause a person to use bitcoin for the transaction is if it is the only currency the other party will take and the purchasing party is willing to pay the extra fee.

      As the use of crypto becomes more and more normalized (archive.org now takes btc, bch and zec instead of just btc) it will be more and more common for there to be other options.  The market speaks.

      It doesn’t matter if $5 isn’t much money to one person or another, if they can spend a dollar or more less and their transaction goes through more quickly by checking a different box and pasting a different address then that is what they will do no matter how rich they are.

      Well.. that is the meat of why I have said what I have.  The conspiracy theory part is me theorizing why this reality is the way it is currently.  Because it certainly didn’t use to be like that.  And I am rather incredulous at the idea that the feds aren’t working to defeat the technology that is working to defeat them.  So I’m just trying to combine the two and see where it makes sense to explain some of the things that are going on.

      I’m certainly not saying you or MacAfee are wrong about btc going up to 100k or more.  The complications of the fees and small block problems not withstanding it seems more realistic to me that it would go up way higher than that before leveling out.  500k is kind of low when you look at the amount of dollars and other fiat currencies used in the world and inevitable extreme inflation when bitcoin would theoretically take over.  I just think that the current state of the code and the resulting costs in fees and time are not competitive with other crpytos.

      Based on how long these things have taken to cycle in the past I don’t expect bitcoin to be fixed (relative to its competitors) before bitcoin’s beany baby cycle peaks and crashes. Whether that happens next week, next year or the following year… I don’t know.  But the way things presently are I don’t see how it won’t eventually happen.  It just can’t retain its value when its reason to exist is no longer valid.  Hype and name recognition alone can’t last forever.  Or maybe it can? Maybe it can.

      But it doesn’t make sense to me so I am assuming it can’t.

      But like I said … this is really about how it competes as a currency.  I am makeing the assumption that that directly reflects on its value as an investment and I could very easily be wrong about that.

      Damn…. can you believe I actually intended to make this message a short one?!   sorry.

    • https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/the-bitcoin-game-51-jonas-schnelli-the-bitcoin-core-project

      Here’s another podcast on the let’s talk network that I found very informative and I hope you will listen to if you haven’t already.  It is an interview with a core developer named Jonas Schnelli.  I think the guy is very honest, forthright and a good person.  He has different expectations and goals out of cryptocurrency than me.  I found it very informative to receive a better understanding of his position and if you listen closely enough you can get a better understanding of what the groupthink is like from where he sits. It is one of the sources that helped validate my current opinions when I was developing them.

  11. I tried to install the Minergate GUI but it won’t install the actual .exe file.  I’ve submitted a help ticket yesterday and still waiting for a reply. In the meantime I installed the droid app on my old phone and I’m using that to mine. It doesn’t give AEON as a choice so for now just trying Monero.

    • Note that some anti malware programs like MalwareBytes for instance may see minergate as malware and block the installation.  You can set exceptions for this.

    • That worked, thanks.  Now if I can just get it to stop crashing every time I open the application.   Will have to try it on another computer.

  13. In my case I believe trying to do “For Sale By Owner” (with a gorgeous website and an MLS entry, and a 3% commission on 750k home) ended up costing me $50,000 or so.  You should not underestimate how much of a scam the Realtor industry is, or how much collusion goes on.

     

    I quickly found out that buyers agents simply will not show their client a house being sold without a Realtor because the industry is very serious about preventing people from selling homes without paying realtors.  One buyer agent who was nice enough to talk to me told me that even if she wanted to she couldn’t participate in buying the home because all the other realtors in the area would see in the MLS transaction that she worked with a seller that was not using a realtor, then she would be an outcast and no other realtors would show her homes.

     

    So you spend some money to try to do For Sale By Owner and realize you’ll never sell it.  Guess what happens next?  When you hire a realtor they won’t be able to re-list it as a new home for sale on MLS because MLS requires 90 days off the market before you can re-list.  So your home will just show up as having been on the market for months already, and no one will come see it.

     

    There are lots of situations where I am sure FSBO can work, but keep in mind that the Realtors are basically a mafia, and they’ll do everything possible to screw you.

  15. Here is my press I use for bacon (and on the grill).

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/fx04u20r4g9ozjj/20171216_100806.jpg?dl=0

    It is the same ones I used at a restuarant I used to cook at years ago. I got it from Gordons Food Service (Michigan based) for about $7.

    After heavy use, the wood handle is softened by fats/oils. The point of failure is the short wood screws will pull out, and the handle will break.

    If you catch it in time, you can take out the short screws, drill out the handle, and re-assmble with threaded rod, nut and washers. Do that makes these practically indestructable (even in a commercial kitchen).

    Oh, and im using the spatula Jack recommended. BEST ONE EVER!

  16. I never knew a Bacon Press was a thing.  I have been living with curled bacon all my life and I am surprised that there was an item which makes the bacon flat.

    I don’t mind curled bacon… it tastes the same, yet I think I will try this item as it could be easier to cook the bacon… as well as all the other applications.

    Thanks Jack

  17. I tried Minergate for a while.  I installed it and selected AEON as the coin to mine, then let it run for 10 days.  at the end of the 10 days my balance was 0.0 AEON.  It was running,  I don’t recall the hash rate at the moment.

    Is there some sort of button or toggle that I missed that is needed to accumulate money?

    • Um I don’t really know other than are you logged in?

      On a Mac or PC it is the same, Menu – Login

      Enter the email address and password on your miner gate account. Hope this helps,

      Jack

  18. “Um I don’t really know other than are you logged in?
    On a Mac or PC it is the same, Menu – Login
    Enter the email address and password on your miner gate account. Hope this helps,
    Jack”
    I guess I am an idiot.  that is what I was missing.  after a few minutes there is a tiny amount of AEON accumulating

     

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