Super-sized it!

I haven’t listened yet, but wanted to mention that I discovered egg-fried rice this week! I have chickens, but I don’t always want or have time for breakfast eggs. Next time, egg drop soup!

WOW! Fantastic podcast. I especially enjoyed the comments on Permaculture. I to am at a loss as the what to do next. Having real world experience through a Landscaping company would be good, as well as more in-depth coverage of how to properly design from that perspective. One other Permaculture question that is often bantered about on the forums is Business Plan training. When to charge, what to charge, how to charge. I know doing projects for free is recognized as an important step in acquiring that necessary experience and portfolio. I wish there was an internship that covered that. There may be. All good, brother, along with that stirring end. Cheers!

Couple of comments… first, great podcast! I was surprised to hear that it’s difficult to roll up a cake though, but hollandaise sauce is easy? 🙂 Cake…put a clean dishtowel on a cutting board or upside down pan slightly larger than the cake pan. Sprinkle towel well with icing sugar. When the cake comes out of the oven, hold the ends of the towel tight to board and place it, sugar side down, on the cake and then flip everything upside down so the cake sits on the towelled cutting board. Lift the cakepan off the cake, leaving cake sitting on the icing sugared tea towel. If you’ve baked it with a foil lining, carefully peel off the foil. Then take the towel edge closest to you and roll the whole thing up towel and all..it’s easier maybe rolling the long side – and you get more pieces that way. Let it cool and then unroll and fill the cake, then roll it back up this time keeping the towel out as the cake rolls up. ice it and you’re done. The icing sugar melts into the cake so doesn’t show even if you don’t ice it.

The second thing was a resounding AGREE with everything both you and Ben Falk ? said about working with landscapers and the missing bits of a Permaculture design course. I just finished the design course with Geoff Lawton and my head is crammed with an immense amount of information but there’s no way on God’s green earth I am properly ready to set up shop as a designer. On some other forums I’ve heard some sad stories about people who have set themselves up as permaculture teachers.

One showed up on a TED talk thread who I am fairly sure was a Monsanto employee but who claimed to be a permaculture practitioner and teacher for years then went on to say that much as it hurt her to admit it, permaculture couldn’t feed the world and we needed big ag. Pathetic.

Man oh man. Whenever you have chef Keith on, he just keeps going and going and all of his ideas are so amazing. Thanks for a great call in show, Jack.

Awesome answer, thanks Jack. “I’m growing amazing food you can’t buy in a grocery store,” is going to be my new opening line when people ask why I’m building raised beds with a rotting timber core and spreading moldy hay and clover seeds around my lawn.
My goal has always been to encourage more people to engage in permaculture/food growing in my little suburb street. Since this past year was year one for me my harvest wasn’t great so I didn’t have a lot to give away. This spring I plan to offer free strawberry runners in a box by the sidewalk. I’m also hoping to take what I learned this year and use it to get a bumper crop of tomatoes, squash, and peppers for next year. It seems like those are the most sought after veggies from a home garden.
Thanks again, keep up the awesome work you do!

First saw the 3 hour podcast and thought.. sweet, listening for all weekend. Turns out it was such a great show and I had enough deer to cut up I am done.

Anyway just wanted to post a link for the guy asking about carrying in your house. http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/11/08/police-investigate-violent-home-invasion-in-oxford-circle/

I won’t narrate but as Jack indicated there are shitheads everywhere and only they control when they impose on our security. Also note that their was an electrician in the house also left without defense. Kinda 2 for 1 in why to carry.

I got sidetracked reading Mencken quotes, this is the one your closing statement reminded me of…

“Every American is taught in school that all Americans are free, and so he goes on believing it his whole life – overlooking the plain fact that no Negro is really free in the South, and no miner in Pennsylvania, and no radical in any of a dozen great States. He hears of equality before the law, and he accepts it as a reality, though it exists nowhere, and there are Federal laws which formally repudiate it. In the same way he is taught that religious toleration prevails among us, and uncritically swallows the lie. No such thing really exists. No such thing has ever existed.

We found a great use for our hens eggs. Eggnog, my wife has been grabbing recipes off pintrest and making eggnog for the last few months. Scary thing is how white ours is versus the store’s yet our eggs have a way richer yolk.

I was scribbling down Chef Keith Snow’s chocolate cake recipe as I haven’t had cake since going wheat-free and I got it all, but I don’t believe he said how much of the 60% chocolate to melt down.
I also checked his website but no luck.
Does anyone know?
Thanks!!

For those of us with an abundance of leaves, here is a video on making leaf mold (similar to composting but compost has more bacteria). Jack mentioned mulching the leaves to speed up the process which I will probably do on my leaf piles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv0o3tArr84

I guess I’m a Conservative who is working toward Libertarianism. I’d like to understand the concepts of Libertarianism a bit more in “what does that look like” terms.
Example: Here in WA, a couple years ago we passed a law banning smoking in bars, bowling alleys and basically anyplace that is visited by the public. I am not a smoker and I don’t care to be around it, but I thought the law wasn’t Constitutional.
I tried to convince people, “That’s private property. Those business owners should be free to allow people to smoke and you are free to not go there. The free market will force them to change if they want to attract non-smokers.”

I generally think people are supposed to be free to do things some of us might think is unwise or just plain stupid as long as they are not harming others. People all choosing to own, work at or visit a bar where there is smoking choose to do so.

Jack mentioned three segregation issues from the 1950s.
1. Signs in stores, “Blacks not welcome”.
2. Sit in the back of the bus.
3. Colored water fountains.

I believe the government should be color blind and prevent #2 and #3 and any other establishment segregation. However, doesn’t the Libertarian position support a store owner’s freedom to be a bigoted jerk? I would not spend my money there, but if that merchant wants to only serve like-minded bigots, isn’t that his right regardless of how wrong we think it is?

Is it appropriate for government to dictate with whom people are forced to do business?

i.e. If a bakery doesn’t want to provide a same-sex wedding cake or photographer doesn’t want to shoot a same-sex wedding. You may think they are brain-dead religious bigots, but isn’t that their right?

Also re: the question on medical experience, here are a couple of thoughts based on the caller saying he had completed training but was looking for experience while taking into consideration his lack of time.

Instead of looking at just local ambulance service and having to commit to a set number of hours for employment, ask if they have a ride-along or observer program. If so, you’re in, and if not, what would it take for them to start one as both a public relations tool for them and a way to kind of pre-interview potential employees. There are other benefits, too. If you need some talking points, feel free to email me off-site (email below).

Also, ask them if there are any neighboring services that staff using volunteers. You may be able to pickup shifts that better meet your free-time availability. And while you are talking to them, ask if they have a schedule for continuing ed for their employees and if they allow outsiders to attend.

Is there a volunteer fire department district covering your home or close by? If so, ask them if they have a first responder program that makes medical calls along with the ambulance service. If so, you can get involved doing that by making runs when you have a free hour and hear the alarm go off.

Check your local hospital emergency room to see if they have a volunteer program and would allow you to observe or function at your training level (most states don’t allow this, but it’s worth a try).

Depending upon the size of your city, there may be a Medical Reserve Corps made of volunteer medical professionals that train to provide care during disasters or when something happens to increase healthcare demand (flu, hospital evacuations). While you might not get as much hands-on training, you will be rubbing elbows with docs and nurses and learning from them both formally and informally. Check with the disaster person at your local health department or your county’s emergency management director for contact info.
All of the above ideas also have the advantage of opening doors for you to get free training and also to kind of be in “the clique” if something bad happens in your community or region. For example, as an MRC member or member of a VFD you may get first dibbs on medications in an epidemic because groups are prioritized that are responsible for keeping the great machine running.

Also, talk to your personal physician or a physician that specializes in an area you feel weak in, like orthopedics or OB/GYN. If you already know them to be a prepper then tell them that your of the same mindset and that you are looking for opportunities to keep your skills up and they will understand and may let you shadow them. If you aren’t sure of their mindset (or think they’d be turned off by prepping), just tell them your situation re: time constraints as you give to the community and family but that you also want hands-on time or to help out in their office as a form of continuing ed that is less of a scheduling problem (although you should be aware that the National Registry doesn’t allow you to use actual responses or care as credit for continuing ed, so you shoul be creative in how you document it and you can use the same activity to maintain your certification requirements).

I agree with Kerry that there are a lot of on-line resources, but in the end it is just like firearms…you can read a lot of books or watch powerpoints and you tube videos, but you also MUST do some hands-on in the real world to really get a feel for walking the walk.

Hope this helps, and again, you and anyone else are free to email me at kymedic@1791.com if you need any more info. Stay safe!

Jim