Comments

Episode-103- Pulling it all Together – Part 2 — 11 Comments

  1. My eyes almost popped out of my head when I heard my name and you using me as your knucklehead example!

    Your analogy with the man-cave addition was great.

    Thanks for another though-provoking episode.

  2. I didn’t take offense to your non commentary on women and the home…but maybe guys need to remember that HOME is a woman’s security. If the home falls apart so do women if they aren’t prepared. Women also need to remember in a case where the SHTF and they have to move out…home is FAMILY not the 4 walls so men will have to make extra efforts to reassure them that they are there even if the wall structure isn’t.

    AND by the way…I’m now unemployed…it has helped being prepared even though I wasn’t where I’d like to have been prepared. Finances and Food need to be of top priority.

    Just my thoughts…

  3. @susan,

    To a large degree that was my point, the part about, “HOME is a woman’s security”. The reality is it is for a man as well, we just don’t realize it as much as we often should.

    Women may at times as you say forget that a home is really the people but making sure that a house is sound, paid for and that the larder stays full is very wise. What good is a glock, an AR15 and 10,000 rounds when you are foreclosed, penniless and out of food?

    It is ALL a balancing act and that is what I try to keep reminding people of. There is nothing wrong with guns, gadgets and gizmos, God knows I have more then my fair share! They just can’t come at the expense of getting rid of toxic debt, having a food reserve, etc.

    Both sexes have their own vices, (grin) such as the brides to be that want to go and blow 25K on a wedding, fight about every detail and turn into “bridezillas”, you never see “groomzillas” at least not in man-woman wedding. That 25K could end up being a down payment on a house that they can actually afford to pay off in 10 years of less!

    Then the guy turns around and books a 12K honeymoon on Mastercard!

    I have counseled such couples planning such irresponsible ignorance in one simple phrase,

    “Focus on your marriage, not your wedding”.

    That all may seem to have little to do with survival but it has everything to do with survival as a family, when a young couple starts out with 30K of debt instead of a solid foundation of an equity heavy home, their marriage survival is in jeopardy from day one.

    Like I keep saying survival is a hell of a lot more then beans, bullets and bandaids.

  4. this sounds like it is going to be another good episode. I will have to listen to it on my 40 mile commute (by mass transit) back up to the ‘stead this evening.. Its hovering about 20 degrees at 3 pm here in zone 7

  5. Back to the water issue . A sand point in the city is relatively cheap , talking $200-300 max including pump head. You can use it for gardening and skirt potable requirements.

    Wind is more cost effective than photovoltaic ($600 for 300 watt although both are complimentary to each other.

  6. thank you

    btw
    not so sure about the solar bit about selling power back to the grid. i think they may be changing that….its all about off grid imho. but im a mtn man ; )

    good job.youre great!

  7. Matt,

    Whether you can or can’t sell power back is a state by state issue. In most states you can, in the others there is a great deal of pressure to allow it. This issue has momentum in the right direction, for a change.

  8. I think I have the right episode where the likely availability of water made it not a survival priority.

    Historically, that may be true. But, events in Zimbabwe suggest the future may be different.

    There are a number of recent articles about Mugabe denying water to the people of Zimbabwe. One source mentioned that the controlling party appointed party members to run the nation’s water system. Consequently, the controlling party restricted water to the political opposition. Now, all sorts of refugee problems with cholera, etc.

  9. Mike,

    Right episode but like so many, the wrong take on what I said and how I said it over and over and over again.

    I did not say it was not a priority, I said having 38 50 gallon drums in a back yard was not practical, that transport of even 30 days for a family of four was not practical and that above all a deep well in surburbia should not come before and at the expense of things like basic food storage and debt elimination.

  10. Sorry about that. I did not mean to mischaracterize what you said. I was trying in a few words to get oriented to what you spoke about for several minutes.

    As you said, historically, water has continued to flow in a lot of bad situations. But, Zimbabwe is an example of one faction purposely restricting water for political advantage over other factions. Somalia has been doing it for years with food. If it worked there, it can work here.

    Economic dislocation, pandemic flu, and catastrophic weather events may be more likely, but water/food/fuel restrictions are more likely than global nuclear war and UN occupation of the US. It is all a continuum.

    Agreed that a year’s worth of water is impractical to store as compared to a year’s worth of food.

    Also agreed that in the event of job loss, lack of food and unpaid debt will have a more detrimental impact than lack of an independent water source. If one can’t come up with $20 every three months for the water bill, one has bigger problems to address.

    Everything is balancing and trade-off. The unfortunate man in California whose family was killed when the F-18 fell through the roof may have been the best prepper in the world, but there will always some extraordinary event that can make all one’s preps for naught.

    Lots of people have been bitten by mosquitoes. Quite a few by dogs. Some by bears. Not too many by whales. Goes to show, it is the little things that will get you.

    Everyone wants the Barrett .50 cal to be prepared for the whale and because the other guys will think it is cool. But, paying off debt and storing food, as unglamorous as it is, will prevent the much more likely mosquito bites.

    Thank you so much for your podcasting efforts. You have every right to be proud of the community you have assembled.