Comments

Episode-775- Listener Feedback 11-1-11 — 12 Comments

  1. Really enjoying the show as a European (well English), Greece is not the only issue, Italy and Span have massive issues, some rate the unemployment figures in Span around 21 percent.

    The real fear of Greece defaulting is it will drag everyone else down. I for one think we should just let the Euro fail, as corruption runs deep in a lot of countries and if their people wish to fund it, that’s up to them, but everyone else shouldn’t have to help.

  2. I own a small interest in an apartment complex in Bastrop, TX, 1 mile from the fire line. Prior to the fire, we had 85% occupancy. Within hours of the fire taking out homes, the project was 100% leased. If renting is part of your backup plan, keep this in mind.

  3. Wikipedia lists the “apple-ring acacia” (fertilizer tree) as an important bee forage that blooms when other crops don’t, seed pod source of important livestock feed, wood source for canoes, pestles and firewood, along with the nitrogen-fixing, soil-building crop support it provides. Talk about your multiple birds with one stone… naturally grows as far north as Shimron, Israel which is at about the same latitude as Dallas. Probably won’t grow here in Oklahoma except in a microclimate, but I’d bet my paycheck there’s something similar that will. I’d looked at black locusts until I found out the pods are toxic to livestock (particularly equines) unless cooked…

  4. Jack,

    With regards to “permaculture government”, Paul Wheaton has done some stuff recently on what he calls “Horticulture of the United States of Pocahontas,” or HUSP for short. It’s a thought experiment where he pretends that Pocahontas was a warrior-princess who led forces that fought off the English colonizers, and eventually unified what is now the borders of the USA under her rule. Fast forward to today and try to picture what horticulture principles (and life design principles) they would have.

    Anyway, he’s done a podcast on it and I think it’s been discussed a good bit at permies.com. Why re-create the wheel when you don’t have to, right?

  5. JAck,
    Thanks for reading my email. In the interest of accuracy it was my transfer case that failed, not my transmission, as I previously assumed. I got to listen to you read my email as I was putting it back together.

    I just recently got the truck, my first 4wd, and I didn’t even know what a transfer case was. Now I’m rebuilding one.

    Re; Permaculture government. You might be interested in the Iroquois constitution. Including the Seven Generations Law;
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_generation_sustainability

    • Shannon, I understand your pain. I was on the Cherohola Skyway in the Cherokee National forest on July 04, 11. While climbing the mountains in our Honda Odysee, the torque converter failed and left me, my wife and 3 young boys on the side of the road for 9 hours, before being resued by a passer by. I remember taking inventory of our food and water rations and limited camping supplies. No cell coverage up there either, 30 miles from a town either way. We just got lucky that the right person stopped, even AAA did not get there to help after giving out our personal info to 2 different groups of motorcycle riders that sopped to help. I now know how important water and a few supplies can be.

  6. I think you missed one factor in the list of reasons people want to buy new homes. clear title.

    any home that has been purchased or refinanced in the last 10 years, and possibly longer likely has a clouded title. new houses do not have this problem.

    if you doubt this, ask yourself why is it so hard for banks to forclose on properties when they decide it is in their financial interest to do so. it is because they can’t prove that they have legal claim on the property. so if the banks can’t prove that they own the note on the houses they are trying to foreclose on, what makes you think they can do the same for houses they are not foreclosing on?

  7. On the sheriff’s statement, for the sake of our republic, I hope:
    1. They actually got the right guy.
    2. He gets a fair trial under both the letter and spirit of the law.
    and 3. His lawyer *doesn’t* use the sheriff’s commentary to get the case dismissed and the sheriff fired and/or fined…

    Overall you’re probably right though.

  8. Excellent show as always, Jack.

    I’m puzzled though. I’m trying to figure out where the “experts” get their numbers with respect to what we spend on food here in America. My family of 5 eats paleo, and we spend around 19% of our gross income (or almost 24% of our net income) on food. This doesn’t include other household goods or meds; it just includes food. And still more worrisome, we don’t even do anything too sinful. We rarely go out to eat, and most of the time, I can’t afford grass-fed meat or organic veggies. The increase in food costs is particularly frightening to us because I’m wondering how to keep us all healthy if they go up much more. (Obviously, a garden comes into play, but…)

    I’ll bet there’s some sort of loop hole in the data collection. Maybe eating out isn’t included because they’re thinking about “groceries”. And of course families with school-aged children on the free lunch program can save a lot of money by having to provide minimal food at home each month. The numbers just don’t seem to pass the sniff test to me.

    • @Sarah, yep I feel the same way about the numbers. I don’t buy it, there is an old saying in the investing world, “if we didn’t need to eat we would all be millionaires”.