Jason Schaller is a cybersecurity professional and firearms content creator that believes in being prepared for what life might throw you.
Like many Americans, Jason lived a life of continual debt that he learned from his parents. However, he and his wife broke free from a life of servitude to debt just in time to prepare for the disaster of loosing his main source of income and relying on side hustles to make ends meet.
Jason first appeared on The Survival Podcast back in August of 2021 (Epi-2493) to discuss his firearms based content business. Today he updates us on that and explains how debt free living helped him in a personal financial crisis.
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
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Pricing Alert – These are one of the best buys in wireless ear buds on the market today. Every bit as good as airpods at a fraction of the price. But that deal is even better today because they are on sale for only 34.98 which is 24% off the regular price.
Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Anker Soundcore Life P2 True Wireless Earbuds. I know I sound like a broken record but I just love Anker and there are many reasons. Mainly they offer an amazing price to value ratio and they stand rock solid behind all they do. Over the years I have sold easily more than 10,000 items in total from Anker. I have heard of the occasional issue, yet I have never heard that Anker did not fix said issue, not one time. That in 2022 is a hell of a thing.
Now on these there is a lot to love. Let’s start out with the fact that they are every bit as good and better in my view then Airpods selling for over 100 dollars at best when on sale. I will add over Airpods I like that Anker comes in black. Every time I see someone with white Airpods I think of a scene from “There’s Something About Mary” and I will leave it at that.
This ear phones are Bluetooth 5 and pair all the time every time. They are IPX7 water proof, (protected against immersion in water for up to 30 minutes to a depth of 1 meter). They last 7 hours on a charge and the charging case holds a total of 40 hours of charge before needing to plug them in again.
For out going calls they have 4 microphones and do an amazing job for clear conversation. Yes you can listen to only one at a time as well, the first pairs and becomes a master and the second pairs to it. What you can’t do is use one each on two separate devices.
So if you are in need of a new set of ear buds I highly recommend the Anker Soundcore Life P2s and given they are on sale today (12-7-22) it is a great time to pick up a pair for yourself or as a great Christmas gift.
Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
P.S. – I wanted to remind you that Anker has a ton of stuff marked down right now. You can check on all of it here. You may have to weed though some “sponsored results” but if it says Anker and fits your needs, you know it will exceed your expectations.
The entire point of bitcoin is that you can self custody your bitcoin. In fact while many seem to think “be your own bank” means run your own node, it is really all about self custody. Think about why we have banks in the first place. Banking as we know it (international banking) goes back to the times of The Knights Templar.
In this time people would make pilgrimages to the holy lands. You may imagine at such a time only those with means could make such a journey. The journey would be long, hard and expensive. You’d also have to pay for things while in the holy land, then have enough to get back to say England.
At this time gold was money. And if you had gold it had value you could use anywhere. If I stole your gold there was not much you could do about it. If I got away it was just gone. So the Templars invented a banking system. You could give them gold, they gave you a receipt and you could get your gold back anywhere they had a “bank”.
Since marauders would not be given your gold the receipt was your claim on the gold but basically worthless to thieves. This strategy worked, banking began to become something like we think of today. In the end though people use banks for two primary reasons….
To safely hold money
To utilize the bank as a payments system (money in like direct deposit and out like say a check to pay a bill)
While some people do “live on bitcoin” and are very concerned with the second point, those people already tend to be self custody types. So we are going to focus just on #1 for this issue, safely holding bitcoin. Because people are comfortable with modern banks they tend to be okay with a crypto exchange pretending to be a “crypto bank”, yet as we will see today your money isn’t even that secure in a “real bank”.
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
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Special Note– This is one of the best incubators I have ever owned. It is easy to set up, it works wonderfully well and it is on sale for only 149 dollars right now but as of this post only 15 are in stock so get it now while you can.
Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is IncuView All-In-One Automatic Egg Incubator. This is the absolute best incubator I have found without spending a fortune. We have used it for hatching both chickens and ducks, with chickens our results were outstanding. How about three batches of 26 eggs with a total number of hatched eggs of 76, that is 76 out of 78!
What I love about this incubator is everything is automated. All you really need to do is keep an eye on humidity and add a bit of water when necessary. You program the duration of incubation and the machine knows when to stop turning, you can also set how many times a day the machine turns the eggs. And don’t let the word “program” scare you if you if you are a techniphobe, I hate programming “gadgets” but this thing is really easy. The instructions are on one page front and back.
We have successfully incubated goose eggs in it and others have told us they use if for quail with great success. Due to how the turner works, one turner works for everything. It has a digitally controlled thermostat, so when you set it for say 99.5, that is what you get all the time.
There are cheaper incubators but then don’t have all these features. They certainly do not hold temperature as well. In my reptile breeding days I hatched literally hundreds of eggs in the well known Hova-Bator Incubator, yes it works, and it costs less, but is is a fiddly pain in the ass. In fact since I got my IncuView, the only thing I use my Hova-Bator Incubator for is starting seeds in cold weather.
If I wanted to hatch say 75 – 100 eggs a batch, I would honestly buy three of these before I would buy an expensive large commercial incubator. Like most products I settle on, this one just works, it always works and that is what wins my endorsement.
I would also like to suggest the following, this thing is kind of light weight, it is durable and ships well. It is not something most people would use all year long. So some of you may form groups and do a share with this item, either locally or by shipping it back and forth as needed. I personally sent mine to Nicholas Ferguson, he hatched duck and chickens with it and then shipped it back USPS Priority Mail for like 10 bucks. Just a thought.
Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
I get a lot of requests for more “old school” episodes of TSPC and most of those focus on homesteading, permaculture, hard skills, etc. which lead us to the pillars of homestead series that we will continue today. In part two of this series we are going to cover the second pillar, back yard livestock.
Note this series is not about commercial farming for a profit, scaling food production to feed 50 families, etc. Rather old school American homesteading like our grand parents did. Feed yourself, store surplus and share surplus with your neighbors. That is not to say a side hustle market garden or similar won’t fit with this series just that the foundation is first about “feeding the family”.
So what are the pillars, for this discussion there will be four….
Gardening
Back Yard Livestock
Perennials and Herbs
Local Hunter Gatherer Knowledge (foraging and trade)
Like any set of “pillars” these are not end all, be alls, just the foundation on which to build. Each is connected to others though function stacking and additional systems. Gardens create waste, animals create waste the two are connected via composting, compost feeds the garden which feeds the humans and animals as one example.
Small scale livestock is about as old as human settlements are. We have tons of fossil records of humans keeping animals going back many thousands of years. Early hunter gatherer societies as they formed more permanent settlements figured out that game was not always cooperative with being harvested but livestock could be relied upon to always be there.
Join Me Today to Discuss…
The four pillars and why we are talking about them at the beginning of winter
Gardening
Small livestock
Perennials
Hunter/gatherer/local-trade knowledge
Why livestock are the second pillar
Protein and fat production
Can be done very inexpensively
Process waste material into fertility
Likely there is an option for almost anyone
The primary small livestock for small landholders to consider
Worms or BSF (black solider flies)
Bees
Chickens
Quail
Rabbits
Ducks (conventional)
Muscovy Ducks
Geese
Fish
Sheep (hair sheep)
Pigs (smaller breeds)
The rules that keep you from hating yourself
One at a time
Get rid of what doesn’t work for you
Infrastructure first, I MEAN IT!
Develop a system of management so simple you can teach it to a 10 year old
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
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Special Note – I have now been carrying this knife daily since April of 2021 and could not be happier with it. It is an ideal gift for any prepper, outdoorsman, etc.
Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Outdoor Edge 3.5″ RazorLite EDC. A few years back I found the Outdoor Edge Razor Blaze Knife and picked up it primarily for skinning as the swapable replacement blades just made so much sense. You can read my original review here. I really loved this knife and have gotten a lot of use out of it over about 3 years now.
Then very recently I picked up the Razor Bone using longer blades and reviewed all the options for it here. This was a new item from Outdoor Edge for me anyway and it turned out that they had been doing a lot of cool stuff since I had gotten my first knife from them. As I was looking over options I also noticed the Outdoor Edge 3.5″ RazorLite EDC. I put it on my future review list at that time.
Well after getting my hands on the Razor Bone/Fin frame I just decided to get the EDC version as well. If there can be a perfect “EDC Utility Knife” this may be it. You guys know I have recommended the Gerber EAB as an EDC tool for years. Always sharp as a razor and it avoids using your really good knife for harsher tasks, getting it gummed up with tape, etc. Yet it has limits due to its size and form.
The Outdoor Edge 3.5″ RazorLite EDC honestly is a game changer. It holds the blade absolutely locked so you are not going to get hurt by it. The EAB does so as well but you have neither a full sized handle or blade to work with. I have cut things with the EAB and done work with it where I was more than a bit concerned about slipping.
While I feel knives from Outdoor Edge like the Razor Fin & Razor Blaze are knives specifically for say a fishermen or a hunter, the RazorLite EDC to me, is a knife for everyone. So much so that I am officially retiring my long standing recommendation for the Gerber EAB to fill this type of roll in an EDC Utility Blade. Long term listeners to my podcast will realize that is a big deal, I have been recommending the Gerber since at least 2012. Long before TspAz reviews even existed.
The premise of all these knives is simple your blade is always razor sharp because when it gets dull, you toss it out and replace it with a new one. New blades cost about $1.60 – $2.00 each depending on the type. The blades are made with an inexpensive steel called 420 J2, which has poor long term edge retention but sharpens very easily and is extremely resistant to corrosion and rust. This steel, until these knives came out, had two primary uses.
It is used by many high end knife makers as liners, springs, etc in their folding knives, due to high corrosion resistance. –
It is used by many makers of surgical scalpels. Generally scalpels must be incredibly sharp and are used one time in surgery and deposed of. Inexpensive steel that stands up to harsh chemicals for sterilizing and gets incredibly sharp easily is perfect for this application.
Given the above I think 420 J2 is perfect for what Outdoor Edge is doing with these knives. Personally I don’t toss them as soon as they start to dull, I use a sharpening steel and given how soft J2 steel is 3-5 strokes brings it right back. So I do sharpen these types of knives, generally about 10-12 times just using my steel, then I feel the blades have about had it. Again this is the same steel they make scalpels from, it is not great for long term use, rather to be easily made scary sharp. It serves the role here perfectly.
I have now after carrying this little knife for over a year and on multiple hunts and fishing trips. In doing so I have retired my EABs forever. Yes the blades cost more but they also do a hell of a lot more. You also should know by now I look at total cost of a thing, not the unit cost. If you use a steel to keep the edge true you should be able to again do that about 10-12 times, this reduces cost over time by 10-12x without much work. Again if you know how to use a sharpening steel (and you should) the J2 steel is soft enough that it is like spreading butter to get it back to an absolute razor.
I also heard from a few listeners after my last review of the Fin/Bone frame that carry the Outdoor Edge 3.5″ RazorLite EDC and have done so for a while. All four who reached out said they loved it. I think if you give it a try you will as well. This frame comes in 3 color options, Orange, Gray and Blue. The Gray and Blue are sold by third party sellers on Amazon, but there is not much premium on the cost. The orange is sold directly by Amazon and ships faster and costs a buck or two less. Check the video below to see just how awesome this little knife is.
Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com
P.S. – They also make a 3 inch version which uses slightly smaller blades. If you watch the video above you will see just how compact the 3.5 is, so I don’t know that anyone really needs a smaller frame but it does exist. For me owning two other products in the line I didn’t want to add a third required blade length though. So I did not even consider it. Finally those 5 inch blades for the Fin/Bone will lock right into this knife as well, so you can keep them with your fishing gear, carry the 3.5 as an EDC tool, and convert it to a fillet knife on your fishing trips.
Yep this show is about active anarchy, didn’t put that in the title so it would not immediately shut down people that do not know what real anarchy is. Anarchy is not spoiled young adult children living in the parents basements, listening thrash music and playing games while wearing a black shirt with an A on it.
Anarchy is not burning down buildings, demonstrating in the streets or being a non conformist by getting the same tattoo 5,000 other people have. It isn’t hating everyone who is a cop or works for “the system” while you yourself take advantage of the same “system” every day. It to be blunt isn’t even dominantly a political view, it is more an ethics based view that drives a political philosophy.
The ethics I am talking about are things like the firm belief, that cohesion, theft and force outside of defensive force are wrong, all the time, period the end. We accept that society is currently a bunch of spoiled children not ready to step up and be moral. We also accept that our way won’t be the dominant way in our own lifetimes. Yet for us, living against our ethics is simply not an option.
We think 7-8 generations out; we live accepting the interactive edge we must tolerate with the State. However, we adapt and we worry first about what we do, how we handle conflict and what positive change we can make before we worry one bit about what anyone else does, says, thinks or doesn’t do.
Join Me Today to Hear…
What is freedom, what does it have to do with anarchy
What the real goal of anarchy is
What the limitations currently are for anarchists
How anarchists must cope with the interactive edge
The Ten Ways to Actively be a Modern Anarchist
Write contracts that exclude the state & attempt to resolve all differences in absence of the state
Develop the ability to detect logical fallacies in yourself and in others
Create or find a non profit truly consistent with your views
Make your own alcohol
Avoid using the “states money” when possible (self custody)
Start a business
Form a group that gets positive things done
Be at least a “basic prepper” and step up when the state falls down
Grow your own food
Self educate constantly and follow your passions
Teach your children how to self educate (Teach the Trivium)
Trust absolutely nothing the state, media, etc. says, verify never trust
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
Join the MSB Today
Want Every Episode of TSP Ever Produced?
Remember in addition to discounts to over 40 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
SPECIAL NOTE – This set is on sale for only 179, that is a heck of a great price. 44% off the normal price and you can’t even buy the drill as a bare tool for much less. Note the last time I ran this set under 200 bucks was July of 2021!
Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the DeWalt 20V Max XR Cordless Drill Combo Kit. I bought this same set well over a three years ago and it has only dropped from retail a handful of times since there. Both of these tools are go to workhorses on my homestead and neither have ever skipped a beat since I got them.
DeWalt protects retail price, they don’t over sell during discounts to the point where you wonder why they even run them. This combo will normally sell for anywhere between 260 – 300 dollars. My guess is this price will be gone and gone fast, if you want this set, the price doesn’t get much better. I got mine for 189 but that was the Spring of 2019 to drive this point home.
The set consists of
DCD791 20V Max Xr Lithium Ion Compact Brushless 1/2? Drill/Driver (This alone usually sells for about 120-140 dollars as a bare toll see here)
DCF887 20V Max Xr Lithium Ion Brushless 1/4″ Impact Driver (This along usually sells for also about 140 as a bare tool.) Though today it is also on sale for only 107 so it is a good time to add an impact tool if you need one.
1 Charger and 2 2AH Batteries – (At this point you can consider them free! But a new set of 2AH Batteries will run you 80-90 bucks and a charger about 25-35)
All In the Retail Vale Purchased Independently would be about 375 on the low end to over 400 on the high end!
Look if you want to pick up either a good drill or a good driver any time soon, just get this kit and consider the second tool, two batteries and a charger cost you 60 bucks! `
And no one ever said, gee I wish I didn’t have extra batteries and chargers, EVER.
Now look sure a 2AH battery is about the smallest battery you can get from DeWalt and I recommend you get larger capacity batteries either now or down the road. But like me, many of you already own 20VDC DeWalt gear and this is a chance to expand on the cheap, like stupid cheap. And if you are wanting to get into DeWalt tools, this is the way! Let me put it this way I already own this set and when it drops I am always on the edge of picking up another one at this price the deal is that good.
The four cordless tools I use the most on my property are in order, a drill, an impact driver, a circular saw and a sawzall. There is almost never a week that goes by where I don’t use a drill and a driver both. They are the most universal tools you can get and let me tell you something about the DCD791 drill. Do not let the compact size fool you! It is a fricken beast. As to the impact driver we drove over 100 6 inch structural wood screws into 4x4s with it and it never blinked.
In two years neither of these tools ever once let me down. I am a DeWalt guy from way way back. I was using the 18vdc gear as a CATV installer almost 30 years ago now. I was not highly impressed with the first Generation of 20VDC DeWalt gear and then the old 18VDC battery quality went to shit! When these brushless tools came around my faith in DeWalt was fully restored and I once again damn near bleed black and yellow.
Again this price does not come around often so if you are reading this down the road and see a price between 260-300 bucks, it is no surprise and you know what, at that price it is still a great combo but under 200 it is stupid cheap. This was not planned to be my IOTD today, it really wasn’t but when I got to my email and saw this sale I really wanted to let you guys know about it ASAP.
So if you are looking to expand your tools or get into DeWalt power tools, get on this deal now. I can’t say if it will be here today only or for a few days but history shows 24-48 hours being the best you can hope for from old black and yellow. So check out the DeWalt 20V Max XR Cordless Drill Combo Kit today. If you are waiting for a better deal it isn’t likely to happen any time soon.
Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
P.S. – If you ever get a shot at “renewed DeWalt” items consider the following. I know for a fact that DeWalt gets a huge number of returns on perfectly good items. It is due to a huge marketing error and a stubbornness to address a communications problem. Tons of bad reviews for DeWalt exist all around “the batteries wont’ charge so I returned it”.
This is due to DeWalt not being clear about how to use their chargers, an installed base used to just dropping a battery into a charger and again DeWalt refusing for some unknown reason to fix the coms problem. I have been talking about this a long time and one of my most popular videos barely over 1 minute long, explains it perfectly and has resulted in hundreds of “THANK YOU” comments with over 400,000 views. Here it is!
This video has been reviewed by several contacts at DeWalt and ignored (I have confirmed it). So “yeah baby” buy those “renewed” tools and reap the rewards of this brand damaging stupidity! Tune in for more on why DeWalt does NOT “rebuild” broken tools and why renewed is a great way to save money with no loss in quality.
Oh and to everyone in DeWalt Marketing, you are fuckin stupid people, I and many others have tried to help but at this point please continue, we liking buying you brand new stuff cheap with an R at the end of your part numbers!
For the first time ever today we are going to do an Expert Council live session. I invited about 6 members and 3 were available. That actually works out great because 4 is about a perfect number for a group panel. We won’t be doing these every week but I will keep inviting council members and perhaps we can do one of these a month rotating council members as we do so.
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
Join the MSB Today
Want Every Episode of TSP Ever Produced?
Remember in addition to discounts to over 40 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
I’ve got a heck of a stocking stuffer for you guys from Paul Wheaton. The Permaculture Playing Cards: the perfect thing for your friends, family, coffee table, and game night.
This is a full deck of cards, with each card completely packed with info about a major permaculture component. Its a deck you can play a game of cards with, or you can read it front-to-back, like a who’s-who book of permaculture.
Every card features a Permaculture Principal or person, like Polyculture, Bill Mollison, Black Locust, Willy Smits, Paddock Shift System, Allen Savory, Fungi, Food As Medicine, Cast Iron, and Diatomaceous Earth, to name just a few – each included incredible detail and artwork.
Buy a couple decks, or a whole case. Paul says this is probably going to be his last run of these cards, so once they’re gone, they’re gone.
P.S. – I think the sales page could be a bit more clear but the pricing on it per group of cards 2, 12 units etc is the total cost including shipping. The way it is lined out I can see some thinking it is just the cost of shipping. It isn’t all pricing is for said quantities including shipping.
