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Episode-1321- Bitcoin, PermaEthos, Homestead Updates and Matt Miller on Vehicle Maintenance

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Three of out 12 New Baby Ducks

Three of our 12 New Baby Ducks

Time for a four parter, as I said I am making it up to you guys for lost time during recent travel and I suspect at least one show will not happen next week as well with the workshop and all. So today here is what we have on hand.

First I am going to talk about why the “big news” about bitcoin is not big news in any negative way.  Of course I mean the IRS ruling that BTC is property and not currency.  Anyone running a business publicly collecting BTC should have greeted this announcement with a resounding duh, frankly, no shit is more accurate.

Let me break it to you bluntly, the IRS guidance is actually factual, accurate and consistent with all existing code and treatment of property and assets by the IRS.

Note I am not saying the IRS is fair, that taxes are fair or that taxes are okay and not theft.  What I am saying is based on current IRS code, historical treatment of barter and the trade of goods and the treatment of commodities, the new IRS guidance is fair and consistent in relation to historical IRS guidelines.

Here are several reason this ruling is meaningless…

  • Anyone with a brain taking in lots of bitcoin into a business was likely already doing the accounting as the guidelines state.
  • The IRS still can’t track person to person bitcoin, they don’t have that ability, if they ever acquire it, the system will take it away from them in an “update”.
  • New software to maximize tax advantages of this ruling is likely being coded RIGHT NOW.
  • Likely the IRS is going to have to change their guidance when BTC becomes a recognized currency anyway, it will then function like any currency on the FOREX, this is going to happen.

Second we move one to a bit more on PermaEthos and a few questions that have come up since my big announcement yesterday.  I will also again explain that YES the MSB will get a discount code for Geoff Lawton’s PDC and the code will be in the MSB likely today or tomorrow but definitely before the PDC goes on sale.

The new Ethos model has been extremely well received!  I want to talk just a bit more about it.  I will be updating the PermaEthos site soon to reflect the new model and start creating a true virtual community around it.  It will be important that Ethos function both as an extension of the TSP community and yet function on its own merits to those who have no clue what or who a TSP is.

Then I have some “homestead updates” for you guys.  Yes an MSB only video will come out this week by the way, showing a lot of what I am going to talk about.  There is some cool stuff though, today our homestead population grew by yet another dozen with 12 ridiculously cute ducklings!  I’ll tell you also how they and the geese are going to get some “ponds” that will almost be actual ponds.

Then I am joined by Matthew Miller who is a long time listener to TSP and an MSB member.  . In an effort to continue building resiliency and self-sufficiency in his life he wanted to learn how to maintain his own vehicles. Inheriting his late grandfather’s 94 Ranger was the final push needed. A 20 year old truck with 80k miles on it was a great starter project to get his feet wet.

He has documented all of his repairs and progress on the TSP forums for others to learn and gain encouragement from. Since starting he has gained a basic working knowledge of autos and has no fear when he hears a knock or rattle. Through his desire to do things himself he has inspired friends and family members to do their own work and offers to help when he can.

Matthew loves watching his kids play in and on his truck or car when he’s working on them. They’ll jump in with tools and ‘help’ daddy out. Knowing that he is teaching them positive values, resiliency, and self-reliance is the greatest reward he’s gotten since learning this new skill-set.

Resources for today’s show…

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Comments

Episode-1321- Bitcoin, PermaEthos, Homestead Updates and Matt Miller on Vehicle Maintenance — 50 Comments

  1. Topic Time Markers

    [6:37] The Year 1321
    [9:34] The IRS’ Ruling on Bitcoin
    [21:26] More on PermaEthos
    [32:33] Spirko Homestead Update
    [42:54] Matt Miller on DIY Vehicle Maintenance

  2. Any thoughts on using a water pumping windmill to bring the water back uphill from the lower pond? And where to source water pumping windmills… I want one for a small pond.

    • those are good resources. i meant to cover that in the interview and skipped it. another option is alldatadiy.com. they have a subscription service that gives you access to the shop manual for your car. i’m not sure if i like it or love it yet, but it does have a lot of information.

      there are codes out there for alldata that give you a good discount for it as well. just google alldata discount and you’ll find it.

    • Thanks for the link Jim. (Wish my brand was there – but a great resource). I’m getting ready to do a clutch slave/master cylinder replacement, and I’m also consulting the old Chilton/Haynes manuals – both of which I’ve found before in physical libraries, and digital ones.

      For example, my state has an online library with a subscription to Chilton’s database.

      Great episode (not a surprise), and great comments! Love this community.

  4. I suppose this is a question for Geoff’s site, but does anyone know if we will be able to use 2 discount codes? I bought a Toolkit from the Whole Earth Design summit, which also included a $100 discount to his PDC. Kinda kicking myself for not having more faith in you, Jack.

  5. Looks like you have either mallards (wild ducks that will fly) or rouens (fatter mallards that dont fly)with the black stripes, khaki Campbell ducks with the yellow/green ones, and white Pekins with the all yellow (aflack duck). All are great layers especially the khakis. Keep them safe, they are not predator proof at all. And the best part is taking them swimming in a warm bath tub when they are little. Post some video of that. Great stuff. Don’t worry about age, just do a few min in the tub to start, and go to a heat lamp after. Some advise not swimming them until 3 weeks, but the last time I checked wild ducks can swim on day one.

      • Yup. Thanks, Jake! I landed on my feet. I landed a consulting gig opening a new BBQ/Blues bar for a guy and now I’m going to be starting with a great new to the USA restaurant chain called Wagamama. I’m also very happy that I don’t work for an unethical group of people anymore. It really was all a blessing. Opening the restaurant was great too. Kind of like “Bar Rescue”. Hey, I might be swinging thru Tennessee early next week. Will you be around?

        • Bro, that’s awesome.. sometimes problems are disguised as the solution in permaculture… and the rest of life…

          Yeah, I’ll be around. Need a place to stay? If you need to crash to break up your trip you’re welcome. If not, let’s at least drink a pint, yeah?

        • Not sure if we’re going to have time to makle it to TN now. I’ll get back to you. I’ll know more on Monday. shoot me a text if you want to…. six zero three – 809 – two two one five.

  6. I haven’t even listened to the episode yet but I had to comment. What a wonderful thing that Matt Miller has going on with his children. Yes, he’s teaching them practical skills. More important is quality time he is spending with them and the bonding experience between father and children. Keep it up!

    • thanks! i do enjoy having them out there while i am working on my car. they love to ‘help’ me and they do make good little ‘gophers’ when a tool i need is just out of reach.

      • No not Iceland and not Scotland. Neither is really “close” but it is a European nation.

        • Um DING DING DING a winner and tell me bro, how the fuck is Ira Ramone Sancia going to say BTC isn’t a valid currency when the Swiss say it is?

        • Well its not like the IRS really abides by reality they pretty much do what they feel like. They will spin it “the country that tax shelters the 1%ers money is now using digital currency to screw over you 99%ers. ”

          Iceland does have the Auracoin or something like that.

    • I’m pretty sure Iceland could be a contender as a group created a crypto-currency just for them and is giving EVERY citizen of Iceland and equal amount of crypto to get them started… it may not be official from the state but it is a cool experiment…

  9. Thanks Jack for pursuing the discount for the Geoff Lawton Online PDC. I am pretty excited to think that I will have his certification and yours under my belt in the coming months. That, in combination with the work I am doing on my new 80 acres in the high desert of the Colorado Rockies, makes me feel that I will be experiencing more learning in the next six months than I have in any six month period in my life.

    Really appreciate what you are doing.

  10. I was wondering how much time does one need to take the Geoff Lawton Online PDC? Are we talking an hour a night and maybe some more over the weekends? I would love to hear from other TSP’ers.

    • Each chapter is 8 hours per chapter, plus the q and a. Each chapter is released once a week over the next 14 weeks. So yea about an hourish a night.

    • While I’m not sure what Geoff has planned for this one, last year’s course was divided into sections, some were longer than others, but the videos were generally around an hour or a half hour depending on the topic, with a number of videos per section. We’d usually get sections unlocked week by week on sundays and basically you have until the end of the course to make sure you cover the material.

      I highly recommend purchasing the permaculture designers manual by bill mollison as soon as you can, as well as keeping up with the sections. The design intensive can sneak up on you if you’re not prepared. I would recommend at least looking at sites early if you’re not doing your backyard.

  11. I read in the PDC brochure that it is a good idea to check with your bank to make sure the class payment will be allowed by the bank. My bank wants to know what name will show up in the billing so they can make a note to allow it rather than completely lock my account. Can anyone assist?

    • I opened a trouble ticket on permaculturedesigncourse.net and asked that very question. Here is the response that I received.

      “Hi Pa
      Last year it was just that some people had gone over their credit limit or the fact that payment was going to a company outside the USA it sometimes triggered off automatically a security block. If a payment is going through to Geoff Lawton Pty Ltd in Australia it shouldn’t be blocked. Don’t worry if it happens you just have to let us know and we will save a place for you until you get it sorted.”

  12. I would just like to say a big thanks to Matt. What a great interview and a great guy. I will definitely check out his thread on the forum and maybe start my own as I have a couple of big jobs coming up on my Mitsubishi Shogun (Pajero) . I don’t know if you have them in the states.
    Keep up the great work
    Aman

    • thanks for the thanks! and you’re welcome 😉

      start the thread up! i think they are great motivators. i already saw one guy on the forums is going to start working on his ATV more as a result of the show. i myself have a rebuild thread started for the motorcycle that i mentioned in the show. that is probably going to be a complete tear down and rebuild.

  13. Mechanic work: I really like have an extendable magnet on hand to fish dropped bolts out of the engine or grass. When you’re learning how to get a wrench into tight spots / or laying in the grass you end up dropping bolts and then have to struggle to find them. When working with confidence you don’t drop as much stuff.

  14. I always check Advance Auto parts online and use their discounts. Often times I purchase parts at 25% off then they give you a coupon code for $50 off your next $100 order. I typically use that discount for maintenance items. Sorry, but can’t stand o’rielly. Advance auto allows site to store or straight to your doorstep. I use to run a shop and we had a commercial account with o’reilly but for personal work and for friends and family I always recommend advance. Works really great when you I save customers 25% off when i purchase their parts then I knock the $50 off of stuff I need.

  16. Where can I find the instructions to get the discount for Geoff Lawton’s PDC?
    I am a SMB member but I couldn’t see anything on the other side.

    • You will just go to GeoffLawton.com to sign up, the discount code will be in the MSB (not SMB) by close of business today, as far as I know the PDC opens tomorrow.

  17. Hey, I got mentioned in the show (Zef_66)!!

    But I did want to mention that many of the simple hand tools from Harbor Freight are lifetime warranty as well. I am by no means a professional mechanic, but I can hold my own. But for some seldom used tools, I have Pittsburgh brand from HF and I’ve broken and returned a few for replacement with no questions asked. Even when I bent a 3/4″ drive 24″ long breaker bar and broke the drive end off using a 6′ cheater pipe on the end. They actually replaced the whole kit on that one.

  18. I just wanted to add 2 things, I have a ton of Craftsman tools, I grew up on that brand but the closest Sears is an hour away now so i switched to Lowes Kobalt brand tool, they are good for the money and if they break you can take em back to Lowes and they will replace them NP, I have yet to have one break so it hasn’t been an issue, here a great site that will help you diagnose you car problems, This man’s name is Skeeter and he has one of the biggest Auto repair shops in Texas, just type in your info and and tell him what the car is doing and he will tell you what is wrong with it, he has a call in radio show on the weekends for Shade tree guys and recommends everyone do as much as they can themselves, I have used this site several times when i was pulling my hair out trying to figure out what was wrong with my truck and he was quick with getting back with me and he always right!
    http://www.texascardoctor.com/online-diagnostic-form.html

  19. Good show with Matt. I would like to add a couple of things.
    1. It is a good idea to wear safety glasses or goggles when crawling under your vehicle. I learned this soon after I got a four-wheel-drive Blazer.
    2. A good source of parts for trucks is http://www.lmctruck.com. Great if you want to restore to factory condition, including the final touch of a new owners manual.

  20. I really enjoyed Matt’s interview. DIY car repairs can be intimidating to get into initially.

    I work for a Generous Motors car dealership (in the parts department). I wanted to put a resource out there that can help people with schematics. A lot of the OE dealership websites will have an interactive parts website that will bring up the same illustrations that the parts counter person will see. If you see a parts request form to fill out, head to another dealer’s website. Usually the bigger dealerships will have this system in place.

    I’ve been in the car business for about 20 years. In aftermarket and OE parts. With confidence I can say that OE parts are worth spending the extra money for. They just last longer. It’s also ok to haggle the parts guy too. Haggling is not a bad skill to develop.

    If you have any questions about parts or repair resources don’t hesitate to contact me: kalongs@sbcglobal.net

    MAF sensor = Mass Airflow sensor be careful what you spray on these. Some of them have exposed circuit boards that can be damaged by solvents.

    • Hey KC… you da man… had a bad experience with the “trusted mechanic” from the TDI forum in Ft.Worth when my timing belt broke about 1/4 mile from Jack’s homestead… he quoted me $4,500 to repair my engine saying the piston had cracked… my TDI mechanic back in Nashville however, didn’t buy it.. I shipped my car back home for $400 and he repaired it for just under $2k… so the Ft Worth guy was just “having me on” as the Brits would say.. I don’t know if I should go on the site and bust his ass or not… oh yeah, he bugged the crap out of me to sell the Jetta to him for $900… yeah right…

  21. I just want to add one thing about the U-pull-it places, not only are they a good place to get cheap parts but if you go and pull the part first then you get the know how to do it on your car. I have gone there meany times and broke the part taking it off then went and pulled another and got it right (only payed for what I took out… the good part)

  22. Jack,
    Will you take bitcoin for the PermaEthos founders PDC?
    ( I bought some and as per your advice, am looking for opportunities to use them)
    Thanks and congrats on PermaEthos!
    -Kevin in CT

    • I’d like to know this as well. I finally bought an MSB subscription with bitcoin, just in order to get first crack at signing up for the PDC…I’d love to be able to pay for everything related to the TSP in bitcoin.

      • Like most things it depends! Given the PDC is designed to provided budget/funding for Ethos we certainly won’t HOLD it in BTC. So it really depends on timing, can I get all the stuff set up and be able to take BTC and transfer to FRNs in PEs bank account by the time we start taking payments? The answer to that is the answer to your question.

  23. Great show (as usual) Jack. A quick question for Matt: I have a ’91 Ranger that I’d like to restore. What sites/forums do you recommend (I, too, am a newbie DIYer)? Thx!

  24. Just a thought but what do you think of giving priority for your Founders PDC to people who own land with large acreage? If your PDC is going to be as good as I hope and also be based off the 100plus acres in West VA. Then to me it would make sense to get as many people in that PDC with large acreage (lets say 20plus) so when completion of the course you will have 1000 potential permaethos people/properties that are ready to move forward in the right direction that day. Then you are giving the info to those that need it right now. I would hate to get cut out by someone that just wants to expand their knowledge and not really have any intention for implementing it any time soon.

    • Way to over think. Someone that just wants the PDC can’t get in the way of someone that has a large acreage for first consideration on farm establishment. As they have no large acreage, they are not in that line.

      Additionally say you are in the 1,000 group, and yep you have 150 acres and you want an ethos farm. Fine say you and another farm are in consideration. Say you are both VERY SIMILAR in many ways, well yep you get the nod, assuming both of you qualify.

      Now say we are down to two farms for final consideration for a budget cycle. One is not a founder but says we have a working farm already totaling 100 acres, customers already, a 200K budget for the next two years, we are willing to set up some housing, pay a farm steward for at least a year until they migrate to a fifedom and we have equipment to do our own earthworks.

      A founder is competing with this, they say we have 100 acres but no money, we just want you to come here and build a farm. And people will do this I promise you. The answer is not only does the non founder win that one, the founder doesn’t even qualify. For our model to work the land owner must be at minimum an equal financial stake holder with Ethos. As we grow Ethos can do more to fund establishment but the owner of the property will always need to step up quite a bit on the investment side.

      Now there are ways to do this that anyone can access. For instance I can’t publicly solicit funds for a business. But a guy with land could form 10ish “relationships” and then go in with those folks to create the farm. The “farm” can be a middle entity that Ethos manages. This means the original owner remains sole land holder but the productive elements are coowned with your fellow investors.

      There is also a desirable land element. While this first property will be amazing it isn’t “perfect” from a time to establish perspective. What makes it perfect is two fully informed entrepreneurs that know exactly what they are getting into and who are willing put skin in the game to make it happen.

      I would much prefer flatter terrain. It would seriously reduce the cost of establishment.

      One thing I will be doing is a lot of teaching on

      water
      access
      structure

      So people can find good land to make establishment easier in the future. In short we are going to go big with this. Assuming there is good land, knowledge of the business model, a commitment to investment on both sides, over time there is room for everyone.

      Where I see Ethos really helping (money wise) out is like this. Your farm is rocking, we have done it together. Now this guy Tom wants to do a fifedom, he is an experienced bee guy, has say 80 hives. Says if I had 15K and a place to live I could have 400 hives running in two years, here is the cash flow model, here is my market research, my expansion plan, how I will build hives, where I will place them.

      Fine, land owner, get this guy some sort of housing (tiny house, old RV, what ever he will be happy with), Ethos will poney up the 15K as a draw against production. The bee guy gets 4 years to pay it back (assuming his goals are being met) with a low or no interest loan. Profits from the bee business go 80% to bee guy and 20% to Ethos which of course is dividing all profit with the land owner.

      These are incremental revenue things. If you are running a full on farm likely you would never have the time to run that many bees. One guy dedicated with no real cost once established is golden. Us each making some money is great, him doing what he loves and keeping most of the money is great, etc.

      • The nice thing about the fiefdom model is you can see it allowing an insane level of function stacking on the same property.

        Basically it allows you to eventually farm 100 acres as intensively as a 1/10 acre backyard.

        I can see it leading to an INSANE level of abundance.

  25. Im surprised he didn’t mention eBay for auto parts. In this category of product, I usually find Amazon to have a higher price for the same part. Sort of like how Advance Auto Parts seems to invariably be $2-3 higher on virtually every item except for motor oil compared to Walmart and AutoZone.
    PartsGeek will sometimes be cheaper than either Amazon or eBay. Whatever you’re looking for, it pays to check all three.

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