Episode-764- Listener Calls for 10-17-11
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Time for another round of your calls to 866-65-THINK. Yep it is Monday not Friday but I decided to change things up a bit, we will stick to one feedback and one call in show a week (most weeks) but they just won’t always be on Fridays and Mondays.
Join me today as I answer your calls on…
- My thoughts and the whole story on Hank Williams Jr.
- Creative ways to hide valuables in your home
- Using re-sublimated iodine crystals for water purification and first aid
- Critters that may damage ponds or swales
- Turning a lawn into a garden
- Who designed the TSP website
- What do I mean when I say “hold cash”
- The reality about “cutting essential services” like firefighters and teachers
- An easy way to clean used drums that may have held chemicals like antifreeze
- Thoughts on buying a house right now
- How we could actually make a difference at the ballot box
Additional Resources for Today’s Show
- Members Support Brigade
- TSP Gear Shop
- Back Yard Food Production – (sponsor of the day)
- Fortress Self Defense Consultants – (sponsor of the day)
- Win Free Ammo from Bulk Ammo
- Ron Hood’s DVD that discusses using re-sublimated Iodine
- Tribute Edition of SurvivalQ in Memory of Ron Hood
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.
Hiding place – I have a old upright piano that weighs a ton. I thought about moving it away from the wall and store stuff in the lower part. There is always decorations of some type on top of the piano, with this stuff removed I could open the top and lay stuff in the top of piano. (we don’t play the piano) . Then put all the stuff back on top.
Hi Jack,
In reference to your brief segment on Hank Williams Jr., I just wanted to say that “no one has a right to a job”. I think my employer can fire me for any reason at all. My employer gives me a job – my employer can take it away. I feel that I’m not entitled to anything. The only rights I have are the ones I am willing to die for. I am not willing to die for my employer.
@Joseph fortunately for most people what you believe and contract law are in complete conflict. It isn’t about a “right to a job” it is about a right against wrongful termination. No your employer can’t fire you for any reason they choose to, cause must be given and if discrimination is proven they have a huge liability. This is true even in “right to work” states as an employer I can tell you that is the truth.
My point by the way isn’t even about if it is legal, more is it right? I figure ESPN will loose out long term in this one and Hank will do just fine. Personally I am done with MNF unless Pittsburgh is playing, if that happens I just have to grit my teeth. Fox and Friends though? Fing done with them, glad I turned them down for an interview over two years ago.
@ Modern Survival -I agree Jack. It is about right and wrong. It is wrong to fire someone due to their philosophy especially if the person produces a great deal of value for the employer. On the other hand, I wouldnt want to work for an employer that doesnt want me working for them no matter what the reason.
jars filled with dry food supplies, marbles, laundry soap, etc. with a empty toilet paper roll in the middle; great place to hide items.
Good hiding place: I’ve got a build-in closed with a lowered ceiling. Excelent hiding place between that lowered ceiling and the real ceiling.
Onother good spot: If it’s small / flat, tape it to something that´s low to the ground, like the underside of a table or cupboard.
Fake walls in cupboard are great too, you can hide loads of stuff between the back of a cupboard and the wall of the room.
For bigger stuff…… remove a couple of tiles in the yard (if you’ve got tiles), dig a hole, put in a bucket or other waterproof container, put your stuff in, put a piece of plywood on top of it and put your tiles back. Don’t drive your car over it 🙂
I seen a interview with Hank Jr and he is talking about taking his song to another football network well good for him.
Hidden in plain sight. I use my antique upright piano to conceal two small fire boxes. They are stowed behind the the kick panel below the key board. I also have an old upright freezer and fridge in the basement that I use as gun cabinets for my C&R/long term storage, low cost fire arms and ammo. The have hasp locks installed for security and there is plenty of dessicant in both. They are situated in a corner behind the larger deep freeze, and are gun cabinets hidden in plain sight.
If you have the room out back, get a hot tub off of cr (free section), sink it into the ground and cover after it’s filled (with a hot tub cover) then cover over with dirt/sod/etc
I originally posted this in the comments here:
http://www.mint.com/blog/goals/where-to-stash-your-emergency-fund/
I keep around $750 in cash. As far as good places around the house to hide it there is only one:
A professionally bolted down safe.
You have to keep in mind that a thief doesn’t care about your property; you may carefully place those boxes in front of your stash in the closet, but they will rip all of that out and onto the floor in a second. Same for hiding stuff in books, or anywhere near the bed (guns), cereal boxes, fridge or in the toilet tank (drugs).
They turned it into an infographic here:
http://www.mint.com/blog/how-to/burglar-proof-your-cash-stash-082011/
Credit to:
http://www.savingadvice.com/articles/2007/02/05/101141_the-best-place-to-hide-money-conversation-with-a-burglar.html
A box in the garage works great. Mark it ” kids clothes”.
@ Modern Survival re your statement “your employer can’t fire you for any reason they choose to, cause must be given ….. This is true even in “right to work” states”. If you read any job application from an Idaho business, chances are 99.9% that you will see a statement of “employment with XYZ Corp is considered “at will” employment and may be terminated by either party without cause or notice.” Maybe not in other RTW states, but in this one they can and I’ve seen it done.
@Brian, as an employer in a right to work state who has used that same terminology in hiring let me tell you what it means. It doesn’t mean shit really it is simply me trying to head off you suing me when I fire your ass. If I actually terminate a full employee with an admitted no cause, or worse because of his political statements specifically in a non work related function, some guy like Jim Alader is going to have a freaking field day and end up owning my company.
The writer of a contact generally will put anything he can get away with into a contract and hope the signer believes it. It doesn’t hold water if you terminate with out cause, specifically if you don’t eliminate the position and if you fire outside of a probationary period.
Again the reality with Hank is he is being paid for the duration of his contract. Had ESPN actually breached the contract by not paying, Hank would probably end up owning the network.
I read somewhere that the legs of an ironing board with the caps are excellent places to hide things like cash and jewelry. I would be careful to place cash into a container or something to make sure it can be removed from the legs when you need it. I can’t imagine any thieves looking in this place for valuables, can you?
Just want to elaborate on my call about the barrels. I sent a sample off to be tested just to make sure that something else besides what was on the label hadn’t been put in the barrels and thus negating my soap n water based cleaning.
Forgive me for being slow, but I listened to this part a couple of times very carefully, and I can’t figure out where you purchased the containers. Or was this a special deal that you just happened upon?
I don’t know if you were asking me that or not, but I will answer anyways! I found them on Craigslist. The guy had almost a hundred. I check out craigslist daily looking for deals. I’m paying massive medical bills for brain cancer from my wife who died in 07. I take whatever deals I can get on things I need for my backyard hugelkulture garden.
I’ve seen a hollowed out console TV (the type made of wood), fitted with a hinged top gives a lot of volume. A combination of the expected weight and low value should get a pass.
In college, I taped large bills underneath drawers for the one semester I had a bad roommate.
Hey Jack, thanks for taking my call about the swales and ponds. Your comments were helpful and I’m planning on implementing swales on contour and building a few ponds as longer-term water storage. I should have included in my phone call that I’m an excavation contractor and I’m doing this stuff on my place to learn how it’s done and make my mistakes where I can easily fix them. I’ve got a backhoe and an excavator and laser equipment so the task will be just like you said, scoop and dump.
A few comments on your comments: Trapping would be great for my kids to learn to do as well as shooting the ground squirrels, but there are *thousands* of them! My wife and I shoot Bricks (500 rnds ea.) of .22 each spring/summer from our porch and hardly make a dent. I guess I didn’t think about the fact that making the swales in the first place was to get water into the ground and that holes will facilitate that. The idea behind the ponds is to have them in the draws to collect water for use later on when the moisture is all gone during the summer. Again we live in a rain shadow so the rain that comes over the mountains falls all around us leaving us like a mini desert just a few miles from lush forests. Based on what you told me today, I’ll give it a shot because you’ve confirmed what I was expecting would be the case. One of the benefits of living here and having a meager well is that we’ve learned to make do with as little water as possible. We use hoops in our garden all summer because the cold air hangs in our little valley and temperatures drop far below the surrounding areas. We use drip irrigation and I put down lots of old carpet in my garden to trap in moisture.
On a side note: Today a gasoline container broke while I was filling a generator and I got a huge gush of gas into my eyes, up my nose and in my mouth. I staggered in the house and got into the shower while my wife called poison control. Thanks to them and the fact that water came out of the faucet when I turned the knob, I’m able to write this tonite without any damage to my eyes (even though they burned all afternoon!) It’s better to practice and have these kinds of accidents now while treatment and help is available than when the shtf.
Thanks again for your input. My kids loved hearing me on the show! Keep it up Jack!
-Chad (and family) in NE Oregon
I’m a big fan of hiding things in plain sight, and finding many places that can be converted to storage (plug boxes and such). But, a reality we all have to face is that if we can think of it, it’s probably already been done. The best place to learn how to hide things is in prison, and if a criminal happens to do a short stint they are in a place to learn the best methods and places. Similar to what Jack says, “They can get a PhD in scum-baggery”.
Also on the bolted safes, they’ll work as long as they cant be peeled or if they’re bolted into a wall, the wall can be demolished around them and the studs cut and the whole thing taken to be opened later at a more convenient place and time for the thief.
My point is, no matter what we think up, we have to realize that it’s never foolproof.
Jack, I have a question regarding the garden spot segment. We don’t have a garden spot yet, and we were thinking about having someone turn one up for us this fall. Do you think we could use the cardboard/mulch technique over the winter (Indiana) to have something ready by spring? We have 3.5 acres with trees (leaves for mulch) and we have a huge pile of grass that’s been composting since July (which might also work for some mulch if we took stuff from the top of the pile.) Any thoughts?
@Jack,
You’re statement about “we’re out of money” is one that bears repeating…until it takes root.
It seems that people are really unwilling to embrace this REALITY. The various beggars (and I’m NOT talking about Firefighters–just to clarify) in this world just keep pretending there is a magical pot of money somewhere that some (insert villain of the day) is keeping from them (as if they deserve it).
Wrong–take ALL the “money” that the “Rich” or whoever has…and it STILL wouldn’t matter.
So…in short. YUP.
I’m a bit torn on getting a safety deposit box for some of our silver/gold/cash. It’s not the cost, my local small bank has a 5x5x18 box for $37/year. It’s the accessibility. I am concerned about a major SHTF scenario that hits us so fast, getting to your bank may not be possible, or could be very dangerous. Likely? No. Possible? Yes.
So I currently use a fireproof/waterproof safe for those items and have it well hidden. However, I think it would be wise to split what is in that safe into another location for the reasons mentioned in the show (theft, tornado, fire, etc.). As a landowner with plenty of acreage, I’ve actually considered buying a second safe and literally burying it as opposed to using a safety deposit box. That may sound crazy to some, and maybe it is, but I like the idea. I would enjoy some good, rational feedback on the idea as to why we should or should not do it.
As is normally the case, great show Jack.
Hiding place.
A good friend got robbed while he was at work. He had a small fire safe with all his legal doc’s but no money or valuables in it out of sight. The bad guys took the safe along with other things from his home. Later the police found the safe in the woods broken open and dumped out and walked all over.
He bought two new safes, one he hid in his closet and bolted down. Then he stacked his winter cloths on top of it and around it. The other he made sure was a key lock type, labeled it “Insurance Documents” and set on his file drawer with the key in the lock.
Sure enough, he got robbed again a few months later. This time they opened the safe they could see, pawed around in it and left it alone. The never looked in the closet. After all, who has more than one safe? This one they saw just had papers in it.
It is always good to make your safes as immovable as possible. I have been thinking about getting a very large safe. I saw one this summer at the father of a friend’s house. It had at least 3 inch thick steel doors and appeared ancient. He has never lost anything he put into it.
OPSEC: Privacy in this country is becoming non-existent due to the massive databases being created by public and private entities. For example: companies are starting to use prospective employee social media sites and blogs as part of the hiring process with or without notifying them. I approach all of my friends and family members who I think will be receptive to the idea of being self-sufficient, but I don’t not agree with you that you should broadcast it to the world.
Safety Deposit Box: an option available to those who live in bigger cities is the availability of private deposit businesses. These are NOT banks, so they don’t need to follow the same rules.
Hiding Valuables: the best way is to spread it around you home in different places and using different methods. The best place is inside a waterproof container buried in a large planter. They also sell water bottle safes that are good places to store small items.
I have to ask myself, how much longer do I want to listen to a guy who calls me a whiner because I disagree with his point of view? I think you owe some folks an apology Jack.
@Listener, go elsewhere then and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. The show is successful because I say what I think and don’t give a crap when someone gets their panties in a wad. Some how I think I will get along okay with out you.
I certainly won’t apologize for speaking my mind.
While I agree with your POV on the ESPN/Hank Jr issue Jack, I think Listener has a point. If you are going to engage your listeners in a discussion, it is poor form to call them whiners if they disagree with your side of the debate. How long would you be willing to discuss issues with people if they called you an assclown for not agreeing with them?
@Conrad, “Listener” is nothing but a fricken stalker which I know by his IP address. I also didn’t engage directly with anyone and call them a whiner, he also used a fake email address which violates the comments policy so I could have just deleted him. Lastly yes IF someone comes off like a whiner I will state it. Disagreeing doesn’t make one a whiner, whining does. This has been how TSP has been run since day one, it ain’t gonna change.
I agree with what you said, but I have to call you out in one thing. I am listening to all of your older shows out of order so I am not sure on the episode. You said you don’t care what someone puts as their email address. They could put fake@fake.com and you would be fine with it. I might be a little off on quoting you, but close enough. I listened to it today, so I know I heard it. Love the show Jack!
@Duff the policy has changed since then. Why? Stalkers, that is why. You have no idea how many of them I have, requiring a legit email is one way to keep them in check.
Who are these people? Why in the world do they do it..
Take a drill and drill a hole big enough to fit a tube down in the top of a door. Keep cash in the tube. Nobody checks the top of doors when looking for valuables.
@Ron, that is a fricken good one!
@ Ron I’ve seen a type of door safe where the door had a removable front panel and a 1′ square safe in it. Pretty sure it was a dying thing though.
@Jack Ah, didnt know about the change. One good thing about the trolls though, the more you have the more your message is getting around! Probably the best way to handle it is what you do though
I really like that idea! Is there a form thread with more ideas?
Stalkers, also known as “Trollers”? I think of them as “incognito internet terrorists”. E-trash. Cowards that hide behind the anonymity of the web. Thanks for whatever you do to fend them off.
Hiding paper currency: vacuum seal it first. Check frequently for moisture, mildew damage.
Should an employer be able to fire an employee for X?
The libertarian answer is unequivocally yes. Literally regardless of what X is. Why? Who “owns” the job? The employer? The employee? Society at large? Answer: employer. It is their capital alone (in a proper free market economy anyway) at risk in search of profit. That’s it kids. The rest is just a lot of noise for the most part.
In reality, we have this to a large degree in the current system, which is light years from a libertarian free market economy. The reasons current contracts explicitly include “At Will” clauses to cut down on the horse crap “wrongful termination suits.”
So you don’t like that Hank parted from ESPN because of ESPN’s cowardly ways? Fine. Don’t do business with ESPN. But it’s their call to make. (Caveat: within the context of their agreements.)
Further, other than extreme personal circumstance, why in the world would you want to work for some jack a$$ who would fire you for some extraneous reason? A proper free market would punish such stupidity. . . but it should not be legally barred anymore than drugs and prostitution, etc. should be.
Or “we” (i.e. U.S.) could go to crazy town like in France and Italy where it is nearly impossible to fire people, regardless of X.
@Vettezuki, problem is as a libertarian you should also consider contractual obligations. When a contract exists between both parties and it breached by one for something not included as grounds for breach in said contract, it is to use a highly nontechnical term, UNCOOL.
Libertarianism is about more than what people can do it is also about the freedom to enter into contracts, said contracts have no value if they are not honored or if they are not enforceable.
Lastly, this is not a cut and dry “working” arrangement. This is a licensing agreement to use the man’s intellectual property for two reasons…
1. money – fee is paid
2. branding – exposure is obtained which no doubt reduced the fee charged
ESPN is paying the fee, they are breaching 50% of the contract with out cause. Stick that in your libertarian brain for a moment. Seriously this is often why we as libertarians can’t reach the masses, the exclusion of reason.
I said, “(Caveat: within the context of their agreements.)”
My point was more explicitly in response to your statement about an employer being able to fire an employee for saying something they don’t like. If they have a contract defining performance terms and termination outside of performance terms is breach, then it is simply a breach. But that would be a legal claim that would have standing even now.
I was responding to what I perceived to be a general point of employer vs. employee rights, not the specific context here. Probably I misunderstood.
Libertarians have a hard time reaching the masses because most people don’t actually believe in a consistent vision of freedom, nor do they oppose use of physical coercion to achieve social goals. They just want control of power for their preferred ends. Until this notion is rejected, libertarianism isn’t really going anywhere. Secondly, if libertarians in general are guilty of anything regarding application of reason to principles, it’s in being absolutist, not lacking capacity for reason. Throw in what is often (wrongly IMO) perceived as an atomic individualism bordering on being sociopaths, and it’s a tough sell out of the gate. We do better when we correctly point out class exploitation vis a vis the state.
@section 3 “Trollers” do = “incognito internet terrorists” LOL I think it is from anonymity of the web that people do dumb things. most would not be overly rude in person. I try to always be nice even on the web. “don’t be trollen”
Re: Creative ways to hide valuables in your home
Allan Fea, 1860-1956, wrote a book entitled “Secret Chambers and Hiding Places Historic, Romantic, & Legendary Stories & Traditions About Hiding-Holes, Secret Chambers, Etc.”
Link to the book: http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/f#a5288
Best, and keep up the good work Jack,
Duncan