Episode-1893- Listener Calls for 11-4-16
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Today on The Survival Podcast I take your calls on patriotism, pond management, political trickery, permaculture, credit, possum living, school stupidity and more.
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Join Me Today As I Respond to Your Calls and Discuss…
- A scout master feels conflicted about the pledge
- Dealing with compacted bare ground at a ponds edge
- Thoughts on the wording of ballot initiatives to confuse voters
- How to choose a permaculture teacher or course for your PDC
- Building credit as a young person, and my revised view of credit cards
- The 70s classic “Possum Living” is back and an old documentary is on youtube
- A “school stupidity” moment that will make you weep for humanity
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- Walking To Freedom
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- PermaEthos.com
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- The Granddaddy’s Gun Club
- Possum Living on Amazon
- Possum Living Documentary Part One
- Possum Living Documentary Part Two
- Possum Living Documentary Part Three
- Mountain Music – Alabama
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Forgot to add this:
A man, let’s call him Jack was a mate on a ship that sank in a storm.
Jack was swimming for his life and washed upon the shore of a desert island.
Jack woke up and when he finally. H begain walking along the beach.
Jack then saw some natives coming toward him.
Jack asked them is there a government on this island?
The natives responded, “Yes”.
Jack then stated, “Then I’m against it!”
One of the most useless comments of all time.
Mark Twain defined Patriotism as supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. That’s along the lines of what I took from Jack’s comments. Problem is there isn’t much our government does that deserves our respect. I will always feel patriotic toward my country and countrymen though.
I have a new pond that had the same problem of hard clay and lately no rain. What I did was plant rice which will germinate in water and try to build the grass edge up from the waterline.
One of the few times when Jack is dead wrong. Do not set up auto payments. With a CC it is not quite as bad because there are some protections but it can put you in a position where you have to decide between paying with your time, your money or the credit score you are trying to raise. Never never do it with any account that holds your money. The reason is that you are trusting the company to never make a mistake and over charge you. When they do it is easy to correct when they don’t have your money and impossible when they do. This mistake cost me about 1300.00. Ask yourself, do you trust your cell carrier?
Compaction around pond:
45° is steep. I’d terrace the slope.
The key is ground cover and vegetation, as Jack suggested. On the south slope, cranberries and thyme. At the top of the slope, Valerian, Beautyberry, Meadowsweet. At the bottom of the slope, chives and rushes. This mix of plants brings in lots of beneficial insects, and deter most pest insects. Beyond that, these plants all thrive near water, stabilize soil well, filter sediment, etc.
River rocks on the bottom of the pond are important. They are a sediment trap, so as materials like dirt and leaves do make it into the pond, they can sink to the bottom between the rocks where a slight current won’t disturb them and cloud the water. This keeps the water more stable, and provides habitat for creatures and microbes which will break down organic debris.
Cattails and rushes are a great addition to the water. They’ll take up metals (specifically iron) which tend to accumulate in ponds due to falling leaves which contain trace amounts. They’re also good for light salt remediation which is a concern when there is soil running into the pond.
Clay in water can be good in small amounts. It bonds to other contaminants and drags it to the bottom. This is why it’s used to clarify wines and beers. Most still ponds go through periods where they get a little cloudy, and that’s actually part of the natural cleaning cycle. The important thing is “how cloudy” and “how frequently”. Too much can be a problem, but stopping this process all together means you will be dependent on external filtration. Your instincts about mulching are good, that should moderate runoff soil, but not stop it completely.
Construct a ring of rocks around the waterline to hold back mulch. Then light rain events won’t wash mulch into the water. It’s a non-issue unless the water level rises significantly, but that can be managed with an overflow point just below the rock line.
@ILW you said,
“45° is steep. I’d terrace the slope. ”
That is a big it depends, remember this is a pond, how long is that exposed area, 5 feet, 10 feet, he didn’t say.
How is the pond sealed, does it fill to this level at times, could terracing it break the seal?
Lots more in depends. But it is a good idea and perhaps this method would help, and it would avoid the risks of messing up the ponds seal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeDYPXpwvus&list=PLG9JbAw8DYJ9iwMrn7DBwL1v-XEHpTC4O&index=14
For the question on building credit:
I suggest pulling your credit report annually to keep up with what’s going on. I also recommend the Credit Karma app/website. Yes, they will try to get you to sign up for cards, and yes your email will get more junk mail for a few weeks after you sign up. But it is free and an awesome way to keep an eye on 2 of your credit reports. They don’t report all 3 but give a good picture of many criteria. They give you an estimated score for both bureaus, which I’ve heard is low compared to actual. They also show your credit factors – length of history, debt to limit ratio, payment status etc. I’ve been using it for about 6 months and have been able to close a couple accounts, pay down certain items and managed to raise my scores by almost 100 points.
For instance, I had no idea all these years that credit history is actually your average length of time all of your accounts have been open. I wish I had not been so anti-credit card in my 20’s and would have been able to get ahead of that category. The number of accounts also matters a lot. I did a lot of what Jack mentioned using personal loans. I did this as a teenager and also over the last few years when buying various large purchases in exactly the same manner. Make a couple payments so it reports good on your record and pay it off.
It updates weekly so I’ve been able to see more real time results of paying something off or down or closing an account and getting that satisfaction of making a positive impact.
The hardest one to fix for me is length of credit history. If you have a spouse or parent that has good credit and has an established card that has been open for many years, have them add you as an authorized user. You or they can cut up the card you’re issued so you don’t actually have access to the account, but it will show up on your report with good payment history, hopefully good balance to limit ratio and good length of time open.
Credit is a necessary evil, just make sure you manage like the snake it is.
I’ve been really please with being able to get weekly updates and watch my progress. It has also kept me from going overboard because I find myself contemplating how this purchase is going to affect my credit score.