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Episode-1593- Listener Calls for 6-18-15

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Join Me Today as I Answer Your eMails

Today on The Survival Podcast I take your calls to 866-65-THINK

Today on The Survival Podcast I take your calls on open carry, ginseng, gold, irrigation, assclowns, worms, swales, pruning, war, vehicle prepping  and more.

We have officially made the move for listener call in shows from Friday to Thursday and will from this point forward be doing expert council stand alone shows on Friday, Friday Friday.

Remember to be on a show like this one just pick up your phone and call 866-65-THINK. The best way to improve your chances of being on the air is ask your question or make your point up front, then provide details.

Also please do your best to call from a quiet area with a good connection and speak up so you can be well heard.

While I can’t put all calls on the air but I do my best to get as many of them on as I can.

Join Me Today As I Respond to Your Calls and Discuss…

  • Carry open or carry concealed, when, where and why
  • Thoughts on growing ginseng
  • More on the Texas Gold Depository
  • Using a pond pump for irrigation
  • Was Office Space the first main stream mention of “assclown”
  • Thoughts on “stocking worms”
  • Swales in sandy soil, YES they do work there, in some ways better
  • Pruning newly planted apple trees
  • The effect of 15 years of war on our current youth
  • Equipping your vehicle for everyday emergencies

Resources for today’s show…

Bob Wells Plant of the Week –

NAVAHO THORNLESS BLACKBERRY – Adaptable from zone 6 to zone 9. This is a “self-supported” cane fruit so it needs no trellis and is late producing, extending the blackberry season to July or August depending on your climate.

Since it is a late blooming plant, you don’t have to worry about losing your crop to a late frost. Yields are high with large sweet berries and above all it is thornless and great tasting.

Find this plant and more at BobWellsNursery.Com – Bob Wells Nursery specializes in edible landscape plants and trees including: Fruit Trees, Berry Plants, Vine Fruit, Nut Trees, as well as the hard to find Specialty Trees. Find this plant and more at BobWellsNursery.com

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 (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.

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Comments

Episode-1593- Listener Calls for 6-18-15 — 38 Comments

  1. Assclowns! Yea!
    I miss the Jetta days. Caught onto you episode 275.
    When I get a job I will renew my TSP subscription.
    Thanks for all you do; Valiant Service to America, making the world a better place.
    Well done Sir.

  2. Great show as usual. Regarding vehicle prep, I didn’t hear you mention two very essential items: toilet paper, and depending on who the family is comprised of, extra feminine hygiene products. Being without either of those when they become necessary can cause hours to be wasted on a detour to go deal with the issues, or pretty much ruin a trip.

    I also have a jump starter battery instead of jumper cables (but having both is probably better). Having a battery go dead with no one around to help is not uncommon in this rural area. I set a Google calendar event to repeat once every 3 months to recharge each car’s jump starter battery. (And I’ve used them, they work.)

    I do have one of those cheap $10 tire pumps from Walmart, but it actually works great and I’m usually using it once every few months for those inevitable slow leaks that keep happening. It’s at least 15 years old by now. I’m not sure how to be sure a pump is a good one except maybe look for Amazon reviews. A pump I had before that for $10 did indeed suck and would take 30 minutes to put 5lbs of pressure into the tire…. that’s no good, it needs to do it in 5 minutes or so.

    • Well first it was an abbreviated answer.

      That said, if you have a knife you can cut your old drawers off and use those.

      If you need pads or pons, you are on your own. Women need to make this part of their every day kit. I should be no more expected to be responsible for carrying a pad then I expect a woman to be responsible for carrying a knife for me or say my jock itch ointment. LOL

      • Yes of course women have more needs than men do.
        I have several knives purchased from Ron and Karen Hood. I recommend you have Karen on as a guest, she is awesome. She could well advise women about what to pack and she would be a fascinating Guest on your podcast. How are the ducks doing?

        • Karen like many others who people say they want on the show was told LONG AGO, fill out the form. There is no secret door to getting on TSP if you have something interesting to say we have you on but ALL MUST PASS THE TRIALS OF THE GUEST FORM, MUHAHAHAHA

    • LOL true. But, I still keep finding myself needing to make sure those feminine things are with us, ever since we were 4 hours away in northern Maine and an “accident” happened and my wife is trying to wear my way-too-big-for-her backup pants from the emergency kit in back, which of course looks awful and that means we can’t get out of the truck anymore and do anything because we’ll be seen in public.

      Oh yeah, just thought of two more items but they aren’t kept in the truck permanently: water bottles, and a bag of nuts. If we were better at eating paleo reliably, the nuts wouldn’t be as necessary. Sometimes an unexpected delay in eating can happen with no quick way to get food, then the shakes can start happening. So, nuts.

      • HA!
        Sorry… I do not intend to laugh at your wife but the pants thing is hilarious.

        • Oh no problem at all. I’ve had worse things happen that my emergency kit in the truck has helped with. The shart, for one thing, so the spare briefs come in handy. And, for some reason I am quite a klutz and have managed to fall into the brook on our rural property not once, not twice, but three times. I say “self, I can jump that, it’s just 3 feet across” only to find myself fallen over backwards in it completely submerged, freezing and soaked in the middle of the woods. So, the extra change of clothes has come in handy many times.

  3. Ginseng, get the book Farming in the Woods. It discusses various things you can grow, what methods work well, costs, potential income etc. You will find some great info on Ginseng including a evaluation for both northern and mid-Altantic woods which helps you know if your plot has a chance at growing ginseng such as indicator species, slope, direction of slope, how often you visit your site, etc. In a bug out location, you chance someone digging up your ginseng before you. Also one grower in an ideal location, had mice wipe out half of his crop, old enough to harvest but he was going very long term. He harvested $150k then before he lost the rest.
    In most states there is a time and size you are allowed to harvest and you must sell to a licensed ginseng dealer.

    • $150k of ginseng? Wow! I’m suddenly pondering this as a potential way to provide supplemental income during retirement. I have rural acreage in Maine (mostly hardwood), I wonder how it would do there. Assuming it would do okay, my main issues would be deer (so would need to fence it, giving away to passerby that something of interest is in there), and hunters. Although, the land is huge and hunters don’t venture far from the logging roads.

  4. Hi Survivor,
    Jack is correct: you can grow ginseng anywhere it will grow; collecting from the wild is limited or prohibited. Check your state. I haven’t grown it myself but I have seen a woodland nursery for doing so. There’s a man named Bob Beyfuss who has studied what is required for ginseng to grow wild, which it can almost anyplace in the east that has its special conditions: 70% shade, north slope, well drained, and near “indicator species” like sugar maple, jack-in-the-pulpit, mayapple and maidenhair fern. If this sounds like your place, get the book “Farming the Woods” by Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel. It tells a lot more about this and other forest medicinals. Jack, I think you’d really like this book,even though it’s more geared to the east.
    Hope this helps. Btw, it’s ginseng with a soft g, like gin.
    😉

    • (That question was originally from Surfivor in Maine, right?) I have north slope, sugar maple trees (not sure what the rest are), some places well drained (most of it’s wet). I’ll check out that book, it could be useful. Thanks!

      • Hi, I haven’t listened to the show yet as I am on this cheapo mobile network at the moment and downloading is slow and costly. Anyway, I had done a little research and watched some videos about ginseng the other day. It does seem like there are some risks involved with deer, other humans, mice and all. There is wild ginseng, simulated wild, and cultivated. Apparently the buyers can pick out the quality very easily based on the appearance as the cultivated type does not nearly bring in much of the higher prices. That types is grown in fields under artificial shade. The Chinese believe that ginseng that has to fight other plants for nutrients in a natural setting produces better medicinal and it’s appearance is different and easy to tell. I think if you are going to grow some, you may need to keep it kind of a secret; but if you like to chat and discuss things that may not be easy. I have some slopes in Maine facing kind of north west, but I think it can grow in other types of locations but it can’t be very wet from what I read. Ginseng does or can be grown in Maine as I believe that is part of it’s natural range ..

        illegal harvest of ginseng is considered a serious problem:
        http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/09/28/ginseng-diggers-take-to-woods-as-prices-soar/

        “The price of wild ginseng roots has climbed in the last decade. Now domestic buyers pay $500 to $600 per pound compared with about $50 per pound of cultivated roots. Law enforcement officials say the prices have pushed people looking for quick money into the woods.”

        I watched a video where a guy sowed ginseng seed in 100 square foot area. This takes about 1 ounce of seed (500 seeds) and the guy said he estimates only 20% of the seeds will take. 1 once of seed looks like about $30 worth. You can also buy 2 or 3 year old rootlets.

        I think I would want to plant between 20-50 seeds in different areas rather than all of it in one spot. Then I could get an idea how each of those spots is working and figure where to plant more. If you have a whole bunch in one spot then it may be more obvious what it is and even maybe more appealing to wildlife. If someone comes along and sees plants out in the woods planted in rows, that is the most obvious give away.

        I am 53 years old and ginseng can take 5-10 years or more, but who knows if I may or may not live to 75 or 80 .. I think it may be a little like playing the lottery or other types of investments but seems interesting and does have some potential, but you could also lose out I guess ..

        This also brings other considerations into what woods to cut to get some sunlight and what to leave for shade. I have close to 11 acres. It is a mix of hardwoods, conifers in some areas, a large poplar stand, sugar maples, a few oak, lots of birch, lots of white cedar and at least 30% of the land is kind of wet (some seasonally) but other areas are not ..

        I have some blueberry that is doing better this year in an area that gets very wet in the spring but it has been a drier year ..

        This book “farming in the woods” I believe covers alot of topics besides ginseng, there are some other books I saw that are either exclusively on ginseng or some that are ginseng/goldenseal etc

    • I did hear about jack-in-the-pulpit and have seen that in the area where my camp is. Alot of the other indicators I am not familiar with such as “rattlesnake fern”, some of that stuff must be southern.

      I saw you can buy a pack of 20 2 year old ginseng rootlets for about $50 .. many states require that roots must be at least 5 years old to be sold. The same site sells 20 5 year old rootlets for $116 so if they survive and grow they increase in value every year ..

      The story about the mice surprises me a little, is it possible there was too much growing in one area ? Would mice go for ginseng any more than other types of roots ?

  6. @going Galt:
    I keep spare underwear in my car trunk. Unfortunately I don’t have a girlfriend in my trunk. Here’s how to know who your best friend is: Lock your wife and your dog in the trunk for 3 hours. When you open the trunk, guess which one is glad to see you. HA!

  7. Just noticed the “Plant of the week”. It’s quite a bit hardier than listed in the description.

    The Navajo Blackberry is growing and fruiting in Zone 5a (-17°F) with no special treatment (Low, Open field, shallow mulch, no hilling in winter). It’s one of the few varieties sold by local nurseries here.

  8. Wow.. Spooky timing. I was just pondering a similar water pump solution myself, but in my case to drain the kiddie pool without wasting the water or spending a lot of time trying to do it with a watering can.

  9. Jack,

    Though it is true, you are not responsible for the life changes and events of your listeners, your presents and availability presents information (yes as you said) that many of us wouldn’t have heard, or in the context you presented it in.

    Being stuck in a way of thinking, while largely force-fed by the media, is also the lack of mental patterns, (educational system sucks) that aren’t explored until you clear away the taboo, or shed light on it. Even a life-long rebel ( in all the wrong ways) can receive a good kick in the “assumption” of how their life should be. I’m not saying do what you do physically, or follow your path to Liberty. I’m saying you teach us to look at our motivation triggers, if they are lacking, find new triggers or modify the ones we have so they work.

    Purpose is tricky, having a spouse, children, and all the trappings makes purpose a little clearer for most. But for those of us who do not have those things purpose is a difficult and time consuming game of trial and error, you give us clues of where to look, you also highlight some of the pro’s and con’s of a path one might take in a realistic and practical manner, so those of us who are intrinsically dreamers have some form of reality backdrop to access before we get stupid. — Thank you!

    I really needed to hear the “bug out info” for a vehicle. Do you have those links somewhere? I’ve heard some of your bug-out info in other shows but I’ve only been listening to you for about 8 mos. haven’t had a chance to listen to all the back show’s yet, but I am working on them.

    Evelyn

  11. Cryptozoic,
    1) … or in the context you present in your podcasts.
    2) … or shed light on the subject.
    and for good measure,
    3) … for most people.
    Thank you, nothing like real world experience. Do be careful where you show your OCD though, people really like to mess with you guy’s.

    Really though, thank you
    Evelyn

  12. Jack,
    You mentioned in the podcast something organic to spray on trees to protect them. I was out working in the garden and didn’t catch the name. Can you list what it is and where to find it? Thanks for the wonderful podcasts!

  13. @Evylyn :
    OCD: Guilty as charged. But sometimes it is an asset, in that attention to detail is important on the job. Please pardon my literacy, I have been reading books for the last 50 years…. since I was 10. My Mom turned me onto reading.

    I do not understand 1 and 2 but I get #3.
    I have quite a bit of real world experience. From getting a paper route when I was 10, Fuller Brush Man, working at a drive through dairy in my teens, USAF cop for 4 years making Las Vegas NV (tough Duty but someone had to do it 😉
    safe for Democracy, 22 years self employment fixing apartments in really bad ‘hoods, 12 years of class A Driver, 18 wheelers across 45 States. Yea, I’ve been around. Not to mention being married twice and having 3 sons who are adults now.

    That’s my resume.
    Sometimes attention to detail works.

  14. Jack, thanks for your answers to the car prepping question! Perfect timing: I’m driving from VA, USA to Montreal, Canada in another month to hang out with Stefan Sobkowiak and it was on my list to search your site and episodes for just this sort of thing. Thanks, man!

  15. Another easy thing to add to a vehicle kit, Plumbers Putty. Add putty to any leak wrap it in duct or gaffers tape maybe add a bit of mechanics wire for some structure and you are good to go.

    • Bcudda,

      That stuff is great! I had the opportunity to use it one rainy day. Actually “opportunity” is the wrong word, that stuff was a necessity.
      I started to do white lettering on a black wall, had the pattern finished and was half-way through the lettering when the sky opened up drenching everything in a hard fast downpour and caused the fresh paint to run, only the first line was dry enough to withstand the water. It was sunny when I started, not a cloud in the sky.
      I couldn’t leave the wall all streaked like that, and the rain wouldn’t quit.
      I was undaunted though; I had been experimenting with faux surfaces recreating stucco was an easy one for me using polystyrene insulation boards and latex paint. I needed 3- 4′ x 8′ panels to fit the framed wall I was working on, good thing the stuff was cheap. I was up all night making a simplified version of the sign I was putting on the wall, lighter on copy and casual lettering. I got it done by 5 am and it was dry by 7 am, and it was still raining.
      I grabbed my trusty roll of Duct Tape, loaded the panels in the truck and headed to the job. Another little problem, no one wanted to work in the rain with me, I wasn’t happy but I started putting the panels up… but they wouldn’t stick. I couldn’t get the stucco dry enough, and the tape didn’t like sticking to foam, I thought the rain beat me for a minute.
      Refusing to give up I went to my favorite hardware store (they’re gone now) and told them my predicament and ask if they had something that would work. At first they couldn’t think of anything, then I ask what do plumbers use if everything is wet, they weren’t sure, but handed me a small brick of what seemed like dark gray clay, I can’t even remember the name of it and it’s not on hand at the moment. But the package said it was guaranteed to stick to wet surfaces so I bought it. The first little dab about 1″ round held, then the next, I was so giddy; the panels went up lickety-split without a helper.
      When I was done, drenched and freezing I went back to tell the hardware folks how well it worked and thank them profusely.
      I really miss that hardware store. The new owners messed it up beyond usefulness, it’s no better than Ace or Aco now, and they just don’t have the integrity to carry the odd stuff people need to make things work.

      Bcudda, I am so glad you mentioned it, it’s been a very long time since I thought about that challenge, and how good it felt to get the job done.

      That plumbers putty is bona-fide survival gear!!!

      Evelyn

    • Bcudda, TSP listeners, and Jack,

      I am making a correction to my comment on the Plumbers Putty. I had asked what plumbers use but what the guy handed me was “GB Duct Seal” Model #DS-130 1 lb. Pug Duct Seal GB Electrical Milwaukee, WI. Yes plumbers putty is not so sticky so I’m thinking you all are either scratching your heads in confusion or shaking your heads at my memory recall skills.

      Evelyn

      PS: It’s another good thing to add to a vehicle kit though.

  16. Jack, A few shows ago, a caller talked about adding a tag line to websites, emails, business cards, etc. to indicate they were part of this group and an indicator that they were a good or trustworthy guy or something like that. I propose using the phrase, “Getting Shit Done”. This is a phrase you use and the attitude you promote. I am trying to implement that ideal in everything I do. I even considered adding that to my farm business card and thought maybe some folks would ‘get it’ or at least it would be a good indicator to them of my philosophy of doing business. Anyway, that is what I would propose.

  17. Cryptozoic,

    When did hiring managers start accepting such scantily clad job descriptions on a resume?

    1) “in”, is the preposition, 2) “it” really isn’t a preposition, it”s a pronoun, but it was just kind of hanging out there without a clear subject. The word “most” isn’t one either it’s actually a pronoun too, just acting like a preposition in this case.

    If I missed one please point it out.

    Evelyn

  18. Jack,

    You mentioned Maitake. I got 6 thick oak logs that where about 2.5 feet long after the utilities cut them last January. I inoculated these with Maitake from fungi perfecti. Growing Maitake is considered difficult. I could mention many details and challenges I have had with oysters and shiitake. I have had some successes with those. I have gotten some mixed info from a couple different sources on Maitake and have tried to theorize what that means .. Anyway, I could send an email to the “question for Jack” possibly and go into details of what I have found .. otherwise I am not sure I want to go into all the details here

    • Actually they should do VERY good for you dude. They are not really difficult they just require a specific climate, but that happens to be the one you live in.

    • Paul Stamets says Maitake is resistant to other types of unwanted mushrooms and fungi since it is native. He recommends burying them in the ground after they have been inoculated and allowed to sit for a few months. Burying in the ground apparently is similar to how a stump would be.

      Field and Forest says the only way they know how to grow Maitake is to sterilize the log in a giant pressure cooker and then use the totem method to inoculate with sawdust spawn and grow them in a plastic bag. They claim Maitake is susceptible to invasion by other species of fungi. That last statement seems to conflict a bit with what Paul Stamets said. I did notice if I left a small bag of Maitake plugs in the side room that is around 50 degrees in the winter, it eventually did develop some green mold in some areas; however the Maitake spawn was still in there and looked a solid white. I speculated that perhaps other fungi can invade the same space but perhaps the Maitake still will grow. Otherwise I can’t reconcile the two different statements. I meant to leave that bag around outside for awhile and study it, but I can’t remember where I put it.

      Anyway, what I did is I kept the Maitake inoculated logs in garbage bags and in April I moved them outside; however when the warm weather hit, I think condensation built up in the log since they where in bags. This caused alot of small black mushrooms to grow on the logs. I figured that if I buried the logs so that they where just under the surface, perhaps that environment would advantage the Maitake over the other fungi, but I am not sure; but that is what I did.

      I am also not sure if some mushrooms do better in deeper dark shade or more of a mixed lighter shade.

      Maitake can sell for $20 a pound and there is less info on Maitake growing. Paul Stamets book rates it as a somewhat difficult mushroom to grow compared to his rating of oysters and shiitake

  19. Jack, also maybe you would want to get Paul Stamets or someone on the show some day to discuss Maitake cultivation ..

  20. The caller with the hot tub. If the hot tub works but you are just not using it why not repurpose the pump that came with the unit? It should move plenty of water for you.

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