Comments

Episode-988- Listener Calls for 9-28-12 — 45 Comments

  1. Jack, or anybody else looking for a business podcast along the lines of 5MWJ, check out the Foolish Adventure podcast. It’s similar in that it’s about establishing independence through internet business. They have good info about marketing and technical stuff, and the interviews are great inspiration/motivation.

  2. Yes if you don’t take the time to learn about finance you will get stuck making single digit returns that don’t keep up with inflation or earn even less. The system is setup up that way. They tell us that it is all about reducing risk. Question who’s risk are they trying to reduce? You need to learn when it is time to buy an investment, hold it, and sell it. Dollar cost averaging can be used when buying into an investment position. Example: let’s say you want to buy 1000 shares of stock XYZ. You can dollar cost average into the position 200 shares at a time. If for some reason by the second purchase of 200 shares your position starts to go against you can closed out your position at that point in time reducing your overall loss.

  3. Atomic Starfish it was. Seeds from PepperJoe.com. For your listeners. Excellent customer service. One year I had three types that did not germinate, and I think it was my problem burying the seeds to deep and using a heavier potting soil instead of a seed starter soil. Pepper Joe replaced ALL the seeds, no questions asked. I’ve been buying from him since 2004. He is partnered with Penny’s tomatoes.

  4. I agree with the majority of what Jack says about financial advisors that “advise” people with less than $2 million in net worth. Ben Graham wrote a book titled “The Intelligent Investor” that is probably the best book to read.

  5. On the .22 handgun: I would stay away from the Walther P22. It’s a good little gun, great for training but it only likes high velocity ammo, CCI specifically. I fed mine lots of high quality stuff but it wasn’t hot enough to cycle the action on the slide properly and it would FTF on a very regular basis. After two letters and a nasty phone call, S&W bought mine back. While I have not bought one, I have a friend who has the Ruger SR22 and has many good things to say about it. The Mark II or III is a great gun, but very heavy. Some good carry handguns in the lower price range to consider: Ruger SR9/SR9C, Sig 2022 and CZ P-07 Duty. All of these can be had in the $400 price range. I also like Jacks idea of a Glock and .22 conversion. But for the cost, I would prefer two handguns.

    • @Darby hey can you send me an audio response next week to the callers question on livestock I mentioned you in when I answered it?

    • I found myself in a similar situation as the caller looking for his first handgun a few months ago. I was debating between the GSG 1911, Walther P22, and Ruger SR22. I ended up going with the Ruger SR22 and am very glad I did. I don’t think I’ve put more than a few hundred rounds through it, but I’ve had very few issues with it and bulk ammo goes through it fine. The SR22 is pretty small in my hands, but it fit’s my girlfriend’s hands perfectly and has gotten her interested in shooting.

      It just so happens that I was planning to purchase a Glock 19 Saturday so I’m glad Uncle Jack had good things to say about them. Great show today!

      • Jack if you choose to go with a Sig handgun I would disagree with choosing the Sig Mosquito unless you benefit from the slightly smaller frame. All the Sig P series handguns (P220, P226, and P229) can be purchased in a “classic” model that has a full size frame with a 22lr slide, about $500. Then, you can purchase the 9mm, .40, or .45 (depending on the model) if you are ready to upgrade to a larger caliber, about $300. If you get the larger caliber Sig handgun it will cost about $750. So by going with the “classic” model first then get the larger caliber conversion kit you would essentially get the larger caliber handgun, and for $100 more be able to practice with the 22lr on the identical gun. Not a cheap route, but if you like the Sig P series platform I think it is worth it.

        The only drawback I have found from the “Classic” model is there is no last shot hold open. It would be great to have, but not a deal breaker for me at least. My Sig P229 is a little picky with 22lr ammo. So far it does not like the 500+ round Federal bulk packs but is ok with the smaller Federal bulk packs. Remington and Winchester bulk packs work just fine.

    • The Glock 19/ Advantage Arms 22 conversion is a brilliant solution. Only downside is that it’s so popular that AA is running an average of 6-9 months wait time for the G19 conversion.

    • I don’t like the Ruger SR9. I like my husband’s Ruger 22 and don’t want a 45. So he picked out a SR9 for me. I especially don’t like the trigger pull and it just doesn’t feel right, and I shoot much better with his 1911 (.45). My SR9 also has a recall of the trigger as it may go off if you drop it, something he told me yesterday, but that he hesitates to take it in, as it may make the trigger pull worse. He’d rather trade it in for something I would love, have no idea what that would be. He says not a 22.

    • There is a .22 made by Ruger which is basically a MkIII but it comes with a 1911 style grip a mag release. See here: http://ruger.com/products/2245/index.html
      It means you don’t need to deal with the European style mag release on the bottom of the MkIII’s grip that Jack mentioned which isn’t really that big of a deal actually.

      Much to my surprise Jack did not know about it since he is such a “God” on all subjects. I would not have called Jack out on his error in research and lack of knowledge had Jack not been such a jerk earlier. To quote Jack from his own snide comment on my post regarding a comment I had on the use of Stevia and it’s availability to the Paleo man/woman: “…Sometimes if we don’t want to look foolish in the day and age we might want to use this thing called GOOGLE before running our textual mouths. I mean it is one thing to look like and idiot it is another thing to do so in a venue where we don’t have to. …”.
      You should know your stuff better Jack!

      World be aware of Jack for he can not take an ounce of criticism regardless of what he claims.

      • I have the ruger mark III 22/45 and LOVE It.

        I can shoot over 500 rounds before it needs cleaning, it never malfunctions. The inserting of the mag on a tactical reload is a bit slow. and charging the slide is different from my combat Handguns, but other than that, its a great trainer.

        Doing malfunction drills with a 22 is difficult (type3 mostly).

        for $350 ish, the ruger mark3 is a great buy!

        Thomas

  6. To funny Jack when I use to go south to Alabama as my summer vacations on the farm way back in the day say some odd 40 years ago.. They would catch cat fish out of the pond nail them thru the head to a tree and clean the fish and throw the rest to the dogs and man did them dogs tear that up like it was the first meal they had in a long time LOL at first I was kinda blown away by it but the family did not have a allot of money and thats the kinda stuff the dogs got to eat.. Just a reference to a comment you made about what dogs got to eat in todays show, enjoyed it as always.. Cya Brent

    • But you’ve got to keep mice, etc away from the paper products. We’ve had paper Christmas decorations eaten. Moth balls or something for the clothing. etc.

  7. In the attic:
    Extra blankets
    Extra/seasonal clothes
    Books/learning materials that you have already read but want to save for when shtf.
    All of your extras you might want to save for a power outage like games for kids
    Your out of season hunting/fishing gear.

    Long term, can you insulate it and make it more usable?

  8. A few thoughts for the woman in North Carolina:

    Walter Jeffries has pigs and chickens on pasture together and they get along fine — confinement might be a problem though:

    http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2012/06/07/chickens-and-pigs/

    Jeffries also suggests keeping pigs outside in the winter (he’s in the Green Mountains of Vermont), in a spot where you would like to plant a future garden (or just more forage). Poke around his site — full of fantastic info on pasturing pigs (his pigs eat hay!).

    Paul Wheaton did a podcast “Raising Cattle Without Hay” about grazing through the winter:

    http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/1882-190-raise-cattle-without-hay/

    I wonder if your fields might be less damp in the winter if you left significant growth/forage on some? Just an idea.

    • We run our chickens turkeys pigs and alpacas together. So far no big problems. All the animals sleep together in the barn. Have one chicken that will sleep with the piglets. Sows don’t mind at all. Live in the very wet PNW on 5 ac 1/2 pasture 1/2 wooded. We don’t get a ton of snow every year but lots and lots of rain. If you want to PM me I would be more than happy to share what has worked and not worked for us.

      We have AGH (American Guinea Hogs) they have a very good temperament. Are very much like dogs and really enjoy being around people and other animals. They are still pigs so you always have to be aware as with any animal. I think if you find the right breed for what you want to do and how you want to do it things will work much much better.

  9. Glock 22LR conversion kit is a great thing to have.

    I have a kit, with a Glock 23 (40S&W), a Lone Wolf 40 to 9mm Conversion Barrel, and a 22 LR conversion kit. Running this setup, keeps things really Versailles.

  10. I just finished listening to this, and while there are many great things stated and points made there is one that I have issues with. You cannot buy a good bag of compost. There’s a very good reason for that.

    The simple reason is once you put compost into a sealed bag you kill what it is. You destroy the oxygen. Once the oxygen is gone from good compost you now have an anaerobic situation with the microbiology of what makes compost so beautiful and amazing.

    • If what you claim was true no one would bother or need to store food in vacuum sealed bags with O2 absorbers. Just because you read something somewhere doesn’t make it true, sorry but you are just wrong on this one.

  11. The reason food stores is because want the micro organisms dead in order to store. The reason compost doesn’t work is because you kill the micro organisms. They happen to be why we want compost, well at least good compost.

    Give The Soil Food Web a good read and learn what makes soil soil and not just dirt.

    • @nate you miss the point the reason we use O2 absorbers and vacuum seal bags is because a plain old loose plastic bag won’t prevent oxygen from entering it. I am sorry man but your premise is just nonsense, again just because someone wrote something down doesn’t make it true.

      Frankly man I guess you are new to the show? Are you really trying to lecture me on soil biology? Do yourself a favor, get Geoff Lawton’s DVD “Soils” it will blow you away and while it won’t solve this debate at least you will learn more then you know now from it.

      Your contention is also apparently that anaerobic composts would be bad to use, this is also nonsense. While a loose bag with MORE HOLES IN IT THEN YOU CAN COUNT, doesn’t create anything approaching an anaerobic environment, anaerobic doe not equal bad.

      For instance one of the most efficient uses of food waste isn’t direct composting but the production of bio gas, this is done anaerobically. When this is done we get both gas (energy) and compost (fertility) the compost left after the bio gas production is outstanding and rich. Once spread onto the soil it doesn’t really matter how it broke down because the BILLIONS of organisms per square inch colonize it at once anyway.

      Frankly this is what happened, someone wanted to sound smart. They took a true concept (plastic doesn’t breathe) and made an illogical assumption, that it would apply to compost, effectively killing the organisms in it. You read it and now repeat it as dogma. Because you read it in a book it had perceived authority, because it made sense in a way you made it part of your belief system. Now when presented with facts that are counter to it you cling to it.

      Again

      1. A plastic bag used to transport compost is anything but air tight, go look at a store and you will see what I mean.

      2. Anaerobic compost is used with great effect anyway.

      3. Soil biology is adaptive to the environment. Meaning even if you sterilized composts say with heat of say 200 degrees (higher then the compost process itself) the compost would become active with the existing soil biology within days of being added.

      Please stop believing crap just because some guy with a few letters after his name says so. Critically analyze things like this, this claim simply doesn’t pass even a very cursory analysis.

  12. I was listening to a podcast by Chris Martenson (he appeared on episode 515 of TSP) called Featured Voices and on the most recent episode he interviews a couple of financial advisors who seem to think out of the box.

  13. OK–I’ve seen people post stuff like this before, but now it’s my turn: Jack, HTF do you manage to hit on things currently going on in our heads?? I’ve been toying with a .22 conversion for the Glock 23 and started researching it beginning of last week…you kill me!

  14. There are some important points that need to be mentioned regarding the use of treated sewage in commercially available compost.

    I’m a professional engineer and work F/T managing construction projects for NYC water treatment and supply. My last assignment and current one have been on wastewater treatment plants. As part of the treatment process, the “sludge” that contains most human waste is removed from the influent (sludge dewatering) prior to the wastewater being sent through the rest of the plant for treatment and discharge. The way that the sludge is removed is by mixing it with polymers and other chemicals, including Ferric Chloride (FeCl). This is done because it helps to solidify the elements of the sludge, enabling it to be mechanically separated from the rest of the waste water and trucked off-site.

    This is not the same as humanure, which is really just pure human waste without any chemical inputs, allowed to go through the full cycle of high-temperature decomposition. I can’t say for certain one way or the other if the polymers and other chemicals used in the sludge dewatering process pose significant health concerns or are mostly inert, but in any event it’s probably something that’s good to be aware of. Personally I would not use any compost containing wastewater treatment sludge but have plans to begin humanure composting (in line with the guidelines outlined by Joe Jenkins in “The Humanure Handbook”) for use on my fruit trees and “fodder” plants.

    Thanks for the show, Jack, and keep up the great work!

  15. I keep hogs, cows, goats, and chickens together and they pastured them all together. I now have the hogs separated, due to one cow that didn’t want the boar sniffing her baby and it got ugly in a hurry. Anyhow, my other two cows had no problems calving and raising calves among the hogs. The trouble we had was when we tried to put them back together, the hogs got full of themselves and kept the cows from the hay, whereas before, they had been bossed by the cows. I’m not sure why this dynamic changed, but it did, and we’ve had to separate the hogs and cows now.

    I raise the American Guinea hogs and they are very gentle and have not eaten any of my chickens. In fact, my hens get up on their back and pick off any extra food that ends up on their heads. They eat out of the same trough (because the chickens are thieves) without problems.

    I think the pullets the caller is raising through the winter are probably layers so she’ll have some layers in the spring.

    My dad said when he was a boy, they liked to have the chickens follow the cows, and the pigs follow the chickens. So maybe layering your grazing would fix the pasturing question.

    I agree with Jack in keeping fewer numbers through the winter. In my barn, we have separate stalls that the hogs and goats can go into that the cows cannot get in. This gives the smaller animals a chance to get away from the cows if they choose. Often, though, we would have hogs and goats and cows snuggled up together on winter nights. If you have plenty of rafters for the chickens to get away and access for them to get out and forage during the nicer winter days, I think you’ll be fine. As with anything, once you do it, you’ll see improvements you can make.

    Feel free to e-mail or call me if you’d like to talk about my experiences. I do this on 1.5 acres.

  16. I love, love, love my Sig mosquito! I got in April. It’s a little heavy in the hand but you can go out and shoot 200 rounds, like I did last Friday, and not think twice about what it costs ($11-12). I do recommend using the CCI Mini mag ammunition or their bulk tactical .22 long rifle rounds. LOVE IT!

  17. Thanks for the answer, Jack – I was kinda thinking that might be your response. Nobody ever accused me of biting off too little, so I guess it’s time to start educating myself.

    Any suggestions for good beginner resources, either on the mechanics of simply buying/selling/holding paper assets (I don’t want to go to all physical held commodities ust yet) or on investment strategy?

  18. Jack mentioned podcasts and he doen’t listen to many. He also mentioned investing.

    These people from out in California talked about defensive investing on one of their recent podcasts by putting in trailing stops. Jack might be interested in checking this out to see if he would like the podcasts or not.

    http://www.investtalk.com/radioshowarchives.asp

  19. Hi y’all. I’ve been a quiet listener of the show for about a year now, posted once, never a comment, but thought I’d throw in 2 cents about the BARF “Bones And Raw Food” diet for dogs.

    I brought up the subject of raw vs. cooked bones for dogs with my Vet recently, to see what he had to say about the whole cooked=brittle bones dangerous splinters vs. soft bones=safe for dogs.

    He pointed out 2 outbreaks of salmonella at our local hospitals in the last year: both were traced back to outside (Portuguese immigrants) hired cleaning staff (we have a large Portuguese immigrant community in our region).

    Okay, what’s that got to do with my question I asked.

    Seems that Portuguese Water Dog owner/breeders believe that the “BARF” diet is best (closest to nature) for dogs and most of the adhere to it, not understanding that raw food from our grocery stores is a lot different than an animal that has just been caught and killed live and then fed to, or caught live by and eaten by, the dog itself.

    Dogs contract and pass along salmonella from factory processed meats to their offspring and handlers. It got so bad that he openly refused to treat anymore PWDogs after seeing a 10 day old puppy oozing the bacterial infection from every available office – 99% likely transmission from Bitch’s milk. He thought he was putting his staff and other “patients” at risk by treating this breed that stubbornly sticks to the BARF diet in spite of all his warnings. Fair enough???

    In fact, my Vet. felt it was no problem for a dog to eat a “fresh kill.” Raw _factory_processed_meats, however, are an extremely risky gamble. Made sense to me. I never thought of it that way. Have you?

    Not to pick on immigrants or Portuguese people or PWDog owners, I’m just pointing out that the chain of events leading to the outbreak of Salmonella in a hospital by someone who owned PWDogs and practised the BARF diet was ironically hired TO CLEAN the hospital … is too convincing an argument.

    KevinCanuck

  20. RE — 22 Gun Choice:
    My first gun was a .22 Buckmark. I bought it for the same reason that many people by a 22 as a first gun — it is easy and cheap to shoot.

    Do not make the same mistake. Hind sight being 20/20 I would have bought my second gun (Springfield XD 9mm Standard) first. Why? Because eventually you will buy a gun in a defensive caliber, so why not start training with the gun you will eventually use from day one.

    Here are the numbers:
    Buckmark $299 + $26 tax = $325
    2 bricks of .22 ammo: $40
    Out the door price: $365
    My suggestion, get a 9mm as a first gun because it’s a good defensive caliber and the cheapest to shoot. Use the $365 above to buy 9mm range ammo and practice. You can get about 2000 9mm rounds for $365. And you’ll be fairly proficient with your 9mm after 2000 rounds.
    Contrary to popular belief, I consider a 22 hand gun and advanced pistolero’s weapon. Get your 22 after you master a defensive caliber and then get it for deep concealment, preferably in a revolver so as to not leave brass behind.

  21. I want to mention a caution about attic storage. Roof trusses (unless you get ones designed for it) are comparatively weak in the direction of downward force on the bottom board (the cord) of the triangle. The main purpose of that board is to prevent the triangle formed by the truss from spreading. The load bearing is the top parts of the truss where the roof is attached. Of course they are strong enough to hold you up and your ceiling, but they have a much lower dead weight carrying capacity than a floor. So comments like paper products, some blankets and clothing are OK, but I would be very careful about high density items like water. I know someone that put enough hanging clothes on the bottom of a truss in a garage to deflect it.