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Episode-611- Listener Calls 2-24-11 — 31 Comments

  1. Pingback:Tweets that mention Survival Podcast Listener Calls 2-24-11 | The Survival Podcast -- Topsy.com

  2. Hi Jack, great show.

    Quick point: The Federal government of the United States is a liar. All treaties are fake, so let’s just ignore them. Acknowledge the the government is a notorious liar, state it plainly, ignore their promises as they do, and then do the right thing for yourself, your family, and your neighbors.

    Constitutionality doesn’t even figure in. The simple fact is that we are dealing with a habitual compulsive liar.

    Squiggles on a piece of paper locked away thousands of miles away are have no power over free people.

    Joy!

  3. Hi Jack, Regrading your interview with Paul tomorrow; I would like to ask him about burying logs in huglekultur and incorporating that stucture in a swale. I have 100 blueberry plants to go in this spring and am looking forward to renting an excavator. Thanks. Greg

    • @Greg, it will have to keep until the next interview as we have already recorded the show about an hour ago. The next one will all be about passive irrigation BTW.

  4. Hello Everyone,

    In terms of board games…if you aren’t a gamer, you might not be aware of the massive variety of games that exist today. Candyland, Monopoly and Sorry are not even close to representing the selection.

    Fantasy Flight Games, and Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) are just two companies that produce a wide variety of games. Some are really compact and have endless replay potential. They vary in complexity.

    They aren’t terribly cheap if you are used to a $15 kid’s game (some might be more like $30 to $100, but you can play them hundreds of times too.

  5. Jack, the game mentioned on the podcast question today was “Settlers of Catan” Here’s a good 8min video of how to play the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FURoYf5IXRA&feature=player_embedded#at=483

    I agree with you that most traditional American board games like Sorry, Parcheesi, Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, etc. have no strategic element and aren’t that much fun to play. European board games, on the other hand, are designed to emphasize strategy and also to make the game fun to play for everyone, not just the winner…like the last hour of a Monopoly game where only one person is having any fun.

    Along with Settlers of Catan, two other European Style boardgames are considered “gateway games” into the hobby are Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne.

    Ticket to Ride is a game where each player tries to build railroad connections between various US and Canada cities. Here’s a review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A90q3salKeI

    Carcassonne is named after the medieval French walled city. In this game players build cities, roads, farms, etc. by laying down one tile each turn. It’s a lot of fun. Here’s a review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH5O2E6XPqM&feature=related

    My wife and I really enjoy playing this type of board games. You get to spend time with friends and family drinking a beer and coming up with interesting strategies, they work when the power goes off, and can provide the best ratio of dollars spent per entertainment hours of any type of pastime. I’ve probably played at least 100 games each of the 3 games I’ve mentioned above. Also there are electronic versions of each of the three above you can play online or on xBox live.

    • I own settlers of catan and I love it… I’ve had it now for about 6 months. It’s not very well known in america

      • Actually Catan and it’s variants has been doing very well the last few years. There was a nice article in Wired maagazine HERE about Catan from a couple of years ago. Play this game with friends as it can get quite nasty.

        I’ve had “wood for sheep” for about six years now. 🙂
        — Drill

  6. Walnuts and Cedar are not used in Hugelkultur do to them being Allelopathic I believe.

    I also believe Gums (as in Eucalyptus sp.) have also been recorded to be Allelopathic.

    Allelopathic means a biological phenomenon by which an organism produces one or more biochemicals that influence the growth, survival, and reproduction of other organisms.

    In the case of trees, this is usually a negative thing, being that the chemicals that are released inhibit any plant growth around the area where the tree is growing.

    Usually this is maintained in the wood as far as I’m aware.

    • @Cactusdan, pretty much what Paul said, though he passed on the Gum Tree issue. I guess there ain’t many gums in Montana.

  7. Glad you like the Streamlight Jack!

    Know you’ve been busy as all get out and been wondering what you thought of it.

    I carry mine everywhere and have several backups – even in my bathrobe pocket.

    The LEO who told me about it used it to qualify while the rest of the guys were using 4D lights 🙂

    • @jakematic, I love it one of the best gear recommendations I have received from a listener, EVER.

  8. In addition to the pill case, I also thought of those mini “altoids” tins for mini carry.

  9. About the gas, could you place the gas can inside a cooler with a tight lid. Just a thought.

    • @Johnnie

      That seems like a recipe for a bomb. Gas fumes contained in a tight and small area.

  10. Jack,

    Just wanted to share an interesting success anecdote on large pond construction.

    My ex’s grandfather happens to own a fairly sizeable chunk of land near Athens, GA and wanted to add a pond or lake to the property so he could fish on his own land in addition to the hunting he already did. So, after talking with the appropriate folks at the County and State level, they determined that not only could he put in a lake, but as it would be beneficial for certain wildlife, he actually received a grant to do it.

    So, after survey, they determined which trees needed to go (he pushed over a number of the stumps to provide better places for the fish), so he had a lumber company come out and pay him to take the trees. All the cost of the actual work was covered by the grant money. He actually made money putting in a lake and stocking it (the fish provided food for the wildlife mentioned earlier).

    They told him it would take 5 years to fill. That spring, there were floods in the area, and the lake filled in a single season.

    Sorry for the ‘book’ but it’s an amusing story that I wanted to share, and may help some folks out.

  11. Hey Jack,

    A great game, assuming you can find it, is a book based game called “Ace of Aces”. It consists of two books, one for each person, and you decide on the flying maneuver you will take, as does the other, and then turn to the page indicated, and the one who ends up in the crosshairs is the loser. There a couple websites devoted to it,but I haven’t found one a set for sale, but I always liked that game when I was young.

    I also have an answer for the watch thing, in the permaculture video, it’s subtle but effective. And once you know what it is it makes sense. It is to show that he is going to train to standard and not train to time. that is to say he will stay until everyone gets the information they need rather than only being there until the designated time.

  12. I agree with Dave Galloway on all three games. I would throw the card game “Bang!” into the mix since it can be play with as few as 3 players, not my favorite option, all the way up to 8 players and there are some expansion packs out there that can be added to throw in some variability. Where I work at 6 other coworkers and I play “Bang!” once a week during our 30-minute lunch break and we rarely go over the allowed time.

    On the subject of expansions “Carsasonne” has several really good ones that increase the replayable fun for this game.

  13. I love the sreamlight stylus pro and found the stylus pro micro version at a local gun store.It’s a single cell version of the stylus pro so it’s shorter and easier to carry. It has the same intensity as it’s big brother so it’s going to have a shorter run time, still has a good run time though so I don’t mind the trade off. Absolutely use quality batteries in these or you will find the switch mechanism ruined by corrosion. This happened to me with a rayovac brand battery in about two weeks. I tried to clean it out but the damage was already done and the switch is now too finicky to rely on.

    The straight stylus is a great penlight but is less intense and uses the harder to find AAAA battery. Oddly, the only place I have found the 4A battery locally was at Walgreen’s but I’m sure that a battery store has them as well. I showed my firefighter/paramedic brother in law the stylus and he got one to replace the cheap penlights his department supplies.

    My love of StreamLight started with the TLR-1 weapon light. I use it on my shotgun and I highly recommend it. If you’re into light/laser combos the TLR-2 would be a good addition to the AR platform.

  14. THANK YOU AGAIN JACK!!!

    Your EDC links were a great help. The wife and I were both in need of new EDC flashlights and that Streamlight fit our bill perfectly! We also got to ditch our Altoid box fire kits, switching them out to the magnesium striker and pill bottles you use. The old kits now live permanently in our BOBs. These items helped to lighten our EDC load quite a bit!

    You should maybe consider carrying a “Jack Pack” EDC kit on the gearsite?

    Anyway, thanks again man! Much appreciated!

  15. RE: Games

    Cards are a small, light, excellent game for a BOB. I would use decks with important information on them, like wild edibles info or survival info. I know there are survival, urban survival, and wild edible playing cards. Cards with additional info on them will give you more value over the regular blue or red decks.

  16. I have found a Czech 5 liter(1.3 gal) jerry can at my local army surplus store. Nice and small…at like $15.

  17. Agree with the J man on the Streamlight Microstream, the single-AAA version of the flashlight Jack is talking about. It fits beautifully in the back of a watch pocket in blue jeans, and nestles right in with my knife that’s clipped into the side pocket just below. Talk about forgetting it’s there! You aren’t gonna blind an intruder with one of these, but for EDC they’re really hard to beat. Will never be without mine now, and put one in the wife’s purse too.

  18. For an EDC multi-tool, I highly recommend the Leatherman Crunch, which features the locking pliers. Those who build and repair stuff will know how handy a third hand can be, and how nicely a pair of vice-grips can fill that role… with the Crunch you always have vice-grips handy, and since it’s narrow-jawed, it works quite well as a needle-nose plier too. Needle-nose pliers with ass, how can you go wrong. Those who need itty-bitty scissors in their multi-tool might not like it, though.

  19. This product wouldn’t be good for storing extra gas but looks like it would be pretty useful if you ever ran out. Never used one but I’m thinking about getting one for my wife’s car.

    http://itzagascan.com/