Episode-637- Listener Calls 4-1-11
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Well once again we have made it past another week and it is Friday again. Friday is one of my favorite days, not because it ushers in the weekend as I love what I do but really because my Friday shows are all about you. Today we take your calls to 866-65-THINK and we get to hear from the audience with questions, comments and commentary.
Today we take your questions on debt, nuclear preparations, economics, military service, buying a home, drug addicts during a SHTF and more.
Join Me Today as we Discuss…
- Setting priority paying debt out of college
- Deciding when to buy a first home
- Dealing with drug addicts during a shit hit the fan
- What problems are there with tilling your garden
- Thoughts on storing salt as part of your preps
- Dealing with dogs and your back yard garden
- Considering the military for your people today
- Will a government shut down mean our military won’t get paid
- More on nuclear prep and the Japanese crisis
- A listener recommends an old audio book, “The Death of Grass”
- How to reuse potting soil
- More info on nutrition from auquaponicly grown plants
- Killing off poison ivy with boiling water
Resources for Today’s Show
- Members Support Brigade
- TSP Gear Shop
- Join Our Forum
- Western Botanicals – (sponsor of the day)
- University of the Virgin Islands Info on Aquaponics
- Knife Kits – (sponsor of the day)
- The Backwards Beekeeper
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.
Some KI selling for $1 on EBay , low mg but makes a good suppliment.
More options for reusing soil from potted plants.
1. Solarization; dump out in an area away from main garden, break it up, water it well, cover with clear plastic, well secured on all sides, and let the sun have at it. There’s lots of info on solarization on the web.
2. Take part of the soil out if the pot and replace it with fresh, adding amendments like compost, aged manure, minerals, etc.
@Margaret
I live in a colder climate, this is something I wish to do now. My greenhouse will get to +30c on a sunny day with outside temps around +5 (40F?)
So the soil is somewhat warm, but my greenhouse is not big enough to spread soil out (8×8) in the manner you suggest.
Have not listened to Jack’s response yet, so I may have to break down and listen tonight. I save the podcasts for when I walk my 6 weeks of mud road (7/10 of a mile)
I started adding compost from my worm bin in with potting soil before I reused it..We see how it works out. I also added a little peat to fluff it up a bit. At the same time I have a little experiment going on by seeing how many snap pea plants I can fit in a container and still get good production, and that one I used nothing just added the seeds to the old soil and that thing is taking off…not really sure I would recommend though.
The death of grass is a great book,I got the audio from audible but I think they sell it on amazon.It is a much more timely read now then when it was written.With all the GMO foods,its not hard to invision disease or cross breeding decreasing our food supply.Its a real thoughtful book esp the government responce to the emergency.A great novel.
Iron in Aquaponics:
I have been running a hobby system for a year. Liquid chelated iron is what was recommended when plants yellowed.
Cheers!
On dealing with drug addicts in a SHTF situation.
Best thing you can do is get rid of them before the SHTF.
If your neighbors are unaware, educate them! Talk to them about each taking a part in the security of their neighborhood. And if possible I would start a Neighborhood Watch and put a sign out. That should scare them out of your area!!
If you have old potting soil you don’t want to use again, just add it to your compost pile to re-invigorate it for next season. No problem with adding some old dirt into your soon to be new dirt.
As far as tilling your soil goes, I have always tilled it the first time when I built a garden to mix all the compost, peat moss and soil.
After that it is compost added right on top but NEVER any tilling again.
If I have a trouble spot in my garden I might use a fork on it but you have to be sure that it really needs it and that there isn’t some other problem.
@Greg Hershner
Thanks for the tip!
On salt, plain or iodized? Does it really matter?
For salt my preferences go like this:
Kosher salt
Sea salt
Any other salt.
Thanks Jack. The soil was used for hot peppers and oh ya, they were healthy. The roots on these require me to shake the living Jesus out of them to get the soil. I have a screen box I use to assist in the process. Like you, I have had problems with Tomatoes and blight and blossom end rot. But I don’t grow them in containers.
FYI. My sea salt says “Does not contain iodine which is an essential nutrient.” So I would make sure if storing it not store more then one type.
Err, I meant to store more then one type.
Perhaps I do a little overkill on salt, but since it could be essential in a long term grid down situation, we typically have at least 500+ pounds on hand. The bulk of this is basic clean water softener salt, which is used in the softener, and replaced as we use it. We try to keep at least 500-1000 pound or more on hand, and built a special heavy duty rack in the basement to hold it. Additionally I try to keep 10 pounds of standard iodized table salt, and at least 5 pound each of kosher and sea salt. One additional iodine supplement is kelp tablets, available from most health food stores.
I keep hearing the comparison between Chernobyl and the current situation in Japan, and there is simply no comparison. The Chernobyl reactor had no containment to speak of (yes a flimsy concrete building) and was covered in large blocks of graphite as a moderator. When things went wrong, the building pretty much disappeared, and the graphite began to burn. Think of this as taking one of the Japanese reactors, splitting it open, putting it in a huge BBQ grill, covering it with briquettes, and letting it burn for a few days. We’re quite a ways from that happening. As for the cleanup of the nuclear pollution, keep in mind that Japan had two even more serious nuclear situations at the end of WW II. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were pretty well irradiated, and were back in operation within a decade or less. Not exactly the same thing, and rather expensive to rebuild, but nevertheless an interesting comparison.
Please note if you commented in this thread and it is now gone your comment was not removed. It was lost during the site move to a new server that ran from about 1AM Sunday until this morning.
Ive been in the Army since 1993. Ive been enlisted and an officer. Ive been in the Reserve, National Guard and Active Duty twice. Ive been in support and in combat arms and now Im getting educated to work at the strategic level in foreign policy.
Im in it because I love it. You wont know if you love it more than you hate it until you try it, but I guarantee you wont love it unless you approach it from a servant’s heart.
None of the training I have ever gone through has improved my survival skills. I have an SF SFC in my Dari class, and my basic wilderness survival skills are better than his, because I study it and love it on my own time, while he attended the hooah classes and then never had to use the skills again.
What you get from military service is the ability to make a logical decision about a complex problem and follow through with it. You also learn about people, how to work with them in a group to accomplish a mission, and how to be a responsible person.
Very few military MOS skills are transferable to the civilian market. None of the mechanical or commo/computer related skills are, they dont result in any sort of civilian recognized certifications. The exceptions are: Linguist/interpretor, nurse, medic, welder, machinist and pilot.
What you really get that is transferable is leadership and personal skills, though you have to make a mind shift to go from leading soldiers to leading civilians…it aint the same.
Do it if you want to serve others…otherwise, please dont waste my time in my Army motivating your regretful ass.
On the salt comments, you should have some table salt with the iodine. We have iodine in it for our thyriod,we can develop goiters because of an iodine deficiency. As a chef/cook I prefer Kosher salt or sea salt. Kosher salt is nice because the salt crystals are flat which is good to season the meat without over salting. For salt stores I would think you should have enough for curing your meat in case of long term power outages.
I’ve included a link to a website that does the barrel ponics thing.
He deals with iron deficiencies by running the water over some iron nails. The water picks up some of the iron and supplies it to the plants.
The Death of Grass by: John Christopher was removed from Audible.com. I added it to my wish list to get it when more credits come up and now it’s gone…. bummer sounded like a good read ur lesson.