Episode-1441- Listener Feedback for 10-6-14
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Today on the Survival Podcast I take your comments, questions and thoughts on homesteading, bitcoin, politics, economics, bureaucracy and more.
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Join Me Today As I Respond to Your Emails On
- Some cool stuff about the fall event
- A little more about GenForward.com
- Bill Gates now likes bitcoin, sort of
- A simple observation that creates a radial philosophical examination
- Good cops speak up, entire corrupt department gets shut down
- Are military members beginning to stop reenlisting because they are “getting it”
Resources for today’s show…
- Join the Members Brigade
- The Year 1441
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- PermaEthos.com
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- The Great Big AgriTrue Contest
- Bulk Ammo – (sponsor of the day)
- Safecastle Royal – (sponsor of the day)
- Bill Gates Says Bitcoin is Better than Currency
- City Shuts Down Entire Police Department
- The Iron Law of Bureaucracy
This Monday’s Prepper Scenario
A series of events has caused a food shortage. Food is available but many things are hard to come by and what is available is priced 2-3 times as high as current prices. A series of events has resulted in this. A bad crop year around the globe from multiple weather events and new pests/crop diseases. Compounding it has been an over reactive scare due to a potential Ebola pandemic, which has also damaged the economy. Prices are expected to remain high for at least a year. America is getting off easy in many third world nations food riots are now erupting. What do you during this period? How do you stretch your food budget? How much do you rely on your stored food? Of course the cost of animal feeds has at least doubled as well, so factor that into your plans.
Last Monday’s Prepper Scenario
An ice storm hits your area. There is no electricity and won’t be for weeks. Movement is all but impossible, even with chains most roads are blocked by multiple downed trees. Forecast is for bitterly cold weather for the next week or so, highs below freezing. Power companies say power will be out for up to three weeks for some customers, in this case that includes you. It will be at least a week before you can get out and about. At that time supplies, gas, etc. will be short and many stores closed anyway for another week due to no power, damage, folks not being able to come to work, etc. What do you do, including sanitation, animal needs (if applicable), heat, motivation and morale, etc.
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Hey Jack…totally with you on the duck eggs! They are so flavorful. What breed are yours? As our Pekins lay eggs that many times won’t even fit in a Jumbo egg carton. I make one egg omelets out of them sometimes. See you this weekend at the farm! Shawn
I have a multi species flock. some khaki campbells, some Swedish, Roens, a Buff, quite a few Cayugas etc. It is starting to look like I have WAY too many drakes, time to make some duck curry soon.
I was going to comment on this but forgot. The eggs we get from our friends at the farmers market are ginormous. And when they run out of “regular size” and we get “jumbo” they’re…. uhm… very large.
We added two garbage cans this previous weekend and filled them with chicken and goat food. Glad this community kind of lit a fire under its own ass about this.
(Just listening now, so I’ll pipe in when I hear things so I don’t forget). Regarding your breakfast… Welcome to my world bub. I eat that every single day. Duck eggs are the BEST for fried eggs, period. The yolks are difficult to break which makes them excellent for frying. Cook your bacon to get your grease, knock the egg with the spatula (I use a metal Dexter) to cut the top of the egg off (and no yolk can be hit), peel back the sheel with your fingers pour the egg out. Put a nice dose of garlic powder on it, sprinkle Slap Ya Mama (for flavored salt), and Frier Jean (a saltless amazing cajun seasoning that is local). Fry it for a good bit, flip it over and just use garlic and Frier Jean. Yum.
2 bacon, 2 eggs, usually a piece of fruit (or watermelon slices), 1 small cup of milk (whole non-homogenized, is the best i can get), 1 cup of coffee. Breakfast of champions.
I am telling you Mike not every day but once in a while take one slice of really nice bread, butter it and toast it, put the bacon and soft yolk eggs on top.
One piece of bread is only 12-18 carbs depending on type, size, etc.
A good low carb rule for a full grown man is stay under 20 a meal, 3 meals a day. If you are going to eat any, morning is actually best.
Oh and something Neil Franklin just taught me. If you have a good amount of bacon grease just put the bread strait into it and watch it close so you don’t over cook it. Damn good as well, I’d have never done that if he didn’t show me how.
Again though I haven’t gone back to the dark side, I have a piece of bread with breakfast, perhaps once ever other week. If we didn’t freeze bread it would all go bad.
Hey had to share this with you. I am about to start taping today’s show and decided to have breakfast first. The wife is gone for the day but had already collected eggs for the day.
On the counter was a huge gray egg from one of our Cayugas. Really big like way bigger than a big chicken eggs Cracked it and yep big old bright orange double yolks. Had it with two slices of thick ass bacon and two pieces of my personally made breakfast sausage. Put the eggs on top of the sausage.
I know one double yolk egg is just basically the same as two normal eggs but for some reason it always makes me happy, though I feel for the poor duck that had to lay it!
Frankly I just can’t eat eggs in restaurants any longer!
When we started raising chickens and ducks (I also prefer duck eggs) I could no longer order eggs at restaurants; anemic is the only way I can describe them.
Nice about the double yolks. It’s really like finding 20 dollars in your pocket you didn’t know about.
Whenever we get eggs at the store (its VERY rare, usually if we go through a ton of eggs in a week unexpectedly) just looking at them.. ugh.
We so rarely ever have bread in the house. The wife is half italian so it kills her. I just don’t even think about it anymore. We’ll get bread for burgers or hot dogs, but we eat that stuff so rarely. The only “carbs” we’ll go through is pasta, we get a few gluten free varieties that we know taste pretty good. I eat more or less whatever and however much I want, and I definitely stay pretty fit. For awhile I was bouncing around 158 which is insanely light for a 6′ person. Not bad coming down from a peak of 205. (I’m a medium frame kind of person).
I’ll take a stab at the Prepper scenario.
Obviously, a tripling of the cost of food is going to impact our budget. It would definitely encourage us to cut back on store purchases, and concentrate our efforts on back yard production. Certain things are going to be necessary to purchase… Milk, meat (no way to raise anything larger than chickens where we live), grain (already buy this through the coop), and pet food, but with any luck, the garden and food forest will provide a generous return. Yes, we will be depending on our preps for a while until the next harvest comes in (winter veggies are great, but don’t provide a lot of calories), but they aren’t going to feed us for a year or more while the prices are up, merely help bridge the gap.
Jack I retired in 2005 but worked as a contractor until three years ago.
Retirement is in jeopardy. One of the biggest retention elements is the military medical but Tricare is being eroded to the point that Obamacare is almost equivalent. And people are getting stop gapped like hell so they are getting out preemptively so they can avoid being forced to stay.
Generals and Admirals are asking to reduce pay and benefits to offset the cost of the pet project weapon systems.
Hey Jack, love the cast today. What do you think will happen to the value of bitcoin if what you say is accurate. (getting bitcoin to work through a banking system ? bubble). I think that if they make a “bubble” for bitcoin to pass through, it will de value what bitcoins original intent is, to avoid the banking system. Or, will bitcoin be able to work outside of the banking system on its own still?
It seems like Bitcoin will still be able to operate outside the banking system using the virtual wallet, but it will be when people want to make transactions with people using the “Bank” where it will become transparent. All the other transactions outside the bank would remain anonymous. I think they would try to make the “Bank” a more convenient virtual wallet that they have control of.
Hey Jack, I got out about two years ago. I joined the navy in 2007 to experience some stress and see if I was able to overcome it. I did and now know that I can deal with most things that will come my way. I got out because I wanted to be able to be around for my family and I wanted to forge a path to success out side the Navy. I have done most things I could do in the navy as a corpsman. I floated on a ship and walked the alleyways of Afghanistan. Now when I joined I was apart of the “teacups” as you say. I have always payed attention and love what your message is these days when I was younger I always knew that there was another side. The music that I listen to was kinda what made me think.
Jack, re-listened to the philosophical piece about technology, abundance and the future. Very thoughtful. thought you would enjoy this slide show from Steven Kotler. It looks like a fascinating read and hits a lot of the points you brought up. http://www.slideshare.net/StevenKotler/abundance-39432394 . and of course, the Permaculture framework answers a lot of these concerns. At my PDC in April, Geoff Lawton talked a lot about the Tipping Point for permaculture, and I think we’re almost there. Technology can be put to use in furthering that abundance, already has. There will always be bad guys or greedy guys, but as abundance increases they will be less tolerated (think of Anonymous and Wikileaks). Another excellent read on the tech saturated future is Daniel Suarez’s book “Daemon.” Esp interesting is his take on currency where your personal worth is based on your reputation which is paid to you in upvotes or downvotes “reddit” style. if your rep is too low, you have trouble finding work, etc. just be careful though it’s an unputdownable book. Anyway, fascinating analysis as always!
Hey Jack,
If I remember correctly, Crystal Clear Pepsi was only available in three states. The closest to me was Rhode Island. My girlfriend at the time wanted to surprise me with some, so her and her sister went to pick some up for me. Their car broke down just as they crossed the RI/CT border. The sister
‘s husband and I had to go pick them up. That was the most expensive soda I ever drank!! Sorry, you just brought back a memory that I hadn’t thought about in years.
As for the Prepper Scenario, due to my upcoming move to Alaska from the NY/PA area, I have actually been whittling down some of my preps, including food storage, and increasing my savings so that I can replenish once I get there. I am trying to move as little as possible because the price of moving a larger amount isn’t worth the value of some of those items. This applies more to large furniture an other similar items than food, but the food is going to be affected. At this time I have no pets/livestock, so that isn’t a concern. But as I get closer to spring, and moving day, I would become more susceptible. I will be maintaining at least 60 days by the time I move though.
If it were to happen in the next few months, I would struggle tremendously, so I would try to make it to Alaska asap. Plans are already in place in case I had to get up there post haste and showed up empty handed. I have prepper minded family up there already, and that has been the extreme bug out plan for me for about three years. Once I get to Alaska, my food storage situation will improve dramatically in very short order. Especially since there is plenty of game and almost a year’s supply of food there already. But there would be other people in need and that food would be stretched as much as possible to help out the neighbors as much as we can.
If travel to Alaska were somehow not an option, I am currently in the worst position I have been in food wise in a couple years. The garden has quit producing a lot of the abundance that it was producing just a couple weeks ago. Most wildcrafted plants that I know how to identify are either out of season, or will be shortly. So I would barter with neighbors and friends. I would immediately start replenishing my food storage too, because expensive food is better than no food. Worst case scenario, I would be forced to eat things like feed corn and such. Yes, it is GMO, tastes like crap and is tough. It is currently cheaper than similar items from the grocery store, I would assume that it would still be cheaper. I have lots of spices and such to try to make it more palatable. I don’t recommend it, and have never tried it, but I think it is better to eat that than die.
This scenario doesn’t sound like something that would happen overnight, so hopefully I would notice things getting worse and be a first mover. I happen to listen to a pretty switched on guy named Jack that has a warning system of about 100,000 people strong. So I don’t think this scenario, as described, would sneak up without some pretty good heads up.
Prepper Scenario continued.
I was just talking to a friend about this scenario, and she brought up all of the grow lights that I have for my seeds. I could turn my spare bedroom into a greenhouse for the winter if I had to stay where I am at. I could also plant community gardens in the couple of empty lots in my neighborhood. I would also make it a priority to get several chickens and rabbits.
It’s good having friends to bounce ideas off of. I know. That is the reason that you want us to do these thought experiments.
I just retired after 26 years in the military. I could have easily continued, my O-6 promotion board would have been next year and I likely would have been selected. But my wife and I couldn’t picture being in the military for another 5 years. Neither of us like the way the military is changing.
You mentioned not touching a computer in the military. I didn’t for the first 7 years. Towards the end, the majority of my time was on a computer (and I am a munitions guy). It seems like all the customer service type offices that you used to go visit are now self-service on line. You call them for help and they tell you it is on the internet, go find it.
I have only been back in the states for a couple of months. The biggest transition for me was the driving. I had no idea how crappy American drivers were (I lived in Germany for the last three years). I am enjoying having my firearms back, couldn’t bring them with to Germany. I have put a deer in the freezer with my bow – sure missed hunting. I am really digging the liberties we still enjoy here that socialist Europe has lost. Unfortunately I see them eroding away…
Prepper Scenario: A series of events has caused a food shortage.
While I have some (6mnt) of food stored up… Most likely this would not happen overnight. Before this builds up and as it heading this way: more copy canning, inside seed starting, and gardening.
As we are in the middle of it…
– Use my food preps sparingly (who knows long this will last)
– Paleo Diet… takes a back seat to eating cheaply
*Jack, how would you deal with this, assuming meat prices have gone up
– time to to start eating less
– garden more, be a great time to encourage the neighbors to do the same.
*I have been gardening for 4 years and not great at it.
*my elderly neighbor has an epic garden… I’ll be talking to him everyday.
*lettuce grows quick, but potatoes fill your stomach
– tighten down the financials
*work from home (computer job) to save gas
*no more going out to eat… (usually dinner date with my wife)
*no more daycare? (maybe watch the kiddo at home)
– look for ways to trade for food. (computer work for chocolate?)
wondering how I feed the dog (need more than 6mth of food for him). Need more items to mix with beans, rice, bread. can’t have chickens or bee’s in my neighborhood.
On the plus side, good time to talk to the neighbors about gardening and prepping. Maybe time to start changing some local laws with chickens and bees? I assume the squirrel population might go down. Good news sense the stupid tree rats love my 4 red oaks near my house…