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Episode-1525- Listener Feedback for 2-24-15

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Join Me Today as I Answer Your eMails

Join Me Today as I Answer Your eMails

Well I am fresh off a day off and feel pretty good about taking it.  I had pretty much worked full days for about 22 days in a row and just need a reboot.  Since we skipped the feedback show on Monday we will make it up and git er done today.

Today on the Survival Podcast I take your emails on bees, food preservation, permaculture, investing, libertarianism, taxes, the media and more.

Make sure if you submit content for a feedback show that you put something like “comment for jack”, “question for jack” or “article for jack” in the subject line to assure proper identification for my screening process.

Please understand I receive several hundred emails a day and can’t get them all on the air.

I also do put out a lot of information on Facebook from emails that I can’t fit on the program though so keep em coming.

Join Me Today As I Respond to Your Emails On

  • Michael Jordan on the bee hive honey tap
  • Natural fermented pickling vs. vinegar hot pickling
  • What is a swale, hint first is isn’t a swell, and when do you combine it with hugulkultur
  • How do you put gold and silver into an IRA, well first may be you should not
  • Is there a conflict in libertarianism between defending the week and non intervention
  • Understanding the “marriage penalty tax”
  • How I know what I know about what they will scare you with next

Resources for today’s show…

flavorkingBob Wells Nursery “Plant Of The Week” – Flavor King Pluot – It is adaptable from zone 6 to zone 10.

It is a cross between a Plum and an Apricot. It only requires 400 chill hours and ripens late July. It has sensational sweet flavor with reddish-purple skin and crimson flesh.

It will provide you with fruit in late to mid season for your region, extending the stone fruit season for a few extra weeks for many.  While the Flavor King name is a registered trademark the tree itself has been off patent since 2009, so it may be reproduced but not sold or marketed under the name “Flavor King” without agreement with the trademark holder.

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

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.

Also remember we have an expert council you can address your calls to. If you do this you should email me right after your call at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with expert council call in the subject line. In the body of your email tell me that you just called in a question for the council and what number you called in from. I will then give the call priority when I screen calls.

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Comments

Episode-1525- Listener Feedback for 2-24-15 — 73 Comments

  1. Westboro Baptist Church are Christians acting like dickheads as they exercise their legal first amendment rights. People asking about Muslims speaking out against terror are wondering why a billion “peaceful Muslims” dont tell these assholes to stop burning people alive and chopping heads off in the name of Islam. While some say they aren’t practicing their religion and others claim they are; these people believe they are murdering people for Islam. That’s what they say as they do it…

      • I never said there werent Muslims denouncing terror as your Google search would suggest. I tried to explain what people who are asking that question are getting at.

        Personally I don’t give two shits what anyone says. Words are just words..I prefer to put my support behind the Kurds fighting ISIS. They aren’t condemning terror, they are killing the terrorist bastards.

        • @Ron again your ignorance shows. “Terrorist bastards”. Really, the enemy of my enemy is my friend? Dude that is how we got in this mess. And yes you did claim that no Muslims were speaking out until such time as that point was smashed, you then shifted gears. We call that a special pleading fallacy.

          The point is simple people say all the time, “where are the good Muslims speaking out”, this of course contends that Islam itself is evil and so Muslims are tacitly or directly evil, take your pick. When you show this to be false every single time the person contending it moves the goal posts and tries to change the angle of the contention.

        • @Jack

          “People asking about Muslims speaking out against terror…”

          Please show me a quote where I said no Muslims speak out against Islam. I re-read my comments and see it nowhere.

        • I would say this qualifies, “People asking about Muslims speaking out against terror are wondering why a billion “peaceful Muslims” dont tell these assholes to stop burning people alive and chopping heads off in the name of Islam.”

        • And on a side note, are you arguing that ISIS (the fellas making videos of setting people on fire and sawing heads off) aren’t ‘terrorist bastards’? I’m pretty sure they meet the textbook definition.

        • See you don’t know what ISIS is Ron, you don’t know who they are. Do you know the origins of ISIS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMjXbuj7BPI

          It isn’t that I don’t think the people you speak of are scum, I just figure since we created them, since we feed their delusions, since we armed them and since we are their greatest recruiting tool, we should stop trying to “fix it”.

          Every bomb we drop creates 100 recruits! The phrase, “you think you’re helping……………but you’re not” applies here.

          I am of the opinion that if someone attacks us, we should kill them, fine with that. You know what though, you are talking about a place that we have made worse every single fucking time we have touched it, perhaps it is time to stop touching it.

        • In other words when you say “terrorist bastards” you are likely lumping a shit ton of people into that group that are not ISIS and not terrorists and acting on anger and fear just as your OWNERS have programmed you to do!

          What would you do to people Ron who came to your nation, took it over, bombed homes, houses, weddings, etc?

          I mean they say they are here to help you but they bomb children. You walk your shitty village and see children missing limbs, eyes, etc. and it is from bombs from people half way around the world who you don’t know, never did anything too, how much hate would it build in you? If the TV can get you to lump so many so fast into one basket with a few images what would dead babies on your street do to you? How easy would you be to recruit at that point to anyone who would fight back?

          Why was it heroic to think this way in this film, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMFLZuAen0k BECAUSE WE LIVE HERE! Well Ron they live there!

        • The Kurds are also terrorists particularly in Turkey. The fact that the US supports the Kurds is a big friction point with Turkey. I don’t like any group getting picked on and I am no fan of ISIS, but the Kurds are no Angels.

    • Last time I checked, absence of condemnation is not sympathy by proxy, the presumption of innocence is as philosophically wholesome as it is personally convenient.

      You also have to take into account the fact that as easy as it is to tout around the ‘1 billion peaceful muslims’ line, the opportunity most of those people have to make a public statement one way or the other is pretty limited.

      Gender prohibits about 50%, age probably another 25% and poverty & geography account for the other 24% not being available for talking heads on Foxnews.

      If you do not think the entire ‘the government wont call it MUSLIM extremism’ thing is specifically designed to send you down a rat hole then you definitely need to take some time off from the media. It just does not matter.

    • @woodbutcher – well said and very true.

      It’s about time someone with some reach said something, so thanks Jack. I’m not a Muslim, but I do have Muslim friends, and to watch the dismay every time this anti-Muslim crap comes on the news is just heartbreaking.
      What’d Alex say in the history segment? I don’t care what religion you are as long as you are ashamed of it. A lot of wisdom there, there’s things both in the past and the present that every religion should be ashamed of. Doesn’t make anyone who practices it a villain.
      I believe it was @(The New) Mike Cornwell who replied to a comment I made a couple weeks ago saying that there ends up being two sides to a witch hunt: the side that wants to ‘get em’ and the side that says F- YOU! I’m definitely in the latter on this one.

      • I don’t want to harp on about it because I know this is not really the point of the comments but it did make me think.

        If you have the misfortune to be some random guy living in northern Pakistan who watches the neighbouring village get droned, (to defend freedom) when you go home and watch TV likely the only people talking on behalf of ‘the west’ are either politicians, officials or “experts”.

        You’ll probably not find a group of people less representative to the taxpayers who fund those drones than politicians, officials or “experts”.

        I bet they put – 1 billion peaceful westerners – in quotation marks too.

        I happen to think the writing around the English Civil War, the American Revolution & the Declaration of Independence contains some of the most insightful & beautiful words ever written, but man, you can take that and do some F’ed up stuff in its name.

      • You pretty much got it right. My personal caution to myself is to not immediately jump on the opposing side to a normally loud and annoying bunch of people. That’s just my personal tendency. I have also noticed, as you’ve pointed out, that people just seem to do this naturally.

        – One group gets roped into being useful idiots that yell and scream bumper slogan statements about something, never having a single original argument.
        – Another group just opposes that group because, well they’re yelling and screaming something, so they’re bound to be against it. (Because somebody has to right?)

        I am definitely on the side of governments need to stay out of other people’s businesses, period. A “terrorist” in one persons eyes is going to be different to another. The discussion above about Turkey and Kurds is a good example. Perhaps the prevaling belief in Turkey, particularly its ruling class, is that kurds are terrorists. But wouldn’t they say the same to the other side?

        Rather than looking over seas to people whom I have many differences with, I can just look here. Does the US (as a whole like we like to group every other country), are they for or against Obama? Are they for or against an active large federal government?

        This should show the folly in these labels and saying X entity that encompasses millions of peoples believes Y. I have people ask me all the time if Afghans like the US, or whether or not Afghans like the Taliban, or whether or not Afghans stray towards “radical views of islam”. I ALWAYS reply now with the question about if they think the US likes Obama. Because its so overwhelmingly both yes and no, there is nothing that can be done with that information.

    • “That’s what they say as they do it…”

      Because people are always 100% truthful and honest about their motivations. What did our politicians tell us were their motivations for passing the “Patriot Act”?
      What do they say motivates them to raise taxes and pass new, ever more restrictive laws?
      That they are looking out for the future. That they are protecting us. That they have the best interests of the American people at heart. (“Think of the children!” <—one of Jack's favorite bits of sarcasm)
      Just because someone urinates on your leg and tells you it's raining, doesn't mean you have to believe them.

  2. I think you haven’t given the Flow Hive enough of a look. In no way do they say you will never have to open the hive. If you look through the FAQ section of their website they specifically say you will have to open the hive a couple times a year to make check on the health of the colony. They do say you will require the complete suit and a smoker.

    In addition to that they have said you will not get the honey comb through this process. If you want the honey comb you would have to keep regular frames in the box. If someone takes the time to read the information on their website the information is there.

    I think you are right about one thing. People will support this without researching it and reading all the information on their website. Then they will realize it isn’t a simple as they thought and these Flow Frames will be available on the market, second hand, for cheap in about a year or two.

    • When we take honey from bees, we are stealing from their reserves. When we become beekeepers, we are taking on the responsibility of stewardship. If we expect to harvest honey from them, there is work and care that are needed. The concept of reaping the honey reserve without opening a hive to care for the bees, is wrong. That is what the info from the video is putting out. that is what people are saying. Yes the video talks about it more, and was even removed and up graded to show it on hives. the KICKSTARTER, (where the first wanted to go with be for they move to indgo,) only showed that you do not have to work the bees to get honey. That was the sale point that hooked everyone and made beeks mad.
      so NOW reading the web after 11am on the 23rd MT it was updated to the web video.
      yes you have to open the hive every 9 to 11 days… not a few times a year! that is beekeeping not bee having .. that is what they are makeing are bee havers… i hope that the have-ers be come keepers.
      Thanks Kevin. and your right.. many only take in what they want, and really never look deep.

      if you add box feeders from Turkey on that flow hive you can pump corn sugar right to the bees and flow right in your jar.

      remember, morals & stewardship not easy and lazy.

      As I said. I like it. just not the way they dumped it out to the public as beekeeping is simple.

      • Michael… is it true you HAVE to open it once every week or two to ‘work the bees’? I’ve been interested in beekeeping for a while and what I’ve always wanted to do is a natural sort of beekeeping, where the bees tend to themselves, and I harvest whatever honey they haven’t eaten in the spring after the first big flush of flowers.

        Is that not an option?

      • Lukkas, Yes
        bees can re-queen in 15 days. a week is 7. in two weeks you have 14 days. I teach 9/11
        from April till OCT. (depending on temps that are over 45) you check the hive 9 days after you install and then 11 days after that, then 9 days then 11 days. if missed them building a queen cell you lost 1/2 your bees in a swarm. Hive management is KEY to beekeeping. I make way more money with the sale of wax then I do with honey. so honey is just sweet- but wax, bee queening sales, and my full hive builds for sale are my money makers. the honey contract is just a bonus.

      • and yes you can do that and harvest in the spring. it just depends on the hive you use, the style of beekeeping you employ, and how well your management is over the winter for any return. they may eat it all over the winter depending on flowers and hive build.

        • Mike can’t believe I am going to say it but I disagree with you on bees. No you don’t have to open the hive every two weeks, your opinion based on a hell of a lot of knowledge is that you SHOULD, not that you HAVE to.

          My view is this, bees were here before us, likely they will still “bee here” (better off I might add) if we manage to exterminate ourselves.

          If a hive swarms, so be it. If they requeen so be it. If you want to jack with your bees every 7 days to prevent it, great. If you want to open up your hives every 4-6 weeks to check on things and be a little more concerned about the time you need to look at dividing, so be it.

          If you want to put them in a hive, ignore them, never take from them, nor give to them, I bet they are just dandy with that.

          I would rather personally see any of those options then this honey tap thing.

          To be blunt, those that can use it responsibly don’t need it. If said people have one, they will likely have exactly that, one as a novelty to get people interested. As soon as the young bee padawan wants one though, what will people like you say?

          “Too inexperienced you are, mmmm, not ready to face the darkside yet are you, the temptations, too strong I sense, much fear of the sting in your heart, let go you must. Into the bee suit you go, smoker at the ready, weapons you will not need, continue your training you must”.

        • @Jack
          Every time I turn around and let my guard down for a moment and let you make me “think” of you as “some redneck from Texas”, you show your real nerdedom.

          Your historical perspective of the original internet and computers is a great one. It takes one nerd to REALLY know another.

        • Jack you come a long way of learning that it is you that is the beekeeper keeping the bees is an art if you want to put them in a box and leave them just to pollinate your yard I prefer that you get mason bees are bumble bees to be a beekeeper is an R and you’re right jack I agree with you on the statement I just checked my because I like to keep my bees of the population of around 120k

        • It stands to reason that the hands-off method isn’t going to cut it as a business venture, but I like the idea of letting the bees do their bee thing and only taking their surplus- if they have any- in the spring as a home-use product.

          Despite the hands-off approach I’d like to pursue, that doesn’t mean I’d just dump the box somewhere and assume nature will provide. I intend to include it in a roofed cage to exclude birds, racoons and such and moderate the climate immediately surrounding the hive, and to plant a ton of bee forage on my property.

        • @Lukkas

          Tell that to the Restoration Ag folks. (That the hands off method doesn’t work for a business venture).

          Maybe it doesn’t work for individual unit/element intensity ventures but that’s a different scenario.

        • I’ll add I know someone I won’t name in the permaculture business with a few hives. This is his method. Put bees in hives, leave bees the hell alone. Put supers on hives, leave bees the hell alone. Every year one or two of the few hives will swarm out and go make a new colony elsewhere, leaving an empty hive. (building the wild population by the way)

          When this happens he takes honey from the supers, cleans up the hive. Drops in a new package the next time he can get them and goes on with life.

          He never jacks with or feeds his bees, in return he gets more honey and wax than he can possibly use and his land has lots of bees for pollination.

          This method is as natural as anyone could be doing. Some (including Michale) might be turned off by it but you know what bees live in walls, trees, old grills, abandoned refrigerators, etc. Do we worry about those bees?

          No this is not a commercial model but it is a decent homestead model. In this model the bees simply swarm when they want to make a new home because they have achieved the most they could make of the current hive.

          Note, this is NOT what I do and not what I recommend but I sure as heck understand that it works, how it works and why it works.

        • sound like if you have to spend $100 to $200 for packages for bees because they swarm out is a waste of money.
          Every Bee person is diffrent. I try to be kind but substianable in my housing of my bees. I would not want to spend that kind of money every year to just have a some honey.

          $100 for a package of bees for 20 lbs of honey. this is what my calc would be.

          he would be better off with a polleation bee like mason, bumble, or a leaf cutter.

          no honey, but $20 for a package of those bees and 30% more pollenation.

        • Everything is relative. Say top end 200 bucks and you say check the hive every 14 days. Say 10 minutes to work a hive, 25 times a year, hives swarm according to this guy about every two years, that is 50 checks.

          10 x 50 = 500 minutes divided by 60 8 hours. I know it takes me more than ten minutes a hive to check them. But say 200/8 is 25 an hour. So basically if I value my time at 25 an hour or higher, I am ahead. Again this is NOT what I do and I have no plans to but economically I get it. What do you get out of a full hive? 5 gallons of honey? At least right? So is 40 dollars a gallon for real wild honey a good price?

        • Ugh, accidentally hit reply to the wrong post.

          In addition to Jack’s discussion about the cost of bees in relation to time spent ‘working the bees,’ I know people who catch wild swarms of bees rather than buy them.

          I’ve also heard (although my research in this area is weak) that one can build auxiliary hives and set them u in a manner so as to attract your own swarms, so they swarm out of one hive on your property… and end up in another.

      • $5 per lb
        5 gallon bucket is 60 lbs
        5 gallon buckt is around $300

        a med honey box makes 30lbs of honey
        my hives make around 90 lbs per year with management.
        so each hive makes around $450

        so 175 hives at $450 $79,200.00

        the 25 in my back yard make around $11,250.00

        but your in the good. it is all up on the beekeeper. and his management skills.

        I think of it as you got this dog. he is a good dog. now you spent $400 on him.
        some breed them to make money, some take them to show.
        me i just let him lay by me when i am working.

        it is just what you want to do with your investments and time.

        Just how I look at it.

        on my Bees i try to bee a good keeper for what I manage.

        • Mike I think we 99% agree. I manage my bees, with a lot of help from my mentor by the way. I have told him to take packages if we decide to divide this spring as payment for his help. I just get why some would just let bees be bees and rock on with life.

          I do encourage masons as well, we have them everywhere so I don’t buy them, just provide tubes in the bottom land where there is usually mud.

          Question on bumbles though. Never heard that you could buy bumbles!

          Googled it and yea, I can buy a hive depending on size for 90 to about 200 bucks. Set it up and walk away. Well shit for the pure sake of diversity I was going to do it but then I read that they say hives “last” 11-12 weeks and thought, WTF!

          I ain’t paying that amount for that type of disposable solution, 3 months? Do they simply leave and found new homes? Can you actually anything approaching a permanent to semi permanent bumble hive?

          I found ways to make them from pipes and big flower pots in the ground but I am pretty sure here I would end up with a mess of fing hornets if I set that up.

        • One of the ways I off set cost is I get on the list at my beekeepers association to rescue bees that people call when they find bees that are in a wall are in a garage and those are more complicated to remove. So what I tell the people is I don’t charge to remove the babies but I do need enough money to pay for the hardware to put the bees in once they rescued. It takes about 300 dollars to setup a new hive and if you’re willing to pay you for the hardware then I would have a place to put the bees. this way I get free bees, free hardware for just the cost of my labor.

        • Your a nicer guy than me. My mentor Jason does do removals and likely he’d do an easy one for 300 but here is what he said about walls.

          He first charges more, then says something to the effect of “whichever contractor that you call to fix what I have to do to get them out is likely to want 1000 dollars may be more to fix it, I don’t put back what I take apart and there is no gentle way to take apart a wall full of bees, sure you want me to do this?”

          Says that on the phone before he even sees the wall, I think MJ is pretty much the same.

        • bee removal
          $100 service call
          $95 an hour
          we will open up, remove the bees, clean out so you will not have ants/mice/or more bees come back from swarming, and make sure that it ready for YOUR contractor to repair.
          AVG cost for small job $600
          larget one we have done $8,600.00 no repair

          it is a job all in it own.
          removal is not swarm catching at all.
          swarms are easy. removals can be two days of hot stings mess.

        • I will say I have charged way more than $300 – you’re correct, it def depends on how hard the job it… I spent about 6hours in a 3rd story attic in the hottest part of the summer back in the very back corner and had to climb over supports, wiring, hvac lines etc to get to a hole in the floor and vacuumed out a bunch of bees… It was a miserable job… had to run extension cords and put a fan in there just to make it bearable… I charged a lot more for that job… for removal where you use a “trap out” you don’t do as much work but you do have to make several trips to do it.. bees in trees are not too bad…. put a one-way gate and come back at night and vacuum all the foraging bees… but then you have to trap out what’s left or they will parish since some trees will be cut down and they want them gone before the tree is removed…lots of variables…

      • It seems I am not the only one that looks at this thing and thinks,

        “a death star this may become, mmmm, the dark side I fear is growing in power”

  3. I see it’s a wonderful concept I think the design is very high tech. I feel that it will get a lot of new beekeepers doing it. I think the engineering of it is super awesome.
    Now on that note I think the marketing strategy of getting people to do beekeeping that they don’t have to mess with the bees showed bad rappor. that you have to still work to bees. In thinking that you’re not going to work the bees to get honey is foolish. The 364 messages I have gotten are from people wanting to know how do not work the hive? A lot of people do not understand it is just the HONEY BOX.
    I think with a few modifications to this hive it could be used for industrial beekeeping on a large level of pumping corn sugar into it to produce bad honey. Placing a feeding box on top and just letting it work as you tap honey.
    All in all the system is very interesting especially when you’re going to end up as a new beekeeper spending almost $800 just to have a hive. My understanding is that the hive cost $300 with no mentorship no beekeeping equipment and just the idea that if you have it you can be a beekeeper. the bees are $150 more. The hive to put it on is $200. Extra beekeeping stuff such as a suit or hive tools $50, books videos mentor classes it all starts to add up.

    now if you have had bees and are working bees, this add is a sweet thing. (not for $300) The state of Wyoming is not going to let you sale honey from that type of system, but for the back yard guy with 5 hives it cold be AWESOME!

  4. I use hugel/swail on our sloped garden area. It was a good solution to our sandy soil problem, where a swale by it self the water just sunk in the swail and went away., with the wood and other plant material in the bottom and downward side of the hugel/swail it gave the water someplace to be absorbed and released later for the plants use.
    enjoyed your pod cast.

  5. On the history section question “where are the christians speaking out against the televangelists and Westborough baptists?”

    Ah, that would be pretty much all of us. Oh wait, the mainstream news doesn’t get the news out about that? SURPRISE!

  6. Hey Jack.

    On the subject of ‘Hugel-swales,’ do you feel they make sense in a scenario wherein the soil drains extremely rapidly (high sand, very little clay), so the wood is serving the purpose of holding some of the water that infiltrates the swale for the plants growing in it?

    • It depends. If you are hauling in wood from 20 miles away no.

      The thing is a swale is a swale and a hugul is a hugul they don’t need combining. They serve different functions.

      You plant trees in a Swale, you set the tree at a specific depth. Now your wood rots, your swale berm drops, what happens to that level you so carefully planted the tree at?

      It might work fine, who knows but soil type isn’t the issue, the totality of the design is the issue, the resources on site are the issue.

  7. John ,sent me an article about a Super Strain of HIV from Cuba…that could be the next News BS LOL

    • There’s also a super bug in hospitals. I’ve been seeing articles sporadicly for both ever since measles ended. They both have a narrative that makes Obama look bad, and makes the masses afraid.

        • You know what else is coming,

          OMG the terrorists (which of course include North Korea, Iran and Russia sigh) are going to hack us to death (cyber).

          Yep it is also about time for a big push to make the idiots call for “greater internet security” now that Snowden has sunk from the memory of the average idiot!

        • Looking at that link. What world do we live in that we don’t see this for what it is? Creating a paid and volunteer “information army”? In what universe is this not WW2 level overt propaganda?

          So in otherwords now a major news network is stating something we already knew. People are paid (and non paid) shills for governments who target those who don’t repeat the desired mantra and “Facts”.

          Insert unleashed intelligence and police services and well…. we’re right back to the beginning of the 20th century all over again.

          Sigh….

        • Looking at it another way. If we have info armies and if “virtual nations” do rise and I expect they will, do you end up with virtual nations at war?

        • @Jack
          Why can’t we say that is already going on? There are certainly more elements to virtual nation concept that will unfold over time, but there is quite a bit of evidence showing those type of things going on.

          What is it really? It’s a group of individuals which may or may not be geographically located, joined with a similar “cause” and personal affiliation.

          Couldn’t we say the factions such as Autonomous or Wikileaks, or etc etc are already at war? What about the anti-this vs the pro-that? It seems the internet is just loaded to the brim with this kind of unite and smite those with other opinions. I’m certainly no saint in that.

          What more will a virtual nation war look like?

  8. I have a pluot tree that was filled with flowers, then we got this last freezing rain on Sunday night. The flowers are still on, but I’m not sure if they will stay. This is the second year in a row that this has happened. Makes me want to put an ax to the tree and hit my head against a brick wall for planting an early fruiting tree in my zone. Make that two trees, I also have a plum full of buds.

  9. I’m confused about this marriage penalty tax you talk about, Jack. From what I can tell, my taxes are going down slightly because I got married last year. Our combined income does increase our taxable income, but according to the 2014 tax brackets (http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2013/10/31/irs-announces-2014-tax-brackets-standard-deduction-amounts-and-more/), my husband and I will be paying less. Last year, as an individual, I would have paid $19075.75 and my husband would have paid, as an individual, $10356.25 which means our household would have paid $29432.00 (I can’t just believe I typed that outrageous number!). However, we will be filing “married filing jointly” and this brings our taxes down to $29387. So, it hasn’t gone down much but it’s certainly not a penalty. I guess it all depends on how much each spouse makes and whether they cross a tax bracket threshold, but more often than not, people tell me their taxes went down when they got married.

  10. Jack,

    I just wanted to ask. After you mark the contour line for your swale. does the contour line mark the back cut or the mound side? or does it really matter?

    I also want to point out that it is freaken awesome shooting contour lines at night with a laser level. It is really quick because you can see exactly where the laser is on the receiver. its kinda wild because i feel like I can feel the contours better as well in contrast to the day light where my eyes play tricks on me.

    Semper Fi
    Your North Texas Neighbor

    • It doesn’t really matter, a 6 foot swale will be on contour 6 feet on either side of the line. We usually mark the back though. We also use ground marking paint to spray a line for rookie excavator operators, makes for a much nicer cut.

  11. You can dive into the fermentation world easily with a wide mouth quart mason jar, a cabbage and 2/ 1/2 tsp of sea salt. One good sized cabbage seems to be about right for one to two quart mason jars. Shred the cabbage as Jack recommended. This works much better than a mandolin and reduces the risk of grated fingers. Put a one inch layer of cabbage into the jar. Sprinkle some of the sea salt over it Put another layer of cabbage in. Pack the cabbage into the jars with a wooden spoon. Really pack it. Keep layering the cabbage and salt until the jar is just below the neck of the jar. Put a lid and ring on the jar loosely. Set the jar aside for an hour to self brine. If the cabbage isn’t covered with brine, make up a little to fill the jar to cover the cabbage (1 1/8 tsp to 1 cup filtered water). That’s it, let it sit for about 7 days. Taste it and either let it go longer or put it in the fridge and enjoy.
    It is a good way to make small batches without the expense of a crock. If you like it and want to step up production, get the crock.

    • Yea I have done it, it does “work” I don’t find the quality of the final product as good as a stone crock does. It holds a much more even temp, you get a crisper final product in my experience anyway.

  12. On the ISIS stuff, one interesting BBC series I found was the Power of Nightmares by Adam Curtis. Gives a background on the ideology of radical islam and neo-cons. Interesting theories and facts can help color the picture better. Problem is we never teach history about what has gone on for decades, if we did, we would draw way different conclusions. Was done in 2004 but definitely applies to today when you think about all the spying and things that have happened since.

  13. @ USCPrepper writes: “What’d Alex say in the history segment? I don’t care what religion you are as long as you are ashamed of it.”

    Actually… I was quoting someone else. As I recall it was, “I don’t care what religion you are as long as you are embarrassed by it.”

    I am occasionally embarrassed by my fellow Orthodox Jews. Nevertheless, I can explain what they are doing and why they think they are correct. When I was a Liberal Jew I could not explain what my fellow Liberal Jews were doing other than they were making it up as they went along. They were doing what was expedient and frankly… whatever pleased them at the time. Not all of them, certainly, but most of the leadership. That is the reason why I left them. (There is more but that is enough for a general audience.)

    “… there’s things both in the past and the present that every religion should be ashamed of.”

    Well… yes. As you can see… Christianity of the past looks a lot like ISIS does today. Yet Christianity will find a path away from its atrocities and become the religion of peace that they aspired to. Unfortunately, Hitler will show that there was still some tweaking to do.

    If we went back far enough we would see Jews acting the same way… which is what brought about Christianity in the first place. Christians were objecting to how far Judaism had gone off course, and they were correct in that criticism. What their objection produced were two spin-off religions… Rabbinical Judaism and Paulian Christianity.

    “Doesn’t make anyone who practices it a villain.”

    Funny you should say that. The word “villain” is actually a Middle English word meaning “a serf acting as a servant” or a “villager” … someone who lives in the village but works on the farm. Apparently they had sticky fingers because the aristocracy complained about them quite a bit. That is how the word became a synonym for a criminal.

    http://www.thefreedictionary.com/villein

    Alex Shrugged

    • As someone who was raised in a Liberal Jewish household, and left the religion as an adult I can completely relate. I could only take so many times going to eat with people from the synagogue, and watching them order bacon cheeseburgers or eggs benedict etc., and then watch them freak out a few hours later because the meat and cheese lasagna they’re eating has pork in it… you know, because keeping kosher is important to them:)

      Embarrassed is a better word than ashamed for what was being communicated, sorry to misquote it.

  14. Just a correction:

    Bees cannot survive being frozen. Bees are endotherms, meaning they produce internal body heat. If a bees body temp drops below 45 F they will die of hypothermia. Bees clump together in the winter to share body heat and regulate hive temps so they survive the winter.

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