Episode-592- Listener Calls 1-24-11
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Since I was away Friday I decided to do the listener call show today instead. Today we have great questions on bug out locations, spring gardening, keeping balance and staying positive with your prepping, composting toilets and more.
Join me today as we discuss…
- Getting ready for spring planting with seeds and plants
- Choosing between composting toilets and septic systems
- The Ground Nut (Apios americana) more protein than an egg!
- TSP has an Android Application (iPhone Developer Invitation)
- Does everyone need a BOL, what will we do when we move to our’s permanently
- Long term labeling of trees and shrubs to keep track or varieties, etc.
- The Military CUCV, the good, bad and ugly
- Why anyone can become debt free and why the plan is the key
- Accepting the horror of debt is the first step to freedom
- Making your own primers, thoughts on the skill as a whole
- How to stay positive and balanced in your prepping efforts
Additional Resources for Today’s Show
- Members Support Brigade
- TSP Gear Shop
- Join Our Forum
- Silver and Gold Shop – (sponsor of the day)
- ShelfReliance.com – (sponsor of the day)
- Ground Nuts from Sand Mountain Herbs – (Sand Mountain is a Great Resource for Seeds)
- Peaceful Valley Farms Zinc Tags I Mentioned Today
- Wiki Article on the CUCV
- Dr. Gary Alt (Now retired, some hated him, I found him to be a rock star of game management. Most in the North East don’t really understand deer management)
- Members Support Brigade
- Ron Hood’s Survival.com Magazine
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
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I plan on trying concrete markers for long term trees and shrubs. Like this: http://www.thewreathdepot.com/gamastkit.html
Hope this works!
The “Square Foot Garden” book has great time frames for when to plant before the last frost date. It is my favorite book for basic gardening in small space.
ammosmith.com has all kinds of good videos and information on reloading. They also have a video on “reloading” primers using the tips from certain matches.
For tree labeling:
The highest quality tree tags from A.M. Leonard is what we’ve found is best -fastest – cheapest – most durable – and we plant about 1000-2000 trees each year using them.
Cheese works great for composting Jack – super hot!
Huge call at the end. We gotta be sane. If worry or sadness (more than a little) or anger or hatred or anything negative comes into your life from ‘prepping’ then you gotta change the attitude. Shit hitting the fan is exciting – it will be good, or if it won’t don’t think too much about the parts that won’t be. There’s nothing we can do about that but prep a bit and enjoy life as we do.
“The future will come” as you said Jack – so don’t worry about it, do what you can, get ready, but have fun mostly the whole time – afterall the comet could (will eventually) come too. Humans are not permanent. “And ain’t nothing we gonna do ’bout that.” Enjoy your life today. Cheers to you all. Much to celebrate.
Ben
Jack,
Regarding the use of compost toilets or otherwise dealing with human wastes, the Humanure Handbook is a good book. You can download it here: http://humanurehandbook.com/contents.html
BTW, compost toilets don’t have to use electricity; I’ve used many of them, and none of them have been electric, but those belonged to people who lived there full time instead of on vacations. They also belonged to people who were more comfortable handling their own waste than a lot of us would be.
I also want to thank you for the call at the end. It really helped put things in perspective. I have anxiety issues to begin with, and when I look at what is happening around me, I want to start chewing my fingernails and muttering to myself.
-Rebecca
Hey Jack, what was the name of that near-indestructible paint you mentioned the army uses? thanks
@Justin S, it is called CARC (pronounced like cark) it stands for, “Chemical Agent Resistant Coating” http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/cv/carc.html
From what I know you can buy it as a civilian with no restrictions.
Interested in ground nuts – never heard of them before. Went to the Sand Mountain link. It looks like there’s only 1 seed per pkt though, and $4.50? Is that a typo or is this a really expensive seed? Thanks.
Jack I was very surprised to hear you speak so highly of Gary Alt. Most PA hunters I have spoken with directly attribute the lack of deer in the north central area to Gary Alts doe eradication program. The deer heard in that area have been reduced to 1-2 deer per square mile. Things are looking very grim in that area…hunters are getting frustrated and laying down there rifles which is never a good thing.
@Kevin, PA hunters have the wrong idea about deer health after 75 years of idiotic management. To grow a buck population you have to first cut a doe population. The buck doe ratio in PA was about 17 to 1 doe heavy before Alt took over. In Texas on public lands we average about 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 in some areas. On well managed ranches it is right about 1 to 1.
Having hunted in PA most of my teen and early twenty years I can tell you the Texas ratios are much better for hunters and deer.
Also all those hunters bitching about “doe eradication” are the same people that did the actual eradication.
Also as far as some hunters laying down their rifles, in most states I would call that bad but the orange army of PA could use a bit of rank reduction. One of the many reasons I turned to archery is that PA rifle season is insane with hunter density and magnum toting idiots are in an excess of supply all season long.
Jack-
Just wanted to say that your answer to the last question (being worried/negative)was awesome. Summed up everything that attracted me to TSP in the first place and keeps me coming back. The wife and I were talking in bed this morning about how things seem to be taking a turn for the worse and two hours later I was listening to this. Had her sit down and listen to at as well. Absolutely brilliant. Thank you.
@CharlieFoxtrot
1. Love the handle!
2. Thanks for the kind words.
Thanks Jack, I will admit most of the pissed off hunters I speak with harvest doe. My camp does not. Some forget we have to be our own conservationist. As for the “orange army of PA” haha…it’s pretty thin in my neck of the woods. I’ll remain optimistic for next season I just have to ask myself…wwjd what would jack do!!!
@Kevin, One thing to be aware of we have a limit of 5 deer in Texas (most counties) and for the most part you can take one buck and four doe and our herds are very healthy. Of course the well managed private lands help out a lot.
What I am saying though is taking does isn’t a bad thing and more of it needs to be done in many states. I always thought the videos of 8 bucks walking together in a field were fakes until I cam to Texas. The doe buck ratio in PA was very unhealthy. So what would Jack do, I responsibly harvest and that does include does. I mean you can’t eat horns.
The real tragedy in PA is often the large parties of drivers and the fact they shoot deer that are far too young. They shoot young of year (YOY) deer because they can and often are 60-80 lbs in their first year. That is something that we don’t have in Texas either because the YOY deer still have spots for most of the hunting season and will be about the size of a small dog. Put it to you this way, you could damn near put them in a game bag on the back of a bird vest.
I think that encouraging hunters to pass on young of year animals may be what the next step for PA should be. You can’t do it with law because sometimes you can’t tell. I saw 2 fawns following a doe once it was the only way I knew they were young of year they were both about 70 lbs. Mom was a big old girl, 180ish on the hoof and she dressed out at 135.
You got it I put a satellite four blade dead through here lungs. Her fawns were the size of full grown does in the south. Snow makes bigger deer in my view.
Hey Jack,
Thanks so much for the link to Sand Mountain Herbs. I found not only the Ground Nut, but several other plants I just couldn’t find anywhere else.
I was wondering if you could do some of us northerners a favor and try to mention the recommended growing zone when talking about a plant or tree variety. The reason I ask is it’s crushing to hear about a great plant while listening to the podcast only to later find it on line and discover it’s only a zone 6-9 plant/tree. I’m on the border of zone 4-5, so my options are limited and it’s nice to hear about things like the Ground Nut that are hardy to zone 3.
Mark
(endurance)
When building my homestead, I used a composting toilet for about 9 months as a temporary measure until I could get my septic system up and running. I would definitely NOT recommend it. I used a Biolet NE, very basic unit. It retailed for something like $800, and I only got it because I found one at a garage sale unused and still in the box for $150.
It didn’t smell, but that’s really the only positive. The liquid drain plugged up very quickly, and if you urinated in it, it would leak out onto the floor. It would only compost about 50% of its contents before reach capacity and having to be emptied (about once a month, with a single person using it). It was a nasty chore, only slightly more fun than emptying a trailer black water tank.
A septic system is a far better long-term solution to sanitation than a composting toilet, IMO. Yes, septic systems are expensive (mine was $5000.00, including about a 150ft run from the house to tank and a short driveway the installer cut to get access to the site), but not that much more than a full-featured composting toilet. If you plan to get a septic and just need an temporary stand-in, do yourself a favor and just dig a small outhouse. That’s certainly what I would do if I had to start over.
Also, keep in mind that if you do have a composting toilet, you will need to have a plumbing system to drain sink and bath water. In my area, grey water systems are not allowed by code, so you would have to be sneaky to get one past an inspector, and could be in some hot water if it was discovered. As septic takes care of all those problems as well. It may use more water than composting toilet, but all that water is going right back out into the ground in your leach field.Seems like a pretty environmentally-neutral system to me.