I'm not going to spend any time discussing the news from this past week---it's just too crazily confused out there right now and true understanding is just too challenging to render our society's problems down into a logical sequence. What's right--what's wrong is lost in the soundbites....Obama is amazing but he's alone in his genius and surrounding him is politics as usual in the Congress and throughout the rest of the government---i am sure of only one thing-----that we are heading for an immense economic/societal drop off------I'm going to hunker down in this blog with my own thoughts and actions and leave everything else alone.I spent this day off working in our gardens, on our solar panels, and ordering and organizing our economic emergency supplies....in reality working on self-reliance/survival gives me something to do with myself and makes me feel as if i am in control of SOMETHING that surrounds me on a day to day basis....

I'm tremendously glad to hear that the Obama's are putting in an organic vegetable garden at the white house...way to go Obama's...I've been a huge proponent of individual home food & power production for a long,long time... i am so beside myself that we actually have a representative of the thoughtful human in the white house now after the upper crust idiots we have suffered with for so long...there are plans up on the web of the soon to be planted white house organic garden--you should take a look..this year we bought a booth at the local farmers market held each Saturday at the town square...profit is not the motive--I'm really attempting to put into actualization a trading culture--more like----i trade you excess of my vegetables that i planted, for excess of yours that i did not plant. This is not to say that i won't sell what i don't use if that's the only alternative but it is definitely secondary in my mind....if the economy worsens this barter-trade-partnership community is going to be the only way we will get by...

I obtained (well I actually purchased) a 2007 French science film film on DVD "Chrysalis". Most excellent! Sort of a cop, mystery, noir film thing set in Paris of 2027---the fights are astounding and done by the dude who set up all the fight scenes in the Bourne movies but these are even better--they are tremendously realistic....plus it is interesting to visualize how other culture's artists see the coming future....if you get a chance to see this movie it is most excellent...

I don't care what that this watch features GPS and every other bell and whistle known to watch making mankind---I SIMPLY WANT ONE! How cool is this?

http://oobject.com/home/news/kogan-gps-watch-has-bluetooth-and-bulk/6158/

I have been purchasing long-shelf life emergency food supplies---every two weeks I've purchased either a box of 12 MRE's (meals ready to eat) or a Mountain house 72 hour food kit---8 food packages---(of which i now have 2). My goal is to have enough easy to store--emergency food on hand for both my wife and i for at least a month. I've also obtained chem light sticks--a pocket survival kit--cranked power flashlights--and water purification tablets.

One of the things i believe individuals overlook when considering emergency supplies or self-reliant living is fishing as a food source. I don't fish, you know as a hobby, or hunt....i was (am) primarily a city kid....but i started thinking about alternative food sources other than gardening and did the "uh--what about fishing and why haven't i thought of this before" thought pattern....although there are not a large amount of fishing locations here in southeastern New Mexico--there are a few that i could get to either by segway or on foot--and having a viable, compact, inexpensive fishing kit to have in storage for that just in case scenario....the photo in this section demonstrates the type of fishing kit i am thinking of purchasing and putting away..i don't have any equipment where fishing is concerned so the kit has to have everything that i would need...this is the type of planning for a bad future that simply can't hurt us--$17.00 of prevention may make all the difference in the future. To me self-reliance is not stockpiling ammunition for a resident evil situation but more of a thought experiment on developing a quality lifestyle outside of society's boxes. Besides fresh fish would be not only an excellent food supplement but viable trade items.....next:

What do i believe would be excellent trade items during a Great Depression type meltdown? well----plain gold rings (much better to carry and easier to deal with than Krugerrands), cigarettes, really, really good marijuana, .22 caliber ammunition, excess garden food production, rechargeable batteries, garden seeds, medicines, Craftsmanship skills such as: real life repair capability, smart guy capability applied to real world problems-say building a still (being a guy like the character Brain in the movie, Escape from New York would be really valuable). There are probably 1000 other items that could be mentioned here that i simply cannot think of right now but I'm sure you get the overall concept. Keeping trading possibilities in mind for the future will be important...

Well, read think and work hard at being self sufficent--help others out getting there--read wikipedia by just clicking from reference to refence, it's a cheap way of getting educated---

pay off/down your debt----until you do you are a slave--