This weekend my wife and I held a camping-RV-do we want to travel in retirement summit...These are like a domestic G-20 summit meeting to decide issues that are important to the homestead and our little personal corporation. I enjoy these summit meetings, they clarify desires, organize goals and determine our direction on important issues.

(we accomplish something which is the unlike part compared to the real G-20 summit).

We decided that for the future we really do not want to travel when we are retired---we've both traveled in our previous lives...so the determination was made that i will single camp and (learn to) fish when desired in my retirement. No harm no foul.

I am really already set for individual camping in my walk out bag that i keep in the vehicle...a little tuning, and new equipment will allow me, inexpensively, to camp where and when I want to. Plus there are a couple of my geezer friends at work that i could possibly go with if i desire----there is no longer any confusion in this matter...excellent.

I have spoken of my Falcon 2 backpack upgrade project i am working on. One stage is the addition of the administrative panel to the front of the pack. The second stage upgrade i have in route is the KaBar (big belly) Survival knife system which I will be Molle attaching to the side of the Falcon. This KaBar knife is a system including: a smaller KaBar skeleton knife sheathed within the system, a large front pocket that will fit one of my small, tinned,survival kits, and the main knife itself is a KuKuri shaped blade 12" long. The system comes with 12' of emergency para-cord, and a Molle capable web and plastic sheath. Attached to the side of my Falcon 2 pack this is my own version of the Book of Eli letter opener.

(Once I get the entire upgrade done on the pack i will provide photo's.)

I prefer alone most of the time.....

If I am not really alone i still feel alone, as I have no tribe.

This is OK with me I am used to it....

The Tea party people and the Republicans are just such unhappy people--broken personalities----drowning in strange belief conundrums. They are either the perfect or the worst of us to oversee our nations destruction--to rule over the end of our empire since our empire was the only institution that would have allowed these zombies to be created. Other national philosophies would have drowned this movement of the fat and stupid at birth.

The Gulag always need help you know?

I of course will go in the voting booth in November and vote straight democratic----yes they are a confusing party that wants universal health care---the rich to be taxed----electric cars----and they speak in big words. Yes this I know. But I have not yet lost enough hope to sit by and without doing something to prevent Bible thumping, gay hating, anti-immigrant, abstinence only, anti-woman, pro-stupid--Jesus shouting---water boarding Republicans to preside over our national fall. I don't want us to be remembered this way, their way. It's disgusting to anyone who thinks. Go out, vote, it's important, and vote democratic. Otherwise the entire country will turn into the Texas State School Board and there will be giant statues of Jesus riding Dinosaurs, dug up by future anthropologists who be scratching their heads in amazement.

"I realize you are currently in the mercy if your primitive biological urges. But, as you have an entire lifetime of poor decisions ahead of you, may I interrupt this one?"

Dr.Sheldon Cooper--big bang theory

Fall is just about here...Fall is the time when i take stock of what has been accomplished and what is still necessary to be done at our urban homestead and am pleased with what i find for the past years work.

We produced more food that ever this year from our 50'by90' lot. New types of vegetables, and herbs...ate directly from the garden for the most part during these last 3 months... canned, dried and stored a great deal more of our excess produce this year compared to last......We were completely immune from the ground beef, egg and other mass produced food public poisonings of this past year.

We rebuilt our budget towards accomplishing our final two large projects, the greenhouse and the completion of the solar/wind power project. Raising our own Chickens must still wait till i retire...... but till then next month i expand the worm farm, and begin to shell and save our pecans a new products for home use...... We have paid cash for everything and even managed to save a small amount....

We have doubled our stock of stored emergency food since this time last year........We have managed to live free this past year-- of the interference of this surrounding weirdly new society of teabaggers, talking heads and failed politicians who for reasons unknown, seem successful in blinding and organizing the stupid and the lame?

My monthly average miles per gallon in the Prius has been 51.4---costing $13-$16.00 per week in gasoline for my daily commute to work. Growing my hair saved me 60.00 over the summer alone, and we will continue to eliminate those unnecessary expenses imposed on us by society....spending our money where we believe it to be important!

I think we have had an excellent year....but there is always more to be done.

I have been using my Maxpedition Falcon II backpack for my daily nerd gear personal carry. The backpack concept is accepted much easier by the Teabagging Palin supporters i work with rather than a "San Francisco Messenger bag" that winds up being stared at with a quizzical eye......what can i say I am surrounded by idiots who believe the surface of anything is more important that the depth.

I do enjoy using the Falcon tho--it's amazing, tough, well designed, easy to carry...but with October's survival budget i am planning on purchasing an add on molle gear item to help the bag out. The Administration panel shown below. The falcon pockets and compartments are superbly secure. Almost too secure, so that while in motion one cannot access things like cell phones, flashlight etc....the Administration panel which attaches to the outside, lower front compartment on the Falcon solves that problem by keeping, keys, cellphone, knife, cigarettes, flashlight etc. quickly accessible but still secure.

One of the excellent design features of Maxpedition gear is the ability to custom tailor your equipment to your own parameter requirements...........they have just great stuff.

http://www.maxpedition.com/

As the usually staunchest supporter of Hybrid vehicles i am ashamed to say this but I desperately want one of the new Jeep Wrangler pickups due out in mid-2011...I would so enjoy a bare bones model, with a truck RVcamper on the back. What a retirement, go anywhere you would like travel & camp vehicle. I can't help myself. This truck is so cool...and with a full sleep in, truck camper what a way to go fishing...I am going to have to lay down all 2011 so this feeling passes or go into debt for one of these...

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
Mohandas Gandhi

Plant a garden, be as free of debt as you can...trade and barter with your friends.....drive a vehicle that gets the best mileage possible for your lifestyle...give up your TV....store food and water....read.....

This upcoming week the Americans living in Poverty count is to come out.

The first report since before the Bush Administration and pre-release information from many sources indicate this report to be close to devastating. Individuals have reported that there may be a 5 to 7% rise in the number of citizens and children living below the poverty line in the United States. This may be one of the governmental reports that is released and disappears on the same day without attention. You can't expect the mentally deficient Jabba the Hut type creature that is the American Public to pay attention to information like this?

Those of us who do pay attention to societal trends will be disturbed by this information. It is nothing that we do not know...but facts that you inherently know or obtain by private observation take on a different reality when displayed as solid, governmental statistical analysis. That is when, what you have held as your own private beliefs, become, well, scary.

This has been done to America.....our descent into poverty is no more of an accident than invading Iraq was...we have witnessed the greatest theft of wealth in history, and the destruction of the largest middle class in the world----by the unending greed of the American Rich and their purchased, satanic, lap-dog politicians.

The problem the rich have is that no fortified mansion, no armored limo, and no amount of bodyguards can protect you from a hungry, angry, populace. The Rich will be pulled from their places of business, their homes and their automobiles and strung up by the mob.....it has happened over and over and over again in history. Unfortunately you cannot ask Czar Nicholas how he felt or obtain the benefit of his experience since he and his whole royal family were executed by a firing squad of the little people.....ask Mussolini, ask Batista, ask the Shah of Iran...they all believed in trickle down economics, fuck the poor, tax breaks for the rich, and were comfortable with their boot on the neck of their citizens. Look what happened to them, what they considered to be an impossibility happened overnight. They all in one way or another will wind up hanging by their feet in the public square.

My two homemade worm farms are doing very well. In October i am planning on emptying their compost into the gardens along with a few worms, and purchasing the above pictured 5 story worm condo for the urban homestead. Supposedly the worms do better when they are required to travel up to obtain their food once the paper and so forth has been rendered into compost...this 5 level condo allows for that and the ongoing recovery of compost without disturbing the worms themselves. Plus this will be warmer for the worms over the upcoming winter...as compared to my homemade single story worm box.

Zero History by William Gibson---what can i say that has not been said before about Gibson---you get him or you don't....the man who believes that the present is now more interesting than the future. If you know him you already have this book....excellent as always.

A recent purchase not started yet--- Black Earth by Andrew Meier. Subtitled a journey through Russia after the fall it is a reporting of Russia after it's economic collapse of the 1990's--I am reading this book to possibly learn something that might help during our crisis...and will advise.

Last week the disgusting payday loan sharks and the growth of that business were the indicator of America the 3rd world. This week street food vendors, street peddlers, and used clothing stores are the evidence. Unlike the payday loan sharks I find nothing distasteful about any of these merchant processes involving peddlers or the sale of used clothing...hunting a deal is always what one wants to do. I also believe peddling, street food vendors and used clothing stores to be not only providing a needed service, but proof of the desire to be your own boss.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this other than "street business" appears to be right now our only business, the only sign of economic life in our country...and in my area this "here today gone today capitalism" is all that is noticeably active. Regular clothing stores fold for lack of business but the vacant store front is soon filled by a resale shop. My little downtown has 6 resale clothing shops, usually 2 food vending trucks and a daily exhibit of 4-5 traveling parking lot peddlers of chili's, car floor mats, melons and so forth.

Like I say more power to the citizen independent merchant---but......This has been all there is---no grand openings of anything----just closings and peddlers---closings and peddlers----how can this style of capitalism help the country get better? It won't because We are beyond getting better. Our future United States is a third world nation selling taco's in a parking lot, while wearing someone else's clothing......

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Anton Chekhov

The further we slide on the down side of the peak everything bell curve, the more we are told how things are looking up? We are the subject of amazing spin attempts. In order to recover to the employment position we held prior to our economic melt down, the United States must create 300,000 jobs per month for 2-3 years. This in itself is an impossibility based on our current manufacturing/economic base. What we are told however,is that having only 49,000 additional unemployed this month is a plus--things are looking up.

No one will tell the truth of the matter which is: the United States will never recover from the Bush years which created this depression---never recover. In our weakened economic state we will lose the empire the Republicans gambled everything on...and we ourselves may be destroyed as a unified society. We have recently witnessed a gathering of sad, angry, fat white people in Washington who don't know what they really want----they are confused and "In confusion there is profit" says the old Chinese proverb. These dispirited, ignorant, confused people would follow a Hitler right now if there was one living in their trailer park. These are dangerous times---For these people are awaiting the one to arrive who will claim that he can fix their world...to make it right for them. Then the trouble really begins.

I have been reading "The Coming Famine" by Julian Criss. Excellent, I highly recommend it to any thinking persons considering the future. Mr. Criss sets out our Peak problems in agriculture, water, land and population in an easily understood but scientific manner. If you are an individual planning on surviving the upcoming years this is a must read....

I cannot say the same for "Off The Grid" by Nick Rosen which i am just finishing up. This book although a folksy summary of individuals met by the author in the United States living off the Grid, provides no information other than a cute tale of unique individuals. The best thing about "Off The Grid" to me was that i learned that there were still Anarchist communes in the United States---good for them whodathought! I believed the Republicans and the religious right drove Anarchists out of the county or something it's been so long since I've seen the word used. No hard information here just a series of soft magazine type features---I cannot recommend.

Work bites. I could phone in what i do...but in today's world i am lucky to have continuous work. What can i do to make the 10 hours a day (includes commuting) that i am in slavery appealing somehow for the remainder of my sentence? Last week i decided i would begin doing Tai-Chi at work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_chi_chuan

This may be a perfect solution...i have the down time at work to pursue this...it can be done within the confines of my office, i can start and stop anywhere if disturbed. I have a book and a CD and part of the project is working out the technical physical requirements on my own....Millions of old Chinese Dudes do Tai Chi. So next week i become an old Chinese Dude...

The past few years of moving into our urban homestead,the remodeling and the building up of our gardens left no time for really examining our backyard pecan tree. This healthy, large-mature tree in our backyard is has been producing excellent pecans which have been enjoyed only by the squirrels so far. This year i have had the time, motivation and opportunity to gather up our ripe pecan nuts with the intent of processing them for food.

I've started policing up mature dark brown nuts that have fallen into the yard and drying them in a standard cardboard box for later shelling. I am thinking that for food storage, usage in our own winter baking, snacking, and with the protein and oil provided by the nuts what a great, free, food source.

Peeling the dark,dark brown outer husk off displays the well known, light brown, perfect pecan shells----There is something so wonderful about this. "So this is where these come from" was my first thought.....Such a gift from a tree that was planted so long ago by persons unknown... My new fall/winter project this year---nut harvesting, shelling, storing, trading and consuming. The Urban homestead progresses.

Commuting home today i decided to count the number of payday loan companies on my route through approximately 1/2 of my 50,000 person town's main street. There were ten (10) and as I mentioned this was only tabulated through1/2 of the downtown business main street. Maybe two miles...Amazing.

We have no real conscious in our society any longer---as the greedy feed their bellies with the high interest loans off the inadequate paychecks of our own workers. This business....these bandit payday loan companies is one of the reasons we will fall as a society. How can this be good? How these entities even be considered business's. This was the territory of the wise guys when i was a kid. Now it belongs to Wells Fargo Bank, and Bank of America who own these things.

Business, that's easily defined - it's other people's money.
Peter Drucker