No progress on the debt ceiling talks---and the band aided budget runs out on September 2----

The only troops we are pulling out of Afghanistan are the thousands we recently pushed into there leaving 70,000 more to go what a great solution-----we talk while we are burning up our youth and our fortune.

I am very close to being finished with my every day carry projects. With the recent delivery of an Esse Isula and Esse Rat 3 knives, new clothing and belts, and completing the construction of my mini-urban survival kit, there is only the last hurdle to accomplish. Finding a new bag to fit both the new protocols and newly acquired equipment. I am considering the, above and below displayed, Maxpedition Sabercat carry-all/butt pack. Capable of being slung from the shoulder, handle carried, used as a butt pack or attached to my Maxpedition Falcon II pack as an extra compartment------ this item should be the last bag I ever require.

Everyday for two weeks over 100F---I've seen 111 on my Prius exterior thermometer---no rain for months--searing wind, the city of Alamogordo is on fire---yet we just pulled carrots, 2 kinds of beets, and heads of cabbage from the garden tonight---my wife JoJo is amazing......she makes the desert bloom!

The porches on the house are finally finished both front and back and I will produce pictures soon they will be just excellent during the spring, fall and winter here to sit out and watch the world go by---I am averaging 49 miles per gallon on my commute----and I am due for some time off---Our little homesteading world is good---the world outside I'm just not so sure of.....

My Last vote in any election is going to go to:

that insane clown posse cheerleader, Republican Stepford wife, God tells me all kinds of shit he doesn't tell anyone else, I recently declared I want to be President----Michele Bachmann...I want the end of our society to hurry up and get here----and this bitch is certainly the one to end it......she is Colonel Kurtz in high heels---- and she scares even "real" Republicans----proven when I tell all the bible thumping Republicans at work my plans to vote for her and why----they sort of cringe---and look like they just ate something bad...I'll fix em' she's got my vote......

Matt Tabi wrote an excellent article on her for Rolling Stone recently accessed by the link below....

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/michele-bachmanns-holy-war-20110622

(with apologies to my friend Bill)

With the coming of July it has now been one full year since my last haircut....I am lucky that at 59 I have the same amount of hair i had at 19---the result of a strange gene pool but that's a completely different story...... With hair at my shoulders I now wear a true ponytail---not one of those little punk things----mine is now a big solid gray, Willie Nelson like, ponytail.....I have thus far saved $420.00 in haircuts and 18 hours in private time over the course of one year. It is a strange psychological circumstance that the social damage occurred early in the process---people give you shit when you are growing a ponytail---not when you have one....my whole hair life is much, much simpler now--just tie it back--no more thinking that I have to get it cut---when can i get it cut---do people think i need to get it cut---blahblahblah.

Any man who has $10,000 left when he dies is a failure.

Errol Flynn

Small blog this week---it is too hot here for big anything....111 degrees yesterday and over 100 until 8:00 last night. Heat such as this that runs throughout the workday just saps the life out of you.

I thought it was just me being a weakling but even the real old timer desert rats are complaining-----I am staying inside today and will work on little personal projects even tho there is a massive amount of garden work, worm farm work and just work-work to do outside....the desert makes you pace yourself---it is better here to know your limits and work smart as compared to being the mad dog Englishman out in the midday sun......

I finally know what distinguishes man from the other beasts: financial worries.
Jules Renard

The rebels are always cooler------------

http://gawker.com/5812928/libyan-rebels-are-raging-potheads

I have always believed that if you can obtain one new fact or one new concept from a book that this one new fact or new concept alone was worth the cost of the book.

Wendy Brown's book Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs--is proof that my theory is correct.

Remaining clean and insuring that your personal environment, clothes, kitchen area is clean in a societal economic collapse is a major point that Ms. Brown points out which I had never considered previously....cleanliness prevents disease----and prevention of health problems when our society collapses will be the primary source of medical care.....the ability to wash can be as important as the ability to eat--------establishing a process for washing ourselves, our clothing and our food preparation areas will be much, much more difficult when water must be transported by hand and heated over open fires especially when you are already cold and worn out---soap will be hard to obtain or must be personally manufactured....all these difficulties would lead some to begin living as a middle ages peasant with a bath when you are born and a bath when you die as the protocol. This must not be allowed to happen, my homesteading concept will now include washing areas, and designs to simplify staying clean in a low technology environment----thanks to Ms. Brown.

An Anarchist Dog walking commune in Washington DC has free health insurance, profit sharing and Seven weeks of vacation a year----where do I sign up?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/2011/06/06/AGh2i5XH_story.html

Izula knife kit above and Springfield M6 combination .22 caliber rifle over .410 shotgun, breakdown, survival rifle below.......needs and wants, needs and wants-------

A scathing report by our Latvian NATO allies on the performance of the Afghan military in combat...despite our billions spent and our soldiers lives lost when they turn the gun on their US trainers....a small article buried in the net....truth has to be searched for....

http://hamptonroads.com.nyud.net/2011/06/investigation-afghan-troops-ran-hid-during-deadly-battle

I've mentioned previously many times the theft of 6 billion dollars flown to Iraq to supposedly aid in the reconstruction under the Bush Administration.......finally someone else realizes this is outrageous even for the Bush administration...but it is the Iraqi's that are threatening to take the US to court------claiming they never received the money and they want it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13768882

Now, just how the fuck does this work?

Could we finally, finally grow some sense and unass both these places-----or will we have to go bankrupt as a nation before we pull out and allow the Afghans and the Iraqi's to return to having fun with their dancing boys?

A long, long time friend of mine who kindly reads my crap once in awhile asked me an excellent question in an email....if everything and everyone we know will be gone

why bother to survive? Why bother to prepare?

This is an excellent question one that we all should think on.... Masada comes to mind.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada

I thought on this for a bit and answered as honestly as I could...although being pressed for time I admit could have explained in an email of greater depth...first---- I have a responsibility to my wife, my JoJo, to insure that I have prepared as best as we can for any possibility in our old age. Prepping/survivalist whatever term applies works to that responsibility. The security of food, shelter, water, medicines, and protection are the basics....all of which are provided by the actions, plans and skills developed now.

I further advised that if our society as we know it destroys itself economically, socially, politically I do truly feel that whatever survives the fall will be more honest---I know this is a bizarre statement but---- societal collapses are a natural response to unnatural growth and management by stupidity...I wish harm to none but we have gone into that zone which lies beyond our ability to fix crucial failures in our society while it continues to operate---while it struggles along pretending to be active and viable....while crumbling and frozen in place.

My last response was that I wouldn't have to continue working if our society folded in on itself...this may have been made in a joking manner but there is a great deal of truth to it...to be responsible for your own survival rather than dependent on electronic payments to accounts would provide a sense of freedom to me rather than a feeling of the end of everything.

I don't see the end as an end but rather as a new beginning to be embraced....regardless of personal age...........

Run a home like you would a small business and treat it with the same seriousness.

Anthea Turner