When done posting this edition I am going out back to the shed to start shelling a couple of hundred pecans i recovered from our tree this year. I have no grand process of doing this, just a hammer, a pocket knife and jars with screw on lids that we have saved. Once i get tired of shelling pecans and knowing that i have more than enough to go around for the next shelling session....

.........I'll stop for the day, come inside and get to work on some handmade cards for my wife's upcoming birthday.

The point of advising this is that what one can do towards self sufficiency often has nothing whatsoever to do with weapons, boarding windows, or zombie proofing the property.

Self sufficiency is often best represented by creation.....and not by fear.

I am saving branches, cut into small lengths which naturally fall from our pecan tree...we have a self standing outdoor fireplace and a hibachi for possible emergency cooking, I'm creating a stockpile of pre-cut dried branches for use.

I am reading the Orvis fly fishing guide book.

I am watching over our winter garden to see what happens.

I am recharging batteries.

There is nothing road warrior like about what i am doing this weekend----there shouldn't be.

Millions of words have already been written on the net over the People's Revolt against TSA. My little bity input is although this mini uprising will without a doubt accomplish nothing......it is heartening to see people rise up against the anti-terrorism confidence game that is being pulled on them. TSA has already pulled the requirement that Pilots suffer back scatter x-rays and physical searches----but then again they have a union while you, the public, have only the people you elected....

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato

A result of giving up on politics and hoped for political solutions to our collapsing future state due to this last election, i have been involved in self reflection and examination. Have i become a geezer, casting doom and gloom theories on everything surrounding me? Am i unable to face the new reality and therefore prepare so that my tiny world can stay the same rather than face the future? Do i fail to have enough hope and confidence in our society that we will somehow muddle through as we always have done in the past? I have gazed into my belief structure on the upcoming failure, the future collapse of our society attempting to determine the difference between truth and self-created fiction. The best course is always honesty, and honesty compels me to state that i do believe we would be better off if our society crashes.....that we rebuild from a wasteland rather than cling to false beliefs, inept processes, and devious power structures that do not work and will merely prolong the hurt for the average citizen till the inevitable end. Desired or not i truly do believe that we are done for by our own hand...... If i am cynical our society and our leaders have taught me to be a cynic---wars without justification, theft of societal property, lack of thought in decision making, anything for profit...all the past 40 years of failure to recognize what is vs. what they want...has taught me to come to a state where i ignore my society, and ignore my leaders. Survivalism or prepping are merely the tools which will allow me to maintain this status of ignoring society regardless of exterior events or circumstances. In all honesty I believe what i say.

In Reading "The Worst Hard Times" by Timothy Egan, it was pointed out that during the depression 1930's there was simply no money in circulation. Rural individuals spent an entire year with $5.00 or less in their pockets as real money. Although trading and bartering during that time was discussed i had difficulty imagining this circumstance...I wanted to investigate this concept further and have ordered "The Moneyless Man" Mark Boyle. I am trying not to make presumptions on how he accomplished living for a year without money until i read the book and am looking forward to getting into it...this may or may not be useful information for the hard times ahead...but i will advise on this book after reading...

Preparing for the future often becomes twisted into purchasing vast quantities of survival stuff...with a subsequent failure of preparations in fundamentals. Last blog i spoke of salt. This time i will speak of olive oil....we keep 3 gallons of olive oil in food storage with plans to increase this quantity over time.

For Cooking, frying, as replacement for butter, skin remedy, vegetable dressing and for a host of other uses olive oil cannot be overlooked as a necessary item to be stockpiled. Originally i had wanted to plant olive trees on the urban homestead and make my own oil. Unfortunately i am simply to far into the winter zone to allow this. I am hoping that when my greenhouse is up and running i may be able to attempt to keep two, potted oil trees alive and producing within it.

Olive oil (and a little salt) is one of those overlooked preps which having at least a small supply in the future' may make that backyard squirrel and vegetable casserole tasty.

If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
Emma Goldman

wolverines

American society's biggest problem may be that citizens will have to face problems the likes of which are unknown today...For example, Anarchist's in Great Britain attacked the Conservative Party headquarters over proposed cutbacks in public services the other day.....The American public takes more shit quietly than any other society in the world other than the Russians....we did in the past anyway. Once the American public becomes hungry, cannot drive, faces standing in line for food, and the vast new underclass understands there is and will be nothing for them.....avoiding demonstrations and violent public activity in your community may become a new way of life for you on a daily basis. This does not at all concern the upper class, with limo's, gated communities, corporate aircraft and private security services. The boot of the Upper classes remains on your neck without them actually touching us.

When working overseas it was not at all unusual to have to avoid travel through specific areas due to food riots or religious riots or job riots...one just readjusted the route and moved on. The greatest danger was in turning a corner to become accidentally involved in a riot or demonstration....but it is surprising how life has to go on---you have to get to work, or you have to shop for food, or you have to take your child to school or the doctor.....there are have to's that make one face these types or problems in the 3rd world which we were immune to, but we will have to face in the new American future.

If this demonstrative, reactive collective behavior starts in the US, information on food riots, job riots, etc will probably be controlled.....we will not know what types of disturbances are occurring across the country or in your own area until these incidents become impossible to spin or the sheer numbers grow until the facts are uncontrollable by local, state and federal governments.

In our future one may have to be attuned to the feeling of the crowd...one must know when a food line is becoming agitated....and know when to leave. We may have to learn how to turn around and find another way due to a gut feeling about an area..... But we as a society may face these situations like the Russians did....immense lines of quietly broken humans, shuffling about in old clothes, hoping for the best while expecting the worst....there is a great possibility that Americans are so broken by false promises seasoned with equally false hopes that our society will accept what it is given by it's broken leadership and corporate spin doctor's with the only response being depression and quiet despair while we slowly starve to death in the dark............. But then again....... we have guns.

Salt...wars have been fought over it....and i had forgotten about it until this past week. Spices i can and do grow especially chillies and garlic-6--- the crops New Mexico is known for...but salt? In desert conditions salt takes on a special need..being possibly without refrigeration creates an additional need for salt for food preservation. Here we are without access to the sea, the easiest source for the home made salt process. Every source I investigated on making salt began with the phrase---"take salt water and then--blahblahblah" ------no help for me there. Now on trips to the grocery, we always buy a container of salt---for stockpiling. Every time. This salt storage may last us until we find some local source of production or trade. I'd recommend thinking of salt---it is easy to overlook in our current lives---if all else fails grab a few little packets each time you are at a fast food place. They are trying to kill you with their food anyway-------at least they owe you a couple of packets of salt?

I have been stockpiling individual meal food such as MRE's. I have now begun to stockpile #10 cans of dehydrated foodstuffs. Individual meal packets are necessary for short term emergencies, camping, travel etc. However for the long term #10 cans are a much better value.

The market has a large array of brands and types, I prefer Mountain House, due to experience with their food while backpacking. #10 cans by Mountain house contain 10 standard servings (the serving size is actually pretty large for the average person) and have a shelf life of 25 years....much longer than MRE's or any standard can food.

Although some varieties such as the freeze dried pre-cooked ground beef are expensive in this size container I tend to purchase the cheaper, but viable plainer meals such as, chicken with rice, spaghetti with meat sauce etc. These plainer meals can be touched up by onions, peppers, chives etc from our garden.

I specifically stockpile the Mountain House #10 cans of Crackers which are a large lifeboat type cracker of which each can contains 70. The reasoning behind this is that I reside in basically the desert, settlers here had to do without wheat and bread until literally the 1900's. Rather than stockpiling wheat as some do, I've decided to substitute these crackers for bread, taking less space and less caloric output than grinding wheat and baking bread. You have to remember that the caloric investment in producing food must be at least equalled by the food you end up with. It does you no good to burn 10,000 calories to produce 500.

The #10 can system is easy to store and i tape a military P-38 can opener to every 4th can...just in case....One cannot store enough food to live off of forever. These cans are for winter shortages, a break in eating from the garden and to cover a bad growing season if necessary. Ten servings is 10 days for one person if necessary.

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.
Andre Gide

This is this last political comment i will ever make on this blog. I was a victim of hope. This will never happen again. After turning away from voting and engaging in zero political discussion or involvement for almost 30 years, I voted twice and fell victim to believing that there was a chance that our society could be rebuilt.

The 2010 election and the restoration of Republican power in the House has once and for all eliminated any respect i have for the American Public whose society I share. This Jerry Springer political process and the upcoming results of gridlock, failure and political theater have provided a personal guilt. I KNEW BETTER, than to hope for something different something intelligent in our political process, but i allowed myself to believe. That is my sin.

It will never happen again for the rest of my life. I am no longer involved. I am done. The American Taliban, the Republican Party, has won. They have won because they recognized the American Public as the purposefully stupid, fearful, fat, ignorant, Jabba the Hut slug that they are and directed this mob of ignorance in the direction they wished to return as the lapdogs of the elite class.

We are done, the only thing left to do is watch the decline, and become Zen like about the society that could have been but never was. This was our last chance. We are bankrupt, jobless, without manufacturing capability or leadership. Game over. The last vestige of wealth for the common classes is Social Security and you elected the party which wishes to privatize it and turn it over to the same bankers who ruined us......

I will only discuss homesteading, prepping for the future, books, films, computing and bartering from this point on. Never politics or a hopeful future again. Good luck to us all in poverty----we will need it.

An obscure hobby i have is researching, finding and viewing independent---Science Fiction Films. Hunter Prey is one of my film projects. I first uncovered Hunter Prey in small blurbs on the web. Produced, directed and financed independently while filmed in Mexico for location footage and reduced cost, Hunter Prey is a film i am looking forward to.

There was no advertising and I only discovered that Hunter Prey had made it to DVD release was by one of my usual amazon prowling sessions. Hunter Prey was listed about 11,000th on new DVD releases---i immediately pre-ordered it.

Hunter Prey tells the story of a military spacecraft which crashes on a desert planet carrying a prisoner from an alien species with which we are at war. The Alien escapes during the crash and the surviving members of the crew must recapture it.

This hobby of mine can produce excellent results, as when I discovered the movie Outlander and followed it from it's limited release in Spain to it's DVD release on amazon. Or it can provide an expense DVD dog of a movie to be viewed once and never again. I have seen only short clips of Hunter Prey on the web from which it is impossible to tell anything other than the movie shows great promise. Once i receive and view it I'll advise. My goal with this hobby is to support independent SF movies whenever possible----but it requires investigative work and faith to find what is out there.

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.
Gore Vidal