What If- Communications

     What if there were people who wanted complete control of everyone else?  What if in order to control us they wanted to limit our communications in order to restrict our ability to fight back as well as to keep us from knowing each other.  What if we knew each other and realized that we were all the same?  We each want to love and be loved, to have friends and family.  We all want to live to dream and to make those dreams a reality.  To me, we are all children of a wonderful God who loves us and wants the very best for us.  Why then would someone not want us to get along?  Why would whey want us to not be able to communicate and share with each other?  What kind of person wants to control the free exchange of information?  The kind of person who wants to hurt, and oppress, and enslave others.  I do not intend to live that way, I am a free man.

Story Saturday- I used my preps the other day, plus the Christmas Parade lessons

     So, living in Northern Arizona at near 4000 feet, we are used to winters that are far from the warm weather south of us in Phoenix.  However with the unusual influx of Cold Arctic air that has recently swept the US, my family has been affected as well.  On Friday Dec. 6th, I woke up and headed to the bathroom to take care of something.  When I turned on the water for my shower, nothing happened.  No water in my house worked.  My pipes had froze.  We have freezing temps but nothing usually this low.

     Thankfully I had hand sanitizer on hand to clean our hands, water storage for our food, and still had gas and power.  Water started to flow soon enough but it had our family thinking about how things would be if there was a complete shut off of services.  What would we do if our toilet couldn't flush?  How would be heat our home without gas service?  We have good candles and battery powered lights if we lose power but that was it.  I can cook on the grill or propane stove but do I want to do that in 17 degree temps?  Do I want to risk killing my family by bringing that stove into my house?

     On Saturday morning, I sadly had to go to work, where I am writing this post.  On my way I saw our small rural community preparing for the annual Christmas parade.  I told my wife about it and, despite her dislike of parades, she took our little one out to watch.  My wonderful Hobbit of a wife told me that it was quite festive, running down main street, with holiday and patriotic themes.  However, we were shown another week point in our abilities.  Our child does not have proper winter clothing.  We have enough to bundle our little one up to run to and from the car, but not enough to stay outside for prolonged periods of time.

     I enjoyed my impromptu test, as it brought to light some problems with my house, my preps and my family.  I hope that all is well with you this winter season.

Beg, borrow and deal, Money saving tips for preparedness

     I recently lost my dream job because, the simple truth is, I wasn’t right for it. I got that dreaded call to visit my boss’ office in July 2013 and I was laid off. I was blessed to find a job in my small rural area within a month, but it pays half of what my dream job did. This has made it incredibly hard to make ends meet, and all but impossible put extra away for hard times.

     I grew up with sayings in my family like, “a penny saved is a penny earned” “Beg borrow and steal” and the most important one of all, “We can’t afford it.” Of course, my parents also taught us “Thou shalt not steal,” I don’t want you to think I’m endorsing theft, but it taught me that there were other ways to live my life than to pay full price for things.

     Money was always tight, and now is even more so. I have found a number of ways to stretch the all mighty dollar, and I call it Beg, Borrow, and Deal.

     Beg- The act of using your words, just asking. I am not meaning to grovel on hand and knee, but open your mouth. The worst thing that can happen is they can say is no and you stay in the same situation you were already in. Nothing lost. In this way I have gathered several buckets from the bakery section of local stores and used them for my garden and for food storage.
     I was talking to an old cowboy who oversees a corral where I work and I found out that he is a Farrier, or a horseshoer. He also uses his forge to tinker around and do some blacksmithing. I have always wanted to learn blacksmithing, and have done some learning on my own but never have had access to a forge. I asked if I could come to work early and pound some metal with him. He was more than happy to let me come use his forge. He even has a box of scrap metal that I can use as much as I’d like.
     I also scrounge. Yes, I dig in the trash or ask people to bring me certain things from theirs. I have made a few things for camping and home organization just by pulling it out of the trash, cleaning it up and giving it a tweak. I love to repurpose old items into new tools or toys. The catch is to not hold on to a lot of junk with the mindset of ‘someday’. When some workers trimmed my apricot tree to repair my roof, before they hauled the wood away, I took my saw and axe out and collected some great branches for woodcarving, campfires, or to use in my grill for smoking meat.
     Just think of what is available for you if you just get out and about and ask! Wooden pallets, tires, scrap metal, firewood, old oil and old barns are just the start of the things that you can get for the price of not being shy. The free section of craigslist is a wonderful source of many things ready just for the asking.

     Borrow- Nothing special here, just good, old fashioned borrowing. Just like our grandfathers did. My wife needed some clothes mended, and I had a project that I wanted to do, and we both needed to use a sewing machine. A mention to a friend at church, and I was able to bring home a sewing machine for us to use for a week.
     We were also blessed to find other good friends who, when my car broke down, offered us the use of their car for a weekend. We also share books with each other that cover topics of mutual interest. My wife, an artist, made a friend who is an art teacher at a local school, and they get together after school hours to share techniques and use the equipment at the school.
     There are two things that I have noticed as critical for borrowing. First is you need to know people, and know what they have. Please do this in the proper manner by introducing yourself to people and making friends. You could get to know people by peering through their windows but that is just creepy and wrong. Second you need to return what you borrow! Don’t be ‘that neighbor’ who nobody wants to lend things to. Third, be willing to lend what you have. Share a little extra produce from your garden, lend your time, tools and talents to your new friends. By doing this you build a community that will do more than you thought possible before.

     Deal- This is good old fashioned trade. As a bit of a craftsman, I am often on the lookout for materials for projects. On a forum, I found a thread that was for trade. It was fun. The forum members posted what they had, and what they wanted and then worked out deals with each other. I made a trade for some Osage Orange wood, which does not grow in my area, for some leather that I had laying around. I also made another trade of pecans, which I have coming out of my ears, for flint, which I’m excited to use for fire-starting.
     As I increase my ability to craft items and the sharpen knives, my wife and I want to talk to some of the vendors at the local farmer’s market to trade these items for fresh produce and eggs. I have also had the opportunity to see my friends trade skills for skills, babysitting for a pie, tannerite for ammo, computer repair for homemade Christmas fudge. Whether it is a proper trade or not, my wife and I have a regular game night with another couple we met at church, and we take turns bringing treats to share.
     Deals can also be found by shopping on sale, at thrift or consignment stores, online, using coupons and ad matching at stores, and just asking others. I have saved alot of money when looking for thing by putting it out on Facebook that I am looking for something, and often someone I know has seen it for sale somewhere, or knows someone who is trying to get rid of it.

Communication builds community. Community builds sustainability. Sustainability means survival.

What If??- Stranger Danger

While driving back for this weekends Thanksgiving festivities, my wife and I were discussing things that we would like to add to our child raising philosophy. One thing that was covered was how we would like to cover 'Stranger Danger'. My wonderful wife, The Hobbit, shared that she had recently read a blog post about one woman's social anxiety problems and how this woman believed that a big part of it came from the modern philosophy taught to our children. We talked about how most child predation came from people the child knew, friends of the family or a family member. I had a thought pop into my head, what if the Tin Foil hat powers of the world created 'Stranger Danger' in order to slowly cause a drift to irrupt between us as people. What if they didn't want us to talk to each other as neighbors, to get to know each other? If we didn't build community to lift and help and love each other. Why would someone want us to live that way? I'd like to know your thoughts, please leave them in the comments below.

Lessons learned from last backpacking trip

This last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to go backpacking in the Coyote Gulch area of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  As an aspiring recreation professional, and as a prepper, there were a few lessons that I picked up over the course of the trip that I wanted to pass on.

1. Know where you are going.  Our instructor had never been to the location, but he did his homework and had the appropriate selection of maps and literature about the area.  One thing that he had done was make a few photocopies from the guide books about the area, so he didn't have to pack the full book.  This was an advantage both weight wise as well as serving as a disposable resource.  If the copies got wet or ruined some other way, he would not ruin the book.

2. The difference between personal and professional responsibility.  When hiking, backpacking, bugging out, you need to understand the difference in responsibility.  When by yourself, you can take the risks that you want, take as much or as little gear as you want.  But with a group, especially if you are leading one as a professional, you have a commitment to the people you are with.  Things like group first aid kits and training, cooking and sanitation equipment, and the experience to share what works best for different areas, climates, weather.

3. Make sure you have the right gear. Period.  I messed up.  Everyone forgets something every trip, and I forgot two things; camp shoes, and hand sanitizer.  It got tiring to ask for some every time I had to visit a tree privately.  The camp shoes would have been nice to have do to the large number of stream/river crossings.  Waddling around camp barefoot with wet feet was not too fun.  Dry socks and dry footwear would have been wonderful.  At the same time, having gore-tex boots, while not able to keep the contents of an entire river out of my boots, were quite dry after a day without any river crossings.  Another foot saver was my pair of sock liners.  My last big hike, I got blisters galore without them, and this time I returned after a four day trip without a single blister.

Remember, we can learn from all sorts of venues, so apply what you learn everyday to how you can be more prepared.

This Morning

This morning I headed out to the yard.  While not the most untypical activity of a Saturday morning, I knelt down and began gathering the product of our last producing plant of the year.   Walnuts.  As I gathered to nuts, some still had the husks covering the cases, others were clean down to the shells.  Some had been split open, and during the course of my recovery, I found the cause why.  Birds.  A few small patches under the tree left the evidence that they were there, a few feathers and bird droppings.  This made me think about my old BB gun, in a long term grid down situation, adding some birds to the stew pot would be nice, and my .22 might be too loud, especially in the city.  I gathered about 2/3rds of a bucket full, and plenty more are on the tree.  While our production was limited this year, mostly due to our own inexperience, I have been glad to have had this experience this year.  I wanted to plant a fall garden this year, but by the time I got around to planning it, it was too late to plant before the next frost and snowfall.

If I Wanted To Save America

One of my favorite resources for preparedness is the Survival Podcast by Jack Spirko.  It is a level headed approach of what to do 'if times get tough, or even if they don't'.  A while back, there was a video going around the internet titled, 'If I wanted America to fail' and it was, frankly, a downer.  The attached video is Mr. Spirko's response, how we all can work to save America.  Please take a look, and see what you can do in your life to make yourself a person with more personal liberty.  Someone who is more free today than you were yesterday.  This is not one party vs. another, or left vs. right, but where to stand to see for yourself the landscape and to be able to choose the direction that you want for yourself, your family, and 'help you live the life you want to live'.

If I Wanted To Save America