Happy Memorial Day

I would like to take this time to wish every veteren of the US Armed Forces a Happy Veterens Day and say THANK YOU! It is one day of the year that our country should be honoring all of us veterens, many do but many do not unfortunately. I am 3rd generation Army and very proud of my service and that of my father and grandfather. I have been doing some geneology research and it actually looks like there has been military in my family since 1700 ad.
I would also like to take this time to tell people to have real heroes in their lives. Heroes that did something, not these so called heroes that many people honor from Hollywood and the music industry. I like Black Sabbath but in no way would I concider Ozzy a hero, I like many movies but would never concider Bruse Willis a hero. And for god's sake stop idolizing all these dumbass reality shows, they are all fake hollywood crap.
On this day I would like to give one more thanks to all my heroes:
1. My father
2. My grandfather
3. General Omar Bradley, I worked with him back in the 70's
4. Mr, Kimball, a teacher that made learning fun
5. All the Men and Woman that has served, do serve and will serve in the Armed Forces.

Give A Man A Fish

Hopefully everyone has heard this saying, "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and he will eat for life." Over my life I have always tried to follow that kind of idealism. The other day, since it was 95 outside and I stayed home in the apartment, I noticed a nieghbor starting a garden. They had never had a garden before so I watched for a while. The plot she made was about 10x20 with about 80% sunlight for a day. I thought, not a bad location.
What came next disturbed me and I knew I had to teach her to fish. The dirt within the plot looked terrible even after she had dug up the area twice, going deep and breaking clumps up. I dug out a couple magazines and a gardening book all that emphisized on garden start-up and took them over to her. We did not know each other personnally, it was more of a hey how you doing kind of relationship, but she was interested in talking about what she was doing.
We sat at her picnic table and talked for quite some time and she was very receptive. I explained to her about dirt, compost, sun, watering and all else I could think about. I drew up a quick plan so she could build a drum composter and since her house was small apartments I told her to ask her tenents to save her all their compostable items.
When all was done she was very happy and I could see the wheels turning in her head. I told her this year mainly dress the surface of the garden with compost and compost tea but in the fall and next spring dig it in deep and her garden will be much better next year. I gave her my number and left making a new friend and a new gardener. If we all did this with one person we could have food that is so much better to eat and more people being friends.

I Don't Have Enough Money!

That's what I hear from people as an excuse why they don't start stocking up for survival. I read it a lot on different blogs and all over. I have one thing to say to all these people, BULLSHIT!
I would bet the people without enough money are sitting at home watching some giant tv that cost them a grand or two. They probably have 2 or 3 cars in the driveway, their kids have every damn electronic game imaginable and they pay someone else to cook their food for them almost everyday. Can you see why these people don't have money?
Here is a little more about me, I am a service connected disabled vet and i have not been able to work for years. At the present time I get less than $1100 a month disability and for at least 2 years our favorite government will not be giving me a cost of living increase, even though prices are rising everyday. I own my homestead, I have land and school taxes plus the normal bills. Right now I am rebuilding my house and I am living in an apartment while I do it. The only thing I do not have to pay for is medical, thank you US Army!
I eat very well, I do not eat out or stop at some damn fast food place everyday, I cook. I have cable, 2 electric bills, home phone and 2 cell phones. I know how to save money and I have enough to rebuild my house and when I say rebuild I mean I have torn it apart, new floor joists, new sub-floor, outside walls torn out and rebuilt, new inner walls, new electrical, new insulation, new plumbing, new windows, ect. It has taken me 3 years to do all I have done because I shop around, I do not believe in spending more than I need to. For instance, the windows were used, they were about 3 years old vynel insulated, tilt in and I got 8 of them all the same size and style for $200. THAT'S SHOPPING AROUND!
When they kept advertising the switch to digital everyone ran out and bought new expensive tv's because they were led to believe that's what they needed for the new digital setup. I researched it and found out that I needed nothing, that is the key research and research, unless something is livesaving you do not need to buy it today, do your research, check ads, read some more then ask yourself, do I really need it.

I'm Moving To Mexico

This morning a friend sent me this letter and I thought it was pretty good, and oh so true. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Dear President Obama,
I'm planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for health reasons and I would like to ask you to assist me. We are planning on just walking across the border, skipping all the legal stuff like passports, Visa's immigration quotas and laws. I am sure they handle those things the same way you do here so, would you mind telling your buddy president Calderon that I am on my way over. Please let him know that once we are all there we will be expecting the following:

1. Free medical care for my whole family.
2. English speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether we use those services or not.
3. All Mexican government forms printed in english.
4. I will need my children taught spanish by an english speaking teacher.
5. Tell their schools they will need to include classes on American culture and history.
6. My children should see an American flag on at least one flag pole outside the school.
7. The schools need to plan on feeding my children breakfast and lunch for free.
8. My wife and I will need Mexican driver's license so we can get easy access to the government services.
9. Let them know I do plan on getting a car but I do not plan on getting any insurance and I probably will not make any attempt to learn the traffic laws there.
10. In case one of the Mexican police officers did not get the memo about my family, please have at least one officer in each car that can speak english.
11. I plan on putting the flag on my house, my car and have a huge celebration on the 4th of July. I do not want any complaints or harassment from the locals.
12. I also will need a good job but I do not want to pay taxes.
13. Please have their president tell all the Mexican people to be nice to us and never say critical things about us.
14. My family will also need free food stamps.
15. Naturally we expect free rent subsidies.
16. I'll need income tax credits although I do not plan on paying any Mexican taxes.
17. Please arrange so the Mexican government pays us $4500 to help me buy a new car.
18. Oh yes! I almost forgot, please enroll me free into the Mexican Social Security program so I will get a monthly income when I retire, even though I will never pay into their system.

I know this will be an easy request because you already do all this and more for all his people that walk over to the US from Mexico. I am sure President Calderon won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.

What A Buy!

I love Walmarts. More and more I read different blogs and such where people keep talking about how bad Walmart is, but you can get some great buys there. Unlike Target, which is French owned and they hate Americans, Walmart Is american. Have you ever been to Target and seen people outside collecting for Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, cheerleaders or Veterans? I bet the answer is no! Target is quick to want to come to this country and make money off us but they will not let anyone on their property to collect for charity. Even the men and woman who fought for this country and there country, so to me they suck!
Well, back to Walmart today. I had to pick up a few things and no matter what I go after I always walk the whole store looking for deals. I recommend you do also. As I went through the meat section something caught my eye, ground beef on sale! Those nice 1 pound packages that look like giant sausages for just $1 each. That's right $1 a pound for ground beef (87%), so of course I started grabbing them. I now have enough ground beef to last me about 4 months at around 60% off the normal price.
One time last year I found these same packages for only .50 a pound, you have to look around! Whenever your in any store you must look around, especially on the end caps, it seems stores are putting many big sale items there now. One last thing about Walmart, always check at the end of a season, they mark things down drastically just to get rid of it. Just remember your end of season does not always match a stores end of season, they usually change the seasonal stuff out earlier. HAPPY SHOPPING!

Goodbye Government

This morning I was actually happy to watch the news on tv. Most times I hate it because of all the problems going on in the world. This morning was so nice when they talked about the primary elections on how all across the country the voters are finally saying NO! to all this government BS. As I have told people for years, stop complaining and go vote. To be more precise, we need to vote EVERY single person that is in a state or federal office out of office this November. then in 2 years if nothing is changed, vote them out again till we get an elected government that is for the people.
The other news that made my day was all the voting on school budgets around where I live. Many, many voters voted no on their perspective budgets. Good for them! These school budgets are getting way out of hand also. One school district near me actually had a budget that they put forth that would have raised the residents taxes up 25%. THAT! is ridicules. This district had so many voters turn out that they actually had to wait hours to vote.
I also believe our schools/government is trying to teach way too much to our children. When I graduated school the requirements for a diploma was simple, 4 yrs english, 3 yrs social studies/history, 1 yr math, 2 yrs science and 1 elective. Now they have so much they can not learn it. The schools are teaching our children twice as much but the time in school has not changed. In short, students do not have the time to learn everything that is thrown at them. Maybe it is part of the plan to dumb up America, who knows.
I know some will say our children need all that extra learning to make it now-a-days. Yes they do need more, but why should all the taxpayers pay for it? If you want your child to learn latin, french, ect, buy a book for them or buy that rosetta stone they advertise on tv. The same goes for many of the once called elective courses that are now mandatory.
There are thousands of colleges and business schools out there now that your child can go to. I know! maybe they should all join the military, free schools, free travel, free insurance, free health care, and they get paid well for it. Just think if every child went into the military upon graduating high school in 2 generations almost no one would be without health care.
That's my opinion and I am sticking to it!

CYA

While serving in the army during the cold war era I learned many acronyms. One of the most important ones was CYA! It stands for Cover Your Ass! I am writing this to let you all know you need to heed the warning of CYA. As everyone knows or federal government is broke, our state governments are broke and so is our city and town governments. Where will they get the money to rebuild?
About 6 or 7 months ago and old friend of mine sent me an interesting letter that was sent out to most law enforcement agencies. The letter was not an order but more of a recommendation to these agencies. In short it suggested that all police agencies, in order to produce more revenve, start writing many more tickets.
I live way out in the country and it is easy to keep track of daily chatter on the scanner since there is not a large city police force. I do not listen to it all day but within the last month I have noticed a very large increase in the number of licence plates being run by the police. To me this indicates they are pulling more and more vehicles over, trying to find problems maybe.
What really caught my attention was just 2 days ago, there was one officer that literally was running plate after plate. In my mind all I could picture was the officer was walking down a line of cars, such as in a parking lot, and running every plate trying to find infractions on the vehicles.
I beleive this is going to get worst and suggest you watch your backs. Watching your backs means making sure you and your vehicle are totally legal. Before you take off in your vehicle walk around it, check lights, check plates, check turn signals. When you drive drive like you were a saint. Make sure your licence, registration and insurance paperwork are current and very accesable. Personnaly I do not recommend you keep your licence in one of those tight plastic holders in your wallet. Reason being, they are hard to get out and that is one sign an officer will look for to determine if you might have been drinking.
My biggest recommendation if you do get pulled over, be very damn polite to the officer. Even if he/she is wrong be nice, you piss that officer off they can make your day real crappy!

Prices Are Up and Up and UP!!!

If you have not figured it out yet, you are paying more and more each time you shop. It is not just food either, everything is going up making the rich richer while we struggle. In the latest consumer report food prices are up 2.4% this last month, that is the 6 th consecutive month of increase and the largest increase in the last 26 years. Now 2.4% does not sound like a lot but that is an overall increase, some items have risen a hell of a lot more than that. You know the kind of items I am referring to, the ones everyone buys, eggs, meat, ect. Some of them have increased up to 15% or more! That is just insane! What better reason does anyone need to start their own homestead and take up hunting.
The increase that I just discovered was building materials. Back in February we had a nice little snowfall of 4 feet and it did some damage to many roofs, mine included. Back then I did some figuring on what I needed to buy so I could save up when I could do the fixing. You see, home insurance does not cover damage by snow storms, who would have thought. Insurance that does not insure! Anyhow I check Home Depot and Lowe's (prices where the exact same) and got my figures. Now that the snow is gone and the rain lets up a day here and there, I again checked on the prices, you ready?
Here we go!
A 2x6x12' Was $7.06, is now $9.72 each an increase of $2.66
A 2x4x8' Was $2.58, is now $2.38 each a decrease of a whole .20
A sheet of 7/16" x 4'x8' OSB was $8.47 a sheet and is now $14.97 each a damn increase of $6.50 a sheet!!!!!
So to buy one of each item it now costs me over 50% more, what a rip-off!
guess I am saying you need to start feeding yourself for costs and health and other items buy as soon as you can and look hard for every sale be it in a store or a lawn sale.

My Daily Backpack

You see them all over the place, many kids carry backpacks where ever they go. These kids have all their junk in them, all the electronic games, phones, books and who knows what else. I may be 50ish but I also carry a backpack around with me about 80% of the time. The only difference is my backpack has items in it that I need. First and foremost is a medium sized first aid kit, homemade with items I want in it like forceps, scalpel, medications, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, bandages, ect. I of course have my cell phone in there, a knife, all kinds of things for survival.
There is one item that I have that makes some people ask why. The item (actually 4 items) are garbage bags. Yep, you heard me garbage bags. I carry 4 of the heavy duty (4 mil) black garbage bags in my backpack. Why, you ask. These bags can be used for many reasons, lets look at a few of them.
1. It is raining or snowing, a small hole in the end of one bag and I have a quick poncho.
2. I am freezing and it is daylight out, same bag over me will warm me up a lot with the sunshine on it.
3. I am out in the woods and it is becoming night, 2 bags stuffed with leaves and/or pine needles will make a great bed between you and the ground. The other 2 bags filled the same way will make blankets.
4. I can use the bags to cover up firewood to keep it dry. Put my gear in one to keep that dry.
5. Winter time I can shove snow in one and let the heat from the sun melt it so I can have water. Or, scoop the bag into a stream to have more than one quart at a time.
There are many uses for a garbage bag during a survival situation. Make sure you get the heavy duty ones and have at least 4 in every location you can think of. Your BOB, the trunk of your car, your backpack, at your hideaway. Where ever you think you will be have a few bags at the ready.

I Love Knives

Oh yes, I loves knives probably more than the average person. At any given time I have at least 3 knives on me. Most people just think of a knife as a weapon or something to cut with, that is so far from the truth. A knife is the most versital tool you can have in your survival kit. You should have more than one, btw.
Lets look at a knife's function. A knife can kill, cut, whittle, save a life, make a weapon, feed you and build things. The simple one is of course killing that one is plain and straight forward. It can be the one thing that changes an outcome from your dead to your alive. Cutting is basic too, from cutting a rope you need to put up your tent to cutting an animal apart to feed you and your family. Whittling can go many ways, as something to pass the time of day to whittling out a spear. Saving a life you may ask. Protecting yourself from attackers to cutting an ambilical cord a knife can save a life. So many types of thiings can be made with a knife to make weapons. A spear is the simplist all the way to traps for small animals. Feeding you can go from using a knife to actually kill your food to skinning it, to cutting it apart. You may need that knife to dig your food out of the ground or some honey out of a tree. Building things is covered by many things I have already mentioned, with a good set of knives you could build a survival camp. Yep, just with the knives! From the kindling for the fire to the larger branches for the fire. With the knives you can build the whole shelter, get food, cut up the food and eat it with a knife. If one of your knives is shiny you can even signal with it.
As you can see a few good knives are a must have for anyone who wants to survive. Personally I have a pocket knife, a lockblade, a bowie knife and a multi-function tool. Of course I have more than one of each of these because I may not be right where one set of them may be. Do some reasearch and find out which ones you like and start stocking up. You do not have to spend a fortune on a good knife but I do not recommend buying any cheap knives, they are useless after their first use. Last but not least make sure you pick up a couple of good sharpening stones.