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Thursday, February 27, 2014

Desert Survival-My Experience Plus Homemade Simple Remedies


Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…


 

 

Become Self Sufficient and Penny Wise Using Simple Remedies

 

If television is a reflection of our society, we are doomed!

--The Poor Man

 

   When I was a young man I attended Arizona State University studying anthropology (especially the cultural perspectives of how and why people behave as they do before switching to Mass Communications).

 

I had recently been discharged from the Navy and my primary source of Prepper knowledge back then was my military experience and the years I had spent in the Boy Scouts.  To this day, I still feel the BSA manual is one of the best overall handbooks around.

 

I spent a lot of time by myself alone (on one occasion, I did take along a classmate, a Navajo woman whose family lived nearby) in the desert looking for Native American relics (now pretty much an illegal endeavor).  I owned an old pickup truck with a camper shell in which I often rolled out a sleeping bag and slept in at night.  If it was too hot, I’d sleep out on the desert floor. I would head up to Montezuma’s Castle and Well, north of Phoenix.  It was an old cliff dwelling site.

 

 I always carried a knife and a .38 along with my other supplies.  I never used the pistol but was happy to have it along on those rare occasions when some drifty SOB would come along and poke their nose into my business.  I am one of those who does not mind being alone, indeed, I often prefer it over the company of some humans.

 

Now that I’m stuck in the winter hinterlands of Michigan, I miss Arizona’s temperate climate and cheaper cost of living!

 

A number of things I learned along the way about desert survival are worth sharing…

 

·         Always carry a lot of water and/or know where to get some

·         Always carry a first aid kit and chapstick

·         Canned goods weigh a lot so either use freeze dried or be prepared to hunt small game including snake (tastes like chicken, really)

·         A compass is a handy thing to bring along

·         A small pebble placed in your mouth will keep you from getting too thirsty

·         You can get liquid and even eat parts of several kinds of cacti

·         Dig a hole and bury your waste

·         Wear a hat

·         Don’t sleep in a wash or gulley – a surprise deluge could drown your butt

·         Always empty out your boots and sleeping bag before retiring and upon waking – gets rid of those scorpions and other critters

·         Always let someone know where you’ll be - this was pre-cell phone and GPS days

·         Rattlesnake does taste like chicken!

 

Needless to say, the earlier you get a start, the cooler it is and it’s a good idea to take a break during the hottest part of the day and find some shade or make your own.  Resume activity or make a camp around sunset.  Finally, Native Americans never let anything go to waste - something we can all learn from!

 




A few issues back I wrote of the many beneficial uses for Tea Tree Oil.  Here’s another.

 

Oil for Burned Skin

 

Relieve pain by applying this several times a day.

 

1 drop tea tree essential oil and ¼ cup organic olive oil

 

Using a small bowl, dilute the essential oil with the olive oil and gently massage the mixture over the burned area.

 

Homemade Butter in a Blender


All you need is cream to make butter. But in our house, salted butter is a must, unless we’re using that butter for baking. So really, you need cream and sea salt. Get the recipe and more here:   http://www.poormansurvival.com/Pages/Homemade.aspx

 

How To Poop In A Bucket »
What do you do if there is a disaster in your community? You will not be able to flush the toilets or run water down the drains if a flood, hurricane or something else overwhelms the sewer system. During a disaster situation, public services could be disrupted for many days.  More »

 
 
 
 

Seed and Plant Sources for Medicinal Herbs and Botanicals

 

Abundant Life Seed Foundation
P.O. Box 772
Port Townsend, WA 98368
Phone: 360-385-5660
Fax: 360-385-7455
E-mail:
abundant@olypen.com
Website:
http://www.abundantlifeseed.org
Preserving the genetic diversity of plants by saving rare and heirloom open-pollinated seed


Companion Plants
7247 North Coolville Ridge
Athens, OH 45701
Phone: 740-592-4643
Fax: 740-593-3092
E-mail:
complants@frognet.net
Website:
http://www.companionplants.com
Catalogue: $3.00


J.L. Hudson, Seedsman
Star Rt 2, Box 337
La Honda, CA 94020-9733
Website:
http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net

Elixir Farm Botanicals, LLC
General Delivery
Brixey, MO 65618
Phone: 417-261-2393
Fax: 417-261-2355
E-mail:
info@elixirfarm.com
Website:
http:// www.elixirfarm.com
Certified organic roots. Order online.


Johnny's Selected Seeds
184 Foss Hill Road
Albion, ME 04910
Phone: 207-437-9294
Fax: 207-437-2165
E-mail:
research@johnnyseeds.com
Website:
http://johnnyseeds.com

Elk Mountain Nursery
P.O. Box 599
Asheville, NC 28802
Phone: 828-251-9622
E-mail:
craig@elk-mountain.com

Horizon Herbs

We provide you with GOOD LIVE SEEDS. We consider you to be our "virtual neighbor," and strive to treat you like a good neighbor should. The seeds that pass between us are energised with the LIFE FORCE.  The positive nature of this energy helps us promote the plants that serve us so selflessly


 


 

By no means is this a complete list but makes a good starting point…Please share and/or send us your suggestions.

 

Yours in freedom,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

Now Celebrating our 6th Year!

 

 
The Ultimate Man Cave...
 


Got a News Tip or Resource to Share With the Poor Man?


 

A Shallow Planet Production

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Critical Errors in Food Preparedness, Crockpot Cake, Uses for Lemons


Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…


 ISSN 2161-5543


 



 

It isn't what we own or buy that signifies our wealth; it’s the special things that have no price, our family, friends and health.

 

 


Lemon Aid

Use lemons to clear up acne, strengthen nails, soften heels and more…

 

I sure miss living in Arizona.  The cost of living is much less and we had a nice grove of citrus trees including lemons, oranges and grapefruit.  I usually consumed a gallon of iced tea with lemon a day!

 

Sure, lemons make a pretty drink garnish and can brighten the flavors of foods, but they also have many handy non-culinary uses thanks to their natural antibacterial, deodorizing and bleaching properties. When life gives you lemons, don’t just make lemonade — put them to good use.

 

1. Grease Cutter: Because they contain citric acid, lemons cut through grease with ease. Add a few drops of lemon juice to your dish soap to increase its grease-fighting power, or mix 1/2 cup vinegar with the juice of two lemons in a spray bottle for an easy grease-fighting solution. For grease stains on clothing, rub lemon juice into the stain and let sit overnight before washing as normal.

 

2. Copper Cleaner: Remove tarnish from copper pots or discolored brass by rubbing the surface with half a lemon. Another method: Mix 1/4 cup salt with the juice of a lemon, rub over surface, then let sit for five to 10 minutes before buffing with a clean cloth. Always test a small spot first.

 

3. Garbage Disposal Cleaner: Banish odors from your garbage disposal by tossing a lemon in and turning it on. If your garbage disposal has a hard time handling large items, chop the lemon into pieces first.

 

4. Cutting Board Freshener: Disinfect and deodorize cutting boards by rubbing a cut lemon over the surface. Let the juice dry, then wipe clean with water.

 

5. Hard Water Stain Remover: Rub half a cut lemon over hard water stains and soap buildup in the sink or tub. Dip the lemon in coarse salt beforehand to give it extra scrubbing power. Lemons are also helpful at descaling teapots and removing hard water stains from other appliances that hold water, such as coffeepots. To descale a teapot, boil lemon wedges inside the pot, then let the water sit for a few hours before rinsing out. You can also fill the teapot with diluted lemon juice and let sit for a few hours.

 

6. White Brightener: A natural bleaching agent, lemons can help you achieve whiter whites in the laundry room. Just add 1/2 cup lemon juice to the rinse cycle. An added bonus — your clothes will smell citrus-fresh!

 

7. Hair Lightener: Take your hair from dirty blond to beach blond by mixing 1 cup lemon juice (about four lemons)  and 1/4 cup warm water in a spray bottle, then liberally spritzing your hair. Lemon’s natural bleaching properties work best when combined with sunshine. Expose your hair to bright sunlight for 30 to 60 minutes before rinsing out the lemon juice and conditioning your hair.

 

8. Fingernail Cleaner: Lemons work wonders on dirty, grimy fingernails. Just rub a lemon wedge over yellow fingernails to restore their color.

 

9. Age Spot Eraser: Lemon’s bleaching powers also extend to skin. To reduce the appearance of age spots without harsh chemicals, apply freshly squeezed lemon juice to the spots twice daily for a few months (be sure not to rub lemon juice over cuts or sensitive skin).

 

10. Sore Throat Soother: Hot tea with lemon is a sore throat folk remedy for good reason: The acid in lemon juice changes the pH balance in your throat, helping to make an inhospitable environment for germs. A good source of vitamin C and antioxidants, lemons also boost the immune system. Lemon works especially well as a sore throat remedy when combined with soothing, antibacterial honey.

 

11. Hangover Help: Help your body recover from a few too many drinks by mixing a few teaspoons of lemon juice into a glass of water. Lemon encourages the liver to produce bile and helps with the organ’s natural detox process.

 

12. Food Preserver: Prevent cut fruits such as apples and pears from browning by spritzing them with lemon juice.

 

13. Cheap Décor: Lemons make lovely and affordable tabletop decorations. Toss a bunch in a bowl for a simple but eye-catching centerpiece.

 

Excerpted from Mother Earth Living. To read more articles from Mother Earth Living, please visit www.MotherEarthLiving.com or call (800) 340-5846 to subscribe. © 2013 by Ogden Pubs.

 
 

Critical Errors most make in food preparedness strategies.

Here are the top 12 mistakes you might be making right now in food preparedness and survival strategies for uncertain times:
http://www.naturalnews.com/044026_preppers_food_preparedness_common_mistakes.html

Even city and apartment dwellers can enjoy fresh veggies when they rent a garden plot!
read more here

 

Long-Term Bulk Storage Grains and Preparedness 

Whole grain in bulk is a wise investment for a prepper. Bulk storage whole grains offer the preparer versatility, more compact size, lower cost, improved flavor, and in most cases, much longer storage.With my bulk storage nitrogen-packed grain buckets stacked, I have a six foot tall, 10” x 10” footprint, which yields 4,200 food servings for only $630, or about $0.15 a…


 

 

 


"Why Food Prices Are Going To Start Soaring". California is in an awful drought, levels of cattle herds are at record lows, and grain reserves very tight. If you've been reading this newsletter for very long, none of this is a surprise. There is a lot more to the article which you can read here:


 

 

Cheap emergency foods we often overlook - yes, you can get 'prepper' foods at the grocery store!
read more here

 

Studies have shown that fake sugars such as aspartame and sucralose actually trigger insulin spikes and promote fat storage, increasing the risk of weight gain by 65%...most are better off stevia.

 

Squirrel Fricassee – 2 Servings

I’ve never tried squirrel before…have killed and eaten rattle snake (tastes like chicken).  Sharing this from one of our veterinarian friends.

Gray squirrels are better eating than red ones.  Use this recipe for either one.  Cooks like rabbit, use it in place of chicken or in Brunswick stew.

 

1 squirrel, cleaned, dressed and disjointed

1 tsp of salt   ¼ tsp pepper   3 tbs butter  1 medium onion peeled and diced

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

¼ cup julienne strips of lean ham,  ¾ cup chicken broth

¼ cup milk or light cream  1 tbs. flour blended with 1/3 cup milk

Dredge squirrel in mixture of flour, salt and pepper, then brown the butter in saucepan over moderate high heat.  Add all but the last ingredient, cover and simmer for an hour until tender.  Blend in flour paste and heat, stirring until thickened.  Salt and pepper to taste and serve with biscuits.

   Also, this is a first for me-Crockpot Cake

Using a box of spice cake mix (follow the directions on the box) I added a half cup of pecans (you can use walnuts) and substituted apple sauce for the oil.  Pour the batter into a crockpot and set on low for 2-1/2 hours…Terrific  taste while remaining  nice and moist.  Even better when I added some whipped cream.  Ice cream works well too!

 

Secrets & Shortcuts of a Country Inn ChefYours free.  I wrote this a few years ago (my wife and I once owned a popular country inn which had been featured on PBS).

If you’d like a condensed version, download it at:  http://sdrv.ms/150KRSz

 

Got Something to Share With our readers?


 

Witnessing the destruction…

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

Survival Seed Bank-Non GMO ½ Acre- 8500 Vegetable Seeds

All seeds included are Non-GMO & non-hybrid

8,500 seed count survival seed bank that includes 30 different varieties of delicious, easy to grow vegetables! Also included are instructions for planting, harvesting, and reusing the seed stock. This kit will plant about 1/2 acre in size if spaced correctly.


 

Find updates & freebies on our pages…
 


 


 


A Shallow Planet Production

Saturday, February 22, 2014

You Love Being Watched-Don't You!

Poor Man Survival
Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

ISSN 2161-5543





"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."
-- Voltaire

Mass Surveillance Proves Pointless

Never have so many Americans been brought under surveillance for such a meager payoff.

In times of war and national emergency, it's sometimes necessary to sacrifice civil liberties to secure vital gains in public safety. In those cases, we may have to accept a loss of privacy or freedom rather than invite mass slaughter of Americans.

The National Security Agency's domestic phone records collection is not one of those.

Never have so many Americans been brought under surveillance for such a meager payoff, actual or potential. Creating risks to privacy to save lives is one thing. Creating them to accomplish little or nothing is another.

That's why the controversy over President Barack Obama's proposed revision of this program, known as the Section 215 program, is largely political theater. The important question is not how to adjust it to "balance" security and privacy. It's whether the government should be doing this at all.

The administration has strained to give the impression that the program is essential to saving lives. NSA Director Keith Alexander said its surveillance programs have helped "prevent over 50 potential terrorist events."
Read more at:




America’s “Deep State,” in which elected and unelected figures collude to serve powerful vested interests…

The Deep State, a hybrid of corporate America and the national security state, which is “out of control” and “unconstrained.” In it, Lofgren says, elected and unelected figures collude to protect and serve powerful vested interests. “It is … the red thread that runs through the history of the last three decades. It is how we had deregulation, financialization of the economy, the Wall Street bust, the erosion or our civil liberties and perpetual war.”  Watch it here:



Everyone in America wants life insurance – After they are dead!


Thwart the Growing Homeland Surveillance Threat That’s Spying on You...

We are all being lumped in with terrorists. And one size of surveillance fits all, so far as the Washington establishment is concerned. Maybe the country will come to it senses. Maybe it won’t. But I’ll tell you this- I’m not holding my breath and neither should you.

In the meantime, honest Americans who mind their own business must find ways to cope with increasingly intrusive surveillance from video cameras, email eavesdropping, cell phone tracking, RFID chips, microphones concealed in utility poles, and even airborne drones.

These surveillance tactics aren’t science fiction, and they’re not just the talk of conspiracy theorists, either. These threats to your privacy are real, and they’re growing. The list of intrusive surveillance measures employed by the government and other law enforcement agencies is becoming rather lengthy. But some very bright people are starting to develop and market privacy protection countermeasures. Some of which are pretty exotic.

Today, I have a few new options you can add to the growing list of “keep your nose out of my business” tactics. Get them here:





As long as most are more afraid of ‘terrorists’ than government, warrantless spying on all Americans will continue...
Snuggly the Security Bear and Obama have been busier than we all thought in the United States of Surveillance. Watch the cute cartoon with the important message. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljTmnOy8FB0


Over 4,000 students targeted as guinea pigs for new tracking system




Got Something to Share With our readers?

The Champion of lost causes…
Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

The Poor Man has been educating Americans about the systematic plundering of their resources and way of life and what they can do about it since 1999. 
 Share our resources!

Get more updates & freebies on our pages…
 





Your purchases help us to continue offering useful resources!
A bargain isn't a bargain unless it's something you need…
You’ll find more than 100 items – Updated weekly

www.OurGreatBargains.com

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Why you should rotate your food stock now


Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…


 

ISSN 2161-5543

We’re on your side!

 

 
 
 
Be Prepared: the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on an accident or emergency so he is never taken by surprise.
``Robert Powell


 

Why You Should Rotate Your Stock Now

 

I’ve been a ‘Prepper’ years before it became fashionable. This goes back to meeting up with John Shuttleworth, founder of Mother Earth News.  John had a strong influence on me.  This lifestyle was further boosted from my friendship with several Mormon families that I had met while attending Arizona State University.

 

My hidden hoard of silver and gold coins allowed me to live well after a divorce cleaned me out of all my other financial assets. (I had also lost $250K that same year after selling my business to a man who failed to pay me).

 

Since 1999 we’ve stockpiled food, water and ammo too.  We had our first website through Yahoo’s GeoCities if you can remember that.  We stored enough to feed family and friends for a couple of years.  At our 38 acre farm we even had our own shooting range along with two folks who were licensed gun instructors.  They liked my cooking so we exchanged meals for conducting a variety of shooting and gun safety programs for us and our friends twice a year.  A televised Fox TV News interview at our “compound” forced us to seek a more low-profile approach to living.  Our privacy is important and one of the reasons we turned down making an appearance on the Extreme Preppers television show.

 

Indeed, many subscribers who listened to our warnings a few years ago about the surge in ammo prices are thanking me now.  (Guess what, as I reported a few weeks ago, the last lead smelter plant in the US closed and this will boost the price of ammo again).

 

Unlike other Prepper groups and blogs who focus on a single issue or two, the Poor Man has always taken the Big Picture approach with a more encompassing focus on food storage, sideline income and skill building, political perspectives and insights to build a better understanding of how we’re getting screwed, how to protect your privacy and more.

 

 Our site isn’t considered fancy and it’s somewhat disheveled, just like me but it’s always voted among the best for its content and most recently for our political insights.

 

Too Well Stocked?

 

One problem we’ve only recently resolved is the expiration dates of our stored food.  We didn’t or couldn’t eat it fast enough.  We frequently would up donating case lots of canned goods to area food banks.  This is not a bad thing but it can be expensive.

 

Everything I’ve researched indicates that one can safely consume products long after its expiration date.  Canned vegetables lose some of their nutrient value but they will fill your stomach and the liquid inside the can be a lifesaver.

 

This is one of the reasons we now stock many food items in a quantity good for up to one year for our personal consumption and use freeze-dried and dehydrated food stocks for long term use.  I consider canned and frozen foods as short-term food insurance - because of their relatively short shelf life. But freeze-dried foods . . .

 

This site offers a useful chart and indexing of the shelf life of various foods and other resources which will come in handy.

 
 
 

 

Other Resources of Interest…

 

Insurance Information Inst. – Home Inventory Software download

iii.org/software

 

Frugal Seed Starters
When starting seeds, mini-greenhouses, seed starting trays, and other fancy seed-starting products may be tempting, but frugal gardeners know that spending money on these products isn't necessary. With a little effort, you can create your own seed-starting supplies at a fraction of the cost.

 

You’ll find several useful references including our LDS (Mormon) library of e-books on food storage at our urban survival page:  http://www.poormansurvival.com/Pages/citizenpreparedness.aspx

 

 
 

Find Seeds and Prepper Supplies


 

The Ready Store-Get your food storage sample today!

You’ve seen the evidence, and you know the situation is way too serious not to do something about it. When a crisis hits, you need to be ready. You need to make darn sure your family won’t go hungry or get herded into a FEMA camp.


 


Your purchases help us to continue offering useful resources!

A bargain isn't a bargain unless it's something you need…

You’ll find more than 100 items – Updated weekly

www.OurGreatBargains.com
 

 
Got a News Tip or Resource to Share With the Poor Man?