Little Known Facts & Freebies for Valentine's Day

Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
Your choice for urban survival resources
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com


In This Issue:

1. History of Valentine’s Day-Freebies
2. Hydronic heating-the basics on saving on heating bill
3. Getting started in blacksmithing
4. What information do they have on you-you’d be amazed
5. DIY electric bike plans
6. Using Netcycler to promote swaps


Why is it in the US folks won’t turn their headlights on during overcast snowy weather, but on a clear night, they’ll blind you with 100,000 watt fog lamps?


Can you afford to retire-or will you work until you drop?

According to one recent survey, 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything at all to retirement savings.
Most Baby Boomers do not have a traditional pension plan because employers have eliminated them over the past 30 years. Just consider the following quote from Time Magazine: The traditional pension plan is disappearing. In 1980, some 39 percent of private-sector workers had a pension that guaranteed a steady payout during retirement. Today that number stands closer to 15 percent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C.
Over 30 percent of U.S. investors currently in their sixties have more than 80 percent of their 401k invested in equities. So what happens if the stock market crashes again?

Thanks to Washington pickpockets, Social Security is effectively broke.

In the real economy, grim news abounds. The Federal Reserve's own skewed statistics now acknowledge that for the first time in 57 years, Americans have made a net negative withdrawal from savings and investment accounts. The cause of this squeeze? Rampant unemployment and hidden inflation, especially evident in rising food costs! Analyst John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics notes that if inflation was counted exactly the way it was during the inflation-ridden Carter Administration, annual cost-of-living increases would be in excess of 10%.

Higher wage jobs, those paying $17.50 to $31 an hour, accounted for almost half the jobs lost in the past few years, according to the National Employment Law Project. Of the new jobs created, 76% paid $8.92 to $15 an hour.

With a decline of what is estimated at 10% in the middle class, the American Dream is rapidly becoming a shattered dream. Betrayed by the Washington-Wall Street Cartel, we now see the middle class as the desperate, downwardly mobile.

Faith in the ‘System’ is getting mighty shaky…

Over the last couple of years, lawmakers in at least 10 U.S. states have introduced legislation that would allow state commerce to be conducted with gold and silver coins. Could this be the beginning of a new trend?

Home made cough syrup-Mix 2 Tbs. of honey with 1tsp. Of baking soda.

The Weekly Roundup of useful stuff…


Valentine’s Day Freebies-hot, sweet and sticky…
Make sparks fly this Valentine’s Day-two out of three women are more affectionate if their partner reads to them in bed. The softer, more intimate tones he uses while reading out loud act as a relaxing aphrodisiac say experts…the bedtime stories found to woo women best include romantic classics, travel guides and restaurant reviews - go figure.

In the 3rd century, the Romans practiced a pagan celebration of a young man’s rite of passage to the god Lupercus. These young men would pick from a lottery, the names of teenage girls and these girls would then be their sexual companions for the remainder of the year.

Pope Gelasius wanted to do away with this celebration, so he ordered a change to the lottery. Both men and women would draw the names of saints instead, and they were to emulate these saints for the rest of the year. He also chose a new patron saint of love to replace the pagan god Lupercus and that was St. Valentine.

St. Valentine was stoned and beheaded by the Emperor Claudius II, on Feb 14, AD 270, for performing secret marriages for young lovers. At this time, the Emperor believed that married men made poor soldiers and banned marriage from his empire. While imprisoned, Valentine fell in love with the daughter of a jailer and would sign his love notes to her ‘From Your Valentine’, a phrase that is still used to this day.

>Average amount spent on Valentine’s Day (US)-$103
>Men spend nearly two times more than women
>One in four prefer Valentine’s Day with their pet vs. their mate
>Top three gifts-Dinner, flowers and candy

Here are a few sites offering free things to spice up the day of romance.
http://valentinesdayfreebies.com/
http://thefreesite.com/Seasonal_Freebies/Valentines_Day/index.html
http://www.starchefs.com/cook/features/love-potions/volume-12
http://www.ehow.com/how_14024_celebrate-valentines-day.html


What Information do they have on you…you’d be amazed!
Most of us have probably gotten a copy of our credit reports from time to time, but you have probably never gotten all the information that other database repositories have on you. Lexis/Nexis, more thought of as a database of legal cases and news stories, has another business -- collecting information about you! You have a right to get a free report about yourself to see what information they have collected. When writing to them, ask for the full disclosure report.

Create your own comic strip from Marvel Comics-Fun stuff for kids (& adults)
http://marvel.com/games/play/34/create_your_own_comic

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Marketplace creates 'trade rings' for group swaps
Netcycler matches up multiple people and goods so that each person
gets a wished-for item and is able to get rid of something too. This
should allow greater swapping opportunities than one-to-one trades.

Whiten your teeth for less-dip a wet toothbrush in baking soda, top with dollop of toothpaste .Repeat 2-4 times a month, also neutralizes bad breath.

HOW DO I GET STARTED IN BLACKSMITHING?
A frequently asked question. And the answer is almost always the same. But lets look at the art of blacksmithing a little first.

Blacksmithing is not all pounding iron, it is design, layout, cutting, drilling, joining, finishing, tempering, welding, brazing, tool making. . . Blacksmithing is almost ALL the metal working trades all combined. More at these sites:

http://www.anvilfire.com/FAQs/getstart_index.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVR8f_rVT8E&feature=player_embedded#

Make your own propane forge at home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gNL2ezQnbI&feature=related


DIY Hybrid electric bike how-to…this site also offers other interesting projects for the do-it-yourselfer including my favorite - how to build a gyrocopter!
http://hacknmod.com/hack/make-a-diy-electric-bike-drill-batteries/
This site offers how-to and DIY kits…pickle jar minnow trap, hard tack, simple rabbit trap, ghetto knife, DIY cross-bow, etc.
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Electric-Bike-Conversion/

Real easy home-made solar cooker
Complete solar cookers can be purchased on eBay-variety of prices/styles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENwEO6ekUds

Remember to clean your lint trap after every use-saves $35 annually on electric bills.

What is Hydronic Heating & how it can save some cash…
In simplest terms, today’s hydronic heating is an energy efficient home heating system that uses tubing to run a hot liquid beneath the floor, along base board heaters, or through radiators to heat your home. Also referred to as radiant heating, this type of system has become increasingly popular among families that want added comfort and control in their heating zones, savings through lower heating bills, and a decrease in their environmental impact by making smart green building choices.

The hot water, or alternative heated liquid, of the hydronic radiant heat system is circulated throughout the home through loops of plastic piping. Most often, these tubes are installed within your homes concrete slab or floor joist system as radiant flooring, and allow the heat to radiate evenly across the entire floor surface. In addition, baseboard heating units and radiators can be used as sources of hydronic heat.
You can find a variety of such heaters in all price ranges on eBay.
More at:
http://www.hydronicheating.net/what-is.html

Stop buying disposable cleaning wipes. Instead, layer paper coffee filters in a resealable container and pour in just enough multi-surface cleaner to dampen each one.

Growing Garlic for profit
Garlic can be grown in a number of environments & can be sold for a profit.
There are two main kinds of garlic. (Actually, there are three. The third kind, 'elephant garlic', Allium ampeloprasum, has absolutely enormous cloves, but has no garlic flavor worth mentioning.) The first is 'Common garlic', which is the usual white skinned supermarket type plus the silverskin types generally used for braiding and available at farmers markets; and 'Hard neck garlic', which is much less common. Find a complete how-to here…
http://www.naturalhub.com/grow_vegetable_type_garlic.htm

>>December was the third month in a row in which consumer credit grew in the United States. Prior to that, consumer credit in the United States had declined for 20 months in a row


Parting shots…

Jackpot! This past week the PM & his wife went to an estate sale, something a bit rare in the winter. Turns out the home is being foreclosed upon and the couple is moving to HI to stay warm. The fellow had a large storeroom filled with dehydrated survival foods priced dirt cheap. Needless to say, we stocked up. Freeze dried food lasts many years but it is not cheap.

Your Medicaid and Medicare benefits are under assault:
Already, on a state level, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has asked Washington for permission to drop Medicaid coverage for 280,000 people. Other states are doing the same.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Medicare is, by far, the largest, fastest growing piece of the deficit disaster. Experts of both parties admit that there’s no way to stop the deficit from exploding out of control WITHOUT cutting Medicare.

If you’re going to depend on Medicare, this crisis is a direct threat. And if you’re an investor or trader, this crisis could be a powerful force that sparks global investors to dump U.S. bonds and the U.S. dollar.

SECOND: Your personal safety is now at greater risk in many areas of the country.
City after city and state after state are releasing prison inmates, gutting police, fire and emergency rescue services, shutting down entire departments.
Funding cuts for transplants has already resulted in patient deaths in Arizona and other states are likely not far behind.

Finally, I watched a re-run of the movie, The Right Stuff, about our early astronauts and space program. Putting a man on the moon, a vision of John F. Kennedy, became an immense source of pride to our nation…we could use a shot of that again.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all and to my own sweetheart…her personal ‘Valentino’ Poor Man! Go to our OldBookNook site as we’re running a sale off our low prices.

http://www.PoorManSurvival.com

http://www.OldBookNook.com

http://www.GreenIrene.com/Poorman

Don't Get Caught With Your Pantry Down-New 11th Ed.
http://tinyurl.com/PMBasics

Free Money assistance for women, businesses, more.
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?poorman11/mlesko

A Shallow Planet Production