10 Free Trees, Avoid Smishing, Backyard Cottages

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


In This Issue:

1. The coming debt tsunami-Economic Overdose
2. The myth of the American Dream-the new reality
3. Backyard cottages-new wave of rental properties
4. Avoid ‘smishing’ of your cell phone
5. Urban farming comes to the schoolyard
6. Support the ADF and get 10 free trees


Socialism is workable only in Heaven where it isn’t needed, and in Hell where they’ve got it.
-- Cecil Palmer


Ahhh, spring, will it ever arrive?

It’s the third week of April and we got more cold and snow today, showers expected tomorrow. Wonderful! I was just about ready to put my gloves and scarf away and begin soil testing and plumbing work on the old homestead. Foiled again.

We did manage to order a very cute 12x12 barn-style shed that includes four windows, shutters and cupola (see the picture on the Cheap Housing tab at our site). The cost was $900 less than a pre-built one at our favorite lumber yard…in fact, their prices skyrocketed since I initially looked at them last fall and they couldn’t come close to what we paid.

This will rest next to the cabin and act as storage and a laundry room. The electrical supplies we’ll need ran another $67.

We also ordered a set of six dwarf fruit trees for $50 delivered from Burgess Nurseries. I couldn’t find anything local that matched this price. In addition to the fruit trees we already have on the property, this will give us a postage stamp orchard and will include apples, peaches, pear, cherry and a nectarine tree.

If you’re a new subscriber or reader, the Poor Man has been working on an off-grid cabin and acreage we obtained this past fall. Much of the work we’re doing ourselves along with a couple of handyman friends. Demonic bureaucratic blundering has put us behind schedule and over budget…can you believe that?

If you're thinking about potential income properties, you may want to take another look at your backyard. Backyard cottages - sometimes referred to as accessory dwelling units, laneway housing, or granny flats - have been cropping up all over the Pacific Northwest, and cities across the nation have started updating zoning rules to allow for dwellings where your swing set used to stand. Seattle, considered a pioneer of the movement, now welcomes Portland, Miami, Berkeley, Denver and Burlington, VT, to the backyard cottage club.

New home prices are 29% higher than used and buyers today are favoring smaller, more manageable homes and are shopping closer to cities which tend to offer lower priced homes. Ironically, 46% of rural counties in America lost population over the past decade.

Karen Chapple, a city planning professor at the University of California, Berkeley, says she was intrigued by the burgeoning trend and built her own backyard cottage this year - as a class project, no less - to see the feasibility of backyard cottages as affordable housing options in the Bay Area. Her 420 square feet cottage - small by comparison to those in Portland and Seattle where the maximum size tops out at 800 square feet.
Read the full story here:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2065209,00.html?xid=rss-fullnation-yahoo

The magnitude of the housing crash caused permanent changes in the way some people view home ownership,” said Michael Lea, a finance professor at San Diego State University. “Even as the economy improves, there are some who will never buy a home because their confidence in real estate is gone.

<<<>>>

Urban farming expands onto school grounds
Community-supported agriculture is not an unfamiliar concept for regular readers, nor are the often-associated add-ons of bicycle-based produce delivery and compost services. Canadian Fresh Roots Urban Farm offers all of these; what sets it apart, however, is a series of partnerships it's formed with local schools in the Vancouver area to create urban farms on school land.

Fresh Roots produces and distributes organically grown food through a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program as well as pocket markets and restaurant sales in the Vancouver area. Much of the produce for that program is grown by local urban farmers and in participating neighborhood gardens, but of particular interest are the organization's new partnerships with local schools to use school land. At Queen Alexandra Elementary, for example, the relationship began last year when the Vancouver School Board bought a share from Fresh Roots' CSA for its cafeteria salad bar program. More at:
http://freshroots.ca/

Celebrate Arbor Day on April 29th by going green & get free trees
If you become a member of the Arbor Day Foundation ($10), they’ll send you 10 free flowering trees, and plant 10 more in your honor. Use the ADF to send someone a card ($5.95 donation) -they offer an email card too- and they’ll plant a tree in honor of the recipient.
www.ArborDay.org


Welcome to Spatulatta, an amazing cooking resource for kids online. They offer 350 step-by-step video recipes that will make it very easy for your kids to learn how to cook!
http://www.spatulatta.com/

More good uses for coffee grounds

>>Get rid of ants - Sprinkle loose grounds on the outside perimeter of you home. The scent will repel ants and ingesting will kill them.
>>Sprinkle dried grounds on garage floors and other outdoor areas to sweep clean-cheaper than sweeping compound.
>>Add grounds to your compost pile and/or use as a ‘treat’ for indoor plants by sprinkling your pot soil around the base of the plant.
>>Sop up oil spills from garage floors and driveways-great for cleanups after working on a lawnmower or rototiller. Cover the spot with dry grounds, let sit 15 minutes or so, then sweep.
>>Work a thin layer into your outdoor acid-loving plants using 1-2 cups for every 8 bushes. Repeat weekly. Will also deter slugs and snails.

PC World reports spammers & scammers create about 10% of all online dating accounts.
Avoid providing financial & certain private data early on - goes for face book too!


Smishing is almost exclusively a threat for smart phone users. Here are some tips to help protect yourself:

#1: Get a reliable anti-virus program. Look for ones that have great reviews and solid recommendations. Smart phones are like hand-held computers, and if you have a Windows Phone 7 or an Android phone, you have a handheld computer with a real operating system. And what is the first thing you do after you have installed Windows, Linux, or Apple on your computer? Why, put on an anti-virus program, of course.
#2: Don’t click on it! And don’t call the number! I can’t state this enough. If there’s a link included and you don’t know who it is – and now, apparently, even if you think you know who it is – don’t click on it! Don’t call the number they instruct you to call – don’t do anything but delete it.
#3: Try not to have any really personal information stored on your phone. Notice I say to try not to do that. What I want to say is don’t do it no matter what but I realize that it might be impossible to not have some information on your phone. Just try to keep the real personal stuff to a minimum.
#4: Make sure that you have strong passwords for your financial accounts. If you do have to (or like to) do your banking, etc. on your phone, make sure you use a strong password. If you don’t know how strong a password should be, just Google “how to make a strong password” or something like that and you’ll get results that will help.

Clove oil is a well known remedy for teething babies. Use powdered clove to heal cuts and help kill dangerous bacteria. Acts as an antiseptic and effective painkiller.



SPONSOR
====================================
I Started Making $4,000+ Per Day Simply
Returning Phone Calls. Learn how you can too!
http://www.miriamslozberg.ws/

=====================================


Trickery, dickory dock, which political party put us into hock?
Hickory dickory dock, which one should be shot?
--Anonymous

The Myth of the American Dream-the New Reality

Banks now own more of "our homes" than we do. During the most recent recession, the total amount of U.S. home equity owned by the banks surpassed the total amount of U.S. home equity owned by the rest of us for the first time ever.


The Crumbling of America
America's Crumbling Infrastructure : Across America, the list keeps growing of examples of America's infrastructure crumbling. From Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans to the recent pipeline explosion in San Bruno, CA, it's becoming clear that the problem of aging infrastructure is not going away anytime soon. Meanwhile America is spending trillions of dollars in meaningless wars abroad instead of spending that money home trying to fix the country...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqboW2R2KEk&feature=player_embedded

The entire system is designed to take what you have away from you. There are many ways that this is accomplished - taxation, inflation, debt, interest, fines, fees, tickets, government seizures and good old-fashioned corporate greed.


The Coming Debt Tsunami
The entire wealth of USA is less than $60 Trillion. Please remember the Constitution. Governments are not allowed to take assets without just compensation
Municipal Debt: The Coming Crisis? According to the simple interest calculation, no amount of taxation or asset confiscation can solve this problem…view more at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pVLv8g78Xg&feature=player_embedded#at=201

The average American now spends approximately 23 percent of his or her income on food and gas.


States Consider Resurrecting the Gold Standard
Utah will allow gold and silver coins minted by the federal government to be used as legal tender starting in May. Other states may follow suit as declining faith in U.S monetary policy, coupled with rising inflation rates, are fueling talk to bring back the gold standard.
http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/us-economy-States-Consider/2011/04/15/id/392991?s=al&promo_code=C178-1

Related Story-video
Overdose : The Next Financial Crisis
Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis a Nice and simple documentary for even the clueless to follow. GET A FARM TO GROW YOUR OWN FOOD. GET GOLD AND SILVER. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ECi6WJpbzE&feature=player_embedded

Sage advice for preparing…watch this informative video interview.

Gerald Celente, the director of the Trends Research Institute, speaks about unemployment, recession, bank robbery and Wall Street hijacking Washington , unless banks take a hit for their mistakes, the uproar will only increase across the Atlantic, a financial bailout in Europe has been launched flooding banks with government money. But it comes amid a lowering of wages, a reduction in social spending and an increase in taxes. This has sparked protests which are spreading across the continent , "When people lose everything, and they have nothing left to lose, they lose it! As people keep losing it, the government will crack down even tighter." Gerald Celente says , the American Empire is collapsing and the banks have committed the greatest bank robbery in the history of the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WfOn--pXEtw#at=590

That’s it for this issue…I had promised a short one this week due to the holiday!
Peace be with you.
==============================
Follow us on Facebook
www.facebook.com/PoorManSurvival

Twitter
http://twitter.com/poormansurvivor
=============================

Keep our services free, visit our sites…
Check our Resources

New self sufficiency books added weekly
http://www.OldBookNook.com

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

Go Green-save money!
http://www.GreenIrene.com/Poorman

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

A Shallow Planet Production