Bruce’s
Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A
Digest of urban survival resources
ISSN 2161-5543
In
This Issue:
1. Travel Trailer homesteading for $5000
2. More
ways to protect privacy w/ pre-paid gift cards
3. Hunter
Safety resource
4. UHT
Milk – Stores for six months
At
the start of this nation’s unique experiment with individual sovereignty and
limited government, “Taxation without representation is tyranny” was the
watchword of the American Revolution. For our Founding Fathers, a level of
taxation of only a few cents on a dollar, siphoned off to a faraway and
arrogant bureaucracy, was enough to ignite a revolution enough to grab the
trusty musket off the wall. Today, in contrast, if we dare to startle the more
panicky among us by buying a good rabbit gun, the government’s there at the
cash register to check our papers and seize $46 on every $100."
-- Ralph Reiland
Professor of Economics, Robert Morris College
-- Ralph Reiland
Professor of Economics, Robert Morris College
Celebrating Independence Day
Like many
others in this country, the Poor Man rags on our government and the train wreck
course it has pursued over the past few decades. That doesn’t mean we don’t love our country
or honor its founders, quite the opposite.
We wish we could resurrect men like Washington, Adams, Franklin,
Jefferson and others to see what became of their ideal.
Despite losing so much ground nationally and
internationally, despite the plundering of our money system, despite a growing
host of repressive, anti-citizen laws and lack of common sense and despite the
fact we haven’t had any REAL leaders in Washington for decades…I am optimistic.
Congress has been full of charlatans who have
prostituted themselves for money to the special interests on Wall Street and in
recent years, other governments…all at the expense of the American taxpayer.
Most of us still believe in the ‘American Way” and the
ideals of freedom, even if our leaders have forgotten. Most of us still help our neighbor when
they’re down. Most of us still try to
teach our children what is right.
One ingredient that made our country great was
immigration. Our nation is a blend of
cultures, most of which took one generation to assimilate. Many of today’s immigrants, both legal and
illegal, do not seem to assimilate, keeping to themselves and often, not
respecting the rest of America. Indeed,
bashing America has become the favorite pastime of left wing liberals and many
immigrant groups.
It may take another revolution to restore our country
and return it to the Land of the Free and to its former prosperity. The nightly news recently made a big splash
about immigrants who were newly sworn in as US citizens. Yes, we’re still a beacon to many but in
recent years more people have left the country than have come here. America has lost its place in so many
categories that matter…economics and innovation, quality of life, education,
and so on.
Many of the freedoms fought for and guaranteed us
under the Bill of Rights have come under attack in recent years, especially
with the creation of the anti-citizen (un)Patriot Act. Your right to financial privacy and home
invasion (the 4th Amendment) are now virtually meaningless.
With
every new government program, law, and regulation that comes into being, our
own personal sense of responsibility diminishes. The corollary of freedom is
responsibility. And it’s moving out of vogue too.
Read more: ‘Government’ Has Little to do With Independence
Read more: ‘Government’ Has Little to do With Independence
Over the coming holiday, I invite you to think long
and hard about what freedom means and how we can restore it. Start by reading a
few books about our founders, especially Jefferson and Adams. I wish you a
fruitful 4th of July.
Keep your air conditioner running smoothly by hosing it
off. A/C constantly sucks in air and
debris which makes it work harder and remember to change your in-house filters
too.
Pm’s Betty
Shocker Compendium of Useful Resources
Travel Trailer Homesteading for Under $5000
As the Poor Man has discovered, even a little
homestead and cabin can prove to be an expensive proposition. Although we did a fair amount of work
ourselves, lumber and supplies are expensive.
Local building inspection fees really added to the cost and delays.
We finally got our well and septic system hooked up
but are experiencing some challenges with the water pressure. We called in a professional well guy and he
installed a deep well pump which was twice the price I could have picked one up
for; of course, he never contacted me first to see if I wanted the work done
but that’s another story.
We put up a 10x12 shed in addition to our barn and
what will be our rabbit hutch (we plan to have ducks and rabbits for our meat
and egg supply). We had purchased a
small mobile home for additional living quarters but the local inspector
(Commissar) made us get rid of it because it was too old and too small…another
big loss for our budget.
I suppose if you live far enough away from the
communists who run many communities, you won’t have to worry about what you can
or cannot place on your OWN property. We
learned after-the-fact that if we had left the wheels on the mobile, there would
have been nothing the inspector could have done.
If you’re tired of the rat race and paying either rent
or a mortgage, this might prove a good way to go. In either case, despite the Great Recession,
rural property prices are still high in many areas of the country.
In some cases, the foundation (if you choose that
route) might be more expensive than the actual home. Your choice of utilities
will be another big factor in costs.
In most rural areas of the country the cheapest,
quickest means of a homestead is a used trailer. They are easy enough to transform into an
off-grid homestead complete with solar and composting toilet. Building a “roof over the roof” with front
porch addition can make it into a nice livable home. That’s what we had in AZ and never had a
local bureaucrat bother us! Below you’ll
find a link to a popular book which gives even more insight to creating a
mobile homestead. You can find this on
Amazon and elsewhere.
Related: DIY
Underground Bunker at:
Stop bee stings by covering your beverages when eating
outdoors. They like the sweetness so
keep the cups covered.
Hunter Education: Now's the Time to Enroll
If you're planning to hunt this fall and have never
purchased a hunting license, you must pass a hunter education course before
you're able to acquire your license. This may also apply if you have not
purchased a hunting license recently. Check with your state agency. Since
hunter-ed classes fill up early, now is the time to enroll. You'll learn about
safety in the field, state hunting regulations and seasons and resources to
make your day afield more successful. Convenient online hunter education
courses are available for some states, too.
Enrich your garden soil by adding over ripe bananas or
badly bruised apples or other inedible vegetables in the hole before you plant.
End Unwanted mail by going to this site - remove your
name
Did you know -
UHT milk lasts six months! Usually found in single serve six-packs in the juice
aisle. Good for longer term storage.
Reader Comment:
You’re so right about China
(previous issue) and Americans are stupid to buy as much as they do from that
country. We took my mother-in-law to
Hobby Lobby where nothing is made in America (the manager confirmed this). People were in long lines shelling out money for
over priced crap…
Clever Finds Launches Family-Friendly
Daily Deal Website and Search for First Spokesfamily
Clever Finds (www.cleverfinds.com), a crowd-sourced family-friendly daily deal website, officially launched today. Clever Finds provides family-friendly deals from favorite neighborhood merchants and recommendations from local insiders. In addition to connecting local businesses and local customers, Clever Finds facilitates fundraising by donating ten percent of sales.
Clever Finds (www.cleverfinds.com), a crowd-sourced family-friendly daily deal website, officially launched today. Clever Finds provides family-friendly deals from favorite neighborhood merchants and recommendations from local insiders. In addition to connecting local businesses and local customers, Clever Finds facilitates fundraising by donating ten percent of sales.
David Sturtz,
CEO of RepairPal.com, an auto-repair
information Web site, knows exactly what makes a top-notch repair shop. He
tells how to spot one -- and warns about three costly and unnecessary
procedures that, if they are ever recommended by any shop, should make you head
for the door!ales to community schools and organizations.
Insects splatter your windshield? Wipe them away using a moistened dryer
sheet! Good for cleaning TV and computer
monitor screens too.
The Nanny State Updates…
By Mike Brownfield
There’s urgency in Washington to fix a problem that’s
been a long time coming: America’s fast track to fiscal implosion. In The
Heritage Foundation’s just-released, expanded 2011 Budget Chart Book, you can
see just how bad the country’s spending problem is and how America racked up so
much debt.
Congress is coming to grips with the need to enact
reform, in part because there’s a new breed of Tea Party conservatives making
their voices heard on Capitol Hill and also because the government has reached
the legal limit on how much it can borrow. The Washington Post reports this
morning that it’s crunch time in Washington, with legislators and the White
House working to find a way to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget by 2021.
Police have classified a CA high school yearbook as
pornographic
The Big Bear H.S. yearbook includes a photo taken at a
dance, in which a 17-year-old boy can be seen groping a 15-year-old girl - even
though it’s not the intended focus of the photo. Police say it depicts sexual activity by a
minor and recalled all of the yearbooks with a warning that possession could
lead to prosecution.
More stupid
government stunts - in Portland, OR,
the Water Bureau drained a reservoir of 7.8 million gallons of drinking water
after a 21-year-old man urinated into it.
Another tip to lower your A/C bill…shower or do
laundry in the early morning or late evening.
Raising the humidity in your home during the hottest part of the day
makes you’re A/C work harder as if the outside temps had gone up 10 degrees.
The Parting Shot – More Ways to protect yourself
Prepaid Calling Cards – Keep your calls and contacts
private.
It's rude to eavesdrop on someone else's conversation.
Unfortunately, bureaucrats feel it's their obligation to protect everyone from
everything and the best way to do it is listening to your telephone pillow talk
with a loved one. Today, most calling-card traffic is run on separate digital
networks outside the traditional telephone networks. The calls are also often
encrypted, which gives you a level of privacy and helps ensure call quality.
But, you should be careful using PIN-less calling
cards, or reusing or
recharging the same calling card over and over again.
recharging the same calling card over and over again.
Each calling card company has its own data collection
and storage policies which could undermine your privacy. Also each calling card
has a unique ID number associated with it. "As you made phone calls
against that card, they'd get recorded in a database someplace," says
privacy expert Richard Ellis Smith. This information could be used to track
both the phone number you're calling from and the number you're dialing.
To shrink your exposure and give you some distance
from snoops and eavesdroppers, buy disposable prepaid calling cards with
cash, or prepaid gift cards. This allows you to unlink
your voice communications because new cards are bought to replace old ones when
they run out of minutes and in the process different calls are placed through
unique calling cards.
Buy prepaid Visa, MasterCard, and American Express GIFT
Cards: Just like cash but more convenient for today's digital world.
Using the "real" thing – a debit or credit
card – creates a long paper (and electronic) trail that can be picked up and
exploited by crooks and other busybodies. These little pieces of plastic act as
small portals to your banking accounts. If compromised, it's like throwing a
steel nut into the gears of your fine-tuned financial machine.
To lessen this vulnerability and function outside the
banking system without sacrificing your access to electronic commerce, the
Visa, MasterCard, or American Express prepaid GIFT cards are extremely handy.
Pre-paid cards work just like store gift cards you may
have used from Starbucks, Target, or Apple. These are, however, much more
practical because they're accepted anywhere Visa, MasterCard, or American
Express are accepted – both in stores and online (but not ATMs).
These gift cards are NOT rechargeable. When you
initially buy one, you choose the amount to put on the card – anywhere from $20
to $500. If you have an account with KeyBank, you can purchase a MasterCard
Gift Card and put up to $2,500 on it.
The cards have expiration dates, but the remaining
balance doesn't expire. Before the expiration date, simply call the provider to
issue a replacement gift card. Because it's a gift card to give away, you can
register the card in any name and address you want. Registration is not
required, especially if you only plan to use it in person where you
"swipe and sign."
However, registering the card allows you to use it
online (and perhaps gas stations) since many online merchants need to verify
name and address to process the purchase. Also, if you
want to replace the card due to loss or theft, it needs to be registered
beforehand. The problem here is, registering the card eliminates some of the
privacy advantage of using these cards
That’s all of the news you
can use for this issue…happy sailing, The Poor Man
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