Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
ISSN 2161-5543
In This Issue:
1.
Household tips for frugal consumers
2.
Gathering an
emergency food supply
3.
Community
scale biofuels, urban farming blog
4.
DIY Shooting
Range
5.
Cash strapped
cities enhancing bogus fines
Entities should not be
multiplied more than necessary. --Occam’s
Razor
The State of making money
It’s been reported that sixty-eight US
lawmakers made a total of $27.5 million last year though ‘side jobs.’ This is on top of their $174,000 annual
salary and other perks. The outside
earnings, more than four times higher than in 2006, came from activities
ranging from owning Subway franchises to selling chestnuts.
Meanwhile, the average
American isn’t doing as well. US
citizens are racking up credit card debt again after having reduced debt in
2009. It’s estimated we’ve added $9
billion in new credit card debt.
Compared with other
countries, the US has one of smallest small business – only 34 percent have
fewer than 50 employees, compared with 44 percent of French or 49 percent of
Polish enterprises.
Local governments
continue its assault on small business ventures. In Ohio, a man has been ordered to stop
selling vegetables from his front yard.
The man sold veggies to supplement his Social Security check but
officials told he is not allowed to sell from a private home.
He’s now going to give
away the vegetables so they don’t go to waste.
Meanwhile, fur sales
have been banned in West Hollywood, the first such law in the nation. The ordinance bans the sale of new clothing
made in whole or part from the pelt of an animal with hair. Although animal rights activists have
applauded the law, the 36,000 local residents are angry. The city has already banned animal testing,
cat declawing, and the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores.
Stop mold growth by
using an old toothbrush dipped in mouthwash to clean and sanitize grout in the
bathroom…also, let a ¼ cup of it sit in your toilet for 30-minutes, swish
around with a brush and flush.
PM’s
Compendium of Useful Resources
Food is vital in any
emergency. After all, disaster frequently cuts people off from groceries and
other sources of food. It is important that you keep an emergency food supply.
However, you can’t just dump any sort of food. Here are some tips on how to
gather food for an emergency:
1) Non-perishable –
make sure that the food you get is non-perishable. This means the food should
not rot quickly. Emergencies and disasters often cut off electricity, so you
won’t have any means to keep perishable foods fresh. Try getting some canned or
dried foods, as these keep the longest.
2) Non-cook – while in
an emergency, you can hardly think about cooking, especially considering that
you might not have access to gas or electricity. Buy food that’s ready to eat.
Again, canned goods
are great for this sort of thing. You should also think about getting some beef
jerky, dried fruit and other bits of food you can readily munch on.
3) Energy content –
the main reason you need an emergency food supply is because you’re body will
need energy in order to cope with the stress of any disaster. Your body will
specially need it if you are injured or ill.
Did you know that
candy bars were first produced for soldiers to get a quick energy boost if
needed? Having energy will allow you to react better to the situation around
you.
New options
for frugal consumers.
Sites include www.Plumdistrict.com (“a Groupon for Moms”), www.Saveology.com, www.Signpost.com
Sites include www.Plumdistrict.com (“a Groupon for Moms”), www.Saveology.com, www.Signpost.com
Community Scale Biofuel Systems
Good news for ethanol folks…Blume Distillation will be
offering turnkey alcohol systems to market in 2012, designed for entrepreneurs,
farmers and communities to produce their own fuel. Prices are expected to start at $35,000.
City Farming Blog
No matter how small or urban of space you might have,
Mike Lieberman blogs to help you grow your own food to become more
self-sufficient. Recent posts
include: Small space gardening that’s
affordable, How to Make a Self Watering Container and more…
Practice
Firing Range
Make a suitable firing
range at your camp or farm by choosing a spot against a hill if possible. Make a frame and supports of two inch by four
inch lumber against a ½ inch steel plate.
The front should be of painted board against which the paper targets are
set. Sand is place in a box in the
middle. The number of targets will depend
on the size of the range you have selected.
A Pinch of
Petroleum Jelly dabbed just
inside the opening of your nostrils can help catch pollen before it enters your
nasal passages, says Dr. David Rosenstreich, direct of allergy and immunology
at Montefiore Medical Center in NYC.
Household tips
for surviving the recession
Here are a few ways
that a very practical home improvement editor
saves money on home products:
Things I don’t
ever buy: Plastic bags and plastic food containers. After years of spending on “Tupperware” that I
inevitably let mold in the back of my pickup truck, I stopped spending on
plastic. I reuse containers and bags. I invested in about eight large sturdy
plastic food containers, the type that caterers use. They’re almost
indestructible. I use those (and wash them out religiously) and actually
purchase food for the container (juice in a glass jar vs. juice in a plastic
bottle). I use glass juice jars for everything from freezing soup to using them
as flower vases. I save plastic shopping bags and use them as garbage bags -- therefore I don’t
ever buy garbage bags. Don’t knock it ’til you try it.
Something else
I don’t ever buy: Paper towels and disposable plates and flatware. They’re expensive and take landfill space. I have a
bunch of cheap dish towels that work fine. The one exception I make is paper
napkins, and only if company is coming over. A pack of 500 paper napkins costs
about $2.50 and lasts for months.
I don’t buy toilet paper. This sounds
crazy and maybe sounds like I have bad hygiene habits. Don’t worry -- I buy
bulk packs of tissues instead. Toilet paper is really expensive. At my local
market, a 12 pack of toilet paper costs about $15. Since I don’t like flushing
money down the toilet (heh), I figured out that a large pack of generic
“Kleenex” actually lasts longer and costs less.
I use soap and
water to clean almost everything. My house, my body, my hair -- you name it. I have cheap, bulk dish soap in the kitchen and bar soap in the bathroom. For
extra house cleaning and laundry cleaning power, I mix vinegar and cheap bottled lemon juice (and I save the bottle -- you’re getting
the idea now) into the soap and water.
Protect outdoor
furniture from rust by cleaning it prior to storing. After drying, wipe a couple of thin coats of
car wax which will give it a protective coating.
The Nanny
State Updates…
Cash strapped
municipalities step up bogus fines and fees…
In addition to
collecting property, sales and income taxes, some have put in place separate
streetlight fees... fire hydrant fees... and new booze taxes. Nevada is even
considering a new $5 surcharge on prostitution.
Anthony Fasolino, a
third-generation proprietor of a pizzeria in the Bronx. Fasolino was recently
fined $600 for the head-slapping offense of...allowing rainwater from his
parking lot to flow into the storm sewers.
Fasolino figures such
bogus fines -- $200 for a missing cover on a ceiling light was another recent
one -- eat up as much as 20% of his revenue.
"New York City is
unleashing its latest financial hell on cash-strapped business owners,"
reports the New York Post, "desperately stepping up fines and
announcing a flurry of new fees to raise funds." The city is counting on
such fees and fines for $900 million in revenue.
The Federal Reserve wants to know what you are saying about it. In fact, the Federal Reserve has announced plans to identify "key bloggers" and to monitor
"billions of conversations" about the Fed on Facebook, Twitter,
forums and blogs. This is yet another sign that the alternative media is having
a dramatic impact. As first reported on Zero Hedge, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has issued a
"Request for Proposal" to suppliers who may be interested in
participating in the development of a "Sentiment Analysis And Social Media
Monitoring Solution". In other words, the Federal Reserve wants to develop
a highly sophisticated system that will gather everything that you and I say
about the Federal Reserve on the Internet and that will analyze what our
feelings about the Fed are. Obviously, any "positive" feelings about
the Fed would not be a problem. What they really want to do is to gather
information on everyone that views the Federal Reserve negatively. It is
unclear how they plan to use this information once they have it, but
considering how many alternative media sources have been shut down lately, this
is obviously a very troubling sign.
Safely pick up broken glass shards by
using a moistened slice of bread to wipe up the glass.
The Parting Thought – Getting prepared for the worst
to come
If you haven't spent the last two or three
years preparing, then we'd recommend you get into high gear right now. Not
tomorrow. Not next week, but Now.
The world as we have
come to know it, in one way or another, is going to crumble over coming years.
It may happen overnight in a rapid waterfall collapse, or it may deteriorate
over several years. Regardless of how it happens or exactly how long it takes,
we're running out of time and the outcome will be the same. In The Redline: A
Tale of Collapse, Brandon Smith depicts a scenario that may not be too far off
from what reality will look like in America in the not too distant future.
Suffice it to say that
if you want to avoid, or at least insulate yourself from, living in a world of
poverty, violence, and despair, consider how you can become more self reliant
today.
What will you do if
commerce stops due to a currency collapse and the banks are closed- how will
you buy food, medicine and bare essentials?
Can you grow your own
food or raise micro livestock?
Do you have the
ability to protect yourself at home or in public?
What skills do you
bring to the table that will be of use when the service industry in America
collapses -- what are you capable of producing?
How prepared are you
to sustain your family in the event of a hyperinflationary or hyperdeflationary
collapse -- what will you use to pay your monthly mortgage and bills if
traditional currencies collapse or you lose your primary income stream?
Yours in freedom, the
Poor Man.
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