5 Reasons to Raise Chickens, Prepare a Homegrown Meal, More

Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

http://www.PoorManSurvival.com

For Independent Minded People!

ISSN 2161-5543

In This Issue:

1.  Crowd Funding as a means of funding causes

2. How to wipe yourself off the grid

3. Preparing a homegrown, home cooked meal

4. Do Americans enjoy more or less freedom today

5. Top 5 Reasons to raise chickens

"Most people are willing to pay more to be amused than to be educated."
-- Robert C. Savage
Source: Life Lessons

Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Raise Chickens

Raising chickens should not be a fuss. There are actually several reasons why people want to cultivate chickens in their backyard. More cities are loosening their rules on raising chicken in urban areas too.  Some of these are written below.

Reason # 1 – Chickens love leftovers.

A chicken’s appetite is incredible. They can eat almost everything, even their own kind! You can now say bye-bye to those unwanted leftovers being left rotten in your fridge. You feel less guilty of throwing them out into the garbage can. Plus, you can save on chicken feed. But be very careful with what you give for it may be their last supper. Tone down on the onions and garlic.

Reason #2 – Eggs!

Who doesn’t love eggs? Have them boiled, scrambled, sunny side up, etc. Admit it, pets that live comfortably inside your houses don’t give anything more than barks, meows, purrs, and sometimes, chirp. Fishes, in general, can be eaten, but who would want to eat Goldie? None of these domesticated animals produce something edible. Well, chickens, on the other hand, have lots of benefits. One of the many benefits chickens give is their egg.

You can eat fresh eggs right from the source. Either raw (good for pregnant women) or cooked, eggs taken from chickens minutes or hours ago are more tasty and nutritious than those purchased in the grocery store. You’ll notice the texture and color is way different than that of the fresh ones.

Reason #3 – Source of natural fertilizers

Your lawn or backyard could’ve never looked better. Chickens love to freely walk around. Chickens also love to peck on anything they see that can be considered as food. And what is food to them? Possibly anything that’s organic. If you let your chickens roam around your space, you’ll find out how reliable they can be. They eat pests living in your backyard – grubs, beetles, insects, earwigs, and anything that comes close.

After the digestion has set its due, they will transform what they’ve eaten into poop. But this is not just any kind of poop but a treasure called natural fertilizer. And you know what natural fertilizers do right? They keep the soil healthy for plants to grow. Cool.

Reason #4 – Low Maintenance Pets

Unlike dogs that need combing and brushing everyday to keep their fur alive and shiny, chickens doesn’t need such soulful treatment. All you have to do is provide them their daily needs like food and water. You also have to clean their pad at least twice a month and change the beddings too. In return, you can gather all the eggs. Aside from just gathering, you can also start a small business of your own by supplying poultry stores with fresh eggs or chicken meat.

Reason #5 – Grass and weed clippers

 Now you can save on mowing your own lawn by getting yourself chickens! For chickens, grasses, weeds, and leaves are treats. It’s like a lifetime dessert offering. It’s like having a cow in your own backyard. They will dig through whatever it is without even complaining about the hard work. Chickens will clip it then clean it all at the same time.

Learn more about backyard stock at:  http://www.poormansurvival.com/Pages/urbanlivestock.aspx

Coturnix Quail can produce both eggs and meat for your table but occupy only a small space and require little maintenance…good for your farm or backyard.

PM’s Compendium of Useful Resources

Crowd Funding-Used for Fundraising too

We’ve featured a few pieces on ‘crowd funding’ previously as a means of raising small amounts of money for your non-profit, medical bills, venture or project.  Now folks are using it as a means of raising money for medical bills also.

Creating a site is usually free, but many sites withold a percentage of the funds raised as a processing fee.  Contributions are made by credit card or PayPal.

 Here are some sites which foster this kind of giving:

IndieGoGo.com

GiveForward.com

GoFundMe.com

YouCaring.com

*The Poor Man posted a request to help finish our teaching farm. See what we did at:

http://www.gofundme.com/jld30

How to Wipe Yourself off the Grid
A good chunk of the online economy is driven by tracking and targeting of users. This is how online companies can afford to offer service like free fantasy baseball leagues and online photo sharing--you pay with your time and your data. For most of us, this is a trade worth making. Even so, it's nice to know you can unplug from the grid if need be. PCMag's Eric Griffith explains how you can do it…

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2376023,00.asp

States and Snitches Target eBay Sellers Who Duck Sales Taxes
If you don't collect sales tax on in-state sales, beware! States
are looking at the IRS Form 1099K as a tool to track non-filers
and are also listening to eBay sellers who snitch on their competitors.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m04/i10/s01

Guarantee Success for your Garden

Use this free site when planting a vegetable and herb garden.  It will suggest the best plants to grow in your area and more at:  SmartGardener.com

Preparing a homegrown, home-cooked meal is one of the simple joys to be found in a more self-sufficient life by Vicki Mattern

We interviewed homesteading experts so they could share their wisdom about seeking self-reliance in rural, suburban and even urban settings. No matter where you live or where you are in your own journey for more sustainable living, these experts’ real-world advice on simple living will give you the inspiration to jump-start your own quest for change.

For some, the quest for self-reliance begins simply: The search for a decent-tasting tomato leads you to a seed catalog, which opens the door to gardening, canning and composting. After a few years (or sometimes decades), this journey toward more sustainable living leads you to an abandoned farmstead — say, 3 acres with some overgrown fruit trees, a house and a barn that “needs work.” (No matter: It’s your homestead, and it’s your work.)

Others recall a pivotal moment. One day while sitting in a traffic jam, you realize you crave a different kind of life — one that’s closer to the natural world, less dependent on goods and services from corporations, and, ultimately, more rewarding.

There is no single right way to “make it,” say experienced homesteaders. Whether you live in a country farmhouse, suburban townhouse or center-city apartment, you can get closer to simpler, self-sufficient living.

MOTHER EARTH NEWS: What motivated you to choose a self-sufficient, homesteading lifestyle? How did you get started?

Harvey Ussery: It was a natural progression. My grandparents had a small farm where I spent a lot of time as a kid. They raised livestock, grew and canned food, made soap — they practiced self-sufficiency out of necessity. Later, as an adult living in the city, I always had that yearning to get my hands in the dirt.

Shannon Hayes: I had just completed my doctorate in sustainable agriculture but couldn’t fathom leaving our family farm in upstate New York, or the life I had there for the sake of a conventional career. After doing a cost-benefit analysis, my husband, Bob, and I chose to work full time on the farm.

Cam Mather: I was burnt out on suburban life and on earning my income on a computer. My wife, Michelle, and I put together a plan, paid off our debt and began looking for a place in the country. It took five years to find it, but we did.  Read more at:

http://www.poormansurvival.com/Pages/guestcolumn.aspx

A hen turns her egg over about 50 times a day to keep the yolk from sticking to the shell.

The Nanny State Updates…

CIA Super Spy Centers Near Completion

The CIA’s plan to spy on every American by bugging everything—clock radios, phones, refrigerators, everything—is ready to be operational as soon as Big Brother’s super spy centers can go online.

Louisiana recently enacted a law to prohibit the use of cash for sales or purchases of used goods at second hand stores…supposedly to fight crime.

We are [only] that far from a turnkey totalitarian state,” warns Binney in an article by Bamford in Wired, a magazine dedicated to the cutting edge of technology.

Binney left the NSA in 2001, shortly after the agency launched its warrantless-wiretapping program. “They violated the Constitution setting it up,” he said bluntly. “But they didn’t care. They were going to do it anyway, and they were going to crucify anyone who stood in the way.”

Another source, Adrienne J. Kinne, who worked as a voice interceptor at the NSA facility in Georgia, told Bamford: “Basically all rules were thrown out the window, and they would use any excuse to justify a waiver to spy on Americans.”

http://americanfreepress.net/?p=3596

Obama Signs Disturbing Executive Order

A few weeks ago, Barack Obama signed an executive order that would allow him to take control of all food, all energy, all health resources and all transportation resources. This was an update to an old executive order, but the Obama administration made a change that would allow Barack Obama to do this even in "non-emergency" situations.

Any purchase made with a credit or debit card or check can be scrutinized by the IRS through one of their Lifestyle Audits.  You can potentially be assessed for what they call phantom income - even if the IRS has no evidence that you failed to report taxable income!

The Parting Thought –

Do Americans have more or less freedom today?

The more laws we create, the more criminals we create and in this fashion, citizens are easier to control and to profit from…

President Ronald Reagan once asked “Are you better off today?”  Most of us would shake our head no.  I ask, Do you have more, or less freedoms in America today?

Everyday, citizens are stripped of their freedom. People's freedom is being taken away by intrusive laws which are created by a legislative body that resembles a corporation rather than a branch of government. The purpose of this corporate legislative body is to create profits by creating criminals; this can be accomplished by the creation of victimless crimes. Law and order is replacing actual freedom.


If each year more criminals are caught, then the legislative branch has proven that it is creating sufficient profits as well as perpetuating its own existence, by proving sufficient growth. Americans are led to believe that the purpose of laws is to protect freedom and well being; however, many laws are, in fact, created in order to create criminals, and in turn create revenue.


America has more rules and regulations than any other country.  Much of this red tape and ‘laws’ are created by non-elected bureaucrats, circumventing the legislative process and therefore, harming what was once a free nation.

The United States imprisons more people than any other nation, feeding a burgeoning prison system with tax dollars.  The prison industry and the domestic spying industry are frequently headed by former politicians and bureaucrats who lobby the government to buy various technology used to invade the privacy of Americans.

The government, at all levels, implements new rules annually that would have sparked a revolutionary fever of our ancestors.  Every element of our lives is now controlled by government rules.  One needs permission to do just about everything from building a dog house in our own backyard, to holding a garage sale.

The unPatriot Act is the best example of a government gone berserk.  The Act allows the feds to monitor all financial transactions, the TSA now shakes down citizens not just at airports, but increasingly at bus and train terminals and even highway rest stops.

The irony of this is these laws are spoon fed to Americans in the name of ‘protecting our freedom.’  This is bullcrap.

It’s a case of the boiling frog syndrome.  If a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually.

So are you a frog, or a sheeple?  Always remember, just because something is law, doesn’t always make it right or ethical.

“Until the next revolution”, the Poor Man

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