Tiny Homes as a Bug Out Retreat-Caveat Emptor

Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

http://www.PoorManSurvival.com

For Independent Minded People!

ISSN 2161-5543

 

"Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
-- George Orwell

 From The Smiling Dog Saloon Files

 

In This Issue:

1.        Tiny homes as a retreat-Caveat Emptor

2.       DIY burn cream, Home Smoker

3.       Cheap compost

4.       Oathkeepers creates “Civilization Preservation” Teams

 

 

    

Tiny Homes as a Retreat – Buyer Beware of the Bureaucrat

 

Lessons the economically ignorant will never learn…

 

   A quirk of family fate brought me back to live in Michigan from our beloved Arizona and what a financial shock it has been.  Our car insurance doubled in price (and we have one less car), our water bill is double what we paid in the desert (and we had horses there to water) and utility bills are double what we paid in AZ.

 

Local utility rates, despite all of our energy and water saving efforts, are high and getting higher.

 

The biggest crock-of-crap has been from our run-ins with the rural autocrat serving as a township inspector (trespasser).  We purchased an older mobile home to add more space to our small cabin.  Our plan had been to make improvements (roof over a roof, porch & deck additions, etc.) as we had done in AZ…but no. 

 

Inspector Bob, the local commissar, took it upon himself to trespass and then called me screaming so loudly I thought the phone would explode.  “You can’t have that on your property!  Get rid of it before I initiate legal action…how’d you like that where you’re from?’ he bellowed.  (Take note – on my own property).

 

I explained to him that is precisely what we owned in AZ and no one bothered us. I asked him why no one told us this when we purchased the property or why it wasn’t posted in a township website.  Apparently, their 19^th century mindset precludes any of that as we’re supposed to somehow divine that knowledge.  He had no response and we were forced to have it removed and lost $5,000 and learned that in order to legally occupy our cabin it had to be 1000’.  Our 400’ building won’t cut it meaning we’ll have to spend more money to comply with unwritten rules in place by local communists.

 

You may have seen articles about tiny homes built by Tumbleweed.  His solution to bumbling bureaucrats is to keep the home on wheels.  That may work in some areas but not in communist MI (don’t get me started on their laws against carrying non-lethal defense weapons…they would rather women on campus get raped and assaulted as is so often reported on the news).

 

The funny thing is just how shortsighted these bureautwits are…

 

If there had been no interference from the blatantly ignorant township, our annual tax bill would have increased substantially and helped their coffers!

 

Find images of our cabin and learn more about Tumbleweed Homes at these links:

 

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

 

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/

 

“Government -Three fourths parasitic and the other fourth Stupid fumbling.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

 

 

PM’s Roundup of Useful Resources…

Make Your Own Burn Cream (link)

Discusses a few more natural ways to soothe a burn as well as a burn treatment to consider: “We can get burned in many ways by things around our house. If it is just a minor burn it can be safely treated at home. There are many creams and sprays you can purchase but there…

Continue reading Make Your Own Burn Cream (link)

 

Homemade Cold Smoker (video)

Creating a makeshift cold smoker apparently isn’t that difficult, here’s how……

Continue reading Homemade Cold Smoker (video)

 

Survival Preparedness With Limited Resources (link)

While I feel you’re only as prepared as your weakest link (e.g., food, water, security, comms, etc), when it comes to boiling it down to preparedness you really have to start with what you KNOW you will need and that begins with water and food…

 

Survival Basics: 10 Steps for Preparing a Family Emergency Plan

Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew

 

Free, or at least cheap, compost!
read more here

 

The Nanny State-We love our government

Virginia police built massive data base of political rallies participants

From 2010 until last spring, the Virginia State Police (VSP) used automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) to collect information about – and build a massive data base of -- political activities of law-abiding people. The VSP, for example, recorded the license plates of vehicles attending President Obama’s 2009 inauguration, as well as campaign rallies for Obama and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Following a strong opinion by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the VSP discontinued the practice, and the agency says it has purged its license plate database, and now disposes of ALPR-obtained information within twenty-four hours of collection, unless it is relevant to a clearly defined criminal investigation.

Read more

 

The Parting Thought – Nothing to worry in the land of the free!

 

America maybe on the brink of revolution?

Oath Keepers is Going “Operational” by Forming Special “Civilization Preservation” Teams

 By Michael Webster: Syndicated Investigative Reporter

The recent pattern of federal government abuse is very troubling, undermines citizens’ trust in their government and we, the American people, deserve an explanation from this government as to why this administration and others including Congress used its vast powers to commit these unconstitutional acts.

Congress wrote and passed the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and was signed into law by Presidents Bush and Obama respectively. According to U.S. Rep.Tim Walberg, who is a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee which has been investigating IRS-related issues said “The lack of preparedness in rescuing Americans under attack, and the administration’s misdirection to investigators seeking the truth about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi is disgraceful. The Department of Justice’s broad phone-tapping of reporters is chilling and the slew of improprieties conducted by the IRS in targeting the president’s political opponents leading up to his re-election is outrageous.” In the last few years the laundry list of violations of Americans rights by the Government is lengthy and unacceptable by most Americans recent polls show...

Americans, the very people who the big banks, Wall Street and corporations made their massive fortunes from were forced by the United States Government to bail out those same banksters and corporations. Not one bank or corporation or any leaders have been brought to justice. The price tag that many believe will be in the trillions of dollars and were given to those same companies in the form of American hard earned tax dollars. Those very same companies are being rewarded for failing, and being too big to fail yet the American citizen is expected to weather the storm and do all the suffering without any help from anyone, much less the too big to fail group. These same groups today are foreclosing on Americans homes and businesses, and are not making loans to small business and dragging down the U.S. economy. But believe it or not they are continuing to do the same things that got us where we are only they are doing it even bigger and many believe it is designed to bring down America as we know it. Many Americans are finely getting fed up with it and are looking for ways to take action.

The lack of jobs and what feels like deep depression to many Americans that started in 2007 is still going on today with no real change in sight.

More at:

http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2013/10/01/oath-keepers-is-going-operational-by-forming-special-civilization-preservation-teams/

 

My personalized Halloween video wish (click on either link)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b55bqlhw6e1f035/poormansurvivor.wmv

http://youtu.be/ZHoH0fglXPs

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Home Prepping Database Program

This software will assist you and your family in what and how many supplies you will need when you will need to lockdown in your home until things settle down

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

 

 

 

 

A Shallow Planet Production

Why Americans are Easily Fooled, Shipping Container Homes

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.      Mid-wage jobs vanishing, what to do now

2.      Shipping container homes

3.      Why Americans are so easily fooled

 

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. –HL Mencken

 

 

MID-WAGE JOBS" DISAPPEARING

Another study confirms a trend we've been seeing for years - "mid-wage" jobs are shrinking. Lower-paying jobs are growing.

Some experts refer to this as the "hollowing out of the workforce." Others call it the "disappearing middle class."

Regardless, it's a triple whammy.

Whammy One: Wages and salaries have been stagnating since the 1970s, while the cost of living has continued to rise.

Whammy Two: Your job with a "stagnant" salary disappears, and (if you're lucky) you replace it with one that pays much less.

Whammy Three: Billions of people would be happy to work for a fraction of the value of a week's food stamps. And the Internet, for better or worse, is bringing them closer by the day.

What to do? Well, there are no panaceas, but here are three options:

1.      Start a side business. Doesn't matter what, the point is to develop additional sources of income. Sell crafts on Etsy. Start a blog and monetize it with Google ads. Start a dogwalking or errand-running business. Embrace self-employment, which used to be active in our DNA but has been put to sleep by schools and other bureaucracies. Defy them.

2. Boss your life. Throttle back on purchases to prevent debt from commandeering your life choices. Remember, despite what the media says, we're not "consumers." We're self-determining individuals. We're the Boss. Act accordingly.

3. Focus on your goals and the steps to reach them. Don't worry about "macro" economic trends and other things beyond your control. As Epictetus, the stoic philosopher who was born a Greek slave, said, "First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."

(For the study on wages and jobs, see this article in the New York Times.)

 

Hire a free tutor for your kid at KhanAcademy.org – They offer more than 3,000 educational videos.

 

PM’s Compendium of Useful Resources

 

Normally buying a bit of land and building a small home on it costs a bundle. But if you're willing to shop a bit for the land, you can pick something up for as low as $500 per acre

 

Could a Shipping Container Become Your Second Home?

 

Shipping containers look pretty dull from the outside. And they're nothing to write home about on the inside either... but they've got lots of potential. And, I have three big reasons you might want to consider one for your home away from home:

They're tough: Made from steel, shipping containers have a super-strong core structure. They are probably much stronger than your primary residence and almost surely way stronger than your typical cabin in the woods. They can be stacked eight high on a ship and not even hurricane-strength winds will topple them over. That means a tree could fall on your second home and you would hardly see a dent. A hailstorm or windstorm? No big deal. You, your loved ones, and your belongings will be safe inside. Plus, they are very hard to break into without heavy-duty industrial tools.

They're affordable: On a square foot basis, a shipping container is really cheap compared to the price of a cabin or a house. You can purchase one for $3,000 to $5,000 depending on size. Delivery costs for the container will vary depending on location.

They're versatile: Once you have your shipping container, you can use it as-is for storage or you can start altering it to turn it into a comfortable living space. You can run power and even running water into the container. You can have doors and windows installed, build a deck on the roof... whatever you like. A lot of people are opting to use multiple shipping containers to build their primary residence, because the cost-savings is so significant. Just imagine the savings of purchasing one or two containers and making modest improvements... it definitely puts a second home in easier reach.

 

What You Should Know before Purchasing a Shipping Container

Shipping containers are about 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide. They come in two typical lengths – 20 feet and 40 feet. Respectively, you get 150 to 300 square feet of floor space per container. On a cubic-foot basis, that's 1,200 to 2,400 c.f. Depending on your needs, calculate how many shipping containers you'll need to build your second home. For example, you could outfit a 40-footer for living space and use a 20-foot unit for storage.

An estimated 17 million shipping containers exist in the world today. To locate and buy one or two, do a search for a Certified Shipping Container Dealer.

 

No matter who you work with, do a quality check of your container before you give anyone a dime. If you can't check the container in person, ask for photos of every side, corner, seam, door, hinge, latch, the top and bottom, inside and out. Don't buy a container that shows signs of corrosion. A little surface rust is okay, and even common, but if you see scaly sections where the metal is starting to flake or bubble, start looking for a different container. Look carefully, and don't be fooled by a fresh coat of paint.

The other thing to look for is any twisting in the body of the container. It should be perfectly square and sit flat on a level surface. If not, it may have been damaged, leaving it structurally unsound and incapable of connecting properly with other shipping containers, which will limit your design options.

It's usually most cost-effective to buy a very basic unit and then make improvements to it on your own. Paying extra up front for things like insulation doesn't usually save you money in the long run. It may save you some hassle, though, so consider your options carefully.

 

BUILDING A TINY HOME

There are builders and architects in many regions who specialize in the design and construction of tiny structures. A list of these is available on the Web site of the Small House Society (www.SmallHouseSociety.com). Reputable providers include Alchemy Architects (www.WeeHouse.com), Historic Shed (www.HistoricShed.com) and Rocio Romero (www.RocioRomero.com).

Alternately, you can purchase plans for tiny homes online from companies such as Tumbleweed Tiny House Company (www.TumbleweedHouses.com) and Ross Chapin Architects (www.RossChapin.com), typically for $100 to $1,000. Provide these plans to a local builder, or erect the structure yourself—putting up structures of modest size is within the abilities of many skilled do-it-yourselfers, assuming that they have professional plans. Consider hiring pros to handle the electrical and plumbing.

 

Added Benefit…

Homeowner’s insurance, property taxes, home décor expenses and heating and cooling costs will be slashed dramatically as well. Expect discretionary spending to drop, too—with less room to store possessions, tiny home dwellers tend not to waste money on things that they don’t really need.

 

Find sideline income and business resources and…

Take a test to find the small business that's right for you

Plus dozens of useful resources you can put to immediate use!

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

 

Dump the car lease to save money.  Trade in a car with a monthly payment for a cheaper, fully paid one; it also costs less to insure.  If you can, get by with one car to save cash.

 

The Nanny State Updates…

Black Hawk helicopters' war games in downtown Minneapolis

US Special Operations Command decided that downtown Minneapolis would be a perfect location for military games involving Black Hawk helicopters and dozens of troops.

Low-flying Black Hawk helicopters conducted military training exercises in downtown Minneapolis Monday night, hovering majestically outside of apartment windows of surprised local residents.

In April, Black Hawk and Little Bird helicopters flew past skyscrapers in downtown Chicago for a similar urban environment training exercise, rattling some windows of downtown offices. Witnesses of the largely-unexpected event reported men hanging out of the windows, while carrying automatic weapons.

 

High school & college kids can get discounts by registering at:  StudentUniverse.com/deals or StudentRate.com

The Parting Thought- Can you read?

 

Aside from insidious bureaucrats and corporate-owned politicians, the third element in the demise of America is the electorate who have collectively, been dummied down.  They swallow the government by the people sham hook, line & sinker…from our ongoing series on How to Take America Back from Dysfunctional Politicians.

 

Why Americans are Easily Fooled

Americans don't read.

Indeed, most Americans haven't read a book since they left high school. 42% of college graduates have not read another book after graduating, 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year, 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years, 57% of new books are not read to completion, and most "readers" (to use the term loosely) do not get past page 18 in the last book they purchased. So, it should not be surprising that the average American reads, and I posit, understands at an 8th grade level. Stefan Molyneux breaks down the jaw dropping statisticts on the decline of the American intellect in this video.

 

It is the fundamental theory of all the more recent American law...that the average citizen is half-witted, and hence not to be trusted to either his own devices or his own thoughts.  --HL Mencken

 

Most Americans will tell you straight-faced that the US is the "land of the free", even though it has more people incarcerated nominally and as a percentage of its population than any other country in the world. They will insist that America is the "land of opportunity" even as one-fourth of the work force is employed in jobs that pay less than $22,000, the poverty line for a family of four, half are on the government dole, and most of those will die virtually penniless.

These are fools. And voters.

 

The US is screwed, and has scheduled November 6 for the hosing of a lifetime. Either of these Statists will hump Joe Lunchbucket like a red-headed step mule, insuring America's journey toward total unmitigated disaster is completed in the next four years. It has been hypothesized that the unread, disinterested, intellectually bankrupt general public is simply too ignorant to support a functional democracy.

 

When We Wake Up November 7th…Nothing Will Have Changed

Jim Karger's cathartic release on the lesser of two lessers, the “choice” for President of the USSA, Barack Romney and Mitt Obama…

 

“And we will know what America gets when we wake up November 7, 2012. There will be celebration and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

 

And it will all be for nothing…

Because nothing material will change, regardless who is elected. On the economy, foreign policy and civil liberties, you could put the differences between Obama and Romney in a thimble and have plenty of room to spare. Their positions on the most critical issues in America are not materially different but equally devastating.”

 

The financial crisis was caused by excessive utilization of debt. In order to correct these imbalances, the country needed to undergo a deleveraging and reversion back to a country of savers. Savings equals investment. Instead, our “leaders” have reduced interest rates to 0% and have gone on an unprecedented government borrowing and spending spree. Savers and senior citizens are punished, while gamblers and speculators are rewarded. Anyone who thinks about this strategy for a few minutes will realize it is asinine and fruitless.

It seems one thing Republicans and Democrats can agree on though is that spending money they don’t have will have no negative consequences (“deficits don’t matter” ~Cheney).

 

Watch our short slide show on why voting is a waste of time…

http://youtu.be/da07a0cfcFw

 

Excerpted from the Dollar Vigilante…

 

Jim Karger is a lawyer who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. He has been the subject of many feature articles, including, "Outlandish Labor Lawyer Gets No Objections From Staid Clients," published in The Wall Street Journal, and most recently was featured in an article entitled, "You Can Get There From Here," published by the American Bar Association. In 2001, he left Dallas, and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs.

Today, Jim takes a handful of assignments each year, and speaks regularly to industry associations and employers on issues involving government regulation, over-criminalization, and privacy. His website is www.crediblyconnect.com

 

 

Tired of “Government by Intimidation?
Learn how we can take back America from dysfunctional politicians-without firing a shot! Or will Americans get what they deserve because they lack the cajones to act?
http://poormansurvivorblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/taking-back-america-from-dysfunctional.html

 

“Until the next revolution”, the Poor Man

 

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A Shallow Planet Production