Winter Prep

I do not have to tell you how busy I am when the harvest season is in full swing. It is getting much colder out and we had hail on Friday. It is raining, but that rain will turn to snow soon enough. Other places already have lots of snow, meanwhile last blast hurricanes are hitting Cuba.This is the time of year to make sure everything is up to standard for the winter. My pears finally started to ripen and fall. I am in the middle of making them into pear sauce and canning them. I have done most of the stuff I need to do for my gardens , I just have some garlic to dig up and coneflower roots to dig as well. My herbs did well this year.

Ok here are some of the items you need to have on hand for the winter months. Stock up on hot Chocolate, get rock salt, make sure your snow shovel is in good condition. For the car, an oil change, new wiperbades, a scraper, a broom, a small shovel, snow tires or chains or studed tires depending on where you live and an emergency kit for in the car. I create something I call a Huri-Can (tm) Candle. What it consists of is a coffee can that has hole drilled into it near the top and it is filled about 3/4's of the way up with wax. I have 3 large wicks in it that are equidistant to take avantage of the most surface area. Inside I have some items that I can add as a kit. In the kit is a space blanket, a small multitool, some tinfoil,a lighter and a flat can that holds some hard candy a bit of sugar and creme powder and a couple of tea bags. There is also some clotheshanger wire in it to make a handle for the can or to lay across the flames like a grill. The multitool has a mini flashlight as part of the set up. If you scoop up some snow or ice you can melt it and make a cup of tea. You may want to add a couple powerbars and a small deck of cards or a small book in it to past the time if you have to wait. With this in the car you can safely stay warm for a day or too. It takes a long time to melt that much wax. I would caution the stuck people to crack a window open every once in a while to keep the air fresh.

Good luck with your winter preps.

Michael J. Kaer, Author of "What Money Can't Buy"

Yes, Yes - I know; I have not been around to write anything for a while. Here's why. Recently I learned how to make soap. I also have the rest of my garden to harvest and can. On top of all this my daughter and her mom moved in next door and I have split up with my long term girlfriend of 4 years AND I still have all the other things I have on the go still up in the air. I added new gutters to the front of the house and added a second rain barrel. We finished harvesting and leaning the sundried Tarragon from the back garden and I still have the herb garden in front to deal with. My sunflowers have to be fully harvested and I have been seed saving for everthing that has come in my house. I am starting a seed exchange next year. I still have a few tomatoes to harvest and I am getting the worms ready for winter. My pears are getting big. I have a new student for my Tarot class and I have other commitments that just started. Am I forgiven yet?

Now on to the topic of the day the non bail out down in the US and how the other markets are tumbling and how people are dealing with it. Many of my fellow prepers are getting as much last minute stuff as they can afford. Some have already moved to their retreats to ride out the coming storm. The problem with this storm is you do not know how long it is going to last. I am getting ready for winter and I am not looking foreward to the cold nights. I will be putting off as long as I can turning on the furnace. I am seeing my doc tomorrow and getting the usual done. I have a debate going on in my head. Do I plunk down money on much more food or do I spend it on other things I also need? That is always a dilema.

I would like to know what you folks are doing and how you see things going. Good luck.

Spiritfest

I attended the Spirits of the Earth Festival that went from the 1st to the 6th. It is now July 8th and I am just starting to recover. I did 5 workshops (4 of mine and I helped Tovah do the Massage for couples workshop). The 4 I did was Introduction to Tai Chi,solar collectors and solar arrays, worm composting and organic gardening and I did one on juggling just for fun. I learned a lot there ( aside from learning how to belly dance) about how a group of people can come together to do something great. I had so many different conversations on such a diverse set of topics I don't even know where to begin. I got a small taste of what it would be like to live out of a trailer that had no electricity hook up. The owner of the trailer did have a couple solar panels and a battery and inverter set up so we could have some music and a couple of other things but that was just the icing on the cake and was not really needed. if we had no fuel for the fridge, things may have been a little different, but not much. The one problem with using this as a sample of what it could be like off grid was the fact that people would run into town for a timmie's run or just to grab a pack of smokes or what not. The fact that there is still gas flowing and a town still operating close by meant the psychological impact was lacking. For me, I just pretended we where cut off. Any chance I get to practice any prep work I will take. Leave a comment and tell me what you have been up to in your preps.
Michael

Don't Try This at Home!

I had something left over from my Y2K preps, a 1-liter(33.8 fl oz for you other folks) soya bean drink made by Yeo's. It was a cholesterol and lactose free milk substitute. It was a good product and I plan on getting more of them if I can find them again and I will tell you why. The product was sterilized for freshness and sealed. The stamp said -best before 05 nov 2002. I cracked it open, broke the seal and took a sip of it yesterday. I had no ill effects that I can tell from that sip and the drink still tasted sweet. I could see that some solids had settled to the bottom when I took another sip today. I decided to pour it down the drain rather than take a chance on it being bad. Aside from the settling, I think it would have continued to be viable as long as the seal was intact and I kept it stored in the fridge. If I was in a survival situation and found this intact and in a cool place for years, I would have drank the whole thing I am sure.

Just one more small service to my loyal readers. I test things out now while we still can.
Any thoughts or comments, or perhaps suggestions of items to test, I would be happy to try to test them. I have tried 5 year old MREs that where donated to me for a taste test for the same meal only a year old. There was no practical difference between the two. I will take all donations of equipment for testing on the condition that I get to keep them. That is a small price to pay for a researcher and writer to review your product. The things I suggest in my books like " What Money Can't Buy" I have tried myself or have done a massive amount of research. Doing gives you a much better perspective. All donations would also be appreciated. All donated money will go to getting more prep items. You can give to my paypal account through my other email address b4kaerbear@hotmail.com. Good luck and tell my what you are doing to insurec your survival. Till next time- good luck and good night.
Michael.

Glimpses of the Future

It is ironic that I am using this language since I am a professional Psychic Tarot Reader online and off. I look into the future on a retail,personal level rather than the larger,wholesale trends I will be discussing.

My girlfriend's furnace quit on her after about 30 years of work. It only needs a thermocouple to get it to work again, but she refuses to buy one since she is taking the entire furnace out and replacing it with a newer,high efficient one. The furnace quit while we had a warm period in the spring and the temperature has not gone below freezing, but we had a cold snap and the house was cold (and still is as we speak). She dealt with this by wearing more clothes indoors and she spent more time at friend's houses that had heat and would use my little electric heater in the bathroom when she wanted to take a bath or shower. She has several blankets on her bed and uses an electric blanket to warm it up before she goes to sleep. She is saving some money on her gas bill but she also says she does not want to do anything around the house since it is so cold. She has been doing a lot of baking to heat up the house. This week it is supposed to be getting warmer, so it will not be as much of an issue.

That got me thinking about what we will be doing this winter or next when we can not afford the gas to heat our homes. My main concern is to make sure my pipes do not freeze. I have heating strips plugged in to help and I did not have a problem this year. I am building a candle driven heater using stacked ceramic pots, small to large to sit suspended above the candle and radiate the heat outward. I have created Huri-Can Candles that can be lit and provide emergency heat and light. These are only short term solutions but they are better than nothing. My personal long term solution is to move to a farm in less than 5 years. The farm I want will have some wooded area and I will also be growing hemp. Hemp hurds make excellent fuel in corn stoves. The other change I will make is to have composting toilets so that will cut down on the amount of water being consumed. Less pipes means less worries of burst pipes.

If I need to build the house from scratch it will be a passive solar and be fairly small. I will have a large building that will house some animals a forge/workshop an area for canning and dealing with the harvest and an area just for bikes and bike parts. The entire site will be off grid and as self supporting as possible.

That is a longer glimpse into my future. What will be happening in the short term? My guess is that many people will be found dead due to doing something stupid like using a BBQ in the house and not let any air in to try and heat the house. Others may burn the house down doing something stupid trying to keep warm. Many will ruin their stove by turning it on and leaving the oven door open. The thermostat will not work properly after that kind of abuse. Other will end up with huge electric bills since the only form of heat for them will be electric. That will put pressure on the grid in 2 ways. If these people have these huge bills they can not pay,they will end up defaulting and the other users will have to pay the price. That is one of the main reasons why I want to get off grid. Then there will be the people found dead due to freezing. Another aspect of this is friends will be moving in with other friends to cut expenses or family moving back together. Abuse, Incest, Malnutrition and rage murders will go up. On the positive side families, neighbours and communities will learn to live together again. Many people will be forced to walk or ride bikes that will do them some good. For others who are not in any shape will not be able to get around. Again many will die of over exertion. Crime will increase due to desperation.

Am I painting a bleak picture. Yes! I am sugar coating what I am really seeing. I am purposely minimizing how bad it is going to be since panic and fear are not going to help the situation. You need to be warned but also you need to prepare NOW!

Let me know what you are doing to prep, short term and long term.

Michael J. Kaer – copyright 2008

mikesworms.com, mjk-private-income.com, myhemp.blogspot.com

and survival-list.blogspot.com

More about Pop Bottles

I did an experiment to see if I could make a solar still from a clear bottle with 1/2 covered in the back with mylar and a hole in the cap and a tube running to a new bottle the is shaded. I was hoping the mylar would act like a concentrator and heat the water enough to get it to evapourate and the shaded bottle would be cool enough to catch the drops. My experiment is a partial failure. I did not get it to do what I wanted it to do, but I may still be able to use the bottle( at least 1/2 of it) to see if the mylar can produce a concentration of the sun to heat something up. The shape of the bottle is round, so if I cut it in half I should have 2 areas where the sun is concentratedabove them or in front of them, depending on the angle of the sun. Another idea is to use it to heat copper tubes by cutting a hole in the bottom and placing a string of them on the tube and connecting the tubes to produce heated air. If the tube fits the hole enough to seal (almost) you should get a build up of hot air in the bottle (like a greenhouse) that should heat up the tube and heat the air in the tube. Those are two experiments that I can do very cheaply. The bottles are free for the most part and the shiny mylar was from a pack of cookies. A bit of tape to keep it in place and I was done. The copper tubeing will not be cheap, but I have a few bits and pieces laying around, big enough to do this experiment. I will let you know how it goes.

Michael J. Kaer, copyright 2008

Pop Bottles

What do you see when you look at a pop Bottle?

I am specially referring to the plastic ones not glass. Most people see a thin wall of plastic that holds some carbonated sugar water and the container is just junk.

I see possibilities!

I see a certain amount of design and energy being put into a one time use container which can be recycled. I also see it as a container to sprout seeds in, an airtight container to store dried herbs and meats in and an airtight container for things like sugar or salt and harvested seeds. With the carbonated water still in it it can be made into a fountain if you add mentos to it. If it is clear and uncoloured , I see it being a simple way of making water safe if the water is left in the sun for a day or two. If one is painted black and water is put in it and a hose is attached to the screw on cap, it could be a simple still to evaporate water in the sun and the vapor is drawn to another one that is shaded or covered in tinfoil to make it cooler. With the use of a knife, I cut the top off of one and inverted it into the bottom part, taped it in place and put some vinegar in it to become a fruitfly trap. It can also be a wasp trap if sugar water is put in it. Different parts of the bottle can be used in gardening. For deep root watering, dig down by the roots and stick the bottle top side down in the soil and cut the bottom off to form a funnel. The bottom part can be used as a tray for seeds or to be placed under a pot to keep water in. The midsection could be cut out and used as glass for a green house. These bottles could also be filled with packing “Peanuts”, sealed up and combined together to make and unsinkable raft. For larger pontoons the same idea could be done to the one time use water bottles that hold about 5 gallons at a time. If there are partly filled with water and the cap left off, you can freeze water in them to be used camping or on picnics(just save the caps to put on later).

I know there are hundreds of other uses for these wonderful containers but the point I am trying to make is instead of looking at an item(any item) as a piece of trash or to be recycled, why not take that next step and by pass the whole system buy reusing it.

My girlfriend is always bugging me about holding on to everything. I would be caught under a pile of trash if I saved every last scrap, but I do try my best to reuse things as often as I can. So can you. What are your ideas on this?

Michael J. Kaer copyright 2008

Goats

If I had to pick one animal that would get me through a tough time, it would be goats. The goat herder in biblical times was able to survive on little more than goats. Goats can eat just about anything. I have seen one eat tarpaper off the side of our house when dad was fixing the house out on the farm. Goats do not like to be fenced in so the solution is either make a goat proof fence or let then roam around free. A few herd dogs could keep them together, but I would not bet on it. I plan on getting goats as soon as I move to the farm, that and some chickens. You can train the goats to haul small loads. You can use the milk to make cheese and eat the meat and use the skins for drums. All in all, they are the best bang for your limited buck in hard times. Grow enough of them and you can buy a horse or two. If you have land that is only good for pasture, goats are a natural choice. They also get along with horses just fine. The sooner I get my goats the sooner I have a source of milk,cheese,meat and skins for the cost of some time and effort and some scrub land.

What are your plans?

I just added a new post on the myhemp.blogspot.com blog. In it I mention a new friend by the name of Hugh Simpson and a blog he runs on survival. Go there to grab the link.

Every Tuesday night at my house I have a few friends over to discuss Prosperity and to share what we have done, prosperity-wise that week. Last night we got into discussing peak oil and what we can do to get through it and survive, maybe even prosper. It was not you normal prosperity talk. I proposed that after the meltdown of the global economy, there would be a lot of bartering system in place and after that we would need a new form of money and a new way of dealing with it. my suggestion is we base it on Hemp. A bale of raw hemp = x hempen dollars. Since hemp can be grown just about anywhere man does, it would make sense to use it as a basis for wealth. The economy can grow only as much as the global crop of hemp can grow in that year. That would give the regions that have 2 growing seasons an unfair advantage, but that too is fair since certain regions will produce other crops and items for trade that those regions cannot and we could charge what we want for our scarce goods.

Global trade would be very slow since we would be going back to old ways of shipping and transporting and regional trade would go on much more than distant trade. Spices and tea and coffee will always be traded so some trade will continue. With that in mind, if you are looking for practical things that can be stored for later trade, I would get spices and raw coffee beans and tea plants and hope you can grow a local variety in a green house or other micro climate. the other practical things I plan on getting is copper and aluminum. With those two metals I can create batteries and other useful projects. Next on my list is hand tools and knifes. Next would be things I can't make for myself like sewing machine needles and fishing line. In that list I would include as many solar panels as I can possibly get. Last on my list would be spare parts and extra media for storing all my electronic data as long as I have the spare parts, I can hobble together a working computer. My skills and knowledge be mostly what I will be bartering and if I am the last person in my region with a working computer, that makes my knowledge very much worthwhile. Other skills I have and most of the tools I need I already have to fix and maintain bicycles , plant a food garden with worm compost and a massage chair and table to do healing on.

With the skills I already have I should be able to do well, but I have a large collection of books that will also come in handy when the time comes. Books, tools, knives, knowledge and skills I hope to past on to my family and friends. If I can do that , I will indeed be rich.

Michael J. Kaer

The Long Emergency

I am reading the book "The Long Emergency" by James Howard Kunstler.
I have not finished it so I can't give you a good review of it here( I will later when I am done).
I have been reading a huge bunch of other material along the same vein. most of them say the same thing-downsize now, get out of debt, make the changes while you can, invest in physical assets... You get the general drift.

One thing I am doing to get the money together to get out of debt is own a http://homeincomeportal.com/mibmy137 portal and advertize it and use sites like http://ujoinfree.com/?id=2372 that links up with the portal and I get adsense money from the sites I put the adsense code. I also use www.Godaddy.com to host my own websites like www.mikesworms.com amd www.mjk-private-income.com . On the worms site I talk about worm compost and organic gardening and even show you how to make your own worm bins. On the www.mjk-private-income.com site I have books for sale I created ( like how to make bee's wax candles) and other subjects. The other thing that is really bringing in the money on a regular basis is www.psychicweb.com and www.psychicaccess.com .

I have been reading Tarot for over 25 years and teaching it for about the last 15.
My goal is to make enough to pay off my credit cards and my mortgage in a year. I am working 6 days a week toward that goal. Breakthroughs are happening and I am gaining new friends and clients everywhere. So far this year I have made more than 50% more in a month than I did last year and I want to soon double and then triple and then 10x my income. When times are going bad, people turn to people like me for guidence. I try and guide them as best I can. the fact that they are helping me get out of debt is a nice payback.

Ok what list will I be asking of you, my loyal readers? 1), list your debts and your income. if you have to take a little notepad everywhere you go and write down every purchase, than do it. It will be worth it. The next list would be list all the things you can do to raise your income to pay down your debts and the final list is to list the areas you can cut back on.

When you do get out of debt you will be able to make major purchases of "survival" goods and not have to worry about collectors coming around and taking all your stuff. Since the money system is going through a major upheaval I would also suggest getting some of those supplies now while you still can. Remember to focus on what you do want, not on what you don't want or have. Breathe. Survival is FUN.

Michael J. Kaer

Hi Folks.
A friend of mine came to visit from Toronto. He just retired and on his way to visit other friends. Hetold me he lost more than what I make in a year on the stock market and that was in just the last few days. My friend does not want to even look at her portfolio. She is afraid to. I hate being right, but I have been suggesting for a while now to get your money out of the market and into real things like land or physical assets. I was not listened to. How long this will go on is anyone's guess, but I see a year or more before a recovery if ever. All we need right now is a pan-epidemic to wipe out a huge chunk of the population and the economy may never recover.I hate being right!

Michael