I am putting this on all my blogs at once since this information is so important. Look at the Archives for the rest of the information I was referring to.

Why be prepared?


My girlfriend is getting fed up with me talking

about ways in which our society as we know it

could (rapidly) change. In my last post I talked

about E.W.E.'s (Extreme Weather Events). In past

posts on this and my other blogs (myhemp,

survival-list, moneyhowtogetsome, moneythebook,

xchangesnumber1 - all blogspot.com like this

one)I have talked about how peak oil is going to

drive gas prices too far up and more wars will be

faught over this resource. One thing I have not

addressed to well(so far) is the next pandemic. At

first people think-Avian Flu and they could possibly

be correct. It does not have to be Avian Flu, it

could be another type of flu. History has shown that

the entire regions where decimated by waves of

flu and plague with a certain regular cycle to them.

According to those cycles we should have had a

bad one last year or maybe this year. Now that

world-wide travel is easier to do, the spread will

be world-wide. Someone is going to hop a plane

to get out of a region that is struck by it, to get

away and in the meantime infects half the

passengers and crew. The crew and the other

passengers do not know they have it till they report

to work that they are ill in a few days. All those

people have spread to other points of the country

spreading the illness as they go. Since some

percentage of the population will be immune, they

may be carriers. If the United States or Canada

decided to close their border and patrol it A) the

cost would be huge, B) they would still not be able

to keep everyone out. We are simply too wide

open. This region of Ontario where I live has alot

of farms that import hired hands to pick crops and

such. One of the migrant workers may bring it in.

They are a multitude of ways for a flu bug to

spread.

So what do you do? Prepare as best you can!.

The Mormans have a standing policy of having a

year or more supply of everything they need. If they

shut themselves in for the few months to 18

months a bad pandemic could last, they would be

one group who would survive. The rest of us will be

lucky if we have more than a week's worth of food

and maybe a couple of bottles of water. EEEENK

( insert sound of buzzer), Guess what- you are out

of the game. In all the research I did for my book,

everyone said you need a gallon( 4 litres) of water

a day to drink, cook food, wash etc. That is per

person and more if you have babies or pregnent

mothers to look after. If you stayed indoors for 3

months or so, say 100 days that equals 100

gallons per person or 400 litres if I filled up every

jug and the tub and sink, I think I could just barely

make it.I would still need 3 months supply of meds,

vitimins and food. I have a 3 month supply of

vitamins and about that much or more in food, but

my prescription meds I can only get a month at a

time. Ok lets say you have 100 days worth of

water, food and what not, what are you going to do

with yourself for 3 months indoors? I will not be

anywhere close to my girlfriend since she will be a

frontline worker, if and when it breaks ( she works

for public health). I have a large library of tapes

and dvds I could go through. Lots of music

besides. I have music instruments to play, a

sewing machine to work on, silver wire and hemp

twine to make jewelry with, about 50 pounds of

bee's wax to make candles with and lots of books

and magazines as well as the internet and TV to

watch. I can do Tai Chi exersises to keep fit.

Great. Now what happens if the electricity or gas

shuts off because too many people running them

get too sick to work? Right now I have a couple of

small solar panels that could charge a battery long

enough to charge my laptop. I may still be able to

get online even if the power goes off, but it will not

be for long periods. I have enough propane to last

a few days if I used the grill in the garage to cook

my meals and heat water for coffee and tea. I

would use up any fuel for my camp stove, but I

could not be able to heat my house. It would mean

a cold winter covered in blankets and heavy

clothes. It would mean not being able to wash my

clothes. It would mean no shaving, who cares I am

not going outside anyway. It would mean I would

survive but just barely. I would have to have

enough cash in the house to pay for my meds and

phone them up to deliver them, putting the money

in my mailbox and getting them to put the package

in the mailbox also. I would have to get it with

gloves on and a face mask and spray the bag with

a bleach/water solution as well as the actual

bottles. Garbage would have to be stored

somehow. It is do-able for 3 months, but right now

it is not do-able for any longer time period.

Can you see why my girlfriend is calling me Mr.

Joyfull and Mr. Happy? This is enough to depress

almost anyone. Don't shoot the messenger,

instead plow that emotion into saving your own

butt. The Government at all levels will be too

overwhelmed all at once to help much. You must

help yourself. I hope you pass this on to a friend or

even an enemy ( if they work for public works or

the gas company) the more you do now , the

better off you will be later. Buy my book and read

it. Go to www.mjk.private-income.com

and get the book, "What Money Can't Buy". After

you do that and pass to all your list of people, then

do some of your own looking around on the net.

There are too many sites for me to list but they are

out they. Jusy google "prepared" or "avian flu" ,

something good will show up. Sorry this is so long,

but the information is good. USE IT!
Michael J. Kaer, owner of www.2bitpixel.com

I am busy writing a book about money and I am writing notes on the side for volume 2 of "What Money Can't Buy". The subtitle will be something like "What'cha goin ta do about it". This will be the positive side after all the negatives I laid out in the first book. I may go into a little more detail about what the negatives are just before I address them because some people may have not read the first book(what are you waiting for, go to www.mjk-private-income.com and get it now!)

I recently ordered some samples of MRE's and rations and such to test and put in the book as well as post the results here. I would like to know what experiences you have had with MRE's, Ration Bars and freeze dried foods or even companies that sell these items.

You can leave a comment to this blog that you are sure I will read.

Michael J. Kaer,owner of www.2bitpixel.com

It's all in the book

I have been answering a lot of questions on Yahoo and some of them are coming from the research I did to write "What Money Can't Buy". Take the price of gasoline or what the next big stock is going to be. I have educated guesses as to what those are and where they are going. The book looks like it is going to be an ongoing project. I got so involved in the work, it is hard to turn to other things. I was following Bucky Fuller's ideas at the start about the promise of hydrogen, only to see massive breakthroughs and changes in that one area alone. Solar panels and wind generators have also undergone a huge leap forward. Nanotech is finally getting past being wet behind the ears. Alternative sources like geo-thermal as being seriously looked into. This is an exciting time folks

Exciting times does not come without a price. The price I see we will all have to pay is a total money system colapse. In the end the world currency maybe Hong Kong $'s or Yen or Euros. As I am typing this I am praying that I am wrong. The timelines are skewed and the data coming in says we are screwed and governments all over the world can't even get together to do the minimal least( The Kyoto accord). The stupidity and greed I have read about during this grueling timeperiod, forces me into a survivalist mode of thinking. My girlfriend called me "Mr. Happy" or "Mr. Joyfull" when I was discussing these things with her. Yes, they are depressing, but that is not my fault. Don't shoot the messenger.

The good news is there are several things you can do to stop my future from happening. I am writing a book about money and at the same time making notes for a second volume to go with "What Money Can't Buy". The good news is we can pull our butts out of the deep hole we have dug and get healthier while we are doing it. The good news is that it does not have to be as bad as I see it to be. I have hope. After going through thousands of pages online, I see individual states picking up the ball the feds dropped. Here in Canada I see individual provinces doing their best to meet and surpass Kyoto protocals. I see inventers freely giving their work away so it can not be squashed but big business interests. There is hope.

Another reason to see hope is in groups like freecycle. I belong to chathamkentfreecycle. It is a moderated group through Yahoo and it is for giving things to your community or receiving things from your community. No money is exchanged. But the item on the board once or twice and if it does not go, give it to Goodwill. This keeps items out of landfills and helps everyone's karma. Locally.

There is hope for us yet. The hint of how to survive a major trauma like a power failure or money failure is in the local community. Make your links with people now. Swap stuff or give it away, downsize, do more with less. How can someone steal from you if you are willing to give it to them? Think about that.

Michael J. Kaer, owner of www.2bitpixel.com

Battery-Free Flashlight



Here is a picture of the box and the flashlight I bought recently. I have been seeing these advertized all over the net and on Ebay. Being the type of person who A) loves gadgets and B) is an Electronic Technician and C) concerned with the environment, so any item that would cut down on throw away batteries is O.K. in my book and D) has lived through one of the worst power outages in North American History (so far!) and E) am a Survivalist Equipment Tester, I would like to give you my thoughts on this product so far.

It claims to float and be waterproof. I have not tested that as yet. It does claim to not need batteries to run. That is not strictly true, it does have a couple of small batteries to hold a charge that the system generates. To be truely Battery-Free, you would need a capacitor setup to store the charge or some other way of storing the charge. The light given off is bluish due to the type of LED ( Light Emmiting Diode) being used as the light source. You can read by it. It does get pretty strong for a small flashlight. I like another feature they do not show or talk about. When you charge it up and turn it on then set it on a flat surface(light beam down) it acts like a lantern since the cover is clear plastic.

I am torture-testing that feature as I type. I charged it up and turned it on face down. It has contnued to give light over 24 hours. I am trying to completely discharge the batteries to test the exact number of shakes needed for good light. This could take a while since most LED’s use very little power, a fraction of a volt, usually.

There is one caution I must give you about this type of lightsource. Since it uses a strong magnet and a coil to take advantage of Faraday’s law, it is strong enough to wipe out credit cards, debit cards, laptops, ipods..., take my word for it and keep it away from electronics and your wallet.

My conclusion so far- even with the limitations ( store it in a pouch or hang it from your neck) of keeping it away from electronic devices or credit cards, this is one item I plan on adding to my permanent equipment. It is not very expensive and the fact that you will not have to buy batteries for it, makes it a great bargain.

Michael J. Kaer, owner of www.2BitPixel.com
Ps. After I finshed this little article, I tested if it does indeed float and if it is waterproof. Yes it does float. I do not know how far down you can go diving with it, but it is waterproof. I forgot to tell you that it has a built in ring at the end to put a line through so you can easily wear it around your neck.
PPs.To make sure it is completely waterproof, I would take it apart and seal the lens on with silicone and silicone the on/off switch to the on position from the inside and add more to the outside of the switch. Then I would feel safe taking it diving.

I wrote this for my blog about money at http://moneythebook.blogspot.com and since it pertains to this blog, I thought I would a post it here too. That doubles my chance that someone reads it (which is the whole point of running a blog).


A worth of a thing...

Upon further research into this subject of money, I have come across different stories. Wait a minute; I was researching survival sites and this topic came up in a story. Now that I think about it money and survival have been linked often. I will not quote the story but it went something like this.
The man was talking about barter items and he asked what a box of nails was worth. In certain circumstances that box of nails would be worth their weight in gold , since gold would not be worth much, neither would silver. Maybe a trade for a bottle of alcohol or 2 cigarettes or some fresh fish. In a barter trade it depends on what the other person is holding, how badly you need (want) it and what you are willing to give up. If society broke down to the point of no transport trucks were transporting goods and a smoker had no access to nicotine, they may very well trade the box of nails for the a couple of smokes. A person brewing and distilling their own hooch, would gladly trade a bottle of the stuff if they had a leaky roof that needed fixing. I person who caught a whole mess of fish would be willing to part with a couple and the holder of the box of nails could be starving. Does this mean that a bottle of booze = a couple of smokes = a couple of fish? No! Yet under the right circumstances they very well could be. This story illustrates that in a trade or exchange the worth of the item depends on the needs of the two parties trading, therefore the worth of an item is flexible. Money is the same way. Since it is a token of worth and it has no intrinsic value (except as a piece of paper or a bit of metal) it flexes from day to day depending on what millions of transactions say it is worth. That is the simplified version anyway.

Right now I am willing to trade several months of research and hundreds of hours of writing in the form of two books for what? One of my needs are arrows or crossbow bolts and BB's. Well, with the money/credit system in place and still functional, I can have my books available 24 hours a day at www.mjk-private-income.com. A person wanting that valuable information can trade money in the form of digital bits directly into my paypal account. I can turn around and use those bits to ask someone who makes arrows or BB's to send me some and I will transfer some of those bits into their account. Everybody ends up happy.

Till next time...

Michael J. Kaer

I just re-read R.A.H.'s "Tunnel in the sky", one of his juvi's about a survival course for highschool kids gone very wrong. What was to be a 10 day outing at the most turned into a 2 year ordeal. Very interesting stuff. Robert is often quoted in many of the survival sites I go to. Speaking through his character Lazarus Long he says "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts,build a wall,set a bone,comfort the dying, take orders, give orders,cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." (page 248-Time Enough For Love). Speaking of Survival sites, I downloaded the the survival bible #2, which is just a .pdf file with a few articles and hundreds of links to survival sites. Alot of the sites are no longer up and running, but a bunch of the die-hard sites are still in operation. Some of them have been going for 10 years, so they must be doing something right.

I was wondering why such a large amount of sites listed where not there. I know people get tired of running a site and just close it down if it is not making any money or giving any satifaction.In some cases I think many people have "bugged out" to their retreats after 9-11 and just stayed there. I have a 5 year plan in place to start the move. I am fixing up my house and plan on selling it in about 5 year's time. I life in a small city where I can't have an open fire (other than a BBQ) and there are a lot of restrictions on other activities I would like to do. I can't raise rabbits or chickens without the city raising a squack. I can't shoot an arrow or a BB gun for practice without attracting undue attention. I live in Canada, so gun ownership is frowned upon. I have a nice assortment of knives and practice with them indoors, while doing Tai Chi. I have a throwing knive I whould like to get provicient with that is in the same boat as the arrows and BB's. I need more land!

Here's my wish list of what I think I need. I can live on 5-20 acres if I have a bit of bush and a pond and some fruit trees on it. It would need to have well water and be located near a hill. It would need a small barn/workshop. I could live in a trailer for all I really care. My 17 footer would not be big enough. My main two crops would be sunflowers and hemp. I of course would put in a huge garden. I would like the hill to not be seen from the road because I would like to put one or more wind generators. If there is no hill I would set up a tower. The barn and the trailer would have as many solar panels on it as I can afford I would heat the barn and the trailer with a safe woodstove that can divert it's smoke to a smoke house next to it. Water pipes around the woodstove, then buried in the ground leading to the trailer and barn would bring heated water. I could tap some for hot water and the rest would heat the floors. With that much space I could have goats, rabbits and chickens as food and worms for bait and organic fertilizer. That is my simple outline of what I could set up as a self-sustaining farm. I figure that would be good enough for me and my girlfriend.

Any thoughts? I would like to hear them.
Michael.

Just a quick update on my bug-out kit. It is still not complete, but most of the stuff is there. I need to re-photocopy my ID and important papers. I found one of my 2 wind-up radio/flashlights. The battery booster is fully charged, and I have a 400 watt and a 600 watt inverter ready for hookup. I have 2 small solar panels and on larger one ready to work. What I would like to have is some more small, sealed 12 volt batteries. They are very expensive (still). This year I am planing on constructing a large battery from plans I got online. The cost of the larger solar panels are starting to come down. I saw a 15 watt on sale for $80.00 Canadian dollars. That is a good start, but we need them to come down alot more before people with buy them in a large quantity.

That is all for today. Let me know what your plans are. Do you have 3 months worth of food? I would seriously start now!

Michael.

I wrote this for my other blog, but it needs to be in this one as well. Since not everyone reads all my blogs, I have increased my chances that you have read this by 100% :)

At about 11:15 PM March 1,2006, I got a wake up call. It came in the form of a total power black out. Well not total, downtown had power, but one whole side of the city was in blackness. I ALWAYS keep a flashlight in my kitchen window. The trick is to walk in total darkness without killing yourself or knocking things over. Silly me forgot that I had a fully charged penlight close to the lightswitch in the computer-room.

I had a fully charged laptop I could write on and do some reading if I wanted. I had looked forward to a nice warm bed and a book, but that did not happen. I found a few other flashlights and took stock of what I had and what I needed to do. I checked the emergency jumpstarter. It had not been plugged in for some time, so it had almost no charge. I have a small solar panel in my window that keeps a charge on 2-12 volt batteries and I have an inverter to power anything that is under 600 watts. It was working fine. I looked around for my emergency windup radio/flashlight. I have two of them and I could not find either one. I think one is at my girlfriend's place in our camping equipment and the other is outside in my trailer. I had another small battery powered radio/flashlight that used to be attached to my bike. It's charged and working.
I have about 3 months worth of emergency food and enough water for up to a week. If this had been a "Bugout Scenario" I would not have had all my gear in one bag to grab. I have been working with my girlfriend to get her's ready since she would be on the frontlines in any disaster ( she works for public health). I got her a nice, compact windup radio as part of her birthday present. I like to get little odds and ends for her kit, and have been neglecting mine in the process. It is nice one of us will be fully prepared. I have gone through my bag and I know I need at least another pair of underwear and socks, maybe 2 more, they do not take up much room. I have no clothes in there and I have not updated all my ID or copies of my important papers. Other than that I am not in too bad a spot. With a little work over the next few days I can have most of my kit totally ready. I need to fill up my fanny pack as well. I need to choose just one extra book, something small but practical and it may have a few stories in it. Any suggestions? With that I will end this post.

Michael J. Kaer, President of Kaer Enterprises (.com),www.mjk-private-income.com, www.2bitpixel.com and www.mikesworms.com
Ps. I am just finding out just how much you can shove into those Altoids tins if you wrap them in rubber bands after!

Ever since I finished "What Money Can't Buy" and my "how to" booklet on making Beeswax candles,firestarters and hobostove fuelcells I have been searching for ways to promote them( besides this blog, which I created just for that purpose). Just as a reminder you can download both of them at www.mjk-private-income.com. I am working on getting them in the clickbank system so other people can sell them for me and make money doing it.
The other thing I am trying is to advertize them on my new website at www.2BitPixel.com
To all you survival type people out there, if you run a website or a pixeltype site like mine and you want to trade links or trade pixels for pixels, than I am open to that. You can go to that site www.2BitPixel.com or you can email me at michaelkaer@yahoo.ca and we will work out the details.

Alas,Babylon
I am Re-reading a classic book by Pat Frank, first printed in 1959. The Blurb on the cover says " The startling novel of the end of the world and the day after." I remember reading this in school but I do not remember what grade I was in. It is very serious reading material for grade school, so I assume it was in High School. I am right at the part where the hero has to tell people what is going on and planning on what to get in the form of supplies. He can only tell certain people he trusts. Slowly the vast scope of what is facing him dawns on him as he is hugging his girlfriend.

Why am I reading this again? They were talking about hydrogen bombs destroying the country quickly. Our situation is different and much slower, but with the terrorist and religious extremists out there a potentially similar thing could happen. The form would be different that is all. I am studying how the people are reacting and how they are thinking in this long-term crisis.

Here is my short list of books I suggest everyone read.
1)Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
2)After the bomb by Gloria D. Miklowitz, also After the bomb:Week one
3)Farnham's Freehold By Robert A. Heinlein

Of course there are a ton of other books like the one I wrote and set this blog up for in the first place, What Money Can't Buy - ready for download at www.mjk-private-income.com. Go online and type in "survival" or some other keyword and a whole world of information is laid bare at your fingertips. Newsgroups are a great place to get specific questions answered and get advice on tools and such.
Stop reading this- Go -download my book or find other books to read and hop to it NOW! You may not have time to do so in the future.
Michael J. Kaer, President of Kaer Enterprises (.com) and www.mikesworms.com

As I was working at the shop ( my friend Jim's "A Life Full of Books") where I work on the weekend, I was helping a mother and her son look at some of the antiques Jim also has for sale. They were looking at metal rod that looked like a spear with a globe on it. The bottom had a type of stand with a heavy braided copper wire coming from it. I asked the son if he knew what it was. He did not and his mother and I explained what it was and how it worked. I then asked him if he knew who invented it. He did not. I told him "Benjamin Franklin". He had never heard of him. I said " You have never heard of Benjamin Franklin?" to which his mother promptly replied that they don't teach that stuff anymore. A grade school child not knowing who invented the lightingrod or our modern postal service is a child that is missing out on something. Having been out of the school system for a couple decades I must confess I have no clue what they are teaching kids these days. I know my daughter is getting a great education, being homeschooled. Next time I get to visit her I will ask her if she knows who Benjamin Franklin is (was).

This list is for our future survival.
1)If you have children or grandchildren or friends who have children get involved and find out what is being taught in school these days.
2)Talk to those children and gain their trust.
3)Make sure you teach them what you want them to know that is not being taught.
4)Teach the children to learn because they want to.
5)Teach the children to question what they are learning.

Our future is in their hands;make those hands the best you can. Do not let media and a school board decide what is best for your child. If they do not teach history (from different perspectives) we are all doomed to repeat it.

Michael J. Kaer, President of Kaer Enterprises (.com),www.mikesworms.com, www.mjk-pivate-income.com and www.onthespotmassage.biz

After going through a frustrating night of trying to add a couple of images to my webpage at www.MJK-Private-Income.com I found out the images hade been given a large type .JPG filename rather than a .jpg ,so it was not loading properly. Here is my list for this post.

1)Always check the details!
2)Don't give up.
3)If you do not find the solution right away, sleep on it. A fresh start sometimes does aworld of good.

Here is something I wrote last week when I was at work and did not have access to the internet to upload it.

25 years and counting

I recently saw a Reader’s Digest article where a self-taught man in France made his own electricity and fuel to run his car and hot water to heat his home all from the same huge compost pile. Once the pile totally fermented and gave up all it’s heat, the compost was then spread on his land to create a wonderful garden.

I know it is not feasible for everyone, especially city dwellers to have a huge compost heap heat the house and make electricity or run the car BUT this information came out in the 1981 edition, 25 years ago. I have never heard of this person, “The King of Green Gold” Jean Pain.

I do not remember being taught about people like Nickola Tesla growing up as well. It has been said we have only been taught one side of the story and purposely not taught the other side. Why? My guess is money. How can they sell the lies they are handing out as truth unless the real truth has been suppressed. How can a utility survive and the government make tax money off you the consumer, if you don’t need their services? Jean did not need a special education to achieve what he did, nor did he need special equipment. He made due with recycled materials. How are the big oil companies going to charge large amounts of money for their dirty energy solution when you can create your own clean, cheap and sustainable energy solution? The answer is to suppress the knowledge that any other option is available.

That is the end of my rant for this post.

Michael J. Kaer, President of Kaer Enterprises (.com), www.mikesworms.com , www.mjk-private-income.com and www.onthespotmassage.biz

Finally! The book is finished.

After much work and a steep learning curve, I have managed to finish off the book, put it into a .pdf format and add images. Any spelling mistakes or typos still in there will have to wait for the next edit of the book. I am too busy converting all my other books and booklets over to the same format and get them on the site for sale too.

Here is the site information you have been waiting for.
www.MJK-Private-Income.com , that is the site to order from. I have Paypal as my shopping cart and transaction handler. I will be putting my books on my website on ebay as well. A simple click on a button will take you to paypal and they will take care of everything else. I will have a distinct button for each book or booklet I put on.

"What Money Can't Buy" only $10 Canadian funds

"You can make bee's wax candles, firestarters and hobostove fuel cells" only $5.

Tell me how you like them and leave a comment here on this blog. If you have any suggestions for new material for me to research and write about or if you need a specific subject researched , I can be hired to do that as well.

Michael J. Kaer, President of Kaer Enterprises (.com),www.mikesworms.com and www.onthespotmassage.biz

Can I survive Christmas?
This is the time of year where you are trying to gather your thoughts about what you have done this year and what you left undone and what you need to work on in the coming year. That would be fine and dandy if you did not have to make so many family arrangements. My Girlfriend has her grown kids (and girlfriends) and her ex and maybe her other family over for Christmas morning. Friends with little ones may or may not drop in if the friend's ex gets the kids or not. I have to make time to see my family the next day and see my kids and extended family and make a few dozen calls and emails to all concerned. That covers just the 25th and 26th.
We have already attended a couple of Christmas parties,missed one and have a few more to go to. I have not got all my presents wrapped or made or bought. In between all this I have to see the doctor and get some scans done,pick up my laptop(YEH!) from the shop and find time to do my online work as well as shovel snow for myself, my neighbour and my girlfriend(then anyone else willing to pay me). I have 2 computers I have to work on, a massage or two to exchange with another therapist and still have time to relax. Toss an upcoming election in the mix!


Here is my list of things I need to survive the holidays.

Patience
a few extra bucks
a few extra hours to work
a few extra hours to sleep
a few classic movies on tap
hot apple cider and hot chocolate
my thermal underwear
good sturdy boots and a warm coat .

What's your list?


Michael J. Kaer, President of Kaer Enterprises , Mikes Worms and On THe Spot Massage

XBOX 360, VoIP and Hemp
What do these have in common?
All three are new technologies, all are offering a way of expanding your mind and all three can be expensive.

Wait a minute. Hemp??? A new technology? Well yes and no. Hemp has been around as long or longer than farming and there is a bit of cloth made from hemp that is 8000 years old, so there is nothing new there. What is new is our ability to grow enough hempseed to get enough oil to be made into gasoline and alcohol made from the rest of the plant to replace fossil(dirty oil) fuel.

Climate changes, asthma, endangered wildlife, urban sprawl,soil depletion, ozone depletion,diabetes,obese children,obese adults,heart attacks and a whole host of other ills can be traced back to using cheap fossil fuel to run cars. More cars means more roads, more roads mean wider spacing of people, wider spacing of people means more cars. The loop is closed. The entire loop is run on cheap, but dirty oil. Now that we know it will not last forever we are panicking ( just look at the latest spike in gas prices). Our survival depends on breaking the loop and making it more accountable and sustainable. We can continue to drive vehicles, but if I had my way , they would all be radically changed.
First off, the fuel would be renewable and not quite as cheap, the vehicles would be smaller, light-weight and made from hemp. They would be strong and impact resistant and safe. Next I would incorporate fuel and solar hybrid motors to run them and they would be closer to enclosed motorcycles than the cars we have today If they ran out of gas the could be pedaled to next station. Think of an enclosed 4 wheeled bike with a gas/alcohol/solar motor assist and the body made out of fibregrass instead of fibreglass. The wheels would have to be made stronger than a regular bike to handle the highway and still be durable enough to carry 4 adults and luggage as well as the body and motor and still not weigh alot. Hitch-hiking would be encouraged because laws would be beefed up to allow only vehicles with 2 or more people on the highway. In-city travel could be allowed only for electric vehicles, hence the need for a multi-fuel motor. That would encourage walking, mass transit and cycling (in all it forms)in the large urban centres.
The result would be cleaner air and healthier people (not to mention quieter cities).

Here is the list of things need to pull this off.
1)Laws changed to allow for unlimited hemp production.
2)Laws changed for cities and highway users.
3)A good working vehicle as described and the facilities to produce it.
4)Facilities to process the hemp.
5)Most importantly- the political will to do it.

It is no longer a matter of can we do it, but, will we do it.

Michael J. Kaer, President of Kaer Enterprises (.com) and www.mikesworms.com

Busy!!!

I have been so busy this year, I think I am going crazy. We just finished tearing out the walls of my girlfriend's front room, put new insulation in, put up new drywall , painted it , wired in new plugs and a lighted fan and moved some furniture in whille the carpet was still a little damp from the steam cleaner. I have had all kinds of contractors over to my place and I am going to be tearing my house apart to put it back together better. A federal ellection is going to be called soon here in Canada and I am a delegate for one of the political parties. I have had to travel all over the place to get that work started. When do I have time for finishing up the book and getting it out to the waiting public? I have to run into a slow time soon or it may not be ready till my birthday(Dec.31). With all the other stuff and 4 blogs to feed, I still find time to do a little research.

On my way over to this blog, I ran into a site that has all kinds of equipment that any person looking to prepare for the future would drool over. I will not give out the name of the site till I have had a chance to look it over and email them to see if it is ok to use their name. I don't see why they would not, it's free publicity for them, but still I have to ask.

Here is a small list of things that keep me going when I am busy.

1)Kisses- the holloween type with black strap molasses.
2)kisses- the chocolate type.
3)KISSES- the kind I get from my girlfriend.
4) K.I.S.S.'s from my friends (Keep It Simple Stupid), when I make things complicated.

My girlfriend and my family feed me often because I forget to eat when I am busy.
My spiritual books and groups I belong to keep me sane and productive. I feed myself sweets because I need to treat myself well.
As long as I keep balance in all I do I will be O.K. That should be my motto when I am in a crisis situation. Hope that helps someone.

Michael J. Kaer, President of Kaer Enterprises (.com)and www.mikesworms.com

Change for Survival!

That could sound like a plea from a street-bum and in a sense, that is what a person begging on the streets is actually saying. I am not a bum and I am not living on the streets, but I am asking for a donation from you to me. The donation would be of your time it takes to learn all this "survival-stuff" and the money to set aside to buy some basics right now. If you really want to donate to me, you can. I am looking for equipment and MRE's to test as well as freeze-dried foods. The equipment can be new, like one of those LED lights that I can test for you, and the MRE's and freeze-dried food could be old (like all the stuff you bought for the year 2000). Money is also good. You can send it to my paypal email address at b4kaerbear@hotmail.com .

Here is a list of things I think needs to be changed.

1) Government micro-managing every aspect of our lives.
2) Laws around the growing of industial hemp.
3) Our dependance on big (non-renewable) oil to renewable oil like hemp oil.
4) Our minds from a competitive frame of mind to a co-operative one.

A simple yet powerful list Eh!

Michael J. Kaer ,President of Kaer Enterprises (.com) and www.mikesworms.com

New Blog!
http://myhemp.blogspot.com
While doing research for my new book "What Money Can't Buy" I came across a book that said hemp has over 25,000 uses! Well , I have to tell you I got more excited the more I read on the subject. Here we have a weed that could drag us kicking and screaming from a total dependance on "Big OIL" to the real possibility of growing our own gasoline type fuel from hemp. The fact that the fuel when burned gives off CO2 and very little else immediately makes it superior to gasoline we now use that has toxic emmissions. Did you know that Henry Ford created a car body that was made from hemp and ran on hemp fuel? He demonstrated how durable the car body was by hitting it hard with a large tool and instead of denting or breaking, it bounced back. How would you like a car body that did not immediately get crushed in a fender bender? How would you like air quality to go up because we are not pumping toxins in it anymore? So-for this survival-list -list I am going to give you the broad catagories Hemp can fill and insure our suvival as a society, an economy and environmentally.

Hemp can be used as :
1)Food - flour and oil and dietary fibre can be made from hemp and hemp seeds.
2)Fuel - the oil can be made in to a form of bio-diesel and could even be refined to a form of gasoline. The stalks and leaves can be used to make alcohol.
3) Paper- Hemp is used in the finest of papers and is used to print dollar bills and other currency. In the US, the Constitution was written on hemp paper. 1 acre of hemp makes more paper than 4 acres of trees and it only take one season to grow it rather than 20+ for a tree. You do the math!
4) Cloth - Betsy Ross sewed the first US flag using hemp. Other flags have used hemp before and after Betsy's since it is so durable. Most of the world's great masters painted on hemp and the word for canvas is derived fromthe word canabis. Sails, rope and clothes and now shoes can be made from hemp.
5) Medicines- It has great healing powers and good at relieving pain .

Those are the main five catagories I can think of off the top of my head. Other interesting facts about growing hemp is it improves the soil, it can grow in the worst land (it is a weed you know!) and it can grow almost anywhere Man can. I does not need any fertilizer or pesticides as opposed to cotton which uses the vast majority of petrol-chemically derived herbicides and pesticides. BIG OIL and BIG CHEMICAL companies do not want hemp around because they would lose a ton of money. BIG DRUG companies do not want it around for the same reason. POlICE do not want it around because their budgets would be cut. The "WAR ON DRUGS" would not exist for the most part and the BIG CRIME syndicates don't want it around because they would lose money too. Some Governments do not want it around because they want to be able to control their citizens. If you are self-sufficient, what do you need them for? They would have to downsize and all our taxes would come down. Are you getting the broad picture yet?
Thats my list for today.

Michael J. Kaer , President of Kaer Enterprises (.com) and www.mikesworms.com

Liquids

Doing research for my book "What Money Can't Buy" has been a lesson and a mind warping experience. Let me explain.
Now that I look at almost everything through Survivalist Eyes, I see simple things in a new light. Everyone in North America has seen Tetra-Pak juice boxes, especially if you have kids. I never thought about them as a possible source of nutrients and liquids. You now should know the "recommended" amount of water to store in an emergency is about 1 gallon (4litres)per person per day. If you had to evacuate for 4 days and you were walking, you may be able to carry 2x10 litre jugs as well as a large back pack with all your clothes, food and entertainment/tools with you. The jugs alone will weigh 10 kilos each, about 26 pounds. The pack could weigh up to another 20 kilos or so. That is a little over 100 pounds! How far can you carry 100 pounds? If you are in shape MAYBE 15 kilometres (about 10 miles.) Most of us would not get more than a few blocks. I would load up my Trike and cycle it to where ever I needed to be. In a day I could go (maybe,if I had to) 50 kilometres with a load like that.
Lets get back to the walking bit. I would assume if a disaster broke out, most people would find shelter in the same city. It would have to be very big to force a move further away.
What does that have to do with juice boxes? If you still want to carry some liquids you could get by with smaller jugs and carry the boxes in pockets and in cloth bags wrapped around the handles of the jugs. I need to do more research, but the juices last a long time and do not need to be refrigerated.

Here's your list for this post,

What you need to buy first. A large knapsack! Good outer clothes, good shoes or boots, water jugs and juice boxes, extra vitamins and meds,hard candy and trail mix,granola,extra glasses if you wear glasses, extra underwear and socks. Photocopy all your important documents and seal it in a large zip-lock bag. After that I suggest a good tarp about 3 metres x 3 metres (about 10ftx10ft), a small pillow or blow up pillow, a good camping blanket and extra clothes. stuff extra toilet paper and a towel in a bag with soap and shaving kit. I would pack several flashlights, a radio and a good book or two, along with a deck of cards, a swiss army knife and a stainless steel cup. A small first aid kit is a must. A couple of cheap lighters and some matches or some other means of lighting a fire would not be out of order. That's it for the basic "bug-out" kit.

Michael J. Kaer, President of Kaer Enterprises (.com) and www.mikesworms.com

Back-breaking labour

Having recovered from the overhanging tree and the noise the next day to cut it down I thought I was finished with trees for the moment. Wrong! During the same storm a fast growing maple right next to my back fence decided to topple on to the fence. I have been hacking away at it for a few days and my back is hurting from all the physical labour. I have had to jump out of the way several times when the tree limbs did not fall the way I intended. A bunch of thick vines was connecting it to it's sister tree that is still standing. That has slowed up progress on it's removal.
Here is the list of items I am using and I suggest you have handy in an emergancy situation.
1)a bow saw
2) a small saw for cutting small branches
3)some rope
4)(not using but handy)an ax or hatchet.

With these items you can chop down the biggest tree,all you need is patience and some common sense.

the 5th item on this list is my massage unit for my back when everthing is done!
Michael.