Hemp and our future.

The governments of the world are gathering to talk about serious ways of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and dealing with climate change in general. Any time a carbon tax comes up, somebody veto's it because it is not set up fairly. Once they do(if they ever do) set some plan up. I would be the first in line with a proposal of hiring unemployed people to work and live on large farms that grow tons of hemp. So many acres of hemp growing = $ in credits. The land could be bought by large oil companies and large energy interests, which would not have to make any money for them, which could be a write off, but it could also morph into the way the big businesses will get in to biomass fuels. Hemp is by far the best plant to absorb co2 and then turn the plant in to 1001 things, fuel being one of them. The potential is huge. The obstacles are still huge but crumbling.

Dealing with Fear.

I have some novel ideas as to why our society is so crazy. Part of the reason is we have been born into an environment of fear and corruption that has spread around most of the world. The reason for this environment of fear is due to the prohibition of Cannabis in all it's forms. Some reckless people have even tried to irradicate the plant from ever existing! Hemp was never talked about in my school. The only "information" we ever got was mis-information from the reefer mad.

From a survival viewpoint, knowing how you got into a situation may provide clues on how to get yourself out. Ending the "War on Drugs" and using that money to save and educate lives rather than just lock them up, sounds like a good first plan.

If we are busy finding out what the plant can do for us rather than what we can do against it, we just may find out that our survival chances as a species just went up.

Hi folks.

I have just finished a small experiment with a new alcohol stove. I was not

measuring, just looking by eye and I would say that I used about 150-200 ml

of Methyl alcohol. The fuel is the blue stuff you get for fondues. Since it does

not say what the percentage of the fuel is alcohol, I have no way of knowing if

it lasts as long as the 99% Iso alcohol so I may set up a more measured

experiment. I have one of the windows open just a bit and I have a CO2

monitor operating. For safey sake I put the stove on top of my regular stove.If

you are going to use this method often I would suggest having a cookie sheet

or a pie pan under the stove. Since the fuel is a dangerous poison, you do not

want to spill it or use the pans for food use. Even a tinfoil pie plate or a bit of

tinfoil would be better than risking a spill on your stove. The amount I put in is

not the most I could get into the body of the stove, but it was close. If I forced

it, I think I could put 250 ml into the stove. I will have to test that. his was just a

test o see how well it burned. I did a small trial putting a few caps in first and it

is designed to get flame off of the fumes for the most efficient use of the fuel.

It ran for about an hour and a half. I may find that if I am not cooking or heating

a lot I could put in just enough to get the water boiling. If the water is unsafe, it

is good to get it to boiling for a few minutes. Some books suggest about 10

minutes.

Considering the cost for running a stove. I got the fondue fuel at the dollar

store so I was paying $2.28 a litre for the fuel. I am not sure what it would cost

if I bought it at a store like Canadian Tire? Buying the 99% Iso cost about

10.00 a litre if you buy it at the drug store in small amounts. The fondue fuel is

much cheaper by a factor of 4 or so. The Iso Alcohol is a better one to store

for medicine gear, since it does so many other things. It is also a good fuel. if

you have room to store both, than get both, but if you have room for only one

you will have to decide if you want fuel or medical gear. Everybodies needs

are different. The stove put out a good amount of heat. I did this while we are

have a few cool days here in Canada, so when the sun went down the temp

did too. I could feel the extra heat heat in my kitchen since I have the heater

turned off already.

If you do not have an alcohol stove, you can very easily make one out of a

pop can. Just look online for pepsi stove, penny stove and alcohol stove. You

will find many sites that give you the details on how to make your own. Another

site that may have that information is Instructables. Look them up too.

I hope you got some good information and go out and learn even more.
That is it for tonight.

Michael J. Kaer , Author of "What Money Can't Buy" part 1&2

Hi folks.

Some people know me as a Hemp advocate, others as "That Worm Guy", talking about organic gardening, not needing any chemiKills in my food. Some people know me as a professional Psychic and others as a Drummer or maybe as "Magicfingers" Mike ( I am a Reflexologist). Considering some of the things I do, many people are surprized when I talk about being a survivalist. Many of the things I now do do not have a high viability and high priority in the future. Yes there is always a need for music but in the future I will not expect to get paid money to perform, most likely a meal may be my fee. One day Hemp and Cannabis will be free to grow anywhere anytime and it will be cheap, but we are not there yet so I will continue my work there till things change. Because of the economic downturn, that may actually speed up the changes.There is no pay in being an advocate. I have to do something to make money while is has some worth. I read Tarot Cards. It is a gift I have that runs in my family. If/when the internet goes down I will have to go back to face to face readings. There is not a lot of call for a Tarot reading when all hell is breaking loose. Oddly enough people will still go to a psychic if the matter is important enough. Massage and Reflexology will also not be high on the list. It is a good skill if you want to trade favours and such. I can help out as a medic's assistant because I know my way around a body better than the average joe and I am comfortable touching people. I have helped perpare a friend of mine's body for burial. They will need people who can handle dead bodies in the future. Not many people know I practice Tai Chi. That is one of the things that will be very needed in the future. Not many know I am a bicycle mechanic. I could (if I had to) take a bicycle apart down to the bearings and put it back together again. I have most of the common tools I have need of; only 2 special ones that I have not got yet. I am working on that this summer. I also went to George Brown in Toronto and got my C.E.T. so I know electronics too. I know there will be a need for guys like me. The next trade I want to tackle is blacksmith. If I can make my own forge, I would be able to make my own tools and repair other tools. I would be able to make replacement parts for bikes.

I did not want to turn this into a long brag session, sorry about that. I am just good at a lot of thngs. My point is 85% of the people who still have jobs right now will have to learn completely new skills in order to still gain employment. The many who are out of work right this moment, think of this time as a time that you can work on new skills. I love camping. Some people hate it. I say to those who hate it, at the very least gain a couple of the basic skills of camping. We dod not know what is before us. There may be a time when you will be very glad you decided to learn some of the basics. If you had to "Bug - Out" and live in a tent for a month, could you? How about 3 months? Still with me, ok 1/2 a year in a tent- can you do it? Still with me? good How a bout a year? Do you know all that you need to know to survive in a tent in all four seasons? It would be a lot easier if that tent was off some white beach at Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica. Your diet would have a lot of fish and peepa's in it. I would pay to do something like that down then, but then again I have a thing for fresh mangoes--- mmmmmmmmmmm. Sorry food took my off topic. Actually food can get me right back on topic. Does one of your skillsets include the ability to grow a garden with out any chemiKills? if it does not, I would hop on that as my main priority. The only way to have food security is if everyone grows something. Even the First Lady down in the States is growing an organic garden. Good for her.

I want you to do your homework and look in to the recent past to see how things where done with a lot less machines to do the work, because that is where we are going back to. I am now going to wash up before going to bed. All I have to do is turn a tap and like magic, hot clean water will come out. think of how many hours you would have to gather wood,make a fire, haul water and get it up to hot.

I want you to really think about that!

Michael J. Kaer, author of "What Money Can't Buy" part 1 & 2

Hi folks.

You can now go to a group I joined to see the photos of my first 4X4. The site is at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=72414842758 . My friend Lance started this one. He helps out with the local community gardens project here in Chatham. The wood and the panel sides I got from my neighbour's garbage (with her permission). I like the fact that it is all recycled stuff and I did not have to pay anything for it. My biggest cost was for seed. I had spent a few bucks on a type of peatmoss substitute, but that was an experiment, so I do not add that to the costs here. I also paid for some of those small peat moss pellets. They did not work with what I was trying to grow so they got tossed in. Again I am not adding the cost of the pellets because that is not a real cost. I want to look at when I buy a few bags of soil and add those costs down the road. Down the road even farther I will not be able to get soil( assumming most of the stores have shut down). On a side note, I think stores like Canadian Tire will continue on but a much subdued store with less gadgets and more "real" tools. As the cheap imports turn into expensive imports our exports will have to increase. At somepoint all trade is going to come to a standstill and then a slow but steady trickle will start up from that point. The time could be coming soon where our money is not going to be worth toilet paper( not soft enough) and the only things that will have value is seeds, produce and fresh fish, tools, guns and ammo, bows and arrows, books, toilet paper,knives,needles and pins, sturdy and longlasting cookware (cast iron)... anything that has real value. A rookie card in any sport, even if it is signed by the player, is not worth anything intrinsically. It is only worth something in exchange for something else. Something "Priceless" could also be "Worthless" if no one is willing to trade you for it. Go around your house and see if there are any "Priceless" gems you are willing to let go of. I have a few trinkets that do not have value outside of certain circles. If I sold them, that money could get me some more batteries or a solar panel or several bike tire tubes. It could even buy one of those expense bicycle tools that helps you take off the gears from the back tire. There are a few special tools need, but I have most of the tools I need for right now. I can not buy those tools or special items when everything is shut down, so now is the time to get them. We can prosper our way out of this mess , but it will take time and a change in many thoughts. Good luck

Hello folks.

This is the time of year where seeds should be germinated to get seedlings to be planted sometime in May (in my neck of the woods many do it on the May 24 weekend.) and there are things to be done to the soil before planting. I have already applied organic fertilizer to the soil. Since I am expanding my garden to some 4x4's in the front yard, I am going to be setting them up. I have been saving my newspapers to be used as a weed barrier and mulch. I will be grabbing a few bags of soil to make it a lot easier to start the new plots. I have compost that will be good to use in another year; I could use it this year but I may get too many weeds to deal with.

If you have been paying attention to the news from around the world, you know this is affecting everywhere. After all the suicides in India from farmers who went in to debt that they could not pay off to companies that lied to them about the terminator seeds they sold them, Many farmers are going back to the old ways of doing things. Saving seed from one year to the next makes sense; creating a franken-food that does not allow you to save seed from year to year does not make sense. Only in a boardroom, divorced from the farmers who grow our food, could some idiot come up with the idea to force the farmer to buy new seed each year. Let me put a what if out to the world. What if something happened to mutate the seeds that have been tampered with? I know this is a wild long shot, but what happened if all seed got infected with the terminator "gene". We would die and become extinct. My question is Why even take the chance? For a few extra pennies for your seed and the power of control over everyone, that is the only reason to dream up this abomination. Playing god can come back to bite you in the backside. Speaking of control, the NAZI-like stance Monsanto takes against individual farmers is sickening. This same company and others like it are pouring money into the pockets of politicians so they can outlaw organic small farms. once the pesky small farmers are out of the way, it will only be large scale food factories that will be feeding everyone, you can't call the farms anymore. They don't care that the food they produce has little life or nutrients in them. They only care about how much more money they are going to make this year over the year before.

I would rather grow my own food and give it away than be forced to live off the crap monsanto is trying to sell me. I see growing my own food as a political act as much as an act of love for myself and the people I share my food with. It is a relaxing activity that many more people will be forced into this year and the years to come. In ten years we will have some great crops going. It is going to take 10 years to make many mistakes and learn from them. The next 10 years will be very hard on many. I hope you are not in that group. Good luck.

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

Why I love my Trike!

I created a new blog. It is called Mike's Bikes and Trikes. I wanted to call it Mike's Bikes but that name was already taken. In that first blog post I talked about the value of a Trike. Mine is even more powerful due to it's unique modifications. It had a plate welded on to the back part of the frame to host a tow able trailer. I will include the first post here and you can read about it yourself. How this relates to survival s I did something that most people would never even attempt without a car. That is a lot of food to haul. The types of food should also get your attention. Have fun.

Why I love my Trike!

Hi folks.

If you have seen any of my other blogs, you would know I am a man of many talents and interests.
I have been reading articles and watching stuff on YouTube about the coming money collapse. Where I live, in my end of the city there are no grocery stores in walking distance. The one I like going to is about 10 blocks or more away, so I take my bike or my trike. I took a shopping cart in and got a lot of the basics and it ended up being close to $120.00 (Canadian). Lucky for me I know how to pack things in boxes and bags and I arranged all of it on my trike. It was touch and go and I though I may have to give away some of my food. I also had a couple of bungee cords that came in handy. It was so over loaded I thought I would have to walk all the way home pushing the trike, but I decided to give it a shot and see if I could ride it. I went very slowly but it got me and all my stuff home. After I took all the boxes inside, I was curious to see just how much weight it had just carried. I weigh about 175 pounds give or take and I did a calculation of the food. It came to at least 60 kilos ( since everything here in Canada is metric) which equals at least 132 pounds with me on the bike that means the trike was carrying over 300 pounds. I ave a modified frame that has a plate welded on the back to tow a heavy duty trailer. I have seen it at work towing a a huge load when the last owner used to transport recycled metals in the trailer. He was the one who modified it. That is one hell of a good transport system . The food, if you are interested , was mostly rice and beans and some canned goods as well as some cooking oil. The cashier was very curious as to why I got what I got and made the comment "you are going to be busy" a couple of times. She also wondered what I was going to do with all that rice.

First off I like rice, but it also happens to store extremely well if it is properly packed. The beans and chick peas means I will be able to make a lot of chillies and hummus and other good stuff. Beans and rice together is almost all you need to live off of. Lucky for me again, I will be expanding my garden once more. I have more than tripled it's size in the last few years and I am growing more herbs than I can now consume in a year. I hope my potatoes do well this year. The other great thing about the Trike is the fact that I am able to load a few bags of soil on it with no problem. That helps a lot when buying extra soil. Last but not least I got a very good work out in the process of getting a couple of months worth of groceries. As a basic out lay( not including stuff like milk and eggs) $60.00 a month for food is a great deal.

Have fun, stay safe and use your bikes and trikes well this year.
Michael J. Kaer, author of "What Money Can't Buy" part 1 & 2

Hi folks.

I just got a notice in my inbox about spring break specials. That got me thinking. The airlines and the resorts are going to be pulling out all the stops this year with all kinds of deals for the regular spring break crowd. The usual crowds are not going to come and it is going to make a big slump in the tourist industries. Many hotels, motels and the cafes and shops that are supported by the huge crowds will go out of business or lose money. The tough ones will be able to just break even. Many dreams will be squashed. I predict more violence in higher learning schools due to the fact that many of the students( already under a huge amount of pressure) will not be able to afford spring break. That will be good news to local places where the kids can go to blow off steam but that will also be a hassle for police and local hospitals.

To put this in survival terms, be careful around the students that do not have the means to go as they will be on a hair trigger as it is. Everything we take for granted is going to change and change means stress (even when the stressor is a good stress-like getting married). In times of stress we need to find healthy ways to relax. I sometimes use Tai Chi and a good hot bath to relax my body which relaxes my mind. That is the secret, relax the body and the mind will follow. I hope this helps.

Michael J. Kaer, Author of "What Money Can't Buy" part 1 & 2

This is my latest entry on my blog http://moneyhowtogetsome.blogspot.com .

For people who are getting laid off and they do not know how to make money outside of going to a job and collecting a paycheque, many will turn to Internet Marketing as a way of getting some money into their households. I write these for two reasons A) they can help other people and B) if a couple sign up under me, that helps me out too. I want to be up front an honest about my motives. Judge for yourself if the information is good or not. Here it is:

Hi folks.

I am going to be going through a few ways I get traffic to my sites. Today's lesson is on Squeeze pages.

What's a Squeeze page?

It is like a a teaser ad that gets the potential customer/client/contact to do something to get more
information. A good page peaks a person's interest enough for them to either click on a link to the sales page or write in their name and email address for you to follow up with. Here is one of my pages for a service called The List Auction.

http://thelistauction.com/content/promo.tools.squeeze.pages.php?page=8&id=18930 . You will notice that it is a long and ugly link with my personal referral id out in the open for all to see. If I wanted it to look nicer and not have that information hanging out, I would put the link through a cloak like TinyURL . There is also a way to mask the link by redirecting it from a nicer looking site. I can mask it by setting up a sub domain on one of my websites. That can be a whole subject for another day. To make sure it was a live link you would enclose it with an anchor in HTML on a website like this The List Auction and on the page all you would see is The List Auction in a different colour as a clickable link.

Getting back to the page, click on it and you will see that the action the page wants from you is to enter our email address. The other type of Squeeze page would look like this; http://thelistauction.com/content/promo.tools.squeeze.pages.php?page=7&id=18930 . Click on this one and you will see that the action is to go directly to the sales page.

That is the end of the lesson on Squeeze pages. If you find it helpful or have other questions, you can get in touch with me directly at michaelkaer@yahoo.ca . If you find the list auction site to be of use to you, please feel free to sign up under me(ugly links and all).

Michael J. Kaer, Author of "What Money Can't Buy" part 1 & 2

Hi folks.

I found this site by accident (I love when that happens!).
Here is the code it generated.

My site is worth $18023.7.
How much is yours worth?

The site's name is http://www.websiteoutlook.com .
The site is was talking about is my Home Income Portal.
http://homeincomeportal.com/mibmy137 .

How does this relate to survival? You need some money to get the supplies you need and the other prep items. It is easier to make the money online ,letting the power of the Internet do all the work while it frees up your time to go plant garden or a tree or practise your camping skills.

My question for you is how are you making your money and is there an easier, faster way that frees you up to do the things that are important?

Michael J. Kaer, Author of "What Money Can't Buy" part 1& 2

Some of you may not know this, but I am a professional Psychic amongst my many talents. I have been reading Tarot for nearly 30 years and teaching it for about 15 or more years. I have been doing it on line for just over a year now. My experience up till then was face to face readings. Most of the clients I have had in the past wanted to know something to do with their relationships. I have had many other questions, but up till recently the majority has been relationships. Since the major downturn in the world economy I have been getting more and more clients that want readings on their carreers, or choices to take in schooling for a job.

In a broad sense I know that health care will always need people since there are more people getting older that will need caring for. The other big industry that will need new people is the "Alternative" "Green" energy sector. Just for the sake of keeping things simple I would include any home renovations like replacing windows and adding extra insulation or replacing energy hog appliances with more up-to-date ones in to that general catagory. A subset of that would be all the new upstart cars that will be intergrated into a new, smart metered system where solar panels on cars can generate extra electricity to put back into the grid when they have topped off their batteries.

A third big sector that will be the driving edge of the economy will be farming and local community gardens. Farmers are about to go through a major change. In the third world countries where farmers grow on small plots of land, they have been using GMO seeds and buying the fertilizers and other chemicals to get a crop that does not meet up with the claims the seed companies gave. The terminator seeds have been modified so they will be sterile. That means the farmers are forced to buy seeds every year.The result is farmers going so far in debt that they can never repay the seed companies like monsanto have committed suicide. That has gotten many farmers to switch back to the old ways of farming using organic methods and saving seeds that have not been modified. One problem here is now that the GMO seeds have been out there for a few years, there have mixed their genes with the local varieties, with usually strange results. At some point the entire world is going to rebel against the GMO companies and simply not buy their death-dealling seeds and the chemicals that are neded to support them. They will become unsustainable plain and simple. The entire food industry will be forced to go organic since that is the only sustainable practice we have. That means that when the oil prices go through the roof the big machines will sit idle(unless the have been modified to run on diesel or ethanol)(engine modifications will be a big business in the future) and the humble ox and horse will make a comeback. The big factory farms that are mono-cropped will be a thing of the past. Since globalization will be limited by fuel restaints, growing a crop for shippment will dwindle down to a trickle. The only crops that may have a future are coffee, sugar and spices, with the rare shippment of fruit(like oranges at christmas was in the past). Hardy dried fruit like dates, figs and olives will still be traded as well as various nuts. Cheap rice will be a thing of the past. The new/old food that will make a huge comeback will be Hemp seed and all the things that can be made from hemp. Hemp seed at one time was so cheap it was fed to the birds or made into a gruel for poor people to eat . Currently the price is around $10.00 a kilo, depending here you can get it, if you can get it. In order for that price to drop, Hemp will have to be grown everywhere. The US is in crisis mode and if Obama was smart he would make Hemp legal to grow this year. The farmers down there are demanding the right to grow it and they have proven that they can have a strain that has almost no THC in it, just like the industrial hemp we grow here in Canada.

At some point the US will be forced to grow hemp again. They do not have a choice. It would be in their own best interest to get the farmers going NOW!

So those are my big three areas for employment in the future. I welcome any comments you may have.

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

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