“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’
“No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” – The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
On this day in 1777, the Articles of Confederation were submitted to the states for ratification. They differed from the Constitution in that they emphasized the primacy of the states. This brings to mind the dangers of convening a Constitutional Convention, because the last time this happened the Articles of Confederation were thrown out and totally replaced by the Constitution. Do you honestly believe that our politicians today could craft a document that so thoroughly protects the rights of the individual as they did then?
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Ready Made Resources has some really great Emergency Life Saving Armor that is camouflaged as a generic tote bag, when not being worn. It is called “ELSA”. It includes 2 level 3+ plates that will stop up to a .308 round. There is a four week lead time so order yours now to get it by Christmas!.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 67 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 67 ends on November 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
We slept on the floor on blankets for two years, used a Coleman camp stove to cook on, bought a $25 used fridge and a $50 yard sale clothes washer, dried our clothes on a line, traded a .22 pistol for a freezer, and hand dug and turned in a new garden with pitchforks. We have put many deer in the freezer that were taken off our land every year with no cost of a hunting license. We can everything possible from the garden. We stopped getting sick, because our food is simple and wholesome and as homemade as it is possible to do. I spend two weeks each fall with my backpack digging Ginseng, yellow root, and other herbs. That pays all our taxes, plate fees on our vehicles, and a few other things. I worked at a saw mill for seven bucks an hour for a year and a half. I saved for my 80 hour miners card course, passed the test, got certified, and became a coal miner. We traded a year’s supply of eggs at two dozen a week to a cattle farmer for our first two piglets. From laying hens, which we got in trade for blueberry and black raspberry plants that grow wild on our land, we traded one pig out for an old wood cook stove. We cut and split by hand our firewood off the spot our garden stands in now the first winter. That was some gut busting work getting those stumps and roots out. But with things like this, slow and steady perseverance pays off, and this wins the day. As for vehicles, we trade for Chevy pickups, 88-90 year models. The parts are incredibly inexpensive, as they made millions of them. They are a legacy work truck that use many wear and tear items and have a commonality of parts from a decades long series of model runs. A 1/2 ton Chevy pickup costs us around $3000 to refurbish. That entails an entire new brake system from springs to master cylinder, new exhaust, water pump, alternator, radiator, a good used engine or tranny, all u-joints, fuel pump, battery, starter, hoses belts, full tune up, rust repair panels, tires, and a sundry of bits and pieces. Sure, it will look like an old beater, but you end up with a sturdy, reliable, and inexpensive-to-repair work truck that gets 15-18 mpg, with a pittance in taxes, plate fees, and insurance. Do the work yourself, of course. It is time and money that is an investment, because the intrinsic value is all yours. There is no bank, insurance co., or tax revenue eating out of your wallet. We set up a metal working shop in our garage. Welding, machining, blacksmithing brings in not only extra income but is an asset and a resource with friends and neighbors.
There is so much more, and it only gets better, but every drop of sweat we turn into equity instead of lining somebody’s pocket, if we can find a way. Remember, you have to work for it all somehow. Why expend hard earned fiat money, if you don’t have to? Being frugal is a state of mind, not a standard of living. We live within our means and make do. Don’t waste nothin’. It is so easy to do now, because it is second nature to us. We changed our thinking. There is so much more, and it only gets better as time moves on. We cultured a mindset to where it is now how we think.
When it came to finding property, we had to be realistic and practical. Farmsteads are nice. We would have loved to have found an established homestead. Yet we had to find another way to do it. We figured a minimum of an acre or three in a rural or country setting is enough land to live off of with some good old elbow grease. So can you. As the saying goes “5 acres and independence”.
Then, there is raising critters. A couple of $50 piglets and some laying hens can be had for the taking because they are not laying $0.75 eggs a day, but you only need six hens for you to have more eggs than you can eat.
Till a garden spot and plant some seeds, or ask a neighbor with farm land if he is interested in share cropping. It is an ages old, tried and true, traditional system that can supply two entire families with garden food for a year on a 300 by 150 foot garden. The land owner cultivates and tills with his equipment (or you operate it); he provides the cow and chicken manure and sometimes the seeds and the fuel maybe. You do the planting, tending, and harvesting, and you all split the harvest 50-50.
We began a share crop with a cattle farmer, plus we have a small garden on our six acre piece of land. Share cropping is a time honored way. We get so many veggies out of it that we give away and barter the extra. We trade seeds and seed roots, too. Last year we traded for sugar cane seed, seed potato, corn seed, horse radish, sweet potato, and squash seed. All I have is a tiny Rototiller, a wheel barrow, and bunch of hand implements. We raise two pigs every year, butcher, and can, cure, and smoke one up for ourselves, and sell one to pay for the other. The only cost is labor and a small grain bill to take care of raising them.
That farmer I share crop with, paid me an entire side of beef for running his brush hog over his pastures, helping him with his firewood, and doing weld repairs for him. Plus, he gave me a whole winter supply of wood for our house and lent his tractor to us to till an extension on unbroken ground to increase the size of our garden spot. In return, we give them things they don’t have or do stuff for them they can’t do. And all these things of self-sufficiency and self-determination pay us back from the investment. Nobody takes a piece of it from us. It is wealth, intrinsic wealth. Components of this way of life just expands slowly, steadily, in this system of give and take. The reciprocity factor is self-sustaining and propagates.
And it all started by choosing to do it. We buckled down and decided to never say “die”. We are cash poor as church mice. We don’t owe a cent to a soul. We eat like kings, have friends and neighbors who we trade, barter, and mutually give and take help. We are humbled beyond compare. We are richer in so many ways than in that previous life, which is difficult to remember. We have become a part of a small community. People know we are honest and trustworthy. Our word is our bond. It is in someways our most valuable asset.
Did we take risks? Yes. However, the risk we did not take is not making these choices to begin with. We mitigated the “risks” by establishing the bare essentials that must be acquired– a base to spring forth from, where if the worst came to pass we had a roof over our heads and a way to feed ourselves. It does take faith, a leap of faith in something larger and better. I think it is all you can do. Yet, Providence is a powerful ally.
Sometimes, it comes to you that you got to give it all up. Nothing is stopping you but you. You got to decide if you’re gonna make lots of sacrifices and accept the hardships, yet keep your eye on the prize. Because regardless of the accepted societal norms, I can say to you that it is an investment that bears the fruits of tangible wealth. It builds tangible real assets. However, the best thing is the dignity of liberty you win.
And, brother, you do win. Jefferson was smack on target about Agrarianism. It is why America became home of the free and the brave in the first place.
I couldn’t trade this life now for anything. I feel as if I’m a rich man. I have it made. We have serenity and peace. We have vision. We know exactly what we are about, what we want, and we do not want. We see the future, where we are heading, and it is simple and humbling. We know what matters most and are prepared accordingly, with no doubts and indomitable faith to not only keep it but to thrive.
We joined the “honorable existence” and never looked back. I hope you do also!
With kind regards.
Hugh,
In regards to this letter, I suspect that the ID is not so much an overt surveillance mechanism but rather a tool to prevent and or apprehend those who traffic in stolen merchandise. Locally, pawn shops are required to submit daily reports to the police department cataloging all incoming merchandise, and there is a “pawn shop detail” of officers whose function it is to review and compare those records to reports of stolen goods. Several well-documented arrests of burglars and others dealing in ill-gotten gains have resulted. – C.S.
Why India wiped out 86% of its cash overnight – G.G.
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War on Cash intensifies: Citibank to stop accepting cash at some branches – DSV
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Gold Price Forecast: Bearish Pattern Calls For Caution
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The US Dollar Index just hit its highest point since 2003. This might be a good time to diversify into some select foreign currencies. My current favorite is the Swiss Franc, which just hit parity with the US Dollar. – JWR
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
Passerby shoots, kills motorist assaulting deputy after traffic stop – W.C.
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Two convicted in federal gun case, despite Kansas gun law – This will be an interesting case to keep tabs on. – R.H.
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Stay Alert, America: The Worst Is Yet to Come – B.B.
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The Electoral College Can Be Stolen, But It Won’t – DSV
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“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” – H. L. Mencken
November 16th is the birthday of Michael D. Echanis (born 1950, died September 1978), a former United States Army Special Forces and 75th Ranger Battalion enlisted man. He was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with “V” device as a LRRP in the Vietnam War. He was born and raised in eastern Oregon. Echanis was killed while working for the CIA in Nicaragua in 1978 in a plane crash along with his colleague Charles Sanders and members of the Nicaraguan armed forces. There was conjecture that the plane was destroyed in flight by a saboteur’s bomb. JWR’s novel Survivors includes a minor character from Oregon with the surname Echanis, as a small homage to Mike Echanis.
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Seed for Security is having a sale: Five Garden Security Collections for the price of 4. Plant, save, barter, or give them as gifts. Each Garden Security Collection includes 6 generous packets of fresh,open-pollinated, non-GMO vegetable seed sealed in a vapor proof pouch with a desiccant and planting instructions.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 67 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 67 ends on November 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Many of us find the prospects of individualism and self determination, on a level of becoming a self-sustaining individual or family or even maybe tribe or community, simply daunting. It is germane to contend in this day and age, some aspects of this are difficult to fully appreciate, where they are so foreign from daily life to be almost inscrutable outliers.
Just where to begin can be an overwhelming situation. Don’t feel alone. There are a myriad of ways to begin, indeed, and the simplest answer is it all begins with each of us. Remember well, individualism and self-determination does not mean to be alone. It must be noted, also, this is liberty. It is provincial and very much agrarian, too. So, in effect, to be self-determining is to be free. At the very least, it is the beginnings and root of choosing, and a most very important choice is here– freedom. Because after all, the first step is a matter of winning your own heart and mind to make that choice.
Okay. Probably what you’re thinking, and you’re right, you are alone; however, you are alone because you haven’t grasped something. You’re not alone in regards to like-minded folks. Sure, there are no easy answers, but action is what counts. You have to start some place, friend. The sooner you begin to defy the matrix and implement alternatives, the sooner you will be creating freedom.
It is in joining “the Honorable Resistance”, a great and noble thing, with humble beginnings, as where the most noble of things begin.
It is very difficult to take even one step out of the system. I, too, had to begin someplace. It was when I did take action that the best aspect of resistance, which I had no idea about, happened.
Take me seriously on this. I’m going to tell you a secret. It is not action, the act, that counts so much, though its value is critical. It is the change in who you are– your dignity and self-determination– that is the transformation. It is winning your own heart and mind. After that, lot of things are easy, because you have changed your thinking. That is where it starts. Then, it is action, the act, that matters, because you have created a zeitgeist, an individual paradigm. And that is where all good things begin.
I imagine some of you are saying to yourself, “Ya’, right. Who is this clown?” Well, this clown is a guy probably not much different than you. However, this clown knows something that is a real paradigm. It begins with me, with you, and with each of us, and once it does, it is not just me, or just you. We become a plurality of freedom. It is motive power and audacity that we are talking about. Maybe it is small potatoes, but the greatest things sometimes begin small, out of all stature to their enormity. And that is the only thing that has ever changed the world for good. It has always been the purview of the dirt people and no one else who changes the world for the better. It takes one person at a time. There is so much motive power in that simple thing that it becomes indomitable, and so can you.
Ask yourself how is it working for you, personally on your level, in relative terms to you. Then ask yourself the following:
Be honest, dead nuts frank on this. Don’t lie to yourself.
I know the answer, but do you? Many things are contingent upon your forthright answer to yourself.
Then, ask yourself, seriously, as a heart attack, what is the object, the point, of the trap you’re in? The box that has no escape hatch? The catch-22 you find difficult to extricate yourself from?
Remember, the key is it all begins with each of us.
Maybe, it is scary or even terrifying, but really what are you going to loose walking away from it all? It is a real question, my friend. It is the question. It is the hump you have to mentally climb over.
This is how we did it and got here. Everyone is different, but here I’m offering a touchstone, a reference point. It is first hand experience. I hope you can take it to the bank called Liberty, because we made it work, and we did it with humble means and beginnings.
We– my wife and I– decided it was time we chose. We needed to make the choice to become self-sufficient and self-determined in every facet of our lives as was practically possible with the resources we possessed, and realistically would be able to acquire in the future a life based on our hopes and wishes of personal philosophy, morals, principles, and abilities.
The first order of business was to rid ourselves of all financial debts. Debt to us was an anchor, a ball and chain. So, we worked like dogs for a year and a half, sold everything we had except for the basics, like guns and gear, tools, bare essential clothes, basic cookware, books, and treasured artifacts. We sold every piece of furniture, bicycles, the lawn mower, and we gave up every electronic except one computer and a cell phone– a pay-as-you-go phone. We also sold every vehicle but an 89 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup. We stripped ourselves to the basics and I mean to the bone.
After selling our houses, cashing out our 401K’s and investments, and with the little bit of added cash we saved from working extra jobs and overtime in one year, we had $54,000 cash left over. I mean, we put our minds to it and kept the simple goals in sight. We put everything in one large storage unit, went to the bank, got a special bank check for $52,000 plus $2000 in cash, jumped in the old pickup, drove down to West Virginia, and got a $30 a night motel room. We ate out of a cooler and a cardboard box of food. With our laptop, phone, and newspapers, we started searching. We figured after our expenses of hunting for property and moving expenses, leaving us a couple of grand for living expenses, we could alot $46,500 to buy a piece of property outright for cash. Our baseline requirements were: five acres, a livable house, and if possible a garage-type structure for a workshop. Every house we looked at that fit our needs, no matter the asking price, we said real nice like that we had $46, 500 cash, right now, today, and that we will buy this place if they’d show us a clear title, no offense intended, but it is what we have to spend, and we are not getting a bank loan. We told them to think about it and leave a message at the motel for us because we are heading over to such and such to look at another spread. Well, in two days, we owned a place four heirs had jointly inherited, originally listed at $120,000 on six acres with a two-car garage, creek, and taxes of only $275 a year. The total cost for the paperwork, county fees, taxes, et cetera was $378 to do the sale. We found we had ten grand in standing timber, which we sold later, and recouped enough cash to buy many of the components to build an off-grid solar/wind system with a brand new heavy-duty fork truck battery, which we designed and built from scratch. We invested another portion of the timber proceeds in improving our land and house. – D.C.
Dear Editor,
In one of your guest articles today a gentleman mentioned that the old Morgan dollars are almost one ounce of silver. This is incorrect, and this rumor has been used by numerous unscrupulous dealers in the past to cheat customers. I’ve worked in the precious metals business for four years now, and I hear many such horror stories. Please let your audience know that the old Morgan and Peace dollars only contain .7734 ounces of silver, closer to three quarters versus a full ounce. – R.L.
Saudi’s Issue Warning To Trump: Don’t Stop Saudi Oil Imports
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National debt is growing faster than you think – B.B.
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For anyone who believes that the Trump administration’s planned tax policies will result in an economic revival, I’d recommend parlaying some of their gold holdings into platinum, since platinum is more of an industrial metal. Presently, gold is selling for around $1228 per troy ounce, while platinum is at around $940 per ounce. In an industry-driven economic recovery, the gold-to-platinum price ratio is almost sure to return to its historic norm, with platinum selling at a substantial premium above gold. – JWR
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Investors Shifting Billions Into Tangible Assets
JWR’s Comment: Mainstream financial advisers are still trying to push us into “solid mutual funds”. Bwaaahaha. Tangibles that are made in truly finite numbers (such as gun models that are out of production or limited production) or that are inherently scarce (like precious metals) only go UP in value in the long term. They are better than money in any bank, and most other investments. And, unlike Dollar-denominated investments, there is no chance that their value will ever just go “poof” overnight. Oh, and when we die someday at a ripe old age, our grandchildren will thank us sincerely, when they inherit those tangibles. Stack them deep, ladies and gents.
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
Come and Take It: The Gun Printer’s Guide to Thinking Free, by Cody Wilson
Getz/Gilberto: 50th Anniversary(Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto, with Antonio Carlos Jobim on piano) – For lovers of cool jazz and the Bossa Bova sound
Piping Hot: Celtic Bagpipe Collection
The First 40 Miles:Episode 47 “The Bear Episode”
The Art of Manliness Podcast #157: Primitive Pursuits & Winter Survival
Wranglerstar: A Very Bad Day
Backpacking Basics: How to Pack Your Backpack – The Outdoor Gear Review
Survive Outdoors Longer Heavy Duty Emergency Blanket
Steiner eOptics Laser Devices Dual Beam Aiming Laser Intelligent DBAL-I2, PEQ-2, IR – Class I, 4mW
An outstanding read! The Dumbing Down: Lower the Standards to Meet the Men – T.P.
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Prepping in Biblical Perspective – P.D.
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Off-grid property damaged in NZ earthquake – an off-grid ecotourism business suffers from a 7.8 earthquake. Even the well prepared are not immune from larger events. – W.E.
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23 incredible hidden homes – H.L.
“Often, for undaunted courage, fate spares the man it has not already marked.” Beowulf – Seamus Heaney version W. W. Norton & Company publishers copyright 2000
After 16 months of debate, the Continental Congress, sitting in its temporary capital of York, Pennsylvania, agreed to adopt the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union on November 5th, 1777. Of course, the last of the 13 states, Maryland, took until March 1, 1781 to ratify the agreement.
Also on this day, Charles Dickens published the final installment of A Tale of Two Cities in Dickens’ circular.
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Ruh-Ro! Shipping disaster looms as UPS workers vote to strike