Squirrellin' Away

Qui donne aux pauvres prête à Dieu

This has been a very weak time for me to buy preps as the yuletide is upon us. I am content with that, as a matter of fact, I have been spending preps learning how to cook with them in a manner that will be acceptable to the boyos.

But I think that I will drop by the food bank tomorrow and give some money. I would strongly urge all of you to do the same.

You see, the only way to help people is to take on the task of doing it yourself. Some of the people who will benefit from my donations will probably not meet societies standards for having worth. I don't care about that. I do not donate for the benefit of society, I donate to make myself worthy in the eyes of God.

I realize that some of you will look at me like an idiot, throwing good money after bad. So be it. But I would recommend that all of you take a step back from the egocentric act of prepping and look at the broader picture. If all you are doing is making a mountain of stuff in order to survive when all around you are falling into chaos, then you are little better than a coyote gnawing its own leg off to escape a trap.

Because in my mind, it is the society that surrounds us that allows us to become fully human. The web of dependencies and trust allow the individual to become whole. The more one cuts oneself off from this web, the less human one becomes.

The real trouble with survivalism is that the most zealous practitioners are more than willing to do anything to survive. While a lot of you will ask "what is the problem with that?" I just want you to think about how that attitude shortens the jump to barbarism.

Rebound

It would appear to me that the folks at the top are unwittingly giving us squirrelly-prepper types a golden opportunity to store nuts like all get out. Unfortunately, they are all giving us an excellent reason to do the same.

I can't keep track of the amount of money that the government has promised. I think that after two trillion or so, it becomes something of an academic exercise, worthy of the amount of concern necessary to keep the popcorn from burning. All of the money that is flowing into the system is being created from thin air. Hank lends Ben 20 Billion who then turns around and loans 200 Billion (God, I am always so impressed with fractional reserve banking).

TPTB are just trying to head off a deflationary cycle that is just picking up steam. They will succeed, but it will take a little bit of time. But the deflation bus will leave the station, and prices will go down while the deflation part of this cycle plays out. The trouble is that that they will achieve success and that will bring its own punishment.

I figure that between twelve and eighteen months from now, the fruits of their dumping all this money to stop the deflation will bear fruit, and the prices of everything will go through the roof. So at the end of the day, we are talking about a lot of money leaving the system, followed by a butt load of new cash diluting the old cash....welcome to the wonderful world of inflation. That will be an excellent time to have a well filled out prep supply.

Velocity

If you get a chance, you should rent the movie "Speed". Talk about a campy analogy for the current mess that we are living through. I won't give you the details. In that way you can look at it afresh. Also, Sandra Bullock has always been pretty easy on the eyes.

But the movie got me to thinking about velocity. In a way, the speed of our lives is what is killing us. We are using any trick whatsoever to try to cram more into our lives in order to make them more pleasant and meaningful. But in the process, we have merely become slaves to our desires for more velocity in our lives. Like a 80's coke whore, we require more and more to get less and less. We drive around in our internal-combustion cocoons trying to buy happiness with granite counters and golf vacations. Instead, we have spread ourselves hopelessly thin, becoming a nation of dilettantes who brush the surface of their lives, trying to create a image of broad experience, but instead achieving a superficiality surpassed only by few.

The lubricant and fuel for this "need for speed" is oil and the digital revolution. Oil allowed for the rapid communication of goods and humans and thus allowed the advent of globalization. That failed. We are so awash in the accumulated dreck from Chinese factories that poison the environment and oppress their people that one longs for the simple evil of Mordor and Sauron. I don't feel that we are the better for it.

The microchip and the internet allowed for rapid diffusion of ideas that should have died a quiet death (read here: Neoconservatism in all of its many perversions). But mostly it stole from us the luxury of time enough to consider our actions.

The things that we have come to cherish and measure our lives by have now become the tools of a massive destruction. You see, I think that the coming collapse will be good for us as a nation and as a species. A necessary thinning, to be certain, but a golden opportunity to squeeze the new technologies and the old wisdom together to create a better world. We will lose some things, but the depth that we gain will more than make up for the loss.

-end-

Ingratitude as theft

For all of our incessant whining about the end of the world, perhaps we had better take a different tack on our thoughts today. Maybe we had better take a day to savor what we have now.

Cuz you see, today is an excellent day to get your thoughts in order and your priorities straight.

Do you have a family? Cherish them.
Is your health OK? Very Good.
Do you have a job? Congratulate yourself.
Is there more food on the table than you can eat ? Excellent.
Is the pantry looking OK for the holidays? Check
Got some cash squirrelled away and some money in the bank? You are foursquare my friend.

Every day of your life is a ruthless inventory of your personal challenges and your personal capabilities. Today is a day to give thanks for the tools that you have been given. Don't worry about the challenges, they will be up early tomorrow.

So show some genuine gratitude for what you have today. Otherwise the day would be a waste

Sweet Potato Pie, Ravioli, Bottlin' Beer

Too busy to write, check back tomorrow

What is happening

No one I know is spending any money. People open their wallets and dry dust and moth pieces fall out. This is the problem.

Everyone knows that the credit party is over, and now they are learning to live within their means. This means paying off the debts and trying to work up a savings account.

Everyone is having an epiphany at the same time. Everyone is too deep in debt and now all of the sudden this revelation is hitting home. But the revelation means the death of the trashy, disposable, vulgar way of life we have all so enjoyed the last twenty years.

The growth of the economy for the past decade or so was based on buying shit with money we didn't have. The phony money circulated through the economy and gave everyone a chance at a simulacrum of the good life. But now the money has stopped moving.

Everything we have built over the last twenty years is teetering on the edge of collapse. A stiff breeze and it will fall. Picking up the pieces will involve the labor of at least three generations.

So relax and watch the fall, this revolution will probably be televised. The ex-middle class and the poor will realize that the government has been pawning their children's livelihoods for one time payments to the current crop of wealthy. It will take a bit of time, but there will be blood on the streets.

I would strongly recommend keeping your head down and your mouth shut. Concentrate on the little things that will allow you and your loved ones to get to the other side of this mess. The next twenty years will decide the future of the American experiment.

So start figuring out your life and working out how to get by with less. Teach your children that the gilded age of the fin' de siecle and the first decade of the millennium were a mirage to be avoided.

No, Bad Bank...Bad

So it looks like Citibank is in deep shit. That means we are in deep shit. Hold onto your hats folks, the ride is just starting.

Cost Cutting, Blogs, and Journals

The times they are a changing.  I think that the possibility of a major depression is now above 20%.  In any book, that is a signicant possibility.  Some folks will say that I am being a Pangloss, others will refer to me as a Cassandra.  Such is the nature of blogging and out of your ass predictions.

 

So right now, with the possibility of a depression ahead of us, ruthless cost cutting will have to be the order of the day.  By the very nature of that decision, if enough folks start doing just that, the chances of depression increase. 

 

So I am looking hard at the blog and how will I continue doing it.  The hard truth of it is that it is a bit of an affectation.  I could do what I am doing in a 79-cent spiral notebook.  But I do like the idea of other people reading this stuff.  Makes me feel warm and fuzzy, keeps me putting things out there.

 

Google is almost a poster child of the totally irrational bubble that is now breaking.  I remember the insane bidding for the seriously constrained shares in the IPO.  I remember stock prices at >$720 a share.  But what is it exactly that they do to have that kind of stock prices?  Will their revenue stream be sufficient to continue funding/hosting this affectation?  Will their business model of selling search hits to businesses selling unnecessary goods and services collapse?  Bunch of problems facing this hobby.

 

So, I have to sit back and ponder the future of this.  Any ideas would be welcome.

 

 

 

 

Why would you buy?

Why would anyone in their right mind buy a copy of Microsoft Office for a minimum of $245.00 when you can download this for free?

Don't have a hernia here

Now, I recognize that a lot of the folks don't like BHO. I can live with that, I didn't vote for him either. But read this article here.

If a bunch of high priced thieves don't want to be on his cabinet because he actually has the temerity to ask if they or their family stole from folks, engaged in shady business practices, or bugger little boys in their off hours, how is this bad?

I had pretty high hopes for Bushie, but he and the group of thieves he brought to the trough have fucked us over royal. If BHO can keep that at a minimum, good on him.

The guy doesn't appear to be all bad. He still makes me nervous.

Keeping within limits.

For some odd reason people think that they can plan the future.

Believing our own con

I am sick of folks whining about how "we are hurting the poorer nations of the world by our misuse of the 'dollar hegemony'".

Eat me. We suckered a bunch of rubes and partied with their money. Excellent.

My only beef is that there is an decent chance that the soon-to-be-powers-that-be will get all guilty and try to help the oppressed. Shit.

I am also pissed at folks who didn't see the train coming and didn't save up. Instead we all bought wide-flat-hd TV's and started thinking that it was our right.

Well, the rubes have got it figured out that we suckered them and and getting testy.

Aren't you glad we have the nukes and the delivery systems? Maybe soon it will be time for a demonstration of just how nasty a group of bastards we really are.

Footwear

I love my running shoes. They make my feet very happy.

But when you stand off and look at them, they are disposable, probably a net bad thing for the environment, made in other countries by serfs who are routinely and thoroughly screwed by the US companies and their own governments.

If the shit continues hitting the fan (please please make it stop), it may very well be that we will be looking at difficulties finding footwear. I think that it would be difficult to find sufficient American made shoes to keep the country humming.

So I am going to go looking for some good old-fashioned boots with sewn soles/lasts that can be resoled as many times as I need them.

Just a thought

Warmer

The world is getting warmer over the past many years.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising over the past many years.

That is data my friend. Jack Webb would be proud. Just the facts.

Now, moving past those two currently disconnected facts.

There is something going on here. I don't like the way the data graphs point and I really want to understand what is happening.

Those that deny global warming and CO2 increases are meaningful are pretty unconvincing. Unfortunately, the folks who are screaming about this being the end of the world seem a touch on the histrionic side. I can't seem to be convinced by either camp.

One has a tendency in this country of erring on the side of caution. But where is the caution in this situation? In all truth, we are talking about deconstruction of the entire industrial world. Because behind all the smoke and mirrors of alternate energy sources and green energy is the 900 pound gorilla of massive lifestyle changes and huge population decreases to allow for sustainable structures.

The other side of this is continuing along the path we are on. If global warming is caused by anthropomorphic causes (read here: Us), then we are setting the world on a route to climate change and restiveness never seen before.

I think that a lot of the problems in this system is going to be addressed in the rudest possible way by fossil fuels becoming progressively more scarce. If we are truly at peak oil (data sure does appear to point that way) then CO2 release will probably decrease as we use less carbon sources. Unfortunately, this will effectively deconstruct industrial civilization too.

Our only hope is some smart guy somewhere thinks up a way out of this.

Cold fusion anyone?

Let it go man

At the end of the day, we have to let the car companies go bankrupt.

But Barak has some political payback to make. The decisions that he will make over these first couple of months will say a lot about the man.

The unions anointed Obama early and busted their butts to get him into the White House. The unions are also terrified that the big three will go bankrupt and throw all of their lard-laden contracts into the never-never land of chapter 11. But the union contracts are a large part what is killing the big three. The overpaid semi-skilled workers assembling the cars coupled with the incredible health benefits promised the retired workers are sucking the firms dry.

There are a lot of other things dragging the car companies down. Crappy model choices made by short-term thinking and greed, an archaic and parasitic dealer system with a set of business ethics would make a trial lawyer sick, overcapacity in a world growing short on oil.

So at the end of the day these sorry husks must change or die.

Bankruptcy would be a decent first step.

I wonder if Obama has the courage to let it happen.

The agreements involved in voting

I didn't vote for Obama.

I have been appalled by the idiocy of the folks screaming for his head since he got elected. Some morons are even out claiming that we should rise up in insurrection to reclaim some mythical lost rights.

Here is how I see it. When you choose to walk into a voting booth, you agree to live with the results. By voting, you take part in a covenant that whether your chosen candidate wins or loses, you will live with the results of the election that you freely took part in.

Obama won a free and fair election.

If your candidate loses, you have four years to organize and kick him out. If you dislike the elected officials policies, you may use your free speech rights to attack those policies.

But by stating that you wish to take up arms and overthrow a president-elect who has not even taken the oath of office is nothing less than a statement that you no longer hold fast to the basic tenets of the constitution.

If you take up arms to overturn the results of a free and fair election, the technical description of the act is treason.

Lowering the intensity

This is a brewing post. Nothing earth shaking, just talking about beer.

When you start looking at things in terms of inputs, you start realizing just how much energy and matériel we throw at every little thing. Mostly it is to make it easier, but a lot of the time it appears to be lack of thought or mindless rituals.

Take homebrewing. The way that it is practiced nowadays is as a hobby. Cost really is no issue for these guys. I have seen otherwise sane people spend thousands of dollars on equipment and supplies to make beer that is little better than what my Grandma made in a washpan.

You see, by making the brewing a ritual, it become an odd religion, with what you put into it the important part, not what you get out of it.

(OK: Maybe it isn't all about homebrewing)

What I want out of the process is beer. I also would like to cut my costs for the beer to the lowest level possible for an adequate beer (American Lagers need not apply). In order to do this, I started looking at the inputs for beer.

Malt: Get grains, they are cheaper by a long shot. They also leave the energy intensive processing and shipping at a minimum.

Hops: Grow your own if possible (mine keep dying damn-it), if you have to, buy hop plugs in bulk, vacuum seal them with oxygen scavengers and freeze them.

Water: I'll leave you to your own devices.

Yeast: Try to get two or three batches out of each package. If you plan ahead a little bit, this shouldn't be that much of an issue. I try to put my fresh wort into the "leavin's' from the last batch. I have only had one batch get infected and tossed in 10 years. Plus the fact if you do this, the beers you make take on their own and your character. Using fresh yeast every time leaves you making a variation on a theme dictated by the yeast manufacturer.

Other Stuff: Irish moss is good to keep around. Clears up your beers nicely. Also see if you can buy up a bunch of corn sugar and put it aside. I am considering buying a 50 pound bag and vacuum sealing it as preps. I would also strongly recommend buying and storing an iodophore for disinfecting crap. I use B-T-F from National Chemicals. This is good prep thing as it can be used for sterilizing medical stuff and cleaning wounds in the case of an emergency (Though the manufacturer would disavow any such irresponsible use)

Equipment: You need:

1. big pot,
   
2. a big funnel,
   
3. a glass carboy,
   
4. an airlock,
   
5. a bucket
   
6. a bottle capper,
7. a bunch of caps
8. a bunch of bottles

The pot should be "big'. If it can hold 8-9 gallons things get pretty easy for a standard 5-6 gallon (two cases). But you can adjust your equipment around the pot you have. The bucket should match the pot.

Energy: Now you are getting to the real point of the essay. Beer was made as something alcoholic to drink that could keep for a while without killing you. You boil the wort (which kills germs) with hops (which keep the bugs from growing). But if you look at temperature profiles for sterilization and heat extraction of hop oils, the process occurs above 180 F.

So What I am questioning is whether or not all the ritual of boiling and fretting and complication is really necessary or merely a ritual.

As an experiment, I filled up my pot 2/3 full of hot water from the tap. I dumped in 13 pounds of cracked malt. I turned the burner (electric) on 3 and brought the temp up through 105F to 170F. This took about two hours. During this time the grain went through all the temperatures required for the α-Amylase and β-amylase to do their voodoo. When the temp reached 170F, I took off the wort, left the spent grains out for the critters, cleaned the pot, and dumped the wort back into the pot.

I then put the temps on high, brought the stuff up to a boil, threw in the hops, tossed in a tablespoon of irish moss, and put the lid back on. I then put some aluminum foil around the little spigot on the bottom of the pot, put saran wrap around the pot to keep it from sucking air as it cooled, and turned to heat off.

I watched the pot cool as I was doing stuff. It took almost three hours to cool below 180F. So it would appear to me that the heat was more than sufficient for sterilization and hop extraction.

I left the pot on the stove overnight to cool (cooling down 5 gallons of boiling stuff takes a bit of time, it was still at 80F when I came down this morning).

I came down in the morning, took the foil off the spigot (When I was boiling, the foil-wrapped spigot stayed over the burner, I figure that it is quite sterile in there) and decanted the boiled wort into a disinfected carboy and cast the yeast.

I'll tell you how it tastes in a couple of months.

A heavily modified vegetarian

I don't really have a great deal of respect for those who espouse vegetarianism as a moral choice and proselytize in a is manner fitting for a missionary. These kind of folks are religious fanatics, pure and simple.

What you eat is what you eat, an exercise in personal tastes and free will. Everyone who routinely reads my writing knows my unbounded love for pigggies.

Now, lets get to the point of this essay. I have been reading vegetarian cookbooks a lot lately. This out of self-defense and prepping needs, not from any moral conversion. The reasoning behind this exercise is that meat has always been and will always be a luxury item. Here in the USA we just had it good enough for a while that we could forget that inconvenient truth.

Vegetarians have been honing their skills at making vegetarian fare delicious. They have labored long and hard to figure out spices and recipes that really add a lot to the dishes that they cook. I very much enjoy a whole gamut of vegetarian recipes and they will let you have quite a bit of variety in the days of rice and salt that we all may be facing soon.

I don't spend a lot of time reading the moralizing crap that is on their websites, you might want to peruse it, but I pretty much find it insufferable. Go for their recipes. Lots of ideas here. Most of them are a lot better with a bit of salt pork to make the flavor come out.

Resources

http://www.ivu.org/recipes/index

http://www.vegetariansrecipes.org/

http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-recipes/index.php

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/vegetarian

Culture

We have a society, one might even argue that it is a civilization. What we seem to missing is a culture.

I am thinking that we will be developing one soon.

I wonder what it will look like?

You see, civilization and societies are big old herkin' things, good for wandering around and beating up folks that don't agree with you. They throw up some damn impressive monuments and such.

What they don't seem to do is let people live with each other. We have stripped away the culture part of the US. We have allowed ourselves to become atomized with a false sense of independence. We now have to go trudging back the way we came to find a place of group psyche that will allows us interdependence.

This won't be easy. In a way, the prepper community reflects this. The atomized tend to be those who squirrel guns away and seem to be preparing for a continental scale "Gunfight at the OK corral". Those moving towards independence seem to concentrate more on building the social networks necessary for mutual support.

This whole process is a story that will be told over the next fifty years.

I wonder what if will look like?

What have we got to lose?

First Read This

Sad part is, That little weasel Reich might be right. But no one is going to like the results. Bushie left Obama a huge s*%$ sandwich and I hope that the poor sap doesn't choke on it.

If the guv'mint starts this kinda spending, the end result will be high inflation if it works (I can live with that) or hyperinflation if it doesn't (which would really suck). Doing nothing would mean a deflationary cycle like the depression and that would really suck.

So, unless I am completely off-base (which happens more frequently than I care to admit), what we are looking at is cranking up the printing presses and hoping for the best. It gives us a chance of getting through this time of suckage without an incredible amount of damage. It might not work and things will really suck, but if it isn't tried, things will really suck anyway.

Kind of reminds of the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when they were running from the law. The two of them were on a ledge above a raging river and Redford's character (Sundance) wanted to go back and fight rather than jump. When Newman asked why, Sundance said "Because I don't know how to swim". Newman's character (Butch Cassidy) just said "You crazy, the fall will probably kill ya."

Just a reminder

I have no use for racism. I will not allow racist remarks to stay on my blog.

Comments are now censored (lets face it, that is what moderation is).

Jeez folks, breathe. Things are pretty messed up out there, but whacking out and going nut job is not going to help things.

Good old days, Shortage, Scarcity, Absence

I was over visiting Riverwalker and he had a good post on beverages, which coincided nicely with a post I stuck up the other day on coffee.

But it got me to thinking about the strategy of food storage (which IMHO is the single most important part of your prepping plans). You will need to nursemaid stuff along, trying to take out of your supplies in a rational manner and replace them whenever possible. Sounds easy.

But you also have to think about the difference between the three terms in the title as we may well be seeing any or all of them in the near future.

The Good Old Days

Lots of stuff about, prices are low, obesity is a problem. Life is just dandy thank you very much.

This is when the core of your preps should be set up. Seven fat cows are a fine time.


Shortage:

This is the most normal of the three. In a way, we are seeing it now, the companies out there are cutting down on size of packages, raising prices, pulling all the little "marketing" (read here: Lying) tricks that they have gotten so skilled at in the past. The stuff is all there, but there is less of it or it costs more.

All this point really takes is the ability to accept a thinner wallet at the end of the pay period. It sucks, but overall you can live with it. Keep preppin' hard. Don't concern yourselves with dross like more guns and ammo, you will never have enough, and you sure as hell can't eat a gun safe full of guns. Your money should be going to food and stuff that will get you through the dark.


Scarcity:

This is moving further down the slope. The portions are still smaller, but they probably cost more. They also aren't always around. Stores will be out of the stuff and you may well have to go looking for stuff. This is where you will start dipping into preps to get you through until the stuff comes back. If this starts to occur, prepping will become quite a popular sport among the lumpen.

At this point you had better start polishing up your adaptability skills. Your wallet is going to be really thin at this point and should this occur, you might want to start using up savings to increase your supplies. Start watching burn rates here. Also start watching portion size and waste in a serious way. Learn to live cheap and squeeze everything you can out of what you have and make sure everyone starts getting to fighting trim


Absence:

Stuff ain't there. There might be stuff around, but it ain't the stuff you wanted. At this point you had better lower your standards and get whatever is available. You will be having a very varied diet at this point and you had better seriously hope your garden is doing well this year. Your preps will be disappearing at a way-too-rapid clip and you will become concerned if there will be enough to get you through.

At this point you will start losing weight in a serious way. Make sure it doesn't leave too quickly, that will weaken you. At this point you will have to make sure that you are healthy but losing weight along with everyone else. Make sure you use your preps in a manner that keeps you healthy but skinny. the last thing you want to be is looking sleek and well fed in a world of absence.

I would ask you

I would ask you to examine your fears. Which of them are rational and which of them are just deeply ingrained Pavlovian responses.

I read a book a long time ago called the Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. At the time I probably smoked more dope than I should have and spent too much time inhaling (as Barak sez, it was the whole point). But to this day there was a passage that gripped me. One of the characters spent the first couple of minutes analyzing folks he met then when he figured out what type of person that character was, he would hand that character one of two cards.

1. The first said "There is no friend anywhere."
2. The second said, "There is no enemy anywhere."

Maybe a lot of folks in the tin foil hat crowd had better take a deep breath and think about things. What are the true dangers facing us? What are the consequences of our actions or lack of actions? What issues can we have an effect on? Which issues are out of our pay grade?

You have an impact in this world. But unless you can clearly identify what are the threats and what actions are available to you, you will not survive.

Calm down folks. Take a big breath, grab a beer, sit on the front porch, and think.

What are the facts? Again and again and again what are the facts?

Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what "the stars foretell," avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the "unguessable verdict of history"—what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future, facts are your single clue. Get the facts!

Robert Heinlein

The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Simply Put

I wonder how much of the current talk in the tin foil hat crowd about the negative aspects of the Obama Presidency stems from genuine concern about the future of the Republic and how much stems from simple bigotry?

Just another unpaid plug for these guys. I love giving them money.

Plus, check this out.....Storage Coffee

Capitalism

You know, it just doesn't appear to work all that well.

At then end of the day, a system needs to be able to be as self sustaining as possible. Capitalism has never been that. Capitalism is ultimately bound up in getting as much for yourself as possible and screw the rest of them. Capitalism is a system that takes in more than it puts back. We just now started noticing.

What I find really surprising is how here in America capitalism has somehow bound itself to fundamentalist Christianity. Now that took quite a bit of eye-closing and looking the other way. If the New Testament had anything kind to say about the endless acquisition of wealth and personal aggrandizement that passes for American neocon capitalism, I will go out on a limb and tell you that what it said was not flattering and did not serve as a road map to heaven.

Even more surprising is the equation that makes economic success and personal freedom one and the same. The bill of rights outlines a lot of things, but the right for an individual or corporation to grow obscenely rich at other peoples expense is not there.

Cuz you see, like it or no, we have spend the last hundred or so years building up a house that seems to made on a slippery, shifting mix of bastardized ethics. We started with the rail barons and the Standard Oil Trust and ended up here.

Unlike a lot of folks here in Tin-Foil hat land, I am not really all that concerned about the US Government trying to oppress me. I consider the idea of the UN trying to oppress me laughable.

What I am concerned about is the capitalists. The Banks would have no trouble instituting Eupatridae right here in the USA. In my honest opinion, George Bush was the moral and political equivalent of Alciebades and the big banks and brokerage houses serve as the modern 400.

So, I say screw the banks, screw the stockbrokers, hell, even screw the big companies. If we are going to be truly free, we have to break their hold on us. But you have to remember, you will be free, but you will have a lot less stuff.

Preppers Thanksgiving

I'm thinking about a prepper's thanksgiving.

Since I have been gutting pumpkins and harvesting taters lately, I have it in my head that thanksgiving should be centered around the stuff that I have salted away

Gotta use it sometimes, and holidays are as real a part of life as the workaday world.

Any ideas on menus and recipes that you folks have would be greatly appreciated.

Hear no Evil

Had a brief (very brief) discussion with my coworkers at the Fed Gov ranch. I made the mistake of saying that folks in the government had better look at what has happened in the past and make allowances for what will probably happen in the future.

The way that I see it, if one uses past situations as a template, whenever the government gets in over it's head financially, the following occurs:

1. Step 1: Hiring Freeze. This usually occurs about 1 year after the government realizes that it screwed up..So this should be happening around fourth quarter 2009.
2. Step 2: A year of flailing around fruitlessly, at the end of which they offer early out retirements to reduce headcount. Lets say around first of the year 2011.
3. Step 3: A year or so of threatened reductions in force (RIF) to send the weak scurrying for the exits, followed by RIF at the end of the year. So in this timeline the government will be laying off beginning 2012.

Needless to say, this went over like a turd in a punchbowl.

The consensus was that I was mad, no one wanted to believe for a minute that they, invulnerable Fed employees, would ever be subjected to such treatment.

I won't ever mention again that fed workers are constrained by the same laws of economics as the rest of the world. It would appear that such talk is simply in bad taste.

Welcome Barak:

I still say you were silly to want the job, but I hope the best for you.

Do well.

Good Luck

Pumpkins

Mostly we look at them as jack o' lanterns,

But pumpkins are easy to grow, provide a lot of good stuff for the table, and give us something to do on Walpurgisnacht.

Today I am cooking down jack o' lanterns for pie fixins. Thanksgiving and holidays are coming up soon.

Below you will find my pumpkin pie recipe. Now before you get your tits in a twist, remember, this is a HOLIDAY recipe. You are allowed to save up and be decadent on the holidays. Matter of fact, by pinching pennies all year, it makes the holiday feast that much more special....so live cheap during the rest of the year and live it up during the holidays

2 cups cooked/mashed pumpkin
6 eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 cup grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup dark rum

Fill a pie shell with aluminum foil and beans and bake for 12 minutes in a 425 F. oven. Take the beans and foil out and start soaking the beans for turkey chili.

Thoroughly mix all the ingredient together with a whisk. Pour the stuff into the baked pie crust and bake at 375 F. until the custard is set the way you like it.

Now don't start yelling

So I guess that I look at things a little differently than a lot of folks on the prepper circuit. That's OK, as a matter of fact it is preferable.

So, now I think that screaming at the commies at this point is kinda odd.

Now, my father and I were serious, no-holds barred cold-warriors. But we never thought for a moment that we were fighting the commies. We were fighting the Russians. Yeah, the Chinese were there too, but at that time the only thing that they could do was field a whole shit-pot of poorly trained and equipped troops.

The Russians were our competition in the empire game. Just like they were the competition for the British in the Great Game and the Carthaginian, Parthian, and the Sassanid Empires were the competition for the Romans.

The fact that the Soviets used a different economic system really didn't have all that much to do with it. The Russian's have been trying to figure out economics since the Battle of Batu Khan and have thus far been astoundingly unsuccessful. It isn't surprising to me that they would fuck up communism. After all, they fucked up everything else.

You see, my take on it is, there are two types of people in the world: Folks who want to tell other people what to do and folks who want to be left alone. The people who are screaming about commies have missed the point.

George W has been as bad for the country as the most liberal president we ever had, probably worse. The Republican Party has allowed itself to degenerate into a group of shills for big business instead of being the Party of Lincoln. They have put in place the biggest assault on the constitution ever made, and yet folks are worried about the commies?

So, what the hell, lets say that the next president does have Marxist leanings. Can that be any worse than the damage done to the country by W and the big corporations?

Love 'em or Hate 'em, the NY times does write well and get you thinking

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/opinion/27wills.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Baking Versus Breadmakers

Baking bread is a good thing to do if you are trying to squeeze nickels. The other day I heard some neo-luddite stand up on his high horse and explain in all seriousness how buying a bread maker was just another way for us fat/lazy Americans to purchase needless stuff.

His point was that the idea of baking should return to the ideal of spending a afternoon mixing and kneading and dicking around with the oven for the pure and simple joy of eating a slice of your own bread.

What a crock of shit.

Look folks, part of being a prepper is to try to look past the myths and the petty romances that folks place upon their actions. This tendency to place romantic notions on trivial isuses permeates your life in a gazillion different ways.

Making a loaf of bread is not in itself a noble task, but is a skill folks should know. What you want out of the process is a loaf of bread, not a affirmation of your kum bay ya-ness.

So, my reasons for using my breadmaker are threefold.

1. It is easier, you dump the ingredients in, hit the button, and in a couple of hours, you have a pretty dang good loaf of bread.
2. Uses a lot less electricity than firing up my oven.
3. Doesn't heat up the house in the summer.

It does have limitations.

1. If the electricity is out, you are outta luck. (unless you are a super cool prepper (like me) who has one of these babies down the basement).
2. The French Bread sucks.
3. In the winter you don't mind heating up the kitchen.

So keep up the prep work. And you should bake yourself some bread. But just remember, a tool is just a tool.

Practicing Soups

Living at a reduced burn rate like I am, making food dollars stretch is imperative.

Hence soups.

The years of livin' large has gotten us spoiled. We want to see a large hunk of meat sitting on our plate with a token amount of vegetables. We then consume it in one sitting, then go sit in front of the television in a satiated torpor, kind of like a meat-drunk wolf.

Well, having performed the aforementioned countless times, it is with a tear and a sigh of regret that I bid it goodbye (except for holidays). Gotta buckle down and live lean. That means meat is a treat and most meals are going to be the same kind of stuff that my Nonno and Nonna used to eat. Soups and bread, polenta and cabbage, thin slices of cured meat, some dried fish, pasta.

It isn't going to be a burden. You just have to stop thinking that you are "too busy" to do a little cooking for yourself and your family. Folks, the cold reality is, you are going to be doing with a lot less money soon, so all the inconsequential shit you have been cramming into your days are going to fade with the contents of your wallets and the imaginary value of your homes.

So today is vegetable soup. I went out and stocked up on some smaller cans of the dehydrated vegetables at Healthy Harvest (these are great folks). I started this last week and have come up with a good basic recipe.

Po' Prepper Soup

First thing in the morning, bring about 2 quarts of water to a boil and dump in the following:

• handful of dried peas
• handful of dried corn
• handful of dried potato dices
• handful of dried carrots
• half a handful of dried onions
  
• handful of dried mushrooms
  
• half a handful of dried peppers
• handful of beans
• some boullion or dried soup mix

Put the lid back on and turn off the heat. Leave the pot on the still hot burner and go away for about eight hours.

When you get back from work, cube up a half a pound or so of cheap meat. Fry up a good handful of salt pork or bacon to get some fat, and brown the meat in the fat from the salt pork/bacon. When it is brown, add oregano, basil, sage, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and about 2 tablespoons of flour to the cooked meat and brown for another couple of minutes.

Dump the meat into the now-rehydrated vegetables from the morning and turn on the stove to low. Cook the soup for a couple hours and do the rest of your chores. Now is a good time to bake some bread.

-end-