Environmentalist

Wow, that was quick!!! I just posted something about the water problem here and enviro nazis and I got 2 scathing, hateful comments about being "anti earth mother" and narrow minded. Geesh! Am I an environmentalist? Yes. A very big yes! So, what is the difference between me and some wacko who wants to stop all logging, fishing, hunting, herb collecting, desert use, rock collecting, etc? I don't consider myself an extremest. I use common sense. It makes me madder than blue hell when I take a walk down the canal or in the mountains and see garbage. Stuff that some lazy bastard could have picked up and taken home but, no, they have to throw it around and let everyone put up with the mess. I do bring a lot of trash home and trow it in the dumpster. When I see senseless destruction such as ax marks on a 1,000 year old sequoia tree it angers me to the point of rage. Senseless and there's a lot of it out there. What the hell are people thinking any more? Here in town the Hmong's (hill tribe refugees from Cambodia and Laos) go through the canals and creeks and gather ALL crayfish, tadpoles and fingerling bass, chubs, whatever moves, and take it home for soup. They get an annual payment from the US government of around $25,0000. plus whatever they get from welfare or a job. They don't have to do this. It sickens me when I see live crayfish walking around dieing because their tale has been ripped from their bodies and then the animal is discarded. When I go to the lake these same folks are catching EVERYTHING regardless of the game laws and keeping it "for soup". By the way, I mentioned this to a coworker and she immediately accused me of being a racist. BULL! If I see anyone, no matter what color,creed, or nationality doing something like this I think the same of them. I can't stand people like her who are programed and WON'T think for themselves. Do we need environmentalists? YES!!! We need to police our own ranks and make sure we are being good stewards but PLEASE!!! Lets not take it to extremes. I saw what happened in Missoula, Montana when the logging companies were told no more cutting. Lots of jobs were lost and local economies on the verge of ruin. The same thing happened at a mine I worked for in Wyoming. We were closed down for a month because some weirdo-wacko tree hugger thought, just THOUGHT we may some day decide to use cyanide to leach the gold from the ore. The company was tied up in court and had to sign sworn statements that it would never do on site heap leaching. A months a long time to go without a paycheck. I wonder how granola boy would have felt had it been him? And as for global warming? I have seen and heard enough about that fantasy bull crap. Al (Igor) Gore said the ice would all melt and the ocean would rise in a few years. Well Igor, old buddy, its been quite a few years past and the ocean hasn't risen and there's still lots of ice up north. Whu happened? Enviro nazis? Yes. They live and they multiply due to ignorance and false information. Do all that you can to help educate these poor folks and get them to take the red pill.

Water, your food and the Central Valley

This is a complicated issue. It involves the food you buy and eat, a tiny fish, the Federal government control of water hastened by a bunch of nutjob environmentalists who depend on junk science, and a lack of fortitude by the state government of California, namely that idiot Arnold Schwarzenegger, to put a stop to this nonsense. Its my firm belief that anyone from Hollyweird should STAY THE HELL OUT OF POLITICS!!!!!! Just stay in Hollywood and make your fantasy world garbage. I haven't had a TV antenna or cable for 5 years now and I'm glad.

Now, to continue. It also involves water, of which there is a finite supply. Its a delicate and precarious balance here in central California. Here's how it go's. In the winter the snow storms pass over the coast range, through the valley and stop at the Sierra Nevada's. On the average of 10,000 feet plus, these mountains stop the storms and everything dumps there. It snows up there for days at a time. The people who measure the snow sometimes find it 25-30 feet deep in the high country. Amazing. The picture at the top of the page, taken on December 14th, is the view from my town in winter. When the snow melts it comes down the mountains and is gathered into dam's to be stored for use throughout the summer. We depend on those dam's and I personally believe there need to be a lot more built. There is often very little rain here in the valley and when it does rain it doesn't last long. By the way, the Central valley is way over a hundred miles long and starts near Redding and ends at Bakersfield. Look at a map of California and you'll see. 90% of the food sold in the USA and Canada is grown here. Think about it. 90%.

The idiots have turned off the water and they want the water from OUR dam's diverted to the rivers near Sacramento (which then flows into the Pacific ocean) to save a stupid little minnow called the delta smelt. Its not even a native. The wackoenviro nazis insist we curtail food production to save a fish the size of an aquarium goldfish. Madness. And they are getting away with it. For now, anyway. Let me explain what I mean when I say they turned off the water. The water is from the rivers in the northern part of the valley and they go to the Sacramento River Delta. This water is pumped out and fed to the canals that deliver it to the west side of the valley. We here on the east side don't have it so bad (yet) because we have our dam's. We still have plenty of ag business going on. The west side is a different story. Its a desert. Literally. Farms and orchards are dried up and gone as well as jobs. Have you noticed how much more expensive your produce is this year?

Which brings me to this point: gardening. Grow your own food. If you have a nice big lawn, sell the lawn mower or better yet convert it into an emergency generator. And dig up that lawn! Put in a garden and save money and your self. Learn to put food by. Canning, freezing, drying, whatever. If you have an over abundance, good! You have barter and help for those in need. I would rather help someone out who is in need than force them away in a crisis. After all is normal again you would want to have people who remembered your kindness rather than your mean actions. The biggest benefit is having fresh, non polluted food (ag chemicals like fertilizers and insecticides) that cost far less than if you bought it in a store. Here where I live its zone 9 which means I can raise food year round out in the open and only worry about frost for a week at the most. Beautiful. It makes it hard to leave here but the other problems far out way this benefit.

Updates to building a digital library

This past spring I bought an Acer Netbook. I bought it for its portability and for the sole purpose to make it an Ubuntu machine. I can't say enough positive things about Ubuntu, a Linux program. No pesky firewalls or anti virus programs and I can read pdf's, djvu documents, and it uses the Open Office program which is similar and in most cases better than the Microsoft Office equivalent. This machine along with a small outboard drive (120 Gigs) will hold my entire survival library which consists of nearly 8,000 books and articles I've saved from the net. I've spent years building up this library. I have a 9 hour battery for the Netbook and a 2 hour pack for backup (its the original which came with the machine). I want to find a good solar charger for this setup as well as my other rechargeable batteries. If you know of a good setup, please let me know.

If you plan on building a digital library I suggest you read this article: http://ronsprimitiveskills.blogspot.com/2009/03/building-digital-library-for-self.html
This is just a suggestion and its how I built my library.

A new magazine! The New Pioneer-The Complete Guide to Self Reliant Living

I heard about this magazine a while back at Bushcraft USA or Survival Podcast forum. Its called The New Pioneer and is put out by Country Almanac. It cost all of $9.95 and this is the premier issue. There are 130 pages. Heres whats inside: articles on self reliance, seed saving, living off the land, meat raising and butchering, farming/gardening in general, knives, survival kits, tools, blacksmithing and a lot more. It has a section called "Internet Guide" that covers a good selection of different sites related to preparedness. I recommend picking up a copy. I'm certainly glad I did. Its full of useful information and who knows, you may get someone else interested in our lifestyle if they see you reading it and ask you a few questions.

Why primitive skills?

When I teach a class on survival/preparedness, I throw in a little bit of primitive skills techniques. Such as: need some cordage? This plant works, etc etc. Ever start a fire with two sticks? I show them a simple bow drill. Found a patch of ripe berries? Make a simple bark container. Things like that. I find that people who really take off on primitive skills start out with just a few "teasers" and the bug has bitten! Primitive skills is a longtime hobby of mine. I enjoy knapping, stone work, pottery, basketry, cordage, leather in all its forms from raw to finished project and wood working. I'm not a purist. I use metal in most of my projects. I use a drawknife and spokeshave when I work on a bow. I use an old copper soldering iron head to bop off really big spalls from a flint nodule. Then I use horse shoe nails or a hammered copper flaker to flake an arrowhead or knife blade. I use my Swiss Army Knife (SAK) blade to cut material for my basket projects and the awl in the process of making a basket. I use an old beat to death brick hammer to chip hard stone into a semi finished ax head before finishing it with abrasion techniques. At times I use all stone age tools such as stone, bone, and antler just to see how far I can go. Since its a hobby anything go's. I think that's what makes it so interesting. Some foks go to extremes and will try to do these techniques as close as possible to the original formula. No metal, nothing modern at all. Sometimes even the clothing has to be "period correct"! That's all fine and well. Its a hobby and you can take it to the level you want.

Napolitos or Nopales-edible cactus

Nopales are the leaf shaped stems of the Opuntia family of cacti. They grow just about everywhere here in California and the southwest as well as other parts of the world. The most commonly used species is Opuntia ficus-indica. Here in the good ole' USA we know this ubiquitous plant by the name prickly pear. These are quite edible and are a staple in Mexico, Central America and othe parts of the world where they're raised. The fruits, when ripe, are edible and also used for making jams and sauces. You can pick up nopales in jars at supermarkets in most states.
Here I'll show the basic cleaning and preparation for storage or cooking of the "leaves". The first photo shows the first cut around the outside edge of the leave. I made two cuts on this leave but I usually just make one cut as shown in photo 2.


Photo 1

Photo 2

Next I cut the base of the leaf off and then I trim off the little bumps which hold the glocids (tiny, obnoxious needles) and the bigger, more painful spines. I do this by laying the very sharp blade parallel to the surface of the leaf and cut/scrap as if filleting a fish. Both sides of the leaf are done this way. Then I rinse the leaf off and put it aside.

Photo 3Photo 4 shows a pile of finished napolitos ready to be further processed for cooking or put in the freezer for later. If I am cooking them I cut them in strips or cube themand add them to stir fry or eggs. They can be eaten raw but there is a very slimy mucilage in the leaves that takes a whole lot of getting used too. I prefer cooking them myself. The mucilage disappears on cooking. These plants are also eaten by people with type 2 diabetes and they have been proven to help releive this disease. You can find further research on this on the net.

Photo 4
This last photo shows a nice bag full of napolitos ready for the freezer. I washed them off and used paper towels to dry them before bagging. That way when they are taken out for use they separate easily and I can get just 1 or 2 leaves for my recipe. This bag cost me the whole sum of 60 cents. They can be harvested in the wild and some folks grow them as ornamental plants and will let you take a few of the young leaves for eating. Only the tender young growth should be harvested. The older, larger, leaves are too woody and tough to eat. Enjoy!

Photo 5

Silver and Gold

I just want to add a quick note about something that concerns me. The buying and storing of gold & silver bullion. I think silver is still a good buy at $20 an ounce more or less but gold is close to overly expensive, yet I still think owning an ounce or two is good policy. I would have at least 20 ounces of silver, preferably silver rounds or bars of 99.9% silver. I would also have a pound or two of pre 1964 silver US currency in dimes, quarters and a few halves. Remember: pre 1964 silver coins are 90% silver whereas rounds and bars are bullion or 99.9% pure. So the rounds and bars should bring just a bit more in trade. The reason for silver coinage is this: if it becomes the coin of the realm then it will be a lot easier to make the exact payment with various denomination of coinage. If someone wants $1.50 US silver for that box of 30-06 it will be easier having the right change than if you only have silver dollars or bullion. Gold is for the big buys such as generators and firearms, etc. Also, precious metals can be carried on your person and hidden easily if need be. Jack Spirko over at the Survival Podcast says you should never pay much more than 10% over spot metal value. Example: Mr. coin dealer has one ounce Liberty rounds (99.9% pure silver) for $22. and the price on the days metal market is $20. an ounce for silver. He's charging $2. over market or spot value which is fair. He has to make a profit to stay in business. I hope this has been helpful to you and motivates you to be prepared. Take care everyone.

Schools out and its been a blast

Classes are done for the year and I now have time to pay attention to this lonely old blog. I managed to move to a new house, too. I have been concentrating on preps such as food storage and gardening. I will have a years worth of food stocked up real soon at the other place. I have been adamant about this with others but they all want to play grasshopper. I don't understand why folks can't think ahead. Too bad for them. Take care of yourself and have enough stuff put away for your family and some extra for members of your immediate family should they need help. And don't let anyone know what you're doing. More to come...............