Archive for October, 2009
Oct
28
Readers Questions
Posted by: | Comments
Thanks to everyone that sent me comments on the BOL. I agree, both that it’s looking better all the time and that I still have a long way to go! This is a fun project and something that does have a reason behind it whether times get tough or even if they don’t.
One email-er said that he thinks I’m crazy to lower my standards to live in such a P-O-S. Well, I suspect that my friend is still very young and ambitious! These are both great traits to have , for-sure! Unfortunately, we are all young only for a few short years and our motivating desires change as we age. See my comments to this person below…
Without taking anymore time with pleasantries, I’ll just get moving on todays post. This is going to be our weekly “READERS QUESTIONS” post. Keep your questions coming and I’ll do my best to answer them in a timely fashion…
Send your questions to – prepper@preppernation.com
__________________________________________________________________________________
Question #1 - “Why would I lower myself to live in a Mobile Home”?
Well, first off I don’t think for a minute that I’m lowering myself in any way. I do understand where this person is coming from and maybe even the negative spirit of his passion about the mobile home. I can say only that if I do decide to go live at my BOL, it will be because that’s what I chose! To me what the mobile home represents is far more than just a home. It is really about my freedom.
I truly believe that MANY American adults have sold there freedom to live in fancy homes and drive fancy cars. Don’t misunderstand, I think that they have the right to do this and it’s none of my business. Actually, more power to em! Some folks can do these things even while maintaining a large degree of freedom because they are still living well below their means at whatever level that might be. I do however propose, that many are not living this way by choice any more but because they have no other choice!
I know what it means to make a lot of money in any given year but I also am all to familiar with what the required sacrifice is to make that money. I’m contemplating a volunteer reduction in earnings. This isn’t necessarily so I can make less money overall. This would be a strategic reduction in my overhead, thus allowing me to choose how to spend my time earning money!
Something key that I think most scoffers are missing, I SHOULD, end up with more discretionary funds with this move, not less! If my earnings are reduced but my overhead is also reduced, I should come out even or more probably ahead. Can you see my train of thought?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Question #2 - “Why do I carry a 9mm”?
I will assume that the questioner is asking why I carry a 9mm over another caliber? Lets see, I made this decision probably 10 years ago when attending an unarmed self defense class.
The school I was taking this through was “Insights Training” here in the Seattle area. All of the instructors for the class, as well as their other offerings, are either active duty or ex-military men and women. It was during the class room section of the training that we covered the legalities of self defense and got into handguns briefly.
All of their instructors were either carring Glock or Sig Sauer handguns. At the time I would frequently carry a J frame Smith airweight, .38 caliber for concealment. If I wasn’t trying to be covert I had my Glock 21, a .45 caliber hand gun. I really liked the feel of the Glock and was basically sold on it. However, the instructors had determined that the Glock model 19, 9mm was the be all, end all most reliable hand gun available. Followed by the Sig 226, at least that was the model I remember them specifying.
They did like all of the Glocks in general but they told the class on several occasions that the model 19 was the gun to have if it HAD to be reliable! So, the .45 went in the safe and I began purchasing model 19’s as I found them for good prices, usually at the local gun show! I trusted their opinions as they we’re experienced in this area and I wasn’t – Good enough for me and I haven’t ever seen any reason to change!
__________________________________________________________________________________
Question #3 - “Can the BOL subdivision be closed off if needed”?
Hmm, I again will make an assumption. This must be referring to during an event like TSHTF. If I’m off base then let me know and I’ll revise my answer as needed.
The short answer is yes and no. Yes of course anything is possible and there could easily be trees dropped but that would be detrimental to those inside the perimeter as well! There are however, a number of folks with heavy equipment and I think that they could be persuaded to use that to create a move-able barricade if it came to that.
Private entrance with STURDY gate...
The good thing about this place is that it is nothing like a neighborhood but still enough folks around to keep an eye out for problems. The main entrance to my area has a full time occupied home a hundred yards off the main road, totally line of sight. This may be a deterrent but I wouldn’t depend on it. I and a few other neighbors use a secondary entrance that is gated full time. I’m including a photo as well. This is no flimsy farm gate, its heavy gauge steel and was professionally made to stand up to abuse. It won’t stop foot traffic but I doubt many vehicles will be getting past. This gate is also in line of site to a full time resident. This particular fellow is a no nonsense older gentleman that is regularly armed and somewhat confrontational. He’s bad news for trouble makers and good to have around for the folks like us that aren’t there full time…
Private entrance with STURDY gate...
Does this say "Not Welcome"?
I hope that this gives you an idea of what would be possible or at least is kind of my plan at this stage. It certainly wouldn’t be all up to me but most of the people around there are fairly like minded!
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Question #4 - “Do we have plans to add stock (animals) at the BOL”
Yes, we do plan to add some animals. This will be done only after much thought and not until we are there full time. The thing about animals is that they are a full time commitment. The city life we are leading now is one that isn’t very conducive to freedom. Our business keeps us pretty much tied to the office. A big concern of both my wife and I is that we be careful not to recreate this same issue again in a new location.
We have discussed chickens as a possibility and maybe some rabbits for the meat production. I’m kicking around raising a hog or two as well. If I could figure out a practical way to just have the stock on a seasonal basis I would like that much better. I think that any of these animals could be raised part time, however the start up costs might be prohibitive on a part time basis. Hogs could be raised and then put in the freezer but I think that the small animals would be better as a regular part of the place, rather than stopping and starting regularly. My concerns could be mitigated if we had a trusted neighbor that would want to participate in a cooperative effort. This way neither party would have to be committed 100% of the time.
These are my thoughts currently but only time will tell how this will eventually pan out for us. I do believe that the self-sufficiency that can be achieved with homestead animals would be hard to replace, in any other way…
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
As usual I didn’t get very many questions knocked out before I ran out of time but I will keep trying! Do me a favor and mention “Prepper” Nation to someone today and then check back in with me tomorrow!
Prepper
Does this say "Not Welcome"?
Oct
28
Minor Details
Posted by: | CommentsAlright, first I want to thank the new subscribers that have come in over the last couple days. I want to remind all of you that if you don’t immediately begin receiving your email alerts than please email me. We’re all caught up now and processing the subscribers as they come in. Thanks!
I’m beginning to get a back log of reader questions and I will answer them as quickly as possible but will probably not do more than one of these types of posts per week. I know some folks really like those but others don’t so I’m going to continue to keep the topics revolving. I don’t want anyone to get bored!
One last thing, please continue to tell your friends about “Prepper” Nation. I want to see our community growing and I can’t do it without your help! Also, I asked you all to start watching your local areas for good deals on Mobile Homes and I haven’t had one email on this yet. Just a reminder, keep your eyes peeled for these homes as this could be a real windfall for someone in your area to take advantage of – Thanks!
___________________________________________________________________________________
I don’t have to tell you that I’m becoming a big fan of these older singlewide mobile homes… I challenge anyone to show me a way to get more for your money? I’ll live up to my end of the bargain and show you all how nice a place like this can be. Other than the limited square footage, I just can’t find a downside for one of these on a property you plan to keep, long term!
With the niceties out of the way, we can get down to business. These older homes SUCK for fit and finish. Cheap cabinets, low end surfaces, limited or sub-standard trim, inside and out. Then there’s the sheetrock, I do like the idea that it is sheetrock on the interior but it’s very thin and I haven’t seen this stuff at Home Depot. There must be an outlet for 1/4 sheetrock but I haven’t tripped over any at the hardware store yet?
Guest bedroom end w/ old trim at old location too
I have a small area around the back door that’s in need of some wall repairs. Just for cosmetics, there isn’t any rot or anything. The previous owner said that his dog tore the hole in the wall? You’ve seen my dog, BOD, she’s the type of dog that you might expect to do something like chew wall board off but not even she would do that?? With the pergo floor already installed, I’m hesitant to start changing the interior around. I want to put in new kitchen cabinets someday but this is low priority since the existing ones still work fine. All things to be taken care of in good time. We’ll tackle one project at a time and eventually get them all done.
Its actually another exterior project I recently completed that I was going to show you today. I’m going to post both before and after photos to better illustrate what I’m referring to.
Living room window near the front door
When we bought the home, you probably even noticed, it had some real funky window trim on it. This wouldn’t even be called trim in my book but it was installed that way so it must have been what the manufacture intended to be trim! This stuff is about as low end as you can get… Little more than cardboard? It lasted 12 years and hadn’t disintegrated so I’m probably exaggerating a bit but this stuff was pretty bad!
We knew all along that this would have to be replaced but it wasn’t until we were doing the prep work before painting that we made the time to remove this stuff. It was stapled up there at the factory and would have probably lasted another 12 years without falling off. It would have just continued to look more shabby year after year. In addition to the cheap material, the manufacture had the trim put up in a way that was suppose to look more elaborate but only looked more cheesy to me. The pattern they chose just screamed MOBILE HOME. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hoping to fool anyone but would like to put my best foot forward!
Guest Bedroom end w/ new trim
As you know we’ve completed the paint job and are very happy with the new brown color over that awful blue. So, was time to find some appropriate trim and get it reinstalled. I headed off to Home Depot, to see what I could find.
When I got there I discovered a least three different trim board materials to choose from. There was cedar but this wasn’t what I was after. I was going to be painting it and so cedar wouldn’t be the best choice. I found some sort of soft wood that was pre primed. It was pine, I think? This would have been alright, except the wood was warped badly and I would assume only get worse when put back out in the weather. The third choice was a OSB, oriented strand board, product and it was also pre primed. I took a second look at this stuff and it was arrow straight and less expensive than the solid wood…
I went with the OSB. We bought enough to do the project and set out to get it installed. I did a traditional window trim wrap. Straight board across the bottom and then two up the sides. Topping it off with a wider board and cutting angles on the ends for additional character. Not the most creative idea but it works and is much better than its predecessor!
Living room window w/ new trim
As you can see in the photos, it came out pretty well! I still need to get the caulking done and then a coat of paint to finish it off. We haven’t decided what color for the trim yet for sure. We’re leaning toward the cream colors and so it won’t look a lot different than it does now.
You can see that the place is looking better and better. I mentioned that I’m going to head for the BOL after work on Friday. If the cold weather hasn’t hit to hard I’d like to get the caulking done and maybe some paint on this trim as well but we’ll just have to see how ambitious I feel this weekend! It’s a long drive so I always feel compelled to get as much done as possible. We’ll be up to our ears in snow before much more time goes by, I guess then I’ll feel better about laying around relaxing… Gangland, anyone??
Anyway, see you tomorrow!
Prepper
Oct
27
Decked out mobile home…
Posted by: | Comments
OK, OK, I’ll try to stay on topic for this post. I just couldn’t help myself yesterday? Whenever I take to long a look at the system and see it for what it is, I find myself getting more and more worked up until it all just has to blow! I received a few emails that indicated I was making excuses for people making poor decisions? Not so, I blame the people that make bad decisions, myself included! It is our job to see what the scam is and avoid it. No one is going to protect us from ourselves, especially the folks that control the scam! Oh well, I’m alright now and we can talk about a lighter subject today.
By the way, if you haven’t signed in for the email updates yet, I’m reminding you again! We’ll be having more opportunities for subscribers give aways in the near future.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Front deck
I guess, from this posts title you could tell what I was going to talk about next. Thats right, we put some decks on the house. The one pictured here is on the front, right off the living room. Its 8′x16′ and made from pressure treated 2×8’s and TREX decking for the deck surface. We decided to go with the man made material over cedar. This was largely due to the amount of maintenance that is required with the cedar.
The TREX is a bit more expensive but the manufacture advertises it as a maintenance free material. This was attractive to us as we didn’t want to have the annual sealing that would have been needed with real wood. Between the cost of materials and our labor, we felt it would be worth the do it once and be done angle. Not to mention that there may come a day when the sealer isn’t available for one or we may not have the financial ability to purchase it for the other. It really does look good but isn’t quite the same rich effect that you get with a brand new cedar creation.
Ample cross bracing
I’m sure that others would have gone with the cedar and explained that the maintenance is over blown but we went this route. Now we’ll probably continue with it as these projects will most certainly continue. It seems that you can never have enough deck. With this one at 8′x16′ on the front and the one off the back door only a 8′x8′, we will be needing more, whether we like it or not.
You will also notice I haven’t gotten around to putting up a railing. This and the steps are required for us to meet code and get our final building inspection signed off. Something about meeting the bureaucrats demands for my safety doesn’t get me overly motivated – you know me, rebel with a cause… Just cause I don’t feel like it right now is more like it. I will eventually get around to completing the rails and such, more for us than them but hey I can’t start anymore building projects until I satisfy the “MAN”!
Actually, we have a few more things to punch out before we’ll be done with the building inspector. In addition to the rails and steps, I have to cut in some access hatches in the skirting. I don’t exactly know why thats important but I haven’t been singled out… They make everyone do it? I hesitate to disturb the skirting as we have only recently began to believe that we beat these pesky mice!
Deck outside the back door and right next to the driveway.
Like I said we only built a 8′x8′ deck off the back door. This gives us just enough room to load and unload the car. It really looks even smaller in the picture. I wasn’t sure what the long range plan was for the area outside the back door but we had to have something in the mean time.
We built both decks with the long term in mind. They are braced and cross braced so they won’t be going anywhere unless we choose for them too. Again, had to have something to satisfy the county but these will be a good start for our exterior reshaping! At this stage everything is exciting, even small decks. When you live in the city just about anywhere you might find yourself walking is paved. Not so at the BOL, we have hardly any areas to get out of the dirt. That brings me back to the plan for the garage/barn that will be coming up in the near future. It will be so nice to have an area out of the rain! The sun is almost as big a problem for me, I’m bald and get a sunburn almost every weekend we’re here over the summer. You’d think I’d learn my lesson?
Thats a wrap, now you know what a “decked out mobile home” looks like. You’re right bad joke, decked out in only the truest of meanings. Its a start and as you continue to see in these updates we chip away at our projects a little at a time. We’ll get them all caught up just in time to decide to start some more. Its fun and easy to get excited over the smallest of accomplishments. Hard for us adults to say stuff like that, it always seems to take more and more to make an impression on us. This BOL has been good for me on more than one level I guess, we have to go slow. Our progress is in small bursts as time and resources allow! I guess that’s it for today – See you tomorrow!
Prepper
Oct
26
Debt Slaves?
Posted by: | Comments
Product Review
Posted by: Prepper | Comments (0)72 Hour Emergency Food
Welcome back, Friday again? I swear I was just saying this to you yesterday? The time flies by these days and just won’t slow down, no matter what I do… I refuse to embrace this fact but will continue to work around the reality of it!
_________________________________________________________________________________
Alright, I have another product to talk to you about this week. This is the 72-Hour emergency meal kit from Mountain House. I think most of us are familiar with the Mountain House brand. They produce top of the line freeze dried meals for the backpacker crowd as well as us more Doomish preppers.
Mountain House is known in our circles for their extremely long shelf life products. The bulk packed product in #10 cans, this is the size of a old school metal coffee can, has a 30 year shelf life. I don’t know about you but thats impressive to me. I don’t recommend that we put all our eggs in one basket by purchasing only these VERY long term products. To get that shelf life you pay the price – Top of the line and probably the most expensive product available.
(12) Meal envelopes per case
Their product that is more main stream is used by hikers and back packers for the more important weight issues. These packages are almost weightless. They do take up space but save on weight, I believe the bigger of the concerns. These envelope style packages can be found at most any sporting goods store and generally in a wide variety of meals. Last I heard even Walmart was carrying these in most of their stores. The shelf life on these is rated at 7 years… It’s not the 30 you get from the cans but still more than adequate!
The contents of this particular product, the 72-Hour emergency meal kit, are compossed of 12 of these lightweight pouches. (6) main dish entree’s, (3) Breakfast entree’s and (3) vegetable side dishes. They have a good variety of items represented, so at least you have a choice and shouldn’t have to eat the same thing each day. Not that you would get appetite fatique in the first 3 days but still I would suppose that having a choice in an emergency setting would be a plus…
These meals are contained in their own cooking pot, dish. Meaning that you just add boiling water and allow to sit. They only take a few minutes and then you can eat them right out of their packaging. This makes preparation and clean up a snap. I do think that this would be a huge bonus if it came down to using these someplace other than safety of your own kitchen. I see why these are a popular backpack meal. Ease of use and quick clean up would be handy on the trail.
Now the down side or reality check… With all good things usually comes a trade off. These aren’t the cheapest products as I’ve already mentioned. Now for what you get in a fairly small buy it and forget it package they aren’t BAD but it can be done a lot cheaper for those of us on a tight budget. You do pay for the convenience factor! I will put a link to where these are products are available. Priced today at about $45.00, that comes out to $15.00 a day or $5.00 per meal. When I say meal, I am going off of the manufactures definition of meal.
Moving right along to this “Meal” definition… This case of food would easily keep you alive in a 72 hour emergency but it is quite limited. If you are preparing for much more than a short term power outage or grab and go senario, you had better think again. These cases do have something to eat 3 times per day but the total calories only come to 3051. That only slightly more than 1000 per day. Yes, you can survive without ill effects but you had better plan to be doing a lot of nothing for those 3 days. If you think you will have to be doing anything strenuous or even walking for that matter, plan on adding additional calories!
As you know we’re a family of three and have purchased several of these cases. I’ve seen them over the years but hadn’t added them to the stockpile until a year or so ago. I found a sporting goods store having a parking lot sale and decided to buy the last of the cases they had out. They were marked down, not sure why but everything in the tent was, so I got them for a good deal. These fill the role of extended short term storage foods in our plans. We have a good pantry stocked with everyday items as well for our first line food storage. If we found ourselves in a stop everything and grab the bug out bags situation, we could also quickly take these along to extend the bags range.
I do have to give these a thumbs up! I’ll only do that though with the caveat of, don’t make these into anything more than they really are! If you have a hole in your preps these could fill it. Sometimes we find ourselves in unique circumstances and need something compact that you just don’t have to worry about for years, these will also fit that role. I think that at $45.00 per case, the expense is justifiable… If you haven’t tried these foods yet for yourself, this might be a way to sample a variety fairly cheaply, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed…
I found these available through Amazon.com at the following –
http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-House-72-Hour-Emergency-Meal/dp/B000G2TOMM
___________________________________________________________________________
I hope you all have a great weekend! I’m off to the BOL as soon as I close the office. I might even just take it easy and enjoy the scenery this weekend? Try to catch a few episodes of “Gang Land” and dream up something interesting to talk about next week! See ya!
Prepper