when time and money is short

WHEN TIME AND MONEY IS SHORT

While everyone else is constantly focusing on New Useless Guys ( NUG’s, in military parlance ), either pasting Fear Porn to explain WHY you should prep, or covering the basics yet again, I take pride in mainly writing for the already woke and already advanced prepper.  As in, okay, you have wheat and FLIR scopes, now it is time to worry about human interactions after the apocalypse.  But, since Frugal Prepping is my thing, Kurt Saxon being and older and wiser Brother From Another Mother, I also occasionally return to basics.  Today is one of those days.

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Prior to the 2009 financial pile of stinky, it was embarrassingly easy to make casual income doing this kind of writing ( well, easy once I figured out advertising rather than book sales were key-I can be a tad slow on the uptake at times ).  Back then I really wasn’t all that great of a writer, still learning my craft, and I was still making a good several hundred dollars a month in Amazon commissions and Google ads.  I also had twice the readers, but as I found out after I had to moderate comments, they were Fair Weather readers.

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By 2012 or 2013, if I recall correctly, Google started requesting that I go back and scrub clean objectionable comments.  Well, easier said than done, because although they obviously referred to the N Bombs, there were fifty or seventy damn comments I had to wade through to find it. To avoid being kicked off, I decided to police the comments.  No more Wild West Comment Section, which was sad.  Those were some funny Mo-Fo’s.  But, as soon as I did that, my reader numbers halved.  They were just here for the entertainment.

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At first that pissed me off no end, as I was busting my ass here trying to throw all this great wisdom on the wall and no one was interested.  Eventually I pulled the stick out of my ass, relaxed, and tried to entertain while teaching.  Hey, what can I say?  It was a stressful period.  Anyway, for the next five or six years my reader numbers stayed at around 600 daily.  Then ‘Ol Remus ( and no one else-so thanks, bro! ) would mention me, my reader count would skyrocket, but drop right back down after a day or so.  Any new readers just replaced the pissed off ones leaving.

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Now, this time, it seems either that Woodpile Report Dudes are actually staying, or I’m getting them from another source.  Or both.  It almost looks, knock on wood, that I’m getting back to my old Open Comments numbers of double the last half decade ( I’m nothing if not stubborn.  I’ve been at this since 1992, although I was not at all serious those first seven or so years ).  I know a lot has to do with an improvement in my writing, but one also needs exposure.

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Now, all you new guys.  See how I spend one half to one third of the entire article giving background information and blathering?  Yeah, get used to that.  That is how I roll.  But, to compensate you for your time, this article is for you.  Yes, you are welcome.  I’m also generous to a fault like that.  Some of you might be beginners.  NUG’s.  No shame in being a NUG, if you try to put some effort into learning and leave that classification as quick as possible.  I could just direct you to my Frugal Survivalist book, and I have, but I also want to give you a quicker guide.

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Well, okay, you caught me, this has nothing to do with me being nice.  I was commenting at Aesop Dudes and it gave me the idea.  I’ve done Extreme Poverty Prep articles before.  Like, $50 preps where you find two liter soda bottle salvage and fill with white flour, then make some spears out of thrift store kitchen knives ( water purification is a $1 used pot to boil it in ).  That kind of extreme homeless preparation.  This is more conventional, for the working poor.  And full spectrum prepping.

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It is nothing new my regular long suffering readers haven’t already heard many times.  Just a short detour to benefit the new arrivals.  So, minions, please bear with me.  Perhaps some of this still applies, or you have friends and family that might be less threatened by this Full Retard Simple approach.  First off, forget needing much money.  This is far less than the cost of a single FLIR scope, or a quality AR with a half dozen Spam Cans of ammunition.  Second, this is Butt Simple, Caveman Level of tutorial. I’m not getting into a ton of detail. 

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Third, this is all more willpower than anything else.  You do one thing, you’ll see how easy it is and more eagerly embrace the others.  Start with fitness.  Most teachers shriek about PT, and cardio, and how you are too fat to survive, regardless of your supplies.  And, it is true.  The first rule of the zombie apocalypse is really “Cardio”.  And if you are like me you are old and tired.  I spent ten years living like a savage, mostly off grid.  I did nothing BUT fitness, commuting to the job by bicycle, lifting thousands of pounds a day and coming home to physical chores.

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So, I let fitness go a bit.  I still rode the exercise bike, because with a bum spine I need to keep my lower back muscles tone.  But I was doing little else.  It starts to wear you down, the lack of exercise.  You eat too much, feel gross and begin to wonder if you even want to run away when the apocalypse starts.  Just start walking.  As simple as that.  Walk a half hour each day, with a day off weekly to recover.  As time goes on, walk faster.  Then, if you feel up to it, farther. 

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Those tactical combat courses?  Please.  Go out “hunting”.  By which I mean, even if all you are trying to kill is a rabbit or bird, the important part is stalking and woodcraft.  Get out into the woods and learn how to move in them.  That is far more important, practical, and affordable.  Camping is a good way to practice off grid living.  And it is nearly free.  You’ll need those supplies anyway.  Once you progress you can combine hiking and camping.  You’ll quickly learn how little you want to pack ( hard to be stealthy while posing as a mule ).

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Food storage?  As simple as The Mormon Four program. 

https://www.appropedia.org/Mormon_Basic_Four

I like my version, but of course I’m biased.  For my book How To Eat Wheat, no charge:

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/581cf820-6398-4dc6-b14c-4c8af6cb66fd

If you don’t have a feed store near you ( ask for human consumption, whole, not cracked, no vet meds ), you’ll be forced to buy the next cheapest.  Wal-Mart wheat:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Augason-Farms-Hard-Red-Wheat-Emergency-Food-Storage-26-Pound-Pail/22985145

I won’t get into the merits of wheat over rice.  If you like rice, every supermarket carries it.  Wal-Mart carries the cheapest vitamins I’ve found.  A year’s worth of Vitamin C and a multi-vitamin is barely $20.

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 The longest lasting cooking oil is shortening.  It is disgusting and unhealthy, but it is far worse to die in the winter.  You need external AND internal heat once the central air stops working.  You NEED fat in a cold climate.  A lot less but still some in a hotter one.  Historically, prior to colonialization, sugar was rare.  So was fat, for the poor.  Don’t be confused by current Right Think that you shouldn’t eat fat.  Most medical advice today is as Fad Driven as Gore Warming or Political Correctness.

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Well, as simple as this should be, I’ll still need one more day to finish up the subject.  Continued tomorrow.

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link click here )

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note: update on the above, written last week. Yeah, even though you write "knock on wood" trying to avoid cursing yourself by not verbalizing what evil forces you wish to keep at bay?  Doesn't work.  Perhaps I should also have thrown salt over my shoulder.  I write this in the morning and that evening my numbers go from 1k-1200 they had been hovering at for weeks, down to 700 readers.  They stayed 600-700 for four days and just the last few popped back to 800-900.  Gggrrrr!  Well, many thanks to my long term readers, for your steady business.  I don't want YouTube type numbers, and the growth paradigm is dead, but JUST getting back to my first blog numbers would be nice.  Oh, well-play on!
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note: welcome to the crash, bitches!  A much more sensitive barometer of global economic health than the Baltic Index is the company FedEx.  Yeah, they are cutting expenses, starting with retirement buy-outs, hiring slow down and expense account reductions. Their ground service in the US, for those that think "Amazon Effect", is also in big trouble.
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note: I still think this is the time to buy silver or forever after hold your peace.  US silver production lowest in 70 years click here
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