Bison Prepper

Friday, March 6, 2015

frugal living 28

FRUGAL LIVING 28

MICRO-BUSINESS + CONCLUSION

No one can live on no money, apart from Stone Age practitioners in the wilds. Which while having its attractions is sure to be far more of a hardship than just going to a job ten hours a week. I mean, there’s mountain lions and crap out there and while space between neighbors is great, as is a small village rather than a city, I still have confidence in human numbers rather than the propensity of Mother Nature to refrain from rending me with tooth and nail. I’m not very good eating, but in the middle of winter I’m sure I’d do. The trick, as I hope you’d have learned by now, is living in such a way as you need very little. A micro-business fit’s the bill nicely. Mine is my writing, and while my talents beg a much bigger reimbursement, I’m happy to have a successful miniature business. It makes me not a target at all ( of course, not being a target also makes me invisible, but I’m happy not playing that game ). Nobody else is going to compete with me for my customers because they can’t or won’t live on what I’m living on, plus they haven’t had decades of experience doing this business. That combination makes me nearly fool-proof, which is high compensation in a league of its own ( in case you don’t get our Perpetual Decline, you need to try to stay ahead of it, and the general population, to be successful in dealing with it. Just as you don’t fight against nature for the best results, you don’t try to fight a natural phenomena which is what an imperial collapse/resource depletion/civilization decline is ).

Now, please listen carefully. Do NOT, allow me to repeat-NOT, get into a business because it will make money. And by money, I mean a micro-business level of money which is marginal like $200 or $300 a month. Even with such a small amount, you will still fight with your customers. Meaning, it will be a mercenary activity and even with getting the best deal in three states, the customer will be resentful. On the other hand, if you ONLY engage in a business that makes you happy, that you are passionate about, your customer will willingly begrudge you your compensation. And there are your referrals. Because you are a hobbyist, only barely charging enough to survive, rather than just one of millions of asshat greedy whores. By under-charging, and by doing it for love rather than money, you are a better business ( one local example is our bike shop. He charges a lot, because of rent and lack of winter business, but he is a former pro rider and is doing it as a labor of love, and it shows-I don‘t resent the higher prices ). This realization came hard to me, as it would most of us raised in this money centric economy, but it is really only just embracing our barter roots. Being a smaller, tighter knit community, helping rather than hurting your neighbors. As a HUGE bonus, you have peace of mind and happiness in your life, for once ( yes, I know mowing lawns is few peoples idea of a hobby, for example. But if you love being outdoors and exercise, and helping others [ say, every ten lawns you give a free service to an older crippled lady without family ], why couldn’t you enjoy it? ).

Now, everyone has a hobby they would love to do more of, and for a smidgen of survival cash, so I needn’t tell you’re your business in that aspect. You already know what you can do/want to do ( don’t try to teach your grandmother how to suck eggs-the oddest expression I’ve encountered, and still really not sure why that particular activity is cited, but cool and apropos ). So let’s move on to quasi-micro-business. The business of needing less money rather than earning some ( I’m sure you will be using more than one strategy cited here ). Welfare payments and declaring bankruptcy. For the longest time, being on welfare was severely frowned upon. It was/is shameful. However, this should no longer be the case. First of all, we are no longer taking other taxpayers money by being lazy. The government is paying interest on the national debt, and paying a military for garrisoning over a hundred countries, and about everything else they “pay” for is only borrowed ( created out of thin air ). You are not cheating anybody by being on welfare. The money will NEVER be paid back. Don’t listen to Limbaugh or Beck, two rich humper pricks who begrudge having to pay one fifth the percentage of taxes poor people do. They have an agenda, they are paid shrills for the banker elite. Pay their propaganda no mind. Next up, welfare is, literally, the ONLY way to survive in many parts of this country outside of manufacturing crack cocaine or other crime. Welfare is a bone to suppress revolution by the federal government. So unless you love the feds, why feel guilty for taking their bribe? That is a time honored position nomadic tribes had with nearby agricultural centers. Blacks have no remorse taking welfare, most likely viewing it as compensation, and poor White trash don’t care about it either, with their southern occupational army merely giving them food and beer money to stay quiet. Getting on Food Stamps alone takes away 80-90% of your money needs if you are living frugally ( just keep in mind that while Food Stamps will continue until the end of the FedGov, distribution problems might make them useless eventually.

As for bankruptcy, I have no clues to give you, as I declared mine prior to the law changing. I’ll just say, if applicable, far better to be out of debt than to try to keep earning more money. The economy is only going to get worse, as will your job security. In conclusion, I’ve had a lot of fun writing this book. I’ve churned out a few since “Apocalypse Gun Porn”, which was THE funniest to write because I think that one was my breakthrough realizing I should loosen up a bit and not take myself so seriously in book form just as I had been doing in blogs, but none since were as enjoyable as this one. Probably because this was the first time I wrote all practice and no theory. Not something I’ll do much of, because after all my life is boring by choice, but a fun change of pace. A writer should always take a vacation periodically ( I feel sorry for the fiction writers trapped in a series/character because of economic considerations ). I hope you enjoyed the journey as well ( and don’t worry, more books are shortly on their way ).

END BOOK

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Thursday, March 5, 2015

frugal living 26

FRUGAL LIVING 26

RELATIONSHIPS

I am one of the worlds worse relationship advice sources possible, at least if you want a healthy one. I am one of the best as far as being paranoid and alerting you of danger, but even I’d be one of the first to admit that the relationship you get out of that would largely be a self-fulfilling prophesy. I’ll just say this, before we get into frugal living and relationships. Don’t bed a gal unless you expect to support her and her child for twenty years. Whether you will be with her, or help raise your offspring, is beyond your control. If she isn’t a lying low-down satanic snake, good for you. You won the lottery. Look, all I’m saying here is that if you get into any relationship, you must know you are rolling the dice and you might lose. I know I have “idiot” or “sucker” tattooed on my forehead, at least in an ink discernable only to females ( because, believe me, when I look in the mirror all I see is pretty ), but I can’t be the only schmuck out there. When you reward a behavior, you get more of it. And females are today quite well rewarded to play the Suffering Victim Card, so don’t be surprised if one turns herself into one, even if it takes some contortioned moves ( I understand that there are a minority of fems out there who get screwed over. But I’d imagine there are very few of you. Mostly, you got cheated on. If you were hit, and you are still with the guy, it is your own fault. If you are smart, you bought a copy of “Burning Bed”, and brought that home with a quart of charcoal lighter fluid and a Bic lighter. If you’re worried about him using that on you, just snip his brake lines. The future new boyfriend from work can show you how if you ask him after rubbing his crotch and showing him some cleavage. The one thing most likely that will never happen is you lose your kid and 75% of your wages most of your life, so by rights this is only directed at guys ).

Now, I know even after all of that, you guys are still in full rut and so will be all over any willing female showing the slightest interest. That is just the nature of guys. We roll like that. We are so easy to control, I have about zero compassion for gals who claim otherwise. You all must be REALLY bad in bed if you can‘t use sex to control your man. I’m talking corpse like stillness, looseness akin to a deflated balloon and the imagination of a coma victim. Damn, I just described the last three wives ( sadly, I’m serious ). So the question before us is, will I still be able to have a girlfriend after I start living frugally. By my experiences, it doesn’t seem likely. BUT. As I said, my experiences are a tragedy, so listening to me might be skewing the data. I’m inclined to believe your chances do not change. If you are a stud in town, you will probably be in the country. Maybe. How the hell could I know? I’ve overachieved half the time, finding partners that should have been out of my league, and then underachieved after that. I have zero clues about women after thirty years and four marriages. If I did, would you be reading this for free?

Many women are only looking at your ass to see the thickness of your wallet. Others won’t care. Your odds of attracting one shouldn’t change if you have a lot less money, more likely the TYPE of women might change, and you might be having trouble finding that new type rather than being an unattractive prospect altogether ( I’m pretty sure the ladies always find us, contrary to our egos ). Like socioeconomic types attract. I can’t guarantee anything, but I’d advise you to not worry overly much about the prospects of a relationship in your new lifestyle ( reminding you, again, about how much this particular advise is worth ). I won’t go into dragging a current relationship with you against her will. For that, read my book “Survival Divorce”. Just beware giving up that fight, because now she owns you ( if you need, you bleed. Neediness is your number one track to failure with females. Of course you NEED sex. You just need to let her know you don’t need it from her ). If she won’t go, won’t embrace frugality, you are better off starting with another relationship. If you are scared you won’t find another women out there, your life is now out of your control and the current fem owns you. Work two jobs for all her credit cards, sign over your paychecks to her, and get ready to die young and in pain from stress and blue-balls ( she despises you for your weakness- you think she is going to uncross her knees for a worm like you? ).

Or, just pretend you never read this section. I know how to live damn cheap. I don’t much know women.

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Wednesday, March 4, 2015

2 of 2 today

FRUGAL LIVING 27

ENTERTAINMENT

Prior to about 2005, the year everything went to crap and will be the last year that happens ( because there won’t be a restart or recovery. Welcome back to 1973, forever ), there were a few constants that we could all look forward to as a slight compensation for a life less good. Gasoline was artificially low ( think about the retarded bloviating the American public does when gas goes about twenty five cents, or a dollar, or a buck and a half. You could give the mother humpers a nickel a gallon and they would bitch if it went to six cents. For what it is, what it delivers, what it went through to get here, gasoline, especially compared to a sickly and anemic Greenback, is artificially low in price by orders of magnitude ). Food was almost free. And in any luxury combo you wanted ( high fat, high animal protein, imported half the globe away ). Anyone could work a job requiring little more than showing up on time and following instructions, with compensation ( for what it could buy ) way above what the work was worth. And, lastly, entertainment was also nearly free ( the price structure built on time of delivery after production. Movies cost more than videos which cost more than cable which cost more than TV, etc. ). The bad news is, almost all of that is gone, victim to cost cutting, recourse depletion, triage and greed. The good news is, they are still entertaining us at the same subsidized rate ( just don’t expect it to last forever ).

Now, of course, you aren’t REALLY getting anything at a cut rate price. It is just the costs are hidden. Cheap gas was paid for by our wars, a trillion bucks a year in defense spending ( which, granted, was mostly free as in deficits that will never be paid back expect from the corpses during any economic collapse ), ex-soldiers with lifelong severe disabilities. Cheap food is paid for in abandoning the security of decentralization, in health costs as food is divorced from nature, etc. But extra cash up front, we still have cheap entertainment even if we can’t afford gas or food or be employed ( ignore the artificial low gasoline cost now-it will go up. Then back down. Then not be available at any price as all the loans to extremely expensive drilling costs dry up before the oil does ). Right now, procure as much nearly free to free entertainment as you can, and stockpile it as much as possible. You can still buy blank VHS tapes, still get the machines. If TV is your thing, tape lots of shows on the low resolution setting ( I forget how much a tape lasts like that. Eight hours? Six? ). You’ll need it later as stations go bankrupt. Love reading? You can store a lot of books in a small space, to the point you have no idea what you own. And they can still be had for a quarter each, carefully procured. As well as the free e-books by the thousands ( and when you solar power recharge the readers battery, running costs are zero ).

Entertainment costs for now and the future should be so low that they barely register on your budget. And a little will go a long way as you fill up your time commuting by bike, cooking everything from scratch, raising some of your own food ( something I don’t really cover as it is done in millions of other places ), picking up aluminum cans or whatever else brings money. Entertainment won’t be needed to fill unemployed days- it will be just like now for your spare time at the end of the day. Just take steps in anticipation of free entertainment going the way of affordable bacon.

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FRUGAL LIVING 25

MEDICAL INSURANCE

I don’t know why any sane person would think anything coming from the lips of Obammy The ( White ) House Negro ( for those lacking any residual curiosity for learning and view books as funny looking movie scripts, a House Negro [ or usually, the other N word ] was a selected slave who was allowed to dwell in the house of the master as butler or man servant or such and was fed and clothed better than the field hands, a nicer, softer servitude in return for which he felt no solidarity to his brothers in chains ) ever approached the status of truth, logic or intelligence. The man is nothing more than a suntanned Bush, evident to all who see his actions without bothering to hear the propaganda. Yet, suddenly, as his large floppy lips began their inevitable motion, an activity that only ceases when the required Oral To Master Central Banker Rectal Administration is called for ( one imagines, several times a day since there are trillions to be administered, then further trillions, etc. ), suddenly everybody has a divinely inspired understanding that We Must All Be Insured Now And If We Aren’t We Shall All Die An Inglorious Death Immediately. Out of the blue, health care must be had by all! And the flaming retarded moronic mob of a public goes along with it as if Baby Jesus Himself had degreed it. It’s a mite embarrassing, especially since insurance costs will now double ( for the lucky few ) or go up even higher, and is blatantly nothing more than another banker bailout. Funny how I lived for thirty years and was only covered for a few of those. Why didn’t I spontaneously combust without insurance? I mean, if some illegal immigrant knows what is good for me, shouldn’t I listen?

Having medical insurance is a White People Problem, like having enough minutes on your cell phone or living by a good school or the cost of Fair Trade coffee beans. If you are poor, and there are more and more of us here in these “greatest country on earth pinky promise” United States, you don’t get insurance. If you have a cavity, you pull the tooth for $200 rather than spend $2,000 on crowns and crap which is mostly about cosmetics ( I was astounded by the ten year difference between dentist visits, the first working with my limited budget, the second trying hard to push all the better cosmetic options- and the second was at the Sliding Scale clinic! ). If you get sick, you take care of it yourself with some suffering. If it is life threatening you go to the ER and pay them back for the next five years ( don’t be too nonchalant about paying them back these days as they love wage garnishment and asset forfeiture ). I’ve already spent one quarter to one third of my life in economic indentured servitude. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay some doctors to turn me into a walking-with-a-walker zombie full of twenty kinds of drugs to stay alive so I can work when I’m 80 paying for their golf lessons and turning their kids into Harvard Humpers. I’m NOT going to the doctors if I can possibly help it. I’ll stay alive longer, not being exposed to Super Germs, or, I’ll die early but unaware of it prior so I’ll have less stress.

I’m not suicidal, I’m just aware that refrigeration and modern sanitation have done more to elongate our lives than any medical advances. Doctors are great for sudden catastrophic injuries. For keeping you going way after your expiration date, not so much. And certainly not for counteracting effects such as radiation poisoning, hydraulic fracturing toxins in your drinking water or the probably hideous metamorphoses your cells undergo from Genetically Modified Organisms. I’ve had fifty years of 99% health issue free living ( knock on wood! ) and will have another ten to twenty. I know my time being up will not be on my preferred schedule. Tough cookies. Medical insurance is only surgery on my wallet, not a magical life extension. Even if I was silly enough to pay $200 a month for it, one third my take home pay, I’d still need to crap out another three months gross wages in a deductible. So, insurance I can’t use, one third my pay. Insurance I CAN use, two thirds my take home pay. I think I’d die of stress just from that before a medical issue took me. And if it does? That is life and rolling the dice. I could have insurance up the wazoo, and still get flattened by a car on my bike tomorrow. One of Obammy’s humping relatives from Kenya could stop by my town to visit the legal brothels tomorrow and cough Ebola on all of us. Or, hey, and when the medical and/or financial sector goes feet up in the upcoming collapse, all that money you spent on insurance is suddenly null and void. Your best bet for an improved life is not medical insurance, but doing what we are talking about, living frugally. Much less stress, far more exercise and much better food since you can’t afford processed crap or fast food.

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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

frugal living 24

FRUGAL LIVING 24

UTILITIES

REFRIGERATION

As touched on before, you can relatively cheaply provide conventional refrigeration by buying the plug in commercial unit ( around $50 ) that is built specifically to turn a chest freezer ( under $200 ) into a fridge. Running around ten hours a day you can probably assume 400 watts-about a third of a conventional unit. If you were paranoid about your solar exposure and bought extra panels to take into account cloudy weather, call it $500 for 300 watts. You’ll need a few extra batteries to get you through a week, so just call it an even thousand bucks. Not much more than a regular household fridge and probably cheaper than a propane unit ( which are energy pigs-two tanks a month ). If you kept the unit in a root cellar or at least on the north side of your home you should enjoy a fridge with minimal cost. Of course, there are those times when the sun just refuses to come out. I have enough issues with minimal energy draw, so I’d hate to chance it. I think an actual old fashion ice box is a much better bet. That only takes 90 watts for an hour or two and that is only during the non freezing season when you get all that sunshine anyway ( “sunshine to dollars” book. Worth every penny, the source of most of my solar experiments. I’ve also been told it is free online, so do a search ).

Now, an ice box is good enough for most of our needs- dairy and condiments and keeping meat for half a day until cooking. I never cook leftovers, and if you do that is just a lazy habit that cost you $1,000 for a fridge. Dairy you can actually keep without a fridge, as well as all condiments except mayonnaise ( in the summer, I don’t trust it at all, but the rest of the year I can safely keep it a week without worry, down underground ). A fridge is really not strictly necessary although nice to have to assure food safety. For dairy, cheese keeps just fine for the hard variety if you wrap it in a slightly vinegar wetted cheesecloth. Butter is kept a week, easily, if you place it in a butter crock which is an upside down butter dish in a water filled larger dish. The water keeps the air out ( clean the butter dish after each week when you add butter. And, no need to buy a crock, just use a thin glass for the butter placed upside down in a larger glass with some water in it ). I don’t need either method, as my underground hovel stays cool enough- in fact, the butter only softens in the hottest summer months in which case I only bring home one stick at a time ( I freeze meat at work, one of the perks of having walk-in freezers, and bring home a bit at a time, and keep the butter there during the summer ). Eggs keep if you place them in a large enough container so water covers all of them- same principle as the butter. As for not having a freezer, I used to buy that nights dinner meat each evening after work. Once that got too expensive I started using works freezer. If you have to, can your meat rather than freeze it. That will be my next step if I’m ever unemployed ( if I even can afford to do so-it might be seven days a week lacto-vegetarian rather than my current two ). To duplicate living underground, when you actually don’t, just dig as deep a hole as you can manage and have an insulated cover for it. Lower a five gallon poly bucket on a rope, with a twist off top, with your dairy inside. That should stay pretty cool.

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Monday, March 2, 2015

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FRUGAL LIVING 23

UTILITIES

ROCKET STOVE

A rocket stove isn’t exactly a new idea. I have, from a loyal minion, a one piece clay stove similar but not as enclosed which is traditional in the Philippines for saving fuel. And there is the Dakota Hole which is just a straight hole down with one at its side which is at an angle intersecting the bottom of the straight hole, where you feed sticks into the slanted and place your pot over the straight. Less light, a tactical consideration, and no heat loss from the earthen insulation. A rocket stove is made from cheap material and made for the tropics where you couldn’t dig in the moist soil, but using the same concept. A rocket stove is merely a way to draw air in at the same intake as the fuel and concentrate the flame under a pot at the top ( shaped as an L ), so there is no wasted heat escaping from the bottom sides of the pot as on a stove top, nor in every other direction as on a camp fire. It saves fuel for regions with overpopulation and hilltops denuded of vegetation from cooking fuel needs. If you are still saying to yourself, geez, I have no idea what this idiot is saying, just think of the Great Depression Hobo Stove. An empty coffee can turned upside down so the opening is in the dirt, with a small door on the side at the bottom, and at the top, a few holes punched in the sides. You feed the sticks of wood into the door and the holes at the top draw the fire up ( if you don‘t punch holes in the sides, put a few rocks around the rim of the top and have a hole in the middle under the pan ). That is the first American rocket stove.

Now that you know about the Hobo Stove and the Dakota Hole, I trust you won’t be swayed by commercial versions of the Rocket Stove. You can so easily make your own it is a world class crime to consider paying some damn fool a hundred bucks to do it for you. Go online and see the hundreds of homemade versions. A word of warning from one reader, do NOT use the concrete cinder block version as in time the intense heat causes them to become very brittle and shatter. Use fire brick. They are cheap enough and you can even use them with a mud mortar if you want to easily move them elsewhere later. Just buy them now as they are affordable and stack them to one side for future use if you have little use for it today. But in the future, this stove can replace your propane one ( in my case, having no forests here, I’m saving the sagebrush for future fuel. If you don’t have this lack of fuel issue, you can switch over now ). And once you see it in action, you’ll never want to use a regular camp fire again. For those fools still wanting to buy one, whining about camping or some such, just use the coffee can version. It is lightweight, replaceable ( there are still a few brands sold in a metal can-I’d stock up on those as it seems to be an endangered species. Yes, resource draw-down deniers [ “any decade now, .22 rimfire will become cheap and plentiful again” ], even regular metal is become scarcer and more dear as the remaining ore is so diffuse the refining needs huge fuel and machinery inputs ), and while not as pretty will do the job adequately. What are we, a bunch of friggin girls comparing how much crap costs for social brownie points? Rugged manly men take junk and create tools, and call city pukes who spend money effeminate metero-sexuals.

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FRUGAL LIVING 22

UTILITIES
SOLAR

We’ve covered the fun solar, which is photovoltaic, PV, the electrical panels, wherein you get electric lights, enabling the luxuries such as TV and using the computer and watching movies and whatnot, but not the most practical which is plain old passive solar which with plain old glass and some wood and insulation allowing comfort and the ability to mostly replace propane and other costly carbon fuels. Passive solar allows you to take a two dollar line and some wooden pins and suddenly you don’t need a five hundred dollar machine using a thousand watts or massive gas use to dry your clothes. It lets you heat your home most days, or your water. Passive solar saves you the Big Bucks. You don’t need huge water drums to capture the days heat, or even a $300 factory made oven to cook your food. You can do it all with a bit of ingenuity and some scraps of material. And I’m not talking about a cardboard box and some tinfoil, which is fun to play with but won’t last longer than the next strong wind. A few pieces of plywood makes a box, which is cut to the size of a scavenged piece of glass with hinges from a stereo system. Place rigid foam insulation inside, cover that with foil, and the outside reflectors are covered in metal sheets of shiny metal. The reflector is wood backing, cut as such \_/ on all four sides leaning away from the box and bolted down. Without a reflector, you have a warmer, but with them you have a heater. That is all those commercial ovens are. Just look on the Internet for one for sale and you can easily envision how to make your own.

For heating your dwelling, enough south facing windows do a marvelous job ( at night, cover with insulated drapes. Or, if you want frugal, a sheet of foil covered bubble wrap they sell in Home Despot for a buck a foot, cut to fit the window, and a wool blanket or comforter clamped on to the curtain rod over that ). If they are lacking, or too small, build some solar troughs. A rectangle piece of wood, with a underside of insulation, the sides and top and bottom two by fours, with an air intake bottom and outlet at the top, the insides painted flat black and a glass sheet caulked to the top of the 2x4’s, the whole contraption at an angle leaning against the side of the dwelling with the top set inside a cracked window ( with squishy foam stuffed in the cracks almost as you would install a window air conditioning ), is you basic window solar heater. If you create a series of baffles inside on alternating sides, more pieces of 2x4, it lets the air flow slow and warm up further, the air shifting left then right as it moves upward to the window outlet. At night or in clouds, close off the opening into the house. Alternately, if you place a long sheet of light weight metal hung from the interior curtain rod and painted flat black as it faces the window, this allows the heat entering the room to be increased.

For a less efficient but dirt cheap water heater, take a plastic ice chest, such as you take camping with beer and ice. A junked one without the lid is ideal, or if your glass piece is small, cut a hole in the top and caulk the glass in place ( if it is larger than the cooler box, just remove the lid and place the glass on top, held down with, say, a bungee cord. I like windows still in its frame for ease of removal ). Dig a hole to place the whole box in, slanted at an angle facing south with the dirt packed up to its sides until you reach the lip. Then the glass sits atop the box and the surrounding earth. The inside is lined with foil or shiny metal sheets and the bottom has a piece of wood to elevate your water jars out of the shadow of the south facing side. Take quart Mason canning jars, each one filled to the 16 ounce line with the lids on. If you bath in the late afternoon rather than the customary early morning prior to work, the water is usually hot enough on its own to use without extra heating on the propane stove ( except in the three winter months, unless Gore Warming continues and then you are in luck most of the year ). Beware of leaving water filled jars in the box during deep frozen cloudy days as you make ice and the jars shatter, even if they are only half full. And there you have it. Drying clothes, heating your water, heating your home and cooking a lot of your food ( check the InterWeb for solar cooking tips ) for a few bucks each. Passive solar is fun and easy.

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