Notes From The Road- Day 2

Today I drove from Twin Falls, ID to Las Vegas, Nevada. Lot's of empty country in the Great Basin. Multiple (2 or 3 I think) times gas stations were over 100 miles apart. Northern Nevada is a nice place if you like Butte's and sage brush. Also I think Nevada is where mobile homes and travel trailers come to die. Seriously it is like folks here are all trying to start their own junk yard or something. The economy here must be bad because tons of businesses are closed (in populated town, not just the old Ghost type towns and the desert) and everything is for sale. I had lunch in some town in central Nevada and I think somebody with a few bucks could buy the whole place!

Las Vegas is pretty crazy. I don't think it is a place for me. Wifey got me a real nice room at a casino for a great price which is cool though.

Today I did take some pictures but am too tired to upload them. On the bright side I ate better and consumed less caffeine today. The old body thanks me.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get to my destination. Well I am off to bed.

Be Advised

I am  going to be on the road for the next few days traveling from the wonderful PNW to Arizona. Depending on if the flee bag reasonably prices motels I stay in has the web I might not be on few days. Posts are scheduled for this period. Once down there until I get established convenience and my schedule will dictate internet usage. So if it is a hassle or I am busy then I won't be on much. 

Don't worry that I got murdered by creepy mutants in the desert if I don't reply to an email for a week or maybe two. If you don't get a response in a week or two resend because it might have slipped through the proverbial cracks. Then if you don't hear anything maybe I did actually get murdered.

Anyway I wanted to let you all know.

Blah- Travel Nightmare

An already long travel day got even longer with a 4 hour delay and a 2 hour detour. Instead of having a relaxing afternoon and getting a good nights sleep we had a terrible trip and may not sleep tonight. Tomorrow is another travel day to boot. FML

Countries I Have Been In: Brigid is to Blame

visited 17 states (7.55%)

Brigid definitely has me beat though but I am doing OK in the grand scheme of things. Still a lot of traveling to do. We are probably going to take another trip while over here and will go to Mexico when we are down that way soon enough. However broadly speaking once we are back in the states travel will stop for awhile. One toddler is hard to travel with and adding a baby would be a bridge too far. For awhile we will go camping, to the beach and home to visit.

I will bet $50 that inside of 7 years I will go to Africa for work.  The aftermath of Arab spring has yet to sort itself out and there is a wicked mess brewing in Syria. Odds are there are some more paid travel opportunities to dirty places with terrible weather where people try to kill me coming in the future.

Back From London

Spent a long weekend in London. It was pretty awesome. Might write something more on topic later if the motivation strikes me.

I hope you all had a good weekend.

Life is What Happens When You Turn The News Off

I seem to go into a sort of cycle with the news. Right now I am about sick of it. I still check out the drudge daily and if things get boring cruise the BBC. Instead of listening to the news at work I have been using a comedy show as background. I keep up enough to have a clue what is going on but really am having a hard time pretending to care.

The issues of police abuses has been weighing pretty heavily on my mind lately. Over a short time (since my being able to pay attention to these things at a relatively adult level) the changes which have occured are widespread and universally negative. Right now I do not have any additional thoughts on this topic which I am willing to share in a public venue.

Gang/ Mob attacks seem to be on the rise. The perpetrators, victims and area demographics seem to be quite consistent. The only thing that concerns me more than this is the total ambivalence of law enforcement about these crimes. The widespread efforts of government and media to conceal these events does not weigh positively into the mix either. I am not personally concerned about this. I do not frequent the kind of areas where this sort of thing has been happening. Also my life patterns, like being home at 7 to put the kid to bed, drops the odds even further. In any case it is still troubling.

Greece getting out of the Euro may almost be a foregone conclusion at this point. The idea of Euro bonds is laughable. Like cosigning for a loan your deadbeat brother in law/ whatever to get a loan it would require Germany be on the hook for things in the end. Like cosigning in general it is just a terrible idea. Banks or private markets are far better judges of who is a worthwhile risk than friends and family. I get what is in it for everybody but Germany, who actually has their financial house in order.

Also to complicate things there is significant risk to the Euro itself. As Tam put it "So Greece's profligate habits are threatening to drag the Euro under. Germany, the only wino at the bar keeping a squinty eye on the tab, is urging some restraint on Greece's part, which makes the Jerries the no-fun bad guy of the story."

The biggest way this inconveniences me is that it means I am not going to Greece which sucks. It was definitely on our short list before the mess of the last few months. Now the risk of getting stuck somewhere with a toddler in tow makes it a no travel zone for us. I guess it is a significant global risk, blah blah blah but I don't care about that.

So what did I do today?

After getting off work I came home for some quiet family time. For no clear reason I decided to make home made pizza. I had never done this but with some help from Wifey utter disaster was averted. I learned to do something new and we had a pretty good dinner. It was a nice quiet evening and I got something out of it.

It is worth noting that Dave Duffy wrote an article that inspired this one but was much better.

Anyway I hope you all have a nice quiet evening.

Commonalities in Survivalist Finances and Lifestyles

The topic of budgeting for and otherwise managing to find money to prepare came up recently. In the past other folks and I have talked about some little things that we do to make it work but the desired understanding often does not seem to translate. Today I want to try it from another angle. I know some very prepared survivalists pretty well. Some are invisible friends and with others I have more personal connections. I have noticed some commonalities in their finances which are worth noting.
-They tend to have average incomes. There are a few outlyers who are pretty well off but not what I would call rich and a few who have modest, almost poverty level incomes. That pretty much blows the "you have to be rich to be prepared" idea out of the water.
-They have a significantly below average debt load. Typically they may owe on a home/ homestead (that is fairly modest for their situation) plus MAYBE a vehicle or something else small. Certainly not a second mortgage, 2 car loans, a line of credit and 4 credit cards.

- They live pretty modestly. Vehicles are more likely to be a decade old with dings and a bit of rust then brand new and shiny. They don't have 60" flat screens in general, let alone in every room. Clothes and stuff is generally used until it is no longer servicable, well beyond the peak of technology or fashion. Many items are purchased used or at significant discounts.
- They rarely have expensive hobbies except survivalism. You don't see golfers, experimental balloonists, collectors of rare art or whatever. Though I think there are a couple pilots floating around.
- They travel rarely. You don't see many Mediteranean cruises or trips to hang out on the beach in Thailand. I am an exception to this as we travel a decent amount. Travel is important to us and we are also currently in Europe. When we go back to the states our travel budget will plummet.

- They continue preparing for a long period of time. They may have a bad season when laid off or whatever but over the long run they continue making progress.

As with a lot of things if you are having issues it is usually worthwhile to look at folks who have done what you want to do. My goal here was to try to focus on positive characteristics of people who are at least fairly successful in preparednes. I did this intentionally instead of being negative or accusatory of those who are less successful. It may be better to focus on positives and maybe it is a message folks can be more receptive of.

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now

Awhile back (I am using some stuff I wrote awhile back to cover vacation time;) I saw a post by Claire Wolfe over at her excellent blog about leaving the United States and going expat. It was well worth reading and as usual, interesting and entertaining. Anyway it is as good of a topic as any for me to write about.

Some folks are ridiculously tied to a certain area for whatever reason. I find this at best foolish and at worst utterly stupid. If something bad is happening often the smartest thing to do is to just go somewhere else, if only till things blow over.

As Commander Zero says “the first rule of disaster survival is to be somewhere else”. It could be storms, ecological disasters, war, terrorism or totalitarian governments or whatever but if something really bad is coming then you best get the heck out of the way. Some reasons are regional like hurricanes. If you live near the coast and a hurricane is coming then you had better leave. Other times it is more about individual situation. If you are part of a cultural group that it looks like is about to get the bad end of it where you are then the smart thing to do is to leave. If you are part of some sort of a group that maybe functions in a questionable legal area and it looks like the hammer is about to come down then you had better leave.

Just like any other bug out there is the question of where to go. In extreme cases it doesn’t matter and you just leave. If you were a Jew in the early 30’s in Europe going anywhere west or off the continent was a good decision as staying probably meant death. If a monster hurricane is coming then you drive inland and worry about where to lay your head after a few hundred miles. However most situations where one would seek to better their circumstances are based on economics or freedom and are less dire.

This is the case for most folks who are thinking of going Ex Pat. They aren’t happy with the direction our country is headed in and think they would be better off elsewhere. I would do a lot of research into the countries laws, its economy and history, particularly it’s political and economic stability or lack their in recent times. Out of ignorance or idealism folks could end up in corrupt, dangerous, unstable countries where it is very difficult to make a living. Somebody in the comments section of Claire Wolfe’s post said “when America gets the flu everyone else gets cancer” which is worth considering. More to the point many of the criticisms that could be applied to the contemporary USA could definitely be applied to numerous South and Central American countries. I fear a lot of folks would really just be jumping out of the kettle and into a smaller hotter pot.

I am really hesitant to give specific advice on this one because its viability is so dependent on the country you plan to go to and your personal situation. The two most basic factors are probably economics and language. Do your business or job skills readily translate to the place you plan to go? Can you speak the language enough to really get along? Being able to order drinks and dinner and ask where the bathroom is works for a week on the beach but not for conducting business or earning a living.

I would say that these two questions go a long way towards answering the question of whether a potential move is a good choice for you. If the answer to both is yes then it may well be a viable option. You speak the language and can earn a living and thus can probably make it. If the answer to either one is no that is a problem. If the answer to both is no, unless you are facing likely death or detention, you would be well advised to find another destination or stay at home.

Other questions like immigration status are important. However if you can make money and speak the language it will, especially in a country that has fairly lax enforcement policies figure itself out eventually. Culture is important also and to be happy you need to not hate where you are. Do you share some traditions and religion with the locals? What is their view of random Americans? What is the security situation like? The last thing you want in a dangerous place is to be the supposedly rich white person everybody hates and targets that can’t afford good private security in a country where it is hard to get a gun.

Personally I would not hesitate to move to another region or country if it would drastically improve my family’s situation. However I would have to be pretty sure it would actually be an improvement. I can’t think of another country that, on the overall balance would be an improvement over the good ole USA and we are not particularly good candidates for that sort of transition anyway. There is a lot to be said for the devil you know.

Edited to include:
I stumbled onto FerFal being interviewed on Jack Spiro's Survival Podcast. I listened to most of it while making brunch yesterday morning. It is worthwhile to hit on some background. FerFal is a native of Argentina. He has been trying to get the heck out of South America for awhile and recently moved to Northern Ireland. Let's think about that. He speaks the language and is part of the culture and also has family and business connections. So his situation for moving to one of the various Central/ South American countries that folks speak about is vastly better than pretty much anybody living in the US who is considering moving to someplace in Central/ South America. He did not go to any of the places folks talk about online. Furthermore he mentions that many, if not all, of the people suggesting movining down there either have some sort of interest in the whole thing or are living stateside and while well intentioned, are totally clueless.

It is also worth noting that his goal was to move to America but he couldn't pull it off legally, despite trying for years. Yes a guy who has experienced an economic collapse and is a native of South America really tried to move to the US. Read that again and let it sink in for awhile.

He suggested that folks in the US first consider moving to another state that is more in line with their beliefs on gun rights, taxes, economic freedom, etc all.  While circumstances vary widely that is probably really good advice. States in the US vary widely in a lot of ways. For all practical purposes California and Wyoming (just to name a totalitarian dump and a pretty free place) could be different countries entirely.

Sort of on this topic Claire Wolfe linked to a site where you can supposedly (no reason to say it isn't on the up and up but I cannot verify it) get citizenship and a passport from the Dominican Republic for about 13 G's. That is nothing to sneeze at but it is an amount that a fairly average person could pull offwith some prioritization and planning.

Plans

Deployments are sort of like prison. You spend your time doing whatever job you are assigned and trying not to get hurt or killed but in all the other hours of the day there isn't much to do but work out and think about what you are going to do when you get out. I definitely did my share of lifting. I am breaking or approaching all time records in many lifts. Not sure why it took a deployment for me to remember that I love lifting weights but I am glad I got back to it. Definitely going to keep it up back in the rear.

I am going to take a cue from John Mosby and beef up my EDC "survival kit". Incidentally if you are living under an internet rock and haven't checked out his excellent blog I strongly recommend doing so. John's background as a soldier and NCO in Ranger Regiment and the Special Forces give him tons of expertise on all sorts of things. I would say his primary concerns and mine differ but that is superficial and I get a ton out of his blog. A solid foundation of good preparation, strong individual skills and tactics are useful in a wide variety of schenarios.Plus also he carries a Glock 19 AIWB (like I do) which means he must be a man of taste and distinction.


I have saved a wad of cash over the last year and am seriously thinking about using most it to purchase a NOD (aka night vision monacle). I have no interest in doing this halfway. To me it is definitely a buy once, cry once kind of thing. It is something I had planned to do a lot later but I am kinda thinking it makes more sense to do earlier as I have a wad of cash. Shuffling other stuff back a bit is easier as those are all smaller purchases I can make more easily. Also the idea of having one big item to show for this year of my life is appealing. It is a big purchase but since I can't do it oversees (where I will be for the next several months) there is some time to think about it. Input is welcome on this one.

Beyond that my big goal for the next several months is to reestablish useful  modular systems to meet a variety of needs. We have the vast majority of the stuff but moving, life and to be honest some neglect have left our systems in serious disrepair. This will be addressed.

Also I plan to spend a ton of time with Wifey and Walker doing all sorts of cool family stuff and some traveling. Got to make the most of our remaining time in Europe. Better start saving Orbitz coupon so we can return often.

Life Update Redeployment

Wifey and Walker are back in Germany after spending the deployment home with her folks. Walker misses Amma (maternal Grandmother; no it isn't one of those weird family names it is how he pronounces Grandma) a lot and keeps asking for her. As he lived with her for a year and she was a big part of his life that makes sense. Wifey is getting settled back into our place. Apparantly I left us with no toiletpaper and forgot to take a block of cheese out of the fridge. Woopsy.

Well I am on my way out of Afghanistan. I have been done working for a couple days and have been finishing up little things, packing and getting some time to relax. Yesterday I got to sleep past 0620 for the first time since leave so that was pretty nice. Depending on weather and transportation I should be back in Germany between the next few days and a week and a half. I am looking forward to getting back to Wifey and Walker a lot. We will be taking leave shortly after I get back. Got some traveling planned but since dates are up in the air nothing is locked in yet.

I am going to resume administrative blog functions shortly. Please give Wifey some thanks because without her hard work and dedication this place would have shut down over the last year. She did a great job taking care of things even though she isn't the blogs biggest fan. I think she may have called it my mistress at least once. In any case she kept things going because it is important to me which really shows how awesome she is.

Along those lines I am pleased to say the blog faired pretty well over the last year. Aside from missing my family and the possibility of death or serious injury this place collapsing was one of my biggest worries. Things probably slipped a little in terms of readership and such but things are still going pretty well so I can't complain. I have some plans for the blog over the next couple months but will talk more about that later.

Anyway I just wanted to let you all know what is going on.

Take care of each other
Ryan

At Home

I am safely back in the wonderful PNW. The trip was a few days long and while uneventful left me totally confused in terms of time, sleep, etc. Slept like a rock last night exept one wakeup where I spent 30 seconds sitting up in bed figuring out where the heck I was.

Got to see Walker this morning (got home late last night and he as already asleep) which was pretty darn cool. He is huge and very active. Quite a change between a 4 month old and a 1 year old. Being able to drink good coffee and watch Fox News this morning was really nice. Spent a lazy morning playing with Walker and then ran around doing some errands.

I don't have many big plans for leave. Going to spend a lot of time with Wifey and Walker and try to see friends and family as much as I can. As for preparedness type goals I am going to do some gun cleaning, give the blog a facelift and that is about it.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. I know I am going to.
-Ryan

Long Day

We traveled back home today. It was a long flight and Walker was suprisingly and remarkably chill, he just slept a lot. Got a bottle of Glennfiddich 15 at the duty free for 30% off which is cool. I am eager to sample it at some point. Other than that it was nice to see some of our old stomping grounds on the ride from the airport. I had some Arby's which I was really looking forward to.

Anyway I just wanted to let you guys know we arrived safely and didn't get stuck in Philidelphia again.

Live A Little

When you read this I will be off traveling. I will be enjoying time with family and checking out a cool new city in Europe. I plan to sleep a lot (at least 9 hours a night), see all kinds of cool stuff, eat some crazy great food and enjoy the local beverages.

Things are still sort of uncertain in terms of the American economy. For a long time it was stuff every dollar under the mattress time. I am not sure that is over entirely but even if things are still the same in a long enough situation you have to get out and live every once in awhile. I don't think this is a time to do anything crazy. I wouldn't be inclined to mess with a secure job/ income stream even if it doesn't give you that great emotional satisfaction. It is probably not time to do the huge home remodel you have been planning or go out and get a new shiny car. Unless your finances are really in order I wouldn't go for the epic 6 week European trip you have been planning forever. We are traveling but we are boring people and we save a certain amount of money every month in order to fund said travel.

If you want a nice TV or to go on a trip or something then by all means save up for it. However before you spend that cash I do encourage you to make sure your overall house is in order first. If that $500 or $1500 or whatever would be aweful useful for an emergency fund or some basic preps then maybe you should rethink the purchase.

Anyway I am off traveling Europe. Have a great day.

Happy Thanksgiving

As is appropriate I have spent some time today thinking about what I am thankful for. I have a lot to be thankful about for sure. I am very thankful that Walker is well and we are all able to spend this holiday together as a happy little family. While it has medically been a crazy couple months for us we all appear to be in good health. I am thankful that we aren't struggling to keep a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs. I am thankful that between preps and saving we can feel pretty secure about our overall situation. I am thankful that my sister is here and we are going to do some traveling this weekend.

It occurs to me that most of the things I am thankful for are directly or indirectly the result of my own choices. I/ we could make choices that created animousity and unhappiness in our home. We could choose to be idle or underemployed and struggle for basics like shelter and food. We could spend beyond our means and have constant worries about money. Of course luck is a factor. Right now lots of decent hard working folks are either unemployed or seriously underemployed and really struggling. If they live well within their means and have some savings they are better off but in a long enough under/ unemployment most everybody will start to have serious problems. Folks can make the right choices and have continual health issues.

It has been a pretty good Thanksgiving so far. Went to bed pretty early yesterday and slept till almost 10. Had a pretty relaxing morning just chilling out then Little Sis, Walker and I went to do some local sight seeing. It is pretty good holiday weather. Right around freezing with a bit of snow on the ground. Just enough to cover rooftops, trees and lawns giving the nice scenic winter look but not enough to muck up the roads and make it hard to get around. The food is cooking and we are all sitting around and talking. Shortly it will be coctail and appetizer time which is always fun.

We are having a sort of 'Orphans Thanksgiving' as always. Wifey cooks a bunch of food and we invite everybody who can use a place to go and feed whoever comes. Relatives, neighbors, co workers or whatever. It makes for interesting groups of people but is good times.

Well I am going to go and enjoy a lot of food, some great scotch and family.

Happy Thanksgiving

Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving and a Reasonable Christmas

My sister has been able to come over here for awhile and will be here for Thanksgiving which is pretty cool. We are going to have a quiet hodge podge Thanksgiving tomorrow. I'm sure looking forward to a relaxing day full of laying around, good food and drink.

It is about the time that if you aren't a real early shopper you are getting into gear for Christmas. I urge you to only spend what you can honestly afford. People who are worth giving to wouldn't want you to spend money you can't afford on stuff for them. Here are some ways that have helped us to spend reasonably.

First is to crunch the numbers and figure out what you have to spend. This sounds so stupidly basic but it is impossible to spend within your means if you do not know what your means are. It could be $50 or $5,000, the number isn't so important as having accurately identified what you can afford.

Next is to stick to the number you have figured out. I find it best to separate this kind of pool of money lest it intermingles with normal operating funds. You might then find yourself with a lot of nice presents and short on rent or with some extra groceries or fun money and not much for presents. In any case either way it is not the desired result. Maybe use a spare bank account or something. If things are real tight it is hard to bust a budget if you have an envelope of cash.

To make that amount I find it very helpful to identify who you are buying for and come up with a pretty firm amount you can spend per person. I'm talking you are buying for X people and have Y dollars so assuming you want to spend the same amount on each person it would be Z a piece. Of course you do not have to spend the same amount of money on each person. If you want to spend half your budget on one person then divide the rest up that is cool so long as it all adds up. The reason you need to do this is so that you don't realize you've spent 3/4's of your money on 1/4 of the presents you need to buy and end up going over to close the difference. I personally suggest for those on a tight budget keeping a reserve of 10-20 percent. This is helpful first because especially in places with sales tax everything costs weird amounts. A thing that says $20 on the tag is $21 out the door which is problematic when your $200 budget needs to purchase 10 gifts. Also there is always that one time when you find a perfect gift for someone which is just a bit more then you planned.

Have a wonderful holiday season but don't go broke doing it.

Guest Post Book/ Movie Review of The Road

A Review of  The Road By Cormac McCarthy or as I Like to Call it: How Not to Survive After A Disaster.


I read the novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy and then after a few days of letting the story marinate, I watched the movie. Frankly, the book is better (it always is) but the director did a fabulous job with the movie. Obviously, large parts of the book were left out of the movie in the interests of time and flow, but the movie didn’t suffer for the editing. I am not going to lie, I cried like a little girl in some places. In other parts I wanted to jump right into the book and shake some sense into the main character, the man. In a survivalist situation, when you are doing everything you can to avoid being eaten by roving gangs of cannibals, who in their right mind makes nightly fires? Why not just stuff a moldy apple in the kid’s mouth, set him up on a platter and ring the dinner bell?

The book and movie should certainly not be taken as a manual on how to survive in the aftermath of a global cataclysmic event. As a piece of literature that explores issues of humanity, father and son relationships and questions our morals and ethics in the face of tragedy, it is a good read and may even get you thinking. It will certainly put you off light colored meat for awhile and have you hoarding all the fruit salad and ammo that you can.

From a preparedness point of view, this novel is incredibly disappointing. Through flashbacks, the reader is given multiple glances into the lead up to the disaster, as well as the time immediately following it. The man is knowledgeable enough to know that he needs to fill the tub with drinkable water before it is shut off, but doesn’t seem to do much disaster planning. The boy is born just after the disaster and the story begins when he is about nine or ten. One of the flashbacks shows the family still at their home and the child is about seven years old. We aren’t told what they have been doing in the interim, except that they have used all but two of the bullets in their one gun. They have a home with food and clothing and creature comforts that they leave for an unknown reason, yet they haven’t banded together with any of their neighbors or friends?

They even stumble upon an emergency shelter loaded with clean food, water and shelter and leave it to continue on his quest for the coast. In the presence of such a hoard of food, I find it incredibly difficult to imagine that a starving man and child would be able to walk away from it. As a literary device it works well to show how humanity can snap back in place when essentials aren’t in scarce supply, however, common sense dictates that he would make camp in the area and continue to forage food and supplies to ensure that he and the boy built up their immune systems and energy reserves. The shelter is stocked with bullets that do not work with his gun, so he leaves them there, rather than cart them along as items to barter and trade or use in an improvised fashion for self defense. 

Rather than continue to rag on the book for what it didn’t do, I would rather focus on three things it did do that put me into quasi panic mode and made me reevaluate my plans.

1.    Made me conscious of how little I have prepared myself for life without verifiable maps and the ability to navigate without a GPS. The Man and the boy follow the highways and open road on their quest to find the coast. This is incredibly dangerous as it leaves them open to attack from all of the threats present in the book. They do not seem to have a choice as their shopping cart could not make it through the brush of the forests. I had to question how I would have handled it differently. Would a simple plank frame sledge dragged through the forest be any better? It would leave tracks and be easy to follow and difficult to handle. Would a compass still be a viable guide?

2.    Kill or be killed? Is holding on to their morals really the most appropriate way to survive? When they meet up with other people on the road, they often give the strangers the benefit of the doubt, leaving themselves open to attack. Why didn’t they form an alliance with at least one other adult for protection? That way they wouldn’t be sleeping unguarded at night, the boy wouldn’t have had to remain alone unguarded while the man foraged for wood and food and they would have had far more options for self defense.

3.    In an apocalyptic situation, is survival really the only consideration? What about rebuilding a civilization? The book mentions communes and cannibalistic tribes as well as nomadic gangs of men and permanent homesteaders farming people. But are there no groups of like-minded people with knowledge and skills available to create a safer community of refugees? By merely surviving are they in fact ensuring their extinction? In living a day to day hard scrabble existence, they cannot plan for the future. How is the man such a dead shot when he has been carrying around two shots in his gun for over three years without shooting it? Practice is essential for any type of specialized skill. Gardening and animal husbandry are impossible thanks to the bleak conditions and the need to continually move along. How has this scenario changed my preparations for potential disasters and emergencies? Hugely; I am rethinking most of my plans and reassessing my viable skills.

All in all, both the movie and the book got me thinking long and hard about the steps I have taken so far to prepare and the things I still need to do. The biggest item I am lacking is knowledge. Educating myself more about homesteading practices, basic outdoorsman-ship and personal health care and protection would be far more useful than a majority of the gadgets that I have stockpiled. I may end up somewhere far from my stash, but I will always have the training in how to create a natural water filter or know which potential vegetation is edible and which is akin to hazardous waste. The book and the movie are certainly not for the faint of heart and will not help you sleep better at night, but they will get your brain working and inspire you to do a better job of prepping for the potential future.


Lucas Gregson is a Personal Security Plan specialist with a keen interest in prepping and home security. He advocates for sensible self defense training and the enjoyment of a good book but not at the same time.

New Years Resolutions IPR #3

 Lined through are completed.

My goals for this year.

Personal:
1. Pay more attention to my wife. This one is continual but I can reasonably say it is going well.
2. Travel a lot.  We went to Croatia, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic. May make it to Paris just before years end.

Personal Stuff:
3. We can use a few smaller things like a new TV and another laptop. The main push however is to get a reliable second car which we pay cash for. The first car is still plugging along but I think when we get a better second one and it is relegated exclusively taking me to work and back its life would be greatly extended.

Financial:
4. Stash some more Euro's. Say E400 or so. A good chunk into this one. Will probably just finish it off in one shot at some point.
5. Contribute 10% of our total take home to retirement.
6. Stash at least a half an ounce of gold  and 40 ounces of silver. Just started on the silver. Don't think we will make 40 ounces but oh well.
7. Continue to not make stupid choices.

Skills:
8. Take an automotive class.  They offer them on base and I need to know more about car repair. 
This one got replaced by brewing some beer which I did.
9. Be able to setup and trouble shoot a small solar setup.    Sorta mute since I went with a solar charger and a bunch of eneloop batteries.

Preparedness Stuff :
10. A good radio that can pick up everything. Probably a Grundig.
11. Maybe a Berkey water filter and maybe some spare elements for it and the portable filter.
12. A basic solar setup. 

Gun Stuff:
12. Buy a full case of .223
13. Buy a full case of 9mm. (I am going to call this complete because it is funded)
14. Glock 9mm mags. At least 10 and ideally closer to 20.
15. Some M1a mags. At least 10 and ideally closer to 20.
16. A few more spare parts and at least one AR15 full bolt carrier group.

Food Rotation:
17. Get a pressure canning setup and can something.

This one just isn't going to happen. We can't get any of the stuff locally and paying shipping negates any financial benefits. I am willing to do it just for the sake of the skill but not with that hassle.

18. Get a dehydrator and dehydrate something. Jerky is good and so are banana slices.

And Just To Get To An Even 20......
19. Get a subscription to Backwoods Home Magazine and otherwise work on my self sufficiency/ preparedness library.
20. Join a gun rights organization.

Time for discussion. Things are going pretty well. All the more expensive goals have been met.

Oh yeah and click on my advertisers links and  buy lots of their stuff.


Thoughts?

Voluntary Simplicity

I got to thinking about what voluntary simplicity really means to me. I know it's corny but lets look at both words first. Voluntary means " proceeding from the will or from one's own choice or consent" and simplicity is "the state of being simple, uncomplicated, or uncompounded". So basically you're choosing to have a simple life. A guy who has no skills and generally isn't particularly employable, works at McDonald's and lives in a travel trailer isn't practicing voluntary simplicity. That is just his life. Versus a guy who makes 40k a year and chooses to live in a travel trailer and bank tons of cash who is practicing some voluntary simplicity. 

I see there being two real raw components to voluntary simplicity. How you earn and how you spend/ live. The two go together. Of course how you earn is a huge factor in how you can spend. You can't spend more than you make for very long. Also more subtly how you spend effects how you can live and earn. If you decide not to run up a bunch of debt on stuff you don't really need then maybe you can work less overtime. You can't enjoy a boat or a motorcycle much if you're working weekends and evenings to pay for it. Also if you change the way you spend you can choose to shift to a more rewarding job.

A big part of voluntary simplicity to me is about choosing HOW YOU WANT TO LIVE then adjusting your spending patterns accordingly instead of doing the opposite which is the case for far too many people. We all have different ideas of what your ideal (realistic) lifestyle is. For some it is wanting to have Momma stay at home with the kids. Other folks might want to have more free time or be able to take a month of for hunting season or work from home, retire at 55 or whatnot. This is sort of the idea that your life is more important than the stuff in your life. 

There is also a big amount of freedom which comes with voluntary simplicity. Since it generally means living well below your means with very minimal debt it is a lot easier to save. With that savings you can get even further ahead and then really have some good options. Can't quit your job if it takes a direction you really don't like when you have 2 car payments, a visa payment and generally debt up to your eyeballs. However if you have no debt and a good savings and decide to find another job there isn't anything keeping you from walking away.

For us voluntary simplicity has two real benefits. First it is flexibility. The difference between what we could realistically earn and what we need to maintain our lifestyle is such that we have flexibility/ options. Right now it is very important to us for Wifey to be at home with Walker instead of him being in day care full time and her working. Instead of having say a new BMW we choose to have our kid be raised by his mother. If we had debt and a lifestyle that required two incomes this wouldn't be an option. Remember that at the end of the day debt is the promise of future work and work represents time. If Wifey's future time was promised to a few lenders it could not be spent at home with Walker.

Secondly is security. The difference between what comes in and what we need to maintain our lifestyle is such that we have a measure of security. A lot could go wrong before we were unable to maintain our normal operating budget. We think this is a good thing.

We are pretty financially conservative. My beliefs are kind of a black and tan made of Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman and a shot of tangible investing on the side. Wifey is just really frugal. She hates spending money and loves seeing the balance of our accounts going up. Simply put if you spend everything that come in it is impossible to save. It is also very difficult to get ahead by say paying off a debt at an accelerated rate. Living at the edge of your means, in addition to being a recipe for disaster, ensures you will never get ahead or to a comfortable place. Lets just for the sake of discussion say you want to save, in various forms for various reasons (short and long term, retirement, etc) a total of 30% of your income. It isn't that much really. Figure the smart folks say you should save about 15% for retirement. The debt averse are usually also saving for the next time they need a vehicle or other mid to long term goals. Living below your means is a sort of voluntary simplicity in and of itself.

This seems to be one of those positive feedback loop situations. The further ahead you get the more freedom you have. You live below your means so you start getting ahead. That makes it easy to get debt free and save an emergency fund. Then it isn't a big deal to save for a down payment on a house. Seeing as you live a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity you buy a home you can very comfortably afford and pay it off at an accelerated rate. The whole time you are saving so you're getting even further ahead. Once you pay off your primary residence things really get moving.

I think it is important to note that voluntary simplicity is relative to your income and current lifestyle. It isn't about living exactly a certain way but relatively speaking living a simple and frugal existence. So much of it is relative. It is also worth noting that you don't need to deprive yourself of everything you like; though of course it is all relative to your unique situation. Personal finances are a marathon not a sprint. Baring huge issues like a 350k liar loan on a McMansion when you earn $16 an hour no one thing sinks you. You can realistically choose a couple things that are sort of splurges which are important to you. For us it is travel, right now while we are in Europe we put a lot of money towards getting out and seeing stuff. Though we plan to take our kids on a trip here someday there is the distinct possibility that we may never come back here. Regardless it is never going to get easier or cheaper to see the sites here. When we get back to the states we will allocate far less money towards travel. Other than that we give ourselves some small flexibility to cover the relatively little stuff like designer purses and single malt scotch.

I am pretty happy with our lifestyle of voluntary simplicity. The Wifey notes that we are probably happier than most people because we aren't worrying about getting the next thing. Our next big thing is making money with our investments or meeting a new saving goal instead of a new car or some rims. I like that we aren't worried about making our bills and all that stuff. For us the benefits of flexibility and security more than equal out the downsides of the modest lifestyle we live.

I hesitate to say what is the right lifestyle for others. It is really and truly about how you want to live your life. If it is worth it for you and the Mrs. to work overtime to have a Mercedes and a Land Rover in the garage of a McMansion then who the heck am I to judge you for it. However as the Sheryl Crow song says....
"If it makes you happy. It can't be that bad. If it makes you happy. Then why the hell are you so sad".

Oregon Trail series #1 You Have Died of Dysentery

Alternate title: 3rd World Living Conditions: Water Filtration, Sanitation and OTC Meds

 Yesterday Wifey and I drove a long way. We don't listen to the radio and instead talk to each other while driving. What a novel concept. Anyway we passed a car with a trailer and a single horse somehow we got to talking about how it would be cool to have draft animals and a wagon and go camping Oregon Trail style. I said we would need an extra kid because one of them would die of dysentery. It is sort of a funny joke and I have been meaning to order the T shirt.

We both got a good laugh. Wifey then said we would also need lots of oxen to replace the ones that would die and 3 times the amount of food we actually need because it always seems to fall out of the wagon and get washed downstream at fording sites. After a second of silence I thought of something. People still die of dysentery. Almost never in America or western Europe or pretty much any other country that doesn't suck but by the thousands in Africa, less developed parts of Asia and South America. I would wager it will get some folks in Pakistan and China because of the recent flooding.

Dysentery is caused by poor hygiene. Basically you ingest some nasty stuff. In any case you catch it and start shitting your guts out. You then dehydrate massively and keep shitting and eventually you die. Dysentery spreads like wildfire because people are in close quarters and it is an environment with poor sanitation and hygiene. If 12 people are living in a little shack/ hut with poor sanitation and hygiene and one gets massive diarrhea it is going to spread.

Part of the reason that dysentery is so sad is that it is so avoidable. A bit of common sense sanitation and decent hygiene are enough to prevent dysentery all together. Prevention is as simple as regularly washing your hands, especially after going #2 and before cooking/ eating. Treatment is super simple. Re hydration and good cleanliness are usually enough. For worse cases a course of antibiotics are necessary. Simply keeping some pedialite or gatoraide around as well as soap, etc and having a plan to deal with waste is sufficient.

Our life patterns have changed dramatically in the last 100 years or so. In particular population densities in urban areas have increased and this whole suburb thing popped up. These work because almost limitless clean water is piped in and waste is piped out. However it doesn't take much to at least temporarily break those systems. Especially in densely populated areas such as the Gulf Coast all it will take is a hurricane to bring back a primitive standard of living in a hurry. If you exclude medical personnel and those with primitive outdoor experience via rugged camping or the military knowledge of primitive sanitation is woefully lacking. You can't take care of everybody but should certainly have a plan to take care of your own.

Traveling Fun

Yesterday we went to Praha (aka Prague). It was totally amazing. It is probably the most amazing city we have been to yet in Europe. Thanks to missing out on the large scale destruction other cities faced in WWII and then getting stuck behind the communist iron curtain for decades after the city is very well preserved. The food is great also. The beer is great. Thanks to a free market economy and not being on the Euro stuff is cheap. I got a nice beer stein as a souvenir for 25USD.

We drove there and spent the remainder of the day sight seeing. At about 8:30 we had a real nice dinner at a place near the castle. Headed back to our hotel from there. Woke up this morning and after a quick breakfast we did some more sight seeing. Spent the afternoon and evening driving back home. A couple staus and a bit of rain added hours to the trip. Really it was too long of a drive for a one night trip. I am pretty tired and Wifey though she lived the trip is totally done for.

That really doesn't have much to do with anything except that we did it and it was a lot of fun.