What has happened so far....

OK, here's the update and post of all posts you have been waiting for. About five years ago my wife and I started settlement proceeding against a branch of the Ontario Government for money owed .. The details as to why are known among our friends, but the bottom line is that is that this is the money we were going to use to move back to Ontario, or else where and buy a farm.

I have a passion for encryption and security culture issues. I've been working on a system to to hide encrypted message, as in hide the fact that it's encrypted to begin with. I call it stegtext after the photo version which is called steghide.

Recently I've been messing around with rotating cyphers, and came up with a really simple way to do it in php....

I've been sitting here today thinking about getting more work. I currently do house painting, trying desperately to avoid working as an information broker. Although as an information broker I make more money per job, the recession has put those projects to few and far between, I'd make more money working at McBarfs in Alberta.

Trade jobs tend to last longer when you get the work, but competition is increasing to the point that I worry about having enough work this summer. I've done swamping, which is really bad for my back, but I might have no other choice but to do it again between painting jobs.

I dropped by www.survivalistboards.com which has a sticky forum thread on the subject to see what others have come up with, and was given a few ideas, but it made me think about income after wshtf.

I think our current greatest threat is economic disaster, even here in Canada. And it is likely to be a very slow painful decent into the abyss. During the transition between this and that, property taxes will still likely be collected, my number one concern for the farm. Hence the need for a depression proof source of income.

Hello Friends...

I just launched a disaster-preparedness social networking website called Amerisafe.org that helps people in high-population areas buddy-up with people in less populated areas so that in the event of a national disaster a good portion of the population will have a safe place to go and won't have to rely on FEMA for help. As a way of helping people make connections that "fit", when you sign-up you can opt to answer profile questions on your survival skill-set, education level, faith, and ethnicity. Your APPROXIMATE geographical location will then be plotted on a geo-map and you will then be able to filter-search for potential households with which to buddy-up. Please review the site and share it with your network to help get it off the ground. The site also allows users to blog, make friends, join groups, post videos & pictures, and answer polls. It is pretty much a "Facebook" for disaster preparedness with the added philosophical idea that it will be "American Hospitality" that helps us weather "the storms" that seem to be building on the horizon.

Thank You,
Rich Seng
Amerisafe.org Producer

WARNING: Movie contains 'adult language' ....

Just letting everyone know that not all sites are up yet, and you will not be able to login to the site until I'm finished the upgrade, but I also figured that at least for now you can get a taste for what is coming to www.survivaltimes.info

... yeah, I like it too. :)

- Wolfe

HEY! Today mark's the one year we've been chatting in my den. Come and join the chat on the Rizon IRC service #preppers. (Click Wolfe's Den in the menu)

- Wolfe

I'd like to continue my opinion on investments for preppers by adding somethings that have occurred to me. These suggestions have mostly to do with a conversation I had last night with Mushroom in the chat room, which has to do with the actual preps we tend to collect.

There are three schools of thought that come to mind about investing for the future. First, people invest for retirement, that being the day they get to old to continue in the career of their choice. Second, people invest so that they can get rich, and third people invest to avoid financial disaster, (yes, otherwise known as savings).

(SOURCE)

Buying Gold when the price is close to the average price of gold for the last five years is a safe bet to maintain the buying power of your dollar. But like I said before, buying gold is safe to maintain the power of a buck, not to make a profit. The best way to look at it is that precious metals are a good source for savings, rather then investments.

Real Estate is another common investment people make in an attempt to gain ground (pun intended), in the back pocket area. Generally speaking this is a mistake, not because real estate is a bad investment, in fact it is usually a good one. The reason I say that it is a mistake is because the motives behind buying land tend to have nothing to do with what the land is used for. You've heard of the housing bubble, let me explain a reason why it happened that you have likely not heard of before.

The US housing bubble happened because of high risk hedge investments in real estate. In a nut shell, investors gave loans to people who would likely not be able to pay them back under the trends that were apparent. Those trends were that people were buying houses as investments for investment sake alone, not housing.

Imagine that you own a small manufacturing company, would you take $250,000 of your hard earned money to purchase an apartment building, or buy a new building for your company that would save you the rental loss you currently have? The latter is better because you know all the factors involved already with the location of the company, your not going to buy a place to is so far away that you loose your current client base for example. Buying a house as an investment only makes sense if you intend to use it as a house. When you buy a new home one of the factors you take into account is how far away it is from your source of income, another might be how close to schools, hospitals etc... you add up how much it will cost you per month, and decide if it is better then paying rent. Those who bought houses just for investment, did not do these things that real home buyers do, it started an investment trend that crashed badly. In other words, don't buy a farm unless you plan on being a farmer.

Currency exchange markets are another high risk investment that anyone who had money in for a length of time would tell you. Since 1971, we have had play money, fiat money is not the same thing as buying Gold Swiss coins, or French gold coins. When you exchange money based on debt or the gross domestic profit you are trading one set of political economic choices for another, which brings up something that bothers me greatly.

Many of my readers know that I am a fan of FerFal's writings, and I am sure that almost all my readers are aware that Argentina had an economic collapse back in 2001. The reasons that it happened are warning signs to North American preppers.

Argentina had a number of factors riding against it, first it took on debt to do some public projects that were never completed. Those uncompleted projects were never added to the GDP. Second, the state did a massive bailout of private debt, just like the USA bailing out General Motors and company, and one of the final nails in the coffin was the real unemployment rate at 18% , while the claim was only 5%. Eventually, after a few years of turmoil in inflation and other factors, there was a run on the banks, people exchanged their peso's for US dollars.

The interesting thing about all this at the moment is that it has been less then ten years since the peak of these events took place, and although Argentina has not yet recovered, some things are really scary.

First, the US external debts to a percentage of their GDP is 94%, while Argentina is only 35%! Second, Domestic debt within the USA is 52% of the GDP, while Argentina is only 49%! If all debts were paid off today, the USA would be in the hole 49% of it's total credit value (GDP), while Argentina would be ahead by 16% of it's GDP!

That is not to say that you should go and invest in Argentina, but it is important to note that if you were a bank and both countries were clients, you'd be more interested in loaning money to Argentina then the USA, they owe to much.

So what investments should a Prepper be making now? My first suggestions still apply, but I would have to say that beyond a small percentage of your savings being placed into Gold (assuming you can purchase it around the average price, not current price), would be to invest in paying off your debts as soon as possible. Another would be to reduce your need for money, buying land to live on, good idea if you can pay it off, finally investing into a business that is production based, and the raw materials to maintain it's source of income would be the final suggestion for today.

• Wolfe

We just got off the phone with the legal department for the settlement. So I have an update on when we will be moving, etc.

Here the news in a nut shell. Sometime between JUNE 15th 2010, and AUGUST 10th 2010, one of two things will happen.

A) We will be buying a farm, which means we will be offline most of the time while we move, visit a bunch of farms in the area we are moving to, buying the place, and unpacking etc.

B) We have to appeal. OUCH.

If we accept the settlement, (of which for the record is actually two separate cases, not one), there will be a major shift in what we are doing, I will try to update this blog via what ever access we have at the hotels along the way. I know that if we found the farm we wanted on the first of the following month it would take about 30 days to finish the purchase on average. (Have to get inspected, check the land titles etc) There may also be a delay due what ever harvest is already there. Then we have to get the internet hooked up, unpack, and stock up. So I have no idea how long the actual move will take, it could take MONTHS!

Isn't life fun! (insert scream here)

-Wolfe

Ok, 48 days to go and I just wanted to post a quick update.

I was reading “Dies the Fire” by S. M. Sterling, when it hit me. Farming without Oil is going to be living hell. If you happen to have a farm in the most ideal spot on earth the total number of days from planting to harvest is 260. If it takes a newbie like myself to use a horse and plow one full day to get a single acre ready for planting for the first time, the max size farm I should be looking for now is 30-60 acres of fertile land for planting. OUCH. That's full time sweat, blood, and tears of work for two months, without a day off, and the only climate zone in Canada that would allow that, is right here in British Columbia, not counting the crappy soil that is available to buy. For the Amish, whose farming methods we might find ourselves stuck with, a 70 acre farm is the larger farm. I think I'll go cry for a minute.

Introduction:

Before I begin this post, I need to clarify two things. First, I am not a stock broker, I am an information broker, and there is a huge difference. Stock brokers deal with trade-able certificates of shares in public companies, Information Brokers deal with data, research and the like, often hired primarily to find information and translate it into layman's terms. I am not offering financial advise here, but rather how to get it. Second, my purpose is to inform the average survivalist on certain limited aspects of money, investments, and getting the information you need to make informed decisions to keep the buying power of your dollar rather then make more. In other words, if you want to learn how to make money off of investments your reading the wrong blog, if however you want to be able to buy a roll of toilet paper for the same amount of effort in the future as it costs you in labor today, keep reading.

How would you like to have a fake set of fingerprints? Sounds like every privacy advocates wet dream right? Wrong!

A chain of thought is like a chain letter, in this case anyway.

I am currently not feeling to well, and was just trying to relax tonight, so I figured I do a be of reading when I came across a post I think you should all read.

It's on The American Energy Crisis blog, and he got it from Zero Hedge, so I'll just point you in that direction. But before I do, I'd like to add my two cents worth.

This is something that is not new, nor is it only being thought of by Preppers and libertarians alike. This economic crisis is something that can not be avoided, but what is more important then that is what Greg T. Jeffers says in the last sentence on the post...

READ IT HERE

- Wolfe

Howdy friends!

Spring has sprung, the snow has (mostly) melted, and I have another deal for you on the SurvivalCD.com website.

I have been working quite a bit on the SurvivalRing website, with new downloads, new articles, and the next newsletter coming out in the next week or so (between 20 and 30 pages long...and free, as usual).

This new sale, the SurvivalCD Tax Time Sale, is only good through the end of April, only 12 days away.

What's special about this sale?

Take a look at our salespage at http://www.survivalring.or g/survivalcd/?page_id=355 .

You'll find FOUR different HIGHLY DISCOUNTED package opportunities.

A 5 CD, 5 DVD, Digital Membership, & 1 Year SRCC Forum subscription, and MORE! $60

A 4 CD, 1 DVD, 1 Original Hard copy Document, and FREE shipping Package. $35

A LIFETIME membership to the SurvivalCD Digital Download Package $20

or, the NEW SurvivalRing/SurvivalCD HazardPak DVD, if you already own either of the first two choices. $20

Oh, did I mention the 12 to 40 percent (or more) DISCOUNT?

http://www.survivalring.or g/survivalcd/?page_id=355

And, ANY order of ANY of the sets above, INCLUDING the DIGIPAK, get a BRAND NEW DVD, not even completely programmed yet, but with over 300 NEW Civil Defense Documents, including the entire 9 volumes of the FEMA Attack Environment Manual produced in the 1970's, and hundreds more.

Almost two gigabytes of FRESH, RARE, and ready to read PDF files covering decades of American Civil Defense planning, survival skills, and so much more.

You won't find this BONUS disk on the salespage. ONLY in this email. And, it is ONLY available with ANY purchase of the above packages.

http://www.survivalring.or g/survivalcd/?page_id=355

Don't miss out on a great savings on our CD/DVD sets. And, you don't want to miss that BONUS.

How about ANOTHER bonus?

EVERY order gets a FREE Civil Defense Dosimeter. Yes, EVERY ORDER.

You can find them on Ebay, as well as the Chargers you'll need to prep them for use...but THESE dosimeters are FREE! This bonus is only available to you through this email as well.

For ALL the info, visit the SurvivalCD.com page here...

http://www.survivalring.or g/survivalcd/?page_id=355

Please share with your friends, family, and community.

Thanks to all of you for your past support of SurvivalRing, SurvivalCD, and our web projects for the last 13 years.

We look forward to continuing these projects, publishing items, and sharing free data for decades to come. Remember, I've got hundreds of thousands of pages of ORIGINAL hard copy Civil Defense Documents in my posession STILL TO SCAN IN. That means I'm going to be creating more digital versions of these historical, yet timely, manuals for many years to come.

Please help our projects keep moving forward by getting your own copies of these CUSTOM programmed digital packages.

Richard Fleetwood

Founder- SurvivalRing.org, SurvivalCD.com

--

//* ----- Who I Am ----- *//

Richard Fleetwood

Founder/Director - SurvivalRing

http://www.survivalring.or g

Follow me on...

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Well, the count down continues, 93 days to go. Talk in this house has increased on the subject of the farm, and all the things related to it. Although it is not high on our priorities, the desire to have a couple of horses on the farm is a very hopeful prospect. In either case, it is very likely that we will have at the very least some interaction with horses again, and the general care and keep of horses is part of a skill set we should have.

It's been a few years since I have actually ridden a horse, but I still remember what a chestnut is on a saddle, and hoof pick. But I must admit that buying a horse and taking proper care of one is beyond me at this time, so it is time to study and get some more practical knowledge about it.

One of the things I love about the preppers network is all the stuff you can learn, even in the chat. Catman last night started a conversation around horses that you wish you had been there for, all kinds of practical knowledge was passed around. One of the main things that was talked about was the habits that horses can pick up including cribbing, and Hossboss promised to post about it today on her blog, which she did here.

I also promised to include a recipe for making your own salt blocks, and found not only that one but two others that are useful as well, so I am including them here as well.

Preppers who live the Eastern United States, and a few places in England have an advantage and something else they can stock up on for barter swapping. I am a ceramic nut, and tend to notice things that even loosely related to it. The Ball Clay that can be found in the Eastern part of North America is perfect for making Salt Blocks for horses and cattle. All you need to add to is an equal amount of Coarse Salt (aka: kosher salt). Mix the two with water so that it becomes a cake like consistency and let it dry in wooden mold boxes. It takes about three days to dry. The only caution I would mention is the source of clay should be known to be free of lead, you can get it tested at any college that has a good fine arts program.

Some horses can end up with cracked hoofs, this usally only happens in really dry climates, but there can be other causes. Hoof sealers can cost up to $75 for 2 litres! Definitely something that ever Prepper with a horse should be able to make from scratch! You need a double boiler for this. Take one cup of Mineral Oil, one cup of Petrolatum, and one cup of Paraffin wax. Heat everything together and mix till mixed well, then put into old soup cans for storage. You will need a clean old paint brush to use it, just cut the bristles down to stiffen it up.

Now tell me, besides getting the horses to help out plowing the fields when Peak Oil finally comes, what is the point of having a nice horse unless you plan on doing some riding too? And every cowboy needs a saddle right? I love real leather goods, and taking care of them is important not only for comfort but to save a buck as well. I always have mink oil around the house somewhere for protecting our leather goods from drying out, but that can be something that can be hard to come buy, and the costs for real mink oil is increasing, a good Prepper always follows the rules of three. Back up, Back up, Back up. So how about making saddle soap! You need real soap powder about three quarters of a cup, not a detergent, brand names usually say 'Hudson dry soap' somewhere on the label. You also need about a quarter cup of Neatsfoot Oil. Neatsfoot oil is a yellow oil rendered and purified from the shin bones and feet (but not the hooves) of cattle, something else you can also make. Finally you need half a cup of beeswax. Heat the soap powder and three and half cups of water together slowly until it is all dissolved. In a double boiler separately heat the neatsfoot oil and beeswax until it can be mixed evenly. Slowly add the neatsfoot mix to the water solution, stirring while you do it. When it thickens pour everything into molds and let cool to room temperature. Now you have saddle soap.

- Wolfe