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QUOTE
“LIBERTY MEANS RESPONSIBILITY, 
THAT IS WHY MOST MEN DREAD IT” – GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Wow, has it really been that long? Well, there are a couple of random thoughts I wanted to throw out there while they are fresh on my mind. First, liberty and the American Way are everything I have stated, but I have one more tenant to add: America was originally conceived to have people depending on each other – depending on their neighbors rather than the government or some other organization. Understand that I put the church in the category of neighbor, as opposed to organization.
The second thing is I had another opportunity over the holiday weekend to get my wife to see the value of prepping and resilience. She was out of sugar on Friday night and had already spent an hour at the grocery store. We were going to attend a cookout over the holiday weekend and she was going to bring brownies and carrot cake. The entire weekend was booked solid. As she started slipping toward clinical depression I stepped in and said, “I have sugar.” She replied “you do, really? Where”? I told her I had some in our food preps, and she asked “How much? Is it enough to make the brownies and cake?” I said “I don’t know, but it is a typical bag of sugar you buy at the store. 5 pounds I think.” She became elated and told me how wonderful that is. Jim Dandy to the rescue, just call me Johnny on the spot. So on top of getting to be hero for the day, she doesn’t see having redundancies in place as pointless as she did; and on top of that, she is going to replace the sugar for me the next time she goes to the store, so I now have her participating in prepping, she just doesn’t know it!
ACTION TAKEN TOWARD BECOMING RESILIENT
- Put primer on some more of the house, getting ready to paint it. I think preventative maintenance should be considered a form of resilience. It leads to reduce expenses down the road.
- Cookout with friends we haven’t seen since Christmas. Building a strong social network is vital to resilience in a SHTF situation. Note, I said ‘vital’, not ‘important’. That will be a topic I cover in a future post.
Don’t Wait
“Indecision is the greatest thief of opportunity.” – Jim Rohn, Facing The Enemies Within.
That statement seems so incredibly applicable to the concept of this blog. How many times did I look at or hear about awesome gardens, bug out locations, stockpiles of preps, AR-15s, and other expensive and/or time consuming stuff, and feel completely overwhelmed? Or feel like the things that people in the prepper/survival community are doing and acquiring are hopelessly unrealistic for my situation? I was left with the sense that even when they were beginner preppers, they did not have the burden I do of extremely limited resources. I didn’t even know where to begin, and I definitely felt like there was nothing I could do to become more resilient and independent until my circumstances changed.
Since I was determined to become independent from the systems to which most of society is unwittingly enslaved, I knew I must change my situation into one that would allow me to start my prepping. Thankfully I did finally realize that I can start working toward changing my situation in ways that are also steps toward resilience – steps toward living my life envisioned by the founding fathers. They may not seem like much right now, but they are getting me closer to the dream. Even things like working on my resume and paying off credit cards, or working out consistently count; the former gets me closer to independence from the system and the latter makes me more likely to survive a disaster. Don’t wait, do something to get you on your journey now. Today!
Actions taken toward resilience 5/3/12:
- Worked 18 hours of OT so far this week, may go in tomorrow for a couple more hours. I will now be able to pay off one more credit card with my next paycheck
Do I LOVE the Way I Live?
“the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” – Emerson.
This country was founded on the concept of individual liberty. It seems we always focus so much more on the liberty part of that statement to the exclusion of the individual part. To achieve true liberty means we must each be an individual; and therefore we must be true to ourselves. To expect the government or corporations to give us jobs pretty much circumvents that concept for many, many people. The jobs they offer provide security, not freedom. I’ve said many times that security and freedom are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The more of one you have, the less of the other you have. “They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin. So True! In all things, we must not operate from a base of fear. “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” – Joseph Chilton Pearce
I was reading Mark’s Daily Apple and he mentioned a blog he had written last August which peaked my curiosity so I went and checked it out. I have only read the first couple of paragraphs but it has given me an “aha!” moment; it has given me some clarity on something I need in my life – more playing. My current gig does not allow me to play enough. It doesn’t pay me enough money to even do the things the average schmo does for fun, and I want to do more than what the average schmo does. My job also demands too much of my time – specifically my day time – to allow me to play in the ways I want to, like exploring, hiking, etc. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen, philosophers, and divines. With consistency a great soul has nothing to do.” – Emerson. I love to explore; I love the joy of discovery. “When we embrace play, we claim a better quality of life for ourselves. We decrease stress.” – http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-lost-art-of-play-reclaiming-a-primal-tradition/ That concept has been gnawing at me for a good part of my adult life, and it is what inspired my intense dislike of working for the man. It is yet one more motivation to break free from the systems upon which we are so dependent.
“The life of white men is slavery. They are prisoners in towns or farms. The life my people want is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that a white man has, houses or railways or clothing or food that is as good as the right to move in the open country, and live in our own fashion (Sitting Bull).”
OT and Prepping
I’ll tell you what, I may be extremely overworked but that OT pay sure does come in handy. I took a little of my extra pay today and spent $11 on a box of 00 buck shot for my 12 gauge and $15 on a box of ammo for my 30-06. I have had them both for 6 months and had no ammo for them. They are no longer clubs, they are now guns! Woohoo!
Why didn’t I buy ammo when I bought the guns you ask? Well, two reason: first is because I bought them at the same time at a pawn shop on my lunch break and didn’t have the time to go somewhere else to buy more; and second because I spent a little more than I had budgeted for the guns and couldn’t afford any ammo. Like my tag line says, no time and no money. That’s more than a catch phrase, that’s the reality I live.
I wish I could have bought more because I have a serious concern about ammo “becoming” scarce in the not too distant future. I think that would be a very good – albeit shady – way to sneak in gun control when so many are opposed to it. Plus, you never know if and when the economy is going to implode, and it would be nice to have plenty of ammo for protection as well as barter should the need arise. After seeing last week’s news about Spain outlawing transaction in cash that exceed 2500 euros, it makes me think that kind of action is getting closer and closer to home. I can see what is happening in Greece (if I look somewhere other than our major news outlets), and have read what Ferfal has said about the collapse in Argentina (in fact they just nationalized a foreign owned company last week). I already have enough invested in silver, so I won’t be buying more until I get more of my cash invested in ammo, medicine and food. Vman has told me that during the UN sanctions on Yugoslavia, gold and silver were almost useless, but if you had gas or ammo you could buy just about anything. The flip side to that is, if it takes another 10 years (or whatever) to end up in that scenario, silver could double in value and you could simply sell some of it and pocket the 100% return or purchase more resilience preps with it while still maintaining some of your silver investment. Just some food for thought.
Actions taken toward resilience 4/25/12:
- Sent resume to Heather (a contact with our onsite staffing company) yesterday [prepping for personal crisis resilience – the most likely kind according to the threat probability matrix]
- Bought ammo for 30-06 and 12 gauge today [obvious how this is prepping]
- Bought 60 quart igloo cooler with high efficiency rating for a great price – excellent for bug out; keep in trunk in case the store by work has a sale on meat. [cutting grocery costs means more money for preps; investing in food – a commodity]
Should I Be Concerned?
Spain is banning cash transactions that exceed 2500 Euros. http://www.thedailybell.com/3814/Spain-Bans-Cash
Keeping in mind that In a cashless economy where all transaction are conducted using digital currency, all transactions can (and will) be tracked. All transactions would have to run through some financial institution. This means no longer doing business as a private citizen. That puts a whole lot of control into the hands of…somebody. That doesn’t sound like liberty here in the land of the free. Jack at TSP was just talking about this at the end of his podcast from yesterday (4/23/12) http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/feedback-for-4-23-12
This is one of the scenarios preppers are prepping for. But prepping by stockpiling isn’t the answer to this. If this happens here you can’t stockpile enough to ride this one out, you need to be getting yourself resilient. You need self sufficiency that is sustainable when something permanent shows up on the horizon.
SuburbanResilience 