Brink of Freedom January 2014 by Brink of Freedom

WHAT IS A

PALEO DIET? B Y J AC K S P I R KO

LAUNDRY LANDSCAPES TO

HOW TO REUSE LAUNDRY GREYWATER

THE DANGER FOCUSING OF

ON THE

DISASTER

COST PREPPING, OF

FOOD FOR

THOUGHT

ISSUE 1 | JANUARY 2014

POLITICS &

ECONOMICS 14

Cost of Prepping Food for Thought

by Larry Gray

Some Advice that Changed My Life

CONTENTS

HOMESTEADING

OUTDOOR

Why Refill my Water Storage by The Berkey Guy

All About Chicken Tractors by Jason Akers

Permaculture Principles & Preparedness

by Josiah Wallingford

WELLNESS 06

Can you make the Change? by LVSChant

HEALTH &

Laundry to Landscape How to Reuse Laundry Grey Water

The Tao of “Pooh”, Freedom and Modern Survivalism by Cohutt

Some Advice that Changed My Life

by Rick Beach

Waking Up

Survival Tenet #1

by Mark Kirkwood by Jack Spirko

ACTIVITIES 04

Chicken-of-theWoods Mushrooms by Christopher Nyerges

What Is A Paleo Diet?

The Importance and Value of Relationships, Community and Balance in Life

by Jack Spirko

by Rob Kaiser

Can you hear it, can you feel it, is it calling to you? Are you on the brink of it? My friend do you even remember her name, let me whisper it to you. Freedom. Is there a more beautiful word? Yet in our modern society words like freedom and liberty are bantered around by those that impose their will upon others. Long ago those in power determined that rather to enslave a man in chains it was better to have your prisoner build his own cell and teach his children that a decorated cell was the equivalent of liberty. To consider which mobile metal coffin took them to and fro to a job they hated was a symbol of status. To truly believe that a life was best lived in pursuit of what another told them would make them happy, some day. Today a once mighty and independent people resemble more a field of sheep, rather than a nation of bold and independent men and women. A people who have been stripped of knowledge about the real world, stripped of an understanding of the virtue of true work and worst of all stripped of the skills that make a person truly independent. Yet we are not a nation of sheep. No, we a nation of humans, burning in each of our hearts is the true being, one that was designed and optimized for freedom. Slowly an awakening is upon us, the prisoners are asking questions, reclaiming what they have lost and now many are standing at the brink of freedom.

Acorn Processing 101 by Christopher Nyerges

Enjoy the journey!

Jack Spirko

by Rick Beach

Intro

TACTICAL &

FIREARMS 46

by Erik Knutzen

20’ Sea Container BOL Fast & Hopefully Cheap

by Larry Gray

The Danger of Focusing on the Disaster by Joel Ryals

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

ARTICLE BY CHRISTOPHER NYERGES

CHICKEN-OF-THE-WOODS

MUSHROOMS An excellent tasting — and colorful — wild mushroom

red. As it grows older, it fades to a very faded yellow or nearly white color. Typically, the chicken-of-the-woods grows on tree stumps and burned trees. It can grow high on the stump, or right at ground level. Though it can appear on many types of trees, in my area (Southern California), it is most common on eucalyptus and carob trees, both imported from Australia and the Middle East respectively. This fungus is very easy to positively identify. If you are uncertain, you can call around to the botany departments at local colleges, or nurseries, or check to see if there are mycology

nowledge of edible wild mushrooms can really enhance your outdoor experience and give you a little bit of self-reliance in the city. Yet, there is this mystique about mushroom hunting. Lots of folks are very wary about venturing into the field of mycology. And this is understandable, considering the fact that even “experts” occasionally die from eating the wrong mushroom. I often have told my students that they should avoid eating any wild mushrooms if they do not devote considerable time to studying mushrooms, and learning how to positively identify different genera and species. One of the biggest hurdles to studying mushrooms is that they appear, as if by magic, and then a few days later, most have decayed back to nothing. By contrast, most plants are available for inspection all throughout their growing season. You can leisurely study the leaf and floral structures, clip some for your herbarium, and casually take (or send) samples to a botanist to confirm your identification. Generally, you don’t have the luxury of time with mushrooms. Furthermore, there seem to be far fewer mushroom experts than plant experts, so even if you have a perfect specimen, there may not be anyone to take it to for identification. Despite the obstacles, thousands of people collect wild mushrooms throughout the United States on a regular basis. Many — such as myself – began the pursuit of mycology by joining a local mushroom group which conducts regular field trips. Nearly everyone I’ve met who collects wild mushrooms for food collects only those few

4 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

common mushrooms which are easy to recognize. These very common, easy-to-recognize, edible mushrooms include field mushrooms (Agaricus sps.), inky caps (Coprinus sps.), fairy rings (Marasmius oreades), chantrelles, Boletus edulis, chicken-of-the-woods, and many others. Today we’ll take a look at the chicken-of-thewoods, also known as the sulfur fungus (Laetiporus sulphureus, formerly known as Polyporus sulphureus). The sulfur fungus is a polypore, or shelf fungus. Instead of the more-familiar cap on a stem, this one grows in horizontal layers. It is bright yellow as the fungus begins its growth, and then, as multiple layers appear, you will also see orange and

groups in your area. Most full color wild mushroom books include this mushroom with color photos. Fortunately, you can collect a sample of the chicken-of-the-woods and put it in your refrigerator or freezer until you can get it to someone for identification. This mushroom will keep well.

In fact, when I locate some of the fresh chicken-of-the-woods, I cut off as much of the bright yellow tender outer sections as I think I can store. I only cut back a few inches; if I have to work my knife, then I am into the tougher sections of the fungus, and those are not as good eating. Typically, I will simply wrap the chunks of this fungus and freeze them until I am ready to use. Once I am going to prepare some for eating, the process is the same whether I am using frozen or fresh mushrooms. I put the chicken-of-the-woods into a pan and cover it with water, and bring it to a hard boil for at least 5 minutes. I pour off this water, and repeat the hard boiling. Yes, I am aware that some people do not seem to need to do this. However, if I do not do this boiling, I am likely to vomit when I eat the mushrooms, however prepared. I find vomiting one of life’s most unpleasant experiences, and I try to avoid it whenever possible. Thus, I always boil my chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms twice. If you are experienced with this mushroom and you know you can eat it without all this boiling, that’s fine. Just be sure to thoroughly cook it for your neophyte friends when you have them over for dinner. Once boiled, I rinse the pieces, and cut them into small nuggets on a breadboard. I roll them in egg (whole eggs, whipped) and then in flour. In the old days, we would then deep fry the breaded pieces. But since we now know all the bad things that deep-frying does to our arteries, we gently sauté the breaded chickenof-the-woods in butter or olive oil, maybe with a little garlic, in a stainless steel or cast iron skillet, at very low heat. When browned, we place them on a napkin and then serve them right away. We have made these little McNuggets, packed them, and taken them on field trips for a delicious lunch.

Article by Christopher Nyerges

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health & wellness

“The Tao of Pooh”, Freedom, and Modern Survivalism

What really is “freedom”, and can we ever attain it?

ome years back, my frustration with and in life slowly began to dissipate after an industry productivity consultant inadvertently convinced me that there were two simple rules of life that trump all others:

“WHAT IS, IS” (And, therefore, what isn’t, isn’t). “NOBODY CARES”

On rule #2, he went on to say that perhaps your mother really does care, and maybe your spouse does too, on occasion; but it is best to conduct your life as if not one other soul really cares about how you feel, how your day has gone, whether you are successful, or how unjust the world has been to you. I think you get the idea. He suggested that if we were having trouble understanding these rules and their implications, then to purchase “The Tao of Pooh” (Benjamin Hoff) in the airport newsstand and read it on the flight home. He offered

6 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

to refund the cost of the book to anyone who, after doing this, felt that they had wasted the 2 hours it would take to read the book. I “bit” and finished the book for the first time before the plane pulled up to the destination gate. Mr. Hoff’s purpose in the book is to introduce westerners to the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism, using the characters from the children’s book “Winnie-the-Pooh.” (If you research Taoism (or Daoism), you will find an endless amount of information, all of which becomes overwhelming in short order, and most of which seems to be pulled into a religious or metaphysical direction that I do not wish to pursue). Pooh knows who he is, he doesn’t complicate things by attempting to do things as others might try to have him do. He keeps it quite simple: he is a bear, bears like honey; therefore, seeking honey is his overriding purpose in life. Everything else is just a footnote. The other characters all demonstrate the traits that tend to hold us back in life Piglet is indecisive, Eeyore is a pessimistic fretter, Rabbit is too clever for his own good and never

WRITTEN BY COHUTT

accomplishes simple tasks, Owl is pompously and uselessly overeducated or “wise”, and Tigger doesn’t know his own limitations. Pooh? Well, he just wakes up, considers his options and generally just looks for his honey. So what in the hell do Taoism or Winnie-the-Pooh have to do with prepping, preparedness, modernsurvivalism or whatever term one wishes to use?

CONSIDER JACK SPIRKO’S PRIMARY TENET “Everything You Do Should Improve Your Position in Life Even If Nothing Goes Wrong” This is a simple statement that supports the fact that preparedness is a process and not an endgame. Here is the deal: “Complete” preparedness and our ultimate survival is an illusion and unattainable, as we are all going to die no matter what we do to try and delay or prevent it. Funny thing, the literal translation of Tao is “path”, and most definitely NOT “destination.” Are you following me now?

OK, so we cannot survive forever and we cannot possibly prepare for everything. Why bother? Recall the rule I referenced earlier, “What is, is.” Accept it. As a prepper, you can’t fall into the trap of focusing on the destination as there is no destination. (Anyone remember Y2K ?) Instead, you have to focus on the “path” or “journey.” Recognizing this is what makes life’s experiences always seem to work in your favor, i.e. “improves your position in life, even if nothing goes wrong.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Back to Hoff’s Pooh & Tao. From Benjamin Hoff, “The Tao of Pooh” “The Christmas presents once opened are Not So Much Fun as

they were while we were in the process of examining, lifting, shaking, thinking about, and opening them. Three hundred sixty-five days later, we try again and find that the same thing has happened. Each time the goal is reached, it becomes Not So Much Fun, and we’re off to reach the next one, then the next one, then the next. That doesn’t mean that the goals we have don’t count. They do, mostly because they cause us to go through the process and it’s the process that makes us wise, happy, or whatever. If we do things in the wrong sort of way, it makes us miserable, angry, confused, and things like that. The goal has to be right for BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health & wellness

us, and it has to be beneficial, in order to ensure a beneficial process. But aside from that, it’s really the process that’s important.” A closing thought to follow on that last sentence: You will find a virtually unlimited amount of advice on how to be a successful “survivalist” or how to be prepared for anything and everything. It is overwhelming at the very least and mostly useless, although bits and pieces can be useful to YOU after you grasp that it is about YOU, not about THEM, or what THEY say YOU should do. Consider more from Mr Hoff, “We don’t need to shift our responsibilities onto the shoulders of some deified Spiritual Superman, or sit around and wait for Fate to come knocking at the door. We simply need to believe in the power that’s within us, and use it. When we do that, and stop imitating others and competing against them, things begin to work for us.”

Specifically?

Don’t procrastinate or be indecisive.

(Piglet)

Don’t be a pessimist worry-wart. (Eeyore)

Keep it simple, i.e. don’t be too clever. (Rabbit)

Don’t overthink it or believe you have to know everything before you start. (Owl)

Don’t ignore your limitations. (Tigger)

What’s left?

Keep it simple, move forward, get on the path. (Pooh)

ABOUT COHUTT Cohutt has spent the last quarter century deep within the investment business; it has chewed him up on occasion it hasn’t spit him out yet. He grows most of his family’s produce on his 65 foot wide downtown lot, owns more than one firearm but less than Russia, is an experienced reloader and bullet caster. He’s self taught in carpentry and other trades via ongoing (since 1987) renovation and maintenance of his 140+ year old home. He’s a tinkerer and maker, project over-reacher, long time husband of his first spouse, father of brilliant adult children, proto-Aspergerian, longtime “Friend of Bill”, and a favorite target of his own ridicule. (cohutt’s frequent updates of his urban food garden folly at can be found at cohutt.com)

8 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

It seems that today the world is a mess, as messy as it ever has been, and scores of potentially catastrophic trends appear to be firmly in place. While I will agree that the world is a mess, I’m not buying into the “things are so much worse than they ever have been” mentality. Perhaps humanity’s bus is actually driving over the cliff this time, once and for all; but so what? You and I can’t stop it. (I doubt that this is the end of times. Every generation thinks they have challenges far greater than any previous; let’s not forget that every generation has tools and opportunities not seen by any previous. Perhaps it balances out more so that we give credit?) It all goes back to the first rule of life referenced in the beginning of this article: “What is, is.” What is going to happen is what is going to happen. It is the nature of the world, the most complex of systems in which, ironically, we try and come up with simplistic reasons for everything that happens. Usually there is no reason, it is just the may nature is. When we stop falling into this trap, our ability to control the direction of our life becomes much clearer. We can begin to live our lives on our own terms and not through the cattle chute of a life that society funnels us into. I would maintain that this is as close to true freedom as we can come.

with substantial agendas (politicians and commercial enterprises come to mind), the culprits more often are wellmeaning people in our lives who just don’t know otherwise. This is what is so powerful about Pooh’s Tao; he interacts with world, yet still manages to keeps things simple and always moving back to the center of the path he has chosen. He flows with nature and takes it as it comes, and the more he does this, the more things seem to work out for him. I guess this is my point. Freedom is a mindset, a philosophy of independence that starts inside of us, that eventually manifests itself in our actions and eventually is present both consciously and subconsciously in every decision we make. We live our lives freely, we take care of ourselves according to our priorities (and not those of the “system” or society), and it seems that eventually the less we worry about things, the less we have to worry about. Well, at least it seems to work this way for me (and Pooh, of course); freedom is my journey, not my destination.

Yet this is an elusive and difficult path to stay on because it is so easy to be pulled back in by the Eeyores, Rabbits, and Owls of the world. At virtually every moment of every day, we are sucked back towards the distractions that suck the freedom from us; besides people and institutions

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

HOMESTEADING

WHY 1 2 3 REFILL MY WATER STORAGE? “ How much drinking water storage do you have? When did you last replenish/recycle your drinking water storage? Regardless of the claims made by the company that provided the water “preservative” you used in order to secure a shelf-life for your water, it is recommended that you cycle through your water storage and replenish it every 6-12 months.

Notice that I am strictly discussing drinking water storage and not general use water that will not be consumed internally. General water storage can be cycled through at longer intervals if desired. Naturally, people always wonder why this cycling out is recommended…especially those of us with large quantities stored. (It’s no cheap endeavor.) Here are some reasons why I do it yearly:

10 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

“Take care of your tools & they’ll take care of you.”

Habits are formed through repeated action.

I like to save money everywhere I can, but on matters of sustaining l i fe an d e n s u r i n g c r i ti c al functionality in crises, I will not scrimp. Over the last few years, I have come across a handful of individuals who thought that their water storage was in perfectly consumable condition, only to discover their storage had turned to non-potable quality. Some of the bung seals had cracked due to improper application, a nonsecured seal, or poor protection from environmental elements. Another culprit was unauthorized access by a curious household member. This person had opened up the container and closed it, essentially cross-contaminating the water and not informing anyone. Tisk, tisk, tisk.

This is a no-brainer and the primary reason that many of us like to “rough-it” every once in a while. I like spontaneous campouts in the backyard or somewhere locally to test out gear and ensure its deliverability. This also gives others within my family (or group) a chance to learn, test, and socialize. Most importantly, it has helped me refine gear or methods for future applications. I have discovered gear that I will not purchase again and recommend that others avoid acquiring. I have also discovered products that required more frequent inspection, such as my Coleman grill/stove combo. One of the O-rings had to be replaced and I had not noticed it after I had previously used, then stored, it. Lesson learned.

My wife and I have three wonderful children who are eager to see and do almost anything that they observe us doing. Our boy Joshua absolutely loves helping me break-down tools to clean, inspect, and oil them, so do our two daughters. It’s more than neat to then watch them internalize those principles and do the same to their toys and tools. We all enjoy the same excitement when we get together in the kitchen or go pick fruits/vegetables from the yard. Beyond the individual discipline that I need by forming healthy habits, these behaviors become a legacy-mindset to our posterity and like-minded friends. I learn directly from observing others as well. One of the greatest joys of life is the bonding that emerges as individuals participate in collective learning experiences.

Use the water you are cycling out to run through your water purifier/filter & drink it, water the garden, wash the car, rinse off garden tools, hydrate & wash the pets, or re-allocate that water as general-use storage and fill a new drinking water storage container to build up your supply!

“

BY THE BERKEY GUY

Cycling out my water ensures the integrity of my water.

Clearly, the reasons for cycling out my drinking water storage are based on principles that extend far beyond that commodity. I approach Self-Reliance with the idea that principles and laws found in nature extend into all aspects of Life. Our challenge is to adapt and apply those guiding lights to the particular project(s) we presently pursue…and then share them. BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health & wellness

SOME ADVICE THAT CHANGED MY LIFE There are some bits of advice that have stayed with me and have really changed my life. First was from my dad. “You will never win the lottery if you don’t play.” First was from my dad. “You will never win the lottery if you don’t play.” For the longest time I took that as literally. So, when I was able to buy lottery tickets, I did so. Obviously this wasn’t the intended message. What he was trying to tell me was, you will never know if you don’t try. You will never get that job unless you apply. You will never get that date with the girl you saw unless you ask. You will never grow a garden if you never plant anything. After I came to the realization that, if I wanted something, I had to at least put forth the effort, make an attempt, take some initiative. Because, if I didn’t, it wouldn’t just fall into my lap. Too often we have what someone once called the teacup kids. They expect everything to be given to them, to be placed at their feet, to get what they want without trying. Without initiative, without ambition. I was lulled into giving to my kids using the “I want them to have a better life than I had.” But am I really? If I make their lives easy, give them everything without them having to work for it, what kind of young adult am I raising? When they have to go out into the world, will they know the value of WORKING for something and EARNING something? Will

12 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

they respect anything that is given to them? I had a friend in high school who was given a brand new car on her 16th birthday. It was a nice and expensive sports cars. Her parents were well off and could afford it. She totaled the car within a month. Guess what, she got another. Never having a job, never earning it, never appreciating it. $24,000 car gone, and another $24,000 instantly. Some people could buy a house with that kind of money. I have even heard of parents taking the knives away from tweens (913) at restaurants because they may “cut themselves” and cut up their food for them. What kind of person will this be in society?

change the belief that we needed to make it easier on them, and, instead, make them independent, responsible, accountable, and train them for what life holds for them. When I tell other parents that our 11-year-old can do her own laundry, cook her own meals, and knows how to take care of the animals, they think I am being too harsh. I completely disagree and so do the kids. They have taken pride in that they can cook their meals – beyond putting cereal in a bowl. When they learn a new skill; if it is making fire without matches or how to build a structure, they feel empowered to take on the next challenge. When they buy something they want, with the money they earned; they respect it, value it, and understand how hard they had to work to earn it.

This brings me to the next quote or advice. It came from my wife when she was dealing with one of our kids who didn’t understand why The next was from a coworker, she has to do chores as part of the when I worked at a major fortune family. We are a blended family 500 company. She would come and, when she is at her other in and talk to employees when parents’ house, everything is given they either got burnt out on their to her; no work, no effort. It is just current role, or were reallocated, expected to give her whatever she and helped them find a spot where asks or demands for. “My job as a they “fit” within the organization: parent, is to teach you how to be L. Dane McCullough from Dane an adult, so that you can survive and Company. She came into in the world on your own, without a group I had set up for single someone being there to take care parents dealing with raising kids of you.” This was true. We have since alone or through a divorce etc.

from the coffee shop? All she can do is say no. Anything worse than that, is she really someone you wanted to go out with in the first place? Do you want a discount on a scratched merchandise at a store? What are you afraid of, all they can do is say no. Are you afraid they will think you are cheap? Who cares, they are not working for the money you make, nor putting food on your table. The point is we build up these barriers, walls in our minds, that make doing something seem impossible, or we are afraid of what others will think. It is all in your mind. Stop thinking or caring what other people think. You will never be happy living to other people’s expectations. Your future can have endless possibilities if you “play”, without fear, and shoot for your own passion and Last is a great quote from a movie; happiness. although I have not read it, the movie is based on a book by Frank ARTICLE BY RICK BEACH Herbert, Dune. “Fear is the mind killer.” I take this as fear cannot kill you. It is not stopping you from overcoming anything. Are you afraid your boss will say no if you ask for a raise or promotion? “You will never win the lottery if you don’t play.” What is it going to hurt to ask? All they can say is no. Are you afraid to ask the girl out

She gave some great advice and For many people, the thing that this is how I remember it from 10+ stands in their way is debt. House, car, credit card, student loans, years ago. etc. How can you eliminate that “If you could do one job for the burden? Stop spending? Drive an rest of your life, regardless of pay, older car? Do you have a 5,000 benefits, or responsibilities, what sq. foot house with 4 beds and 5 would get you excited every day baths, and you live alone? If that to get out of bed, and go do that makes you happy, great. I am glad job?” When she asked this I really you found what makes you happy. didn’t know. I thought I knew, but I But, if you hate Mondays, having didn’t really like what I was doing. to go into work each day, and She followed up that profound writing all the checks for bills for stuff you don’t use; what would question with you look forward to doing? Is an education standing in your way from doing your dream job? What is stopping you from going to school or educating yourself? There are lots of resources available for low cost or free. Most barriers can be overcome. Sometimes the barrier is just in your mind.

Now what is standing in your way?

What would it take to remove that barrier and allow you to do what you are passionate about? How can you eliminate that roadblock?” For me, I found my passion with permaculture and educating others to be more independent and self-sufficient. Maybe that is because of the parent in me, and permaculture is just another means to help others grow.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

POLITICS & ECONOMICS

COST OF PREPPING

TYPES OF COST TO THINK ABOUT

FROM LARRY GRAY

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Cost of prepping can be divided into two areas that I can think of: Cost of selfreliance & cost of self-sufficiency

hat other areas? Self-reliance is where we exist for a period of time without outside help. Selfsufficiency is where we don’t need outside help. Self-reliance is not sustainable, however self-sufficiency should be close to sustainable. What we are trying to do is to gain a measure of self-reliance and a measure of self-sufficiency. Though I must say we should not prep as though we are alone in this. We do have family, friends, neighbors and community to lean on or assist sometimes. Though I’m not quite sure where State and Nation fits in, in this day and time.

And if you are religious then of course you lean on God. Someone once told me that I should be trusting in God to provide and I do. However God created both the ant and the grasshopper. God helps those who help themselves at times. I do everything God gives me the good sense to do do first and then call on Him when things get tough. More than anything I would ask Him to give me the strength to handle tough situations rather than save me with miracles. Might development of community be another cost? I mean at least as in costing time. I think religion is more about community and relationships as much as begging to have ones stupid self saved in crisis situations. And I think God would agree.

14 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

Time cost

Banking cost

Depreciation cost

Labor cost

Monetary cost

Development cost

Tax cost (includes stupid tax)

Spiritual cost (ministry support)

Educational cost

What other cost are there? What is priceless? What is worthless? Time and labor cost are closely related. In constructing a home as a rule of thumb 1/3 cost is labor, 1/3 is materials and 1/3 is contractor cost. Additional cost would be land and associated cost. Banker cost is yet another if any financing is used. As Jack has said most all cost can be traced back to labor cost. For example the high cost of gold can be traced back to the labor in locating, mining, smelting and finally minting of fine bullion.

31%

3% 4%

There was once a TV repairman who went to a call out at a business. He removed the cover, turned a screw 1/4 turn which fixed the TV. He put the cover back on and then gave the manager a bill for $60. The manager said, “That is preposterous I won’t pay $60 for 5 minutes work. I want an itemized bill.” So he wrote out an itemized bill, “25 cents for turning a screw 1/4 turn to the right. $59.75 for knowing which screw to turn and how far to turn it.” Some people do get paid for time. If you earned say $20 an hour in your career, then you might weigh all your personal time put into the homestead as being worth $20 an hour to you. There comes a point when DIY is fun but isn’t worth it. The quest is to look for DIY projects that are worth it.

10% 10%

12%

15% 15%

Some cost are more like total losses. Depreciation cost is one which means the value of things go down over time. Have you noticed that almost everything we as mankind make erodes, weathers, wears and crumbles. This reminds me of a song, “Dust in the Wind”. I get the term “Stupid Tax” from Dave Ramsey. This is where you make mistakes that cost lots of money. One such stupid tax is in not having

emergency fund money set aside. Though most of us would call Tax “stupid”. We all know what taxes are. Income tax, property tax, sales tax, permits, licenses, fees and yes some fines. And what about breath and heart beat tax? Well lets not give them any health care ideas. We all gamble though not necessarily as a “gaming experiences” at casino’s. Some losses are gambling losses be it business or agricultural or whatever. I and you do not have to be a professional gambler or visit casino’s to understand some gambling concepts and something about statistics. And we should learn about such things as we can.

It is said in real-estate that the cost of a given piece of property is no more than a willing buyer is willing to pay for it and a willing seller is willing to take for it. The same can be said of anything.

A particular prep cost might be worth more to you and worth less to someone else. Its up to the individual to determine what is priceless, worthless or somewhere in between. What is priceless? Experiencing the conversion of dirt into something you have tasted and used as fuel for your body. Experiencing the killing, cleaning, cooking and eating something you took in hunting, fishing and farming. Some education can be almost BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

POLITICS & ECONOMICS

priceless. I have a library that is fairly vast. I’m sure I don’t have the same books that Thomas Jefferson kept but I have what I need in 8 – 5′ long shelves. And I have Google and Wikipedia and E-Books. Some education can be worthless as time will tell turning it into trivia. Not all educational cost are monetary. It takes time to learn things on your own. We call this learning curve. There is a saying in computer tech about free software that it is “free as in beer”. What does that mean? Well beer is rarely free. And when it is someone usually expects something in return for it such as friendship. Oh and free energy is all around us. The problem is that it cost to harvest, handle and harness that energy and use it. Nothing is truly ever completely free! Development cost is a kind of exploratory cost where you are trying to find out just how much it will cost to do or produce something. The prototype is always expensive in one way or another. The key here is in looking for opportunities based on your abilities, know-how and the situations. Then figuratively its a matter of cloning, copy and paste so to speak.

Monetary cost can be tracked with the use of book keeping also called accounting. I have three blog post on this topic, I show links above. Two links pertain to a free accounting app I am writing. I am about to release version 3.0 of this app soon. Accounting is not difficult but may require 15 minutes a day of your time. It may also require new habits and a minute or two here and there to record an expense, especially those with no receipts. I can tell you exactly what I spent on prepping this year so far. I place these expenses under Home, Van, Homesteading, Gardening, Fishing, Hunting, and Camping categories. A spread sheet is easy to learn to use and it can be used for all out accounting or simple expense tracking. Google for Open Office and you will find some free open source office software which includes a spread sheet called Calc. If you were tracking your prepping expenses for example you could have each expense in a different column and have a different sheet for each month. Then you might have periodic sheets for totals or averages. Tracking monetary cost is one way to track cost but remember that not all cost are in dollars.

Helpful Links Home Accounting, Doing the Bills Java Ledger a simple free accounting program that I wrote Java Accounting Ledger Version 2.0 Java Ledger at Source Forge Invsting Stocks, Money, Metals, Land Project Task Management

January, 2014

Income related expenses

Investment type expenses

Frivolous expenses

Insurance type expenses

Some expenses are related directly to the making of income. Other expenses are are more indirect or simply for things we want but don’t need. I impulse buy a lot. It helps to support our economy of course. Instead of trickle down economics its more like spread it around economics or flood upward economics LOL I’m joking of course. Seriously though, it can be difficult to determine what is necessary from what you might buy and never use or expires before use. Some expenses are more like an investment meaning it will pay for itself over time or even earn a profit. Jack talks about investing in silver and copper a lot. I have a link above to a blog post on my take with investing. Other expenses are like insurance but over time become a waste if not used. Some waste are total loss not even creating a waste stream we may turn into something beneficial. A good example of this might be bank overdraft fees.

Priorities are important. As with computer programming I have learned to keep things simple and upgrade over time as I can. This is what we should do with our preps and homesteading. And we may develop different areas at different rates. For you RPG(Role Playing Game) folks it might not be much different than leveling your characters attributes and skills over time. I mean RPG is based on life right?

16 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

TYPES OF EXPENSES TO THINK ABOUT

A perfect example of an investment is a solar power system and battery bank. These things pay for themselves but there are up front cost which are the investment. An example of insurance expense might be the BOB, BOV and BOL. A more perfect example of insurance expense is a year supply of dried food put away that you sit on. Its there if you need it but if you never use it, it will eventually go bad. Whereas garden improvement is an investment. For example you might spend $2000 on the garden this year and then collect $200 a year in produce for the next 10 years. Though its probably a much better return than that, though I have found my first year to be a poor return. If its manage right the return keeps coming more and more without too much additional expense as input. And wouldn’t ministry support be both an investment in community and insurance expense? Some verses come to mind about God opening the flood gates of heaven and pouring out blessings.

All in all homesteading and farming are businesses. So is prepping and so is your life. I suggest you treat it as such. Elimination of debt in our case is all too important. We all want to keep cost down and operating on cash can help with that. We need to keep our preps real to keep cost down. Jack has some good episodes on prioritizing that I suggest we all listen to again and again. Oh I feel I need to also mention how I manage projects and my life in general. There are 4 factors I work on. Most people only consider one factor, Time management. But the four are…

Time Resources Quality Quantity

If one of these factors change then one or more of the others must change as well, or are adversely affected. For example if you increase time then quantity or quality can go up. Same if you increase resources. If quality drops then it might be as a result of an increase in quantity or a decrease in resources. If you play this out in your mind when considering anything you undertake it will be easier to keep things real. Below is a link to my blog post on this topic.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

POLITICS & ECONOMICS

PREPPER ECON BY PREPPER RECON

INTEREST RATES SOARING & NEW HOMES SALES PLUMMETING 18 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

Interest rates soaring and new homes sales plunging are signs of stress fractures in a failing economy. Despite $85 billion per month in new money creation, the Fed has been unable to keep the economy above stall speed. Just the hint of taking away the punch bowl has sent bond markets plummeting.

recommends hard assets like gold. That is the equivalent of Hilary Clinton telling folks to vote for Rand Paul. The rapid rise in interest rates is definitely a cause to keep your eyes open. Whether the Fed is letting rates rise because they are anticipating higher inflation or if rates are rising because the Fed is losing control, both are bad news for a fragile economy.

July new home sales dropped 13.4% from the previous month. The skyrocketing 10 This week did see a brief year Treasury, which is the respite from the rapid increase bench mark rate that lenders in Treasury yields due to the use to figure mortgage rates fear of yet another war that has almost doubled from its lows in May. The rate has risen we can ill afford and have no business interfering in. How from 1.6% in may to briefly convenient. touch 2.92% last week. Many of the sages that In other news, gold and silver predicted the housing bubble have made a tremendous like Peter Schiff, Nouriel come back. At the time of Roubini, and Ron Paul have since warned of an even bigger writing, gold was at $1410, bubble of sovereign debt. Even up from its low in June near $1200 per ounce. Silver the world’s largest Bond fund manager, Bill Gross, compared has made an even more impressive recovery. It sits the current bond market to a above $24 from its low right supernova. For those of you around $18.50 in June. That is who don’t watch ‘Big Bang a 30% jump in little more than Theory’, a super nova is when two months. Gold and silver a star, like our sun, burns enough gas to lose the density have served as stores of value since the dawn required to maintain enough gravity to keep all of the gases of time. Genesis 13:2 says “Abram had become very together. wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.” Which fiat The gases expand to many currency can you think of that times larger than the original has been around that long? size of the star. The gases burn up in a giant flash that sears any nearby plants orbiting around the star. Bill Gross went on to say that he

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health HOMESTEADING & wellness

CAN YOU MAKE THE

CHANGE? ARTICLE BY LvsChant

My husband and I live on our own piece of land in southeastern New Mexico, along with our two teenage boys. He retired last year from his job at age 51; when we moved here and began building our own home, with the plan to be able to live on his retirement and be fairly selfsufficient on our own land. We have no mortgage, no car payments, no credit card balances (beyond what we plan to pay off each month) and no plans to get into any debt. We live on about 33% of the income we had before my husband’s retirement with no problem.

The thing is… wE weRE far from this only a few years ago. We had the big suburban house in a neighborhood with restrictive covenants, a big mortgage, and

20 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

a high cost of living that is very common to many Americans, only three years ago. The difference is that we made a significant change in our focus and personal plan. Granted, we weren’t in the kind of bad financial shape many folks are, even before we made the change. We hadn’t financed a car since the mid 90’s, didn’t carry huge credit card debt, or have a terribly extravagant lifestyle. However, we did have the huge 30-year mortgage and no plans for early retirement. Our house owned us and kept us enslaved to the high costs of maintenance and taxation. It provided nothing for us in terms of production. Day to Day Lifestyle Changes About 2009, I began listening to Jack Spirko’s podcasts regularly, joined the TSP forum, and began learning from more experienced preppers. My husband and I became convinced that we needed to make a change in lifestyle to allow us to completely change our path. We needed to

DECIDE

as a family that you want to be debt free.

MAKE

the monthly spending changes to rid yourself of current debt.

Start

a savings plan for the homestead.

Determine the retirement location.

save every penny we could to allow the purchase/construction of a debt free homestead. The changes at first were very subtle. We just stopped wasting money on things we didn’t need. Eating out became a fairly rare occurrence. We just cooked food at home – every day. I began to be more of a frugal shopper and planner, stocking up on foods we ate when they were on sale and storing more food in the pantry and freezer. This alone made a huge difference in our monthly expenses – and in how much money I could put aside into savings each month. We began to seriously think about each purchase we made,

considering whether we’d rather save the money toward the homestead or just spend it now… you can guess where most of the money went, right? Each month we were able to save more and more from the take-home pay and the nest egg began to build. Making the Plans We also knew that we had to change the focus of our plans for the future, so we began looking for suitable property to use for our homestead. We did some searches on various states that had reasonable property taxes, productive land, etc. In the end, we decided it was more important to be close to family, so returned home to New Mexico. The land is

very dry, but the growing season is long, so the potential for good food production is there, as long as we have access to water. We finally found five acres that are reasonably close to town for convenience, yet outside the city for taxation and no homeowners’ association or restrictions. We purchased it (cash) when we were still living in the big suburban house. Immediately we had a well drilled and capped on the land. We didn’t want any possibility of a problem with having our own well due to future water rights legislation.

We began to seriously think about each purchase we made, considering whether we’d rather save the money toward the homestead

For us, it made sense to also build a small workshop with some amenities. Our plan was to live in a travel trailer while building BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

THREE the main home. We hired out the construction of the workshop out to a local builder, who completed it before we returned to New Mexico. In order to make life more comfortable, the workshop was equipped with a full bathroom/ shower and washer/dryer hookups. To do this, we also got all infrastructure installed – electricity, pump/pressure tank for the well, septic system, cable (for internet service). We paid cash for this. We could have built this much

people in that career field apply for and receive a waiver for that so that they can continue to work up to either age 56 or 60. He let it be known that he had no intention of requesting the waiver. His employer then transferred him to a position across the country for his last assignment before retirement. With this transfer came a relocation package, and a home buyout option. Even though we lost money on the house, we took the relocation offer and got free of the mortgage.

plan. We calculated what the retirement income would be after taxes, healthcare deductions, etc. Then, except for the monthly rent payment, we made ourselves live on no more than the income we would have after retirement. Since this was only about 1/3 the take-home income, it meant we would potentially be able to save two-thirds of the monthly income for the rest of his work time. So, the plan had two purposes: 1) See if it was feasible to assume we could make it on the retirement income without finding other employment 2) Save the extra money so that we could build our house without a mortgage once the retirement came.

less expensively ourselves, but we just didn’t think we could stand living out there without the basics covered before we started Next, we had to figure out the best way to rid ourselves of the home mortgage albatross. That big home cost us nearly $8,000 per year in property taxes alone. Consider the interest payment on the mortgage and you can see money dropping down a rat hole at an alarming rate. My husband was in a career field that had a mandatory retirement after 30 years’ service. Most

22 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

Although we had to rent a house at the new place, it was much less than the cost of a mortgage, homeowners’ insurance, and property tax – that much more to save before retirement. Checking the plan For years, we had been living well…with a fairly high income. With the planned retirement, our income would be steady, but very low in comparison. We had to find out if it was a feasible

In short order, it became obvious that we were able to live just fine on the 33% (which made me realize that we had been very foolish with our money for many years). This, along with the equity from our home sale, provided the money set aside for building a home free and clear. We essentially had nearly two years’ salary set aside for the building project when we began. Can you do this? I think many people could do the same thing with their plans. No one has exactly the same situation, but the general idea would work for anyone. Obviously, if your situation involves more current debt, it will take you a bit longer to save up the nest egg.

Here’s how I would boil our plan down

1 2

ONE

DECIDE AS A FAMILY THAT YOU WANT TO BE DEBT FREE.

TWO

MAKE MONTHLY SPENDING CHANGES TO RID YOURSELF OF CURRENT DEBT AS FOLLOWS: Consumer debt (pay smallest balance first, then snowball to the biggest) Student loans (these things will never leave you…get rid of them) Mortgage (Once the consumer and student debt is gone – pay it off as soon as possible or sell the house if you need to)

health HOMESTEADING & wellness

START A SAVINGS PLAN FOR THE HOMESTEAD:

a. Reduce consumer spending b. Eat at home c. No buying on credit

d. Become a more frugal shopper e. Live on the amount of income you’ll have at retirement only – save the rest

FOUR

DETERMINE THE RETIREMENT LOCATION.

a. Analyze taxation, growing season, location relative to friends/family b. Purchase the land (or house and land – as your situation demands) c. Begin work on the homestead as time/money allow i. Dig well ii. Install septic system iii. Build/install other infrastructure needed (electricity, internet, gas lines, propane) iv. Consider building small outbuilding to assist with living during construction. v. Design the home, using current materials costs to estimate what it will really take. If you plan to subcontract most of the work out, you must save a lot more before you start. We ended up doing most of our own work in order to stay within the budget and ended up with a building cost of about $67/sf.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health HOMESTEADING & wellness

t is not easy to do this…I won’t lie to you. It’s been a hard fifteen months of building. Perhaps you need to plan to live in a rented house or apartment instead of living in a travel trailer, to save your sanity/ marriage. The travel trailer living was much harder than I imagined. Just build your plan accordingly. This was our plan…yours will look different, I am sure. But if you are willing to make the changes now in your life, you can live your life much differently than other folks can in the future. You can make your homestead work for you instead of the other way around. You can have less stress in your life without debt and high taxation, if you choose. You can have time to do things that truly interest you, instead of being tied forever to a job just to make it. We have been (and will continue to be) documenting our plans and struggles at our website The Homestead…Starting a New Phase of Life.

ABOUT LVSCHANT LvsChant lives with her husband and two teenage sons in southeastern New Mexico on their 5 acre homestead. You can follow their trials, tribulations and progress at their blog at: The Homestead... Starting a New Phase of Life.

24 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

26 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health & wellness

SMOKED BRISKET

STUFFED PEPPERS

MINT TEA

WHAT IS A PALEO DIET?

and Sisson have done great work, you can learn a lot from them. They all also have a lot of similar recommendations but quite a few differences. None seems to have any need to bash the work of the other though, because I believe they all see paleo as again what it is, a concept. There is no definitive source that gets to say “A is paleo and B isn’t.” Paleo nutrition is basically an opinion derived from both scientific evidence and extrapolation based on human nature and the behavior of indigenous peoples.

ARTICLE BY JACK SPIRKO

Over at my daily podcast, The Survival Podcast, I have had a ton of questions about “The Paleo Diet” as it relates to current authors such as Robb Wolf, Loren Cordain and Mark Sisson. I have also had a lot of discussion as to how it relates to the work of pioneering researcher Dr. Weston Price.

dairy?”, “Is alcohol in moderation okay?”, “Can you eat grain if you soak it and call it paleo?” come in by the bucket load.

A Concept Not A Defined Diet

The first thing we need to accept in order that we may logically examine a paleo nutrition based

Questions like, “Does paleo allow

28 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

JUMBALAYA

lifestyle is something very hard for many to conceive of, paleo isn’t “a diet”. Paleo is a concept upon which many different people draw conclusions and develop and evolve a diet. Why is this distinction important? Simply because if you don’t see it this way, you think paleo is a list of what to eat and what not to eat and that list is based on the one author or blogger you choose to follow. Authors such as Cordain, Wolf,

Why is this so important? So that people interested in learning about the paleo concept can give themselves the freedom to examine the work of the many wonderful authors and bloggers. A group of pioneers who are working with and evolving this concept and develop a plan that works best for their lives. What Did Our Paleo Ancestors Eat? The fact of the matter is we do not know exactly how humans

SAUSAGE

FAJITAS

10,000 years ago ate; they didn’t leave any a dining hall schedule or hard and fast records behind. Tons of research has been done, actual food stores found ,and we know a lot about what was available; but we don’t absolutely know for a fact that people ate X percent of this and Y percent of that. Anyone saying we do is either a liar, delusional, or a time traveler in disguise.

circumstances, more on that in a bit. What we can surmise though is as a gatherer you will gather that which is easiest and tastes best first. Nuts are easy to gather when they fall but take time and energy to crack. Wild grains are tiny and take a ton of work to process, so did they eat it, sure, did they make it a staple, not likely.

What we do know is paleolithic people were definitely hunter gathers. We know they had quite advanced technology for hunting and all the tools needed to butcher and kill animals from small to large. People with limited resources don’t develop and put energy into the creation of such implements and not put them to use. From this we know they killed and ate animals. We also know they gathered wild fruit, tubers, nuts, seeds, and yes even grain. Grain of course is not acceptable according to many on the paleo lifestyle. I personally consider it “not on the diet” but that doesn’t make it “unacceptable” in all

Grains Nuts Seeds Fruits Tubers If I try to go food by food, item by item this article will become a book, many fine books exist on the concept so I have no intention to rewrite one here. My premise is that our paleo ancestors likely got the majority of their calories from stuff they could kill or BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health & wellness

WITH MAX

WITH THE GEESE

pick and then easily consume with minimal effort. Anything requiring much energy was likely the equivalent of a “survival ration”. Most of these items store well if simply kept dry and you don’t have to process it right away. This would include a lot of wild grains and many nuts and seeds. Now some seeds are very easy to process, they don’t need hulling and are easily harvested, perhaps more of such seeds were used, we don’t know, all we can do is guess. Now fruits and berries were likely very highly utilized but were mostly eaten seasonally. Sure you can dry them but there is only so much utility there. Vegetables of the time, which were mostly greens of one sort or another, were likely also seasonal; none store well. Many tubers store well but they can be bulky and likely were used mostly in winter when we believe these quite nomadic people were less on the move. The World Is A Big Ass Place Into this we have to add in

30 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

something many paleo authors seem to not touch on. Paleo people were not just Nordic types in furry vests and the first Native Americans in temperate cold climates. By this time there were people in almost all parts of the world, certainly in all of the world’s climates. Tropics, desert, cool temperate and warm temperate have lots of different foods that would have been available. You can bet people living near a marsh quickly figured out how to eat clams, oysters, snails, etc. They are easy to gather and cook in their own little cooking containers. How many oysters did a person in central North America eat though? How about the tribesman in the African savannah? Do you think he was eating shellfish? Yet, in all but the driest environments, fish was likely consumed. There were far less people and far more fish and the water was far cleaner 10,000 years or more ago. The work of Dr. Weston A Price showed us, by examining remaining indigenous people,

PICKING MINT

that almost all such cultures used meat in one form or another. If you want to learn more about Dr. Price’s Work check out The Price Pottenger Nutritional Foundation at http://ppnf.org/ they are the official organization that has continued his work. While the PPNF eating guidelines are not 100% consistent with paleo they are a great example of the core of this way of eating. Additionally, they allow us to examine ways to use some foods not generally considered paleo. I will get to why this is important in a bit. In essence this is what we know, our ancient ancestors ate a lot of meat, they ate pretty much 100% of all edible parts of any animal they killed. Stomach, liver, kidneys, abnormal fat, back fat, eyes, tongue, heart, etc. and it was a huge part of their intake. They gathered edible tubers, edible fruits and berries, edible greens and shoots, some seeds, nuts and in some instances wild grains. We can surmise that a lot of the seeds, grains, etc. were used in extreme moderation

FIXING A FLAT

simply due to the work involved to make them edible. Paleo eating is built on this concept. There Is No Pope Of Paleo Some writers, such as Loren Cordain, who is for all intents and purposes the father of the currently thriving Paleo Community, have recommended lean cuts of meat. I disagree with this and most such authors such as Cordain and his protégé Robb Wolf have moved in the direction of more animal fats over time. Most of the newer writers and bloggers have started out with fat making up a lot of the diet, I agree with this. The key to remember though is

WITH THE HENS

paleo again is a concept; it isn’t “a diet” like say “Weight Watchers” or “South Beach”. Sure some writers have set guidelines but it is based on their interpretation of the concept. Again the reason this is key for you as an individual is that no one gets to tell you exactly what you must and must not eat. Rather you simply look at guidelines and make your own choices and by experimentation determine what is best for you. This isn’t like the ancient Catholic church where the Pope could tell you exactly what you can’t eat on Fridays during Lent. Writers, bloggers, researchers, and scientists within the Paleo community are all to be seen as

BBQING

resources, not authorities. Some people on paleo take a mostly lean meat and veggies approach. They cook mostly with things like olive oil and focus more on protein. They eat no grains; almost no legumes and no white starches like, say, white potato or rice. They will eat a bit of nuts here and there, tree nuts not things like peanuts that are actually legumes. They eat only grass-fed and pastured meats. Is that paleo? Yes. Is it what I do? No. Do I disagree with their assessment in some areas as to how early man ate? Absolutely. Does that mean they are not paleo or I am not paleo, can any of us be excommunicated by a

What I Eat – It Ain’t All Paleo “Pope of Paleo”? No. I am not 100% paleo, 100% of the time. I consider myself paleo because the bulk of my diet is made up of foods that I either feel my ancestors consumed, or analogs to them. My ancestors didn’t eat beef from a Black

Angus steer, because that animal didn’t exist. But said beef is quite similar chemically to buffalo or kudu, as long as it isn’t laced with chemicals and antibiotics and the animal isn’t fattened artificially on corn. Many things I eat some purists say are not paleo; I disagree, that is my right,

I run my own life after all and I think for myself, you should do the same. Some things I eat or drink I know full well are not paleo. These fall into four categories…

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health & wellness

Some things I eat or drink I know full well are not paleo. These fall into four categories…

For an idea of a typical day, here is what I actually ate two days before writing this. MORNING

Coffee – I consider it neutral and not “un-paleo” others disagree. Heavy organic cream – Again neutral, I would prefer it from raw milk but can’t find it in my area.

one

TWO

THREE

FOUR

Items that I feel, based on biochemistry, don’t really do anything to the body that is negative on its effect and contrary to paleo biochemistry, but don’t really do much positive either. One example is alcohol in moderation. I don’t refer to “beer” or really specific beverage. I am referring to the actual ethyl alcohol in any “adult beverage”. The residual carbohydrates in a beer are clearly not paleo and can, in quantity, have a quite negative effect. Yet alcohol is processed differently than protein, fat, or carbohydrate and, if NOT taken to excess, is simply eliminated by the body. It has little to no effect on blood sugar in moderation. This is scientific fact.

Items that are not paleo but have been prepared in a way to mitigate their negative effects or are not totally detrimental even though I know they are not truly paleo. Let’s go back to beer for a second. Too much beer you get a beer belly, it is all about the carbs. Paleo results in a low carb lifestyle; it isn’t low carb just to be so it just works out that way. The key with beer though is it is grain based; however it is brewed with spouted grains, sprouting grains makes them LESS toxic. Lacto fermentation also makes grains less toxic so I would be far more likely to eat sourdough bread vs. typical bread. Still I am not going to eat fermented grains or sourdough daily, the carbohydrate load alone is counter to paleo biochemistry. I am also aware here that I am making toxic foods less toxic, not harmless. Corn is also on this list for me, old varieties of non GMO organic corn have a true history with humans over thousands of years. It isn’t good for you but a hell of a lot less harmful, in my opinion, then wheat. So I would generally choose a corn tortilla, if indulging, than a flour one.

Items that are beneficial to my health and don’t take away from the good that paleo does in any way. These are mostly fermented foods but fermented foods that are also paleo. Cabbage is a vegetable, it is on the consume list and, when fermented, it has a very positive health effect. Yet I know full well sauerkraut wasn’t being consumed in 10,000 BC. I put yogurt (real whole milk yogurt, there is no such thing as true yogurt that is low or no fat) in this category as well, along with things like kefir. Also included in this group would also be fermented pickles and escabeche. Escabeche is one of my true loves, the ingredients are all paleo but it is also fermented goodness. Classic escabeche is just fermented carrots, jalapeno, and onion cut in strips and fermented in salty water. I add garlic and sweet peppers to mine. I consider such fermented foods as “paleo friendly indigenous foods”. They came later than the paleo period but use paleo friendly ingredients and are rooted in indigenous cultures.

Items that are just not paleo and frankly not good for your health. Last night I ate some brisket tacos. I did so with plain old everyday flour tortillas. I put sharp cheddar on them, green tomatillo salsa, and I ate fricken four of them. I had no guilt, no ill effects, and no one took my “Justice League of Paleo Card” from me. Why did I eat that? I wanted it and damn it tasted good. Given the rest of the week I had eaten almost 100% solid it really did me no harm but I also know it isn’t “approved”, it is cheating or more to my way of thinking a comfort food to be eaten in extreme moderation. On rare occasions I truly indulge and go off the reservation. Last Thanksgiving I ate a huge pile of white potatoes and stuffing. I won’t do it this year, not because I want to be “good” but because I felt like crap last year. This year I will do some roasted sweet potato (Japanese Purple) and make stuffing from smoked sausage and chestnuts. I bet I will enjoy it more.

32 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

Pastured eggs with blue cheese and left over brisket – I call that paleo. AFTERNOON

Nothing. I just wasn’t hungry; this happens all the time now. Some days I don’t eat anything until 5 pm, and have no cravings or ill effect, this is not planned. EVENING

Chicken wings – made with my own special chili and garlic oil on the grill, solid paleo. Roasted carrots fine on paleo, especially as few as I ate. Grilled green peppers – absolutely paleo approved. Two small pieces of dark chocolate – not paleo but no big deal in my opinion. I drank a few beers too and that isn’t paleo but I don’t care, I am happy with my results with paleo eating at the core of my diet. BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health & wellness

My Results

First, let me tell you about the before version of Jack Spirko. At the heaviest I ever weighed myself I was 283. I know I was fatter at my fattest; I was losing weight before I was willing to get on the scale and look at my real predicament. I would estimate my weight at its worst at about 295 but I was too ashamed to weigh myself at the time. I am a former Army Airborne solider and never really accepted that I was fat until I had really gotten bad. Worse physically I was able to perform pretty well, in shape types often sucked wind if I hiked with them while I was fine. That was dangerous it led me into a false sense of feeling I was okay. I was not okay by a long shot! I was killing myself! My blood sugar was nuts, if I failed to eat I would end up shaky, sweaty, sick, and mean as hell in a state called hypoglycemia. My blood pressure went in spikes all the time. While I could endure hard work I didn’t want to do it I just did it when I had to. I was on track for a heart attack by age 50 at best and likely close to type 2 diabetes, if not already there. While I am now, as I put it, 90% paleo, 90% of the time, I didn’t start that way. My approach was to go 100% paleo approved (my version) with very little alcohol and dairy for 60 days. In that first 60 days I ate at a caloric level where the numbers say I should have gained weight but I didn’t, 20 pounds tumbled off in the first two months will I ate literal slabs or bacon and 1 pound plus fat laden rib eye steaks.

34 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

The first week I felt like crap as I withdrew from all the carbohydrates and processed foods. It was exactly like breaking a drug addiction. In fact, I believe modern processed food and the combination of high carbohydrates with refined sugar and fats is a drug. It causes the exact same things to occur as any illicit drug would. When you eat it you feel good, soon you feel compelled to eat more. When negative thing start to happen (declining health and getting fat in this case) people continue to do it. People in this state have withdrawal symptoms with even modest fasting times. And like me, when they quit, the detoxification is almost identical to drug withdrawals. Those first 60 days happened almost three years ago. Over the next 10 months I continued to lose weight. By the end of that year I was down to 210 pounds. Considering I didn’t do a lot of exercising and that I was 190 pounds at 19 when I was in the Airborne; that’s pretty amazing. The big question though is always, not how much you lose but do you keep it off. I am happy to say over the next two years not only did I keep it off, I am now about 205, so I have slowly continued to lose weight. You Have to Be Strict in the Beginning I briefly discussed my path above to point something out that is very important. If you read what I eat you might come to the wrong conclusion. That you can

be as lax as I am now and lose a lot of weight or correct dietary based illness or both. Likely you can’t. In the beginning I followed Robb Wolf’s book almost to the letter. My only departures were I ate fatty meat because I knew already it would work better and I drank likely a few more adult beverages than Rob would have approved of, though I drank almost no beer. I mostly enjoyed dry wines and Robb’s famous Nor Cal Margarita’s in the beginning. After 60 days in I also didn’t just become as lax as I am today. At that time I was still addicted. I was still massively tempted to go down to a place like Cracker Barrel and shovel biscuits, chicken fried steak and white gravy into my pie hole. For another few months I avoided most restaurants and, if I did go, ordered things like steak fajitas and asked the server not to bring me chips or tortillas. I knew if they were on the table I would eat them. At this point, I began enjoying some beers again, sticking to lighter varieties for a while. I started to eat more cheese and some dairy and waited to see if it had any negative impact. I continued to get in better shape and had no ill effects. I continued at this level for about another 3 months. After that I began letting myself have a bit of bread once a week if it popped up. I didn’t plan it like, okay Thursday is bread day. That is bad for the mind; you convince yourself you are sacrificing. But if I was at a steak house and they brought out bread and if I was in

Jack at 290+ lbs.

the mood I had a slice. I would on rare occasions have some rice and beans at a Mexican restaurant, but never ate them all, just a bit. I would eat almost all my meat and vegetables first and by doing so I would never really want the entire portion anyway. Along the way something strange happened, my appetite declined and any trace of my former issues with hypoglycemia disappeared. When I was eating without thinking, I was already eating rib eyes, for example. I would eat one with broccoli and a huge potato and perhaps a big piece of garlic bread. Now the potato and bread were gone, and yet I found myself with a third of my steak going into the fridge for use in tomorrow’s breakfast. Then, as previously mentioned, I began fasting on many days with no intent of doing so, I just only ate if I felt like it. Yet none of this happened overnight. It was a long process and a great journey. Thoughts on Exercise People are amazed when I say I didn’t exercise and I didn’t in the way most people think of the

word but you might have to. First and foremost, we are different beings you and I, you may not respond as well as I did or as fast as I did and may need something to kick on the furnace. The truth though is likely I didn’t have to hit the gym due to my lifestyle while this was occurring. We had just moved to a homestead in Arkansas. My days were spent cutting timber, splitting logs, digging gardens and taking walks with my dog up a very steep road over about 2 – 3 miles a day. Today it is much the same. We are in Texas and have a 3 acre homestead. I walk the entire property multiple times a day seeing to our animals. I do a lot of work in the garden, I build a lot of things, I swim in our pool, and frankly, in the summer, sweat my ass off. Let me say I believe that unless you have specific goals as an athlete this is the ideal way to get “exercise”. Our paleo ancestors didn’t do cross fit or run on tread mills or stair masters. They certainly didn’t work out to “Buns of Steel”, etc. They ran, they walked, they hunted, they moved heavy objects but all energy extended had a purpose. That gave their

lives purpose, and that, my friends, reduces stress. If you want to be paleo; take walks, focus only on things you can actually affect, turn the damn news off and tune into something positive. Getting active, getting outside, and relieving stress is a huge part of paleo. That said not every person out there can live on their own little homestead doing construction projects, digging gardens, and working with livestock. Many are busy professionals who can only get a work out if they schedule time and do conventional exercise. If that is you, so be it. Still, make time to simply take walks. If you can find a place with hills and get off pavement, even better. If you have specific athletic goals then, of course, you will need to exercise. If you want to be ripped and cut and lean like a person on a magazine cover, you also will need to do a lot of exercise in a more conventional form. Yet I am convinced by my results if you simply want to be healthy, in shape and happy, all you need is an active lifestyle. Let me say though if exercise isn’t distressing for you and you enjoy it, don’t stop doing it either. BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health & wellness

My Conclusion The best guideline I have come by for what is or isn’t paleo food is this one.

All food meant for human consumption can be eaten in its raw natural state by humans, even if we don’t eat it that way due to health concerns or cultural bias. Consider what you have to do to make wheat edible. Cut it, thresh it, winnow it and you still have rock hard seeds unfit to eat. They must be then ground, cracked, soaked or cooked in some way or perhaps sprouted to make them edible. Folks that is not food meant by nature for humans! What animal does this for any food it naturally consumes other than us? The answer is none. As previously discussed, some tolerate grain pretty well, but it is toxic. Soaking, fermentation and sprouting make grain less toxic, but it is still toxic to humans. Almost every food that is a nogo on paleo and primal eating universally will fit this bill. What about meat? Meat is good raw and it is quite digestible raw. It is only modern cultural bias and health concerns of parasites that make cooking meat necessary. So my view is, if something isn’t a food you would eat with little to no preparation, it isn’t paleo. These foods are your building blocks. The other concern is too much sugar. While fruit is something early man ate, remember there were no orchards or Whole Foods Markets to run down to. Fruit wasn’t

36 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

something you could eat every day and they certainly didn’t eat the same varieties every day. It was eaten seasonally so mimic that, especially early on. To me, the way to move into this lifestyle is to first follow a proven method with some modifications if you see fit but keep pretty close to a proven plan. Fix what is broken in your body before cheating and eating things that don’t pass the “would I eat this in its raw form” test. If you want to experiment with fermented and sprouted grains, fine; but at least try the baseline first for, say, 60 days. You can do anything for 60 days; most people would gladly spend 60 days in jail in return for a million dollars, so 60 days without bread and rice ain’t going to kill you. If it works well, stick to it until you get closer to being truly healthy. Then slowly add different things back, stick to naturally grown things, no processed crap. Only try one or two things at a time as you reintroduce things. That way if something goes off kilter you can easily figure out what it was. In time you will refine your personal dietary regiment and by doing it this way you absolutely will stick to it. You may very well find yourself eating more in keeping with the guidelines of people, who follow the work of Dr. Weston Price, or you may find yourself eating more like Robb Wolf or Loren Cordain, but you will find what works for you. That is indeed the key. The reason though for going all in at first is because trust me most people don’t know how sick they are. Most don’t really know how fat they are either. You need that cleansing time, that break down

and rebuilding and cold turkey addiction breaking period so you can actually know what healthy is again. Once you do you will be able to ascertain that some food or substance is a problem for you very early on. My contention is most people that don’t clean out before adding back, end up failing, often with Yo-Yo diet-like symptoms. They lose weight, look good, gain it all back and more and it becomes harder to lose the next time around. Frankly let me tell you I did this weight loss thing about 12 years ago. The story you just read isn’t my first battle with weight. In the 90s, I discovered Protein Power by the Doctors Eades. I was fat, not as fat as this last time but overweight. I went on Protein Power and it worked great but, within a year, I was fat again and began the slow gain that took me up over 290 pounds. I firmly believe that not trying to make “low carb pancakes” as people on diets that are only low carb do is a big part of why my success this time is permanent. I don’t count carbohydrates, I don’t feel deprived, I eat food designed for humans to consume it. Yet I had to break the food addictions first. I had to strip it down to true caveman level stuff and only then did I slowly and purposefully find my way to what works for me. Just remember Paleo is a concept; eating in a way that mimics our early ancestor’s diet, the diet we are genetically designed for. Start at that foundation, get active, give it time to work, and adapt it to your life once you have regained your health.

ABOUT JACK SPIRKO Best known for his work as the host of “The Survival Podcast,” a daily online audio program that focuses on modern survival concepts and philosophy. Jack’s podcast teaches skills such as gardening and permaculture, food storage techniques, alternative investing strategies, keeping small livestock, home energy production, food preservation, and creating individual liberty. Jack and his work have been featured in The Dallas Morning News, The Chicago Tribune, Freedom Watch on Fox News and the Mike in the Morning Show. Jack is a contributing editor for Survival. com Magazine and a former staff columnist for LewRockwell.com. Jack has been called “the face of the modern survival movement” by Judge Andrew Napolitano and “the man we should call Spirkodamus for his accuracy in predicting future events” by legendary survival trainer Ron Hood. BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

HOMESTEADING

ALL ABOUT

CHICKEN TRACTORS ARTICLE BY JASON AKERS

38 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

As always I like to give some background on why I’m qualified to speak to a subject. I built my first tractor in 2010. I built it out of leftover chicken wire, salvaged 2x4s and pallet lumber. It was roughly 6 feet by 3 feet. It was the Ark style tractor (triangular). I’ve since scrapped that one. The second one is the Joel Salatin style broiler tractor. My newest iteration is the cattle panel style (with differences) 2003. I also have two quail tractors. So first let’s talk about why use a tractor. To me the tractor is the most perfect middle ground between free range and coop run that is available today. Some might argue that the electronetting fills this niche. I could not disagree with that statement very strongly but the electronetting still falls in the middle ground but its more leaning toward the free range and the tractor leans on the spectrum more toward the coop/run. The tractor provides most of the protection of the coop/run but with the advantage of being able to move the animals to fresh ground as needed. You always know where the chickens are and yet they still have free range type access to a degree. The other advantage is you can concentrate chickenness or birdness in one area. This means you can use them as a permaculture element to do varied things. Raising chickens is not the goal, the goal is to integrate them into your system. You can do this by allowing them to denude an area for later planting. You can use them to improve the soil. They can warm an area (yes that is correct) for a type of microclimate. You could use them to keep pests in an

– the cattle panels are a good example. They take the place of a lot of lumber of which equivalent sizes would be The disadvantages are that you heavier. Aluminum is a good now have this heavy thing that example too. Don’t use 2×4′s you have to move ever so often. You can reduce your feed bill but when you can get away with 2x2s. probably not as much as free range. Combine materials and sizes for So there’s the why but strength. On my broiler tractor what about how? I used 2x2s for framing except for the uprights which are 2x4s. First you have to build one. I can get two screws through a The main considerations are 2×2 into a 2×4 across the width strength, size, and weight. so it helps. I use chicken wire (lighter) on high places and These considerations fight each hardware cloth (stronger) on low other. places. area down. The uses are almost limitless.

In manufacturing we have a saying which is: Fast, good or cheap – pick two. You can build the strongest tractor in the world but it might be too heavy to move. If you try to make it lighter but just as strong you have to reduce size. So the perfect chicken tractor meets all three requirements. Its light enough for you to move. Its strong enough to prevent predator incursion. Its also big enough to hold the birds you need. This is highly dependent upon your situation. A person living near Yellowstone with wolves would get totally different advice than someone living in South Florida with Pythons.

How do you do accomplish your goals?

Don’t put extraneous features – when you cover it with wire, only use enough wire to accomplish your goals. For instance I have a metal roof section. Well needless to say that section didn’t get wire and roof, just roof. Its best to build light and strengthen later if you can. The build is pretty simple but there’s a lot of cut to fit. The tractor consists of three main components: Simple frame – what holds the tractor together. Covering – the type of material to keep the chickens in and predators out! Shelter area – a small area where all birds can get undercover in a storm or colder weather.

First use rigid but light materials.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

HOMESTEADING

When planning you have to understand the needs of the animal. You don’t want a low tractor for laying hens which will need to roost and lay. You don’t need the upward space in a cattle panel tractor for broilers which are earthbound. If you are raising meat chickens then limiting their upward space can reduce leg injuries. But if you just feed them right you don’t need to worry about such things.

There are various methods of actually moving the tractor. The hardest depending on weight is just actually dragging it. This is tough but it does help level out the ground a bit. Putting wheels on is never a bad idea just make sure they don’t hold the tractor up off the ground enough that predators can get in. Some people use furniture dollys. I know Joel Salatin uses a custom built dolly.

As for stocking rate it is far better to stock low and then build up. Anywhere from 1 sqft per to 3 sqft per. It really depends on the chicken, the size and activity level. You would stock a bantam Sebright different than a Black Giant.

Then you have to think about feeding and watering. Ideally the feeder and waterer move with the tractor and aren’t things that need rearranging to move. After you move them its time to do a check. Make sure the feeders and waterers are still in place and functional. Look for any gaps around the bottom and use something to take the gap up.

Stocking rate would also depend on your land. If you have rich clover and perennial grasses then it would be different than if you were doing it on scrub brush and multiflora rose (like me!). So don’t think there is any one formula out there for getting to it. You have to use your brain and senses on this one. Likewise goes with how often to move it. The more you move it the higher stocking you can do. But if you are like me there might be a day or two you can’t get to it – stock it lower. How do you know if you are moving it enough. Its hard to move it too much. But if you get matted down grass and manure on top of the matted down grass then it could stand to be moved more.

40 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

Feeding – Getting the birds to forage is a conundrum. As long as food is free fed then the foraging will be limited. Simply put it costs a chicken more in calories to work for food than to not work for it. By limiting feed you can force forage. But forcing forage will cause your chickens to gain weight more slowly. Whether this is a problem or not is totally up to you.

Overall using a chicken tractor puts the user in a situation where adaptation and creativity is not only wise but necessary. You’ll find that though this article may be a general guideline that you will have to build the chicken tractor and change it as your specific conditions require.

The tractor consists of three main components: A SIMPLE FRAME to hold the tractor together. A COVERING to keep the chickens in and predators out! A SHELTER AREA where all birds can get undercover in a storm or colder weather.

Water – If you leave the waterer in an open spot it will nearly keep itself filled with rain. Chicken nipple use here is ESSENTIAL.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

POLITICS & ECONOMICS

WAKING UP Like many, I lost nearly everything in the financial collapse. I just didn’t see it coming. I had my nose to the grindstone, and my head in the clouds. I believed in the American Dream. I firmly leaned my ladder on success, and by success I mean money, only to find that my ladder was leaning on imaginary principles. In my heart I knew this; but for some reason, I just went along for the ride.

ARTICLE BY MARK KIRKWOOD Waking up to a new reality? How to deal with the shock and emotions. “I was lost but now I am found. I was blind but now I see.” Our world is changing rapidly. Every day new people are “waking up” to what is really going on. There are things that people are going to learn that will shake them to the core. The lies run so deep that, even today, after years of research and study, I am still

42 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

shocked at the pure evil I find as I continue on my quest to know my enemy. It is my goal to give people hope as they find out the truth of what is happening. These are my personal experiences, and what I believe is a positive way to deal with the truth of our harsh but beautiful world.

In mid 2007, my family and I bought a house. A massive home for my family of five and my mother-in-law. Money was easy, and work was plentiful. Then, in October, my wife and I lost a child. By the month of December, work dried up. I was broke, and selling anything I could to pay the bills. By the end of January 2008, I was alone, getting divorced, homeless, and completely defeated. The housing bubble crash was the beginning of what I call my new life.

When I look back at the years 2007 and 2008 they are, hands down, the hardest, most devastating, heart breaking years of my life. Change of this magnitude looks and feels like a violent assault. It leaves you confused, bruised, and angry. Yet change is necessary, or we die. 2008 was my new birth into reality. I set out to ensure that myself, and the ones I love, would never go through what had just happened, ever again. So I turned to the only source of honest news. The internet. Partly because I didn’t have a TV, and I could find free WiFi everywhere.

With my newfound free time, I watched thousands of hours of videos and read everything I could find. I learned more in six months than I did over the last decade. My “wake up moment” was early on in this process. I found Alex Jones and watched the overthe-top, yet surprisingly factual, documentary “The Obama Deception”. I watched it three times in one day. Each time, I went back to the internet to verify facts, and each time I came back stunned at what I was learning. I was raised to be a patriot. Pre2008 I would have given my life for my country. The day I watched The Obama Deception, I got down on my knees and repented of my allegiance to my country’s government. I aligned myself with the people of this great land, and not the world elite who are trying to kill us. It was important for me to differentiate between the government that is now in power and the citizens of this great land. I will still give my life for the people, but this

government will have to take my life. I do not belong to them, no matter what they may believe. Emotionally, this process is like the grieving process. I was angry, anxious, and becoming depressed. It took me another few months to hit my stride. The keys to holding it together through this process are simple.

Turn off your TV. The news is crap. The shows are mindless drivel. You are wasting your life entertaining yourself when you could be enriching your life. Do something for goodness sake.

Total Immersion. One bit of information at a time will not help you. It is much better to spend a few months totally immersing yourself and absorbing all the information you can. This speeds the mind shift or paradigm shift significantly. If you do it one bit at a time over years, you will never be serious about BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

POLITICS & ECONOMICS

learning what you need to know, and your wake-up will be more like waking from a coma with no muscles to move your body. If you immerse yourself, the drive to overcome will propel you to take action and give you momentum in the right direction.

Keep it factual as much as possible. The things that are happening will drive you mad if you let them. What you learn will enrage you at times. Anger is going to be a part of this process. So will fear and panic. These are all natural human emotions and should be recognized; then, dealt with by seeking truth. Truth sets us free.

Keep it positive. You have to balance the beautiful in life with the ugly. If you continually dig into what’s wrong, you’re going to drive yourself into a negative slump. This causes all kinds of problems; it starts dragging your mind down the wrong path. If you continually focus on the negative, you will lose sight of the beauty and wonder life has to offer. You will drive people away with your negativity. You cannot wake people up coming from a negative mindset. People who are oblivious to what is going on will instantly label you as a crazy conspiracy theorist. To keep it positive while exposing yourself to the web of lies remember, it is an information war. We outnumber them 1,000,000 to 1. We are smart, inventive, motivated, armed, prepping, training, learning, and relentless. Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t do. If money is an issue, learn the skills you

44 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

can with what you have. I am a big supporter of what I call “YouTube University.” Great skills can be picked up anywhere for free. I just read a great book on dumpster diving, a must have survival skill which costs nothing. My first time dumpster diving, I was blown away by what I found. Skills outweigh material goods 10 to 1, but there must always be a balance when prepping.

Wake up call. Wake up as many people as possible, and talk them through all of this. Have a list of documentaries and websites you can pass on. I talk to anyone and everyone. The greater our numbers become, the less likely they will be able to accomplish their goals. Again, this is an information war. They cannot stop word of mouth. Also, keep in mind these two facts when it comes to numbers: Only 6% of the population of the colonies fought or were active in the Revolutionary War. When Hitler took power, the Nazi party was less then 10% of the population of Germany. Critical mass is a lot smaller than people think it is.

Know your enemy. If you’re not convinced at this point in your life that there are powerful people who not only want to take your freedom, but your life, you are not digging deep enough. Once you get to this point, it’s easy. You treat it like you would any threat. Fight it in any way you can. If you’re reading this, you are the resistance.

Fight! We still have power. Serve on jury

duty. Do not let the government on ANY level win against a citizen who has done nothing wrong. I will never allow some poor farmer to get screwed by the FDA for code compliance. No matter what instructions the judge gives, YOU make the difference. VOTE! Get involved. Run for office. Form community groups. Teach people skills. Save seeds, trade seeds. Buy guns. Give guns as gifts. If you have important books, share them. Start a garden, can some food, teach a kid to ride a bike, and so on. The point here is to get into action.

Take responsibility. Not only for yourself and your loved ones, but for your race. The human race. If you think something is wrong, then join the fight against it or just plain fix it. We have enough sideline, armchair fans. We need people in the game.

Set goals. Setting goals and making a plan is one of the best ways you can get into the game. Start small and work on your consistency. Dream big. If you aim for the stars and hit the moon, that’s still a pretty good shot.

Manage your emotions with knowledge and action. My very good friend is awake, but she was afraid of what is coming. So she took a Krav Maga class where their motto is “we do bad things to bad people”. Her whole worldview has changed. She is learning to fight back, and by doing so, she has beaten her fear. She is no longer afraid.

Faith To skip over spirituality would be a great disservice. Humans have faith. Faith brings hope. Whatever your faith is, use it.

How do I beat fear, anger, depression, and tyranny? I make the choice every day to do what I know is right. When I fail, I try again. I never give up. I help as many people as I can. I look out for my fellow man. I prepare for the worst, but I hope for the best. I learn every day. I read. I take care of my self. A much wiser man than me once said, ” It is good for people to eat, drink, and be merry.” You must enjoy your life. You must also recognize the seriousness of the time in human history we are in. We will see things in our lifetimes that previous humans could not fathom.

Is the world going to end tomorrow? NO. Life will change, and you will change with it. You are an amazing creation. You can adapt to almost anything.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mark is a survivalist, teacher, builder, inventor and entrepreneur. Mark is known for his strong opinions and his relentless quest for truth and knowledge.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

POLITICS TACTICAL&&ECONOMICS FIREARMS

20’

Sea Container BOL Fast and Hopefully Cheap

HVAC Insulation Water Energy Lighting Bathroom Kitchen Bed/Living area. Container Modifications The heating will be via wood fired stove or propane stove. The wood fired stove would double as a water heater and for cooking. A/C will be via 120v window unit air-conditioner. Ventilation will be via 3 kinds of vents. Two turbine vents, which are the type you see on top of storm shelters a lot; 1 or 2 RV 12 v fan vents; some kind of lower side vents, with possibly a 12v computer fan; or heck even 120v box window fans. Heating a body will also be accomplished when sleeping via a 12v or 120v electric blanket. One thing might be added here as a suggestion, though I’ve never tried it… a couple of 55 gallon drums of water in the sleeping/living area for added thermal mass.

BY LARRY GRAY

46 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

What I’d like to talk about in this article is a plan I have for turning a 20’ ocean container into an RV (BOL) quickly and hopefully cheaply. I recently did a lease-to-own on a 20’ container for $3600+$288 tax+$138 delivery fee. Though, if I’d had cash, it would have been $2400+$192 tax+$138 for delivery. These are delivered on roll back wreckers. I can pay it off early but it won’t save me anything on the lease agreement. I guess I’ll break this down into areas of concern. In this plan there is no underground, earth roof, or berming in the design.

January, 2014

This would be almost 1,000 lbs of water. If you raise that water 1 degree F it gained 1,000 BTU. If it loses 1 degree F by radiating it into your room, then the room gains that 1,000 BTU. It has the opposite effect when cooling. Condensation might be a problem with this approach. Insulating the barrels would help with condensation and slow the charge/ discharge rate. Insulation I would consider to be part of HVAC. For the container, I hear there are insulating paints. These paints have ceramic beads in them. I also hear they act more like heat reflector paint not insulation. So they do not exactly have R value. Instead they have a percent reflectivity. This is similar to shade cloth with a percentage shading. Radiant barriers have exactly the same effect on your structure that shade would have. Also water seal is sold for mobile homes with reflective properties. They work similarly to the way a space blanket would work, or polished aluminum or thermal barrier. Along with thermal pane, I’d use thermal barrier, which is silver coated bubble wrap. I’d probably use it on the inside, though it could be used on the outside, as well. If you used multiple radiant barriers then I would think the total percentage of reflectivity would be higher. I would insulate the sleeping/living area with foam board on 3 sides and insulating curtains on the side that opens up to the kitchen and bathroom areas. Insulated curtains could be as simple as hung blankets combined with radiant barrier. Electric blankets insulate as well as quilts, sleeping bags, and such. Air mattresses insulate. Another idea might be to stack hay or straw bales around the container. I’m not sure I’d want to go that far.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

POLITICS TACTICAL&&ECONOMICS FIREARMS

I recently did a lease-to-own on a 20’ container for $3600+$288 tax+$138 delivery fee. Though, if I’d had cash, it would have been $2400+$192 tax+$138 for delivery.

Water might be the next concern. The roof of the container is metal and would catch rain water; however, it is flat. A better idea would be to tarp from corner to corner, yet attach the tarp at 3 corners to be, say, 6” high and about 2” high at a 4th corner. In a 1” rain, we could collect about 100 gallons of water. This means, in Arkansas, I could collect 5,000 gallons all year. In the desert southwest 1000+ gallons and in far west coast or deep south east 7000+ gallons per year. This tarp doubles as shade for the roof. Several 55 gallon drums would do for rain catchment and I suggest they would best be elevated so that the highest water point in them is about 2” below roof level. This would give you the possibility of gravity flow to a sink. It might even be better to have the barrels on their side instead of standing upright. Pumping can be achieved with a 12v water pump, filter, and 30 PSI pressure tank. Search for ‘SHURflo 182-200 Pre-Pressurized Accumulator Tank’, ‘SHURflo 4008-101-E65 3.0 Revolution Water Pump’, and ‘ SHURflo 255-313 Classic Series Twist-On Strainer (1/2” FPT x 1/2” )’ on Amazon. These are probably similar to what an RV might have. If you have gravity flow, then you might think you wouldn’t need pumping. But it might be necessary to pump water into a shower head, or up to the solar hot water heater on the roof (above the tarp).

48 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

This hot water heater, I would make from a roll of black plastic pipe. Would need a frame to support it. Water from it would gravity-flow to the shower and sink. A person would need some indicator as to when it is full. This could be as simple as having it run over when full and run down the tarp into the tanks. Other options for hot water are heating water on a stove; heating with 12v appliances; heating with 120v appliances, though after the electrical system is beefed up more; and heating with on-demand gas/electric, which requires water pressure. Energy system will be electric, solar panel(s) mounted above the tarp beside the hot water pipe heater. A 3-stage smart solar charge controller and 3 marine batteries, one would be for my trolling motor. A couple of inverters, say 400 watt and 800 watt. I would run power inside to one outlet with two female plugs on inside and male plug on outside. I would plug an extension chord into the male plug on the outside to energize the outlet inside. I would also be able to recharge the batteries from grid power or generator power. Propane Gas from 100lbs, 20 gallon tanks or less, would be used for cooking, heatinglight, possibly refrigeration/freezing, and for producing electricity with a multifuel generator. Gasoline would also be used in producing power and running power tools. Ethanol or methanol would be used in cooking on alcohol stoves. Wood and charcoal are fuels, as well, that would be used for heat and cooking. Lighting will begin with day and sky lights. I would make round, port size windows on the sides, say 6” to 1 foot in dia. All I would do here is cut the round hole, then silicon and bolt clear plexiglass on the outside onto each hole. I would make a similar sized window piece on the inside that is white translucent plastic or translucent plexiglass, and bolt it in at only one point on top, so that it could be spun up or down to cover the hole. On top, I would use the square plastic RV dome vent covers and simply

weld a small box around a square hole for them to sit on top of. Or just bolt and silicon a piece of plexiglass on top of a hole I cut in the roof. For artificial light, first we have batterypowered camp lights. Second, I’d use 120v LED rope lights or Christmas lights. I would have a couple of LED flood lights or CFL. 12v lighting might be used where convenient. It wouldn’t hurt to have a couple of gas lights, though note that any inside light must be enclosed and vented because of CO gas. Oil lamps, kerosene lamps, candles, mantle lanterns, and maybe even carbide lamps, all would be part of this plan. Lighting will not be a problem. Build your own battery-powered refrigerator is an interesting link. For refrigeration and freezing, I’d want to get an RV gas/electric combo for inside. Outside, I’d want one or two energy efficient chest freezers. I would insulate this freezer with something, maybe thermal radiant barrier. It would remain locked. If the outside freezer could be gas/ electric or gas that would be even better. I’m a trucker and gone a lot, so I would need a pretty good assurance that the freezer would always be online.

Root cellar storage would be as simple as a bucket buried in the ground with an insulated lid and straw thrown on top. If I had the time and digging ability, the burying of an old frig/ freezer chest would also be a good idea as long as you could keep the ground water out of it. If the ground was very wet and it was empty, it might actually try to float out of the ground. You could easily lock your ground temp storage if it were an old frig/freezer also. I would highly insulate the bed/living area on the walls with rigid foam board insulation to between 1” and 6” deep. This would depend on your budget of course. I would also insulate the ceiling. Next, hang an insulated curtain between the living area and the kitchen/bath area. 3 or 4 of the daylight ports would be in this area. One of the RV vents would be in this area. The window unit A/C would be in this area, along with an added external metal door. The bed/beds would be air mattresses, a futon, a recliner chair, or something like this. Add a flat screen TV, surround sound, DVD and stereo system, and call it home. When heating, I’d just move the insulated curtain a bit and heat the whole area with wood stove or use electric blankets. BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

POLITICS TACTICAL health HOMESTEADING &&&ECONOMICS wellness FIREARMS

Bath area would be partitioned somehow with something like an Oriental folding wall board, curtains or some similar method. This area would have a plastic tub for standing in while taking a shower. A shower curtain on a ring. A shower head from pressurized water or a garden sprinkler bucket with appropriately warmed water in it. There are a lot of different ways to rig a shower. The tub would drain to the outside somehow. I would use a $12 camp toilet with bags. For a urinal, I would use a jug or a funnel with a hose draining to the outside. Biodegradable toilet bags would be best, though, in a pinch, one can use heavier plastic trash bags. Having a bed pan or small bucket on hand might not be a bad idea either. Camping Sink Forum Post I have recently seen the forum post above on a kitchen made from cheap parts you would get from the hardware store. The frame of this was made using PVC pipes, plastic shelving, and the sink from plastic tubs. It could be rigged or plumbed as you would a typical kitchen and, heck, could even have a disposal. A gas range would be used for cooking and oven. A vent hood would be a must, not only for exhausting smoke but CO, as well. A microwave added and other 120v or 12v appliances as desired. The RV frig/freezer combo would go here. Now what modifications to the container would we need to do to accomplish all of this? We would cut holes for a doorway, window unit A/C, port windows, vents; and entry points for electrical, water, and gas lines. We would weld post and frame for holding tarp using rebar, and weld some frame for supporting dome sky lighting. Might also weld supporting frame for solar hot water heater and solar panels. Would weld a frame for the door and and a shelf to hold the window unit a/c.

Some of the tools you might need are welders, cutting torch, and metal jig saw or Sawzall. You will need 1 to 3 ton ratchet jacks for leveling the container, as it weights 6,000 lbs. Also, you will need some blocks or rocks for support underneath. I recommend some 1” treated board pieces and possibly some 1/4” and 1/2” plywood pieces for fine tuning the leveling. A carpenter’s level, or some kind of level, and a magnetic level will stick to the container. Might also use a drill motor with metal bits and wrenches for securing bolts. Would need other tools necessary for simple wiring or plumbing. If I were going to berm this type of BOL, I think I’d start by making earth bag walls about 3” from any side of the container, then berm on the outside. This would be to keep sun off the container and would do some good as thermal mass for a few hours a day. It would also protect from tornado strength winds. If necessary, additional shading could be hung between the top of the berm and the top of the container using shade cloth, and a berm could be used for further rain catchment somehow. I will be continuously updating price info for you on this post over the next year, as I research more. This is something one could do with cash as they go, of course. But here are some basics from what I already know. A rough estimate of what I show below is a cost between $4,700 and $6,700, all depending; and I didn’t figure in all the cost yet. Remember, though, what we are wanting and getting, and that it is paid for as we go. The main point to using a container is that it’s in the dry on delivery and construction is crude but simple. Compare this to an equally priced RV, or motor home with same features and same floor space. There would also be 160 square feet of floor space in a 20” container. Container $2,700 to $3,800 delivered.

THE LIST 12v/gas frig/freezer combo, not sure yet. Good metal door $300. Wood burning stove $200. Window unit A/C $100-$150. 100 lb propane tank $130 Gas light fixture $80 Pump, filter and pressure tank, $125-$150. Blocks for leveling, $2 each for a dozen or so. Thermal Paint? Not sure yet. 55 gal drums, $15 ea or a 200 gal tote for $45. Tarp $40. Rebar, not sure yet. Plexiglass, not sure yet. RV vent fan/sky light, $150.

ABOUT LARRY GRAY

I’m a middle aged man from the (Arkansas) River Valley area of Arkansas. I grew up on a 200 acre poultry and cattle farm. I have almost 2 years of college towards a computer science degree. My careers so far have been restaurant management 5 years, office work with some computer tech work 6 years and trucking 10 years. I’ve also had some work in nuclear rad work tool room and part time security. I was in the US Army Reserve for 8 years. And like Jack I’ve been to Honduras, was there for two weeks once. On the side I have been doing and studying computer work, tech and programming my whole life. I was into caving quit heavily from 1990 to 1993. I explored around 150 caves in northern Arkansas area. I did some rock climbing at the time also, which is part of caving actually. I’ve been more into fishing than hunting. And my trucking career has given me little time for hunting. I’m currently training new truckers at http://www.willisshawexpress.com Willis Shaw Express the first interstate refrigerated/ frozen food haulers. I’m not married yet, never have been and have no kids. I currently camp out on a good friend of mine’s land in a 22’ camper I own. I have no land yet and I’m currently working to pay off around $25K debt. Some of my prepping is on hold til that is done. Until then I can learn more and prepare for prepping. blog.larrydgray.net

RV plastic dome for skylight only, not sure. Turbine vents, $50 ea. 100 watt solar panel $250. 3 Batteries $80 ea. Charge controller $50. Inverters $20 and $40. Used gas range $50-$100. Vent-A-Hood $100. Microwave $100. Kitchen sink setup? No idea yet. Shower setup, not much. Thermal radiant barrier 100’ x 48” roll $166. 4’x8’x1/2” polystyrene foam board $11. Insulated curtains, I have no idea yet. Black pipe 100’ roll 1” $20. 12v electric blanket $25.

50 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

tenet ARTICLE BY JACK SPIRKO

52 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

POLITICS & ECONOMICS

EVERYTHING YOU DO SHOULD IMPROVE YOUR POSITION IN LIFE EVEN IF NOTHING GOES WRONG The survivalist community is often perceived as a bunch of gloom and doom types sitting on a pile of MREs, ammunition, and guns in some far out corner of the Northwest. Of course, the survivalist is also typecast as expecting TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) to occur any day now; in fact, he is actually hoping for it. Honestly it is time for this stereotype to die a deserving death. Modern survivalists are many things but very few are actually concerned about the infamous black helicopters or FEMA Camps. Most, instead, are simply realists who understand that sometimes things do go wrong and it is better to be prepared than to expect someone else to solve your problems. The real key to modern survivalism is the Modern Survival Philosophy, which is a group ten key principles that guide the actions of many survivalists. While all are important, it is tenet number

one that really sets the stage for separating the doomsday stereotype from the reality. Survivalists are generally thought of as people who prepare to deal with disasters, shortages, and anything that disrupts society. Modern survivalists do this, but they do so in a way that improves their lives, even if nothing major ever goes wrong. For example, many survivalminded individuals grow gardens and develop more permanent food producing crops like fruit trees, berry bushes, etc. on their property. They generally stick to organic production methods, focus on water harvesting, and attempt to maximize production per square meter. This is a classic survival technique designed to remain sustainable if anything hits - from simple loss of personal income all the way up to a collapse of US infrastructure. So yes, in the event of economic collapse, this makes a tremendous amount of sense as a modern survival tactic. Now, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s examine the other side of the issue. What if we never have an economic collapse? What if there are no food shortages in the next 30 years? What if the

survivalist never even has a layoff to contend with? Flat out for the foreseeable future absolutely nothing goes wrong. If you have your property landscaped with sustainable organic food producing crops, are you not still better off? Consider that, by setting up sustainable and productive organic agriculture, your property value will be increased, if for no other reason than environmentalism is a huge movement right now. You will spend less money over the years on buying food, which can be saved, invested, used to reduce debt, etc. Further, your health will be improved by eating high quality fresh produce, not to mention the exercise you get. Of course, the list of benefits from having a solid, sustainable, edible landscape on your property is exhaustive and could go on a lot further, but hopefully this begins to make the point. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s examine more briefly a few more common things that survival minded individuals do and consider what benefit they have to us, even if nothing ever goes wrong. One key to modern survivalism is debt elimination. In the event of a disaster, from personal up to global, those in

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

POLITICS & ECONOMICS

less debt are better suited to handle what comes their way. Yet, even without any type of disaster, having low to no debt will result in a much more sustainable and rewarding lifestyle. Having firearms and the training to use them is useful in anything from a garden variety home invasion to a true societal breakdown. It can be the difference between life and death. Yet, if nothing goes wrong, the armed citizen is still more confident and makes decisions based on reality versus fear.

solar panels and/or wind generators, you are ready to handle a blackout, no matter what the cause or how long it lasts. Yet, even if nothing goes wrong, you pay less for your electric bill and increase your property value.

equipment. Yet, if you go out and purchase a 25,000 dollar bass boat and fancy equipment, you will never get an ROI on your production. Now, if you want a nice boat, this is America, there is nothing wrong with that; but, if you want to be a survivalist, save your money and buy what is adequate with cash. One version is an expensive hobby, the other is a way to improve your lifestyle.

Learn to “live off the land” with hunting, fishing, and foraging and you will be more likely to survive a disaster; but if nothing goes wrong you are enjoying the outdoors, getting exercise, saving money, and It is really a simple core eating better quality food all at guiding principle. Each time the same time. you are making a decision about where to spend time, This formula is practically money, or resources, you bulletproof, as long as you simply ask the question, “Will Storing extra food is this action improve my ability “Survivalism 101” and there are keep the first tenet in mind to live a sustainable lifestyle many things that can go wrong, as you make lifestyle and purchasing decisions. Again, if we have a disaster or even if from a personal up to a global that tenet is: we don’t?” When the answer level, where such stored food is yes, you make it part of your is potentially lifesaving. Yet, by survival planning. If the answer following the mantra of “store EVERYTHING YOU DO is no, that doesn’t mean you what you eat and eat what you SHOULD IMPROVE YOUR don’t do it, it simply means it is store”, modern survivalists a luxury, not an investment in actually spend less money POSITION IN LIFE EVEN IF an asset that provides for your via a classic method known NOTHING GOES WRONG future; hence, you prioritize it as “capital deferral”. This is accordingly. accomplished by purchasing This keeps you from using what will be used anyway, at There is a fundamental reality today’s prices to beat inflation, survivalism as a convenient excuse to blow money and that most Americans are much the way Southwest go into debt, which would living beyond their means in Airlines does by purchasing violate one of the other tenets an unsustainable way. They fuel contracts while prices are anyway. For instance, fishing are one or two paychecks lower. is a great way to add another from poverty, consuming food that is unhealthy, working far This concept simply continues low cost protein source to the household, if done with too hard for far too little, and through just about every facet practical and modestly priced above all, many are miserable. of survivalism. If you put in

54 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

Yes miserable! They work at a job they hate, drive on a commute they hate even more, and give up the best parts of their lives simply to earn enough money to pay the interest on their debts. They then retire with a social security check that keeps them just to the south side of the poverty line and, by the time most 30-40 somethings retire, they won’t even get that. The modern survivalist simply realizes that is not good enough; that life is precious and, as humans, we have a fundamental liberty that many choose to sell for far too low a price. The good news is you have a choice. You can choose to walk through life with a credit card at the ready or you can choose to live a life that can be sustained in both good times and bad. It all starts with asking the simple question, “Will this choice improve my long term sustainability?” on a daily basis. Simply asking that question will put you on the path to becoming a modern survivalist.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

56 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health HOMESTEADING & wellness

PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES & PREPAREDNESS What is the diference between Permaculture and preppers? I have found that there is not much of a difference at all.

BY JOSIAH WALLINGFORD

58 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

he only differences seem to be the perceived notion of what one or the other is by the other party. Many of the permaculture enthusiasts seem to think that preppers don’t care about the environment and many preppers believe those hippie permaculture people are either part of or encouraging agenda 21. Maybe not those exact issues but something similar. Preppers are a bunch of crazy conservatives and

permaculturists just want government to force me to comply with their beliefs. While I have seen members of both parties doing both, I have found far more that think the same way… even if they won’t admit it. Let’s first break down some of the core principles of each group and then we can look at the differences. To do so I will cite two icons in each industry and what they claim the principles are.

Bill Mollison

Jack Spirko

In Bill Mollison’s “Permaculture a Designers Manual” he covers the philosophy of permaculture values and ethics. In there he states:

Jack Spirko has created what he calls “The Modern Survival Tenants”. There are six of them so far and they are:

The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children. The next highlight in Bill Mollison’s chapter covers the Principle of Cooperation. Cooperation, not competition, is the very basis of existing life systems and of future survival. The experience of the natural world and its laws has almost been abandoned for closed, artificial, and meaningless lives, perhaps best typified by the dreams of those who would live in space satellites and abandon a dying earth. Bill has laid out three sets of ethics that permaculture follows. Those ethics are:

01. Everything You Do Should Improve Your Position in Life Even If Nothing Goes Wrong 02. Debt is financial cancer! Minimize it, pay it off early and stay away from credit cards. 03. Growing your own food is for everyone, not just people who want “organic” fruit and vegetables. 04. Tax is theft, the best way to combat it is to understand every legal deduction you can take or create. 05. Food stored is an exceptional investment. You simply can’t lose by storing extra food that you use on a regular basis. 06. Use threat probability as your guide when building a plan to deal with potential disasters.

Care of the Earth: Provisions for all life systems to continue and multiply. Care of People: Provisions for people to use those resources necessary to their existence. Setting Limits to Population and Consumption: By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to further the above principles.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health HOMESTEADING & wellness

The only true way to be free is to refuse the force of government and to take on responsibilities for ourselves.

Now let’s take a look at each of Bills ethics and views. The first viewpoint that Bill makes is that “The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children.” I could not agree more and I doubt anybody in the preparedness mindset would disagree. It is in the preparedness core of thought that we do not fully rely on others and that we fully take on responsibility for our own existence. If we wish to help others, it is by our own good nature. We do not appreciate having a gun pointed to our heads and forced to give to others. That is unethical. That is immoral. The only true way to be free is to refuse the force of government and to take on responsibilities for ourselves. Those responsibilities can be the good of others, if that is what you choose; but, by no means, will that be done by force. You choose who to help and how you will help them. Imagine, if you can, a world where government doesn’t steal your money and distribute it as it sees fit. Do you think you would be better able to take responsibility for yourself and your children, and, therefore, be better able to care for others? I do. That quote sounds like something we can all relate to in the prepper community to me. “Take responsibility for our own existence” is

60 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

a pretty common theme among the best of us. Government doesn’t do it, a democracy doesn’t do it, the police don’t do it, the mafia doesn’t do it…we do it on our own! Next, Bill Mollison states that “Cooperation, not competition, is the very basis of existing life systems and of future survival. The experience of the natural world and its laws has almost been abandoned for closed, artificial, and meaningless lives, perhaps best typified by the dreams of those who would live in space satellites and abandon a dying earth.” I agree and think that many would read those words and drift off into a conservative outlook in thinking. How could competition be bad? Competition is not bad. Not the kind of competition we as preppers think of. Competing to be and create the best is a good, moral, and natural instinct to have, as long as you keep it moral. We have let government and competition mingle for far too long. What has that brought us? Monopolies, intellectual property rights in the form of patents, and companies viewed as people in the eyes of government. Most would read that statement and believe Bill means to stifle competition completely and that we would all live in a world where nobody competes to do better than another. That, of course, is nonsense. To think that anybody would not want to be allowed to prove that something can be done better is lunacy. It is the mindset of what competition is that varies from one to another. If you look at competition the wrong way, you end up with systems similar to the patent system we now have. A patent doesn’t aid in competition, it stifles and destroys it. Good competition can exist if there are no restrictions on what is allowed to be created. I think Bill understands this and simply does not want competition, in the sense that damage should not be done to other’s property in the name of competition. Next Bill lays out his three sets of ethics for permaculture. The first is “Care of the Earth.” Unfortunately, the media and government

have manipulated the masses and pitted us against each other to believe that caring for the earth is to be a democrat or liberal. By doing this, they have harmed the people’s care of the earth more than anything in the history of earth. Nobody wants to destroy the earth. If they actually do it, it is out of greed more than anything else. People want to breathe fresh air, eat fresh food, and be healthy. This is not done by counting cow farts or judging people because of their actions. The only way to truly have an impact and care for the earth, is to set the example and care for yourself first and then others. If you set the example, others will follow. Permaculture is probably one of the best methods of caring for the earth, reducing pollution, and bettering your health. The second ethic Bill gives is to “Care for People: Provisions for people to access those resources necessary to their existence”. What better way to do this than to create a system in your backyard that provides an abundance of food, and then sharing that extra food with others. It was done for centuries before government forced people to help others. There is no better way to create a strong bond than to help others in their desperate times.

There will be no bond if one is forced to help another. The bond comes from an individual voluntarily contributing. How much would you care for a person’s wellbeing if you were forced to give them your property to help them? Would you care for them more doing that or would you have more concern over their wellbing if you saw their needs and met them with the abundance you had created? The third ethic Bill lays out is “Setting Limits to Population and Consumption: By governing OUR OWN NEEDS, we can set resources aside to further the above principles.” When Bill says the above principles, he is referring to the first and second ethic. Now some would read this as “Bill wants to kill people to reduce the population”. This is incorrect. What Bill is saying is, the more people produce for themselves, the less they tend to populate and consume what is not theirs. I do not think that it is always true, that population is decreased by the wellbeing of a person; however, I do think if you were to look at the population growth of people throughout the world, you would notice that the poorer and less a family has, the more reproduction there is. Look at third and second world countries as an example. Last year the BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health HOMESTEADING & wellness

United States population growth was 0.9%. Qatar’s had the largest population growth rate at 4.93%. Zimbabwe came in second with 4.36% growth. The United States was number 124 of all countries. We are the wealthiest country in the world and we have one of the lowest population growth rates. Maybe Qatar and Zimbabwe are just eating healthier foods and, therefore, growing faster, but I do not think that is it. I think we are doing well compared to other countries and, therefore, reproduce less. In the United States, we will not die if we do not have children to work the farm and take care of us. We do not have rampant disease that causes us to have as many children as possible to make sure we have some that survive. By each person producing more food than they take in, we would reduce population, because people would feel more safe and secure from outside threats. If you are producing more food than you’re consuming, you become surprised by how protected and resilient you feel. You make the decisions. You are in control of your own destiny. You have the means to survive what may come about. You can provide for you, your family, and have excess to provide for others that do not. It is a very good feeling to be prepared and be involved in permaculture. Now lets wrap this up with a look at each of Jack Spirko’s modern survival tenants.

TEnant ONE

tenant four

“Everything you do should improve your position in life even if nothing goes wrong.” The things people need in life to survive are shelter, water, food, energy (fire). What would you rank as the most important? Mine would be water first, food, fire, then shelter. All of these things are provided by permaculture if you design it to be so. What better way to prepare than to practice permaculture? And if you have other means of the necessities, why not have a backup? Would it hurt? Why couldn’t your primary means be switched over to a backup and permaculture become your new primary means? If it is for food, I bet you anything you’re going to be eating a lot healthier with your own home-grown produce than you would from anything you buy at the store.

“Tax is theft, the best way to combat it is to understand every legal deduction you can take or create.” I absolutely agree that tax is theft by the enforcement of a gun. I love guns, just not when they are pointed at me. I do not think the best way to combat tax is to understand the legal deductions you can take, but that sure is a good way if you are concerned with law. Most people are. The best way would be if everybody ignored the existence of government and stopped using US currency for anything, including taxes. That is a dream though. I have that dream often. A great way to avoid taxes is to not have to pay taxes though. Can you think of ways permaculture leads to not paying taxes. How about not having to pay a gas tax for your lawn mower? If you design your property right with permaculture, there is no longer a need to mow a lawn or run a weed whacker. Do you think you don’t pay taxes on food just because there is no sales tax? What are subsidies but taxes taken from people and given to corporations? Stop buying food and start growing your own. Start trading with others for food you are unable to grow. That is another way permaculture fixes part of the taxation without representation issue.

tenant ONE “Debt is financial cancer! Minimize it, pay it off early, and stay away from credit cards.” How much would you be able to put away or put into paying off debt if you no longer had to buy food? How much do you spend on groceries every year or every month? Wouldn’t it be great if you could simply put that money into your debt. Once that debt is paid off, you still produce food and get to use that money for something else!

tenant three

Josiah Wallingford is a full time prepper

and Permaculture Design enthusiast. He began his journey into the preparedness world in 2008. His major influences in life have been his family, friends and mentors which include Jack Spirko of The Survival Podcast. He lives with his lovely wife Holly Wallingford in their beautiful north west of Montana homestead.

62 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

“Growing your own food is for everyone, not just people that want “organic” fruit and vegetables.” Well that is a no-brainer, if you have gotten this far into the article. It comes down to health. I don’t care when I die. I just want to feel good going out. Eating truly fresh produce, that I created with my own hands, gives me better mental and physical health than anything I have ever purchased, organic or not. You do not have to be a hippie to want better health. That is insane. If you do have a dislike for “hippies” then don’t you want to outlive them?

tenant FIVE “Food stored is an exceptional investment. You simply can’t lose by storing additional food that you use on a regular basis.” And what better food to store than the food your create! Simple as that.

least, aid in combating these disasters. Permaculture in your own backyard is the greatest feeling of security you can have. It is one of the best plans you can put into place. You can design your permaculture system based on these potential disasters. Another threat could be the threat of people trying to steal your food because they are starving. Having an abundance of food may give you the opportunity to give food to beggars, but that can only last so long. Giving food to beggars could also lead to more beggars and ultimately theft, when the begging no longer gets them anything because you have run out of a surplus. You can design around all of this. Your entire property could be a six to twelve foot hugelculture bed. That bed could be covered in rose bushes or some other thorny and pesky plant that nobody wants to go through. You could also plant a field of perennial vegetables and fruits, just for people to take from and have your thorn ridden hugelbeds behind that. When the food runs out, beggars think that is all there is and go on their way. Next year there is more.

Tenant SIX “Use threat probability as your guide when building a plan to deal with potential disasters.” What are some potential disasters that could very likely happen in our lifetime? Would you even care if you and your neighbors implemented permaculture? Food shortages, trucker strike, economic collapse, drought, flood. All of these can be combated or, at

As you can see, there isn’t much of a difference between modern survivalism and permaculture. There are extremists in each group, but those exist in everything. Ultimately, they go hand in hand. Every prepper and permaculture enthusiast should be incorporating both into their lifestyle. What do you think? Leave your comments below and we can have a sensible discussion.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

POLITICS TACTICAL&&ECONOMICS FIREARMS

THE DANGER OF FOCUSING ON THE DISASTER In my last article we discussed a little bit about the importance of thinking tactically. There are multiple levels to this, as I mentioned previously. But the ultimate question becomes, “What level should we focus on?”

ARTICLE BY JOEL RYALS

rom a day-to-day perspective, it is important to be constantly aware of your immediate surroundings, at least to some degree. That way, you can counter any potential threat before it moves into a position of tactical advantage over you. But the same is true from a larger perspective as well. The problem for most people is that ,while they are used to focusing on the near threats, they often do not understand the danger posed by far threats. From a military perspective, we call this the Strategic Level of thinking. For our purposes, I am going to call it the danger of focusing on the disaster.

64 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

The Big Picture Those who are attempting to reduce our freedoms are very good at creating enough static in our daily lives to distract us from what they are actually trying to do. We are so worried about the economy, that we do not realize that this problem was being created over the last 20-50 years. And while there is still some level of attention that needs to be given to it, there is really not much the average person can do at this point. But, in the meantime, they are trying to pass international treaties that are going to make a huge impact on your personal freedoms 5-10 years from now, if they are not stopped. But most people can’t see those dangers because of the disaster created previously.

Essentially, we are two steps behind. But if we want to be movers in our culture, and everyone needs to be a mover at some level, we need to get ourselves two steps ahead. The Strategy Remember last time I mentioned that it doesn’t make that much difference if you store up food and ammo, if the situation is staged in such a way that you lose it all. What I am really saying is that we have to have a big picture understanding of what is going on so that we are able to position ourselves to the greatest tactical advantage. This will maximize the effectiveness of our preparations today. It really doesn’t make much sense to say, when

they are going door to door searching for guns and ammo, that you would resist with those same guns and ammo. While I agree and would be right there with you, if we let it get to that point, our efforts will make little difference in the grand scheme of things; because we will be dead (even if you take a few of them with you) and your guns and ammo will be theirs, and your family will likely either be in the ground next to you or faced with functioning in that world without you. It is a much better position to work to get ahead of the problem. But, in order to do that, you must be able to think two steps ahead. The better position to be in would be to have a county sheriff in office who will resist that kind of move. And then have

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

POLITICS TACTICAL&&ECONOMICS FIREARMS

neighbors who would be on your side. And organize and coordinate with them to assist one another if it ever comes to that… Now I know that, right about now, many of your are saying, “Yeah, but…” with a million different excuses as to why none of that will work. But let me give you this encouragement, we must stop cursing the darkness and start lighting candles. I don’t pretend that any of my suggestions are easy. I don’t pretend that they are going to happen tomorrow. I do not pretend to have all the answers for your county, state,

or personal situation; but, we must stop making excuses for why we can’t and start asking,

“How could we make that happen here?” If you would have told the liberals that, in a span of less than 30 years, they would take a professing Christian nation and accomplish 9 of the 10 planks of communism here without the people even knowing it was happening, most people would have told you that was impossible. But that is exactly what they have done.

Abolition of private property in land and application of rents of land to public use.

This is the property tax. You can not truly own private land in America anymore.

A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. I don’t think this needs explaining.

Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

This is accomplished through the death taxes.

Confiscation of property of all emigrants and rebels.

The recent targeting by the IRS of all those politically opposed to the current administration.

Centralization of credit in the hands of the state,

by means of a national bank, with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. The Federal Reserve System.

Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the state.

Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state.

The buying up of entire industries, or major players in major industries, like the “bail out” of GE or GM. Not to mention the massive regulation of practically every industry, through such means as the Environmental Protection Agency.

Equal obligation of all to work.

This one has been replaced with something even worse, the right to exist on the government’s dole.

Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries.

Why do you think GMO are spreading like wild fire?

Free education for all children in government schools.

My point here is not to debate the merits or problems of each of these points, but to point out a very important truth. To a very great extent, the mission has been accomplished and has pushed on at a good pace for well over a generation. My fellow citizens, we must step back into the fight and adopt the same long term strategy. We must stop giving a lot of time and energy for a very brief period of time and start giving a slow constant unrelenting push over the long haul. We must stop focusing on the temporary disaster and start looking beyond today. I am not saying to give all of our focus there. I am not saying not to prepare for the future. I am saying, stop being narrowminded, and, if your current tactics are not working, then it is time we change tactics. I hope that this broad picture has really helped to get you thinking from a bigger picture perspective. Until next time, this is Joel Ryals helping sharpen your world…one concept at a time.

This was accomplished long ago.

Regulation and control of the internet and interstate system, as well as rail and ocean-going vessels.

66 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health & wellness

The Importance and Value of Relationships, Community and Balance in Life BY ROB KAISER

In my personal blog, I have written extensively about the changes I am making to the way I live my life. Many of the changes that I have made and continue to make revolve around my journey to seek balance in my life. To make a long story short, several years ago, back in 2010, I was living a completely different lifestyle. At that time, I was working 60+ hours a week on average and traveling extensively for work. Living the life of a road warrior, I regularly ate fast food and at restaurants. I drank and smoked heavily. I was taking my employees and clients out regularly – because “that’s what managers do.” Without going into great detail, the year of 2010 was the first year of what would become an incredible transition in my life.

For the first time in years, I decided to use some of my vacation time. In the past, I would collect it and simply cash out at the end of the year. I was always “too busy” to take vacation. There was work to be done and damn it – I was the man to do it! However, several years of this hectic lifestyle had me feeling burnt out. Not only did I feel like I needed a vacation, but it was suggested that I take one. stressed I scheduled some time off to visit with friends at an old-time music festival in June of 2010. Later on that month was the bachelor party for one of my best friends, who was getting married later that year in September. As I reconnected with old friends, I began to realize that there was more to life than climbing the corporate ladder and achieving what society deemed to be “success.” In my efforts to grow my career and “succeed” in life – I began to forget about certain aspects of my personal life. During the months of July and August, the stress of life and the work environment had gotten increasingly worse. I decided to put in extra time to “make up” for the time I had previously taken

68 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

off. I also wanted to put in extra time to prepare for the upcoming long weekend for my best friend’s wedding in September. This was the first time in my life I was involved in someone’s wedding. Again, I felt as though these moments were the special moments that were truly important in life.I began to recognize the importance and value of relationships in life. While we always talked about the value of relationships at work and through our leadership training…it always seemed false. The relationships we engaged in on that professional level were strategic and a means to an end. Comparatively speaking, the relationships that I witnessed and built during that year in my personal life contributed to my realization that most of the relationships in my professional life were simply nothing more than a facade in an effort to improve and grow the “bottom line.” The wedding weekend was the pivotal moment where I truly realized the importance and value of relationships in life. It was during this weekend where I watched one of my best friends transition into being a husband.

Moreover, I reconnected with an old friend from years past. We both showed up at the wedding single without dates. We split the cost of the rental car and the wedding gifts. We also spent a considerable amount of time together learning about each other and the direction our lives had taken us over the past 10 years. We began forming a relationship of our own during that weekend.As this relationship continued to grow over the next few months, we began spending more and more time together and I began to realize that there was much more to life than the growth and development of my career. I began to realize that the growth and development of my own life, and more specifically the relationships in my life, was considerably more rewarding than anything I’d ever experienced on the professional level. It was remarkable. This initiated a number of significant life changes, ultimately beginning with the resignation of my current management position. During the past few years, I had worked hard, paid down my debt, and paid off my school loans. Moreover, I had built up a fair amount of savings and, ironically enough, the savings that I had earned and built was just enough to fund a move across the country. My girlfriend and I decided that in order to move forward with the growth and development of our relationship, it was beneficial to be with each other. It made more sense for me to move, as the company I worked for had operations in Southern California (where she lived) and I would likely be able to make a

lateral move out there and join our Western Operations. This is precisely what I did in March of 2011.I share all this with you as the reader to encourage the importance of interpersonal relationships in all aspects of life. Working to find the balance between relationships on the professional level and the personal level was something that I found myself trying to do. Besides trying to grow and develop an intimate relationship on a personal level, I was trying to grow and develop new relationships on a professional level as well. Moreover, I was trying to make friends and reach out in ways that I had previously failed to do. In the past, I was too preoccupied with climbing the corporate ladder and growing my career to focus on much of anything else. The new relationship helped me understand that it was necessary to find balance not only in relationships but in all aspects of life. As I moved away from my family, I realized how important they were to me. I began to realize that my career, while important – did not dominate my life in the way that I once thought it had.I also began to realize that the more I learned about myself, the more I remembered how important spirituality was to me. My love life was a no brainer, that was the big driver behind the realization of all these other things. Trying to form a new community was important to me and ultimately I was taking strides towards improving my health and well-being. I had quit smoking cigarettes soon after the wedding in September and by the time I arrived in California – I was

a non-smoker! While 2010 may have been the culmination of stress in my life to date…the year 2011 was the year I began to understand the importance of balance in life.As we continue this journey together, you will learn much about the transitions that have taken place in my life as I struggle to find that balance. My journey to find balance includes stories about health and wellness, homesteading, outdoor activities, politics and economics. The tactical and firearms element will be the least of what I can contribute to this website, but based on what I have seen thus far, there are several columnists and contributors who specialize in this arena and are much better suited to speak about these topics. I hope to learn from them and increase my knowledge and skill set accordingly. It is my hope that my life experiences to date and the way in which I choose to share them with you all here will be of benefit to you that read these blog posts. I am humbled and grateful to have the opportunity to share my life with you and I look forward to the path that we will all walk together as we grow and develop the relationships and our community here on The Brink of Freedom. Stay tuned.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health HOMESTEADING & wellness

LAUNDRY TO LANDSCAPE How to Reuse Laundry Greywater

Nature knows no waste. Humans? Think of all that perfectly good water that flows down the sewer out of our laundry machines. Why not harness that laundry water to grow food?

BY ERIK KNUTZEN

70 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

health HOMESTEADING & wellness

PLANNING

DESIGN

Before heading to the hardware store for plumbing parts, you’ve got to answer two questions: “How much laundry does my household do in a week?” and “Where am I going to send that water?” For me, in both of the installations I describe, the answer was to send the laundry greywater to fruit trees. For food safety reasons, vegetables are not a good destination for greywater. Fruit trees, on the other hand, thrive with greywater. If you’ve got a big household and a lot of laundry, plant some more fruit trees. Fruit trees can be pruned to keep them compact, so you don’t need much space to create your own mini-orchard.

Greywater expert and author Art Ludwig has detailed an easy to understand free plans you can find on the laundry to landscape section of his website Oasis Designs. These are the plans I used to install the laundry to landscape system at a neighbor’s house several years ago, which have transformed a hot and dry side yard into a lush landscape of fruit trees and native plants.

THE LAW

Ludwig’s laundry to landscape system is simple. You send the drain hose of the washing machine to a three-way diverter valve (Ludwig sells a nice brass one on his website). This allows you the choice to send the water back to the sewer in the wintertime, if it’s raining outside, or if you’re doing a load with bleach or diapers. While the diverter valve is expensive at around $50, it’s well worth it for the convenience of being able to easily shift between landscape and sewer.

GREYWATER 1.0 that runs to the landscape, Ludwig recommends installing a backflow preventer (some laundry machines can suck water back, and you don’t want that to happen). You also need to install a vent, and means to hook up a hose to clear the line of lint. See Ludwig’s plan for details. Once the line is out in the landscape, you have the option of sending all the water to one place or creating a sort of pressurized drip system by punching holes in the pipe. Ludwig created a spreadsheet that details the size and number of the holes you can punch in the pipe. At my neighbor’s house, there are around ten holes in the pipe that irrigate a line of fruit trees and flowering shrubs.

From the diverter valve, one set of 1-inch pipes leads to the sewer and the other leads to the landscape. On the side

You can use either PVC pipe or flexible HDPE pipe. PVC is a bit of a chemical nightmare, but it’s what I went with since I couldn’t find HDPE line in less than huge quantities in my area. Note that you must use pipe that is 1-inch or greater. Do not try to hook a laundry machine directly to a garden hose. Doing so will burn out your laundry machine’s pump.

Laws in the US regarding greywater vary widely. Some states allow laundry to landscape without a permit and others treat greywater as sewage. Ludwig has a state by state listing of greywater laws. If there’s any risk that authorities might bust

your greywater party, install the system after building inspectors have left and be discreet. Our system was illegal until 2009, when California amended the plumbing code to allow laundry to landscape without a permit, and nobody noticed or cared.

I’m still using an earlier Ludwig design at my home. Rather than sending a pipe directly into the yard, my washing machine greywater discharges into a 55 gallon drum. I have a standard garden hose hooked up to the bottom of the drum that I drag around the yard. The advantage to this design is that I have more flexibility in where I can send the water. The disadvantages? You need gravity to do this (my house is on a hill). And the garden hose plugs up with lint frequently. Ludwig no longer recommends this configuration, but it has worked well for me.

PRECAUTIONS You need to use a detergent formulated for greywater use. Note that many “eco” detergents have ingredients (like boron and borax) that are toxic to terrestrial plants. I’ve been using Oasis Biocompatible that I order from Amazon. You can also use soap nuts. If you have absent-minded members of your household who might send a load of bleach out to your orchard you should consider a lock on the three-way diverter. Nobody has ever gotten sick from greywater in the US. That being said, you should avoid loads with diapers. And don’t use greywater for vegetables or lawns. Never store greywater. It goes rancid really quickly. Send it straight out to the garden.

72 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

The valve on the bottom of my greywater tank is never closed. Keep it simple. Avoid the expense and maintenance duties of pumps and filters. They aren’t needed. I’m in balmy Los Angeles. If you’re in a place where it freezes, you will need to drain the outdoor lines and/or bury lines beneath the frost line. Send greywater out to mulch basins. The mulch will help filter and soak up excess water. Since washing machines pump out their water, you can force the discharge uphill to some extent. But be careful. Go uphill too much and you risk burning out the washing machine’s pump. According to Ludwig you can “irrigate any distance downhill, or pump up to an elevation 2’ below the top of the washer 100’ away

Have you installed a laundry to landscape system? How has it worked for you? Have you worked with other greywater sources such as your shower or kitchen sink?

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

ACORN PROCESSING 101 I know much has been said and written about the processing and use of acorns; still, I’m going to share my recent class on acorn processing for those of you who haven’t yet tried acorns. First, in the very beginning, nearly 40 years ago, I had read that local Native Americans ate acorns once they were “leached,” though none of my books back then said a lot about how that leaching was done. Some books said that the local Indians would grind the acorns into flour, and then put it into these makeshift colanders, and then pour hot (or cold) water over it so that the bitter tannic acid washes out.

Anyway, I processed my acorns that way for years until I met Linda Sheer, who grew up in Appalachia living the old traditional ways. She showed me a better way. The leaching part was still necessary, and boiling was the quick way to leach. But she told me that, on their farm, they’d simply soak the shelled acorns, and change the water twice a day or so. The leaching could take a month, but the acorns would taste better. Next, she once pulled me to the side when I was huffing and puffing trying to grind my dried acorns in a wheat grinder. She said, “ You must like doing things the hard way,” and then she told me that a better way was to take the still-wet leached acorns and run them through a meat grinder! What a difference. That is still how I do it to this day. When you grind a wet acorn, it goes through the meat grinder easily and there is hardly any work. I can then cook with the coarsely ground acorns, or –more commonly – I dry it for later use. Then, I fine-grind into acorn flour in my coffee grinder before use. Keep in mind that there are at least three books (that I know of) that deal exclusively with acorn processing and recipes. So, while everything I tell you is true, there may be other opinions or ways of doing these things.

GRINDING ACORNS THE OLD FASHIONED WAY

I take my acorn flour and mix it half and half with wheat flour and make pancakes, biscuits, cookies, that sort of thing. I have noticed at urban powwows that they grind acorns in an electric food processor until it is a fine powder, then they put a cloth into a large colander,

74 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

ARTICLE BY CHRISTOPHER NYERGES

WHOLE ACORNS KEEP IT LESS SLOPPY and put the acorn meal into the colander. Then, boiling water is poured into the colander and the tannic acid is leached out quickly. This is a great way to process acorns. Still, I like keeping the acorns whole only because it is less sloppy than grinding first. Plus, the selection of the cloth that you put into the colander is very important. With a fine weave, you lose no acorn meal, but it takes forever for the water to process through. With too open of a weave, the water flows through quickly, but you lose all the fine flour. acornMolcajeteRA Photo by Christopher Nyerges I took this large metate to my recent acorn processing class and students ground the shelled acorns by hand. We then put the finely ground flour into various colanders with various cloths, and practiced leaching with both hot and cold water. The cold water-leached acorns tasted better. We also boiled some whole acorns, and ran them through the meat grinder, and made pancakes too. I was surprised

ABOUT CHRISTOPHER

that everyone found these to be the tastiest of all the acorn pancakes we had that morning. If you want to learn more about this, please buy my “Guide to Wild Foods” book, available from bookstores, Amazon, or www.ChristopherNyerges. com. A lot of good information on acorn use can also be found in “Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants,” by Saubel and Bean.

Christopher Nyerges began studying wild foods and self-reliance at around age 11, from Euell Gibbons’ books, and from his mother, who grew up on a farm. He studied botany and mycology, and understudied with Dr. Leonid Enari at the L.A. County Arboretum. He began teaching wild food walks in 1974, and has taken out approx. 34,000 students in field trips and workshops. His first book, “Guide to Wild Foods,” was published in 1978. His other books include “Extreme Simplicity,” “How To Survive Anywhere,” “Testing Your Outdoor Survival Skills,” “Self-Sufficient Home,” and others. His latest book, “California Foraging,” will be released in early 2014. He was the editor of Wilderness Way magazine for 7 years. Christopher (and his wife Dolores -who passed away in 2008) co-founded the School of Self-reliance. His web site is www.ChristopherNyerges.com.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

BRINK OF FREEDOM authors Jason Akers Columnist

We do have Discounts for Bulk Orders, Please call us for a quote. On our blog, we provide plentiful information relating to Berkey Water Filtration and many other preparedness topics. We personally use Berkey Water Filtration Systems and love using them daily. Whether you need Water Purification Systems for your Home, Office or Travel, we are here to help you.

Jason Akers is the author of Hunt Gather Grow Eat: Your Guide to Food Independence (http://www.amazon.com/HuntGather-Grow-Eat-Independence/ dp/1475275412) and a frequent contributor to Backwood Home Magazine, Self-Reliance Illustrated and BackHome Magazine.

The Berkey Guy Jeff Gleason Columnist

We are an Authorized Dealer of the Berkey Water Filtration Systems and other preparedness products.

76 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

We enjoy answering any questions relating to the Berkey Water Filtration Systems and other preparedness products. If you have any questions about which Berkey Water Filtration System to purchase, or need customer service, please do not hesitate to email us or call us at: 1-877-886-3653 or email us at: BerkeyLight@directive21.com

RICK BEACH Columnist

reside in suburbia and have turned our 0.2 are property into a micro farm. We have 24 chickens, fruit trees, aqaponics, edible landscaping, water harvesting, worm composting, and a regular vegetable garden. We are working on bringing back to life a 6 acre farm that has been in the family for 150 years after 20 years of neglect. I have a background in pharmaceuticals, engineering, business and use these to the best of my ability helping my community. Recently completed Geoff Lawton’s PDC and am applying what I learn at my own sites and advising others in and around my area. I teach and give classes in my area on just about anything I feel confident to speak about to get people thinking in a different direction. As much prepping related classes as people will listen to. We are a blended family and have four kids between us. 2-11 and it’s challenges with different backgrounds and other parents houses. Some of this comes up in writings. Publisher of the website www. wolfbeachfarms.com and contribute to several other online, print, and e-magazines.

30+ year gardener although I lapsed for a few years. I currently

About the Authors featured in this edition of Brink of Freedom and how you can connect with them.

Cohutt

Larry Gray

Columnist

Cohutt has spent the last quarter century deep within the investment business; it has chewed him up on occasion it hasn’t spit him out yet. He grows most of his family’s produce on his 65 foot wide downtown lot, owns more than one firearm but less than Russia, is an experienced reloader and bullet caster.

I’m a middle aged man from the (Arkansas) River Valley area of Arkansas. I grew up on a 200 acre poultry and cattle farm. I have almost 2 years of college towards a computer science degree.

He’s self taught in carpentry and other trades via ongoing (since 1987) renovation and maintenance of his 140+ year old home. He’s a tinkerer and maker, project over-reacher, long time husband of his first spouse, father of brilliant adult children, proto-Aspergerian, longtime “Friend of Bill”, and a favorite target of his own ridicule. (cohutt’s frequent updates of his urban food garden folly at can be found at cohutt.com)

My careers so far have been restaurant management 5 years, office work with some computer tech work 6 years and trucking 10 years. I’ve also had some work in nuclear rad work tool room and part time security. I was in the US Army Reserve for 8 years. And like Jack I’ve been to Honduras, was there for two weeks once. On the side I have been doing and studying computer work, tech and programming my whole life. From 1990 to 1993, I explored around 150 caves in northern Arkansas area. I did some rock climbing at the time also, which is part of caving actually. I’ve been more into fishing than hunting. My trucking career has given me little time for hunting.

I’m currently training new truckers at http://www. willisshawexpress.com Willis Shaw Express the first interstate refrigerated/frozen food haulers. I’m not married yet, never have been and have no kids. I currently camp out on a good friend of mine’s land in a 22’ camper I own. I have no land yet and I’m currently working to pay off around $25K debt. Some of my prepping is on hold til that is done. Until then I can learn more and prepare for prepping. blog.larrydgray.net

Rob Kaiser Columnist

Rob Kaiser is the Social Media Manager of York Meadow Farm and a Project Coordinator for a private company that provides a full range of natural resource and utility consulting services to the commercial, residential, municipal and governmental markets. He has a diverse and comprehensive background gained through 15 years in the green industry, focused on organic farming BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

BRINK OF FREEDOM authors and sustainability, horticulture, outdoor recreation and utility vegetation management programs. Rob is a member of International Society of Arboriculture and maintains his Certified Arborist/Utility Specialist certification. He is also a North Carolina Certified Plant Professional and is a member of the Utility Arborist Association Education Committee. Currently located in the Austin, Texas area, Rob is in the process of securing a lease on a parcel of undeveloped land from a rural property owner and turning it into a fully functioning homestead will be fully documented through a blog and podcast in an effort to share the knowledge, skills and tools necessary to live our dreams and exceed our own expectations.

Mark Kirkwood Columnist

Mark is a survivalist, teacher, builder, inventor and entrepreneur. Mark is known

78 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014

for his strong opinions and his relentless quest for truth and knowledge.

Christopher Nyerges Columnist

Erik Knutzen Columnist

and environmental education, including Sierra Club, Tree People, Boy Scouts, and WTI (see www.wtinc.info). Christopher (and his wife Dolores -- who passed away in 2008) co-founded the School of Self-reliance. His web site is www. ChristopherNyerges.com.

About the Authors A continuation of those featured in this month’s edition of Brink of Freedom.

Drugs. Joel has specialized in tactical training and integrating dogs into every aspect of life, from personal obedience and protection to specialized military application. www.dk-9.com

Jack Spirko Columnist

Joel Ryals

Jack has been called “the face of the modern survival movement” by Judge Andrew Napolitano and “the man we should call Spirkodamus for his accuracy in predicting future events” by legendary survival trainer Ron Hood.

Josiah Wallingford Owner / Brink of Freedom

Columnist

Erik is the co-author, with his wife Kelly Coyne, of The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to SelfSufficient Living in the Heart of the City (2008) and Making It: Radical Home Ec for a PostConsumer World (2011). He lives in the heart of Los Angeles, in a little bungalow set on a 1/12 acre lot where almost all of their land is devoted to growing edible or otherwise useful plants and trees. His obsessions include bees, bikes, beer, chickens, healthy cities, healing herbs, simple living and good food. In short, everything DIY. He blogs at www.rootsimple.com.

Christopher Nyerges began studying wild foods and selfreliance at around age 11, from Euell Gibbons’ books, and from his mother, who grew up on a farm. He studied botany and mycology in high school and college, and understudied with Dr. Leonid Enari at the L.A. County Arboretum. He began teaching wild food walks in 1974, and has taken out approx. 34,000 students in field trips and workshops. His first book, “Guide to Wild Foods,” was published in 1978. His other books include “Extreme Simplicity,” “How To Survive Anywhere,” “Testing Your Outdoor Survival Skills,” “Self-Sufficient Home,” and others. His latest book, “California Foraging,” will be released in early 2014. He was the editor of Wilderness Way magazine for 7 years. He has also long been involved with various non-profits for outdoor

Joel is the founder and head trainer of Dunetos Training Programs and Dunetos K-9, a training facility and equipment manufacturer specializing in practical & tactical training for personal security and K-9. He’s been training and handling dogs for over 10 years and works closely with Baden K-9, a highly respected training facility in Ontario, Canada. Joel has served in the United States Army for 12 years as a Military Police Officer deploying to the Pentagon days after the 9/11 attack, Afghanistan, Iraq and Bogota, Colombia in the War on

Best known for his work as the host of “The Survival Podcast,” a daily online audio program that focuses on modern survival concepts and philosophy. Jack’s podcast teaches skills such as gardening and permaculture, food storage techniques, alternative investing strategies, keeping small livestock, home energy production, food preservation, and creating individual liberty. Jack and his work have been featured in The Dallas Morning News, The Chicago Tribune, Freedom Watch on Fox News and the Mike in the Morning Show. Jack is a contributing editor for Survival. com Magazine and a former staff columnist for LewRockwell.com.

Josiah Wallingford is a full time prepper and Permaculture Design enthusiast. Josiah has taken many walks in life for only being in his late twenties. He has worked for Hewlett Packard as a Technical Support Trainer, spent eight years in the US Army and has toured to Afghanistan. Josiah was a video on demand and network installer for Quadriga before his most recent endeavor of interning with Jack Spirko, managing Permaethos and creating Brink of Freedom. He lives with his lovely wife Holly Wallingford in their beautiful homestead in northwest Montana.

BRINK OF FREEDOM | January, 2014

80 BRINK OF FREEDOM |

January, 2014