OBAMACARE and YOU

My fundamental issue with honesty is simple: a man's word is his bond (women too.)

In our house, if you say you're going to do something-you do it. If you say you're going to be somewhere- you be there, when you're going to be there. In practice, it has set my kids markedly apart from their peers to the extent that people comment about them on it (not saying yours aren't of similar integrity.)

So when the Commander-in-Chief says in June 2009 in front of the American Medical Association (emphatically, with hands waving and pointing): "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away." And from inside the White House, in a prepared speech (I forget what those organized events are called), in June 2012 as he was running for re-election: "If you're one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have insurance, you will keep your health insurance. This law will only make it more secure and more affordable," those were lies. Proof follows.

I admit I didn't know at the time what the heck an individual mandate is, or an employer mandate is. I do now. And millions of Americans do too. Individual means you buy your insurance without employer assistance. Employer mandate means you get your insurance through your employer, which is the vast majority of Americans.

The Obama administration likes to insist that it was not lying when it said "you can keep your insurance" because "what they meant was, you keep it if there were no changes to your plan." Uneducated Americans think this means something like, cancer treatment was covered before and then it got dropped or something large like that.

No. In truth, what it means is if any of the following change, in any way, your plan is no longer eligible for "grandfathering" under Obamacare:

1. Eliminate or reduce benefits 
2. Raise a co-pay
3. Raise a deductible
4. Raise employee contribution 
5. Add/increase annual limits
(source: National Review.)

If any one of the above occur, your plan is no longer allowed under Obamacare. This is why millions are losing their insurance right now.

Too many of us are not our brother's keeper. We think we will not be impacted because we sit safely in employer-directed health insurance. NO PEOPLE, YOUR TURN COMES in 2014/2015.

Every year company sponsored health care changes. Your co-pays for doctors or medications go up or down by a few dollars. THAT'S A CHANGE. Your deductibles go up or down a few hundred dollars. THAT'S A CHANGE. Your share of premium costs go up or down $40 or so. THAT'S A CHANGE. 

All those normal, understandable changes void your plan under Obamacare. That's why people are getting dropped left and right. It's not because their plans are "substandard," that's another lie. It's because the plan changed in a small way, and they are now void under Obamacare.

Our family is already seeing it as DH interviews for work. Smaller to medium sized business "have to" cover him on insurance. They do not have to cover spouses and children. And many are not. 

So what can you do? Ultimately, the power is truly in the hands of the people. Obamacare was a partisan bill. In my opinion, you need to do your homework the next election, and vote into office people who reflect the values of self-sufficiency (meaning- you don't expect someone else is going to cover your freight), integrity, independent thought vs a party line. Someone who follows the Constitution at least to the extent that they understand the big big line that is supposed to exist between the States and the (dare I say illegal) overreach of the federal government in all aspects of our lives. Examine their voting records (John McCain), their stated positions. Every once in a while does a person living a double standard sneak in? Sure (Harry Reid!) But by and large, people are creatures of habit. They generally produce a big bread crumb trail leading to who they really are.

Hillary was right. It does take a village. But we are the ones who determine what kind of village.

FOX NEWS vs. MY AGENDA 21 TOWN

UPDATE: Not normally a fan of change.org, but they are circulating a petition on this issue. You may want to sign as well as email HBCC. Be aware: you may get a whiny letter back from Connie Boardman saying "it's not about the vets, it's about public safety." Like ****.
http://www.change.org/petitions/huntington-beach-support-johnny-s-saloon-in-their-support-for-veterans?share_id=HbyNhemNiO&utm_campaign=share_button_mobile&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition


I clicked on a random link about "a California town bar fighting City Hall over a sign supporting veterans." Just random.

WHY WAS I NOT SURPRISED TO SEE IT CONCERNED MY AGENDA 21 TOWN: HUNTINGTON BEACH CALIFORNIA???

You can read the article here: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/11/26/california-dive-bar-fighting-city-hall-over-veteran-sign/

I'm with the Johnny's on this one: the letter threatening "you're in violation, remove it OR ELSE" is absolutely on purpose, there is no "misunderstanding." Huntington Beach and its current Agenda 21 quadrumvirate (Boardman, Shaw, Katapodis, Hardy) are absolutely intent on shoving their vision of government controlled, government regulated land use policy violating YOUR property rights come hell or high water. Unless the bright light of liberty (in this case, Fox News) shines on their actions.

They can get away with it because they believe:

1. They know better (it's paternalism at its best and fascism at its worst.)

2. They believe you don't care.

They are correct to the degree that most HB citizens are benignly apathetic. It's not that we don't care, it's that we don't pay attention. Boardman, Shaw, Katapodis and Hardy are not just four individuals who happen to be on the City Council. They are ALL part of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust (most if not all, are on the BCLT's Board of Directors.) They ran as a voting bloc (remember the signs?) 

Wake up. These four have a specific Agenda, and it is not in your best interest. Connie Boardman has directly stated that she hopes "her vision spreads throughout the State, and she has a strong interest in land use issues, water quality, and hopes to continue the move of Huntington Beach toward a greener and more SUSTAINABLE" (remember that word) "city."

I know a lot of you either don't know what Agenda 21 is (soundbite title from a U.N. Treaty the USA signed on to under George H.W. Bush) which calls for the "Integration of environment and development concerns" under U.N. control and sanctions. "Greater attention to them will lead to the fulfillment of basic needs, improved living standards for all, better protected and managed ecosystems and a safer, more prosperous future. No nation can achieve this on its own, but together we can in a global partnership for sustainable development;" all under U.N. control.

You and I used to have a different definition of the word "sustainable." It's been co-opted by the Agenda 21 zealots. Now it is codespeak for A21 government control over all aspects of your life, because "who wouldn't want to be concerned and want to restrict our behavior in order to benefit future generations?"

I know. You think it's a conspiracy theory. Except California adopted Agenda 21 into law as SB375 known as the "Smart Growth Program." Bet you didn't know that, did you? Bet you didn't know the goals of this program are:

Sustainable transportation

Sustainable development

Affordable housing

Centralized plan

Protect the Environment

Those are California's state goals under SB375. You know what? They are exactly Huntington Beach's stated goals (think Bella Terra). They are also the stated goals of Agenda 21.

HBCC (i.e., the quadrumvirate) is trying to make it sound like Johnny's is just crazy, and they completely misunderstood the zoning letter. NO, IT'S PRETTY HARD TO MISUNDERSTAND "you are violating OUR land use policy, take it down in two days OR ELSE."

You need to get involved. You need to email the entire City Council in support of Johnny's on principle. You need to put the quadrumvirate on notice that you are on to their attempts to force their personal agenda on to the populace, at the expense of your individual freedom and liberty. 

Their emails are:

Boardman= Connie.Boardman@surfcity-hb.org

Shaw= Joe.Shaw@surfcity-hb.org

Katapodis= Jim.Katapodis@surfcity-hb.org

Hardy= JHardy@surfcity-hb.org

and the three who still possess independent thought processes:

Carchio: JCarchio@surfcity-hb.org

Harper: Matthew.Harper@surfcity-hb.org

Sullivan: Dave.Sullivan@surfcity-hb.org

Boardman and Shaw come up for re-election in 2014. Remember their names and vote them OUT and restore some sanity to the City Council.

The quadrumvirate is backpedaling thanks to Fox News. Keep the momentum going.

PREPPER TEN ESSENTIALS, Part 3

This post perhaps more than any other prepping post, has some emotion attached to it. I'll try to be coherent and not too long. No promises.

We live in southern California. For the bulk of the time DH & I have been married, we have lived in privately owned homes/condos (versus commercial apartments.) Privately owned meant we were unfortunate to feel the effects of the "real estate boom" here in SoCal, and if the owners felt they could make a quick profit, they had no problem breaking our lease. This problem became so prevalent, that the State of California enacted a regulation stating that if you sold a house/condo in California and had rental tenants, you had to give them 60 days notice at least (or longer if your lease stated longer), regardless of what type of lease you had (i.e., a month to month) or how quick your escrow was.

It got so bad for us personally (before the new law), that during one period we moved four times in two years, averaging once every 6 months (once we moved twice in 8 weeks, don't get me started.) My youngest made two observations which haunt me to this day. His first (when he was 6 years old) was that he wanted us to buy an RV. I asked him why. He said, "so we will never be homeless." That spoke volumes.

The second was the first summer we lived where we are now. It was the middle of June. My son asked, "so where are we moving to?" I told him we're not moving. He insisted, "yes we are. School's out. We always have to move when school's out." And he was right, we had always moved right after school got out, his whole life. 

So ITEM 5: SHELTER is a big one for our family.

I still lean toward an RV, or at least a pull along tent trailer. I think I have the plans for a tear drop trailer somewhere (yes, I am old enough to actually have seen them in the original, back in the day), like these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUe-TYCjZz0. I lean that way because I sit here in my poorly insulated, all original glass single pane window, no weather proofing rental house, where the wind-comes-whipping-down-the-plains and am COLD. So I think, an RV won't be much worse, and would probably be better than a tent.

Sigh. But that's so far away from my current budget/lifestyle that I know I am in the majority when I talk about reality: tents. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent#Older_tent_styles)

I do a lot of not-quite-primitive style camping with my kids. I ditched the wall and pole style tents, in favor of 1 person can erect them dome tents, a long, long time ago. One year my kids and I traveled to Washington state to visit family. We KOA tent camped it all the way up and back. My oldest DD who was about 13 at the time, became exceptionally proficient at pitching a dome style collapsible pole tent in the dark in under 5 minutes. We had also packed survival camping paraphernalia, i.e., skillets which could be used open flame or camp stove, water purification, a week's worth food rations etc. This proved prescient, as our vehicle broke down on the California/Oregon border and we were stranded for a week while the part to my car was obtained (thank you Mom for the lessons of packing/traveling 'in case of break down', and thank you Bro for the car repair.)

At that time we had two dome tents. Still do. I have to tell you though, I hadn't thought it through; traveling with 3 small kids and 1 teen-ish-ager meant I couldn't put all of us in 1 tent, which made me uneasy for security reasons. I think I ended up putting the 3 older kids in 1 and the toddler, gear and I in the other, and faced the tents toward each other with maybe about a foot of space between them.

Subsequently, I ended up buying a 3 room dome tent similar to the Lightspeed Ample 6. Mine came in its own carrying case on wheels, along with 2 chairs (long since lost). Sure, it's heavy. Yep, it's not getting thrown on a back pack, but at least all of us and our gear will be located in the same place. If I was living post-hurricane/tornado/evacuation setting, being all together would mean a lot.

There are way too many 1 or 2 man tents for me to talk about. These are the kind you would want to get if you are throwing into a back pack. "Normal colors" or camouflage? Formal tent or bivy sack? The choices are endless, and I don't want to go too far afield. 

Regardless of style or type, try to get the lightest weight and smallest-sized one for your style you can find. 8 pounds might not feel like a lot now, but it will if you're hoofing it. My "all in one" takes up 8 square feet of cargo space. In an exodus, space will be at a premium.

By the way, you may not realize it, but tent fabric atrophies and dies. Found that out the hard way when I went camping with the scouts and it rained. Straight through the tent. So that tent you bought 10+ years ago might not be as sound as you remember.

Before you worry too much about tents however, I am going to strongly suggest that you invest the money in HIGH QUALITY, zero or sub-zero rated sleeping bags like the Magellan Cold Weather 0 rated Mummy sleeping bag. Sub-zero will run you some huge dollars, but zero rated will only cost around $70-$110. No tent in the world will protect you against freezing temperatures; but a high quality zero or sub-zero sleeping bag will. Trust me. Been there, frozen it. Better to have a cheap-er tent and high quality zero-rated sleeping bags, than a high quality, expensive tent and cheap-ee bags which are only good for sleepovers in someone's house (that would be anything rated 45 degrees or higher BTW.)

ITEM 6: LIGHTING

Actually, I've decided lighting needs to be its own post. So check back later for PTE, Part 3 continued. But be thinking solar, and I'm not talking panels <grin.>

PREPPER TEN ESSENTIALS, Part 2 continued...

I neglected to include solar ovens, parabolic cooking/heating and fresnel lens cooking/heating in PTE part 2. They're almost a separate category anyway.

Some of the best YouTube channels I have found using parabolic and fresnel lens generated energy is Dan and Denise Rojas' GreenPower Science. The channel itself is located at http://www.youtube.com/user/GREENPOWERSCIENCE. They tend to do more with fresnel lens than parabolic, but they really know their stuff, and a simple YT search on parabolic cooking including DIY builds will round out any gaps.

Solar oven cooking or its companion solar oven bag cooking is something you should have in your arsenal. Solar cookers constructed of car windowshades and Reynolds' turkey or oven bags like these http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Windshield_Shade_Solar_Cooker  are lightweight, portable and cheap, in other words, perfect for a bug out bag.

Solar ovens like the Global Sun Oven by Sun Ovens International, won't fit in a bag pack per se, lol, but they are lightweight, easily movable, built for durability and reach temperatures similar to a regular oven, so a lot of the uneasiness or guesswork is removed.

Traditional sun ovens allow you to do more than just cook. It is easy to boil water in them, melt and clean beeswax, dehydrate...so a solar oven is a pretty versatile tool.

Why Satan tries SO HARD to wipe Israel off the map

I am not a scripture scholar. I do not know a lot of things, and I may not be able to prove to your satisfaction, the things I know to be true. But this is the one thing I know, for sure, beyond all doubt:

The Word of the Lord is Sure

Barack Obama and his minions, have made clear their intention to support wiping Israel, as a country and as a covenant people, from the earth. Barry can hide it behind "progress" or behind "settlement" talks, or anything else he wants, but make no mistake: he is an enemy to Israel. This was made clear during the presidential debates at the famous "Netanyahu 3am" call question. If you wanted a steadfast friend for Israel, you should have voted for the other guy. And as Ben Shapiro tweeted recently: if you are an American Jew and voted Obama in 2012, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Here's what I know: God made a covenant with Abraham, renewed it with Isaac and Jacob (who was renamed Israel) the following:

"And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee...and I will establish my covenant with him (Isaac) for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him." (Gen. 17:7,19)

Among other great and glorious things, the Lord covenanted with Abraham that He would remember and protect His people for ever, that His people would always be found on the earth.

IMO, this is why Satan tries so hard to wipe out Israel. He erroneously believes (and teaches) that if he can but wipe out Israel, the word of the Lord will be naught, and God will then cease to be God. 

Foolish child. The Word of the Lord is Sure. Things may get tough for Israel; God does not promise a conflict free life, particularly if we are waxing in iniquity, but He has given His word and extended His covenant: He will protect and save Israel.

Ironically, He has made no such covenant to the descendants of Ishmael, the forefather of the Arab nation: 

"Abraham said unto God: O that Ishmael might live before thee!" (God replied...) "And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold I have blessed him and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he beget and I will make him a great nation." (Gen. 17:18.20)

"BUT MY COVENANT WILL I ESTABLISH WITH ISAAC.."

(Gen. 17:21)

Barry believes he is greater than God because he believes there is no God. He is wrong, and he will be proven wrong, because the God of Israel has spoken it. 

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Matt. 24:35)

Period., Barry.

THE PERSONAL PRICE OF (GOV'T) FINANCIAL FOLLY

(FYI--Patriot Dawn-The Resistance Rises a fictional prepper book is available for FREE Sat Nov 23 and (I think) Sunday Nov 24 as a download via your kindle/kindle app reader. Hyperlink will take you there).

In case you've ever wondered, it's $99,272.98. 

Rather a specific number, don't you think? 

As you may be aware, DH has been out of work since February. We received notice today that "even though he has a (positive $) unemployment benefit balance, unemployment payments will end on December 28 of this year due to federal regulations."

That just made me mad. Solely because YOU, the government, have stolen a minimum of $300 out of my DH's check every month for the 20 years we have been married. "To cover his unemployment benefits should he ever become unemployed." So now that he actually needs to lay claim to those benefits: too bad, so sad for us--our stolen wealth has been previously redistributed to people who...well...I'll end there. 

I won't even "go there" with how much was pulled out of my accounts in the 25 years before I stopped working outside the home. 

But annoyance aside, it made me wonder: just how much would we have in the bank if we had been "allowed" to take that $300 a month, put it into just a regular passbook savings account, you know, the kind that barely pay you 3 percent a year, and not been allowed to touch it unless we were unemployed?

Just on DH's 20 years, that would have amounted to $99,272.98. 

Now the reality is that there are a lot of good reasons why we haven't amassed a small fortune, most of them having to do with my scum of an ex-husband. But the other side of the coin is, I'm pretty sure we have frittered away $300 a month over the past 20 years, (even without my ex) on take out food, first day movies, stoneware I've rarely (if ever) used, books I am now donating, etc. This on top of the money we have wasted on credit card debt.

All because we were unwilling to live like no one else then, so we could live like no one else now. It's not like we haven't saved anything. Thankfully, we had, which is what we've lived on the past 9 months, but that pretty much ran out a month or so ago.

DS13 is studying personal finance this year in high school. So far, we have covered paychecks, taxes (SS, UI, DI etc.), banking, credit card debt, mortgage debt. One of the vendor sites he investigated talked about "how awful it was for poor people, they are such victims, etc." One of the scenarios was: you are barely making ends meet, and someone gives your child $10 for his birthday. Do you give your child the money or do you keep it? The meta message of course, is that poor people (adults) are justified in taking what doesn't belong to them.

It was a good teaching moment, because frankly, I have a 17yo son whose part time job right now pays for our car gas. DS13's response was, if he was the kid, even if he got the $10, he would contribute it towards the household. I said, that's a generous response, but what do you think about the parent giving the child the birthday money, then encouraging him/her to pay 10% ($1) in say, tithing, $1 in long term-no touch savings, $3 in short term savings, and he/she would be free to spend the rest as they saw fit?

DS13 thought about it for a while. Then he said, "yeah, that would be better. If he learned how to handle money that early, then he wouldn't be in a bad financial situation in the future."

Yep. That pretty much says it all. 

But it's still not too late for old dogs to learn new tricks, unless your name is Rovernment.

PREPPER TEN ESSENTIALS, Part 2

OY. From here on out, there is a wide difference between bug out backpacks (BOB) vs. sheltering in place (SIP.) As I said before, as an American Red Cross shelter manager, I am biased toward sheltering in place (SIP) or at least having enough time and space to evacuate. I'll try not to muddy the waters too much by taking about the pros and cons of each essential depending on BOB. Again, not a techie: hyperlinks will take you to pix of what I'm talking about.

ITEM 3: Cooking

I will admit a heavy bias against anything which is man-made fuel dependent. Don't get me wrong. I have a Chef camp stove like this one: 

Pluses? You can cook, broil, BBQ, pressure and BWB can (yes, I've done it!) on it.

Minuses? You'll obviously never carry it in a backpack, and you've got to store a lot of propane. I love mine though. But I'll never be able to store or carry enough propane for an emergency which lasts longer than a week. That's a problem. 

I prefer a cooking system like the Rocket Stove from EcoZoom. 

Small, reasonably light weight (SIP wise, not BOB), burns wood, biomass or charcoal. I've also seen people use sterno cans. I am enamoured by the whole science of rocket stoves. I like that you can "build" a L shaped stove out of rocks in the bush, using bricks from rubble etc. Although for piece of mind, you may just want to buy Ecozoom's commercially built Rocket Stove, which I hear can even bake bread (haven't tried it.)

Backpacking? Options are things like MSR's Pocket Rocket, or Trangia cook stove systems (they come with mess kits). Again, the issue with having to carry man-made fuel.

I'm going to digress here for just a second and talk about boiling water. If you get nothing else for your preps this winter, you absolutely need one of these: an irish Kelly Kettle. 

I cannot sing their praises high enough. They boil up to a half gallon of water using biomass, TWIGS, pinecones, whatever is laying around, in 3 minutes 8 seconds (can you tell I've done it?) What is pictured is the base camp model, which does a half gallon. They also have a medium one called a Scout, (although for $5 more, I'd go base camp), and a backpacker model called a Trekker. A Trekker boils about 2 cups of water, which conveniently happens to be about how much you need to reconstitute a freeze dried meal like Mountain House pouches. Oh yeah. YES, SPEND THE EXTRA $5 PER KELLY KETTLE MODEL AND GET STAINLESS STEEL. The first time you slam your Kelly Kettle on a boulder you're going to wish you had.(Steel versions are way more expensive in Europe, but here in the USA, the price delta is like $5.)

ITEM 4: 

Of all the items in my preps, I have flip flopped on food the most. I have the normal "basics", i.e., white wheat (not red, lol, I'm not THAT into wheat), rice, sugar, salt etc etc. I have a bunch I've canned (chicken, ground beef), some I've dehydrated (including meals, go check out dehydrate2store.com, and have a decent amount of commercially canned vegetables. All of that presumes I am sheltering in place. If you are carrying it in a BOB, I have to say, I am a convert to freeze dried food, either by Mountain House or Food Insurance, and yes, I'm brand loyal. I really really like the idea that I can throw a week's worth of food into each of our BOBs and not have it take up a lot of space or weight. I like that it tastes like real food. I like that, when combined with a Kelly Kettle Trekker and a Light My Fire Army 2.0 firestarter, my kids (and their BOBs) become pretty much independent. 

WHEW! Long post today. That's all for now, gotta skeedaddle !

PREPPER TEN ESSENTIALS, Part 1

UPDATE--SORRY, I TRIED TO INCLUDE PICTURES, for some reason the pictures show up in the draft, but not on the final post. I'm not a tech wiz, what can I say. Clicking on the blue hyperlinks will take you to a pic and description though. Sorry.

If you've spent any time in the Scouting world, you know that Scouts are required to carry with them at all times, a backpack containing the "10 Essentials" you would need to survive in a short term emergency. We came from a Scout troop which insisted everyone carry them. Sadly, not all Scout troops do; sometimes that leads to tragic consequences.

It got me thinking: what are the Prepping (Prepper) 10 Essentials? The 10 things you would need to have in order to survive for the short term i.e., in a backpack-a real one BTW, or to shelter-in-place. I am an American Red Cross Shelter Manager, we train to shelter in place, so I acknowledge a heavy bias in that area. Katrina, tornados, Fukushima have all shown sheltering in place might not be possible, so you do have to balance things out.

I thought I'd do a five part series, focusing on two items at a time, of what/why you would want to include these items in your 10 Essentials. They are in no particular order, and YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary.) Hopefully it will provide food for thought, and you will give some serious consideration on what constitutes your own 10 Essentials. It will not include items which are too deeply personal for me to weigh in on, i.e., weaponry, religious items, family keepsakes. Here we go.

ITEM 1: A way to make fire.

I personally prefer the Swedish Light My Fire ARMY 2.0.

It is hands down, the best out there. Strikes a fire on the first or second strike, lights under any conditions (cold, wet, hot), lights most material regardless of the materials condition (cold, wet, dry), sparks at 2,900 C. Keyfob contains an emergency whistle.

ITEM 2: A way to filter and sterilize water.

Here we get in to the dilemma of bug-out backpack vs. sheltering in place. If I didn't live in the nanny state of California, and was sheltering in place, I would get the Cadillac of water filters:  
a Berkey. The picture above just shows the filters. You can make your own water containers using 5 gallon buckets.

California "protects us from ourselves" so Berkeys are banned here due to their carbon filters. My second choice when sheltering in place would be a candlestick (or dome) ceramic like this Doulton 10" ceramic filter:  

You'd still need to make your own water containers using 5 gallon (or whatever) buckets.

On the move? I'd probably go with something in the Katadyn family like this Hiker Pro:



The problem IMO, with using Katadyn's for sheltering in place, is they can only push through a small amount of water at a time. Fine for on the run, but do you really want to spend hours hand pumping enough water to make just a gallon? It's a VERY time consuming process given the force of filter & water.

That's it for today. Check back for Items 3 and 4 of the 10 Essentials.

GREAT PREPPER SITE

I found this great prepping one-stop shop, carrying many of the prepping products people are interested in. 

It's called Nitro-Pak. Many of their items are on an Early 'Black Friday' sale, up to 70% off, and their Mountain House freeze dried foods are 35% off. It seems like they also sell MH in bulk, which for me is really nice. I know Mountain House food, and so far, I have liked everything of theirs that I've tried, so buying a MH product which I haven't "tried", doesn't seem like a big risk. I'm sure other freeze dried products are nice, but I know my family likes this brand, so until I get samples of other brands, we're sticking with this one.

Shipping is free if the order is over $149, so I'm thinking "group buy." 

The sell loads of other things too, like Katadyn filters, salt water filters (hello!), and a bunch of gluten, soy, lactose, nut free products also. I don't know how common that is, but it seems pretty unusual to me.

They have some interesting water storage/barrel options, like a "Hydroller Wheeled Water Container" which holds 8 gallons. It's only $35.99. They sell 55 gallon barrels also for $139. That seems kind of pricey to me, but at least you can buy them there. I just get mine once every 10 years or so when someone in my area sells used ones in a group buy.

I think Nitro-Pak is worth taking a look see.

Harvesting Heirloom Beets

The video didn't turn out as well as I had hoped; unfortunately some things you have to get right on the first take, like say, harvesting beets, since it's impossible to replant them and pull them up again. Oh well. 

You can watch the video at: http://youtu.be/HQTQt9LS-Nw.

These are heirloom Red Detroit Beets, which are available at Botanical Interests. They are very hardy. I planted 60 of them, all of them germinated and sprouted. Unfortunately, those stupid varmint rabbits ate 40 of them before I could get varmint fencing up. 

I ended up with 20 plants and beet roots, 11 pounds of beets, including two beets which were one and one-half (1 1/2) lbs each. I also harvested 3 gallons of beet leaves. I'm hoping to find yellow lentils (mund dahl) today so I can make curried beet mund dahl. I also squeezed two pints of beet juice out of just the stalks. DD17 wants me to make dehydrated beet chips, so I'm going to try some of that out of the 11 pounds of beets.

Overwintering. This is one of the parts of the video which didn't turn out well, and I couldn't use a different spot which was sunny. So here's how you do it. You leave the entire beet in the ground, give it a 1/2 to 1 inch hair cut at the stalk (leaving no more than an inch of stalk attached to the actual beet.) Pile about 4-6 inches of mulch on top of it. Leave it alone for the winter. In the spring it will shoot out new stalk and flowers, the flowers will create seed and you will have a great harvest of heirloom seed (I'm hoping anyway!)

The other way to over winter is to dig up a beet, leave the dirt attached to the beet. Haircut the stalk down to 1/2 to 1 inch. Find a box or other container, fill the bottom of the container with a few inches of sand or sawdust (I live near the beach, so guess which one I chose), place beet in container on top of sand/sawdust, fill container to brim-ish burying the beet in the sand/sawdust.

Place container in freezer or refrigerator. BTW, I couldn't find a box, so I used a #10 can with a white plastic lid, a good use for all those excess cans. I don't know that you need a lid per se, I just did because I had extra, and it keeps my well meaning, but unknowing family from seeing a can of sand in the freezer, wondering "what's this?" and tossing it. In the springtime, unbury the beet, replant, and hopefully, see new stalks, flowers and seeds. 

It will be interesting to see (1) if it works and (2) if it makes a difference which method you use, not like this is a scientific sampling or anything.

BTW, these were 2009 seeds for a 2010 planting that I used. So buying heirloom beet seed paid off. I will use up all the rest of the 2009 seed next spring, and hopefully will have generated enough from this year's crop to keep me in beet seed heaven for a long time to come.

You may have noticed the wood chips. I loosely follow the Back to Eden method. I really like it, and so far have had great results with everything I've planted.

I just love vegetables which have to either "die" on the vine to harvest (quinoa, amaranth, pinto beans) or I can just leave in the ground over the winter to get next year's seed crop (beets, kale). Yep. Lazy gardening. Just my style.

Bright Spot Amid the Dark Clouds of Unemployment

So DH had an interview today with EDD, (California's Employment Development Department.) Or at least, he thought it was an interview. He just went in to Tier 1 of Federal Benefits, which will end in 6 weeks, and then we will have no income coming in. 

When you walk in, it turns out it is a "one stop" resource center for EDD, Coastline Community College (one of our local, mostly online community colleges) and the umbrella job organization called, appropriately, One Stop (http://www.oconestop.com).

Wow. We'll start with the fact that it is a private enterprise, which has a contract with the State of California and Title I federal funds, to find people jobs, get them trained up in careers, set up interview space for employers to come and hire workers. It's AMAZING.

Although they technically get paid "by the State" and they have a State entity on their premises (EDD), they are not run by, or directed by, the State. Which (a) explains why they are so successful and (b) goes a long way in explaining why the State didn't bother to let DH know that such an organization existed, you know, way back eight months ago when he first got let go as opposed to 6 weeks before his unemployment runs out. It is NOT that practically worthless organization which is run by the State: CalJobs

One of the amazing things we found out is that OneStop has an aggressive recruiting campaign with employers. Consequently, they get job listings about 2 weeks before they hit the regular market. And we are not talking minimum wage jobs. We're talking the kinds of jobs which can actually support a family.

Need a place to print out or fax resumes? Go there.

Need to know how to put together a resume and dress for an interview? Go there.

Want to go to a job interview where they are likely to hire you? Go there (after all, they already know you come with the value-add of a Work Tax Credit.)

 Need to get redirected in to better training or better skills? Go there. They can hook you right up with the community college, get you accepted, enrolled, help you fill out financial aid, etc. Right there.

Age 15-21 and having a hard time finding work (face it: there's age discrimination at both ends of the spectrum.) Go there. They have a class and a list of employers willing to "take a chance" on young people with little to know experience.

Older, seasoned employee being displaced for likely the first time? They've got a program for that.

Just out of jail? They've got a reality program on what you need to do and how you need to get there if you're serious about getting your life squared away.

Re-entering the workforce if you are a former SAHM, or a recently released Military Vet? They've got a reality program for you too.

OH YEAH, DID I MENTION IT'S ALL FREE for you the "client?"

So exactly why is it, that the State of California figures they don't need to tell anyone about this great program? I have a theory. It might be because the misguided do-gooders of the world would rather create a dependent welfare State.

But  it is just really impressive to see what can be done by private enterprise when the State acknowledges that they can't get the job done, and they just get out of the way.

If you live in California, check your local listings for One Stop. If you live elsewhere, clicking on the hyperlink above should get you a "contact us" email; find out if your State has something similar.

 

AGENDA 21 ARRIVAL AT SURF CITY

You'd have to be personally acquainted with my DH and I to know how ironic and hilarious yesterday was.

GET THIS BOOK: Behind the Green Mask by Rosa Koire !!!

Yesterday, November 1st, marked the official, blatant arrival of Agenda 21 in Huntington Beach California, known as @CityHBPIO. (What kind of handle is that anyway?) Tweet the heck out of them.

BECAUSE YOU, the HB RESIDENT ARE TOO STUPID TO KNOW WHAT'S IN YOUR OWN BEST INTEREST !!

I digress.

I inherited my (former) leftist leaning liberal tendencies genetically. Really. I honestly think that's the only thing my parents had in common. I used to be way left. Like by the time I was 10 (it was the '60s after all), I was marching, protesting, going door to door getting petitions signed. You can imagine the drill.

On the other hand, I don't think my DH even knew how to spell the word protest until he married me. His mother gave him a Rush Limbaugh tie the first Christmas we were married for crying out loud.

Needless to say, over the years we've had a few heated conversations on topics such as global warming, carbon footprints, solar energy, grocery couponing, food storage, the effect of media on youth...Over time, I'd honestly say I've moved to left of center; DH not so much. Every once in a while on a particular issue, his needle tilts a bit closer to right of center. Yesterday it jumped all the way to my side of the scale.

Enter Agenda 21. Me, I'm big picture. Like most people, DH doesn't "get it" until he is impacted personally. 

Which happened yesterday. I sent DH to the store to pick up a few things. I honestly forgot that starting yesterday, BIG BAD GROCERY BAGS are BANNED in Huntington Beach. BECAUSE YOU ARE JUST TOO STUPID to think in Huntington Beach, so the City Council has to do it for you,

DH found out his only two choices were: carry the stuff home in his hands, or BUY grocery bags. Forced to choose the latter, he came home hopping mad. Demanding we start shopping elsewhere (DUH!!!). I laughed my socks off.

I hope all 100,000 households in HB choose to shop just twice a month in Westminster or Fountain Valley just to make a point. Seriously, just drive across the street. Pavilions is in WM. Albertsons on WM/GW is in WM. Ralphs on Magnolia & Garfield is in FV. Sam's Club is in FV. I think the Fresh & Easy on Warner & Magnolia just over the 405 is in FV too.

Do it just to make the point, then I hope you email or tweet the City Council to tell them how much you spent NOT in HB. Oh, by the way, come Christmas time at Bella Terra you better bring your own bags, because the ban applies to every store there too.

Let's do the math. If all 100,000 households spend two grocery trips a month in WM/FV at $400 per, that's $800 a month per household, or $80 million dollars a MONTH not spent in HB.  Think that will send a message? I do. Think of the tax revenue decrease. We don't even have to do it very long...3-4 months will send the message loud and clear, particularly if you shop WM for the holidays. Look here at my previous post to see the results from a two year study commissioned by the County of Los Angeles. YOU can make a difference.

Get educated. Go here to buy the book Behind the Green Mask by Rosa Koire.

Harriet Parke and Glenn Beck wrote a fictional account of life in an Agenda 21 community. It's called simply, Agenda 21. Buy that one too. Back of the book has some really great original source material.

Then do something to fight back. Email this blog post to everyone you know. Email the Mayor: Connie.Boardman@surfcity-hb.org. Her personal goal is to remake HB into a "sustainable city." Really. That's a direct quote from her bio on the HB City Council page. Once you read Rosa's book you'll understand that "sustainable" is codespeak for Agenda 21.

Email the rest of the City Council as well. Last time I checked, Joe Carchio had a brain, but it's been a while.

And drive across Beach Blvd or Magnolia and shop in Westminster or Fountain Valley for a few months. Don't take it anymore. It's your life. You're entitled to live it freely.