Consent to be governed

Some things I have noticed "they" want from us since I started paying attention:
Be educated - but not informed or intelligent
Be patriotic   - but not a patriot
Make money - but do not learn how it is created

I've spent some time lately learning about the freeman movement. It's all about living free, casting off the shackles of our government. It has taken quite a bit of research, learning legal defintiions of common words (think you know what a 'person' is?). Knowing intimately how the system works is required in order to abandon it. Our legal system is a tricky fucker. Even most cops don't know the difference between 'drive' and 'travel'. 'Driving' is a paid for commercial activity. To 'travel' (within Canada) is a right guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. How come you have to re-register your vehicle every year? If these assholes can't keep records straight for longer than a year than what makes them worthy of being involved in the important stuff. (Like helping utility companies and other resource rapers expropriate our private property?) Well, it's just a tax grab, pure and simple. Revenue.

I watched a Rob Menard video on this issue and he asked, "OK so you have a driver's license. Did you read the Motor Vehicle Act first?" My answer was the same as everybody else's. "No. I was 16 and just wanted to get laid." I've paid taxes without reading the Income Tax Act. I've purchased permits without reading the legislation behind it. Registered my kids for birth certificates without understanding what was really going on. We aren't serfs because they conquered us. We willingly give them what they ask for.

Well now I am reading all this stuff. Tricky, tricky fuckers. I no longer wish to support a system I find abhorrent. The government extorts our money to casually give billions to corporations that use it to fuck us over again.

So piece by piece, I am withdrawing my consent to be governed.

Will you shop for me?

I avoid malls and shopping centres like the plague. I can't stand going there for any reason any time of the year. Now that I live in the middle of nowhere I don't get to one very often at all. Suits me just fine. However, this year I found myself in a city visiting a relative over the holidays. On boxing day we were leaving town when I decided to go to the store to pick up some stovepipe I need for my rocket mass heater. I don't get to town very often so a nose dive into consumer hell was necessary.

You'd think (silly me does anyway) that the stores would be empty. After all, didn't everybody just get everything they had pressured their loved ones into getting for them? Don't they have all year to get all the junk they don't need (or even want)? Seems like a really piss-poor way to spend a day off. Searching for that one last spot on a horizon to horizon parking lot. Zombies shuffling around in circles desperate to find that one piece of plastic Chinese shit that will complete them. Mixed amongst the herd are the frantic bargain hunters. The neediness on their panicked faces is sad, pathetic. There are no good boxing day sales anymore anyways. The current economy won't allow it. Everyone has cut everything as far as they can in a vain attempt to keep this bullshit 'consume it all' game going a little longer.

I do a lot of my shopping at the local waste transfer site. Recently I scored a really good bike, tools, motors, wheelbarrow, and electronics. Yesterday I picked up a grinder and eight lengths of 2"x10" wood. Who the hell throws away perfectly good wood like that when living on the bald-assed prairie? Sure, the shit grows on trees, but there ain't no trees for hundreds of miles. Whatever. Can't beat 'em and sure as hell ain't gonna join 'em. As they throw out perfectly good items to make room for things they will throw out next year (or sooner), I scoop up many items that are useful for free. There are a lot of projects on the old domestead and I am glad to not have to purchase everything I need.

So, thank you all you mindless consumers, spending, buying, tossing your way to an elusive feel-good-about-yourself place. Without you my excursions to the dump would be nothing more than a stroll through used kitty litter.

Happy fucking new year from me and the missus

Guest post from my wife: (yeah, you tell 'em baby!)

So I’m feeling totally discouraged today. Fuck the new year and everyone’s silly resolutions that don’t mean shit. Today is just another reason to overspend and get shit faced. Tomorrow isn’t going to bring any real change. People don’t want real change. They don’t even want to look at the reasons why change is inevitable. They’re like big kids covering their ears and singing “la la la la la la, I can’t hear you!” Ya, because ignoring what’s right in front of your face is going to help you. Thanks- for your part in fucking up the world. Way to go loser.



Alright, let’s try this again…


Happy frickin’ new year. I don’t have anything good to say. I applaud those who are able to get shit faced and pretend that it’s all a bad dream. All reality all the time can get a little heavy.

Okay, I’ve got nothing. I’ll try again in the new year.

(My wifes blog can be found at www.canadiandirtbags.com)

Oats and bubble gum

Anyone who thinks the shit hasn't already hit the fan may very well soon end up eyebrows deep in it. And then what? You can only stand on your tippy toes for so long. Yeah, perhaps I'm a doomer. How could anyone not be? Maybe those who have yet to be blessed with the loud popping sound of a skull extraction.

Sure I could bitch and moan about the state of the world and probably will somewhat. A bit of a hobby I suppose. One that provides the same pleasure as scratching a rash. Kind of feels good as the pain keeps increasing. The economy is tanking pretty hard. Has been for a looong time. There's debate right now on whether or not to stop making the Canadian penny. Costs more to make than it's worth. 35 years ago I could buy 2 pieces of bubble gum for a penny. Now the same gum (smaller peices) costs 5 cents per piece. Even a kid that's been dropped on his head can see that's a pretty significant devaluation of our currency.

Recently I posted about feed store rolled oats. Well surprise, the damn things still have all the husks. We cooked up a sample pot of oatmeal to try anyway. It was kind of hard to eat. Probably quite healthy for the pipe though, what with all those husks, and much safer than swallowing the barbeque brush. So we sealed it up in food grade buckets and will store it as food for the critters. So, not a total failure for the experiment. We also plan on trying a small amount in muffins and whole grain breads. That actually might work out quite well.

Feed Store Preps

What did you do to prep this week? That line from MD Creekmore keeps running through my head. Every week of spring through fall I worked on building my earthbag domes. But now it's winter and the daylight is so short. It's cold all the time and plenty of snow. That doesn't mean I can't prep though. I've been sorting out my tools, organizing different materials, getting things done that I never had time to do during the building season.

My wife and I have been building up our food supply for a while now too. Canned fruits,  tomato sauce and a variety of staples are filling up our shelves. We bought a quarter of beef this fall too. This week we started on some longer term storage. I picked up 25kg (56lb) of rolled oats and enough food grade cotainers to store it all. I got the oats at the feed store for $11. That works out to 19 cents a pound. If I were to buy rolled oats at the zombie infested supermarket, they are at least $2.50 per pound. The buckets were free from a bakery in town.

Sure the rolled oats were sold as animal feed, but so what? It's not like the farmer plants different oats in different fields for human feed. And when SHTF, no one will think twice about eating cheap grains. I'd even eat the horse the oats were intended for if things got bad enough.

If your buying grains at the feed store, just make sure to get stuff that does not have anything added, like hormones, molasses, etc. Just plain grain. Just plain cheap.

Kill the messenger

Unbelievable. Tom Flanagan is a top adviser to our country's Prime Minister. This idiot was on national television advocating the murder of the wikileaks guy. Is this the best Canada has to offer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqtIafdoH_g&feature=player_embedded

You would think that of all the dirty, corrupt backrooms across this country they could do better than this twit. He is stupid enough to make a comment advocating the assassination of a foreign citizen. Oh, wait a minute, he's saying that Obama should do it. Well that makes sense. After all we don't do such things in Canada. We don't because we can't. But just think if we could... Good thing we have such people as Mr Flanagan stroking our leaders. When we finally get the kill skill that our American pals have we'll be ready.

Until then, I will just concentrate on my little hill with windows. Just about finalized the design for the rocket stove mass heater.

Closed for winter

Well, winter is here. There's a heavy snowfall warning tonight. Then the deep freeze. We had such a lousy spring and a wet summer, our building season was so short. We didn't get nearly as much done on our dome home as we thought we would. Still, pretty happy with what we did get done. There is only my wife and I working on the project. Must be nice to live in warmer climates where people are just planning what to put in their winter gardens.

Not us, our plans are a little more on the staying warm to stay alive theme. Soon it will be minus forty. Our power goes out a lot here so winter survival is a very real concern. Yesterday I went to start up both our small generators to make sure they run. The diesel started but not the gas one. I think I need to do some carb work on it. I can't wait till our off-grid home is complete. Right now a lack of power means no heat, no lights, no well. Once we are heating with wood in our rocket mass heater, no power just means dark. We always have jugs of drinking water so that is never an immediate concern. A move to using the humanure system means we always have toilet facilities no matter what. We've been doing that for a year already.
  

View into the front entrance
Each full bag becomes a 175lb brick

 The front door is installed, and some windows too. The other holes for windows and doors are boarded up for winter. At least this will allow us to do some work inside two of the five domes over the winter. Its actually possible that the two larger rooms may not even end up being domes. The current thinking is that we may possibly put a roof on these. The other three smaller rooms will still definitely be domed. It's been such a busy year, we kinda flew by the seat of our pants. The deep freeze gives a chance to refocus and develop a plan we will be happy with.

Need to get 'er closed up for winter

Temporary roof coming along