All Aboard?

Got a dream? Got a partner? If you have both, you may have a problem. That is unless your partner shares your dream or at least fully supports it. The bigger your dream is, the more important this is. The size of your partner doesn't really have anything to do with this. If your dream is something like riding a horse one time then you can probably fit that in without causing your significant other any grief.

But if your goals, dreams are long term, lifestyle type things then you have two choices. First, get a new dream. Or, second, get a new partner.

I'm fortunate enough that the goals I have are shared by my wife. She and I have developed goals that fit both our interests. And it's a damned good thing too. Going off grid, living in the middle of nowhere in a frozen wasteland building a house made out of dirt isn't something a lot of people itch for. For all I know we may be the only two.

 





My lovely wife taking a much deserved break



We've moved many, many, many tons of earth in 5 gal. buckets

Recently we were kind of hitting a wall with the design of one of our rocket stoves. We were both frustrated. But since the project is important to both of us, we just worked through it until we arrived at a solution we are both happy with. No bloodshed, no torn larynx, just arriving there together.

Got convergence?

Earthbag domes calling to me

Soon (but not soon enough) I'll be able to get back outside and get some work done around the domestead. It's been a long winter. They always seem long, but usually there are breaks when I can do things outside. Not so much this year. About all I can do with my domes right now is post a few pictures I was looking through. The first one is the first earthen dome my wife and I built. It is shown without the plaster so you can see the tubes we used. It was a fun project and we learned a lot. This dome was built as a sauna. Heated with a large 'pocket rocket' it gets very warm in a short time.

So then it was time to tackle something a little more challenging. Yeah, just a little. We decided on five larger domes connected with arched doorways. Completely off grid too. "Oh, and lets do a ton of permaculture landscaping while we're at it" we decided. Installing solar panels, batteries, doing our own plumbing at the same time we plant 300 trees and bushes that are ordered shouldn't get in the way of the 1500 earthbags we still need to place. Gardening all the while. Good thing there's two of us. Perhaps going over the deep end will be a blessing and we won't even notice the inevitable exhaustion that's sure to come this summer. Here's a few pics of the domes during various stages during the build last summer/fall.

  

I'm very happy with the way the arches have turned out. I was a little nervous pulling out the form for the first one, but everything remained rock solid. I've even added more layers of bags above and tamped (pounded) them and still no shift whatsoever. Guess maybe those ancient types knew a thing or two after all.

Cold frames on a cold day

I'm so anxious to get back outside and do some work around the domestead. There are still about 1500 bags to fill with earth to finish off the new home. Rocket stoves to build, wiring and plumbing to do all will take a considerable amount of time too. But right now it's still too bloody cold out. We have a long weekend and it's still -30 outside. It's not like we don't go outside at all in this kind of weather, but you can only do so much. We did go out for a couple hours to plan some landscaping, measuring out where trees and bushes will be planted. Also have to take the humanure out to the compost bins every couple days no matter what. So for indoor work this weekend I made a couple cold frames for starting seeds and some 'scabs' for the dome windows. All the materials I used were either scraps from previous projects or things I have scavenged and saved from the landfill.

The scabs are embedded in the walls between layers of earthbags. The purpose of them is to place a chunk of wood in the wall so you can screw or nail something to it after the wall is complete. The ones I made this weekend will give me a place to affix the header boards for the windows. The 2x4's are cut-offs from a previous project. The slats are cut from pallets that were headed to the dump. I beveled the 2x4's with a good whack on a chisel. This allows the bags to lay nicer on the wood, without leaving a gap or the sharp edges of the wood puncturing the bag. At first I was thinking of doing this bevel with my ancient table saw but then a little voice said "Fuck that, you don't want to spend the rest of the day at the hospital".

Having kept my fingers from the previous project I got started on the cold frames. Again, the wood was scraps from previous projects. Even the screws had a previous life holding together the temporary frames for the arches in the earthbag walls. For the first one, the glass and frame was from a picture that a friend had displayed at a trade show. It would have ended up in the dumpster after the show. The glass for the second one (no pictures, not complete yet) was found under the stairs in the farm house we bought a few years ago.

The rest of the weekend has been spent polishing my trophy wife.

Cherry scented decline

So this morning the wife says something like "Happy-Bullshit-Spend-Some-Money-On-Hallmark-Day". God, I love that woman. We're the same when it comes to Christmas. If we want something or want to get each other something we can do just that on any ol' day. We love each other the whole year round, and don't feel the need to prove it on days that the corporations have specified.

This weekend I needed to pick up some windshield wiper fluid. I just could not believe my eyes. They actually had 'Cherry Scented'. WTF? Next thing you know, you'll be able to buy cinnamon flavoured tires for the car. I swear, the people running the corporations must have achieved so much success already that they just spend most of their days getting drunk and smoking crack. Or maybe they have so much money that they've decided to try a little experiment called 'what would happen if we just let retards run things?'

There is no doubt in my mind that we are already in decline. As our governments go broke, they restrict our freedoms. As corporations, structured around ever increasing profits don't get them, they become even more clever and agressive with the trickery and pressure tactics. And bankers, well these assholes can pretty much get away with murder because so few people are willing to understand how they even operate.

Anyway, enough of reading my blather. If you have someone in your life you love, you'd better get out there and spend a good size sum on proving it. There's only a few hours left.

Review of thesurvivalistblog.net

I'm putting up this review of M.D. Creekmore's Survival Blog for a few reasons. I really like this site, and the most important reason is the content.

There are a plethora of articles that relate to prepping, frugal living, survivalism and so much more. The title at the top of the site's page sums it up quite nicely, "Live Better, Live Cheaper.....Survive When Things Get Tough". We live in times when this type of information can mean the difference between comfort or misery, perhaps even life or death. Guest posts also appear on the site sometimes, giving an even broader range of ideas and experiences than just one person could offer. I was fortunate enough to be able to provide one myself a while back.

Another reason is that I would very much love to win the prize being offered. It's an awesome hand made knife. M.D. Creekmore, the site's creator has offered prizes in the past too. Not everybody does that. Contests for free and useful stuff always create a bit of excitement.

Creekmore has a way of presenting that is a down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach. The site itself is also easy to read. I can't stand sites with graphics behind the text or colors and patterns that try to trigger an epileptic seizure. Creekmore's site has a good font, with appropriate spacing. There are several ads, but they are placed in a way that doesn't interfere with reading the posts.

Due to the large following of the blog, there are often many comments and some interesting conversations develop in the comments section.
    
For anyone interested in self-sufficiency or being prepared in case of some sort of crisis event, this site is a great resource. Whether you are just starting out with prepping or have been at it for a long time, you are sure to find useful information at thesurvivalistblog.net

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.