What's a better solution? Eat your weeds. Caroline Cooper posted this excellent article recently at Eatkamloops. Thought you might want to try this recipe.]

Delicious Dandelion Control

Dirt Road Girl wanted something to cage her tomatoes in our front yard. She hates those flimsy wire cages. Our backyard is full shade. So we followed the sun and started food-scaping the font yard. There’s sunshine 8 hours a day out front.

She wanted something functional, sturdy, and of course, homemade. I made rolled wire cages last year from fencing. The problem with those was that they blew over during summer storms – even after staking them down in the container. We needed something anchored into the ground.

We had an old wooden ladder by my shop. I suggested we use it as a ‘cage.’

“That’ll work!”

Here’s what she came up with… for me to do!

Todd’s Tomato Ladder is not your typical tomato cage.

After a quick search online, she drew inspiration from Mother Earth News – Woody’s Folding Tomato Cages.

Keep in mind that these tomato ladders are going in our front yard. I print off Woody’s plans, gather lumber, and set to building. He calls for using 8 foot 1×3 lumber for the legs. Excitedly, I get to work.

8 foot tomato ladders are 2 feet shy of a regulation basketball goal.

It never occurs to me that erecting two “twin tower” tomato ladders in our front yard might draw neighbor’s ire. We try to fly under the radar as much as possible in our front yard food-scaping. These 8 footers would work in the country or a backyard.

I quickly build two of these bad boys, set them over the containers, and think, “wow, those sure are high.”

Painting your house, Walker?

They lasted about a week after noticing neighbors walking by with thought bubbles over their heads…

“What are they up to this year!?!”

Back to the drawing board.

I needed to shrink Woody’s plans.

Here’s the plan if you want to build our 6 foot model.

Bill of Material

Use non-pressure treated lumber to keep chemicals from leaching into your plants.

Four 1 x 3 boards 8 feet long

Two 1 x 2 boards 8 feet long

10 1/2 inch piece of 2 x 4 lumber

About 40-50 1 5/8 inch screws (I use star drive decking screws. It’s my personal mission to convert everyone to superior star drive screws)

Four 3 inch decking screws (2 will be used to attach the 2 x 4 to the legs – 2 will be used to attach the base of the legs to ground stakes)

Tools List

Circular Saw – If you’ve got a miter saw, it makes quick work of the cutting chores. But a circular saw will do the job.

Drill/Impact Driver

Hammer (for driving anchor stakes in the ground)

1/8 inch drill bit

Tape measure

Pencil

Skill Level

Beginner

Time Needed

30 minutes per ladder (that’s a generous estimate)

Cut List

1. Cut four 1 x 3′s six-foot long.

2. Cut one piece of 2 x 4 scrap 10 1/2 inches long.

3. Cut the 1 x 2′s for the rungs of the inside legs - working from the bottom of the ladder to the top: 19 1/2 inches, 17 1//4 inches, 15 1/2 inches, 13 3/4 inches, and 12 1/4 inches.

4. Cut the 1 x 2′s for the rungs of the outside legs - working from the bottom to the top: 21 inches, 19 inches, 17 inches, 15 1/4, and 13 3/4.

5. Cut two 1 x 3′s twenty inches long (use the extra two feet cut from the leg pieces). These will be the cross braces on the legs.

Putting it all together

If you don’t want to cut all your material ahead of time, that’s perfectly fine. Pre-cutting will streamline your build and save time.

Step 1: Stack two of the 6 foot 1 x 3 inch legs with the ends flush. Drill a pilot hole through one end of the boards with  the 1/8th inch drill bit in the center of the 1 x 3 about 3/4 of an inch from the end of the board. This is where you will insert a 3 inch screw into the piece of the 2 x 4 in a moment. Repeat the process with the two remaining  6 foot 1 x 3 legs.

Step 2: With two of the legs stacked flush, screw a three-inch screw through the pilot hole into the end of the 10 1/2 inch piece 2 x 4 stock. The ends of the 1 x 3′s need to be flush and centered (meaning about 1/4 inch of 2 x 4 exposed on either side of the 1 x 3) on the end of the 2 x 4. Don’t over sink the screws or you’ll spit the wood. Then attach the other two legs to the other end of the 2 x 4. This will serve as the top of the ladder and pivot point for the legs.

Step 3: Go ahead and drill pilot holes in each end of the rungs. Attach the bottom rung (19 1/2 inches) with one 1 5/8 in. screw per side – one foot from the bottom on the inside legs. Continue attaching rungs – longest to shortest – up the ladder with one foot spacing. Now, flip the ladder over and repeat the process for the outside legs starting with the 21 inch rung.

Step 4: With the rungs attached evenly, open the ladder and stand it up. Connect the 20 inch braces to the sides of the ladder. I attached mine at the second rung from the bottom. You can adjust the width of the ladder by moving the braces up for a wider base or down to make the ladder more narrow.

Step 5: Place the tomato ladder over your tomato plant. Drive a pointed wooden stake in the ground beside two legs catty-corner style. Screw the legs into the stakes to anchor them securely.

After the growing season, simply take one screw out of each brace, unscrew the legs from the ground stakes, and fold the tomato ladders up for storage. Or move them into your greenhouse for the winter growing season.

Note: I cut two feet off the top of our original “twin tower” tomato ladders to keep neighborly busy-bodying to a minimum. Here’s the finished product.

Four of Todd’s Tomato Ladders anchored and ready with an old wooden ladder on the far left.

Friends don’t let friends use lame tomato cages! What’s your best method of caging tomatoes?

Thanks for reading and passing this along. See you in the comments!

P.S.

Thought I’d share a pic of my reward for building these tomato ladders…

My fly rod and this largemouth bass ended my Saturday on a great note!

This article destroys many myths that well-meaning public school parents believe. Hope you enjoy.]

13 Assumptions That Undermine Your Children’s Future

Gary North - March 26, 2013
Reality Check

There are 13 assumptions that pave the road of good educational intentions. Most Christian parents who send their children to college have adopted eleven of the 13.

The first one is this: “The state has both the authority and the moral obligation to fund education.” Then come the other 12.

2. “Our local public schools are not like all the others. I will enroll my child in kindergarten.”

3. “The teachers there are conservative.”

4. “I have joined the PTA. My opinions are being heard.”

5. “The teachers have the sexual revolution under control in our middle school.”

6. “The high school’s textbooks are conservative.”

7. “Our high school’s teachers are conservatives.”

8. “The curriculum in our high school is religiously neutral.”

9. “My children will resist temptation.”

10. “I want my children to be missionaries on campus.”

11. “I am sending my kids to a Christian college. They will be safe.”

12. “The college is accredited. They will get a good education.”

13. “My kids will have high-paying jobs after they graduate in the humanities.”

Here are what assumptions the parents make when they make these implicit confessions of faith.

2. “Our local public schools are not like all the others. I will enroll my child in kindergarten.”

This is what I call Lake Wobegon statistics. The parent assumes that his local school is above average. But all of the nation’s parents assume this, at least those outside the ghettos. Otherwise, half of the parents would be self-consciously deciding to send their children into substandard schools. None of them would admit that they are doing this voluntarily. So, the parent sends the child off to kindergarten, which is the first step in a 13-year or 14-year process. It begins with this assumption: the parent can legitimately transfer the authority over his child’s education to the state. It also begins with this assumption: there will be no negative consequences for this decision.

3. “The teachers there are conservative.”

The parent has no idea what the political or religious views of the teachers’ are. He knows nothing about the teachers’ background. This much is clear, however: the teachers were all certified as accredited teachers, and the accrediting associations are all licensed by the government. They are all creations of the state.

4. “I have joined the PTA. My opinions are being heard.”

The Parent-Teachers Association was the creation of tax-funded educators. It was created for a specific reason: to make certain that the educators could head off criticism of their programs by offering parents the illusion that the parents have anything valid to say about the content or the process of education. The educators were committed to this principle: the will of the parents must be undermined throughout the entire educational process. In short, they assume that the only people with the qualifications necessary for educating the child are the educational elite, which enforces its views on the students in the state licensed colleges and universities that produce the teachers. From day one, they fully understood that parents would lose interest in the local PTA as soon as their children were out of that school, so that there would be no sustained opposition to the constantly evolving theories of the educational elite.

Read the rest here

“Lordy, we’s got to have a doctor! I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin babies!”

That’s when Scarlett says, “You told me you knew everything!”

“I don’t know why I lied!”

Does this famous scene from “Gone With The Wind” sum up how you feel sometimes? You feel you don’t know nothing about escaping the caged wheel inside your cubicle.

That may be true, but you do know enough to turn your knowledge and skills into extra income.

The best place to succeed is where you are with what you have ~ Charles Schwab

Conventional prepper wisdom tells us to get our beans, bullets, and Band Aids in order. This strategy, which I embrace, begs the question(s): What then? What do you do after you have squirreled away this consumable stuff? Is it enough? How long before your stuff runs out? How long before the rubber seals on your buckets deteriorate?

These questions nag you like a loose tooth.

Once you come to the un-Pollyannic conclusion that your survival cache will run out,  you have to ask the main question, “Is survival enough?” Maybe it is – for the short-term.

Survival skills and stuff are necessary after any disaster. Merely surviving is not what I signed up for in my preparedness contract. You probably didn’t either. You’d like to have your post-SHTF coffee and drink it too – with heavy whipping cream! Could I do without? Sure, for short periods of time.

This requires an outside-the-bunker mindset (unless you enjoy bunker living). If you plan is to hunker down in a remote, hidden hole somewhere, you’ll have to eventually come up for air where the zombies and biker gangs rome. Stuff runs out.

Adopting a non-survivalist mentality may fit the bunker-less among us – present company included. What’s that mean? This is the Survival Sherpa blog, right? Correct. But there’s more to us than mere survival. We promote a lifestyle that would be worth living both now and after economic collapse.

I’ve read that during the Great Depression, the deficit was 40% of our total US GDP. Today it’s 105%. I’m on the tail end of the baby boomer generation. I don’t have plans to retire. I’m not dreaming of eating crumbs from the Social Security Ponzi scheme.

What’s our strategy? Build resilience physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, and spiritually. This is our long-term strategy. It takes time. But it’s worth the effort and investment.

When our fiat dollars become useful only in the outhouse and fireplace, you’ll be ahead of the herd. The key to producing resilient wealth now and after a collapse is to find a way to add value and improve the quality of life for others.

Here’s a few ideas that will help you build resilient skills that produce wealth before and possible after the illusion explodes.

[I've designated each with 'Pre', 'Post', or 'Both'. The transfer of some 'Pre' items to a post-collapse world will be dependent on things like technology and available resources like electricity or the internet. Make use of these modern conveniences while we've got them. Many on my list will transfer to 'Post' seamlessly. I hope 'Both' is self-explanatory.]

1. Pre: Write an e-book and self-publish.

2. Pre: Publish instructional videos and tutorials.

3. Both: Nanny for kids and elderly

4. Both: Food buyers club. The relationships you build with food producers would carry over into a post collapse environment.

5. Pre: Freelance writing

6. Both: Blacksmithing and metal work

7. Both: Seamstress

8. Both: Carpentry

9. Both: Plumbing/Electrical – especially for installing alternative energy systems.

10. Both: Cooking. People have to eat. We enjoy good food. Market your recipes. Tess Pennington over at Ready Nutrition has done just that with her new book, “The Prepper’s Cookbook.”

11. Both: Medical skills. After the SHTF, the free market will determine who’s capable in the field of medicine – not a framed piece of paper on an office wall.

12. Both: Wild food foraging. Learn more on this here.

13. Both: Education/tutoring service

14. Both: Musician/Entertainer

15. Both: Build a barter network

16. Both: Animal husbandry

17. Both: Gardening/permaculture

18. Both: Gunsmith

19: Both: Mechanic for diesel and gas engines

20. Both: Biodiesel production

21. Both: Well boring. Having the equipment to bore water wells makes you a valuable asset.

22. Both: Portable sawmill. People will always want and need lumber. In a post collapse world, energy to run a mill might be a challenge. Explore steam power and biodiesel as alternative fuel.

23. Both: Draft animal trainer. This skill might be more valuable in a post world.

24. Both: Timber frame construction. In the past, raising a barn or home with primitive tools within a community was common place. Having the skills and tools to do so would ensure place you at the top of the producer list in your group.

25: Both: Alternative energy expert – solar, hydro, wood gasification, etc.

26: Both: Make charcoal. It’s mainly a hobby in our pre world. I can see it being value adder after a collapse.

27: Both: Heavy equipment operator. Barter with the guy making biodiesel to keep the machines running.

28. Both: Lumberjack. Post world lumberjack tools will look much different from today. Axes, crosscut saws, draft animals and sleds, files, wedges, and sledgehammers come to mind.

29. Both: Preserving food – smoking, pickling, canning, etc. Practicing more primitive techniques now would be useful in a post world.

30. Both: Building chicken coops/tractors for backyard poultry.

31. Both: Unconventional housing – cob, bail, rammed earth, earth homes, etc.

32. Both: Mobil butcher and meat processor. Instead of hauling livestock to a distant location, this local option might be welcomed by farmers. This would bridge a gap from farm to dinner plate.

33. Both: Marketing and distribution of products. This service bridges the gap between the producers and the consumers. Start small and keep it local. Look for bigger opportunities to grow your business. It’s a win-win-win for the producer, consumer, and you.

34. Both: Distilling spirits. If you don’t think alcohol will be in demand after TSHTF, think again. Its role won’t be just consumption either. Think medicinal and sanitation.

35. Both: Water purification. Essential to life.

36. Both: Appliance repair man/woman. Fixing stuff that breaks is a skill worth knowing.

37. Both: Dumpster diving. A friend of mine rescues ‘trash’ that he finds in dumps. His most recent find was a 18 volt Dewalt drill. He tinkered with it and now uses it in his construction business. Trash into treasure.

38. Both: Soap and candle maker. Handmade soaps and candles are very popular now. Could you become one of these local artisans?

39. Both: Shoe repair/leather work. My mama has the shoe lass that her daddy used to make and repair shoes for her and her nine siblings during the Great Depression.

40. Both: Herbalist. Healing with herbs and homeopathic methods.

41. Both: Luxury items. Even in a post collapse world, we will want our creature comforts to make life seem more normal. Small things like chocolate or a steaming cup of coffee would brighten things up.

42. Pre: Sell stuff on eBay, Craigslist, and other online sites.

43. Pre: Blogging. The vast majority of blogs don’t make big money. Successful sites make lots of money. The conventional approach is to produce great content which draws high traffic. You would then sell advertising on your site. I made a decision to not use advertising on this blog. I’m getting lots of requests from vendors to advertise here. But I want to stick with my no advertising policy.

44. Pre: Photography. Sell your stock photos online.

45. Both: Own land. They don’t make anymore of this stuff. Productive farmland has doubled in price since last year. Even with small acreage, people are able to produce supplemental income. Our local farmers market has several vendors that use limited space to grow and sell organic vegetables.

46. Both: Lease your skills. Offer your knowledge through classes. Build authority in your field and teach others the skills you’ve honed for a fee.

47. Both: Sell seeds. We take for granted that we can run to the garden center and buy seeds for our garden. Heirloom, open-pollenated varieties are hard to come by locally. You could start a seed swap if your area doesn’t have a community of seed savers. Here’s a rare seed company you might be interested in checking out.

48. Consulting. This list alone could go on for pages. For our intent here, we’ll stick to the realm of sustainability, survival, prepping, and resilience: Water, energy, security, food, etc. There are few limits to the list. Be creative. Build authority. Add value.

49. Pre. Retreat and relocation service. Survival Blog has several examples of everyday folks who have developed niche markets to serve Mr. Rawles’ vision of moving to sparsely populated areas. He has promoted the American Redoubt on his site for people wanting to and are able to relocate. You can read Pastor Chuck Baldwin’s reasons for moving to Montana here. A son of Mr. Rawles operates SurvivalRealty.com aimed at helping find survival retreats. Todd Savage started Survival Retreat Consulting to help serve this niche market.

50. Both: Midwifery. How valuable would it be if Prissy possessed these skills? I don’t know nothing about birthing babies. Do you?

This is a simple list to get you thinking. More came to my mind when compiling this list. But I figured 50 was a good, round number to get us started. What would you add? Add yours in the comment section.

Keep doing the stuff,

Todd

P.S.

Please feel free to use this anyway you wish. Sharing part or all of this post is fine with me. Simply include a link to this website giving credit to the author.

Related articles

• This One Step is Guaranteed to Continually Improve Your Preps (survivalsherpa.wordpress.com)
• One Year In Hell…Lessons From A Societal Collapse (fromthetrenchesworldreport.com)

[Editor's Note] This was originally published by Daisy Luther on her site The Organic Prepper and reprinted here with permission. Daisy has been a friend to our site and frequent contributor. Please share it with family and friends. Check out her bio at the end of this article.

by Daisy Luther

Making a trip to the grocery store these days is like running a gauntlet.  From one side you are assaulted by food-like substances in brightly labeled packages, some even touting exaggerated health benefits from the toxins within.  From the other side, you are gouged and poked by cleverly marketed “natural” foods that are 4 times the price of conventional foods.  When you change directions to avoid one onslaught, you are immediately attacked by the other.

We’re at war and the grocery store is the battlefield.

That war has been declared on us by multiple enemies with unlimited budgets, such as Monsanto, Big Pharma, Big Agri and Big Food.  What’s even worse is that they are aided and abetted by their allies at the FDA and the US Congress, administrations peopled by those who are actually supposed to be the gatekeepers that protect us from this.

What’s a frugal whole food shopper to do?

Lots of people write to me and say, “I’d love to eat the way you do, but I can barely afford regular groceries. There’s no way I could afford all that healthy stuff.”

Good food might be expensive, but as the saying goes, have you checked out the price of illness lately?

If you don’t believe you can afford to eat healthfully, consider the high price of being sick and lethargic.  Calculate the cost of days missed from work for illness. Add up the price of having no energy to play with your kids or to do things that would help you to save money.  Think about the exorbitant prices of medical care.  Many of these things are completely avoidable – all you have to do is feed your body real food and you will be astounded at the resultant glowing health.  How much money have you spent over the last year fighting ill-health that could have been avoided through good nutrition?

GMOs have been proven to cause cancer, ghastly tumors, organ failure, and death.  Many of the additives included in the products proudly displayed on grocery store shelves have been banned in other countries because of the health consequences they wreak.  Top this with a produce section absolutely drenched in pesticides that have been proven to result in cancer, hormone disruptions, and learning problems in children.

To quote the Terminator, “Come with me if you want to live.”

We all know the reasons that we should switch to whole foods, but with the ever-increasing checkout counter inflation, how can we make it happen?  Here are a few realistic tips that do not include relocating to 30 acres of prime spring fed organic  farmland blocked off on 3 sides by mountain ranges.  Realistically, you may not be able to make every one of these things happen, but for each positive change you make, you are taking steps towards better health and you are revolting against the toxic food cartel.

1. Buy local. Ideally, you never need to set foot in a grocery store.  Change your shopping habits and buy from local farmers, either directly from their farm or from a farmer’s market.  You will get your produce at the optimum time, right after it was picked. As well, you can directly ask the farmer about his practices.  Sometimes farmers grow organically and they just haven’t gone through the expensive and highly regulated certification programs that exist to make increase the monopoly of factory farms. (Find a local farm HERE.)
2. Join a food co-op or CSA. This is win-win, because it helps out the farmers and it helps out your family.With both of these options, you can register ahead of time (in some cases you pre-pay for the season) and then receive a box brimming with abundance from your own area.  You will get to try lots of new things (this is how we tried one of our family favorites, rutabaga, for the first time) and you will get to do this at a fraction of the price.
3. Buy produce that is in-season. Purchasing food that is in-season is not just cheaper, it is nutritionally beneficial too.  Buying strawberries in January and asparagus in October requires that the produce be picked before it is fully ripe, and the produce begins to decompose and lose nutrients the second it is separated from the plant.  Avoid the high cost of transporting your “fresh” Christmas berries and melons and stick to the items that nature is currently providing in your area.
4. Grow as much as you can in the space you have.  Plant a sunny windowsill with salad veggies and herbs, grow a container garden on a balcony, or turn your yard into a mini-farm.  Every bite of food you grow yourself is a revolutionary act.
5. Plan your menu AFTER shopping, not before. This allows you to stay on budget because you aren’t shopping for special ingredients to make pre-planned meals. You can take advantage of the best deals and plan your meals around those.  This can also help by keeping those unplanned budget purchases from going to waste in your crisper drawer while you carry on with your planned menu.
6. Drink water. We generally stick to drinking water. Not fluoridated tap water – we purchase 5 gallon jugs or fill them in a spring when that option is available.  Water is cheaper and healthier.  Beverages that you make yourself like coffee and tea are far less expensive than the soda pop and energy drinks that fill most modern refrigerators, not to mention, relatively free of the toxic chemicals that overflow in the store-bought drinks.
7.  Buy staples in bulk. Organic grains like brown rice, wheat berries, cornmeal, barley and oatmeal can be purchased in bulk quantities.  This reduces the price to lower than or equivalent to the smaller conventional packages that are offered in your local grocery store.
8. Buy some meats frozen instead of fresh.  Some butcher shops freeze meat that isn’t sold immediately and sell if for a lower price.  Look for deals on frozen chicken breasts, frozen fish, and frozen turkey breast. Fish is nearly ALWAYS cheaper frozen. Just read your ingredients carefully and make sure you are just getting fish, and that the fish is from a safe source (not the radiation-laden Pacific Ocean, for example, or a tilapia farm where they feed fish their own recycled feces).
9. Buy meat in bulk.  Look into buying beef in quantity.  Check out the prices at local farms for a quarter of a cow.  You will pay slightly more for the lesser cuts but much less for the better quality cuts.  It balances out to a much lower price for meat farmed in the healthiest way possible.
10. Add some lower priced protein options.  While lots of us would love to have grass-fed beef and free range chicken breasts twice a day, the cost is prohibitive.  Add value-priced wholesome protein with beans, farm fresh eggs, homemade yogurt and cheese, nuts, and milk.
11. Stop eating out. Just one McCrud meal for a family of 4 is between $20-30.  Delivered pizza is about $25 plus a tip. The $45-55 that you would spend for this “convenience” could buy a lot of whole foods.
12. Get into the habit of bringing a cooler with you.  If you are going to be out running errands for the day, load up a cooler with healthy snacks, water, and even a picnic lunch.  This is the perfect answer to the lament from the back seat, “I’m huuuunnnngryyyy.”
13. Don’t buy anything with an ingredients list greater than 5 items. The more items on the ingredients list, the more likely you are to be consuming someone’s chemistry project.  Even things that sound relatively innocuous, like “natural flavorings” can be, at best, unappetizing, and at worst, harmful.
14. Cook from scratch. Cooking from scratch doesn’t have to be as time-consuming as you might expect.  I don’t spend hours each day slaving in the kitchen. Spend a weekend afternoon prepping your food for the week ahead and you can have weekday dinners on the table in less than half an hour.  Consider the price differences in homemade goods:  homemade tortillas (pennies for a package that would be $3 at the store), pizza dough, peanut butter oatmeal cookies, trail mix,  and granola bars. This stuff is literally pennies on the dollar in comparison to the same goods store-bought.
15. Some conventionally grown foods are okay. Learn about the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen.  Some foods have a fairly low pesticide load, even when conventionally grown.  Use these foods to help offset the higher prices of items that are soaked in poison, like strawberries.
16. You will actually eat LESS when you feed your body.  Part of the reason that the obesity problem is epidemic in North America is because people are desperately seeking nutrients from depleted food-like substances.  Their bodies are crying out, “I’m hungry!” even though they have consumed thousands of calories, because their nutritional requirements are not being met. What’s more, many chemicals are added because they are engineered in a way that makes you want to eat more and more (like MSG, for example).  They don’t stimulate the satiety centers in the brain that tell your body that it’s full.
17. Brown bag your lunches.  When I worked outside the home, most of my coworkers ate out every single day.  They often invited me along, saying that a certain restaurant offered “healthy” food.  The thing is, the price of that presumably healthy food was 4-6 times higher than the healthy food that I had brought from home.  My daughter takes a healthy lunch from home to school every day, as opposed to eating the offerings there.  Depending on the school, this may or may not be cheaper, but it’s guaranteed to be more nutritious.
18. Preserve food.  Whether you grow it yourself, rescue it from the “last day of sale” rack at the grocery store, or buy it by the bushel from a farmer, learning to preserve your own food allows you to buy in bulk and squirrel some of that delicious food away for the winter ahead.  Canning, dehydrating, and freezing are all methods to help extend the summer harvest for use later in the year.
19. Eat leftovers.  The act of eating leftovers is almost unheard of, it seems.  But if you put aside small amounts of leftovers in a freezer container, you can make “soup” for a meal that is basically free because it came from items that would have otherwise been discarded.  Use larger amounts of leftovers for lunch boxes or  a “buffet-style” meal for the family.
20. “Shop” from nature.  You might be surprised to learn how many edible plants are growing wild in your own neighborhood.  Even city dwellers can often find things to forage.  When we lived in the city, we used to pick up fallen walnuts from a tree in a local park.  For those not ethically opposed to it, hunting or fishing can abundantly supply your protein needs, and you don’t have to worry about whether or not you are consuming antibiotics and hormones with game.

If you’re ready to make a change to a whole foods lifestyle, don’t let your budget hold you back!  Take a long hard look at what you are spending on take-out coffees and lattes, fast food, delivered pizza, microwave meals, and frozen dinners that you shove into the oven. Look at the beverage budget you spend at the grocery store every week, and keep track of how many soda pops you buy from the vending machine at work. You might be pleasantly surprised when your budget goes down, instead of up!

About the author: Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

Reprinted with permission from  Crunchy Mama’s Urban Homestead.

Gorgeous, Delicious and Nutritious Violets! My Wild Food Adventures Series

You want to improve your preps.

I know this because you’re reading Survival Sherpa. Our motto here is, “Helping each other on the climb to self-reliance and preparedness…the Survival Sherpa way…One step at a time.”

I also realize that you are afraid of change. You’d like things to stay the same. But you also feel the tsunami coming and want to head to high ground. You’re worried that all the boats will sink. You don’t have enough time, energy, and resources to get there.

Here a truth that set me free. Preparedness is a journey, not a destination. You’ll never arrive! But what if you only had to change one thing to be better prepared, you’d think I was crazy, right?

Headlines often promise more than they deliver. But this one simple step really will increase your level of preparedness, self-sufficiency, and resilience.

What’s the one step?

Prepping Kaizen!

What’s Kaizen? Breaking the word down, “kai” means change/make better, “zen” means good. Apply the word to prepping and it means “continuous improvement.”

Kaizen was practiced here in the U.S. during the great depression and later to help rebuild Japan after WW II. Once it took root, it helped this war-torn country bounce back and become a dominate economic power. I own one of their success stories – a Toyota Forerunner. It just turned over 235,000 miles. I’d say it’s middle-aged now, thanks to kaizen – and regular maintenance.

Preparing for the coming chaos may look like a cooked elephant sitting on your table, so add a little Prepping Kaizen to help clean your plate.

That’s the purpose of this article – to help you bounce back from whatever gets thrown at you… without being overwhelmed. If you’re new to prepping, you may feel like throwing your hands up in despair. You’ve  managed to click away from a well-meaning, self-proclaimed expert prepper blog extolling you to get ready for the zombie apocalypse. Anxiety grips your mind and emotions.

“You mean I’ve got to have 10,000 thousands rounds of ammo, one years worth of food storage, and live off grid – by next month!?!”

None of these are bad if that’s you goal. But for those newly initiated to preparedness, this is a blueprint for burnout.

This is where Prepper Kaizen comes in handy.

You see, you don’t need to have to have it all. You never will anyway. But what you do need is the ability to see the whole picture and take the small, simple steps, master these, and look back at how much you’ve improved and accomplished. Those weekly Buy-One-Get-One deals at the grocery store start to accumulate. You notice that your pantry mysteriously grew from a three-day supply to a three-week supply.

The key to lasting success is lasting.

Micro manage your preps

Prepping Kaizen is a strategy that takes your focus off the size of the tsunami and helps you do the little stuff (micro) to get you to safety. This approach is like taking your first step as an infant.

You learned locomotion one step at a time. You didn’t crawl up on the sofa arm and run sprints in diapers. You mastered walking first.

Most of you aren’t building a multi-million dollar corporation. But you can benefit from the kaizen model that rebuilt Japan.

Here’s how to get your Prepping Kaizen on.

• Step 1: Start

Sometimes a tiny step is all it takes to build momentum and confidence for your journey. If all you see is the approaching tsunami, you’ll be tempted to just bend over and kiss it all good-bye. 

Stacy (new to prepping) drives home this point in her recent comment to me, “I feel more like I’m in a whirlpool!” She’s not alone. 

She and her husband have made the first step on their journey to self-reliance. They started with emergency water containers. Now she’s working on food storage. Her husband wants to know how to get 6 months of food storage. Simple answer: One bite at a time. Start buying extras of what you already eat. Before long, you’ll need to find creative ways to stash all this food – under beds, furniture, and other unlikely pantry spaces. 

• Step 2: Stick to it

Now that you’ve taken the first step, pick an area you feel is most important and break it down into smaller steps. This is a very personalized process. Priorities are dependent on your individual scenario. If you live on property with fresh water springs, water storage won’t be as important to you as the family living in an arid climate.

With that being said, pick one area to improve and focus your energy and resources for one month on that priority prep. If it’s food storage, take conscious steps each week to improve this area. Having spent a month dedicated to the process of storing food, the remaining 11 months will become routine. You fix the kinks and streamline the process. This discipline will easily transfer to your next area of focus.

• Step 3: Pick the low hanging fruit

This is how smart preppers apply Prepping Kaizen. Smart people pick the easy stuff first. The stuff that’s free, inexpensive, or readily available.

• Buy an extra case of bottled water for 4 bucks
• Do some bodyweight exercises – no expensive gym membership needed
• Buy a 50 cent box of table salt
• Read free ebooks on prepping and survival – knowledge weighs nothing
• Never pass on Buy-One-Get-One deals
• Save your pocket change in a jar to buy more preps – don’t trade in your nickels though
• Become a yard sale junkie – chew on the hay and spit out the sticks.

Easy pickins give you immediate, tangible results. The foggy path to preparedness begins to clear and you grow more confident. So does your knowledge and skills. Build off this new-found confidence and pick the next area of improvement. How hard can it be?

• Step 4: Ask why with an axe in your hand

Mistakes are not a sign to quit. They’re markers of what not to repeat. Even if you’ve been prepping for years, you make mistakes – sometimes stupid ones. I’ve made my share. Mistakes improve the process if we ask… why, why, why, why, why. 

Part of kaizen is asking 5 whys. There is always one root cause to every problem. Some issues won’t take 5 whys. Other may take more. Instead of dealing with the symptom, the 5 why method digs until you find the root. This forces you to stop the hurried Do-Do cycle and fix the real problem.

Try this. You notice the bottom of your tomatoes are developing brown, rotting spots on their bottoms:

1. Identify the problem. That’s easy. The spots are visible. You’re green-thumbed neighbor tells you it’s blossom end rot.
2. Identify the cause by asking, ‘why did this happen?’ Brainstorm all the possible causes.
3. Write it down on paper. Insufficient calcium, not enough water, too much water, soil PH, etc.
4. Ask why for each of the causes you’ve just identified. Ask 5 times per possible cause.
5. Once you’ve identified the root cause – use your axe.

Was it the soil, minerals, or watering that’s destroying your fruit? Whatever it is, this process will help you lay an axe on the root cause. Armed with this knowledge and experience, you’ll make continual improvements to bear more fruit next growing season.

• Step 5: Take Curly’s advice

If you’ve made it this far, you want to be better prepared. Keep in mind that you don’t have to ‘get there’ immediately. Making sweeping changes to your lifestyle is not a prerequisite to being more resilient, self-sufficient, or whatever it’s called these days.

Remember the scene from the movie City Slickers when Curly (Jack Palance) gives Mitch (Billy Crystal) his simple version of the meaning of life?

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?

Curly: This [as he holds up one finger]

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean shit.

Mitch: But what is the ‘one thing?’

Curly: That’s what you have to find out. (smiles)

Figuring out your one thing is up to you. I don’t assume to know what you need. I’ll leave that to a fictitious cowboy. Curly wisdom maybe right in the movie…

But, if you want to be better prepared to face uncertain times, you have to do more than one thing. Lots of things actually – without freaking out.

You have to take that first step. Then another, and another, and another.

Maybe you’ve already gotten your fundamental preps in order. Congrats! Now take the next step and apply Prepping Kaizen through out your journey. You’ll notice steady improvement in quality and quantity over time.

You’ll be more prepared tomorrow than you are today.

Keep doing the stuff – one step at a time,

Todd

P.S. 

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Related articles

• The Vince Lombardi Guide to Becoming an All-Pro Prepper (survivalsherpa.wordpress.com)

Our Sherpa garden

Garden Rebels: 10 Ways to Sow Revolution in Your Back Yard

Sometimes I think that the next Revolutionary War will take place in a vegetable garden.

Instead of bullets, there will be seeds.  Instead of chemical warfare, there will be rainwater, carefully collected from the gutters of the house. Instead of soldiers in body armor and helmets, there will be back yard rebels, with bare feet, cut-off jean shorts, and wide-brimmed hats.  Instead of death, there will be life, sustained by a harvest of home-grown produce.  Children will be witness to these battles, but instead of being traumatized, they will be happy, grimy, and healthy, as they learn about the miracles that take place in a little plot of land or pot of dirt.

Every day, the United Nations and the Powers That Be take steps towards food totalitarianism.  They do so flying a standard of “sustainability” but what they are actually trying to sustain is NOT our natural resources, but their control.

This morning I came across one of the most inspiring, beautifully written articles that I’ve had the pleasure of reading in a long time.  Julian Rose, a farmer, actor, activist, and writer, wrote an article called Civil Disobedience or Death by Design and it is a “must read” for anyone who believes in the importance of natural food sources:

“From now on, unless we cut free of obeisance to the centralised, totalitarian regimes whose takeover of our planet is almost complete, we will have only ourselves to blame. For we are complicit in allowing ourselves to become slaves of the Corporate State and its cyborg enforcement army. That is, if we continue to remain hypnotized by their antics instead of taking our destinies into our own hands and blocking or refusing to comply with their death warrants. This ‘refusal’ is possible. But it will only have the desired effect when, and if, it is contemporaneous with the birthing of the Divine warrior who sleeps in us all. The warrior who sleeps-on, like the besotted Rip Van Winkle in the Catskill mountains.”

Does it sound dramatic to state that if things continue on their current path of “sustainability” that we are all going to die?  If you think I’m overstating this, read on.  The case is clear that we are going to soon be “sustained” right into starvation via Agenda 21.

• The European Union is in the process of criminalizing all seeds that are not “registered”.  This means that the centuries-old practice of saving seeds from one year to the next may soon be illegal.
• Collecting rainwater is illegal in many states, and regulated in other states.  The United Nations, waving their overworked banner of “sustainability” is scheming to take over control of every drop of water on the globe.  In some countries people who own wells are now being taxed and billed on the water coming from those sources.  Nestle has admitted that they believe all water should be privatized so that everyone has to pay for the life-giving liquid.
•  Codex Alimentarius (Latin for “food code”) is a global set of standards created by the CA Commission, a body established by a branch or the United Nations back in 1963. As with all globally stated agendas, however, CA’s darker purpose is shielded by the feel-good words.  As the US begins to fall in line with the “standards” laid out by CA, healthful, nutritious food will be something that can only be purchased via some kind of black market of organically produced food.
• Regulations abound in the 1200 page Food Safety Modernization Act that will put many small farmers out of business, while leaving us reliant on irradiated, chemically treated, genetically-modified “food”.

In the face of this attack on the agrarian way of life, the single, most meaningful act of resistance that any individual can perform is to use the old methods and grow his or her own food.

Growing your own food wields many weapons.

• You are preserving your intelligence by refusing to ingest toxic ingredients.  Many of these ingredients (and the pesticides sprayed on them) have been proven to lop off IQ points.
• You are nourishing your body by feeding yourself real food.  Real food, unpasteurized, un-irradiated, with all of the nutrients intact, will provide you with a strong immune system and lower your risk of many chronic diseases.  As well, you won’t be eating the toxic additives that affect your body detrimentally.
• You are not participating in funding Big Food, Big Agri, and Big Pharma when you grow your own food.  Every bite of food that is NOT purchased via the grocery store is representative of money that does NOT go into the pockets of these companies who are interested only in their bottom lines.  Those industries would be delighted if everyone was completely reliant on them.
• You are not susceptible to the control mechanisms and threats.  If you are able to provide for yourself, you need give no quarter to those who would hold the specter of hunger over your head.  You don’t have to rely on anyone else to feed your family.

Consider every bite of food that you grow for your family to be an act of rebellion.

1. If you live in the suburbs, plant every square inch of your yard.  Grow things vertically.  Use square foot gardening methods.  Make lovely beds of vegetables in the front yard.  Extend your growing seasons by using greenhouses and coldframes.  This way you can grow more than one crop per year in a limited amount of space.   Use raised bed gardening techniques like lasagna gardening to create rich soil.  If you have problems with your local government or HOA, go to the alternative media and plead your case in front of millions of readers.  We’ve got your back!
2. If you live in the city or in an apartment, look into ways to adapt to your situation.  Grow a container garden on a sunny balcony, and don’t forget hanging baskets.  Grow herbs and lettuce in a bright window.  Set up a hydroponics system in a spare room (but look out for the SWAT team – they like to come after indoor tomato growers!)  Go even further and look into aquaponics. Create a little greenhouse with a grow light for year round veggies.  Sprout seeds and legumes for a healthy addition to salads.
3. If you live in the country, go crazy.  Don’t just plant a garden – plant fields!  Grow vegetables and grains.  Grow herbs, both culinary and medicinal.  Learn to forage if you have forests nearby.  Learn to use old-fashioned methods of composting, cover crops and natural amendments to create a thriving system.
4. Raise micro-livestock.  This option may not work for everyone, but if you can, provide for some of your protein needs this way.  Raise chickens, small goats, and rabbits, for meat, eggs and dairy.  If you are not a vegetarian, this is one of the most humane and ethical ways to provide these things for your family.  Be sure to care well for your animals and allow them freedom and natural food sources – this is far better than the horrible, nightmare-inducing lives that they live on factory farms.
5. Save your seeds.  Learn the art of saving seeds from one season to the next.  Different seeds have different harvesting and storage requirements.
6. Go organic.  Learn to use natural soil enhancers and non-toxic methods of getting rid of pests.  Plan it so that your garden is inviting to natural pollinators like bees and butterflies.  If you wouldn’t apply poison to your food while cooking it, don’t apply it to your food while growing it.
7. Be prepared for backlash.  The day may come when you face some issues from your municipal government.  Be prepared for this by understanding your local laws and doing your best to work within that framework. If you cannot work within the framework, know what your rights are and refuse to be bullied.  Call up on those in the alternative media who will sound the alarm.  Every single garden that comes under siege is worth defending.
8. Learn about permaculture.  Instead of buying pretty flowering plants for your yard, landscape with fruit trees (espalliering is a technique that works will in small spaces), berry bushes, and nut trees.  These can provide long-term food sources for your family.
9. For the things you can’t grow yourself, buy local.  Especially if space is limited, you may not be able to grow every bite you eat by yourself.  For everything else, buy local!  Buy shares in a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Visit your farmer’s market.  Shop at roadside stands.  Join a farming co-op.  Support the agriculture in your region to help keep local farms in business.  (One note about farmer’s markets:  Some farmers markets allow people to sell produce that originates at the same wholesalers from which the grocery stores buy their produce.  I always try to develop a relationship with the farmers from whom I buy, and I like to know that what I’m buying actually came from their fields and not a warehouse.)  Find a local market or farm HERE.
10. Learn to preserve your food.  Again, go back to the old ways and learn to save your harvest for the winter.  Water bath canning, pressure canning, dehydrating, and root cellaring are all low-tech methods of feeding your family year round. Not only can you preserve your own harvest, but you can buy bushels of produce at the farmer’s market for a reduced price and preserve that too.

There is a food revolution brewing.  People who are educating themselves about Big Food, Big Agri, and the food safety sell-outs at the FDA are disgusted by what is going on. We are refusing to tolerate these attacks on our health and our lifestyles. We are refusing to be held subect to Agenda 21′s version of “sustainability”.

Firing a volley in this war doesn’t have to be bloody.  Resistance can begin as easily a planting one seed in a pot.

Arthor bio: Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca – See more at: http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/garden-rebels-10-ways-to-sow-revolution-in-your-back-yard-05072013#sthash.4C5R1Lux.dpuf

This is a one year check-up on what’s happened since last May. It’s interesting to track tyranny and it’s encroachment on our natural rights. 

Tyranny you can believe in

Source: Absolute Despotism

Authors: Steve Nolan with M.S. Wall

Date: 23 May 2012

Timeline to Tyranny

“A dictator enjoys unrestrained power over the people. The legislative and judicial branches voluntarily cede this power or it’s taken by force. Most of the time, it’s given up easily, out of fear in time of war and civil disturbances, and with the support from the people, although the dictator will also accumulate more power with the use of force.”—Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas)

dic-ta-tor

1. a person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession

des-pot

1. a king or other ruler with absolute, unlimited power, autocrat

2. any tyrant or oppressor

tyr-an-ny

1. arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority

2. the government or rule of a tyrant or absolute ruler

3. a state ruled by a tyrant or absolute ruler

President Ronald Reagan once said: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” The horrors of 9/11 that took place over a decade ago were a shameful tragedy in American history and should have never been permitted to happen. Unfortunately, this event forever changed the course of our nation. Whether the circumstances surrounding these attacks were allowed to happen because of incompetence, collusion, or downright treasonous acts of orchestration and compliance is not the subject of this article.

This article is about documenting a timeline to tyranny. Any single event might be dismissed, but when viewed in this manner in total, we think that the evidence is clear.

TIMELINE

On September 11, 2001: The United States was attacked by 19 Saudi terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda who hijacked four passenger jets and crashed them into World Trade Center and the Pentagon while the fourth plane was crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All told, nearly 3,000 people died in these attack.

On October 7, 2001: President George W. Bush authorized the military’s war on the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces inside Afghanistan. The initial military objectives of “Operation Enduring Freedom—Afghanistan” were the destruction of terrorist training camps and infrastructure within Afghanistan, the capture of al-Qaeda leaders and the cessation of terrorist activities in Afghanistan.

On October 23, 2001: Just weeks after the tragic events of 9/11, the first draft of the PATRIOT ACT (H.R. 3162) was introduced into the House incorporating many provision of H.R. 2975 and S.1510 as well as H.R. 3004 (the Financial Anti-Terrorism Act). No member of Congress was even allowed to read the first PATRIOT ACT. William Safire writing for the New York Times, described the first PATRIOT ACT’s powers by saying that President Bush was “seizing dictatorial control.”

The USA PATRIOT ACT and its 300 pages were printed at 3:00am for a vote that took place at 11:00am that same morning. With the passage of this act, the U.S. federal government was given the ability to wiretap, conduct electronic surveillance, pry into private medical records, and to access financial records such as bank and credit card statements. They were even given the power to look into public library records.

On October 26, 2001: President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into law.

On November 25, 2001: President George W. Bush created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to the September 11 attacks. This organization’s primary responsibility was the protection of the United States of America and US Territories from and responding to terrorist attacks, man-made accidents and natural disasters. In the ten years that have passed since its birth, DHS has become the employer to more than 200,000 employees and is now the third largest Cabinet department after the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

On March 19, 2003: President George W. Bush gave the order to attack Iraq in order to “Disarm Iraq of Weapons of Mass Destruction, to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.”

On January 14, 2005: The Department of the Army published Army Regulation 210-35: Civilian Inmate Labor Program, which provided Army policy and guidance for establishing civilian inmate labor programs and civilian prison camps on Army installations.

On October 17, 2006: President George W. Bush signed into law the John Warner Defense Authorization Act (Law 109-364 / H.R. 5122) which did the following:

Allocated $500 billion to the military and defense related activities for fiscal year 2007.

Expanded the President’s power to declare martial law under revisions to the Insurrection Act, and take charge of United States National Guard troops without state governor authorization when public order has been lost and the state and its constituted authorities cannot enforce the law.

Had a sunset date of September 30, 2012 (Author’s Note: expect this to be renewed like the US PATRIOT ACT before it…).

On October 17, 2006: President George W. Bush signed into law The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006 (H.R. 6166) which was drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. The Act’s stated purpose was “To authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war and for other purposes.”

On January 24, 2006: KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Company, announced that it was awarded a contract from the Department of Homeland Security to support its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the event of an emergency. The value of this contract was $385 million.

“Using the military for law enforcement goes against one of the founding tenets of our democracy. We fail our Constitution, neglecting the rights of the States, when we make it easier for the President to declare martial law and trample on local and state sovereignty.”—Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont)

On May 9, 2007: President George W. Bush signed National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD51) and the Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-20). These directives essentially say that when the president determines a national “catastrophic emergency” has occurred, he can assume dictatorial powers to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over. They loosely define “catastrophic emergency” as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the US population, infrastructure, environment, economy or government functions.” It should be noted that neither NSPD-51 nor HSPD-20 has any reference to Congress. This Executive Order ensures a continuity of governmental program can be implemented without any Congressional approval or oversight.

On July 20, 2007: Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) was asked by his constituents to see what was contained in the classified portion of the White House’s plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack as might be implied by the previous Directive. DeFazio, who sits on the Homeland Security Committee and has clearance to view classified material, was denied access to view the documents, and he was not given a reason why. “I just can’t believe they’re going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack. We’re talking about the continuity of the government of the United States of America,” DeFazio says. “I would think that would be relevant to any member of Congress, let alone a member of the Homeland Security Committee. Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right.”

On November 4, 2008: The U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Institute publishes Known Unknowns: Unconventional “Strategic Shocks” in Defense Strategy Development warning that the United States may experience massive civil unrest in the wake of a series of crises which it has termed “strategic shock.” The report states:

“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.”

Enter Obama—Promises of Hope and Change and An End to the Bush Era?

So, as of the Presidential Inauguration in January of 2009, all these unprecedented powers were handed over to President Obama, allowing him the ability to declare martial law without any Congressional oversight or approval. So based on what could potentially be a false national emergency, this empowers the President to activate US military troops and National Guardsmen to conduct domestic policing of the American people on his authority.

On January 11, 2010: President Barack Hussein Obama signed an Executive Order creating A Council of Governors. This body of ten state governors directly appointed by Obama will work with the federal government to help advance the “synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States.” The non-elected governors would liaise with the Pentagon’s Northcom, Homeland Security, the National Guard as well as DOD officials from the Pentagon.

On February 12, 2010: The Department of the Army published Regulation: FM 3-39.40, Internment and Resettlement Operations Manual. This U.S. Army document was prepared for the Department of Defense and “was not meant for public consumption.” It contains shocking plans for “political activists” to be pacified by “PSYOP officers” into developing an “an appreciation of US policies” while detained in prison camps inside the United States. Both the UN and Red Cross are named as partners including federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA. If this doesn’t bother you perhaps you should apply. Here is the job description that the US Army is recruiting for.

The Pace of Tyranny Quickens

On February 11, 2011: Obama created a “Continental Perimeter” described as a key step in advance of the North American Union. Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper quietly bypassed Congress to sign on the basis of their executive authority a declaration that put in place a new national security vision defined not by the U.S. national borders, but by a continental view of a “North American perimeter.”

On March 19, 2011: The United States embarked on yet another unconstitutional war (this time with no Congressional approval) in the Middle East when it launched scores of Tomahawk cruise missiles at the sovereign state of Libya. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution reads: “Congress shall have power to… declare War.” President Obama authorized “limited military action in Libya.” He does not have the authority to call for military action against other countries without Congressional approval. The executive branch of the United States government had engaged the United States in an unlawful war—and one of the most flagrant violations of the Constitution since the end of World War II. Congress recognized no claimed power of the president to wage war outside of the War Powers Resolution. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for Walter Jones’ (R-NC) efforts to impeach the President on this violation…

On May 26, 2011: President Barack Obama signed a four-year extension of three key provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act allowing for roving wiretaps, searches of business records and conducting surveillance of “lone wolves” – individuals suspected of terrorist-related activities not linked to terrorist groups.

On September 30, 2011: American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son were assassinated under orders of President Obama without regard for a previous executive order that forbids assassinations. A U.S. Federal judge considering a case brought on by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU raised some “serious questions” asking:

“Can the executive order the assassination of a US citizen without first affording him any form of judicial process whatsoever, based on the mere assertion that he is a dangerous member of a terrorist organization?”

Keep in mind this took place in Yemen. Now we have drones flying over the United States and nearly crashing into airliners. While the President has assassinated an American in Yemen, someone Topeka, Kansas could be next!

“The Obama administration and its enablers have established, legitimized, and normalized a national security state apparatus that removes any doubt that domestic policing is a prelude to a totalitarian police state.”—American Civil Liberties Union

December 31, 2011: Obama signed the highly controversial The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2012 (H.R. 1540) which is unprecedented, unconstitutional and gives the office of the president unchecked dictatorial powers in the name of protecting the security of the homeland. This treasonous piece of legislation gives the federal government truly frightening allowing for:

Military Law Enforcement and an end of the Posse Comitatus Act

Section 1021: Indefinite Detention without Charge or Trial

Section 1022: Establishes Requirement for Military Custody

The NDAA was born out of secrecy and deception. It was drafted by Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich) and John McCain (R-Ariz) behind closed doors and without any other kind of hearings. Publically, Obama deceived the American people saying he was going to veto the legislation, yet he secretly insisted on specific provisions targeting the American citizens be added.

Despite Obama’s pledge not to use signing statements, he went out of his way to do so again when he signed the NDAA into law on News Years Eve. Charlie Savage wrote in The New York Times that Obama “has issued signing statements claiming the authority to bypass dozen of provisions of bills enacted into law since he took office,” thereby doing exactly what he promised not to do.

Section 1021 affirms the executive branch’s authority to detain persons covered by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40; 40 U.S.C. 1541 note).

Section 1022 seeks to require military custody for a narrow category of non-citizen detainees who are “captured in the course of hostilities by the Authorization for Use of Military Force.”

“We’re talking about American citizens who can be taken from the United States and sent to a camp at Guantanamo Bay and held indefinitely. It [NDAA] puts every single American citizen at risk.”—Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)

On March 10, 2012: President Obama signed The Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011 (H.R. 347) commonly known as the anti-protest “Trespass Bill.” This bill makes the simple trespass in an area under Secret Service protection (such as a campaign event) a federal offense punishable for up to 10 years. Federal agents now have sweeping powers to arrest protestors and charge them with a felony, effectively killing the First Amendment!

On March 16, 2012: Obama issued another unconstitutional executive order. The National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order allows the government to confiscate your property without due process under the direction of Janet Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security. This Executive Order underscore’s Bill Clinton’s Executive Order 12919 which he signed on June 6, 1994. Once again, the latest Executive Order violates our Constitution, specifically Article 1, Section 1, which states:

“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”

Any enactment of law by the executive that is made in Excess of Jurisdiction is by definition treason. Is this a means to allow the federal government to steal private party similar to Mussolini’s fascist corporatism?

Road to Martial Law

Previous administrations installed the foundation for Obama’s authoritarian moves. Under Reagan, executive agencies were granted new sweeping emergency powers to seize infrastructure, private property but also round up citizens and put them in concentration camps and force them into slave labor. During the Iran-Contra hearings in 1987, it was revealed that the program was a secretive “scenario and drill” developed by the Federal government to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law, and have the military take over state and local governments while detaining large numbers of American citizens determined by the government to be “national security threats.” The exercise was called REX-84 and stood for Readiness Exercise 1984. The existence of the Rex-84 Program was first revealed during the Iran-Contra Hearings in 1987 and reported by the Miami Herald on July 5, 1987:

“These camps are to be operated by FEMA should martial law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general’s signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached.”

On May 10, 2012: Obama signs Executive Order 13563 pushing us closer to a North American Union by providing a framework to organize scattered efforts to promote international regulatory cooperation , the chamber’s top global regulatory official said. Sean Heather, Vice President of the Chamber’s Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation stated, “Today’s executive order marks a paradigm shift for the US regulators by directing them to take the international implications of their work into account in a consistent and comprehensive way.”

Summary

In the ten years that have passed since 9/11, the United States waged war with Afghanistan and Iraq, overthrowing both the Taliban government and the Saddam Hussein Regime. The cost in dollars, lives, suffering and untold misery still continues today. Despite the ten years of war overseas, the Federal Government first under Bush and now under Obama’s leadership, has been systematically erecting a control grid around the American people in our own home. Chuck Baldwin warns us in an essay entitled: Bill Of Rights Is No More:

“Americans should realize that, coupled with the Patriot Act, the NDAA, for all intents and purposes, completely nullifies a good portion of the Bill of Rights, turns the United States into a war zone, and places US citizens under military rule. And what is even more astonishing is the manner in which the national press corps, and even the so-called “conservative” talking heads, have either completely ignored it, or have actually defended it. The likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, et al., should be ashamed of themselves!”

Many of us are not aware of many of these acts. Many of us probably ignored the implications as we trusted our Government to look out for our interests and national security. As administrations have changed, some of us are now more wary of these actions taken by our Government. We think the trends are alarmingly clear and these powers represent a noose that we soon may not be able to escape.

We urge you to hit the links in this piece to see the backup sourcing of this timeline. We implore you to share this with others to wake them up to where we are heading as a nation. The time is now to speak up, for the timeline suggests the right to speak out against this tyranny may soon be taken away!

In the meantime, keep your powder dry and your faith strong!

P.S.

Please add your observations in the comment section of how our elites have affected you personally.

I dare you!

Who hasn’t been dared to do something totally stupid growing up? Like when we dared my younger bother to climb the tree over our swimming hole.

“Bet you can’t climb further than Henry! Chicken?”

Life was a huge adventure and he took the risk to beat Henry’s mark. No one had eclipsed Henry’s monkey-like ability. Ever.

“He won’t do it,” Henry said as we watched from the safety of earth.

“Yep, there he goes.”

To this day, my brave crazy little brother holds the record for reaching the summit of that old Georgia pine. The youngest of our tribe of four, he constantly had to prove his worth. After reaching the outer limits of where no kid had ever gone before, perched on a wrist-sized branch, he gloated. We cheered. The bow gave way and he tumbled, in what seemed like slow motion, back first into the shallow water with a thud.

We pulled him to shore. He regained his breath and we never told our parents. This true story may be hard to believe for helicopter parents.

We never had adult supervision on our day-long explorations down the ‘big’ creek. Or a warning sign in all caps that read “TURN BACK NOW!” Every bend in the creek reveled a new challenge or new vine swing or new critter to catch. We were denied no hazards. All the while being too young by today’s risk-averse style of parenting.

That was a past time of pure, unadulterated play. We weighed risks, took chances, learned how to cooperate, negotiate conflicts, attend to the wounded, respect each other, depend on each other, and eventually, to run our own lives – without adult hovering. Adults were avoided. They took the fun out of play.

“There’s no such thing as pirates in those woods,” would quickly kill our fantasy.

For the record, our parents were trusting, not negligent. Granted, growing up in the 60′s and 70′s was different from today. It’s likely that my parents would have had several visits from child protective services if they had to raise us in our stuck-indoors-safely litigating society.

The war on play

Our perceived fears of all the possible dangers to our children handicaps them in the playground of life. The anxiety is crippling. It’s hard not to buy into the myth of safety being peddled in mainstream media, schools, and even churches. Stranger danger! When the Amber Alert breaks into our regularly scheduled programming, parents call the kids in from their backyard and lock the doors – even in ‘safe’ neighborhoods.

We’ve become a nation of soccer mommy’s boys – and girls. Every moment of free time is filled with organized, adult supervised and sponsored busyness. Left alone, kids get creative and entertain themselves. They make up the rules for a pick up game of “Balls and Grounders” in the vacant lot or field. Self-regulated fair play happens with out official umpires or refs. If someone is found cheating, the others will expose the misdeed. Kids learn to govern themselves in free play to discourage players from taking their ball and going home. End of game. That’s no fun.

One of the greatest infringements upon free play is found in our system of public schooling. Recess has been outlawed. We educators have come to the distorted view that play time is a waste. We need to use those extra 30 minutes to teach to the high-stakes exam and make them even more unhappy. This is the highest priority in schools today. We need scores to compare students with each other, other schools, other states, and other nations. We then rank and pigeon-hole accordingly. We believe free play has lost its role in education. Plus, we can’t chance a lawsuit by allowing kids on those dangerous monkey bars, now can we?

What are the consequences of the war on play?

According to Peter Gray, Ph.D., a research professor at Boston University and author of “Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life“, the decline in children’s freedom to play points to psychological disorders.

He cites research that shows that the rate of suicide for children under the age of 15 has quadrupled since 1950.

“These increases seem to have nothing to do with realistic dangers and uncertainties in the larger world. The changes do not correlate with economic cycles, wars, or any of the other kinds of national or world events … affecting young people’s mental states. Rates of anxiety and depression among children and adolescents were far lower during the Great Depression, during the Cold War, and during the turbulent 1960s and early ’70s than they are today.”

The changes have more to do with children’s perception of the world than with the way the world really is. “Anxiety and depression correlate strongly with people’s sense of control or lack of control over their own lives.” When one moves from a belief of having the ability to exercise control of one’s own life to being controlled by circumstances outside of the person, a dramatic shift in mental health occurs. From 1960 to 2002, children between the age of nine to 14 showed a linear increase in the lack of personal control.

Why try? We’re doomed. Not if we allow our children time and freedom to use their powerful instincts of survival.

We do a great disservice to this generation by hovering over and controlling children’s desire to educate themselves and follow their interests. As prepper parents, we should find ways to allow our young to exercise these instincts of self-reliance. Here’s a couple of suggestions.

• Trust children to follow their passions. Here’s an inspiring story of parents that encouraged their children to follow their passions. 
• Get over the myth of safety. It doesn’t exist in nature or your backyard.
• Allow children to free-range without going nuts. 
• Quit believing that your children are in constant danger of abduction or other unlikely events. Prioritize your threats and let your kids live the adventure.
• Go outdoors. Loosen the safety harness. Let your kids be kids.

Life is an adventure. Having freedom and time to play is the first step to building self-reliance in your children.

And no, they probable won’t put out their eye.

What’s your story? Do you agree or disagree? What suggestions do you have to help children develop self-reliance and resilience? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.

If you’ve found this helpful, please consider sharing it with your family, friends and social network. I double-dog dare you!

Keep doing the stuff,

Todd

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