Intro Thread

[The Wilderness]

welcome homesteader, good to have you join us

You will like it here.

The Wilderness

[dudekrtr]

Hello folks!
I just found this, so sorry to not introduce myself before now!  I'm a  34 yr old married stay-at-home homeschooling mom of 2 girls in the Northwest.  We have a .3 acre in a rural (in the loosest sense of the word) area.  I was discouraged about how little land we had to work with until Jack posted the link of the family in  Ca that was growing a massive garden on 1/10 of an acre.  I am most content now (although hoping for more land someday).  I keep busy with kids, garden, chickens, and food storage preps.  Four years ago I had this unshakable urge to prepare even though I didn't know what I was preparing for.  Now we know. 

Anyway, Good to meet all you folks!

Welcome aboard Homesteader. 

Look back for episode 186 http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/life-long-lessons-from-the-garden and use it to help teach those girls; it's a great one.

[flashcard]

Wow, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by this forum.  I've been trying to peruse Heavy G's "Best of's" to get a good start, and hope to keep up with some of the latest threads too.

I'm not one for disclosing very much personal information in public forums, but some of my main interests (in no particular order) are:

permaculture
fibre (knitting, spinning, clothes-making, felting)
perennial gardens/food forests
food preservation
bee keeping

A few other fairly general details: I'm in Canada, have some wilderness first aid skills, no gun, and I like garlic.

A little about my politics, for anyone who's interested:

I'm a little shy to admit that I lean left politically, as it seems that it may not be the prevailing sentiment here.  I joined the forum though, because of one of Jack's podcasts that talked about the commonalities between the "progressive (er...socialist?)" and "libertarian" perspectives.  I may have more libertarian in me than I knew - I don't believe in anything like socialism on a large scale.  I think people should "do it (all) for themselves" and not rely on the government, but I do worry about people who simply can't, and I don't think the job should be left to charity/church or (increasingly) corporations.  I know, I know, bleeding heart, right?

I also worry that, as a result of so much individual egoism, corruption and greed - broader goals like "preserving our own damn species through environmental management" wouldn't stand a chance without some overseeing body/committee.  That said, I have no faith that "my" (Canada's) government is in any way willing to properly pursue very many actual, useful goals because they simply are not politically-popular.  Instead, they resort to meddling in things that are none of their damn business.

I'm not a nationalist, nor am I very patriotic - I'd be very happy to do away with national boundaries altogether.  I know there are a lot of people in this forum who have some connection to the/a military, and I mean no disrespect to you - but there is no way I would ever "die for my country". 

[archer]

Welcome Flashcard!

[monger20]

Jack I feel like I can talk to you like a friend although I have never communicated with you. I have been a listener for over 4 months but have been a micro-preper for all of my adult life. Forum, I am looking forward to getting involved. I find great joy in living a better life with all of you.

Since TSP I find myself running permaculture & situational awareness theories through my head. Its awsome. Especialy since my lovley new bride (June 20, 2009) is onboard with everything. Our second year garden is rocking for 6,800 ft elevation in the Colorado Rockies. A short growing season is a small sacrifice for a constant supply of elk meat. We just received a vacuum sealer, dehydrator is on the way & the guns are locked up & placed ; ) safely......... Bring it!
 

P.S.

Ron Payl & Guns Kick Ass
Member Support Brigade - I'll c u soon

[Hare of Caerbannog]

Welcome to all the new folks.
flashcard I like the monkey!
monger20 Congrats on the wedding!

[Old_Grey_Mare]

Hi Everyone,

I have been listening to Jack for a couple of months now and have most of the episodes under my belt. I have been living that better life for three years. My hubby and I dropped out of the rat race and moved to our BOL then and have been spending our time planting fruit trees and bushes, and nut trees and bushes, and strawberries, raspberries, kiwis, asparagus, grapes, rhubarb and things like that. We are in zone 3/4 in Montana at 5500' so our growing season is extremely short here. We built an 18' (Growing Spaces) growing dome which has saved my gardening bacon this year.  We had three inches of snow on the 7th and 8th of June so the garden couldn't get planted until after that. I did pick my first tomato out of the growing dome today though!!!

I have rabbits but my favorite thing is my chickens.  I have 25 laying hens and two roosters. I incubated eggs for the first time this spring and raised 23 chicks. I have a hen who hatched out three chicks too. I sold some of the pullets and I sell eggs every week.

We live on a ranch that my hubby's grandparents homesteaded and where he was raised. He left here in order to make a living and our dream was always to be able to come back here to live. We were able to do it by doing many of the things Jack talks about. We paid off our house in the other state where we lived and then just kept making the payments to ourselves. With that savings we were able to build our house and some of the infrastructure here. Then we sold our house there and moved here with the cash from the house. Unfortunately it went too fast so now he does some contracting work for his old job from time to time. But our expenses here are very low so we can live on a lot less than we used to need. Our biggest expense is health insurance. We heat with wood that we can cut on our place.

We have a good neighborhood here of people that are used to doing things for themselves. Sometimes we get snowed in for a couple of weeks at a time here so everyone is pretty used to keeping stocked up for those times.

Enough for now. Nice to meet everyone.

Mary

[dudekrtr]

Welcome aboard OldGreyMare! I'm sure you will pick up a bunch of info here from these great people, but, there's no teacher like experience, and I think your experiences will benefit us all, too. Looking forward to whatever you'd like to share!

[DeltaEchoVictor]

Welcome to the boards Mary.

I look forward to hearing your experiences.

[owl_shadow@yahoo.com]

This is my first attempt at posting on the site, I hope I'm doing it right...

My name is Shannon.  I live outside of the SF bay area, Ca.  I live on 100 acres of land, my house is off the grid.  We use solar and propane.  I work on the property full time and my wife makes the hour long commute to her job in town.  I have been interested in wilderness survival since I was 15 and have, thanks to Jack's refreshing take on survivalism, just began to prep.  It feels wonderful.  My wife, after hearing about the podcast and its values has enthusistically jumped on the bandwagon, and were beginning to store food.  I am a "recovering liberal loon".  But fortunately, my past has left me with a good sense of living off the land.
Looking forward to the forums.

[archer]

This is my first attempt at posting on the site, I hope I'm doing it right...

My name is Shannon.  I live outside of the SF bay area, Ca.  I live on 100 acres of land, my house is off the grid.  We use solar and propane.  I work on the property full time and my wife makes the hour long commute to her job in town.  I have been interested in wilderness survival since I was 15 and have, thanks to Jack's refreshing take on survivalism, just began to prep.  It feels wonderful.  My wife, after hearing about the podcast and its values has enthusistically jumped on the bandwagon, and were beginning to store food.  I am a "recovering liberal loon".  But fortunately, my past has left me with a good sense of living off the land.
Looking forward to the forums.

Welcome Shannon! Sit back and browser around if you want. Lots to read and learn. I'm in the Bay Area myself.

[BerserkerPrime]

A few other fairly general details: I'm in Canada, have some wilderness first aid skills, no gun, and I like garlic.

A little about my politics, for anyone who's interested:

I'm a little shy to admit that I lean left politically, as it seems that it may not be the prevailing sentiment here.  I joined the forum though, because of one of Jack's podcasts that talked about the commonalities between the "progressive (er...socialist?)" and "libertarian" perspectives.  I may have more libertarian in me than I knew - I don't believe in anything like socialism on a large scale.  I think people should "do it (all) for themselves" and not rely on the government, but I do worry about people who simply can't, and I don't think the job should be left to charity/church or (increasingly) corporations.  I know, I know, bleeding heart, right?

I also worry that, as a result of so much individual egoism, corruption and greed - broader goals like "preserving our own damn species through environmental management" wouldn't stand a chance without some overseeing body/committee.  That said, I have no faith that "my" (Canada's) government is in any way willing to properly pursue very many actual, useful goals because they simply are not politically-popular.  Instead, they resort to meddling in things that are none of their damn business.

I'm not a nationalist, nor am I very patriotic - I'd be very happy to do away with national boundaries altogether.  I know there are a lot of people in this forum who have some connection to the/a military, and I mean no disrespect to you - but there is no way I would ever "die for my country". 

Well maybe the garlic will take the place of a gun if you eat enough

There's room for every political affilication here.

Welcome.

BP     

[bartsdad]

Greetings to All,

I've been here for a little while now and need to become part of the community.

I'm a husband and father in my late 30's. We live on 8 acres of my Grandfathers original 80 acre homestead about 40 miles out of the Twin Cities in MN.

I went to school for Electronics ,but now have a career as a 2nd generation Diesel Mechanic. I've done odd jobs over the years to get to today. My most rewarding had to be being a guide in the BWCAW for 2 summers. MN is a great outdoors man's playground.

I've always had the "prepper" mentality, but am really acting on it as of late. I see the need to turn the Home into a Homestead.

I like to hunt, fish and camp, but who here doesn't? I enjoy NASCAR as my mindless escape. I love to cook and am looking forward to getting into canning.

I see a lot of good people here and hope to contribute to help us all "Live a better life".

Another day,another $0.35 after taxes..

Chris in MN

[Heavy G]

bartsdad:

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Glad you plunged into the forum.  You'll like us.

Sounds like a country boy in MN can survive (to sorta quote Hank Jr.).

[offgridmontana]

Howdy I 'm Chad in Blue Cloud, Helena, Montana! http://offgridmontana.com

I find the Survival Podcast more chill than Infowars, but regardless listen to about 80% of Alex Jones and ignore the rest. I find the 45 minute podcast just enough. Compared with listening to four hours of Alex Jones talk like the world is ending.

[Hare of Caerbannog]

Hey offgridmontana
Nice shirt!

[LGM30]

Howdy I 'm Chad in Blue Cloud, Helena, Montana! http://offgridmontana.com

Welcome Chad!
Looks like you are just setting up shop in Montana if I read between the line correctly.  20% unemployment in Washington.  That's steep.
Good Luck!

[Cooter Brown]

Hi all,

As they say on talk radio; long time listener - first time caller. I've been listening to the podcast on and off since show #8 and found the forum last fall.

Being a natural skeptic and having been burned by start-ups before, I decided to give this thing a year before jumping in with both feet. One of three things was bound to happen; 1)TSP would turn out to be a flash in the pan (after all, who can do maintain this kind of motivation on a daily basis), 2) It would become a huge success and Jack would become an insufferable martinet, or 3) it would become an actual success and maintain all the qualities that got it that way in the first place. Well, it seems (happily) that Jack has bucked the odds and taken TSP to the third outcome! (way to go man!)

That being said, I grew up in the Arkansas Ozarks (where this stuff was called "life"), played a little bit with some boys from Benning back in the day, but then got "successful" and proceeded to go to sleep for 20 years. Currently in exile in the wrong part of New England, I hope to go back south in the next year or so; Arkansas (maybe), or Texas (more likely).

By circumstance and inclination, I am currently more of a Beans & Bullets guy, but if things work out I'll find use for all the archived homesteading stuff before too many more years go by.

Semper Vig

[DeltaEchoVictor]

Welcome to the boards CB.

[offgridmontana]

Welcome Chad!
Looks like you are just setting up shop in Montana if I read between the line correctly.  20% unemployment in Washington.  That's steep.
Good Luck!

My family has had this land for the past 30 years, and I visited for the first time last year. However it's near a National Guard training base, and only 15 miles to Helena - not exactly bug out, but we are within walking distance of the Helena National Forest. I'm looking into purchasing bug out land further out, like 35-80 miles from a town.

[Cooter Brown]

Thanks, DEV

[minimalist]

I've been posting for about a week but I haven't introduced myself.

I started listening to TSP last fall, and got away from it for a while because combined with current events, the subject matter was depressing me. I've recently started listening again. I think this forum has been a great outlet for me; it is great to be able to talk about these matters in the company of other like-minded individuals. I also appreciate the evenhanded way preparedness and survivalist topics are discussed here; some popular blogs on the subject strike me as a bit *too* militant. I think the philosophy of using preparedness to enrich your life is a much better approach than letting it take over.

I was attending school in New Orleans when Katrina happened, and although my wife and I evacuated ahead of time, we only took a few days worth of clothing and quickly realized we were refugees, although our experience was tempered by the charity and kindness of friends, family, and strangers. We went back several times and saw the worst of the damage and reconstruction, and eventually returned for good (well, for the duration of my tenure in school) a few months later. I won't pretend that the lessons of Katrina are unique to my situation, but experiencing it firsthand certainly hammered those lessons home to me. I see the world through rose-colored glasses, and I see society as a much more fragile thing.

Last summer was the first time I took any steps to prep for something more than a minor disaster. I sensed that some bad-things were coming down the financial pipeline, and I talked with my wife about it and purchased in bulk some staple foods. At the time, I wondered if I was being overly paranoid but in retrospect, I don't regret it at all. Over the past two years or so, my wife and I have been experimenting with container gardening on our apartment balcony; now we are close to closing on our first home and we are looking forward to being able to plant a garden and some permaculture, and so I look forward to being able to participate in those topics in the coming days.

[Heavy G]

minimalist:

Right on.  You're exactly the kind of person who is so common here at TSP.  I'm the same: I want to know how to survive various things, but I'm not a wacko.  There's an uneasiness with being on a "survivalist forum"; I know I felt that way.  But after a while you'll see how much amazing (and sane) information we have here.

Welcome.

[DeonFreshwater]

 I am Deon, down here in SEMO...was raised right on this land, poor as dirt. Hunting, fishing and raising a garden.  Eventually struck out on my own and lived in L.A. for a good long time, became one of the city girls I'd always seen on TV, (or something.) Now I am back here and can't remember half the stuff I grew up with, so relearning.
Got a few sq. ft. garden beds going, though as far as I can tell it's not going to do much. We had a REALLY wet spring and the roots on things like radishes and carrots just didn't seem to take. So, I guess I'll just add the seeds to the stash I have going.
For those in this area, I guess you know that these past two years have been proof positive that one should have at least a couple of weeks worth of some kind of alternative heat, water and food on hand. The ice storms have been vicious. And yeah, there were lot's of guys around just helping out and not particularily waiting around for the city to get it done. Overall services held up well through some really thick ice covered in snow covered in ice and snowed over again. Even though I grew up here, I hadn't seen anything that bad before.
I'm right down on the river, (well on a good sized hill a few blocks from the river) so, so far so good. I'm looking to find out more about how to claim that water if SHTF because I can walk down there with buckets but it's so damned polluted I am not sure what all I'd have to do to make it safe to even so much as bathe in. It's really past due for people to wise up on what really is valuable and essential in life.
Glad to be here, wow this forum is HUGE! My first post was a repost, so I don't know if I should even mention my next missive which was about a Missouri car dealer that's giving away AK47's with every new pick-up truck purchase, haha.
I found out about this podcast from a friend in NY. Some really good practical advise to be had around here.
I find it astounding how peoples attitude toward me has changed with my location. I guess I am now officially a "dangerous redneck" haha. And you know what, that's fine with me. I don't mess with anyone that doesn't start the crap first, and this redneck attitude served me quite well in the city.
Though I must say, my husband is from the UK and the culture shock took him a while to get over, seems about all they know over there about this part of the country is the movie "Deliverance." Wow.

[Heavy G]

Welcome DeonFreshwater.

I, too, am relearning things from my rural upbringing on this amazingly informative forum.

Be sure and post a lot.  You learn more by posting because you have to think about things when you're posting.

[ncjeeper]

Hey everyone!
Found Jack and the survival podcast while looking for preparedness supplies.
Now about me..........I grow up in a major city but found playing in the woods as a kid was more fun then being the popular neighborhod kid. I even carried a bug out kit back then. Made it out of and old sucrets metal box and kept it in my back pocket. If I remember right it contained a razor blade, a few band aids, a fishing line and a hook, a couple of bullion cubes, a mirror and maybe a coupleof more things but I can't remember. Got my Eagle Scout just before I turned 18. Went to college and got my BS degree. Graduated and thanks to Ronald Reagan and Reganomics (another ass clown Jack would say!) I couldn't find a white collar job using my engineering degree. I got into law enforcement and will have my 20 years on next month. Now I'm enjoying all the shared information on the forum.

[smuggler344]

Hi everyone!

I have posted a few times but just now found this thread.  I have been listening to Jack's podcast since last Fall.  I really enjoy his topics and have learned so much. 

About me:  I'm a married 36 year old Mom to two girls.  Grew up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont (the NE 3 counties, for those of you not from there).  DH is from Alabama.  We live just outside of KCMO now.  Hubbie and I are both Army Intel vets from the early/mid 90s.  Now we both push paper for Uncle Sam (it pays the bills).  My Dad grew up mega-poor in a mega-poor area of SEMO during and after the Depression, so I learned a lot just listening to him and my Grandma, who didn't get electricity or running water until 1965.

About a year and a half ago I started seriously paying attention to the impending financial storm, and realized we needed to get our act together.  I've spent countless hours researching preparedness over the past year, and slowly implemented our plan and built up our stocks.  Last spring we had very little money, spent every last penny we had moving here from Vermont, so we could only scrape by on bits and pieces.  One week last year we only had $41 for groceries.   Now, our car is paid off, credit card is paid off, canceled and cut up, we have at least 6 months of good food and household goods put up, an emergency fund, bug out bags, and two kids who know why the grasshopper and the ant story is so important.  Thanks Jack!

[Heavy G]

Welcome ncjeeper and smuggler344.  Nice to see you involved in the forums.

[BerserkerPrime]

Nice to see all the new folks!  Welcome!

BP

[DeltaEchoVictor]

Welcome Deon & smuggler (& anyone I may have missed).

Well met.