If I were a rich man....

Ahh, if I were a rich man, but I'm not. Oh, I'm not scraping the bottom of the barrel, but I am by no means rich. So that is why it was so good to see an article in the paper yesterday about barter coming back and becoming more acceptable. It was an AP article from Boise, Id, but I believe it is growing across the country. That's why I found the article in my little local paper.

Bartering is the art of trading goods and services for what you need/want instead of paying for them with cash money. I don't know about any of you, but I've practiced this for years in a very simple way that I never really considered barter until I really sat down and thought about it. How many of you have ever asked some friends to come help you with a project, be it building a house, pulling an engine out of the car, dropping a tree, whatever, and offered to feed them or give them beer, etc? I do it all the time... "Hey, I'll feed you if you come over and help me do X, Y, or Z!" I have a buddy who does it on a larger scale and on a regular basis. He would rebuild cars, paint them, install furnaces, etc. In return, I've known him to get cars, to get building materials, motorcycles, etc. Granted he works like a dog on these projects, but I secretly believe it is because he likes the work!

Now, no matter what may come down the pike, wouldn't it be nice to know that you have skills that are valuable? Imagine if you could trade canned produce from the garden for a side of beef, gardening work for plumbing work, etc. Think about it... you would save money, but you would have to spend some time working things out, etc.

If you don't have skills that would be useful to someone else, maybe you could stock up on valuables that other people would want. Canned produce, fresh eggs, tobacco, alcohol, etc. These old time skills served those that came before us for many a year before we became a nation of buying on credit instead of saving up for what we want/need. With the new economic issues and uncertainty, wouldn't it be nice to make sure that you have something that you could fall back on... Just In Case?

Good Trading, Everyone!

Money, its a gas...

So I just finished reading The Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey. First off, this book is Awesome, and I highly recommend it for everyone. The primary and only focus in this book is how to build wealth by removing DEBT. His goal is to help everyone who reads his book (or hears his radio show) to get rid of all debt and to live debt free! His process makes a lot of sense to me, but he had a couple points that I want to discuss today.

First point. Debt is bad. Period. End of sentence. I have read many many many financial books on buying rental properties, real estate, etc. The one big thing that every one that I read had in common is that they advocate the use of Other People's Money (OPM). Dave will explain that yes this could work, but this could also seriously backfire too. (Trust me, he explains it a whole lot better!)

The big point that I wanted to talk about because he lays it out in a page, and I think that this really needs to be talked about right now. Gold is not the answer. We are all aware of the new "stimulus" ... *ahem* ... bill that is waiting on the presidents desk to be signed right now. (If you are not, do the research!!!) This bill could sound the death knell for the American economy. I hope not, I pray not, but ... Now if the economy collapses, what do you want to have? Common wisdom says to invest in gold and precious metals because they have always been the foundation for economies. While that may be true, it won't help you right off the bat. Someone who has TONS of extra food saved may accept your gold, but most people won't because it won't be worth diddly. Dave states that a "black market barter system" is what will emerge. Heck, we know this in our heart of hearts, and we know it because the barter system is alive and well in rural America.

Barter... if things really go downhill, what are the most important things to have to be able to barter, if need be. Skills, first and foremost, you can always trade for things by being able to do jobs and projects that need to be done. Many people don't have these skills anymore, so the more skills you have, the more in demand you will be. Next, FOOD. Yes, I said food... If you have food stored up and saved for a rainy day, those that don't have any will try to beg, plead, steal, or borrow to get food for themselves and their family. The more you have, the more options you have. Another huge category? Things that would currently be "black market". This includes tobacco, beer, wine, hard-core distilled liquor(!!!!), ammo, weapons, etc.

Don't get me wrong, if you have the cash to buy some gold, DO IT! Just don't expect it to be the complete salvation of your family IF the economy collapses. However, depending on how long it takes to get a new economy set up, you could live long enough to have that gold make you rich in the new economy. So again, it is good to be prepared for that situation, BUT make sure you are prepared for the others as well.

Read the book, think about it, make your decision, and Do It!

*title from Pink Floyd's Dark side of the Moon track entitled Money.

Ohio Preppers Network (OPN)

Well, I have been asked to help with the OPN and I agreed. I will be posting articles over there as well as here on my blog. Check it out here.

I agreed to help Joel out over there because I believe it is important to help as many people as I can realize that wether or not you know that something bad is about to happen, it can. And yes, many people need to realize that it can happen to them, too. The world doesn't play favorites, and bad things happen to good people. Also, I want to help people realize that they can be prepared for emergencies and tragedies at all income levels and situations. You don't need to build a bomb shelter in the backyard, but you could if you wanted to, I suppose.

This blog, The Farmer Geek, was started to be about homesteading and my learning process for things I don't know. There will be plenty of that, (especially as soon as the weather turns for a longer period of time), but some of the articles I post here will be over there and vice versa. There may be some posts over there that don't get posted over here, as well. We will have to see how this evolves.

I will say this, if things get too bad, I will step down from helping over there to focus here because thefarmergeek is my first blog and my primary.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to be able to keep everyone interested and coming back!

The Tobacco Tax Rises Again!

The American government, in its quest for the almighty dollar, has decided that they will be increasing the tax on commercially sold tobacco. HermitJim wrote a good post that breaks down the new taxes by tobacco type. Now, this is nothing new, greedy beaurocrats that do not create wealth are always looking for a way to justify their jobs and to get money to pay for their positions. However, the AMOUNT of the tax increases that have been passed are what staggers the mind. The House of Representatives and the Sentate have both passed bills that would raise the tax by $.62 and $.61, respectively. They are banking on this increased tax to raise the income of the federal governemnt, but what always happens when taxes are raised? The amount collected goes down. People will quit or start growing their own tobacco.

Now, mmPaints over at selfsustainedliving.blogspot.com grows her own tobacco, and that got me thinking about doing it myself. So what do I do next? Research, research, and more research... and you, lucky reader, will get to share some of what I have found.

As with any plants or seeds, heirloom is the way to go anymore. This will allow you to save the seeds from the plant in order to be stored and planted the next year, and of course, they are much much much less likely to be genetically modified. So I went looking for some heirloom tobacco seeds to start my own plot of tobacco, and I found one location that seems to be the best bet. New Hope Seed has a large variety of heirloom tobacco for all different purposes. They label each variety with its name, type, common uses, and pictures of the plant and the flower. They sell both seeds and started plants, as well. I'm not sure which way I am going to go regarding the varieties, but I know I will be getting a few packets of seeds, at least. I am thinking that I may get a few live plants to transplant just to make sure I get some sort of a crop this year. But I do know that I want some plants that are good for both pipes and cigarettes.

As I understand it, tobacco is not difficult to grow, but in order to prepare it for use, there are a few things that should be done. (Note I said should. I have heard you don't need to cure it, but I don't know) There are a few methods of curing and preparing your tobacco, but as I have not yet done this, I am not going to go over them. There are a few sites out there that I am looking at how to do this, and I'm sure there are more than I have found. This isn't even a concern unless I do manage to have a harvest, and then I will be prepared for it!

I will post more throughout the summer about this project as it continues... but I would at least urge you to think about growing your own if you use any tobacco products. With the rising federal taxes, and some states looking to raise theirs as well, it is going to put a major hurting on the pocketbook before too long!

(and let me just add that if the revolution ever does come, tobacco would make an amazing barter item)

http://hermitjim.blogspot.com/2009/02/wellthey-are-after-me-again.html
http://selfsustainedliving.blogspot.com/2008/12/gardening-surprise-supporting-our.html
http://www.rusticgirls.com/gardening/growing-tobacco.html
http://newhopeseed.com/tobacco
http://tobaccoinfo.utk.edu/index.htm

More Power?!

Well, I posted the other day about our new acquisition of a cheap 5.25 kW generator. This was a great deal, and really good for us, but would this be enough of a generator for you? I don't know if this is the generator that I would have chosen for myself if I were buying new, and this leads me into today's post about choosing your generator. I will go through the process for my families power needs and we will see if this is the right size generator for us.


First thing to decide once you have determined that you are going to buy a generator is what type of generator do you want/need? There are two types of generators: portable and stand-by. Portable generators are normally about the size of a cooler and runs on gasoline. Stand-by generators are hard-wired into your house and start at the size of an outdoor air-conditioning unit (and get larger).


Portable generators are an excellent choice for many people that only need to run a few appliances for a short period of time (e.g. you only lose power for a few hours/days each year). To use a portable generator, you have to plug in your appliances to an extension cord instead of the wall outlet. When the power goes out, someone needs to go down and start the generator manually and plug in the urgent appliances. Since these generators tend to use gasoline, you need to store enough gasoline to sustain use for a period of time, and the fuel needs to be cycled to be kept fresh. Also, one of the other main points to remember with portable generators is the notation on it that may say something to the effect of "10 hours @ 1/2 load". This means the generator should run for 10 hours if you are only pulling half of that number on the front (10 hours putting out 2500W on a 5000W generator). This is important in helping guestimate the amount of gas needed on hand.


Stand-by generators are the choice of many who are in hard-hit areas that lose power often/for long periods of time. These generators are hard-wired into your house, so that your appliances can be kept plugged into the wall outlets, and you don't need to muck about with anything. These also have the option of being able to automatically detect when the power to the house is out and they can start themselves with only a few second delay. These normally are directly connected to a Liquid Propane tank or a natural gas line so the fuel is provided for.

So once you have weighed the pros and cons of each type, and you have made your decision, then you need to determine the size of what you need. This part is rather generic for either style. Every appliance you have uses a certain amount of power per hour. Lowe's has a listing of power usages here, and there are more available out there if you look. Now, along with the amount of power it takes to run an appliance, many appliances have a "start-up" power usage. Obviously, this is the amount of power it takes to get this appliance from off to running. When you are calculating your power requirements, you will need to use the start-up Wattage ratings as your guide.

Using some "standard" guides, here's a quick example. I have a freezer in the basement, a fridge upstairs, and a well pump to run. I will say that all lighting will be done by oil lamps and candles for this example. The freezer and the fridge both have startup Wattages at around 3000W, and the well pump is probably around 3200W. What this means is that with the 5.25kW generator that my family has, we can not power all three (or even any two) at the same time, BUT as long as we rotate our usage, we should be just fine.

So at this point, I think I've given you plenty to think about, but I hope this helps you think about your power and what would happen if. Also, I hope if you have been thinking about getting a generator, but didn't know where to start... well, there ya go. (Ok, heck, I'm just glad you read it!)

Gonna Be A Black Out Tonight!

So you've moved to the country to get away from the crush. Got yourself some land, a well, and septic. You've got some food saved up and you are ready, come what may! Oops, there goes the electricity. " Its ok, we don't need that! Oh well, let's all get a drink of water" ... what? No water?! Oh boy, your well is electric, now what will you do?


Does this sound familiar, or is this so cheesy that you don't think it happens? Well, it didn't happen to us, but I was worried a couple times. We do have a bunch of water saved up, but the ever present question was there. Is It Enough? I wasn't really worried about lights or heat, we have heated the house in the past via the fireplace (not fun, but it can be done). No, the water is what worries me. Not only for our drinking and washing, but for the dogs and the chickens, also.


Well, a friend of a relative had bought a house a while back that came with a portable generator. This guy never used it, heck didn't even know if it had any gas in it, but he wanted to get rid of it. SCORE!


We are now the proud owners of a, who knows how old, 5.25 kW DeVilBiss, portable generator. It is badly in need of a tune-up, but at least it runs and puts out electricity.


So, now we have a 1 1/2 gallons or so of gas that is not mixed up for a 2-stroke. So for the next few pays, I think we will be getting a 5 gal gas can and filling it up for a few pays. I was thinking of a few methods of rotating the fuel and making sure that we have fresh stuff all the time, just in case.


On top of this, I now have to re-wire the well pump so that I can plug it in during an emergency. Fun stuff. Hey, you do what you gotta do, but a bit of time now to make things easier later. Works for me.

I think tomorrow, I will go over the basics of how to choose the proper generator for your home and family (assuming that you don't find a cheapie or free one). Don't hold me to that, but that post will be coming.

The Art of Self-Defense

The other day, I spoke about the need to keep your body in shape enough to be able to do the necessary work to survive and to protect your family. In that entry, I was merely discussing physical fitness and its importance. Today, I am going to discuss the benefit of preparing by learning to defend yourself and your family, with and without weapons.

Many preppers and self-sufficiency advocates discuss the best firearms to have and their best uses. They discuss how much ammo to have, etc. This is all great information. However, if things ever get so bad that we need these firearms to protect our homes and families, I think it is safe to say that we will need them for hunting as well. Also, purchasing more ammo would be difficult if things get that bad, and it will be important to be able to defend yourself and your family with other tools around the house/homestead and bare-handed.

Many many years ago, on the island of Okinawa, the farmers were stripped of all weapons because the government was worried about rebellion. The ingenius farmers adapted their farming tools to be able to defend themselves. They learned how to fight with these tools, and these tools and techniques have been passed down in many ways through the art of Karate.

In Brazil, there is a martial art called Capoiera, that is "hidden" in a dance/game. Supposedly, this was created for protection and preperation in the same way. The people, or slaves, were forbidden to practice any form of martial art, so they created this way of practicing a way to protect themselves while hidden in plain sight.

Let us hope and pray that it never comes to this in America, but if it does, would you be able to protect yourself and your family? Do you know the weak spots on the human body to hit if someone attacked you? Could you swing your shovel/pitchfork/ax/hatchet enough to use it as a weapon to protect yourself? Do you own these or any other tools that you could use?

Remember, too, that prepping is not just making sure that you have these weapons, or firearms, or anything else... it also includes making sure that you know how to use these things that you have stored. Almost everything can have multiple uses... Have you thought about this and the uses for things in your house/apartment/homestead?

Just something to think about...