Tuesday 30th, November 2010..............

Morning,
seem to be inside a cloud this morning...
But it only rained a little then stopped....

I've been doing my usual routines; hiked up and packed firewood down
off the mountain, chopped it and split it with my favorite axe,
rebuilt my fire with sidelogs, and got some pea soup going.... its
done now, and I just put on some flatbread...

another experiment in minimalistic cooking... after discovering that
I could make thick flatbreads in banana leaves, I tried it without
the leaves, by using a smaller fire & cooking more slowly, and it
worked very well....

so this morning's experiment is trying it with unleavened corn
bread... so I ground corn, and rinsed all the floaties out of the
meal at the spring... and mixed with some wheat flour to glue it
together, and just poured it into the skillet....

Have been having monkeys show up at my shelter site to steal bananas,
they come within a few feet of me now... got a wheelbarrow load of
bananas this week, split half with my worker, and now sharing with our
arboreal little cousins...

and observing their antics, reminds me of people, and how they grab
from you and say meaningless things while doing it... I guess we
havnt come all that far in the last million years, still self
centered...

I think I'd rather center the self....

I've learned alot from living "poor".... its not what you lack that
hurts, its how people treat you... attitudes... so I'm thankful for
the humility 101, knowing others is wisdom... Now just to apply it to
myself to enhance personal enlightenment....

Lately I've been having some success, changing/improving my own
habits.. have been using organizing & repairing & maintaining my gear
as a way to improve my life at low cost, and need no one to make it
happen...

I find living alone to be very educational... No one to blame for
anything except the mug in the mirror... others may do thoughtless
things, or lie, or have their attitudes, but I've figured out the best
way to prevent being trashed emotionally by people's trips, is to
remove my own "me element" from the equation... so I'm learning to
accept that people are incurably egotistical, and use the experiences
to push for my own personal independence...

if I try to do something, and think it requires help, and ask for
help from people I assist however possible, and then get refused,
I'm learning that rather than become hurt or angry, I get farther by
just "going around" the problem...

i.e. Figuring out another way, that doesnt require anyone else....
this has been working well...

the more self reliant I am, the less I bother others... And the less I
need others, the less I feel trashed by their self centeredness..

and I've been finding that my neoindigenous lifestyle helps alot...
When you live minimalistically, the first thing you discover, is you
still have too much...

at one time, I owned 100x more than I do now... and now I find that I
still own 10X more than I need.... so why did I have all that other
stuff?

These days, I try to want, only inside the neoindigenous paradigm...
This creates a focus...

And I dont get side tracked by the endless wants that get inserted via
electonic means into the heads of the TV zombies.....

I was Chatting the other day, via text messages, with a local woman,
nice lady, two kids, living with her mom & step dad... I was talking
about the farm, that we just planted beans & corn, and that I'd loaned
land to a friend to plant beans on, and that he sent beans to his
mother and his son... And then I chatted about food recipes I was
experimenting on... Which led to mentioning firewood.... And the
woman got short with me, and said:

"Theres no firewood here! Good night!"

it was the last I've heard from her....
And thinking about it, I realized that she was too into a vanity land
existence, and didnt want to hear about free food & cooking fuel,
because it didnt match her goal structure... she wants some guy with
money to buy her food, so she can sit on her ass in a house & watch
soap operas...

well babe, from the looks of the economy, youre going to lose that
body fat aft fairly soon if you insist thats how its got to be.....

I had the same problem with my exwife... she wanted fancy food, not
stuff that came in 100 lb sacks or that I grew....

well, she's somebody elses problem now... And lives in a nice house
the bank owns....
I suspect she's under water on it, in spite of two incomes and
selling a second house...

I feel sorry for her, she's worked alot of years, since I put a stop
to her milking me... I used to call her "Norma Lee Normal" as her
highest aspirations seemed to be being as normal as she possibly
could....

well, I've observed that normalcy is the best way to insure you get
used badly...

"Must I do as others do? Thats crazy!" (paraphrasing the Tao)

sure is.... and getting worse every day... meanwhile, I'm trying the
cornmeal & flour flatbread, its about an inch thick, and not much
different from regular corn bread... Why have I used leavening for the
last 40 years? Because everybody else did.....

and thats how the big lie works... It steals us as puppies, and we
learn to be dogs not Coyotes....

meanwhile, every "Tentwife" of a thousand years ago likely knew what
I'm just discovering now.. That thick unleavened breads are great, if
you cook them slowly....

well, the peas, corn, and flour were all about 60 cents a pound... So
the dog and I eat well today, for less than $2........

I think we'll have ripe bananas for dessert, I hid some from the
monkeys.... and have four types going ripe...

Lately I've been searching online for images of crossbow releases...
i'm thinking about building another crossbow, after I finish the steel
limbed long bow I have 80% done now...

I see several types of releases and sears, and am thinking I may
kind of create a new style using elements from the others.. What I
want to build, is a repeater; a crossbow with a magazine for 8 inch
quarrels, that I can shoot as fast as I can draw it like a bow, and
release it... I've been sketching on it for several years, and
have most of it drawn out...

I'm thinking use spring steel for the bow, but have the limbs
narrower & longer than on a crossbow, so I can pull it manually..
Hoping for maybe 75 lb draw....

I was pleased during my online searching by the stuff I saw being
made... its obvious to me that alot of people are into muscle powered
weapons now... which makes sense, in a soon to be post collapse/post
Nuclear war reality..

relying on chemical propellants, is like relying on fossil fuels.. On
the day after the greedheads nuke the dogshit out of each other, &
everybody else, that .308, or .45 ACP are going to be wall hangers
after the last round exits the barrel...

what that translates into in survival speak, is gee! Youre out of
ammo forever...

this is why many survivalists also have bows, crossbows, swords
etc... And the extreme fringe go for aboriginal skills... Which is
why I took up knapping obsidian points..... which I can do one in
about 15 minutes... TV glass also works great....

I prefer steel broadheads, and prefer home brew to boughten... I've
made myself a simple swage to do ferrules, by drilling a hunk of 2
inch steel shaft, drilled it by hand by the way, using a carpenter's
brace and a steel bitt... Then I used a small hand reamer to taper the
hole, and then ground a punch to fit the taper.... it took several
hours, dripping sweat in the tropical heat, but now I have a lifetime
tool... I also make my own shafts... From splits, using a block
plane and a simple guide I made... works good... takes about an
hour to make a shaft...

( I have wild monkeys 6 ft from me eating my bananas.)

I'm thinking about switching from fletch to vanes on arrows... and
making the vanes out of cooking oil jug plastic... people raise
turkeys here in Costa Rica, but you cant get them to save you any
feathers... they ask why? And you tell them for arrows, and they
think youre crazy and burn the feathers... Had it happen many times,
including when I offer to pay money for the feathers...

continued.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Continued......

and so, I've given up on natural fletch, and I buy veggie oil for the
dog's food in half gallon jugs, so have the plastic.. and on the new
spring steel bow I'm working on, am thinking to make the arrow rest
for vanes, by using a couple tooth brushes with the handles cut off,
and the plastic matrix inlaid into the Mora wood riser, and the
bristles exposed at correct angles and spacing to allow passage of the
vanes.... I'm also thinking about stringing that bow with steel
cable... I make nice dacron bow strings, but just want to
experiment... figuring spring steel limbs are fairly indestructable,
perhaps a fine cable string might mate well and be reliable too....

nothing says I have to stay "Traditional"....

I find the spring steel makes nice bow limbs.. and being fairly
narrow, dont weigh too much...

and it sure creates a cheap bow.. Using scrap leaf springs from the
junkyard..... I cut them with an abrasive wheel in my Milwaukee worm
drive carpenters saw... which gives an accurate cut, and doesnt
overheat the metal... all those years of being a carpenter pay off
sometimes...

I'm wanting to continue my experimentation with spring steel bows, so
far I'm impressed.. The one I'm working on now, I worried about the
limbs being hard to pull, and created a very short riser... To allow
longer limbs for easier flexion leverage... The spring was a rare thin
leaf, just over an eighth thick.. And what I got was a lighter pull
bow than I wanted... come to find out, spring steel is fairly "Wangy"
stuff, and I'm thinking on the next model to go thicker spring, with
a shape like an Indian flat bow... But slightly narrower...

what I want is a short bow, with a 50 lb pull... I've learned I can
drill the spring for mounting to riser by resharpening carbide
masonary bitts with cutting edges shaped like a steel bitt... its a
bitch to drill, but can be done, using my Milwaukee hole shooter and
about 45 minutes a hole.. would be infinitely easier with a drill
press....

why steel bows? durability factor.. I'm after weapons that meet my
stargate criteria... The best I can build with available resources...
so far, learning a lot, and making nice things that are original & one
of a kind.... a man who makes his own weapons can fix or replace
them...

I've also discovered that using ambient resources, rather than the
traditional ingredients, results in more being learned, and one having
to do a lot of thinking to figure out how to use the unconventional
resources.... what I lack in availability & finances, I make up for
in learning how to use my brain... And sometimes obtain very pleasing
results....

and now that I've realized the neoindigenous overview, everything I do
harmonizes well....

my dream, is to not only survive the coming Apocalypse, but to do it
in style, and to thrive... That way, when our alien progenitors
return, I'll at least have won a personal victory in the face of
extreme adversity, and I will also have created a model for others...

and if I dont survive, I will at least die knowing I used my own mind
to the best of my ability...
I have zero intention of letting things "just happen" to me or mine...

I see a world in denial... When any fool can see where its all
going... when north Korea is lanching artillery barages into south
Korea, and Mid East
countries encouraging the US to hit Iran, the future gets easy to
predict... humanity is insane, and we use the word "normal" to
describe it....

And I'd rather live humble, than support the evil...
I doubt that the words; "I was just doing what was normal." will make
it very far with the progenitors...

to die right, is better than to live wrong...
And to live right is better than to die...

--
Sent from my mobile device

Wednesday 24th November 2010......

morning,
awaiting sunrise in an hour...
The moon is going down in the west... Maybe a day or two after the full moon....

the other day, I was thinking about the things I really use... The
cookware, how much of it, eveything from my toothbrush, to a pot
scrubber..

the stuff I use every day....
didnt come to 50 items...

it was a good mental perspective enhancer technique... and I
realized, that everything one really needs including a simple
shelter, doesnt add up to 6 months rent in vanityland...

I thought about my tools, which are the ones most used, and which are
most necessary for subsistence...

it was an interesting way to get an angle on reality, by just thinking
about materialism from a practical angle...

I realized how much of what I have is vanity... And how little I
really need to live comfortably...
And I have much less than the average blog reader... what I do have,
is more of the right stuff, and less of the garbage people buy because
they fall in love with it at a store....

most of that stuff has been edited out of my life by various fleecings
by fellow humanity...
At every divorce, every move, I had to let things go... and I held
on hardest to the things of practical value, and the things I loved
most...

I'm a bit different, love camping, making things, doing experimental
cooking with really basic ingredients, I like living simple, and I
hate complication or dependency on the system...

and being somewhat artistic, and some retro, combined with my
attractions to primitive & indigenous cultures, my possessions
nowdays are taking on a definite neoindigenous style...

its like looking into a crystal ball, and seeing yourself as you really are..

and so my thoughts wandered on.. Like a cow munching clumps of grass,
going from one thought clump to the next.... raising my cow head,
staring into an empty sky, and mentally chewing what I bit off...

and I realized that part of my problem with women, has been that I
didnt understand the true nature of the relationships.... I thought I
could do the things that are me, be a good guy, loving & all that, and
it should work... Right?

and I realized, that when you analyze life and its hardware from the
practical end, it becomes obvious I thought I was being a good
partner, and they thought of me as a personal vanity enhancer in trade
for grudging sexual favors....

because most of what the wife with the tapping foot, and the crossed
arms, and the narrowed eyes, expects, are things that enhance her
personal infinite vanities... And have little or nothing to do with
fundamental practical living....

it was a liberating realization....

and after living alone 16 years or so, I'm finally figuring it all out....

I think women's liberation is wonderful...
It means I dont have to support them... I can focus on getting my own
trip together to better my own life, instead of bettering their's....

women dont need us guys now... They have themselves, each other, and
the social system...

but they never seem to realize that all the fundamentals of the social
system are what the guys do.... and that the office jobs may be nice
and cushy, and you get to dress up nice, paint your billboard with
spendy cosmetics, and get to work in airconditioned spaces, but none
of those jobs produce any food, fix any cars, or make any item of
practical use...

so I see that men's liberation consists of not feeding the bears
individually or collectively thru a social system that aint working
for us by any means what so ever....

I think focusing on practical reality, and personal needs at a
subsistence level is really good for the soul....

I can garden, cut firewood, fix my gear, go fishing, make crafts, etc.
and never do anything that supports the twisted status quo.... My
fem-vanities support footprint is effectively zero....

Leaves alot of free time to think....

I see the men as having been enslaved by their hormones... I've
learned not giving a shit cures that... Also not having it in my face
helps alot...

living in a natural setting is better than doing the daily rumba in
the orgy of lusts...

I get to be me....

--
Sent from my mobile device

Subsistence versus holding down a job.........

morning,
going on two... woke at midnight, rebooted my fire, ate some baked
spuds, and baked Sagu...

Sagu is a starchy tuber in the Ginger family, very fiberous, and a
pain to peel... I like the flavor alot, use it in soups, or cut short
and cooked with rice etc. But today I tried baking it for the first
time, and was suprised... Made it easy to peel, and one could bite off
short hunks for the fiber problem, and so I just ate my other food,
and kept a Sagu in my left hand, and bit off hunks when I wanted a
change..

got a five gallon bucket of Papa chilicanas today, dont know correct
name, suspect its polynesian, a pretty vine, that will grow just about
anywhere here... Once you plant it, the plant keeps growing
perenially, dies back in dry season, resprouts from the spuds when the
rain comes, main harvest is in December... If you leave a plant go a
couple years, its a heavy producer, with nice teardrop shaped tubers,
and one plant in good soil will give a bucket full of tubers... I've
been multiplying it for several years, started with three plants,
have hundreds now, hoping to get at leasts a thousand plants...
then my goal is to start planting it everywhere... take horse loads
of seed up into the brush, or into the jungle, and plant it like
squirrels plant acorns... yesterday and today, living on
tubers... baked spuds, Sagu, and even ginger tea...

and put a big pot of soup on, over a fire as I write, for in the morning...

I've been contemplating the difference between subsistence and holding
down a job... I think subsistence is alot better... No driving to
work, no asshole bosses, no bureauocratic stress, no taxes, no need
to have a car....

I've been working towards subsistence for years, relearning all the
way... got my fruit and food trees in first as they take the
longest... now working towards staple foods... planting an area of
Casava... I lived on the stuff a couple years, known as yucca here in
central america... Got burnt out on it, but now after a few years, and
having other stuff too, back planting it again...

My worker broadcast beans and corn yesterday, and will put in another
morning at it this coming week... he's working above the new Yucca
patch, and I'm thinking to use the area after picking the beans to
extend yucca area... guessing we'll have a good half acre going this
year..
The corn is for seed, this summer finally building the big garden..
Its about an acre area... Will be for corn, chick peas, squash etc.
All staples...

My plan is to go out and dig a new raised bed every morning during the
dry season... removing rocks and brush stumps, tilling the soil with
a heavy grub hoe, made from a pickhoe that I cut the pick off of...
then as I build more beds, till up the finished ones with a lighter
hoe, and plant corn and manicillo clover... in april after corn
harvest, will plant chick peas in the manicillo... And next dry season
harves them, retill the beds, and plant more corn or start planting
squash, sweet potatos etc...

my guess is it will take at least a year to build an acre of beds...
But as I do, can get several crops a year off the finished beds... in
time will create a nice garden, I've done this process before
elsewhere many times... but mostly as a veggie garden.. As grains
were so cheap... Well, that was then, this is now, so I'm about to
apply a life time of organic gardening experience towards going all
the way on a subsistence diet... the food trees are producing now,
have unlimited breadnuts, citrus, etc, and have been experimenting
with different things.. Discovered breadnuts and grated coconut make a
nice granola type trail mix base... Use dried starfruit in it too...

yesterday I saw that one of my cranberry trees was putting on a second
crop, I ate a few of the last fruit from the first crop, looking at
the coming crop which is loading down the tree... My second tree
should also start producing this year, and we'll be getting starts
sprouting from windfall fruit, and start planting more trees... Fifty
would be a nice number I think...

On subsistence, I think the main thing after the land, is to have
tools... I've been collecting gardening tools, making handles, and
getting geared up for whats coming... As the banksters rob the
economy, I'm evolving more towards producing everything I can to
prepare to not need them...

I also have two types of coffee going... kona from hawaii, a dwarf
variety, and I also have an Arabic coffee tree... the fruit off the
coffee tree is a bit bland, with just a touch of a wintergreeen
flavor, but thinking to dry and add to my trail mix, as its a powerful
anti aging food....

and we'll keep multiplying trees as we get starts, its producing
now.... the Kona is producing, and we have starts in a nursery
bed... should be getting into serious numbers of plants in about 5
years... about then will be getting all I need for consumption....

subsistence is more like a hobby than a job..
It entails alot of work, but its varied, and seasonal, and you spend
alot of time processing things...

but its productive, and wholesome, and doesnt require carrying the
burden stones of taxation, inflation, or supporting management or
Elite types... what that means, is everything you produce is yours...

I see humans love to fill their own sack figuratively... Very
egocentric, add money, and you get greed... I think this is a
perversion of older subsistence mindsets... take money out of the
equation, and retro-replace with subsistence, and the desire to fill
your sack becomes harmless to others unless you stray off your own
land..

and as I pointed out to a couple Tico friends today, its only a
matter of time until the bureauocrats and elite try sending around
their thugs to raid our food storage, so we need to immitate ancient
cultures, and create hidden storage away from the shelter, build
several, and when food tax time comes, not have much in the pantry,
hide the daughters, sons etc. and also build bows, crossbows etc.
and start collecting frog & snake toxins, so we can snipe the
Raiders from the briar patch, and genetically edit the planet over
time... doesnt take much of a bow to launch a poisoned arrow, and
their submachine guns they now carry have to have something to shoot
at... If they start atrocities, it will only cause more bows &
arrows...

its an old cycle... Empires get arrogant & decadent, and begin
abusing people and creating fiat currencys...

the people go back to growing food, storing it, and defending it...
and so we come full circle soon... only now we have better bows,
and theres more of us soon... As the city people will be looking thin
& hungry in a few years, and anybody with country connections will
decide shelling beans is better than starving while being expected to
work for bogus money...

I've been thinking about the teachings in the Tao, Bible, Koran, etc.
and what the ranchers of the galaxy put us here for... Its mostly to
learn what not to do, what doesnt work over time, and the fundamentals
of a sustainable culture....

"Learn to subsist, subsist to learn."

--
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Saturday, 6th of November 2010..........

Morning,
we've had unusual weather the last week..
The normal wet season rains worked themselves up into several days of
heavy rains that came in waves, and so several days of cabin fever up
here on poverty mountain.. And flooding down in the valleys, with
houses ruined and people lost...
Its the second worst storm in my 15 plus years here... Me & the dog
did OK, a few days with problems cooking outside & such, but no
damage...

It was nasty enough I didnt feel like taking a spring water bath in
cold rain, so I heated water on the fire, and took hot baths in cold
rain... Currently heating more water, just in case it starts raining
again... But I can see the valley bottom this morning, so I think its
about over..

I listened to radio, heard a pretty good interview with Dr. Paul Craig
Roberts the economist.. He's thinking the economic & political status
quo are trying to fix the economy by using inflation to promote
growth, but that they dont realize it only works in a society with an
industrial infrastucture, and not in one where the factorys have all
been offshored.. he thinks import duties into the US are the answer...
That it will cause factorys to relocate back to the US... I dont
agree, I suspect theyll just raise wages slightly, in south east Asia,
and run off that producer/consumer base... And so import duty would
only raise prices in the US, and do little for anyone except the
government... Which would be like feeding the giant more children from
the village...

I think the answer is to replace the status quo economy, with a black
market economy based on food as the medium of exchange..

the government will of course try to prevent this, and institute a
cashless society and a tatoo on your forehead... Which wont do
anything for you except make it more likely you get your neck cut on
alien arrival day...

my thoughts this morning have been around the differences between
having some class, and having excessive vanity..

Many primitive societies had alot of class, our modern society has
only vanity.. people who think theyre credit rich.. and living their
futile lives living beyond their actual means, and feeling their self
worth is dependent on alot of materialistic trash...

I see it differently, that class is what you create, and vanity is
what you buy.... I do believe there is a balance point.. No way I can
compete with the technocult making hoe heads or pizza pans, but that
dosent stop me from growing as many ingredients for the pizza as
possible, or from making my own handles...

And I'm not interested in a ranch style house in the burbs, with a
garage full of materialism... its fake class.. No creativity
involved, no adventure, no security either... but if I can live
humble, and make and grow things, then its real progress.. And I have
been buying hoes and Pizza pans, preparing for the crisis.. The
difference between me and others, is I have a clue of how bad its
going to get... Dr. Roberts is starting to figure that one out too,
and assumes total collapse.. I think it will be near total collapse,
but with constant manipulations by the status quo to keep their
oppulent life styles while the rest of us eat the cake of reality...

And as far as I can see, there is no variance from Biblical
predictions, so I shall continue my endevours at preparing for the
worst, by living humble and pushing towards a lifestyle based on my
tree food plantings and gardening etc...

I dont mind walking down to the spring for water, or carrying my
dishes down there to do.. i dont even mind living alone, sure is
peaceful without having to please some woman who thinks her vanity
needs everything all the other bitches have, and as much more as she
can get....

I met a woman on the bus a few weeks back, that I liked, very humble..
And I'm communicating with a couple more, but I dont see myself as
being ready for a bunch of problems yet.. I want to improve my
housing, get the new garden built etc. And I've discovered that if I
keep my protien intake fairly low, the hormones go away, and I dont
often think of women.. Which is very pleasant & much appreciated by
me....

I suspect as the currency devalues, women will rediscover men to be
handy devices to get food into the pots & pans, and he wont have to
be too good looking, rich, or witty to be a proper victim for their
machinations... to me, the perfect time to find a female partner, is
when vanity has turned into horror, and afterwards, when theyve
realized some real necesity and humility....

so, I think I'll get my wish in due time, for some decent company,
who is more into being with me for what & who I am, and less into
using me to try to fulfill her limitless vanities... I should think
that a decent roof, and some food for the harvesting, and the works of
my hands should be enough to please any sane woman..

I've had my fill, and then some, of the insanity in the orgy of lusts
mentality of the lowlands... I find happiness is more rooted in
simplicity than in the technocult... And I do look foreward to the
arrival of our progenitors.. it would be so much nicer to live in a
sane world.. this one, a different one, doesnt matter to me, just
someplace where the camping & gardening are good, and even the status
quo is humble, friendly, and helpful...

the more I learn & realize, the more screwed up modern civilisation
looks to me..

but until then, I have my projects & routines to fill my days... in
peace and tranquility.. And I pity the poor creatures who are lost in
the mazes of endless desires... Its not a pleasant reality...

SMUDO

Simplify
Minimize
Upgrade
downsize
Organize

these have been my watch words for many years.. And have worked well...

so.. Its a pretty morning here.. I'll soon have a warm bath to take..
There are some bananas going ripe, and I have some leftovers to finish
off...
I think I'll break out the guitar, and practice some, hoping to some
day be decent enough to feel like I have achieved another life time
personal goal....

today, I'll enjoy the sunshine....

--
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