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Homesteading and Preps For The Week: May 5, 2018

May 5, 2018 M.D. Creekmore

Well folks, here we are again. It’s been a beautiful week here in Tennessee with plenty of sun, however, according to the local weather forecast rain is on the way. I love the rain but not the grass mowing that comes after that last drop falls to the ground and the sun pops back out from behind the clouds. Growth rate looks like three or more inches in only a couple of hours after a rain.

As you all know I recently had trouble with my tiller but thankfully got it fixed and this week I managed to finally get my garden area tilled up and ready to plant. Next year I’m going to go with raised beds instead of row planting though because it’s less work once set up and in my experience more productive.

Another thing that I’ve been working on and plan to release next Saturday is my new product “The Bulletproof Survivor – Homesteading and Prepping for Troubled Times and Beyond”

The Bullet Proof Survivor is a complete prepping, homesteading, and survival library all on one awesome CD. It is an anthology of the best hand-picked articles from my old blog site TheSurvivalistBlog.net.

Plus the CD has hundreds of bonus articles, reports, and books to complete your prepping/survival/homesteading library – mostly in PDF for easy printing for personal use. Again, look for it to be officially released next Saturday!

However, if you want to preorder your copy at the special discount price of only $37 (normal price will be $47 starting Saturday) then you can do that now via the button below.

Well, folks, that’s it for me this week. What about you… what were your homesteading and preps for the week?

Training your Situational Awareness or dying: which do you prefer?

May 4, 2018 Jesse Mathewson

Life is a series of choices made by individuals with the information they have gathered while living through choices made by others around them. We can thank pilots for the term “situational awareness”. However, for the past few decades many professional crime fighters, military, and civilian individuals have used this term and trained to understand and be more aware of their situations. This is an article about a term many of us think we know well, it’s my intent to help understand it completely and maybe learn a few things as well. (I know I always learn from the comments and feedback received!)

Situational Awareness is understanding, observing and being involved in your immediate environment. The technical definition is, “the perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, comprehension of their meaning and the projection of their status in the near future.”¹ As individuals who desire to be prepared for what life may throw at us, having a well tuned situational awareness is easily the most important thing we can do.

How do we train ourselves to be prepared all while maintaining a safe immediate environment?

For myself there is one approach that I learned very early in life, I call it “UN-focusing”. Using the horizon, I look out and consciously make myself see the objects on the horizon without focusing on any of them in particular. When you do this you will find that the smallest movement or change in your eye line will cause you to instantly shift and focus on it. It is this approach that has honestly done the most over the years to help me stay safe and by default my family and those around me. Situational awareness is understanding your environment and how you interact within it. The key is being aware of your surroundings!

Several years ago I learned Colonel Cooper’s color code approach to maintaining awareness. White = relaxed and unaware. Yellow = relaxed but aware of what is around you, Orange = something of interest has entered your awareness, Red = what you are aware of is a threat. After several courses and more time spent I learned Massad Ayoob’s fifth color code, Black = acting with intent to stop a threat. It only took a little while before I realized that simple is better than complicated when it comes to self-defense. This is why I came up with the abbreviated approach that has worked well for me.

Using just three colors you can navigate life and stay safe. Understanding that everything is a threat until proven otherwise; I simply tossed White and maintain a life in Yellow = relaxed but aware of what is around you including items of interest. This way I can easily move directly to Red = aware of and focusing on the threat or threats and fluidly into Black = acting with the intent to stop a threat as needed based on knowledge of human action and surroundings where I may find myself at the time. Again there are really only three colors in the life of someone who understands a threat is NOT always someone that needs to be shot, a threat can be an out of control vehicle, a falling building, rock or even an animal of any type at any time.

By utilizing additional props that are all around us in our daily life we can easily expand our 180 degrees visual awareness to take in the 270 auditory awareness and even extend it into a full 360 degree awareness bubble, NOT circle, as what is above and below us is just as potentially dangerous as what is in front, on our sides or behind us. To do this learn to use mirrors that exist in anything reflective. When I taught surveillance and counter surveillance we used buildings, other people and the age-old primate ideal, deception. When walking down a street with or around other people do you notice their expressions or shifts in concentration? Humans have barely imperceptible shifts that occur in our faces, posture and more when we become aware of anything else in our vicinity.

We often perk up, our lips may purse or our eyebrows may furrow just for a split second, these are tells that regardless how good someone is, WILL occur in many situations. Specifically when we view what is deemed to be a potential threat through social programming or simple genetic coding. These are the tells you can be aware of allowing you to easily extend your bubble past your solitary 360 bubble and into the realm of the supernatural.

Consider for a minute the various individuals who over the many years we have come to see as somehow more advanced or superhuman in their various abilities. Good, experienced marine snipers or seasoned special forces and or seasoned field agents with any number of agencies can sometimes seem to be capable of things far beyond the normal range. Let me reassure you, their capabilities may have some natural ability attached OR they are simply well trained.

Be aware of your surroundings and learn to use it to your benefit. Remember, that glass-walled building is a mirror, the concrete planter is cover and sometimes those people who will surely freeze also offer momentary cover for you to react. After all, ACTION always beats REACTION. I personally have absolutely no compunction whatsoever with placing someone I do not know in between myself/family and a potential threat.

After all, the sooner I can freely engage said threat the faster the threat is ended. This leads to the next step regarding situational awareness, understanding that everything you do is based on your internal measure of the individual value of yours and others lives. I am not asking you to physically place a value on others, rather, I need those interested in truly understanding what is necessary to resolving a threat to understand that subconsciously we ALL already do value others based on any number of reasons. This is pure human nature, nothing more, it is not a negative it simply is. Understand this and your life will become both more difficult and yet also much simpler.

Next, in the lineup of things to work on that relate directly to situational awareness from a daily living standpoint is the very simple idea that a moving target is always harder to hit. Daily you should be in Yellow = relaxed but aware of your surroundings by simply un-focusing this is possible to maintain at all times regardless external or internal factors. Next, it is a simple matter of daily repetition in movement and the utilization of scientific method to ensure further safety utilizing situational awareness.

I am talking about being able to move instantly off the X. I am talking about the X, Y, that is your 360-degree environment. What you should always be noticing are potential areas where a threat may occur. All predators enjoy a hunt, however, they enjoy an easy capture/kill far more than the hunt itself. Know where ambushes may be more likely, or where people may crowd into a single place making them easy pickings.

Recent events have shown me yet again that understanding situational awareness is necessary regardless your belief in self-determination eg., self-defense. Consider that recent school shootings have NOT been accomplished by well trained or even intelligent individuals. Rather, they have been accomplished by predators who acted on their base instincts. They pursued easy to gain prey and did so in locations where the prey could be even more easily dispatched.

When the prey no longer presented an easy target in almost all instances the predators left or terminated themselves. I am not discounting the heinous nature of the events, I am simply stating that if these children had parents that cared more about them than their careers, political goals or otherwise they may see the simple reality that is prevention by education; utilizing situational awareness.

Lastly, it is absolutely necessary to address our actions when we are tired or believe we are in a safe place and why even in our castles., eg. homes, we CANNOT live outside of Yellow. The greatest number of traffic accidents happen within 2 miles of one’s own home. Violent crime statistics show us that the vast majority occur in commercial areas (restaurants, bars etc.,) where we are relaxed from drinking or are spending time with loved ones and our attention is not on our surroundings.² There is NEVER a reason to drop our Yellow level in any circumstances.

I firmly believe in always being in Yellow and have even been able to adapt sleep habits to match, with some minor adjustments and the obvious need for sleep there are things that can be done that allow for a good life all while being safe. This is why I firmly believe in the idea that is situational awareness and the approaches I have lined out above. This is what I taught and now you know the why in most cases.

As always if you have questions or comments please let me know! I am positive I have missed some things and likely could use more refinement as time does, in fact, reveal errors quite well. So let me know and we can help each other!

Free the mind and the body will follow…

¹ ENDSLEY R Mica (1987). The application of human factors to the development of expert systems for advanced cockpits. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 31st Annual Meeting, pp. 1388-1392. Human Factor Society (Santa Monica, CA), 1987

² National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). (2018). Retrieved April 03, 2018, from https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=44

Start Saving Today and Live Your Homesteading Dream Tomorrow

May 2, 2018 M.D. Creekmore

Your dream of owning your own homestead is closer than it appears.

It might seem like you’ll never be able to purchase a homestead. But if you have a plan in place to save, you can be harvesting fresh eggs and vegetables on your own property before you know it.

It will just take a little work. Are you ready to begin saving?

Start with a budget

The first thing that you need to do is start with a written budget and put your money to work for you. When you are living without a budget, you often have little idea of where your money went at the end of the week or month. Even if you are making good money.

Attach a name to each dollar you spend. You’ll probably feel like you received a raise.

There are a couple different ways to get started, depending on how basic you want to go. That would just be a pen and paper. A computer program like Microsoft Excel is well suited for a budget. Or you can go for an online budgeting program like Every Dollar.

What I love about Every Dollar is that you don’t just list what you are planning to spend, but you include actual expenses for that month. You can do this with other budgeting formats. This just makes it easier.

So the first step to getting your finances in order is to know where the money is going.

Prioritize your expenses

Having a budget will allow you to do two important things: set realistic goals and prioritize spending.

Is there anything frivolous you can cut out of your budget? Maybe for just 12-18 months? With the goal of purchasing a homestead I would say it’s worth a shot.

Once you’ve made a budget, figured out where your money is going and cut unnecessary expenses, you can outline goals on how long it will take to buy your homestead.

One of the first things you will need to do is price out comparable properties. It’s not quite as easy as pricing comps in a subdivision, but you can get a general idea on land value and quality of the house.

This is also a good time to figure out if you need to move to make this happen. Either way, you need to know what you plan on spending.

And trust me, it’s a lot easier to save and sacrifice when you have a reason and you know how long it will be.

Pay off debt

At the same time, work on paying off any consumer debt you might have. Your homestead will feel like a cursing if you buy it when you are still paying off debt.

Because something will come up. And when it does, you don’t want to wonder how you are going to pay to repair it.

Once your debt is paid off, take that money and put it toward your homestead.

Get a second job

If you’ve cut your budget as much as you can, but you still have a ways to go, you need to work on the income side of the equation.

Take a second or third job to make the homestead happen. Remember, this is just temporary until you hit your goals.

Here’s a tip: if you work in retail or fast food, you are going to be working a long time making very little money.

Rather, work for yourself. Cut grass, shovel/ plow snow (if you’re in that part of the country), freelance, drive for Uber or Lyft. Even though it’s small, these entrepreneurial style jobs will go much further to hitting your goals. And you can work on your time.

Sell stuff

Most people have extra stuff laying around their house that they never use. They probably don’t even realize it.

Now would be a good time to go through closets, attics or basements and see what you can do without. You can always have a garage sale, but eBay, Facebook, and Craigslist make selling items so easy that you almost don’t need to if you don’t want to take up half a Saturday.

Beyond small items you hadn’t seen in 10 years, maybe you have a larger item you are willing to part with. A motorcycle? A boat? I’m not saying you need to get rid of anything you love, but it’s something to think about.

Is it worth it? That’s for you to decide.

Understand the sacrifice

This ties in with budgeting, cutting out unnecessary expenses and working extra jobs, but understand there will be sacrifice.

You might not be able to eat out as much. Maybe you cancel a vacation and choose to stay around town this year.

That’s okay. It will be worth it when you remember what you are sacrificing for.

A homestead is not that far off. When you make these decisions to begin saving today, are intentional with your money and plan for the future, your dreams of living off the land will soon become a reality.

Now is a great time to get started.

K-Tor hand crank generator (pocket socket 1 amp usb) : Weekly Product Review

April 30, 2018 Jesse Mathewson

Legally I have to tell you if I have received the product or any compensation for writing this review. I bartered for a K-Tor hand crank charger in 2014 from an individual who is not affiliated with this website, Amazon or K-Tor (you all know I enjoy Amazon for shopping ease). I recently contacted K-Tor to get some information to write a review; they saw fit to send me a K-Tor Pocket Socket 1 amp charger. I can honestly say that this is one of the few products for which I have no real reservations in recommending fully to all of you!

Modern electronic devices have come quite a long way in a few decades, from filling a room to literally size of a wristwatch. This means that while we oldsters still have our books and writing implements, the reality is that not only is written information more easily available via the internet it is being replaced by it.

I have hundreds of books, actual written books. I also have over 200,000 digital books that easily fit in the palm of my hand. The K-Tor Pocket Socket 1 amp hand-cranked charger allows me to ensure charging even when my solar panels cannot!

While it does need a minimum of 3 minutes of solid rotation to push a charge, it is something that works regardless the weather or time of day! It is made very well, and charges electronic readers, cell phones, radios, GPS units, flashlights and much more; virtually anything that can be charged with a USB outlet is able to be charged with this device!

While many of my flashlights are still battery powered I have recently been investing in USB rechargeable ones as the technology really is getting much better. I will have a review for some of these shortly as well.

Dimensionally it is well within needed requirements for my personal uses. It is approximately the same size and half the weight of a half liter bottle of water, which makes it an easy fit and addition to my typical vehicle kits and of course when camping. Additional benefits can be seen in the construction which is robust, to say the least, it is easy to grip comes with a strap to attach the unit to your hand and more importantly is designed to be cranked!

The downside to this charger is the noise, while not unpleasant it is not quiet. Additionally, the rotation of the crank can quickly become tiring as it is essential to rotate the crank two full turns every second for at least 3 minutes to see overall results. This being said, the design and function of the unit allows for ease of use and can spell the difference between no light, phone or GPS and having one when needed!

I added this to my power kit, with the understanding that solar panels have at best a 15-year lifespan while this could easily outlast you! Better yet they make a serious unit that is pedal power! This is the one I want to have in my house for long-term needs. The Power Box pedal power cost quite a bit more at $195 versus the $69-75 for the smaller power setup. Given the benefits from using your legs and keeping your cardio up, added into the ability to generate power as needed for Ham Radio, GPS units and other items this is a small price to pay.

I am aware that there are multiple approaches to generating power this way, however, all of those approaches require careful building to avoid surges and promote best power results. This is a setup that has already taken all of that into account. These are built specifically to provide energy without surges and at rates that are equal to wall outlets and standard plugins.

If you have the chance pick one or more up! The pocket socket may not be the easiest unit to use when compared to solar panels and the like, it does, however, provide a mechanical approach to generating energy.

As with all reviews, ask any questions you want and be sure to let me know what your results are if you have one!

Check the current price on Amazon.com

Free the mind and the body will follow…

Homesteading Progress and Preps For The Week

April 27, 2018 M.D. Creekmore

Hello everyone, I hope that you’ve all had a good week and managed to get some stuff done this week… we’ll get into homesteading progress and prep in a moment but first I want to ask you all a couple of questions…

First, what type of content and subjects would you like to see more of here at MDCreekmore.com? As you’ve probably noticed I’ve been writing and posting a lot of different ways to make extra money and or become totally self-employed.

I’ve been doing this because “a lack of money” has always been the number one response to the question “what is your biggest obstacle to prepping or setting up a homestead” so I’ve been doing everything that I can to give you ideas and ways to solve the problem that you told me that you had.

However, from the lack of responses, it doesn’t seem like readers are very interested in the subject of making extra money and being self-employed… Have I not been covering the topic correctly, or in a way that’s actually helpful to you? If not, then what can I do differently to help you more?

Okay, now on to the next question for you…

I’ve been playing with the header subtext and would like to know what you think… take a look at the samples below and let me know which one that you think fits the blog best and that I should use via the poll below…

homesteading and self-reliance — Header 6

[poll id=”2″]

Okay, not that we have that out-of-the-way let’s get on with Homesteading Progress and Preps For The Week…

This week I…

I filled with survival gear and buried this waterproof cache tube in a secret location. If you want to buy one of these then you can get one here.

I got my garden tiller fixed and now I’m ready to till my garden area for planting…

Okay, that’s it for me this week… What about you?

Homestead Income: The Wonderful, Chaotic, World of Freelance Writing

April 27, 2018 M.D. Creekmore

by Sawyer S

Whether you’re looking for a full-time career or a side hustle to make ends meet, freelance writing can offer anyone with a unique voice and strong work ethic a flexible, diverse, and engaging way to make money. Being a freelance writer means making your own hours, choosing your own projects, and working from anywhere. It can provide creatives with more financial freedom and can help aspiring writers cultivate a portfolio and platform for their future careers. That being said, being a freelance writer isn’t easy, and getting started often proves more difficult than people realize.

I have been working as a freelance writer for over a year, and while I now find the job to be fulfilling and financially stable, I didn’t always. It took a lot of time and resilience for me to find my footing along the rocky road of freelancing, but now that I have, I can share some of the important lessons I learned and tricks I picked up along the way.

The first thing you have to consider before you even begin working as a freelancer is whether or not you’re going to use a platform. There exists a multitude of online forums which help connect freelancers with possible clients. There are free platforms, like Upwork and Blogmutt, and there are ones with membership fees like Contena.

These websites can be incredibly helpful for freelancers who are just starting out, and my not have any connections or experience. That being said, some of these platforms take a substantial cut of your earnings, and some make it near impossible to get jobs without paying for a premium account. Upwork, for instances, takes a hefty 20% of all your earnings, and BlogMutt’s free account option is really limited.

If none of those platforms sound appealing to you, maybe you need to carve your own path. While creating your own website can also be costly, and very time consuming, at least you have complete control and will get to keep 100% of the money you make. A few tips for starting your own website – make sure you know how to use social media (or hire someone who does), this will be your most effective outlet for reaching potential clients.

Also, ask around. Chances are you have friends who own business, or who are in need of some writing assistance. Let everyone know that you’ve become a freelance writer so that they think of you next time they need a new press-release, grant proposal, or are maybe just looking to spice up their LinkedIn bios.

Once you’ve decided how you’re going to approach freelancing, you have to learn how to promote yourself as a freelancer. Whether you chose to join a freelance platform, or want to create your own website, you’re profile/bio needs to be eye-catching and engaging. This is how potential employers are going to get to know you, so let them! Don’t suppress your personality for the sake of sounding professional.

Trust me, these employers have read thousands of professional sounding bios, and yours will not stand out. When you’re competing against the entire internet’s worth of freelancers, you have to take every chance you get to separate yourself from the herd. Don’t be afraid to start out your bio with a funny tagline, or your favorite quote – draw your reader in, and then outline your skills and experience.

Promoting yourself doesn’t end with your bio, however. You also need to know how to promote yourself when you’re applying for jobs – especially in the beginning. If you’re just starting out, chances are, you don’t have much of a portfolio to pull from when applying, which can be frustrating when every job you look at asks you to “send links to previously published work”. You’re going to run into that request a lot, but don’t let it discourage you. There are ways to get around it.

When applying for jobs for which you have no previous experience, you should start out by humbly admitting it. I have found that not only do employers respond well to honesty, but also lying and/or stretching the truth when it comes to getting freelance jobs can quickly land you in hot water. On most freelance platforms, there is a rating system, which is used by both freelancer and employer to evaluate each other after a job is complete. When you’re just starting out, one bad rating or comment can plague your entire profile, and make it very difficult to get any future jobs.

After you’ve admitted that you may be a bit underqualified for the job, you should always offer to send either inapplicable samples of your writing, that way they can at least gauge your raw talent, or, if you’re comfortable doing work for free, you can offer to send them a spec piece. A spec piece is something you write specifically for the project you’re applying to, but without any expectation of payment or compensation.

Unfortunately, not every employer is going to give you the benefit of the doubt. A lot of them will see that you don’t have any experience and immediately delete your application. It took me over a month to get hired for my first job, but once I did everything changed. With one good review and some well-needed experience on my resume, suddenly almost all my applications were being considered, and I was even sent unsolicited job offers!

After you’ve successfully completed a few writing assignments, and have padded your resume a bit, you can start being more discerning when it comes to applying and accepting jobs. The freelance writing world is notorious for being financially insecure, and as you will probably notice once you start looking for jobs, most clients pay astonishingly little. That’s why it’s imperative that you understand what kind of writer you are.

If you’re a quick creative writer who can pump out prose for hours on end then it might be worth it to you to get paid $300 for 30,000 words. But, if you’re a slower, more methodical writer, you should consider applying to long-form article jobs, possibly in the academic field. If you know how you write, and more importantly, know your worth, it will make sifting through the thousands of daily job proposals much easier.

Working as a freelance writer will be difficult, unstable, and frustrating at times, but you can rest assured, it will never be boring. There are countless job opportunities available for those willing to put in the effort, so stay committed and keep applying. Remember, even the most qualified writers once started out experience-less, portfolio-less, and begging for a chance. But they made it, and so can you.

Homesteading and Preps For The Week: May 5, 2018

Training your Situational Awareness or dying: which do you prefer?