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  • From: Leslie <cayadopi AT yahoo.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Visit to an Earthship !
  • Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:53:36 -0800 (PST)

A la freecycle..........
 
The trip for the windows is a success, although they will have to be
disassembled into smaller units so that I can use them without needing a
crane to lift them.  The 6x8 windows actually are 5 smaller panes, and will
work great.  Going to try to get some labor tomorrow to help me bring them
home.
 
He's also giving me canning jars, chickens, rabbit cages etc.
 
He's from S. Carolina (Hurricane Hugo area), and his wife has live here most
of her life.
 
This 67 y.o. built his home - an Earthship.  Much of his place looks like a
total junk yard - but he has had 19 cancer operations over the past 10 years,
and admits he focuses his efforts on growing his food.  He is not quite a
homesteader in the desert, but as close to it as he can be.  What luck to
find a like minded person in my general area.
 
Earthship:  Some walls are rubber tires, some are aluminum
cans/styro/aluminum cans.  The walls a R-40 rated....It was windy and chilly
yesterday when I visited; I was instantly too hot the minute I walked in the
house - 70 degrees without heat.  They do have a wood burning stove they use
briefly in the a/m to take the nip out of the air.  It stay cool in the
summer.
 
He used 1/3 caliche and 2/3 sand plus weeds to make the plaster for the
walls.  And one wall was made of homemade adobe brick.  Composting toilet. 
Part of the building is sunk down into the ground. The home certainly wasn't
"stylist" but most definitely functional.  Big kitchen and big pantries for
canned food, the living area a couch a tv and 2 huge desks for their computer
(his and hers)....  She enters a lot of "on-line contests" and won their
awesome stove, couch and other items in the house.
 
He does all the gardening and canning (as she allegedly has some kind of
health issues/alergies that prevents her from helping).  He grows potatoes
successfully (says not to stack the tires though - too hot here)  Grows just
about everything, and says that there is a local farmer market that we can
selll excess too.  Says last year he accidently grew too much squash and
wound up selling his excess for $2,000, which paid the taxes and his electric
bill, plus more.
 
He isn't currently on solar.  She won a very large $$$$ prize item a few
weeks ago - the item will be put up for auction and he'll be able to purchase
his solar system, and then some... Something he couldn't afford to get before.
 
The large windows are placed in a way to allow maximum sunshine in that hits
a concrete floor to heat provide radiant in the winter - and it was too hot
as I've been used to much cooler temps, and when the sun shifts in the
summer, no sun comes in.
 
He isn't finished with the place, and has been building it one piece of scrap
at a time over the years, but I was definitely intrigued by the place.  It
made a lot more sense than other homes built even it if was quite "unusual"
in layout.
 
They told me about another way to refrigerate without electricity - keeping
items in wet sand (similar to the keeping things in an ice chest, just using
water cooled by the night desert air).  Good for about 3 days.
 
He proudly showed off all his canned goods,,,,, chicken, meat, dove,
potatoes, you name it, and gave me one jar of his homegrown strawberry jam.
 
I saw very little food on the shelves that was store bought.
 
I saw a grain mill in the kitchen - and they grind their own wheat.  He told
me the local feed store sells 50# sacks of wheat.
 
He stores wheat, corn, rice, etc. in 5 gallon pails.............. 2" of grain
on the bottom of the pail, then dry ice, then fills the rest with grain,,,,
sets the lid on top, waits 2 hours, then seals them up tight.  Said something
about the dry ice killing off any pest eggs that may be present.....  That
way the food keeps for long periods of time.  I dragged my dad with me, and
my dad asked him about getting larger containers (keg size) for food storage. 
He said no, because once the container is open, it takes too long to eat it
and food spoilage/bugs can become an issue.  He told me where to get the 5
gallons pails locally; they sell them "cheap" as the crop pickers use them. 
(He told me the price, which is defintely cheaper than I used to pay in the
city when I owned a business which required me buying those pails by the
truckload to produce some things we sold.)
 
BEV - Can you explain the chemical process of this dry ice thing to me? 
Clueless here...
 
 
 
Other things I observed,  He had tons of tires along the fence lines filled
with soil.  I asked if for potatoes,,,, no it was to divert flood water
around his property away from his gardens.
 
His many chickens were not cooped....  which surprised me because of coyote
here.  He said they get away easily and roost in the (few) trees on the
property.  She told me they do find lots of bugs and other things to eat, and
after the gardens are done producing they let them in the garden area to eat
up whatever they want. 
 
He did attempt to build a root cellar.  I noticed a mound of dirt which I
though was natural at part of the yard.  He dug the area down where the
house, and this mound was part of the slope back up and out of that area. 
Turns out he used more dirt filled tires there and built himself a root
cellar into the sand to store potatoes in.  But he says it didn't work, that
for some reason the potatoes loved it in there and sprouted like crazy.  Will
try to find out more about that.
 
(He gave me this tip to start potatoes - put whole potato in a paper sack
with either one whole apple or one whole banana.  Close up the sack.  Wait
until the eyes sprout, then cut into pieces, let those pieces dry out - then
plant.)  Does that sound about right?
 
He also told me about one of the desert cactuses, which there are hundreds
around me - that there is something sweet inside the flower that is good to
eat, and the seeds pop like popcorn.  I will take him a flower in the summer
and have him "show me".
 
To my dismay, I found out that one of the mountains just north of me is a
volcano.... as are 3 just south of here.  :-( dang..... I so much want to be
in a zero natural disaster area............. LOL.
 
They also felt the same earthquake I felt in the spring of last year.
 
He told me that 2 years ago all the mice have disappeared from the area, and
says that the little animals leave before a volcano.... LOL.
 
Anyway, it was sure fun to meet these two - although mostly it is the
husband's projects, as the wife doesn't do much,,,, she doesn't even cook or
wash dishes (claims allergies....)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



>From cayadopi AT yahoo.com Sun Jan 11 12:31:58 2009
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Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 09:31:57 -0800 (PST)
From: Leslie <cayadopi AT yahoo.com>
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Subject: [Homestead] depression - hyperinflation
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Skip this email if not interested in the macro economic stuff....
 
Bob, we've been having a bit of conversation about depression -
hyperinflation....
 
Yesterday, I got a phone call from a city friend asking me to look something
up in one of my books.  A book I read about 4-5 years ago (Conquer the Crash/
Prechter).
 
I decided to speed read it again - some highlights:
 
Prechter thought the depression was going to occurr starting in 2003 - but
also thought that there could be one more blow off top in the making to
complete a Wave 5 SuperCycle.
Other than he really leaned towards it starting in the 2003 timeframe - 95% +
of everything else in his book is already happening (2008).
 
He accurately identified what steps the Treasury and Fed would take as the
real estate/credit bubbles popped - including the massive money printing and
bail-outs, foreclosures etc.
 
Depression - asset values across the board go down, including metals.
 
There have been 3 depressions in the US, each lasting approximately 3 years
(I'm starting the clock ticking 2009 as a depression era beginning FYI)
 
Manias - all manias wind up with prices lower than where they start. 
 
Stocks - he has them going below the 1929 low (wave 4 of the super cycle). 
Seems hard to believe...
 
Real Estate also in a mania - but he didn't identify where the beginning of
the mania is.
 
Real Estate - lost up to 90% of price in the 1930s depression (confirmed by
my dad/grandfather).
 
Metals - also depressed - but then lead the way out.
 
Commodities 90% losses until recovery.
 
He also talks about US Treasuries and one method the US Gov't will default on
them - by changing the rules out of the blue and saying one day that the
short term notes due, can't be cashed in for 10 years.... i.e. an effective
default.  He also believes the gov't will seize the pension plans in a
similar manner.  (Many others also believe this.)
 
 
He talks about Japan - Japan crashed economicall in the 1990s, BUT because
the rest of the world was still strong, Japan was able to trade with trading
partners and not crash as bad as it could/'should have been.
 
Current crash - he predicted back in 2002 (or ealier) that this deflationary
crash would be different as it would involve multiple countries, and that
there would be no strong trading partner to pull the deflationary countries
out.  (Which contrasts with Schiff's video you linked today - as Schiff
implies that Asia will be the strong trading partner).  (It is true that a
number of countries are going thru a recession/depression now.)
 
Prechter says after the depression phase, that hyperinflation is imminent and
will be part of the next supercycle.
 
Prechter also says that we will really be in a bear market for 100 years....
with a number of market ups/downs, including a hyperinflation phase. with
hyperinflations always ending in a currency collapse and depression.  He also
noted that people will resort to using other things as a "currency" (barter,
silver/gold coin, etc) for the things they need (i.e. cannot produce
themselves), as they always have resorted to in history when government has
destroyed the currency. 
 
He also talks about food and supply shortages, personal safety (i.e. weapons,
being outside of cities, etc)
 
I am much simplifying Prechter's work here, btw..
 
---------------------------------
 
So my take now is..........
 
If history repeats, the depression phase of 3 years is another thing that
collides into the 2012 time frame.
 
1) The defaulting mortages should have pretty much all gone thru the legal
process and the properties repossesd/owned by the banks by then.
 
2) That clears the way for lenders to start lending again with all the
virtually free UST's they are currently acquiring via the Pull Peddler's
bail-out money.  The bail out money represents trillions,,, not only in
bail-outs but in the Fed taking on all the toxic waste onto their books (bad
mortgages, bad car loans etc.)
 
3) Obama's plan calls for X number of job creation over the next 2 years. 
That will be a slowing increasing number of jobs, as it will take a while for
government bids to go out, designers & engineers to be determined, designs to
be made/approved, and eventually contractor bids awarded, and eventually
worker bees hired........... so the way I see it that is when the economy
starts the false "recovery" and the deployment of the hyperinflation dollars
begins.
 
4)  At that point, the masses will be conned into believing that the Obama
plan worked, as we work back towards full employment.... Then as
hyperinflation gets underway, more and more people have to work to keep up
with rising food & goods prices.... and people won't see at first the horrors
of hyperinflation.... that side that Schiff predicts... hyperinflation,
collapse of the dollar, food & supply shortages and on and on etc.
 
 
As far as I'm concerned the hyperinflation phase has never been a matter of
IF, but a matter of WHEN.  So I've been looking for little hidden puzzle
pieces to the when part.  Maybe some of the above are clues towards that.
 
 
(And I didn't even mention supply destruction about oil.....which is another
puzzle piece that can't be excluded.)
 
 



>From lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com Sun Jan 11 12:47:42 2009
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Subject: Re: [Homestead] depression - hyperinflation
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>If history repeats, the depression phase of 3 years is another >thing that
>collides into the 2012 time frame.

All that, Hillary running again, and the Mayan calendar ending, 2012 is
shaping up to be an interesting year.

Lynn Wigglesworth





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