Author Archives: Andrew

About Andrew

Self Sufficiency, Personal Liberty, Independence, Gardening, Firearms, Fitness, Health, Hunting, Fishing, Political Freedom, and Permaculture in CANADA

Plants to clean the air in your house

The following is an interesting and short (4 min) video about cleaning the air in your home and producing your own oxygen.  The health and mood improvements must be substantial.

Working in an industrial shop, I am always worried about air quality and it’s longterm effects on my health.  Thankfully the air pollution is very low where I live and I can go hiking to give the lungs a real cleaning.

I suppose producing your own oxygen is another aspect of self-sufficiency….

Enjoy:

Are you using these plants to clean the air in your house?  How has it affected you?

My Start with Permaculture

How I am getting started with Permaculture

The most major part of self-sufficiency is being able to grow as much of your own food as possible.  I learned this at an early age growing up on a small farm.  At the end of the summer and early fall, the only trips to the grocery store were for items that we didn’t grow.  With canning, freezing, and drying we were eating this produce for most of the next six months.

But that was just very small scale gardening, and the rest of our livelihood came from conventional mono-crop agriculture.  I always wondered why we had to plant everything in rows and spend so much time weeding.  Thankfully we didn’t spray chemicals on our garden.  Perfect it was not, but I learned a lot about planting, weeding, seasons, watering, staggering plantings, collecting sends, harvesting, protecting from early/late frosts, bugs, blights, and composting.

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Canadian Firearms Safety Course

My thoughts on the Canadian (Restricted) Firearms Safety Course

I recently completed the education course required to apply for a Possession and  Acquisition Licence (PAL) from the RCMP.  Non-restricted and restricted firearms are handled separately here in Canada, and you must complete a second course to apply for your Restricted or RPAL.  If offered to you, it is well worth doing your CRFSC – restricted firearms safety course – at the same time as your CFSC.

The course that I attended took place over three evenings after work.  Each session was four hours long.  This method I highly recommend, since four hours is not too long or too much material for one sitting.  I took my course through Silvercore Advanced Training Systems and I highly recommend checking them out if you are in Vancouver, the lower mainland BC, or Vancouver Island.

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Quote: Rise of Minarchism and Anarchism

Jack Spirko: “Minarchism and Anarchism have arisen from the fundamental understanding that what states do is theft”

“Minarchism and Anarchism has arisen from the fundamental understanding that what states do is theft. It is no less theft for your government to take 30% of your income, than for me to come into your home and take 30% of your shit.  It’s actually a greater theft.  You have recourse if I take your stuff.  You can shoot me.  You can fight back.  You can bury me in a hole in the ground.  When the government demands their 30% they will use overwhelming force and you have no recourse.  And they can spend your money on things that you find to be morally reprehensible.  And there is nothing you can do if you stay in their system.  And they make it very difficult for you to disassociate with their system.  In fact I would say all nigh impossible for you to fully disassociate with their system.  But there are ways you can begin the process. And what I’ve learned about most, not all – cause some of you are flaming assholes – but most anarchists understand these things and understand that you can’t just switch a switch and make this happen.  That there is a move toward this.  And many even understand we may never actually get there.  But if we don’t set the goal at absolutely no state, all we will ever get is more state.  And then a lot of anarchists would be happy if we could get into a true monarchist system, as long as we don’t lose site of the eventual goal.  And that actually makes anarchism a lot easier of a system to adapt.  … You can’t steal other peoples’ shit, and you can’t tell other people how to think”

— Jack Spirko, The Survival Podcast Episode 1316

Set New Year Goals

Now is the time to set new year goals for yourself

Every new year, people set multiple resolutions, vow to follow them 100%, work really hard at it for a few days, then inevitably have a small slip.  Instead of just reacting to the slip-up and correcting any factors that may cause it again, they fall totally off the wagon and vowing to start the whole process over again in 1 week, 1 month, or maybe even next year.

This is not the way to improve yourself.

Set goals, not resolutions.  It is 2014 – so for simplicity, set 14 goals for yourself.  Try to not focus on more than one at a time.  Sure, if you are wanting to improve your diet, every nutritious item you add is important.  But only focus on that goal when you have a good chance of really attacking it and changing it from a goal into an acquired life habit.

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Federal Government Bans Incandescent Bulbs

The Canadian Federal Government Bans Incandescent Bulbs

Starting 01 January 2014, there is a ban on standard incandescent light bulbs with an output of 75W and 100W.  I had totally forgotten about this, since the discussions were seven years ago.  But now I see that this is still set to take effect in the new year.  40W and 60W are set to be off the shelves by the end of 2014.

The goal is to displace the use of incandescent bulbs with the more expensive compact fluorescent CFL bulbs.  This is still the direction that they are going, even though there is still much controversy on their efficiency claims, bulb life expectancy, and disposal concerns (these bulbs contain Mercury).

Personally, I feel there is a place in the house for both CFL bulbs and traditional incandescent.  I’m not an opponent of energy efficiency or protecting the environment.  But sometimes we are blind by trying to optimize for only one variable.

My go-to source for information on this has been a recent Globe & Mail Article:  Federal Incandescent Light Bulb Ban Set to Start in New Year

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Schools Teach Conformity Quote

Jack Spirko: “Schools Teach Conformity”

“Schools teach conformity.  Schools are not designed to educate.  Education is about teaching people to learn.  Schools are designed to breed conformity.

Everybody sit in a desk in a nice straight line.  Put your head down and take a nap when you’re told.  Be on time or you’re in trouble.  Learn at the same speed as the person next to you – even if the person next to you is a friggin’ moron!  It’s fair, it’s fair that Johnny is a dumb ass and Timmy is smart and that Timmy has to slow down his learning unless Timmy goes into a special place for the accelerated gifted child.  Where he will work harder and get the same.”

– Jack Spirko / The Survival Podcast episode 1269

High River Gun Grab

Updates to my thoughts on the High River gun grab

I had previously published some softer thoughts on the flooding in Alberta and the High River gun grab.  I still don’t want to make this into the usual cop-bashing “right to bear arms” rant, but I am more troubled by this than I was before.

 

What has changed in me?

Well first I want to say that we are allowed to change our minds, or even just allow our opinions to evolve somewhat.  In fact, I encourage it.  Not being open-minded and just sticking to your opinion because you’re afraid to keep looking at facts is just plain bad.  This is what leads to bigotry.

I definitely feel more negative about this RCMP gun grab than I did in the past.  Mostly because I have taken the CFSC & CRFSC – Canadian (Restricted) Firearms Safety Course.  The rules surrounding firearm storage are exact and easily understood.

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Richard Marcinko Quote on Conventional Wisdom

Dick Marcinko is a former Navy SEAL and an author of many books.  The most famous of them being the Rogue Warrior series of international military thriller type action novels.  But he also wrote the “Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior” and “A Commando’s Principle of Winning”

It is from one of these two books that (I believe) this quote came from.  It is very worth revisiting at times.

“Conventional wisdom is no wisdom at all. Conventional wisdom is taking somebody else’s word for the way things are… It’s the followers of this world who rely on assumption. Not the leaders.”

– Richard Marcinko

Christmas Gift Ideas

It’s that time of the year again where we are constantly looking for good Christmas gift ideas.

But what should you the the loved ones in your life?  Things that they will enjoy and will help promote self-sufficiency.  They may not be a homesteader, prepare, modern survivalist, etc – and they don’t have to be to make the most of the right gifts.

However, a gift is pretty useless if it doesn’t appeal to the person you give it to.  Choose wisely!

Some of my Christmas gift ideas:

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