I highly recommend that you listen to podcasts whenever you doing something that allows you to. Turn your daily commute into ‘Drivetime University’, listen while cooking or doing dishes, and definitely turn your workouts into podcast time. With time, you will learn which podcast tends to be best for what activity.
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You can only learn so much from YouTube, movies, video games, and websites. This is especially true when it comes to firearms. When learning to fire guns and rifles, nothing can replace experience and professional instruction. Putting rounds downrange with your own finger on the trigger is the best way to learn – then supplement with books, online courses, and even quality YouTube Channels.
This past weekend I decided to head off to the indoor shooting range in our city. This gave me the opportunity to get familiar with and try out various handguns, shotguns, and even some carbines. Whether you are just getting started with shooting and aren’t sure it’s for you, or maybe you are just trying to decide between a few different weapons for your next purchase – a trip to a gun range is likely the right move for you. Continue reading
I grew up on a farm in the country, spending my early summers in the bush or by the creek: building forts and catching frogs, snakes, or crayfish. Later, when I was a bit older, I spent a lot of time working in the garden, doing chores with the chickens & livestock, throwing hay bales, and working on our machinery and vehicles. This is how I spent my youth up until I was 19 and went away to university.
One of the most patriotic things you can do is reducing your taxes. Yes I mean that – let me explain: This prevents the tax revenue from growing as fast and helps to prevent the various governments from getting as much of a taste of your money as possible. Because once they taste it they will never let it go, and will deploy this money into more wasteful programs. Wasteful spending can’t grow as fast if the tax base doesn’t. See, I like my logic.
Political contributions are a decent way to reduce your taxes. But of course you do have to have a particular political party that you support and it is real money that you are giving.
I have some more research to do on this topic, but it appears that you can contribute a few hundred dollars each year and receive a decent tax credit.
Some links that I have used for research:
This is a page to bookmark as I share my favourite permaculture videos on here.
Mostly for my own use to be able to summarize and save videos that I have liked.
You’re welcome to comment, share, or even send me videos that you have liked.
I recently purchased the book The Backyard Homestead by Carlene Madigan (ISBN-10 1603421386 / ISBN-13 978-1603421386). I found it to be a great introduction on the various fruits, nuts, vegetables, animals, and other items that you can have yourself; even in your urban backyard. This is a great book to keep around for getting ideas for next year’s garden, figuring out how to preserve your harvest, and even giving me some ideas on how to incorporate animals into your food sovereignty plan.
Also, if any friends, family members, or spouses are reluctant to explore producing their own food, this is a great book to leave laying around for them the possibly pickup. Covering most topics that a backyard homesteader may want to research, this book does make things seem quite simple and accessible to most people.
As a Canadian who is interested in personal sovereignty, you may be someone who votes for the Conservative Party by default. I suggest you rethink that because they stand just as much for the expansion of government as the Liberals and socialist NDPs. But perhaps with a bit more of an elitist and corporatist flavour than the other two.
For the fourth time during his tenure, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has prorogued the federal parliament. This time, it was to prevent having to answer questions over senate expense account scandals. This scandal involves inappropriate expense account claims by Mac Harb, Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau, and most recently Pamela Wallin. The short version of the story is that these senators expensed hefty travel charges for activities that were unrelated to the Senate. We’re not talking $5000 here; some of the figures I’ve seen thrown around are of the $100,000 order. Just more examples of government misspending our money. Thankfully, it is a continued topic of debate whether the Senate is still relevant and worth the cost, or if it should be abolished.
Knowledge, experience, and attitude are the most valuable assets you can have when it comes to being self sufficient. However, owning some equipment or stocking up on some supplies can speed up the process and makes things a lot more enjoyable for you.
This list is a live document and I will make additions from time to time.
Here are some good lists of equipment, tools, and other supplies that I have found online:
Intermediate Information on a Basic Tool Kit Part 1 / Tool Kit Part 2
There are many components of personal sovereignty that will help lead you to the freedom and independence that you desire.
The four Pillars are:
Thought Sovereignty – You have to think for yourself. Most everything you read contains a hidden agenda, marketing spin, or an outright misdirection. Being able to research and then analyze the facts, coming up with your own conclusion, is an absolute requirement for individual thinking. As Canadians, we do like to assume that people have the best of intentions when dealing with us. We don’t have to become cynics, but we should consider what people’s agendas are and what’s in it for them.
People without thought sovereignty are called Sheeple – they walk around like sheep thinking and doing exactly what the TV networks, fashion retailers, and government want them to.
Food Sovereignty – Nothing in our lives makes us as dependent on others as our food supply. The typical Canadian these days buys almost 100% of their food at a Supermarket (and unfortunately I have to count myself in there as well). Growing a garden is one of the best steps you can make in your path to individual liberty. From there, the sky is the limit with what you can produce. This allows you to escape the ever decreasing nutritional value of the foods in the grocery store (which seem to have prices going up at the same time). Food sovereignty is tightly relatedly to the other three pillars; the food you eat is affected by the level of thought independence that you have, and it is turn affects your finances and health.
Financial Sovereignty – Debt is financial cancer. It destroys marriages and leads to modern day slavery in the form of being stuck to a job just to pay your debt. When it comes to debt, Just Say No. You also want to maintain control of your finances – don’t put every dollar of your savings into RRSP plans. Sure there are times to make use of this program, especially when employers are matching contributions, but it is the most visible and controlled form of money in Canada. Resist the movement to a cashless society where money can be controlled or shut off. Hold cash in your home or safe deposit box, own silver & gold, buy long term capital goods that will save you money in the long run (i.e. high efficiency refrigerators, solar water heaters, etc.), invest in farms, houses, land, or your own businesses. Essentially, think for yourself and what is important to you financially, not what the talking heads on TV, the puppets at your bank, or the bureaucrats in Ottawa say.
Health Sovereignty – Being Canadians, we are aware of nothing but being reliant on the government for health care. I’m neither a hater or a lover of the Canadian health care system. It’s not wonderful and it’s not terrible – it’s adequate. And by adequate, I mean it is only adequate at testing, detection, and treatment. Prevention of sickness and promotion of healthy living is not a goal of the medical industry in Canada. The pharmaceutical companies don’t promote healthy living and disease prevention, they promote the Standard Canadian Diet (SCD aka SAD – Standard American Diet) and then controlling sickness and disease through the use of drugs. The only reason they want us to live longer is so that we consume their drugs for longer.
These four pillars are very important components of personal sovereignty and should be goals you have. I am nowhere near perfect myself and have to work on all four on a daily basis.
A great discussion on personal sovereignty can be had at Jack Spirko’s The Survival Podcast Episode 985: From Pawn to Personal Sovereignty
I listened to it this morning after writing half of this post and was extremely inspired.
Do you agree or disagree with these recommendations? Are you working towards them yourselves? I would love to hear your comments.
Even though I grew up in the country on a farm, raising and harvesting our own meat and poultry – I am slightly ashamed of saying that I have no experience with hunting. I have never had a problem with hunters, and always wished that I had those skills. But that seems to be the problem with hunting, most people who hunt were raised by other hunters (father, uncle, grandfather). But these days you will find older non-hunters, such as myself, becoming interested in learning about hunting and then going out to the field or bush themselves.
I consider hunting to be an essential skill for anybody seeking personal independence and self reliance. Not only are you harvesting natural resources that you did not have to feed or raise yourself, but this is also likely the healthiest meat that you can find. Naturally bred, antibiotic and hormone free, non-GMO fed, natural spring watered, free-range, organic meat – Almost the way that nature intended for us to eat. No factory-farmed meat can compare to the health benefits of consuming this natural resource.
Below you will find some of my initial thoughts on getting started with hunting, along with some of the information that I have gathered.
Hunting is an important part of the Food Pillar of Personal Sovereignty