Mark Brunnr

I see many people who include capitalism/socialism as part of their "tribe", or some of the statements are those commonly mentioned in a generic sense, in what I'd say is a "lab" environment. But in reality most countries are hybrids, for example the USA is a mix of socialist and capitalist policies, not either-or. We have a variety of programs like social security, Medicare/Medicaid, unemployment insurance; and we have financial policies and even supreme court rulings that provide great financial benefits and power to corporations and the rich.

Unfortunately government regulation is a very blunt tool, "a broadsword doing the work of a scalpel". So rules are made to account for those who will always behave the worst or are the most incompetent. It's like assuming everyone living in intentional community will always act nobly. In theory nice, in practice unlikely. I believe every country and every system will always have issues, because there will always be greed and/or incompetency. And because there are so many people there will always be a power struggle involved, sometimes in a literally life and death level as seen  last week in DC and probably again next week.

Again I believe a government system is simply a tool, and any tool can be used for positive or negative goals based on those using it. Outside of a textbook/lab setting, no form of government will be exclusively a single system. There will always be the pigs and the horses of Animal Farm regardless of the type of farm, always some people who don't want to work but want a free ride whether it's welfare of some variation of the third ethic, or those who want a bigger slice of the pie by taking it from others. I personally agree with some of the principles of the book Radical Simplicity, that on average around the world humans are consuming too much and that the system will eventually fail. I think permaculature can be a tool for reducing the average human's level of consumption, but beyond taking those personal steps it will be a very tough row to hoe convincing (forcing?) others to make the massive changes needed.

I’ve been to some security training which showed just how poorly Gmail handles message content, not to mention how all the emails are scanned for keywords to sell for advertising... I switched to ProtonMail which is properly encrypted email. It doesn’t matter that there’s nothing to hide but it’s the principle of it. If you get to use something for free outside of open source software, you’re the product being sold in most cases.

My biggest lesson learned was not to over-muscle the post driver due to rocky soil. Caught on top of a t-post and levered down on my head and got a concussion, headaches lasted about 6 weeks!

I used the 5 foot tall rolls of reinforcing mesh for concrete and those ends are really sharp, heavy leather gloves are needed at all times. I found rolling the mesh out first then standing it up was tougher than setting posts and then rolling the mesh back and forth around them.

Definitely recommend wire between posts, I used a string which survived the year but sagged.

Nothing to see really, the trees I planted inside still died due to drought so it just some weedy dead grass.

I can confirm that a circular space can be fenced this way without corner posts. I enclosed 1/4 acre and it was still standing after a year.

Blaine, I used to use the Opera browser and that VPN was enabled when I signed up for Netflix. I didn’t realize at the time, that Netflix assumed I was in Canada due to the VPN and so they charge me in Canadian dollars, so I get about 20% off the monthly bill ever since!

Do you have any concerns with processing it on the ground? Whenever my dad brought home a deer, it was hung from a tree branch so he could split the skin down the belly, reach in and cut the esophagus, then pull out all the organs at once from throat to anus. If the day was cold, that also helped with getting the meat to cool down, you could put a stick between the ribs to keep them spread open. Then you could easily skin with both hands free too, and keep the dogs from taking any samples when your back was turned  

Unfortunately counties/states are going more and more online, so for example county assessor info is considered public and searchable by anyone online. These sites are actively searching that info when you do a search on their site.

Browsers give away a lot of info by default. You can use add-ons to hide some info, use a VPN to hide your location, or go deeper with Tor. Phones are even worse, not only do apps ask for access to data they don't need simply to sell it, many out there steal data without asking. For example Tik Tok was recently sued for compiling facial recognition, which is widely used in China for their "social credit score" system. Lots of technology tools are being created in recent years, and they will all quickly be leveraged by bad guys as well as good.

My credit card has all my behavior info based on typical purchases, and when I take a trip to a new place I have to let them know in advance or risk purchases being blocked. And unless I remember every year to submit a request to every card and company to deny access to my purchase data to "affiliates", all that info is sold and resold.

Unless you're willing to pull out some cash to make in-person purchases and avoid online transactions at all costs, use a browser like Tor and a VPN on a secure operating system, pass on the smartphone and purchasing property you will always have some of your info online.

Yeah if you have hardware which still works, and you have a need for a dedicated standalone OS/device, Linux can fit the bill. I had a Raspberry Pi that cost $35, that I ran a build for TV- plugged into the back of the TV it had access to over-the-air stations, online stations, movies, radio, and more. I had speakers plugged in directly, so the TV wasn't needed for radio. My home desktop PC is running Ubuntu Linux, and works really well. I mostly use it for web browsing and games, lots of Windows games can be run on it.

If you install Linux on an existing Windows PC, it will usually allow a side-by-side install, and when the PC boots up you will get both options with Linux as the default:


Down the road if you decide you no longer need Windows, you can delete that partition and free up the disk space. I've found that unless you're after a very specific setup or using a certain hardware/OS combo, very little use of the command line is needed to get things working. Some distributions are easier than others regarding that, Ubuntu has been the most stable/robust for me.

I've been using the InstaPot to cook steel cut oats: I mix 1.5 cup oats and 1.5 cups red split lentils, and cook on high for 4 minutes with 6 cups of water. They have the same cook time and work well together, high fiber and good protein. I then toss in some mixed berries and ground flax for my normal breakfast and get several servings that way. Also works well for cooking rice. There's a cooking time chart that comes with it, next up will be cooking chickpeas to make some homemade hummus.