U!
leerufong@gmail.com
438.838.8652
facebook.com/rufong
U!
leerufong@gmail.com
438.838.8652
facebook.com/rufong
https://wildfoodsandwilderness.com
Survival opinions I will defend forever 🦘[slightly off topic]
1. More gear doesn’t make you more prepared.
You can own every survival gadget under the sun, but if you don’t know how to use what’s around you, you’re just carrying a very expensive backpack.
2. Fire isn’t always your first priority. Information is.
Before you start rubbing sticks together, figure out where you are, what the weather’s doing and what you actually need. Then move onto the fire step.
3. Suffering doesn’t make you better at survival.
If you can make yourself warmer, drier or more comfortable, absolutely do it. I’m all for character development, just preferably not hypothermia.
4. The best survivalists are actually pretty boring.
They don’t take unnecessary risks just to prove they can handle them. The best survival story is the one where nothing goes horribly wrong.
5. You don’t need to know 100 edible plants.
Know a handful really well. Survival is not the time to start experimenting with a mystery leaf.
6. Getting lost is usually a series of bad decisions, not one big mistake.
Knowing when to stop, reassess and turn around is a seriously underrated survival skill.
7. Survival doesn’t have to be miserable to count.
Eat the good food. Build the comfy shelter. Sit by the fire. We’re allowed to have a nice time out here.
Save this for your next outdoor adventure – Holly – Your Survival Guide
5.5 years in.
What did we do right?
What did we do wrong?
What couldn’t we have helped?
Fiscally we saved something like $117,000 in rent , based on rents for a family
$6000 in water bills
$8500 in power bills
Subtract all the power, as I’ve spent more than that on off-grid, yet it’ll continue to serve me at least the rest of this decade
Waterwise spent $12,000 in mods, but they’ll keep working at least another 20 years
House wise, we sunk about $70,000 , in pieces and loans by friends
90 soon with add ons
And then another 65 in future expansions to accommodate 5 people, mostly paid for by successful investing of hobby and borrowed funds
Where I wasted money, was plants
I way overspent on expensive trees.
Probably $10,000 on plants.
Some worked some failed.
But we have produce, and plant sales averaging $1300 per 90 days, across 5 years, so still $15,000 ahead of what’s spent, and it’s a hobby, so doesn’t count as income, with decades ahead to gain
What we should’ve done but couldn’t
– Get credit for a solar shed and decent one time energy generation. Instead of piecemeal upgrades
– Earthworks. Terraces and swales
– Grid connect power solely for home business , add commercial structures for kitchen and sales
– A bore for water to expand nursery capacity
– An extra $15,000 to buy the 2br relocatable instead of 1 br
– A trailer and better towing vehicle
But nevertheless, we made it.
Not by our own means, with a great deal of help. Gifts of a wood heater and assistance to install. And every local calamity where the government gave cash bonuses to every local household, we took it, and diligently spent it on increasing our resilience.. when the govt gave $2400 assistance, we kept it and bought another water tank..instead of spending on living costs.
If there was an opportunity of free credit, I took it and invested it and made 150%
When people signed on for courses, we kept it and bought batteries
I don’t think we could have done much better, we win some, we lose some, we tried to lose least while still making educated risks
And it works
And yet, it all relied on two previous good decisions.
1. Buy land in a rural village. One with good bones. A thriving indigenous population so schools will never close. A community with the key infrastructure of a post office, school, fuel and a shop
2. Set roots. Plant the garden framework well ahead of time, and put a shed on it, or in my case a sea container
These days I’m not sure how people can do it.
But for sure one needs that leg up, a shitty full time job..just to get the line of credit , and deposit to get the land.. the job just matters to get the credit. Once found the repayments arent much. Smash as much hustle into it as possible, while keeping than line of credit open.
My “mistake” was paying cash.
If I could’ve had a 100k credit I could’ve done it all faster. Could’ve hustled to pay down some then redrawn for development.
Once you own something you can sink funds from any angle into it.
This year a shed. Pay it off. Then water. Then power. Never a dollar wasted just invested in future zero overheads.
A 100k loan, on mortgage rates, as my dad said, is embarassing..it’s nothing on monthly repayments. If the discipline is there to only ever use credit to create systems that reduce overheads.
Even if it means you’re out there breaking laws, camping, but not paying the costs of rent, water, power, and whatever meagre foods you can make..
Food is still cheap. Even now. Esp if you just don’t participate in the modern food system.
If your staples are rice, beans, chicken wings, beef bones..and you grow more and more of all the extras. Austerity soon leads to luxury.
Now we buy whole rumps, buy pretty much whatever we desire, because we cook at home..as soon as you buy wholefoods and learn to easily upgrade by preservation, grow easy greens and fruits, the general populations poverty line becomes a joke..
Not really a joke. I feel for everyone stuck on fixed incomes paying rent, water, power, greens, eggs, etc I do not know how they can live. Meanwhile, we can still choose to buy the high quality ingredients to boost basic fare
Once you kill the control mechanisms of modern Australian culture : rent, utilities
Life is still good. We don’t need UBI, just pathways to self reliance
If I ever had 10 million to spend. I’d spend it on assisting common people to do this..kill overheads and make space for cottage industry. And I wouldn’t lose $1
Just establishing places to live where a very modest income can easily lead to full ownership and excess production for local trade within a very reasonable timeframe.
That 10 million would return to be reused, with the opposite of suffering.
The very people who can’t get credit, the single pensioners, the single mums and single dad’s, they are the people who can be the backbone of village life. Children ensure community. People just living who can afford rent or own their humble home, are the ones that can then fulfull vital community roles
I really wish , my village, could be enlivened by more of the common people of society.
It’s not going to attract the latte sipping crowd.
Except as weekenders and we welcome them , with great river based leisure pursuits…
I really wish , my village, could be enlivened by more of the common people of society.
It’s not going to attract the latte sipping crowd.
Except as weekenders and we welcome them , with great river based leisure pursuits
But I already find amongst us people enjoying a simple life..
Pensioners..
Single parents
Of course two parents is better.. but we are a great space for those who cannot
.who appreciate that we can walk down the local shop
Children can walk to school, and the school quality is above average, as is the kindergarten
We have monthly markets.
Post office does banking
We help each other enough.we know everyone in the town
The police station only open here part time
You pay a small premium for local supply , but it’s here and you know the families that run the shops
a woman that has had
breast implants and wrapped in her lover’s embrace,
is not actually a man to woman physical interaction.
she has chosen to erect an artificial barrier betwixt them.
it is a bag of something not quite solid, made in factories and shipped on trucks.
she has chosen to invite, perhaps;
doctors nurses receptionists surgeons into personal space.
WHERE do you want this to go?
bait an’ switch;
tease you with what you want an’ value, replace it with something inferior
the cellphone in my hand, the app using the hardware, the cloud listenin’
is sold as the gateway, the Way to achieve any desire.
an the oldest desires are the strongest.
men and women collide like a universe of their own. it’s smashing for a reason.
both the sexes are offered many pimps;
video, film, television, radio, print, paper, billboard, music
all hope, literally to feed off of our creative energy.
so i say to you all, i challenge you to say to one another,
woman, i am here as you see me now, an’ i needed to see thee as well.
and that is how we meet, in the world, a bridge between one another,
that connection if it’s there.
so may you meet as man an woman.
an perhaps the universes that collide will create another
dancer warrior poet lover partner..
https://youtu.be/bc5Nk1DXyEY?si=dojTrIuIsxzScL64
USA attack on Venezuala: invasion of the body snatchers..
ttc stabbing; happened 2023,markham? raised, moses lewin as perp , death’s door, trained murderer, markham? raised, moses lewin as perpdude now given light sentence..
https://www.youtube.com/live/zUgmF78XH3w?si=0JPyMgEadjitJDnq&t=6559
his target: Derek, recounts the events of that day..
https://www.rebelnews.com/man_gets_stabbed_on_ttc_subway_by_thug_let_out_on_bail_interview
hey, they celebrated defiance of IDIOCY CRUELTY CORRUPTION, may we celebrate in 2025..
hey, they celebrated defiance of IDIOCY CRUELTY CORRUPTION, may we celebrate in 2025..
WOW; fire water earth metal wood,
breath an human hands..
https://youtu.be/72XnzegIDSY?si=sCNq8D1NRQosbs2y
Makes 1 gallon of mead.
Racking — Don’t you dare
additional feeding — NO NO NO
More stirring or shaking — You’re not listening, don’t touch
After 2 months and maybe a few days it will slow down to a stop and clear all by itself. (How about that – You are not so important after all).
Then you can put a hose in with a small cloth filter on the end into the clear part and siphon off the golden nectar. If you wait long enough even the oranges will sink to the bottom but I never waited that long. If it is clear it is ready.
You don’t need a cold basement. It does better in a kitchen in the dark. (Like in a cabinet) likes a little heat (70-80). If it didn’t work out… you screwed up and didn’t read my instructions (or used grandma’s bread yeast she bought years before she passed away).
If it didn’t work out then take up another hobby. Mead is not for you. It is too complicated. If you were successful, which I am 99% certain you will be if you followed the recipe, then enjoy your mead.
When you get ready to make different mead you will probably have to unlearn some of these practices I have taught you, but hey— This recipe and procedure works with these ingredients so don’t knock it. It was your first mead. It was my tenth. Sometimes, even the experts can forget all they know and make good ancient mead.
And that’s the mead recipe! With thanks to Joe Mattioli, the man who originally posted it on GotMead.com.