Saturday, October 4, 2025

We Have a Door - October 4

October 4, 2025

Day 1,464 of the Adventure


One of the recent rains that we got included some wind. Normally, no big deal. In this case, it blew rain through the openings for the windows and doors of the summer kitchen. Again, no big deal...... except it got the floor wet and we had to go in and sweep the water out. Once again, no big deal, the floor can handle that okay..... up to a point. You don't want it continually getting wet, so we decided to just add the windows and doors now rather than wait until a more appropriate stage of the construction. We were able to pick the doors up but the windows had to be ordered. Last night, we got the first door installed on the basement stairwell. Today, we'll be putting the door to the kitchen in and at least that part of it will be done. It's a slow process, building a house. Especially when we are now in our mid 60's. Oh well, a little progress every day and someday........it will all be done. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “The ego wants to go fast. The soul needs to go slow.” ― Maxime Lagacé

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Freeze Dried Meals - October 3

October 3, 2025

Day 1,463 of the Adventure


Last year we added a freeze dryer to our arsenal of food preservation tools. It was a new and different experience that took a little getting used to. Most things dry very well. A few don't. We spent the year experimenting mostly with fruits, vegetables and berries. All of that worked out well. We tried a couple of meals that did not do so good. Along the way, we learned that anything with a high fat content, sugar content or cooking oils just doesn't work. Armed with that knowledge, we set upon a quest to freeze dry a variety of prepared foods that we can stock for easy use later. Freeze drying is a process that extracts all the moisture from food and when complete, can be stored for up to 25 years without losing flavor or nutritional value. They are sealed inside mylar bags with the addition of an oxygen absorber to which helps keep the contents from becoming stale. Each of the bags contain a full portion of something. We've made and stored chili, beef and noodles, chicken and noodles, chicken and rice, teriyaki chicken and rice, beef stew, mac & Cheese, rice pudding, Asian rice and vegetables and more. It's the same kind of process as you find with th4e freeze dried backpack meals, and what you would get from the places like "My Patriot Supply", "Mountain House", "4Patriots" and others. The biggest difference we've noticed is that our home made ones taste like real food where I've never tried any of the store bought ones that had much flavor to them. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “No one expects an emergency. That’s why it’s an emergency.” ― Nancy Northcot

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Thursday, October 2, 2025

Some New Mushrooms to Figure Out - September 24

September 24, 2025

Day 1,454 of the Adventure


With the recent wet weather, mushrooms of all kinds have been popping up around the woods. Several of them are edible and we've become confident in identifying them. Among them are Lion's Mane, Chicken of the Woods and Tree Ear. We're getting close on some others but I'm not ready to risk our lives on them yet until we have a better consensus with the local foragers (the ones that haven't died from eating poison mushrooms) IT'S A JOKE. Anyway, a huge batch of these are growing on our compost pile and we're on a quest to identify them now. 

UPDATE: Since writing this, I've learned that there are several varieties of mushrooms in this family. Some are edible and many are not. Supposedly, this one is okay, but they also caution that unless you are an absolute expert at telling them apart from eah other, it's best to just leave them alone! SO....... guess we won't put these on the menue!

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Hunter-gathers, by nature, store information for use, understanding that there may be a time when information is scarce.” ― Brian C. O'Conno

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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38 Percent Increase - October 2

October 2, 2025

Day 1,462 of the Adventure


It's bad enough that I have to point out week after week that the economy is beating us to death. Now, I've got yet a new rant over price increases. This time it happens to be related to property taxes. Each year, I receive a valuation update and most of the time its in the range of 8% up to as high as 17%. And this is an every year thing. Even though the actual value never really changes that much. Yesterday, I received a 2025 valuation notice and it had increased by 38% over last years. LET THAT SINK IN........ 38% increase for one year! 
Now, this piece of real estate is a business asset and the latest property tax adjustment is just one of a number of price increases we've seen related to this property over the past few years. Insurance has more than doubled on it over three years. Of course everything related to maintenance has increased by nearly that much. The crazy part is that the income connected to it has actually dropped off over the same time frame. 

I'm ready to burrow my way deeper into the woods!

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “I have good news and bad news. The good news is we will all soon be billionaires. The bad news is that by the time that day comes, the dollar will be so devalued that your billions may not purchase your weekly groceries.” ― Jarod Kintz

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Threat Assessments (Part 3) - September 8

September 8, 2025

Day 1,438 of the Adventure


The other day, I opened a subject of "Threat Assessments" as defined by the Department of Homeland Security. This is a comprehensive list of things the department sees as legitimate threats to our country and the report is published each year. There are four primary categories and I thought I would dive into each one to help give some ideas as to how we, as individuals, may want to view them as it relates to our own practical preparedness activities. 

The first section relates to Public Security and Safety. This section is divided into three primary areas of concern. Terrorism, Illegal Drugs and Nation States Influence Operations and Transnational Repression. Today, I'm looking at the threat of illegal drugs. 

While the government treats the threat of illegal drugs as a high priority threat, we in rural areas do not typically see the impacts of it as much as in urban areas. Still, the impacts do indeed exist. For us, this threat mostly manifests itself in the form of petty theft. Where we are now, we've insulated ourselves from it for the most part. A few years ago, we lived in a small community that had a significant amount of drug culture. There was a constant element of petty crime in the town, largely associated with the drug abuse culture. It was more frustrating than it waw dangerous, however, there were the occasional violent crimes that occurred there. Dealing with this threat is largely related to security and surveillance measures, of which we deploy both. An indirect effect of the national drug threat is in the number of people moving to the mid-west from the coastal regions. When we purchased our place where we currently live, the demand for land was so high that it was difficult finding a place that fit what we were looking for. Most of that was caused by the influx from people moving here from the west coast. That drove prices higher as well, making the purchase of land even more difficult. Just a side effect related to crime in the larger urban cities out west. 

To be continued. 

Carry On

Adventure Quote:   “Over the years, Americans in particular have been all too willing to squander their hard-earned independence and freedom for the illusion of feeling safe under someone else's authority. The concept of self-sufficiency has been undermined in value over a scant few generations. The vast majority of the population seems to look down their noses upon self-reliance as some quaint dusty relic, entertained only by the hyperparanoid or those hopelessly incapable of fitting into mainstream society.” ― Cody Lundin 

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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An Unmistakable Divide - September 12

September 12, 2025

Day 1,442 of the Adventure


Mostly, I have left politics out of my public life and profile. Keeping that part of my life and opinions to myself and among friends. The past few years have challenged me and have made it a difficult task to remain silent. I struggled with watching politicians do everything in their power to shut down my business and means of survival with no consequence. I've watched them stand on the most idiotic principles, not to defend victims of injustice, but rather, in opposition to a man they hate. They've defended open borders. They've defended men competing in women's sports. They refuse to address crime and block attempts of the federal government to provide law enforcement assistance to cities suffering under heavy crime. They defend criminal gang members "rights" to engage in their criminal behavior. They call us fascists, nazis, deplorables, garbage and worse. The largest part of the news repeats this even though there's no basis for it.

Last week I was struggling to process the murder of a young woman on a train by a man having been arrested 14 times and released each time. She had her throat slashed by him and died in fear and terror while onlookers did nothing. Before I had a chance to wrap my mind around that atrocity, I watched on live video as an assassin took the life of Charlie Kirk in front of his family and thousands of people gathered to engage him in a civil discourse. Within moments of the murder, celebrations were occurring over his death. While for the most part, condemnation was the theme, even much of that rang hollow as those who issued condemnations, were just days earlier calling him evil, nazi, fascist, homophobic, xenophobic, racist and worse. I've been following Charlie for years and can say with conviction that none of that was true. The only ones who could possibly believe that any of the hate was true, likely never listened to him any further than soundbites taken out of context.

I sit here today still trying to find any kind of balance or rationale on how we have arrived at such a dark period in our civilized history. I understand that the Bible teaches us in Ephesians 6:12, that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" which means that the true struggle for believers is not against other people but against spiritual forces of evil, such as demons and their organized influence over the world's systems. This verse encourages Christians to recognize their spiritual enemy and to use spiritual weapons and the full "armor of God," rather than engaging in physical conflict or personal grudges against others. I'm sure that there are better men than me who are coping with this dark reality far better than I am. For now, I must simply state that we all need to take a look at who we are, what we believe and what we condone and support through our complicity with those with whom we align ourselves. I do my best to try to support and defend the Bible, the Constitution, respect for humanity in general and the rule of law for our country. If you find yourself aligned with those who promote all of the mayhem, even if you yourself personally do not agree with it, perhaps especially if you're not in agreement with it. It's time to reflect upon the stand you have taken. If, by your alignment with your party, you have become complicit with their actions, their rhetoric, their hostility towards others, it's important for you to consider the following. Your party is no longer the party of your grandfathers and your fathers. It's a party willing to die on the worst hill of human denigration and take as many down with them as they feel is justified to in order to maintain their political power.

I am not your enemy, but I am no longer willing to remain silent as if there are no consequences to world you are attempting to create and support by aligning yourself with these people.

That's all I have to say about that!

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.” ― Bob Marley

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

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Economic Balancing Act - October 1

October 1, 2025

Day 1,461 of the Adventure


Finding the right economic balance these days is getting to be harder and harder. It feels like there's a financial squeeze on us that just isn't going away. It's not impacting us as badly as it could have been. We've been positioning ourselves for something like this for decades. Even more so in the past four to five years. I believe there are two approaches to dealing with this and neither are a magic fix. If there is always more month than there is money, at some point there needs to be a plan for gaining some balance. The two solutions are to plan ahead and to find a balance. Planning ahead means to be always keeping an eye on the forces that will impact your future. In this case, the signs of economic hardship have been obvious for a long time. Getting positioned for that is the challenge. Preparation takes planning and if the signs are ignored, it's very easy to find yourself in desperation mode trying to figure out how to survive keeping all the bills paid. The goal has to involve finding the right balance between what is enough and what is too much. Speaking of income and resources. We felt we needed to make some fairly drastic adjustments back in 2021 and that included cutting away some business assets that were not as productive as they needed to be to support our life. For many, that may not include business assets, it may simply be a vehicle that is costing too much per month in payments. It may mean toys like boats, ATV's, memberships to non-essential services. Whatever it means to each person, that's where the balance needs to be created. It's not complicated but it's not easy figuring out how to regain some financial balance in life. The important thing is to start moving that direction as soon as possible. Before the circumstances become irreversible.  

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.” ― Ralph Blum

Resources

Make sure to visit our website regularly to see new products and resources.

YouTube Channel: The Campfire Trail
YouTube Channel: Life of Treasures

Our Books
Treasures of Life - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Treasures of Life 2 - Daily Devotional by Shelley
Back to the Land - Planning your Back to the Land Roadmap by Martin
Wealth Creation - Principles of Wealth Creation by Martin

Please Consider Subscribing to our newsletter in the upper right corner of this page.
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