The deck demolition project continues. Last weekend we got all the deck structure removed, and over the week friends have been coming to lay claim to the scrap lumber. We still have some of it, but enough is gone to be able to begin working on the exposed area, getting it ready to put into garden beds.

Today’s project was been to remove all the posts and their concrete pilings. I spent much of the morning just unearthing the piles, getting them loosened enough for removal. Then I had to figure out a way to get them out of the holes–safely. Understand I am not a big boy. I weigh 130 lbs. These piles weigh at least 50 lbs, and they are in a hole below ground level. A recipe for pain.

But then came the idea. This is one of the reasons I enjoy working with my hands on projects like this because invariably there will come a point when muscle alone will not solve the problem. I get to engage my brain more significantly to come up with a solution.

In this case the solution was a lever. I found some rope and a 5′ length of 2×4. I tied one end of the rope around the post still exposed above the concrete. I tied the other end around one end of the 2×4. Placing the other end of the 2×4 firmly against the ground, I could then pull backward on the top end of the 2×4, which would drag the concrete piling out of the hole. By moving the bottom end of the 2×4, then pulling on the top end, I could continue dragging the piling to the collection point much more easily than I could roll it or boost it into a wheelbarrow.

Here, let me demonstrate with a diagram:

You will note, of course, my big, burly muscles, and that I can do it one-handed. And yes, I really do float on air! (Note: picture is not drawn to scale, nor is really at all indicative of my appearance, nor my physique (especially the muscles), nor the gravitational conditions in my area.)

So anyway, thanks to my simple machine, I have cleared out all the posts that are in the way. There are a few I will just leave, as they’re not in the way of anything. But it’s amazing how simple machines can make such a difference. I continually had difficulty getting the piles to budge with just my shovel, but the minute I got the idea to get one of my 25-pound landscaping blocks to knock against the top of the post, things went much easier. I could knock the piles loose much more quickly than I could excavate them. And the lever was simply wonderful! I couldn’t have done it otherwise.

Archimedes would be proud.

The Atlantic has an interview with James Bertini, founder of Denver Urban Homesteading:

If there are enough people who care about raising and growing their own food, it will inevitably encourage people to cook more and spend more time on food preparation. And consequently, people will lead healthier lives and have healthier bodies.

There are certainly people who don’t have the time and aren’t interested, and that’s fine. We’re not telling people that they ought to choose any particular lifestyle. We are providing the information about growing and raising your own food and getting in touch with the soil and with cooking.

Animals can be great for individuals, great for families, and even for a neighborhood. Many of the people who have chickens in Denver tell me that neighbors come from doors down, sometimes blocks down, to visit them just because they want to see the chickens or let their kids play with the chickens.

I’m the president of a home owners association that doesn’t allow livestock, and doesn’t allow xeriscaping. The rules were written twenty years ago. Times have changed. I’m trying to not have to enforce those restrictions, but there is regular pressure to do so. So far no one has complained about the family with the chickens, but I’ve received several complaints about the two xeriscapers. I need to have a talk with them about keeping it as neat and tidy as they can so people won’t have as many grounds for complaint.

But ultimately, it’s a different world today. Governments, cities, and neighborhoods have to change with the times. And people have to change too–and be as responsible as possible to make it easier for people to accept.

Lauren at Path Across has an article on four ways to save money and time. To summarize:

• Use smaller amounts of cleaning products
• Eat leftovers and use up less-than-crisp vegetables
• Cancel the cable TV
• Grow a few houseplants and feed then kitchen compost

Read the whole article for details. These are good ideas, though we already do most of these. In our case our kitchen scraps already go into some composting bins I made a few years back. We never have had cable TV, and I am the “Leftover King”. Quite frankly it boggles my mind that people could actually throw away perfectly good food just because it’s leftovers. Some food tastes better the next day and beyond.

So the only one that we aren’t already on top of is the first one. I’ll have to check with my wife, as she handles the laundry. I know I could probably go a little easier on the cleaning products in cleaning the bathrooms.

That’s one problem with being frugal–it’s hard to cut back any further. Yet somehow we managed. When I lost my job we cut our budget by a third, and not all of that was the money we no longer put into savings. On the whole our lifestyle has not been impacted that much. On the other hand, I do pray regularly that none of our major appliances decides to go out before we get a solid income stream going again. When I get my first paycheck I intend to not mention it anywhere near the kitchen!

It was neither a astounding success nor a miserable failure. I’d call today a good, solid win. I didn’t last the entire eleven hours. I only made it nine before I got a headache, wore out, and called it a day. But I did make quite a few contacts and develop over a dozen good leads.

My prognosis: I can talk to people in person. But now the thought of calling these people back to set an appointment scares me. I hate the phone. I prefer face to face. But there’s no turning back now.

The funny thing is that I actually found the morning networking session invigorating. I enjoyed talking to people! Of course it helped that they were all energized, friendly, and there to make contacts, too. But as the day wore on and people wore down it got more difficult. People didn’t make eye contact as easily. People’s body language just wasn’t as welcoming. I think an eleven hour event is too long, quite frankly.

I did try to go to the last two hours, which were also a networking opportunity. But the energy of the room had changed dramatically from the morning session. People were tired. They were sitting down at tables. They were hanging out with their friends, and no one was budging. I quickly surmised that networking was going to be difficult, even without my headache and exhaustion, and beat a hasty retreat.

Onward to the next phase. It will be interesting to see how many of the people who were so welcoming today are still welcoming when I call them up. I hope I’m pleasantly surprised.

American Thinker published a column by Edward Bernard Glick about his grandmother and her insistence on learning English when she emigrated to America. I’m not above giving some help to immigrants, but I believe she mostly had the right attitude:

She came to America at 13, speaking only Yiddish. When she died some 70 years later, her Yiddish was still perfect. But so was her English. That’s because in the 1920s, teachers and parents did not know about diversity training and political correctness. So they placed her in classes with much younger English-speaking kids. She was ashamed and angry at first, but by the end of the school year she had conquered the national language of the United States. As an adult, she got hooked on New York Times crossword puzzles, which she always worked with a pen. She was very proud of that.

She believed it shouldn’t cost the government an extra dime to bring foreign-born kids up to linguistic snuff. After living in California for 25 years, she opposed bilingual education and ESL (English-as-a-second-language) programs because she observed that they cost too much, took too long, and didn’t work. She used to say that If she had been subjected to ESL and bilingual education as kid she’d now be speaking “Yinglish,” which she defined as Yiddish with an American accent and English with a Yiddish accent.

My wife and I have often discussed what would happen if we needed to move back to her country of birth. Chances are enough people in business speak English I could get along okay. But I would never presume for a moment that I would not need to learn Finnish, or that my kids should get bilingual education at the government’s expense. As difficult a language as Finnish can be, we would still need to learn it. When in Rome, and all that.

Should immigrants get help adjusting to America? Certainly. But that’s what families and churches are for. The government need not get involved, especially with programs that leave immigrants dependent on others to help them get through basic life activities. We’re doing them no favors if they are unable to fend for themselves in their new country because some people think they should be coddled along.

Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Facts and Opinions opines on the harmful effects of helping your kids out with cash:

You wouldn’t believe this is logical. How could you hurt your children by providing them dollars? Over the long term should you continually give your kids the maximum tax free money gift (currently $13,000 per year) and they come to expect it, you are only enabling their consumer way of life and aren’t genuinely teaching them to be self sufficient.

This idea is covered quite thoroughly in the book The Millionaire Next Door. I know that is one gift my parents gave me–they encouraged all of us kids to pay our own way. I got a paper route when I was nine. I worked part time in the early mornings to put myself through college. They helped by housing and feeding me. I learned to make do or do without, though I don’t recall ever really suffering from a lack of money. I graduated college without a single dollar of student loans to repay. It was a great gift to give myself–and I have my parents to thank for it.

They may not have had a choice–I wouldn’t be surprised if they couldn’t have afforded to put me through college. But by letting me fend for myself more or less, they taught me something quite valuable.

One area where I definitely need to be more self reliant is socially. I am not an outgoing person. I like people easily, but I have difficulty instigating social interactions. I’m not sure why that is, but I’ve come to the conclusion that why doesn’t matter. You don’t always need to know why something is a problem to fix it.

I need to become more comfortable approaching people. I can do it, but I suspect I miss more opportunities than I grab onto because I automatically assume that people do not want to talk to me. This is as much a reason why I just took a job in sales. I need to get over my fear of approaching people, and this seems like a good opportunity. The company’s owner is aware of my problem and is very supportive. He’s been there, and he wants to help.

Tomorrow is my first foray onto the¨battlefield. There is a business development seminar I’ll be attending, with several opportunities for networking. Certainly I am interested in some of the classes that will be taught, but my primary reason for being there is to make contacts that will lead to sales. This is going to be a tough day. Eleven hours of discomfort.

I’ll have to let you know how it goes.

Today seems as good a day as any to officially announce the official beginning of my plan to become self reliant. This is my sixtieth post on this blog. I started a new job today. We just had one whopper of a thunderstorm rip through the valley, giving everything a good washing.

So here’s the deal. I am setting self reliance goals for the next year. Note that I do not expect to be self reliant by that time, only that I will have significant progress to show in each area. And what are those areas, you might ask? You might, but you’re notoriously quiet at times like these, so I’ll ask for you. Those areas are:

• Health
• Employment
• Home Storage
• Financial
• Emergency Preparedness
• Social

Note: I reserve the right to change this as time goes on. That’s another goal.

So what are my goals for the coming year?

Health – I will work up to the point where I can jog three times a week for half an hour, and do stretching and muscular conditioning three other days each week. On the seventh day we shall rest.
(Current State: Today I am only walking the dog briskly every morning for 15-20 minutes.)

Employment – I will become an expert at social media marketing, both at the individual and business level.
– I will be in stable employment I enjoy, making no less than $48,000 gross per year.
(Current State: Today I started a position selling social media services on a strictly commission basis. In short, I am fully employed, but fully unpaid. I know a fair bit about social media, but am far from considering myself an expert).

Home Storage – I will have in storage a minimum of six months worth of the basic staples and primary foodstuff my family uses regularly. Everything will be on a rotation plan that is carried out no less than quarterly.
(Current State: We have something of nearly everything we use regularly in storage, but the amount varies from a few weeks to eight months or more.)

Financial – This is largely dependent on the Employment goal above, but I will be putting at least 10% of our income back into our savings and investments with the goal of:

1. Replacing any principle we had to take from our retirement savings (We have not had to touch the principle as yet).
2. Restore our emergency savings back up to pre-layoff levels of 2009. (Amazingly enough, it’s still within a few thousand dollars of that point now).
3. Returning to fully funding our retirement programs each year. (We’re obviously not doing this currently)
4. Putting money away toward our next trip home to visit the in-laws.

(Note: These goals are subject to change if my financial adviser recommends a different priority)

Emergency Preparedness – I will research and define a minimal level of preparedness for our family. We will achieve that level within the year.

Social – This is a big one for me. I am basically an introvert. I use that knowledge of my introversion as a crutch to not have to connect with people. This has not served me as well as I often like to think. I stink at networking, which is probably one reason why I have been significantly underemployed for over a year now. I could blame the economy, but the fact is, most jobs are found by networking, and I have not done hardly any. This must change.
– I will overcome my fear of cold-contacting people.
– I will make contact with a different person in my network each week.

And now for a few goals not directly related to my own self reliance, but to this site:
– I will establish a full definition of each of the above areas, including a means of assessing one’s level of self reliance in each area and the steps needed to get there.
– I will establish a newsletter for all those interested in taking specific, regular action in their own lives to achieve self reliance as well.
– I will establish a more complete and in-depth site that not only serves as a great resource for achieving self reliance, but allows me compensation for my efforts here. Yes, that means I do plan to monetize this site eventually. I may as well be up front about that now. I would like to make money doing what I love.

But rest assured that I will not do so unless a) I am am providing sufficient value to you, and b) it won’t not become intrusive or the focus of the site. If I’m doing good work and helping you improve your lives I think that should be worth a little something–especially if you get something out of it at the same time.

So there it is. What do you think? I’m open to your comments about my goals–especially my goals for this site. Let me know what you think.

Self-reliance and Homesteading has an article up about ways to reduce your monthly expenses:

The key is to keeping your monthly spending down is to focus on the variable cost items in your budget. If you can’t cut out things like rent or your mortgage, or your cell phone bill if you have to have one, then you need to look for other ways to spend less each month.

At the time of this writing, things are tough. Money is tight, so the budget needs to follow suit. Take a look at your own monthly budget and try to find ways to slim down your variable costs. Here are some areas you can start looking to cut down:

Carolyn Grimsley’s little girls just would not stop doing laundry.

“We’re loving it,” Grimsley said as 7-year-old Katherine and 4-year-old Camille got to work. Dunk the scarves. Scrub them on a washboard. Pin them to the clothesline. Chores that somehow get fascinating when they’re history instead of work.

This is above is a quote from an article in the Longmont Times-Call about the nearby Agricultural Heritage Center. I’m sure kids from the age when that was the normal means of washing clothes would be flabbergasted to hear kids today calling such work “fun”.

And yet, I think kids can learn to find work fun. Last weekend I continued my project of tearing down my deck. My kids are regularly on the prowl for small jobs they can do to earn some money, so I offered my boys a dollar to pick up all the screws and nails laying around. That didn’t last them very long, but later on my middle child came back outside to help. He found he could clear away the smaller scraps of wood I was making. Soon he was telling me how fun it was. I think he caught a bit of the satisfaction that comes from hard work on a project that shows tangible progress.

I have to admit as a kid there were many projects that I began with less than a good attitude because my parents told me to. But before the work was done I often found myself enjoying it at least a little. Work is even more fun if it’s someone else’s work. I remember gladly pitching in to help my friends with their chores, even while avoiding my own.

It’s interesting how work is increasingly undervalued these days, and yet companies like Home Depot make their fortunes off the satisfaction that comes from doing work yourself. As my mother says, “A change is as good as a holiday.” Doing different work from what we normally do is often the only difference we need.