The Rural Economist & Bringing Rural Back Podcast

Friday, August 15, 2014

Getting Prepared for Beginners #15 Skill Development (Home)

Special thanks to Brenda Barnes, Kathi Rodgers, and
Quinton Wojciechowski for providing photos for this post.

You may be thinking "Why is skill development important for a short term emergency?" I actually hope you are not thinking that. If you are, just remember you will be asking help from people who are in the middle of the same emergency. I have been a member of a volunteer fire department. When the call comes out you really want to answer. But if something is going on at your house that needs your attention, you are not going to go. This is not being a poor first responder, this is being a responsible father or husband or mother or wife. You cannot expect someone to come to your aid if doing so will endanger themselves, their families, or their property.

Skill development is something you want to do in advance. You do not want to have to learn to run a chainsaw when the tree is already on your house. I know this seems like an extreme example, but it's not and you get the point.

So what skills should you learn? Oh I am so glad you asked.

First Aid and CPR

There is a valid argument to be made for every parent to know CPR. I am not going to cover this in depth. My wife is much more qualified than I and will be writing a full post in the near future. I am just going to share a story.

My grandfather was the fire chief at the local volunteer fire department. As a result every member of my family had a role in the department. My aunt and uncle were rapid responders. A rapid responder is kinda like a medic or advanced first aid person.

I don't remember how old I was but I do remember it was Father's Day. A call went out about a heart attack. We were all at my grandparents' and the address was only a couple miles away. We took off. When we arrived at the home a man was laying in the front yard. My aunt and uncle started CPR. His adult children were standing around as my family tried to save their dad's life. He didn't make it. At the time I thought it awesome that these people needed my family to try to save theirs. Now I realize that if they had started CPR sooner they might have been able to save his life. Yes CPR IS VERY important.

If you would like to find out where you can become CPR certified you can search for classes HERE.

Building

These skills are not as glamorous as first aid skills but are just as important and to be honest more likely to be needed.

Skills that at least one if not two people in your family should have include:

Being able to shut off the utilities
Being able to tarp a roof to prevent leaking and further damage to your home.
Being able to board up windows.

We will cover each of these topics.

Electricity. You should at least know how to shut off the power. Depending on your service box you could have two different ways to shut off your power. The most common way to shut off the power is at the breaker box.

Inside the box you will see a large breaker. It will be by itself. Just switch it to off. That is it. Now doing this shuts off the power to the entire house. You can also shut off the power to certain sections of your house. Hopefully your breaker box is labeled. If it is you can just choose which circuits to shut off. If it is not labeled, no problem you can label it yourself.

If you have an older home you may have a fuse box instead of a breaker box. That is not really a problem. The concept is still the same. There will be a large double fuse by itself, either above or below it will be rows of small round fuses. The large fuse will have a handle on it. You will need to pull this fuse out in order to shut off the power to your entire home. To shut off power to individual circuits you will need to unscrew one of the smaller (normally glass) fuses. Just like in a breaker box each circuit should be labeled.

Reasons you might need to turn off the power include: Doing any work that involves an electric circuit. Damage to your home that might cause a short (one room damaged). Flooding of your home or a really bad leak (roof damage).

Water. Shutting off the water is pretty simple. You will have a water meter between your home and the main line. This will not apply if you are on well water or live in an apartment. If you are on well water I hope you are familiar with your system. If you are in an apartment there should be a maintenance person who is charged with this duty.

Your meter will be in a concrete or rubber box. Inside that box you will see the meter. The shutoff will be on the street side of that meter. It normally only takes a quarter turn clockwise to shut off the water. This cuts the water to the entire house. It is a good idea to have shutoff valves in every bathroom and each sink.

Here is the meter tool I mentioned in the video.

Natural Gas or Propane. If your home uses natural gas or propane every member of your family that is old enough to do so, should know how to shut off the gas. If your home is damaged this knowledge could keep a bad situation from turning into a true catastrophe. If something has happened which has caused a gas leak, the slightest spark could be devastating.

Shutting off the gas to your home is just as simple as shutting off the other utilities. Just a turn of a knob. If you do not think about it ahead of time you probably won't think about it when you need to. Being able to shut off gas lines is very important.

Most gas companies and even modern gas appliances have safety features that make gas leaks less likely, but this knowledge could be the difference between a bad situation and a total loss.

Boarding up Windows

By now you know me. I am not talking about protecting your home from zombies. I believe it is much more likely for a tree to knock a window out of your house. Once you remove the tree you will need to do something about that window. If you are rural and it is not during the blazing hot summer or hard cold winter you may be able to get away with just using plastic to prevent critters and weather from getting in your home. If you live in an area where looting is a possibility you will need to do something more substantial. Enter boarding up your windows.

There are several ways to board your windows.

The most common way is take boards or plywood and nail it up. Easy right? Also fairly easy to tear down if you have a pry bar.

There is another more secure way to board up a window, but it takes advanced planning and at least two people. Here are the steps and supplies needed.

Cut treated plywood to at least 4 inches larger than window opening.
Cut a 2X4 at least 6 inches longer than the window is wide on the inside of the house.
Open window wide open and figure out where to drill a hole as close to the center of the plywood as possible. Hole will need to be about 3/8 of an inch.
Also drill a 3/8 hole in the center of the 2X4
You will need a 12 inch piece of all thread 2 nuts and 2 fender washers for each window.
One person holds the plywood in place and feeds the all thread through the hole with a fender washer and nut already started.
The person on the inside makes sure the all thread goes through the hole on the 2X4 places the washer on the all thread and then tightens the nut.

Great Planes All Thread Rod (12-Piece), 2-56x12

I pulled this picture from Amazon, but you should be able to find this locally.

This will hold the plywood in place and will protect against most of the elements, but it is still not "zombie proof". It could be made so, but that would require tack welding, a cotter key and a drill press. If someone really wanted to get in all they would need would be a wrench, but if you had a tree come through a window, this would be the best way to keep the elements out of your home.

Tarping a Roof

Like so many things there is a couple of right ways and a ton of wrong ways to tarp a roof. The reason you would need to tarp a roof could be as simple as a few shingles have blown off and you are trying to prevent leaking that might occur or a whole section of shingles are missing and leaking will occur. Of course there is always the scenario where not only are shingles missing, but some of the decking of your roof is also gone. In the last two situations tarping your roof is a necessity.

I know you could always call a carpenter or repair person, but remember when you need them in situations like this several others are calling them as well. You could be way down on the list. The longer you wait to put into place preventative measures the greater the likely damage to your home.

If done incorrectly tarping your roof can actually increase the damage caused. When you put a tarp on your roof you are trying to keep moisture from getting to your decking. If the tarp allows moisture to get to the decking it also interferes with your decking's ability to dry out.

If at all possible the tarp should go across the ridge line of your roof. This helps prevent water from just running under the tarp. If you cannot have the tarp cross the ridge line of your roof you should use either a 1x2 or furring strip the hold the tarp as tight as possible then caulk the upper edge and the edge that is the direction where most of your weather comes from. Around here our strongest storms tend to come from the southwest. Ensure the tarp is as tight as possible and use either 1x2 or furring strips around the whole perimeter. The pictures below are of a tarp job done well.

Special thanks to Brenda Barnes for these photos.

Storm damage can happen to anyone at any time. Knowing these basic skills will help you protect your family and property.

I wish you all Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

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Saturday, August 9, 2014

Help Your Children Start Their Own Business

No matter who you are, you know our current school system does not teach our children everything they need to know. It falls terribly short on real life lessons. If we as parents don't step up and help teach these lessons, we are doing our children a disservice.

One of the lessons we should be teaching our children the value of work and creativity. How do you do that? Encourage them to start their own business. I am talking a real business in miniature, also called a micro-business. When you want your children to learn real lessons don't always let them sell something and keep all of the money. That is for younger children, but for older children it doesn't teach them the true nature of business. I have done it with my children and my parents did it with me. This did teach me that work produces rewards, but it did not teach me about all of the other things involved with business.

Even taking business classes doesn't give anyone the knowledge and wisdom that real world experience can. I believe my college degree just proved I was willing to do what was necessary to get through. There is nothing I learned in school that I couldn't have learned in life.

What things do running your own business teach you? Hang on we are going to cover quite a bit.

Expenses Come Off the Top

Like I said above I remember selling things when I was a kid and keeping all of the money. It wasn't til much later that I realized the materials I used to make things cost money. Money my parents spent. Of course most of my projects were made from recycled materials and still are, but some portion is new.

We found an idea for a business for our kids. Both are artists. They have different styles, but both are very good. They are going to start making wall art.

I make the canvases and get them ready for them to work their magic. They come up with designs and then have to assemble the supplies they need to make their design. As soon as the first one sells they have to pay back what was spent on supplies. Anything over that is profit.

Advertising

You cannot expect people to buy something they do not know exists. You have to let people know. Today this is a lot easier than when I was a kid. I mowed yards for extra money. I remember going to people and asking if they needed someone to mow their yard. Today we have the internet. You can let thousands of people know about a product just by writing.

There are also craft shows. A craft show teaches then to make a lot and have a delayed return. There is also the expense of booth rental. All of this is paid before a sale takes place.

Production

You cannot expect people to buy a product they have not seen. I let them know there is a custom made market put there, but until they establish themselves and have a solid portfolio of products they have made they cannot expect people to order things unseen.

Also since they have shown an interest in craft shows they will have to produce enough to fill a booth. I have never seen a crafter's booth with only two items. You have to have enough items to make a good showing.

Pricing

Just because you think your work is priceless doesn't mean everyone else does. If the world based prices on me not much would cost what it does today. My children can set any price they want, but if people won't pay what they are asking they will make no money.

The reverse of this is also true. You can price your items too low. People may buy what you have like crazy, but if you have not included a high enough profit margin you will not be in business for long.

Sales and Customer Service

I am willing to help my children all I can, but I am not going to do it for them. At least not without price. If my children want to keep more of the profits they have to do the sales. If they want me to sell for them I should get a commission. This is just the way life works. My daughter is quite shy, but she will learn at the very least cordial communication.

Investment

Just because you have repaid your initial start up costs does not mean you get to spend all of the profits. You must take part of the money you make from each sale and apply it to supplies for future projects.

Just having stated this outright to my children made them look at business differently. People do not get to keep all the money they make.

Hard work can and should pay off. There are tons of lessons to be learned by your children starting their own business. Who knows, maybe you could learn some things too.

The best thing about your children starting their own business is they learn to relay on themselves. That alone helps them have a brighter future.

Maybe a family business could help you achieve your Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

If you would like to purchase some of my daughter's artwork please contact me at theruraleconomist@gmail.com

Are Farmer's Markets Under Attack?

The farmer's market today only resembles the markets I remember as a child. Pickup trucks lined up what whatever they had for sale. It actually looked more like a yard sale with veggies. I remember hoe handles, chickens, piglets, fruit, veggies, jams, jellies, bread, pies, salsa, pickles, and even bacon. Yup the old style bacon that after it was cured you could hang up somewhere and just cut off what you needed. Those were real farmer's markets. Seems like I even remember them having outhouses.

Sadly those are long since gone. Now they are much nicer. Covered places with electricity at each booth. Fans blowing, music playing and an authorized food vendor. Just because they are nicer doesn't mean they are better.

The first thing to go was of course the outhouses. I understand completely, but they went to port- o- potties which in my opinion is the same thing. Then finally they moved to site built restrooms. Some of these are as nasty as the outhouses, some are really nice.

The next thing to go was the animals. They smell bad and you have to clean up after them. Oh and you know people cannot stand to hear crowing all the time. Having animals there will force parents to tell their children where supper comes from. Oh we can't have that!

Next was the meat. It didn't matter that it was salt cured or smoked in a smoke house. It didn't come from an inspected slaughterhouse. It doesn't matter that that was the way people had been preserving meat for hundreds if not thousands of years. We have evolved beyond that and don't want it around. By the way, I love salt cure ham and plan on building a smoke house of my own soon.

Okay, all of the undesirables are gone. Veggies, great. Fruits, great. Baked goods, fine. Jams, jellies, all good. Pickles, salsa, pepper sauce, no problem. Canned veggies....Wait just a minute! Are we sure these were processed properly? I know old Joe is here every week, and has been for years but what if? Okay so what if has been asked. Canned corn, potatoes, vegetable soup, peas, and beans gone. Pickles are still okay. High acid foods like salsa and canned tomatoes, they are okay too. Homemade jellies and jams, really anything with fruit is fine.

Baked goods........well now. These people don't have commercial kitchens! How can we guarantee the public's safety? Yup that's right, baked goods are going away. In fact in a lot of areas even bake sales are becoming illegal. That's right! Churches and civic organizations that have used bake sales as a fund raiser are finding out they can no longer do so. These are just examples of what is happening locally. But it is not just happening here, this is occurring all over the country. Don't believe me, try buying some fresh milk. Milk that has not been pasteurized. In our state any raw milk sold must be labeled "Not for Human Consumption".

If you are on social media at all you have heard about how the Michigan Department of Agriculture forced a Co-Op to dump hundreds of gallons of milk and break 100 dozen eggs. I have done as much independent research into this event as I have time for. I have been in contact with the dairy that sold the milk to the co-op and can confirm that this actually happened. As for the reason why I have been unable to ascertain. I have tried to contact the co-op, but I am sure they have been inundated with requests for information. The fact stands that this did occur and according to the dairy involved, the following article had the most contact with the coop owner. Michigan Farmer Forced to Dump 248 gallons of Milk and 1200 Eggs.

Why Is This Happening

If you will look closely at the places that are most strict you will find one of two types of places. First is the place that is fairly affluent. Places don't like "country people" being in their area. They want to go to Whole Foods. They don't want to know who grows their food. If it were up to them farmer's markets wouldn't exist close to them. It should be an adventure. They want to go "out there" if they want something special. A trip to the country is an adventure. There is an exception in this area. Sections that are considered artsy a lot of times will welcome farmer's markets. These people want homemade- especially cheeses and breads.

The second reason I believe, pressure is being applied to farmer's markets is also the biggest reason the changes are happening. Money. In order to sell at a farmer's market here you have to take a class, which you have to pay for. You have to rent a space. You have to declare sales tax. Remember I said baked goods were going away. Well, that is not technically true. You can still sell baked goods if you are willing to take another class. A more expensive class. Who holds these classes? The state. Now if you go through all of this stuff you will be certified. That state has protected the public. Add on top of that the local fees. Some counties charge a fee for being a seller at the farmer's market and all cities I know of do as well.

So let's review. You grow something in your garden. You grow more than you need and want to sell the surplus to someone who wants it. Great. One thing first; you have to pay money you haven't earned yet to be able to sell what you haven't grown yet. After you have gotten the okay from the state the hands start showing up. County and city all want their piece of the pie you cannot sell unless you spend more money you haven't earned yet. If you don't do these things this way and we find out you are selling stuff on your own,the county or city will put you out of business because you do not have a business license. Remember the little girls and the lemonade stand? The link I provided was to Forbes, hardly alternative media.

What I Think

I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist. If you will think about this objectively I think you will agree with me at least on some level. I think it is all about control. Now I do not think Tropicana is worried about little kids having a lemonade stand. Heck the kids may have even been selling Tropicana lemonade. The initial desire for control is local, HOA, city, county, then state. Tax revenues are going down, I do not care what the media says. Look at it, you will see the truth.

I do believe that big agriculture does not like farmer's markets. Every person that buys from a local producer, does not buy that item from big agriculture. GMO seeds are not available to the backyard gardener so companies like Monsanto who are starting to feel the backlash of public opinion. Since labeling of GMOs is not required, big agriculture wants people to buy at the grocery stores. Everyone wants your money and they don't want anyone else to get any. If you can only get your food in one place or from one source, they have the control.

A truck farmer used to be able to go to the farmer's market and sell all day. Anything they didn't sell they would just go to the local grocery store and sell their remaining produce to the local grocery store at a reduced price. The grocery store was then able to market locally grown produce. This is increasingly going away. Grocery stores have contracts with big agriculture producers. A lot of these contracts now include an exclusive supplier clause. That means the store cannot buy from anyone else. Truck farmers are finding they have fewer and fewer outlets for what they grow.

Why Be a Part of a Farmer's Market

There are still good reasons to put up with all of the garbage and be a part of a farmer's market.

The public knows where you are going to be and when.
Networking (get to know the other growers)
Learning (gardeners are very willing to share their knowledge, unless of course they are trying to grow the largest pumpkin or watermelon, that is top secret.)
Advertising (advertising costs are shared by several farmers not just one family)
People do not know where you live. (I have a friend who had a stand in their front yard and people would knock on his door to be able to buy things and would get angry if he told them he was eating dinner and to come back tomorrow.)

There will always be trouble makers. My aunt had canned some salsa and one of the big grower walked up and asked in a bad tone if she had the salsa tested at the health department. My family told her no. She said "You can't sell it then" turned on her heels and went to tell on them (Like a 5 year old) only to find out that salsa due to acid content did not have to be tested.....yet. Score one for the good guys for now.

I Want to Hear From You

Are farmer's markets and local producers being mistreated where you are? I would really like to know.

What I Want From A Politician

I would like just one politician to stand up and declare that it was their goal to make their city, county, or even state the freest place around. I actually want them to mean it. If one would do that, they would have my support.

Every time we grow our own food or buy food from the person that produces it we cut out several middle men. Big agriculture and government are the ones who are left out of that loop. Shouldn't we want to know who produced our food? I have the poster below on my refrigerator. I look at it every day to help me remember that growing your own food or knowing who does has become an act of rebellion.

TO BE CONTINUED!

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I wish you

Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

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Friday, August 15, 2014

Getting Prepared for Beginners #15 Skill Development (Home)

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Saturday, August 9, 2014

Help Your Children Start Their Own Business

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Are Farmer's Markets Under Attack?

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