Aftermath- A review

I don't read a lot of fiction, but when given the opportunity to do this review in conjunction with a giveaway I jumped at the chance. This story is written by a fellow homestead and preparedness blogger.

If you would like to watch my video review of this book you can do so below.

Ever wondered what the world might look like if everything connected to the internet were to fail? I had never thought about how fragile the grid and really almost everything else is when it comes to the internet. All it would really take is a super computer virus and our way of life could change dramatically. Now add a major catastrophe occurring in several major metropolitan areas.

This book follows the hero Jimmy as he realizes that his entire world has just changed because of a super computer virus. Jimmy is a blue collar guy and a military veteran. Jimmy runs into several challenges while trying to make is way to his bug out location. Once there he thinks he is just going to try to make it on his own. His outlook on this changes dramatically. I enjoy seeing Jimmy evolve and change in his new world and I think you will too.

How do you think you would respond? Do you think you could make it as a lone wolf? How would the rebuilding of society begin? How would the governments of the world respond?

I like the fact that the book makes it clear that in a society changing event foraging and gardening are going to just be a given. No one can build a future on their own. The best a lone wolf can hope for is to survive. Building a community then quickly having a sense of home and family. I think that part of this book is the most realistic I have read. Good people will come together for their mutual benefit.

This book is a work of fiction, but you can use fiction to help learn about yourself and how you might respond. 

Even if you are not into post apocalyptic fiction, you could still enjoy this book. Not very graphic when it comes to violence which is good if you want to use this book to start a conversation with younger teens. A little action, adventure, and even just a bit of clean romance thrown in to round it all out. This book talks about building community and dealing with challenges that could occur. Very little profanity and no sex or nudity. That is a big deal to me. This would be an excellent book to share with older children as a discussion starter.

Now to the giveaway. Just leave a comment on this blog and a winner will be selected on February 9th 2015. I will be giving someone a gift on my birthday. How much more simple could we make it? I hope you win.

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Let the Buyer and Seller Beware

Since the very beginning of wide spread trade there have been those individuals who have tried to take advantage of others. It doesn't matter what industry, there are unscrupulous characters that try to ripoff everyone they can. In the old west the least trusted people were horse traders. Some were decent, honest folks who were just trying to make a living, others would do all they could to maximize their profit at the expense of others. One of these old crooks might sell a horse that they knew to be lame. They would justify the sale by saying the buyer didn't ask, they still knew they were selling a worthless animal and back then an animal was equipment. To many they still are. 

A more modern day example of the horse trader might be the sleazy used car salesman. Just like the horse traders of old, not all are bad but the bad ones get more talk than the good ones.

One thing that is/was good about dealing with these people was that you always met with them face to face. You had the opportunity to get a feeling for the person. I have met some people that I knew right away, I did not want to deal with them.

Now let's spring forward a couple of decades. Fewer and fewer transactions are taking place in a face to face manner. With the advent of websites like eBay and Amazon the variety of products we can purchase and the ability to price shop has dramatically increased.

Both sites give individuals the opportunity to be both a buyer and a seller. I have bought several things from Amazon but have never sold anything there. I have however bought and sold on eBay. There have been challenges as both a buyer and seller. I have had buyers win an item and not pay, I have had buyers retract bids and even had one buyer request that I cancel their purchase. I sent an item to South Korea. As a buyer I had had items come in damaged and had items not arrive at all. Until lately I have never had a problem that couldn't be worked out through talking. That has changed.

Our youngest daughter decided that she wanted to join the high school band. After trying several instruments she decided she wanted to learn the saxophone. If you didn't know,the sax is one of the most expensive instruments in a high school band. 

We started looking for her an instrument. Neither my wife nor I know anything about a sax. We received a list of name brands from the band director that were of good quality and easy to have repaired. After looking at all of the acceptable brands we found that buying a new instrument ranged in price from around $1,100 to $4,500. That was not an option. The band director suggested we rent one from the dominant supplier of band instruments in northern and central Alabama. They wanted $65.00 a month for 48 months for a used sax. That is $3,120 for a used instrument. They wanted $75.00 a month for a new one which totals $3,600, again no thank you. 

After all of this research we decided to try eBay. We had already checked on getting one tuned or repaired if needed. We were sure we had done our due process. We established our budget and were watching about 6 different saxophones. 

This is where the problems start. When you are watching too many items it is easy to bid on the wrong one. That is exactly what my wife did. My wife is a get it done now type of person. If she feels like there is a deadline that has to be met, this drive increases. She also works nights and because of that her sleep schedule tends to be off during her non work days. She placed the bid while she was tired and only half awake.

Once we realized our mistake we tried to retract the bid. EBay has strict rules on retracting bids. Once the auction goes under a certain number of hours, your time to retract the bid goes down and if you do not hear from the seller in time, it is up to them if they will allow you to retract. The seller did not respond so we purchased the saxophone. The total price was between $200 and $300. A fair price and we expected that we might need to have the instrument repaired. 

The seller chose the cheapest shipping method possible. I swear the pony express was faster. What we received was shipped on the 15th of December. We received a small box on December 31st. Below is the correspondence that ensued with the seller.

I contacted them and asked if they had for some reason shipped the saxophone separately. They informed me that the tracking had stated that the box had been received and that I should look around and find the correct box. I sent them a picture of the box we received, its contents, and a screen shot of the tracking information.

Rather than look at any of the information that I sent, they threatened to file a robbery charge against me. We emailed several times till the seller told me that they would not respond again until I had sent a photo of the correct box, even though I sent them a photo of their label on the box I received.

After all of this I finally asked eBay to step in and rectify the situation. I had to again send photos. Great, no problem. They also requested that I send a scanned statement that I had not received the item that I had purchased. My scanner was broken so I typed up the response as I was directed and tried to send a picture. No good. It had to be in this format and had to be a scanned image. I had to wait till I was at work. I scanned the proclamation and emailed it to eBay. It didn't come from my email address, so it was no good. I scanned the proclamation again, emailed it to myself, downloaded the proclamation and then was able to submit the document. So again another week of fighting to get my money back for something that I never received. 

The good news is that we did get our money back and that I only lost a little hair over it, (not that I had much to lose). I will be a lot more selective about what sellers I bid on their items in the future. During all of this I asked readers from my Facebook page if they had ever had a bad experience while shopping on eBay. I was surprised that there were as many horror stories from sellers as there were from buyers. So how do we avoid dealing with situations like this in the future? Here we go. 

Seller

Most people that sell on eBay do so for the same reasons I did. Ease of entry, wider market, and not too high of fees. All of the suggestions I am going to make for sellers will also apply to good customer service no matter what you do.

1. Provide good descriptions- A good description will help to make sure that there are no misunderstandings. Normally people who do well on eBay have a knack for this, but if you are just getting started, write two or three descriptions and have people read them. They will tell you which one is best. Be as informative as possible. 
2. Communicate- If a buyer is asking a question they are at least interested in what you have to offer. Answering questions makes a person feel like you value their business. This is important.
3. Realize there are Costs of Doing Business- If you start selling on eBay you have fees every time you list and sell an item. The upfront fees are standardized, but the final fees are based on the selling price of the item you have listed. You should take fees into consideration when pricing your items.
4. Some Bidders Don't Pay- When a person places a bid, they have made a promise to buy your item if they are the top bidder. Only one problem- some bidders don't pay. When this happens eBay still takes their cut. You can get it back, but you have to file a request with eBay which takes time and you will still have to relist your item if you still want to sell it.
5. Not Everyone is Out to Rip You Off- When a buyer has a problem they should and normally will reach out to you the seller first. If you want to keep a good rating and provide excellent customer service so people will continue to buy from you, do your best to take care of your customers.
6. Familiarize yourself- Know at least the basics of eBay's Terms of Service, how shipping companies work, and customer protection laws. You cannot get out of these as long as you sell something through their service.

Buyers

As a buyer you are expecting people to be true to their word. This is only right, but there are somethings that will help us not to be disappointed.

1. Be Realistic-To illustrate this point I am going to tell a story... hey it's what I do. I like old clocks. I have searched for them many times, just looking to see what I could find. I came across this old travel clock. It was very inexpensive. Honestly, I think it was less than $1.00. I bid on it and won. Okay, so if it works I have something cool and if it doesn't I only spent $1.00. Shipping wasn't much either. When the clock arrived I opened the box. It looked exactly as it did in the photo, but it didn't work. When it came time to leave feedback all I said was. "It was as I expected." The seller left feedback for me that I was "A wise and well reasoned buyer". 
2. Do Your Research-Check seller ratings. Read the worst and the best ratings. Be sure to reader the ratings from buyers. My ranking includes rating from both buyers and sellers, but you can read ratings from one side only.
3. Don't Bid Impaired-Bidding on an item creates a contractual agreement between the buyer and the seller. If that bid is the highest you have agreed to buy the item and the seller has agreed to sell it to you. If you are overly tired, have taken certain medications, or have been drinking, your judgement could be impaired. No purchase decisions should be made with impaired judgement.
4. Communicate-Yup, this one works both ways. If you have questions ask them. It is better to ask them before the purchase, but sometimes that is just not possible. If you have a problem contact the seller first before taking it to eBay. If you don't they are just going to make you talk to the seller anyway. Most sellers are trying to make an honest living or a little extra money.
5. Give a Benefit of a Doubt-Things happen. Things get broken in shipping, things get lost. All kinds of things can occur. Be courteous and professional, normally the seller will return the favor.
6. KEEP EVERYTHING-If a problem does occur you must make sure that you can prove what you are saying. Do not delete emails and do not throw away boxes. You will have to be able to provide pictures of everything as it was received.
7. Don't be Intimidated-The seller that I was dealing with tried to use intimidation to get me to just deal with the situation. It did not work.
8. Be aware of all deadlines-no matter what platform you are dealing with deadlines are set in stone and cannot be extended. The reason this is the case is to keep people from dragging thing out too long. 
9. Be Willing to Escalate the Claim-There are times people just cannot work things out. When this happens there needs to be a mediator. 

Like I said, we did get our money back, but we still had to find another saxophone. We were able to find a fairly local music shop that had just started offering rent to own band instruments. They are much more affordable than the one we had first contacted and they are close enough to go to if we have problems.

I wish I could share all of the stories that I have read from my Facebook fans and my readers, but I am already very long in this post.

I whish you Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes.

Have you had a bad experience or even a great one? I would love to hear it. Tell us all the story in the comments.

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13 Things We Need to Learn From Our Ancestors

For many of us our parents, grandparents, or even great grandparents knew how to do things about which we have no idea or no desire to learn. While I can see the argument that we have advanced beyond the need of these basic skills, I respectfully disagree. We don't have to leave these skills as they are per say,  but can modify them to fit our modern lives and be all the better for them. I was extremely blessed in that I not only was able to know my grandparents from both sides, but also had 3 great grandmothers that I was able to meet and get to know. My grandparents were children or young teens during the Great Depression. Their memories of that time shaped their entire lives and how they looked at the things they owned. My great grandmothers were all adults during the Great Depression, so they saw things from a different light as well. I loved all of their stories and the lessons they taught. I am going to try to share a few nuggets of wisdom they taught me.

1. The Little Things Matter

I remember one of my great grandmothers telling me a story about how my great grandfather brought home some honey comb one day. He had found a bee tree while he was out in the woods. He cut the tree down and robbed the bees. I don't know how much honey he was able to bring home, but I do remember the look on my great grandmother's face when she talked about the next morning having biscuits with fresh honey. She said it was the best honey she had ever tasted. We take so many thing for granted today that we have lost a lot of joy from a simple surprise.

2. Make Everything Last as Long as You Can

My grandfather used to tell all of us kids that we should be thankful for everything we had. He only got one new pair of shoes a year and that was in the fall before school started. They only wore their shoes to school and to church most times because that would wear them out faster. By the time the next year rolled around those shoes were history, either outgrown or destroyed by use. Half of the summer the boys went barefoot everywhere they went, yup even church. 

Clothes were always patched or repaired until they couldn't be fixed any more. Part of this practice made it all the way to me. I remember wearing pants with patches on the knees. I actually have a couple of pairs right now that could use a patch or two. 

Even after clothing became too far gone to repair they were not thrown away. They would become patches for other clothing, dish cloths, or even rags for use in cleaning or repairing things around the home. It wasn't until there was no use left in the cloth at all that they were thrown away. Talk about re-purposing things, they were masters. 

3. Never Be Wasteful 

I will confess that sometimes when I am putting things into the compost pile or feeding leftovers to the chickens, I feel a little guilty. Even though I know that I am putting those scraps to another use and I know that they are helping our little part of the world be more productive, the fact still stands that we cooked more food than our family ate. 

I don't know if you have ever heard of Jerry Clower, but he tells this story well.

The lesson of never being wasteful does not just apply to food. My grandfather kept every nail, nut, bolt, and screw that he had ever bought. The last thing we always did after working on something was to walk around the area and make sure that we didn't drop anything that could be used in the future. He always had boards or pieces of metal around and most things that we needed to do, we could find the supplies around the barn to get it done without having to run to the hardware store. 

4. Never be Envious 

This may vary from family to family, but once again I remember the stories. When electricity came through our small community one of my great grandmothers talked about going to the only house that had it put in. She talked about the light and how they didn't have to feel around for matches, but she also talked about how worried she was that they would get used to this new thing and not be able to pay their bill. She put off getting electricity for a couple of years before she was willing to pay the 15 cents a month power bill. Yup, 15 cents a month and she was worried that her neighbors wouldn't be able to pay the bill.

5. Be a Reliable Family Member or Friend

I cannot remember any of my great grandmothers driving. Anytime they needed to go anywhere, someone in the family would take them. They never had to worry about being left to fend for themselves. Great grandmother Humphries was so afraid of storms that if she even heard it thunder she would call and have my grandparents come and get her so she could be close to their basement. 

If my parents needed to go somewhere and needed someone to look after me, one of them were always available. I cannot tell you how many times I have played with a set of dominoes that my great grandmother kept on top of her cabinet. 

6. Pitch in and Help

Every late summer and early fall when the crops started coming in the whole family would converge on my grandparents' house. This was especially true when the sweet corn was coming in. All of the men and boys would be in the field pulling corn till it was all gathered. Then we would pull the trailer up to the side of the house and we would start shucking the ears of corn. As soon as there were a couple of pans shucked my great grandmothers would start silking the corn. Then it would go to the younger ladies to cook and cut the corn. Everyone, and I do mean everyone had a job. Even the small children would pick up the shucks and throw them to the cows. It was a great system and everyone was working for the benefit of everyone.

7. Be Content

My great grandparents never had a lot. They didn't have fine china, they didn't have fancy cloths, heck they didn't even have a car, but they were happy. I remember when one of my great grandmothers moved out of her old house and into a single wide trailer. She didn't complain about not having as much room, in fact the only thing that I remember her saying was how much easier it was to heat and how thankful she was for an air conditioner.

8. Work Your Garden

My Great Grandmother Carter worked in her garden until the year she died. She had the most beautiful roses that I have ever seen. She just knew what and how to do to make them shine. All three of my great grandmothers had something outside that was their passion. One was her pear tree and the blackberries, one her roses and vegetable garden. The other was a vegetable garden and fruit trees, primarily a massive fig tree. All three lived into their 90's and all three stayed active in both body and mind. Working a garden is not only healthy and light exercise it is also very therapeutic. 

9. Have Redundancies

Here is a statement I remember, but I cannot remember who said it,

"Just because you have city water doesn't mean you fill up your well."

For many this statement may not make much sense so I will try to explain. Our little community didn't get city water, or water from a utilities company until I was a child. When the water lines came through the utilities company of course tried to convince everyone that they needed to abandon their wells and be tied to the lines. Lots of people did just that. They capped or filled their wells and were hooked onto the system. There were a few though that refused outright to be on city water. There were others like my grandparents that hooked up to city water, but kept their well and just re plumbed their system so that the well water went were they wanted it to. One year there was a major problem with the water system and the community went without water for a couple of days. Well most of the community did. Those that were either still on the well or still had the well as back up went on as if nothing had happened.

If you will think about it every old country home had oil lamps and a variety of things that enabled them to get through whatever the world threw at them. This is still a great idea for today.

10. Be Willing to Barter and Trade

My great, great grandfather was a self taught country doctor. We still have a couple of books that he studied from and even have his ledger. Paper money is a fairly new creation and it really only serves those who have it. In my ancestor's ledger you can see that he was paid with a pig, chickens, even getting to pick up a gallon of mild once a week for a year. He served everyone in his community without regards of their ability to pay with money. These people his friends and neighbors paid him with whatever they had. Some even paid him in labor on his own farm. Just think about how much better a world it would be if we were not so fixated on currency and paid more attention to the things that have true value no matter what were to happen to the economy of stock market.

11. Pay Attention to Nature

My grandfather could tell you hours in advance when it was going to rain, when it was going to be hot, dry, or cold. He would predict with as good accuracy as the weatherman what the winter or summer would be like. How did he do it? He knew that nature knows the weather patterns long before we do. He had learned over the years and listening to those who were much older than him what things meant. The way animals and plants act will tell you a little about what to expect from the weather.

12. Know as Many Skills as Possible

My grandmother could sew clothes, cook and incredible meal, and shoot a crow in the field. Everyone knew multiple skills. Very few people specialized. There was a good reason for this. When something broke down you couldn't just call a repairman. You had to do as much as you could for yourself.

13. Always Be Thankful

It is so easy to get wrapped up in whatever is happening at the moment, but we must take time to be thankful for all of the blessings in our lives. I remember my grandfather talking about a Christmas where all they received as a gift was a nickle's worth of hard candy split by 6 children and an orange each. That was one of his favorite Christmases and he told that story often.

I remember my one of my great grandmothers being so happy every time we came over and we did so fairly often. Saying the blessing over the meal was not optional and after you reached a certain age you were not allowed to just recite some generic prayer.

I do not know if my dad started this or not, but it has left an impact on me that I will never forget. Every time we would plant the garden as the first seeds hit the ground he would say "We sow in hope and we will reap in joy". Think about that for a moment. There are few things that illustrate faith better than the sowing of seeds. Honestly, everything we do should be done in hope and we will receive our reward with joy.

I wish you all Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

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Affiliate Link Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive compensation for links, endorsements, testimonials, or recommendations for any products mentioned on this blog. Any time you use one of our links for Amazon, if you purchase something The Rural Economist receives a small commission and it doesn't cost you any more. Even if you do not purchase the items I list. In this way you will help support us trying to teach people about self reliance and homesteading. Thanks for your consideration.