Montello, Nevada bound

This is just a teaser.

2012-02-14T10:28:00.001-06:00

The closer we get to moving, the more prepared we're trying to get. I have begun building solar panels! I bought my first 3 a week ago. My plan is to perfect it and then start making how-to videos with more detail start to finish than I have been able to find on the internet. There's lots of videos of soldering & building frames but not many that go all the way to the battery and further. Go big or go home!

Please let it be...

2012-01-28T10:15:00.002-06:00

Salt Lake, June or July of this year!! Keeping our fingers crossed.

New addition to the family

2011-10-28T12:08:00.003-05:00

Well, after a couple weeks of thinking, I decided to just buy a new Jeep. One that was more beastly and had a lot of the things I was planning to do...already done. Anyone who has Jeeps knows how much money you can dump into them if you're not careful. Made sense to just pay it up front and get a more powerful engine. I will be saying goodbye to Carl (the black one) and selling him next week. We will also be planning to sell Jen's Jeep and get her into a better one soon.

Here's the specs on "Bogart" (Jen names them, don't ask me):
'91 YJ - inline 6 cylinder w/ 150k miles - 4" BDS suspension lift - 35" Bridgestone All-Terrains - new Warn rear axle - slip yolk eliminator - rocker guards - new muffler - new water pump, serp belt, & thermostat - soft top & bikini top, hard & soft doors

So, me and a friend took it out Monday to test it out. We went out on a big creek and did some crawling. At one point we thought we were about to drown it in 4 feet of water but this Jeep just tore it up. We had a foot of water spilling over the door step into the cab. It's a beast! It handled some really big crawling too, including a HUGE boulder that blocked our only exit.

Our plan is to be in Salt Lake City by next summer so we're going to do whatever we have to to make that happen. If we can get there sooner we will. Can't wait!

Some Jeep updates...

2011-10-13T12:51:00.001-05:00

Well, my transmission is on it's way out the door. Lost 5th gear last weekend and it's in the shop right now. I'm gonna pick it up today and find me a rebuilt tranny and install it myself to save money. Looking like it's gonna cost about $600-$700 total. I can live with that.
On the flip-side, Jen's Jeep just got a brand spankin' new Bestop in black that I got on sale with free shipping!

Latest developments...

2011-09-12T22:38:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been crazy busy with my new position at the club. Just this week I worked 76 hours!!! Good thing I'm hourly. Another big development is, we are in the planning process of starting a business with another couple that we're friends with. We have gotten into "juicing" recently and have decided to open a juice bar here where we live. We have a ton of great ideas and we're crunching numbers. It looks to be a very successful venture for all of us. We're not sure where that puts us on the Montello timeline but our plan has not and will not change.

Lies & "The System"

2011-08-16T12:30:00.000-05:00

Each day that passes I research and become more informed. The more informed I become the more restless and guilty I feel. My Montello afterburners are on!

More Jeep and some news...

2011-08-08T17:51:00.002-05:00

Well, I've been quiet I know...lots been goin' on here. We've been working on our finances. Proud to say we've gotten our expenses down from (at the start 2 years ago) $3200 a month, to (currently) around $1000. We plan on shrinking that a lot more. I also just got promoted to management at the country club I work at, only took me 5 months. That'll help even more financially. We're still praying that by next summer we can begin the move to Salt Lake City. We're as anxious as ever. We've gotten our minds set in the right direction, together, and we're focused.
I've been working a lot on the Jeeps to get them in shape, too. I found a guy locally on craigslist who sells Jeep parts cheap and he seems to have what I need when I need it. I had both Jeeps in the shop once in the last month to get some more extensive repairs done. Not too bad on the wallet, either. So, the past 2 days I've been working on Jen's Jeep. Funny how I had my Jeep for a year longer than her and seems like all I do is fix hers up...hmmm! Anyhow, I bought a used black grill $75 from the craigslist guy, we'll call him Eli...cause that's his name. Also got a very good used radiator $80! and used stock unfinished steel front bumper $75 (needs a little patchwork). Good deals all around. He's gonna sell us a nice used soft top and/or hardtop at some point for CHEAP! Here's some pics of the work over the last 2 days. It was a bi**h!

Below is the "new", used grill in black and the old wrecked grill in white.

Below is the "new", used grill in the prime, sand, paint to white process.

Below is the the gutted shot. Like a fish...

Here's the old, "shot" radiator...

Finally, finished product.

I did a lot of small things while I was under the hood too to make adjustments and clean up some issues. Remounted the cold air intake so it all fits better now. I had to change out the lower transmission hoses because the old radiator had threaded fittings while the new one was easy hose & nipple fittings. Lot of cutting and sawing... Had to cut the electrical for the front lights in order to get the old grill off, so I had to rewire all of that as well. Frustrating job but not nearly as frustrating as the last couple jobs. Maybe I can get to MY Jeep soon.

To do: I have to take off the old bumper and mount the new one after I patch up and paint the new one. While I have the old one off I want to take my rust wheel on my grinder to the bumper frame, as you can see in the pic above there's plenty of light rust, and then paint it black. Then I'm going to fab' a plate to cover the horizontal space below the grill. Also need to replace the fenders to get this front end back in shape. That's all for now friends.

Brrrrr...cold air

2011-05-31T00:37:00.001-05:00

Well, we got back from Louisville, KY today. We went to our 2nd annual Abbey Road on the River festival. Post on that to follow...

My dad and I got Jen's Jeep and installed the new cold air intake that came in last week. This should do some good on gas mileage and power. Looks good either way! ;)

p.s. Almost forgot, Jen put her new fitted neoprene seat covers on while I worked on the intake.

This is NOT a Jeep blog...

2011-05-21T23:55:00.002-05:00

Well, we spent another Saturday in the sun working on our Jeeps.
On the list today:
- Change the transmission mount on mine.
- Replace the coolant bottle in hers.
- Fix the soft top/frame on hers.
- Install new sound bar on hers.
- Install new ignition cylinder on hers. (couple nights ago, actually)
Not on the list:
- Completely wipe down transmission and skid plate! (Got some major leakage and build-up)

Well, I got all of that done before the rain came...sorta. We got hit with a 5 or 10 minute storm while we were repairing her soft top frame so we had to rush and get it connected. Her's still has carpet it in, that's why we panicked. If it were mine...business as usual. :) You'll notice in the pictures how much leakage and build-up we had on mine. I had Jen pressure wash the skid plate with Dawn and a scrub brush. There was a good inch of sludge and debris on the top side of it. Even found a penny buried in the muck! HAHA

Compare the old mount to the new mount. Old one was split in half, smashed, and deteriorating. Pretty good amount of wiggle in it. It ran like a totally different Jeep after I installed it!

Don't know why someone trimmed off the plastic around the ignition cylinder opening, must have been a theft at some point. The guy who sold it to us had a machinist friend of his make a little tool that fit in there and you could turn the ignition with it, although it wasn't easy to use...and it looked ghetto!

I'm a little rusty...

2011-05-17T22:59:00.005-05:00

So, one of the more important repairs that Jen's Jeep, named Lucy Sky, \m/*.*\m/ needed was rust removal and repaint around the windshield. This isn't the only rust on the Jeep but most of the rust is in the frame and not the body.

This is an easy fix! Started with a grinder & rust wheel, followed with a coat of bondo & sanding, followed by a rust primer, light sand & single coat of touch-up spray paint. You'll notice a very thin line around the taped edges. Later, ~~Saturday~~ I will lightly sand and re-coat this entire area. I'm also going to spray a protective coating after the last coat of paint. Even with the edge line it looks 100 times better. I'm gonna take that grinder to the frame underneath and then paint it ~~this weekend~~, as well. Can't wait to get this thing on the trails in Tecoma Valley!

El número del Jeep dos

2011-05-17T22:43:00.000-05:00

Well, we bought a Jeep for Jennifer yesterday. One more step towards our dream! Her's is a '94 YJ model. It needs a little bit of work but nothing major. I will be following this post with the first project...

Earthship v1.0

2011-05-10T11:34:00.000-05:00

So here's my first rough sketch of our future Earthship. The scaling is way off, of course, so the depth of the house will not be as long as it appears on paper. Just an idea of how we want it laid out.

Here's a shot of about half (or less than half) of the bottles we have saved so far. I scored a huge load of wine bottles at a wine tasting at the country club I work at. We also have a huge stockpile of beer, liquor, and sauce bottles boxed up in a large storage closet at home. We easily have 1000 bottles saved so far. Just one more piece to the puzzle...

Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.

2011-05-03T22:52:00.000-05:00

I'm homesick for a place I've never been...

Good resource for voluntary simplicity

2011-03-24T23:08:00.003-05:00

I don't know about you but I use stumbleupon for finding really cool new websites. I stumbled on this site the other day and thought it was worth sharing. There's some good info on the bottom tabs and there is a blog set up. This might come in handy for you trying to simplify your exist! Enjoy!

www.livelifesimply.com/simplify.html

Low impact, Hobbit home

2011-03-19T00:45:00.005-05:00

Check out this family living simplistically. Good resources here, too!

www.simondale.net/house/family.htm

Had to post...too funny

2011-03-16T23:58:00.003-05:00

Boy, ain't this the truth. This is pretty funny.

deshoda.com/words/famous-world-ideologies-as-explained-by-references-to-cows/

Thinking Small

2011-03-08T23:22:00.004-06:00

This couple has also inspired us. I've emailed with them and they've got some great ideas and ways of thinking.
earthstar.newlibertyvillage.com/thinkingsmall.htm

10 ways to prepare for a post-oil society

2011-02-24T20:56:00.005-06:00

We better start planning... This is no joke, and you don't hear about it much in the media because 'they' don't want you thinkin' about it.

http://www.eartheasy.com/article_ten_ways_post_oil.htm

Is mass depopulation on its way?

2011-02-24T20:43:00.005-06:00

Some of you might disagree, and I know some who will agree but I believe this to be true. Just remember, this type of stuff has been happening forever all over the world. Money & Power will win the hearts of men and they will no longer be themselves.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/192884-Connecting-the-Dots-Mass-depopulation-on-its-way-and-the-Secret-Team-s-management-of-the-world

Wikileaks hidden agenda? per Alex Jones / Webster Tarpley

2010-12-06T16:58:00.005-06:00

http://dprogram.net/2010/12/06/alex-jones-webster-tarpley-the-hidden-agenda-behind-wikileaks-alex-jones-tv-sunday-edition/

Political Myths

2010-12-05T20:39:00.002-06:00

Original Source: http://www.zcommunications.org/political-myths-we-live-by-by-peter-lach-newinsky

Political Myths WE Live By
By Peter Lach-newinsky

Friday, December 18, 2009
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Whenever most conversations I have these days move around to matters political I often find myself in a quandary. I have the choice of either accepting the tacit assumptions behind the other person's remarks or questions, or else remaining largely silent and trying to change the topic. This is because I don't share the tacit assumptions.

I would classify most of these usually unexamined assumptions as social democratic or liberal. They dominate all corporate media for reasons that will become obvious below. In my view, these prevalent myths of our age do not hold up to rational scrutiny and are a, largely unrecognised, form of mind control. Here is my attempt to list fifteen of them and briefly comment on them from the viewpoint of critical political science and a radically democratic ethics.

1. This is a democratic system (The Democratic Fallacy).

If ‘democracy' means ‘rule by the people', it isn't. It is an oligarchic system of elected political elites tightly enmeshed with the unelected economic elites in industry, state bureaucracy and the media. These, often discordant, elites together make up the ruling class.

2. Democratic parties are run democratically (The Party Fallacy).

Just like any communist party, when it comes to the crunch, the major parties are all run top-down from head office. Power group and faction deals done outside the party meetings decide on key positions. Party executives and apparatchiks hold great internal power. Candidates chosen by the local rank and file, if at all, can be replaced by those chosen by head office when necessary. Party discipline and perceived unity are always placed above open debate and dissent. Even parties that start off with greater grassroots participation end up with oligarchic power structures. The term ‘democratic party' is an oxymoron.

3. Elections are very important and provide real alternatives between parties (The Election Fallacy).

This reduces the core political notion of freedom to the freedom to choose between the two wings of the one pro-capitalist and neo-liberal party. We live in a de facto One Party state. We are left with the freedom to choose which current faction of the ruling political elite will probably be less disastrous.

The key investment decisions are not made by politicians and thus elections are only of secondary importance. (The next four points are simply corollaries of this fallacy.)

4. The key decisions are made in cabinet and parliament after rational debate and in the interest of the common good. (The Parliamentary Fallacy).

Key investment decisions are made behind closed doors by the democratically unaccountable corporate bureaucrats of big business. Key political decisions are made by the top levels of the political executive in close consultation with unelected top bureaucrats and business lobbyists. ‘Revolving doors' between these groups assure their fundamental unity of interest. As in Communist systems, parliaments merely rubber stamp these decisions along party lines. The term ‘parliamentary debate' is also an oxymoron. ‘Question time' is schoolboy-level grandstanding and bullying because it is nothing but a pseudo-event of clashing ‘personalities' designed for the media.

5. The differing personalities of politicians are important things to consider. (The Personalist Fallacy 1).

Politicians with different personalities may set up differing cultural atmospheres and political priorities in non-core areas. These may at times be important. However, personalities make as little difference to the core power/class relations as do gender or race. For ruling elites and democrats alike, politicians are not to be judged by what they may or may not privately be but by what they publicly do or fail to do.

6. When politicians lie and deceive, it is a personal failing. (The Personalist Fallacy 2)

Politicians may be personally honest or dishonest to varying degrees. However, all are systemically caught between meeting popular demands (election time ‘idealism' and ‘hope', polls) and meeting big business and state-systemic demands (post-election time ‘realism'). When they then lie or ‘betray' their popular election promises and their previous ‘idealism' magically and inevitably becomes ‘realistic' and ‘pragmatic', they are in fact simply meeting the demands of the system and its very real power relations. Politicians are necessarily two-faced because they are always serving two masters, the public and the powerful, but in the end only the powerful master is really the master and calls the shots.

7. The planet can be saved by pressuring politicians into developing ‘political will'. (The Lobbying Fallacy)

Persistent and massive grass roots direct action (demonstrations, strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience etc) and lobbying may sometimes change politicians' ‘will' in many non-core areas. When this popular pressure is lessened, this ‘will' will always quickly weaken or backtrack back to systemic ‘realism' (power maintenance). If focussed exclusively on politicians (instead of on big business power and creative self-activity), this lobbying activity will, by definition, sap creative energy, not change the system itself and thus not save the planet.

8. Public opinion is made by the public. (The Public Opinion Fallacy)

It isn't. It is made for the public by a process of selective filtering and re-framing on the part of the owners, managers and employed commentators of the corporate media. Corporate think tanks and PR machines also play important public opinion-forming roles, often behind the scenes. The important ideological and manipulative work of all these ‘pundits' is to keep public discourse within the tight parameters and limited concepts of allowed official discourse. The purpose is to manufacture consent for the decisions and policies of the ruling elites. There is no conspiracy involved here, it is a ‘natural' part of the system and works largely by cultural osmosis and conformity.

9. This might not be a perfect system, but there is no alternative (Margaret Thatcher: ‘TINA'). Democracy and capitalism necessarily go together. Socialism has failed spectacularly. (The TINA Fallacy)

Capitalism and outright terror states are quite compatible (fascism, third world dictatorships). Democratic imperialism has also killed millions of innocent people. ‘Socialism' itself has never been tried anywhere. Despite their labels the Soviet and Chinese systems were/are not socialist in any sense. They were authoritarian forms of state capitalism that have now morphed into more modern forms of McStalinism. Whether still called ‘socialism' or not, the alternative is a radically democratic, both decentralised and globalised society in which economic and local community self-management, solidarity and mutual aid are maximised.

10. Economically, this is a Free Market Society. (The Free Market Fallacy)

There is no free market and never has been, even under the rule of the deregulating, neo-liberal state. A completely free market system would self-destruct in no time. Because it can, by definition, only care for its individual vested interests and not for the good of the whole system, capitalism needs constant saving from itself by the state. The capitalist state has always been there to massively support, gently oversee, subsidize and bail out the capitalist economy in countless ways, not only in times of crisis. Corporate and middle class welfare is actually its main game. The state helps capital privatise the profits and socialise the costs. It provides the physical infrastructure, educational development of the ‘human capital' and picks up the immense social, health and environmental costs of the latter's wrecking balls. All this happens whether the state is neo-liberal or social democratic (Keynesian) in nature.

11. Wars of aggression and military humanitarian interventions are foreign policy mistakes or blunders. (The Mistaken Foreign Policy Fallacy)

They are not mistakes. Official humanitarian aims are pretexts. Initially, they are planned military interventions for geo-strategic, financial, ideological gain or (in Australia's case) as mercenary down payments on alliance insurance policies. The so-called ‘mistakes' or ‘blunders' are usually military and financial over-reaches and misjudgements of popular resistance. Millions of innocent civilians and duped soldiers die or are maimed or displaced in the process.

12. World peace is possible without world social justice. (The Peace Fallacy)

When the rich 20% of the world lay claim to about 80% of the world's resources, leaving the poor 80% with 20% of the resources and billions in poverty, there can be no lasting peace until this exploitative imbalance and historical injustice are redressed.

13. Capitalism can function without growing infinitely. (The Natural Capitalism Fallacy)

When capital ceases growing, it ceases being capital and reverts to being mere money. Capital must accumulate and expand to survive. Nothing like this exists in nature except perhaps certain forms of virus.

14. There can be infinite growth within a finite world. (The Growth Fallacy)

A fallacy obvious to any pre-schooler but not to economists, politicians and their media pundits.

15. Capitalism and this planet are compatible. (The Business as Usual Fallacy)

I rest my case.

The Perfect Storm article

2010-11-30T23:18:00.003-06:00

http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/3651-the-perfect-storm

The Perfect Storm is here

2010-11-30T12:51:00.001-06:00

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.
-- Benito Mussolini
_____________________________
"I hope we shall crush ... in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
--Thomas Jefferson

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864

Insightful quote

2010-10-12T19:24:00.003-05:00

"If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our
servant may prove to be our executioner."
- General Omar N. Bradley (US Army General, WWII, 1939-1945)

My sister shared this with me.

Same 'ol Same 'ol

2010-09-07T21:19:00.000-05:00

Nothing new on the Montello front here. We're just working, trying to get things caught up from my no job hiatus. We are anxious as ever to get out there and we've talked and considered making the move with less money than we originally planned for. It will work either way, just be a little more difficult and take longer to get movin' once we're there if we have less money. We both think it may be worth it, though.

The other idea we had is to find a foreclosure home for cheap, buy it, and flip within the next year. If we plan that out, we could make the money we need quickly. It would also feed my desire to have a project going. I get antsy if I don't have something to build or fix up. We're loving the progress that Geoff & Ellen are making. They are such an inspiration! I honestly couldn't picture their earthbag house turning out the way it has. I was actually a bit skeptical but they're pulling it off and it's gonna be a castle! Of course, they need to get that little one trained up and workin' for them. :)

I hope everyone is doing okay. Keep posting everyone, we ARE reading!