A holistic look at surviving the economic uncertainty

The covid lockdowns and vaccine / mask mandates have had a profound effect on society here in NZ.

Since it’s become clear that the government is not interested in what we have to say, the way forward in part, for some of us, is remove any reliance and influence the government has on our lives.

This has led to small groups all over the country organising themselves to be as resilient and self-sufficient as possible. (a parrellel economy)

For those of you who think maybe this is all an bit nuts, I refer you to the picture above (I’m in the lower group)

So, if the ‘great reset’ theories actually turn out to be true, it will be too late organise anything. Below is a list of things to think about, if things go pear shaped. I’m not saying it will, but been prepared isn’t a bad thing.

Food

Food shortages have been happening all over the world lately, it is thought that NZ wont run out of food, rather that it will become more expensive.
There are quite a lot of different idea’s out there about food storage, and what to keep, and how much.
Lots of frozen stuff wont be a good idea if the power goes out for a long time, or if electricity prices go through the roof.

I’ve simply kept a bulk supply of canned food, flour, pasta,  etc.
These may need swapping out and replacing occassionally because of expiry dates on some items.

but don’t overly concerned about expiry dates in general as Adam explains in the link below….

https://snackist.com/2017/05/26/adam-ruins-everything-exposes-the-expiration-dates-myth/

Garden


Just do it already -I think the quickest way to get started is to just hire a rotary hoe for the day, unless you really like using a shovel. There are lots of gardening idea’s out there and I’m no gardener, so I wont go into specifics.

In short, anything you are growing sucessfully is better than nothing. I would tend to say you are better off to grow lots of the same vegetable, because it’s then easier to look after them and tailor to their requirements.
Fruit tree’s are a good option but can take years to mature.

One thing I am doing is composting food scraps in a bucket buried in the lawn to get our soil a bit healthier.

Fertilisers are still available, but it’s possible that NZ will go down the same road as Sri Lanka and ban fertilisers. (with disasterous results)

https://www.dailymirror.lk/business-news/Organic-fertiliser-pivot-continues-to-send-shockwaves-through-agriculture-sector/273-245246

Cash


If there is a financial collapse, cash could be king, especially if electronic transactions don’t work and banks won’t allow you to withdraw your own money.

A reserve supply of cash in hand would be a good idea.

If cash ever becomes worthless due to hyper-inflation (eg Zimbabwe), tradeable commodities or silver could be a good alternative.

Water


An average person needs 3-4 litres a day.
I have about 40 litres of fresh water available via the toilet cistern and a few other containers.

I’m also collecting rain water in a rather small 200 litre tank.
If I need more storage I have 3 rubbish bins, a kayak and a bath for a total of 900 litres.
If I’m running short of water, there is a creek about 2km away.

As an aside, there is also 180 litres in the hot water cylinder, but this isn’t drinkable due to the bugs in there.

Power


An assumption I’ve made here is that power could go out for a long time, so I need to run the fridge off a generator a few hours everyday, until I’ve used up all the frozen stuff. I brought a generator to run the fridge, and 20 ltr of petrol to run the fridge a few hours a day.

As luck would have it, I’ve always had a passing interest in solar energy, so I have a 12V system setup which is big enough to run a few lights, USB chargers, etc

Cooking / Heat


Our fireplace works ok for cooking and heating water.
A BBQ will work as well, but getting fuel (gas) could be a problem in the long run.
Another option is to simply have a makeshift campfire/brazier outside and a good solid saucepan.
Old pallets can be found in industrial area’s if wood gets a bit scarce.

Transport


Petrol could get scarce and expensive. We already have small cars, and a few small motorcycles, so we are optimised as much as we can here.
Electric cars will need power (lots) to recharge, so I don’t think these are a good idea.

Communications


Worse case scenario is no internet or cell phone coverage. For us older folk it’s easy to adjust to this (just like the old days)
Our local group already has preparations for this eventuality.
Other groups have invested in C.B. radio’s or similar.

Entertainment


If you have kids, you need to consider keeping them occupied.
Set aside Board games, packs of cards for a rainy days, and skateboards, scooters, soccer balls, etc.

Epilogue


If it turns out I actually am nuts, and nothing bad happens, all I need to do is reinstate the lawn, and sell off the generator, water tank, etc.

That about covers it I think.

Guest post -70% of NZ’s covid deaths were boosted (a third jab)

Shared from the BFD https://thebfd.co.nz/2022/09/21/70-of-nzs-covid-deaths-were-boosted/

Jacinda Ardern famously stated that if you were vaccinated and boosted, “You won’t get sick, and you won’t die.” She also said that Covid was a disease of the unvaccinated and the virus was literally hunting them down. But the latest figures from the Ministry of Health show that neither of those statements was even remotely true, and that 70 per cent of all Covid deaths are people who were boosted.

Just a reminder, in case you’ve forgotten Ardern’s lies:

Cam Slater on Twitter: “#ledbydonkeys” / Twitter

“Safe and effective,” she said, again and again. I wonder how many of those dead thought about what she said as they lay dying.

I wonder if it is called a booster because it boosts your chances of dying.

What angers me is that none of this should have been a surprise to anyone had our politicians and our media even bothered to watch and report what is happening around the world.

New Zealand has been a laggard right the way through this whole episode. Now we are playing catch-up and the future does not look at all positive.

Undertakers are experiencing a rush of business with Australians dying in abnormally high numbers in a ‘worrying’ trend doctors can’t explain. 

Martin Masson, who is managing director of Tribute Funeral Services in the western Melbourne suburb of Ravenhall, said there is no shortage of work for him and others in the industry as official figures confirm Aussies are dying at a higher rate in 2022.

“We’ve been consistently busy now since the first of this year,” Mr Masson told Daily Mail Australia. 

“We have certainly seen an increase in the need for our services as have done a lot of other directors.”

Mr Masson believed more working age Australians are dying but doesn’t have specific statistics to back this.  

“We certainly have seen a distinct shift back to people in their 60s, 50s and even late or mid 40s and even younger,” he said. 

Daily Mail

Gee, what did we do differently for the past two years? Could it be…? Maybe the ‘experts’ will know?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) confirms Australians have been dying at rate higher than normal this year.

When mortality rates climb above historical averages, without being explicable by having an ageing population, they are termed ‘excess deaths’.  

“There has been excess mortality recorded in 2022 across all months, with both the number of deaths and the rate of death generally higher than historical averages,” an ABS spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

“In May, there were 16,124 deaths, which is 13.5 per cent higher than the average of deaths we would normally see occurring in May (14,202).”

Covid was a substantial proportion of those deaths with 862 deaths “directly attributable to the virus in May”.

However, there were also more than the expected number of deaths from dementia, diabetes and ischaemic heart diseases.

Daily Mail

It’s like they are all putting their fingers in their ears and screaming lalalala…no idea what is causing this.

Peak doctors’ body the Australian Medical Association (AMA) told Daily Mail Australia it was ‘worrying’ that deaths are climbing and it reflected what is being seen overseas. 

“We have seen the ABS statistics that mirror a worrying trend in other countries like the UK,” AMA President Professor Steve Robson said.

Britain has seen a 10 per cent increase above what would be the expected number of deaths since April. 

The main causes have been cited as circulatory diseases and diabetes. 

Prof Robson said it was unclear what was driving the excess deaths in Australia.  

“There needs to be some research into why this is happening,” he said.

Daily Mail

You’d think they’d realise that the ONLY thing different from previous years was the mass injection of people with what is increasingly looking like a dreadful and often fatal unproven medicine.

It’s like these dolts have forgotten what Occam’s Razor is.

New Zealanders will start to realise this soon too. It’s coming, as sure as night follows day. By the middle of next year we too will have excess deaths increasing alarmingly.

Then the blame game will start. It will be brutal and it will be harsh. Labour will get pasted and National should too. I’m especially looking at Chris “Get Boosted” Bishop. I’ve saved all his tweets and next year I will remind him that he is just as culpable for the carnage that vaccines have caused.

No wonder ‘experts’ are quietly resigning and shuffling off to retirement. Politicians are far more shameless and infected with astonishing narcissism: they won’t quit, they’ll have to be dragged from office.

We absolutely must have a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Labour Government’s $60 billion Covid response and action. Only then can we begin to understand how 92% of the population lost their minds and allowed the other 8% to be treated like they were worse than child rapists.

 

An update on where I’m at

The covid thing is still a political thing here in NZ these days, and there are still those unthinking types out there wearing a mask for no good reason whatsoever.

Some are still scared, others are just virtue signallers.

The mask/vaccine are still been promoted on TV/Radio, newspapers, etc, prolonging the hysteria.

Their latest ad…, just another reason we don’t watch TV or listen to the radio anymore…

We now homeschool our kids, as this is by far the best practical solution to keep them out of harms way and keep their education going.

homeschool does have a few disadvantages though.

Social isolation is one disadvantage which slowly becomes more obvious over time.

One solution to this is to find or start a teenage sports/ picnic group
We did this over the summer for all the unvaccinated kids in the area that had got mandated out of sports, social events, etc at a time when all the schools were basically closed. The group is still is still going and the number of people dropped off a bit when the mandates went, but we are carrying on regardless, least the mandates come back…
Another solution is to get them out to any social event you can with likeminded parents.

The other major disadvantage is they miss out on practical lab and workshop classes.
We are working around this by getting our kids into classes around the country. For example, a Photography camp, or a Chemistry block course been run in another town, etc

The kids lives are now mostly back to normal. They are back doing volunteer work at a local charity, (which they love doing), and the Girl Guides have relaxed their rules so my kids can participate again in person, rather than a zoom call.

The kids have moved on from playing in the local orchestra band and their old soccer team wont see them again.
I think it just gives them a bad vibe these days, because of how they were treated.

On the work front, the mandates are gone and no one has cared about masks for ages. The last two years have have been stressful for most of us though, and now that inflation is starting to bite, it has caused the union to get involved with industrial action at work.

At this point, we don’t know if this ‘plandemic’ thing is really over, or if it’s a lull in the storm. Our Government seems to love having an ’emergency’ to respond to, which leds some of us think they tend to create them.

The thinking with a lot of us, is that since you can’t rely on anything the government can get it’s hands on, it would be pragmatic to organise, prepare, and plan accordingly to negate any risk.
(at some point I’ll do a post on this)