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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

My Magic Jack, it’s been a year

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I received my Magic Jack, for those who don’t know about this device, it’s an internet phone service, they send you a USB memory stick with a few extras, you plug this into your computer and then you plug your telephone into the other end. After a bit of a setup (it’s pretty simple), you pick out a phone number and viola, you have phone service anywhere you have a broadband connection and a computer. Unfortunately MJ does not play well with satellite internet service, other than that, you should be good to go...



Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.off-grid.net/2009/04/21/my-magic-jack-its-been-a-year/



To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

Thanks for visiting, Please leave all comments on the Off-Grid site or the EarthPower site instead of here, thanks!
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I Feel Honored- I Think...


I'm not sure exactly what to think, someone from Lockheed looking at my site, actually this is from my other site, the technical off grid site that isn't really up and running yet, it's almost ready to go. They might have visited here too, I just didn't catch it in time so I don't know for sure if they did visit here or not, everything from that date has already rolled off the tracker page. If they know about that blog, then they know about this one too.

My Dad retired from Lockheed in Fort Worth, TX, he built F-16s, of course the majority of time he worked there, it was General Dynamics, aka GD. We were (and still are) pretty proud of what he did, working on the machinery that protects us and our allies.

So, I have to wonder about this one, someone on their lunch break, a bored employee working their way around the internet and found my blog? Or was this possibly an official visit? Lockheed isn't exactly the government, but their contracts are with the government, so they are definitely in uncle big bro's pocket. Can't imagine what they would want with my site, I hope it was just an employee wanting to learn about living off grid and used a company computer to do their surfing.

Perhaps I'm just making much ado about nothing, but the visit DID happen, I have proof, I just don't know in what capacity.



To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Find The Energy Thief In Your House

OK, you are sitting in your home, you have replaced all of your incandescent light bulbs with more energy efficient bulbs, you have added more insulation to your home, you have double pane windows, you have caulked up every crack and crevice, you lower the thermostat in the winter and raise it in the summer, you have purchased energy efficient appliances, so now, is there anything else you can do to use less energy and save money?

Yes there is!...



Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.off-grid.net/2009/04/20/save-energy-now-find-the-energy-thieves-in-your-home/


To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

Thanks for visiting, Please leave all comments on the Off-Grid site or the EarthPower site instead of here, thanks!
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Saturday, April 18, 2009

Pump-N-Seal on eBay

Don't have enough time to write much about this, I found a Pump-n-Seal on eBay (I keep an eye out for these types of things), it seems like a pretty good deal, the starting price is $25 (with free shipping), it includes the Pump-n-Seal unit, tab-cheks, and the Bowl-Seal, everything is new, I'm not associated with this listing in any way, I'm just passing on what I am finding.

Here is the link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180347775645&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

It ends on April 22, as of now, there are no bids, I expect that to change. (EDIT it now has bids)

This is the same sealer I use and love. Check it out, it's not often found on eBay.

I wrote about this here:
http://wretha.blogspot.com/2008/11/as-seen-on-tv.html


To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
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Monday, April 13, 2009

Join the NRA For Free

This just in from Bruce over at http://www.internet-grocer.net:

Sitting on the fence? Wish you could afford to join the NRA to help send a message and preserve your freedoms?

If you are not an NRA member, please take advantage of this FREE offer!!!
If you ARE an NRA member, please pass this along to your friends. https://www.nrahq.org/nrabonus/

The link contains two offers.

You may select the free 1 year NRA membership, no strings attached, offer. OR
You may select from discounted rates on other term memberships.

2 year - $25
3 year - $50
5 year- $100
Life - $500

We can expect assaults on our freedom as never before. We need to greatly expand the NRA so that it can continue to serve effectively as the stalwart vanguard of our Second Amendment rights.

DO THIS NOW!!


To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
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Preppers In The Paper

We do live in extreme times and it seems to be getting worse. Today I received an email contained a link to a Fort Worth (Texas) newspaper, they wrote an article about modern day survivalists, it included a blurb about Bruce Hopkins, the owner of http://www.internet-grocer.net/. Of course the article contained more, and I am conflicted about its contents...



Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.off-grid.net/2009/04/09/preppers-in-the-paper/



To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
Thanks for visiting, Please leave all comments on the Off-Grid site or the EarthPower site instead of here, thanks!
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Saturday, April 11, 2009

Dreaming...

Ahhhh, decisions, decisions... I still haven't located my digital camera, I know I have it packed away in a box that is in the middle of a pile of boxes that is sitting outside, wrapped in heavy builder's plastic and wire, it is battened down against the sun, wind, dust, rain and hopefully animals. The problem is, each time we have disassembled this package to get things out, it is nearly impossible to put things back, the plastic is becoming more and more brittle, things get disturbed and the boxes become less able to protect our stuff. We have done this once or twice in the time we have been here, the next time we break into the package needs to be the last time. We will need a place to put all of this stuff because I don't think we will be able to leave pack it back up and leave it out again. This means waiting until Bob is finished working on the cabin so that we will have a place to put all of this stuff and get it out of the elements.

I thought I found the box the camera could have been in, I found the accessories for the camera, but not the camera, bummer! So I have been looking for alternatives, I have found a probable replacement. This is an all in one, MP4 player with video (and still) camera. This device would allow me to snap pix and record videos (wiping drool off chin), it also records audio. It has a touch screen viewer so I could see the images and/or videos I take. It is a MP3 music player, MP4 video player, video camera, still camera, and digital audio recorder, it has 8 GB of internal memory, expandable with mini-SD memory (up to 2 GB). Here is the device in question











The thing that is holding me back is the money, now don't get me wrong, the price is really right, it's actually very inexpensive for what it is. In my "old life" I wouldn't think twice about dropping this amount on something like this, but now that I living my new life, well lets just say that it might take me a month to scrape up this much cash. I just emailed the company to ask them for clarification about the frames per second, I expect to hear back from them in a day or so. They have the model listed above, and they have an upgraded model, the difference being the amount of internal memory. While studying the two, I noticed on their site that the 8GB model states that it records 30 FPS for the video, the upgraded 16 GB model states that it records 10 FPS, this makes no sense to me, everything else is the same (except for the memory), I am hoping they made a mistake with the more expensive one and it is really 30 FPS, not the other way around, that is a huge difference for video recording.

Well, you know what they say about wishing for things, "Wish with one hand and sh*t in the other and see which one gets filled quickest"... now, I can't say that is entirely true, I have received and achieved some amazing things, I believe in planting seeds for the future and it has worked for me pretty well, so I'm planting positive seeds now, life is good!

Happy Easter everyone!
Time to get to bed, it's getting late. :)

To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
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Thursday, April 9, 2009

Harbor Freight Coupon

I just received a great coupon for Harbor Freight, there seems to be few restrictions on it other than the date, and you can't use it with other coupons or discounts... so print it out and get it to a HF near you to use! There has to be something you have wanted to get at HF lately, how about them solar panels???












Here is the direct link to the coupon:
http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/common/displayCoupon.do?week=1509&campaign=RetailD&page=coupon1.html&single=true&r=4495_15489&cust=78074039217&keycode=0000

To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
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Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The Rise Of Tyranny and the FDA - video part 2

Here is the second part to that video, download it here

http://frtv.org/images/shows/videos/1726.wmv

Here is the link to the website http://frtv.org/show,189.html


To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
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Monday, April 6, 2009

The Rise Of Tyranny and the FDA

Alma, see the link for the book at the bottom of the article.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is an interesting little video about the FDA and the power they have. What I have seen is these big pharma companies and the FDA do not want to heal or cure us, we are their customers, if they heal/cure us, then they will make less money, possibly go out of business. It's in their best financial interest to keep us sick, they want to TREAT us, not cure us, as long as they treat us, they make money, period. That's why they do their utmost best to try to block any real cures including natural cures or treatments, think I'm kidding? Just try to make a website and make claims about natural CURES, the FDA will come in and shut you down.

I don't know how long this will remain in YouTube, if and when this gets pulled from YouTube, I'll remove the video, but the link to download the video directly from the website should work. This is part one, part two should be available in a few days. Also, I am embedding this video right after I uploaded it, so as of this minute, the video is not processed, I'm hoping that it will show by tomorrow.

Oh well, it turns out that YouTube only allows 10 minute videos, I could embed the direct video, the problem is when I do that, it automatically starts the video, even if I tell it not to, and I find that annoying, so I will not do that to you, click on the direct link below and download it. watch it, it's worth watching.


Here is the direct link for download. http://frtv.org/images/shows/videos/1725.wmv
Here is the link to the website http://frtv.org/show,188.html you might want to check out some of their other programs, very good information!

Here is another interesting link:
http://www.stopfdacensorship.org/ Stop FDA Censorship

Here is a link to the book The Rise of Tyranny, written by Jonathan W. Emord, it's worth checking out.



To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
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Smokes

Stockpiling foods and ammo are what most people think about when pondering the TEOTWAWKI scenario... but there are more things to that will be needed, consider this, even if you don't smoke, there are many other people who do. In the event that things get hard to come by, money gets short, stores close down... whatever the cause, those who smoke will be scrounging around for smokes. So whether or not you smoke, or have a loved one that smokes, these little bits of tobacco, paper and filters will be in short supply and in great demand. This makes them valuable as barter fodder. Perhaps more valuable than our failing cash will be.

I'm about to give away a huge secret, this is something I found just before we moved to our off grid home. We knew that our income would be whittled down to nearly nil, the problem with that is that Bob smokes, there I said it, he hates it, and tries his best to never do it in front of anyone. But he is addicted and is not going to stop any time soon. He has cut back to 1 pack a day, but when you figure up an average price for a pack of cigs run about $5.00, a carton runs close to $50.00, that's still an expensive habit to maintain. Now with the new cig tax, it is even more expensive, and don't expect that to go down any time soon, expect this to continue going up.

I began to research (on line) how to get cheaper cigs, first I checked out the (American) Indian reservations, they have cheaper cigs, but we don't have a reservation nearby. It's possible to buy from the reservation on line, but I wanted an even cheaper source and I was able to find a cheaper, MUCH cheaper source. Contact me via email, state in the email that you are of legal age to purchase cigarettes, I'll send you a list of places where I have purchased cigarettes. I have not had ANY trouble doing this. I will say that the places where I have purchased them, it does take up to a month to actually get them delivered, so plan ahead, don't order and expect to have them the following week. The longest it has taken for me is the last time I ordered, I had to use the bank transfer method of payment and that added an extra week to the delivery time.

Another thing about ordering from this source, just about every time I have ordered, I had to order from a different website, but the cigs came from the same place. It seems that this company has some sort of issue with the merchant accounts (credit card processing), or it could be something else, I am only assuming that is the problem. It seems that they just create a new website, I just follow the link from the one I ordered from last time. I will say that I have been ordering cigs this way for over a year and have NEVER had trouble with them, I have always received my orders, and my credit card/bank card has been just fine. It kinda weirded me out the first time this happened, I went back to the original site where I ordered and they said their credit card processor didn't work, they sent me to another site to order, the package that I received was wrapped the exact same way and came from the same place, now I'm used to it, it doesn't bother me at all. One thing I do, is I use PayPal, they have a deal on their site where you can create a one time use credit card, I try to use this when possible, that way IF anything were to go wrong, that credit card could only be used the one time. But as I said, I have been doing this for over a year and have not had any problems. It's not always possible to use the PayPal credit card option because it's a MasterCard branded card and sometimes the credit card merchant doesn't accept MasterCard, I do wish PayPal could have a Visa option.

Email me, state that you are of legal age to purchase cigarettes, and I'll give you the links where I have purchased and the way to find new sites and how I find the best deals. The cigs that Bob likes are made by Phillip Morris, they are called "Red&Whites", he used to smoke Marlboro Reds, he says that the Red&Whites taste just as good, and the price is right, between 6-8 dollars per carton, plus shipping. That is the one place where they get you is the shipping, they charge 5-7 dollars per carton to ship, no matter what, if you buy 1 carton, they charge you shipping for the one carton, if you buy 3 cartons, they charge you for 3 cartons, but it still comes out cheaper than buying here.

Just a caveat, a legal notice here, you cannot legally resell these cigs here in the USA, because of tax law, if you are caught reselling these, you could go to jail. Now as far as I'm concerned, you can do as you please with your cigs, but Uncle Big Bro has other ideas about this. Smoke em yourself, but don't trade them for goods or services, don't outright sell them (or if you do, don't come looking for me if you get caught). I also don't encourage anyone to start smoking if you don't already smoke, it's a bad habit, it stinks, it is bad for your health in many ways, and it's bad for your pocketbook. I am only offering a cheaper source for buying cigs.

Another option is to buy tobacco seeds and grow your own. I understand that it's pretty easy to grow the plants, you harvest the leaves, dry them, it's the next step that complicates things a bit, you need to cure your tobacco, it's not absolutely necessary, but I understand it makes them more like commercial cigs. One of the best places I found that explains it better than I can is here CLICK HERE. It may be worth the trouble to get additive free tobacco, this way at least you KNOW what went into it.

Here is a link to a site that inspired me to write this, actually I had been considering writing about this subject before, but didn't quite have the nerve to do it until I read this article.
http://srvive.com/?p=199

Email he here
wretha (at) gmail (dot) com

To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/


Wretha

Thanks for visiting!
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