The Bear Ridge Project - Planning and Planting

Christopher “BigBear” Eastin was an average I.T. worker who spent most of his life climbing up and down the corporate ladder. Too many bills, too many rules, and not enough vacation. After his second lay-off, he knew his life needed a new direction. He traded in his overpriced condo, SUV and BlackBerry and headed to the deserted mountains of Southern Colorado. No longer would his future be bound by the rules and instability of the broader consumer culture.

The Bear Ridge Project is the true story of Big Bear’s life at Bear Ridge, chronicling his struggles and triumphs. From wicked winters to sweltering summers, murders and midnight shot-gun blasts, The Bear Ridge Project is a four-part series taking you on the real life journey of survival homesteading in America today.

Planning and Planting is the first volume in the four part The Bear Ridge Project. From planning a homestead to raising food, Big Bear uncovers the many problems encountered when moving from mainstream society to a self-sustaining existence.

Whether you want to make off-grid living your goal, or you just want to see how the other “other half” lives, enter into the world of survival as you join in the adventures at Bear Ridge.

• Paperback: 237 pages / 10 page photo section
• Publisher: Survival Press
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1466333839
• ISBN-13: 978-1466333833
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches

Some of the topics explored include; land selection, local resources, solar/wind power, crop choice, livestock decisions and the day-to-day issues faced living off-gird in the middle of nowhere.

Preorder your copy of The Bear Ridge Project, Planning and Planting today for $14.99.

Preorder a personally autographed copy of The Bear Ridge Project, Planning and Planting for $24.99.

Both products will ship the week of December 26th, 2011. I would like to thank everyone for the overwhelming support I have received while writing this book. Thank You!

The Home Survivalist's Handbook - Now Available Through Amazon

A great survival guide for people living in the city. Violent storms driven by global climate change and Americas crumbling infrastructure are two major problems faced by our country. When the lights go out you don’t want to be at the mercy of government aid or local faith organizations! The Home Survivalists Handbook is a great guide with practical advice for surviving any emergency from the comfort and safety of your own home.

The Home Survivalist's Handbook is now available through Amazon as well as Kindle!

Sometimes “gettin’ the hell outta Dodge” just isn’t an option. Finally, a survival guide for the average Joe or Jane. The Home Survivalist’s Handbook is designed to help urbanites hold down the fort during a crisis, so that they can get back to life when things return to normal. This practical, concise, well-structured and easy to read guide provides simple solutions to making your home prepared for any disaster, small or large, that may arise. The Home Survivalist’s Handbook will help you and yours through short-term and long-term crisis. From a week without water to a complete breakdown in society’s infrastructure, you’ll be ready for most any event. The Home Survivalist’s Handbook is a must have in any house or apartment.

Features: survival scenarios, real life examples, easy to use check-lists, and survival tips for every household.

The Home Survivalist's Handbook is an informative guide for anyone who loves city living but wants to be prepared for anything nature or man throws their way!

The Home Survivalist's Handbook - Available Now!

If you like my practical survival advice here at the Bear Ridge Project and enjoy my daily posts over at the Bear Ridge Trading Post, you'll love my first book. I wrote the The Home Survivalist's Handbook with the unique survival problems faced by city dwellers in mind.

Sometimes "gettin' the hell outta Dodge" just isn't an option. Finally, a survival guide for the average Joe or Jane. The Home Survivalist’s Handbook is designed to help urbanites hold down the fort during a crisis, so that they can get back to life when things return to normal. This practical, concise, well-structured and easy to read guide provides simple solutions to making your home prepared for any disaster, small or large, that may arise. The Home Survivalist’s Handbook will help you and yours through short-term and long-term crisis. From a week without water to a complete breakdown in society’s infrastructure, you’ll be ready for most any event. The Home Survivalist’s Handbook is a must have in any house or apartment.

JUST $19.95! Includes FREE shipping and handling! (Allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.)

PLACE YOUR ORDER TODAY!

Check out The Home Survivalist's Handbook website for more information.

We just finished! A lot of time and effort has gone into making sure the The Home Survivalist's Handbook is a realistic guide for people living in apartments and homes inside the city limits.

I Shot A Really Big Gun Today

Last night was the first night I didn't need any heat.

Day started out fairly uneventful. Ran to town to get some roofing nails with Axel saw Dave and Bee outside the hardware store and we visited for a while. They have been down here for about 3 weeks now and love it. Just had their well put in 270 feet is the depth. Anyway they will do fine if they don't kill each other in their 10 x 12 cabin!

Got back did some roofing work and put down the cheap carpet I picked up yesterday in Colorado Springs. It is that indoor outdoor stuff and I put it on the decks. The dogs love it and it absorbs heat. I have to run a line of staples around the outside to keep the wind from taking it.

Ran down to the Hermits place early afternoon to pick up my two 104 gallon collapsible rain barrels that UPS had just delivered. He actually has one of those fancy government registered addresses where things can be delivered. Plan on putting the barrels on either end of the cabin to catch the gutter run off. That is a dedicated 208 gallons of water for the chickens and garden. If they work out I may grab a couple more cause I think they would make great heat sinks this winter. Now we just need rain. Last May was cold and rainy the entire month but this year nada. Not that I am complaining but I need the water.

Chickens are laying again. I have no chicks...that damn rooster may be firing blanks. I think their estrogen had to level back out from brooding before they would start laying. Fixed a couple for breakfast and honestly didn't enjoy them. Way to many eggs this winter and I think I am sick of them. Plenty of people to give them too.

Ruby had her first visit from Aunt Rose last week and I can tell you that it was one of the most horrible experiences of my life. Had to cover everything in plastic. I am not mentally equipped to deal with this type of problem. I feel bad yelling at her "Dammit Ruby stop dripping on the good couch" she just looks at me like I am stupid. I thought about a diaper but couldn't bring myself to get close to the thing.

She is going in to the vet next Tuesday, I am putting a stop to this nonsense. I was actually going to have her spayed last fall but the vet was called out on an emergency and I never rescheduled. I may be traumatized for life over this. At least she didn't start this when we were cabin bound for 3 months.

So I was out walking the dogs and kept hearing this cannon going off. Now this was not a regular rifle or shotgun it was a huge deep boom like I have never heard before. I went to investigate. Ended up over at the Hermits. He was standing in his driveway looking through these binoculars at the mesa Ken, a new neighbor in the valley, was laying on the ground with this huge gun pointed at the mesa. Of course I wandered up.

Ken just got out of the Marines where he was a competitive sharp shooter and now is building a place over on the mesa above the lake. He was sighting this gun on a rock some 1700 yards away at the top of the mesa. It is a big gun I can't remember what exactly but 50 caliber like. It was one of those big guns with legs. When he shot the it you could see the concussion wave shoot out in a circular pattern from the gun.

Ken asked me if I wanted to shoot the thing, he said it was easy to shoot and didn't have much of a kick. I laid down behind the beast and sighted a rock on the side of the mesa near the top. Now I am not accustom to shooting from this position or firing a cannon so when I pulled the trigger I dropped my head slightly and that with the kick smacked the scope back into my forehead. Let me tell you that my idea of a kick and a Marine sharpshooters idea of a kick are not the same.

Now I have this half moon imprint on the fat chunk between my eyebrows...well worth it...but I think I missed the mesa.

After much thought I have decided that the best way to defend yourself against a sharpshooter is to sneak up on them while they are sighting their gun and club them with your 22.

It was a fun day.

Long Hard Winter

Three months cooped up in the cabin with limited internet access and broken truck. Let me tell you it was a long hard winter. Although I did learn alot about myself and the difficulties of true self reliance and isolation.

All Ok

Thanks for the concern and I am fine. I am working on a couple of other projects that are occupying most of my brain. I will get back to blogging here soon.

Thanks Big Bear

Coyote

I can usually tell when there are predators around the house. My oldest dog Axel does this thing where he covers his pee with snow or dirt when something bad is in the woods. Well last night and this morning not only was he covering his pee but he was following Conway and Ruby around burying their urine.

About 2 this afternoon the dogs started barking like crazy. I figured it was a deer. This coyote was standing between the front door and the truck, about 10 feet from the house. The dogs were raging but the coyote just stood there looking at them. When I started yelling the gray devil turned and trotted off down the driveway not a care in the world.

This worries me somewhat. The coyote should have taken off when the dogs first started barking and especially when I started yelling. It is possible that he is really hungry or maybe sick. Need to keep my eyes open.

The People Are Irrelevant

The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.

By a 5-4 vote, the court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.

Unlimited corporate spending on campaigns means the government is up for sale and that the law itself will be bought and sold. It would be political bribery on the largest scale imaginable. This issue transcends partisan political arguments. We cannot have a government that is bought and paid for by huge multinational corporations.

The Supreme Court ruling mandates that the American people push an Amendment to the United States Constitution removing person-hood from corporations or completely submit to the Corporate/Government complex.

Missing My Guns

I am not a violent person nor do I ever really have violent thoughts that being said...

I Had a scary dream last night. I was over at the lake ice fishing it was dark. A couple fishing buddies saw this guy walk by and warned me about him. They said he was crazy. I get back to the cabin and head to bed. I noticed a truck go by real slow. It turned around at the end of the road and drives back past. I just figured it was kids out joyriding.

A few minutes later the crazy guy I had seen at the lake kicked in the door and starts towards the bed. The dogs were out back for some reason. Jumping out of bed I grab my practice rifle, a little semi automatic .22, which was a couple of steps from me. As the crazy guy is walking towards me I bring it up, cock it and pull the trigger...click...nothing happens.

Reaching me he pushes the gun aside and walks past. I swing around and cock the gun while pointing it at him. He laughs and says the gun ain't loaded then grabs the barrel and puts it to his throat. I pull the trigger and like before nothing happens. He is laughing hysterically now saying he will kill me for stealing his woman and that god is protecting him. With the barrel against his throat I cocked the little .22 once more and pulled the trigger. The gun fires knocking him backwards he is laying on the floor gasping with a small red hole in his throat. I empty the magazine into his head. Then wake up.

Strange thing, I always keep Mossberg 500 Tactical shotgun within arms reach of the bed but a few days back, after some target practice, I stored it with my other guns. I also keep a small .22 pistol on the night stand but placed it on top of the shelves next to my bed after practice. Subconsciously I must have been worried about the zombie bikers coming to call.  The pistol is back on the night stand and the shotgun next to the bed. Both are loaded with a round in the chambered ready to go.

I never have really thought about having to shoot someone. I could do it but honestly the only thing I have ever killed was that 20 foot rattlesnake last summer that was trying to wrap around the house. Four shots it took to kill that monster. Couple of times I had to fire a few rounds into the air to scare the bears away from the compost pile and once I used it to run off some coyotes but that's about it.

I started keeping the gun by the bed because I worried about a bear breaking in at night. I was already in the habit when we had the weirdness last year with the people disappearing. It is just odd that my mind would conjure up such strange imagery to remind me that the gun goes next to the bed. 

Local Banking Local Currency

After posting record profits and issue massive bonus in the banking industry for 2009 the American Bankers Association said today that if Obama imposes a fee on banks to recoup the bailout cost the banks will stop lending.

I say fine.

It is time for each state to create a state run bank that actually serves the needs of the public not massive corporate profits and bonuses for its executives. Nebraska has a state ran bank and guess what...the people of Nebraska are still able to get loans and the state is in the best economic health in the nation with the lowest unemployment rate. The model obviously works.

Take it one step further. The states should start issuing their own currency which is perfectly legal. Local currencies help keep the money in the state stimulating local economies and building local business. Many American communities issue local currency for just this purpose. Local merchants simply need to sign onto the program and accept the local money usually discounting products purchased with the local currency or better charge a premium on goods bought with the unstable U.S. dollar.

State authorized and controlled localized currency would cut the strangle hold that the privately owned Federal Reserve has on our economy and greatly reduce their influence over our elected leaders. It also reigns in the "to big to fail" banks that trashed the American economy in the first place.

If the Federal government is unwilling or unable to fix the problems with out economic system and bring the Federal Reserve under the control of the people then local communities must band together to protect their citizens and ensure their freedom.