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Sixteen Amazing ways to THRIVE in Tough Times

Save thousands of dollars per year on dental and medical costs, and enjoy freedom of choice http://bit.ly/kpJG, http://bit.ly/yboB, www.deliveringonthepromise.com/gpetrich, or www.everyonebenefits.com/gpetrich, 253-507-9517.

Below are more valuable tips:

1. Save huge $$ on the cost of a home—no mortgage needed. Own a practically indestructible home from pennies to under $10 per square foot, not $100-300 p.s.f. Some of these homes are very quick to build, and can withstand earthquakes, fire, floods and wind. These homes can last for centuries, and can be beautiful, too. (http://www.greenhomebuilding.com, http://www.calearth.org.
2. Buy cheap land, or get it free (www.BillyLand.com, http://govlandauction.com/#finance1, http://www.dirtcheaplots.net/interlachen.htm.  http://www.treas.gov/auctions/treasury/rp/ealprop.shtml These people offer low down & low

monthly payments.

Buy a big parcel of land amongst several investors & split the costs of development (backhoe,

dozer & well-drilling equipment, etc, or pre-sell lots and use that money for development costs.

Note: Cheapest land for sale usually doesn’t have water available. Buy a well-drilling rig, drill your own well, then rent it out (the rig) for $650 per day. You can buy a used or new rig for under $3,000 http://www.hydratek2000.com, www.deeprock.com, or drill manually for about $400 total supplies & equipment cost.  A well driller might charge you more than $8,000 to drill for you, and when you’re done you just have a hole in the ground and, hopefully, some water.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to drill a well drillers would like you to think so, so you won’t compete with them. If you buy the rig, you also have it when you are through and can make great money renting it to others.

     Composting toilets can turn refuse into useable dirt/compost.

      http://enn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet.com.

      Turn your garbage and yard waste into compost: http://www.mastercomposter.com

3. Get off the grid by using solar, wind, etc.: http://www.earth4energy.com, http://www.homeenergyreviews.com,
4. Heat your whole through your floors from (that’s right) your compost pile:  http://www.mail-archive.com/sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg28441.html, 
5. Once you have built your ‘dirt-cheap’ home on a large rural tract of land, teach dirt-cheap house-building classes on your property & charge your students from $500-1,500+each. Your classes can range from 6 to 20 students each, so your gross profits for one class could range from $3,000 to $45,000.
6. Every class you hold will build another building on your property as part of their curriculum. When they are finished, hold another class and repeat the scenario. Start renting out these buildings as storage space, resort lodging, month-to-month rentals, or whatever. If you are afraid of the code, move to a third-world country where they are too poor to establish and enforce all the laws, statues and codes that restrict your freedoms to earn a living, as in

   America

   .
7. Grow your own food in water 2-3x faster than in the ground, even if space is limited. Aquaculture & aquaponics:  www.cropking.com, www.S&Saquafarms,com, University of the Virgin Islands has a yearly 7-day aquaponics course (

   St. Thomas

   (340) 693-1160, (340) 693-2150, St. Croix (340) 692-4158, Sustainable agriculture between fish & plants, http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/aquaponic.pdf, Classes: http://www.growingpower.org/from_the_ground_up!.htm
8. Superfoods: In my book. Raw broccoli is goitrogenic, along with raw cabbage, cauliflower & Brussels sprouts. Yes, soy is very goitrogenic. This means they can actually make you fat if you eat too much, since they knock out the thyroid in many susceptible individuals.  www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=47, www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/crucifers.html,

Blackstrap molasses (very, very rich in B vitamins and a shovelful of minerals, including generous amounts of calcium and magnesium . Blackstrap is great for helping suppress the appetite, cleansing the liver, and building the blood. According to the website http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/molasses.html, It seems to be one of the best home remedies in use according to a long list of recommendations to their site: “…cancerous tumors, fibroid tumors, anxiety, constipation, edema, heart palpitations, anemia, arthritic pain, joint pain, and acne, just to name a few. It has also been reported that molasses turns gray hair back to its original color and is a wonderful skin softener.”

Royal Jelly is terrific brain food (can help boost memory power, hand-eye speed & coordination, and artistry) and helps rebuild exhausted adrenals—making you much more resistant to stress. It is loaded with B vitamins for the brain, nerves & hair, and a heavy, balanced dose of crucial hormones to help keep us young looking and feeling. The queen bee, who is fed royal jelly, grows to be much larger and lives 5-6, while the worker bees only live 35-40 eays. http://www.draperbee.com/info/royaljelly.htm

            Studies indicate the effectiveness of royal jelly for exhaustion, insomnia, anxiety, asthma, etc.

Best prices I have found are from Glory Bee in

Eugene

,

Oregon

. Order the frozen, not the lyophilized (freeze dried.) They will say there is no quality difference, but I have tried both and saw absolutely nothing happen with the lyophilized, and amazing results with the frozen.

www.glorybeefoods.com. Beware of that sold in health food stores which seems to be a good price. They have loaded it up with honey, making it impossible to eat as much as you should. In my opinion, royal jelly and honey don’t taste good together.

My favorite way of eating royal jelly is to add it to a berry juice (such as blueberries, raspberries and cranberries by Ocean Spray—yum.) It seems to make the juice even more delicious. Otherwise, I am not fond of the taste of royal jelly by itself or mixed with other foods. If you are sensitive to niacin, start off with just a little bit of royal jelly, since it is loaded with niacin. Build up slowly.

Dessicated & powdered raw liver is loaded with B-12, which is a crucial component of energy production and weight loss and is almost completely lacking in a vegetarian diet. It is full of the B vitamins of which the Standard American diet (S.A.D.) is devoid. The B vitamins in most supplements can upset the stomach and are difficult to assimilate. Dessicated liver is much more assimilable. It builds muscle in people, even if they aren’t trying to build muscle. Liver also gives us a high level of sustained energy. Years ago a lab test showed rats not fed raw liver died after minutes of swimming, while those fed raw liver were able to swim for hours. www.mikebrownsolutions.com/liver.htm,

Organic cold-pressed rice-bran oil is loaded with over 100 different antioxidants and the most superior form of Vitamin E (tocotrienols, not tocopherols). Megadoses of natural vitamin E taken with natural vitamin A eliminate the worry of vitamin A overdose, www.SwansonVitamins.com

Shark liver oil is loaded with omega-3s and vitamin A. Vitamin A can clear up acne, greatly improve eyesight and rejuvenate the skin, boost the immune system, help certain skin conditions and help fight certain cancers. http://www.cancerchoices.com

According to Wikipedia, Shark liver has been reported useful for healing wounds, sores, irritations of the respiratory tract and the alimentary canal and for lymph node swelling & hemorrhoid creams.

Coconut Oil received a bad rap during the 80’s when the producers of soil and canola oil wanted to launch their products. We have come full circle, and coconut oil is regaining its rightful place as a very healthy oil. Yes, it has saturated fatty acids, but of a kind that are actually good for us. As a matter of fact, coconut oil is a good oil for frying, since it can stand high temperatures without smoking, and it imparts a delicious flavor to foods, contrary to the off flavor of canola. In addition, coconut oil feeds the thyroid gland, and, consequently is an important addition to the diet of anyone wanting to lose weight, since most Americans have under-functioning thyroids: http://products.mercola.com/coconut-oil

Raw Milk has all its enzymes intact. Still has butterfat which is very important in assimilating all the vitamins and minerals from milk. Skimmed milk, without the butterfat, doesn’t make these vital nutrients available. IRaw milk also contains conjugated linoleic acid, which is very helpful in burning fat. Both my mother and I lost 15+ pounds weight while on a raw-milk regimen for a couple of weeks. The CLA may have had a lot to do with our easy weight loss. http://articles.mercola.com

Seaweed is a skin miracle. It grew back about 60 patches of skin on my back that were burned away by multiple x-rays. The Asians claim it is what makes their skin so thick, supple and wrinkle resistant. After a two-week binge on seaweed my forehead skin tripled in thickness. Seaweed embodies a great deal of the sun’s energy, which it passes onto those who eat it. Seaweed is the fastest-growing plant on planet earth. http://www.modifilan-seaweed-extract.com. http://www.naturalnews.com/022278.html, http://www.truthquest2.com/oceanplasma.htm, Http://www.oceanplasma.org

Alfalfa sprouts and chlorophyll counteract body odor and bad breath. They also help to alkalize the body. An alkaline body is very resistant to diseases of all kinds, and makes the body better able to maintain a lean weight due to its increased oxygenation. For every point rise in pH (potential of hydrogen), our cells take up 100x more oxygen. (That means that if your blood pH increases from 6.3 to 6.4, your cellular oxygenation increases 100 fold. A big part of the weight-loss equation is in getting the body to utilize oxygen better, since oxygen is necessary to burn fat.) Good for kidney problems, relieving fluid retention and swelling. Auto-immune disorders, stroke prevention, arthritis, etc. http://www.homeremediesweb.com/alfalfa_health_benefits.php

 

Wheat grass, like other greens, helps alkalize the body. Alkalinity. The more alkaline, the  better one fights off diseases, even cancer. Wheat grass has been used with great success in natural cancer-fighting protocols. It is an extremely high-energy food and most people feel an energy ‘kick’ soon after drinking wheat grass juice. This is not to be confused with the pick up people feel from cocaine, sugar, or coffee, which merely whip up the nerves and adrenals to squeeze out their last ounce of energy, but exhausting the adrenals at the same time. Wheat grass feeds the adrenals and your whole body so you feel a healthy high, not an artificial one where you ‘crash’ afterwards. Great for natural anti-cancer therapies, rejuvenation, restoring fertility, killing odors, curing chronic sinusitis, varicose veins, healing leg ulcers, and more: http://www.shirleys-wellness.cafe,

      Energy:  In the end, we all die from a lack of energy. Magnets are a cheap and effective   

      way to pull energy into and move it around your body.

      http://www.dmoz.org/Health/Alternative/Magnetic_Therapy,   

        

9. An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure:  These websites give a wealth ofInformation on how to get well and stay well, naturally:  http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com, www.curezone.com, www.curezone.org, www.sambizer.com, www.drclark.net, www.healingtools.tripod.com, www.drmercola.com

      10. Save on water bills by drilling your own well.

            http://www.hydratek2000.com, http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm,  

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbGUV7GQpMM,

            http://www.dando.co.uk/2007/06/25/buffalo-3000/?gclid-CMyIquWthZgQjagodwTRJtg        

      11. Save and/or make money on electricity and sell the excess to the utility

            www.earth4energy.com  

 

12. Move to another country where prices for land are much cheaper, and where building codes

      allow you to get creative and save big dollars.

13. Start your own sustainable community and choose your neighbors who have skills they can contribute to everyone’s good—animal husbandry, gardening, sewing, etc., to keep from having to depend on outside, centralized sources that could dry up at any time.
14. Convert shipping containers into a safe and sturdy home that doesn’t require building code compliance because they aren’t permanently affixed to the land. 20-40’ containers are readily available and cost as little as $1-2,000 each. (Shipping containers www.shipping-container-housing.com or 888-777-8118), http://www.iport.com/sales.htm, or www.govliquidation.com/list/c7541,   
15. Houseboats—build a pond and float your house (some houseboats can float in as little as 6” of water). A houseboat doesn’t need to pass code because it isn’t permanently affixed to the land. (You probably don’t need to float it, either, to satisfy the permit process.) However, floats can be made very cheaply out of used poly barrels that are free or reasonably priced. cheap. Or, used reinforced, light-weight concrete. Just be sure that it isn’t too light weight, or your house may turn over in the water due to being top heavy. If you want the houseboat to be more mobile, use pontoons: Houseboat floats can be much cheaper than digging and pouring a concrete foundation.
16. Start an organic food co-op and buy your groceries wholesale. Recruit members, and wholesale distributors. Arrange for a drop-off once a week or month at a school or church parking lot and have your members come at that time to pick up their parcels, so you don’t have to pay for storage.  

If you can’t utilize any of the information in this little flier, you may know somebody who can. Please pass it on.

Note: This work was produced and copyrighted 12/6/09. You have the author’s permission to copy it and pass it along to others, as long as you make no alterations and include the author’s credit—Greta Petrich/ sunnymeadows00@yahoo.com, www.everyonebenefits.com/gpetrich, or http://bit.ly/yboB; www.deliveringonthepromise/gpetrich, or http://bit.ly/kpJG

253-507-9517.

Here are some great tips from Yahoo Finance: All of these are do-able for the average person or family. They could save you more than $2,000 per year.

·       Buy a breadmaker

·       Get a credit card with a great sign-up bonus, then cancel after your first purchase

·       Take out a library card & stop buying books

·       Replace your premium cable package with a Netflix subscriptions & a $100 set-top box

·       Grow your own herbs in your window box or garden

·       Switch to a pre-paid cell phone, then do the rest of your calling over the internet

·       Make your own coffee & carry it with you in a thermos

Go to Yahoo Finance for all the glorious details. Write to author brett.arends@wsj.com 

 

 

 

 

•  

The High Cost of Being Sick

Fifty percent of bankruptcies in the U.S. are due to medical bills. 47+ million Americans are uninsured, and a whopping 75% of those making $up to $100,000 are uninsured. No wonder--health insurance premiums now average $12,106 per family--ouch! Will socialized medicine be the answer? One only has to look at Sweden to find the answer.

The Swedes pay over 70% of their income in taxes, much of it going to subsidized medicine. If we were to socialize medicine in this country, we have but to look at Sweden to see that we could afford that even less than what we have now. 

Americans are losing their homes and jobs and can't afford to pay 10% of their incomes to buy health insurance for their own families. Can we then afford to pay 70% in taxes, much of it in support of medicine for ourselves and others? Somebody, please do the math, because it just doesn't compute for me.

We can also learn from Canada, which supposedly has a great socialized medicine program. However, if you look past the hype, older Canadians have been turned away from medical care en masse for years due to such a high volume of patients seeking care.

They are literally sent home to die because the doctors can't see everyone and have to make judgment calls as to whom they give their medical attention. And the younger ones, whom the doctors will see, sometimes have to endure very long waiting lists to get in. By the time their appointment rolls around, they are likely much worse, dead or the condition has resolved itself.

Because ours is a society that no longer values the elders amongst us, a much higher price is put onto youth. Old folks have lived longer, so that means that when push comes to shove, they are the ones shoved aside.

But is it right to make such value judgments based on age? Much wisdom is stored up under the gray crown of age, that hasn't yet been developed by the younger generations. A system that causes arbitrary denial of care to the aged, and of care to which they have paid their fair share of tax dollars,  surely is an unfair redistribution of wealth.

Many Canadians who can afford it, come down to the States for their medical care, although they have already paid for health care in Canada through their taxes.

I am reminded of other outrages foisted on us by 'Big Brother.' Like it or not, Section 8 housing for the homeless, paid for by our tax dollars, is being denied to new American applicants, but given out freely to illegal immigrants.

In addition, about 10 years ago the licences for group care facilities were suddenly jerked out of the hands of Americans in Portland, Oregon. At the time, I knew one of the owners of a group home. She showed me the new roster of all the group homes which listed all new Romanian names. None of them were American citizens. The licenses, and consequently, the means to make a living, were taken from Americans and given to Romanians. What's up with that?

To further illustrate my point, when we pay taxes for a stated purpose, it is even less likely in the future that those taxes will be put to that partucular job. Just recently, Our fearless leaders in Washington decided on a bail-out plan to put money back in the coffers of the ailing mortgage banking industry. The supposition was that they would loosen up their purse strings and make refi loans to those who might otherwise lose their homes, and to keep businesses afloat who depend on credit.

To date, that money hasn't trickled down to the 'intended' recipients. Whose pockets were lined this time? When the time comes to extract more money for socialized medicine from an already penurious citizenry, it isn't likely that money will land on the mark, either.

Maybe it's time for a little 'backward thinking.' Perhaps we've made too much progress. We've been advancing in the wrong direction. It's time to realize that 'Big Brother' government is in bed with large corporations. They don't have our best interests at heart at all. They're more interested in socking away another huge windfall into their secret Swiss Bank and Cayman Island accounts.

Crooks and criminals are attracted to government positions like pigs to mud, because it is the shortest and surest path to great wealth. Those that introduce huge spending bills in congress often get enormous kickbacks under the table. (These used to be called 'pork barrel' projects.) The old terminology has been kicked aside, but kickbacks haven't. What is new is that these projects are now costing multiple billions, and the kickbacks aren't pocket change, either.

Because medical care and health insurance are no longer affordable, it doesn't mean that we will stop getting sick or needing cavities in our teeth filled. When someone has excruciating pain from an abcessed tooth, or a serious injury or illness, we can't just ignore it--it's certainly not going to go away by itself.

Aside from learning how to save much physical and financial suffering by preventative medicine, we still need some sort of safety net. Enter the wave of the future--Consumer-driven health care. Isn't it about time you had the power of choice over how your health is being treated?

Right now, the health insurance companies make the choices for you, and they care more about their bottom line than about your wants or needs. Every day a health insurance company somewhere denies countless people from getting the help they need to save life or limb.

Consumer-driven health care lets you choose. It literally puts you in the driver's seat. You can choose designer or generic drugs, affordable, ranging from $14.95 for an individual dental, prescription, vision and chiropractic plan, to $59.95 for an entire household, including non-related persons.

This comprehensive plan includes dental & health, combined, plus more. Very reasonable add-ons can be purchased for extra prescription needs or diabetic expenses. All in all, you could easily rack up savings of thousands of dollars in just one year.

To learn all the details and see if consumer-driven-health care is right for you, go to www.everyonebenefits.com/gpetrich.