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Appleseeds of Life & Precision

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Family oriented expert rifle training? Yes, happening at a range near you thanks to the Appleseed Project. You don’t have to go to Switzerland, anymore, to find whole families at the rifle range!

This is expert marksmanship being taught by enthusiastic riflemen who know what they’re doing. You won’t be awarded your Rifleman Patch until you’ve earned it. And what it takes and the word “Easy” don’t belong in the same sentence.

According to Fred, the man who started the Appleseed Project, “The purpose of the shoot is to promote history and marksmanship, to
provide marksmanship training opportunities, to train people to become
Riflemen and to teach them now to train other Riflemen”.

  • “April 19th, 1775, When marksmanship met history and the heritage began.”
  • “Liberty, Heritage, & Marksmanship“
  • “Are you a Rifleman or a cook? Attend an Appleseed event and discover your heritage.“

Rifleman Introductions

I recommend four articles written about Appleseed by two esteemed Riflemen. Read Bill Buppert’s article about his second Appleseed back in 2008 where he brought the whole family “On The Road With the Appleseed Project: Creating Liberty One Rifleman at a Time”. Bill contributes his expertise through Appleseed to “Wake up the sleeping giant in America”. He kindly recommended first shooting .22LR and setting up my Ruger 10/22 with Tech Sights for which my shoulder and bank account are thankful.

Massad Ayoob documents his Appleseed experience in three parts including Lessons from Appleseed and the Guns of Appleseed.

My Appleseed One

My first Appleseed was in Sacramento, two weeks ago. The full service range is in a breathtaking part of the country. The fresh air and scenery were a perfect backdrop for an inspiring day.

Apart from the welcoming smiles of the volunteer staff the first thing that struck me was that whole families were there for the training! There were also two father daughter teams and three father son teams.

One third of the attendees were women including three rifleman trainers. Perhaps the only thing more impressive about the lovely ladies on the next mat over is that they were outshooting the men! Grrr. . .

The Rifle

I brought a Ruger 10/22 with tech sights and a plain GI sling with six magazines though four would have been fine. See Mas Ayoob’s Guns of Appleseed or Appleseed’s Liberty Training Rifle for tips on setting up your rifle.

Training for Precision

The training starts with the big things first moving in a circle around your shooting position. Every physical and mental factor leading up to the bullet exiting the barrel is covered. The quality of the shot is viewed as a reflection of the quality of the setup, trigger squeeze and follow through.

Every detail counts in an endeavor of precision and the training involves two days of getting every aspect of the setup into your muscles and bones. For the purposes of this article, however, I’ll briefly describe two aspects of the training that I particularly enjoyed: Natural Point of Aim (NPOA) and firing the shot “By the Numbers”.

What follows are this budding Rifleman’s summary of two, of many, aspects of the training. They give a flavor of the training though words are no substitute for the real thing.

Natural Point of Aim

The idea of NPOA is to setup your body around the rifle so that both are in a state of relaxed tension pointing at the target. Once in your NPOA your breath will cause the front sight to rise and fall vertically through the target. Much of the morning is spent learning what it looks and feels like to get into your NPOA in the prone position.

Adding breath control and their six steps of shooting by the numbers lays an excellent foundation for squeezing off consistent shots. The next step is learning to get into your NPOA in standing position and one seated position (Since body types vary you’ll be shown five seating positions to choose from).

Like most endeavors of precision Appleseed’s descriptions and demonstrations are easily described and demonstrated by the experts. However, teaching your body and mind to reliably and consistently setup your NPOA for the three basic positions is not easy and feels anything but natural, at first. This is especially true for the self-taught (Myself included) who need to unlearn bad habits and replace them with correct technique.

The pace of the training is brisk, methodical and complete. There are no shortcuts taken in building a solid Rifleman foundation. Considering the wide variety of people at the training it’s impressive to see everyone focus together to handle the pace and quality of the instruction.

Firing the Shot “By The Numbers”

Here’s another summary that gives a flavor for the training, but, is no substitute for the full descriptions and experience of being guided through each “Number” in real time by experienced Riflemen:

  1. Line up the front and rear sights.
  2. Bring the lined-up sights onto the target.
  3. Take a deep breath in, then out using the rise and fall of the front sight to establish NPOA.
  4. A: Focus your eye on the front sight. B: Focus you mind on keeping the front sight on target.
  5. Take up the slack and squeeze the trigger straight back (While concentrating on the front sight).
  6. When the hammer falls: Keep your eyes open, take a mental photo of the shot (Referred to as ‘Calling the shot’) and hold the trigger back for follow through.

The instructors are enthusiastic and patient with a keen eye for recognizing and correcting your weak areas.

After the first two hours I started wondering where else I could get such quality training at the price? “Nowhere” is the correct answer. Even if you offered to pay a family member’s gas, lunch and ammunition it would cost you more than Appleseed’s two day training for $70! (Women and children are currently free which I’ll be using to pursuade my wife to join me).

Appleseed Before Practice

Practice makes permanent, not perfect. What you practice determines what is made permanent.

Apart from zeroing your rifle I recommend attending the first day of an Appleseed before engaging in intensive practice with your rifle. In fact, have someone else zero your rifle if you trust them to do it. That frees you up to soak in the training and practice the right habits into your bones on every subsequent shooting occasion.

I spent the first half of the day unlearning bad habits. Best to err on the side of coming to an Appleseed before making bad habits permanent.

Master A Tool of Tools

Mastering a precision tool bestows benefits beyond the area of the tool, itself. In the case of a Rifle the benefits are profound. What profession or task would not benefit from the discipline and precision required to become a Rifleman?

  • What about adjusting your sights is not transferable to adjusting a miter saw?
  • What about establishing your NPOA is not transferable to target marketing?
  • What about zero’ing a rifle is not transferable to Optimizing workflow?
  • What about the shooting by the numbers is not transferable to visualizing your goals?

The benefits ricochet (Sorry) to and from all endeavors of precision. Inversely, the discipline and precision of master carpentry, for example, can be parlayed back into many aspects of the Rifleman’s craft, as well. For those who haven’t yet settled on a profession precision rifle training exercises a myriad of mental and physical ‘muscles’ that can be applied to future pursuits, yet unknown.

It’s been said that the 1st and 2nd amendments are the only rights required to guarantee the other eight Bill of Rights and all non-enumerated natural human rights. Apropos to their power learning to speak, write, express, worship and defend is optimally approached with an eye towards precision. It is somehow not enough:

  • To understand the power of speech, yet speak imprecisely.
  • To be willing to die for the freedom of worship yet be unspecific in praising God’s glory.
  • To treasure Life and Family with no proficiency in the only historically proven means of their final defense against tyranny or uninitiated aggression.

It takes time, study, effort and keen interest to acquire mastery of these tools of tools. Yet, it’s worth every effort to acquire them even apart from the daily blessings they bestow.

The Day’s Results

According to Appleseed my maximum effective range is 400 Yards. That means I was able to get three consecutive shots to group within a man sized silhouette at 400 yards. In theory this is one step short of Rifleman, but, it’s not that simple.

The “Red Coat Test” (So named because the targets are red to symbolize the British uniforms in the Revolutionary War) is shot from only one position and is not as strict as the Army Qualification Test (AQT) test given the following day where you shoot in three different positions while being timed.

I spent most of the day soaking in the fundamentals and replacing bad habits. That’s probably par for the course for guys who didn’t have the good fortune of Appleseed-like training when starting to shoot. Also, since I didn’t re-zero the .22 after installing iron sights I failed to realize they needed serious adjustments beyond the settings possible on the sights. Therefore, I spent the day looking at groups still 4 inches off the target. For the last two hours an instructor (Thank you, Pat) lent me his 10/22 rifle with a scope. This was great timing because I was able to see the results of the days efforts on targets instead of groups.

I was able to attend only one day of this two day event. Perhaps I could have shot Rifleman the next day though it would have felt wrong to do so with a borrowed rifle. I’ll be back for a proper two-day Appleseed in the next few months. In the meantime, this one day of training has set the tone for practicing the right habits into bone and muscle.

Prep for Appleseed Two

If you’re planning to attend an Appleseed their “What to bring to an Appleseed Event Checklist” is great. Make sure to bring a hat for the sun or a raincoat for the rain. I also recommend binoculars (If you’re not using a scope) to see your patterns between courses of fire where you won’t be walking down to the target. My personal prep for Appleseed Two is to:

  1. Bring a backup rifle – Just like the “What to Bring” sheet says – bring a backup rifle. There’s just no time to make major adjustments to your primary without missing key elements of the training.
  2. Zero both rifles prior to arrival – They cover sight adjustments in the training, but, the elevation adjustments on my tech sights were maxed out and required disassembly to correct. Since I was only there for the Saturday session an instructor loaned me his backup rifle so I wouldn’t be sidelined. Also, to keep the line safe shooters are discouraged from working on their rifles outside of the preparation period. There’s really no time to focus on making major adjustments to your rifle. It’s best to come with a zero ‘d rifle with all the kinks worked out before hand.
  3. Replace the factory with an auto bolt release – Smooth magazine changes are required for the AQT. Placing my finger just right does the trick, but, it’s a distracting hassle that annoys at the end of the day.

Goals

  1. Earn the Rifleman’s patch with the .22 LR.
  2. Requalify with a .308 to remap the training into a true 500 yard round.
  3. Persuade my wife to take a drive in the country and and see what her husband is excited about.
  4. Invite my friends to come along (I’ll drive, pay gas, share ammo and prepare your rifle, if requested!).
  5. Spread the word – Fulfilled with this article, but, not likely to end here.

Planting Seeds of Life & Precision

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction” – Ronald Reagan

On April 19, 1775 better men than I were faced with a choice: Freedom or Slavery. They chose Freedom and paid dearly for it. The men and women of Appleseed have not forgotten and are planting seeds of life & precision in the hearts of new generations of Americans. At a time when dozens of HD screens in every home are turning brains into mush these guys are off the couch breathing the fresh air of the countryside and passing on timeless values and skills.

Politics aren’t required to embrace something fun for the whole family that instills values, skills and benefits far beyond the training, itself. The precision skills parlay into any future profession so why not take a cue from Bill Buppert and make Appleseed part of your homeschool curriculum?

Family oriented expert rifle training is happening at a range near you. Thanks to the Appleseed Project we don’t have to go to Switzerland, anymore, to find whole families at the rifle range! Who knows? With all these sparkling new rifles and Rifleman budding forth maybe it’s not too much to hope for the stabilizing peace and freedom that historically follows in their wake, was purchased by our ancestors and is currently enjoyed by our Swiss friends.

— Special thanks to Shoot Boss BaldDragn and assistent trainers James, eaglescouter, Jules, DoubleD, NorCal22Gal and Pat who trusted me with his rifle.

Copyright © 2010 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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The Fateful Fork

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Book Review by Terence Gillespie

“The human body has not changed much since its inception, so your foods do not need to change either. Eat the delicious meals of your forebears.”

That simple truth from Eve Gabriel is followed by equally clear guidelines for implementation:OK

“Avoid any food that is advertised on television, radio and magazines. Transition to biodynamic, traditional organic or small diversified farm’s animal foods. Start with the five foods you consume in greatest quantity.”

That’s one truth and a few guidelines covering almost every choice we make about the food entering our bodies. Going further in her new book, The Fateful Fork, Gabriel narrows the fate of our health down to the only food choice that matters: The next one.

“Every mouthful of food you eat presents you with 2 options: To build-up your health, or destroy it. Each bite is a fork in the road: Depending on your choices, you head towards health or disease. Your food leads to predictable destinations.”

Digestible wisdom like this doesn’t come easy. The Fateful Fork is the culmination of a Master’s degree in Naturopathic Nutrition, 15 years of clinical nutrition counseling practice, two decades as a professional chef and a lifetime of research. The vast fields of nutrition, science, food, farming and traditions in health are Gabriel’s life’s work. Her latest book is a condensation of her considerable nutritional wisdom.

The Perfect Diet?

Many of Gabriel’s clients turned to her, as a last resort, to learn which foods to eat and which to avoid to break their reliance on pharmaceutical medications. Although the author initially set out on a journey to find the perfect diet she returned with something better: The knowledge to help others discover what their own optimal diet may be and how to achieve it.

The perfect diet cannot be put on a laminated card and tucked in a universal wallet. It’s a discovery process of what your particular body needs. What can be given to everyone is high quality food and the ability to find, recognize and prepare it. Start with nutrient-dense foods and the optimal ratios for your body will surface naturally if you know how to listen.

Nutrient-Dense Philosophy In One Egg

The criteria for determining nutrient-density is detailed throughout the book. Each criteria forms a level and each level has a range of qualitative possibilities. The basic four levels of quality are:

  1. Growing Methods.
  2. Processing Techniques.
  3. Freshness.
  4. Preparation Techniques.

The author applies the four levels of quality to an egg:

  1. Soil – Chickens ought to be eating foods grown in good soil;
  2. Intact – Eggs are best whole, not just the whites or yolks and not processed;
  3. Fresh – Not old. Local eggs are best;
  4. Preparation methods – Many for eggs which are also easy snack and travel foods.

“This boils down to local farm-raised eggs, which are quite easy to come by once you do a little digging in your specific locale.”

Whole and Intact

An important aspect of food that echoes throughout the Fateful Fork is the wisdom of eating foods in their whole form. For instance, lycopene can be isolated from a tomato, but what’s the point? A lycopene pill will never provide the benefits of eating a whole tomato. Applied to an egg that translates into eating the whole egg. No separating the yolk from the white. Protein powders do not supply the nutrient-dense protein of an intact egg delivered by nature in its perfect vessel containing a myriad of other ingredients all in balance with one another.

Nutrient Dense ‘Superfoods’

All this hype about superfoods had me fooled. Our every day food has the potential to be the superfoods we’ve been looking for; from the right source, unprocessed, fresh and well-prepared. As sources become less and less available it’s no wonder the superfood folklore has arisen.

We don’t have to seek out exotic dark chocolates and honey from specialized regions of the world in hopes of being among the lucky few to be blessed with good health. The main staples of our diet are the superfoods we’ve been seeking. The knowledge of recognizing and insisting on them is the holy grail.

The Naturopathic Way

One of the reasons I trust Gabriel’s advice on food is she has a Masters in Nutrition from Bastyr University where the curriculums adhere to the principles of Naturopathic medicine:

  1. Let nature heal.
  2. Identify and treat causes.
  3. First, do no harm.
    1. Use low-risk procedures and healing compounds.
    2. When possible, do not suppress symptoms.
    3. Customize each diagnosis and treatment plan to fit each patient.
  4. Educate patients.
  5. Treat the whole person.
  6. Prevent illness.

Naturopathy builds on the belief that the human body has an innate healing ability. Practitioners craft comprehensive treatment plans that blend the best of modern medical science and traditional natural medical approaches to not only treat disease, but to also restore health.

When my wife and I disagreed with an orthodox medical (Conventional) doctor about the vaccine schedule for our son it was to a naturopathic doctor that we turned. It is serious and wholistic medicine and we’re glad to have a superior alternative to the insurance-dictated conventional. Naturopathic (And Gabriel’s) advice is not given to fit into an insurance reimbursement category. It is customized to individual needs and designed to keep people well. It’s no wonder this comprehensive approach to health is thriving!

Nutrient-Dense Foods Replace Supplements Replacing Drugs

“You can let go of confusing dietary rules and supplement programs, which are only necessary when you eat processed industrial foods.”

Hypertension is a family trait. So far, I’ve been able to control it by non-prescription means. Dr. Atkins Vita-Nutrient Solutions helped me get control of my blood pressure forsaking prescription drugs for a combination of diet, vitamins, minerals and other supplements. After reading The Fateful Fork it’s obvious that many of the supplements recommended by Atkins could be replaced by nutrient-dense foods.

Can I replace all of them? We’ll see. I’m looking forward to trying (With naturopathic assistance). Each pill eliminated is one less expense and hassle even if it’s only a vitamin or herb.

Vegetarian Escapes and Train Wrecks

“If abstaining from animal foods prevented diseases you would know it by now, beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

I think the natural reaction to a juicy steak is to cause the human mouth to water. It’s through disgust, unrelated to the animal itself, that many learn to squelch that natural reaction and turn to vegetarianism to escape. After discovering the disgusting conditions under which animals are grown for the slaughter, injected with hormones and antibiotics and fed unnatural foods to maximize profit it’s inevitable that those same toxicities are delivered onto the dinner plate. How can you blame someone for for trying to escape by going veggie?

Unfortunately, the vegetarian escape leads to another set of problems and, if one is not extremely careful, to a train wreck.

“Eating the grain-based substitutes in place of animal foods is unpleasant and foolhardy. Industrial grains (corn, wheat, rice, barley, and all others, even “ancient grains”) are nutrient-deficient, insulin-triggering, processed foods that continually evolve into ever-stranger renditions as technology changes. . . .They are cheap surplus commodities posing as healthful foods.”

“A side effect of animal product avoidance is rampant deficiencies of fat-soluble vitamins A, D and K. It is not surprising that these are now top-selling supplements. Heart disease, vascular degeneration, cataracts and osteoporosis are some of the consequences of fat-soluble vitamin deficiency.

While reading The Fateful Fork my wife, who had recently ‘gone veggie’, was experiencing many of the above symptoms. A blood test and an appointment with her naturopathic doctor revealed the truth of Gabriel’s words, up close and personal. Vitamin D deficiency, low blood sugar and many other stressful symptoms. The doctors prescription was along the lines of “The Paleo Diet”. There’s much to learn from the metaphor in the Paleo books comparing the modern human diet with that of our ancestors. The Fateful Fork is scientifically consistent with most of the Paleo recommendations but Gabriel’s knowledge is far more comprehensive in addressing every aspect of food.

“Try as they might, the long-term, million-dollar studies funded to prove the health benefits of low-fat vegetarian diets, consistently prove otherwise. Instead, the studies show that carbohydrate-rich diets cause heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The more processed carbohydrates you eat, to the exclusion of animal products, the more likely you are to acquire those diseases, and yet the unsound Federal Nutrition Guidelines are ever more restrictive.”

Avoiding Train Wrecks

The Vegetarian ‘movement’ and desire to escape crummy food may never have happened if the food philosophy and accumulated knowledge put forth in the Fateful Fork was understood and widely adopted. Faced with crummy alternatives people took the path of least resistance: Eating only vegetables and fruits and grains which have the appearance of being fresh and natural.

Contrarianism is catchy. When it comes to industrial foods and the chronic health problems they create it’s hard to resist an idea to do the opposite. Fine, but going veggie is not it. The real escape from industrial foods is to biodynamic, traditional organic or small diversified farm’s animal foods and fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables.

Paleo Plus

The Fateful Fork is what the reader is left hungry for after reading the Paleo diet. If you haven’t read either, yet, you can safely skip Paleo for Gabriel’s book and learn more about every aspect of food in the process. While Paleo backs into proving a metaphor, Gabriel builds every component of a meal from the ground up describing the science, lifestyle, tools and challenges you’ll face from the soil to the dinner plate. Her practical explanations for how to prepare foods that Paleo forbids make for wholistic treatment and a better companion for navigating the vast world of food.

When contemplating grains or legumes, for instance, Paleo just says no. The Fateful Fork tells you the science behind it, how different sources mitigate the downside effects, how preparation affects health values and how it may be combined with other foods to aid digestion.

Raw Milk or No Milk

In The Paleo Diet Cordain says no dairy, period. His reasoning is that “Paleolithic people ate no dairy food. Imagine how difficult it would be to milk a wild animal, even if you could somehow manage to catch one”, he says.

What kind of Paleolithic wimps is Cordain talking about? I can think of a few modern-day engineers, writers and computer programmers who would gladly wrestle a cow into a milk pen to prevent starvation and provide a steady source of food.

In contrast, Gabriel says drink “Raw Milk or No Milk”.

“Raw milk from pasture-fed cows is the ultimate in high-quality food. It is completely different from industrial milk in its composition, freshness and its effects on your health. Historically, raw fresh milk was used therapeutically to cure all sorts of illnesses. The persistent hype in the media, schools, medical field and government about industrial milk’s importance in your diet is based upon the characteristics of traditional raw milk from pasture-fed cows, not on industrial milk. Industrial milk has no redeeming qualities; it ought to be avoided. . . called something else to distinguish it from unadulterated milk.”

And the author does mean raw. Gabriel and her family know the names of the two Jersey cows that produce their milk. Apart from putting it into a bottle the only ‘processing’ is in getting it delivered to the back kitchen door!

Similar advice is given for the forbidden paleo categories of grains and legumes. Gabriel delves further than simple prohibitions based on a metaphor. She provides the science, recommends sources, and gives specific consequences of preparation and combining them with other foods.

Industrial Food, Inc.

“Industrial foods are created to produce one thing: Corporate profits, not healthy people.”

In every area of life, nowadays, we expect technological advances. When it comes to food, however, Gabriel says high-tech innovations are rarely our friend. Technological advances that skirt around quaint notions of high-quality soil-based food may increase corporate profits but only at the expense of human health. The problem is, “You are not periodically updated so that you require new or less nourishment. Despite space travel and cell phones, you are still firmly tethered to this planet earth and the primeval foods it produces. There are no new answers to feeding yourself properly.”

Salt of the Earth, Not the Lab

The real salt of the earth is exactly that: From the earth, not the lab.

“Sea salt contains 92 essential minerals and trace elements such as potassium, magnesium, iodine, boron, selenium, manganese and copper, among others; they do not contain merely sodium and chloride [Like Industrial Table ‘Salt‘].” Even the iodine (Originally added in to prevent goiter –a common thyroid-malfunction-based condition) has become a modern-day ruse with little to no quality iodine in market salts.

Gabriel points out that natural foods don’t have the high amounts of salt we’ve gotten used to. You can add the real salt with more enjoyment and nutrition without fear of adverse effects.

Industrial Food Primer

  • NPK Soil Fallacy – Tragically flawed science concluding that only Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) was necessary to replenish soil has lead to soil sterility and pollution. The hundreds of nutrients in animal manure and post-harvest plant materials are now dubbed “Waste” and replaced with severely lacking and dangerous NPK ‘fertilizers’. How can you get live foods from dead soil?
  • GMO Seeds – Alter the genes of a seed and you own the ‘new’ life-form. These dangerous and unproven altered life-forms convey more property rights than landowners because the patent holders have billions of dollars to enforce them. Farmers have the burden of proof of patent infringement should a scintilla of airborne seed take root in the farmers soil. As this is all but impossible the farmer goes broke just preparing to defend themselves. When they go bust another farm is forced to purchase GMO seeds rather than use the natural seeds from his own crops. Many GMO seeds, once planted, corrupt the soil making the land unsuitable for natural seeds in the future. The farmer landowner is now, in effect, enslaved by the seed provider as is any future purchaser of the land intending to farm.
  • Additives – Additives make foods easy to ship, give them a longer shelf life and make them appear the right colors to entice us to buy them. If the label has more than three or four ingredients (Total) you’re probably in trouble. The most benevolent ingredients you can’t pronounce are a lousy attempt to ‘fortify’ the food with something that shouldn’t have been taken out or killed through processing in the first place.
  • Protection That Isn’t – Under the guise of protection Amish milk farmers are raided while the FDA claims to lack the authority to intervene in the affairs of industrial meat processors who provide a steadily predictable source of deadly e. coli bacteria. Senate Bill 510 does not protect the public from unsanitary conditions of local farms whose natural approach is routinely pristine; it simply eliminates thousands of local natural food providers producing such high-quality alternatives that industrial food companies cannot compete.

We’re Not Sick, We’re Starving

Many of the supposed diseases– for which we’re told some new pharmaceutical drug is needed— are, in fact, the result of simple nutritional deficiencies.

Healthful ‘lively’ foods contain the enzymes necessary to digest the foods that contain them. Industrial foods are dead on arrival and leech the enzymes necessary for digestion from our bodies. Enzymes, vitamins and minerals are drawn from our bodies quickly causing a dangerous deficit. Ironically, getting ‘supersized’ is an efficient way to literally starve yourself of nutrition. Eating ‘live’ foods with enough enzymes for proper digestion is a complete motivation, in and of itself, to ban industrial dead foods from our diets.

Three Votes Per Day

As overwhelming and powerful as these conglomerates and regulations seem they cannot withstand something much more powerful: The three votes a day each of us may cast in favor of our health. By simply refusing to take empty calories and disease ridden foods into our bodies all the products that disgust will remain unsold and rotting on the pallets that deliver them. That message trumps anything you could put on letterhead or voice mail. It will be delivered loudly and clearly to every food producer and representative in the country with the simple act of lifting a forkful of truly nourishing food to our mouths.

ROrganic!

The word “Organic” is being misused by industrial food processors as a means to sell their disease causing crap. Gabriel recommends a new name for the excellent foods being grown and provided by traditional organic farmers: “Rorganic!” meaning real organic. The author explains . . .

“As with industrial milk — which is so completely different from traditional, raw milk from healthy cows — it ought not to be called “milk” at all; the same is true for USDA Organic.”

“Traditional organic farmers have established their reputation and consumer base due to hard work and long years of persistence. Now that their methods are at last economically viable, traditional organic farmers are suffering from being grouped together with the National Organic Program and its infiltration into a market in which they do not earn a place.”

“Since we cannot seem to stop this federal invasion, the real organic farmers need a new name. Rorganic! seems fitting to me.”

Comprehensive Food Philosophy

Gabriel’s food philosophy is comprehensive and easily digested to cover every area necessary to conduct the food choices for a large family (Or restaurant!):

  • Meal Frequency
  • Defining a Meal
  • The Science of Food
  • How to Shop
  • Best Sources
  • Setting up your kitchen
  • Handling snacks
  • Food Storage
  • Handling Leftovers
  • Kitchen Tools
  • Social Challenges
  • Food Groups Redefined
  • Practical Daily-Life Integration
  • Money Saving Charts

Reclaiming Delicious

Our bodies are hard-wired to prefer food with high amounts of salt, fat and sugar. Industrial food processors have mastered the trick of including them in almost everything available. Is it any wonder that we’ve lost touch with what the word delicious means?

Delicious is when everything about a food is enticing because it’s what your body needs to live. Media sources would have us believe that means thick-crust pizza, mac ‘n cheese mix, a bag of potato chips and lucky charms for breakfast. Our bodies know that delicious is fresh blueberries and a glass of pure raw milk, wild-alaskan salmon with asparagus, pasture-fed beef and cauliflower, local farm-raised eggs with sprouted bread toast or a handful of pumpkin seeds with a piece of dark chocolate.

Optimal Food Philosophy?

Optimal solutions provide benefits beyond solving the initial problem. They address every dimension rather than merely splitting the difference between a short list of comfortable alternatives. The discovery process screens to match the true context of reality where preconceived notions are, at most, a starting point. The food solutions put forth in Fateful Fork provide the kind of multi-dimensional fruit one would expect from this kind of exhaustive approach to nutrition. They:

  • Increase Quality
  • Require Less Intake
  • Cost less
  • Increase Health
  • Satiate Appetite
  • Realign Imbalances
  • Promote Health
  • Prevent Disease
  • Save Future Health Care Costs
  • Are Delicious (The real non-twinky, what your body needs kind of delicious).

The cost is finding sources, sometimes spending more in the short-term, reorienting lifestyle around re-supply and preparation, and abstaining from bad choices.

The author strikes me as someone who has been so immersed in every aspect of her passion about food and nutrition that merely writing about it didn’t make the priority list, until now. Now that it has the reader benefits from Gabriel having faced the challenges of translating and implementing her nutrient-dense philosophy in every conceivable environment, circumstance and context.

If I could choose the experience, qualifications and lifestyle of the optimal person to write about food the theoretical author would have an identical resume to Gabriel’s: A Master’s degree in Naturopathic Nutrition, 15 years of clinical nutrition counseling practice, two decades as a professional chef and an avid gardener. Luckily, we get all that from a person who can also write! What she’s written may enable you to avoid train wrecks and unnecessary health care costs by learning how to load your next fateful fork with the nutrient-dense foods that lead to optimal health.

Copyright © 2010 Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com.

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Children

The Weak Link in Teaching Your Baby to Read

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The discovery of Dr. Titzer is that Babies can:

  1. Start learning to read as early as 3 months old.
  2. Learn to read easier and faster than 1st graders.
  3. Learn multiple languages effortlessly in a window that closes down rapidly after the age of four.

Dr. Titzer’s contribution has been in publicizing these discoveries and putting together the materials for other parents to duplicate the stunning results with his daughters.

The program is simple. After five days on it our 16-month-old is learning . . . .something. Then again it’s hard to imagine any activity we could do together that would not lead to him learning more rapidly. Babies are expert learners and spending time with parents is a super-stimulant. That’s why I think main ingredient for the success of the program is also its weakest link: Parents. Their ability to work the program with their baby every day, twice a day.

Each of two daily sessions last 30 minutes each. To get these two sessions in with their kids parents will need to . . .

Teach Instead of Work or Rest

If one parent is home with the baby during the day then the first session will be easier to do. If not, there are three options:

  1. Teach the first session before work.
  2. Teach the first session at lunch.
  3. Arrange for your daycare giver to teach the first session.

I say teach even though the instructions say you can just pop the DVD in and let the baby watch. Although our son is glued to the presentation for the first 15-minutes he needs some encouragement to finish. He’s also excited to go through the picture cards after the video and that’s parent and baby time.

I suppose you could get your daycare giver to pop a DVD in for the first session. But, you’d also want them to follow up with the cards and picture book, afterwards.

After work one of the parents will need to teach the 2nd session while the baby is alert and interested and before they’re ready for bed. So, just when parents are ready to plop down and rest after work it will be time for the 2nd session.

The sessions are relaxing and fun. The regularity, not the teaching, is the challenge. Excitement has taken us through the first week. Now, our discipline of keeping to the twice-a-day sessions will be the main factor in determining our son’s progress.

The Program May Work If the Parents Do

The people involved are more predictive of success than the method used.

Years ago, five friends and I held a “bodyfat” contest. The goal was to see who could lose the most bodyfat in three months each using their own diet and exercise program. For three months we each worked out three times a week and used a different popular diet program: Atkins, The Zone, etc..

The results? The guys who were motivated made their program work. They could have used any program and succeeded with it. And, the unmotivated guys wouldn’t have been saved by a better program.

The success of the “Your Baby Can Read” program will be determined by the parents’ work. Babies are thrilled to learn and interact and play. If the parents can manage the discipline of the regular sessions then this program will probably work.

Parent & Baby Time Equals Success

If parents can manage the twice-a-day feat of teaching their babies for an hour a day then they’ve made a breakthrough that far exceeds the results of any program. The real success is the increased time you spend with your kids. Is there anything a child won’t learn faster and better with time and attention from their parents? If not then why stop at reading?

Sure enough, there are other programs for teaching your baby Colors, Patters, Numbers, Shapes, Prepositions, Four additional languages and a more advanced reading program.

Is Faster and Better Optimal?

Whether faster and better is Optimal is a different question. For most subjects the answer is probably yes. However, big steps forward come with costs and considerations. When it comes to reading at an early age Bill Sardi points out the link between reading and myopia that occurs with people and cultures focused on literacy.

Advanced Problems

Whoever discovers treasure has to figure out where to put it and how to use it. If TV and video games were replaced with Shakespeare would all children be myopic?  Every advance leads to advanced problems. Something that looks like a step forward may not be.

The ability to read is a mandatory skill. Reading earlier advances the problems of eye care sooner into a child’s life. Bill Sardi recommends vitamin C & D, calcium, copper, sunlight, holding books more than 12 inches from the eye, and focusing on distant objects. We’re lucky to have Bill’s advice at the same time we’re teaching our son to read.

What about issues that would stem from other forms of child advancement: Skipping grades, advanced homeschooling, socialization, early graduation? Dr. Titzer refers to some of these issues as well as the achievement gap between early readers and later readers increasing over time (a.k.a. the “Mathew Effect” where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer).

Titzer says grade skipping, socialization and achievement gaps have been easily dealt with in his daughters progress. I would imagine the problems of achievement are tiny compared with non-achievement. As one of my favorite bumper stickers says, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance”.

Early Training for an Optimal Life

This program is our first baby step towards homeschooling. If it leads to some kind of gap between our son and his peers then I’ll consider it early training for his Optimal Life.

Even with adults the earlier one starts on a path towards optimal the more unmeasureable their life is against traditional yardsticks. We live in a world that measures the multiple dimensions of intelligence with an integer. Sorry, but after you tell me what your IQ is I’ll still know very little about your intelligence.

I must have read that, somewhere.

 

Copyright © 2010 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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How To Pay Off Your House using Silver & Inflation – Part 2

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The Daily Grind

Working this plan to pay off your house doesn’t free you from the daily grind, in the short term. You’ll still need to:

  1. Keep making the payments on your mortgage.
  2. Keep making payments on other fixed debts and expenses.
  3. Scrape and save whatever you can.
  4. Store your savings into silver until you reach your target number of ounces.
  5. Keep your head above water during this disintegrating economy.
  6. Monitor the price of silver and be willing and able to cash in when the time is right.
  7. Cash in, pay the taxes, make large payments on your mortgage and lay low.

Doomed From the Start?

Are you paying on a mortgage from the overvalued bubble market?

The contrast between the difficulty of paying off a bubble mortgage and buying a new house in cash is going to get extreme. If it’s too much harder then consider a short sale, rent for a while and use your silver to purchase a new home when the time is right. You might as well benefit from lower housing prices.

As mentioned in Part 1 the money the bank ‘gave’ you was conjured out of thin air because of The Awful Truth of How US Dollars are Created. It’s morally wrong to break a legal contract and I’m not advising one to do that. However, many debtors are questioning whether a mortgage is a legally binding contract since the bank doesn’t provide equal consideration (The Bank brings no risk to the contract since the money is created out of thin air using your signature).

Tax on Standing Still

Standing still will cost more dollars in the future than it does now. If you manage to come up with more dollars to stand still you’ll be taxed as if you’ve gained something.

This double theft of inflation and more taxes is ridiculous, of course. But, you’ll have to put more silver aside to pay the taxes on your non-gain. Otherwise, you’ll fall short of you’re goal to pay off the house.

How much more silver you’ll need for taxes is a function of the size of your mortgage and your current and future tax rates. It’s a moving target, but, you’ll have to take a stab at quantifying it to achieve your goal.

Federal

Buying or selling back silver eagles require no 1099 broker reporting. $1000 face value of junk silver (752 oz silver) is the threshold of reportabability. Less than 1000 oz of other forms is not reportable. A tax advisor would probably tell you that its good to know the reporting rules, but, they don’t affect the definition of when you’ve realized a capitol gain. You may, however, want to sell in increments less than 1000 oz. to minimize paperwork.

Sales Tax

Purchase in increments greater than $1500 to avoid paying sales tax on the purchase. Check your state rules for the threshold.

How Much Silver Do You Need?

Enough to pay off your mortgage, pay taxes on the non-gain and cover the spread on the buy and sell of the silver. If you can swing it why not add all your fixed debts to the mortgage amount and buy your way out of all debts?

The 1980 price of silver was $50/oz. The inflation adjusted price of $50 in 1980 is $129 in 2008. And yet, the current October 2009 spot price of silver is $16.32/oz.

Based on your belief use a silver price of anything between $35 and $129 for your calculations of the number of ounces to purchase with today’s savings. Then pick the month and year you think it will be worth that price. My number is $75.

I believe the dollar will fall and silver will rise in dollar terms so that one ounce of silver will be denominated in at least 75 dollars within three years. Tell me that its November 2012 and silver is $75 an once and I wouldn’t think you were saying anything extraordinary.

Example

Principal owed = $100K
Silver Now = $16.32
Silver Then = $75
Cap gains tax = 15%
Spread on the buy = 6%
Spread on the Sell = 2%
Ounces needed = 1537 costing $26,589 in todays dollars with buy spread
Sale price of 1537 oz. after paying sell spread = $112,969
Cap gains paid = $12,957 (costing 173 ounces at $75/oz)
Net (After taxes and spreads) = $100,012

So, for every dollar you save in silver you’ll be able to payoff 3.8 dollars of mortgage after paying the taxes on the silver gain if silver goes to $75.

How does that compare to saving dollars in a bank at 0 interest? Let’s say every dollar you have now is worth 60 cents then. That means instead of having 3.8 dollars you’ll have 0.6 dollars. That means you’ll have 6.3 times more dollars in your hand if your savings is in silver rather than dollars (3.8 / 0.6 = 6.33).

Step-by-Step

  1. Decide what you think the price of silver will be in three years.
  2. Look up how much you’ll owe on your house in three years.
  3. Divide principal owed / silver spot in #1.
  4. Add in the buy spread on the purchase
  5. Add in the taxes on the gain.
  6. Add in the sell spread.
  7. Add 2, 4, 5 and 6 and recalculate #3 substituting the new number for the numerator (It’s recursive because of the taxes. I made a spreadsheet to calculate 1-7).
  8. Find a source to purchase the silver.
  9. Purchase the silver
  10. Purchase a gun safe, not necessarily shipped to your own property.
  11. Take physical delivery of your silver and store it somewhere safe — The gun safe being one of many options.
  12. Keep making your mortgage payments and other expenses
  13. Monitor the spot price of silver
  14. Get as familiar and comfortable with selling your silver as you did in buying it in step 9.
  15. Wait until the value of your silver hits your spot price.
  16. Sell the silver in increments that enable you to minimize taxes on the gain.
  17. As you sell the silver make huge payments on the principal of your mortgage.

Check the current spot price here and find a local coin shop.

That’s it! Don’t think about it too much or cash in the silver too early. Get back to your life.

If You Don’t Have the Money

The savings required to buy enough silver to pay off your mortgage is small in comparison to the size of a mortgage. However, it’s by no means a trivial amount of savings.

If you don’t have enough then either buy what you can or focus on other real assets. I keep a running list of my favorite real assets in Checklist for Hard Times. In that article I recommend not buying precious metals until you have the real things needed to fulfill the needs of your family. Providing shelter (Paying off the house) certainly qualifies as providing for the needs of your family, in my book.

With all this talk of money and sliver you might be surprised that my philosophy is that Everything is Worth More Than Money.

Belief is Good (And Downside Risk is Minimal)

The technique I’m proposing will work for balanced and financially conservative reasons. Yes, silver is undervalued, but, don’t bet the farm on it. Rather, payoff the farm with it. Use the rest of your savings to hedge risk and purchase tools and seeds for the harvest.

What I’m not saying:

  • Buy silver because you’ll make a lot of money.
  • Silver is your last chance at an investment of a lifetime.
  • Put every spare dime into more silver.
  • The silver market is manipulated and will spring back with a vengence.

I can’t make these statements because markets can be manipulated and investors can be wrong longer than you or I can remain solvent.

What I am saying:

  • The dollar will continue to fall and there is no government plan, action or will to save it.
  • The dollar will not be saved by deflation (Occuring simultaneously with overpowering inflation).
  • Silver is the most undervalued candidate among many other choices for hard assets in which to preserve savings.
  • Silver is not your only alternative for this plan. It’s just what I think is the best alternative.
  • Silver will preserve, though not necessarily increase your real purchasing power. It is the preservation, not the increase that this plan depends on.

Whether you execute the plan depends on your belief. Writers that specialize in precious metals are better sources to hone your beliefs than I can be in this article. I’ll list my favorites, below and suggest a reading sequence.

Belief is best when it comes from your own research. I recommend reading the following articles, in this order, to optimize your time.

  1. Refuting Myths about Gold
  2. “Why is Gold Money?”
  3. Then and Now
  4. The Great Silver Spike of 1980
  5. Find Your Local Coin Shop
  6. Future Gold & Silver Prices
  7. The Silver ETF: What’s the deal?
  8. The Money Chart
  9. How to Buy Silver, & Avoid Getting Scammed
  10. Silver: Questions and Answers
  11. Why Silver is better than Oil as an Investment
  12. Fekete Questions Me, & Why Banning Usury Won’t Work
  13. Fekete Answers Me & the Debate Continues
  14. Bar Graphs of Silver vs. Money
  15. FAQ
  16. The Money Charts – 2008
  17. What’s the Price of Silver? 
  18. Troubled Silver Dealers
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How To Pay Off Your House using Silver & Inflation – Part 1

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In 1980 it took 814 ounces of silver to purchase a median-price home in the US.1 In today’s dollar 814 ounces would cost you $13,154.2

If this happens again you’ll be able to purchase a home, free and clear, for $13,154 of today’s dollar if stored in silver instead of the bank.

This article is not about buying new houses. It’s about a technique to get out of debt and own the house you live in. The debt I’m referring to, here, is fixed: Your rate and monthly payments are the same for the life of the loan.

You need only track the remaining principal on your mortgage and the spot price of silver to come up with input numbers for my proposed technique. Whether or not you execute the plan will depend on your belief.

Belief is best when it comes from your own research. I’ll provide some points of departure for that research but want to focus on execution, here.

Perhaps your belief will come easier knowing that what I’m proposing is just a . . .

Faster Version of the ‘Same Old Thing’

As a debtor, inflation helps pay off your mortgage if your wages keep up.

Every monthly payment is worth less to the bank. The inflation (Theft) is slow enough that wages get a chance to catch up. They rarely do keep pace, but, the number of dollars you receive usually does increase over time.

Three things are happening here on a normal basis as you pay off your mortgage:

  1. Your getting paid more dollars from your employer or customers as you attempt to maintain purchasing power.
  2. Each of your fixed payments are worth less to the bank.
  3. The value of the balance due on the mortgage decreases by the principal portion of your payment and the inflation adjusted value of the remaining debt.

To speed up this existing process I propose that more of the the fruits of your labor be stored in silver to preserve (And possibly increase) its purchasing power. In effect, you’ll be speeding up step 1, above, by translating back your silver savings into dollars at some future date and paying down your mortgage. By that time, however, the dollar will have fallen and silver will have risen.

The silver you cash back into dollars will pay off a larger chunk of the currency your mortgage is denominated in: Dollars. Those increased number dollars may or may not have more purchasing power. But, you don’t need them to. All you need is for the silver to buy more fiat dollars to satisfy the mortgage. In other words, the mere act of preserving existing purchasing power will give the same effect as an increase in purchasing power when it comes to ‘purchasing’ debt.

In this one respect the falling dollar can be used as a One Trick Pony to help you escape from fixed debt.

Give to Caesar What is Caesar’s

As the dollar falls silver (And gold) rise in dollar terms to accurately reflect their unchanging value through the prism of a disintegrating metric (The dollar). Happily for you that disintegrating metric is what you owe the bank. Your mortgage says you owe dollars, not gold or silver. So store real value. When that real value is inevitably worth more tokens in the future turn them over to the bank to purchase your freedom.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s: The tokens he conjured out of thin air that now enslave you.

This Bubble’s For You

As people start to catch on and gravitate towards true value more will flee the dollar and buy up real assets. Silver is one of the prime candidates. The above ground silver available for purchase starts to disappear. This secondary event, in turn, causes more flight from the dollar which feeds an even more rapid rise in the price of silver. Then silver, itself, starts to rise even above its true value being one of the few worthy recipients of the flight from the dollar.

The amplification effect on price between silver scarcity and flight from the dollar continues until it takes the familiar shape of historical bubbles we’re now all familiar with. However, knowing this in advance and setting aside a modest amount of silver means that This Bubble’s For You.

I base this on . . .

A Radical Prediction that What’s Happening Will Continue

The Dollar Has Fallen 40% in the Last Eight Years. Contemplating another 40% decline in the dollar is no more outrageous than expecting things to continue as they have been.

If the dollar falls another 40% then a mortgage of $100K will be worth $60K in current value. Before shedding too many tears for the bank recall that the money they ‘gave’ you was conjured out of thin air because of The Awful Truth of How US Dollars are Created.

Apart from some temporary uptick the MSM will seize on as ‘proof of recovery’ do you know of anything being done that will save our fiat tokens?

Get On the Short List

You won’t fully benefit from the decreased value of the mortgage unless you can manage one of the following:

  1. Your wages keep up with Inflation. If you increased your wages by 40% from 2001 to 2009 it was due to your own efforts not the silly CPI adjustments referred to as your raise.
  2. You get paid the same wages in a currency that maintains its purchasing power. If you can manage this you either don’t live in the US or I’m reading your financial columns and watching your youtube videos. Thank you and enjoy the fresh air of the Swiss mountains or I hope your Mandarin lessons are going well, Mr. Rogers.
  3. You use today’s dollar to purchase an asset or commodity that maintains its purchasing power.
    Bingo! Now, that’s I’m talking about.
  4. You come up with a money making idea that brings in tons of dough. Creating value for our fellow human beings is what it’s all about. Please don’t get lazy and keep the fruits of your labor in tokens.

With sharp inflation it’s a challenge to keep wages up even if you own the company. Business owners walk their own tightrope raising prices. Will the inevitable price increases be passed onto employees, immediately? Actually, they can’t.

Conducting business with a volatile currency is an expertise more likely possessed in a Banana Republic. If you’re trying to acquire such expertise there’s a fabulous little book that has a place on your nightstand: The Hyperinflation Survival Guide: Strategies for American Businesses

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of 2

I’ll get very specific in Part 2 of 2 with:

  • The Daily Grind
  • Tax on Standing Still
  • How Much Silver Do you Need?
  • Step-by-Step Implementation
  • If You Don’t Have the Money
  • Belief is Good (And Downside Risk is Minimal)

1Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver, Michael Maloney, Page 152. Maloney uses the Case-Shiller Home Price Index January 1980 home price of $42,747 divided by the silver price of $52.50/oz.

2It’s 10/30/2009 and silver is $16.32/oz. The dollar index is 76.38.

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Why is My Baby Crying?

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I was Mr. Mom the last two weeks for our 11 month old. His grandparents, who usually take care of him during the day, went on vacation. My wife works away from home. I work, too. . . from home. That put me in charge of the day care.

By our third day, together, I was able to figure out what he wanted when he whined or cried. By the fourth day his whimpering stopped because he had what he needed before having to cry about it. Taking care of him was a lot easier than I expected. Sure, he needs lots of attention, but, it was nothing like the awful stories I’ve been hearing all my life. I began to think about why babies have a reputation for being so difficult. And, what’s making it easier for us?

I’m no more a baby expert than any parent. What I’m listing, here, are seven reasons why I think we’re having an easier time with our baby than the stories you’ll hear ‘out there‘. Six of them the parents can control. The last one is luck of the draw:

  1. Schedule
  2. Routines
  3. Company
  4. No Vaccines
  5. Balanced Meals
  6. Vitamins
  7. Disposition

(Note: This article was written in 2009. We’ve since had our second baby who was only a dream when writing this article. One thing that stands out, now, is the implication that a baby crying is, somehow, a disaster–or proof positive of a problem– that must be “solved”. Of course, it could be just that as crying is one of the few ways a baby can communicate . . . anything. What I left out, in my new-father haste to “solve the problem”, was the sheer joy of a baby crying when you “just know” there’s nothing seriously wrong. That’s why I chose the picture for the article of both a man and baby crying with mom laughing: It’s a more accurate portrayal of the wonder and beauty of this time in a  family’s life. I don’t want to live in a world where baby’s don’t cry nor do I mean to contribute to such a world through any words that I may write. What I do want to share with potential new parents is how much easier, and lovely, it is to care for a crying baby than what you may have been told. That’s something I never knew, in large part, because the parents I might have learned from didn’t say. If silence is the worst mistake then I pray the Lord keep me from making it and keep it short and sweet it the process.)

Schedule

Timothy’s on a loose schedule for the entire day. It’s specific in content and sequence. It’s flexible in start time with naps and bottles dropping off depending on his mood and other activities:

  1. Wake up and Bottle – Whey protein (No cows milk) With Vitamins and Fatty Acids.
  2. Play or sleep until . . .
  3. Breakfeast – oatmeal with a scoop of stomach flora
  4. Bath and Change Clothes
  5. Ride in Toy Car around the block
  6. Play, Bottle then Nap
  7. Lunch
  8. Play, Bottle then Nap
  9. Dinner
  10. Play
  11. Bottle (with cereal) then off to bed.

This is easier than it looks. The start times shift up to an hour though always in the same sequence. There’s many benefits for him (And for me, these last two weeks) in being on a schedule like this:

  • Predictability – The baby knows what to expect and so do we. Neither of us is surprised by bath time or when its time to take a knap. The baby begins to expect to receive all the things he needs at a certain time. It becomes easy to figure out what he may be missing if he does start to whine or cry. In other words, it makes the process of elimination for why he’s crying very simple.
  • Planning – All of us know what is happening and when, including the baby. We can plan the times for phone calls, shopping for items needed, visits from friends, working out at the gym or whatever else is going on in our non-baby life.
  • Comforting – It seems to me the schedule removes a certain anxiety from the baby’s mood. His emotions and metabolism ebb and flow as the schedule unfolds. He knows that everything he needs is going to be given to him when its time to be given. And it was comforting for me to know that I was doing everything necessary for him and not leaving anything out.
  • Ease of Transition to Backup Caretaker – This is an awesome benefit! It made it very easy for me to step in as primary caretaker. Timothy’s schedule didn’t change at all when grandmom and grandpop went on vacation. I was clumsy, at first, but knew what and when to do everything and was certain nothing was being left out because of the schedule they gave me. When he cried in the first three days it was because I was not getting him to the next item on his schedule in time or he wanted a bottle instead of a nap, or, vice versa.

Routines

Everything on and off his schedule unfolds in a predictable way:

  • When he’s watching a cartoon he’s sitting in his chair and hears the sound of us in the kitchen making his lunch.
  • He knows its time to take a nap when we’re lying next to him after his morning bottle.
  • He knows he’s going for a car ride when the dog starts barking and we get his toy car ready.

This is real SuperNanny stuff, I know. But, we’re planning on having a second child and I think schedules and routines are going to be key in managing our lives. I also think they’re going to be key in having less babies crying for seemingly no reason. And if they cry, we’ll have good clues as to why.

Company

Not having company makes Timothy cry.

Other than when he’s sleeping he wants company at all times. This will probably change in a few years as he starts reading or playing with more educational toys. But, for now, he wants someone with him at all times. You don’t have to be looking at him or directly interacting with him. You just have to be there with him in the same room.

BTW, Isabel gets a special mention in this category: We get a little crying when switching company from mom to dad and just laughing when switching back to mom. Do we have a mama’s boy issue, here? Mmmmmmmm. Not sure. It only lasts about 45 seconds. We’ll see.

No Vaccines

I think we have a much easier time with Timothy because he wasn’t vaccinated. When he cries its for one of six reasons (See Conclusion, below). He’s not in a constant state of recovery from the three dozen antigens he would have gotten by now. That’s 36 less things to cry about.

For a thorough explanation of why we chose not to vaccinate see my article, Vaccines For My Baby. It was not an easy choice, our first pediatrician ‘fired’ us and it’s been the subject of many discussions. But, I do think it was the right choice and part of that is evident in Timothy’s lack of crying for ‘mysterious’ reasons.

I may be wrong, but, I suspect the reason babies have a reputation for endless and inexplicable crying is because of the dramatic rise in vaccines given to them since 1982. If you’ve got the other six items in this article under control then vaccines may be the crying culprit.

What a tragedy it would be if less people have babies because vaccines make them cry too much. New parents tell would-be parents their nightmarish stories and the endless patience needed to withstand constant crying. The would-be parents don’t have superhuman patience so opt out of having children, at all.

All I’ll say here is that vaccines are not needed to achieve immunization to the diseases for which they’re given. In most cases the fine print actually says that immunization is not guaranteed by the vaccine. The only thing that can guarantee protection from the world’s millions of diseases is the babies’ immune system — the very thing vaccines tend to destroy, not boost.

Balanced Meals

I get grumpy and grouchy when I eat the wrong foods. If I was a baby that would probably take the form of crying. I think its reasonable to say that a baby cries less on a balanced diet. Or, to put it another way: An unbalanced diet is unlikely to lead to less crying.

Blood sugar regulation is key to mood leveling. We’ve taken pains to remove high-glycemic food from our son’s diet. His diet is about 30-40-30 protien-carbs-fats with the carbs being all vegetables and fruits. His bottle is the closest to breast milk in content we could find with no cow’s milk (Whey protein, instead).

From what we’ve seen this seems to be a very balanced diet for him. It levels his blood sugar, keeps him satisfied until the next mealtime and his energy spikes are smooth and natural with no crashing in between.

Vitamins

What’s the opposite of a vaccine? Nutrition that assists rather than destroys your immune system. Vitamins, minerals and fatty acids are all added to Timothy’s morning bottle.

We give him extra vitamin D because babies get much less sun than toddlers. We also give him a baby appropriate liquid multi-vitamin, fatty acids and add a small scoop of beneficial bacteria for his stomach to his morning cereal.

All of this was recommended by our son’s doctor who is a naturopath. The stomach flora is recommended for babies who were breastfed for less than 6 months. The added vitamins are to supplement a babies diet since newborns are not eating a wide variety of food, yet. Bacteria in the stomach enables easier digestion: One less thing to cry about.

Disposition

This one’s luck of the draw.

Most of the parents I’ve talk with say their baby had a definite disposition from the moment they were born. That’s been true for us, as well.

I hear the term ‘colicky’ to describe a baby that cries all the time. Colic is a term for anything that causes abdominal pain in horses (And now babies, too). I’m not sure if this is 100% disposition. It could be one of the other 6 items in this article because the term ‘colicky’ is so broadly used.

I’ll know more about this after we have baby #2. For now I would just say that we did not draw the short straw on this one (Thank God).

Conclusion

Our baby cries for six reasons:

  1. Hungry
  2. Tired
  3. Dirty – Needs diaper change
  4. Company
  5. Pain – Bumps himself while playing
  6. Toy – Got pushed under the furniture or he wants one.

It’s worth saying that these are the only reasons he cries. I wish somebody gave me this list when I was deciding on having children. It’s a much shorter list than I was led to believe by rumours, magazine articles and stories floating around ‘out there’.

Addressing the six things that make our baby cry doesn’t require superhuman patience. It requires a simple rem edy to a short list of causes.

We didn’t draw the short straw on disposition, this time. If Baby #2 is ‘colicky’ at least we’ll have strategies in our control to minimize babys’ (And parents’) crying.

I’m grateful to my wife, mother and father-in-law for putting so many things in place that serve Timothy’s needs before he has to cry about them. He has a schedule, routines, company, is not vaccinated, has balanced meals, gets good nutrition and there is no mysterious or endless crying. None of these things are a big deal, alone. It is a very big deal, however, when they come together and make for a happy baby and a peaceful house.

Copyright © 2014 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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Living With My In-Laws (One Year Later)

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It’s been 13 months since we moved my mother in to live with us. She was in a nursing home and it was time to get her out of there. Just prior, my mother and father-in-law moved in to live with us, as well. Five months later Timothy, our first child, was born.

That’s five adults, one baby and two dogs spread accross 4 generations; all living under one roof.

Our house was large enough, we had a baby on the way, needed help taking care of my mother and my in-laws were looking for a way to decrease their expenses and take life a little easier. For more background on the decision and the story of moving in together see Why I Live With My In-Laws.

This is an update to that article.

How’s It Going? – Bottom Line

Extremely well, with unexpected benefits and problems and ways to handle each.

Unexpected Benefits

Part of the ‘unexpected’ benefits are how much I didn’t expect to appreciate the benefits listed in my previous article as much as I do. Division of labor, economies of scale, precious time with family, help with mom. It’s one thing to think about these things and its quite another to experience them in your everyday life.

Grandparents for Timothy

This was just an idea last year when everyone moved in. Now, its real. The reality of having Timothy, Martha, Fabio and my mom together in the same house is truly priceless. There’s only three people on the planet that love Timothy as much as Isabel and I do. Having them all under one roof is a daily unfolding wonder and blessing. Even now I may not fully appreciate all the aspects and advantages to Timothy, and all of us.

And the babysitting? Are you kidding me? Who ya gonna call? Isabel and I haven’t had to contemplate the tradeoffs, risks and worries of leaving Timothy with a stranger as we run errands or just want to spend some alone time, together.

This is way beyond money.

Productivity at Home

I work at home. With an 8 month old baby it’s a miracle I can be so productive out of a home office. Sure, we could drop Timothy off at day care. He spends all day with his grandparents and me in what has to be the ideal environment. Even if we incurred the cost, risk and effort to leave Timothy at day care it would be a downgrade in the quality of his life and ours.

Daughter and Father

Isabel and Fabio have a similar temperament: They’re both quick to react and quick to wind down. At first, we all thought they’d be arguing with each other since they’re so similar. Nope. Turns out they’re so in tune with each other that things get resolved almost before they happen.

Daughter and Mother

Isabel and Martha don’t have the same tempermant. But, they are both very feminine and give ideas to each other in a non-competitive way. They may not admit this but I think they motivate each other to do more.

In other words, they both do more than they would without each other.

Mother-in-Law and Son-in-Law (Me)

Martha and I both tend to “Work behind the scenes” to accomplish our goals. Now we conspire with each other for the same purpose.

Nerve Center for Family

With five (Instead of two) adults in the same house its easier to keep in touch with extended family members and friends. That’s more connection for less effort. Since these are people we love and care about that is a very good thing.

All of us enjoy having guests. We have more guests because there are more people to visit. And, we enjoy them more because we’re all pitching in to entertain.

As a single man until the age of 44 I traveled for Christmas 20 years in a row. Now, I’m thrilled to have most of the family here and pass the travel burden onto the remaining single members of the family or those looking to take a break in wine country.

Circular Benefits

Everything that benefits one of us loops back around to benefit all of us. Here are some examples of how this plays out:

  1. My productivity at home leads to peace of mind and more abundance brought into our house. That peace of mind is felt by Timothy and sets an example for him that its possible to live a great life and not be stressed out all the time. More abundance leads to the ability to sustain our lifestyle.
  2. Isabel is freed up from most of the conventional tasks on a new mother’s list. The way I put it is, by the time her alarm clock rings in the morning, she has accomplished more than most new mothers can in two days.
  3. We purchased reclining couches for the living room to make it more comfortable to watch TV. That lead to ‘movie night’ Fridays. Movie night is a great excuse for everyone to spend time together. It also saves on the $150 it would cost for all four of us to go to the movie theatre after coke, popcorn, babysitting and who knows what else.

Unexpected Problems

And what about me and my new in-laws? Most people have trouble even with roomates. How about living with two new roomates you’re just getting to know? There had to be problems and arguments and blow-ups, don’t you think?

Not really. Sure, we’ve had our misunderstandings while getting to know each other, but, nothing more. Once you translate the culture and language our underlying goals are so united there’s nothing to argue about.

The real surprise was watching Fabio and Martha go through the adjustment of living with each other while spending the whole day together. They’d raised two kids and been married for 30 years, but, had never spent as much daily time together as when they moved in with us.

Trash

We do more shopping online, nowadays. Things that would normally come together in a bag get delivered separately in a box. That brings more boxes into the house. With baby showers, birthdays, more guests, medical supplies and holidays we have a lot of trash!

I’m bad about remembering trash day. That’s a disaster with six people in the house. One false move and we’ll never catch up without a trip to the dump.

Fabio has taken to overseeing our trash situation. Believe me, when I wake up on Friday morning and don’t have to panic at the sound of the garbage trucks I’m very grateful.

Space & House Layout

More people means more guests. Guests need a place to stay. Our only ‘spare’ room was my office. So, whenever we had guests I had to give up my office. Sure, I could use the computer during the day, but, at least half of my productivity happens at night after everyone is asleep.

Guests were’nt the only reason for a new home office. The only room that could hold my filing cabinets, computer, books, reference materials and have room for a meeting with another person was my first office. That was also the only downstairs room available for my mom. As it turned out, using the last remaining bedroom upstairs didn’t work for several reasons:

When guests came I lost night-time use of the office. For me that was about half of my productivity.

The room was not really all mine. Isabel kept her office books, cabinets, lights and reference materials in the room. The closet was half full of her stuff and the other half was an overflow closet used by Martha.

My office was half upstairs and half downstairs. I had to go up and down the stairs three times just to stage the items needed to work on a project. Any doorbell ring or need for additional materials would send me upstairs and downstairs, yet again.

And so . . .

The Man Cave is Born

What this all lead to was the need to create another room in the house. The optimal room would be:

  • Downstairs.
  • Big enough for all the ‘tools’ for my work.
  • Not infringe on another mandatory use of space.
  • Accessible, but not too accessible to the daily activities of the house.

And so, my friend David and carved out 1/3 of our 3-car garage and made it into an office. It took 2.5 months of back-breaking work. Frankly, it was a study in the drawbacks and benefits of working on only one goal and ignoring all others. One day I’ll write an article on whether or not that’s the optimal approach.

Although I had designed an addition to the house that would have been perfect it was just too expensive to build considering all the other purchases I was making to make sure we’d make it through this terrible downturn in the economy.

Person by Person

In my first article I said there had to be something in it for everyone for the whole multi-generational living to work. Now that we’ve been together 13 months let’s go person by person and look at how its been for each one of us.

Mom

The joy on my mom’s face when she see’s Timothy (Every day) says it all.

On her second trip to the doctor, four months after moving in, he couldn’t believe how much she had improved. And that was before Timothy was born. We have lunch every day together and sometimes even a party on the patio. Timothy looks over and screams when mom waves at him and that’s a great ‘conversation’ to watch.

My mom’s health is not well and she doesn’t always cooperate with Martha when its time to do her exercises. However, I have my doubts that she’d be with us, at all, if it weren’t for the comfort and care she receieves by living with us.

Martha

Martha is obviously happy and also a bit restless. She’s taken on another child to take care of during the day for extra income and earns every penny of it.

Fabio

Fabio loves being at home. Later, he’ll probably need to get out more. But, for now there’s plenty going on in the house to entertain.

Timothy

Timothy gets parents who are smiling and not stressed out. He has the priceless attention and love of his grandparents. He feels the support of living in a home where everyone is looking out for each other and gets far more interaction than would be possible in daycare.

He’s learning Spanish as his first language and will pick up english like a sponge when it’s time. He might even be ready to learn a third by the time most students are deciding on a second.

Isabel

Before Isabel’s alarm clock goes off in the morning she’s gotten more ‘done’ than most mothers could in three days. That’s because most of what needs to be done around the house is split between myself, Fabio, Martha or other Martha (Who comes to clean house three times a month).

“People like doing things for me.”, she says. As a smart husband I won’t touch that statement.

Me

When I was single just thinking about living like this would have been like thinking about walking on the moon. Even now its an unfolding mystery. I’m suprised to find very little on the internet written about the subject coming from Americans. For economic reasons I predict that’s going to change.

Ironically, being willing to give up the freedom I had when I was single has been the very means of becoming more free than I’ve ever felt in my life.

I’m surprised the whole arrangement goes as well as it does.

What Happens Around Here

Here’s some things that happen around here:

  • Almuerzo – Spanish for “Lunch”. Everyday at 12pm prepared by Fabio. You know its happening when the intercom rings.
  • Movie Night – We bought special couches that recline so up to 6 people can recline in comfort. I figure every movie saves us $150 though saving money wasn’t the motivation.
  • Boys Day / Girls Day – With lots of people around this need becomes obvious. The girls want to do their thing without prying eyes. The boys want to do their thing without hearing comments.

Everybody’s Got Their Secret Stash

Martha has her sweets, mom’s got her cookies, Fabio has his whisky and I have my figs and wine. Isabel doesn’t have to keep a stash because Fabio keeps it for her for. Or maybe she’s just better at keeping secrets than we are.

What Our Friends Said?

Last month our friends and family told us they gave us two months, tops.

Can you blame them? What odds do you give someone bungy jumping from a helicopter?

And this article is not a, “See?, We TOLD you it would work!” I can’t do that because the lifestyle is an unfolding mystery. I can tell you the benefits and drawbacks in retrospect, but, the future is not predictable.

One of my favorite comments was, “If we predict failure we only have to be right once. For you to pronounce success you have to be right 24 hours a day, forever”. That’s only true if we took some kind of club oath. I’d say being happy for a solid year counts for a good measure of success.

Hernan (Fabio’s brother) thanked Fabio, not me, for his hospitality for a 2 week stay at the house. It occured to me, that night, that it was a sign of the success of living together. It’s not really my house, anymore. Its “our” house.

The things I have are just things I’m using while I’m alive. They don’t seem like mine, really. They’re just things and tools and materials. Now the house has become just another tool to get a job done.

Coverage

One of my favorite benefits is coverage. Here’s some examples:

  • If I need to run an errand I have coverage for Timothy and mom’s care.
  • If Isabel needs to work late she has coverage for Timothy. Tasks she ‘meant’ to get done that night can be delegated to us and she’ll probably have dinner waiting for her when she gets home.
  • If Fabio wants to go to Colombia for a few weeks he can pack a few things and go. He can easily plug back into his routine upon return.
  • If Martha needs the afternoon to go the doctor there’s not much planning needed for Fabio and I to cover for her.

The real value of coverage is that it is general and flexible. As things come up for each of us we know others are there to cover for us. Its a general comfort that becomes specific as life events unfold.

BBQs

I love BBQ’s. With more people and guests there are more excuses to have one. There’s also more oppurtunity to combine events like birthdays and anniversaries.

Cadence of the Day

Our days unfold with a cadence that marks time and gives things to look forward to. I know for sure this doesn’t happen when you’re single.

The Future

Fabio and Martha have considered selling their home in Orlando and probably would if the market allows.

If we have a second child the guest room goes to the baby. Even with the garage office I built to free up an official guest room we’ll be left with no spare rooms.

A prolonged recession in the US is now guaranteed. That makes our living situation even more beneficial. Perhaps these articles will be helpful to more Americans as they contemplate throwing in, together.

Copyright © 2009 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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Children

Swine Flu Insanity

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  1. Most Medical Doctors won’t take it.
  2. Nobody knows for sure what’s in it.
  3. Insurance companies refuse to insure medical professionals who inject it.
  4. The companies making it have insisted the government grant them total liability protection for any complications resulting from it.
  5. One of the known ingredients in multidose vials is mercury.
  6. It will not be ready in time to be tested in any scientific way.
  7. The trials that have been conducted have not been performed with the same vaccine that will be given to the public.
  8. The H1N1 strain for which it has been prepared has already mutated so that the ‘vaccine’ can not possibly help your immune system with the old original H1N1 strain which is now gone.

Last, but, not least: When a similar vaccination program was undertaken in 1976 it killed 250 people and left an enormous number of neurologically damaged and crippled while creating a brand new “Made in USA” autoimmune disease called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS).

Ok, that’s my list, against, written as a concerned parent. Buckle up your seatbelts for 18 more from a truly thorough full-time health advocate, Bill Sardi. Then come back to put this insanity in perspective on what this artificial crisis is really about, if you’ve got the time.

Why would anyone take this shot?

Simple:

  • Few people have the time or desire to research these things.
  • Reading medical research documents is hardly the preferred way to relax after a hard days work.
  • The CDC says it will save us though offers zero evidence to back up their evasive recommendations.

So, in the end people just go with their doctors’ recommendation (Who is probably not going to take it, themselves).

To make matters far worse you have states like Massachusetts trying to pass a law that will fine people $1000 per day or 30 days in jail for not taking the shot. Given that the ingredients are not even known what exactly is this law even based on? We know congress doesn’t read the laws they pass, but, this takes it to a new level of incompetence.

Don’t Take My Word for It

In his latest Newsletter Russell L. Blaylock, M.D. says:

“Right now, the government is working hard to implement a draconian program to vaccinate the population by force. This is an absolutely insane idea. If they mandate that all Americans be vaccinated, I predict that we will see an unprecedented number of vaccine-related deaths (as many as 250 died during the 1976 vaccine fiasco) and an enormous number of neurologically damaged and crippled people. The vaccine tested for safety before the 1976 scare was not the one used — the actual vaccine given to the public was untested. We may be seeing the same thing again. I suspect that the dangerous MF-59 adjuvant (squalene) will not be in the vaccine used for the test, but will be in the one given to the public. MF-59 is an immune-boosting additive that has been associated with severe autoimmune diseases,such as Lupus and multiple sclerosis-like disorders. There is a potential for millions of people to be crippled by these vaccine-induced diseases. As for the flu itself, at the time of this writing it is considered to be a low virulent virus — meaning that it is no worse than any other flu in the recent past. Those who are dying are not dying from the virus itself, but from a cytokine storm. Their bodies’ reaction to the virus is what is actually killing them. It was recently reported that smokers were found to have an intense inflammatory reaction deep within their lungs when exposed to the flu virus. One wonders how many of those who died were smokers or had immune disorders, but the CDC is keeping silent.”

“The 1976 swine flu fiasco began when a single soldier died from the flu at Fort Dix. He was infected along with five other soldiers, but he decided to go on a forced march even though he was sick. A person can die from a common cold if forced to march — I know because I used to see these soldiers when I was in the service. The other soldiers were tested and found to have a common strain of flu. The CDC analyzed the blood of the soldier who died and announced he had the swine flu strain. The news triggered a panic. The public was not told that a sergeant gave the soldier mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but did not contract the flu. I suspect that the CDC mistyped the virus. Here we go again!”

Spermicide, Cleaners, and Cosmetics along with Thimerosal and Squalene Found in Experimental H1N1 Vaccine

Our first glimpse into the actual ingredients is coming at this late date of 09/14/2009. Here’s an article written by a guy who volunteered for one of the rushed trials just to see what he could find out about the ingredients.

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny and Russell Blaylock say:

To download their two fliers that summarize the medical facts about flu vaccines and where the swine flu fits in to the picture. Print them out and show them to your loved ones to focus what can be a difficult conversation.

For more comprehensive information see Dr. Blaylocks web page. or Dr. Tenpenny’s vaccine information center.

Here’s an article comparing the Swine Flu Hoax to the 1918 pandemic during world war I.

Swine Flu: Natural Pandemic or Man-Made Pandemonium?

Lila Rajiva Puts It All Together for us explaining the real motivations behind this latest hoax and future medical crimes against humanity we’re likely to see in the future.

Get Daily Updates

You can get up to date tracking on the coming flu “pandemic”, here.

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Screaming to be Heard
Family

What French Women Know about Estrogen…and American Women Don’t!

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(Excerpted from Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet’s forthcoming book: The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Estrogen: What America Got Wrong. . . and How To Do It Right)

Many of you saw the national news reports in late February 2007 announcing the findings of the ESTHER study, sponsored by health agencies of the French government. ESTHER, which stands for Estrogen and Thromboembolism Risk, showed that women taking oral estrogens were four times more likely to have a blood clot than women using estrogen in a transdermal gel or patch delivery. In fact, the women using estradiol gel or patches had no more blood clots than women using no hormones at all (placebo)! 56% of ESTHER women on transdermal therapy were using estradiol gel.

I wrote about lower risk of blood clots with non-oral estrogen in the first edition of Screaming to Be Heard, published in 1995. Studies since the 1970s have shown this important difference between oral and transdermal estrogen. Research data has become even stronger to support this longstanding observation that differences in the way hormones are delivered play a major role in safety vs. complications.

In the United States, this research comes as a surprise to women and most doctors. But French women and their doctors have known about these differences for over thirty years…what gives? The answer may lie in the different types of hormone products doctors prescribe in the U.S.A. and Europe.

American women have traditionally been given oral pills of Premarin (a mixture of horse estrogens) or Prempro (horse estrogens plus a potent synthetic progestin). Both products contain hormones that are foreign to the human body, and not identical to anything women make naturally. Yet, these two products alone have accounted for 80 to 85% of all hormone prescriptions in the United States for the last fifty years!

European women, on the other hand, have traditionally used products with bioidentical estradiol and progesterone, hormones that are identical to what the human body makes.

But even more critical is the difference in route of delivery here in the U.S.A. compared to Europe: 70% of women in France and Italy, for example, use transdermal forms of estradiol such as gels, lotions or patches that have been approved by their regulatory bodies (like our FDA). Contrast that 70% with the U.S. statistics: only 3% of American women use a transdermal form of estradiol, even though British researchers first published studies in the 1970s showing reduced risk of blood clots with non-oral estrogen.

One of the most successful options overseas, EstroGel, a pleasant, easy-to-use clear gel containing bioidentical estradiol, was approved by the French equivalent of the FDA about 30 years ago! Today, EstroGel is the most widely used form of estradiol in Europe. Even though EstroGel has been used so successfully in European countries for so many years, American women did not get this product until the FDA approved it in February 2004! So it seems the French have handled women’s hormone therapy a lot better than the Americans have for a long, long time!

Keep in mind, all of the various products using 17-beta estradiol deliver the identical molecular copy of a woman’s premenopausal estrogen.

Transdermal estradiol products deliver the human 17-beta estradiol in a way that is the most “natural” of all. The estradiol is absorbed through the skin, directly into the bloodstream, similar to the release of hormones from the ovaries. Direct delivery to the bloodstream bypasses the “first pass” metabolism in the liver that breaks down and changes estradiol into other forms that may not be as effective for its normal functions.

The primary difference between pill form and transdermal gel/patch is that oral estrogens all have to be metabolized (changed) first in the liver, called the “first pass” effect. Everything we eat swallow by mouth goes through the liver first so it can be changed into compounds that can be carried in the bloodstream. This first pass through the liver stimulates production of some clotting factors and proteins that lead to both pluses, and minuses, or oral medications.

One “plus” of oral estrogen is that it stimulates the liver to make more of the “good” cholesterol, or HDL. That means if you are a woman who has a very low level of HDL, you may need this boost in production provided by oral estrogen for the heart-protective effects of HDL. EstroGel, Estrasorb lotion or the patches (Climara and Vivelle DOT) still give you the natural physiological benefits of estradiol to maintain the normal level of HDL cholesterol. They just don’t give you that “first-pass” liver stimulation to ramp up production of HDL.

The “minuses” of oral estrogen can lead to a higher risk of blood clots: the liver “first-pass” effect can stimulate more production of clotting factors that in some women can cause deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or blood clots to the lungs, called pulmonary emboli (PE). Obesity, smoking, and inactivity, and genetic mutations like Factor V Leiden (a blood coagulation disorder) further increase the risk of clots.

Other “minuses” of oral estrogens, particularly mixed equine estrogens like Premarin, include stimulation of liver production of triglycerides (a blood fat associated with increased risk of heart disease if too high), renin (a substance that can cause high blood pressure), and greater likelihood of gallstones if you have a predisposition to those problems.

American women often say that “pills are easier” and they don’t want to be bothered with putting on the gel, or they don’t like the look of the “ring” with the patches as the adhesive around the edge picks up lint from clothes. But if it makes an important difference for your health, aren’t these pretty minor problems?

Apparently French women think so—and the widespread use of EstroGel throughout Europe attests to its ease of use and pleasant, non-greasy feeling on the skin. So maybe it’s time for you to get savvy and take advantage of the estrogen benefits and lower risks that European women have known for so long!

Advantages of transdermal delivery include:

  1. Transdermal delivery bypasses the first step in the liver that oral medicines undergo.  It is this “first pass” in the liver that causes an unwanted increase in clotting factors that lead to higher risk of blood clots;
  2. It maintains steadier blood levels of estradiol, similar to the hormone production by the ovary (helpful for women with
    blood pressure or “hormonal” headache problems);
  3. It leads to better improvement in glucose control and insulin sensitivity than with oral estrogens;
  4. It causes less rise in blood level of estrone, the estrogen of body fat, than seen with oral estrogens, again because transdermal estradiol bypasses the liver “first pass;”
  5. The estradiol is less likely to be adversely affected by other medications, since it is not metabolized first in the liver;
  6. Transdermal delivery of estradiol does not elevate triglycerides as occurs in some women taking oral estrogens;
  7. Non-oral estradiol is less likely to cause gallstones;
  8. Transdermal estradiol helps maintain a premenopausal healthy balance of good HDL to bad LDL cholesterol even though it doesn’t raise HDL as rapidly or quite as high as oral estrogens.

The bottom line is that many of the health risks you have heard about from “estrogen” in the headlines over the last five years have been based on the Women’s Health Initiative studies using only horse-derived oral estrogens and synthetic progestins. My clinical experience over twenty years, and the international research, show that those risks don’t apply in the same way to all other types of estrogens and other ways of giving the hormone, such as transdermal.

The WHI—which studied older postmenopausal women using either Premarin alone if they had a hysterectomy, or Prempro(horse estrogens plus medroxyprogesterone acetate, a potent synthetic progestin) if they did not—is the major U.S. study that has caused so much turmoil and confusion about hormones since 2002. The WHI was presented in the press as a study of “healthy” menopausal women.

Healthy? Only in America would we call women with these characteristics “healthy!” No country in Europe has such a high percentage of hypertension or obesity, both of which are risk factors for stroke, heart disease and breast cancer. Consider these statistics from the WHI study data:

  • 35% of the women were already being treated for high blood
    pressure.
  • 35% were significantly overweight.
  • Another 34% were obese by the medical definition, making
    a total of 69% of the entire study group having an abnormal
    body mass index, which affects all kinds of health risks from
    breast cancer to cardiovascular disease.
  • 12.5% had high enough cholesterol to require medication.
  • 16% had a family history of breast cancer.
  • 4% had diabetes.
  • 40% were former smokers, and 10% continued to smoke cigarettes during the study.

These women were “typical” Americans maybe, but certainly not “healthy.”

The only thing meant by healthy in the published research studies was that the women in the study just didn’t have symptoms of menopause! I’ll bet you didn’t even know that the WHI even excluded women experiencing hot flashes! Seems strange, doesn’t it?

Older women in the WHI already had evidence of heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. So these baseline problems affect the response to hormones, especially when high dose, “unnatural” products are used in women so long after menopause.

Recent worldwide research on hormone use has shown there is a “window of opportunity” early in the menopause transition for hormone therapy to prevent damage to various tissues and organs. Once this window of time is past, however, hormone therapy doesn’t reverse damages that have occurred. This was demonstrated clearly in the Women’s Health Initiative using Premarin and Prempro in elderly postmenopausal women.

The International Menopause Society position paper in September, 2002, said: “The WHI results, and particularly the data on cardiovascular disease risk, should only be related to the continuous combined treatment of 0.625 mg CEE (conjugated equine estrogens, Premarin) together with 2.5 mg MPA (medroxy-progesterone acetate), prescribed to elderly, obese women with characteristics similar to those depicted in the WHI study”.2 (Parenthetical explanations by Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D.).

In fact, the above comments and WHI findings validate concerns I have been raising about Premarin and Prempro in my previous books and medical articles since the early 1990s.

And now, French researchers have given us even more fuel for the fire that there are other, safer ways to use estrogen— ways that help you feel better, feel more vital and energetic, and not have all the risks you have read about in the press.

Now it’s time for American women to appreciate, and benefit from, the differences in type of estrogen and how it can be given to better meet individual needs. If you are using, or considering, estrogen to relieve menopausal symptoms, ask your doctor if you can try EstroGel or one of the patch brands that are FDA-approved bioidentical options for estradiol.

As the French say, Vive la difference!

 

© 2007 Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D., Permission to reprint in whole (Not in part) is gladly granted, provided full credit is given. Visit Dr. Vliet at her main office in Tucson and explore much more at her website, www.HerPlace.com aka HER Place®

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Gold American Buffalo Coin
Business

Depression Proof Your Money

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The money printing bailouts have only just begun.

Yes, we’ve had some deflationary bankruptcies to help decrease the money supply, thank God. But, as you can see, even the most staunch conservatives are now begging the government to crank up the printing presses. As history predicts, they just can’t help themselves.

Most of the strongest advocates for the bailouts know what they’re doing. They know that pumping this much fiat money into the economy will lead to hyperinflation. But, whoever gets the money first can use it to purchase valuable assets while it still has some purchasing power left. By the time the money makes its way to you and me its purchasing power will be mostly gone.

But, there’s still time. . . (As of 9/25/2008) . . .

. . .To Depression-proof your hard earned money, savings and retirement plans from the upcoming hyperinflationary depression.

If you know what to do it doesn’t take long to:

Move Your Money From Here . . .

  • Bank Accounts
  • Savings Accounts
  • CD’s
  • Government Sponsored Bonds
  • Money Market Accounts
  • US Domestic Stocks
  • Financial Stocks of Any Kind, in Any Country
  • Treasury Bills
  • Municipal Bonds
  • Mutual Funds Made Up of Primarily US Domestic Equities
  • Bonds and/or Bond Funds of Any Kind
  • Under Your Bed
  • In Your Backyard

. . .To Here

  • Swiss Franc Bonds
  • Foreign Stocks that pay dividends
  • Agricultural Indexes
  • Gold
  • Silver
  • Real Estate (Low Prices and Hyperinflation can payoff your house!)

It might only take one hour to preserve a lifetime of savings!

Talking Heads

Judging from the reactions and interviews on TV many wealthy people were blind-sided by the financial crisis’ of the past week. After those talking heads get off the air you can bet they’re moving their money and assets around to protect themselves.

I like Ben Stein. He’s a smart, likeable and decent human being. He’s also more wealthy than the average Joe and is frequently seen on TV commenting on economic and investment issues. Unfortunately, Ben didn’t see this financial crisis coming.

When history is used to predict or avoid an outcome the correct past event has to be chosen as the model. The dollar is losing its status as the world’s reserve currency. Central banks around the world are covertly dumping dollars and purchasing gold and other real assets. And the US government is largely powerless to do anything about it. In fact, the stewards of our currency are printing up their own personal bailout packages just prior to their exit from the world stage.

This is not a normal recessionary business cycle we’re witnessing. The talking heads on TV telling you to “Stay the course” are giving you the correct advice for the wrong time. If they didn’t warn you of a financial crisis of this magnitude then why would you trust their advice now?

Return OF (Not ON) Your Investment

In times like this the perfect is the enemy of the good. If you haven’t already reallocated your investments then you don’t have time to be a perfectionist. Think in terms of preserving the purchasing power of your money and consider any increase a bonus. Look at the list of destinations, recommended above, and choose one you’re comfortable with.

Brokerage Accounts

Correctly choosing the particular holdings in your brokerage account is much more important than choosing the brokerage firm, itself. People who were using Bear Sterns or Lehman Brothers to hold their investments did not lose the holdings in their accounts. It was the stock of the brokerage firms, themselves, that plummeted, not the investments they held for you as custodian. I don’t use this firm myself, but, one company that is getting it right is Peter Schiff’s Europac.net. Check them out if you’re looking to make a switch.

Banks

Even with a bank you’ll probably get money less than $100k back if you want it. You may have to stand in line, be limited to partial withdraws and be inconvenienced, but money you have in the bank will most likely still be returned to you. But, the dollars may not have much purchasing power when you get them back. The FDIC does not have enough to insure all the deposits in banks that are about to fail. But, the government will just create more money for the FDIC to keep functioning when they run out.

If you want to be spared any inconvenience for your short term banking then choose one with a high star rating at www.bankrate.com.

Silver May Not Be an Option

In the Bailout Plan sent out two months ago I recommended silver as my personal favorite way to store and preserve value. There is very little physical silver left for purchase. I still recommend calling your local coin shops to check. However, you may end up having to purchase gold instead of silver. If so I recommend gold eagles, austrian philharmonics and any denomination of bullion bars from a well-known mint.

You could purchase shares of the silver ETF SLV, but, this is a far less attractive alternative to keeping the physical metal in your possession. See my article SLV is Not Silver for more on the pitfalls of investing in SLV.

For a broader perspective on precious metals read my article Silver and Gold Do Nothing or Why is Gold Money?

How Much Inflation and When?

10% and now. One, three, six months from now? Increasingly more. But, isn’t 14% and climbing enough?

Start making decisions now while your dollar still has enough purchasing power to purchase things that have lasting value.

Checking Account Alternatives

If you’re losing 14% a year in your checking account due to inflation then even simple things around the house start to be a better “Investment”. You should probably have at least three months of expenses in your checking account. After that, if you’ve already paid off your credit cards and reallocated your Retirement account then here are some alternatives for the money left in your checking account:

  • Food That Stores for Long Periods like cereal, canned goods, rice
  • Water, Water Filters or Storage
  • Computer Upgrades
  • Software
  • Prepaid Utilities like gas, electric, cable, cell phone
  • Prepaid Property taxes

Or anything else you’re going to have to purchase in the next year or two. Why not purchase them now while the purchasing power of your money is stronger and you still have a job?

Web Resources

This article is an update on the Your Optimal Bailout Plan I sent out at the end of July. See that article for more background.

www.europac.net

www.shadowstats.com

www.lewrockwell.com

www.allamericangold.com

www.silverstockreport.com

Copyright © 2008 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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Clint with In-laws
Children

Why I Live With My In-Laws!

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I can’t claim credit for the idea that my father and mother-in-law move in with us. Or that we move my mom from her nursing home into my office. . . .

. . . .Because that would be five people and two dogs in the same house with a baby on the way!

Oh, no. It was my optimal Wife that came up with this masterpiece. She saw the mounting nursing home bills, knew a baby was coming and swung into action. By the time she was finished laying it all out, one night after work, she had a way to upgrade all of our lives. And that upgrade goes double for her. But, what can I say? It was her idea.

Her radical plan was to have us all living together. We would divide up tasks according to our abilities, split costs where we could, spend time together, help her parents ramp down from a lifetime of work and bridge the 3000 mile distance between our baby and its grandparents.

She was proposing we live like a family. A multi-generational family.

It was outrageous!

The American Way?

Why wasn’t this anti-radical vision my idea?

Because I grew up in Florida in the late 70’s/early 80’s. A period in American history when we were doing all we could to make ourselves into personal sovereign nations.

Families were relocate-able units set up to follow the money wherever it lead. Women’s lib ‘freed up’ mom to go to work. Dads were encouraged to do whatever to ‘find themselves’. And the kids watched Miami Vice and thought the drug dealers were way better off than Crockett and Tubbs. The only question was how we were gonna get one of those Ferrari’s and live in a mansion in Miami without getting arrested?

Family. Aren’t those the people you live with until you get a job? Everyone knows the goal is to decrease the number of generations in one house from two to one!

Not so fast.

What was left over from mom’s check after taxes barely paid for babysitting and Friday night pizza. Dad got sick of microwaved hot dogs and found out how much better life was with mom around. Mom didn’t like office politics. And my brother and I were hard pressed to improve on my father’s job, which he loved. We were living pretty well and dad
still managed to retire at 52.

Panic

But, what’s happening here? Isabel and I have only been married for 16 months and we’ll never be alone in the house together again for at least 18 years or more! How could we stand that? Doesn’t everybody feel on top of each other? Who pays for all the food, mortgage, utilities, cable and what about all the potential noise and distractions all the time of everyone in the kitchen?

The Decision

Most of what makes life good or bad is set by five decisions or less.

Make them well and you eliminate 95% of the life’s friction. Make them badly and you’re plagued with problems that aren’t even solvable. This was one of those decisions.

For all my talk about optimizing everything and making balanced decisions from every vantage point my wife just fell asleep with a problem and woke up with the solution. But, Making the final decision gave me a headache for the next three weeks.

If I list everything that concerned me over living as a multi-generational household it would be the length of the phone book. Everything is affected by a decision like this.

Take the big things like space, time, money, personalities, family, daily activities, food, alone time and noise. Then imagine how each one affects the others on the list. Then factor in that we’ve only been married for 16-months. Add in that we would be taking on the full-time care of my mom who had two strokes, last year. And don’t think too much about that baby on the way or you might go a little nuts.

“Don’t make such a big deal about it.”, Isabel said.

First of all, you can’t get all the facts to make a decision like this. The permutations are not computable because you don’t have solid data for input. Its all anecdotal evidence from people you don’t know. How do I know these people share my values and preferences?

In the end, I used three tools to help make the decision: A mind map, a stop-loss provision and a leap of faith.

On the mind map I listed out every concern that came to mind. I drew lines connecting every box that affected the others (There were a lot of lines). I googled as much as I could to get other peoples’ experience. I tried to come up with a creative solution to anything that still caused concern. Then I slept on it, woke up, and did the same thing again. For Three weeks.

After all that I was ready to consult my newly informed intuition.

The result? Few problems that couldn’t be worked out. Everything depended on the personalities and character of the people involved. And these were unknowns in the circumstances under consideration because none of us had had lived this way before.

Several times in our brief marriage I asked my wife to have faith in something I felt strongly about and she went along. Things turned out as predicted and I’d like to think she’s more comfortable with my judgment. Now the shoe was on the other foot and she was asking me to have faith in her instincts. You might say, I owed her one.

You might also say there’s no way to eliminate the “Leap of Faith” aspect to a decision like this. But, her certainty did make the leap easier.

OK, so it might work. But, what if we’re wrong? Is there any way out?

To feel more comfortable in taking the first steps we put a few stop-loss provisions in place:

  1. Fabio and Martha rented their house in Florida rather than sell it.
  2. I made a two-year commitment to see if it would work.
  3. I designed an addition to the house in case we didn’t have enough space.

With the mind map to mentally sort through the details, the leap of faith I owed Isabel and the above stop-loss provisions there were no excuses left to postpone the decision.

I was satisfied the downside to giving it a try had been minimized.

Moving In

Martha

Martha came first. She put in her notice to St. John’s, put on a baby shower for us and said her goodbyes to all her friends in Orlando. She was getting out of retail at the perfect time. She had been on her feet for 20 years and it was time to take a break and be with her daughter and grandchild-to-be.

In the weeks leading up to her arrival the boxes trickled in at the front door and were hauled up to the jungle, our safari theme guest room, one-by-one. If there was a time of nervousness for me it was watching the boxes arrive and wondering what we were getting ourselves into.

Martha is only 11 years older than me and only 3 years older than my friend, David, so there is no generation gap to speak of. When she arrived it was more like greeting a friend than a mother-in-law. It felt like a friend was spending a few weeks with us.

Mom

We had to get training to learn how to take care of my mom. They taught us how to transfer her from the bed to the chair, from the chair to the shower, how to prepare food and ways to help her do exercises. There was also a strict drug regimen that took some getting used to. Support equipment trickled in from the UPS guy. Stuff like wheelchairs, a shower chair, transfer poles and oxygen bottles were arriving every other day.

Then it was time to move my mom into the house. The actual move was the last step in a long project, beyond the scope of this article. It was quite a balancing act to prepare for her full-time care because she’s confined to a wheelchair and needs quite a range of care and attention. Martha took the sting out of all if this and everything went smoothly mostly because of her.

Mom was thrilled in a hundred different ways to be living at home.

After about two months of adjustments and many sessions with physical and occupational therapists we started to get the hang of the work involved. There were lots of medicare forms to sign and equipment to set up. Isabel set up all moms prescriptions to be automatically filled every quarter by just logging on and checking what we were running out of.

Fabio

My mom and Martha were here for about two months before Fabio came. By that time we had most things worked out and running smoothly.

Fabio gave a 45-day notice to the law firm he was working for. Along notice because he was working for his nephew Rodrigo and there was a lot of planning needed for a smooth transition.

When he arrived the house felt more balanced. I didn’t realize the balance had shifted so much to the feminine until he swayed it back to neutral.

Fabio’s first adjustment was what to do when the phone doesn’t ring. Back in Orlando he was getting ten calls an hour on the job. Now there was only the sound of the breeze on the patio, the geese flying overhead and the TV if he turned it on.

It wasn’t long before Fabio’s talents as a chef were put into swing when six cousins came to visit for a week. That brought the total in the house up to eleven for the week!

How’s It Workin’ Out?

After four months it’s working out better than my wife expected with advantages I didn’t expect.

Space

We dodged the bullet on space issues by having a larger house from the start.

We saw 76 houses before choosing this one. Our goal was to avoid having to move again before our kids went to college. The most obvious weakness would have been lack of space and 3049 square feet has been enough. More importantly, the layout is efficient, functional areas are separated and it handles people well. Hallelujah!

Bedrooms

Four of the five bedrooms are taken. The last one is ready for the baby coming next week. Since all kids get their own bedrooms, nowadays, we won’t have space issues until a second child comes along.

Alone Time

Alone time is more than having your own room. We have four options that can be used by anyone in the house:

  1. The living room is off by itself.
  2. The patio.
  3. The outside front of the house on the “Silla de Navidad” or Christmas Chair.
  4. On the golf course trails.

These areas don’t have doors. However, it’s not easy to find you unless you know where to look.

Guests

When guests come the blow-up beds from Costco come out and go into my office or one of the common areas. My office is perfect for that and the common areas feel like you have your own room.

I think its a waste of house to have rooms set aside only for guests. Many people think guest only rooms are mandatory. I think the mandatory rooms are for people who live in the house. I have no problem giving up my bedroom for a guest and can easily blow-up a bed and sleep in my office for a few days.

Noise

Noise has not been a problem other than my reluctance to sing loudly and write songs when people are around. As a musician I’m sensitive to noise. If its not a problem for me then it probably won’t be a problem for someone else.

Sometimes its hard to watch TV in the family room as people accumulate in the kitchen. But, we have one of those large family rooms connected to a large kitchen. What else would you expect with a room design like that?

If anyone really wants to watch something they go to their own rooms where there’s no interruptions. I’d rather have the family room/kitchen combination because its where everyone hangs out.

Expenses

Household expenses are about 10% higher in the form of electricity, cable, water and gas. We split food, so, food remains the same. You could look at the cost increase in three different ways:

  1. It’s 10% more expensive.
  2. That the incremental cost per person added is low.
  3. That with a 10% increase overall expenses will still be much lower because more people are splitting all costs.

#1 and #2 are self-explanatory.

If you computed #3 by dividing all costs by five it would be a lot of money saved. But, we don’t do that for the same reason most people probably won’t: Money is only one way to keep track of contribution to a household

In our case Fabio and Martha make it more feasible to take on the full-time care of my mom. If mom is living here we save on paying a nursing home. Saving that expense frees up money to pay other expenses and improves the quality of all our lives, my mom’s most of all.

Fabio and Martha rent their house in Florida which pays for their house expenses. They have no house expenses here so can more easily cover bills like health insurance, gas, cell phone., etc.

Our costs have risen by 10% but we had to pay 90% of those costs, anyway. The more economies of scale and division of labor benefits (See below) that occur the more the additional 10% returns.

I think of it like the difference between buying one meal at a restaurant and eating at a buffet. You pay a little more for the buffet, but, the variety and quality of your meal is improved.

Economies of Scale

We can prepare a meal for five people as easily as two. And by scaling the same ingredients to a recipe the leftovers can last for several meals.

The Same goes for grocery shopping. One trip to the grocery store is taken to shop for five people instead of two. The gas, time and effort is the same while the people it serves is more than double. And we can buy the large cans at Costco making the food cheaper by the once. When the cans are opened they’re less likely to spoil and that means less waste.

Isabel and I each have an SUV. Fabio and Martha have a sedan. Since Isabel is the only person who commutes to work she switched to the sedan and her commuting costs were cut in half. Fabio and Martha can use the SUV around town which requires less mileage and gas on the larger car.

Some things are better, but not cheaper. A bachelor has little incentive to cook for himself, but a family almost always does. That leads to more cooked meals which are more nutritional than foraging out of the pantry.

Division of Labor

There are four people instead of two to manage chores or maintenance around the house. We also get the advantages of four people’s strengths instead of two. A task we have equal ability to perform can be rotated. The result is that the house runs smoother with less effort from any one person.

There’s also less stress. We have natural backup for the everyday overhead of living. Anything from a 2-hour trip to the grocery store to answering the door for the UPS guy.

This may seem trivial but it adds up. For me, its led to more work time and less distractions to write articles such as the one you’re reading.

To get an idea how the time and effort saved adds up look at the following list and add up the time you would save if you only had to perform the task every third time it was needed:

  • Grocery Shopping
  • Running Errands
  • Mailing Packages
  • Answering the Door
  • Washing Dishes
  • Screening Telemarketing Calls
  • Washing Clothes
  • Walking the Dog
  • Moving furniture
  • Taking Out the Trash
  • Preparing meals

Time with Family

We’re knocking it out of the park when it comes to time spent with family. Here’s what I observed around the house in the last month:

  • Singing Nat King Cole songs in Spanish on the patio while barbecuing lunch on the grill.
  • My mom on the patio with Lucy on her lap and laughing at the lyrics to a Jimmy Buffet song.
  • Isabel coming home to her favorite Colombian dish instead of having to make dinner when she’s tired.
  • Isabel and Martha on the couch looking at Facebook photos of a long lost friend.
  • Talking with Fabio and Martha on the Silla de Navidad about the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac beginning of the next Great Depression.
  • Ricky following around grandpop whining and begging for a walk.
  • Martha telling stories of what Isabel was like as a child.
  • Visiting vineyards on Sundays after church to pick out a place to have the baby baptized.
  • Isabel and Martha and Maju (Fabio’s sister) decorating the baby’s room, together.

I’ve noticed the house is now the Family nerve center for extended family not living here, as well. Keeping up social contact with them is easier.

None of these things would’ve occurred if we weren’t under the same roof for longer than Christmas visits. And the whole situation will be what our children think of as normal. They will assume its just the way family’s live.

Your Optimal Family Living?

So far, yes.

However, I cannot make a whole-hearted recommendation of MG family living to everyone reading this. There are too many prerequisites, many of which are not in your control. I do recommend being open to considering it in light of the prerequisites, listed below.

Money and Family

It is possible to save money living like this. But, a more realistic goal is to improve your quality of life. Most of the benefits are intangible. Like the best things in life they can be counted on your fingers but maybe not in your bank account.

If you’re on the verge of financial disaster this isn’t going to save you. You probably won’t have the temperament or patience to make it work. One of the ways you could ruin it is to walk around with a calculator and tally up every nickel and dime insisting that everyone pay their fair share. Unless your calculator has has a “Quality of Life” button the numbers won’t prove the case, either way.

House Layout is Critical

Layout is more important than size. I’ve seen 2000 sq. ft. houses that would work and 5000 sq. ft. houses that wouldn’t. Here’s a shopping list of features that would make MG family living easier:

  • One bedroom per person or couple
  • One full bathroom per four people
  • Bathrooms accessible without intruding on privacy
  • Bedrooms separate from dining room for noise
  • Bedrooms separate from family room for noise
  • Kitchen and pantry large enough to handle everyone
  • House should have places for alone time, besides bedrooms

Including the baby we’ll average 508/sq. ft per person. I don’t know if that’s a magic number because layout is more important that space. Just adding it here for reference.

Good for Everyone

This whole multi-generational family living is voluntary, for everyone. You’d be fooling yourselves to think it was sustainable if there wasn’t something in it for everyone. The more, the better.

Even if your situation does benefit everyone, personalities may not mix. Ours do, so it works. But, any personality friction will only be worse if there isn’t something in it for everyone.

An Extension of Existing Compatibility

My wife and I have similar families, values and goals. And, we were raised in the same part of the country by parents with similar values. During these four months it feels as if our existing compatibility was extended to include our family. Is it really such a stretch that the family she came from is compatible with the family I came from?

Neil Clark Warren, Ph.D. says, “…when two people come from similar backgrounds, they operate from a position of strength. Their relationship is made significantly easier by all the customs and practices they have in common.”

And here’s what he says about the opposite:

“Forging a relationship with an opposite is so hard because every difference you have requires negotiation and adaptation. Accommodation and compromise will necessitate plenty of change. This change creates a kind of stress. If there are too many differences, you may not be able to survive all the strain involved in adapting to each other.”

Starting with you and your wife, a house full of opposites is more likely to zap everyone’s strengths just to cope with all the differences. Families with similar backgrounds, however, can focus on contributing individual strengths for the benefit of all.

The Future

We have many upcoming challenges:

  • How do things change when the baby comes?
  • A second child?
  • What Happens When My Mom Passes Away?
  • Estate Planning?
  • Building the Addition to the house?

And what challenges will time reveal that we don’t know about yet?

I plan to update this article, every year, for other families thinking of moving in together. I could have used an article like this five-months ago.

I don’t have an all-time final verdict. But, I do have the verdict on the last four months. I will whisper the three magic words my wife most longs to hear: “You were right”.

Copyright © 2008 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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Thanksgiving Bailout
Business

Your Optimal Bailout Plan

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Last April, I sent an urgent e-mail to my friends and family urging them to consider taking protective measures against the collapsing US dollar. Now that I have YourOptimal.com up and running I’d like to put forth a more formalized plan and make it available to a wider audience.

(For an update of this bailout plan, see Depression Proof Your Money)

You don’t have to agree with my future predictions to be inspired to protect yourself from our current 10% inflation rate. Do nothing and your $100 today will be worth $86 next year if its in the bank. I will be adding more articles, links and resources that will explore optimizing various aspects of life in light of the dismal state of our US and world economies. The purpose of the plan, below, is to provide an Optimal plan of action in case you are already convinced that action is required to protect yourself from the coming Hyperinflationary Depression. Here’s the plan:

  1. Pay off all debts, within reason.
  2. Move out of all investments dependent on US dollars.
  3. Move all but 3-months of expenses out of banks into tangible & liquid assets.
  4. Decrease your monthly overhead as much as possible.
  5. Get rid of all physical objects you don’t need.

That’s it. Although the economic problems we are experiencing may appear to be very complex Your Optimal Bailout Plan for protection need not be.

Ninety percent of the protections you can achieve from the collapsing US Dollar will come from your complete and thorough implementation of the above 5-Steps. In fact, if you live in the US it may not be possible to save the remaining 10% of your assets since you need to keep some US Dollars in the ‘pipeline’ just to conduct your everyday affairs.

There are many non-financial aspects of the crisis that we are entering. I look forward to addressing those in future articles. For now, there is no point in complicating the plan until you have a handle on the above 5-Steps. Let’s go into detail about each of these steps.

Pay Off All Debts, Within Reason

Since we are entering the most inflationary period in all of US History we have to look at debt a little differently. During hyperinflation some debts become assets for the debtor. You may stand to gain more by making the payments than paying them off. That’s because your debts are denominated in a currency that is losing its value on a daily basis. The contract you have with the bank to pay off your house requires you to pay US Dollars. The actual value (Purchasing power) of future dollars is much less than the value of the dollars now in your wallet. If you can find a way to preserve the value of your dollars, today, then you can exchange that value for many more dollars, tomorrow, and make your future monthly payments much easier.

To give an idea of just how much you can benefit from this technique let’s look at the history of the US Dollar from 1950-1990. The US Dollar lost 82% of its purchasing power from 1950-1990. And it has lost 47% of its 1990 value as of 2007. So there is nothing extraordinary about predicting it will lose its
remaining value. Seventeen other countries lost 99% of their currency value during the same period and Fifty-two fiat currencies lost even more value than the US Dollar! This is business as usual for any paper fiat currency. The worst performing currency on the list was the Argentinean peso. Here’s an interesting comparison between Argentina and the US.

Hyperinflation Can Pay Off Your House Loan

If the US Dollar is worth 50% of what it is today (7/15/2008) in 5 years then a mortgage of $100,000 today will be worth $50,000 in July of 2013. If you make your payments for the next 5 years you will have paid down your mortgage by whatever principle your payments could manage and the inflationary decline of the US Dollar will make an additional $50,000 payment for you!

The reason you rarely hear this advice is that its very tricky to manage. You will have to make sure you can manage all of the following variables:

  • Store your current dollars in something that maintains its current value.
  • Keep enough dollars on hand to make the debt payments.
  • Keep enough dollars on hand to pay for all of your other expenses.
  • Monitor the value of dollars and the value of your tangible asset.
  • Be willing and able to translate your tangible asset back to dollars.
  • Manage your bank account(s) so that you have just enough to meet expenses.
  • Have the mental and emotional fortitude to stay the course.

Using silver as an example, 1000 ounces of silver could have purchased a median value home in 1980. Some say it will again as as we enter this second round of the most hyper inflationary period in US History. You can purchase 1000 ounces of silver today for $14,000. As the dollar value falls you cash in the silver to make your house payments. If the economy goes like it did in 1980 that’s all the silver you need to purchase the note. But, make sure you buy the actual silver and keep it in your possession. The same technique can be applied with gold, of course.

Most financial people don’t want to get into these complexities. They want to keep things simple. They also know from experience that most people are overwhelmed with the details of everyday life and have limited time left over to tend to the financial aspects of their lives other than their job. You may also not be able to make your debt payments if you lose your job.

If you think you can manage all of the above variables then my advice would be to not payoff or accelerate the payoff of your fixed rate mortgage. If you have an ARM then this advice does not apply. In the case of an ARM you might want to consider a short sale while the climate is socially acceptable and you get the special tax break of not having to pay taxes on the amount that the bank let’s you off the hook.

If you have other long-term debts with an interest rate less than 7% (Student loans?) then you should probably not pay them off either. This is assuming you take the same approach as outlined above by purchasing other tangible assets that can be used to make future payments.

If you have long-term debts greater than 11% then you should pay them off despite the upcoming hyperinflation. Just getting free of the burden of these debts is enough incentive to pay them off. You’ll also be left with that much more resources to put towards the other 4-Steps of this plan.

Between 7 and 11% is the gray area and you’ll have to decide how well you can manage the complexities, above, in holding onto debt during periods of hyperinflation.

Move Out of All Investments Dependent on US Dollars

In 1944 we made an agreement with Saudi Arabia to provide military protection for them as long as they agreed to accept only US Dollars in exchange for oil. Since every country needs oil for energy, and many other things, every country had to start stockpiling large amounts of US Dollars to pay for their oil. This little known backdoor negotiation, along with the Bretton Woods Agreement in the same year, is how the US Dollar came to be the world’s predominant reserve currency.

Its important to understand the ramifications of the US Dollar being the world’s reserve currency in order to evaluate whether any given investment is dependant on the US Dollar. It gets even more complicated when other entire countries peg the value of their currency to the US Dollar. The effects of the good, bad and the ugly management of the US Dollar ends up getting exported to entire world in one way or another.

Because the US Dollar has a world effect unlike any other currency in the history of the world the US had the potential to effect the world in a very positive way. Unfortunately, the US defaulted on its international promise to exchange dollars for Gold in 1971.
This made every currency in the world into a fiat currency overnight. No longer tied to any objective value they have been freed to float at the whims of politicians, Central Banks, the World Bank and the IMF, ever since.

The history of fiat currencies, however, has proven that once a paper currency is not backed by any objective value the issuing government cannot resist the temptation to print more and more of them. Unfortunately, the US has been no exception to this historical rule. We did, however, manage to take the creation of US Dollars to a whole new level by skipping the difficulties of the printing press and going right to computer! And since other countries have to use Dollars to buy oil, and some even use US dollars as a backup or primary currency themselves, we’ve been able to get away with printing far and above the amount of paper dollars any country ever has before causing the currency to collapse.

As of 7/19/2008 the charts showing the value of the US Dollar against gold is remarkably similar to the charts of other countries just before they entered the final stages of hyperinflation. Here’s how it played out in Germany between 1919-1923:

What this means for moving out of any investment dependant on US Dollars is that almost nothing is safe. Conducting business during hyperinflation is very difficult and most US companies do not have the experience to manage the difficulties. To make matters worse, the individual equities of even the best run companies are psychologically tied to the broad market of all equities. When the broad market takes a hit so do all the rest, whether they deserve it or not. Therefore, even the stock of well run US companies is not a safe haven for your money.

Even moving US Dollars into another currency is dangerous because all the currencies of the world are fiat currencies. Although its the US and Zimbabwe in the news, lately, our mismanagement is already causing inflation around the globe as other countries continue to purchase our debt instead of investing the money into their own economies.

Bankruptcies and hyperinflation seem to be the plan for dealing with this crisis. Bankruptcies are the quickest way to deflate the amount of currency in circulation, either real or on the computer screen. And hyperinflation makes all of our debts much cheaper to pay off. What better way for the US to avoid defaulting on their unpayable debts then by paying them off with dollars made worthless through hyperinflation?

But, we don’t even get much of the benefit of the deflationary bankruptcies to balance out the inflation because the Fed conjures up however many billions of dollars necessary to ‘provide liquidity’ for failed large banks and mortgage lenders.

For all theses reasons I believe the only safe thing to do is to park your money in tangible commodities that preserve value. My personal favorite is silver, but, there is also oil, cotton, tobacco, sugar, wheat, copper, steel, gold, brass and anything else China and India need to keep their countries on the rise. If silver is your choice here’s how you can invest in silver.

The worst place to have money is in US Dollars, Checking or Savings accounts, CD’s, US Equities or indexes, T-bills or bonds.

Move All but 3-Months of Expenses Out of Banks Into Tangible & Liquid Assets

When you get a dollar in your hands that you don’t need for the next three months of expenses spend it on something of real value as fast as possible. Pay a bill, pay off a high interest debt, see if you can pay monthly bills in advance for the whole year, upgrade your slow computer and maybe even purchase food items with a long shelf life. When you’ve done all that and you still have money left over then its time to purchase more well known tangible assets.

I can only recommend Silver and Gold to fill this role because I have direct experience with them. The process is difficult enough without complicating it further by trading in and out of commodity stocks and keeping track of the tax ramifications. With silver or gold you can trade in and trade out as much as you need, almost anywhere, with no tax problems to worry about. The VAT makes it difficult to do this in the UK although I’ve read that you get it back upon selling.

If you have a 401K you can’t withdrawal without penalties then consider investing in a commodities ETF, Agricultural index, Natural resources and anything else that mankind requires and cannot do without like cotton, sugar, wheat, steel, iron, brass, silver, gold, corn, etc. If your 401K is limited in its options to invest then you have limited options to protect it.

Decrease Your Monthly Overhead As Much As Possible

Any extra money you have right now should go into purchasing tangible commodities that can preserve current value for when the US Dollar collapses. Therefore, any unnecessary monthly expenses should be cut back or stopped completely. Here’s a beginning list of things to get rid of:

  • Cable channel subscriptions you don’t watch
  • Internet subscriptions you don’t benefit from
  • Expensive Coffee
  • Excess minute plans for your cellular phone
  • Consider dropping phone land lines, altogether
  • Magazine subscriptions you don’t read
  • Eating out too often
  • Drinking out too often
  • Going to the movies when you can rent a DVD
  • Over insuring your house, car, health, life
  • Driving too far from home or work for errands or services
  • Overusing the A/C or Heater when fans, windows or firewood would do
  • Work at home a few days a week to cut down commuting time & money

Any money you save could go towards paying down debt. If you’re out of debt then consider taking the money saved and purchase silver coins at your local coin shop.

Get Rid of All Physical Objects You Don’t Need

Anything you own that you don’t need or use is a drain on your limited resources of time, effort, money, space, insurance, storage fees., etc. Your life will improve whenever you get rid of things you don’t need, now more than ever

  • Clean out the garage
  • Sell, donate or throw out the items in the garage you don’t need
  • Sell any cars you don’t use or need.
  • Hire a student or family member to put items on ebay and manage the sale
  • Donate items to others that are too bulky to sell

Copyright © 2008 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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