I have been interested in getting my HAM radio license for a while now. By the end of the year, I’m going to do it. Here’s some resources I’ve come across about it recently.

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Alexis de Tocqueville

Thus the men of democratic times require to be free in order to procure more readily those physical enjoyments for which they are always longing. It sometimes happens, however, that the excessive taste they conceive for these same enjoyments makes them surrender to the first master who appears. The passion for worldly welfare then defeats itself and, without their perceiving it, throws the object of their desires to a greater distance. There is, indeed, a most dangerous passage in the history of a democratic people. When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education and their experience of free institutions, the time will come when men are carried away and will lose all self-restraint at the sight of the new possessions that they are about to obtain. In their intense and exclusive anxiety to make a fortune they lose sight of the close connection that exists between the private fortune of each and the prosperity of all. It is not necessary to do violence to such a people in order to strip them of the rights they enjoy; they themselves willingly loosen their hold. The discharge of political duties appears to them to be a troublesome impediment which diverts them from their occupations and business. If they are required to elect representatives, to support the government by personal service, to meet on public business, they think they have no time, they cannot waste their precious hours in useless engagements; such ideal amusements are unsuited to serious men who are engaged with the more important interests of life. These people think they are following the principle of self-interest, but the idea they entertain of that principle is a very crude one; and the better to look after what they call their own business, they neglect their chief business, which is to remain their own masters….By such a nation [a wealthy, self-absorbed one] the despotism of faction is not less to be dreaded than the despotism of an individual. When the bulk of the community are engrossed by private concerns, the smallest parties need not despair of getting the upper hand in public affairs. At such times it is not rare to see on the great stage of the world, as we see in our theaters, a multitude represented by a few players, who alone speak in the name of an absent or inattentive crowd; they alone are in action, while all others are stationary; they regulate everything by their own caprice; they change the laws and tyrannize at will over the manners of the country; and then men wonder to see into how small a number of weak and worthless hands a great people may fall.

—From Democracy in America, Vol. 2, 140–42

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Ok, so I harp on this a lot, I know, but the truth is if you have no control over your money, you will never be able to prepare for anything. Getting yourself in debt just makes you less prepared for the uncertain future.

The Simple Dollor had a fantastic post today on the #1 rule. I would highly encourage you to read it.

Rule #1: Spend Less Than You Earn.

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There’s an awful lot of talk about how you need to prepare for this emergency, that crisis, and the other calamity. One thing a lot of preppers skip over is preparing for their own passing. Which I think it odd, because while those other may be good things to prepare for, death is the one thing you know is going to happen to everybody. You can save your family a lot of heartache and headache if you’ll just take some simple steps right now.

Probate is what happens to everything you own when you die. The court gets control of it all until it can decide who will get what, and how things are going to be distributed. This process can be expensive and it can take a long time. The good news is you can usually avoid probate altogether by preparing your financial estate.

The folks at ScanSafeData recently released a free report that teaches the steps you can take to avoid probate. You can download the report (no signups or anything, just right click ‘save as’) over at www.AvoidingProbate.com.

For some more ideas on estate planning, check out this recent article over at get rich slowly: Estate Planning 101: Preparing for the Possible — and the Inevitable

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M.D. Creekmore over at The Survival Blog recently posted a link to this article on Making Your Own Charcoal.

I had come across a different article on making charcoal a while ago.

The first article has the easier method, but the second method would be way more fun (In my opinion…)

So why would you want to make charcoal? Well, the obvious is fuel. Even if the whole world collpses, you’ll always be able to use your barbecue gril. I’ve also heard that charcoal you make from hardwood burns hotter and cleaner than briquettes. And if you ever get the urge to take up blacksmithing, you’ll need plenty of charcoal.

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Today over at get rich slowly, J.D. posted a list of online banks you can use to get a (usually much) better rate. Remember, if you don’t take care of yourself financially, you’ll never be able to become self reliant.

Online Banking: 13 Choices for Higher Interest Rates and Increased Security

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EverydayPrepper made a little pdf about making baking powder. Check out the post and then download the pdf.

Baking Powder

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Here is a sampling of the websites that I have read, watched, and learned from in my quest to become more self reliant.

Do It Yourself (DIY) Sites

The ability to build and repair things is vital to your self reliance. For example, rather than pay a plumber $100 just to show up at 9 P.M., and then pay that same plumber $65 an hour (one hour minimum), you can look in the tank, see what needs to be replaced, zip over to the home depot, and have the whole matter fixed in half an hour and for less than $20.

Gardening Sites

Gardening is great. There’s all sorts of life lessons to be learned in growing a garden. Of course there can be food for you if you do it right, too. If you practice gardening now, then you at least have a shot at success if it ever becomes necessary.

Financial Sites

It is impossible to prepare for an unknown future without money. Here are a few sites that will help teach you to become less reliant on credit cards and payday loan places.

Self Defense Sites

I believe that every law abiding man, woman, and child should learn to defend themselves. As the old saying goes “when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.” Now, I love firearms, but they are not the only tool in the box.

  • Front Sight (www.FrontSight.com) – If you sign up for their mailing list, you will get some good information about using firearms for self defense. You will also be marketed in every message. If you can separate the good info from the sales pitches, you will learn something useful.
  • The Freedom Broadcast Network (link) – They have a Firearm Self Defense video course up on their site (that’s where the link goes). It’s basically a concealed carry class. There’s lots of good information, without any of the pesky reading.
  • The Women’s Self Defense Institute has a blog with some good articles.
  • No Nonsense Self Defense (www.NoNonsenseSelfDefense.com) – Has lots of great articles on mindset as well as practical information. Be warned, however. This site is extremely poorly organized, and the layout is not exactly what I would call user friendly.

Self Improvement Sites

Learning to think like a self reliant person is something that is quite often overlooked. I happen to think it’s critical.

  • Enhance Life (www.theenhancelife.com) – Real life wisdom for modern life growth.
  • Litemind (www.litemind.com) – Exploring ways to use our minds efficiently.
  • GTD Times (www.gtdtimes.com) – David Allen’s getting things done system is a great way to increase productivity.
  • The Art Of Manliness (www.artofmanliness.com) – There’s some silliness here, as well as some things I don’t agree with, but in general the Art Of Manliness espouses principles and values that seem to be fading away in the modern era.
  • Project Gutenburg (www.Gutenburg.org) – They have a Dale Carnegie book, a couple James Allen books,  several Orison Swett Marden books, a good one by P.T. Barnum. Of course many of Emerson’s Essays are excellent as well. Principals of success and self-improvement are not new. There’s plenty to be learned from writers in the now-public-domain past.

General Self Reliance Sites

  • Provident Living (www.ProvidentLiving.org) – the LDS Church has created this site that has resources for finances, food storage, employment, emergency preparedness, and more.
  • Backwoods Home Magazine (www.BackwoodsHome.com) – The online presence of Backwoods Home Magazine has a lot of useful articles and some very interesting blogs.
  • Survival Blog (www.SurvivalBlog.com) – The granddaddy of survivalist blogs. For the self reliance info, especially watch out for the ongoing non-fiction writing contest entries.

There you have it. 22 Websites.

If your favorite self reliance website is missing, feel free to mention it in the comments.

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