Self Sufficiency

Self Sufficiency has been a long term goal of Africa or at least it should've been a long term goal, set long ago, when the first charities got there and started to mess about or fix things up depending on what side of the coin your looking at when you flipped it...

Ok lets not throw words about - Africa has made progress ableit slowly and not equally in all the states/countries on the continent of Africa. But at least a charity called 'Zikomo' http://www.zikomo.org/ is trying to make a big difference, they are not a 'run of the mill' charity with nice words to give and big splashy adverts for you to see on your computer or TV screen, but a small organisation based in Ireland which is using the donations they recieve to make the Malawi people gain self sufficiency through education/training and starting up small yet very important self sufficiency projects such as providing a Malaria treatment programme in place thus enabling medical treatment and training to be administered.

Other projects such as Bee's Keeping and making that project self sufficient are discussed in their blog which is informative as to the progress of their projects and the latest self sufficiency project on hand - the best part is - they always give you an idea on how far they have come and how the people will benefit. For example, their honey project is now in a bind as they are not so good at Bee Keeping and require training, but hopefully someone would be able to come up with a solution.

For those who are interested in starting their own Honey Bee hive and want to learn as a beginner quickly have a look at this ebook on beginners bee keeping - I've also drop them a link on this book as it would be great to see a nation drag itself away from food aid and started to really provide not just for itself but for the world as a whole, we now have the technology and most IMPORTANTLY the generosity and compassion to not only travel to far distant places to help people, but now we want them to become more self sufficient, by helping them gain self sufficiency we alleviate the burden of having to ship food and medicines - but it allows the aid workers and people to really start on projects which make a difference, basic necessities is a must but the bigger project is to get past the small details - which we take for granted and think its a god given right to use or abuse as we please in the western hemisphere (not exactly true but we'll battle over this at a later post. . The Ed.) But ultimately by helping them gain self sufficiency, they can join us in alleviating poverty and FEEDING the world as a result of improving their infrastructure and environment.

Zikomo may not have said that on their website but its a grand idea that just makes too much sense. Its not a matter of saying "this aint my country so I dont care about them"... This is your planet, you live on it, and there is no 'Spare' one to buy or move to if we break this one.

If you are interested in what they are doing for their self sufficiency projects, check out the site http://www.zikomo.org/ to find out more.

Cordyceps Sinensis

So - I will now consistently come up with articles and products or services or ideas which help you become self sufficient, yet allows you to be able to share and co-operate with people. The first thing is for each and every one of you. I am by no means a medical doctor, but I have not visited my doctor in over 10 years and He probably doesnt even know what I look like, let alone treated me for anything or eve seen me for any mild ailments. The reason for this is solely based on my belief about what I can do to look after myself and this in turn drives me to learn and have knowledge on my wellbeing.

Now I would like to share something with all of you, young and old alike.

I have come across a mushroom called Cordyceps Sinensis. oh cough cough and fiddlesticks. Ok i really should've said I came across mushrooms, not of the hallucinogenic or magic variety but it is truely magical when you understand what Fungi are and what this planet is, you'll come to understand that there are things which are bad for us, some things which are good for us, and in particular for no reason which anyone can explain, there are things which are BENEFICIAL FOR US ON AN UNPRECEDENTED level. Mushrooms may be the key to our planet and how life first started out - I am not going against popular reason or saying everyone is wrong.

But in particular - I was fascinated with Cordyceps sinensis - Its a miracle of a mushroom with such magical properties such as being able to improve your oxygen intake by upto 40% - this has MASSIVE IMPLICATIONS for health and for sports athletes alike, but lets discuss what else this thing does - ok buggerit you can read this list and then consult the mighty Google Scholar and read up on some other peoples medical journals and judge for yourself. Here is a link about cordyceps sinensis but for those who want to know in shortform... here goes:   (Warning this mushroom is extremely awesome and there is no short form way of expressing what it can do)

1. Cordyceps Improves the Respiratory Function

2. Cordyceps increases cellular Oxygen Absorption by up to 40%

3. Cordyceps Improves the Functioning of the Heart

4. Cordyceps Helps Maintain Cholesterol

5. Chronic kidney diseases improvement

6. Cordyceps Reduces Tumor Size in Cancer Patients - Alternative cancer treament / complimentary treatment with other conventional cancer treaments

7.  Immune System

8.  Improvements in the Immune System

9.  Anti-aging

10. Cordyceps Protects against Free Radical Damage

11. Cordyceps Reduces Fatigue

12. Cordyceps Helps Discomforts from Tired Legs

13. Endurance & Stamina - Sports enhancement

14. Fitness - sports enhancement

15. Cordyceps Improves Stamina and Athletic Performance

16. Cordyceps radically increases cellular energy

17. Cordyceps Combats Sexual Dysfunction

18. Hormones – Adrenal Thymus, Mitochondrial energy, Sexual Function.

can I just say  one thing and it needs to be said.  ALL OF THIS IS FROM CORDYCEPS SINENSIS!!!  Did you hear that?  No I didnt bump my head and make this up, you can literally pay to look at medical journals and if you are a serious researcher then get those shillings and cents out for some serious info. I had to spend some considerable time and funds to look this up and study these papers - obviously I have to tell you that by no means am I a medical practitioner of any kind nor do I condemn western/eastern medicine. In fact you should have a good relationship to your local healers/doctors/complimentary health practitioners but above all..... GET THE RIGHT INFORMATION AND STAY INFORMED. There are alot of good Doctors aswell as well intentioned people people who do not know it all - but I implore you to give this mushroom abit of your time because it benefits you so much!

There is so much to talk about but I have to leave it for later - because I'd like to write an original piece on what cordyceps sinensis is able to do but it lead me down another route - I started to look into mushrooms as a whole and how they have evolved, well surprise surprise, I got sucked into a whole new world! Thanks to this piece on cordyceps sinensis I found on www.cordyceps4you.co.uk it lead me on a new journey on the path to better health and greater englightenment... I've even bought myself a log and am trying to grow shiitake mushrooms

Now I cannot shake off the lurking possibility that Mushrooms and in particular the cordyceps family of mushrooms, not only benefits Humans but have this uncanny ability to annihilate the rest of the animal kingdom but if we eat it, we start to not only have better health in the form of enhanced immune systems, the repairing and improvement of the liver and kidneys, the benefits of mushrooms and their anti viral and anti bacterial uses has been well documented but in particular - I was having quite a fright about H1N1 Swine flu along with its insidious and nasty cousin H5N1...

Why am i talking about these influenza strains? Thats because Cordyceps Sinensis is able to kill influenza type virus's - once again I'm not here to tell you this is the answer to swine flu but it is a viable and highly researched answer, have a look at Google Scholar and decide for yourself whether Cordyceps Sinensis has anti influenza abilities or not.

My Apologies for those who havent got the funds to read 'paid-for' journals, these Doctors/Professors/Medicial technicians/Researchers have spenet a good part of their life and time studying and producing these papers so please show some support by paying to see quality research, dont just rely on the internet and doing furious armchair research - there are real people who are doing beneficial cordyceps sinensis research even if it wasnt on your behalf! I'm so glad I got the chance to verify for myself! There are 4000+ articles and studies on cordyceps sinensis and this stuff has been around since the Age of Kings and Emperors in the far east!

The picture by the way is shiitake mushrooms and not cordyceps sinensis - I was dropping the picture in as a hint to what other mushrooms could be of benefit to you besides just cordyceps sinensis!

Welcome to Your Self Sufficiency - The place to learn about how being self sufficient can lead to a better life without the added cost! Your guide to self sufficiency and improving your economic self sufficiency!

Terra Preta Miracle Soil

Today have have a new slant on the colloidal compost we have talked about on yourselfsufficiency.com - but this new storey is a very handy addition to anyone who has aspirations of becoming self sufficient or planning on making a small kingdom or even a self sufficient community, this is because the ancient Amazon / Ancient latin america used this soil to grow and throw in a land thought to have been untenable for large settlesments to spring up. Terra Preta soil seems to be able to regenerate its productive abilities to feed the land and regenerate itself sustainably and without much help from humans after we've started the process for it to regenerate!

Combined with the knowledge to make colloidal compost and mixing it with terra preta properties could only mean one thing - constantly productive compost/soil/a unique feeding station for your plant? which lasts for at least a few hundred years? yes you heard that right, in this article from the national geographic online news it explicitly states that the scientists believe it to be in a productive-able state for a few hundred years at least. Just think about what the possibilities are if we combined systems to make a much more efficient growing area for our community?! Have a good read and think about how much its worth to you to have compost which actually refreshens its AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN without destroying or burning the surrounding land to achieve this... then think about how effective it would be to mix this with the colloidal miracle compost which is one of the books on sale, both would be the perfect match as one requires fire and burning whilst the other is a direct feed system for plants, somewhere inbetween is the perfect marriage of a direct feed system which regenerates itself. Have a good read!

Save Fuel - Use water in your car as fuel and browns gas as a fuel!

Being self sufficient doesnt have to be as hard or difficult - it just comes down to knowing what kind of self sufficient education is most valuable to you. Learning to be self sufficient for reducing costs and using that saving to improve your knowledge, life and living standards seems to be a very good win-win situation for you and the environment! With this in mind - We've been testing out our scientific prowess and started on the long road to a better running car with increased mileage, increased power (oh gosh do we love the extra POWER when you push that pedal!) and if the science is correct, it'll improve the combustion to a point where you reduce your emissions to negligible levels (We got a 0.2% read out of Carbon Monoxide on a test) whilst the exhaust has, believe it or not, become much more pleasent! Cleaner combustion in the engines results in fewer dangerous fumes and compounds being formed and spat out of your exhaust pipe! To us - it means we can have a car which runs partly on water, lets us travel further with the added benefit of bringing the car back to its former super performing life!

Using water as a fuel enhancement for your car does work and has now been proven to increase your MPG aswell as the performance of a car. I am proud to bring this up as I didnt give two damns about my car until the day i thought that I had to junk it, the reason being - it was old and slow. Well, then it just hit me that this was goignt o become a very expensive 'throw away kodak camera' and what else occured to me was that the car didnt actually get much service from ME but from garages and peoples i had to trust! Well, i fear no more as i suddenly found it to be a joy in playing around something so powerful yet after studying how it worked, it brought much enjoyment when i knew i was doing something very positive for the environment but also i finally learned how much car actually works and how i could stop it from becoming another digit in the scrap yard! This makes economic self sufficiency sense because even if a car is old it doesnt mean its worthless, maybe on a commercial basis but what if you could whip out any 2nd or 3rd hand car and literally let it breath a new lease of life in it? d

Alternative Fuel and Cost saving self sufficiency! Grow permaculture and food plots with an insight into Nexus Articles and other fringe sciences!

Its an interesting technology as it can be used in gardening and powering your car and providing itself as an adaptive piece of power generation technology! We'll be starting a blog of such to explore such thigns in the near future! We are now looking into combining this with some very crazy science which - although some people dont like to explore the fringe - we decided that it warrented a look into pyramid farming. Not only does it offer a way to apparently grow much more in a small place, there has been reports from Holland and the US that such structures somehow managed to keep produce fresher, for longer and there is even science on how a pyramid can resharpen a razor blade at the molecular level to the point where it regains its inital complete structure of the blade! Food self sufficiency is a key area which we would also like to concentrate on later in the year in regards to raising animals and learn about such simple thigns like how to feed and how much to feed, all of this is needed for self sufficiency to reach a balance in your life and those around you, including the animals as a well fed animal is a happy animal!

Before anyone comments on the fringe science - open your mind and your heart to all that which has been presented to you! we approahc this as a fun and learning experiance but most of all we want to know what the peoples before us experimented, designed and understood so that we may be able to make a better effort in becoming much more efficient in farming food and making the experiance of practical self sufficiency more rewarding and less straining.

Squidoo Blog - Now Live with New projects.

Over the next couple of days (may take up to a week) We will be uploading the progress from coffee jar to usable fuel economiser in several chapters. We will be giving you an overview of HHO / hydroxy and how we are using it inside our cars. Most of the knowhow - by the way - was gleaned from teaming up with several people from the water4gas movement, but we have developed it to a much more productive state. Once again our own tested and professionally manufactured version of a browns gas generator will be available later this year. BUT first we have some backyard fun and teach you how to build your own, but we sincerely implore you to buy the book, not only as a thank you to us, but also to the inventor who has not squandered or kept anything secret, by learning the techniques to produce HHO/hydroxy/browns gas, it would expand your knowledge to the point where you can start to explore building combo-systems so you can use Solar power, wind power and hydrogen based power systems so its utilising all available sources of energy!

Anyway we will be teaching you how to save money and save fuel, also we will be teaching you how to build a hho generator (a primitive yet usable and as a proof of concept) HOWEVER we would just like to say that this is by definition NOT A browns gas generator as such, but it sometimes 'acts' like one becuase of the variable conditions and operating conditions. Sometimes you are lucky and sometimes your just out of luck but this alternative fuel system is primarily based on hydrogen for the car, not a hydrogen cell but a hydrogen on demand system for your car or boat or truck. Have a look at our water 4 gas and fuel economiser blog entries for more info.

Self Sufficiency Groups

We will be looking to hold workshops on building solar panels, wind turbine systems and other self sufficiency activities to people! We are in the process of completing our favourite projects but once we get it all documented into a presentable form so that we can teach groups of people who want to learn in a short time but in a detailed and practical yet informative way! This lets you learn and get on with the projects in a group and hopefully acts as a development phase for your community and to act as self sufficiency bonding groups - its good to know how to work with the people you intend to co-operate or live with

These will not strictly be self sufficiency courses but act as a 'knowledge' supplement, you will learn different aspects of reducing your cost of life but also how to go that extra step to making your life environmentall friendly but also it opens up further options of living rural, on the move or even to teach people or do all three and alot more! We have not finished our investigations into self sufficiency in food but we do intend to give you guys a reports on how much food is needed for communities, people aswell as animals should you want to keep livestock or just rear them to rear the land! We will try to provide a reference to seventies self sufficiency but we will also try to lend a modern slant or alternative as this site is based on the premise of working with what we got and gaining more knowledge so that the entire group can self support as well as support their entire group - remember! The group working together makes the entire community work!

We go to quite a lot of trouble to find what we consider are good books on specialist subjects so that you don’t have to filter out bits and pieces from other peoples arguments and opinions. Money is a form of packaged time, you can spend hours for your time on trawling the net, or you can buy the books that will “teach you to fish”.

Which one is spending time and which is wasting time? Start the road of self sufficiency and start learning about how you too can be self sufficient within the month!