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Surprise - New Beltie calf... the plan is afoot.

Guess I now owe you a picture - or several. We had a heifer with our supposedly not-quite-ready bull and 9 months later: a surprise Beltie-cross heifer. Cute white mini-stripes on her sides. Otherwise, all black like her mom.

So the plan I told you about yesterday is now afoot. First product off the line. Now she'll be bred back to her grand-dad (called line-breeding, which is OK) and we'll then take the offspring of that match and again give her (hopefully another heifer) over to the Beltie bull, which will give us about a 65% Beltie/Angus cross. If we then get another heifer, it would be a good time to have a Beefalo bull (black, polled) to get our first Belted Beefalo.

Means about two years for the this heifer, another two + 9 months for the next, then another 2yr, 9 months to get my first Belted Beefalo - if I get all heifers. That's why I'll have multiple cows to service. Steers get sold and heifers get serviced to create more.

2 years is really because I want to keep them bunched up in the spring. They are ready at 18 months, but this would give me a fall calf. So keep them separate for another 6 and then in with their first bull.

I'll have to crunch the numbers on this one, as she is only about 20 months now, and wasn't supposed to go in with this bull until just a few weeks ago. So she was bred at 11 months and we were awfully lucky. Good thing Belties are known for low birth-weight calves...

Study this one some more.

Pix tomorrow, hopefully.

One good point is that all the time I've spent raising this heifer made her very willing to have me simply stand and scratch her, even get her first milk down for that calf and help him find her teats to suck. Hope she continues being this docile. Makes it easy to raise them when they are.

Means I need to continue hand feeding my heifers especially so they are easy to work with for their first calf.

Cheers. Hope your day had such pleasant surprises...

Beef, Beefalo, and Whole Farm Management

If you're going to run a farm, you need to run it profitably - which oddly enough is environmentally responsible.

(I didn't say anything about being "environmentally friendly" or any such nonsense. Anyone who's been out in a blizzard rounding up cattle - or been charged by a protective cow - knows Nature isn't always "friendly". Coyotes, fox, mink - these aren't friendly; but they sure are necessary.)

That said, farmers need to be good stewards - regardless of government subsidies or lack of them, environmentalists or lack of them. (And in both cases, being left alone is better in all cases.)

Here's the facts about raising a cattle/crop combination farm as I've figured them out over the last 8 years since I started farming full time:

• Commodity farming keeps you broke. It's not sustainable for small farmers.
• Small farmers raise most of the beef in this country on herds of 100 or less.
• Cattle are mostly raised on land too marginal for cropping.Then expensively finished in feedlots.
  
• Crops do best when they have animal manure in addition to mineral-based supplements.
• Spraying isn't needed if you're planting in the right combinations and proper sequences (like rye before corn or soybeans).
• The easiest and cheapest crops to raise are grass and trees.
• Cattle is cheaper than raising row crops if they're raised on grass and pasture-finished.
• The less you have to take your tractor out, the less you have to spend to run it.
• Right now, the best-quality and most healthy beef you can raise is beefalo. And the cheapest to raise (eats a wider variety of forage and tolerates a wide range of environments).
• Cattle will keep eating in the shade on a hot day. Otherwise, they wait until it cools off.
• Grass grows better with partial shade some time during the day.
  

All that said, my conclusions are few:

1. Raise grass, hay, trees, and cattle.
2. Get the cattle rotated through any crop ground to fertilize it.
3. Plant new and thin existing tress into north-south rows so grass grows better and cattle eat more. Also add lots of watering holes/ponds.
   
4. Move over to Beefalo (and Scottish/Irish breeds like Highland, Galloway Belties, and Dexters) as they eat a wider range of forage. Add sheep and goats to clean up what they don't like. Rotate these on a frequent basis - keep them bunched up on your pastures.

Now, there are some strategies to accomplishing these:

A. Get Beefalo bull calves and put them on your existing Angus-mutt cattle when he's ready. (We're trying out a Beltie right now on this theory.) About 3 generations will get the maximum genetic improvements you're going to get. Then you trade or sell and buy a new bull (both Beefaloes and Belties are good for probably twice as long as the current Angus-commodity setup.)

In our case, I'll save back our heifers and replace our existing cows until I have everything into a 50-60% mix. Somewhere in there, I'll swap our registered Angus bull for a black polled Beefalo and ultimately replace that Beltie with another Beefalo or another Beltie. Belted Beefalo's - best of both worlds - beauty and efficiency.

That will take about 8-10 years to produce that specific genetic line, but once I get a single Beefalo bull, all his offspring can be sold as Beefalo. The premium price and better forage efficiency will require direct marketing, but will bring me better profits for my cattle.

Now, the size goes down, but smaller beef are more cost-efficient. Means I'll be able to raise more pounds of cattle for less cost per pound. And beefalo have a higher percentage of carcass as fat content is much lower. As well, you can market "freezer beef which will all fit in one freezer."

B. Crops - move off corn and soybeans. Plant stuff that doesn't require heavy equipment inputs. It takes me five times across a field to plant corn. Or buy a huge tractor and new "one-pass" tillage that it can pull so I cut it down to three - figuring that I fertilize as I plant. Sprayer is that last one. More expense.

Instead, go to fall crops and frost-seeding any bare ground. I found out that wheat and rye can be planted with a single disking and then broadcast along with the fertilizer - no harrow. Kinda bumpy - but with all that rough ground, the seed settles in just fine.

Wheat and clover (as well as Rye and clover) actually give you two crops - grain first (and straw if you want it) and then clover-stubble hay in July. Wheat and Rye also pretty much out-grow their competition (weeds). Rye after Wheat (because the former volunteers so badly). Third crop comes up next...

C. Get your cattle rotated through your crops. Means you need to plant cover crops. But - surprise - rye and wheat are great cover crops. One pass in grazing will still allow a crop to come up (and on rye, you almost need to do this, because a wet spring will lodge your rye and you'll have a mess with 6 ft tall rye headed out and turning yellow by May - been there, done that.)

While you can get hay cuttings by combining clover with those two, the idea is to actually bale only as much grass as you need to. Let the cattle harvest the grass and manure while they do. (Nature is just soooo efficient...)

Winter means stockpiling grass or raising something they can eat off the stalk. Corn's not bad for this - but has high inputs. Milo looks to be the next best bet - plant late enough (July around here) so that it's still green but has a nice head by killing frost. No matter what snow or ice (almost), they'll be able to find and eat it - and they take the stalk, too (according to reports). Trying this theory this year. I'll let you know next January how it turned out.

Then come back and frost-seed oats with clover in January/February. Take this off as forage or hay in June/July. Means you don't have to disk that field.

You put your fertilizer on with your rye, wheat, and milo seed - but only have to plant the clover once. Which also means that you only have two passes through your fields per year. Do the math. Less fuel, less breakdowns, more time doing other things.

This rotation:

1. Milo in July - grazed all winter, followed by frost-seeded Oats/Clover. Forage/Hay in summer.
2. Wheat in the fall, off as grain in June. Hay/forage the remainder in July. (There's your cash crop.)
   
3. Rye in the fall (clover still coming up) - forage early so you can either forage/hay in midsummer. Followed by Milo (1).

D. Means you'll need more fences (permanent or temporary) around your crop land and can add more cattle - so your profits go up since you are getting a better price and have much lower inputs all around. Keep some wheat and rye seed back for next year's crop. Only buy bin-run seed when you can (like milo). As the cattle graze your crop ground, they add high P and K manure (some N) which stays around for around 5 years. Meaning your fertilizer inputs will drop - especially since you aren't using a high N crop like corn.

Also means that you don't have to spray - probably not at all. If your cattle are taking off this crop, or you're cutting it for hay - any weed is actually eaten. Save your best parts for the seed you need. (Weeds only grow where they do best, so they are eating up some excess something out there - like why cockleburs grow so well in corn and soybeans. Excess phosphates and the same growing season length. It's so satisfying to cut them off with the hay in the middle of their growing season...)

Sure, if you're haying, its taking 4 or 5 trips across that field to cut, rake, bale, and haul - but those trips aren't all side by side - and it is over grass, not mud - so the compaction isn't anywhere near as extensive. Grass works to break up the soil (especially deep-rooted rye), so overall we're doing better - the only best way would be to pasture it only and never take the tractor out except for hayrides along the road. (Best of course, is to send your cattle out to harvest that hay...)

A note here: feed your hay on the same ground you cut it from. Cattle then put their fertilizer right back where it's needed. Means some different logistics about where you winter them...

- - - -

Summary is: work within Nature's system (and Man's economics) - and you'll have an easier time farming with far more profit.

Of course, this won't work for everyone. Our farm is about 250 acres, with only about 60 of it actually arable. The rest is trees and brush with grass in between. Lots of clay and soil worn out from farming it with corn. So I inherited a lot of rolling pastures where the gullies are slowly healing. And where 150 bu. corn is somebody's pipe dream.

If you've got a couple thousand acres of flat crop land that's tiled and drains well - knock yourself out. Plenty of demand for corn and soybeans. And you'll need to get a good price to pay for all that equipment you're using. But don't blame me if there's protesters outside your farm house saying how evil you are for burning all those fossil fuels.

"Thar's money in them thar niches" - as the phrase goes. I'll raise high-quality beef for less than it costs to raise corn-fed, artery-clogging, fast-food burger bait. And I'll feed it with crops that take less to put in and get out. As well, get top-dollar above commodity beef for every pound.

I'll raise low-input cattle and crops on a whole-farm basis and the devil with what other experts think is "best" or "proper" or "modern". And I'll just shrug when they tell me their advice and laugh all the way to the bank.

Still messing around with all this Internet stuff and geeky scene...

Up late, weird dreams and a failed server upgrade.

Seemingly too much stuff going on.

While I was trying to upgrade my Ubuntu server last night, I also figured out how to move my beef over to a beefalo blend, which could be sold at premium prices. And as well, how to shift to a fall-only "row" crop system.

Means I can spend less time in the fields - eliminate spraying altogether, minimize fertilizer (don't have to spend on Nitrogen for corn) and utilize my cows to both harvest and fertilize the crops.

So I spend less output and with Beefalo and no spraying, I can move over to Organic (more premium prices.) However, Organic is not always best for the land or the animals. Now that it's government run and controlled (thanks, guys) it has to be just so and has no leeway.

The trick is to get costs down and income up. Sticking to commodity anything ensures you only stay at subsistence levels. The smaller farmers need to get into profitable niches. (And since most of the food in this country is produced by smaller farmers selling to commodity purchasers - you have to wonder what would happen if we all did that... Market change, I guess.

Anyway, I've got cattle and I've got field crops. Use the cattle to graze my covercrops ahead of planting. Use covercrops to promote fertility. This is, of course, for growing corn and soybeans which have spring planting routines.

If/when I shift to fall-planted crops, they are both covercrop and also main harvest. Wheat, Rye, Barley would go that route.

Two points to this - most of these harvest in June, but plant in September (could plant in July, but might kill out in August as they are cold, not heat-hardy.) So I have a fallow zone or then plant another short-term variety (sunflowers, cowpeas, buckwheat would all do) just for that time. Means I have to run a tractor over the land - means more expense and more compaction for the soil.

Idea would be to run over the ground as little as possible, so I don't have a packed soil which roots don't permeate. With our clay soil, this has to be taken into consideration.

Now, add to this the idea of feeding cattle as little hay as possible. So raise milo late so it is still basically headed out, but green by the killing frost (Oct-Nov). Then cattle can feed on this through the ice and snow we get - and I don't have to feed them hay. Set up to try this this year.

All this came into play with thoughts last night (while reloading server operating system - which I'm still working on this am before going out to chores.)

General concepts:
Rye after wheat (it tends to volunteer - the reason for a third crop)
Milo after rye (July planting - it's drought tolerant).
Oats/clover frost-seeded over Milo, followed by wheat in fall.
Wheat raised with clover, taken off as grain and also then as hay mid-summer (or grazed).

Four crops in three years. Cows harvest Milo and can graze down rye/wheat once. Oats is taken off as hay or forage. (Use bin-run and for all seed, not pay for expensive certified stuff - plus grow and save back wheat and rye. Milo, oats, and clover only real expense.)

Advantage to all of these crops is that they can be broadcast-seeded - and essentially smother out other weeds. So I can get by with only disking once and seeding with the fertilizer. Rough ground takes seed better (different than corn and soybeans which need a smooth ground with set seed depth.) Corn takes five trips over the field (Two for preps, once for fertilizing, once for planting, once for spraying.)

Hay off rye (what you don't save for next crop) as this seed has to be dried and sold individually - isn't a commodity.

Essentially - all crops give hay. And I move over to producing grass and hay instead of conventional row crops - feeding corn to cattle for feeding (this never worked on our farm).

Probably sell the extra hay, as long as it pays for the fertilizer it needs to grow.

Meanwhile, I move over to cattle which sell better at a premium and are completely grass fed. I'm working up a beltie-beefalo mix, both of which eat a wider variety of forage and so will keep my pastures in better shape. Moving to smaller animals is also more efficient beef production.

Bottom line: Less fuel, less fertilizer, virtually no spraying, cattle have more feed - so I can run more cattle on that land.

And cattle on grass have very little input and high profit margin.

Upcoming: I can run sheep and goats on the same land with the existing numbers of cattle (a flock + herd = flerd). Land gets better use - and some studies show that this means number of cattle can be increased as land is more productive.

OK - thanks for listening. Time for chores. Meanwhile server has reloaded it's operating system (again.)

Sold a calf - made up with the new ones coming on...

Bittersweet when I spent so much time growing this little bull-calf up to size and then auctioning him off.

We don't often have a red bull calf - and had it been a heifer, I would have kept her just for the interesting color. We called him "RB" (short for red bull) and he was a wonder. I found that as he was growing up, he was actually taking care of the younger calves - especially when they got separated from their mother. Gentle, he loved to be scratched (especially if you gave him a piece of whole corn to chew. Never saw him butting the other bull calves around (except in self-defense.)

And this blog post is really a way of saying goodbye - you wouldn't think a person could get attached to a calf in just over a year, but I did. Always said he was special, but didn't want to stay around the auction arena to find who bought him. Brought a good price, if that's any relief.

I know that he came to us for a special reason and hope that I hear he was a good sire.

Bulls have it bad, because people often won't keep them around after they quit being able to keep all their herd "bunched up" - meaning he can service all the females (up to 50) within a few months and get them all pregnant and able to deliver good, healthy calves at mostly the same time.

Cows are kept until they really get too old to have calves - and they usually don't last much after that - which is about 12 - 14 years. So you can get attached to them as well.

We are on our last 5 original cows that have been here since I returned to Missouri, and plans are right now to sell them before next winter. Three were finding the ice-packed ground hard to walk on and were limping until I got them softer pastures and shorter distances to walk. So we'd be better shipping them off, even if pregnant and ready to deliver next spring. Better than vet bills and nothing to show for our trouble except a cow to bury.

So a farmer's life has to be a bit dispassionate when it's called for.

I sometimes get perturbed at people who swallow that BS which is spouted off about where their beef comes from. Statistically, most beef is raised on farms across the US where there are about 50 head or less. Only a small percentage is actually raised on these "factory farms". We used to raise cattle in a feedlot, but now I find it's cheaper to simply keep them on grass all year round and sell calves when they are about 14-16 months old and the grass is starting to get short in August. Doesn't cost me anything more, plus I was losing a steer every other year to this or that disease from keeping them in a feedlot - so my costs were high.

Logistically, to fatten cattle, I was paying about half the calves back to my feed bill. Actually, when I found that out, I sold the next lot as feeder calves (a week after weaning) and made just as much money. The next year I kept several steers back and sold them as "stockers" when the price of corn was high, so stockers actually were bringing a better price than feeders that month.

Now this has become policy around here. I'm still saving heifers back and working with them every day so they stay familiar with me and I can approach them with their calves right after birth. We work to birth the calf on grass, so they don't have the disease problems (scours) and stay healthy form the get-go. Better for the mother as well. We're actually working to move our birthing back a month or so, from February to March-April so that can happen.

Of course that conflicts with planting season a bit, but we're working that out by putting more crop ground into hay/pasture. And this year, I'm rotating my cattle through our cover crops so that they can forage off of it and fertilize as they go.

I guess I've written enough today. I could talk about this for hours at a time. Literally.

Just wanted to say Goodbye and Good Luck to RB.

Stop Telemarketers Series - Private Citizen resource.

(photocredit: jcuthrell)

Telemarketer Training - How to Stop Telemarkers

This is the start of a series on this blog in learning all about telemarketers in order to get them off our lines.

What prompted this is lousy service by Internet Income Solutions - which is a scam joint out of Orem Utah. They are connected with Bright Builders and Thrive Learning Institute. Not only did Internet Income Solutions not refund my money, they also are in violation of FTC rules, which state their refund policy must be clearly stated on their web site and in their materials.

As well, Thrive and Bright Builders have now merged. Between the two of them, they are not honoring IIS's warranty that they will stick with me until I do make back that investment.

So - while they won't notice, until they are deluged with complaints (they don't keep track of social media or online comments) - I'm starting this little line of blog posts which will start to educate people on telemarketing and your recourse to these types of people.

I found this fascinating site below today, while looking for something else - and thought you might be interested. Imagine if you could actually get $500 for every telemarker who calls without permission...

Private Citizen, Inc. - Stop Junk Calls, Stop Junk Mail, Stop Telemarketing: "Members get a list of firms to whom we sent the Directory and info on telemarketing laws. Since junk callers don't know which of us will sue if they refuse to pay, they avoid us like a mine field. Our members report a 75% drop in junk calls. We've helped our colleagues collect more than $2.9 Million from telemarketers.

As you may already know, by calling 888-382-1222 you can place your home phone number on the national do-not-call list; which is a free service of the federal government. Unfortunately, the federal program does not cover political, survey or charity calls. On the other hand, PRIVATE CITIZEN DOES INCLUDE ALL TYPES OF JUNK CALLS. Indeed, a Congressional report recommends the use of Private Citizen's Do-Not-Call Directory."

Real World Rural Living - making my money online (sort of)

(photo credit: Ricardo Galli)

How I work at making a living in the real world rural depressed economy while actually making a living (sort of) online.

Just to update you on my farming - and how I'm not so worried about today's downturned economy and all those Beltway knuckleheads we elected.

Mostly, by figuring out how not to do commodity farming, I've been cutting my expenses over the last few years. By about two-thirds. Essentially, I've learned to start raising grass-fed beef instead of trying to compete with the corn-fed crowd.

I've gone from two plots of 30 acres each down to 3 plots of 15 acres each - with three rotated crops instead of two. And the result is that I'm only paying to have two of them custom planted and harvested (as well as sprayed) in any given year. So I've cut my off-site investments in half.

Then, I went and bought me an old square baler, so I can put up my own hay and not pay for this as well. And learned to stretch out my haying season so I'm not rushing around to put it up all at once. I've got a neighbor last year to put it up on shares (he took half), which worked out pretty well. If I cut and rake it ahead of him, I get 2/3'ds. I don't pay for his repairs or fuel.

This year I learned from my failed crop. The corn got drowned out. So I turned the cows in on it and let them finish it off. Did a nice job. Saved me four weeks of feeding hay. Now, if I'd been just raising grass for cattle, I'd not have lost anything. Just turn them in after the ground was firm enough to walk on, and they'd grow pounds of beef of whatever was out there. Put that low ground into pasture and take my high ground back for row crops. And the cattle clean up between the trees and such - where I can't realistically grow row crops because it's too steep.

Instead of giving up half my calf crop to pay my feed bill, I've been raising them up as stocker cattle (about 3/4's the weight of a fat steer) and selling them for slightly less than I would as fat cattle. Means I make nearly twice as much off the same calf crop. And I've cut my inputs by feeding them out on pastures instead of corn rations. They stay healthier and I have fewer vet bills. No implants, hormones, or antibiotics - just grass and water.

Now, you don't see above that we are actually making money off this farm, yet. Costs are still above what it takes to run it. The cows pay for themselves, as do the row crops - but equipment costs, electricity, all the main house costs are funded elseways. And I don't get a dime from farming, just my room and board.

So I need to keep another job for my spending money (and to pay for this Internet connection).

I was working at a local warehouse, but finally quit this and got a freelance job doing web design. About time, since I actually talked about this in a 2003 paper on rural economics - written when I was going to school and only working warehouse part-time. Five years later, I'm putting my actual theory to work.

And since online spending continues to grow overall, I'm in the right area.

That's how I'm surviving this silly economic downturn. Recession/Depression - just a bunch of Beltway nonsense. Those of us who can't simply print more money are a bit more close-pursed about what goes in and out.

So quit listening to your news and vote out of office any politician who has been there more than two terms. That's my policy on politics. Keeps me on an even keel.

Luck to you, too.

(PS. no that's not my laptop. I'm running only desktops here - most of them a few years old and doing just fine, thank you.)

Get whatever you really want in life - and world peace to boot.

How to make your dreams become real - and finish the last steps to world peace.

Your dreams become more real every day. Whatever you think tends to become reality around you. And there's a reason for this.

Through years of studying things that work, I've discovered that there is an underlying system that keeps things working.

And this system is bigger than all of us, yet requires every individual to play their part in order to keep the whole thing running.

What is practical and observable is that we can work with our thoughts to produce the here and now. Every building has to be planned before it can be built. Any big ship is based on the observation of physical laws (like a china bowl can float, but a piece of china can't float like a piece of wood.) Building big metal ships which can transport goods across water requires a lot of thought - and a lot of action.

You see, the world is what you think it is. As you change your thoughts, you change the world.

The world doesn't run you - you create your own world.

As many authors point out, what you see around you is what you are constantly creating. There are pure metaphysical applications to this which take us into incredible realms. That one idea can take us far afield. But we are here to discuss solutions, pragmatic and practical solutions to your life and mine.

A problem is, of course, what we consider it to be. There is a field of study into problems which defines them by type. Yet the common solution to these is to take responsiblity for their existence and then they tend to vanish. You simply confront them head on and find the optimal solutions for the resources to hand. Once you do this, you find yourself at peace with what is happening and the changes that need to happen - in your estimation.

And that is the odd and interesting thing about that underlying system mentioned above. It runs on Harmony. It actually has Peace as its goal. That doesn't mean a boring monochromatic world where everything is the same. Rather this system thrives on diversity. Like any great choir - it is composed of individual voices, all different in their ranges and qualities. But the result is to sing with one voice. And any great choir is capable of singing many, various songs.

While the metaphor is limited, it serves the point that we are all in this together to create a new world, to participate in singing a new song.

For any problem we are facing personally or globally is really just one which we aren't confronting.

You will find lots of agreement on ideas like everyone having a liveable quality of life. That no one person should hold any individual or group of people hostage. That people should have their own individual and personal right to think whatever they want. And they should have the opportunity to express that thought - to create their life the way they want it. What people object to is when someone considers that they have the right to change others' thoughts by force.

In that statement above, you'll see the complete struggle in Politics. Classes of thought striving for control over law-making bodies - so that they can determine how best to forward their particular class of thought.

But the funny punchline is that people in general don't want government telling them what to do with their lives. Sure, they will do what they have to in order to "get along" with people around them. And there has to be ways in our modern society to get the garbage picked up, and keeping the streets cleaned, and keeping the roads repaired, and keeping all our modern improvements like telephone and Internet running when we want to use them. We all participate in keeping these services running, either by working at repairing these directly, or paying a fee to someone else to do so.

That's mostly the basis of taxes and government.

My divergence with all these classes of thought is that I know for a fact you can't require anyone to think any particular way. That no way of thought is "better" than any other. That all classes of thoughts are necessary.

But the best government is the one which interferes with individual lives the least. It facilitates environments where free thought can generate new ideas and new creations. But once you get past keeping the roads open and ensuring that no one is blowing our trade ships out of the water or our airplanes (transporting goods and people) out of the sky, then most people think that government should give them little more and require as few fees as possible.

And Politics is a fascinating study in and of itself. But I'll leave that to people who study that stuff for a living - or a hobby.

My job is to tell people about this great natural system which makes politics and government and anarchy all possible at the same time.

If you study Nature, you'll find all the points of the above present - except one: thought. And that is the universal solvent to all of Nature, which people have said "sets humankind apart" from the rest of the species. But does it?

All we have is the capability to examine our own thoughts - or so we think. Practically, there have been a great deal of studies into "Animism" and all sorts of beliefs we use to hold from ages past. What you make of these ideas is entirely what you believe - what you think.

Because if you believe that our species is alone on this one ball of water, dirt, mud, and rock - then that is what you will always find. If you open your mind to the possibility of other life "out there", then you find ideas of UFO's and Atlantis all very possible and real. Evidence starts being dropped in your lap to support whatever you believe.

This brings up "The Secret". Not everyone believes in that that DVD said. And yet, it was really only quoting our own texts from across history. Everything those people said who were in that movie - all these things can be found in much older texts - our Bibles, our ancient legends, all these sources of information just came forward and were produced into a modern version we can all experience. And it was translated into many languages so that many various peoples besides our Western, English-speaking culture could have this data.

I like to point people to an earlier best seller, Earl Nighingale's "Strangest Secret". There he points out other authors and historical figures who have stated the same point over and over and over.

That point: "We become what we think about." All through written history, people have this same concept - and they all agree on it completely. They may not agree on anything else completely, but this they all held in common.

And when you go down that road, you'll probably see some system build up along these lines. That is, if you're looking for this system to show up. If you are only looking to get your own team into the play-offs and then win the world title - well that is what is going to happen for you, as long as you take some action to make it happen.

That is the great second part to this: you have to take some action to help your thought take place. That's the difference between daydreams and what is good-naturedly called "reality". People think up goals and then work out a plan, and then carry out that plan to achieve those goals.

You can have this big, beautiful world in your mind - and it will stay there. Big, beautiful, and shining - until you take some steps to make it happen. It may just be writing down your descriptions of all this - most, if not all of our great novels and fantasies stem from this. Or you might tell enough people about it and allow them to co-create your thoughts so that they also create your vision. Our United States developed from that - several ideas from Locke and Smith and others which said that a person could think independently and that we were "endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights", among these being "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

That one concept, of individual freedom to think and act on those thoughts, is what is revolutionizing this world. While not everyone (even in this country) wants the Western culture - they mostly all want to have their own thoughts, to think whatever they want, and to be able to act on those thoughts and make their dreams become reality.

And while we've covered a great deal of ground today, what we are really saying is that there is one principle common to all humankind: You can think for yourself, and that thought can create your reality.

Beyond that the idea: If you think and act in terms of harmonious interaction, your world and all the worlds around you will be better places to live in.

From those two points, you can probably work out that all our laws and rules have been working in that direction for eons.

And right now, we are living in a true Golden Age, which can be improved and made more golden and shiny - as we continue to work at it and help others around us to create their dream. Because, if you think about it, some 90% of our planet is working together in peace. We're almost there. (Just quit listening to what passes for modern News and start observing for yourself and it's easy to see this.)

Think about it - we're almost all the way to world peace. Sure, we have some minor conflicts. And we have some rather dense-thinking people in charge of various areas. And yes, there are some weapons around which can make that peace look rather fragile. But lets start talking with each other, in person, by letter or email, by chats and twitter across this planet. Let's get some agreement on the idea of everyone working together so that individually people can make their dreams come true. Let's get this idea out that people have a right to live their own lives and not be interfered with - so people can live long, prosperous lives in mutual action with the people around them.

We don't all want the same thing. And that is what makes this idea possible. Anyone who wants to be a sports star can. Anyone who wants to be elected to a high office can be. Those of us who want to run a small farm successfully can. Not everyone wants to be a Luther Burbank or a George Washington Carver and create all sorts of new possilibities from plants. We each have our own dreams. Some simply want to raise a fine bunch of kids and live a quiet life. Others long to be movie stars, or just build sets for movies to be filmed on.

But the lesson here - we can each live our own dreams and make them into reality. And the more we tell people this, the more we help others achieve their dreams, the more our own dreams can take shape.

That's the second basic law which is observable and also written throughout history - you can't get without giving. Or, more positively - help others and that help returns to you from others. Also: spread over many shoulders any burden becomes light.

So that's my gift to you: share the peace you are living with others so we can spread peace to everyone on this small planet. Help people with their dreams as you work at living your own - and living your own will become easier.

Thank you - and the very best to you.

BrightBuilder.com : A Scam, A Rip-Off, or a savvy Internet auction sites training company?

How to make money on eBay with free tools - and save yourself $6,000 from Bright Builders' fees.

[Update 12/13/08: Bright Builder isn't the real target, and they've now "merged" with Thrive Learning Institute, so will probably disappear shortly. The actual target is the sales organization, Internet Income Solutions. And their parent organization, a Summit Group, owned by Eric Largent and Jim Cochran. These guys find people who are naive about the Internet and "educate" them with a proprietary hosting gig. Unfortunately, as below, you can get all their training for free, and much better/cheaper hosting....]

(Note: if you want to get your money back from Bright Builders, you have to demand it right after you sign up, not months later. You might be able to get a partial refund from them, but mostly - you can kiss off everything you charged up on your credit card... [Utah State Law says you have three days, but people aren't often told about this, and the first training is set up after those 3 days are up.)

Now, why the vitriol right off the bat? Because $6,000 is what they got me to cough up and it wasn't worth a penny once I went through their training.

My story:
I was incredibly fed up with my day job and knew that I could make money online. But I hadn't figured out how to do it myself. And I'd just cleared off my credit card by taking out a personal loan. So I was ripe to be taken for a ride.

Somehow I got onto a BidFuel page and clicked through. They sold my name to Bright Builders (and a few dozen others) who all called me to get me to buy their stuff. Bright Builders was first, since I was interested in eBay "where millions of buyers shop every day".

After a few hours on the phone with their sales person, he showed my how great this company was and all that they could do for me. I looked over their site, all their tools, the Utah Better Business Bureau - all these things. They guy was slick and very good. I was prime to be slicked.

So I signed up. (Big Oops.)

First - they got me to get a no-interest loan that I could pay off in 4 months. It was a separate finance company who walked me through it. And then put their additional monthly charges on a different credit card. (Note: additional monthly charges.)

Second - As part of this, I was to get 12 training sessions, one every other week. These turned out to be about 15 minutes long and covered mostly how to use their proprietary site-building software. That was what the additional monthly charges covered. $30 a month for their hosting.

Now the fun begins. I worked on digesting all the stuff at their site on how eBay worked and how to make money at it. I studied all the tutorials that came with their special software - a "Bright Lister" to post your auctions, and a "Private Investigator" analysis software based on HammerTap. And I carefully listened to all the instructions on how to build a site on their special site.

BUT -- it didn't work for me.

Now, I can tell you that if you do use their stuff exactly, and set yourself up with a small niche with little competition, you can do well. I've been shown the successes. But I can only estimate that this is the small handful of people who have - which in most industries is about 3-5% of those who sign up.

This means that the bulk of the people who sign up for this course (or any course) are simply paying their exorbitant fees and keeping the place going. You are only shown the successes.

What did I do that was different and why didn't I get it to work?

1. I wanted to sell self-help ebooks. Low margins, but a hugely wide niche with lots of competition.
2. eBay changed the scene on ebooks so you could no longer do digital downloads - meaning you had to burn your own CD's or get them done in bulk (where you'd have a huge inventory to move).
3. I had to become a retailer to succeed. Entrepreneur I could do, but not just selling bunches of other peoples' stuff below market price in order to squeeze out my deals.

Where did I finally give up?

eBay changed the rules again, and basically "leveled the playing field" so everyone was mostly competing on price. So it became even harder to sell the items I was offering, unless I was doing it just above break-even (or below). I was down to a single item that was selling routinely.

This was after I discovered that all the stuff I had paid for as part of this "eBay Training Package" I could get for free. That's right - all of it.

You only need to use two sites (besides eBay) to do everything their high-priced programs would cover:

• Auctiva.com, and
• Terapeak.com

Auctiva, though clunky at times, will do all your listing for you and even schedule things in advance. It also has the capacity to hold several large images and smaller versions, so you can get around the extra fees you have to pay eBay for this service. Auctiva is web-based, so you can access it from anywhere - and they also provide you with a free "store" where all your current auctions are placed. It has a set address, so you can promote this yourself.

Terapeak, although it has a couple of subscription services, offers a free web-based version which essentially does the bulk of the work you need to do in analyzing when and where is the best place to place your auction.

On eBay itself, you really have to do the homework on how this place operates. It's worth getting some simple ebooks on the subject and going through them a few times in order to get the basics. As well, subscribe to someone like Skip McGrath who makes a living on eBay and regularly puts out a newsletter full of valuable data and insight into succeeding on eBay.

Auctiva - and it's free desktop alternate TurboLister (available free from eBay) do all the listing you want. TurboLister I've found to be faster, since Auctiva has to do refreshes. But these both beat the pants off Bright Lister, which is a program on your desktop and communicates with a remote database. I could never get their scheduling to work. I used Auctiva for that.

Another drawback with Bright Lister is the extra code it placed, which meant that your auction wouldn't display properly in any other editor. I found I had to copy and paste the code into a text editor to search-and-replace all these extra tags before I could get another program to display it correctly.

HammerTap has a great program and has been the leader for years. They also consistently produce good newsletters and how-to's on using their product. It's very easy to use once you get the hang of it. They license eBay's data base just like Terapeak does. And since Terapeak has been taking more of their business away, they've begun dropping their prices as well. HammerTap licensed a version of their product to Bright Builder, and apparently keeps it updated, although it shows up on your desktop as their earlier name, Deep Analysis.

But because it's on your desktop, it has to communicate remotely with a database. And the updates don't always find your earlier saves. I've lost all the saved data, even though it still is on my hard-drive.

Terapeak not only saves your searches, but allows you to email them (handy to do a remote save when you're not at your regular computer). Here's a comparison of these two.

Cost Analysis:

Since I have been developing websites for years and years, Bright Builders' costs for their monthly fees were my first hint. They charged as much for website hosting as anyone else. The only thing which offset this was the extra programs they allowed you to use. (Yes, once you stop paying them, those programs won't start up again.)

But their goal is actually to get you mostly off eBay and getting customers for yourself based on their website optimization and your slaving away in building this ecommerce site, stocked with all sorts of goodies. So the extra tools they provide have little use, except when you are product testing, or want to move into a new niche and get more leads from eBay.

Their costs for getting your domain name (never, ever buy your domain name from your webhost provider - they own it, actually) are higher than average - no bargain. In fact, all of their costs are higher than average.

But - their website builder is lower quality than most all out there. It's much harder to use their proprietary software than it is to build other websites with WordPress, Nvu, or Dreamweaver. And you can't install various gadgets and special items like you can with these other programs - or you have to jump through special hoops to do so (also known as "workarounds" - meaning it wasn't designed to work right to begin with).

All told, here's why I quit:
1) They didn't deliver the "guaranteed" promise of earning back that $6,000 in four months. Because their training is not real coaching or consultant work. It's mainly someone following a script for 15 minutes every other week over 24 weeks.
2) Their products are overpriced and don't work as well as the free versions.
3) Anyone with a little homework can do the same - and save their money to invest on other stuff.

Here's how you can do it for free:

1. Sign up with eBay. Free.
2. Study all their tutorials. Free.
3. Sign up with PayPal. Free. (You'll have to jump through some hoops, but you can process credit cards with no monthly fee - they take a piece out, but it's still less.)
4. Sign up with Auctiva. Free.
5. Study their tutorials. Free.
6. Visit Terapeak (you don't even have to sign up to use them for free.)
7. Study their tutorials. Free.
8. Find some stuff you can sell on eBay with no real expense (besides eBay's fees) - and then have some fun at this.
   

Other than the time you've invested, you can start selling on eBay and finding the best times and days to sell, as well as when to end your listing to get the best price and/or the greatest number sold. And it didn't cost you a cent. Plenty of valuable training you can use - all free.

How to invest a little and get back a lot more:

Now, it is possible to make a great amount of money from eBay. But the days of making it directly are pretty much over unless you want to spend years building up your eBay PowerSeller status (a tiny handful are able to do it in weeks by hitting the right niche - extremely rare) - or by being a Big Box store (essentially the same thing). You have to be able to research and buy the right item in bulk in order to sell it individually very cheaply.

The secret to making money on eBay is just that - repetitive sales of items which are in high demand and low supply - and can be replenished.

For most of us - and what they teach at Bright Builders - the real money is made by using eBay as a lead generator. You sell stuff cheaply at eBay and harvest the email addresses, getting these people to start buying from you over at your own store.

So here's the steps to start getting your online fortune:

1. Get a domain name - about $10/year or less.
2. Get good webhosting with cPanel (so you can configure it yourself) - from $5-$20 a month, with discounts for paying it once yearly in advance.
3. Set up a WordPress blog on your webhost - so you can routinely crank out content-rich pages and people can find your site through search engines. Free - comes with cPanel.
4. Set up OSCommerce for a ecommerce engine and stock this with ebooks or stuff you can get cheaply and still sell for under market price. Free - comes with cPanel.
5. Do the free steps above for getting started on eBay.
6. Then sign up for Terapeak's services - start low until you start seeing why the next step up would be worth it.
7. Follow this simple strategy to get leads from eBay.

Summary:

• Did you have to pay $6,000 to learn this? No. It was free.
• Can you make money on eBay? Yes. Can you do it with no investment except your time? Yes.
• Should you trust Bright Builders, BidFuel, or any of these? No, No, NO, NOOOOO.

Can you check this data out for yourself?
Sure - see these Google entries:

Bright-Builders-Testimonials.com - AboutUs Wiki Page

From AboutUs: See what information we have on Bright-Builders-Testimonials.com and share your knowledge.

- - - -
www.aboutus.org/Bright-Builders-Testimonials.com
Description
Excerpted from the website description:

Bright Builders has premier online business support, education and tools to help you build a profitable business online. But don't take our word for it. See what our customers are saying.

If you have a complaint or are dissatisfied with our services in any way, please contact us immediately:

Phone Support: 9am-5pm MST 1-800-342-1990 option 1

Email Support: 9am-5pm MST experts@brightbuilders.com

You have every right to file a complaint with the Utah Better Business Bureau (https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/GetStarted.aspx) - but please contact us first so that we can work with you to resolve any complaint you might have.

- - - -

Bright Builders Review

Bright Builders Review: Everything you need to know about doing business with BrightBuilders.com, find out why people are calling it a brightbuilders scam.
www.reviewopedia.com/bright-builders.htm

- - - -

A Critical Review of Bright Builders from the Business ...

Since it is beginning in 1997, Bright Builders.com has developed various serviceable web sites ranging from an online academic home-study course, ...
www.programcritique.com/subcategories/BusinessOpportunities/BrightBuilders.html

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Bright Builders

33 posts - 23 authors - Last post: Sep 27

Discussion about Bright Builders. Speak your mind about Internet Scams and be heard here at scam.com.
www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=5805 - 159k

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Rip-off Report: Bright Builders ripoff of $2801 Since December of ...

Bright Builders ripoff of $2801 Since December of 2004! My Website did nothing, training was barely more than elementary, I lost money by having to refund a ...
www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/145/RipOff0145755.htm - 70k -

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So there you have it. Make up your own mind from the data to hand.


Some additional products you may be interested in:

These products were found during my research into eBay. I don't recommend any one of them over any of the rest. These are here for additional research data for you:

Sky High Auctions
Learn From 15 Ebay PowerSellers How They Raked In Over $11,726,200 Last Year Alone And How You Can Explode Your Business Following Their Every Move Using Our Step By Step Course
AND for those of you who already own an online business, you'll discover how to use the power of eBay to rake in piles of hot leads to your websites!

Lead Prospecting on Ebay
Mystery Woman Discovers A Simple Method That Delivers An Unlimited Number of Folks Who Will Buy Your Products or Services - AND This Endless Lead Supply Is Cheap (Even Free) to You!

My E-Store
My eBay Script is a set of PHP functions that displays eBay products onto your own Online Auction Website. This script is only for those who are or want to be apart of the Affiliate Marketing industry. Being apart of this fast growing industry will allow you to sign up as an affiliate to eBay. What this means is you advertise their products and you will get a commission from the sell.

Ebay Crusher
Finding it difficult to make money on Ebay? Then discover…

How An Internet Novice Stumbled Upon ‘Secret Ebay Methods’ That Rake In Thousands In Profits Per Month – Without Selling A Single Thing…

If you’ve struggled to make money on Ebay and are ready to throw in the towel, don’t give up just yet…

I’m going to reveal how YOU can make thousands on auto-pilot working just 20 minutes per MONTH!!

Salehoo - eBay Wholesalers
For Pre-screened Wholesale Suppliers for USA, Canada, Australia, France, UK, Hong Kong and UNITED STATES read on...
Who Else Wants to Get Instant and Unlimited Access to 5,347 Pre-Screened Legitimate Wholesale Suppliers of High Quality Products that Have Decent Profit Margins... Right Now?
Stop spinning your wheels and join one of the largest, safest wholesale communities on the internet. Over 50,000 other online sellers, retailers and bargain hunters have discovered the best place to find legitimate, pre-screened wholesalers, dropshippers, liquidators and manufacturers for every type of product imaginable. Best part: You're only minutes away from getting your hands on it too. Keep reading to find out how...