We wrote the “2017 Survival Guide” during our yearly camping trip to the great northern Minnesota woods in June of 2007.  Some of the ideas came to me during a dream that I could not get out of my head until I wrote them down days later. Some of our best ideas came when just the two of us were walking along the great Lake Superior in Minnesota.  The northern woods with its clean air and lack of TV or phones cleared our minds and helped us focus on setting plans for the coming year. For example in June of 2005 after President Bush was reelected; we both agreed that our home in the Twin Cities would never be worth more money. We worked hard fixing it up over the summer and put it on the market without an agent in October 2005. We had an offer within 2 days.  Looking back it looks as if we sold our home at near the peak of its value. We moved into an apartment knowing that we could never afford to buy another home in the Twin Cities area. Over the years we read books on hobby farming such as “The Contrary Farmer” by Gene Logsdon and “The Simple Life” by Helen and Scott Nearing plus many more.  Our goal was to find a small place in the country with about 20 acres of good farmland near the Twin Cities Area.  After writing the “2017 Survival Guide” in June of 2007 we kept looking for our dream home on the Web over the summer.  We found our hobby farm in August of 2007.  It had been on the market for over 1.5 years and was now reduced to our price range. We moved most of our items to the farm and moved into a small one-bedroom apartment in the Twin Cities because our jobs were still there.  Over the summer of 2008 we began to build up our gardens. We added apple trees, cherry trees, blueberry and raspberry bushes, strawberries, asparagus, and a full range of vegetables.  We find ourselves spending our days off at the hobby farm.  The following is the last paragraph we wrote in “2017 Survival Guide”… 

This is our vision, what is yours?

The Bike and Barkfest is our vision of where we would like to be in ten years. In “The Secret” and “Ask and It is Given” the Law of Attraction tells us in order to make our vision a reality we must first put it out into the universe. This forces us to change course and take the necessary actions to make our dreams come into being.

Our suggestion is that if you haven’t already, start writing your own vision of where you want to be in ten years and share it with the universe to ignite the Law of Attraction for you. Then start taking the necessary steps. Look at the housing you live in, the vehicles you own, the resources you may be wasting, the food and water used to nourish your body, your health and fitness level, and see where you may want to change your course. The next ten years will not be a normal decade. Many of us have a sense that we are on a collision course with ‘icebergs ahead’. Whether it is environmental or economic, severe course changes must be made for human and earthly survival. In the story of the loaves and fishes perhaps the true miracle was as the basket was being passed, each person took only what was needed leaving enough to pass on to their neighbor. Looking at our dwindling natural resources we must as individuals take only what we truly require so that we all may endure. 

Many people have emailed us calling our visions of the future as being gloom-and-doom, but I think we all need to look farther than the next few years and see how this is going to change our world.  Many of us do feel that the near future will be uncertain because of the economic conditions facing the USA and the world. In the just the last months you can even feel it when you go out shopping.  Look into the eyes of the store employees who are terrified of losing their jobs. The few shoppers are saying to themselves “Do I need this item?”  Watching the news a few days ago scared me more then the current economic problems.  California has a three-year drought, which will cause the government to shut off the water to the farmers needed to grow their crops. This will cause a food shortage that we have not seen since the great dust bowl of the 1930’s. This news was not at the top of the news but buried 15 minutes into the broadcast.  The reason for me writing this message is to tell everyone to start a garden this year. We are so used to driving down to our supermarket with our biggest problem being that we couldn’t find a parking place close to the front door.  Start with a little plot in your backyard or if you are a social butterfly start a community garden and inspire those around you to grow healthy food for all to enjoy and benefit from.  It starts with just a few seeds.  Gardening helps feed and enrich the body, mind and soul. YES YOU CAN make a difference in your life and others.   I believe this is not a prophecy of the future but a truth that has not yet happened.  This year we plan to enlarge our gardens by 300 percent.  We are still feasting on our garden vegetables from our freezer in February. In 2009 we plan to build a root cellar and a small greenhouse and build up our gardens with long term items like fruits, and asparagus plants.  

The reason I am writing this prophecy or advice is to encourage people to start to plan for a precarious 2-5 years that maybe heading our way.  I feel that many of the people in America are not equipped to handle what is coming. Either they are not in the physical and/or financial condition to weather the coming storms.  We are a nation that looks one day or week out. We need to start looking out 10 years.  I have enclosed the second part of our “2017 Survival Guide” which shows you our vision of what it will be like 8 years from now. You can download our full guide at icebergahead.org.  I hope you will sit down with your family and friends to organize your long-term plan. I hope that I am wrong about the California drought problem, because we don’t need the added pressure on our nation and the world.

Recession starts the 4th quarter of 2007 due to housing bubble, sub-prime loans, gas prices and the trade and budget deficits careening out of control in the US. This recession carries all the way through 2008 ending in 2009.

The Bush administration’s final days were counted down throughout the world like the ball dropping from Time Square on New Years Eve. As the days got closer President Bush-bashing parties were abound. It was like the end of Hoover’s administration and President Roosevelt was riding in. There was even a reenactment of Bushvilles on the same grounds as the original Hoovervilles near the White House. The colleges vying for President Bush’s library stated that due to budget constraints they needed to bow out of contention. President Bush’s poll numbers dropped to an all time low of just 11%. Not only did President Bush take down his own administration but also the Republican Party became the minority party for years to come. In 2008 the Republicans in power foresaw the writing on the wall and turned away from the Bush administration during his final year in office but it did not save them from losing many seats in 2008.

The nation and the world thirsts and hungers for truth, vision, and leadership. After winning the nomination in his acceptance speech President Obama challenges the electorate. “Don’t just send me to Washington. I need some navigators and lookouts to help me get our great country on track. Vote not only for me but also for all my fellow democratic nominees. Some of these course corrections may seem severe; however look farther than yourself. Look into the eyes of your children, grandchildren and beyond. One person cannot steer us from the dangers that are imminent. Leave your fears behind and envision a new beginning, a New World.” The world stops to hear his inaugural speech. It is the most watched event to date. Possible excerpts from his speech: “ Mankind is currently aboard the Titanic.” The crowd moans – he raises his hands and says “ It’s ok, it’s ok. The captain of the ill-fated Titanic did not listen to the advice of his experts. Instead he charged full steam ahead into dangerous waters. The previous administration has taken us into similar perilous waters such as charging into Iraq without a plan, deficit spending, ignoring problems concerning healthcare, energy, social security, Medicare and even dismissed global warming. One of my first acts will be a thoughtful pull out of forces occupying Iraq. I pledge to listen to the leading economists, scientists and scholars on the approaching icebergs ahead for our country and the world. I am not fearful of having learned people working with me in this administration. I welcome them. One man may captain a ship but all of us traveling together have a part to play in the survival and flourishing of the human race. For the children, as students your part is to engage and immerse yourselves in the humanities, math and sciences. You could be the one to discover the next cure or a new energy source and even be the captain of this ship in the future. Remember, if a man named Barak Obama has the audacity to dream and the opportunity and privilege to serve our great nation you too can realize your hopes and dreams.”

This trend continues for the next few years until we hit bottom in 2011. Banks and mortgage companies flooded with foreclosures start offering some of the homeowners new creative programs to keep them to continue paying their loans. The McCastle to McNugget program allows the homeowners to continue to live in part of their home. The remaining space is converted into apartment(s), which the loan holders rent or sell to help cover their investment costs. The current owner must pay their mortgage on time for 3 years before they are able to sell their unit. Most new home development is limited to less than 1500 square feet of living space. When our government begins the practice of living within its means and eliminates deficit spending, the example is clear to all of us.

Due to the high amount of foreclosures the government freezes homeowners’ property taxes to 2005 levels to help reduce the cost of owning a home plus forces the reduction of our use of natural resources. The local governments were heavily taxing our homes through property taxes. They needed the revenue to run our local government operations.

Tax me for what I use not for what I own.

Cities are only able to increase our bills for natural resources. As the costs of these items increase residents begin to conserve them. Our five year goal is to reduce our per person usage of limited resources by 50 percent. Programs and new technologies will help us reach our goals. The news is full of cities that are running low on natural resources needed to function. These natural resources are water, natural gas, electricity, and removal of trash. On one hand our city and municipal government wants us to use our water because it is a revenue center but on the other hand when a drought occurs, the city creates watering restrictions and/or bans certain watering activities. This Bill forces us to have a long-term water reduction program to help us conserve our limited water resources. Note: We are all down stream from someone. If we abuse water, those down stream does not have the needed water to live. This can easily be said about all of the other limited resources that we use daily. Part of the Bill allows cities and states to charge a premium for the natural resources. Many of the states setup two tiered pricing for natural resources. Example: The first 100 gallons of water per household is charged at a low rate, but the remaining gallons of water are at a premium rate.

In the next year or two a whistle-blower from one of the 20 multinational corporations that dominate the food trade comes forward. The whistle blower is so secret that even congress does not know her name. She states that genetically engineered agriculture may have caused the bees to be missing. The real problem is we can’t put the genie back in the bottle. It is now part of our environment. The only thing we can do is to hope that the bees can adapt to their new environment. USA stops any new genetic engineered agriculture from being introduced into the environment. We import bees from other nations to help us pollinate our crops. The bees’ population starts to increase again by 2012 in North America. Other countries ban genetically engineered agriculture and North American bees from entering their county.

Due to spiraling out of control health care costs employers will be responsible for CCB’s –cuts – colds — and breaks. The employer pays a base rate for each employee and employees’ contributions are based upon their risk factors. Smoking, obesity, and drug and alcohol abuse for example, results in higher premiums to those employees. Premiums are reevaluated every six months. A national one percent health tax on consumer goods is earmarked for major medical needs. Limitations are placed on a maximum payment per person and restrictions are made on operations and procedures based on age and outcome. Example: A 98 year-old person will not be considered for a quadruple bypass. There are limited dollars.

The green spaces of cities are utilized as more than chemically fertilized areas to look at as we drive by. Areas are designated for community gardens, which are composted and maintained by local communities and grade schools. This extends beyond individual communities to city, county, state and national parks on a bigger scale. Later in this guide we will speak about a vision of redesigning Hoffman Hills State Park as our example. 30 percent of food grown in these public areas rightfully belong to the food shelves. “Seeds for those in Need” – food pantries provide individuals seeds, starter plants, soil, compost and use of a tiller. In return 30 percent comes back to the nearest food pantry. This encourages people to nurture the land and their relationships with fellow neighbors. As cities, counties and national park budgets are reduced the result is individual communities take ownership and pride in maintaining their local public lands and waterways.

Recession of 2007-2009 was only the tip of the iceberg. China’s stock market crashed late in 2009 after the Olympics. Some feel that China woke up and realized their resources —both human and natural were being traded for USA’s IOU’s (treasury bills). China started selling off their T-bills at 90% of their value. This caused the US dollar’s value to plummet. Due to the drop hyperinflation on imported goods and our ability to run deficits came to a screeching halt. Within a year major commodities were changed from the dollar standard to the Euro. This prompted the price of gas to jump to over $7/gallon.

Due to the high price of gasoline airlines revise their ticket sales.

Tickets are purchased with price range dependent on occupancy of your flight. Airlines start utilizing and retrofitting smaller planes for fuel economy. The old prop planes are dug out of storage.

US Post Office only delivers U.S. Mail on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Schools operate on a four-day week. More workers are offered 4-day workweeks and staggered shifts.

This is not the SUV return the big three American automakers had prayed for. This is the last thing the banks and dealers wanted to happen. The cost of gas makes trade-in values of the big SUV almost zero. Auto loans are normally tied to the car. If you do not make your car loan, your car is taken back by the bank or the dealer who wrote you the loan. SUV owners find themselves upside down in the SUV loans with only one option. Return the SUV back to the bank or dealer and purchase a small car for their transportation needs. Banks and dealerships flooded with returning SUVs need to move fast to move the SUVs off their books or persuade the SUV owners to keep their cars. A big car conversion kits was developed. The kits sell for around $1500 to $3000 each. The SUV will get an electric motor with batteries that can be charged by plugging in or driving the car. They also install a cylinder reduction kit that with the flip of a switch by the dashboard turns an eight-cylinder SUV into a four-cylinder engine. The conversion doubles the mpg of the SUVs.

The Diamond lanes are the mirage of the freeway system. They were built to reward drivers with two passengers per car called carpooling. But 79 % of us travel to and from work by ourselves. The bill allows small (diamond) cars with one passenger that averages 35-mpg or more to drive in the diamond lanes. By moving the small cars into the diamond lanes we all get the following benefits: We all use less gas because traffic flow increases. The small (diamond) car owners will get to work in the shortest time. We will be utilizing the diamond lanes that we already paid taxpayer dollars to build. We will be promoting fuel economy that will protect the environment, conserve resources for future generations, reduce oil imports, and save money. Plus the bill allows mopeds to ride on the shoulders of city interstates and bicycle paths to reduce the amount of people traveling to work by car. A new group of drivers enter the roadways called “Xtreme Drivers”. They never go over 60 mph and coast into stop signs and down hills plus take off slow from a full stop. These “Xtreme Drivers” make saving gas a sport. They track their mpg on Web sites and proudly post “Xtreme Driver” bumper stickers on their back bumpers. Automakers even create a new “Xtreme Driver” button on new cars to help you save gas. When the button is on, your car will not travel faster than 60 mph plus when you take your foot of the gas the car safely shifts into neutral, which allows you to coast further. A premium level “Xtreme Driver” can get over 20 percent higher mpg than a normal driver.

The government is not able to take over pensions that defaulted. They allow troubled companies to reduce pensions by up to fifty percent, which includes city, county, state, and federal government sponsored pensions. No one is spared. What shocks more than the pension reduction is the 401(k) grab-back. Part of the pension reduction act allows companies in distress to grab-back half of their committed 401(k) matching funds.

Gaming Reform Act of 2011

The government had designed a new tax in the early 1980’s that on a percentage basis took much more money from the poorest residents. It is called the State lottery games. The State run lottery games were designed to help raise tax revenues for the State. It is a known fact that on a percentage basis the poorest state residents purchase the majority of the lottery tickets. We have all been behind someone that purchased a hundred dollars in State lottery tickets and/or State scratch off tickets. This individual normally does not appear to be able to afford even one ticket. There is someone more addicted to the lottery than you or I. Your State can’t live without these tax dollars. With the China crash of 2010 the poor were gambling more frequently which increased problems for the State and federal government. Many will say that people are not forced to play the State lottery games but we hear lottery ads on TV, radio, and print pushing us to take a chance at millions of easy money. One dollar could change your life. The reform act goal was not to stop having State run gambling but reduce the current burden on some of our poorest residents. By allowing each resident to use only a limited percentage of their income on the state run lotteries and area casinos, we are evening out the tax burden and financial strain that we are currently placing on the poor. The technology already exists to change the gaming programs. Residents who wish to purchase state lottery tickets or visit a casino are given a special gaming debit card. Residents will be allowed to purchase a percentage of their last year’s income divided by the month. Example: Resident makes $20,000 in 2010. If the amount allowed is 1% of their income, the resident will have up to $16.67 per month to spend on the lottery or casinos. If short of cash, they could reduce the transfer or use some or all of the cash on the special debit card for any other purchase. Note: All State lottery purchases and winnings or casino gambling would be processed only on the special debit card. People may say, “Why change a system to prevent a few from abusing it?” Those that abuse the system do not only hurt themselves. They cause problems for their families and society. Yes, sales will be reduced by the new system but the state should not be in the business of hurting the people they are responsible to protect.

President Barak Obama was easily reelected in 2012. He tells the American people the truth. He takes the lead from President Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats and President Obama has his Weekly Webcast Chats and open press conferences. He challenges the American citizenry to expect as much if not more of themselves as they do of their children. Be kind, be inclusive, and mentor those who may be falling behind, allow all into the discussion and always, always question authority. 2012 ends with the lights still working just like Y2K on New Years Eve 2000. It has become instinctive for people to reach out to their community and  beyond. The ME generations have finally matured into the WE generation.

There is a large kitchen for meal preparation and as the old fashioned farm kitchen is a gathering place for all to share their day. There is a large dining area and that is another venue to discuss the day’s events. What new herb could enhance a recipe, how solar power can be stored for those long overcast winter days, and how energy can be harnessed from animal and human waste. Perhaps the latter should be discussed after dinner. The commune-ity has its own built-in tutors for the young students still in school.

The commune-ity water system is designed to show visitors the ability to conserve this world’s most important natural resource. The ground water enters the building first to our water furnace that both heats and cools us throughout the year. After the water runs through the furnace, it is stored in a holding tank to be used for drinking, cooking, showers, and washing of dishes & clothing. Solar and wind power is used to heat the water. The commune-ity has shower facilities called “Dry Showers” and is designed like the drive through car wash system. Stage one is a one-minute mist of water to wet the person. The person applies their soap and shampoo. Stage two is the final two-minute rinse. The shower then times off for 4 minutes to prevent wasting water. Similar systems are used in the bathroom sinks. The “gray” water from the above uses again returns from the drains to another storage tank to be used to flush our toilets. After the toilet flush, the water is separated from the solid waste and returns to irrigate our gardens. The gardens are watered using the drip irrigation system to reduce water usage. We take great care in what we put in the water along the way because the water we put on our food returns again to nourish us. If you count watering our organic gardens, we use the water four times before returning it to the earth.

A new product called the “Defray Decay” takes the human and chicken solid waste and extracts the methane, which supplements the cooking of our meals. The process is ongoing and takes about 15 to 30 days to work through the system. The digested solid waste is then added to our gardens as a fertilizer. We also have a compost pile to recycle our vegetable waste. All paper, plastic, cans, and glass are recycled. Our objective is not to bring in any item into the commune-ity that cannot be recycled.

Commune-ity personnel are equipped with removable GPS locators so that the main computer can track their movements to control the heating and lighting of the main building. The ‘Reverse & Disperse” heating ducts are designed to reverse their flow. Example: During the day the ducts are heating the main public areas but at night they reverse and disperse the heated air out of the public areas to the sleeping units. The computer turns off equipment and lights based on the tracking of the GPS locators. This is not big brother but energy reduction father. Our sleeping areas use very little energy and are designed with new beds named “MiCozee”. We heat and cool the bed not the room. The only other energy used in the sleeping rooms is for limited reading lights and a ceiling fan.

Of the 700-acres, 10 percent is designated to Bike and Barkfest usage. This includes the main living area, organic gardens and orchards, greenhouses, bee keeping area, public dance area & parking, bike & utility barn, chicken coops, waste recycling & composting area, rain water catchers throughout the commune-ity, solar & wind generation areas, camping facilities and five one-room ‘thoughtful’ cabins for individual retreat and meditation.

The Bike and Barkfest is our vision of where we would like to be in ten years. In “The Secret” and “Ask and It is Given” the Law of Attraction tells us in order to make our vision a reality we must first put it out into the universe. This forces us to change course and take the necessary actions to make our dreams come into being.

Our suggestion is that if you haven’t already, start writing your own vision of where you want to be in ten years and share it with the universe to ignite the Law of Attraction for you. Then start taking the necessary steps. Look at the housing you live in, the vehicles you own, the resources you may be wasting, the food and water used to nourish your body, your health and fitness level, and see where you may want to change your course. The next ten years will not be a normal decade. Many of us have a sense that we are on a collision course with ‘icebergs ahead’. Whether it is environmental or economic, severe course changes must be made for human and earthly survival. In the story of the loaves and fishes perhaps the true miracle was as the basket was being passed, each person took only what was needed leaving enough to pass on to their neighbor. Looking at our dwindling natural resources we must as individuals take only what we truly require so that we all may endure.