How to Tree Farm for profit

Tree Farming For profit 

So you want to become a tree farmer? What do you need to know?

There is no action that can start you on the path to freedom, more then growing and selling your own food.

Tree farming can be divided in to three sections

1. Starting

2. Storing

3. Selling

Section 1: Getting started

The first step in getting ready to become a tree farmer is doing some research. You want to find out what trees grow well in your area. Once you find what type of tree you’re going to grow, you want to find someone who is growing that kind of tree. It is best in most cases for the tree that you find, to be at least three years old. You can work with younger trees but the older the tree, the less time your new tree will need to grow before producing fruit.

Once you have found your tree and gained permission to clone from it follow the 12 steps below. Before starting, you can at one time, clone about 1/3 of all the branches of a tree without harming the tree. You can push this up to around ½ of the branches of any one tree.

Step 1: Tools and Material Required

Tools and Material Required:

The following tools and materials are required to do air-layering.

1. A sharp knife, or for kids doing this a potato peeler will work

2. Thick cotton threads or bread ties

3. Clean plastic sheet, or clean plastic bottle

4. Hack saw blade (or) a Pruning shears

5. Organic local honey, or root growth hormone  

6. Soil mix

Almost anything you use in your garden will work. I use a mix of peat moss and perlite, but I have seen this work with just dirt from a yard.  

Step 2: Selecting the Right Branch

Select a branch of about one year old, and half an inch thick. The branch should be healthy and free from any pest attacks. The best time to do air-cloning is when the plant starts growing new leaves.

Step 3: Make Deep Cuts

Make two clean cuts around the branch about one inch apart with a sharp knife.

Step 4: Peel Off the Bark

Peel off the bark between those two cuts. Try not to hurt the wood, but if you do cut the wood do not worry some people claim it is good for the process.

Step 5: Spread the Honey

Where you have peeled the bark off, spread a small amount of honey or root hormone over the whole wound.

Step 6: Wrap With Ball of Soil

Make a ball of soil; make sure to have plenty of soil as this is where your roots will grow.

Step 7: Wrap With Plastic Sheet

Wrap the soil using a plastic sheet of right size. Or a bottle that you slice down the side. Also, make sure to have the soil plenty moist. 

Step 8: Tie the Ends

Tie the ends tightly with cotton thread, so that no water or air can enter.

Now you have to wait for about eight to ten weeks, sometimes more, before rooting takes place.

Step 9: See the Roots Through the Plastic Sheet

After about ten weeks’ time, my air-cloned tree branch will have grown roots. You can see the white roots through the plastic sheet.

Step 10: Remove the Wrapping

Remove the plastic sheet. Now you can see the roots clearly.

Step 11: Prune the Rooted Branch

Cut the branch just below the rooted portion with pruning shears or with a hacksaw blade, without damaging the root ball. I prefer to use a hacksaw, as the wood can be very hard to cut with pruning shears.

Step 12: Plant It To Keep or To Sell

Plant the rooted branch in a pot, at least a one gallon. Later you may have to transplant it to a larger pot, but one gallon bag or pot will work for now.  If space is available, you can also plant it in the ground .

Section 2: Storing the Trees

So here is the real secret to trees. If they do not sell the first year, their value doubles. You can pick up a newly rooted apple tree for around $9. Whereas, a one year old tree is going to cost you around $20-$29. A two year old tree goes for $40- $56. So what do you have to do to make this extra money? Not a lot. Make sure the roots have enough room to grow, so that the tree can grow. By transplanting it to a larger pot. A 5 gallon to 7 gallon for a tree up to 1 year old.  Larger pots for older trees. Keep them watered and fed, by making, and giving them compost tea every few months. If you’re in a colder climate you may want to put them in a greenhouse.    

Section 3: Selling

I could write an entire book on the selling process, and in fact I have. So it will be hard for me to keep this short and on the topic of fruit trees.

There are a few ways to sell your trees, that I know of. If you know of any other ways please let me know.

From your house to people

          This is as easy as it sounds. Post your trees on craigslist, put up signs in stores, and even take out an ad in the newspaper. If your prices are right, you can make a lot of sales this way. When pricing for home sales, take in to account, that you did not have to waste gas driving them to a store or mailing them off.

To a store for resale

          Before you try and sell to stores, invest in a Cottage Industry Licence. It's cheap, and in some states even free. It will allow you to sell goods made at home. Then you need to take a walk around the store, see the prices they are selling similar products for. If you figure they marked it up by double what they paid for it. So if they are selling trees for $10 they most likely are buying them for around $5. I suggest that you get your foot in the door and offer them at $4. If you have saved cash to keep your business running, then I also recommend this trick. Offering to buy back all unsold stock at the end of the season at the same price they bought them from you. This gives the store a guarantee that they will not be stuck with unsold product. This also allows you to resell them next year at higher price. Remember this is all about the long game.

At a farmers market

By far, this is the best way to sell trees. Not because it will make you the most money, but because it will expose you to many opportunities that you would have missed otherwise. It is like going to a marketing meeting with hundreds of like minded people.  

Online

For this, you will just need to find a place to sell your trees at. The best way is to make a website. You can also do this from a blog, or even Facebook.  If you need help setting up a website, I recommend Go Daddy for buying the web address, hosting, and for the technical support you may need for building your website. Click the link below to find out more information.

 Best website help you can get

 

Bonus:

There’s an old proverb that says, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” In a culture that is largely inundated with instant gratification, the natural process of growing fruit trees may seem like an eternity. It’s not uncommon for people to list time as one of their top reasons for not growing food — time has less to do with planting and more to do with waiting; however, any gardener will remind you that anything worth doing is worth waiting for. So, on average, how long is it before you should expect to see fruit from your newly planted trees?

Fruit Tree Type            Years to Fruit from seed

Apple Trees                              2-5 years

Apricot Trees                           2-5 years

Banana Plants                          2-3 years

Cherry Trees (sour)                 3-5 years

Cherry Trees (sweet)               4-7 years

Citrus Trees                             1-2 years

Fig Trees                                 1-2 years

Mulberry Trees                       2-3 years

Nectarine Trees                       2-4 years

Olive Trees                              2-3 years

Pawpaw Trees                         5-7 years

Peach Trees                             2-4 years

Pear Trees                               4-6 years

Persimmon Trees                    3-4 years

Plum Trees                              3-6 years

10 Passive Income Streams you should try!

 Passive Income

Most passive income ideas will either generate poor returns or consume lots of your time (not very passive!).  So the question is…what really works?  I’ve spent 100's of hours thinking about all sorts of crazy ideas for making passive income.  From smart ideas, like an online course, to free and fast ideas, like writing articles for AdSense, I’ve thought about pretty much every passive income stream there is.  Now I want to share some of my favorite passive income ideas with all of you.

What Is Passive Income?

First off the word passive can be misleading. It often brings up ideas of making money without having to do any work. That is just not true. In truth you will spend lot of time and hard work at the start. Then over time money will start coming in and you will no longer have to work hard at it, or spend a lot of time doing it.

So let’s get right in to it.

1. Create A Blog

I wanted to start with this one because in my mind it is the best.  It cost you nothing to start! There are many ways to make money at it. Start just by adding AdSence this will start you bringing in cash right off the bat. While it will not be a lot. It will start the ball rolling. Next  look in to affiliated marketing , all you need to concentrate on is pumping out the content for your own site and getting the traffic in – most people can get an affiliate sale within 30 days of starting a blog.

2. . Sell An eBook

The much loved model for bloggers and content creators everywhere and for a good reason…it’s pretty easy to write a 25-80 page eBook. It's not hard to sell say $500 worth a month through online networking, guest posting, and your own SEO optimized blog, after paying affiliates.  Hell yeah!  Look at it this way, if the average eBook is 25 pages, and you have made 25 blog post on the same topic, you just made a Ebook.

3. Trees, Yes trees! 

It is so easy to graft (clone) trees that my 6 year old is taking over my tree grafting business this year for me. And cloning trees is one of the only businesses out there that your unsold product goes up in value the next year. I know what you’re thinking, “Oh, but Carl, I don’t have any trees” or “but Carl, I have a black thumb and cannot grow anything.”  Let me address both of these one at a time. I sell only fruit trees. You can make a lot more money off of ornamental crap, but I believe we are in a WAR ON HUNGER and the only way to win is to grow more food,  so I refuse to grow or sell non edible plants. Now if you follow me on any of Manabu Farms social media platforms, you will know that I just started a new farm in Flint MI.  Right now I do not have one fruit tree on the property and as I already said my kid is taking over, so how is she

doing this with no trees? Easy, we walked around our neighborhood till we saw someone with a overgrown apple tree. Then being a little shy and not wanting to go up and knock on the door we just keep walking by every other day or so till we saw someone outside.  We walked up and commented on the tree and of course it had a story, one I will save for another post. After talking with the owner of the tree for a while I offered to come by and trim it back for him, and explained how he would get a better harvest if it was trimmed up. The owner was a little hesitant but after I told him that I would also cut him a clone so he could plant a second tree he was more than happy to have us come back.  A bag of peat moss some empty water bottles (something Flint has a lot of) and a jar of honey and she was up and running. If anyone wants more information on how to do this, message me! I will personally walk you through the whole process. Why would I do this? As I said we are at war and I need more fighters to join me on the battle field!

4.  Sell An Online Course

This is one I cannot tell you a lot about. I am planning on doing this sometime this year. If you blog or YouTube about a subject a lot, you should look into offering classes online. it can be a great source of passive income because once you're done making the course. you're done. You just sit back and watch the cash roll in.

5.  Create a Comparison or Review Site

I really like this idea, but I must confess, I’ve never earned passive income from a setup like this before. I’ll be putting something together soon though and really wanted to share this idea with you.

So here’s the way it works; find a niche where there are a ton of products, all with semi-complex feature mixes – or basically any type of niche where customers are going “I don’t have a clue what to buy”. For me that is going to be solar equipment.  Now create a site that first, shares a bunch of useful content (think tutorials, how-to's etc) on the niche. Secondly review every product/service in that niche (the pros, cons, verdict etc.). You get bonus points if you communicate this info through a mix of text, photos, and video.

Plus create a comparison table page where you have every product listed and rated on a number of features, all side by side.  Customers can finally decide what product is right for them via this bird's-eye view table. Plus the in-depth individual review articles/videos you will provide.  Next to every product, there is a link to the purchase page of the seller (eg Amazon), and well you guessed it, those links are affiliate links.

6.  Take Photos and Sell Stock Images 

 This one is not going to make you rich, but it does become a great hobby to make a profit from. Any time you’re doing anything, you can have those actions making you money. One of the easiest ways to make this happen is with a camera. If I am out digging in my garden, I have my camera with me and take shots of everything from a dirt covered shovel, to a rock I found, to clouds passing by. Then put those pictures and or video clips up on places like shutter stock. You'd be surprised at what pictures you sell.   

7.  Build an App 

Apps aren’t that expensive to get made anymore.   If you want to create a mainly info-based app, there are plenty of easy to use programs online for making your own app for a couple hundred bucks. For less than $1000 you can just give the idea to someone at one of the hundreds of app building companies.

 

8.  Get A Rental Property

So this is a great way to make money, but you need to be smart about it and willing to take some risk. Also, if you cannot afford to outsource the work that is needed to run this daily, then wait until you have earned a larger passive income from other ideas before starting this one.  The best way to make this work for me at least was buy up land in the poorest cities. Here in Flint, MI I have found houses you can buy and own outright for $500. No joke. These houses are trashed, and unless you live in the area you’re going to have to hire a repair crew to come fix up the place. This can cast you anywhere from $500 more to $10,000 more so be ready to spend before you make. Then again if you do not live in the area you’re going to have to hire a property management company to handle the day to day business.  Even if you do live in the area, you should hire a company anyways. It’s the only way to make this a passive income, otherwise you will have to find the renters, deal with dally complaints, and more.

9.  Unleash Your Inner Loan Shark On Peer-To-Peer Lending

                                                                                

What am I talking about?

Peer to peer lending is basically what the name says. You put a bunch of cash into an online account and then divvy it up among dozens of people looking for loans around the country.  You lend, say $25, to each person (you and a couple 1000 other people together give that person enough money for their loan).  This takes at least $1000 to really do right, so it is not a starter idea. Here is a video on how it all works. I really love this idea as it lets me help out those in need and make money at the same time. 

10.  Setup Your Own YouTube Channel

If this is free and easy to do, why did I save it for last?  Because while I love it and I suggest you all do it, it also sucks! Unless you’re lucky or really talented, you’re going to make very little at it. Here is my personal experience  with it. I started my YouTube account in 2010, in 2014 I made my first $100. In 2015 I made $200, then I quit making new videos (I moved off grid) until 2017. In that time, though without doing any work at all, I made $167.  So that was the first passive income I made from YouTube. To this day I make around 10-40 cents a day off YouTube.  I have started putting out more videos now and I have even started 3 other YouTube channels to try and do different ideas on how to make money on YouTube. Only time will tell if any of these pan out better than my true channel. In closing YouTube is great if you're doing it to spread a message or just for fun. You will make money at it but it will not be much unless your good at it.  

Bonus 

Start an eBay Store

I have never even got something from eBay, let alone sold something on eBay. Out of the 19 families that I have taught to live without monthly bills, two of them make an income off of eBay. I would not call it passive, but it is a home-based income. One way I have seen this work is going to yard sales and flee markets, The person I know that is doing this buys up baby clothes and woman's clothing, washes it, and resells it on eBay. Another way that I have seen this work, is that a young man I know is now living free of all monthly bills. He buys bulk electronics from overseas and then marks them up and sells them on eBay. Both are making more money doing this, then any passive income I am using at this time.        

15 Ways to lower your monthly Rent Bill.

Okay you know that paying rent to live somewhere is just throwing your money away but you have to live somewhere right?  Well here are some tips to help lower that rent each month till you can get out of the trap you’re in and buy or build something that’s for your future

Tips to lower rent without talking to your land lord

1. Team up, that’s right the fastest way to lower your rent is to either move in with someone else or to rent out a room or couch in your place. Depending on how you do this it can cut your bill in half and start you and another on the path to freedom.

2. Move, that’s right if you’re paying too much move. If you really want to save money and that is your biggest want more than the comforts of having your social network at hand, then take a tip from Manabu Farms and move to a “dying city” we moved to Flint MI partly because the rent and price to buy a home was dirt cheap. We are buying our home and paying less than all of our friends that rent back in Humboldt CA.  So if you truly want to lower your rent move to a town that is dying.

3. Do not let your apartment or house just set there doing nothing for you. Make it earn its keep as well. There are many ways to start making a passive income. The easiest way in my mind is AdSence, AdSence will pay you to have ads on your blog, YouTube, or website.   And getting started is free. We started really trying to make money on this blog that your reading a few months ago and so far have been able to make around $100 a month that we use $50 of to pay our internet bill. Meaning technically we are getting our internet for free, or you could say we get internet for one hour of work a week. You could use the same trick but pay your rent with it. You should also look in to selling stock footage and photos. I will be doing a post on this option soon.

4.Earn rewards by paying your rent online. Many landlords and property companies only take checks or money orders. If you prefer to do everything electronically and earn cash back using a debit/credit card, you can use a free online service, to pay your rent. Sites like PayYourRent.com and WilliamPaid.com both offer the option to pay using a cash back rewards credit/debit card. Cash back for paying rent? Yes, please.

5.The tiny house movement.  If your good a building or even if you’re not building a tiny house is a great option to lower your rent. We built our first tiny home for under $5000. As long as you build it on a frame that has wheels. You can bypass most building codes and have the freedom to build it the way you want.  Then it is just finding a place to park it and live.

Tips on negotiation with your land lord

1. Use a strong financial history as a bargaining chip. If you have a steady income, history of paying on time and never missing a rent payment, use that as a bargaining tool. Apartment managers often get so busy reminding the other tenants to pay on time, they forget the good, consistent tenants. So remind them.

2. Sweeten the pot with your skills and talents. Each of us has skills and abilities we can use to barter for lower rent payments. Find out if the complex needs help with marketing and offer ideas on how they can find new tenants. Keeping the current tenants happy is a big deal too, so plan a mixer or monthly party. This reinforces a positive community and might help lower your rent too.

3. Work for the apartment manager. If you enjoy DIY projects or are good at fixing things, you can offer to work for the apartment manager or landlord on the side. This is one of the most obvious things that comes to mind when thinking about how to negotiate rent. The apartments managers or landlords are often quite busy with tenants and the superintendents are overworked. Do some of the small things like painting, cleaning or collecting rent, in exchange for a discount off your monthly payment.

4. Offer to pay a small deductible on any repairs. A new idea to reducing your rent is to pay a small deductible on any repairs. Offer to pay up to $150 or so, for small repairs and maintenance. Of course this creates a higher risk for you, but with the amount of money saved each month, it could be worth the risk.

5. Negotiate a discount for paying early. If you can pay your rent a few days early, ask to get a 5% or 10% discount. You could even pay bi-weekly payments, if they correspond with your paychecks. This can help your budget, while lowering your expenses. The feeling of certainty for a landlord, is key.

6.

Research the competition. Knowing the area and competition is one of the best ways to negotiate a better price. Maybe the complex down the road is offering a better price to their tenants, and you can use this knowledge as leverage. You want to make sure they know, they aren’t the only place on your list.

7. Sign an extended lease. If you want to live in the same area for several years, ask if you can sign an extended lease agreement, for several years. In exchange negotiate for $50 – $100 off each month’s rent. A landlord would much rather have the discounted but consistent income, than leaving the place vacant.

8. Become the building superintendent. Another way to reduce the cost of rent, especially in a big city, is to volunteer as the superintendent. This means you will have to available and on call for repairs, take out the garbage and perform other tasks as needed around the building. It will take some work on your part, but the savings pay off, could be well worth it.

9. Pay 3-6 months in advance. Paying several months to a year in advance is a great way to “flash some cash” and get a discounted rate. Calculate the price your willing to pay each month then multiply by 3 – 6 months, then offer this lump sum as payment. It’s pretty difficult for anyone not to take an good amount of money upfront.

10. Threaten (nicely) to move out. If you already have a lease that’s up for renewal, give yourself plenty of time to negotiate. If things don’t go your way, the landlord knows you will have time to cancel the lease and move to another, cheaper location. Show them you are serious about negotiating, but of course do it a nice manner.

In the end, just ask. If you’re proactively figuring out how to negotiate your rent, you’re already on the right track. Even if you try a few negotiating techniques that don’t seem to be working in your favor, the best thing you can do is just ask. Show off your good financial history, do your research, and be confident when negotiating. Maybe they won’t work with you right now, but at least you did everything you could to increase your chances. It never hurts to ask, and look for ways to stop paying rent all together by buying or building your own home!

How to lower your car payments

Looking to lower your CAR PAYMENT and save some money each month? Here are the top Five ways to minimize your monthly Car payment :

1. Become a sales Rep.
 about 4 years ago I was setting with a friend and I boasted that I could hack any bill at least by 1/2 if not goon all together. Well my friend tried to put me to the test and said "you can not lower my car payment." I was shocked, I had never thought of a car payment before as I do not drive and do not own a car. I did not want to be proven wrong, so I told him to give me all his details and to stay put because I would need him to tell people on the phone that I could speak for him. long story short by the time I was off phone a good 2 hours latter, I had his car bill cut in 1/2. All he to do was put a magnetic sign on the side of his car that advertised the car lot he got his car at.  He was so impressed that I spent the next 3 hours on the phone with his insurance company lowering his car insurance from $65 a month to  $150 every three months. Don't be afraid to just call and talk with companies you never know what deal you can work out, Think outside the box and you just my find yourself throwing the box away for good!

2. Refinance your loan

Refinancing simply means paying off your existing loan with a new one that carries a lower interest rate. Depending on the amount you owe, you could save thousands by going this route. Nearly all banks offer auto refinancing, and the whole process can be completed in a day or two. Refinancing is the most common (and effective) tool borrowers use to lower their payments.

3. Lease next time

Leasing gives you the use of a car for an extended period of time, usually two to five years. Lease payments are typically much lower than loan payments because you're not paying for the entire car during that time, but only for the "portion" that you use. Just be aware that you will have no equity or car at the end of the lease agreement. You simply walk away. Think of it like renting a car instead of buying.

4. Change your current lease

If you already have a lease, you can lower your payments by requesting a lower mileage allowance. Your payment amount is determined (in part) by the number of miles you are allowed to drive over the life of the lease. The lower the allowance, the lower your payment will be. However, you should be certain that you can stay within the new mileage limit. If you go over the specified amount, you'll have to pay a mileage penalty at the end of the lease. It does no good to lower your payment if it causes you to incur a major expense down the road.

5. Extend your payments

Whether you're about to buy or just looking to refinance, aim for the longest loan term possible. Loan terms up to 84 months are offered by most lenders. The longer the loan term, the lower your payments will be. In the end, you will pay more interest with a longer loan, but that may be less important to you than having a monthly payment you can afford.

Join The Freedom Team

I consider all that read my blog to be part of my TEAM!

A team of people around the world that are trying to free themselves of the oppressive system that keeps them enslaved and dependent on them!

I am Living proof that any family, no matter how poor, can become free of all monthly bills! That they can produce their own food, power, water, and profit at home. Freeing themselves to able to spend time doing what they love.     

I have been teaching all this now for two years. (the food part for 7) That has always been at the local level, now I want to open the methods up to the world.

I was inspired by the open source solutions that the Window farms project has had. (if you don’t know the project watch the video below)

Windows farm project

So I am posting the first of 11 books on how to be free that I have made in hopes that you all will download the first book and add your own knowledge then send it back to me to be posted and together we can improve on the proven steps I have already taken to become free.

Here is a link to download the first book.

Download the first Key to freedom

Some notes on this book as it stands.

This book was made as a text book for a classroom that the 5 keys had to be taught in one week each. So in truth the whole book was meant to be taught in 30 hours. Of class room time plus home work time  

This book  has two main goals, one to open the common persons eyes to the fact that there is ways to become free. Two to help prepare the readers mind for freedom.