Thursday, July 13, 2017

5&5 2 of 3


FIVE AND FIVE part 2

Yesterday we covered my top five prepper mistakes financially speaking, and so today we have the less germane, not quite as helpful ‘top five preps I can’t afford”, which is where I got the concept of this as a Wonder Bread article ( which is the same concept as the Popcorn Movie, all flash and sparkle with little substance.  “Star Wars” was a popcorn movie, a feast for the eyes, but a terrible story.  “Independence Day” had a better plot, characters that were layered and fleshed out and you could watch it multiple times as an adult, even if the glittery eye candy was also there.  I’ve watched the two new Disney Star Wars movies, free, and I can’t believe how retched they are.  All special effects and PC posturing.  At least the ‘77 movie TRIED to tell a story ).  You can go to any other prepper site and get the same old tired advice on how to spend MORE money for your preps.  I’m actually indecently satisfied with all of mine.  Probably because “stuff”, while as important to my survival as a spear was to a lice covered Stone Age mutant man, is mainly just generic tools to me rather than sexually alluring totems of invincibility.

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Don’t get me wrong, I feel as strongly if not more so about my Lee-Enfield rifle as others do about their plastic poodle shooters, but I think any gun to any guy has about the same effect.  Guns give us wood, a return to natures dominator, a way to banish fear just as a campfire is.  Our personal choices are just as effective as cheering a certain sports team.  But having a strong confidence in the ability of your chosen tool as the best of the bunch doesn’t mean you need to look at them other than just another tool.  I feel I’ve made the correct choices to assemble the best of the frugal tools to give me the edge in survival.  But tools are just a way to even the odds should all other factors be equal.  If you are well equipped, but live in the big city, you aren’t equipped at all.  Ol’ Remus with his “stay away from crowds”, with one down-home homily, reduces my Herculean labors behind the keyboard nearly redundant.  If you are away from crowds you are better equipped than the richest prepper out there, in terms of initial survival anyway.  And tools don’t work if you don’t work them properly.  I’m not talking about maintenance and marksmanship, but about using tools intelligently.  Spray and pray and covering fire is not an intelligent use of semi-auto’s after the apocalypse.  If you are that close, stick with a shotgun or pistol.  If you are using a rifle, distance is more of a intelligent tool than the gun itself is ( police use of shotguns was practical and intelligent.  The move to go M4 ninja, outside SWAT, and even then I sometimes wonder, is neither ).

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So, while you read this, take it for what it is.  Not a list of things I think I need but just a musing of perhaps what I could have done differently.  Because as far as I’m concerned, NOTHING expensive is needed or desired.  It certainly isn’t better, but merely an alternate way.  This list is actually harder than the first one, as I find everything of high price merely desperate clinging to our long ended American Way Of Life ( with quality issues being what they are, the prettiest most glittery expensive toy and doo-dad is so poorly engineered or constructed that it is a waste of resources to own anyway.  If it is an exception, it is reliant on fading resources anyway ).  With all that in mind, let me try to attempt to endeavor to construct the Unaffordable Prepper Stuff list.  I think the first thing would be a homestead, rather than junk land.  I’m not speaking of a conventional homestead with twenty acres and forest and stream and farm.  I’m talking about a desert homestead.

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A desert homestead is cheap enough.  The first order of business would be to buy an acre as close to the river as possible.  It doesn’t have to be water lapping at your doorstep, but 600 to 900 yards away would be great.  You can’t afford a well, and you are silly to think one sustainable, so you buy the land closer to the river.  Here in Elko, the railroad land blocks most river access south of the river, so you need to go north.  This is largely undeveloped and it is still possible to find lots in sight of the river if you focus on the north branch.  This also gets you away from the interstate and population.  With drip irrigation you could have a few plants.  Potatoes and other root crops are the only practical choices in the high desert, and they have bonus calories.  And chickens.  Don’t forget your yard birds.  As long as you have a underground solar coop they will be fine over the winter.  A lot of folks kill the chickens for the winter and buy anew come spring, negating the feed costs over the winter, but that assumes new chicks will always be there to purchase.  Over winter feeding is the cost of doing business.

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And so is having a lot more grain and feed storage.  A lot.  Otherwise there is little point.  Come the collapse you could  move on down to the waters edge to grow crops, but the soil there is just as crappy as anywhere here.  You’ll need soil improvements.  Less problematic long term is goats, as they don’t need the same feed as chickens and they have a better time of it in winter ( chickens are descendents of tropical birds and can only be breed so far for our northern climate ).  But you can’t let them graze on private property or public land at the present.  So you’d need to supplement feed them now.  Whatever you do animal wise, it is going to be expensive in the pre-collapse.  By buying river land you can negate the $10k cost of a well ( minimum $5k for the casing, now add power, pump and storage ), but feed costs are going to be a significant factor.  It would be a worthwhile cost, given that grazing herds are your primary food source post-apocalypse, but it isn’t an insignificant one ( not only feed, but fencing.  And, since the animals are cooped up and few in number, you’ll need veterinarian care.  If they were free range and numerous that wouldn’t be a factor ). 

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Because north of the river land is so far removed from civilization, it isn’t ruinously expensive.  It isn’t in an overabundance, but again we aren’t talking about rivers edge so it isn’t a huge deal all things considered.  You’ll have a bit of a commute into town, but you don’t really want to be around all those oxygen wasters all that much anyway.  For not much more than the cost of land elsewhere in the county you can be on a dirt road but removed from civilization, a nice cushion from town folk, raising meat on the hoof and enjoying peace and solitude.  The land would be anywhere from four to seven thousand for an acre or two.  You don’t necessarily need a motor vehicle for commuting but a motor assisted bicycle would almost be mandatory.  Just the assist up the hill pulling a trailer with a sack or two of grain would be a blessing.  Call that a thousand, but for that you get multiple back ups of the motor and batteries and a dedicated solar panel set.  I can’t guess at what fencing will go for but another grand for that and once again for an earth sheltered passive solar small barn.  Another grand for feed storage.  Housing would be the same as elsewhere but I’ll assume you couldn’t reuse some materials and call it another thousand.

UNAFFORDABLE PREPPER LIST #1-desert homestead $12k maximum

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I rarely miss an opportunity to declare my undying love for the British Lee-Enfield rifle.  Unlike the Mosin-Nagant Russian bolt action, it has a gas bleed safety, and unlike those and the German Mauser it has peep sites rather than crappy post and leaf.  Unlike both it is easy-peasy to add a scope, should that be necessary.  For the survivalist up until about 2007, it was the perfect post-apocalypse gun.  After that, the supply started shrinking and the prices became unreasonable for what you should pay for a used and abused weapon ( although the ammo is still reasonable and readily available, proving the lie of the M16/M60 ammo advocates ).  I would never consider giving up my SMLE’s, but sometimes I wonder if I should have gone with another type of arsenal.  It isn’t like I want to, or that I need to ( heck, with my ammo, reloading equipment, research books, accessories and especially the plethora of bayonets, it would be unreasonable to switch horses in midstream ), but let’s just consider it for academic purposes. 

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I’ve always joked that I could be persuaded to leave my current location if the suitable buxomly nymphomaniac cook with an arsenal of HK91 clones asked me, and I am still of the mind that if you went with said rifles you could do a heck of a lot worse.  But are they the pinnacle of survivalist firearms as almost universally acknowledged?  That is open for debate, obviously, as no two preppers agree on guns.  And it doesn’t even really matter because whatever gun you own and are comfortable and proficient with is the perfect survival gun.  Yes, even the AR.  But since this is academic, we proceed.  An HK, which is understood to be a clone only, and American since the Spanish ones are problematic-yes, I know the design was originally Spanish so clone is a misnomer, does two things rather well.  It doesn’t jam and it is pretty accurate.  A third, a very nice bonus, is that the parts seem rather indestructible.  What more do you want from a survival gun?  The accuracy of a cheap AR, the field reliability of an AK ( sorry, you can’t convince me the M16 system is field robust.  My experience says otherwise ) and the part longevity of a Japanese mechanical device.

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Ah, but the cost.  And not only the cost, but the return on investment.  For what you are getting, basically a tightly engineered Enfield, sniper grade, in a semi-auto cyclic action, I find that still in the Boy Toy category.  Have we already forgotten that the Industrial Age was all about incredibly cheap tools of adequate if not perfect design?  Just a mere dozen years after its irrevocable fall, we’ve already gotten used to our industrial tools now being dear for any modicum of quality and superior design?  That used to be the two minimum requirements, and now they are luxury items?  HK clones are still far too costly for what they deliver.  Now, I realize that this is a wish list that needn’t be subject to close price constraints, but it is still a list of smart financial decisions rather than one of wonton spending on frivolities.  I’m not a kid in a candy store, just a smart buyer with extra cash burning a hole in my pocket.  So, what would be a bump up in desirability survival weapon wise?

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 I think I would much prefer an SKS.  I understand this is heresy, but unlike the Papists I expect you to pause a moment and attempt to listen to my argument.  Yes, I know you are supposed to prefer a full size battle rifle to a carbine.  And German design is supposed to be superior ( it isn’t.  Culturally and sociologically they had/have superior systems but I don’t apply that to engineering past a certain degree ).  But for the cost on one HK clone, you can get three SKS’s of good quality eastern European manufacture.  If your terrain supports a mid range rifle, you still have the thirty caliber round, just with less powder behind it ( don’t get me started on the inferior 223 ).  The SKS is a milled rather than a stamped receiver like the AK and is a much more accurate shooter.  The AK was never meant to be anything other than a true assault carbine and is the far superior one, whereas the SKS can fill the role of a limited marksman.  The fixed magazine fed by stripper clips is actually a plus for the survivalist, since while you can still waste ammunition it isn’t as bad as detachable magazine feeders.  It is a good compromise between a bolt and a quick change semi.  And you can easily turn it into a bolt action if you so desire ( say, if you find out that you can’t control the adrenaline leading to unaimed fire ). 

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Is the SKS superior to an Enfield?  No, of course not.  Except that they are far more abundant and less abused, a tighter shooter without sacrificing ruggedness, and only a few bucks more.  They suffer for being a carbine rather than a battle rifle, but that is being a different tool rather than an inferior one.  The HK is, if scattered reports are factual rather than just one off confirmation biased opinions, actually less accurate than the SKS ( this would obviously need to be confirmed personally-I take the 2“ groups on the HK as factual, I just need to know the SKS betters that ).  So unless you need the range, and are skilled at shooting there, and can live with a reduced power round, the SKS just seems superior ( do NOT under any circumstances buy the Chinese ones ).  You don’t need a scope ( don’t add anything to the rifle, as it just detracts from the performance ) and you don’t need magazines and I’d feel comfortable at three times the amount of ammo of a bolt compared to the ten times you need with a magazine fed semi.  An HK three rifle arsenal, with thirty mags and thirty thousand rounds of ammo is an insane $20k.  A three rifle SKS arsenal and fifteen thousand rounds of brass ammo is $7k ( for comparison, my Enfield’s, ammo and bayonet [ you get one on the SKS, even if it isn’t that great ] ran about $2,500 ).

UNAFFORDABLE PREPPER LIST #2-an SKS arsenal $7k

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Well, we have three to go but I’m afraid our word count is maxed out for the day.  Continued and concluded tomorrow.

END ( end 'o the article Amazon link http://amzn.to/2tUq8Dp )
 
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34 comments:

  1. On the line of expensive preps, what about tooling and supplies for five skills. Leather work, gun repair, beer brewer, doctor, massage therapist, phone sanitizer...We all need a job. Even if it is just rolling cigars.
    I'm a cabinet maker. During college I went to a competition back east. On the plane back a fellow told me about buying a desk in India. He hired a guy who showed up at his house with a pile of wood and a bag of tools about the size of a football. Five days later he had a desk. I've never tried building like that, but someday I might have to learn. I wonder what tools where in that bag.

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    1. Well, you just ruined it for everyone! :) Kidding. Tomorrow briefly touches on investing in cottage industry. Not much, as we just covered all that recently.

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  2. Just my personal take Jim, as someone that’s lived in the country for most of his life, but animals are far more trouble to me than they’re worth. I would try to store enough food to get through the collapse, and then if you wish to raise animals, acquire them at that time. Barter with your neighbor for meat post collapse if you must.

    Also, contrary to the mantra that’s espoused in most survivalist circles, I don’t believe that all the game in the woods will be hunted to near extinction levels as in the 1930’s. There’s a big difference between now and then. 80% of the population (vs 20% today) in the 1930’s still lived in the country, and were still close to their guns/hunting/trapping/agriculture roots. Sure, you still have states that have a large hunting culture (Montana, Wyoming, etc) but these areas are the exceptions. If you dropped a bus load of today’s millennials off in the woods, half of them would be dead within 5 minutes. Most American’s will sit around and hope that FEMA comes to the rescue, and will get weaker and weaker as they wait, until they finally realize that it’s not going to happen, and by then it will be too late.

    I also don’t buy into the one survivalist dude’s theory that you’re going to have bands of marauders out cruising in the middle of no where, burning up precious fuel after the pumps have stopped pumping, in hopes that they will come across a large enough cache of supplies to be worth the trouble. Sure, if they know where you are, what you have, and if it will be an easy enough victory, but otherwise, it just doesn’t make any sense to me. I think that there’s a lot of bs out there in the survivalist community, and it’s up to the individual to separate the fact from the fiction.

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    1. You make very good points. But what you term BS might be nothing more than Worse Case Scenario. This is where the brevity of most publications cause problems-not enough detail. Clarity might be the biggest issue, not BS per se.

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    2. Assisting the hunters to reducing the game population to near extinction levels will be...habitat destruction via mass forest fires.
      Peace out

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    6. Assumptions, assumptions. How long would it be after The Event before I would be bartering my animals for anything? I have long read about bartering and wondered how such exchanges would be made. I've done such exchanges in dicey situations and, believe me, it is not comfortable. Better said, it can be very dangerous.

      I'd prefer not to depend on barter for at least six months, maybe a year. Any plan that depends on obtaining essentials from other people is to that degree a weak plan.

      Granted predicting the future is difficult.

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    7. Time/Space is always a problem. Given the best possible TechComm the operator still has to put hands on and hope for the best, try to make small mistakes and learn therefrom.

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    8. Forest fires-darn good point. Barter-not until the military situation is resolved, the fighting completed to assure a peace.

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    9. Yeah, I guess I wasn’t real clear on the barter Jim, but I was referring to after the restoration. If you don’t have the supplies that you need going into the collapse, then you won’t be surviving the collapse. Chances are you won’t be anyways.

      @peace out. Once again I overlooked forest fires, thanks. One positive (If you could call it that) is that since most fires seem to be caused by humans, and there will be far less of them, technically, there should be less fires.

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    10. I think fires will be abundant during and after the die-off, until nature gets back in balance. Then, much smaller and not too threatening.

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  3. The financial aspect of unaffordable seems to be based on a min. wage salary.
    alot of what u deem unaffordable is more than doable for most of us.
    maybe some financial boundrymontgomery established at first would put the article in better perspective.

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    1. Sorry, I forgot not everyone has been reading me for years. Call the new norm for frugalness minimum wage 25 hours a week or so. That should cover most normal folk non professionals.

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    2. Living in Ohio it seems people on welfare get more money than that.if u can live and prep on your boundrys your in a different state,to many regulations here.

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    3. I like your approach: people with greater available cash can always add/adapt. It is the 'normal folks' that need advice. Let's start with worse case; the snake without a pit to hiss in.

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    4. Worst case seems to be the only logical prism.

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  4. There is always a theoretical more perfect acquisition that would put us into super survivor territory. But reading up on what tools you do have,living and practicing with them, becoming-one-with-them-grasshopper type of practice makes you more effective than the average marshmallow with the latest and greatest.
    The anecdote from Dennis about the small bag of hand tools is right on. The right man, trained and with a can- do work ethic, can turn out seeming miracles with less than perfect tools.
    On the wild game issue, in my area not much in way of deer. But there are more raccoons, feral hogs and opposoms in my less than ideal area of SW Fla. Kind of suburban sprawl interlaced with flat Palmetto/pine scrub. I have trapped all three species with snares and yes did eat one opossum to try. Racoons especially thrive in populated areas and exist more per square mile than in most wilderness. The White House used to serve barbeque raccoon as a Christmas time dish around 19 ought something. I would doubt more than two people within a ten mile radius of me currently consider the raccoon and opossum as possible food sources. S in Fla.

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  5. Did you see this listing for north Elko land?
    https://www.survivalrealty.com/united-states/nevada/fsbo/four-10-acre-parcels-between-humbolt-river-and-mcknight-springs/
    It seems really nice if you could handle the long distance from town. Also, the amount and type of fish you "can" catch seems a bit optimistic. I'm thinking some small native trout and that's about it. (But I haven't been anywhere that area though).
    Peace out

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    1. River access good, price good, but perhaps not good enough considering the distance.

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  6. Nothing is as easy to do as it is to read about. Everything is easy for the man who doesn't have to do it. For example, you mention goats, which by the way are not grazers. Goats seemed to us a really good idea, converting leafy material into milk and meat, right? We have been raising goats for over ten years now precisely for the purpose you describe; have a small herd of three billies, four wethers, and about twenty nannies. All I knew about goats was from living in Greece for about two years and watching. Goats are smart and pleasant, vice sheep which might be the most stupid animals I have ever worked with. If tasty.

    Anyway, the problems we encountered, and mostly solved, were many, very many. I started with a small pen and two kidding stalls; we now have that plus three other much larger pens. Why? To control breeding mostly. Just fencing goats is a real problem because they are so smart. They will watch you work the latch on a gate and learn how. If they can get out, they will get out.

    Learning how to milk a goat is a skill-set in itself. Many other skills are needed. Hoof trimming? You betcha. How long after breeding will you wait until you can get milk? IF everything goes right. How long?

    And things arcane. To avoid many problems, goats require a certain spectrum of minerals in their feed. If the natural browse in your area does include those minerals, you will not have successful breeding and kidding.

    No kidding.

    We are serious about self-sufficiency, have well over 100 acres with a stream running through it, two solar powered wells and three large water catchments, called 'tanks' around here. At any given time we have in excess of 12,000 gallons of water in 3,000 gallon containers. Water is everything in this part of Texas.

    We had pigs for years and I wish we still did, but they are hard to handle, being large, strong, smart, goal oriented, omnivores. We now have rabbits (a losing operation), goats (browsers), chickens (omnivores), geese (which are grazers and can thrive on grass), cattle (also grazers).

    Another example: if you don't give calves shots, they can just up an die from Blackleg or any one of a number of other diseases.

    You can just turn every thing loose and let nature take its course, but nature is a bitch and your production will be very difficult to predict. We are not prepared to revert to hunter/gatherer status.

    As it is, production is not our problem; storage is. For example, our peach trees produce a huge crop in a couple of weeks each year. Smoothing out that spike takes technology, which you blithely scorn. We use it if we got it. The Hudson Bay Company used to preach "Don't travel hard, just to travel hard." I'll go with that notion.

    So we are on the grid. Why not? The power is there and it’s cheap. Do we have backup systems for power? Of course . . . and backups to those. But batteries currently have a five your (roughly) lifespan, even if used properly. Nevertheless, within a few minutes I can be completely power independent.

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    1. My views on herding are primarily from historical sources, with absolutely no hands on experience. I don't pretend otherwise. I know cattle are worthless here, without oil. It would be a toss-up between goats and sheep. I don't think I blithely scorn technology lightly. I look at it through sustainability. We take it for granted, far too much. All good points, and I appreciate them. Always better to have boots on the ground.

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  7. You seem to understand more than most in your business: writing about ‘prepping.’ Most of your colleagues are just skimming the flow of money; that is, selling stuff. (As a joke I have wondered if you aren’t selling wheat. But I doubt it.)

    You do, for example, understand the difference between gardening and farming. You know that having a bag of seed, 1,000 rounds of 5.56mm ammo, and an AR isn't preparation for much, altho you must admit it is better than nothing. (Not much better?) You really understand cost per calorie, a seldom considered marker.

    I can understand that your experience as an MP might give you a jaundiced notion about the M16/M4/AR15 system. I have been building and running that system for most of fifty years and find it robust and reliable. As an aside, I teach the AR, not as a rifle, but as a sort of super pistol. I tell my students that with the AR you can do everything you want to do with your pistol and can’t; such as hitting a man at 100 yards every time, and hitting him hard. And fast.

    Let me give you one of the Great Truths of Life:

    Equipment is dictated by Mission, mitigated by Operator Skill.

    The AR does what it does very well indeed. If what it does isn’t what you need, it is a waste of your load out, but so is anything else that you don’t need. Of course, the problem is predicting what you will need. I plan six months out. I am often wrong but my error has less consequence than if I presume to plan six years out. If I were to be so presumptuous as to plan ‘forever,’ I would surely fail. Granted that it is better to have a plan and modify it, then it is to not have any plan at all. But change it you will; therefore, luck smiles on the man with options and the mental flexibility to use them.

    If you like the SMLE, good on ya; but it is a clunky, heavy, old, if robust, design. When I go that route, I go K98k. You seem not to like the sights, but they are easy to change.

    Incidentally, I agree that the SKS is a very useful tool. The Russian-built ones were very nice, but I believe the Clintons stopped the import thereof.

    And, finally, just as you should know that goats are not grazers, revolvers are not simple. Semi-auto pistols are much simpler, much. Anyone can replace broken parts on a Glock (but they seldom break); adjusting the timing on a revolver is extremely demanding. The 1911A1 is a good pistol, if heavy; but doing trigger work thereon takes talent and equipment.

    I like your work and try to understand the degree to which you are audience adapted. I wish you well, for these are interesting times. I suggest you take heart. My family lived through WWII on the losing side; I knew folks who lived through a total collapse of their monetary system. Berlin rose from the rubble, and Hiroshima is a prosperous and bustling city again. Keep in mind how wrong the Chicken Littles were when the calendar turned over to the year 2000, and laugh. Rome didn’t fall; it just transitioned to something a bit different, but ultimately much better. Cicero is still with us and still offers good advice.

    I enjoy moving towards self-sufficiency, and consider myself rich on a tenth of the income of most people, because I avoid waste, trying to keep things real. The secret of success is to never waste time or money: napping is more productive than watching televison; paying interest is usually (note that) a fool’s game.

    And I would have advised you, as I have others, never put your financial future at risk (hence the advice not to borrow money). Give her everything you have; you can always get more. But never surrender your future, or you will end up eating wheat twice a day for years. Flee the country if you must, but protect your future. But you seemed to have learned something from your experience. That in itself, plus your obvious passion for what you do, makes you worth reading. And supporting with real money. Or would you rather have a bucket of wheat once a month?

    Just joking; just joking.

    Cheers.

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    1. Okay, I'm obviously misinformed on goats. I could have sworn I noted them used by the Bedoin, plus I have a book on a nomad dude wandering the southwest with goats. I'm obviously missing something ( I haven't read the book yet, as it is heavy on the poetic philosophy-blech! ). Appreciate the feedback.

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  8. The SKS is a pretty good rifle. No worries about extra magazines (lay in supply of stripper clips), easy to shoot from prone (no magazine sticking out from bottom) and reasonable short range accuracy (<100 yards). All good qualities. Ammunition price has been raised considerably though, better have a good supply of it.

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    1. I hope we have all learned from recent experience to lay in ammo regardless of what type.

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    2. It seems to me that reloading is an essential skill. I can cast most bullets over an open fire. Cast bullets are not compatible with gas operated weapons, which is another point in favor of the turning bolt repeater.

      Yes, reloading supplies, and bullet metal, are finite resources, but even making black powder takes more knowledge and skill then I have.

      What would be a reasonable amount of powder, primers, bullets to have in stock?

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    3. I have about two thousand, 2500 factory rounds, with reloading to get the total to 5k, as the Enfield chews up the brass. That is my recommendation for bolts-$5k. Buy the factory devisable by the number of times it could be loaded. For a Mauser, say, probably 1k factory and 4k reloading components. That is battle rifle. Forever Gun is different.

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    4. Sorry, correction, 5k rounds total, not $5k.

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    5. Ha ha - I was looking at SMLE's yesterday because you're always banging on about 'em. I don't have any .303 but I do have a Mauser in 308 with a bit of ammo. Not 1k rounds though.

      Dreaming of buying another longarm but you know that you are always wanting one more gun then you're done collecting ;-)

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    6. I always go on about Smelly's, but now it is more "told ya so", since they are pretty much gone. Make sure to get a bayonet for that Mauser!

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    7. I was thinking about a FR-8 in 308. Still only 5 rounds but it's not quite (about 3/4) as expensive as a (second hand) Ruger Gunsite scout or (New) in 223 and has bayonet lug.

      It'd make a neat back up to my Spanish Mauser in 308 also it'd be good for my offsider / battle buddy (lol - i've been reading militia fiction again). Heck the FR-8 is Spanish as well.

      Then again, maybe I'll just pay some bills. LOL

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    8. Well, helllllloooooo! Bayonet lug!

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