RAISING THE BAR ON
SURVIVAL 3
( article 1 of 2 today )
( article 1 of 2 today )
Yesterday I left off with
the just plain obviously Too Witty By Far “…give thanks to the Dark Lord Obammy
for the huge surge in health care costs.
How many wanna-be survivalists
were financially knocked out of the prepping game by 10-30% a year
health insurance cost increases?” I find
this explanation far more reasonable than most other folks guesses about why
the prepping industry is choking on its own vomit and asphyxiating and rolling
around turning purple and then using a FLIR scope to try to dislodge the
obstruction. Geez, die already. We could do worse than see the New And Good Christ
How Un-Improved American Survival Guide magazine go out of business again.
*
Now, I’m sorry if I’m
speaking ill of a company that has ten times the mercenary tendencies at two or
three times the old cover price. I might
be a little unfair here. I know paper
publications are in trouble everywhere.
Oh, wait. Not. Only when the CEO needs a Hookers And Blow
salary. Anyway, asserting that Trump
with his feel good MAGA message is scaring away preppers? How stupid is that? If people are silly enough to believe THAT,
they would have been silly enough to believe Fracking Oil Forever years prior
to Trump, and dropped their expensive prepping habit then, if everything was so
Optimistic Ollie perfect and Unicorn Glittery Fart special. Yes?
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But rising prices at about
five thousand percent higher than a rate of raises at work? That would get the Old Lady to demand an
immediate cease and desist on the End ’O Da World fantasy wish fulfillment Big
Boy Toy spending ( “old lady” used to mean “parent”. The bikers stole that for a term meaning “shack-up”,
“common law wife”, “skank on the back of my bike”. Just as a FYI for my foreign or hermit
minions. I also was using “loyal minions”
way before the movies or Lady Gaga ).
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The old saw about wanting
as many preppers out there so that there was that many fewer people needing
resources? That used to make sense. It still does, but it isn’t very
realistic. As I explained insofar as the
decreasing food supply. That whole Asian
rice panic and shortage years back? What
was the first thing you saw on the news?
Every swinging Chow and Wang out there buying bulk rice by the hundreds
of pounds to feed the family. How many
of those kinds of shoppers wiped out supply?
One wagers very few. The food we
eat is Just In Time. Everyone
stockpiling past X amount brings the system to a halt, badly.
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Just In Time Inventory isn’t
just about saving money. Hell, it really
doesn’t save money at all. It might be
advantageous tax-wise if inventories are counted as an asset, but as far as
lost customers, receiving less volume discounts, fuel surcharges and lack of
buying on dips or the inflation penalty, it is not as cheap. But that global LACK of inventory allows for
less product to be manufactured overall.
I’ve heard some silly numbers guessed at as far as the number of
preppers out there. If there really were
millions of them out there, would there even be enough storage food available?
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While true that corn and
wheat don’t share the same climate or soil, there are only X amount of farm
inputs available. More corn being
planted for ethanol or more soy for Chinese consumption doesn’t compete with
wheat, but the fertilizer and labor and storage and etcetera needed for that
extra wheat, if the demand accelerated?
To me, the low price of wheat, despite weather damage, indicates almost
no extra demand is being placed on it outside its norm. It wouldn’t take too many extra preppers
wanting their doomsday food pantry filled to fill in for the loss of exports or
the declining demand for flour domestically.
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Yes, after a time of
surging prices, farmers would plant more wheat.
I just don’t see any indicators for that. The smallest demand increase or production
decline doubles or triples retail price.
If large farm areas saw huge destruction from weather, and the price is
still going down, demand is down lower than that loss of production ( and you
know the oil price is increasing, which also did nothing to increase prices, so
factor that in on your demand destruction math ). You see the same dynamic in guns and
ammunition, and if anything prices should be going up. The LefTards are on the warpath, literally,
and civil disorder is increasing. More
folks should be Arming Up.
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Are you buying on the
dips? That advice is about the only
thing stock buyers do that makes any sense.
Buying stocks at all is retarded.
No one learning from 1987? No one
learned from the many derivative implosions ( Orange County California, Russia,
Housing )? But, regardless, buying on
the dip is great advice. The bar on
preparing for survival got raised for so many folks that there is a glut right
now on supplies. Low prices. Great for you. Until companies go out of business from TOO
low of prices, then the survivors jack up their prices. I’m taking 10% of my savings and buying
reloading supplies.
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Do I honest Injun need
more? Probably not. But I THINK I need more and that is almost
the same thing. And I know I need to buy
on the dip. In the near future, I can
see none being available, or triple the price.
It is smart in that aspect, but silly in that it will take forever to
replace the money, and who the heck even knows how much longer the income will
be available. But I’m also not going to
be a former prepper, who convinced himself he had enough and could stop now,
just because money was tight. You should
think about all that a bit.
( .Y. )
( today's related link https://amzn.to/2Q4VTSq )
*
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I broke with my normal routine of seasonal work and am starting a job at a local factory just so I can take advantage of the situation you described. My UPS guy should be buff by Christmas hauling in the wheat and ammo I plan to buy.
ReplyDeleteYou ain't getting younger and prices will only go up, plus better to always get the chores out of the way early.
DeleteI'm a natural born lazyass so I am always trying to find easier ways to do stuff. Something I discovered a few years ago when buying food is simplifying makes it easier. I used to load up a cart anything and everything and in bulk, then get home and have to sort it all out and catalog it. Then simplification came to town. Rather than buy 10 of 100 different things I started buying 100 of 10 different things. Do I really need 10 different kinds of the same thing but in diff flavors/sizes? No.
ReplyDeleteSo a lot of stuff I used to eat is no longer purchased, but I stock more of the stuff that I do eat. Therefore I don't have to purchase so frequently. This is helpful considering gas prices seem to never ever again go less than $2/gal and stay up close to $3/gal and it takes about 3 gal to get to a decent size store and back. FWIW, I opened a 3 year old can of Dinty Moore recently and it wasn't fit to eat. The ingredients had separated and it was disgusting. Maybe if I had stored the can upside down?
I thought Dinty Moore stew was disgusting the same day it was canned :) And doing things easier isn't lazy, it is working smarter.
DeleteYes, raise the bar. I would add that many a prepper, whom is dedicated and does put a 10 to 20 percent income towards kit related items is aging out or making transitional focus of priorities. If they are older and were at it since Clinton's assault weapons ban, Y2K, etc. Then they had a couple of decades of work done, and or, are just old coots not playing anymore and staying on the porch. Many may not feel the stress or pressure to plow money into a "hobby" as before. They are attending to home repairs and improvements for safety and security not just asthetics. Upgrading older vehicles to more appropriate, practical, or better equipped or performing and reliable. If one considers foreign examples of Venezuala or Iran, etc. Smarter minions would indeed reallocate resources to all those daily and personal items necessary instead of bullets, mres, flir scopes etc. The apathy and non participation will make the Canadian border look worse than any other previous swarming exodus horde ever seen before.
ReplyDeleteYes, car repair and home insulation and etc are also preps. Saving money. Investing in lessoning bills. It is easy to forget the mundane stuff.
DeleteSpeaking of Lady Caca, the Transvestigation team ought to look into that one, because I’m pretty sure that I saw a pronounced protrusion at the lower mid-section, and it weren’t no camel toe!
ReplyDeleteAn easy way to tell, are her and "Michael" Obama friends?
Delete“The LefTards are on the warpath, literally, and civil disorder is increasing. More folks should be Arming Up.”
ReplyDeleteNo argument there of course. But my biggest fear is that we’re totally outnumbered at this point, with the abundance that our govt schools are churning these bastards out. And I don’t think that you could have enough ammo. At this point I feel that unless you’re very far away from these folks, you’re not going to survive their wrath when it all comes crashing down.
Good luck being far away. Unless you go hermitage...
DeleteNo disagreement with this on my part. I do wish we were farther away from the metropolis of morass. We're about 50 miles from Indianapolis but I wish it was more. Unfortunately we're stuck. We keep looking for land to build on but everything every where is so dam expensive now. I, and everybody in our immediate compound area, are heavily armed and deeply stocked in all things, and there's a bit of unit cohesion, but when faced with mass adversity seams tend to fray and break loose. Glad I have some semi-auto weapons so I can get huge lead down range if needed. Better to have and not need, than the opposite.
DeleteIf I was fifty miles from a major metro area full of Disadvantaged Inner City Youth, I think I would have made room in the budget for semi-auto's myself. And I can appreciate the "stuck here by finances" part. Been there plenty of times myself. All things considered it is still a pretty good set-up, yes? Far from perfect is still much better than most achieve.
DeleteYou know, some of what we, my wife and I, are going through now was not specifically seeable when we moved here. If I knew then what I knew now.... And, we're getting older. I had no idea age would become so much of a problem so fast. We have a 2 story house and both my wife and I are having difficulties with our left ankles right now. Going up and down steps is difficult when your ankle is toast. I wish we were in a 1 story place. And I wish it were made of concrete blocks rather than 2x4's. And, total collapse still seemed to be way out in the future, not right up in our grills like it is.
DeleteI'm 63 now and was 51 when we moved here. When I was 51 I was involved in all sorts of physical activities, building huge multi-story additions onto the house, using ladders like there was no tomorrow, nail guns flying, and right now I'm trying to figure out how to get a downed tree in our front yard out of there, what with my ankle tore up. Everything is harder than it was and takes longer than you think.
As they say, getting old ain't for sissies. I think you're in your early 50's, like I was not so long ago, and I'm putting you on formal notice right now, tomorrow will be here before you know it and you should plan accordingly. I didn't have the advantage of anyone giving me that advice, and I probably wouldn't have taken it seriously if they had. We all think we'll live forever, until we don't. Onward.
I've already noticed severe degradation of performance. But I'm sure the worst is to come and I'll STILL be surprised. It was only less than four years ago ( age 54 coming up real quick ) I was pedaling to and from the B-POD five days a week and working like a coolie at the food bank. Now biking out there once a week takes a heavy toll. I have the stamina to bike, but it depletes my total energy reserves. And I know it isn't just lack of working all day- weeks after I quit I was out at the B-POD trying to dig a bigger hole and it kicked my ass. No, I burned at both ends until I couldn't anymore and now the price is being paid. No regrets, but a little sadness.
Deletewe moved here 11 years ago when i was 58. i had little trouble but already strength was failing.
Deletejust buried my precious husband and must move. at 69 how to pack and haul boxes.
an important point has been raised--one storey living.
if you have children who will be joining you during what may be the dark days ahead, having an upstairs is good,as long as the main floor will accommodate you, hopefully a main floor bathroom with a shower. i have to have help lifting one leg into the bathtub for a shower.
if you are planning to build or buy consider a one floor plan with a basement for tornado protection.
you won't regret it and your knees will thank you.
as james says , he might not have taken such advice when he was younger, but let him who has ears to hear, hear.
Sorry to hear of your better half.
DeleteI'm betting that few of the 'LefTards' will have much range, so 'far' will be quite relative. I've seen them flee Houston and not get very far north on the Interstate. Neither do they seem much for walking. Most will die pretty much in place, altho the survivors might be quite dangerous. Difficult to predict. Especially about the future.
ReplyDeleteI think "far" has to be relative, since too many folks seem to be everywhere anymore.
DeleteWhere do you buy your reloading supplies?
ReplyDeleteAmazon and Midway USA. Both are super cheap and simple as can be to use. If I'm giving someone my money they had better make it butt simple.
DeleteLeftards all live in la la land.
ReplyDeleteI have a soyboy son in law and and he's glued to his screen all day. Don't see much in the way of from these types.
I get on this damn computer more than a few hours and my brain literally feels like it was zapped by radiation. And these are the new and improved screens.
DeleteSaw this link at NOTES FROM THE BUNKER and thought it was worth sharing. Pretty cool concept - I wonder what the entire cost is ?
ReplyDeleteLink – https://intershelter.com/
If they don't list the price, I imagine they need a salesman to bamboozle you.
DeleteI went to Bi-Mart in SE Portland today and found 6 different kinds of .22LR in bulk packaging AND they were on the shelf that a customer doesn't need help to get! Halliluajah! Are the good times back like 1998? Nope, this is a "Dead Cat Bounce", just like the stock market. It exists because folks who used to buy lots of ammo ran out of money to buy it up while the factories kept on cranking out the billions of little bangers. The mines kept mining, even when the metal was cheap after the ChiCom's built as many fake cities as needed. All under five cents each, your choice of 36-40 grain, copper plated or not, even including my favorite (due to deluxe packaging) Federal 510 or 710 (copper-plated same-as-510). No tax in Oregon. Time to stack again at $23/500 until something gives.
ReplyDelete10/22 is pretty fun with Mass Quantity of ammo. A lot of my ammo is 20+ years old and some needs to be exchanged for new-ish while keeping an eye on failure-to fire numbers. Rimfire is rumored to be not so great in long-term, but my experience is that cool-dark-dry storage (ammo can!) results in "just fine" multi-decade old ammo, and even "neglect" storage in original cardboard on a basement concrete shelf can be okay.
If out with new people who have never handled weapons, start with no magazines and Boy Scout Camp-style block of wood to hold ammo. Feed one (by hand), aim, breathe, shoot one and call the location (10 O'Clock, third ring) . Check result on target with binoculars (spotter calls). Hours like this, not shooting semi-auto and walking across the target like you have a machine gun. MG training is for Uncle to pay for.
pdxr13
Dead Cat Bounce-perfect! Now I'm pissed I didn't think of it :)
Delete