Wednesday, November 22, 2017

windfall


WINDFALL

What would you do if you suddenly got a windfall?  I’m not talking some stupid ass fantasy of winning the lottery in which the odds are so bad you have a better change of being shot by Jihad Jerry than picking the lucky number.  I’m talking something far more realistic, like a tax return.  Or, perhaps even a bonus from work which would be something like cashing in the 401k, not through any generosity or attack of conscience on the companies part.  So, let’s call it two or three months salary to keep it realistic.  And while normally this is way too general of a subject, dependent on individual amounts  of preparedness, I think we can do some justice to the topic.

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I also don’t think of this as unrealistic in the least.  Even if you know the windfall is coming, like if you checked “zero” on your deductible for your paycheck taxes, you can still treat it as manna rather than an extra paycheck that would just go to bills.  My last serious ( prior to ObammyCare taking them )  tax return I paid off the ex’s hospital bill, removing the last debt ever from hanging over my head, but that was worth more to me than all the prep gear in the world.  The one before that I paid off my land years in advance to give myself peace of mind.  I could have moved to another lot that was paid off, but the money was worth not having to dig another hole by hand for an underground shelter ( the cost of renting the backhoe would have been about the same, so why not own the lot? ).

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I’ve even had a 401k cashed in and returned to me that I had no idea was coming.  You know, way back when companies still offered matching funds ( I don’t know if I even matched or they threw in something like fifty cents an hour on their own.  Still a mystery to me, as I never bought into the whole concept of trusting 401k’s to be long lasting ) and even offered reasonable health care.  Way back in caveman days before the housing bubble crashed ( that check I bought a bigger trailer while living in town.  Not absolutely necessary but it did reduce stress quite a bit, as that was about the time the ex started being very difficult to live with.  When we moved I gifted it to a poor family, so I got karma points ).

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I’ve been “windfall” shopping since about 2005 or thereabouts.  I had just declared bankruptcy  one year prior to the new more restricted law being passed and implemented, thanks a lot corporate/banker whore politicians ( why not just let the companies take our land on a whim to make more profits.  Oh, wait… ).  Before, I had paid down debt every tax return.  After that, it was prep supplies every year ( besides the two years mentioned above.  The land payment was technically debt but I looked at it as an investment, and the ex going to the hospital was debt I shouldn’t have had but I signed something mostly asleep which I shouldn’t have ).  My “forever gun” arsenal was a windfall shopping trip one year, and doubling my rifle arsenal was another ( not to mention the several years of windfall wages at the casino ).

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If you are new to this whole “piss your money away like everyone else but convince yourself it is of the utmost importance, unlike other peoples spending” ( AKA “prepping” ) game, you have no choice in the matter of how to spend the windfall.  You need food.  You can pretend that you need guns first, to protect the food you’ll eventually own, or you can pretend that you need a house to store your food in first, but you are rationalizing.  You can improvise weapons.  It only takes balls to trade up from a booby trap or spear or baseball bat or Molotov cocktail to a firearm.  And all the guns in the world aren’t going to help you if you don’t have any testicular fortitude. 

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And shelter?  What the hell, dude?  I understand you can’t bug out to the woods from your suburban abode carrying thousands of pounds of food.  I’ve had to sacrifice food just when I’ve moved from one area to another, and yes, it is painful as hell.  Insurance isn’t an investment ( insofar as it is an expense ).  You pays your money and it can save your life or it can be a waste, depending on circumstances.  Don’t rue the money spent regardless.  Look at it as an expense you must incur regularly.  That is what prepping is.  It isn’t buying gold or silver to sell at a profit, and it isn’t storage food to give to a tornado or hurricane victim as charity to bribe your way into heaven ( I‘m talking to you Glen Beck, you ignorant slut ).  It is a monthly expense, a tax for being less of a dumbass than most other people.

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If you are worried about owning no safe home to keep your food in, you just need to bury your food.  Either in your backyard which you can return to so as to unearth a bucket at a time, or in the woods where you bury a bucket at a time.  Have a Mylar bag of wheat in your backpack, and an empty bucket hanging from the pack.  Explain it as a stool to sit on and to use for water and for if you find berries, or something.  Go camping every weekend and stash a bucket a trip.  Or, if you can drive close to your cache spot, you can have a bunch of buckets in the car hidden and then after dark ( so no one can see you ) you take them to the spot.  Investigate the best entrenching tools to use, and perhaps-PERHAPS!-you can justify some cheap night vision this way.  My point is, labor can always trump money to solve problems.

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Food is first.  I KNOW you want your AR first.  I know that the desire is hotter than a thousand suns.  So is shoving your junk in the secretary at work, but I trust you can maintain some kind of discipline since you are married.  Okay, I get it, the wife is a prune face hag with droopy chesticles.  But you are a fat bald nerd.  A sweet young thing being interested in you means there is a price to pay.  The price for owning an AR before an adequate food stash is, wait for it, starvation.  Discipline yourself.  You call yourself a survivalist when you don’t have enough food?  Storing food is ultimately a losing strategy anyway, but since few of us can afford farms the very least you need to do is have many, many years of food.  Storage food is a vulnerability.  Not having enough storage food is far, far worse. 

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We continue tomorrow, prioritizing windfall items according to the thoroughness of your preps already in place. 

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2zOUhXk )
 
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25 comments:

  1. I suppose that you could place a priority on food storage (as opposed to placing an equal priority on shelter and food storage) as long as you had a safe place to store your food, which ideally would be your own paid in full land. You’d want to make it a point though to at least include a tent in your stash.

    A public land cache is less than ideal, but may be the only option for some. One possibility as opposed to digging a bunch of holes all over the countryside (which would seem like a logistical nightmare) would be to stash in trees. Those little metal 2 gallon tins that you commonly see during the holiday season, and that contain a variety of popcorn flavors, would be ideal for this purpose. Spray the exterior with that black tarry looking automobile undercoating that comes in a can, and be sure to spray around where the lid meets the tin as an extra sealing precaution. Be sure and throw in a desiccant pack, and stash in the crook of a tree, as high as you practically can. Try and come up with a less obvious way to mark the tree for future reference. 5 gallon buckets would probably work as well, I suppose. Anchored underwater cache’s are a possibility as well, but I’d avoid fast moving water. It’s probably not a bad idea to get that book on cache’s from that dude with a name that I’d never do business with, but probably knows a thing or two about caching due to necessity :D

    I was actually just thinking about going semi-nomadic, and using my junk land as a resupply center. Just heading up to the hills with a backpack and my Chinese wheelbarrow (thanks to the suggestion from another minion) and going all “Jeremiah Johnson” on this shithole of a society. I’d probably winter over at the junk land though.

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    1. You're the Ryndon land guy, right? You couldn't have picked a better location. Elko county is friggin huge once you get off the few main roads. You could set up winter locations all over the place and no one would be the wiser. Get a few govt maps of the county. Heck, even an atlas/gazette gives you a great idea of all the remote locations.

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    2. Yeah, I’m that dude Jim. I feel a little silly having bought land sight unseen, and not having even been out there yet to check it out (bought it in 2015 as homeless insurance after being laid off). Though I have seen it from google earth, and it doesn’t look too bad best I can tell. But I figure that $2K for 2.5 acres must mean that it’s either more remote than I anticipated, or the roads are really rough, and I’d probably have a hell of a time hauling a trailer out there. I was thinking that the Ruby Hills would be a nice place to hang out during the warmer months.

      With regards to caching, while I wouldn’t buy a used car from someone named “Eddie The Wire”, I’ll happily take caching, or other possible criminally related advice from such an appropriately named individual 😀

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    3. I bought six pieces of property sight unseen, and only have seen three of them ( the other three are now sold ). I think it is pretty normal. The roads there suck-it took me fifty minutes to get to mine-5mph. But that was the Hippie Bread Van, shocks are crap, but no damage. But just going 1/3 a mile up the BPOD land I damaged my RV septic drain pipe. I think you'll damage the trailer tanks no matter what as they are too low clearance. Plan accordingly. And for this area, you got a heck of a deal on the land.

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    4. Good info Jim, thanks. Also glad to hear that I did okay on the land. I probably won’t be dragging a trailer onto the property, but rather some kind of ultra simple, bolt together alternative housing, then later, earth sheltered. Trailers are probably okay for someone that can afford to heat them in winter time. But in my case, I’m on a limited income, as in no income, other than the proceeds that I got from another property that I was lucky enough to get rid of (thank you Kalifornia pot legalization, and pot farmers).

      It also sounds as if I will be left alone out there, and for that I’m thankful to hear.

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    5. When I was running a business I had a young Aboriginal man working for me. Darn good worker.

      Long story short. We were talking about "living off the land" & I told him about "guerrilla gardening". He said "Oh, my mum does that. she has food planted between Brisbane and Cairns so she has enough to eat when she's travelling".

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    6. 1213: your area, at least the turnoff to yours by the hiway, might have built up but I seriously doubt it. Terrible location because of muddy roads and wind in the winter. But miles in? It was deserted back in the real estate bubble days. The town has already slowed down economically. Traffic is halved-although not as low as when I first moved here. For sale and for rent signs everywhere, not coming down. And that is a first for me in near ten years. So your area will just lose rather than gain.
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      Dingo-although, wouldn't you feel foolish if you were ambushed or had to fight for the equivalent of a weed? :)

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  2. Last BIG windfall I had was when the realtor in Florida handed me a check for $330k for the sale of our house. I then gave a check for $155k to the bank to pay off the house I just sold. Then I gave a $40k check to a realtor in another state as a down payment on a 7 year old house on 5 acres in the woods. Next I gave a whole bunch of money to Mayflower to get all our stuff from there to here. After the dust settled and we had our new crib in the sticks with us in it, I spent about $20k to create a new building for my workshop-office and some improvements on the new crib. That left about $80k in my pocket and I gave half of it to my wife. So, $40k for her and $40k for me.

    The long and short is, in 2002 I borrowed $155k and built a brand new crib, lived in it for 4 years then sold it during the bubble and made about $175k profit which I used to relocate to a remote rural place in the upper midwest, mostly for my peace of mind.

    Now, I had a smaller windfall early this year, a whole lot of easy work came my way, and that put about $12k in my pocket after about 3 months of diligence. I used the 12k to first, educate myself on everything AR. Then I purchased all of the required tools to build an AR. Then I bought all of the top of the line parts to build one, and assembled it. Yeah, you can go a $400 AR off the shelf and be happy. Until you see a REAL AR, like what I now have. After a thousand rds that $400 one will be in need, bet on it. Mine now has over 2000 rds thru it and I'll tell you what, quality DOES make a diff. Buy junk tools and do junk work, but if you want to do quality precise work, get quality tools. And if you want it done right do it yourself.

    When the next windfall comes in I'm gonna buy 10 very isolated acreas in a locale that is a little warmer than where we are now and create my "Last Kingdom". over and out

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    1. I'll bet the idiot that bought your crib for $300k doesn't think he got what worth he paid for. Ha! I agree with you on quality, but only because it has gotten so much more important. Up until early '00's, that was something that wasn't even an issue, besides perhaps at the $ Store. Minimum quality was at least "middlin" quality now. Very affordable and lasting a good long while. I'm still trying to stick with middlin. It isn't great but not anywhere close to crap. I know the $99 Wal-Mart guns were a bad call. 50% more in price gets you four times the quality ( seems to be a good rule of thumb ). Sometimes I go over on my word count and I inadvertently skip a pertinent point, trying to finish up.

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    2. A week ago I paid $600 for a top of the line pressure washer. It won't start. I've yanked and yanked and it won't do it. I have 8 tools around here with incombustion engines and they all work, but not this PW. So tomorrow it's going back for a refund.

      This whole lack of quality in products is going to cause people to become disgusted and just stop buying, period. It wears me out doing the long research on everything and then still getting burned. None of the manufacturers have credibility any more and nobody can be trusted. Without trust you have nothing. Communication too is failing, vastly. In the absence of proper communication you have break down. Everything is falling faster and faster. I'm standing on a ledge over the side of the cliff and making myself tighter and tighter against the wall to avoid being dragged down by all the other stuff that's falling. My, so-far, safe little ledge in the woods.

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    3. It is a bit strange. You are getting more and more stressed just living due to the failure. Yet these cascading small failures are almost an inoculation against those parts of the system failing for good. So you learn to do without. But is it good or bad? A lot of small stresses still add up to huge stress, failing health and you simply die early due to the medical industry, and most consumer products you'd use to self-medicate also failing. I even wonder if we would be drinking sub-standard booze. Like, grain alcohol from a chemical vat with flavoring rather than made traditionally out of true ingredients.

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    4. Good points Jim, about the stress. As a business owner that deals with stress levels you can't imagine surrounding the most expensive things most people buy, I've learned to deal with it, and not by alcohol or drugs though those have helped.

      Dealing with shitty purchases more and more cause me to pull back and as you said, do without or find other ways. Since living in the woods I have become much more versatile living this way, making do the best I can by simply doing without. A hammer isn't always a hammer, sometimes it might be other tools, depends on how you see it. The best tool in the tool box isn't in the tool box but in the head, the ability to think and figure stuff out. Without that one tool, all the other tools are very limited in scope.

      I don't drink a lot, less than 2 cases of brew per year, but your last sentence is disturbing and cause for consideration. Few years ago my son gave me a gift of a "Mr Beer" kit and I never delved into, just lazy I guess plus it never really interested me. Now, with your comment, I may get interested. Or, just do without....

      So, on this Thanksgiving Day I give thanks to you, James Dakin, for giving me some brain food for pondering and that is what I will do today, not just on your ideas, but many ideas. And a happy Thanksgiving to you are yours.

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    5. A good holiday to you as well. I hate the idea of Thanksgiving as we are so spoiled every day it isn't like the dinner, football watching or anything else is really a celebration. More a pain in the ass. But it is an excuse to be nice to family, so that is something :) Plus, why not? Every year might be our last fall or winter celebration of Plenty before every day blows from Want.

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  3. Fortuitous timing on this article. I've started re-reading "One Second After" and it's seen me adding to my stockpile of wheat berries.

    Windfall? I'd buy a decent wheat grinder. The one you recommend is BTN but the decent wheat grinder I'm lusting over is only three times the price. (see how easily I slipped in "only"?).

    I'm OK as far as wheat is concerned... but throw in tribal members and we're hungry pretty darn quick

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    1. A decent grinder isn't a terrible thing, just have plenty of the $40 back-ups. I try for one per person although that might be excessive.

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    2. How long does it take to grind enough wheat berries for say a loaf of bread? Can you then use the ground wheat immediately for bread or does it have to sit for a spell?

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    3. A pint Mason jar seems to hold about a thousand calories in flour which might be way off but just going from memory how long a batch of flour lasts me. I have no idea how long it takes to grind. It doesn't seem long, but since "retiring" I don't look at the clock as much as I used to. And while I can ride my bike all day long, I get winded bending down to do stuff. The grinder is only about two feet off the ground. And I barely get winded grinding. So the effort is minimal. I use immediately and then the excess goes into the fridge for later use.

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  4. On grain grinder issue, I've owned the Country Living grain mill for about 18 years and have ground hundreds of pounds of grain through it. Wheats (red, white, Kamut), rye, barley, buckwheat, corn (using corn auger in place of grain auger for better feeding into plates).
    It was a big initial investment but that seems insignificant now.
    I have an extra set of grinding plates, bearings, shaft keys and all misc. hardware to fix if needed. I had to replace one of the two bearings in all these years of use.
    I convinced 2 nearby family members and one friend to each purchase the same mill some years back, some have extra parts also. This gives redundancy for such a critical tool.
    I've got four school age children and am not well off. Stagnant income for many years. I definitely work more now than anytime in my life to keep everything rolling.
    But if I did not have this grinder and parts, I would do whatever I needed to a qet one ASAP.
    The power bar handle extension lessens grinding effort and is worth it. I have the mill through bolted to a poplar plank about 1.5 x 3 feet. I then use two quick grip bar clamps to secure it to a table. When finished grinding, it sits on top of fridge out of the way.
    Having a Corona as a backup not a bad idea. Aside from the already mentioned family with mills, one of which I could use as a backup, I have a grain flaker which doesn't make flour of course, but can process grain also ( rolled oats, rye etc.). Thanks Jim.
    Dingo, I know what you mean- One Second After makes everyone I know who read it want more wheat on hand. I always enjoy your commentary.
    S at the end of Fla.

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    1. But what is the advantage of the high initial cost and the extensive parts infrastructure? Is flour way more easy to mill to the point grandma can do it? I'm asking not to be sarcastic to sell my low cost version, but because I'd never considered WHY it might be better to own. Everyone raves about it, but WHY? The hippies back in the day raved about the Corona because it was the first affordable grinder and they could bypass the stores that didn't carry whole wheat anyway ( my first Corona cost 15 hours of minimum wage. Today that is only 6 ).

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    2. My philosophy for hand tools and implements that get used daily or weekly, and may end up being a muti-generational essential piece of gear, is that quality trumps the short term pain of a higher price tag. I try to see long term value and utility (and to a lesser extent the pleasure of using, and not fighting a well made tool) and not just price.
      In the case of the mill, to me it is very much worth it. The parts infrastructure I stock is in a sense the backup mill. As mentioned, the one part I had to use in 18 years was one bearing, and that was very early on and I suspect it was flawed from beginning. I have never met or read of anyone else who had to replace a bearing.
      As far as ease of use and an elderly person being able to turn the crank, I would say yes. My mother in her late 70's can, although not a well as me at a spry 48. My 8 year old daughter has no problem at all, my 5 year old daughter is not as strong and must stand on a step stool.
      To produce a fine flour takes one pass through the mill, as opposed to multiple grinds to get a usable flour. This saves labor/energy expended.
      I haven't tried the Corona and can't give a comparison of effort required, quality of grind, longevity, etc. The design has been around for a while and it has low price going for it.
      The Country Living works for me and I would recommend it if you use a mill frequently and grain is a core,of your food program.
      That being said, I remember in one of the Little House on the Prairie books, during a famine they only had some wheat and had to use a small coffee grinder to make flour. Weak from hunger, it was an all day job to grind the days flour.
      Thanks for the reply James, have a good Thanksgiving.
      S/Fla.

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    3. Yeah, that initial cost is steep, the cheapest I found was just over $300 for a blemished model at the Country Living site. But I can see some value in that it looks like it can be set up in different ways. Electric motor (solar powered?), bicycle, larger hand crank, etc. Add in the back-up parts and you're over $500 easy. That's a lot of coin for a grinder. Now, having said that, like the orig poster pointed out, over the long haul the cost ain't so bad. For me though that long haul might not be so long, I could go at any time now. True, I wouldn't complain much, at least not from this side, but you can bet your bottom dollar I'd be squeelin' like a bald tire on the other side!!!

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    4. I still say the 1 is None rule does work against such a high priced grinder. Yes, you can do Corona back-ups, but to my mind it seems better to stick with what your back-ups are anyway. I could be wrong-it is just a preference.

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    5. S/FL-you make a valid point on the expended energy and back ups being the spare parts. I'm not arguing. I could be in the position the Corona works against me. It takes three passes and the end quality is about half fine and half course. I'm still torn, though, just for the price of entry. How you did it is commendable. How I've done it is a gamble. Yet, it also freed up money for many other preps. My total for six grinders was under $200. I can't say one way is better than another, but perhaps better described as suitable for each of our circumstances/budgets. Like the argument for an AR or an AK, no one answer is perfect, but dependent. Peace.

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  5. P.s. But way more than that book, read many years ago now, is the daily Bison assault on my brain - leaving me always feeling inadequate about my personal grain stocks. Tossing, turning sleepless nights. Must....add.....more...
    Meant to mention on grinder use, especially large amounts being ground by hand at once (5 plus cups). I find it much easier when I use my core body power instead of just arm power. Kind of a rocking back and forth of your torso, concentrating on a smooth, round stroke- not herkey jerkey. Your arm is turning the crank around in a circle, but is mainly a transfer bar for your torso power. Hope that makes sense. This technique makes a world of difference in the exertion required to quickly knock out enough flour for multiple loaves or pancakes for reheating all week.
    It also keeps you from dreading the task and adding complexity: motors, pulleys, belts and such.
    S/Fla.

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    1. sounds good for those of us with bursitis. thanks for idea, anonymous.

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