Wednesday, August 1, 2018

sight unseen


SIGHT UNSEEN
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Most folks tell you not to buy land sight unseen.  It makes sense.  If you’ll be paying for it for the next thirty years.  Otherwise you are a bit of a fool.  Ever since the banker scum holes have jacked the real estate market for an entire continent if not two or three, real estate has gotten to nose bleed levels for near about everybody.  Just let a few million units mold and collapse onto themselves, taking the level of supply down ( this is true for commercial real estate as well.  To a banker, an unoccupied unit is worth more un-rented than if the rent was reduced.  But then, the entire universe of a banker is Something For Nothing And Our Chicks For Free ). 
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To me, that alone is all you need to know about why you should buy junk land.  The price of rentals will continue to go up, until the extreme bitter end.  The price of a mortgage will do the exact same, at least as far as property taxes are concerned, and if you get really unlucky, they will throw in a inflation adjustment for the mortgage payment.  Yes, yes Spunky, it can happen.  If you can’t see how the bankers own this joint and make their own rules as they go along, you will die a horrible elongated death.  Far better to take your FLIR attached AR, put the barrel in your mouth and end it all now before your disillusion becomes too painful.
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( This is where the AR really shines.  The shorter barrel [ not because it is good engineering but because it is good for shaving down the cost of manufacture ] and lighter weight make this a perfect suicide machine.  Much easier to insert barrel orally and work the trigger with your finger.  If you were forced to use a real gun, say one with wood furniture, you need to prop the gun up another way because of the weight, and perhaps even need to use your toe rather than finger )
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Look, unless you live in glittery unicorn land, you know that very shortly almost all the jobs will be gone.  Most of those left now are just the House Negro jobs for the elite.  Even the ones which provide some marginal benefit for the proletariat such as law enforcement are grossly overpaid and largely unnecessary ( a marshal per territory is all you need when vigilante justice and self defense are allowed.  The Marshall is only there to contain anarchy and provide oversight and to stem abuses ).  The salaries buy loyalty, not performance.  The only economic activity left is redistributing the shrinking wealth-mostly to the rich, not the welfare class which provides a convenient whipping boy.
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You need junk land.  By its definition, it isn’t ideal.  How much harm are you in danger of buying it online, sight unseen?  After a smidge of research, you know the macro questions.  Road access, water availably, distance to town.  Going there and visiting, what are you going to find out?  How bad the neighbors are?  How many crack heads will steal from you?  What all four seasons will be like?  No.  You cannot know the answers to some very important questions until you live on the land for awhile.  Visiting it before purchase might answer some important questions such as southern sun exposure and cell phone reception, but those are not life threateningly important.  You can work around those.
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Now, I’m sure someone can come up with a good reason why you need to visit first.  For you, it is important.  But is it more important than not having land?  Every purchase is a gamble and there are no guarantees.  But you do have to play the probabilities.  Is it better to dream of the perfect place, or have the deed to an adequate place?  While the rest of you were messing around in the real estate bubble, I was buying REALLY cheap junk land and precious metal ( yes, I know it worked out well for some of you betting on a Greater Fool to buy your McMansion.  Congrats on Lady Luck’s deal of a perfect hand of cards ).  Land sight unseen. How did this work out for me?
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Nary an issue.  The land I turned around and sold ten years later to unload it, never having visited, I got pictures from the new owners.  I could have been happy there.  It looked and sounded fine.  The land I bought unseen and I’ve visited, there were minor issues.  A too long road in too poor of condition didn’t fit my original plan of living there and working in town, but it really is perfect for hermitage land.  Few will visit you there if they don’t have an off road vehicle.  The southern exposure blows, bottoming out on the north, but it would have worked out even if less than perfect.  The better land, on the other hand, slowly got worse as neighbors piled in from south of the border, something I couldn’t have foreseen from a visit.
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It seems to me, and forgive me if this is just the musings of one too bitter and pessimistic, that most folks use the excuse of “I won’t buy sight unseen” to NOT buy the land.  After all, purchasing junk land is an admission that things actually WILL get a lot worse.  It is the first step in a plan to live without your luxuries.  An acknowledgment that the die-off actually will happen.  It is all fine and fun prepping for a hurricane with a few weeks storage food and lots of “looter be cool” weapons.  But to admit our civilization will crash?  Outrageous!  How can I propose such ridiculous theories? 
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Well, it ain’t that hard.  You know, logical conclusions to the exponential growth in a vat of yeast.  And it certainly isn’t hard drawing out today’s issues to their logical conclusion.  City or suburb, rental or mortgage, job holder of debt slave, you are blued and tattooed. Why do you look at me as if I sharted in the bathtub?
( .Y. ) 
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36 comments:

  1. Google maps being what they are makes buying junk land much easier. You can get an idea of the neighbors by zooming in and looking for the trash piles. I bought my land sight unseen and am pretty happy with it. The trees covered the fact that I bought both sides of a ravine, but what could be better for underground building?
    Every piece of junk land is going to have it's drawbacks, after all, that is why it is so cheap.

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    1. 3 out of 4 minions agree you can be mostly successful buying junk land sight unseen. I have been vindicated. Kindly rush out and buy some now. Too bad you can't get it through Amazon :)

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    2. Jim, you mention 'deeds,' as if the legal and law system will be in place after the bad times start, at least enough to enforce your legal claim to the land.

      Isn't this a bit optimistic? It seems to me that the land will belong to whomever can seize and hold it.

      I can understand how holding a deed can make it easier to prep the land prior to the Big Bang, but after?

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    3. Not just prepping prior, but also at the last stages of decline just before collapse, all local LEO's will be desperate for money. Think fines for all for everything, from littering to jaywalking to "disturbing the peace". You don't want to invite trouble not having a legal squat.

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  2. I bought land sight unseen. Half was worth it. Half I am still willing to unload for what I paid for it ($10K, 40 Acres if anyone is interested about $200/yr taxes). But I can say with certainty that one of the things you want with your primary piece of junk land is the ability to visit it from your home town DAILY- you wont do so, but you will visit a lot more than if it takes you all day to get there. The next thing you want is a SECONDARY piece of junk land well outside the area. Forest-fires, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Floods, Etc. will wipe out an area- So too will bad government and community decisions of various sorts. So get yourself another piece of junk land as a back up well beyond the local region - but not so far away you wont go take some vacations over the weekends to it.

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    1. Good plan. With land so cheap, that makes perfect sense. Most folks will spend more in one year on a cell phone or InterWeb access than the total cost of a junk lot. I mean, it's worth it, just to read me daily. But still, come on! The better lots cost less than a FLIR scope.

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    2. I am actually considering getting a little junk land in N. NV, just because I have friends and family within a day or twos travel (I don't have much like that here), and it is decently far from most issues that would plague this area unless they are a nation wide issue (I am looking also into Canada land for that last reason - but taxes, bleh!)

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    3. If you want, e-mail me and perhaps I can help slightly with more details. No guarantees since I don't get out as much as I should.

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  3. I purchased my Elko junk land sight unseen in 2015 after I was laid off from my electronics consulting job of 15 years. I got 2.5 acres for a little over $2k. Being a relatively normal white heterosexual male in my 50’s, I knew that I was double dog humped, as far as finding a job went, and would be at the bottom rung of the hiring hierarchy. For a while I tried to turn a coin on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, and I’m not saying that it’s not possible. But you basically need to have typing skills to make decent money at that site. I’ll probably give it a go again at some point, but in the mean time, I was lucky enough to get hired by a relative, part time, helping him out with his disabled wife. I purchased my land as a form of homeless insurance. I used google earth to scope it out to the best of my ability prior to purchase. I still haven’t been there, but I will be going there and living there full time eventually. You already know where it is, and it looks like it’s a ways off the highway over rough roads; about 5 miles from power and water. That’s fine with me, as I hate most people, and hope that I never run into anyone out there (buxom young hippy chicks with daddy issues aside :D ).

    I tried the AT&T coverage chart, and it shows that I have service out there, but I suppose that you would not truly know this until you arrived.

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    1. Yeah, I'd trust AT&T about as much as our local friendly tax collector.

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    2. Coverage maps only indicate a possibility of coverage if you can get line of sight you are probably ok (climb a hill, put up a pole, etc) if you cant see the tower then you are just rolling dice.

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    3. I wonder if boosters help any? Or, must you see the tower, period?

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  4. I agree with your premise Jim, as long as the requirements or checklist items are met. 1) low cost dirt cheap, no more than say 2 to 3 thousand. Also little things that add up to big picture planning. Dirt roads-no yuppies, no utilities even nearby-no yuppie growth spurts. Open zoning county-no progressive government in your ass, no major transport/military/critical industry near to be fought over, etc. etc. I am behind the curve myself right now but am gaining the mindset to jump off of society. The saying is appropriate that a bird in the hand is better than a bird on the wire, as a euphemism.

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    1. One in the hand is worth two in the bush is the saying:
      https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+bird+in+the+hand
      You are referencing a really boring song :)
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmPUu-rMpWA
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      Texas has major issues, but they do have no zoning outside city limits and require all parcels have a right of way access.

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    2. Just be sure that if you buy in Texas that you are certain that the area that you’re buying in has public water access in the general vicinity. I read of one horror story a few years back in which some folks purchased some parcels in west Texas. There was no water; for many, many, miles! Buy the time they made the move, and were all set up, they were flat broke, and living like hillbillies. The distance from water only compounded the situation much worse, and they were about a 100 miles from the nearest town, so buying water wasn’t an easy option either.

      Now when I was looking at land in Texas some years back, I saw a parcel for $12.5k, for 50 acres. It was actually decent land, and it had a community well, so no problems there. Thee deal breaker was that it was in a community that had rules up the ass, much like that Modoc Kalifornia land that I looked at one time. You literally couldn’t do anything on your own property without getting permission from the property owners association. The worst part was that the county unscrupulously jacked up the property taxes on a $1500 acre of land, to be comparable to the surrounding land that was valued much higher, and no one called them on it. The Realtor got pissed when I offered less, since they were asking so little to begin with, and refused to deal with me after that. In hindsight, I was better off, so fuck the old bastard!

      Just my $.02, but if at all possible, I’d steer clear of land in states where Kalifornians are moving in droves. Sure, you might be far away from that former Kalifornia bastard that’s now living in Austen, but it’s only going to be a matter of time before his politics affect your way of life.

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    3. I wouldn't love to Texas for many reasons, chief of which is they are so stuck in Growth Uber Alles mode. I could list 20 more off the top of my head. But you make a very good point. Look at places folks are leaving, not moving to. And if you move into a HOA, you are the worlds biggest douche face and don't deserve Super Deluxe Loyal Minion status ( you you moved to one prior to knowing their unbridled evil, you are forgiven ).

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    4. Please list the reasons Texas is not suitable. Please do. It would help some of us a lot.

      You seem to be saying ("Look at places folks are leaving, not moving to.") look at California, or Chicago.

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    5. " if you move into a HOA, you are the worlds biggest douche face and don't deserve Super Deluxe Loyal Minion status ( you you moved to one prior to knowing their unbridled evil, you are forgiven )" NO HOA's!!!! absolutely right !!! HOAs are the worst, a few I have seen are basically road maintenance type groups for the private roads to get to the parcels, but even those sometimes have the option of becoming more restrictive and nosy over time. I had an HOA once, never again. They wanted the drapes to be not only certain colors but open certain amounts at certain times and to be made from certain materials, wouldn't let us keep flower pots near the porch etc. They were run by a bunch of elderly busybodies who refused to admit the truth that they wanted an senior citizen only community.

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  5. Minions, remember the basics. Hard-sore assed stagecoach roads, no utilities nearby or even in line of sight outside of a long truck ride away, no rail lines, no low flight paths or near anything smelling of an aerial landing, simpleton county gov't with no -to a don't give a shit zoning, The one street-no traffic light-sidewalks vacant at night-churches are the second bestest buildings to the courthouse-type of "town-ships", etc. Water is only issue-but with filters a muddy creek is o.k. Much described is repeated here and elsewhere. However, don't factor in the obese life partners or snotty kids in purchase selections. It ain't shopping for a Good Sam campground lot.

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  6. In this day and age buying land "unseen" is a misnomer, thanks to google maps and such. I have looked at hundreds of properties over the past few years and sold my last property via the web and it's resources. If I was going to spend any substantial coin though, say, over $20k for it a visit would be mandatory, and a talk with the local authorities. Thus far, in my searches, I have not found anything worthy.

    No, I'm not gonna live in a hole in the ground. Did that for 4 years and didn't care for it. Not gonna live in a McMansion in a suburban area neither. Did that for a bunch of years and got fed up with it. The land I am looking for doesn't have to be large, a couple acres will do, as long as the neighboring properties are commensurate, and that's the difficult part. I want NO neighbors for at least 1/2 a mile in any direction and that is almost impossible in this country for less than $100k. So I keep looking.

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    1. What's wrong with living in a hole in the ground? I know, it ain't for everyone. I just can't see why not.

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    2. It's beneath me. LOL
      Seriously, when you are a design and construction expert it is easy to see the myriad flaws in the whole underground idea. It also has to do with what your long range goals are.

      Anything that costs $1k or more is, to me, a long range goal. I tend to cling very tightly to my coin and only spend it after careful consideration.

      To build properly underground costs far, far more than above. I emphasize the word "properly", and my notion of long range goals. I've designed hundreds of buildings, large and small, underground and consider myself an expert, as do most of my clients. (Clients from NY and NJ tend to be very difficult people so I try to avoid them.)

      I can build far better above ground than below and for far less money. If and when I ever get my "16'x16' perfect survival home" completed I'll fill you in all the little secrets that I have accumulated over the last 4 decades and concentrated them into 1 little project. It's a cutey.

      Hint: It's partially underground, and it's done right, and in total the cost will be less than $10k not including the land. It flips the whole notion of what it means to "live in a house". I had to let go of a lot of societal and educational norms established within myself since birth and not only step outside the box but rather jump all the way out of the universe and discover all new everything. It took the better part of 10 years to get this project to where it is now. No other project that I have worked on (there have been about 7k projects so far) has captured me so, and I continuously find it renewed and exciting.

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    3. You don't have to be truly underground though, right? Earth bermed atop a rise for great drainage should work just as well.

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    4. Jim, there's a lot more to it than drainage if you plan on living in it for the rest of your life. Consider that it's very difficult to "fix" stuff after the fact when it's under ground. In the long run it pays to think of it comprehensively. Most people have fallen for the notion that putting buildings under ground is energy efficient but to be so it must be down 10' or more. Further, if any part of the structure protrudes higher than that, thermal bridging undermines the whole thing. There are ways around all of the problems but make no mistake, there are problems, and problems cost money. Same thing with the idea of south facing windows. Mostly bogus unless you use the ghastly expensive triple glazing with argon gas, and then the wall surrounding the glass must be super insulated. There's a reason these things are called "green", because they work well if the green in your wallet is ample.

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    5. You are looking at it from the point of view of conventional modern living. Then you are correct. Looking at it from rough living, off grid poverty living, improved camping, you are way off. Were you reading way back when I described by extra insulation in the RV? No, frugal underground is Good Enough, to make lack of petroleum inputs manageable. Not great, not comfortable per se compared to today, but good enough grid down.

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    6. "...but good enough..."
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      There ya go. Everybody has their own idea of what good enough is. I believe having a good plan and a method of achieving it is the best way. And, I have a ball n chain to drag along so I have to take her into consideration too. She has seen the drawings I have produced for my 16'x16' "forever survivor" home and loves it. In the amount of time I have vested in this project thus far I could have designed 300 regular houses. There is nothing like this any where on the planet. As soon as I can find a reasonably priced scrap of land the building will start. Reminder - much of this building will be created under controlled environment here in my workshop and trucked to the site in big pieces (8'x8') and assembled on site.

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    7. Labors Of Love cannot be compared to your paying job. We are not ATM machines, right? Well, the wives think we are :)

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    8. 16 x 16 is a lot smaller than I am shooting for, but is certainly doable. Please do post someplace your ideas, I would love to see them - you probably have more info than I do. Around here the biggest 2 problems are that labor is rare and expensive, and materials beyond the most standard are also rare and expensive (and standard materials are also expensive).

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  7. Ive mentioned my junk land many times. Off an unmaintained road, that now, over a decade later borders on barely 4-wheel driveability. This week we had so much rain its a river down there AND a big tree fell across it. I cut the tree just wide enough to get my little vehicle through. If the occasional 4 wheelers wanna get through they can use their chainsaws. Once in awhile google maps will divert an eager non-local traveler through the area but its pretty amusing to see a fancy big shiny four wheel drive start to go down only to find the river and the logs blocking the path and he somehow finds a place to turn around and sure enough hightails it out. Like clockwork. I can predict the minutes. If they wanted to they could make it through with a little muscle, but they don't want to get any mud on their pretty truck. I no longer see the yuppies with their $2000 purebred muts walking in. Perhaps they cant handle the proliferation of mosquitoes. Better for me. I don't have to put up with that.
    I found my land after a bad winter snowstorm. It was under four feet of snow and ice. Had no idea of the topography till way later in may when the snow all melted. Me and a friend hiked in on snowshoes to see it in January It was a long trek. but when I got there I knew it was the place. No neighbor for miles, no electric, no noise, just pure raw land and rough weather. I think maybe centuries ago there had been someone fleeing religious prosecution and decided to settle there but when the general area a couple towns away with better weather started to create commerce, the population in that rough corridor of extreme weather winded up moving away and abandoning the area. I moved onto it by April starting with a $17 Wally world tent. Yes the place has intense storms and no emergency care close by but it keeps the chicken s*** panty-waists away. With a lot of work, much trial and error and a lot of determination Ive turned it into a more functional property. Its still looking like "Deliverance" down there, lots of odd rope on trees makes people think I have booby-traps set up. Sort of do by default. Gotta keep'em on edge and they'll keep their distance. It is so freeing to not have to put up with anybody. Worth any bit of loneliness I rarely feel. Most of the time I am so busy and happily working I forget I'm alone. I think in yuppie terms thats called synergy. I have to say Ive become a different person since Ive moved down there. Ive gone through heaven and hell but it was worth it for the experience to help me figure it all out when times are good instead of having to learn it all during SHTF times. So many things you cant ever foresee or even imagine. I have bought many lots over the years sight unseen, at auctions, word of mouth. Once I bought a quarter acre lot for $350 with a collapsed building on it. Im considering it as a rudimentary backup site. Another time, sight unseen,at an auction I did not review before going to, I bought a 4 acre swamp for $600. I have to say it is the prettiest, most serene swamp with the an amazing assortment of birds, ducks and wildlife I have ever seen. I muck around in it and take amazing nature photographs and catch some great bullheads. I have some cool ideas for that place too. Its never bad or not worth it. You can make use of any parcel, whether you remediate the soil and just throw down some native perennial edibles or cache things there, use it creatively for dreams you had and put to use. Dont be afraid of your dreams or your cockamame creativity.






























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    1. Damn, dude, you're like the Philosopher King of junk land!

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  8. anyone read 'harry flashman blogspot'?
    moved way out years ago and now orcs are being moved into the only town by the government.
    ladies cannot enter the walmart unmolested.
    as far out as he lives, the 3rd world is being delivered to the good people of that fairly remote area.
    compliments of the kalergi-soros plan to destroy civilization.
    protect yourselves as far as you can because there is no knowing the future. don't underestimate the evil of those in government, most of whom live in gated communities with armed guards. i think they are using an orc invasion to test the rest of us and see how far they can go before they have to move in with troops to suppress those whom they have oppressed beyond bearing.
    a word to the wise is sufficient.

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    1. I'll check out the blog, thanks. I don't think Soros et al plan on destroying civilization for its own sake, but rather enjoy profiting off activities than as a side effect destroy civilization. They just look at it like dumping sewage into the rive to increase profits.

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    2. Orc? Huh, never heard that one before, and can’t even find a definitive definition at the urban dictionary, so I’m going to have to assume that she’s referring to the rug pilots :D

      Similarly, I just heard something about Maine the other day. Apparently it’s “too white”, has high gun ownership, and low crime. As expected, the left sees this as a problem and is working hard to remedy it.

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  9. Hi James,
    Love your writings. Long time reader way back when you sold them on CD's for a buck.
    Just wanted to let you know I purchased online "The Frugal Survivalist", again good writings. Don't spend all that money in one place. :-)

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    1. Damn! You hung around THAT long? I think that was back when I was working the Carson casino. 2005? That is dedication. Thanks!

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  10. Drying is the critical factor in preservation of food products. The removal of moisture helps prevent bacterial activity and spoilage. Salt can be used to accelerate the removal of water and hence its widespread use as a traditional preservative. Modern day methods of water removal include freeze drying which will both remove the water and significantly reduce the weight of the food. Smoking the meat imparts extracts from the smoke (phenols, etc.) that helps to retards the growth of spoilage bacteria. Today preservatives are typically added to retard bacterial growth .
    https://healthandfitness2020.com/survival-food-at-costco-how-to-make-the-ultimate-survival-food/

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