too seriously

TOO SERIOUSLY

Okay, really, just what the hell is going on out there in Doom And Gloom Land?  I’ve been accused of being off my medication for years, and yet it seems like the majority of doom writers are all exhibiting signs of reality withdrawal.  Rawles has fame and fortune and a pretty secure future in both this economy and one after a catastrophe, yet acts like churning out a couple of potboiler sequels is too much for him and partially retires ( if his latest book is an example of what retirement produces, we really need him to come back to work full time ).  I can’t fault Rawles for being the latest Yuppie Survivalist Guru- if it wasn’t him it would be someone else, and he is obviously sold on the concept and is living that life as genuine, so no hate here- it is just that I’m confused where he went off the rails.  The boy was the epitome of Type A hard charging take no prisoners career, and now seems to be taking it easy ( I know he would object, and give me his sixteen hour a day schedule.  What I’m saying is, compared to what he WAS doing, this seems like a sort of retirement ).  Then we have that McPherson ( I’m going by faulty memory here, forgive me if I’m a bit off ).  You know, the Arizona professor who dropped out of that rat race to preach about Gore Warming.  He was successful enough that he even emulated the man, flying all over the globe to tell us people flying all over the globe was killing the planet.  His website, “Nature Bats Last” was pretty good reading, a bit of a modern version of the book “Overshoot” ( the Malthusian bible ), and then it too went off the rails.  I mean, almost every article had some seriously dark undertone of suicidal innuendo.  If he wanted to start up one of those planes and suicide it into an IRS building, okay, I can understand checking out if it meant something.  If it was meant to galvanize action ( although, realistically, in today’s culture all that would amount to was a sick entertainment for the masses so it wouldn’t mean a thing ).  Remember the book “Ecotopia”?  All those terminally ill cancer patients going suicide against strategic federal targets to win the war of independence.  Those did some good.  But this guy, he just sounded like a whiny little bitch who couldn’t stand the thought of the Earth melting down from warming. 

*

This guy went from being a crusader to just being scary.  I dropped his site before he decided to go Grape Kool-Aid.  I don’t need to be around that bummer, man.  First off, you can’t guarantee that we are all going to die.  Even if we are, so what?  You go down fighting.  And no, not fighting the establishment ( more on that talking about the next dude ).  You go down fighting all the ass-clowns who come to take your last kernel of wheat.  I don’t know f there is actually an afterlife, but if there is you can probably count on Hell for suiciding, but Valhalla for going down like a warrior ( suiciding in a fight, for a grand purpose, is fighting ).  Go down fighting, because then, if the human race survives, they have a better gene pool.  You actually owe it to humanity, which, despite all its warts, did you a pretty good solid by providing you the Twentieth century.  So now we move on to Survival Acres Dude.  He has started publishing articles again, despite his last proclamation to never to do so again ( hey, no judgment here.  You can’t ever eject the writing bug after it infects you.  Kind of like malaria ).  I was enjoying them, as he was highlighting another’s writing about the recent East Coast

Cold spell ( as Alaska saw above freezing temps ).  Okay, I’m pretty much sold on the current severe weather events ( before, a few weird droughts.  Convincing, but not conclusive.  Then, Elko has its second Very Mild Winter in a row.  Now I’m feeling the religion, brother.  Now, a mild Alaska February.  How much more convincing do we need?  Of course, I’ll never be sold that it is exclusively Man Made.  Which, as we’ve talked about before, is irrelevant.  The tripping point is past and Very Bad Things now baked into the cake ).  But the next article ( I believe 3-5-15 ), he goes bat crap crazy, starting to get excited we all need to Do Something To Stop This Tragedy Unfolding Which Will Kill Us All NOW!!!!  Wow, calm down dude.  First off, you told us a long time ago that we were past the tripping point.  Even if we halt all burning of carbon fuel today, we are still humped.  At this point, the burning is keeping us alive a bit longer ( a slight misnomer.  We don’t so much burn ALL fuels in agriculture as utilize them in other inputs ) in oil to food, electric for warming and cooling in extreme environments.  Second, even if Americans stopped, you still have those Chinese millions picking up our slack, and they do it for the same economic reasons we do.  Third, why are you screaming, hooting and hollering about evil oil companies?  Ever hear of supply and demand?  Every swinging dingus out there you demand do something, is driving a friggin car.  That is doing exactly the wrong thing.  The oil company is raping the environment on their orders.  And last, why ask folks, a survivalist audience, to waste energy and time protesting or politicking?  They need to tend to their own families survival, as you long ago suggested.  And I’m the one that’s gone crazy?

*

Okay, moving on to the East Coast, with Kunstler and the Druid Dude.  Kunstler has had his plate full, having almost died from a vegetarian diet ( as an aside, the American Energy Crisis Blog Dude was sick for like the last two years with that Super Bug he got in the hospital, but he also fits right in here with Crazy Survival Dudes.  Read his last January 2015 article, jumping on the American Forever Fracking bandwagon ).  But he seems to be settling down with a few chickens and a few square yards of raised bed gardens.  And SLOWWWWWLY writing very little.  Which is kind of normal as he’s been at this at least thirty years with only a few books to his name.  Here he is, ten years in from The Long Emergency, with most of his projections ( which were some of the first mainstream warnings ) unfolding, and rather than prepping like crazy, he continues at his shuffling pace both personally and in his blog.  To be fair, he is an old guy and his health is just now improving, but I smell a definite lack of panic.  The Druid Dude is, of course, the only one of the bunch not really going nuts in some way or another ( even Engdahl-again, spelling?, author of Century Of War, jumped on the abiotic oil bandwagon to distance himself from panic- mongering ).  He is, if anything, settling down into enjoying his success and publishing like there is no tomorrow.  Granted, that could be his way of warning us of increased danger.  Getting the word out wider.  But to me, and I could be wrong, granted, he seems to be joining the conventional economy as a successful author.  Enjoying the fruits.  As if it will all matter in a few years.  So, at least from my view, he seems to be doubling down on his Low Slow Long Collapse theory rather than refine it as events unfold. 

*

It seems paralysis rules here, the worse things get.  Some get lethargic, others get overly excited to the point they are being counter-productive.  And these are our “experts”.  Does doing something, even if it is wrong, exist outside the Marine Corpse ( spelling intentional ), as a good rule of thumb?  Well, if nothing else, it’s an entertaining show.

END

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consuming to invest 6

CONSUMING TO INVEST #6

Manual Tools

( note: I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow, so no comments or e-mail )

I’m a big advocate of all things manual.  Mainly to really cut down on what I need for power generation, but also on another practical and philosophical level.  Power tools cost a lot more, plus they want fuel, plus they break quicker.  Not a great combination for the post-apocalypse future we are quickly barreling towards.  I understand all you macho burley types get a squishy feeling in your colon at the thought of doing without your chainsaw to fell entire forests in a single afternoon, and will wax philosophically about it ( “why, with my Gustovus Adolfus brand Swedish seventy two inch bar self lubricating chain saw, I can construct tank traps and village defense walls and heat twenty three McMansions my brother preppers are living in.  So you see, I must simply have this power tool.  Non-negotiable.  Why, without it I might as well strip naked armed only with a steak knife and go squelch a riot in Harlem the week after Food Stamps run out” ).  Or, here’s a thought.  Stop needing to heat too large modern constructed dwellings.  Stop living in an easily accessed area.  Get a better class of survivalist friend ( like, from a trailer park ).  And start thinking of how to survive without luxuries.  Chainsaws are great while they work, and then you are screwed.  And don’t tell me you will stock chainsaws AND bow saws.  Because more than likely you will die of a heart attack trying to use the manual tool- you did everything prior to that the easy way and are in ZERO kind of shape for the apocalypse.  Manual tools are exercise equipment, both mentally and physically.  Power tool guys have expense rifles, with a scope costing more than the gun, getting to a pre-fabricated tree stand by an ATV that cost more than most peoples cars, hauled by the costliest truck and toy travel trailer combo, once every three years because his good paying city job will lay him off once he goes below 75 hour work weeks.  In fact, he thinks the Pakistani mail room boy might be there in disguise, ready to jump in at half salary.  The manual tool guy just wants to get some deer in the freezer to supplement the food budget, and car pools in his buddies eighteen year old Corolla to go bow hunting with a cheap non-compound unit he got at a garage sale and practices on weekends with.

*

There is enough that we will lose after a collapse, items never to be duplicated again ( modern firearms and ammunition, 12v batteries, etc. ).  It behooves you to simplify everything else as much as possible.  You might not be able to replace a lot of manual tools, but you can stretch the time you have them far longer than with power tools.  And just the exercise mentally forcing yourself to constantly down-sizing will be innovating in areas you hadn’t thought of.  Now, obviously, there are some things not suitable for powering down.  I can’t replace my computer word processor with a manual typewriter for the simple reason I sell ( okay, I give away free then guilt a payment ) electrons rather than papers.  Yet, I don’t need a computer after a collapse ( the important stuff is in old school books ) so it doesn’t matter.  But the weeds in my fire prone yard will always grow, even after all the gasoline is gone, so I have a sickle now rather than a weed-wacker.  A powered unit is $50 plus, a sickle $15.  I save money up front and constantly from NOT needing gas and oil and spools of plastic line.  I don’t power cut my areas of sagebrush, but by hand with a saw and tree clippers.  I didn’t cut the lumber for my dwelling with power saws, but by hand.  Sure, cutting a piece of plywood like that is a gold plated bitch.  But rather than a power saw left over from the project, after costing me extra money, I instead have a hand saw getting dull that now works on that sage brush handily.  By digging by hand, rather than renting a backhoe, I still have the $30 in tools AND a better set of muscles I can employ next time ( not that I WANT to, just that I CAN if needed.  Unlike your ability to rent a backhoe once you are unemployed or they were taken by a warlord to be used as armored vehicles ).  Manual tools now save lots of money and earn you a valuable skill ( there will be plenty of fat out of shape office workers bewildered as to how they are useful in the future-don’t be one of them.  Believe it or not, plain manual labor will be in demand with few able-even if willing- to do it ).  Others will follow, so it will be a short term advantage.  But still useful.  In the meantime, you can bank the difference in tools, even still paying less and still having multiples of quality units. 

END

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consuming to invest 4

CONSUMING TO INVEST 4

Traps And Snares

Our last item, toilet paper substituted with cloth diapers ( used also, obviously, as diapers ), didn’t save you much money up front other than the fact the total cost was lower compared to stocking the actual paper version ( say, $60 total instead of double or triple that ).  But this one, and most others, will save you money immediately and keep doing do as long as the money economy continues.  Obviously, check your local laws.  I wouldn’t want a repeat of the chap named Dallas in the 80’s who trapped in Northern Nevada ( a local hero, for those pussies not turned to the dark side of Yuppie-ism ) and was harassed by game wardens until he killed one ( might have been two-a bit fuzzy on the memory here ).  If you live in the rural areas, and it is legal, trapping and snaring is going to be one way of really cutting down on your meat bill.  Or eliminate it altogether, although one imagines this would be quite the time sink.  I don’t list this under the Old Timey Skills section because I can’t imagine there will be much of a resource that will translate into a living, but for a supplement to the dinner table ( and a few useable furs for personal use or gifts ) this is a pretty cheap tool.  A book or two ( one on primitive trapping using natural materials, perhaps one of those Stone Age Survival books, and one on modern snares ) and some steel wire should just about do the trick.  The tanning part can translate into a skill as there will be sheep and cattle available for leather, but don’t expect a huge marketable amount of meat ( there will be enough pellet guns and rimfires out there for an army of hungry idiots, and they won’t mind blasting off half the meat from a carcass of every small wild critter out there-the populations will take a hit after the collapse ).

*

Personally, I don’t care for snaring.  But then, I can also get my protein from a Styrofoam tray in the supermarket.  But having this cheap set of tools will sure be nice when I change my mind ( which I will, probably prior to the cans of generic Spam running out ).  Keep in mind that hunting burns a lot of calories.  If you don’t catch anything, those calories you can’t spare are gone.  Trapping is much more efficient, net calorie wise ( just as I bother you to realize the energy resources we are using are so far down the net energy scale they are next to useless in our capitalist industrial society, so too must you learn and heed net energy for your own body ).

*

CONSUMING TO INVEST 5

Seeds And Garden Tools

It is embarrassingly easy to garden.  Not to farm.  Farming is feeding yourself.  Gardening is supplementing your shopping so you save on your vegetable bill.  Not too long ago, say five years, it wasn’t even worth the bother to garden.  Perhaps herbs and flowers, due to their price, but not veggies.  They were so cheap it wasn’t worth the effort.  When that nights family salad cost you literally five minutes on the work clock, there was no need to grow your own.  Well, welcome to ten years into Peak Oil ( and fifteen years into net grain production shortfall globally-don’t worry, for now all the African and middle eastern peasants are in calorie deficit for you.  Just beware it will be your turn soon ).  Veggies are now three times the cost of five years ago, plus most are now imported from Mexico rather than California ( where snow pack shrinkage and suburb expansion met awhile ago ), AND, it that isn’t enough, I’ve noticed a lot more are now genetically modified ( anecdotal evidence, of course, but they seem to rot differently ).  If you don’t garden now, you would be silly.  Saving your health is great, but add that to saving money and you have a winner.

*

Your library is chock a block full of gardening books.  Read a few, then search online for real seeds, fix your soil and grow something.  Mother Nature does most of the work for you, and you need only a tool or two such as a shovel.  And it won’t be too many weeks before you get to eat real food, nearly free.  You can screw it up and waste a metric butt ton of money, but unless you are some idiot competing with others for recognition and Yuppie Brownie Points, you don’t need to.  Beware any advice from the modern version of Mother Earth News, as they are there to sell crap for their advertisers.  Anyone who buys a tractor without being able to feed himself 100% is just buying a hayseed’s version of an SUV to impress the ladies and himself.  While I’m on the nagging about Asparagus Growers Porn, the old magazine ( which you can buy on a CD for your computer-the first ten years for $20 ) was a resource for surviving without much money.  You could see plans on making a windmill out of junkyard parts.  The new version just pimps store bought, expensive tools.  They are artificially priced low, compared to a lot of magazines, but beware what they are saying/selling.  You can usually find a good article or two, but you’ve just killed a tree to do so.  If you MUST read the rag, buy the subscription for the library so it doesn’t waste as many resources.  Then just print whatever lone article is worthy ( you should get online access with a subscription ). 

END

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consuming to invest 3

CONSUMING TO INVEST 3

PART ONE-TOOLS

[Part Two will be the skills section]

Cloth Diapers

I start here because, frankly, this is pretty idiot proof.  I’m sure that in the main, most of you are about my age which means getting a bit long on the tooth.  And I think we were close to one of the last generations to wear cloth diapers.  I’m sure it was no more of a chore for our mothers than birthing us, feeding us or losing sleep over us.  I’m not even sure how it became such an accepted necessity to switch over to disposables.  Which, by the way, is slowly giving way back again to cloth due to economics ( the late teens/just twenty gal at work we had with us for a few years was as cell phone text Tweeting rap music centric as all her age, and she quickly switched when it became necessary ).  Besides never getting started on formula ( the evil ex produced milk like a faithful Holstein and we expressed/froze for when she went to her work shift-but even then we had to supplement with formula after a time as our kids ate and grew like crazy.  I can’t imagine the cost today of formula feeding exclusively ), using cloth diapers is the best way to keep raising kids close to zero cost.  Which, most of you are going to have to do as the hospital bill, even if you have some sort of pathetic form of health insurance, will take all your extra money.  You know that home births with midwives going mainstream are just around the corner as hospitals price themselves out of the working class market ( and wet nurses will make a comeback- but that should signal Game Over for the economy as I can’t imagine formula sales will ever stop unless no jobs/money is available.  I think the concept is just too foreign ).

*

Now, I understand cloth diapers are not cheap, per se.  $13 for a package of ten Gerber brand ( go with brand name as this and all these other tools are investments, not consumables.  Buy as quality as possible ) does add up by the time you have enough.  But, they will be needed and you won’t lose any money stockpiling them.  Any fool can turn a square of cloth into a diaper ( the pins will be harder to make so get a lot of those ), but there won’t be a domestic replacement of Chinese supply for some time.  When it does come around, I hope hemp will be the item used rather than cotton since a weed doesn’t compete with soil for food, but no matter.  The point is, infrastructure replacement takes time.  Few will be using other clothing as diapers since larger children and adults will be needing those until they can make replacements.  The preference, if not a ability to buy/barter, will be for purpose made diapers.  You will see a demand.  Then, even if you don’t, you can always use them yourself.

*

I know you all have a hall closet stuffed with toilet paper.  Prepping 101 teachers you the first thing is to never run out of TP, nor find yourself in a rioting line needing to buy some.  But you can’t stockpile enough unless you devote a lot of money to outbuildings-money much more intelligently spent of food which is a lot more compact and necessary.  There won’t be any more Sears catalogs sent in the mail.  In fact, it amazes me that both Sears and the post office are still in business ( well, I guess the tens of trillions-don’t you dare believe the much smaller published numbers-of Quantitative Easing Forever had to go somewhere, so into corporate stocks and government agency funding ).  Eventually, you will need to wipe your ass with something.  Better a scrap of paper for the initial more solid matter wipe, then cloth for the residue.  I’d rather clean fecal smeared diapers then wipe my ass with my hand.  Or sand/dirt or poking vegetation.   It is, surely, the far lesser of evils.  And, I’m sure the ladies will have no problem cutting them down in size and using as sanitary napkins. Laundry soap is a lot easier to make than toilet paper ( and I’ve read that liquid soap is a lot easier to make than bar-something about homemade soap not always firming up properly as the chemical balances are far outside modern tolerances ).  You can also easily make vinegar, a future disinfectant and cleaner ( you can even use in questionable drinking water, but while I’ve read of the practice I have no measurements ), with wood ashes ( acetic acid ).  So there should be little issue with cleaning.  But considerable issues, at least right away, with replacement paper.

END

 

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.
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toob lite

TOOB LITE
*
[John, I got your very generous and very welcome care package.  Already read the relocation book, and watched "tomorrow when the war began"-which was much better than I thought it would be.  Much better than the Red Dawn remake.  That will be a "re-watch".  Many thanks!! :) ]

*

I’m pretty sure it was a minion who focused my attention on a Toob Lite, one of those tubes of minerals that, when exposed to sunlight, emits green like a chemical glow tube.  The difference being, this bitch is re-useable.  Forever.  Of course, I was excited about it and so a year or so ago I ordered one for about $13 from Amazon.  After a trial, I ascertained that I could, indeed, see were a Toob Lite was in the dark.  Which was about it, schooling me that a fascinating parlor trick is not worth $13.  Of course, to be fair, the company makes no claim as to it being anything other than a marker, certainly not an illuminator.  It was my expectations which disappointed me, not their claims ( a common problem when I eagerly await an anticipated book, then open it to discover poor writing and a dull presentation to what should have been the most exciting idea since sliced bread ).  Now, frankly, I can’t really see what all the excitement in the survivalist field is about as far as glow sticks go, be they chemically impermanent or rechargeable.  You have the one guy going on and on about how he could use one to go through his gear in his backpack, as they did give off a scant amount of light if held right next to an item.  Okay, I’ll give him that.  But still, just another Nice To Have items you don’t need to be lugging around ( like 90% of all the bug out bag crap out there- do NOT get me started on that again ), and not worth the $13, even if I don’t have something better to spend it on at the moment. 

*

Well, that wonderful minion kept going on about the thing.  Which I certainly don’t mind and actually appreciate because my mind wanders as it is always overloaded and unrelenting repetition keeps me from forgetting or keeps reminding me of a sound idea ( Vlad, I still haven’t gotten airless bike tires, but I don’t forget I need to get them, either.  Thanks to you, on that ).  So, every once in awhile I’d check on the Amazon product or check in with the companies web site ( dudes, if you ever read this, that ad at Survival Blog certainly does help ).  That was when I noticed the decreased price I told you about a month ago.  I started buying one or two a payday, not because I necessarily suddenly thought glow sticks were a better idea, but because $9.95 was a lot more palatable than $13 ( I know it is only physiological ) and I figure two things.  One, a handful of them, as suggested by said minion, will provide SOME illumination and be invaluable in a future where animal fat is needed for eating and sanitation rather than illumination and after batteries are getting scarce.  And two, even if they are only markers rather than illumination, you buy more than one because two is one and one is none and they have got go come in handy for something.  Honestly, the only thing I could fathom was hanging one strategically above the urinal for night time elimination without light or splatter.  But that could just be me in a period of low imaginative properties.  I certainly don’t think you’ll lose money stockpiling them, since they do last forever.  I’m going to say that despite my fault in recognizing uses, they are so revolutionary a consumer item it seems silly to ignore them.  What other stuff performs forever?  Perhaps a solar oven, but that is a bit much more fragile.

*

Now, at one time they were talking about a combo of a Toob and a pulsing LED bulb.  The LED was programmed to pulse at whatever interval and it recharged the Toob, so a single battery lasted a very long time.  It was advertised on the site with a note it was undergoing redevelopment and so not for sale currently.  I didn’t see that this time, but I could have scanned by too quick.  This is something I was lusting after, a Toob at its brightest, all night long.  Usually, you leave it lying in the sun and it shoots out a strong green glow.  Strong enough that at an inch or two you actually get illumination.  Alas, after ten minutes it fades significantly.  So I was looking forward to their flashlight/glow combo.  I guess it just wasn’t feasible for whatever reason.  Perhaps those Chinese bastards can’t make a sturdy enough one.  Anyway, the site does have a video ( I don’t know if it is recent or not-you know I don’t have enough online time ) showing a do-it-yourself version.  Not as handy, granted, but without cost.  They show a flashlight being waved over the Toob and then shut off, and the green being bright enough to read their map by.  They claim ten minutes of practical use, then the need for another flashlight wave.  Obviously, you use less than a minute of flashlight battery verses an hour.  Kind of obvious, which is embarrassing.  Well, I can’t come up with every good idea out there.  You all don’t pay me THAT much.

*

So, obviously, I rushed home to try it.  First off, you need a powerful flashlight.  As luck, the planetary alignment, and Baby Jesus’ love would have it, earlier this week as I wandered down my Amazon Commission purchase list, I noticed a kind and forever more beloved minion had purchased a 1,000 lumen LED flashlight for around $28.  Good God!  I didn’t know they made the suckers so bright.  I’m used to far less, even from my 12v bulb.  Alas, it used C batteries and I’m trying to stick with just the A’s.  So my wish list has a 250 lumen that uses those.  Or maybe it’s a 500.  Anyway, 250 is plenty, and I think that the price of $25 is for three units.  I forget details.  Brand name, also.  I used my penlight and it did squat for charging the Toob.  I tried the overhead bulb and that worked.  I could hold the Toob under each line of text, actually touching the page, and comfortably enough read it.  Good enough test for me.  I didn’t see how long it lasted because I had a bit of glare from the initial light messing with the comfort of reading ( that damn dancing spot you get from looking at a bright light-more pronounced now with age and my need for reading glasses.  I don’t want to break the LED with the Toob waving it around without direction, so I had to look at what I was doing and blinded myself ).  I’ll get the high output flashlight and point it down and away, like they do in the video, muffling the light.  So, there you have it.  As long as your flashlights still work and your solar rechargeable AA batteries keep taking juice ( at a thousand charges, and each charge holding hours of high output light, a battery only used to recharge the Toob could last you years on its lonesome.  With a dozen batteries- a lifetime of light? ), a nice candle substitute indeed.

END

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specialist- generalists

SPECIALISTS IN A GENERALISTS WORLD

In general, a specialist can find employment in a niche of expertise and in general he will always know very little else.  Specialization is a brokered commodity whereas it is hard to find many instances of a generalist being employed for that skill set.  When a behavior is rewarded, you get more of ( except in marriage when you are punished for any behavior, but I shant be distracted with that subject today ).  So, in general, most of us educate in one marketable skill subset and congratulate ourselves on our marvelous intelligence ( because, hey, we got a paycheck to prove it ) and think that anything we touch after that is tarnished by the same level of capability.  So, for instance, every 99 out of a hundred “preppers” or “survivalists” think they are the true blue hot crap super stud one eyed kings in the valley of the blind and will rise to the top after an apocalypse like sweet cream to rule all they survey- all after reading how freeze dried foods and semi-automatics ( and let us not forget a genset! ) make them prepared for any disaster brewing.  I was one of them ( albeit at a slightly lower income/equipment scale ).  I look back at my level of ignorance when first preparing to survive and thank all the gods they postponed judgment day for my sake.  Luckily, my writing from back then mostly holds up as my bailiwick was more economic and political.  But my personal preps were a mess. 

*

How I thought I could feed and defend the family on 400 pounds of wheat and two hundred or so rounds of pistol ammo ( all I had time to buy before The Evil Wife thrust her impossibly large bosom into my face and hypnotized me for a few years, then rudely withdrew them and shocked me awake into a nightmare of lesser bosoms until now here I am wishing for any bosoms ) was laughable.  I got the wheat part right, and then turned right around and screwed it up by pissing away $500 on a single firearm.  Why?  Because that was what serious survivalists owned.  That was a real gun.  For the same money I could have bought two war surplus rifles, an old revolver, hundreds of rounds of surplus ammo and, literally, a ton of wheat ( this was the late eighties.  $50 rifles, $79 revolvers, $8 per hundred pounds of wheat with plastic buckets begging for homes for free ).  Why didn’t I?  Simply because I didn’t know any better, and because I thought I didn’t need more than what I had.  I was following conventional advice, which never took into account several different generalized studies needed for system wide operations and failures understanding.  Survivalism was taught by self stylized experts in the 70’s from knowledge decades old at the time.  And the lessons from that decade never were incorporated.  We are still being taught immediate post World War Two levels of understanding in attempting to evaluate and respond to life threatening dangers.  Most survivalists are still following a specialist, and relying on him/her for the facts, understandably as no one has time to learn everything on their own.  I did it because I had nothing but time and it related to writing- my ego inflator and stress reliever.  And it was a slow process.  I can hardly expect every aspiring survivor to emulate it- and not that they would anyway, as it goes against their built in prejudice towards specialization.  But it is a shame.  It was/is a very interesting trip indeed. 

END

 

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Over five years of work and nearly two million words of pure brilliance. Here is the link to order:
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consuming to invest 2

CONSUMING TO INVEST 2

INTRODUCTION

CONTINUED

Consumerism has always been rampant in survivalism.  Those cans of ammunition are not a cottage industry item.  And when you don’t live on a farm, but can buy a weeks eating worth of wheat for a few minutes of paycheck of course it seems prudent to buy it rather than grow it.  As I’ve covered way too many times, it takes almost no financial effort to stockpile a bare-bones survival stash.  The problem isn’t consuming for basics.  We all do it and it would be a problem if you didn’t.  The problem is how we go about spending our money after the basics are procured.  How do we turn our soon to be rendered worthless Greenbacks ( I can guarantee you-and I’ll wager each and everyone of you a jelly filled donut-that the dollars fall, already underway as nearly every other producing nation is quietly sidestepping our currency, will not be all that far away and that when it happens the War Of Northern Aggression and the Great Depression will be fond memories in comparison.  Set aside the propaganda of frack oil- without oil imports, some of us are going to starve because of failed farm inputs or failed transportation.  When that happens, it is nation wide insurrection, famine and pestilence, ethnic cleansing and suburbs aflame ) into an investment rather than future toilet paper?  The answer so far has been to just consume.  Far better to buy something tangible than have the money wasted by hyperinflation.

*

I would stipulate to you, fine readers, that while we are all indeed doing this as quickly as possible and it is the very rational response to a problem, we aren’t doing it very intelligently.  We are haphazardly just buying in a mad frenzy prior to the petro-dollar black hole opening, trying to get rid of the green sonsabitches as quick as we can.  I know you are, don’t fib.  90% of my writing revenue is from Amazon commissions, which means that the $100 I just got on an averaged basis last month was the net of sixteen times that in gross sales.  Nothing to be ashamed of- a pile of currency is always and forever null and void sometime in its history.  All I’m saying is, are you spending it just to spend it, triple and quadrupling your survival stash?  Or are you investing it?  After all your beans and bullets are stacked to a certain height, it is time to start consuming to invest. 

*

Survival investing is learning a trade.  Look, we can’t stockpile enough for the rest of our lives.  And investing in fertile farmland is realistically outside most of our means.  So you do the other option, which is to stockpile a crap ton of wheat ( I’d start at five years worth and strive for ten.  That cost two weeks minimum wage salary, or a months worth, respectively.  ANYONE can stockpile five years worth of food ) AND have a useful trade, with tools and experience, to join a community after the die-off as a productive member.  Far too many of us have worthless modern skills that don’t translate over to agrarian solar economies OR, don’t even have that but own a lot of guns.  To survive, you must be useful to others and also be semi-independent as that will not always be an option ( raids, crop failures, the initial die-off ).  And I’m not talking about hard to master skills, or modern skills.  Look at all the slack jawed drooling idiots in the past that were able to master all the old timey skills and trades.  You can too.  And they will be fun hobbies that make you money or enable you to barter.  With very little upfront investment.  Certainly much lower than that five years of wheat or that gun and ammo stash.  And, no, I do NOT advocate retaining, training or mastering modern skills.  A mechanic?  Why?  Our fuels are contaminated with ethanol and in six months after supplies cease coming in you can’t drive anywhere.  And you most likely won’t be using ethanol as the sole fuel to keep engines running because without farm foods being shipped to our cities, the population in your farm community won’t be able to spare food for fuels ( the urban masses will be infesting your locale, or your soil needs petro-inputs, or both ).  Fuel self-sufficiency is a wet dream that won’t even be viable in a hidden valley in the mountains, as spare parts won’t arrive.  Sooner or later, your machines don’t run.  Why will you want to feed a guy to fix them?  Who needs a combat soldier or Special Forces guy?  What good are they, without high-tech communications or lots of ammunition?  Most communities will just do a quick and dirty on the job training and have plenty of combat experienced soldiers left on hand.  Communications expert/shortwave radio guy?  For as long as your batteries last.  Maybe.  All those jars of homemade batteries I see are equal to about a AAA and take a lot of copper and other metals.  They don’t make a 12v deep cycle 800 amp battery.  Do you see where I am going with this?  Modern skills need modern equipment, and those are higher enough tech to preclude most from reproducing them.  It will be hard enough to duplicate 18^th century equipment, let alone 20^th, and forget about 21^st.  Remember, the ores have been depleted to the point it takes heavy machinery to extract.

*

So we will stick with the lower tech skills.  And, to help you save money to buy those skills tools, a section on investing in items now to save on buying consumables later.  So we have two areas here.  Consuming to replace consumables ( obvious example-clothe napkins are a one time purchase and save buying paper ones continuously ) which saves money.  They aren’t per se investments for after the crash.  They allow you to free up cash to invest elsewhere.  And then, timeless skills that others will need in your community, all of which can be fun hobbies now that pay a little to keep you learning and investing in their tools.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.
*

The Old Bison Blog on CD 
Over five years of work and nearly two million words of pure brilliance. Here is the link to order:
http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00KX7Z1I                        

Also as a free e-book, but not cleaned up or organized, at Lulu

*
Contact Information

 Links To Others,

 Top 20 Survivalist Fiction,

 Land In Elko,

 Lord Bison,

 my bio & biblio
*
My books on PDF ( ALL free!!  If you like it, most are available for sale in paper versions )  available at
http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=james++dakin&sorter=relevance-desc
*
By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.