Day: August 3, 2009

A Vault Full of Hedges: Tangibles, Tangibles, Tangibles!

My gun vault down in Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) is now full. It is a large vault (a Zanotti ZA-III modular six-footer) but it isn’t big enough. For more than 30 years, I’ve been accumulating barterable tangibles: guns, full capacity magazines, precious metals, optics, and knives. Each of these represents a fairly compact and liquid asset. They all have practical uses, although the coins and ingots are more of a medium of exchange rather than something intrinsically useful in and of themselves. (Oh, I suppose the silver could be melted down, cast into bullets, and put …


Letter Re: Increasing Security for an 1870s House

Hello Jim, My family and I have been offered a great price on a house ($7K,000 for a 3,400-square-foot two-story house, built in 1876, with a full basement and large backyard–the house was originally on the market for $104,000, but the seller hasn’t had any offers in three years, since the housing market crashed) in a small city with open spaces less than an hour’s walk away if bugging out should become necessary. However, the bigger appeal of this house is the ample space it provides for us and a few other family members, a large backyard for gardening and …


Two Letters Re: Here Comes Winter!

Dear JWR, I enjoyed the great advice from Peter H. on being prepared in the winter. As a life-long Chicagoan and having spent lots of time snowmobiling in upper Wisconsin, please let me offer a few additional tips on dressing for cold weather. Keeping warm in the cold is all about layering underneath and waterproof on the outside. I prefer cotton clothes to the newer athletic-type wicking clothes which don’t seem to hold the heat as well. Start with cotton long underwear which is snug but not too tight. A second pair of long underwear is all you should need …



Economics and Investing:

Eugene in Anaheim sent this: New Cash Steered to Clunkers Thanks to Karen H. for this: America’s Recession ‘Safe Zone’ Shrinking From The Daily Bell: Bob Chapman on gold, silver, a bank holiday and the monetary elite Regulators shut down banks in five states; Regulators close banks in Fla., NJ, Ohio, Okla., Ill.; 69 US bank failures this year Items from The Economatrix: Weiss: Urgent Financial and Economic Crisis Investment Strategy Update “It’s only fair to acknowledge that the economic depression I foresaw in my book and in my reports is unfolding more slowly than I had expected. … the …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Karen H. recommended this piece over at the Utah Prepper’s site: Making Better Char Cloth    o o o Trent H. and GG were the first of nearly a dozen readers to send us this Wall Street Journal piece that is right up our alley: Hollywood Destroys the World The new wave of disaster movies and TV shows isn’t about staving off the apocalypse. It’s what happens afterwards that counts. Viggo Mortensen versus the cannibals.    o o o SurvivalBlog just became a featured blog at AmmoLand.com    o o o What part of “no jurisdiction” don’t they understand? Up …