Preparedness Notes for Monday — August 2, 2021

August 2nd was the birthday of Peter O’Toole (1932–2013). When his name is mentioned, Lawrence of Arabia immediately comes to mind. But one of my favorites was his 1971 film titled Murphy’s War. That has some very memorable seaplane flying scenes.

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I’ve recently added eight guns, over at Elk Creek Company. And I have several more new acquisitions to add soon, including several stainless steel Ruger Old Army percussion revolvers. Take a look. Keep in mind that we now take payments both in pre-1965 U.S. silver coinage, or in Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) at a multiplier that changes often, to match the volatile global spot silver market. The current multiplier is 21 times the silver coin face value, if you are paying by check or money order.  Thus, if I have a gun priced as $30 in silver, it would be $630, in FRNs. Please note that some of the guns are priced as low as $16.50 “face” in pre-’65 silver coin! For anyone who truly believes in tangibles investing, trading silver for quality antique guns can be a solid investment. And, for anyone who started stacking silver back when it was less than $20 per ounce, my pre-1899 guns are a bargain!

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Today, another review by our Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.

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But up first are the results of the most recent round of our writing contest. Our congratulations to the winners. – JWR

Writing Contest Winners Announced: Round 95

We’ve completed the judging for Round 95 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prize winners are:

First Prize:

First prize is awarded to S.B. for An Electric Car for TEOTWAWKI? (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) published on June 3-4-5, 2021. He will receive the following prizes:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

Second prize is awarded to K.R., for Raising Beef on a Small Homestead – Part 1 and Part 2 published on June 25-26, 2021. He will receive the following prizes:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. An Israeli CBRN Gas Mask with Hydration Straw and two Extra 40mm NATO Filter s – Manufactured in 2020 (a $229.99 value), courtesy of McGuire Army-Navy.
  5. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  6. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

Third prize is awarded to Autumn D., for her article For the Love of Bread, published on July 13, 2021. She will receive the following prizes:

    1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
    2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
    3. Siege Stoves is generously donating a SIEGE® STOVE kit, including a Titanium Gen 3 Flat-Pack Stove with titanium Cross-Members and a variety of bonus items including a Large Folding Grill, a pair of Side Toasters, a Compact Fire Poker, and an extra set of stainless steel universal Cross-Members. (In all, a $200 value.)
    4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
    5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Honorable Mention Prizes:

Honorable Mention Prizes — a transferable $100 FRN purchase credit toward the purchase of any antique gun or percussion replica gun from Elk Creek Company — have been awarded for the following 12 articles:

CRKT Ripsnort, by Pat Cascio

I like knives, all kinds of knives, big or small, or everything in the middle…even “ugly” knives are a sight to behold if you ask me. However, I’m not sure where the CRKT Ripsnort comes into the play. To be sure, it is a big knife – well, mostly big…and some would say its an ugly knife – I’m not sure where this fits into my idea of ugly – maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.

I’ve been covering CRKT products since their second year in business, and one thing for certain is, they produce a wide variety of knives – something for everyone. And, they are having their knives produced at very affordable price points. Please note that the knife under review is produced in mainland China for CRKT. Over the years, I’m sure I’ve tested literally hundreds of CRKT knives, and was never disappointed with any of them. However, this time around, I’m a little puzzled by the Ripsnort. No doubt about it, it’s an outstanding design, and one that will have a lot of utility purposes. Still, I’m not sure about this one.

I can usually be caught carrying two folding pocket knives on my person, one in each of the front pockets of my cargo pants. And, when I reach for a folder, I don’t always reach for the one in my right front pocket – just depends on things. I have a lot of keys in my left front pocket, so it is already crowded in there. So, big knives don’t always fit neatly in that left front pocket.

So, with that in mind, I placed the rather large Ripsnort in my right front pocket, and the other thinner, smaller folder in my left front pocket. Still, the Ripsnort took up a lot of room in my right front pocket, but not a deal-breaker at all.

The specs on the Ripsnort are as follows: Blade length is 3.25-inches long – yeah, it doesn’t sound “big” to many readers. However, the blade and the entire knife is wide – beefy, to say the least. Takes a lot of room in a pocket. It is only available with a plain edge – no serrations. The blade of the main Ripsnort model is 8Cr13MoV steel – a pretty nice stainless steel, that doesn’t cost a lot, yet it holds an edge a good long time, and is easy to re-sharpen. One of my past editors at a knife magazine once told me that a knife can’t both hold an edge a long time, and be easy to re-sharpen – he was wrong! Overall length of this folder is 7.75-inches, when opened and closed 4.47-inches – still doesn’t sound “that” big, does it? The entire package weighs in at 5.80-ounces. That still doesn’t sound too big, or too heavy.Continue reading“CRKT Ripsnort, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: Plain Soft Custard

The following recipe for Plain Soft Custard is from The New Butterick Cookbook, published in 1924, It is now in the public domain.

A custard is a mixture of cooked egg and milk, flavored. Starchy material is sometimes used to replace part of the eggs. Custards are classified according to the method used in cooking them; those cooked over hot water and stirred throughout the cooking process are known as soft or stirred custards-erroneously, as boiled custards; those set in hot water and cooked in the oven (oven-poaching) are firm or baked custards.

The firmness of a custard depends on the proportion of eggs to milk. The finest-grained custards are those in which the yolks predominate.

Ingredients
  • 2 cups scalded milk
  • 2 whole eggs or
  • 4 egg-yoiks
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Directions

Scald the milk in the top of the double boiler. Beat together slightly the eggs, sugar and salt. Add the hot milk to the egg mixture, mix thoroughly and return to the top of the double boiler. Cook over hot waler, stirring constantly until the egg coats the spoon.

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at investing in military surplus rifles. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Silver Price Forecast: Back into the Teens?

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Inflation climbs higher, but gold closes sharply lower.

Economy & Finance:

On Friday, the U.S. Senate advanced the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill with a 66-28 vote. JWR’s Comment: This is another trillion-dollar boondoggle that will help further destroy the value of the U.S. dollar.

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At Zero Hedge:

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WSJ: How a Landlord Making $75,000 a Year Could End Up in the Millionaire Tax Bracket.

o  o  o

Wolf Richter: My Thoughts on the Fed’s Back-to-the-Future “Standing Repo Facilities” Announced Today.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“’Runner’s World‘, like many magazines, has become a print chatroom for disenfranchised women, minorities, and men so feminized they are practically lactating. Every article portrays runners as victims of oppression, racism, and sexism thanks to white guys like me. You may be sporting $250 running shoes while sipping $10 lattes and talking on your $1000 smart phone all financed with student loans, but you are still a victim of evil capitalism. The woke movement infecting America is more dangerous than the CCP virus because rather than being aerosolized in respiratory secretions, it is spread by thought. Social justice authors could be thousands of miles from your living room but if you read their writings and suffer the comorbidities of being spineless or college indoctrinated, you will become infected. America is being killed by a disease for which there is no shot, plus it is resistant to hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Grow a spine and reject the Marxist woke movement on every front, in every form and at every opportunity” –  Montana State Representative Dr. Kratyon Kerns, DVM

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — August 1, 2021

August 1st is celebrated as Swiss Independence Day, in recognition of the signing of the Federal Charter of 1291, which united Switzerland’s first three cantons. As of 2021, Switzerland has been free and independent for 730 years. Having a well-armed populace has assured that.

Today is also the anniversary of the general uprising against the German occupation, in Warsaw, in 1944. Like the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto uprising in April of 1943, it was doomed to failure. The uprising was eventually crushed, with massive civilian casualties. There was no support provided by the Allies. The advancing Soviet Red Army–just a few miles to the east–merely waited and watched. It was in their best interest to stand by and witness the remnants of the Polish Army deplete themselves against the German Wehrmacht.

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Today, Sunday, August 1st, 2021 is the last day to bid on the auctions of three particularly nice guns from my personal collection, on GunBroker.com. The auction are being run by a friend who has an FFL. These auctions end this evening. Take a look. I hope that you’ll consider bidding:

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today, we begin Round 96 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  5. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  6. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  7. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Siege Stoves is generously donating a SIEGE® STOVE kit, including a Titanium Gen 3 Flat-Pack Stove with titanium Cross-Members and a variety of bonus items including a Large Folding Grill, a pair of Side Toasters, a Compact Fire Poker, and an extra set of stainless steel universal Cross-Members. (In all, a $200 value.)
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Honorable Mention:

A transferable $100 FRN purchase credit toward the purchase of any antique or percussion replica gun from Elk Creek Company will be awarded to each Honorable Mention prize winner.

Round 96 ends on September 30, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Live Not by Lies – Part 2, by Born Free

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)

Please forgive me for quoting Solzhenitsyn extensively. But I have not found more clarity anywhere, which really means I haven’t done enough research to seek out other dissidents in history. This man did nothing more, as a Russian soldier, than correspond with a friend who happened to be a soldier for “the other side”. That was it. That was his great sin that landed him in a prison camp! His private correspondence (think e-mail, text, Internet posts) was nothing more than criticism of how “the state” was handling things – and the letters were intercepted (think Patriot Act and our NSA/CIA/FBI). He merely spoke his mind. He was not a murderer or a traitor.

Note: It’s on my reading list to read through the more recent book Live Not by Lies written by Rod Dreher. I’m writing this article of the same title before reading his book, but apparently, he interviewed Americans who grew up under Communism, retelling what they are seeing in America, and also quotes Solzhenitsyn. We should all probably read this book – I’m reading it now.

GOING ALONG TO GET ALONG?

My biggest point is: going along to get along is not going to work for you if the globalists have their way. We must stand now, not creep in the shadows avoiding conflict, standing for nothing but our own self-preservation. I very much admire self-preservation, but not by acquiescing to lies. If it’s a lie, call it out, on every front! I’ve written here before, advocating for “Going Galt”, “Irish Democracy”, general wholesale noncompliance with unConstitutional laws, and throwing as much sand in the gears of the State as we possibly can. But, I wanted to ensure that we all reflect upon what it means if we don’t do anything but lay low. We will eventually be stripped of every freedom we now enjoy.

Think it through. If we simply, “head for the hills”, which I am very inclined to do, and let the cities burn, the countrysides will burn too, and eventually the very hills we hide in will be firebombed. Count on it. Note that the current Resident of the White House let us all know that if we attempt an insurrection, our Constitutional right to throw off a despotic government, that we’d be up against F15’s and nukes… yes, he said that. So take note.Continue reading“Live Not by Lies – Part 2, by Born Free”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.

And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister.” – Acts 13:1-5 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — July 31, 2021

July 31st is the birthday of free-market economist Milton Friedman (born 1912, died November 16, 2006.)

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A reminder: I sell antique guns, through Elk Creek Company — my home-based mail order business. Per Federal law, these guns do not require an FFL, and are also exempt from paperwork under most state laws. But occasionally, I upgrade my personal gun collection, and consequently sell a few excess modern (post-1898) guns through a trusted friend who has a FFL. He is running auctions on three particularly nice guns from my collection, on GunBroker.com. Take a look. I hope that you’ll consider bidding:

Note: These auctions are scheduled to end on the evening of Sunday, August 1st, 2021.

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Today we are pleased to present the regular monthly precious metals column by Steven Cochran of Gainesville Coins. We are grateful for his writing efforts. Please consider Gainesville Coins whenever you want to expand your holdings of precious metals. They also buy coins, at current market prices.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 95 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. An Israeli CBRN Gas Mask with Hydration Straw and two Extra 40mm NATO Filter s – Manufactured in 2020 (a $229.99 value), courtesy of McGuire Army-Navy.
  5. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  6. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Siege Stoves is generously donating a SIEGE® STOVE kit, including a Titanium Gen 3 Flat-Pack Stove with titanium Cross-Members and a variety of bonus items including a Large Folding Grill, a pair of Side Toasters, a Compact Fire Poker, and an extra set of stainless steel universal Cross-Members. (In all, a $200 value.)
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 95 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Live Not by Lies – Part 1, by Born Free

In the past few years, we have all witnessed Internet censorship, up to and including the censorship of the President of the United States. My initial reaction was, “Who cares? We don’t need the media in order to live our lives! Turn it all off. Ignore them!” Then, the stories started trickling out, mostly on alternative media platforms and via individual blogger websites. It wasn’t just the popular media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, WordPress, Reddit, etc.), the mainstream media organizations (CNN, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.), major payment processors (PayPal, for one), e-mail providers (Mailchimp, for one), web hosting providers, and the major newspapers (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, etc.), that were censoring competing or conflicting opinions and promoting “the party line”. People were actually being fired from their jobs for merely expressing their own opinions.

There was and is an uptick in violence against people who, for instance, simply have an American flag flying on their own property. We’ve all heard about the BLM and Antifa riots, which are ongoing still, occurring unimpeded in many places. Many have been arrested, but then released immediately back into the communities without any serious charges. The latest news, of course, is the fact that the China virus did, plausibly, escape a lab where gain of function research had been ongoing (and in part, funded by our own government).

And separately, but related, that Covid-19 immunity is gained by having had the virus, and therefore just as effective in protecting an individual as actually taking the covid-19 “vaccine”, that the “cure” is often more debilitating than the disease, etc. Also, recently, we learned that in fact hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin are effective in combatting Covid-19 and only conspiracy theorists, last year, believed that (/sarc). (And I won’t even mention that a Presidential election was stolen in broad daylight in the middle of a made up Pandemic, and that all Trump supporters are being blamed for a fake insurrection that the FBI – Federal Bureau of Insurrections – most likely participated in). The insanity of the past few years is mind boggling. So many lies, so little time.Continue reading“Live Not by Lies – Part 1, by Born Free”

July 2021 in Precious Metals, by Steven Cochran

Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover gold’s performance, and the factors that affected gold prices.

What Did Gold Do in July?

Gold started July at $1,770 an ounce, which would be the low for the month. Gold’s price action would be determined by two things in July: the strength of the 10-year Treasury note, and the strength of the dollar.
Gold grinded higher the first week of July, closing at $1,802 on the 7th. This was gold’s first close above $1,800 since mid-June. The yield on the 10-year Treasury tanked to 1.25% on July 8, from above 1.4% to start the month. Gold spiked to $1,819, which triggered a wave of profit taking. Prices settled down less than two dollars, at $1,800.

Gold gained $29 over the next five days, peaking at a $1,829.00 settlement on the 15th. Gold prices eased over the next few days, until it settled at $1,799.2 on the 26th. It spent the next three days flat at $1,799 until the 29th, when it burst $31 higher to settle at $1,835.80, the high for the month. It gave up half of that on the 30th, to end July $45 higher, at $1817.20.

Factors Affecting Gold This Month

BOND YIELDS
The 10-year Treasury note saw heavy buying through the month, never even seeing a 1.5% yield. Perhaps even more than the dollar, Treasury yields had a large effect on gold prices in July.

Low yields for the 10-year Treasury note means that yields on corporate debt have fallen as well. Not only is AAA corporate bonds paying next to nothing, even high-yield junk bonds are paying less than 5%.
All in all, the bond market doesn’t see inflation being a long term problem.This continues to confound analysts who expect inflation to remain high. Economists say that these abnormally low yields give the Fed no other option but to keep the money printer going.

DELTA COVID
The Delta strain of COVID that was discovered in India has steam rollered over Europe and North America, leading to renewed lockdowns mask mandates.
Several analysts are saying that the delta COVID outbreak has lowered economic expectations, but not as much as the original outbreak did. This is because many people have gotten the COVID vaccine. Because delta is a new strain, “breakthrough infections” are being reported among vaccinated people, but cases are mild enough that they don’t require hospitalization.

INFLATION FEARS
Supply chain disruptions are still the scapegoat for present inflation rates, but things don’t seem to be getting back to normal as quickly as hoped. Home prices and car prices are two of the obvious culprits for recent inflation spikes, but get ready for food shortages soon, as droughts and floods and extreme weather destroy crops. Some restaurants are beginning to take scallops and other seafood items off the menu, due to sharply higher prices.
But, looking at bond yields, the market seems to believe the Fed that this is all temporary.Continue reading“July 2021 in Precious Metals, by Steven Cochran”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in this column, in the Odds ‘n Sods Column, and in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

I’ve been quite busy with slash hauling, all through the past week.  In addition to the limbs from the deadstanding trees that I’ve recently harvested, I’m also cleaning up deadfallen limbs and lopping off the dozens of little firs and pines that were snow-squashed in the past two winters, and now growing at or near horizontal. There is virtually no chance that these squashed volunteers will ever grow up straight and tall. And, since they are a significant wildfire “laddering” risk, it is best that they get cut and hauled out to one of our pasture burn piles, to be touched off after the fall rains begin. Typically, I burn slash in mid-October, just before the opening of deer and elk season.

My cross-fencing project was nearly stalled by the aforementioned slash hauling. I also had the distractions of some calf dehorning, and helping Lily plant a few sapling trees that we bought in 8-gallon pots. The only progress that I made on the cross fence was moving and positioning some small boulders, as resting stones for the open and closed positions of the new gates. These stones are typically about 18″ in diameter, and carefully chosen to have at least one flat side. Two or more flat sides is better, and two flat sides plus a naturally-occurring notch gets bonus points, in my book. They are too heavy to lift by hand, so I simply roll them onto a cedar slab stone boat that I built 15 years ago. I can drag this stoneboat with any of our ATVs. I also bought another 8-foot tube gate for the far end of the cross fence. I like to have a gate located once every 400 feet (or less), for the sake of efficient cattle pasture rotation and to allow vehicle access for various tasks. And, of course, we like to have plenty of gates to facilitate horseback trail riding, bicycling, hiking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing.

There is always a list of pending projects here at the Rawles Ranch.  The list gets shorter in winter and longer in the summer.  But these activities are almost always fun, and almost invariably they are great exercise. Who needs to buy a gym membership when you get to drive T-posts, wrestle around tree stumps, dig postholes, split firewood, and lift 90-pound potted trees?  Fun, fun!  Now, over to Lily…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”