Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today’s focus is on $100 Bills. (See the Economy & Finance section.)

Precious Metals:

Only The Fed Could Kill Gold Now – Analyst

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Do you like nuggets? Here is a great collection of photos, sent to us by reader H.L.: The most gigantic gold finds of all time

 

Economy & Finance:

Next, over at Seeking Alpha: An Honest Look At Recession Risk – A Simple Model Tells You How Close We Are

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The Fed Chair Just Admitted On Record That The US is Heading For a Debt Crisis. (Thanks to H.L. for the link.)

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Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“INDECISION, n. The chief element of success; “for whereas,” saith Sir Thomas Brewbold, “there is but one way to do nothing and divers way to do something, whereof, to a surety, only one is the right way, it followeth that he who from indecision standeth still hath not so many chances of going astray as he who pusheth forwards” –a most clear and satisfactory exposition on the matter.
“Your prompt decision to attack,” said Genera Grant on a certain occasion to General Gordon Granger, “was admirable; you had but five minutes to make up your mind in.”
“Yes, sir,” answered the victorious subordinate, “it is a great thing to be know exactly what to do in an emergency. When in doubt whether to attack or retreat I never hesitate a moment –I toss us a copper.”
“Do you mean to say that’s what you did this time?”
“Yes, General; but for Heaven’s sake don’t reprimand me: I disobeyed the coin.” – Ambrose Bierce

 

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – March 5, 2019

We are sad to report the death of actor Luke Perry, on Monday, following a massive stroke a few days earlier. He starred in the quasi-survivalist television series titled Jeremiah. Season 2 of the series is available free for Amazon Prime members. For Season 1, you have to pay. On Hulu, both Season 1 and Season 2 are included with a Hulu subscription. Here’s a description of the series from IMDB: “In a post-apocalyptic future, a deadly virus has wiped out most of humanity. The only ones who survived, were those who hadn’t yet reached puberty. Now, a decade has gone by, and a man called Jeremiah is set on a quest to find a mysterious place, of which his father spoke, a place called Valhalla.”  (Thanks to Marco for letting us know of Luke Perry’s death.)

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This is the birthday of Howard Pyle (1853-1911) an influential American book illustrator, painter, and author. He was the mentor of many great American artists including Thornton Oakley, Frank E. Schoonover, Allen Tupper True, and of course N.C. Wyeth.

This is also the birthday of Momofuku Ando (born, 1910) the Taiwanese-Japanese inventor of instant noodles and Cup-O-Noodles, born in Wu Baifu, Taiwan. He died in 2007.

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Today, with permission, we present a guest article on livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) by Kit Perez. She is one of the editors of the excellent American Partisan. I highly recommend bookmarking that site and especially watching for articles written by Kit.

Protecting Your Farm Animals With a LGD, by Kit Perez

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If you’re serious about prepping and/or homesteading, chances are you have some animals on your property. Maybe it’s just a few chickens for eggs; maybe you have some other birds as well. You might have a beef steer or heifer, pigs, or even some goats or sheep. There’s a huge variety of animals to get, and just as many reasons to get them: meat, milk, wool, whatever. The point is that if you’ve taken on the responsibility (and privilege) of raising animals, then you’ve also taken on the responsibility of protecting them from predators. Anyone who’s raised chickens for a long time has probably lost at least one to hawks, foxes, raccoons, or some other hungry outdoor resident. Those who raise larger stock have bigger things — literally — to worry about, depending on the area they live in.

Sure, you could make sure you’re armed when you’re outside (and you’re armed all the time, right?) but you’re not out with your animals 24-7, and fences, pens, and coops only do so much to keep your animals safe. How can you protect them when you aren’t around?

The single best way to do that is with a livestock guardian dog, or LGD.

LGD vs. Farm Dog

A lot of farms have dogs, but an LGD is an entirely different kind of animal — and only select breeds of dog can do this work. Bred from thousands of years of work in austere conditions guarding livestock, the LGD is not “your” dog. They don’t bond to you the same way as other dogs, they don’t seek to please you, and they don’t much care what you think; in fact, they can be quite apathetic toward you, preferring the company of their stock. If properly trained, they are completely bonded to your animals, which becomes their pack of sorts. They spend every minute of every day with their animals, and they are bred to think independently. They can follow basic commands (and should be taught a recall command and a few things like “sit” to make the rare farm visit from the vet a bit easier), but for the most part their job is to evaluate threats on the property, deter them through barking and aggressive posturing, and if that doesn’t work, confront and even kill them — no matter what it is or where you are at the time. Their entire purpose in life is the safety of their animals, and they will do whatever it takes to fulfill that role even if it means fighting something much bigger than they are.

Continue reading“Protecting Your Farm Animals With a LGD, by Kit Perez”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies of interest to preppers that are located in the region. The emphasis this week is on railroads, rail bikes, and rails-to-trails in the American Redoubt.  The region has a rich history of railroads.  Many  “branch ” (Class III) railroads were and still are used to haul grain, ore, logs, and lumber. (A hat tip to reader JML, who sent me the initial link that piqued my interest in rail biking and rails to trails.)

Region-Wide

Any time after April 5th, I recommend visiting the Inland Northwest Rail Museum, in Rearden, Washington. (25 miles west of Spokane.) The museum is closed in winter.

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Active & Abandoned Railroads of the Pacific Northwest

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The biggest railroad in the Redoubt is Warren Buffet’s railroad: BNSF.  (Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad for $44 billion in 2009.) Oh, and they’re hiring.

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On the Beauty and the Beta podcast: Among other topics, a discussion of H.R. 8. (Matt Christiansen lives in Montana and his co-host lives in Idaho.) You can skip forward to the 1:16 mark.  That part of their discussion ends at 1:27:30.)

Idaho

Idaho Rail to Trail.

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Idaho Railroad Jobs

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In Idaho, Sandpoint is the “funnel” for railroads.

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Here is one statistic where Redoubt does not fare well: States With The Most Drunk Drivers.  JWR’s Comments:  Note that these statistics may be skewed. Perhaps it should be titled: States Where The Most Drunk Drivers Get Caught. You see, the driving distances to the local watering holes can stretch to 30+ miles in much of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. So the gendarmes have more time to spot and follow lane-weaving drivers. There are very few taxi services that serve small towns. And public transit buses and light rail? Ha! There are very few. I suspect that the level of drunkenness is nearly as high in urban states.

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And at Redoubt News, there is this: Idaho HB 17 – Grocery Tax Credit. The article ends with this warning: “I advise you to be wary of any bill that has had major controversy around it for years, then is randomly passed unanimously by both the house and the senate and signed into law with no hiccups.”

 

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”.  Today, we focus on U.S. Population Density.  The featured image is a composite photo of the lights of North America at night.  Some pictures truly are worth a thousand words.

Insured Against Cataclysm?

First up, over at Wired: Post-Apocalyptic Insurers Try Out a New ‘Make it Rain’ Strategy.  Here is a quote:

“Typical insurance, the kind you probably have on your car or home, helps with this, but it is slooooow. It pays out only after you make a claim and get a valuation of the damages—and then you still have to wait for the check. That’s not much help if you’re wading through floodwater.

Insurers have figured out a way to speed that up—by restructuring the system. Forget about claims and adjustment; with these new kinds of policies, all it takes to get the financial ball rolling is the occurrence of a trigger, a previously agreed-upon event: an earthquake of sufficient size, say, or a hurricane with winds of a given speed. It’s called “parametric insurance,” and if one of those hazard parameters gets met, every policy holder downrange of the trigger gets an automatic payment of a set amount. Pow.”

Visualizing 200 Years of U.S. Population Density

Peter sent us a link to this item: Animation: Visualizing 200 Years of U.S. Population Density.  JWR’s Comments: It is fascinating watching this well-researched and detailed animation play through. You will notice a great huge gap in their map: The American Redoubt. The population density here–outside of a few cities like Spokane and Boise–is amazingly low, even to this day.

Facebook Eliminated 1.5 Billion Page-Views to Conservative Sites

I spotted this linked over at Free Zoxee Friends: Facebook Eliminated Over One Billion Page-Views to Conservative Websites in 2018 – Now, Thanks to James O’Keefe, We Have Proof This Was The Plan.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”

Preparedness Notes for Monday — March 4, 2019

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Today is the birthday of James Ellroy (b. 1948), an American noir novelist. He authored L.A. Confidential, which later became a popular film.

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I was just told that the family that is handing fulfillment of orders for our latest 16GB waterproof SurvivalBlog Archive USB sticks has fully caught up on mailing out orders. So if you order soon, your package should be mailed out within the next two to three working days. Note that there is up to a 2-week delay for orders paid by check. We started out with 1,500 sticks in mid-January. We now have less than 400 370 left. Don’t miss out!

Savage Axis .30-06 and Trigger Kit, by Pat Cascio

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I’m a sucker for a great deal on firearms, and my local gun shop knows this. They are always putting guns in my hands. One really caught my attention: the Savage Arms Axis chambered in 30-06. That is one of my favorite big game cartridges.

I don’t get out and do a lot of hunting these days, however when I do, its usually for deer, or black bear, and my all-time favorite caliber is .30-06. It’ll get the job done – every single time – with the right bullet placement, and the right bullet.

I completely missed hunting this past year in Oregon, I was so busy with articles and testing products that hunting season passed me by. I was hoping to get some venison canned and jerked, but it just didn’t happen.

The Venerable Aught Six

The .30-06 round has now been with us for more than a century, and it is a favorite of big game hunters all over the USA. It’s a proven round from being used in world wars, to being used as a sniper round, to target shooting and of course, hunting big game. I spent a little time up in a Native Village in Alaska, as a police officer, and found that most of the population sported some kind of modified military rifle – Enfield in .303 – from WW2 – or a 30-06 for their moose hunting – two good choices if you ask me. I personally just like going out and doing some target shooting with one of my .30-06 rifles – it won’t beat me to death like many of the magnum calibers will.

An often overlooked rifle is the Savage Arms Models – in various iterations – but lately it seems like the Model 110 and Model 111 are the hot sellers. Then we have to distinguish if it is an Axis or an Axis II model. The biggest difference between them is that, the Axis II has the user adjustable trigger pull, the Axis doesn’t. You can get an Axis with a decent trigger pull, or one that is heavy. In the case of the Axis I got from my local gun shop – used – it was a like-new rifle, with a camo stock, and came with a factory mounted Weaver 3-9×30 scope, and it had a horrible trigger pull – it was at 7-lbs – it felt stiff. Then again, I got the gun for only $225– so I wasn’t too worried about the heavy trigger pull. That could be corrected.

The Axis is a bolt-action rifle that comes in various calibers. It has a matte black barrel and receiver, and has a nice camo stock.  The barrel is only 22-inches and the gun is fairly light-weight at 7.3-lbs. It has a detachable 4-round magazine, and the overall length is 42.5-inches. There is a recoil absorbing pad on the end of the stock, that worked quite well, too. Not that I’ve ever found the .30-06 recoil all that punishing. All in all, I was very pleased with my purchase.

Continue reading“Savage Axis .30-06 and Trigger Kit, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: Avalanche Lily’s Dairy Free Scalloped Potatoes

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Avalanche Lily’s Dairy Free Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients:

8 medium sized potatoes peeled and thinly sliced

2 large onions peeled and thinly sliced

1 Organic Prairie Summer Beef Sausage (12 ounce), thinly sliced

1 can 13 ounce Organic Coconut Cream and milk–first stirred up. (We use Native Tree brand)

1 Tablespoon minced Garlic

Himalayan salt, to taste

Directions:

In a nine by thirteen inch rectangular Pyrex/glass dish, pour a little of the mixed milk and cream on the bottom of the pan.

Alternate layers of sliced potatoes, onions and sausage.  After laying down the first set of potatoes, onions and sausage, sprinkle garlic over everything then continue alternating the three main ingredients until the dish is full.  Sprinkle some Himalayan salt over the top and then pour the rest of the blended coconut cream and milk over the top.  Cover with alluminum foil.  Bake in oven at 350 degrees for an hour.  After that hour, check on it.  You want everything to be very soft and melded together, very slightly carmelled.  You may need to continue baking it for another half hour.

Continue reading“Recipe of the Week: Avalanche Lily’s Dairy Free Scalloped Potatoes”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today’s focus is on some observations by economist John Mauldin. (See the the Economy & Finance section.)

Precious Metals:

U.S. Mint Suspends Silver Bullion Coin Sales After Sales Double In February

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Why the Barrick deal could mean the mega melt up is here for gold. (A hat tip to H.L. for the link.)

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Reader Tim J. suggested this headline:  Exclusive: Venezuela removed 8 tons of central bank gold last week – legislator

 

Economy & Finance:

The folks at Wolf Street flagged a key indicator: Oops, Imports by China, Emerging Asia Plunge Most Since 2008.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — March 3, 2019

Today is the birthday of bluegrass musician Doc Watson. (He was born in 1923 and passed away in 2012.) His guitar work was phenomenal.

This is also the birthday of James Doohan, in 1920. He played Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott in the Star Trek television series and films. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He passed away on July 20, 2005.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 81 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 (an $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 Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. 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).
  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. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 81 ends on March 28th, 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.

How NOT to Build a Retreat, by The Jewish Prepper, Pt. 4

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(Continued from Part 3. This part concludes the series.)

Final Electric

Up until this point, we had been working off generator power. Flashlights and battery powered LED lights were our only light source, and a kerosene heater and an old window AC unit were our only climate control.

Once I had the drywall up, the inspector signed off on permanent power. This meant I was legally allowed to have the power company hook up a line to the house. There was only one problem: they needed to be able to get a truck in to set a pole. To get a truck in, I needed to cut down a whole lot of trees. Also, since this wasn’t a permanent residence, they were going to charge me quite a bit of money for their services. With the house so close to finally being done, I rationalized all these final expenses as house payments. I wanted to have everything done debt-free, but that just wasn’t going to be realistic. I gritted my teeth and put the electric company charge on a credit card.

After a lengthy, several-month detour for me to cut and clear the trees, I finally had an electric line hooked up to the house. Now it was time to get the lights on!

But… Here’s where things got interesting.

You see, I had never quite understood how my original electrician had wired the house. What he left me with didn’t look like any of the diagrams in my electrical wiring book, and his explanations didn’t make any sense. I had actually been losing sleep for three years over this. I had just figured it would make sense, once I had power.

Well, now that there was power running into the house, it didn’t seem that there was electricity going to any of the light switches. The more I checked, researched, and tested, the less it made sense. Upset, I called the electrician. He told me that he surely did not leave it that way, and that I must have messed it up somehow. I told him I did no such thing, and that he should either come back and fix it, or I would have someone else do it and send him the bill. He told me good luck, because he has a license and he pulled the permit. Furthermore, he told me that it was my fault for trying to do part of it myself, and waiting so long after the rough-in. He also told me that I was cheap and incompetent.

Continue reading“How NOT to Build a Retreat, by The Jewish Prepper, Pt. 4”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”.  Today, we focus on how Seattle’s slow slide continues. The featured photo is of vagrants in Paris, circa 1930. Some things don’t change.

Seattle’s Slow Slide Continues

Reader D.S. sent us this link: Seattle’s homeless, ‘prolific offenders’ responsible for thousands of criminal cases. Here is how the article starts off:

“A report commissioned by Seattle business leaders and written by a member of the previous Mayoral administration concludes that a small number of homeless repeat offenders are involved in thousands of criminal cases in the city. Titled “System Failure” the report looks at 100 offenders and finds they are involved in over 3,500 criminal cases. Most of those offenses involving stealing from area businesses to pay for drug habits. And because the homeless have learned to work the system, they often spend little or no time in jail, and never appear for court.”

Brexit Preppers Stockpiling Supplies

And from the other ABC: Brexit ‘preppers’ stockpiling supplies in case of a doomsday ‘no-deal’.  JWR’s Comments:  I loved hearing that naive “…tins last forever” statement. The food stockpile that he showed is pitiful, but better than nothing.

Kalashnikov’s Exploding Drone

The Kalashnikov assault rifle changed the world. Now there’s a Kalashnikov drone.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”