I don't have any alternative source of heating out at the farm, although the trailer has central heat and air and a full compliment of kitchen appliances and a washer and dryer. Won't do us any good though if we lose power.
And, although wood stoves are common enough here, real wood cookstoves are rare. So when I ran across a new Tirolia on Craigslist that had been sitting unused in someone's house since 1976, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity. He wants $1500 for it...but it is new, and I couldn't beat that price anywhere on a new wood cookstove online. Tirolias are supposed to be great stoves,although they are no longer made. I was able to find a couple of places that have the grates for them. I should probably buy on of those while they are still available, I guess.
So tomorrow or Saturday I'm going to try to round up a helper and drive the fifty miles or so to the guy's house and pick it up. Did you know those things weigh about 400 pounds? Fortunately they can be partially disassembled for moving. Why is it that this prepping stuff always makes my back hurt?
I have been investigating solar hot water heating...looks like some pretty good deals on eBay for solar collectors...But that's another project...
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Introducing the Adopt-a-Soldier Program
I heard on the radio this morning that it costs the government (and therefore the taxpayer) something like $667,000.00 per year to put a soldier on the ground in Iraq for one year...and get this... $1.2 million to put a soldier in Afghanistan for a year.
These numbers are staggering...and sure to get worse as fuel prices (which ---in our low inflation environment --- jumped 9% in one day yesterday) continue to rise. Fuel is the greatest single expense in the cost.
Which leads me to propose that, instead of raising taxes, that we start a private sector effort to raise money to pay for these wars of occupation.
Yes, I'm talking about corporate sponsorship, the funding option that's become so popular for municipal stadiums and the like. If any CEO's and scions of industry read this...just give it a moment's consideration. How about your logo emblazoned on the backs of your own infantry battalion? Not enough exposure? Perhaps an entire division?
For a few billion, I'm sure the Army would put your company name on EVERY Abrams tank!
And, of course, there could be more modest levels of participation for private citizens. Sort of like that fund they have where you can contribute money to lower the deficit. Hey, I'm just an idea man. The details could be worked out.
These numbers are staggering...and sure to get worse as fuel prices (which ---in our low inflation environment --- jumped 9% in one day yesterday) continue to rise. Fuel is the greatest single expense in the cost.
Which leads me to propose that, instead of raising taxes, that we start a private sector effort to raise money to pay for these wars of occupation.
Yes, I'm talking about corporate sponsorship, the funding option that's become so popular for municipal stadiums and the like. If any CEO's and scions of industry read this...just give it a moment's consideration. How about your logo emblazoned on the backs of your own infantry battalion? Not enough exposure? Perhaps an entire division?
For a few billion, I'm sure the Army would put your company name on EVERY Abrams tank!
And, of course, there could be more modest levels of participation for private citizens. Sort of like that fund they have where you can contribute money to lower the deficit. Hey, I'm just an idea man. The details could be worked out.
All real estate is not created equal
I read today that real estate prices are in free fall, almost back to their 2009 bottom. It pisses me off that what might have been one of the last decent investments available to working Americans is now in danger of losing most of it's value. And yes, I blame the investment banks and their government cronies in Congress, as well as the fat cat bureaucrats at Fannie and Freddie. And I don't discount the greed and stupidity of the American bubble-buying public either.
However, I would like to make one point that the macro folks seem to neglect to mention...and that is that good real estate has not fallen as fast and as far as crummy real estate. This might seem to be an obvious point, but I've bought a couple of pieces of rental real estate since the '08 crash, and although their appraised values have fallen slightly, they are both rented and flowing cash.
I've been reading about New Orleans, which happens to be one of my favorite cities in the Deep South. How the population has fallen to just 350,000, and how bad the real estate market is there. I was interested enough to go to the Trulia website, and page through dozens of pages of post-Katrina foreclosures and other homes for sale. I was wondering if there were any bargains to be had in the French Quarter and the old Uptown, Irish Channel, and other historic neighborhoods.
The short answer is that you still get what you pay for. Nice apartments on the Mardi Gras parade routes still run in the upper six figures. While it is true that there are blocks and blocks of cheap foreclosures, most of them are in dangerous neighborhoods and worthy of being bulldozed rather than rehabbed.
I read that in Vegas that new home building is up, because nobody wants to buy a house in the zombie neighborhoods that are full of empty foreclosures. This is the town hardest hit of all, the worst market in the country. They are building new houses.
Now, the deflationists may be correct, and real estate may crash again, and not turn around for twenty years or more. I don't know. But the fact is that in twenty years I'll be seventy-five years old, and I probably won't give a damn. Meanwhile this is the time in MY life when I might be able, for once, to afford that kind of investment. It makes for interesting choices.
However, I would like to make one point that the macro folks seem to neglect to mention...and that is that good real estate has not fallen as fast and as far as crummy real estate. This might seem to be an obvious point, but I've bought a couple of pieces of rental real estate since the '08 crash, and although their appraised values have fallen slightly, they are both rented and flowing cash.
I've been reading about New Orleans, which happens to be one of my favorite cities in the Deep South. How the population has fallen to just 350,000, and how bad the real estate market is there. I was interested enough to go to the Trulia website, and page through dozens of pages of post-Katrina foreclosures and other homes for sale. I was wondering if there were any bargains to be had in the French Quarter and the old Uptown, Irish Channel, and other historic neighborhoods.
The short answer is that you still get what you pay for. Nice apartments on the Mardi Gras parade routes still run in the upper six figures. While it is true that there are blocks and blocks of cheap foreclosures, most of them are in dangerous neighborhoods and worthy of being bulldozed rather than rehabbed.
I read that in Vegas that new home building is up, because nobody wants to buy a house in the zombie neighborhoods that are full of empty foreclosures. This is the town hardest hit of all, the worst market in the country. They are building new houses.
Now, the deflationists may be correct, and real estate may crash again, and not turn around for twenty years or more. I don't know. But the fact is that in twenty years I'll be seventy-five years old, and I probably won't give a damn. Meanwhile this is the time in MY life when I might be able, for once, to afford that kind of investment. It makes for interesting choices.
End of America and other infomercials
Porter Stansberry is a smart guy, and I thought his EndofAmerica video was excellent...up to a point. And that point was when he started trying to sell me something.
I actually had my wife watch this video, because it might be the very best presentation I've ever seen on the challenges we face going into the near future...and it made the case for a number of steps I've been urging her to consider for us as a family. I admire Porter, and I really think he has excellent investment advice. But he publishes different levels of information for different classes of investors at different levels, and the price goes up for the cutting edge stuff.
But, this video is basically an infomercial, baiting you into paying to read some materials archived on his site. I actually paid the money, and although I won't reveal the exact nature of everything I read, I can tell you that the $ 49.50 only gave me access to material that I had mostly already seen elsewhere for free.
Here's a link to the video. You can read the transcript a lot faster if you want to save time.
See the video here.
So, Porter, I loved the video, but it would have been better if you'd just put it out there as a patriotic act, and not as a way to sell your research. It would greatly add to your credibility.
I'd give the same advice to anybody else with a pay website. Put out good information and let the viewer come to you out of respect and gratitude. Americans are just as tired of bait-and switch marketing as they are of bad government.
I actually had my wife watch this video, because it might be the very best presentation I've ever seen on the challenges we face going into the near future...and it made the case for a number of steps I've been urging her to consider for us as a family. I admire Porter, and I really think he has excellent investment advice. But he publishes different levels of information for different classes of investors at different levels, and the price goes up for the cutting edge stuff.
But, this video is basically an infomercial, baiting you into paying to read some materials archived on his site. I actually paid the money, and although I won't reveal the exact nature of everything I read, I can tell you that the $ 49.50 only gave me access to material that I had mostly already seen elsewhere for free.
Here's a link to the video. You can read the transcript a lot faster if you want to save time.
See the video here.
So, Porter, I loved the video, but it would have been better if you'd just put it out there as a patriotic act, and not as a way to sell your research. It would greatly add to your credibility.
I'd give the same advice to anybody else with a pay website. Put out good information and let the viewer come to you out of respect and gratitude. Americans are just as tired of bait-and switch marketing as they are of bad government.
My retreat
I bought some country property a couple of years ago, before the idea of needing such a place to bug out ever crossed my mind. The truth is that I just always wanted a place with live water here in the Texas Hill Country --- where the creeks runs clear over big limestone slabs and into deeper pools. I found my place through an unusual bit of serendipity. Property here has gotten really expensive, and I never thought I would find anything like the place I have, which is beautiful and has a lot of old native pecan trees. I have the very best forty acres of what was once a four hundred acre ranch. Most of my land is creek bottom, but I have a high bluff with a clear view of the private road into my place. The only thing I don't like is that a few neighbors have an easement through my property to get to theirs. But there aren't many of them, and so far they have proven to be excellent neighbors with no exceptions.
I have a deep well (over 300 feet) with plenty of water, and one old pioneer well with a defunct windmill, the drawworks of which is still in place. One of my projects is going to be getting that well functional again, because the deep well would be useless without electricity. I looked into solar power for it, but currently it's just too expensive to go there.
The only structures on my place are an old double wide that has been converted into a decent (if rustic) cabin....and a hoop house greenhouse that I'm currently using for a barn.
So far I'm not growing any food, but I have stockpiled a couple of those big cans of heirloom seeds, and I'd like to get a garden going. It's about an hour from my place in town, not quite as remote as most survivalists would like, but it is very rural.
Currently I am gearing up for a couple of beehives, taking some classes and getting my hives ready to put bees in them in April. I've also planted one big food plot with a couple of varieties of clover that bloom at different times. This has occupied most of my spare time since the first of the year. Now if it would only rain!
This has never been the wettest part of Texas. Only one year in ten has traditionally been a truly wet year, and global climate change seems to be bringing drought to this part of the country. Water conservation is a big deal here. I have lots of non-native juniper (they call them cedar here) that hog the groundwater and have to be eradicated. Another project...
I have a deep well (over 300 feet) with plenty of water, and one old pioneer well with a defunct windmill, the drawworks of which is still in place. One of my projects is going to be getting that well functional again, because the deep well would be useless without electricity. I looked into solar power for it, but currently it's just too expensive to go there.
The only structures on my place are an old double wide that has been converted into a decent (if rustic) cabin....and a hoop house greenhouse that I'm currently using for a barn.
So far I'm not growing any food, but I have stockpiled a couple of those big cans of heirloom seeds, and I'd like to get a garden going. It's about an hour from my place in town, not quite as remote as most survivalists would like, but it is very rural.
Currently I am gearing up for a couple of beehives, taking some classes and getting my hives ready to put bees in them in April. I've also planted one big food plot with a couple of varieties of clover that bloom at different times. This has occupied most of my spare time since the first of the year. Now if it would only rain!
This has never been the wettest part of Texas. Only one year in ten has traditionally been a truly wet year, and global climate change seems to be bringing drought to this part of the country. Water conservation is a big deal here. I have lots of non-native juniper (they call them cedar here) that hog the groundwater and have to be eradicated. Another project...
Monday, February 21, 2011
Thank you, Howard Ruff.
Until I read Howard Ruff's "How to Prosper in the Coming Bad Years" I had never given a moments thought to doing anything like stockpiling food for an emergency. But Howard, along with John Wesley Rawles and a few others, made me realize that I needed to have at least a modest reserve of food supplies on hand.
I was so impressed by Howard's logic that I decided to subscribe to his investment newsletter,which I've been reading for the last several months. His investment advice would and will work, although the mining stocks he likes haven't all performed like they should, I think due the current blatant market manipulation by the Federal Reserve. But Howard is way to the Religious Right for me, and I find many of his little rants to border on racism.
Still, I owe Howard a lot for making me begin to think.
So I've started prepping for real. I started with a three month supply of food for eight people, which I bought from the people at Pleasant Hill Grain. I am adding to that incrementally. I am trying to buy food with a really long shelf life, because we don't cook much now, and therefore will not be using and replenishing the supplies regularly.
Will I need this, ever? My kids don't think so. And I certainly hope not. But if I do need it...if we need it...We'll REALLY need it. So I don't think it's a bad idea.
I was so impressed by Howard's logic that I decided to subscribe to his investment newsletter,which I've been reading for the last several months. His investment advice would and will work, although the mining stocks he likes haven't all performed like they should, I think due the current blatant market manipulation by the Federal Reserve. But Howard is way to the Religious Right for me, and I find many of his little rants to border on racism.
Still, I owe Howard a lot for making me begin to think.
So I've started prepping for real. I started with a three month supply of food for eight people, which I bought from the people at Pleasant Hill Grain. I am adding to that incrementally. I am trying to buy food with a really long shelf life, because we don't cook much now, and therefore will not be using and replenishing the supplies regularly.
Will I need this, ever? My kids don't think so. And I certainly hope not. But if I do need it...if we need it...We'll REALLY need it. So I don't think it's a bad idea.
I am the typical American --- Grasshopper, not Ant
So, I have lived pretty well, up until now...for the most part. I am, I think, part of the last generation to successfully pursue the American Dream. I come from a working class family. I took advantage of a highly subsidized state university education, became a professional, and managed to start a dental practice with no money down, basically. I am a fine example of the debt based American economic model. My career has been a typical one of struggling to balance income against bills and taxes...and my greatest accomplishment thus far has been to provide college scholarships for four incredibly spoiled brats...my kids.
Savings? What the hell is that? Now I have ten years to go until I reach that magic age 65. As far as I can see, the best thing I have going for me is that I won't be forced to retire. Good! Because I don't want to retire, and working longer looks like the best defense against a currency that's losing it's buying power.
But I do have a plan. One that I've been working on, based on my best prognostications. It's not one you're likely to see touted in Money magazine.
First, I think IRA's are a bad idea. It's a cinch that future taxes are going to be MUCH higher...so why defer taxes? Better to save after tax dollars. And convert them to non-dollars. Gold and silver appear to be about the only reliable vehicle left to hedge against the falling dollar. Of course, nothing says that the government won't decide to tax the sale of gold at an exorbitant rate. Hell, they already tax gains on gold as regular income. What is that about? Until now, the government hasn't been too careful about tracking buying and selling of bullion coins, but it appears that loophole is about to close.
And just his week there's been a brand new rumor going around, started by one of the pay-per-view precious metals pundits, that the government has a plan to confiscate gold, paying $200 per ounce. I don't give this much credence, although I don't doubt it might be a rumor started by the bullion banks to drive the price back down for a while.
There are some foreign currencies that are apt to hold up better than the dollar. This is true. You could hold Canadian or Australian currency. Anything but dollars is my motto. With the current fiscal and monetary problems we have in this country, the dollar is headed straight into the toilet. I don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that..
I do own some real estate. Or, I should say, I currently have some real estate equity. Not all of it is paid for at present, although I have it financed at an excellent rate. Most of it is locked in below 4.5% and I should live to see it paid off. If I were smart, I'd sell it all now and save the proceeds. But the fact is that my wife LIKES her house..and I like my little rural farm property (which is part and parcel of THE PLAN) and I like our little lake cottage even though it's an extravagance. It's a calculated risk keeping any real estate at a time like this when deflation has values in free fall. I know I might lose most of my equity. Fortunately I do have a couple of nice residential rentals that are completely paid off. If worse comes to worse I can live in one of those.
Savings? What the hell is that? Now I have ten years to go until I reach that magic age 65. As far as I can see, the best thing I have going for me is that I won't be forced to retire. Good! Because I don't want to retire, and working longer looks like the best defense against a currency that's losing it's buying power.
But I do have a plan. One that I've been working on, based on my best prognostications. It's not one you're likely to see touted in Money magazine.
First, I think IRA's are a bad idea. It's a cinch that future taxes are going to be MUCH higher...so why defer taxes? Better to save after tax dollars. And convert them to non-dollars. Gold and silver appear to be about the only reliable vehicle left to hedge against the falling dollar. Of course, nothing says that the government won't decide to tax the sale of gold at an exorbitant rate. Hell, they already tax gains on gold as regular income. What is that about? Until now, the government hasn't been too careful about tracking buying and selling of bullion coins, but it appears that loophole is about to close.
And just his week there's been a brand new rumor going around, started by one of the pay-per-view precious metals pundits, that the government has a plan to confiscate gold, paying $200 per ounce. I don't give this much credence, although I don't doubt it might be a rumor started by the bullion banks to drive the price back down for a while.
There are some foreign currencies that are apt to hold up better than the dollar. This is true. You could hold Canadian or Australian currency. Anything but dollars is my motto. With the current fiscal and monetary problems we have in this country, the dollar is headed straight into the toilet. I don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that..
I do own some real estate. Or, I should say, I currently have some real estate equity. Not all of it is paid for at present, although I have it financed at an excellent rate. Most of it is locked in below 4.5% and I should live to see it paid off. If I were smart, I'd sell it all now and save the proceeds. But the fact is that my wife LIKES her house..and I like my little rural farm property (which is part and parcel of THE PLAN) and I like our little lake cottage even though it's an extravagance. It's a calculated risk keeping any real estate at a time like this when deflation has values in free fall. I know I might lose most of my equity. Fortunately I do have a couple of nice residential rentals that are completely paid off. If worse comes to worse I can live in one of those.
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