Furthering the resilience

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Another weekend, another couple items on my list moved ‘into the green’. While I was at CostCo picking up oatmeal and hand sanitizer I noticed that the seemingly endless social distancing annoyances are fading. The directional arrows to encourage one-way traffic in an aisle? Gone. The “Please wait here until called forward by cashier” signs? Gone. The red tape on the floor marking where to stand with your cart while in line? Gone. Requirement to wear a mask? Still there. Can’t have everything, I suppose.

Having finally gotten the house paid off has freed up enough cash from the monthly budget that spending $50 a weekend on ‘preps’ is a less than zero sum game, budgetwise. I need to start moving some of that available money into my Roth, cash savings, and metals.

The hardcore among you will say that I’m foolish to be putting money into my Roth when the economy is going to come crashing down any day as the BIlderbergerTrilateralCFRIlluminati sre only moments away from executing their grand plan to crush the US economy and get the Blue Helmets out on the street.

Look, I’ve been a survivalist for over thirty years…I’ve needed $50 bills far more often than I’ve needed .50 BMG. And being a survivalist means you prepare for the future…and if the economy doesn’t come crashing down, I want to be ready for that too. So..I continue to put money into the markets through my Roth. And, just in case, I also put money into silver. And, for those middle-of-the-road emergencies…cash. And none of those strategies, such as they are, are preventing me from making progress. Putting money in my Roth isn’t leaving me vulnerable and unprepared against the boogaloo, and preparing for the zombie apocalypse isn’t keeping me from making smart moves with my Roth and savings. I can do those things at the same time.

Right now, I don’t see the economy imploding and turning us into a crowd of Steinbeck characters standing around a campfire trading .22 cartridges for gasoline. So, what do I think is going to happen?

Unemployment is going to stay high for the short term, GDP will improve but still be negative for at least another quarter so not a recession in the technical sense but, really, a recession, and the market will continue to gain until the election, when all bets are off.

Whats that mean to me? It means continue to live well within my means, buy now what I think I may need later that may not be available, buy and hold when something in the market looks underpriced, steadily and consistently buy a little metal here and there, and put back as much cash as possible. Think about the effects of a hobbled economy and what risks and opportunities it’ll present.

What should you do? Beats me. Your situation is unique and you are the most qualified person to evaluate the courses of action you should take. But, the one thing I can recommend to you is this: think. Don’t just daydream when you’re in WalMart about “Oh, maybe I should get some of these…” or jawbone with your buddies “If it gets bad, I’m gonna…” Get away from the computer, find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed, sit down with a notebook and a pen, and actually, actively, purposefully…think. What are your liabilities? What are your priorities? What are the risks to you? What can you stand to give up? What are you willing to do to make your position more secure? What opportunities are you aware of that may present themselves? Whats your worst case scenario? Whats your most likely case scenario? “I want to be resilient enough that if XXXXX me and the family will be okay for the duration”…great, now plan how to get there.

Very few people build anything well…a car, a house, a relationship, a life…by just spitballing it and going about it half-assed. Some people do, and thats more luck than anything else. Luck is for rabbits. Don’t rely on luck. Find what it is your worried about and then come up with a plan, a strategy, a course of action and behavior, a roadmap to get to the position where that thing you are worried about becomes something you’re not worried about.

My life is not yet nearly as resilient as I’d like it to be. But it has reached a point where it is leaps ahead of many other people’s lives. I’m not unsinkable, but I can withstand icebergs that would crush my neighbors. So..I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

Patreon

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Several people have emailed me over the last few months to suggest that I get a Patreon account in order that they may contribute to the literary dumpster fire that is my blog. So be it.

Usually Patreon is something where, by ‘subscribing’, or pledging a particular amount each month you unlock some sort of bonus. For example, if you pledge $1 a month you might get to read posts that are not normally available to folks who don’t pony up. Yeah…I’m not doing that.

Look, I’ve got 17 years worth of blogging posts here for you to read. Some good, some bad, some fluffy, some insightful. If you think it’s been enjoyable for you and become part of your routine, I think it would be awesome if you kicked in $2 a month to keep the lights on and the freeze-drieds flowing. But I really have no intention of creating tiers of postings for folks. I’m willing to live with the tragedy of the commons.

There’s a link at the top of the column on the right hand of your screen. I think what I’ll probably do is, on an experimental basis for now, post a footer in a random post once a week with a quick link. We’ll see if that doesn’t come across as too crass and self-serving.

Anyway, it’s there if you’re feeling particularly generous….although in this current economic clime, I may have picked the worst time in the world to set up this thing.

Shelf Reliance

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Food rotation is one of those important things to keep in mind when storing food. Sure, a 15-gallon drum of rice will last virtually forever (if my Y2k stash is anything to go by), but it’s probably a good idea to rotate through whatever you store every few years.

When it comes to canned goods, there are zillions of can ‘rotation shelves’, ‘organizer shelves’, and other can distributors. I had a can organizer that I bought years ago when they were up at CostCo. It has served well for a number of years but, as of late, I’ve kinda ramped up the inventory of canned goods. This means I need to have  more cans positioned so that the oldest ones get used up first. So, it was time to expand on the modular can organizer.

First step, clear off a run of shelving:

Next step is to unbox these guys:

Grab a couple cans off the shelf to make sure the spacing is correct, and start assembling. The whole thing snaps together like Lego so…no muss, no fuss.

Finish assembly, slide into shelf, and start adding cans…oldest go in first:

I then ran a second row across the shelf next to it, but since it’s pretty much identical to this one there’s no point in documenting that.

Now, yeah, you can buy some cheaper units. And, if your even halfway talented with a saw and a hammer you can fab up something on your own. However, what I was after was modularity.This unit can be configured for variable width to accommodate different size cans, they can be linked together to form one long continuous run, and, very conveniently, they seamlessly integrated with the existing unit I had which was about 15 years old. So…very backwards compatible, which is nice.

You can order of Amazon if you’re so inclined.

Given how much I’m spending these days on beefing(!) up the food storage, the last thing I need is to waste money on cans of food getting shoved into a dark corner, being discovered years later, and having to be discarded because they should have been used up years earlier.

How’s your short- to mid-term food storage coming along? I’m feeling pretty good with what I have so far. I need to fine tune a few ‘luxury’ items I want but….starve to death? Not a chance. However, for practicality’s sake, it would be nice to take about half of this and move it to the Beta Site.

Savage Mk II extended mags

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Couple weeks ago I mentioned that there was a company making extended mags for the Savage Mk II series of bolt action rifles. Since I have one of these rifles tricked out for quietly introducing varmints into the afterlife, I decided to get a couple to try out. They arrived the other day and I finally got a chance to take them to the range.

Worked fine. They have a ‘parkerized’-type porous finish that, according to the manufacturer, needs to have its pores filled with brass from the .22 cartridges. Simply load the mag and then press the round at the top of the mag down a bit and let it come back up. Repeat this a few times and the stack of cartridges will rub some brass into the pores of the magazine. I did as described and…no problems.

Construction appears very good and I see no reason to think the mags won’t last as long as an OEM mag. However, as much as I really like my Savage, the logistics-minded part of me says I should probably get the Ruger version so I can use my hundreds of 10/22 mags.

But..I like my little Savage, its quite accurate, and I rather like it’s sharp looks with that forest camo Boyds laminate stock.

By the by, I’ve run all sortsa silencer-recommended ammo through this thing and the best ammo I’ve found so far are the Remington Subsonic HP. Yes, even over the Eley.

Anyway, if youve got aone of the Savages, and youre looking for something more than the 5- and 10-rounders, it looks like these are the way to go.

Article – Armed Neighborhood Groups Form In The Absence Of Police Protection

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Somebody was nice enough to send me an email with a link to this article. Much thanks.

Cesia Baires knocks on the three apartment doors above her restaurant and a neighboring taqueria just before curfew.

A woman opens the door. Her two young children are inside.

“Remember,” she says to them in Spanish. “Same thing as yesterday. I’m going to come check on you. If there’s anything you guys need, give us a call right away.”

Meanwhile, a few men climb through the window and on to the roof to set up semi-automatic weapons as the curfew begins in Minneapolis. It’s something Baires never thought she would have to do as a small-business owner, but then she found out these apartments were occupied.

“Material things we can replace, that’s true,” she says. “But there are families up here. These aren’t empty buildings.”

I’m a little annoyed at the use of the term ‘vigilante’. which is clearly not what is going on here. But…its NPR so thats about par for the course.

Big and Small EOTWAWKI

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Another day in the happy little melting pot that is America. I recall reading Chittum’s “Civil War II The Coming Breakup of America” years and years ago where he predicted that a Balkanization would take place in the US along racial lines. I’m not sure I see that, although you could argue it has already happened de facto. I could see more of a political Balkanization but, in retrospect, we kind of already have that now don’t we? Look at those colored election maps that come out every four years and the same predictable areas are the same predictable colors. *

By accident or design, I managed to land in a place that pretty much aligns with my own ideals (or, perhaps, I landed here and it re-aligned my ideals to suit it). I don’t necessarily fit in with 100% of the prevailing beliefs here (I’m more of a Goldwater conservative rather than the classic conservative) but, thus far, one of the prevailing beliefs here is that as long as youre not screwing around with your neighbor’s stuff you can pretty much believe whatever the heck you want. That works for me.

So although the social issues seem to be getting to the fore these days, I’m still focused on the economic. And, really, these social issues are going to impact the economic numbers just as hard as the superflu. Whether a business is shut down for Covid or BLM it’s still a business making no money and not paying it’s bills. The bottom line is still the same: economic loss.

Since my apocalypse du jour is economic, I tend to lean towards the stockpile “food and cash-like instruments” end of the spectrum. Sure, there’s ammo in there as well but I’m planning for Great Depression II: The Next Generation, not Civil War II: Electric Boogaloo. Although, honestly, the only difference between preparing for one instead of the other is quantity.

And, not to beat a deceased equine, my experience has been that there’s going to be a lot of small, personal, intimate EOTWAWKI’s in your life (job loss, car problems, health scares, housing issues, loved ones in trouble, etc.) before the Big One and nine times out of ten money turns out to be the duct tape that puts your life back together. So…no debt, wad of cash. For whatever that doesnt fix we have our other preps.

I suppose if you live in a major urban population center, or a state that is home to several of them, your concerns are probably (and justifiably) more centered around the …social disturbances…going on at the moment. By all means, keep a wary eye on the crowds and don’t stray far from your favorite thundertoy….but don’t forget that race riots and firebombers occur far, far, far less frequently than pink slips, busted transmissions, sick dogs, and broken water heaters.

Statistically, this is going to happen more times in your life than a zombie apocalypse.

Prepare for the day the Antifa crowd in their black sweatshirts are marching down the street swinging pieces of pipe. It’ll happen at some point, I’m sure. But don’t get so caught up in the possibility of it happening that you ignore the higher probability of those small EOTWWAWKI’s.

 

* = Chittum is viewed, by many, as a racist. But whether he is or not, doesn’t change the validity (or invalidity) of his predictions. If a racist tells you to get off the tracks because a train is coming, the fact he is a racist (or a communist, or a Muslim, or a homosexual, or a Democrat) does not change the objective fact that, indeed, a train is coming and you need to get your butt off the tracks.

 

Incremental progress

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A few weeks back, I got a tad more religion in terms of keeping an up-to-date list of what I have and, more importantly, what I needed. It’s settled into a routine now where, every weekend, I print out my most up-to-date version of the Preponomicon and head off to Costco or Wallyworld. I tell myself “I’m not gonna spend more than $XX today” and I try to stick to that. Thus far…meh…I do a fair amount of sticking to the amount I promised myself I’d spend, but, more importantly, I am always better provisioned after each trip.

Food was, of course, the biggest priority. Can’t repel the zombie hordes if youre weak from hunger, right? And while the food isn’t at 100%, it is mostly all in the green levels so I am comfortable moving a little bit into the other categories. Most notable, cleaning and hygiene.

Don’t let The Walking Dead fool you… wear the same sweat-stained shirt for days on end in the summer, while getting coated in dirt, grime, and bodily fluids, and take a hot shower once a week with laundry done even less frequently…. and you’re headed for major problems. Eat from filthy stained tableware, plates, or cookware and you’re gonna have a bad day. Add the threat of pandemic into the mix and now you relly have a reason to try and keep yourself and your environment reasonably clean. You don’t have to be fastidiously OCD clean, but try to keep yourself and your living conditions as clean as if you had a hot date coming over tonight.

So, what’s sitting on the wire shelving in large quantity? Pine Sol, Simple Green, Lysol, Clorox (which needs to be rotated every so often), sponges, bleach wipes, paper towels, brillo, laundry soap, dish soap, disinfectant, shower soap, shampoo, floss, toothpaste, toothbrushes (shouldn’t that really be teethbrushes?), mouthwash, TP, Q-tips, Kleenex, deodorant, lip balm, and a buncha other goodies. After a long day of hanging looters, quelling riots, and rescuing morally-challenged coeds from Aryan blood gangs wouldn’t you want to look and smell nice for the celebratory barbecue later that evening? Truth is, though, decent hygiene and sanitation prevents a whole lot of badness that you would prefer to avoid during a crisis. And it’s a lot easier to stay somewhat clean when you have the necessary resources. Plus, hey, in times of economic uncertainty when your paycheck is unexpectedly cutoff it’s kinda nice to know you don’t have to spend money on any of those things for over a year.

Just one more thing to ‘get into the green’ levels on the list. But, gotta admit, when i run out of something in my day-to-day usage it’s darn convenient to just trot downstairs and pull some extra off the shelf and get back to business.

Bunker mentality for the win

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Merciful Crom, has it been a weird year or what? Remember when a 500 point swing in the market would take a week? Now it takes place in one day. And we have riots. And pandemic. And a presidential election. And Chuck Schumer is still running loose.  This really is going to be a year for the books.

And yet…so far…I’ve survived. In fact, not only have I survived, I’ve managed to get ahead on a few things. Most notable – house paid off. (Go me!) And all my investments have recovered to their pre-Superflu balances. And I took advantage of the dip(!) to buy in on the ground floor on a few things.

So, why didn’t I get my butt handed to me like some people in all of this? A few reasons. First and foremost, I live within my means. I drive a car older than I care to mention..but I’ve no car payment. I don’t get to buy expensive toys unless I save for them…but I have no credit card payment. School is paid as I go so…no student loan payment. And, now, house is paid so…no house payment. So when something exciting happens like getting hours cut or a job ‘furloughed’ due to Covid, I can spend the money I have on my needs and not on loan payments.

A few years ago I decided that the smart thing to do was have three different sources of revenue. This way if one crapped out, I wasn’t left with no income. Turns out, not a bad idea. I put a solid 15% of whatever I make into a “Do Not Touch” fund in case of emergencies and, as a result, I can function normally for several months at this point. Longer if I’m willing to give up a few luxuries like cable and that sort of thing.

It also helped that I had plenty of consumables on hand… toilet paper? Not a problem. Beef? Got a freezer full of it. Pasta and rice? Literally hundreds of pounds. If I really, really wanted to I could blow off grocery shopping for , probably, at least the rest of the year. If the money stopped coming in tomorrow I could dedicate $0 to groceries and be juuuuuuust fine.

Civil disturbance? Can’t find an AR for love or money in your local gun shop? No 9mm to be had anywhere? Very, very, very much not a problem.

I’m not saying this to brag, rather I mention it because I feel vindicated. The lifestyle I live, which does sometimes generate a bit of derision from others, has put me in a position where the world may be flailing around like a chicken with its head removed but I’ve got a little ocean of calm and relative security. And I am tremendously grateful to…me….for doing what it took to get there.

Yeah, once in a while my t-shirts have a hole in them, or my shoes look a little frayed, and I use a seven year old phone but…if thats the price of the security and safety that I feel I’ve garnered for myself than I’d say it was a very good trade.

I hope you do as well. I hope you do better. I hope you look at all the possible wildly bad stuff that is going on this year and think “Y’know…I’d feel a little better about my odds if we did…” and then you go do it. There’s still plenty of room for improvement in my situation…more security, more resilience, more resources…but at the moment, things are nowhere near as bad as they are for other people. I know people who have had their hours cut and they have to decide on whether to sell the gun collection in order to meet the mortgage and keep the jet ski from being repossessed. Sad for them, but we all make choices.

Anyway, thats my take on things after watching the news this evening and realizing that, all in all, I’m rather glad I’ve spent the last thirty years as a paranoid survivalist. I should add that while I am satisfied that I’ve been heading in the right direction all along, I’m not complacent. There’s still more to do. Always is.

With thanks

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Someone very graciously sent me silver round in the mail the other day. Totally unexpected and, as always, very much appreciated.

And then, I received a .jpg in email of the back of an Amazon gift card with a note saying it was a gift for yours truly. Clever…an excellent way to preserve anonymity.

So, to both of those fine and generous people, I say thank you very much. When the radioactive debris settles and after a long day of hanging quislings I will, thanks to your largesse, have the resources to kick back and relax with a handful of grateful-yet-morally-challenged coeds from the university who will simply be glad to be safe from the roving hordes. Salut!

Annnnnnd…we’re back

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Ok, back to business…

We’ve had some rain here the last couple days and the pollen count is off the charts. For the first time in years, my hayfever has kicked up with a tremendous amount of sneezing, headaches, and sinus activity that almost qualifies me to be a hagfish.

Summer is coming soon and it is entirely possible it will be a “summer of ’68” sort of affair with all sorts of fun activities like protests, riots, and the occasional drive-by. I do not envy those living in densely populated urban areas. Again, my rather little homogenous corner of the planet seems relatively distant from these sorts of things.

On the other hand, the economy is rather fluid and that superflu thing is still out there. (Although who can really say how nasty it really is, what with reports of doctored numbers popping up.)

2020 is indeed an interesting year. And we haven’t even gotten to the crapfest that will be the presidential elections. If it weren’t for the fact that this is happening in my own country I would be highly entertained and amused to watch it unfold.