Article – Selling Survival

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Broker Theresa Mondale and her client stand in a clearing on the patch of mountain forest he wants to sell, making small talk about whether society is going to collapse. The topic, weighty in any context, might be anathema to other agents, whose business trades on the promise of better days. In real estate, amenities always mingle with aspiration: The house has space to grow into, the yard is big enough for a dog or the patio will entice neighbors to come by for barbecue.

But Mondale’s big, cheerful voice doesn’t waver. This is her bread and butter. She has been following the latest buzz online predicting a “global reset” in September and wants to know if the client is worried.

“If something like that were coming I would feel it, because I’m a pretty intuitive person,” says Seth Pogue, a bald man with weathered skin, strong arms and an intense manner that seems to contradict his tie-dye shirt.

The local lefty fishwrapper has an article about a local real estate seler who is quietly specializing in properties that would appeal to those of us who share our rarefied interest. I’d heard some of the commercials, and seen some of the print ads, that were put out for this gal and I recall thinking that she might be on the same page as me.

The article, which isn’t too terrible for a lefty publication, goes on to mention Friend Of The Blog ,Rawles  and his coining of the ‘redoubt’ moniker as an appelation for the region.

In my years here I’ve seen more than a few properties that had odd little quirks and features that could not be explained away as anything other than ‘survivalist’-themed. But out here, those features are not necessarily considered to be odd or strange.

If I had the money, I’d be getting myself a nice acreage out in the middle of nowhere to build my quiet little concrete home and ride out what’s left of my life in quiet and security.

Anyway…interesting article and worth the read. I’d be curious to know if her business takes off or suffers because of the spotlight being shined on her particular niche.

Whats up with silver

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I’ve been noticing that silver has been in the (mostly) below $15 range for the last couple weeks. At one point it very briefly dipped below $14, which was pretty surprising. Problem is, you head down to your local metals dealer to by some you wind up at dang near $20/oz. because of the premiums. Whats up with that?

As I understand it, delivery times on physical silver (and, really, why would you own anything else) are pushed out pretty far. Want a ‘monster box’ (500 ct.) of Silver Eagles? Pay now and we’ll call you in a few weeks when it arrives. And that’s not just Eagles…pretty much all the nationally minted stuff is backed out, too. The generics aren’t much better. Sunshine makes the plancehttes for the US mint, so getting Sunshines is also an exercise in patience. So while the generics have a lower premium than the nationally minted stuff, you’re still looking at waits for anything in quantity.

It seems that the only thing that isn’t on backorder is ‘junk silver’…the pre-’65 coins. Which makes sense since there is no manufacturing bottleneck on those…they’re already made. I want to say the junk stuff was going for around 14-15x face value the other day…which means ten dollars worth of dimes, or ten dollars worth of quarters, will set you back $140-150.

I rather like Canadian Maples and Sunshine rounds for their anti-counterfeiting measures. The Maples are hard to get right now but I can usuualy find some Sunshine Buffaloes in the ‘generic bin’.

I’m not sure where the price of silver is going but I would say its almost certainly going to go up. The days of $6 silver are, I think, gone for a long time. I’d say $15 is about the new normal for this sort of thing. Of course that can change depending on how the markets go…when the markets get wonky people run for something that holds value a little better. And, of course, us ‘anti-government, survivalist’ types always feel a little better with our holdings diversified into tangibles….ammo, guns, fuel, silver, gold, cash, etc.

If you think you want some silver and don’t mind the wait (which really isn’t even a choice at the moment) go rattle the cage of the Metals Pimp.

‘Walking Dead’ spinoff

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So the other night was the premier of the ‘Walking Dead’ spinoff – ‘Fear The Walking Dead’. The premise, in case you missed it, is that unlike ‘The Walking Dead’ which shows us the zombie apocalypse about a month after it started, we get to see it from the start.

I find this interesting because I want to see the descent into a dystopic world. Walking Dead shows us the ashes of the world, but I want to see the world when it was burning.

Im expecting that since the first episode was used primarily to set up who was who and what their situations were, the second episode will get to the ‘meat’ o the matter. I want to see the panicked mobs in the supermarket, the violent traffic jams, the looting, the every-man-for-themselves police, the mobs of scared people, the infrastructure failure, etc, etc. To me, thats the most interesting part.

The first fifteen minutes of the otherwise forgettable World War Z movie was like that.  There was a great scene in the supermarket where the cop ignores the patrons shooting each other while he grabs stuff for himself. Sahdes of hurricane Katrina.

So far, though, Im less than impressed. I understand that the real zombie action has to wait until we’ve been introduced to the characters. Thats fine, I understand that. But, geez, there was not a single person there whom I cared about. Drugg addled son, bitchy daughter, desperate-to-be-a-family dad, badly-defined ex-wife, angst-ridden new wife…genuinely no one I cared about. We’ll see if that changes.

29 days ’till Paratus

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The free ice cream machine, as Tam calls it, has been a little empty lately. Sometimes real life gets in the way, m’friends.

It is worthwhile to note (or at least I think it is) that Paratus is rapidly approaching. I know what you’re thinking…”But, Zero, it seems like I just put away all the Paratus trimmings from last season!”. Hey, man….that’s how holidays work.

For your full Paratus shopping needs, I recommend this list of Festivus items I put together a few years back. For the budget minded they are broken down into the cheap, middling, and dang-you-really-like-me price range.

Given the nature of the crappy storm we had recently that resulted in power outages that, in some areas, are still going on, I think this year a lot of the local people will be getting the LED MagLites as gifts. I am stunned at how many people dont have a good, quality, flashlight around the house. Stunned, I tell you. Me, I loves me some MagLite…..sure the Pelican lights are nice, and sure its hard to beat SureFire on a lot of stuff….but for a $25 flashlight that will take abuse like Clinton’s wedding vows, you can’t do better than the LED MagLite.

Anyway…Paratus approaches! Get out there and shop!

Pocket machete

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Well, I guess since the cat is outta the bag, I can quickly mention a cool toy I was gifted.

20150731_151835The knife is done by Cold Steel with input from SurvivalBlog’s own ,Rawles. (Yup, thats his name on the blade. Yes, they included the comma.) Proceeds from the sale of the knife go to charity.

This monster of a pocket knife was gifted to me at the Missoula gun show a couple weeks ago. It’s an interesting knife and a far departure from what I normally carry around. While calling it a ‘pocket’ knife may stretch the definition of ‘pocket’, it definitely doesn’t depart from the definition of knife. This thing is a big folder with a half-serrated blade, beefy, rough-textured handles, and everyones favorite black/olive tacticool finish. It’s a litte big for my personal EDC, but it will definitely go in my bag when I’m out tromping around the woods or E&E’ing ahead of the zombie hordes. Personally, I like half-serrated blades. Sometimes stuff needs to be cut that is just too challenging to a straight blade….nylon/plastic strapping comes to mind…and the serrations make short work of that sort of thing.

From Cold Steels website:

The RAWLES VOYAGER was made to James’s unique specifications, with an O.D Green Griv-Ex™ handle, heat treated 6061 Aluminum liners and our famous Tri-Ad® locking mechanism, offering unparalleled shock and impact resistance and durability in the field.

The Rawles Voyager has also been equipped with a high performance American CTS XHP steel Tanto point blade and a durable black DLC (Diamond Like) coating, making it an excellent choice for the modern day survivalist!

This limited edition knife is the only version of our highly popular Voyager that features an American CTS XHP blade, giving it even greater edge retention properties!

Cold Steel, Lynn C Thompson, Andrew Demko and James Wesley, Rawles have all chosen to donate all proceeds from the RAWLES VOYAGER to charity.

Cool knife with cool backstory. My thanks to the person who generously gifted it to me.

Some folks just Will Not Learn

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The world is populated by idiots.

Im in the bank this morning and the teller and the woman next to me are talking about the power outages that continue in many areas around here. This woman is saying how she hasn’t been able to charge her laptop, that she has no water (well pump), that she’s going to lose the food in her freezer, and how she hates being in the dark.

I gently steered the conversation to ask her if, when this is over, if it will change her behaviors and perhaps she’ll keep some battery-powered chargers around for her cell phone. “Oh, no..this almost never happens.”

You know, your house almost never burns down, you almost never have your car stolen, you almost never get cancer, and you almost never get disabled from your job….yet you have insurance in place for that, so why not this?

For these… clueless idiots…. it appears it truly is better to curse the darkness than buy generator.

My buddy on the other side of town is still without power after a transmission tower (not a power pole, mind you…a transmission tower) decided to go horizontal not far from him. Is he inconvenienced? Yes. He has no internet. Is he still in the game? Absolutely. He has not one but two of the Honda generators. He’s got his freezer, fridge, lights, cell phone charger, and all the other accoutrements of civilization up and running. And he has some stored gas on hand to keep it that way. As his neighbors live out the lifestyle of “Home & Garden: North Korea Edition”, my buddy drinks hot coffee, has lights, has communication, and can continue to run his business. (And also the means to keep it if someone decides his bit of civilization needs to become their bit of civilization.)

I still need to do some after action things… I need to top off the tank on the generator, get all the cords in one place, put some emergency lighting in that one place, log the run time for the generator, pick up some accessories for the extension cords, etc. But, all in all, the generator did the trick.

The EU2000 is too small to run the entire house, but Im thinking of picking one circuit in the house and seeing if I can’t have an electrician come in and set that one circuit up with a transfer switch. That way, I can have one room of the house with the outlets running. The alternative, which I’m also seriously considering, is an entirely new circuit throughout the house of emergency ‘red outlets’ that are completely independent of the house panel and would solely be connected to the generator.

The Honda EU2000 usually runs right around a grand. Worth it.

Windstorm/thunderstorm outage and damage

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Had a hellaciously bad windstorm blow through here a few hours ago. My particular neighborhood took a nice hit and for the first time in several years, the power is out. Thus far its been out for about three hours..which is actually quite a while for an in-town issue. Some neighborhoods are with power, some are not. My neighborhood is without power, but my house is with power.

I’ve got the Honda chained up outside and its been providing me with internet, full computer service, and microwaved my dinner. Lemme tell ya, that microwave is a pig…the minute I hit the power button you could hear the generator suddenly shift gears.

Inconvenienced? A bit. But I’m magnitudes of order better off than my neighbors. I’ve some 12v lighting rigged up to give me some area lighting around the house, but my computer room is pretty much The War Room. Lights, computer, laser printer, police scanner….life is good. In another hour or two I’ll swap out the extension cord and run the freezer and fridge for a little while. I fully expect the power back on by morning. If not…well, I’ve enough gas on hand to run the generator for a week if I need to.

Observations:…..

  • You really need quality extension cords and know where they’re at.
  • I have a good cable and lock for the generator. A must.
  • Battery lights for wandering around. The Streamlight Siege is awesome. Get three.
  • The Goal O daisy-chainable 12 v. lights are also quite handy.
  • Extra MagLites to pass to the neighbors are well appreciated
  • LED lights are the way to go. No two ways about it.
  • Your teenage neighbors will be your friends for life if you give them the pass to your functioning wifi.
  • Got extra space in your freezer? Keep your water bottles in there so when the power goes out your stuff stays cooler longer.

More to follow.

Discovered some old food bars

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Was doing some gear swapping from one vehicle to another and, naturally, discovered a few things I had forgotten about. Most notably, these:

20150809_111508Everyone is familiar with those ‘lifeboat ration’ bars that come in a brick of 3600 calories, right? Well, turns out they make smaller size ones as well. The USRDA of pretty much everything is based on a 2000 calorie a day diet. It would take five of these things to equal that recommended intake. Interestingly, five of these bars is actually fairly compact and while I would hate to have to subsist on them for any length of time they would certainly beat starving to death. Someone on one of the forums decided to try eating nothing but those Mainstay/Datrex bars for a week and see what would happen. I can’t find the link but he was less than enthused about the experience.

But, hey, something you can stick in your pack and not worry about for several years is kinda handy. As I said, it definitely beats eating the upholstery. I’ll be folding some small pouches of Mountain House into the vehicle kit just in case. A small Esbit stove and a canteen cup are already in there so that’s half the battle towards having a ‘real meal’. MRE’s work too but theyre just too darn bulky and heavy.

Birthday Friday

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Unfortunately, this planet has made another rotation around the sun and Friday is my birthday. I’m not going to ask you to get me a gift, instead I’ll tell you that if you were inclined to get me a gift you should take the resources you would have used and get yourself something nice. If you think some dude on the interwebs deserves a gift more than you do, well…youre probably wrong. In the end, you’ll always be the only person you can count on so you may as well treat yourself nice.

In other gifting news, Paratus is five weeks away. Get your shopping done early and avoid the crowds.

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