The back end of the deal

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Still going through the process of purchasing my little chunk of dirt. How am I financing it, you might ask. Well, ever since I got out of school I’ve had a different relationship with money. I’ve been sticking aside as much as I could and invested almost all of it. I also bought as much gold and silver as I could, consistently, over the years. Now, before anyone gets their aluminum foil panties in a twist about selling precious metals instead of hoarding them for the upcoming apocalypse, thats a completely separate stash. I set aside gold and silver specifically for the land purchase.

How’d that strategy work out? Honestly, fairly well. Most of the gold I’m selling is going out at about 60-100% more than I paid for it. Does this mean gold and silver were good investments? Well…compared to what? $1000 of silver five years ago, sold at todays price, gives a far better return than if that money were invested in anything else. However, you have to admit, the last decade has been nothing if not pretty wild and unpredictable. Also, I made it point to only buy gold when I could get it at spot, rather than pay hefty premiums. As a result, my gold stash is a wild mix of mints and weights….coronas, ducats, roosters, generics, rand, pesos, etc. But…theyre all gold and thats all that matters. The end result is that it winds up, on paper, shaving off a good $10k+ chunk off the purchase price.

So was it a good investment? In this case, I’d say so. But that doesn’t mean I’d do precious metals as my main form of investing. Candidly, the vast majority of my investing is dividend stocks, then covered calls, and then buy-and-hold equities (looking at you KO). But Im also a really pessimistic guy so I also put money into cash and precious metals. (You could argue I invest in guns but its only an investment if you actually sell them.)

But, as diligent as I’ve been, I was still just a wee bit short and had to borrow a small amount from a friend who offered it. It galls me to have to borrow money but on the bright side its a pretty small amount ($30k),,and I should have that wrapped up fairly quickly. So, on the bright side, I’ve no banks to deal with or their attendant nuisance procedures.

The financial part of this adventure has been a bit of an experience as well. I kinda sorta proved to myself that, even on a rather lower-middle class income, I can manage to live a life where I can get some money in the bank. And it isn’t just a matter of saving for the land purchase. I have to have enough in the bank so that even after pulling out the money for the purchase, I still have enough to generate dividend income, cover emergencies, cover other emergencies, pay taxes, have retirement, etc, etc. Not the easiest thing in the world but so far I seem to have done an okay job with it.

 

Property tax

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So The Piece Of Property I Am Buying is approximately 200 times larger than the piece I own here in Missoula. But my property taxes in Missoula are 106 times larger than what my taxes would be on that 20 acres.

Now, to be fair, TPOPIAB has no development on it, has no services, no paved roads, and any 911 call can have its response time measured with a calendar… but its less than 1% of my Missoula taxes for 200 times the ground. Obviously thats gonna change as I develop it, but still…

Weekend plans

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So whats on tap this weekend? Well, moving a buncha stuff to the storage unit to stage it for what I am expecting will be an interesting spring and summer next year, assuming this land purchase thing goes as hoped. I mean, yes its under contract and all….but there is still plenty of room for the wheels to fly off on this thing. I won’t consider it done until all the paperwork is signed, sealed, posted, and undeniably finished. Then I’ll consider it done. And mine. In the meantime, its still ‘the property that I amn looking at buying’.

Next spring will include setting up a semi-permanent campsite, securing access points to the property, installing security measures, redeveloping the overgrown and sapling-sprinkled ‘driveway’ onto the property, and doing a whole lot of walking the property to see exactly what is where. I’m rather looking forward to it, although its going to be one of the biggest money-sinks of my life. But, just because something is a money-sink doesn’t necessarily mean its a bad thing. If its something youve always wanted, then whats a few bucks? It’s sinking money into something you don’t want that is a bad experience.

So, its up to the storage unit, set up the wire shelving and start moving a few things. And after that its back into the spreadsheets and the internet to make lists of things to purchase, tools to investigate, plans to read, etc. I’ve already ordered several ‘how to’ and DIY books from Amazon on a couple subjects. I will, though, be holding off on some of the more expensive items until I’m dead certain this deal is done. Posting might be a little sporadic here and there as I’m spending a good chunk of time realigning myinvestments in order to accommodate this sudden outflow of cash, as well as doing all this research. But…it’ll be an interesting (and hopefully enjoyable) adventure that will give me plenty to blog about.

So…thats the plan for this weekend.

Waiting

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I did, in fact, wind up leasing a storage unit today. I need a place to store things like water barrels, wheelbarrows, coils of wire and piping, etc, until I’m ready to move them to the Beta Site. Since that’s not likely to be until spring is well under way, and I already have too much stuff cluttering my house, a storage unit makes sense. And, before anyone gets their knickers in too much of a twist, I have no intention of parking anything terribly valuable there. No guns, no ammo, etc. However, being the cautious type, a game camera or two with cellphone messaging will probably get set up in there.

Waiting for the property owners to come back with their approval of the buy/sell and then I suppose its just a matter of signing the papers and handing over more money than I’ve ever spent on any one thing in my life. (So far.)

In the meantime the ranks of spreadsheets and bookmarked links are growing as I try to force-feed my brain all the things I have to take into consideration for this new undertaking. Like I said, the land purchase will probably be the cheapest part of this whole endeavour.

I was really, really hoping this would close before the end of hunting season so I could actually go out and hunt the property but it doesn’t look like thats in the cards. But next season…oh yes.

Video – Why Finland is preparing to defend itself

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A rather silly question. Finland has had a rather volatile history with the Soviets/Russians. In this current mood of “will he or won’t he” in regards to Putin’s movements to gain ‘buffer space’ it makes sense to have a strong defensive posture.

Countries that have been on the receiving end of Russian attention are not only increasing their defensive posture, but some are gearing up in a manner that can only be interpreted as ‘FAFO’. Poland, most notably, Crom love ’em, is dedicating a bigger chunk of their GDP into re-arming more than almost anyone else in Europe. And while Poland has had a sad histgory of being the punching bag in just about every European conflict, they seem to have some fire in them these days. Germany, also not a fan of the Russians, is likewise putting their deutschmarks where their dentures are. Even the tiny nations that, no matter how much they spend, will get steamrollered are making plans to use the ‘porcupine strategy’ of making any aggressor pay a high price (looking at you, Estonia).

The real strategy of these nations is not to beat the Russians, because they simply cannot. Their strategy is to hold out long enough until NATO/US comes to their aid. So while the US may not face the prospect of Russian tanks rolling down the street like in Red Dawn, that doesnt mean were not gonna get dragged into something just as intense.

I have an absolutely craptacular track record when it comes to predicting what the Russians will do. I was quite certain Putin was just blustering and saber-rattling when he staged troops at Ukraine’s border. I guess it was just to hard to grasp that a land war in Europe could really happen again.

Nation states are alot of things but stupid is rarely the case. No nation likes risking their economic health…its bad for business and re-elections. So for some of these nations to suddenly take the economic hit of shifting a larger chunk of their GDP towards defense, or ramping up their debt, would seem to indicate that they believe the risk is high enough, or likely enough, that theyre willing to take the fallout (so to speak) of putting a ding or two in the paint of their economy.

Guess we’ll see what happens. But I suppose the smart survivalist should factor in a coming ‘war economy’ into their plans.

It followed me home

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A little bit of proof that not every gun I purchase is for tactical purposes.

I’ve always liked Marlin firearms over Winchester for lever guns. Sadly, Remington’s purchase of Marlin pretty much spiraled the brand into the ground. Quality went downhill in a very pronounced way. When Remington eventually imploded, Marlin got picked up by Ruger and they have done a marvelous job of bring the quality back up, as well as making some nice variations…most notably threaded barrels. (They are a bit more expensive though…but, Ruger’s gotta recover that capital outlay somehow.)

Anyway, pre-Remington Marlins bring a bit of a premium these days. I found this .30-30 336A at Selway Armory on my lunch hour. I already have a nice 336, but its a regular 20″ barrel version. This 336A has a 24″ barrel, Lyman receiver sights, and doesn’t have the annoying cross bolt safety. And Im a sucker for the long barrelled open-sighted guns. So, it came back to the office with me.

Once you get past .30-06 and .308, I think you could make an argument that .30-30 is the next most common big-game round in the US. Regardless, I just liked the looks of this long-barrelled classic. So…here we are.

Still sloggin’ along

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It’s hunting season in western Montana right now. I was kinda hoping that by the time hunting season rolled around this year I would have a piece of property that I could throw a tent on for a weekend and do little hunting. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that this is going to be in the cards for this hunting season. I am, however, very much planning on being on my own little hunting area next season.

How’s the property hunting coming? Well, I had a sudden and unexpected financial obligation come up and until I get that resolved I am not comfortable pulling the trigger on a piece of property. I hope to have the issue resolved in a few weeks, but by then hunting season will be in the rearview mirror.

And while Im on the subject of getting this land thing finished, I need to drop some coin and buy an ATV of some flavor and, probably, a snowmobile of some kind as well. Since virtually all of the properties I have been looking at are in places where road maintenance is a quaint theory I need to have the ability to get in and out of the area. And, on this matter, everyone…and I mean everyone….has an opinion. Get a four-wheeler and snowmobile. Get a side-by-side and a track/tread conversion for winter. Get a four-wheeler and a set of chains. Get a side-by-side and a snowmobile. Etc, etc. I mean there’s all sorts of combinations of these and every possible combination has its supporters and detractors. Clearly I need to do a good bit of independent research and make my own informed opinion.

And, naturally, it doesnt stop there. There’s a tremendous amount of things that need to be purchased in anticipation. Most notably tools, implements, and a whole library of how-to, instruction, and technical books. Fortunately, in the circles I travel in I have associates and friends in fields of expertise that can give me some information and ideas. But theres always something that I’m ignorant of and that I don’t know anyone who is well-informed. And although I try to avoid putting the cart before the horse, I can’t see much reason not to have certain materials, equipment, and supplies tucked away. And, of course, theres the other things I need to have lined up that you can’t just order of Amazon….things like sourcing a real estate trust lawyer, finding someone to do  a survey and maps, that sort of thing.

But, when its all done, I really really hope it’ll be the quiet little hidden private oasis that I daydream about. I guess we’ll see. Gotta get the finances straightened out first.