Stash It 2

First, let's go thrugh the house like a burgler or a government agent. I know, that is redundent. These types have a pretty definite ida f where to look for certain items. Most people follow a pattern on where things are stored. For instance, jewlery or coins; the first place to look would be in the bedroom, followed by the den or office, with the dining room or living room coming in next. They might look for safes behind pictures or hiddent in bookcases. Cameras, firearms and other valuables are looked for in the same manner in much the same places. Electronic equipment is looked for where it is expected to be used. Notece that I have not mention kitchens at all. This is due to the fact that very few peope store things in the kitchen. Tools are also popular with thieves. Here they might look in the garage or shop first. While the garage or shop is where the tools are used and needed, you may want to consider stashing a few away. That way, even if you were robbed, you would have some left. Here are some things to think about. Crooks prefer the first floor. They dislike the second floor as there is usually only one way in and out if they are discoverd. Government agents have no such fear as they are usually well armed. Basements are another place that crooks hate for the same reason. The best basements for storage are the old fashioned ones with the small windows and one inside enterance. When you get to crawl spaces and attics, even the G-men hate them. Har to get in and out and usually dirty. These are ideal storage areas for certain items. More next time.

Stash It

Whether it is your investments, your food, you guns, your ammo or anything else that you consider valuable, you may want a place the hide it. My forty page book that I wrote in 1998 gives many examples of how to hide things from the prying eyes of the government and others. It tells how to put things in the places where a thief is least likely to look. There are many reasons for hiding valuables. The constitution garuntees us privacy and I am going to take advantage of it even though the government now does searches without warrents. The fact that they do that makes it even more necessary that some things should be hidden. At the moment I have nothing to hide that would cause me any trouble but who knows when they will change the laws and make things illegal that are now legal. Look at the way they were taking away guns after hurricane Katrina. The first thing is to make a list of everything you are going to hide and where it is to be hidden. Seal this list in an envelope and give it to someone such as a son, daughter or someone else that is completely trustable. This envelope is only to be opened on your death or at some other time which you specify when it is given out. This is to insure that should something happen to you, what you have hidden or buried will not be lost forever. For instance, you bury a couple of guns, you would not want them going to the people that bought the land that they were buried on. Actually, if you did it right, they may never be found and good guns would go to waste. I even have someone who I show where I hide most of my stuff. That way they know what to look for and where to look when they open that letter. Next post I will get into the actual hiding of things. I do not have much hidden at the time but all of the methods I will describe are either methods I used, am using or designed for someone else.

More investments

Once you have eniough food for yourself and to use for barter, enough ammo for yourself and to use for barter and a small piece of land if necessary, it is time for some other investments. My personal favorite is silver. I suggest silver before gold because it is less per ounce and will probably be easier to use during a barter type situation. At five or six hundred dollars per ounce it will be hard to have small enough denominations to take care of every day needs. Add to this the fact that the smaller the denomination, the higher the premium you will pay when purchasing them. Ten one-tenth ounce gold coins cost a lot more than a single one ounce coin. With silver you do not have quite the same problem. the first silver I suggest is pre-1964 coins. These are still fairly reasonable if you do not care about numismatic value. I purchased mine by the roll, but if you can afford to buy them by the bag, it is even cheaper. As silver takes up quite a bit of storage space, once you have a couple of hundred dollars in coins, you may want to start purchasing one ounce silver bars or rounds. The common ones are very reasonable, going for just over the spot price of silver. If you are living in or near q city large enough to have a fairly large coin dealer, try to do your buying there. Sometimes shipping and insurance can cost more than the silver. If you are in the financial area where you have enough money, after you have several hundred dollars worth of silver, you may want to add some gold to the mix. But the one-half and one ounce common coins and hold it for larger purchases. I have never reached to point where I had the financial wherewithal to buy gold. I have been doing survival investment counciling since the 70's and have yet had anyone lose money on my advice. They may not make as much on paper as in the stock market, but they did not lose anything when the market took a dump either. If you are just starting out, start with the food and ammo and continue on from there. No one knows how far they will get in the investments before the ship hits the sand, but no matter how far you get, it will be better than where you are now.

Investments cont.

Getting back to investments, after you have your bills under control, and possibly have some land purchased to head for should the need arise, you may want to think about other investments. If things really get bad, we go into a barter society. This would not be all bad al those of us who are true survivalists would be prepared for that situation. The first thing you want to consider for barter is food. Hopefully all survivalists are the type of people that can raise, hunt and otherwise procure their own food. I keep a two year supply of food on hand. This ranges from frozen, to canned, to dried, to mre's. This would take me through an extended period of time when it was not possible to raise or orthewise procure my own food. Things such as war, rioting, etc. that would interfere with my present way of life and cause me and mine to have to move or spend our time defending what is ours. I feel that under most survival conditions I would have much of this food to use as barter. The other aspect of having this food is that I could help out other people, (kids, grandkids, etc.), and in turn they could assist me in many ways. The mre's are the last thing that I would use and the first thing that I would use for barter. Barter is about the only reason that I keep mre's in the first place. do not like them and feel that the only real reason to have them is their long shelf life. Even they have an expiration date so it is important that you use them from time to time and replace them. I dry much of my own food and this also needs to be rotated. The mre's or various brands of camping freeze dried food has a shelf life of from five to ten years, depending on the brand. Remember to use it up or otherwise get rid of it before it is no good. However, experation dates are not entirely accurate. They are set partly to protect the manufacturer from lawsuits. In a survival situation many people would not worry too much about the dates and you could still use them for barter. More next time.

Energy

A good survivalist needs to back up all of his energy uses. This is especially true now with crude oil prices so high. As crude goes up, gasoline goes up, electricity goes up, diesel goes up, fuel oil goes up, etc. etc. etc. It behooves the survivalist to have a backup for all of his energy needs and to start replacing some of the needs he now has with things that can be made by a reasonably handy survivalist. There are many ways that money can be saved on energy. First, if at all possible do some of your heating and possibly some water heating with wood. This is one of the things that I do at the present. Other than a little gas for the chain saw and an occasional trip to the National Wildlife Refuge 12 miles away, there is no cost. So if at all possible burn wood. One thing I will warn you about is that if you must purchase your wood, it may not be much cheaper than what you are now using. That is because the people selling wood raise their prices along with the rest of the energy industry. The only advantage then, is that you most times do not have to rely on electricity to run your heating system. Another thing that I have done is to build passive solar panels with which to heat one room each. In my book "AffordableEnergyBackups which I wrote in 1998, I had plans for a four by eight foot, one room heater. Even with todays prices and if you had to purchase everything new, it still could be built for less than $50. While I no longer sell the book. I still sell the plans. The book also contained plans for a home built wind generator. One of the reasons I no longer sell the book is that I found some flaws in the system with use and am now in the process of redesigning it. I will continue this energy discussion on my next post.

Ammo 2

When a person amasses the amount of ammo I talked in the last post, it can get very expensive and much storage room is needed.The way I did it was to buy twice as much as I needed for practice each time I went out and save the rest. One thing you want to do is to rotate your ammo. Ammo will go bad after a length of time. Here is a for instance. You are going out to practice with your .22 rimfire. On this day you intend to shoot 50 rounds with your rifle and the same with your pistol. You would need two boxes of ammo, so buy four. Use two boxes and mark the other two with the date and store them. Next time you are going out to practice with the .22 buy two more boxes of ammo, but use the two you purchased last time. Mark the four new boxes with the date and continue this until you have you total supply on hand. Then continue purchasing ammo each time you practice, but use the oldest from storage, replacing it with what you bought. Storage becomes another problem. I like the old metal, surplus ammo cans. I have one for each of my types of ammo. They come in various sizes and are very useful. In good condition they are waterproof and can be buried. However, for burrying ammo, I prefer making containers out of pvc pipe. I take a short length of four or even six inch pvc, glue a cap on one end, fill it with the ammo along with a couple bags of desicant glue a fitting on the open that will take a screw in plug, screw the plug in tightly and it is ready to be buried. One thing to remember is that every year or two these containers should be dug up and the ammo in them changed for fresh ammo. You can also add new desicant at the time. Be sure you remember where you bury the ammo. You may want to make a map and note of where it is, write someones name on it and state to only open upon your death. Remember, you want it burried where you can get at it quickly, whether it be from personal need of for barter. Also, always use your oldest ammo for barter.

Ammo

This is an item that I consider both an investment and ammo for personal use. Should the economy go south as I anticipate, ammo may be one of the best barter items you can have. Even if we do not go to a complete barter system, there will probably be a number of people that will prefer to barter than use what passes for cash in this country. So, when you look at the numbers of each type of ammo I list, do not think that I am out of my mind. For the shotgun I recommend 2,100 rounds. This sounds like a lot but really it is not. I would split the shotgun shells in this way: 1,500 rounds of bird shot, 2s, 4s, 6s and 7 1/2s. I would have 300 rounds of 00 and 000 buckshot and 300 rifled slugs. For your centerfire rifle I would suggest 1,200 rounds. I would split this between two different bullet weights. for instance, using the 30-06 as and example, you might want half 125 grain and one half 180 grain. This is one reason I suggest 30-30 or 30-06 as your centerfire rifle. They are both very popular, the ammo is cheap and it will be the easiest to use as a barter item. Now my 7.62x54R ammo may be worth more in barter, but I will have a much harder time finding someone who needs it. Next, handguns: you will want 1,500 rounds, split between two types or weights. Now if you have a .357 or .44 mag. in both rifle and handgun, just add this to the 1,200 rounds of rifle ammo. Next we come to the .22 rimfore. I do not believe that 3,000 rounds is too many. First you will probably be doing most of your practice shooting with your rimfire, you will probably also have both a rifle and a handgun in that caliber, plus it will be the most sought after ammo in a survival situation. Next post I will talk about amassing this much ammo and the storage of the same. All of the info in this post has been taken from a 40 page booklet, "Sensible Affordable Firearms", which I wrote in 1998.

Guns 2

My own weapons follow very closely to what I suggested in the last entry. Each and ever one of my long guns are bolt action. I feel that when one gets used to an action, they are better with it and have no trouble switching from type to type of gun. My first weapon was a 12 gauge shotgun and I just kept on adding bolt actions as I added weapons. I have nothing against any of the otere actions including semi-autos, it is just that I find bolt actions easier to understand, (fix), cheaper and sturdier. For those of you purchasing weapons in an action where a pistol caliber may be had might want to try to go with a .44 mag. rifle as well as a .44 mag handgun. This would mean that you would only need three types of ammo. Shotgun, .22 rimfire and .44 mag. You can also get the rifles in .357, but I do not feel that .357 is quite as good for hunting. However, should you already have a .357 handgun and are looking for a rifle, by all means do it. Another way to save money is to make your centerfire rifle a surplus military rifle. My personal survival centerfire is a Russian 7.62 x 54R. You can usually purchase surplus military ammo to keep on hand for emergencies and soft nosed ammo for hunting. The military amm os very inexpensive and can be used in practice and should you need to defend yourself. It is not good for hunting as it is full metal jack and goes right through and animal without expanding. Hunting ammo needs to expand when it hits a deer sized animal, to do as much damage as possible. If you do not want to go with a military rifle, the old standby 30.-.30 is about the best bet. It can be had in most actions, it is adequate for any big game in the U.S., ammo is cheap and ammo is available almost everywhere. More about ammo next time.

Firearms

I was going to continue the investment advice but due to the fact that things look much worse today than they did a couple of weeks ago I am going to start jumping around trying to help those of you who wish to, to prepare. Most of what I will be writing will be taken from my book. "Sensible Affordable Firearms".
The first thing I will say is that I do not hold with the theory that survivalists need many guns and especially do not agree that these guns need to be semi-auto or especially full auto as some writers propose. My entire survival arsenal consists of bolt actions, and this includes shotguns. I know of people who have nothing but single shot guns. If that is what you are comfortable and what you can afford, that is what you should have. Next, I have not bought a gun new since 1968. That is when it became illegal to purchase guns mail order and when you had to start filling out paperwork for the government. All of my guns have been purchased from private parties. The one gun I had to fill out paperwork on was a Ruger 10/22 which I won at a gun show. This is my wife's gun along with a semi-auto 22 pistol. These are the only semi-autos that we own. What do I feel is needed? Start with the shotgun. This is the best all around weapon you can have. It is by far the best and safest home protection gun. It is hard to miss with double O buck at the range inside of most homes. You also will not be putting holes in the walls and if you live in an apartment, you will not need to worry about killing your neighbor with a stray shot. I would even suggest #2 shot for home protection. At the short indoor ranges it has plenty of killing power. The other reason for a shotgun first is that with a 12 or even 20 guage, you can harvest any animal or bird. This includes whitetail deer and black bear. I would not hesitate on larger animals such as moose with a 12 gauge in a survival situation. Your next weapon should be a .22 rimfire, followed by a larger caliber center fire and then if you want handguns a .22 rimfire revolver and a .357 or larger revolver. More on guns next time.

Investments

Survivalists do not invest like regular Wall Street investors. The first thing you should invest in is land. That is unless you already live in what you consider an ideal survival location. I am not talking about hundreds of acres or even possibly several acres. i am talking about just enough to survive on if the unthinkable should happen. An acre or two that you can camp on in the event that you need to is sufficient. If you can find a place cheap enough and have the money to do so a "vacation" place is okay. What you want is someplace to go that you can call your own in the event of a major catastrophe, be it terrorist attack, natural disaster, financial meltdown or any other survival situation. You want this land in an area that you feel wil be safe from looters, government intervention, etc. If the land has a building on it, so much the better, if not that is okay, you can work on getting on there. Having a camper or even a tent to put there is the next best thing. I personally have a fold down camping trailer sitting in my yard and an acre of land two hours away. My home is still morgatged, so if a financial meltdown comes and they forclose, my wife and I still have something. I can load my guns and food in the van, hook up the trailer and in two hours be on my own property. These are things that everyone should look at and plan for. It will be different with each one and there is no way I could say exactly what to do unless I were to talk to each one individually. Maybe some of you, if you cannot afford land right now might want a tent or small camper and could get away to a national forest or other wild area. There are many that are large enough to get lost in for a long time. This would take knowledge of how to fend for yourself in the wild, which is something I will get into at a later date. Next: further investing.

Bills

The first thing we need to do as survivalists, is to make sure all our bills are paid off. Right now I myself am paying off some bills. I do not normally have any but the fact that my one stepson died and the other had a concussion, had brainsurgery and could not work for six months, left the wife and I in some debt. Try to pay off all loans including morgtgage. Now I know this sound impossible in this day and age,but it can be done. I did it once and it will not be long until I do it again. If you have any credit card bills, never just pay the minimum. That could take you thirty years or more to pay off a credit card. Most of a minimum payment goes to interest. Remember, every dollar above the minimum comes directly off the balance. Say you have a credit card that you owe $500 on. Pay fifty dollars a month more than the minimum and you will be finished with the card in about nine months. If you have a mortgage that you would like to pay off faster but cannot just make a large paymenthere is one way I used. Say the payments are $485 per month. Make it an even $500 and set your budget up to pay every four weeks instead of once a month. That will make 13 payments a year rather than 12. You might be surprised how much difference a couple little things like this help pay off much sooner. They can gain you eight or ten years on a 25 year mortgage. Once you have your bills taken care of, tear up your credit cards and forget that you ever heard of credit. No mortgages, no car loans, no credit cards, nothing.

Attitude

I am going to get a little off the subject today and talk about attitude. The reason I am doing this is that having the right attitude is the most important thing a survivalist can have. Every year you hear of people getting lost and dying because they stopped twenty yards short of safety or were unwilling to eat mice and drink swampwater. You also hear of people who have less to start with and do survive. The difference is attitude. As I watch TV and see all of the destruction in the south from hurricane Katrina, the thing that bothers me most is that everyone you see on the news is crying because the government is not doing enough and not doing it soon enough. While I feel very sorry for all of the people who have lost everything, I see no survival attitudes there. Never, I will say it again, NEVER depend on government help (or any other help for that matter) in a survival situation. Should help arrive, be it government or private, so much the better, just do not depend on it happening. Prepare yourself mentally to survive anything that can possibly happen to you as long as you have breath in your body. When you see a disaster such as this one, think about what you could and would do in that situation. Think about things like that every day until it becomes second nature to you. Remember, we are survivalists, we want to know what is going to happen next and we want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Why me?

I said Fri. that I would let you know why I consider myself qualified to give survival advice. I got into the original survival movement at its infancy. I started in 1975 and after figuring out that I could not afford survival in the way it was then being preached I started looking for different ways of doing things, because I did not believe survival was for the very rich only. I lived in a small pickup camper set on blocks, for a year after my first divorce. While doing that I learned many things. I married again and in 1989 started my own survival newsletter. In 1990 I was divorced again and living in a one room apartment; time for more experimentation. My ex "lost" my mailing list on her computer, so other than my current subscribers I had no list. In 1991 I shut down the newsletter and began to write short books and booklets. In 1993 I married again and moved to a small survival farm: 35 acres where my wife and I raised virtually all of our own food. I continued writing and publishing books and wound up with about 16 titles. they ranged from 8 to 100 pages and covered many aspects of survival. In 1997 my wife took sick and after four surgeries, we sold the farm and moved to our present location. I also took early retirement so I could do much of the housework as she was not able. Here we have five acres of woods. We raise a large garden and I hunt and fish for much of our meat. We are living on fixed income, so I need to come up with ways to save money on normal living expenses. I even find myself going back to my own books to recall different things I learned along the way. As you can see, I have lived the survivalist lifestyle for 30 years so I hope I have learned along the way. What I have learned are the things I will be trying to share on this blog. If we have enough time before the ship hits the sand I hope to help at least some of you.

Emergency

If I were you I would start preparing now for survival in the very near future. I may be wrong, and I hope I am, but the aftermath of hurricane Katrina may cause the biggest depression in the history of the world. The cost of rebuilding alone is going to bring this country to its knees. All of the people that were in the way of the storm will want government help and they want it yesterday. This is going to cause the government to create more giveaway programs, it is already causing the price of gasoline to skyrocket, when fuel prices prices skyrocket everything that is hauled by truck, and that is almost all of the food we eat, will go up quickly. Lumber prices will jump as will prices for many, many other things. I started to talk about investing but I am not sure we have enough time to go through it. In the fifteen years I have been advising survivalists, this is the first time that I do not know where to start. Food, ammo, silver and gold in that order is what I normally suggest. Those and some land to move to if necessary and investing some time and maybe money in a small business that will hold you through the bad time. Right now I do not know if we have enough time to get even a part of it done. More next week.
P.S. I do not usually post on Sunday but will be posting this week. It will be to tell you more about myself and why I think I can advise survivalists.