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Friday, April 12, 2013

Unemployed Man's Preps

BillT4 sent this to me: "Thanks for your site. I really like the craft and skills stuff. I lost my job five months ago. My girlfriend who lives with me is still working, so basically I'm a stay at home Dad for our five year old son who won't be starting school until the fall. I have started prepping two years ago. If we had to we could live without my girlfriends job for at least nine months. That would eat up all our savings and food supply. My goal is not to use our preps now and to even expand our food stocks. We have been eating a lot of stuff I have been growing in my green house which I built. I just traded some tomatoes and squash to a neighbor for some cinder blocks he had stacked up. He asked me how I was growing (vegetables) in winter. So I told him about my green house. Now he has contracted me to build him one. Then he called and gave me a phone number to another man who wants a greenhouse built. He is also going to place an ad at the American Legion Hall for me. So now I have some income coming in. I think the custom greenhouse thing will be better in the fall going into winter and hopefully this will also lead to some other carpentry or repair jobs. sincerely, Bill."  

UrbanMan replies: Bill, I could not use the pictures you sent as when I tried to enlarge them, the pixilation made them just a blur. But good for you finding a way to make a living your way. I read a book about building businesses and it talked about doing a Personal Asset Inventory to determine what skills a person has across the business spectrum of providing services, products or information in order to grow a business and make a living. It appears you are doing that. Again good for you. Better yet, it is aligned with preparing for bad times and helping others do the same.

You may want to consider the physical location for your green houses or advise others in this thought. Imagine a collapse, hyper-inflation, greatly reduced access to food and wandering hungry people - who then see a green house.....well you get the picture.

You may also want to consider a blog where you discuss green houses, soil prep, composting, watering systems, growing vegetables, canning or preserving the fruit of your labors, etc.  Lots of different ways to take this concept forward, but one thing is for sure,...you can't describe yourself as unemployed anymore,.....you are small business man.  

The second e-mail you sent where you traded some vegetables to an older woman for a bunch of hand tools which you plan on saving for future barter or for the flea market is also a great example of barter and prepping but also of expanding your rapport with the neighbors which will be important in a collapse as it will give you a leg up for team building.

Unless a person has a hardened and prepared site with a dedicated water source, you will be stuck like alot of us relying on our urban or suburban neighbors, and them on us, when the collapse comes. Building those relationships now will help you, helping your neighbors grow some of their own food goes along way. But be advised that being prepared for other threats besides starvation are important as well. Consider your security and protection requirements as well as shelter. Given today's ammunition shortages, it would be great if you could barter for ammunition that you could use!   Anyway, good luck and prepare well. 

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Cyprus and the World financial conspiracy,

We do not advocate taking all of your money out of the bank at this time.  We have however written about having some cash always on hand on hand if the banks close for whatever reason.  Imagine a major event occuring on Friday then the Federal Government mandating banks and ATM's to close on the following Monday and/or Tuesday.   The bank lines on Wednesday would be terrible, even if it was worth it to try and withdraw some of your funds.

The cash on hand, as well as some Silver and Gold would give you some purchase power and help reduce, howeer slightly, the effects of what is happening in Cyprus.  
   
Who would have thought a western government would confiscate the private wealth of it's citizens?  It seems like our world is turning upside down.  Some think that the Cyprus deal is a test case for a much larger plot.
I'll let everyone else decide, but one source published this video and narrative as a lead in. 


The Cyprus Template Your Money AND Your Life As the story of the Cyprus Template for world financial reorganization unfolds, it is now becoming totally clear that British Empire's policy is "your money and your life." Dennis Small of EIR reviews recent intelligence tracing the now infamous Cyprus "bail-in" policy back to a December 2012 BoE/FDIC report, and all the way to Dodd-Frank.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Gold Won't Save You?

I am a proponent of the average survivalist holding some precious metals, such silver bullion and coins that have silver melt value, and, even some gold is they can afford it. This is to use primarily as barter in the phase of an economic collapse where people realize fiat currency has no value or at least will not accept fiat currency.

Others look at Gold and Silver as an investment for hyper inflation. And to be sure there is substantial potential for becoming very well off by having significant holdings of precious metals in the (hopefully) later stages of a collapse where the country and economy are being rebuilt .

Enter Marc Faber's premise that "Not Even Gold Will Save You From What Is Coming", an article published on the well respected Business Insider.

Marc Faber, who authors the Gloom Boom & Doom newsletter, is usually pretty bearish on stocks and bullish on gold. Lately, though, gold doesn't seem like it can catch a bid.

"Despite the continued reverberations regarding the Cyprus bailout and its involvement of bank deposits, gold struggled to maintain the positive momentum created in the first two weeks of March and instead now looks very likely to move lower, towards $1580 an oz," wrote Deutsche Bank commodities analyst Xiao Fu in a note this morning.

So, what does Faber have to say about it?

This morning, on Bloomberg Surveillance with Tom Keene and Alix Steel, Dr. Doom was asked why gold wasn't holding up.

Here's his explanation:

When you print money, the money does not flow evenly into the economic system. It stays essentially in the financial service industry and among people that have access to these funds, mostly well-to-do people. It does not go to the worker. I just mentioned that it doesn't flow evenly into the system.

Now from time to time it will lift the NASDAQ like between 1997 and March 2000. Then it lifted home prices in the U.S. until 2007. Then it lifted the commodity prices in 2008 until July 2008 when the global economy was already in recession. More recently it has lifted selected emerging economies, stock markets in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, up four times from 2009 lows and now the U.S.

So we are creating bubbles and bubbles and bubbles. This bubble will come to an end. My concern is that we are going to have a systemic crisis where it is going to be very difficult to hide. Even in gold, it will be difficult to hide.

Faber is, of course, still bearish on U.S. stocks. He told Bloomberg that he sees "considerable downside risk" in the market.

Listen to Mr Faber yourself and see if he makes sense.


Monday, April 8, 2013

Survialist Dad's Prepping is Actually a Medical Problem

The following is from Annie's Mailbox, an advice column published all over the U.S. in the print media (newspapers). My wife actually brought it to my attention and I laughed,....

Dear Annie: My father, my brothers and I served during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Only my father and I deployed to combat areas. Dad retired five years ago and is showing drastic symptoms of PTSD. He is stockpiling food and medical supplies and keeps trying to get my wife and me to "prepare" for when "it all hits the fan". He spends hours a day obessively watching the news and getting angry at the television. Our children used to spend time unsupervised with my parents, but that stopped when I found a loaded handgun in his bathroom cabinet. My mother has broached the topic of therapy and I've offered to go with him as I've been wrestling with some mild PTSD issues myself. But my brothers intercede every time and say Dad's fine and it's no big deal, and they convince him not to go. I believe this is dangerous. I've been unable to find any home counseling services and even our pastor says this is out of his realm of expertise. What other options are out there?- New York son

Dear Son (Annie's reply): You may have better luck getting your father to accept help if you approach him (with) this is a possible Medical Problem. We also suggest you ask him to join you for an exercise or yoga class, which can be useful for some PTSD sufferers. Also please contact the VA's National Center for PTSD or Military One Source and ask to speak to a counselor or get a referral to local military treatment facilities.

What UrbanMan would have told Son: Do not refer your Dad to the VA for PSTD - they may take his guns away. Then who is going to prortect your non-prepared butt when SHTF occurs and you undoubtably run to Daddy's house for food, shelter and protection? The only problem with your Dad is if he does not have a Bug Out Plan. Get with the program New York Son.