r and r

R AND R


Henceforth and forever more ( or until I change my mind ), the new daily blog will be here:

http://jamesmdakin.blogspot.com/

Starting February 2nd 2012, this will be your Monday through Friday blog. I’m doing this for several reasons. First, one of these days I’ll get off my dead ass and compile the entire five and a quarter years of the Bison Blog together and charge you for the privilege of reading it ( like I do the old newsletter ). Don’t worry, a mere $3 or so. If I actually cleaned it up and indexed it I would charge more, but I don’t know if I’m that motivated. Secondly, I need a clean break from the Best Survivalist Blog Of All Time. My new blog will of course be strongly leaning towards prepping and such, but I want the freedom of occasionally writing about whatever and I don’t need the troll brigade crying about that article having nothing to do with the apocalypse. I understand why they did that before. They were getting info on one subject and expected that. Okay. But as I said yesterday, I’ve saturated the topic and am just repeating myself. If I need to take a day off and write about something else, I want to do so. I know I did that before, but I always tried to tie it into survivalism. I want the freedom to do that more often ( and, sure, it is my blog and I can write what I want to, but when you have financial supporters, there are certain expectations that must be met ). Oh, and I’m going back to a 7 am posting. Tomorrow’s article will be one written previously and held in reserve. So, I’ll write on my lunch break and you get it the next morning.

*

Today’s article is R&R. Not Rest And Relaxation but rice and rimfire. Well, wheat or any other grain and rimfire or any kind of ammunition. For the prepper that has most everything, I can’t think of two other items that make more sense for unlimited stockpiling. Either for personal use of barter. Not that I like the idea of trading ammunition. Once our empire collapses ( and, one assumes, the globe follows as the oil runs out ), that will be the last of the high quality ammunition ever manufactured again. But let’s say you have an infection that will kill you without an antibiotic. Then it doesn’t matter. Your life is worth it. So your extra ammo becomes a life and death stockpiled item. You can plan to try to never sell it, but just in case you have to it will be available. Let’s say you have your five years of food, your ten thousand rounds of Russian bolt ammo. Your solar panels. Whatever. You already have a reasonable amount of precious metals ( not enough to drain your savings, but enough as an insurance hedge ). Mostly, you have everything you need. If you buy anymore it will just be duplicating. Or covering disasters so outside mathematical probability it seems silly to worry about ( like the Mayan thing ). If you continue to buy R&R, you have an investment worthy of multi-generational savings of true wealth.
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon graphics above and to the right of each article. Or, visit
http://bisonpress.com/affiliatebooks.html
You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase. Thank you.
*
Once the oil runs out, we will NEVER again be able to grow grain at such an insanely low price ( the lowest paid worker being able to buy a day’s calories for under three minutes of work ). And ammunition will become utter crap compared to today’s modern machine automated items. It will be mid seventeenth century quality, not twenty-first century. Now, once everyone goes to black powder, and once the die-off is over and sustainable organics start feeding us again, your investment is still secure. Because it was so cheap to procure, you shouldn’t ever lose value on it on a purchasing power basis. Granted, there is a bit of an expiration issue. Some grains last longer than others, and no matter how well stored, eventually ammo will start to turn. But it should last enough to make it through several generations. And it is far more affordable than gold. For the price of one ounce of gold, you can buy almost a ton of wheat. In a famine, how much gold do you think you can get for five years worth of food? And once most folks have wasted all their rimfire on squirrels, how much silver do you think you can get for those rounds when folks are hungry?

*

This is one of the best cost verses returns I can think of. Cigarettes are too expensive ( if your area will grow tobacco, I’d invest in seeds and training for that ). Booze can too easily be homemade ( although of course, not until there is a food surplus ), but still too expensive even if it is a good initial trade item. And not only are R&R great returns, they are great items for yourself, regardless of a potential market. If you never sell it, they can at least keep you alive. Matches are easily substituted. There might be some demand for needles or sewing stuff, but I’d wager there are enough already around that it will take years before a demand develops. And you can’t eat matches or needles. Or kill something with them to eat ( as an aside, you might think about having traps, then selling that food for yet more rimfire ).

END
The Official Bison Web Site http://www.bisonpress.com/
*
My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
*
Anyone can submit a guest article. No minimum word length, no writing skill necessary ( just get the idea across ). You retain copyright ( this must be your original writing ) and I’ll just use the once. I’ve yet to turn down an article, just don’t use the N Bomb or libel another that can sue me. Send by e-mail ( please, label as “guest article” so I can find it easily later ). Payment will be your removal from my enemies list.
*
By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.