One nice thing about blogging is that it gives me some benchmarks to work with. Apparently, at the beginning of the year, boneless skinless chicken breast was $1.98/# at Winco. A bit later in January it jumped to $2.18/#…and increase of almost 10%. Today at Winco I was met with this:
Thats right, kids…it jumped sixty cents a pound in one swoop. Thats’s an overnight increase of 28%. Or, if you start with January, a 40% increase in chicken in six months. Put another way, if you spent the same amount of money as you did in January to buy 30 days worth of chicken, you’d only get about 21 says worth of chicken now.
So, unless you got a 40% raise in the last six months, you are gonna be at a net loss chicken-wise.
It must have been a very recent price increase because there were still a few lower-priced trays left:
Other than gas prices, this has been the most in-your-face thing I’ve seen. And this will be happening on everything.
It occurs to me that this year is the 25th anniversary of Kevin Costner’s second-worst movie – The Postman. (His first worst was, of course, the other post-apocalyptic movie Waterworld which was basically Mad Max with jetskis. Although Jeanne Tripplehorn makes the experience worth it.)
The short version is that after the apocalypse, a traveling actor masquerades as a postman from a distant restored federal government to garner himself protection and sustenance. However, he inadvertently inspires a movement to overthrow a warlord and actually restore the government.
The book, by David Brin, was a good bit darker with quite a few changes. Most notably, the book portrays civilization being held back from recovery by fanatical survivalists who adopt a heavily Darwinian (or Malthusian, I suppose) attitude. Survivalists are portrayed as madmen who are glad society has collapsed, embrace the every-man-for-himself world, and will fight to prevent the establishment of any type of restorative process. Also, the nature of and role of men and women is prominent in the book, as one character recruits her own army of women to subvert and manipulate the men, through feminine means, towards the shared goal of her and the postman.
The book also featured more of the day-to-day scrounging and hard-scrabble living that the postman has to go through before he stumbles onto his deceptive new career. There’s a scene in the book where he discovers a cache of high-value items (tooth powder, antibiotics, an AR7, etc.) and is forced to abandon it as bad guys approach. The book describes his anguish as he sees those items get taken by the bad guys when they would have made his life so much better. Good stuff. There are smaller, similar scenes throughout the story that remind you that this is a world where something as simple as a tooth infection can and will kill you.
The book is much less happy ending than the movie but both are still, in my opinion enjoyable. The movie is rather long at almost three hours, but Im cool with that since I’m a sucker for this genre of movie. There are humourous touches in the movie that are absent from the book, and, bizarrely, now-dead rocker Tom Petty appears as himself playing the mayor of a small town of survivors.
The movie still has the theme of townies-vs-warlords that was in the book but the strident and vehement attitude about evil ‘survivalists’ is absent in the movie. The bad guys are not really referred to as ‘survivalists’ but rather as just a rather large organized group of thugs, in the book they are quite clearly called ‘survivalists’ and are portrayed as ear-cutting killing-machines who are one-man armies.
Is it a good movie? No, not really? Is it a fun movie? Well, if your idea of fun is post-apocalyptic living, sure. Is it entertaining? Yes, if you enjoy this genre. I’d watch it if it came up for free on Amazon Prime or I saw it while flipping channels. Would I actually rent it? No. But I would buy the book. Not as great as Alas Babylon or Lucifers Hammer, but still an entertaining read with a little bit of food for thought here and there.
Oh, and according to the book, the events in The Postman take place in the near-future of…2013. I must have missed it.
Y’know, just because I’m a survivalist with a closet full of guns, a basement full of food, and a winners attitude doesn’t mean that I actually want the Bad Things to happen.
I’m really curious to see how all this…mess…shakes out. I can’t see a way where any of these nagging things like inflation, ‘supply chain issues’, threats of war, pandemic, etc, come to a close any time soon. A year? Maybe. Two years? Maybe. Three months? Not gonna happen. But…I’ve been wrong before.
I have the worst record at the predicting the future, but I just cannot fathom a scenario where prices do not continue to rise, driven by higher fuel prices, absurd spending, and organic/manufactured logisitics issues. Heck, I just bought a set of tires the other day that I really didn’t want to buy because I knew, with the same level of certainty I know the sun will rise tomorrow, that they would just cost more later assuming they were even available. Sometimes it feels like LARPing the Weimar Germany days.
One thing I’m not doing these days is buying guns and ammo (although I may have just bought another case of Pmags). I settled the gun and ammo thing quite a while back. Which means right now my focus is on pretty much everything else because I think it’s a fait accompli that everything is only going to get more expensive and decrease in availability.
Like what? Geez, man,…everything. What am I buying more of? Every consumable I can think of…soap, toilet paper, laundry detergent, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, socks, shoes, q-tips, sponges, dish soap, batteries, etc, etc. Im actually reviewing the Preponomicon to see if maybe I should bump up my ‘ideal amount’ on a few things. And I was hoping that I was past the expensive part of tings, but nope. And, couple that with Bidenflation, and it’s an even harder kick to the fiscal jimmies.
But…I am at a level of resilience that makes me feel more confident….not about the future, but rather my ability to get through better than most.
I wish the stock market was going to the moon like gas prices were…then maybe I could afford gas.
Is there anyone in the world who hasn’t figured out yet that if the fuel that runs the trucks that delivers your food goes up in price, everything delivered by those trucks will also go up?
I fill my truck up even when its only down to 3/4 of a tank. Why? Because if I wait until I’m at 1/4 tank, the gas prices will be higher. So I constantly keep filling the tank to remain ahead of the price increases. Who does that???? Zimbabweans. Venezuelans.
And the worst is yet to come: government ‘relief’. Price controls? Nationalizations? Subsidies and rebates? Who knows? But there is no problem that cannot be made worse by government intervention.
Me…I’ll at least be able to eat, even though I’ll have to ride my bike everywhere.
Literally, there have been revolutions and coups that started over this sort of thing.
Say what you will about Trump, but I remember a glorious moment of sub-$2 gasoline.
Almost five weeks after I ordered it, the grain mill I ordered finally arrived. NGL, I was starting to think it wasn’t going to ship at all. And, in the intervening time, the price rose almost 25% as availability shrank. But..it’s here.
Impressions? Definitely a product that is built to last. But…I ordered the spare parts nonetheless. My biggest problem was that I simply don’t have the counter space, nor the sturdiness of construction, that this thing will require. So, I gave it some thought and came up with something that seems to work.
First consideration was space. I cant just go buy or build a sturdy little bench and bolt this thing to it. I just don’t have room for that. Secondly, whatever I bolt it to has to be able to resist the forces exerted on the mill. In other word, if I start really leaning into this thing I need the mill and its mounting surface to not walk around or wobble.
Solution? Black and Decker Workmate WM225.
I mounted the mill to some scrap lumber, and then c-clamp that to the bench. The bench folds flat like a folding chair when not in use, so the footprint is minimal. And, thanks to physics, if I stand on the bench’s step while turning the mill handle I cannot lift the mill or the bench….for the same reason you cant stand in a bucket and lift yourself up in it. So…that works.
The mill itself looks like it’ll last a lifetime. I tried grinding up some hard white wheat and the result was a very fine flour. Changed out a few parts, threw in a handful of dried corn, and experimented with several different grades of fineness.
I will say that I can see why some people motorize these things. But, I picked up the extension handle for it so the extra leverage makes a big difference.
I haven’t done much, if any, baking in a while so I’ll have to see how the taste of fresh ground flour and cornmeal compares to what I’m used to.
Also, I can see where it might make sense for me to go pick up another 16-gallon ‘blue barrel’ and dump another hundred pounds of wheat or corn into it… just in case. A couple hundred pounds of each should last for quite a while.
Yeah, the mill was a major hit to the wallet but over the rest of my anticipated life span that knocks it down to something like a dime a day for a tool that will last forever and help keep me and the people I care about fed.
I met Randy Weaver back in the late ’90s. Seemed like a nice enough guy…quiet, didnt say much. But, I guess having your unarmed wife shot by a .gov sniper will take the wind out of your sails.
This guy was one of several focal points for the ‘militia movement’ back in the ’90s. I think after Ruby Ridge, he just wanted to be left alone to take care of his kids and move on with what was left of his life. Raw deal all around.
I compared it side by side with the backpacker stock for the 10/22 and its is almost exactly the same size.
The stock is pretty much exactly the same as the Backpacker 10/22 stock, but the compartment in the stock that would normally hold a handful of 10/22 mags is now designed to fit one Magpul 21-rd 9mm magazine. Handy. Interestingly, ulike the 10/22 version, it came with a second cover for the stock compartment. This other cover acts like a riser to, presumably, give you a higher cheek weld for use with optics. Other than that..same stock, basically.
Like the 10/22 version, there’s no provision for a sling unless you order up some Magpul QD sockets. Annoying, but I suppose I can see why they went that way.
And, since TPIWWP:
Before….
…and after.
Buttstock offers a compartment with enough room to store a Magpul 21-rd Glock mag.
G17 for size comparison. This is almost the exact same size as the 10/22 version of the Backpacker stock.
The stock was about $150 from Brownells, but it’s a much better choice, IMHO, than that original Ruger stock. The QD swivel points are useful, the onboard mag storage is a major plus, the color is practical, and the way the barrel assembly locks to the stock to keep everything together in one unit is a really nice feature.
So, worth the money? In my opinion yes. I’ll take it out this weekend and do some shooting with it, but I expect it to perform just fine. Magpul has a pretty good reputation for doing stuff right.
Man, I really miss the Meat Tray. It was only a little over a year ago that I could still plunk down a $20 bill and get a variety pack of meat that, used wisely, would last most of a week.
But, those days are gone. WinCo does ‘remainder’ the meats to the tune of about 30% off, which is a good deal considering they are already a pretty good value. I still haven’t exactly figured out the right time of day to catch them when they’re putting out the markdowns so I can be first before theyre all scooped up.
Most of the supermarkets in town here offer some sort of markdowns on meat that’s on its last day. The trick is catching them before they’ve been picked over by the other shoppers. But with 85/15 running over $5 a pound(!) it’s just foolish not to make the effort.
I am not one of those people who is willing to ‘get by’ on TVP or any other non-meat meat. If it isn’t dead animal flesh, I’m not interested. At the moment, WinCo is offering the cheapest animal protein…boneless pork at around $1.88/#. And thats good for stews, shredding for enchilladas,, or just roasting and slicing up with a pan gravy.
With no indication of food prices, and especially meat prices, going anywhere but up it makes sense to buy now and freeze for later. Or can it when you can find canning jar lids.
I have no intention of going through…well…whatever it is we’re going through….as a inveg (involuntary vegan). So, to that end I have canned meat, frozen meat, and freeze dried meat.
This is the unsexy part of survivalism, guys. But having to eat spaghetti-n-tunafish is even less sexy. I’m a naturally cheap person, so even in the best of times I’d still be hunting for a bargain at the meat counter. Nowadays, its almost a requirement. It’ll be interesting to see when all of this blows over and things start looking up. My guess is: no time soon.
The weekends are my usual shopping days…WinCo, CostCo, gas, and maybe WalMart. This means that weekends are the time when I look at the price of things and go “Hey, wasn’t this cheaper last weekend?” For example, gas was up another dime to around $4.18/gal. Ground beef 85/15? $5.25/#. CocaCola? $0.388 per can in a 35-can case….that’s almost 30% higher than what i used to pay about a year or so ago.
I feel bad for people on fixed incomes. For them, their only choice is to find ways to get more income or start cutting things out of their budget.
And, as if inflation wasn’t bad enough, we still have the Wuhan Flu hangover, ‘mostly peaceful’ demonstrations, a heightened possibility of WW3.1, and whatever nonsensical activities the goobers in Washington have planned.
I’m starting to think there will never be a point in my life where I look at a lifetime of being a survivalist and say “Wow, that was a waste.”
So what’s on tap these days for yours truly? Well, not much really. Other than working on financial resources, I’m mostly comfortable with what I’ve got. And, honestly, I’ve virtually no room for more stuff. I guess now is the time to start polishing what I’ve got and refine the small details.
.Gov is upping the interest rates a bit in hopes of slowing down the economy and thereby putting the brakes on inflation. But that has it’s own separate problems. It’s like chemotherapy – it targets the bad stuff but there’s a buncha collateral damage. So you better shrink that tumor fast because if you keep up the treatment for too long you’ll kill off the healthy stuff. And that’s about the extent of my oncological background. But, you get my idea, yes?
So what are you doing to get ahead of this inflationary episode? Cutting back? Buying bulk in advance? Locking in prices?
