A reminder that Paratus, the holiday of and by survivalists, is coming up in about six weeks.
I just got this years Paratus cards delivered yesterday. If you’ve been a cool dude (or dudette) and sent me anything in snail mail that had your return address on it, you’re on the list. Note to Aesop: email me your mailing address, man.
As always, if you wanna get Zero a little something for Paratus, I prefer multicam or OD, 9mm and .223, and Glock or AR platform.
Trying to be and a responsible adult. I wake up, shower, get dressed, get in the truck to go to work, turn the key annnnnnd…whirrrwhirrrwhirrr. Frak!
Ninety minutes late for work (on the second day of a new job!). And then there was the bill for dropping the fuel tank, pulling out the dead fuel pump, replacing it with a new one, and putting the whole mess back together.
Panic? Rage? Frustration? Nope. Barely even a blip on the heartrate monitor? Why? Because I’ve got a buttload of money sitting in an emergency fund for just this sort of thing. Gave the guy a buncha cash, got in my truck, drove away. No worrying about how I was gonna meet the rent, pay for groceries, keep the lights on, etc. Nope. Just give the man some money and be on my way.
Years ago it would have been a different story. I’d have been hadning over guns at the counter of a pawn shop or something. But, now? Not even a stressful thought.
Resilience. Brought to you by an emergency fund. I know I’ve said it before but it is so freaking true: you will need $50 bills more often than .50 BMG. Prepare for the end of the world, sure…but also be prepared for the world to not end. And for that, there’s money.
My old self would be totally awed by my new(er) self. And probably want to borrow money from me.
I never get tired of hearing these stories about massive underground bunkers. Go about 1/3 of the way through the article to a YouTube tour of the Greenbrier (aka Project Greek Island).
Make no mistake, there are dozens of these facilities still out there.Certainly some are kept at a state of operational readiness. Some might even be part of those TREETOP teams. For those of you who read some of the atrocious ‘survivialist’ fiction of the 90’s, the concept of networks of secret .gov doomsday bunkers and caches was a staple of the ‘Guardians’ series as well as the ‘Deathlands’ series. (Both series, by the way, were entertaining up to a point..that point was usually about 10-15 sequels in before that lack of new ideas would give way to absolutely outlandish changes to previously established fundamentals of the series.)
What is really awesome is that sometimes these ‘decommissioned’ facilities come up for sale to the general public. There’s a big difference between buying an old missile silo and buying a palce that was built, from the ground up, as a place to survive Armageddon.
Realistically, though… unless you hit the Powerball or have an appointment with a bible on Jan 20 in DC, you’re probably never gonna have your own underground nuke-proof city. But…you can always build your own if you’ve the determination.
Yes, I dabble in the stock market. And I do okay at it. But I have literally no idea what the hell just happened here:
Did $54 worth of call suddenly jump up in value by $975 in one day? WTF? I mean, yeah, I pick a winner every once in a while but….
And, yes, I closed out that position.
Not sure why the call jumped like that, though. Ideas?
ETA: Glitch. It’s gotta be a glitch. The only way that call coulda jumped like that was if F suddenly discovered how to make a flying car.
Nothing good lasts forever. I was disheartened to learn that the Albertson’s grcery is no longer carrying The Meat Tray. The Meat Tray is gone. Long live the Meat Tray.
Fortunately, although it isn’t the same as the meat tray, it turns out that the local WinCo will ‘remainder’ meat as well. And since their prices are already pretty fair, the remaindered prices are just a solid deal all around:
My freezer is already at capacity, and I really don’t want to get another one, so I’ll just keep this stuff in mind for when I rotate through the frozen stuff. But…animal protein at discount is always a good thing.
That pork in the pictures? I take that, put it in the slow cooker with a half bottle of salsa verde, let it go for about six hours, shred it up, serve with rice, melt Mexican cheese blend on top, and scoop it up with tortilla chips. Sooo good, so cheap, and so much. Highly recommend.
I’m sure some folks would say, “Dude..my life is too short to get worked up about saving $14 on a styrofoam tray of meat once a week.” Fair enough. Let’s tackle it from a different direction. Imagine a supermarket where, when you buy a tray of meat they give you two free Pmags. Or a voucher for three gallons of gas at the Conoco down the street. Or they give you a free refill on your propane tank for your barbecue. You’d get pretty excited about that, right? Same. Exact. Thing.
Every dollar I don’t spend on an item is an extra dollar I have for another item. It’s another dollar in the Roth, in silver, in cash, in the land fund, etc.Thats the mindset that makes the difference when you’re trying to prepare for the inevitable-yet-unpredictable.
I’ve been through…let’s see….hurricanes, blizzards, forest fires, pandemics, economic turmoil, and just a generally bumpy existence. Number of rounds fired in total through all those incidents? Zero. Number of skulls cracked with a baseball bat? Zero. Number of gunshot and stab wounds incurred? Zero.
I mention it because, as I stroll through my library of various ‘how to survive the end of the world’ books it seems like everyone is preparing for the final scene from The Wild Bunch.
I know the world is not a happy sunshine-y place. I know there are people who, even when the lights are on and the water is flowing, will still stomp your skull in for basically no good reason. I know that people, by and large, are dangerous critters. And yet…I’ve got fifty years under my belt and haven’t had to shoot anyone yet.
Yet it seems that a good 1/3 to 1/2 of any preparedness manual is about ‘self defense’ or ‘weapons’ or that sort of thing. Sure, it’s important… but when I think of the ‘disasters’ I’ve been through and what resources were used the number of rounds spent comes to…zero. On the other hand, the amounts of food, water, cash, batteries, toilet paper, radios, gasoline, light sticks, and tools comes out to non-zero.
“But..but Zero, it seems like every other post you have here is about guns and ammo!” This is true.But, to be fair, I don’t post about guns from the perspective of ‘get all you can so you can survive the new Mad Max world’, usually I post about them from the perspective of ‘get them while you can before they are banned’. Not quite the same thing. Guns are the low hanging fruit of preparedness blogging. People are far more interested in tweaked out ARs than they are the newest vacuum sealer or propane lantern. Not everyone, mind you….but most.
It reminds me of cop training…everyone gives cops a hard time for being unable to shoot straight. And while shooting people is part of the job, it is a microscopically small part of the job. Your average cop will use his Bic pen a bazillion times more often than he uses his Glock. Training often reflects that. Resources are directed where they are most likely to be needed, and your average badgewearer shoots people a lot less often than he writes reports, tickets, notes, accident forms, etc.
Guns are a part of any reasonably thought out plan to survive a disaster. However they are tiny part of the overall plan compared to things like water, food, gas, medgear, etc.
You know what I’ve discovered to be The Most Valuable skill for a ‘survivalist’ or ‘prepper’? Not having amazingly fast split times at the range….not being able to consistently ring the gongs at 200 yards…useful, but not as important as: being able to think logically, critically, and objectively. Your mileage may vary but I would say the most important skill I’ve picked up as a survivalist is… accounting. Once I figured out how to allocate, budget, and monitor my financial adventures it put me in a position to have all the other thngs that make surviving a crisis easier. But thats just me… it won’t be the same for you.
My long winded point is that guns are the supersexy common denominator of survivalism but they are not the most important. Don’t get so wrapped up in the boomtoys that you overlook the more used, more needed, more critical things like, y’know, food…money…fuel…water…meds…gear…etc. But don’t take my word for it…go read the AAR’s on the various survival forums for things that have happened over the last few years…riots, floods, earthquakes, etc. There was a lot less shooting than some of these preparedness manuals would have made you expect. Sure, having the Glock on the hip helped, but I have yet to read any encounter (except the classic Harry Beckwith Bullet Party) where someone went through more than a magazines worth of ammo.
Even in times of ‘non-crisis’ I still use gasoline, TP, food, water, clothes, toothpaste, soap, etc, every single day. I blow off 9mm and .223 maybe twice a month. While I stockpile guns and ammo, I probably stockpile just as much of the other stuff.
The classic meme is the survivalist with a mountain of ammo, a trainload of guns, and absolutely no food. An exaggeration, sure, but it makes a point. Buy the ammo, buy the guns, but keep some perspective.
Hey guys…a reminder that Paratus, the holiday of, by , and for survivalists is coming up in two months. Shop early, avoid the rush!
If you’re new to paratus, the world-famous Paratus FAQ is available.
This year, Paratus falls on Sept. 17 2021.
As always, contact your local gun/ammo/food/med vendors and ask if they’re having any Paratus sales this year. Let’s get this holiday the recognition it deserves!
And, yes, Paratus cards will be going out this year for the third year in a row.
I play the market, sure, but I also don’t put all my eggs in one basket. And, once in a very rare while, I get a deal. Today’s case in point:
What did I pay? Spot. See, some forms of gold are more marketable than others. When someone sells the gold/silver guy some gold ‘over the counter’, he usually buys it as close to spot as possible. But if the gold/silver is in a form that is not really sought after in retail, he buys it for less than spot. An example would be a 100-oz bar of silver. Not alot of people walk into a shop and ask for a 100 oz. bar. As a result, he needs to get into it at less than the price he’d have paid for, say , 100 1-oz. bars/rounds.
So, as it turns out, while small (‘fractional’) bits of gold (1 gram, 5 gram, 10 gram, etc) are easy to resell, the larger metric-denominated versions are less desirable. So…he bought it at less than spot. I offered spot. And he took it. So…score.
The lesson here is that if you’re going to buy metals, and you’re planning on holding them for a long time, and if you can swing the cash, your best value is in the larger single-unit quantities…. 10 oz bar vs 10 1-oz bars, 100 oz bar vs 10 10-oz bars etc.
As for this little guy, it goes in the safe and sits there quietly until next years land purchase. Or the apocalypse. Whichever comes first.
ETA: By the way, I never, ever, buy gold in any quantity without testing it on one of these. A tester like this will set you back about a grand. But if it keeps you from buying one fake gold coin, it’s paid for itself. My guy at the coin shop understands that even though I know he tests any gold he buys across the counter, I need to see it being tested. I could take his word for it, and I trust him when he says he tested it and it tested okay..but доверяй, но проверяй…doveryay, no proveryay…trust, but verify. And he’s cool with that. Honestly, if your PM guy isn’t cool with retesting something while you watch and just expects you to take his word for it….you need a new guy.
I hate hot weather. I mean, I really hate it. I love the dress code as women in this college town suddenly start running around in sundresses and sports bras (summer is only second to Halloween for ‘lets dress skimpily because its socially acceptable at this moment’) but that’s barely enough to make the discomfort of the heat worth it.
And, of course, when it’s hot ya gotta ‘hydrate’…or as we used to say in the less-woke days, ‘drink’.
In the heydey of 70’s and 80’s survivalism your water toter of choice was the GI canteen. Plastic ones were just starting to turn up and you most likely had a metal one that could have been carried by grandpa in WW2 or Uncle Billy in ” ‘Nam “…(Why do people shorten it to ‘Nam’? Why not ‘Viet’?..”Yeah, we served together in Viet back in ’68”) They were durable but they were loud and sometimes leaked at the seams.
As the 80’s rolled in, we got basically the exact same canteen but now made of green plastic. With an NBC cap. An improvement? Depends on who you ask. Some folks didnt like that youy couldnt heat up the plastic canteens.
Fast forward a bit more and the Middle Easy is now where the action is. ‘Hydration bladders’ are the thing…basically a giant IV bag and tubing. Convenient? Yes. Carries a lot of water? Yes. Bulky? Yes. But, no two ways about it, its a handy way to drink on the go.
For the survivalist who isn’t fetishicizing military gear, the ubiquitous Nalgene bottle, with it’s amazing aftermarket accessory support, really comes pretty close to being Numbah One choice. The accessories available make the Nalgene bottle the AR-15 of water storage – modular, adaptable, and cheap.
Another alternative that I highly recommend are the collapsible Nalgene/Platypus ‘water bottles’. These are basically hydration bladders that are used by themselves as drink containers. Their huge advantage is that a) when empty you can roll them up to take up virtually no space in your gear and b) as you drink from them you can squeeze out the air so there is no sloshing noise like you’d get from a half-filled canteen. Big improvement.
And, interestingly, splitting the difference..the guys at Nalgene make a version of the GI canteen that comes pretty close to replacing the GI model, but with the convenience of lighter weight and transparency. Nalgene also makes a bladder-like product that uses the same screw-on lids as the rigid Nalgene bottles…which means that you can use all your accessory lids with it. Handy.
My preference? For static places like in the vehicle or at a temporary base, I like the 64 oz/ 2 L. size large bottles. For day-to-day use I like the regular rigid 32 oz, bottles. However, for tromping around in the boonies, I prefer the .5L or 1.0L Platypus for its stealthy properties and space-saving potential.
Another nice thing about the Nalgene and Platypus is that its extremely convenient to fill them about 1/3 of the way up and then freeze them. Once frozen, fill the rest of the container with water and go about your day. Very refreshing.
As an aside, the water I keep in the vehicle is store-bought bottled water. Why? Because those little plastic bottles are darn near impervious, cheap, and handy. They freeze/thaw without damage, and are handy to throw in a pocket if needed. In the summer, when i travel, I don’t screw around..I throw a 5-gallon water jug in one of the gas can racks in addition to the usual on-board water supply. I don’t mind being hungry for a day or two, but nobody likes being thirsty for a day.
Whatever you choose for your preferred water-carrying container, get a bunch of them. More than you think you’ll need. I’ve a collection of Nalgene bottles that must number almost a dozen. Theyre cheap and work perfect for their given task…why wouldn you have extras?
I swear to Crom, I need to get a little shrine going for the household god of frustration. Seems like every time I take a step forward I get yanked back forty steps. Grr.
But, life goes on…like it or not.
I see that the Biden administration (Motto: is it naptime yet?) is quietly starting to float the idea that, mmmmyeah…that inflation thing might be around for a while. And then, in an epic display of chutzpah, these same mouthbreathers crow about unemployment figures and ‘jobs for the taking’. Hey, I’d have great employment numbers to show, too, if I forced businesses to close and then counted their reopening as ‘new jobs’.
I’m just getting to be a cynic, I suppose. But, these are historic times. Which leads me to this quote: You do not make history. You can only hope to survive it.
I’m pretty resilient these days, but I’m still not at the point yet where I’d feel comfortable pulling the plug on the rest of the world, locking the gate, and letting the world burn while I do my own thing. Not yet. But…man, I’m working on it.
“Anceint Chinese proverbs” aside, disasters and adversity are, in fact, opportunities for others. We have an economy that seems to have the throttle dialed forward yet we have shortages everywhere, housing prices in the stratosphere with interest rates that are at lifetime lows, and a populace and government that thinks money grows on trees and that everyone is entitled to ‘their fair share’ in the form of absolved student loans and ‘basic universal income’. If the disaster/opportunity ratios are proportionate, we should be seeing one amazingly epic wave of opportunities coming up. Where? Well, I think that real estate is going to contract in a year or so…maybe less. My goal is to be in place to jump on it. Other opportunities? Labor brokers probably can write their own check these days. Same for logistics and transportation coordinators. The energy industry is probably gonna be a nice place to be. And, of course, you can never go wrong selling weapons, food, medicine, entertainment, or sex.
Interesting times. Be curious to see how this all shakes out in a year or two.
