Tag Archives: theory

Boutique or niche items

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Years ago, I had a buddy who thought that, for his needs, the ideal ‘battle rifle’ was a 1941 Johnson. You can go on GunBroker and look up the going rate for a Johnson….I’ll wait.

Kinda makes your eyes water, doesn’t it?

He was adamant that the rifle afforded him all the qualities he wanted in a rifle for the lawless apocalypse he envisioned. And, to be honest, it did. Problem is, he had a rather short-sighted list of qualities he wanted. One of the qualities that he soft-pedaled was affordability and logistics. Break the rear sight on your AR-10 and you can get a new rear sight (or mount a scope) with parts that you can find pretty much in any gun shop. Not so for the Johnson rifle. And affordability-wise, you could get two M1A, three PTR’s, or a couple FALs for what you’d pay for the Johnson.

I was reminded of this today because I took the Ruger Mini-14GB to the range and, unsurprisingly, had problems with the one aftermarket magazine that came with the gun. It didn’t surprise me; my experience with Ruger Mini-14 magazines has been that there are no aftermarket mags that are as reliable except for (in my experience) the old Eagle 35-rd mags that haven’t been made since the last century. In short, unless Magpul cranks out some Mini mags, your only real choice is the expensive factory mags.

Tangent: Tapco, apparently, has evolved a Mini-14 magazine that seems to do a very good job for about half the price of the Ruger factory mag. Might have to try a few.

So, after leaving the range today, I headed over to the local Cabela’s looking for a Ruger factory Mini-14 mag. None. Ok, try Sportsman’s Warehouse. None. And that is, in a nutshell, the problem with niche or ’boutique’ gear: you can’t just find the part or accessory you need as easily as other platforms.

Here’s another example. Years ago Streamlight made a little LED flashlight that I was very impressed with. BUT….it took AAAA batteries. Not AA, not AAA, but AAAA batteries. Good luck finding those in the battery rack at the supermarket.

Sometimes the boutique gear does 100% of what we want whereas the lesser, easily supportable version may only do 85% of what we want. But…when  you cant find a Mini-14 magazine or a set of AAAA batteries, that system is now doing 0% of what you want. I’ll muddle along with 85%.

Does this mean that I’m getting rid of the Mini-14GB? Nope…because the AR’s and AK’s are my ‘grab and run out the door’ guns, and they are a legacy weapons system that has a logistics base that is enormous. The Mini is pretty much just for fun or a waaaaay down the line level of backup rifle. But the experience at the range, and the subsequent experiences at the local gunmarts, kinda demonstrates something that is worth keeping in mind: logistics and support for a piece of gear should factor in to your decision about getting it. (Or keeping it.)

 

Prepology 101: You prepare for bad times during the good times

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Unemployment is a tad under 4%…according to the graphs I was looking at, it’s only been that low twice in the last almost-50 years. What’s that mean? Broadly, if there’s anyone out there who wants a job, there’s one to be had.

Unemployment is down, the markets are doing well, confidence in the economy seems high. This is exactly the time you should be nailing down the acquisition of preparedness items and getting things taken care of.

It’s a lot easier to prepare when you have a good job, the economy is strong, and all seems rosy than it is to prepare when the market is tanking, you’ve been unemployed for two months, and you’re down to your last twenty bucks. Sure, that bonus you’re going to collect in two weeks will buy you that jet ski or 60″HDTV… but when we hit the other side of this moment of prosperity (which we always do) you’re gonna wish you’d used that bonus to pay down your debt, put away food, fund your HSA, or just tucked away in the bank. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy the current situation, just that you might want to use it to your advantage for later down the line.

So, just a reminder: this is the ‘fat’ season that you should take advantage of to put away for the ‘lean’ times. Could be guns, could be food, could be gold, could be cash in savings, could be paying off the house, could be getting those nagging dental issues fixed, could be paying off the truck……but now is the time to get ready for what may be coming next.

Still one of my favorite prints. An artistic representation of the Ant & Grasshopper fable. The grasshopper, the girl with the mandolin who spent all summer playing music and not working, faces the harsh winter and must beg to the ant, the industrious woman with the well-fed household, for help. Note the looks on the two women’s faces…the scorn, the humility.

Adventures in food storage

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You guys remember a few months back I posted about a guy who was crackin’ open some decades-old Mountain House and having himself a little taste test experience? Well, he’s at it again.

He’s got himself one of those buckets that claims to have X amount of days worth of food in it. Read it at his place…….

I’ve been ‘into’ food storage for twenty five years….and I’ve done tons of research on the subject, bought and tried all sortsa food, and created darn near Montana’s largest privately owned Safeway in my basement…..so I feel fairly qualified to say that this will end badly.

Here’s the thing: these types of kits are usually calorie-deficient, somewhat monotonous, and often not terribly appetizing. It is (in my opinion) a panacea to people who want to be prepared but don’t want to have a lifestyle – theyre for someone who just wants to make a quick online purchase, stuff it in the garage, and feel like they’re ready for the crash.

A guy I know was just telling me that he was thinking about purchasing such a kit ‘just in case’. I’m trying to steer him towards a more practical, albeit more expensive, route using regular off-the-shelf stuff from the supermarket.

You know who has this figured out? The Mormons. (No surprise, right?) These guys literally have graduate-level research labs working on just this sort of thing. And having done the research, they actually package and make available these storage-suitable foods. Go read their list of what you can get from them.  And they sell it cheap enough that even the most niggardly ‘poverty prepper’ can afford it.

I have a lot of freeze dried Mountain House here for my future needs. But it’s not my primary ‘go-to’ food in a crisis. What is? My stash of ‘everyday’ food. The pasta, rice, canned tomatoes, spices, cooking oil, canned and frozen meat, flour, cornmeal, canned and jarred vegetables, oatmeal, hash browns, etc. that I have in large quantity. All things I use everyday and all  things that store well.

But, to be fair, a ‘bucket’ as mentioned at the opening of this post, makes it’s strength on the portability and convenience. In theory, you can run out the door with it and know you’re not gonna starve for a month. Perhaps. I’ve taken it a step further and just put together my own ‘bucket’ for those moments when you need to run out the door…specifically, a couple 15-gallon ‘blue barrels’ loaded with freeze drieds.

Reviewing what I have in storage, post-apocalyptic meal planning would look something like this: pancakes, hash browns, scrambled eggs, biscuits, pork chops, strawberries, orange drink, milk, and oatmeal. And thats just breakfast. Lunch and dinner would be equally as broad, equally as long-term, and equally as tasty.

Just write a list of everything you’ve eaten in the last week and figure out if you could recreate it using foods that store well in the long-term. Then go buy those foods. Then when the wheels fly off civilization you’ll be eating pretty much just as well as you were beforehand. Heck, considering the erratic and horrible diet I live on now, I’ll actually eat better after the apocalypse.

My long winded point, though, is this – before you get lured into these sorts of ‘bucket kits’ do some research on calories, taste, and texture, and then see if you can’t put together something on your own. When the apocalypse hits, I have no intention of eating 3/4 of a cup of cheesey broccoli soup every lunchtime for thirty days. Given the stress and physical strain that the end of the world will put you under, I think you’re going to want more ‘stick to your ribs’ fare.

Conclusion: ‘Food buckets’, like first-aid kits, are better for your needs when you assemble your own.

 

Routine

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I was talking to my mailman letter-carrier today and we got onto the topic of absurd city politics and taxes and social programs. This further reinforces my belief that people who spend a lot of time in vehicles all day (truck drivers, letter carriers, etc.) tend to be fairly like minded. Not sure its a result of having not much to listen to except talk radio, or if people who are like minded wind up gravitating to those jobs. It is, however, kinda consistent.
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I’ve been trying to get into some better habits lately. Most notably, I really need to consistently leave things like my keys and phone in the same place every time I return to the house. There are plenty of things in this house that are always, always, always left in the same place in order to facilitate not having to think about it in an urgent situation. If something goes bump in the middle of the night, I know there’s a flashlight and gun sitting on the shelf by the bed. If I poke a hole in me, I know there’s a pretty comprehensive first aid kit in the living room, if I need to run outside in a hurry I know there’s always a pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt by the door…..that sort of thing.

But thats what habits are – an unconscious behaviour. Something that requires no active thought on my part, but happens automatically…like breathing or blinking. And a few months ago I had a hell of a time finding my keys when I was in a hurry and after thinking about it I realized that, yes, I need to have that same level of ‘don’t need to think about it’ going on with my keys.

From a survivalist standpoint, some habits (or routines, if you will) are bad… outside actors can observe your routines and take advantage of them. For example, my neighbor is a schoolteacher. I know, with utter certainty, when her house will be empty and for how long during the day. Were I of a different mindset, that information would be useful for nefarious purposes. But on the other hand, some habits… like always locking the door, checking the world news first thing in the morning, keeping gas tanks at least half full, etc…promote a more prepared life without exposing oneself to risk.

Many shortsighted (in my opinion) people equate routines with boring and mundane existence. I see routines as providing security and stability….two things I desperately want. All aspects of a personas life don’t have to be routine, obviously, but for me there are certain things in life I would like to have be predictable and routine. And there are some things I would very much like to be wildly unpredictable and  spontaneous. But on the whole, for me, I crave the security, stability, and predictability that comes from having some things be habit and routine.

There are other routines/habits Im trying to develop, and all of them, I think, go along towards increasing my level of general preparedness. They are, however, a pain in the ass to develop when you’ve never done them before.

Anyway, thats my thoughts for the day. (Speaking of which, a good routine I need to get into would be  a more regular posting schedule.)
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Thought For The Day:

By the case? Buy the case….Pt IV

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About 18 months ago my local Albertsons had a good sale on pasta and I took advantage of it like Bill Clinton takes advantage of interns. Well, that sale came back and I decided i could use a few(!) cases of rigatoni.

Shopping carts are for amateurs. When the Zero stocks up, he goes deep.

Savings? Well, according to my receipt, what normally would have cost 238.80 came out to sixty bucks. (Got careless, forgot to ask for the 10% case discount.)

The apocalypse will be a fairly carbohydrate-heavy experience what with all the rice and pasta in storage, it seems.

In actuality, this is mostly my desire to have a large amount of day-to-day use items on hand in case some sort of financial donkey punch occurs. When you show up at work one day and your boss says “We’re being bought out by another company. This office will close in three weeks. Good luck.”, you really want to have some of the expensive niggling details (like food) locked down. Also, I just feel calmer and more at peace when I look at the shelves and see boxes and cans of food, racks of toiletries, paper towels, soap, detergent, and all the other consumables that keep my quality of life above that of some Third Worlder.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to stockpile the cash instead of the food if I am worried about such things? Well, yes…except for that part about the fabulous sale. Lets put it this way: You have $60 cash in hand..save it or buy food? If you’re worried about a job loss, for example, and you’ve tied that $60 in food, then you only have that one thing (food) covered. But if you keep the $60 in cash, you can use it to buy food..or fuel..or electricity. So does that mean it makes more sense to stick that $60 in the bank? Nope.. heres why: I didn’t buy $60 worth of food. I bought $240 worth of food and paid $60. Or, put another way, if I stuck that $60 in the bank, when I used it in the future I’d get only $60 worth of food. In this particular case, my purchase power today was 4x what my purchase power would be with that same $60 later.  (Disregarding inflation, which would actually make todays purchase more than 4x the purchasing power.) The more clinically minded of you will say “Wait, we’re drifting into Time Value Of Money country..” Yes. Yes we kinda are.)This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put money away as part of your preps…it just means that you need to think about things past the obvious. Maybe you already do that..I didn’t used to. Preparedness is really about resource management in regards to risk reduction – we try to get the most for our money when we take steps to protect ourselves from future problems.

Regardless, I’m pleased with todays purchase. It’s more food on the shelf and one less thing I have to worry about acquiring when/if I hit an economic rough patch.

In None We Trust

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Well, it’s a sentiment I can certainly understand, but it’s not terribly practical in the real world. True, more often than not someone you put some trust in will wind up proving to be unworthy of that trust….at that point your only recourse is damage control of the highest order.

But trust, like virtue, has degrees. For example, Tony at the corner pizza place trusts you enough to let you slide when you order a couple slices and discover you forgot your wallet. Rather than demand you leave your watch or cellphone with him as collateral, he trusts you to bring him a few bucks the next time you’re in there. But Tony ain’t gonna trust some mook like you with, say, the weeks cash receipts getting deposited at the bank. Tony has a scale of trust and you, paisan, are at the bottom.

So, trust has degrees…. it’s easy to trust virtually anybody when the stakes are so low as to be immaterial. It’s when the stakes get higher that we start getting mighty picky about who we trust and how far.

As survivalists, we have a few things going on in our lives that we’d rather the world at large not know about. But, at the same time, we can’t go 100% solo or we’re going to have some really bad moments.

It’s depressing, but true… you’re on this planet for a finite amount of time, with a finite amount of resources, and you simply don’t have room in your life for people who are, passively or actively, damaging (or at least not contributing) to your life.

If you haven’t already done it, you may want to think about people you know and evaluate their position in the hierarchy of trust. And, naturally, you may also want to think about contingency plans for when Cousin Bill or Friend Steve violates that trust (or becomes a non-asset to your life).

 

 

Article – What Venezuelan savers can teach everyone else

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ASK the chief investment officer of a fund-management firm how to spread your investments and you will be told to put so much in stocks, so much in bonds and something in hedge funds or private equity. Chances are that white-elephant buildings, eggs and long-life milk will not feature. But in Venezuela, where the inflation rate is in the tens of thousands, things that people elsewhere would shun for fear they will lose value have become stores of real wealth.

The old standard for guarding against hyperinflation has always been gold and, to a lesser degree, silver. But, as seen in many wartime economies, certain goods hold their value across board… most notably cigarettes, booze, and …ahem…’personal services’. There’s a handful of occupations that are, basically, recession- and depression-proof: food, medical, weapons, entertainment, and sex. Doesn’t matter if it’s a war or a depression – everyone wants to eat, everyone wants to live, everyone wants to protect themselves, everyone wants to forget, and everyone wants to get some action.

Of course it’s kinda hard to transport some of those goods in a convenient manner which is why we have a medium of exchange – gold.

About this point in the conversation the shortsighted jump in and say that if you can’t eat it or shoot it, it’s worthless. After all, they argue, if you were dropped in the middle of the Andes with a suitcase full of gold you’d starve/freeze/etc.

This is, of course, quite true. But it fails to take into account that economic disasters rarely happen overnight. They are usually a gradual-but-increasingly-steep slope. The gold gets you the things you need to survive that drop into the Andes. Somewhere between “normal” and “Mad Max” is where the gold come into play. When the local backpacking supply shop won’t accept currency, the gas stations won’t take plastic, and the gun stores won’t take a check….that’s where the metals come in handy.

But…thats my opinion. I hedge my bets….metals, ammo, fuel, food, etc.

The Magic Number

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NOTE: This post has been sitting in my “Drafts” folder for three years now. Figured it was time to finish it up.
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It seems like every time I mention to a friend that I picked up a gun they seem to respond with, “Don’t you already have a couple of those?”. Why, yes….yes I do. But, contrary to appearances, there really is a Magic Number that I am shooting for. It is the number at which I feel I will have enough to last me the rest of my life, which is, arguably, about 30 years.

The number is 10.

No, not ten guns total. Ten of each. Ten AR’s, ten 870’s, ten 10/22’s, ten 9mm Glocks, etc.

Its important to have goals.

By and large, when someone on a survivalist forum somewhere starts talking about ‘survival battery’ (whatever the heck that is), the result is something very similar to that. Throw in a ‘hunting’ or ‘precision’ rifle in there and you have pretty much 90% of the responses.

Many of us stockpile stuff on the PACE paradigm – Primary, Auxiliary, Contingency, Extra. I suppose I’ve added an R in there with Redundant.

That’s a total of five. Where does ten come from? Might be more than one person in the household, right? Hence, two times five is ten.

So thats it…once I have ten of what I feel is necessary, in regards to boomtoys, I can back the throttle down a bit in terms of acquisitions.

Those numbers, by the way, only represent firearms….my opinion on firearms accessories (like magazines) is a completely different number. And it’d be foolish to keep a buncha eggs in one basket like that so these things would get spread around a bit.

But thats the number.. five of each type of gun, per person, gives me enough room to keep one at the Beta Site, use one, loan one, sock one away somewhere else, etc, etc. I’m the fist to admit that comes out to a fairly large (though not by Montana standards) amount of guns but if I can afford them…why not? Plus, it’s really kind of an Alpha strategy…theyre just going to be more expensive later so if I just buy ’em all now I can be done with it and move resources elsewhere.

Is it a realistic number? Well, I think so. It gives me margin in case something gets stolen, broken,confiscated,lost, abandoned, etc. It’s rather foolish, I think, to believe that you can buy something and expect to keep possession of it, and have it in good working order, for 30 years. Sure, someone may have grandads Win 94 thats been in the family for 80 years but much of that 80 years it was just sitting in his closet, waiting for the one week every year that he hunted. And no one was trying to ban it.

This ‘Magic Number’ theory extends to non-gun items as well…the number may be different, but there’s still that goal-orientation. How many extra boots, socks, rolls of TP, etc, etc…..that sort of thing. (For example, 210 is the magic number for TP [ 30/package x 7])

Tappan, in his classic tome ‘Survival Guns’, advocated a mixture of guns that eventually added up to about 40 different handguns, rifles and shotguns. I remember thinking it was excessive at the time. Tappan differentiated between ‘working guns’ and survival/defensive guns. I don’t make such a distinction. The End Of The World stuff gets the layers and layers of redundancy…the Walking Through The Woods stuff can be much more freestyle.

Anyway, that’s the plan – ten each of the important thundertoys. Keep ’em identical, scatter ’em around, keep tabs on them, and hopefully thirty years from now I’ll just hand ’em off to someone I like.

ETA: I should also mention ten is MY Magic Number. You may have your own. Or you may have none at all. But, for me, I’m going with ten…you pick whatever number you think works for you. You go do your own thing, man.

Is it enough if you can’t get any more tomorrow

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This is going to be one of those posts thats going to get linked to quite a bit in future posts. Why? Well, because I get tired of repeating over and over again a brief encapsulation of why I buy as many of a particular thing.

Uncertain Goods

I’ve mentioned this in the past, but Uncertain Goods are items whose future availability cannot be readily assured. It’s not a black and white issue….some items will be more uncertain than others. And, depending on the nature of the apocalypse you are forecasting, all items can be Uncertain Goods. Lemme give some examples…

Dental Floss. Those little plastic boxes with the spool of floss and the cutter? Yeah, those. Are they an Uncertain Good? No..I am virtually confident that tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year I will be able to walk into a Walgreens and buy as much of it as I want.

The more forward thinking of you might say “But, in a nuclear war (or similar event) the availability of just about everything would be affected, therefore all goods are Uncertain Goods.” Strictly speaking, this is true. This is where evidence and history come into play. Best I can tell, we haven’t had a nuclear war lately, nor have we had a global failure of the dental floss crop due to floss weevils. Additionally, I’ve heard nothing about dental floss prohibitions, taxes, confiscations, panic buying, distribution chain failures, and that sort of thing. To my way of thinking, dental floss is not an Uncertain Good. Oh, I stock up on it….but not because I worry about it’s availability, but rather because if I can spend fifty bucks and get a few years worth of the stuff tucked away, that’s one less thing to deal with.

Contrast the dental floss with, say, plutonium. Plutonium is an exceptionally Uncertain Good. I can walk out of my house and get dental floss from a half dozen different places without even needing to drive. Plutonium , on the other hand, is something you really have to make an appointment for. Even in ‘normal’ times your ability to obtain it is challenging. Throw some political or social turmoil in the mix and it gets even harder.

These are, obviously, two extreme examples but I think they make the point. An Uncertain Good is one whose future availability cannot be guessed at. Here are some items that, in my opinion, are Uncertain Goods: prescription meds, hard-to-find car parts, clothing in special-order sizes, odd batteries, certain chemicals or mixtures of chemicals, etc. Basically, if the only way you can obtain something is to special order it off Amazon or pay for it with a credit card, it’s an Uncertain Good. (Note that I said ‘the only way’…the fact that you buy your TP off Amazon to save money doesn’t mean it’s an uncertain good. You could buy TP at your local grocery. If you live in Nowhere, WY and you need a forward mounting bracket for the fusebox in your ’89 Saab you’re pretty much only going to get that through Amazon or some other internet contortion…thus, it’s an Uncertain Good.)

Take me, for example. I wear shoes that are, nominally, EEEEE width. (Yes, I have wide feet. I can walk on snow like a moose.) My only source for shoes is a couple specialty outfits on the internet. Thus, for me, shoes that fit are an Uncertain Good. So, I keep several pair on hand.

Alright, we’ve established what an Uncertain Good is. Your idea of what it is and mine may differ due to our regional differences, but, broadly, we should be on the same page. Now it’s a matter of scale.

Relative Uncertainty

Take my 5E shoes and the plutonium, for example. Both are Uncertain Goods, we’ve established that. Now, which of the two is more likely to be difficult to obtain at a later date? Probably the plutonium, right? So in a priority-based system of acquisition, I’d probably want to score the plutonium before I score another pair of black walking shoes. Both goods are uncertain, but one is likely (IMHO) to be more uncertain than the other.

Quantity

Ok, so we know what Uncertain Goods are, and we know that some Uncertain Goods are more uncertain than others. So why do I need several hundred G3 magazines? Or a dozen ARs?

Both of those items are Uncertain Goods with a history of threatened availability, and a near constant threat of diminished future availability. Or, put into simple terms, they banned ’em before and they want to ban them again.

Okay..so they’re an Uncertain Good, with a definite likelihood of future availability being a problem, but why do you need so many???

I have another 25 years on my meter. We’ve established these Uncertain Goods may become unavailable at any moment. So…if tomorrow I couldn’t call up Cheaper Than Dirt and order more, and what I had in the closet had to last me the rest of my life, would I feel comfortable with that? Well…a lot of stuff can happen in 25 years, so I’d want plenty to cover things like loss, breakage, confiscation, abandonment, theft, trade, gifting, and ‘just in case’. When you look at it in those terms, five magazines for your Beretta 92 when your’re forty years old is not a ‘lifetime supply’. In fact, it’s laughably short-sighted.

The Matt Foley suvivalists (You know, the ones who think all you need to survive the apocalypse is a Mosin Nagant and a vaaaaaaan down by the riverrrrrrr.) are aghast at the notion of spending money, but if your career goals go beyond being a WalMart greeter and complaining about ‘the rich’ full-time, you can afford such things. The secret to being able to afford things like guns designed after World War 2, food that isn’t stored in 2-liter pop bottles, and housing that doesn’t have a license plate holder, is to complain less about people who have more money than you and start doing what it takes to become someone who has more money than you.

The paradigm I use is: if I could not get any more of these [items] tomorrow, would I be comfortable with the amount I currently have. I’ts not any more complicated than that.. When I buy supplies and items to enhance my survivability, I’m thinking on the long term. Even a ‘personal’ EOTWAWKI like a job loss or health issue would benefit from such planning… its one less thing to worry about.

Obviously, there will be a couple factors to consider – cost, storage, expiration, opportunity cost, etc. I wouldn’t buy a lifetime supply of Toyota Tacomas because of cost, I wouldn’t buy a lifetime supply of drinking water because of storage issues, and I wouldn’t buy a lifetime supply of bananas because of expiration. But, something like, say, toothpaste? Dental floss? MagLites? Blankets? Lantern wicks? I’d have no problem with several dozen in storage.

So there you have it. Next time you want to comment and say “You have one Blastomatic 500, why do you need fifteen magazines for it” you’ll have your answer. And maybe the rubric of “if I could not get any more of these [items] tomorrow, would I be comfortable with the amount I currently have” might prove useful to you. But, regardless, those are the reasons and logic behind why I buy as much as I do of some items.

Letting your guard down

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Ok, time to steer this blog back to being on topic…….

Friend Of The Blog ,Rawles over at SurvivalBlog had a link to a video about the ‘lull’ that seems to be going on in terms of people prepping. (And, wow, I really dislike that word ‘prepping’.)

Has there been a lull? I really couldn’t say because I don’t keep my finger on the pulse of the preparedness community – a group that is notoriously secretive to begin with. But.. I can say that when Trump won the election the blogosphere was full of “Now we don’t have to worry” sentiment which I have constantly maintained was a mistake.

The economy is doing well, gun bans are not looming (mostly), no great disaster has reared its head lately (unless you live in Puerto Rico) and you could almost say that this is a ‘good time’. But here’s the thing – when times are good is exactly when you should be getting your ducks in a row for the bad times. You don’t put on your seat belt during the accident, you put it on before the accident. Same story with preparing for [insert your favorite scenario here].

Yeah, there’s not the sense of urgency to buy guns and mags like there was when Obama was in office. And there’s not the sense of urgency to buy bleach and face masks like there was when Bird Flu was all the rage. And there’s not the same sense of urgency to stock up on generators and gasoline when Y2K was bearing down. (Hey, remember those days?) But just because the threat isn’t looming over you at the moment doesn’t mean it won’t…or that you can relax and take your foot off the gas.

Now is precisely the time you want to stay focused, and even maybe ramp things up – the economy is better than it’s been in a while, employment is up, so there’s the potential to bring in some extra money to get those last details taken care of. Now is the halcyon summer of plenty and ease that comes before the brutal and stark winter. Remember the ant and the grasshopper? The grasshopper played all summer and when winter came the grasshopper had to beg the ant for food. In some versions the ant helps the grasshopper, in others the grasshopper starves. It’s a classic fable that turns up with surprising frequency in art:

Someday Im going to have a print of this framed and on my wall…….

My opinion is that too many survivalists thought that they could relax and slow things down once Trump got elected. I think that those people are making tremendous mistakes… not necessarily because Trump wind up doing something that works against my interests, but rather because to slow things down now in a moment of relative safety is to throw away time and opportunity.

So, if you’ve slowed down since the election, or put stuff on the back burner because you figure you don’t have to worry until 2020, I suggest you rethink your position and get on the bounce.