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I did make it to town. I was more hauling my corpse around than anything else, but it did get hauled. I found everything on my list, grabbed a meal, and headed home. Oh, gas and a car wash. I only went with six cinder blocks, I just didn't have it in me to pick up more. I was able to find a couple of brass replacement taps, for the water heater, so I didn't have to mess with cutting, or finding the right fixtures or such, as well. Tired. Very tired. Done, perhaps. After the meal I won't be messing with anything for a bit anyway. Perhaps a nap before long.
I don't know when I will be able to work again. I am hoping to get to it after a nap, this first water heater. I am extremely done in though. I want a hot shower so badly, and then to do a bit of cleaning. I just don't have it right now. I have pushed right on past that edge. My body is sore and bruised to boot. On the good side, most of what is left is on the downhill side of things. Getting the last water heater in, and the two old water heaters out, is the remaining hard work. And that isn't all that bad since I don't have to worry about breaking glass. When allowed my druthers, I can yank a horse out if I don't have to worry about breaking anything. There are walls and a few other things to consider, but it's not glass.
The plants are really doing well. I have to keep checking them, because one second too long and some of them begin to wilt. A tablespoon of water right away helps, then a bit more a little later, and they are back on their roots before you might imagine. Another watering tonight or tomorrow though, just to keep them interested. I can't wait to see these in the ground though. I honestly didn't know that I would even make it this far, being what I am and with some history to the contrary. A row of turnips and kohlrabi, a row of corn, and maybe a patch or two of cucumbers would fill out the peppers and tomatoes nicely. Figuring out how to keep the weeds at bay, keeping bugs down, figuring out nutrition if needed, learning how and when to water... It's going to be a bit of a trick.
If I can get this done this year, next year I might be able to go just a bit deeper. Potatoes, green beans, squash, lettuce, who knows? Bit by bit though. What I want to do is grow some food that is mostly for immediate consumption, some that is for simply saving such as potatoes, some that is for canning. Then learn how to preserve what of it I can, while figuring out seeds too. This is all about sustainability, up front. Economy will come, or not. I won't swear that it is cheaper, especially the way I eat, what I eat. Then again, a garden might well change the way, and what, I eat. Fresh tomatoes, though... that's unbeatable. Hot salsa and sauce, fresh and canned, though, is what this is all about. Hmm, and, as I said, next will be spices and herbs... Imagine all fresh herbs in that salsa and sauce! Assuming any crop survives my tender mercies, the sun, possible drought, hail, bugs, and all else though. So far so good.
Oh, it looks like gold and silver are coming undone. Oh, they will hold most of their value, for a while. But as a hedge tool, their attraction is quickly fading. As that fades, so too will their value. Quick or slow, it will happen. My guess is hard drops, in steps, but you can never tell. I don't know if the players are cashing out by need or want, or just as possibly the maneuvers by governments is cracking the pots. The author, I am sure, has his own notions. As the article suggests, Japanese equities are being hit now. From these, other commodities are going to be hit. Oh, yes, they are. Governments and big money can suspend reality for a bit. That can't last. Hold 20 pounds over your head for as long as you can. When it finally comes down, depending how much you put into holding it, it might well crash down. Further, your ability to raise it again for some time is lost. When governments fight the markets, everybody loses.
Later.
Oh goody! Maybe about the time I catch up from all the stuff I'm spending on Ginger, the price of silver will be low enough to grab some serious bargains.
ReplyDeleteDid you see the blip the other day on silver? They drove it down to $20 per, I think China divested, huge, that time... Though I can't remember exactly. When "the market" figured out what was happening, "everybody" jumped in to "grab that bargain". I am almost certain someone will lose their nerve again, and drop the prices while trying to make payroll again, soon enough. They can only do just so much on a string for just so long.
ReplyDeleteYeah, while watching this stuff I have become extremely cynical. Reminds me of when I realized it wasn't just "professional wrestling" that was rigged, but boxing, b-ball, football, and not just pro. Right down into high school, and lower if there was money or "equality" to be had. Black golfer? hehehe The other day someone not only caught him, but announced it. He had cheated. Wasn't even kicked out of the game. That is a black pro golfer for you. I always knew. Not sure why they... dropped the ball, or publicized it, though? Veil getting thin?
I didn't see that. I wasn't paying attention.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the gyrations of PM prices mean little except for buying opportunities. It is a long-term store of value, and not something I am trying to earn a return on.
Gold and silver are real money and will always be. FRN's are trading paper. If FRN's suddenly gain value relative to real money, then it is time to sell FRN's (trade into gold or silver). As they say, buy low, sell high. In this case FRN's are the "stock", and a worthless one at that in the end. As long as the music plays...
Preps are a better intermediate term store of value if there are needs pending. But PM's have their place.
And, that is exactly how I think gold and silver should be viewed. Stores of wealth, with a decent chance of loss. I am just laughing at those who buy to get rich, and more so those why buy paper. Paper commodities are worth exactly what paper money is, maybe not that!
ReplyDeleteIf I had extra over and above, I would put it into silver as a starter. It is one of the better ways to disappear money, too. The ultra rich are diving their money into art. Can really only have just so much gold, due to storage and possibly security type issues.
I just suggest that it is exceedingly over-valued, if there isn't a lot of other things that are as liquid and available. Stuck. And it's obvious from several things that the prices are being kept artificially high, if our government plays the game of seeming to try to lower value. Games going on in there. Nothing is what it seems.
Oh, no chance of loss. Just varying amounts of FRN paper that they can buy when necessary. The value of gold and silver is essentially fixed. It's the paper that varies in price.
ReplyDeleteNow you can call that "chance of loss", but that requires thinking of Federal Reserve Notes as being real money, which they are not.
As for being overvalued, well. That's certainly a contrarian view! From what I've seen, every action actually taken by any government or quasi-governmental agency in the western world has been to suppress the price. Now if there is some double super secret plan to fool the preppers into buying overpriced "barbaric relics", then I haven't seen anything regarding the details thereof.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the vast quantities of gold that India and China are purchasing, and the reasons they have for those purchases, I rather doubt that theory. They're doing it for the same reasons you and I would be. Their vast pile of FRN's are essentially worthless in the long run, and they need a more stable, universally recognized store of value to convert them to. Not to mention that they are also buying themselves out from under the control of the international bankers.
No, not really. Wealth loss, even in my current calculations, has nothing to do with the "dollar", or any other currency. What it has to do with is how well the current wealth potentials are wrapped into future wealth realities.
ReplyDeleteI mean, buying silver and gold is a real way to wrap wealth into liquid assets. As is food stuffs. But more, once foods and other expendables, to the ability that can be done, are tended... and there is still wealth potential to be managed, other items also have potential for wealth.
Gold and silver are stores of wealth. But production methods, even mechanical grain mills, are other stores of wealth, with I would argue greater potential. Minor industry is where I would put more of my money. It is difficult to keep an eye on today's valuations and only a potential future. If no collapse occurs, then all that potential is pretty much lost (minor industry, though too gold and silver really).
If I were to go that way I would pick one or two industries, to completion, including spare parts, transportation (probably horses... I like mules, but they aren't reproducible themselves without having donkey and horse stocks that are themselves reproducible, expanding the requirements... although that itself could be one industry, and robust if healthy enough to keep horse, donkey, and mule stocks). Or... something like that.
once foods and other expendables, to the ability that can be done, are tended... and there is still wealth potential to be managed, other items also have potential for wealth.
ReplyDeleteQuite agree. My welding and metallurgy studies and purchases are toward the same ends.
Given though, that we can't quite predict how the S will HTF, gold and silver provide the most flexible and versatile stores of value. Which is why, in my schema, the still have a place despite anything else I may be doing.
Just as long as it isn't a short term, or even a long term, scheme to become wealthy. If what happens is what we suspect, I think we generally agree on the possiblities, no one will be rich in anything like the way we now understand such things.
ReplyDeleteIf I had a bit on the side, I would do so as well. Just not in the main or on the whole. It's like those folks who have two tons of food but no seed, no water, no transportation, nothing else... That's one concern and I do see some "city slicker prepper" types thinking silver or gold will save them. Imagine trying to guard a ton of gold! The other is those who really don't get that the economy, world economy, is dying. It is an unsustainable monstrosity. A pyramid scheme that has run out of "up". We have never seen the likes of all worth or value of 'dollar' and most other stuff that is paper... on the brink of being worthless.
But then you aren't spending all on silver, or any one thing. You have gear, knowledge, tools, food. You have this and that. By the way... if this all works out, I am hoping to get short wave radios, just minor ones, for next year... If you go for the license, I'll buy two. Don't have to go all the way, but if you go a few levels into the ham licensing... It would be a minor gift. The thing is, right away, we would have someone else to talk to on the durned things. Just something I was thinking about this year but too much else going on.