Preparation goals for May 2007:

My plans include:

getting another 5 gals of gasoline procured/stored
getting more canned goods
getting more dried goods
getting more white gas (camping stoves & lantern)
getting more small bottles of propane (lantern)
get more .357mag ammo

make a better roof for my air intake filter
re-arrange garage to make shelter conversion quicker
complete "Honey Do's" so there will be peace in the kingdom!

"complete "Honey Do's" so there will be peace in the kingdom!"

Not sure about how it works at your house, but my Honey-Do-List NEVER gets completed. As I get near the bottom (happens very rarely) the list magically gets longer.

Putting away more food and water, canles and batteries. Rotating my BOB supplies and my Bug-In food stores.

Nice topic because my birthday is in May, so I will get a little money to play with (probably $100 total) which doesn't happen too often. I am thinking a spotting scope but I am open to suggestions, and seeing this thread might give me some Ideas. Maybe a CB?

Goal for this week: Apply at local sheriff's office for permit to purchase handgun.

I try to spend a set amount ($40) a month on emergency/disaster supplies each month. Because I can't afford to spend a lot of money at once, I've been taking the "ant's" approach to acquisition and storage of supplies. My goals for May:

• Purchase another ounce of silver (I buy an ounce every month to prepare for any complete financial collapse)
• Buy two more days of non-perishable meals (freeze-dried, canned goods, etc.)
• Complete my research on which non-hybrid seeds to store for TEOTWAWKI
• Buy 3 packs of non-hybrid seeds (probably include zucchini in the packs. If I remember correctly from my youth, I plant seemed to produce about 5,000 zucchinis)
• Puchase another pack of storm matches from REI and continue building my tinder kits.

Interesting idea on the silver each month. Are you buying coins from the mint or what?

I got the idea after reading the novel "Lights Out" that was circulating on these boards during March. Some seem to think that if TEOTWAWKI occurs, paper currency would be useless, although silver and gold coins could still be used in trading.

I started by shopping around different dealers and explaining my objective: acquire silver in small amounts each month to prepare for a financial crisis. I explain that because I'm a school teacher, I can't afford large bars. I'm also not interested in collector quality coins - I'm basically interested in silver only. Gold is too expensive for my budget at the present prices.

There's quite a few gold/silver dealers in the DFW area to choose from. I'm using two methods. The first is to buy a silver round (1 ounce) type of coin. There's no official denomination or country of origin, but they often are created by large precious metals dealers (like Eberhard). I could just buy a small one-ounce bar. Both are fairly close to the exchange price of silver.

A second method is to go through the "junk boxes" of some coin dealers. Sometimes they have pre-1965 silver quarters or dimes that are not in a collectable condition. They usually charge a little above face in order to get rid of them.

A final method, although more expensive, is to purchase silver coins produced by the US mint: Silver Eagles. There is a markup on these (perhaps $1 - $1.50) per ounce because collectors sometimes seek these coins rather than just silver accumulators.

If anyone has suggestions on how to do this effectively and cheaply, I'm all ears

As far as I know, the best silver to buy as investment or survival coins are Silver American Eagles or pre-1965 90% silver dimes, quarters, and half dollars. This article gives a pretty good description of what kind of currency you would want in a total financial meltdown. There is also a service I found called SmartSilver that will send you a chosen amount’s worth of pre-1965 90% silver coins every month. (I have not used this service, so this is not an endorsement. For informational purposes only.)

Since BrianTexas mentioned buying his silver an ounce at a time, I would think he is referring to the Silver American Eagles or something very similar.

Thanks for the article. I'll take a look at the smart silver site. I don't like paying shipping and handling because DFW has so many dealers that it's often not far out of my way. One place is not far from Turner Hardware, which is one of my favorite new shopping places (and locally owned!)

5,000 may be a little high

Zucchini is something that I currently grow & have extra seeds stored in the freezer. It is near the top of my list of best survival veggies because:

1. Don't need to spray it - no insect or disease problems here in Missouri. (If you've never gardened before you have no idea how important this would be post TEO...)

2. Produces a lot of food per plant

3. Can still grow well on medium to poor soil (though the better the soil the better the yield)

4. Plenty of sunshine & water & 100 plants could feed a family of four for a couple months not to mention the hundreds of quarts that could be canned for winter.

If you are planning on gardening then start stocking away fertilizer as well.

If you haven't before try slicing it about 3/8 to 1/4 in thick - spray with cooking spray on both sides & throw it on the grill - brown on both sides & then salt it. Very tasty.

The only plant I would put higher on my best survival plants list would be Jerusalem Artichoke.

* Repair/replace garage roof
* split the pile of free firewood (check craigslist for this)
* plant seedlings my wife started this month

Stealth, this is OT, but you need a permit just to purchase a gun?

In NC you can purchase a long gun (rifle shotgun) same day. You fill out a few forms, they call in a background check and either give you a green light or red light so to say. They walk you to the door, and have a nice day.

To purchase a handgun, you must:
Fill out an application.
Answer all the questions.
Provide two notorized letters of recommendation.
Name a LEO who knows you.

After you do that, you take the application to the county sheriff. They can take up to 30 days to approve or deny your application. If they approve, you wait 30 days to get the permit, if they deny, you can appeal with a county judge.

At least that is how I understand it. Will let you know how it works out and will soon ge asking for advice on this forum for my first two pistol purchases.

Oh yeah, you can ask for two permits to purchase from the same application, and it costs $10 to do that.

Putting up more water for the Summer storms season. A serious thunder storm is going to happen and power outage might...

OK so I read the article, and I don't get it. So, if we suddenly have this huge crisis that demands a precious metal based system, all the pre-1965 coins are going to be worth their face value? Silver coins (for example, a 1 oz coin) will be worth what? Same with gold (again, 1 oz). Since silver is something like $13/oz (is this correct?), does that mean life will cruise away from a $20 bill and go towards a $13 coin?

No. They will be worth the value of their silver content, once their values are spread among the trading masses anyway. Current melt values of coins can be found at COINflation.com.


Yes, in a major financial breakdown, things will revert to a more direct barter system, where you barter the intrinsic value of your coins for goods and services. Since Federal Reserve Notes are only paper, they will not be worth squat. The current prices of the precious metals per troy ounce can be found at Kitco.

I don't know about caching precious metals against the possibility of TEOTWAWKI. In a complete, world-wide breakdown of governments and economies, most people will be reduced to subsistence level, which means the market (if you can call it that) will be driven by commodities that aid subsistence - food, water, clothing, tools, seeds, etc. Starving people can't eat silver. For silver to have "value," there must be people who have extra food, etc., to trade for it. I'd rather have the food.

Anyone read the book "Alas, Babylon" as a kid? In that TEOTWAWKI scenario, the beekeeper who had honey to trade was way ahead of the guy with a chest full of gold and jewels. A pound of sugar might be worth a lot more than a pound of gold in such a world.

I only read it 8 times as a kid, and about that many times as an adult (I kinda liked it)

Although I completely agree with Frank and Ray (yes, I've read "Alas Babylon" AND "Pulling Through"), I "hope" that the knowledge and reference books (like: Back To Basics, Fortunes in Formulas, Military tech manuals, medical manuals, equipment, etc) that I keep on hand will prove to be as invaluable as other commodities.

Thanks. I'm glad other brought this up; it's kind of along the lines I was thinking: that market value for metals would be based more on consumer demand, not "well, it was worth this much on the day that the market crashed." Jewels, metals, etc. are nice, but if no one is taking them, it's just extra weight.

That being said, it might be prudent to have a small amount on hand (which can always be sold in the future for some profit).

Which begs the question, what will be the most valuable commodity to stock: salt, sugar, rice, Jack Daniels?

I bought a couple more packs of eneloop AA's.
We have a camping trip scheduled for Memorial Day, thats when i test out some of our preps.
Listed our house for sale so I won't be adding to our stock/gear at all, mostly sorting and organizing getting ready to move.

Jack Daniels and variations on that theme have merit for larger E-kits...if for no other reason than barter. Consider those little bottles you used to get on airplanes...you can get quite a variety ...they aren't expensive...pack small and are pretty cheap if you don't raid them from the hotel mini-bar. I've got maybe 10 or 12 of various kinds...mostly to try a new type without buying the bigger more expnsive bottles.
But then I don't drink much booze...so a small inventory could be a nice treat a week into a disaster scenario.
And by the time the news comes around to interview the survivors I think it would be cool to show someone that survived with the luxuries intact rather than just those that nearly died from living without electricity for 3 days.

But then your interview won't be shown because it doesn't have sufficient entertainment value.

I have a couple of small bottles (O' likka) in my BOB (the small airplaine size ones) - I do figure it would be not unwelcome at the end of a stressful day.

I hope to increase my Dogfood stock to 60lbs stored and add another couple days worth of food to the prep pantry.

I recently took a financial hit (thank you city/ county tax increases) that will slow up my preperations.

Hurricane prep season is in full swing for me. My living sitch just drasticly changed with a divorce and a new home, so getting my new girlfriend and house up to speed will take some doing. She is adjusting nicely to my preparedness ways and fortunately is in a finacial position to help out a great deal. Our new home has a 10,000 watt genny with a transfer switch plus my 5,000 watt. This month it is more gas(figures, I buy at peak price), more batteries, canned food, paper products and as always more water. Spare parts for the chainsaws and gennies.
Scott
"Try'in to reason with hurricane season"

I think y'all are going to have a verry interesting Hurricane Season, probably more so than us and I think it will be interesting here as well!!!

We sure could use another quiet season like last year. 4 storms in 2005 was enough for awhile not to mention the flooding from Wilma in '04.
Got 2-36 piece packs of AA last night. I was inspecting my girl friends flashlights and all of them are oldschool D cell junk, so I guess a few D cell packs are in order. Fortunately I still have my Rock River LED lanterns and a couple Fenix AA. I may have to give my daughter one of the Fenix L2T and pick up the new Fenix L2D CE with the Cree LED.

I would like to accomplish the following:

-Purchase a 3500-4400 watt generator
-Store 75-100 gallons of gasoline
-double my current food supply (dedicated supply is up to about 10 days for 6 people)
-Put away another 200 rounds of .40 S&W
-Purchase a Ruger 10/22 and about 500 22LR
-Get at least one 55 gallon water drum (on a wheeled dolly).

Big Dreams I know, but I am working on it.

So, just out of curiousity, why stockpile so much .40? I understand the 500 rounds of .22LR (since the box is that many), but for a pistol? I've got enough to reload all my mags one time. I guess I just figure that it'll be pretty tough to shoot and reload 200 times.....

As for the 10/22, be careful if you buy after-market magazines. Some don't feed very reliably.

Considering that ammo has a very long shelf life, stocking more than you need is prudent if you can afford it. That said, 200 rounds really isn't that much, just enough for a couple range sessions.

That extra 100 only brought my total to 150 rounds. I won't end up with 1000 rounds or anything for the .40 on hand, just like to have a solid amount (maybe 300-400) that I can work from. (target practice, etc.)

OK, I get it. See, I'm reading your original post as putting some ammo away for a rainy day. "Stockpiling" to me is NOT the same as having ammo for a day at the range.

Buy a few bricks of .22 ammo. Good for target practice and OK for self defense.

When I go shooting I often shoot at least 50 rounds of .40 S&W, 50 rounds of .223 and several hundred rounds of .22lr. I think you should have at least 200 rounds of .40 S&W/ pistol ammo, 100 rounds of rifle ammo and 2,000 rounds of .22lr. That is my low inventory setting. If I get below those quantities it is time to buy more ammo. This gives you the luxury of time to shop for the best buys. Like many shooters I think you should have a lot of cheap practice ammo and enough quality social ammo. At least enough to fill your magazines in case of a home invasion or car jacking.