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Now I ask a question of you. The other day a silver ingot of .999 fine went to 31 buck on line. A old real silver dollar that had once been in circulation went up to $25.00.
If you compare a fedral reserve note to the silver dollar it takes 25 paper useless trash notes to buy 1 silver dollar.,,,
I laid in bed trying to sleep as it often occurs. Thinking of the value of silver and about when we came off the gold/silver exchange.
My grandfather, my father and I are/were carpenters. Basically thru the decades we earn 2 ounces of silver a hour. Back in 1975 when I was a journeyman scale was $10 a hour and silver was $5 a ounce. Here in 2011 scale is about $60 and silver is $30 a ounce.
As a silversmith as well I have been buying silver and gold for decades. Ironic thou, I do not believe in silver/gold as a shtf reserve. I have always considered ammo to be worth more. I know there will always be a demand for metals, but if you can't eat it or use it in daily life it is worthless.
I work silver too, but make what is known or was as Trade Silver, more or less once wearable money for in the Fur Trade, so I think of silver as money even if you can wear it.
see here ifn' it floats yee stick That much is the tip of a iceburg silverwork pictures by Mac_Muz - Photobucket
I work silver too, but make what is known or was as Trade Silver, more or less once wearable money for in the Fur Trade, so I think of silver as money even if you can wear it.
see here ifn' it floats yee stick That much is the tip of a iceburg silverwork pictures by Mac_Muz - Photobucket
Very nice work Mac_Muz.
The Norse, or Viking if you pefer, used to wear armbands made of silver. It was called Hack Silver because when you made a purchase you took off your armband and hacked off a piece of silver to pay.
Old silver coins used to be cut up as well for change. The coin would be cut into 8 "bits". 2 bits was worth a quarter, 4 bits a half dollar, 6 bits 3/4 of a dollar.
One nice thing about Montana, there is still Gold and copper and silver and platinum and paladium etc. etc. etc still in the ground if you know where to look.
Most of our gold is fine, but there are some areas where you can find some nuggets. An old friend of mine told me of his secret claim when he moved south, never to return. I have done some panning there as it is a placer claim, and there is pretty good color there, but I leave it where it is because it is impossible to find and I consider it my "bank" for just in case.
If I were to work the claim, the disturbance would let people know there is something there.
The longer it sits there, the more can accumulate anyway, kind of like intrest
Don't worry about me shooting you, I hate to waste ammunition
Actually, reading about some of your camps, I thought I would tell you about one of mine.
I am in the process of planning my next house. I will be starting construction in the spring.
It wil be a semi-earth made from concrete with insulation on the outside covered with a stone wall. The Walls will be about 2 feet thick finished.
On top I am putting a greenhouse, that way I have a longer growing season, and during the winter I can vent the warm air from the greenhouse down into the living area for passive solar heat. Got lots of little extras built in to the plan, like a freshwater cistern for potable water, and a rainwater cistern for the animals and watering the garden. Both will be built into the basement for added thermal mass and for insulation to keep them from freezing.
The area I will be building in is pretty dry, so using cisterns I can have a low volume well pumped by a windmill so the usage comes from the reserve not directly from the well so I don't have to dig as deep or have a high volume well.
Utilizing a flat roof on the house and sloping the greenhouse roof, I can capture a lot of rain and snow which will fill the other cistern for other use.
I have several years to go to retirement, but I want to have my house built and paid for long before I can move into it permenantly.
By utilizing an anaerobic digester for the effluent produced by the livestock, I can make Methane which when filtered through sawdust and metal filings removes the H2SO4, and by bubbling up through lime water, the finished product is 98% pure natural gas for the water heater and if I choose, a range top, or refrigerator, Plus the compost is perfect for the garden.
I have built a lot of furniture over the years, so all the furniture will all be made from trees grown on our property, all the leather will come from animals we raised.
The stonework for the fireplace and all the stone will also come from the surrounding ground.
I can harness wind for power if I want, but I have several other generators I have designed and built over the years using a variety of impulse initiators, all are completely off the grid, and much more efficent than wind turbines to generate electricity and don't have to depend on variables like wind or sun. They don't burn fuel either before you ask.
The basic plan is to be completely self sufficent with the exception that the wife wants satallite tv and a computer. We wouldn't even need a phone as far as I am concerned.
Lots of other stuff in the works as well. I do all the work, all the planning, all of the extras are my designs and built by me as well with the exception of some production products such as the refridgerator and instantanious water heaters, but it will be paid for when I am finished.
Anybody can be a survivor. The best weapon you have is your brain and imagination.
The only limits on what you can do are the limits you place on yourself.
I don't know squat about MT, I sort of passed thru a smaller part in 05, but that effluent, after making methane can be turning into top soil, 'IF you need any. I compost like a mad man what I can, since there wasn't a grain of top soil where a apx 60 x 100 garden is now.
Your plans afford far more creature comforts than mine will.
There is a few rivers in NH where gold can be panned still, and I tinkered with that for a while once.
I filled a tourist sized vial I bought with the pan. That pan is long gone now, but I have a similar shape pan made of copper, which was a wedding gift, and is used to hold non acid foods in primitive voo camps mainly.
The silver on page 1 is sterling mainly, page 2 from coin. Also on page 2 is scans from a book, so my work can be explained and compared to those in the book.
Once I had a paper catalog of 15 pages covered with pics of items on both sides. It was supposed to assist in sales, and I gave it out for free.
What it ended up getting used for for was historical referance materials for those who took a copy instead. That's ok, but I should have sold the blooming thing as a rag.
(Rag to me is a magazine)
Power: here we make machines used in science , industy, and etc. One of the circuit board maker/ techs (he makes his own boards and chips) sometimes takes waste number 1 alloy and is messing around with acids to create hydrogen. That idea might work out for some good for you if you mill up much alloy.
My ways always revert to old time basics. I am missing that tool called money, mostly. I got hurt back in 87 and getting jobs can be rough, and when I get jobs they are real rough, and I end up with out much hours, then seek more. Some hours are staking up right now, which is a sort of good thing, but the reason they are is I got my blasted hand caught in a place it shouldn't have been in the first place.
I won't be puling any 60 pound steel plates DOWN again, when I should have been pushing and wiggling it up instead. It's gonna be a few more days before I get middlin use of that hand again. Oh well it as they say chit happens. This machine I have to rebuild now looks like a relic from the Bismark. It is nearly that old, fer sure that heavy, and caked on rust and glass powder is everywhere. Some bolt caps supposed to be 3/4 inch are closer to 16 mm's. Sorta rounded and very seized. The frame weighs around 1 ton stripped clean.
Oh, I am just mac. That muz is so, because most sites have all mac's taken. The Muz is for muzzeloaders since I shoot flintlocks (rock locks) I tawk funny a lot
I played with hydrogen for a while, too volitile and dangerous. I prefer something that I can use and still live.
I fully understand your situation. My brother was injured on the job a few years ago pretty badly. He is still working but it really hurts him. His injury was to his knee so walking is very hard on him.
Interesting you have a flintlock, My parents bought me one when I was about 15, and I still have it.
Pennsylvania long rifle design in 45 caliber. Shoots pretty good, but I found out early on that flintlocks and snowstorms don't mix well
Lots of fun to play with though.
Mostly these days I use a longbow or a recurve with cedar arrows. Lots of fun but a lot of work to get within range of the animals. The harder you work for something the more you appreciate it right?
The house I am working on is based on low maintenance, comfort, security and maximizing my ability to keep hold of some of my limited financial resources
My desire is to have the only expenses being the taxes, (can't get away from those) and the bill for the TV and Computer.
Got a fairly decent retirement saved up, and plan on supplimenting my money with selling garden truck and the occasional calf or turkey or whatever.
Be glad you have some industry left. Most of the industry in Montana has been shut down by courts and loonie tunes so all we have left are governement and service industry jobs for the tourists.
No Money here, but it is the only place I can fit in after traveling the world on the Uncle Sam plan, I can't find anyplace I like better.
Never been to New Hampshire though...
Maybe a vacation is in order
MTSilvertip,
Sounds like you have all your priorities in order, good for you.
We seem to have some of the same skills and ideals, although I dropped out of electronics in HS cause the teacher went right over our heads without actually making sure we understood what he was saying
Ya know, there is nothing MORE valuable than experience. That is why I asked the question here.
Preparedness is one thing, something everyone can accomplish. Self-sufficiency is a whole nuther game Survival may not be so simple for simple folks.
Thanks, but around here, or at least the areas outside city limits, I am not unusual for this state. I would say the vast majority of the folks here would do well under nearly any circumstance.
The conditions we live in on a daily basis test the strength and resolve of everybody who lives here.
Sub-zero temperatures, hurricane force winds, wildfires during the summer in the forests, floods, drought, earthquakes, dangerous wildlife, add in low wages and high prices, it makes for an environment where you have to be tough to survive.
Even a drive to work can become a fight for survival when a whiteout comes in and closes the road, or if ice sends you over the side where you won't be seen for days, if ever. Living here means you have to think ahead, take precautions, and realize that you may not have help coming when you need it.
As an example, we have received several feet of snow since the first of November, 2010. The temps have stayed below freezing since before Thanksgiving, but now have increased to over 40 degrees in the past week.
This means that the creeks and rivers are choked with ice, but with the warm weather the snow is starting to settle and melt, so now we are under a flood watch for a large area of the state. If we do get some flooding, and the temps fall again, we could be locked in a sheet of ice until the next big thaw.
Preparedness is a way of life here. You can NEVER take for granted you will be able to get to the store on any given day, so you have stocks of food, water, basic meds, and because of the chance of the power going out during a storm or freeze, you have heat and light sources independent of the power grid like woodstoves, candles, kerosene lights ect.
Hunting, camping and backpacking are super popular here, so lots of us have basic camping supplies that can be used in an emergency.
Again, as hunting and fishing are nearly a religion here, people are used to taking care of themselves in sometimes life threatening situatons.
Most are very adept with their weapons of choice as with the wildlife here, you should be armed anytime you go into the rural areas. Some of the cops and Hwy Patrol officers I have talked to state flat out that they automatically assume every vehicle they stop will have a weapon in it, because it normally will.
We take care of ourselves and our families, the same way our forefathers did. Traditional skills are passed down to every generation, and while I do see a dilution of that in recent times, we still live close enough to nature that it hasn't died out.
A low wage base means more people are forced to do their own repairs on their home and vehicles. The more food you can raise in a garden or collect from the wild means that much money you have for other things.
Heating with wood you go out into the forest and cut yourself saves a lot of money during our long cold winters.
We make do with what we have and while it may sound like I am describing a utopia or fictional place, in my travels around the rural areas of most states you will find the same strong self reliant independent people that settled this continent and sent their sons to save the world.
Maybe I take it farther than some, but I would say that outside of city limits here, the vast majority of folks here could do quite well for a good period of time without a lot of the conveniences most people have grown accustomed to.
Preparedness; I agree. Anyone can and should do that.
Self Sufficency; We do that everyday, it is a part of us.
Survival; To me that is just an unwillingness to ever admit defeat. I don't think surviving has anything to do with intelligence, it has more to do with a willingness to do whatever it takes to stay alive and keep your family fed, warm and safe when you need to.
Not all survival situations take place in the middle of a wilderness, I would far rather take my chances in the Mountains or plains of Montana under any conditions nature can throw at me, than try to go shopping in downtown Seattle.
Bears and wolves I can handle, but in urban, "civilized" areas, I can't fire back.
I am always glad to hear from other self sufficent independent people, because there are a lot of them out there, and they are always interesting folks that are not afraid to provide assistance in a crisis, leadership to help those who are willing even if they don't have a special skill set, and have the intelligence to see a situation, but more importantly, see a way out of a situation.
Visit any of the small Montana towns scattered around the state. I bet you would be very surprised at what you find. I never cease to be amazed by the average citizens innovation, abilities and talent to take what they have and make the most out of it.
MTSilvertip, You just haven't spent enough time with the old rock locks to get real familar. With a little bee's wax, some tallow mixed in and a dod of spruce pitch fer good measure you can make a rock lock water tight to the point of soaking in a pond over night if you want to.
I have a Nor' West Gun, the gun that really won the west, a Brown Bess made in Japan for the bi-centential 76' that I call rock crusher, and a little custon built squirrel rifle with a said to be water proof pan, but it ain't unless it get that treatment, just like the others.
Rock locks get a bad name from modern would be makers that change things. Made right as mine are and these will go off if held upside down, and of course in the right hands. My hands were not always the right ones either, but after 30 years you either get good or you quit.
Guns are not in my top 10 items to have in shtf, but where thyey do show up on the list a rock lock is before a modern gun. As I see things the rock lock will put dinner on the table and be cheaper about it. The moderns will save ammo that way and be better to defend againt the 2 legged varmits.
That don't mean I git ta' eat dinner every day, not meat anyway, but it makes a better chance.
There is a vast difference I assume between where you are and where I am. Around here you can't see 50 yards in the woods. Most game is taken long before any 75 yards even in more open places.
As close as we have to many hunting situations that I might guess are familar to you would be hunting a power line here. A wide swath is cut thru the forest that goes forever, and for all I know right to your house. (that's a joke I think) Some guys hunt the power lines when they choose a long range rifle, but i am thicket hunter, where the birds are mainly these days. They don't weigh a whole lot, but mixed up with rice a bird or 2 makes a decent meal for at least 2 persons.
Sorry to hear of your brother. I assume he did what i did, and sold work ethics too cheap and paid the price for speed. I still hurt, but got used to some of it. The lawyers made out off me pretty good too, but they won't again. For a long while I was invisable, but came out and defy an so called authority to deal with me.
I ain't holdin my breath on that, since they wanted me when I was living off the land and wouldn't come then either. At the time is was a unusal winta'. On page 1 here, the site where that tee pee is. At the time is was around 5 feet deep in snow, and -20 below at high noon. My invite specified around 3 AM LOL.
Even now if the authorites did grab me up for only gawd knows what, but they are good liars, all it would do is upset my wife and otherwise improve my situation, and at tax paid expence which I never asked for once. Say hi to yer Brother for me. Tell him to go break a leg
Thanks Mac, I will relay your reguards to my brother.
He is a Heavy Equipment operator, and simply jumped down off a trailer when loading a piece of equiment, and hit his knee on a trailer hitch.
He currently has a 40% disability rating with work comp, and gets a check, but can't live and raise his family on that so he works. Just the way it is.
It was a lot easier before the depression as he was still working the big equipment, but got laid off that job, found another, hours got cut so picked up another part time, both shut down this winter and so he started driving truck hauling cattle. Did pretty well, but that is a seasonal job. Now he is driving short haul. Not much money but the pay is steady and he can be home with his boys at night and on the weekends. He has 2 sons, one is 11 and the other is 2 1/2.
He is setting a good example of being a good father, working for what you want, and not accepting charity. I am very proud of him.
I have hunted in southern Illinois, so I understand what you mean by things being a lot closer.
Depending on where you hunt in Montana, you could be in black timber where you can't see more than 20 yards, or high prairie where a 300 yard shot is as close as you can hope for.
I have my flintlock and play with it for many of the reasons you stated. A Matchlock is easier to build and fire if necessary, but I do like the look and feel of the long rifle. I have inlines, and centerfire rifles as well. Not a purist by any means, I use what works.
Just not a fan of the modern compound bow, too many things that can go wrong, but I may get one just to have and use.
We have 11 big game species here, no idea how many upland bird species but I can tell you a friend of mine and I went out one time and came back with the limit each of 5 birds at that time, and each bird was a different species.
We sit astride the pacific and central flyway for waterfowl too. It is unbelievable the flocks of ducks and geese you can see here.
Lots of small game too, couple species of cottontail, jackrabbits or snowshoe hare, lots of furbearers, basically it is not that different from the late 1800s around here.
The primary game I hunt are Mule Deer, Whitetail, Pronghorn Antelope, Elk, and Black bear. I also hunt cougar, (vry good meat) and wolf ( when the judge lets us). The wolf is the only one I don't eat, but the fur is great for warm winter wear as it doesn't collect frost.
Doesn't take to many of those to get your winter meat.
Upland birds for me are mostly camp meat, except the turkeys.
Not a big goose/duck eater, but do that on occasion as well.
We have innumerable fishing options available too, but right now at this time of year, the ling are spawning and those are super fish to eat.
We catch them through the ice as well as trout and perch.
You can live fat cow here if you play your cards right
You can use a flinter to start fire when the gun is loaded if you do it right. The gun does not go boom either. A very snug feather is inserted in the vent (touch hole) I even return the prime to the horn as much as I can less a few grains I spill. I only use 1/3rd of a pan so I may even dump the prime.
Then with char cloth or touch wood, either one will do, but I don't know if you have touch wood or not, you just slam a sliver in the pan, c o c k (on edit got nannied) the piece and pull the trigger. The char will be in glowing coals. Since the gun is loaded for sure, point it somewhere you don't mind if the charge does go boom. While it shouldn't it could. A rock lock gun to me is sort of the swiss army knife of the gun world.
And yeah in rain / snow a matchlock is a bugger to keep lit. I never had one, but use a like fuse I make of cotton and a wet gun powder solution for tennis ball grenades.
I have several modern guns, which means made after 1880, most are a lot newer than that to maybe 2005. For a very long time all the moderns became dust collectors, but none are closet queens. I have no room in life for tools I can't use.
Never had cat meat. Must be a lot like spotted owl
I figure yer pullin my leg on that one, and it will take serious work to get me to believe other wise, sorry 'bout that.
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That much is the tip of a iceburg
