BTW, WTF happened at market open today? Here are the gold and silver prices from Kitco’s site at about 9am:
It’s not exactly world-shaking, but it’s a pretty big jump for a Friday market open. Any thoughts?
This has been one of my plans. Learn what the wild edibles are around you. Encourage or actually plant more of them on your property if you have property. The best book I can recommend if you live in the region is “Sam Thayer’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America”, where he covers 679 edible species. For anyone interested, here is a link to Sam’s website: Sam's Books - Forager's Harvest (I don’t have any affiliation with Sam. I just feel he has been writing the absolute best books out there on the subject for years.) For those interested who prefer Amazon: Amazon.com (I am an Amazon affiliate so this is an affiliate link.) If you are interested in buying a copy of the book I’d suggest buying direct from the author to better support the important work he does.
I haven’t dived into it yet “other than building a diesel truck than runs on biofuel” i wondered how long it take veggie oil to go bad… stacking 6 gallon tubs of walmart lard seems less environmentally risky to store and can be emergency calories too…but according to AI there may be some longer term storage potential with HVO not really familiar with it but i guess its a thing…
Biodiesel, the most common biofuel type, has a shorter shelf life of about 6-12 months due to its susceptibility to oxidative degradation and microbial contamination, which are accelerated by exposure to air, light, water, and high temperatures. However, some advanced biofuels like HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) have a much longer shelf life of up to 10 years under optimal conditions.
So if fuel is going to be much more expensive, rationed or unobtainium and electricity the same wouldn’t it be time to consider EV farm equipment and solar panels to charge them?
It doesn’t make financial sense for me to be grid tied solar because the power company doesnt do net metering. Essentially I’d be giving them free excess power with no incentive. The incentive there is a bare minimum system.
Looking at it thru the lense of how things are likely to play out by 2030, it seems to be in my interest to build out a small, off-grid (maybe hybrid) solar setup now, go EV equipment, EV car or truck (for local stuff), probably an E-bike or E-ATV even.
It wouldnt be cheap but if you’re right about the looming energy crisis then it now makes more sense to splurge now. Solar panels, copper and other components using expensive metals likely wont get any cheaper and if more people start coming to terms with your “maths” then sudden demand will drive all that up too. Not to mention the unknown consequences of tariffs.
I dont mind laying out the cheese for productive farm equipment where needed but if my diesel tractor or other essentials become a rusty yard ornament in 5 years, then why even consider them?
Realizing fossil fuels could likely get very expensive it may make sense for some of us, in certain situations, to front load the equation. Put the money up now and get paid back in the future.
It looks like the crazy tax incentives for residential solar are going away at the end of the year. Yet another nudge. Hmmm.
We had an old diesel tank ( 1970s)that had off road diesel in it over 10 years , ran it in my wheeled loader, kubotas no problems . I started to get scared that the fuel was so old , I might screw up their engines so I decided to empty the tank , clean it out and refill it.
As we were emptying it my son says , still looks good to me , so we put it in his f250 ( 7.3) little smoky but he said there was no problems.
I hate to guess how old it was at that point .
I feel it lasts longer than they tell us,
Your mileage may vary .
H
yeah got the same impression… bought some diesel during covid… forgot to put any additive in it… got to be at least 4 years now… my 12v ram runs just fine on it…
I know gas goes bad quicker… I had some crystalize in my Plymouths fuel lines… but honestly it had been sitting for 7 years… multiple times started sitting cars with 2-3 year old gas… even without additives seems to run ok… the whole 1 year thing on gas and 2 years on diesel seems to be more like a best before date… now maybe modern fuel injected cars and DEF diesel rigs cant burn it past that… but the older rigs seem to do just fine… Im sure there is a point where it breaks down… but ive doubled the stated expiration on both multiple times no issues…
Ethanol fuel starts to go “sour” in a few short weeks.
Pure Gas, lasts months longer
AvGas, which you can not run in an auto with catalytic converter is good literally for years.
Use an algae/fungicide when you refill, or have lotsa fuel filters.
To hot to type more
Damn I love my 12v Ppump more than my ‘77 Mercedes 300D
Both are manual trans
I agree with your comments.
This would be my follow up suggestion:
Instead of learning to trade equities, possibly choose an amount to put into miners equities - Understand this is a speculation not an investment. Don’t over allocate here. If they pop, you will make substantial returns even on a small allocation.
Given that you know Rick Rule you probably have heard of Doug Casey. To paraphase Doug - a gold mine is a hole in the ground with a liar standing at the top. It is classic risk reward. GDXJ higher possible returns, GDX lower risk.
Following Rick’s or Doug’s picks, or Schiff fund allocations etc is a good start. Clive Thompson in his video yesterday with Manecco64 outlines his method for calculating which miners to purchase - it is worth you having a listen to this.
If you are willing to speculate in miners equities, then possibly allocate a percentage of that now. Save the rest of your allocation in case the share market crashes. If the market crashes, it is likely, although not guaranteed, that miners will also crash. If they do crash, you will then need to choose whether to be brave and spend the rest of your allocation at that time.
If you are comfortable in losing your miners equities allocation then you may tend towards juniors/explorers - i.e. take riskier bets for higher possible returns. If you have a low tolerance for risk then you should purchase miners who are currently generating profits (or not purchase miners equities at all).
Two more things:
1 If you make this allocation, I wouldn’t check it everyday - it will liekly be too stressful- these equities bounce all over the place.
2 I am not an expert. Therefore, you should probably ignore everything I have written above 
Cheers
Philip
From what I understand from my readings/video watching, all things “e” are track-able, trace-able, and control-able. In all that that implies, including turning off or rendering inoperable should one fall afoul of rules & regulations… Right down to e-bikes and e-scooters. Something to consider in one’s planning…
Many new autos are trackable. I can look to see the exact location of my truck.
This 1st base model 2011 Nissan leaf have no WiFi connections I’m not aware of e-bike WiFi at least on the cheap Chinese ones however my new Milwaukee drill has theft location detection… I have an old 80,s vw bug ev motor kit that can run off 12v deep cycle…. So I think older is better but yes long term the goal is Everthing will be turned off remotely
My understanding based on readings is that new(er) vehicles have up to 10 hidden cameras inside them. They monitor everything you do, from taking a hand off the steering wheel to eating while driving to using your phone while driving, and everything in between. These are all meant to be data points that inform your social credit score. Drive carelessly in a school zone (GPS monitored), get points dinged. Drive with your dog on your lap, points dinged. The point is, everything you do will be monitored, in most cases unseen by you.
Maybe Tesla’s do, but most do not. Ford Blue (?) does have a camera. I know my superduty has a bunch of cameras outside, but not aware of any inside the cabin.
Individual chickens already having to be registered and tracked here in the uk. I lost mine in a boating accident…
For a period of time i dived into foraging and ‘famine foods’. Think of increasingly diminishing returns. While there are many wild edibles, the majority are not eaten during normal times because there are much better alternatives. Of course they are good to know about and have practiced finding, processing and eating. But should we have to begin to lean on them, be prepared to spend a lot of calories and time, to get little net positive calories in return. In famine Ireland it was prashock/charlock (think a type of wild mustard but found it hard to pin down).
Then there are those ‘foods’ that just fill the belly to stave off hunger pains with little nutrition, or attempts to eke out any nutrition at all for example silage bread, boiling down leather goods for a thin broth or stripping wall paper to get the flour paste glue towards end of ww2 germany.
Wild game dissapears very quickly followed by pets, but of course we’re talking extremes here. Forest gardens and edible landscaping are awesome as even if your land is raided for food, generally only whats in season is taken and if planned well, should have some sustenance coming due every month of the year.
And like was said, many crops could be unrecognisable to the average person in a hurry anyway.
Same , and I’d I did find cameras inside my f250 I’d be pissed.
But you bringing up my outside cameras makes me ask the question. Do they actually record? Or just assist the driver?
H
Thank you for the thoughtful comments. I am inclined in this direction. Trying to ‘become’ a Rick Rule is not possible for one not so inclined, but I like what he said about the Sprott ETFs and their factor based approach vs. CAP weighting. I’m inclined to trust those indices over my own research at this point, however, with a very small amount, it would be a good learning experience for me to try. I’ll find the video you mention.
