The Road Home

The Road Home
There is no place like home.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Tangible Assets

Tangibles. What are tangibles? Merriam-Webster dictionary defines tangible as 1) capable of being perceived especially by the sense of touch, 2) capable of being precisely identified or realized by the mind or 3) capable of being appraised at an actual or approximate value.

So. If I have a packet of bean seeds that I can touch, identify and appraise the value of, then in my opinion, I have a tangible item. Many people would refer to their wealth as tangible assets. The things they surround themselves with indicates their status among those who share the same ideology. Take gold for example. Many would categorize gold as a tangible asset, a means of maintaining wealth in these times of economic volatility.

Now, let's go back to the title of this piece - Real Assets. How will one ounce of gold help you survive? Can you eat it, heat your house with it, grow food with it, wear it, drive it.....? What good will it do you if the dollar is devalued to the point of no return? How much is gold worth if the dollar is worth nothing? We always think of gold as worth X number of dollars. If the value of the dollar is equal to zero, what is gold worth then? Can you protect your family with it? The precious metals you need to protect your family are brass and lead. In the long run they may end up being much more precious than any other metal.

Tangibles. While we were in Alaska we were able to increase our savings. When we moved back to Oklahoma we invested our savings into our homestead, one of our most important tangible assets.  One of the first things we did was upgrade the older house we bought. We put on new siding that will not burn and added porches on the east 
and west sides of the house for increased ventilation if the power grid goes down for an extended period of time. We also installed a storm cellar, had two water wells dug and put in stainless steel hand pumps, had a barn built and had the fencing dozed and rebuilt. We bought a tractor to help us work the land and invested in many tools for gardening and animal care.We acquired goats, chickens, cats and a dog. We consider all of these to be very important tangible assets and key to our survival.

We have often talked about tangible assets in the past few years. Our discussions have included pondering what else we may need if we were never able to obtain another thing in this world. What if the 'things' we have are it? Can we make do? Patrice Lewis from Rural Revolution has written a World Net Daily article titled Tangible Investments.....That Breathe. Patrice talks about her cows being a tangible investment. Her family depends on them for food and income. We feel this type of investment in tangible goods is not only prudent but necessary for our future survival given the economic condition of our country and our world.

With that in mind, we continue to learn as much as we can about food production, processing and storage. Our new pond is just one example. How does a pond represent food production? First, it is another way to store water - that most precious necessity of life. Second, we stocked it with fish. What better way to store meat than in it's own natural habitat?

We have a flock of laying hens that also provide us with meat and
eggs. In the past, we traditionally have frozen the fryers we butcher
each summer, but we have begun to can our meat to decrease the dependence on electricity for the freezer. Our goats provide us with milk, butter, cheese and wethers (castrated males) each year that we butcher for meat. So far we have frozen the meat from the goats, but plan to can the next batch we butcher.

We are working on a rain catchment system that we can utilize for watering the animals and the garden, thus decreasing our dependency on city or well water. A greenhouse with solar panels and a 12 volt well pump are also in the plans. 

One of the things we feel is very important at this time is to obtain items now before the prices rise even more and we can no longer afford them, or the items are just no longer available at all. This includes the materials for future projects that we have not had the time to complete, but would like to if we were to rely totally on our own means to survive.

We have been learning more and more about gardening and canning food. We have had gardens in the past, but have not been as serious as we are now about how to grow different vegetables. It is important to know which ones grow well in your area, how well they keep and if you can save the seeds in a manner that keeps them viable until they are needed. We now grow all of our seedlings which has entailed learning when to start them so they will be ready to plant at the appropriate time. Do you have enough seeds and in a large enough variety to grow what your family and neighbors will need to consume to remain healthy and able to work hard every day? We continue to buy and feed our livestock commercial feed, but are in the process of trying to grow feed for them as well. There is so much to learn and not enough hours in the day to learn and do all that we would like.

Frank has read recently that if you have a minimum food storage of six months, within that time you can grow some food to eat if the season and conditions allow. Six months. That is a long time to wait for something to grow to the point that it can actually add nourishment to your diet. Can you wait that long? Have you stored up for a long winter or summer or downturn in the economy?

Tangible assets. Have you had a talk with God lately? What do you and your family need to do to be ready?  Do it now while you still can.

Blessings to you all,

Frank and Fern
 

19 comments:

  1. Great thoughts and advice.
    I am really enjoying your blog.

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  2. Thank you. Any input you have would be appreciated.

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  3. Another great article! Thanks for sharing with all of us! OP

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  4. Found y'all from Patrice's site. I'm enjoying visiting here! We have goats, chickens, pigs and a garden that I keep adding to over time. Best to you both!

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    1. Hi Mary,

      We're glad you found us. Good luck with your homestead. It sounds like you are as busy as we are!

      Fern

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  5. My wife and I are retired. We live in northern Oklahoma in town. If the worst comes, we will be bugging in. Having only seen the light for the past five years, we have a bunch of learning to do. Basic food and water have been taken care off, but are always glad to hear of knowledgable folks with info to share. We have about 20 feet squared for the garden and are extensively growing our veggies shoulder to shoulder. We want chickens, but are still are fighting city hall.

    Thanks for your encouraging writing. We both know that God is in control. But, being human, we occasionally crave reassurance. Thanks for what you do. S&G

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    1. It sounds like you are off to a good start. We are glad our blog has given you encouragement. Thank you for your kind words.

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  6. Have you thought abot making an icehouse? If you made a double walled dome with alot of insulation between to inner and outer shells you could store ice inside. Have it underground with a ramp and steps leading down into it. On the ramp side have a trough you can fill with water during the freezing times of the winter. If you put dividers in the trough and have the end closest to the ramp fixed so you can remove it, you could slide your ice down the ramp once it is frozen, in blocks of, say, 1 foot cubes, then stack it inside to keep year 'round. Hope this helps with storage. Ben

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    1. Ben,

      No we haven't thought about an icehouse, but thank you for the idea.

      Frank

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  7. Found your Blog via Survivalblog.com I run my own blog myself but wont blatantly use your comments section to mention my own!

    Anyways I agree with you 50% on the tangible assets portion in relation to precious metals.

    First off you are right off on your position regarding metals as being worthless as a primary survival tool. You cannot eat it, you cannot shoot it, you cannot grow anything with it. However you are looking at it from a position of collapse phase 1. I see the collapse in 3 phases,

    Phase 1: initial phase, chaos as individuals react to the breakdown in the supply chain and lack of food and lack of skills to provide for themselves (this will be extreme in urban areas and less extreme in agricultural/rural areas and will vary from town to town and state to state).

    Phase 2: Coalescing, this will be as people become more used to the "new normal" they will become more community oriented and those who are unable to provide for themselves will group with those that can, or will turn to crime. Self Defense or education will take care of those who turn either way.

    Phase 3: Rebuilding, this will be as things have gotten back to a "normal" those that lived and survived will be providing for themselves and their communities and trade will develop, towns will be rebuilt as well as supply networks through barter and trade at the local and interstate/national level.

    Metals will be useless in phase 1, mostly useless in phase 2 and highly valued later in phase 3, rebuilding phase. How we came to have currency, money, coins, etc. is that one guy had pigs, another corn, the pig guy traded pork for corn, but sooner or later the corn guy didnt need any pork but he needed leather, the leather guy needed neither corn nor pork, but needed wool, so instead of the corn guy searching for a wool guy a currency was made. early on it was tools, shells, beads, etc. later on it was gold, silver, copper, brass. why? not because they were useful, but for one they were pretty and could be made into pretty jewelry but also because they were rare, thats why granite coins never took off, because that was easily found. this was the case in the modern world until 1930 and later in the 70's when we finally decoupled metals from dollars.

    Thinking of Gold as X dollars makes sense now if you go buy the "spot price"...true thats how we buy it now but thats not the historical use of the metal nor the standard measure past say the last 50 years vs the last few thousand, or 3+ thousand years. So just because a currency has dissapeared doesnt mean that a metal no longer has value, corn was also valued in dollars as were bullets or a book. In a collapse you may be willing to trade great value in food or ammo for a childrens book. not because it has value to that other person but because you value it. a "currency" or "money" derives its worth not from its current dollar # but from the value that you, him, her and society at large value it at. thus currency = value, so anything that has value can be currency, just like at a swap meet or barter exchange off of craigslist.

    Just a thought. I also never advocate buying gold or silver until the primary necessities of prepping are met, i.e. food, water, shelter, defense. after that then money can go towards metals as a hedge against inflation and a barter tool, the same as buying extra this or that for trade. Metals are for when things get better and a currency is needed as a medium of exchange.

    BTW i lived my whole life in Alaska and just recently moved, Im sure you feel as I do, a beautiful state to leave...

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    1. Richard,

      Your comments have provided the impetus for another post. We hope you enjoy it.

      We miss Alaska every single day. But we miss the romance and beauty of Alaska.

      Frank

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  8. Just saw your blog, and saw the mention of Alaska in it. I was curious why if your worried about a shtf situation, why move out of Alaska?

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    1. I have answered this question many times. It is a great question.

      What most people see of Alaska are the tourist areas - lots of forests, lots of snow, lots of wildlife. But once you get a few miles north of Anchorage, where most tourists don't see, there are vast areas with no timber. It gets bitter cold in the winter.

      There are few roads in interior Alaska. All heavy supplies come by barge traffic to larger villages at the mouth of rivers, then barged up the rivers by smaller crafts or vessels. These barges carry heating fuel, gasoline and other heavy items. Most homes in interior Alaska are heated with fuel oil or a level of diesel. Most food is flown in. Big planes that can land in larger airports carry cargo/food that is then transferred to smaller planes to go out to the villages. Remember, most of Alaska does not have roads.

      When the shtf occurs there will be no barges and no planes, therefore, no heating oil and no food. The lower parts of Alaska will have no food flown in or grocery store items. Example, no toilet paper. But the lower part of Alaska has a warmer climate and even wild game likes a warmer climate.

      I was in Alaska when 911 occurred, living in the bush. No planes flew for three days anywhere. Hunters that had been dropped out in the field to hunt were stranded. People in need of medical attention could not be flown out and food was starting to run low. What will really happen when there are no more barges and no more planes?

      Hope this helps.

      Frank

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    2. I live in Alaska, so I know about everything being barged up, the plus sides that I see are less people. If shtf do you think getting gas will be much better down south? I’ve always figured if shtf, you’re basically for the most part stuck with what you already have. It seems to me regardless where you are it's better to already have what you need. If the trucks stop moving down south, getting things there won't be much better. And Alaska seems like a less likely place for a terrorist attack.

      I understand the warmer climate being a plus for a longer growing season, but things can be grown here fairly well if done right.

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    3. We also battled with these same issues. Yes, when the trucks quit running, they quit running everywhere. When you are out of gasoline, you are out of gasoline.

      Alaska in the more moderate regions, is easily survivable for the younger element. We seriously considered staying in Alaska and trying to rough it out. But with age, comes weaker muscles and a sorer back.

      Best of luck.
      Frank

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  9. Hello,

    I find your blog thought provoking and encouraging.
    In your article on tangibles you mentioned obtaining fire resistant siding for your home.
    Is there a brand name or popular type that you recommend?

    Thanks.

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    1. Thank you for your comments.

      I have included a link (see below) to the product that we used on the exterior of our house. I did not buy the material from Lowe's, but they have a very good description of the product. I would recommend you read the reviews and you will see it is quite heavy and brittle. It is real difficult to drive a nail in or put in a screw. I have to pre-drill a hole when I want to attach something like a hanging plant bracket. It paints easy and we have had it up for almost five years with no problems. It does not expand or contract with weather or seasonal fluctuations. I like it. In the near future, I plan on building an outhouse with this material.
      I recommend the material. It works for my need.

      Frank

      http://www.lowes.com/pd_128526-34299-217863_4294928817__?productId=3090005&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&facetInfo=

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  10. Our church has encouraged us for decades to store at least a year's supply of food. :) So very grateful for that counsel.

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