Plan Three Times, Measure Twice, Cut Once

Hello Everybody, Frank here

I received an interesting email from the Frank & Fern site and I wanted to share it with you. This man is giving thought to relocating and has some good questions. I hope you will enjoy reading his questions and I hope you enjoy reading the response that I gave to his good questions. This is just the way that I saw it and the way that I still see it. You see, I love watching the movies Jeremiah Johnson and Never Cry Wolf. Yes, I have read both of the books associated with them, and they are very good books, which I would also recommend. Both of those stories influenced my wanting to go to Alaska, and explore and live that type of life style.

Well, Fern and I have been lucky. You see, I got to live a dream and I am still living a dream. Now, I'm not what you call a dreamer. These dreams have come from lots of study, research and hard work. I hope you get to live your dreams, too.

I use a saying which I'll share with you now, "Plan three times, measure twice, cut once." So for your dreams, Plan. Then plan again. Have a back up. Do what you need to do to be successful, but always plan for failure. Then live your dream. Someday I will tell you my whole story, but not today. 

If you don't believe in God, that is your choice. But I do and that's my choice. God has been good to me and I thank Him for it everyday.

I hope you enjoy the email I received and I hope you enjoy the response. Please tell me and this gentleman what you think. We're all in this ballgame together. So get off your hands and tell me what you think. Good or bad. Remember, we are ladies and gentlemen. Plan three time, measure twice, cut once.

We'll talk more later, Frank

Email received

Hello, My name is [omitted]. My wife of 40 yrs. and I have lived in Alaska 39 years. I see you also have lived here, so I thought you might have some insight for us.

We are 60 and done raising our children, and are entertaining ideas about moving south. We are Christians for 40 years too. We had a 40 ac. farm [omitted] [between Valdez and Glenn Allen] yrs. ago, and have learned the harsh realities of self-sufficient living here, and feel it is not really possible due to climate. We cannot grow grains for feed, nor fruits for ourselves, vegetables are limited, winters are so long and harsh our goats, pigs, chickens and rabbits all had difficulty. 8 mo. winter is simply too hard with firewood, water hauling, long, dark and cold, etc.

So I have a few questions.

In Okla. are summers too hot? We don’t mind 4 seasons, but 3 months to each would be fine. We have looked in west Montana, mid-Idaho, and east Washington. prices seem higher due to higher demand and scarcity, but 20 ac. is approx. what we’d like, ½ pasture for grazing & hay, ½ woodlot for ongoing firewood harvesting. Must have water of sorts, i.e. pond, creek, lake, etc. Definitely a rural forested area is our goal. A house is not necessary as I do construction, but cost is always a factor, so $50k or less is our price range for land as we need to develop the farm. Does this seem like a reasonable amount?

Also with all the instability in the country, dollar devalue etc. do you feel you are in a ‘safe’ place should civil unrest, depression etc. cause roving gangs from the city to seek nearby rural food sources? Or do you wish you had moved to  “the Redoubt” area? 

Thank you for an time or info you can provide. Also, I thoroughly enjoy your blog as I recognize experiential farming and all the added trials shared realistically.

Thanks again, and God bless.

[omitted]

Frank's response

Hello [omitted],

Congratulations on 40 years of marriage. 

Up front. Our time in Alaska was temporary every place we were, so we never gardened or raised any form of livestock, period. Here is a list of the places we lived, starting at the top and coming around and down. Barrow, the Kotzebue area, Nome, mouth of the Yukon River and Dillingham. We had a condominium in Anchorage for a few years, but it was only used a few days out of the year. So, again, we had no experience in gardening or livestock while in Alaska. We did have a church garden in one location, but it was really not very successful. That was in Dillingham, the lowest latitude that we lived.

Somewhere over the tundra about 500 miles from Anchorage

The reason we left Alaska, which was about 11 years ago, was my fear of the economy collapsing, which I still believe will happen. I did not want to be in remote, bush Alaska when the planes quit flying. We were there during 9/11 when the planes did quit flying, for 3 days I believe. That scared me then. Most people didn't have a clue what it meant, because all supplies there came in either by plane or barge during the warm months.

Nunam Iqua, Alaska 2006

We looked in the Redoubt area, western Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington, just like you mentioned. At the time we left, I was about 57 or 58. At that time I had had several surgeries and after leaving Alaska, I had lower back surgery and open heart surgery. But one day it dawned on us that we were not getting younger, not trying to sound funny here, but I was really tired of shoveling snow. The places where we could have a car, I was tired of shoveling out the car. I was tired of ice, and dark, and cold, and I mean really cold. -50 is chilly. -20 was a good day. When it broke 0*, we celebrated. You should know what I'm talking about. And dark? I never realized how much I missed sunlight until it wasn't there. And light? I never realized how much I missed dark until the sun went in a circle for 24 hours in the sky. I take it you put foil paper or something on your windows in the summer.

Right now, I am 69. Two plus years back I had open heart surgery and about six years ago I had lower back surgery. I am as active now as I was then, if not more, but I don't think I could shovel snow if I really needed to. So, therefore, the Redoubt is out of the question.

 

The non-sunset, Barrow, Alaska, September 2000

Why Oklahoma? Lots of reasons. Fern's mother lived in southeastern Oklahoma. We went to school in Stillwater, Oklahoma which is where we met and were married 36 years ago. Fern is ten years younger than I am. For various reasons we bought a house and piece of property that joined her family's property. About 40 years ago, back in my Mother Earth News days, I researched property all over the country for survivability. Southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas and north a couple hundred miles, and south a couple hundred miles is a survivable area. Lots of hills, some small mountains, creeks, rivers, forested areas, and not many people to speak of. Country folks for the most part, a higher unemployment rate, lots of churches, not many bars, and the issues of positive and negative that come with this type of area. 

A small example. The closest westerly nuclear power plant to us is Glen Rose, Texas. The closest easterly nuclear power plant is just west of Little Rock, Arkansas. Our prevailing winds are from the west. I am not concerned about a melt down at the Little Rock facility. Glen Rose, Texas, a melt down would not reach us here. Tinker Air Force Base, just southeast of Oklahoma City, if something nuclear were to occur there, it would not reach us.

Next topic. Neighbors are neighbors, and Bubba is Bubba. This is the same everywhere. 

The rolling hills of southeastern Oklahoma.

Summer heat. Well, it gets pretty hot in interior Alaska during the summer. I don't know where you live right now. We have mosquitos, but nothing like the ones we had in Alaska. We have no no-see-ums or white socks. Heat is relative. We get the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico that provides us with our thick forests, which allows us to grow just about any plant we want to. Fruit trees can be grown, but they struggle because they just don't have the same conditions they do in the southeastern Washington area. Because of the gulf stream, in the summer time there is high humidity and high heat and sharply fewer bugs than Alaska. Yes, the heat and humidity can be an issue. We never had air conditioning in Alaska. We had a pretty nice condo in Anchorage, but it didn't have air conditioning. In the summer here, we start much earlier in the day and much later in the evening. That's the way we do it, and we do have air conditioning. In the winter, if need be, we can use wood heat. And I truly pray to God, that if the electricity ever goes off, it's during the winter so we will have at least a little time to acclimate.

Land price and costs. It's this way everywhere, you get what you pay for. If you were to look around with various real estate agents, I think you could find what you're looking for, for around $50,000. Now there are places here that are covered with rocks. That's part of being in a mountainous, hilly area. Some places have good well water, some places have poor water. $50,000 depending on the quality of land, could get you a lot more than 20 acres, or a lot less. In Oklahoma, building codes in the rural areas are just about non-existent. I cannot speak for Texas, Arkansas or Missouri. We don't have silly laws taxing rain catchment, but there are laws about damming up creeks and streams and affecting your neighbor down stream. A competent real estate agent should be able to answer most of this type of related questions.

You addressed roving gangs. Civil unrest. The farther away you are from towns, I believe the less this will happen. As far as the instability of our country and the devaluation of the dollar, the dollar has been devalued before. And instability? Just look at Washington, D.C. Look at that circus. As Ol' Remus says, Avoid crowds.

Buckland, Alaska 1990

I'm about to wrap this thing up. You ask, do I wish I had moved to the Redoubt area? Outside of the romance of a few novels and films? No. It's not survivable unless you are very young, in excellent condition and have skills that very few people have. It has a lot of the same features Alaska does. People struggle with gardens there, they have hard water issues. You know, ice. It gets as cold in Montana as it does in most of Alaska. We have ice here for a few hours, or a few days a winter. I am more than happy with where I live. If I were to ever move again it would be 30-40 miles farther east, therefore, I am extremely happy with where I am.

If you would like a recommendation, and I do not live in that immediate area, but I am about 60 miles away from Mena, Arkansas. Or come right across the border into Oklahoma. I do hope this helps.

You know bad times are coming and we are going to have to do the unthinkable. I hope that you and yours have your heads screwed on right. I would gather food storage and a realistic way to protect myself. Some day this thing is going to break. Most people will move to the cities and the vast majority will succumb within a few months. This is a horrible thing to think. You will need to protect yourself. This is the part where it's important to have your head screwed on right. I don't believe that God wants us to put our hands up in the air and just give up. God made us fighters and He expects us to do so.

Peace be with you,

Frank Feral

Winter of Our Demise

Hi Everybody, Frank here.

A month or so back, Fern and I were driving down some long, lonesome highway somewhere, going to a place that I can't remember where we went. But while we were traveling, I observed some of the changes that occur during the seasons, and at that same time, it dawned on me that

there are lots of seasonal changes. Plants in the garden for the most part grow one year and are gone. Some come back the next year and some don't, but there are other types of seasonal events that happen. In my neck of the woods, folks grow and harvest pine trees. They just seem to have a longer season, somewhere between 20 and 30 years. There are also people. I'm approaching 66 years. I might have 10 more days or maybe 10 more years, God willing. But see, my season started with conception, and my season will end when I take my last breath. Let's guesstimate and say 70 years. In 70 years, I'm a spring chicken compared to some in the tortoise world. So, you get my idea here. I've read about some insects that only live a couple of days. That's their entire season.

Now, so much for the trip down memory lane. What I'd like to talk about is the season of our demise. You see our country, like all other countries, is controlled by a beginning, a middle and an end. Like some fruit flies that live for two days, and some trees that live for hundreds of years, everything has a beginning and an end. I raise goats. A good, solid, productive goat will produce somewhere around 10 years. I've seen baby goats born, and live 10 years, and I've seen baby goats born that never see another sunrise.

So, in the history of our developed world, our country, the United States of America, is a relatively young, thriving nation. I know some would question that, and in a moment I'm going to explain what I mean. But as nation, we are showing growing pains. Like me, we're starting to show our age and things are starting to slow down. That is part of the process of being mature. One of the things that I have accepted is that someday I am going to die. Sad as it is, someday our great nation will cease to exist as we currently know it. 

Let's step back in history a little bit. Not many of us around today actually remember the Great Depression. There are a few older folks around that still do, but not many. I would venture to say that most folks under 30 know very little about the Great Depression. Like the depression we're in right now, back then there was a debate as to when it started and when it ended. But have no doubt, we are currently in a financial depression. Play any word game you want, or do the semantic shuffle, but we are in a depression, because we have been in a severe recession for over six years.

Let's get back to the Great Depression. What caused it? Who knows? Who knows what's caused the depression we're in right now? Remember, the winners write the history books, and we are only taught what very influential people want us to know. But are you aware that in our great nation we have had multiple severe depressions? Actually it's really no big deal, because most people

back a 100 or so years ago, were extremely poor. This affluent society that we live in today, and you quibble, "We don't live in an affluent society!". You might say, "I only have one SUV in front of my house." Well folks, 100 years ago, let's say 1915, there were no SUVs. If you had a covered type chariot for daily transportation, you were wealthy. Now remember 100 years ago, 1915, few, very few people had electricity. That same few did not have running water and there was no such thing as a Wal-Mart Super Center. Credit was unheard of for the most part. Few, few people owned firearms. You can see the pattern here. By the way, in 1915 we were in one of those severe depressions.

What do you think got us out of that depression? It's the same thing that got us out of the Great Depression. It's called war. But right before we got into World War I, a private group of the very wealthy and influential folks created the Federal Reserve banking system. You hear about it

occasionally on the news now days. Ever heard of quantitative easing? Or liquidity? Have you ever heard that the dollar has been devalued to just about nothing? Some people think this is a direct result of the creation of the Federal Reserve system. Which, by the way, the word Federal is just a name, like Federal Express is just a name. It is convenient, though, that it was started right before World War I. Okay. A depression before World War I, the Great Depression before World War II, and I don't know what history will call the depression we're in right now, we'll have to wait and see on that one. But can you guess what's coming? Good guess. Let's back up one more time.

While Europe was fighting, back in the late 30's and early 40's, the United States became the industrial base for the world. Remember the winners write the history books, and we were the good guys, along with western Europe that we were providing war supplies to, so that they could fight the bad guys. You know, Hitler and the Nazis. During this period before we were involved in World War II, our industrial base was ramped up to full capacity. But the war in Europe didn't go too well. 

A little history here. We had huge convoys of supplies leaving our ports and going to Europe as fast as we could make them, and as fast as the supply ships that we were building could carry them. Well, remember those horrible Hitler Nazis? They took out full page ads in our east coast newspapers advising the American public that they were going to start sinking those supply ships. And they did. But they warned our country multiple times. Remember we were supplying western Europe with bullets, beans and bandages. So they did start sinking some of our ships. Soon the war cry went out and we sent our good, homegrown, American boys to Europe, and we helped defeat Hitler and the Nazis.

Let's skip over to the Pacific now. We all know that the Japanese government bombed Pearl Harbor. Did the American government know that Pearl Harbor was going to be bombed? History now shows that yes, absolutely, they knew. But do you know why the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor? It's because we put an embargo where the Japanese could not import oil. Japan was a quasi modern, industrial nation and we shut off their oil supply. We know what they did. It's called Pearl Harbor. 

Okay, now we have a war on two fronts. Our industrial base really kicks in now. Everybody is working. My mommy worked in an aircraft plant. All the men, or most of them anyway, went to fight in

the war. My dad and his brother went to Europe, and my mother's two brothers went to the Pacific. Why all this history stuff? Because this is the beginning of the "spring" of our nation. We destroyed, and I believe rightly so, the industrial base of most of Europe. What we didn't destroy, the German's took care of before we got there. The same thing happened in Japan. So, World War II is over, all of our soldiers are coming home, and everybody needs jobs.

Jobs were there. We had passed the Rural Electrification Act, so all those back woods, country, hicks could now get rid of their icebox and get a refrigerator, and every other modern convenience that their citified cousins had. At the same time we're also rebuilding Europe, Japan and England,

which Hitler pretty much took care of destroying. Let's take a look at things now. The British economy along with it's infrastructure and industrial base, was pretty much destroyed. The same with most of industrial Europe and Japan. Britain was the reserve currency, but now their economy was in shambles. The reserve currency now becomes the U.S. dollar. This means that most international trading is done with dollars. At that time the United States had beyond a doubt the strongest economy, the strongest industrial base and the strongest military. You say, "What about China?" China was still closed to outsiders, so at that time, they did not figure into the picture. 

Guys like my daddy are now helping build appliances, or automobiles, or any of the thousand items that our new, blossoming industrial base can

produce. The good folks in Europe and Japan want these products also. People are leaving farms by the droves to go get the citified jobs, so they can live and work in a town, buy a little house, which they're building by the thousands, which means more jobs, so the cities are expanding, infrastructure has to develop, neighborhoods and streets need to be built. Don't forget your rural country cousins that now have electricity, they're in the process of getting water and sewage to every house. Times are great. Times are wonderful. Everybody is working and everybody is happy. We are coming into the "summer" of our content. 

Southern California is growing like a weed, the valleys of California have been turned from desert into the most prolific producers of food the world has ever seen. Highways are being built, along with hydroelectric dams, and now the common man can get credit. You see, everything is growing. Except the farm population, that is. But, no big deal. The farmers now 

have larger pieces of equipment, stronger credit, which means companies like John Deere can produce more jobs. The growth just never seems to stop. The whole world is trading in U.S. dollars. Europe is getting back on their feet. Japan has made some shifts from their Imperial based society to a more democratic based system. Japan is ready to take off on a financial venture that has never been seen or replicated since. But in the modern world, as of today, Japan's financial system is in serious dire straights. They are the fast track of what we are. Their economy will never survive.

But, back to the good Ole' U.S. of A. During all this time, we the happy Americans, are becoming a huge consumer based society. We now have more junk than we will ever need or use in our lives. We bought so much stuff from Japan that they had to outsource their work to the Philippines and then Malaysia. Japan can't produce enough, fast enough for our insatiable desire for consumerism.

Something we haven't talked about yet is that during and after World War II, we are the largest oil exporting nation on the planet. Imagine that. We were the largest oil exporting nation on the planet. It's not that our oil production abilities decreased, it's our oil consumption increased. Even though we're still producing huge amounts of oil, we have now become an oil importing nation. Most of that oil comes from various countries, but primarily Saudi Arabia. Things are still good, things are still happy, but we should start seeing a pattern here. It was about 1957 when we shifted from exporting to importing oil. As mentioned earlier, credit had opened

up for the common man, but things were still not growing fast enough. Our currency was based on the gold standard. The same gold that in 1933, President Roosevelt legally and conveniently stole from the American people. But, in a brilliant financial move, President Nixon removed us from the limitations of the gold standard, and the U.S. dollar was now free to grow as fast as it could. We're looking at the end of our summer season here.

Going off of the gold standard, with the unfettered dollar, the common man, through changes in banking policies, now could comfortably put that piece of plastic in his wallet. We are still a consumer nation. We need more, we need to feed that addiction toconsumerism. Madison Avenue has now

become experts at convincing us that we need more. Don't worry about it, you can pay for it later. Just put it on your credit card. But everything is still LOOKING good. We not only have one SUV in our driveway, we now have two! Suburbs are growing at a phenomenal rate. People are now escaping the cities, that 20 or so years ago, they were leaving the farm to move to. More expansion, more infrastructure, more roads, more electricity, water, and so forth. Don't forget, since 1945 up to the mid 60's we had a huge population growth in this country. Why not? Life is good, we are living in the lap of luxury, and we are the envy of the world. But there is a sickness brewing. We are addicted to consumerism. I want more. Everybody has two cars, and a big, cheap house out in the suburbs. Gasoline is cheap. I can drive anywhere I want to. I have earned that right. Debt just continues to build. 

I can remember in 1978 when economists said that the Dow Jones would never cross 1000. Well, obviously, they were wrong. That phenomena hasn't changed any. For the most part, economists are just talking heads. You see, we're starting to go downhill. Abortions are now legal. Marriage is starting it's decline. Man is rich, he doesn't need God anymore. We start to see financial bubbles coming up and collapsing. We get involved in the

Vietnam War. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution? Supposedly some of their little bitty boats fired on one of our ships, and Johnson agreed to escalate our involvement in Vietnam. Ten years later, about 79,000 of our soldiers are dead, and who knows how many of the Vietnamese we killed. We find out later that the Gulf of Tonkin never happened. It was a lie. Or as Hillary Clinton would say, somebody misspoke. It never happened. The Vietnam War tore our country apart. Some think that's when the rapid social decay of our nation started. Remember Hanoi Jane? To this day I don't understand why she is not in prison for treason. 79,000 young men and women died for some unknown reason. But we do know historically, that the Gulf of Tonkin never happened.

The military industrial complex made fortunes, and it did provide jobs in this country. The undertones from the Vietnam War left an indelible mark on society. During this time we saw the Civil Rights Amendment, which in theory was probably the right thing to do. But in application, it's the Civil Rights Amendment that is now allowing same sex marriage in our country. 

So, be careful what you wish for, because I expect pretty soon, we will see sisters marrying sisters and fathers marrying daughters. You see, it's their civil right to do so. We got the peace and love movement, the suburbs are still packed, society is decaying at a phenomenal rate. We have a couple of little crashes here and there in the financial sector. A lot of retired folks get their 401k wiped out. But, ironically, the first chance they get, they put their money back into another 401k, because they're going to make a fortune. Now everybody has three SUVs in their driveway. Ten year old girls are wearing $50.00 blue jeans that make their hips look curvy, not to mention their skin tight t-shirts, then people at church sit around and comment about how pretty they look. 

You see, ladies and gentlemen, we have entered the fall of our society. It's been a good ride. My grandfather got to leave the farm, and go to work for an aircraft plant building airplanes. At that time

women earned their place in the workforce, even though there is no one home to raise little Billy now. So we have a new industry pop up called daycare. Everybody after World War II has a good job, if they want one. Everybody works, and we are going to have growth forever. Well, anybody with a half a lick of sense knows that is impossible. Our infrastructure is now decaying. Water lines and sewer systems in every major city need to be completely replaced. That's never going to happen. Our electrical grid system is a fossil just waiting for a collapse. Our schools have become institutions of putrid vile. Our industrial base we have effectively crushed by sending our jobs to other countries. 

And I really hate to say this next item, but if you believe that our government is working for us, The People, then you are delusional. Our elected officials, for the most part, are the most corrupt group of people ever assembled. But most people don't care because things still appear

to be good. Look at the crime in our cities. Look at unemployment. Look at welfare. Turn on that great educator called the television and compare it to 50 years ago. If you can't see the progression of filth and trash, then you are taking way too many psychotropic drugs. Look at the way mother's dress their little girls. Listen to what comes out of little boys' mouths. If you are a decent individual, you are a minority. If a person tries to live a humble life and raise their own food, then they are labeled a terrorist. Can you imagine that? Our government has systematically managed to associate decency with terrorism. 

Let's review. We had a spring. It was a good time after a long-term bad time. We had a lengthy summer. Now we have crept into the fall. We are a mature nation, and some day we are going to

relinquish our world domination to some other country. This is a natural progression. Are we going to do this peacefully? History would say no, we're not. Is our government going to become more tyrannical? Absolutely. We had better learn to accept the fact that martial law is just around the corner, because if you believe that your life is private, then you're both delusional and taking psychotropic drugs. As usual, the future is not here yet. But it's coming. 

Let's take a look at some things that we do know and can forecast with some degree of certainty. Are our schools going to start teaching American values? Well, actually, they are teaching American values, because we have allowed them to teach trash and filth. So the schools are going to continue doing what they're doing. Is our obvious moral decay going to make a turn around? No, it's not. The answer to that one is obvious. Is our economy going to improve? Well, that depends on who you listen to. If you think rising unemployment is an improvement, if you think more people

being serviced by government social programs is an improvement, then yes, it's going to improve. It's been improving for years. Do you think our corrupt government is going to start telling the truth? I don't think that's possible, because if our politicians were to tell the absolute truth about what's coming in the future, then we would have anarchy in the streets. They can't tell the truth. But that doesn't mean that they are still not corrupt. And that is only going to worsen. What about our financial system? How are they going to continue to feed their need for more of our money? You can only tax so much. So why don't they just take our money? You say that will never happen? I would have never thought that a man would let an

airport agent feel up and fondle his wife while standing right beside her. But that happens everyday. They also do the same thing to his teenage boy and daughter, and that's okay too. Because remember, Roosevelt stole gold and silver from the people. If you don't think that our government will not take all of our savings, then you're not paying attention to history at all. All they have to do is issue you a debit card, or an EBT card, or whatever name they want to call it, and try to convince you that your money is now secure with them. 

Okay. So. Now we know a little bit about what to expect in the future. How are we going to get out of this conundrum? War. We've been at war for the

last 20 years. But I'm talking about big war. People fight different than they used to. A fellow sitting in front of a keyboard can shut down a plane in mid flight. I'm talking about a commercial jet liner here. They can shut down our banking system with the punch of a key. They can shut down our power grid with the punch of another key, and it can't be stopped. This next war is going to look a whole lot different than the last few wars. I'm not sure that some of those keys might not be punched by our own people. It wouldn't be the first time they've done it.

Folks, we're getting older, our time is expiring. Hold your grandkids, hug your spouse, keep your powder dry, for winter is at the threshold. It is inevitable.

We'll talk more later, Frank

Negative Interest is Here

Hi Everybody, Frank here.

A couple of days ago I ran across a news story that I thought was very interesting. It didn't make big news, I doubt if most people have heard of it, and it didn't seem like news to me either. Then later on, it was like one of those light bulbs went off. But it didn't go off in the usual way, it went off and gave me a kind of different look at something. I'm going to share with you a slightly different take or perspective about this Swiss bank story. It's going to have a lot of rambling, and it's going to appear to be a somewhat partial rant. But the more I thought about it, it became more and more clear as to what was really happening. You see the Swiss National Bank has started to sell ten year bonds at a negative interest rate. Well, I'm going to tell you all this stuff again, and if you can or choose to, please follow along and see if you can see the perspective that I took out of this article. I would appreciate your comments.

Switzerland is selling ten year bonds at negative interest, therefore, put your money with them and only lose a little bit, guaranteed. Or, put your money with someone else and lose a whole lot more. What this is telling me is that the world bond market is about to spiral downward. Bonds have always been considered to be a safe investment with a small return. But it appears that Switzerland is making this available at a good rate, because soon other competing markets are going to move into greater negative territory. Now, they're also doing this publicly as a hedge against a larger deflationary move. What this means, as I see it, is like I said earlier, the world financial markets are about to spiral downward out of control. This is an unprecedented move by the Swiss Bank. Obviously, this downward spiral has already started. It's not going to happen in one day, it'll take weeks, months, maybe. But when your ATM quits working, and your bank doors are locked, that $0.35 of spending cash you have in your pocket will be the last currency you see. 

I know people that buy everything on credit cards. Now I'm not talking about major purchases here, I'm talking about buying a burrito for breakfast, and it goes on a credit card. When they buy gasoline for their car, it goes on a credit card. When they do need cash, for some unforeseen reason, it comes straight out of the ATM. I know folks that go to the ATM multiple times a day. They carry zero cash. 

Folks need to be paying attention. Switzerland just sent a huge message world wide. You might want to get two or three dollars stored away, because when the EBT cards quit working, banks are closed, ATM's don't work, that means no more burritos, no more gasoline, no more psychotropic drugs from the pharmacy, no more cigarettes, and the list goes on and on. That burrito is not going to feed a family of four for very long. That $0.35 that you have in your pocket will not go very far. And if you do have a little cash stored up, buried out in a jar in your yard, you'd better spend it as fast as you can, because within a day or two after the ATM's shut down, cash will be worthless. 

We've talked for a long time now about what's coming. It may take a few more weeks, months or even years, but the move by the Swiss bank is a first time event. Think about it. They are offering you the deal of a lifetime. Put your money in one of the world's most stable banking systems, pay to put your money into this bond program, so they can help preserve your wealth. Any other system where you put your money is going to charge a greater loss. That's hard to conceive, isn't it? 

You've heard of Austrian economics, right? Where growth goes on perpetually? And debt is good? Well, these folks are some of the same folks, the Swiss that is, that helped develop the Austrian economic system. Their negative interest ten year bond tells us that growth is not perpetual, and that the Austrian economic system has flaws. Just like our system has flaws. Perpetual growth is impossible. It has been known to be impossible since the beginning of our economic system's development. Blame it on

the Federal Reserve, blame it on coming off of the gold standard, or you can blame it on us being the reserve currency. And you can throw in the petrodollar if you need something to blame. Any one of the afore mentioned failures will collapse the system. Everyone of those mentioned is in the process of collapsing. Perpetual growth is unsustainable. Pick anything you want to blame, and we are well past the point of being there. Every world economy is in a downturn, that's why the Swiss did what they did. They're discouraging investors from leaving faltering economic systems and rushing to their known stable banking practices. But, investors are still hurrying to buy negative interest Swiss bonds. I don't care what the news media is telling the general public, the economic systems of the world are imploding, including China, and the Euro, and the U.S. dollar. World growth is grinding to a halt.

What does this mean to you and I? It means that taxes are going to continue to rise. There is going to be more government intervention in every aspect of our lives. Ultimately, the government will reinvest your 401k, and they will do this for your own good, of

course. These are the types things are going to occur. We will probably go to a cashless society, because we all know that hoarding is bad and wrong. Try going down to the bank and withdrawing $5000.00 in cash. Even if you call ahead, a couple of days even, you will have to explain to the bank teller why you need the money, and you will have to fill out a federal form that you received that much money. This is nothing new, because if you want to buy, let's say loose diamonds, or you ran across a great sale on someone's antique silver coin collection, and this person wants cash. You're going to have to explain why you want that money. 

Don't forget that in 1933, I believe, the Roosevelt administration confiscated all gold and silver from the rightful owners in the United States of America. But first they artificially lowered the cost of gold and silver, so they could steal it from the American public at a lower cost, then re-inflate the value, after they had confiscated everyone's wealth. If you chose not to participate in this redistribution of wealth program, you were then an immediate felon. If you don't think that they won't confiscate your 401k, and then pay you pittance on the dollar, then you do not believe the old saying about history repeating itself. They did it in 1933, and do not kid yourself, that the greedy politicians will not confiscate your wealth, in whatever form it is, to keep their blasphemous, never ending, spending orgy alive for a few more days. 

So you might want to consider having a little cash in hand. When that ATM, as mentioned before, quits working, and your credit card quits working, you might want to have a little bit of cash in your

pocket so you can buy food for your family. If you don't have cash, your family is going to starve to death. It will be too late to order food storage over the internet, it will be too late to go to the big box store and buy a few weeks worth of canned foods, and it will be too late to buy all of those seeds that you were going to plant. What it boils down to is that it will be too late. What I have read is that the average family has less than a three day supply of food in their house.

Now most folks that read this already know everything I've just said. But it's nice to have a little reminder every now and then. Today your credit cards still work. The ATM's still have a little cash in them. The big box stores are still open, or they were as of this writing. But then, there is always the guy 

that says, I don't have any extra money to buy things, while he's standing there sucking down a 44 oz. Slurpee, talking on his newest and most advanced smart phone, talking to his kid that is in the backseat of his overpriced SUV, and the kids is on his newest most advanced smart phone. The kid is in the backseat and the guy is in the front seat, and this is the only way they know how to communicate. Get the picture here? Way too many useless gadgets in an immediate gratification society. But they don't have time to stock up on something as useless and trivial as maybe a couple of bottles of water and some canned food. 

This is where we are. This is not what is coming. But this is what is here. The Swiss banks just sent out a loud call to everyone on the planet, and I doubt very seriously if any of the major networks carried the story on their evening news. Just one more announcement. Dark clouds are on the horizon. They are getting closer everyday. And that Bozo I just described with the newest, most up-to-date cell phone? He's going to be coming to your house and wanting your food. Because he is still a father and he will do what is necessary to feed his family. More food for thought. 

Well folks it's time to go. We're going to go milk our goats, and pet our new babies a little bit because they are our next generation. Tomorrow we're going to make cheese again.

We'll talk more later, Frank