How are you preparing for the future?

I mean the likely consequences of the bailouts/"stimuli".

I'm just getting into buying precious metals to hopefully protect me from hyperinflation. One can make money in this volatile market, but I'm either unlucky, not that good, or both. I expect bullets to hold their value pretty well to.

Where and how do you buy precious metals without being taken for a ride? My son and I used to collect coins. The U.S. Mint would sell gold coins for the current price at the time of issue. Coin dealers are a rip off. They make used car salesmen look like Mother Theresa. I remember when I was a journalist in New York covering the United Nations some of my friends kept their investments in diamonds, even carried them with them, but they said unless a person is an expert in grading diamonds, it is easy to get cheated. Most people don't have a clue where to buy precious metals or what to pay for them, or know when they are getting cheated.

We decided to buy a farm so we could grow stuff in case of emergency. We have a large 50x150' organic garden, a 4x16' raised bed and several 3x3' raised beds and about 25 or so "self-watering planters" from various sources... www.aGardenPatch.com and www.gardeners.com and www.growbox.com These things really work well, just as they advertise. I've grown everything in them, tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, brocoli, lettuce, cabbages, collards, even corn, flowers. Look at the pictures in their ads... that's exactly how they grow stuff. They're wonderful. I have some friends in Eastern Washington who have a beautiful home but couldn't grown anything because of the deer eating everything. I suggested putting grow boxes on their second floor big southern facing deck. She was very reluctant because she didn't think they would work. I showed them mine. I had about 6 or 8 at that time where I grew tomatoes. I was surprised later when she brought me some beautiful cucumbers. She said she had taken my advice and bought five of them and put them on her deck. She had tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuces, all sorts of stuff. She was so happy.

In a big emergency hopefully our family can come to Missouri. We have a big three story home. We just had the attic drywalled and it's beautiful. The younger folks can go back and work the big garden. I may dig it up this year just to keep the weeds down, but even though I've had the water fixes, there is still no water back there. Before I ran a 200' or so hose. It comes from the pump and unfortunately doesn't have enough water pressure to adequately opperate the water squerters. I ran a water pipe to the orchard first year when I planted a couple dozen apple and few plum trees and I planned to put in drip irrigation. I've bought most of the stuff, just never got around to it.

Our problem is I just can't do a lot by myself. I can barely walk the way it is. My wife is 77. We have to hire people to do everything. Last year we even hired someone to mow because my wife had to have her hip replaced and I had diabetes and caught pneumonia twice. My wife (me, too) want to travel again this summer. We couldn't go anywhere last year... we made a couple of short trips to visit relaltives in Tennessee. She likes cruises. I like to drive.

I ordered from apmex.com. You can figure up the price per ounce on your own to compare to the current market to be sure you're not paying way over the value. I'm not a coin collector, so the cheapest format is fine with me. I bought a 10gram bar of gold that worked out to be cheaper than the current market price at the time. The silver coins I bought were $1.50 above spot value. The stamping and reselling do cost a little. Unless you want to pay out the rear for fancy coins, I'd just get the plain stuff and do the math to be sure you're getting a good deal.

I just bought a bunch of seeds. My yard isn't huge, and I have a dog, so I may look into those containers you mentioned. Is there anything that grows during the winter?

Have you tried these? http://www.gardeners.com/Self-Watering-Trough-Planters/VegetablePlanters_Cat,18424,default,cp.html
Some people complain about them filling with rain water, but I can drill holes. The grow box costs twice as much. It has less than double the surface area, but more than twice the volume. I know surface area determines how many of something you can plant, but how much depth is necessary for things like beans, spinach, broccoli, etc. This would be for practical use, so I don't care so much about little peppers and things like that or corn that doesn't provide much nutrients.

how's the green acres project going?

CloudStrife wrote:I ordered from apmex.com. You can figure up the price per ounce on your own to compare to the current market to be sure you're not paying way over the value. I'm not a coin collector, so the cheapest format is fine with me. I bought a 10gram bar of gold that worked out to be cheaper than the current market price at the time. The silver coins I bought were $1.50 above spot value. The stamping and reselling do cost a little. Unless you want to pay out the rear for fancy coins, I'd just get the plain stuff and do the math to be sure you're getting a good deal.

I just bought a bunch of seeds. My yard isn't huge, and I have a dog, so I may look into those containers you mentioned. Is there anything that grows during the winter?

I also bought a few seeds and will plant on some land I have on the river. I can set up a simple irrigation system straight from the river for watering...

CloudStrife wrote:I mean the likely consequences of the bailouts/"stimuli".

I'm just getting into buying precious metals to hopefully protect me from hyperinflation.

So how did you do with that hyperinflation?

Like a gun, I'd rather have one and not need it, then need it and not have it.

Does not hurt to prepare for the worst.

Prayer