The Urban Survivalist

With everything that's going on in the world and in the economy this is probably the worst time to start getting quiet. I have tried to make a few posts but they all end up being rants. I don't want the blog to devolve into that. My baby is also getting to that age where she's a lot of fun to play with so I've been devoting most of my free time to her. Don't forget that there are three years worth of posts in the backlog and there's a search box in the sidebar in case you're looking for something specific. Maybe I've covered it already. I'm sure that I'll get in the mood for regular posts again soon. For now, though, I'm just kind of taking a break. I just didn't want you guys thinking that I abandoned the blog or something.

So you've started buying gold. You know how to identify the gold content in pieces of jewelry by the stamps and the weight. Sometimes you run into broken pieces of jewelry. Some pieces don't even have a stamp but the owner swears that they're real. Maybe you're trying to buy a coin that you're not sure about. So what do you do to make sure that you know what you're buying? Never fear. There's a very inexpensive solution. Just get a gold acid test kit. You can get them from Amazon or Ebay for around $30-$40. So what do you get? There are a lot of different varieties of kits that you can get. The kits generally consist of several bottles of acid and an acid test stone. Some kits will also include a digital scale and/or a jeweler's loop (which can be a great value if you don't have either). Some also come with extra acids. You can get acids to test silver, platinum, 10k, 14k, 18k and 22k gold. The cheapest kits come with 10k, 14k and 18...

There are a lot of sources for gold jewelry. Jewelry stores are the last place that you want to look. Even at the "80% off blowout sales" you can expect to pay a hefty premium over spot. There are plenty of other great places to buy gold, though. Department stores like Wal-Mart and K-Mart are probably the easiest places to find cheap gold at close to spot. Just look for the clearance items. You can usually find some really small baubles for $15-$100 in 10k and 14k. You can bring a scale but a lot of times the tag will have the weight on it in grams. I've found several pieces for 10% under spot on the clearance rack. Keep in mind that most of the bigger pieces are hollow so they're lightweight and fragile. This is actually a benefit in my eyes since it's a lot cheaper that way. Department stores are the cheapest source for gold that you know is real without having to test it. Pawn shops are another option. Most of them will mark down substantially a...

My posts have been getting less and less frequent lately. I apologize for that. Sometimes I just get busy with other things and the blog takes a back seat. Over the last month or so of slow posting I've had a lot of ideas come to mind so the posting should start to pick up a bit. Anyway, I've finally reached my initial goals that I had set for my silver collection. I actually exceeded it by a decent amount. Having done that I decided that it was time to start getting into gold. Unfortunately, gold is expensive. I built up my silver collection over several months by spending maybe $50-$100 per month. Gold coins and bullion, however, carry a hefty premium if you buy it in small fractional coins. It only took a couple of times buying 1/10th oz gold eagles before I decided to come up with a different solution. Then I remembered Ferfal talking a few times about how he wished that he'd bought more jewelry before the crash in Argentina. He's mentioned this in sev...

If you haven't seen this yet it's worth a look. There's a documentary on youtube (embedding disabled by request so you have to click to watch) that highlights a small community in New Mexico. Here's the trailer. The community is off the grid. Everyone lives in trailers, shanty shacks and other buildings that they manage to hobble together. There seem to be a lot of vets, old hippies and crazy people in the community. Then there's the little group of runaways who think that the rules don't apply to them. The only real government are the "elders". Everyone has a say but ultimately the elders make the decisions. Resources are limited. They have to haul their water from miles away. It's interesting to see how they interact. This particular community probably wouldn't last in a grid down, supply lines cut, SHTF scenario. Once the gas dries up they wouldn't be able to haul water, anymore. They also can't produce enough of...

This weekend Harbor Freight is having a parking lot sale. Their 2 stroke 800w generators are on sale for $79.99. If your local store is compliant then you could also get another 20% off . There's a very long review thread on Arfcom that contains just about everything you need to know about this generator. The general consensus is that it's a hell of a deal, very durable and works as advertised. This little guy isn't going to run your whole house but if you use it wisely it will make a disaster a whole lot more comfortable. It will keep the lights on and it's a good solution to keep a battery bank charged. For basic stuff it's a whole lot better than nothing...especially for $80 (less if they honor the coupon). I'm not affiliated with Harbor Freight. I just know a good deal when I see one. If you don't own a generator and a genset that can run your whole house is out of your price range then consider grabbing something like this.

So what do you get when you let an MMA fighter write a book about how to survive the apocalypse? When said fighter is Forrest Griffin you get " Be Ready When the Sh*t Goes Down: A Survival Guide to the Apocalypse ". What can I say? The guy is a character. If you know anything about him then you probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect from this book. He's got his own brand of self deprecating humor. He's also extremely offensive and it's pretty obvious that he doesn't care who he pisses off. The fact that I found this book in the comedy section of Barnes & Noble should give you a good idea of what to expect. Before you pick up this book you've got to understand what I mean by "offensive". The book is loaded with sexual innuendo and toilet humor. He swears a lot (he even makes a point to use a different swear word for every letter of the alphabet). He pulls no punches against organized religion. In fact, he devotes an e...