It's in

The bottom.  It's in, it's confirmed.  I guess that was an impossible call.  Silver up big, then down big.  Just to spite those Max Keiserites.  Why did it stop at 28.50?  Actually the why doesn't matter.  What matters is it did.  28.50 is the new normal.  Buy buy buy. 

The wheels are coming off.  They're wobbling off right the fuck now.  Why aren't you buying yet?

Once you pop, you can't stop

So, less than two months ago I got all excited about a $14 swing in gold.  How quaint.  Today gold punched through $1400, and silver has been on a tear, breaking $27 today.  After my last post I thought long and hard... could I recommend for anyone to actually sink their hard earned money into gold, or silver, at such high prices?  I came to conclude no, I could not.  The memory of the fall of 2008 was hot on my mind.  I remember the euphoria of silver at $20, and people saying it was just a pullback, that it was just consolidating, as it dropped all the way down to the $9's.  I thought (and still am not 100% convinced they don't) that the manipulators still had at least one more crushing blow in store for metals.  I was thinking that the third time would be the charm, that we would get one more massive price drop, and buying opportunity.  Well, as of today, I'm really starting to think there may be no third time.  This might be the new normal, the end of the manipulation, and the beginning of the end of fiat currency.  The USDX is up, along with Gold and Silver.  Extremely bullish (well, for metals at least).  Last week ZeroHedge had an article discussing strong resistance at $25.50 in silver.  That ceiling held for one day.  The next day it blew through $25...and $26.  Today $27.  $30 by the end of this week?  I don't know what to think anymore.  All of my prognostications turn out to be wrong, always, lol.  Am I right this time?  Is this IT, really??  I don't know.  What I do know is, I don't want to be looking at $60 silver and $3000 gold next year at this time saying coulda shoulda woulda.  And if the numbers are $10 and $1000, well, that's just a chance to lower your cost average then  :)  Good luck.

The value of these metals remains *fairly* stable, but their prices increase as the only trick that central banks can, will and do pull, is to run the printing presses to infinity and beyond.  I am convinced they will do this until it all falls apart, because it DOES buy time, vs. instant deflationary black hole otherwise.  But in the end the debt based currency system must crumble, and we are witnessing it.  Oh, and if anyone says Gold, or Silver is a bubble...  it's debt, it's fiat which is in the throes of it's last bubble, not metal.   Buy now, buy regularly, buy frequently until you can't anymore.  I am.  If nothing else it's a middle finger to our irrevocably broken and fraud filled paper financial system.  Take your ball and go home.

Hahaha

$14 spike in minutes, setting another new intraday record.  "She cannah take much more cap'n!  She's coming apart!"

Get some while it's still affordable.


EDIT:  Sorry I pulled the trigger a minute too soon; ANOTHER intraday record set lol!

A Thought on Debt and Petroleum

Interestingly enough, from many mainstream sources we are hearing a rallying cry for the US government to cut the deficit.  We are hearing "it's not fair, it is not right, to leave these debts to - to steal from - our grandchildren."  And it makes sense, what does give us the right to rack up these huge public debts and saddle future generations with their burden?   I suppose it arises from a sense of entitlement.  Plus, it's just the way things are done... the way things have always been done. 

Also interestingly, nobody (aside from a Saudi King, whom I believe was being disingenuous and just trying to cover his ass because SA has peaked while painting himself as enlightened and benevolent) is saying stop exploring for oil.  Yes, we are hearing calls to conserve, but we are not hearing calls for a full stop to save some of the precious juice for future generations.

So, most agree that it's not right to leave massive debt for future generations to worry about, yet essentially nobody says it's not right to burn up all the oil we want right this minute.  Why not?

I'm not being flippant here.  I imagine an average Joe reading the above sentence and getting a little bit ticked off at me, due to feelings of  "don't be stupid, it's common sense."  

But here's the rub: money and oil are both resources.  Money is a man-made resource, and oil is a natural resource.  Oil is finite, and money (at least in theory) can be infinite.  Yet here we are, worried about saving some money for future humans, but to hell with oil.  Sense; this makes none. 

Technology!  That is what I am forgetting!  Add some sweet, delicious technology into the above equation and suddenly everything comes up aces, right? 

This mantra of technology as savior has become an ingrained, unquestioned part of our culture.  Common sense says technology is awesome, and does so many great things, and any day now a fantastic breakthrough will occur rendering the need for petroleum moot.  That's why it's silly to save any for the future, they won't need it by then, duhh!

Following that train of thought, a similar thing will happen with our current concept of money.  There will be a technological advancement somewhere along the line rendering money itself, and the debt that it represents obsolete.  We will leave our money in the dust, just as we leave our dependence on oil in the dust.  

Well, if you find the above absurd, it's every bit as absurd to think that technology will find a replacement for oil.   As best as I can tell, technology causes more problems than it solves.  Our monetary system is in the process of laying bare all of its' inherent flaws and getting ready to implode, and our issues with oil have been laid bare in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Heh, I have run out of gas for this thought experiment.  I was just trying to poke some fun, and holes, into the logic behind some unquestioned pillars of our insane culture.  This is why we are doomed, and this is why you must put some effort into preparation.  Our culture is going to get really wacky when it really starts literally running out of gas.  That day is fast approaching.  Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.  Best of luck. 

Oh really

So, reports are coming in that the tarballs showing up in NE Florida aren't from Macondo.  To that I say:

Edited to ad:  there is a report out that two scientists on some board are saying Corexit is safe.



And all I hear is this:

Updated garden pics

They're starting to take off now!

It's true...carrots love tomatoes...

Now, here is something interesting... the tomatoes in the back (closest to the camera) are called "Red grape" that I got from Victory seeds.  It said on the packet "do not direct seed."  Well, I direct seeded them, about 4 weeks behind starting the others indoors...and now look, they're as big, if not bigger than the rest...hmmm....

Potatoes to the left, yard long beans to the right (c'mon and grow you dirty dawgs!)

Finally!  They're hereeeee....

The Pennsylvania Red Leaf tobacco is totally kicking ass...

The okra (Clemson Spineless) is doing great in the beds...but not so well in the smart pots...which is cute, because they advertise (of course) that they're better than raised beds.  To be clear, the okra in the pot closest to the camera was planted the same day as the stuff in the beds.  Good to know.

Now to be fair, it looks likes my pumpkins are coming along just fine...  and it's intersting to note that, from left to right we have some hybrid plant that is supposed to produce gigantic fruits, the one in the middle is supposed to be standard Jack O'lantern size, and the one on the right is a smaller variety, some sugar type pumpkin for cooking. 

The oil is rounding third and heading for home!

Yesterday tar balls arrived in Crescent City Florida.



Remember this?




Looking pretty accurate.  Oil in Richmond, VA in a week or so anybody??

I hope people are paying attention to this, and acting...  it's going to get real ugly.

Watch 'em

Yeah I know I have a motivational pics page

But I actually did these up myself, and kinda like 'em, even if they are totally nooby.

I pickle they

Check out my beets!  More specifically Chioggia beets, tonight I will pickle they with some eggs. 

Garden progress

So, here are a few pics of how things are coming.  I'm not happy with most of these pics, so more will come later!


Here's the finished raised beds:

Tomatoes:  Green Zebra, Great White, Plum Yellow, Red Grape, and Moneymaker.

Above you can also see the pepper plants (forget what kind lol)  Danvers half long carrots, Marigolds, and I think I have Tendercrisp celery in there too...


This bed is still sprouting, but the Chioggia beets are doing well, picked one today but it was still pretty small, the broccoli/cauliflower behind it is doing ok...

The Pennsylvania Red Leaf tobacco is doing really well....the radishes in front look...uhm, weird??  I guess that's what it means when a plant bolts to seed....

Here's my modified three sisters garden...  I've got Stowell's Evergreen (white) corn, Broad Windsor Fava beans, Royalty Purple Pod beans, Contender,  Golden Wax, Kentucky Wonder pole beans, and McCaslan pole beans...Gray Zuchinni, White Scallop squash, Crookneck squash, Delikatesse cukes, Lemon cukes, White Wonder cukes, Snow's Fancy pickling cukes, Little Marvel peas, Sugar Snap peas, Sugar Ann snow peas, Casper eggplant, Rotunda Bianca eggplant, Long Purple eggplant, Diamond eggplant, Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon, Charentais melon, Honey Rock melon, and a type of orange watermelon...phew!!!  So, kinda crappy looking now, but I'm hoping in another month this thing will look awesome.

 What I'm trying to accomplish here, is to have the veggies so densely packed, I don't have to do much weeding...I'm leaving the clover (heard that it works well as a live ground cover) so we'll see how well it works out...

And my fairly pathetic looking trees....I'm hoping these guys start perking up...the peach tree is looking the best so far...

This also speaks for itself

This is a must watch video

This speaks for itself

Do not believe the propaganda

Do yourself a favor and throw your tv in the garbage.  At least sell it to some sucker on craigslist.

This might be "it"

I'm sure you've all heard or read at least a little bit of the ongoing oil spill disaster in the gulf of Mexico.  What you probably haven't heard is that this might very well be "it."

This might be the incident that kicks us from our current slow collapse trajectory into a fast collapse scenario.

Somewhere on this blog I stated that I've made two "doom" predictions which never came to fruition, and that I wouldn't do that ever again.  And I won't now.  What I will do is issue a strong warning:  this might be it, so you should really get your ass in gear.

So let's think about this for a moment:

The first spill rate estimations were 1000 gallons a day.  (Even me, and my doom loving ways, didn't pay much attention to this story for the first few days).

Then it went to 1000 barrels a day (42,000 gallons).

For a few days they were saying about 5,000 barrels a day.

Now I just read the actual rate is closer to 25,000 barrels a day - and the "whisper number" is 100,000 BARRELS a day.

Uhhh, are you seeing the pattern here??  This has been going on for ten days so far.  Apparently if it goes truly worst case scenario this formation could dump as much as 163,000 barrels of oil per day into the gulf until the reservoir is empty, and no one knows exactly how much oil is in there!  

My gut feeling is that the gulf of Mexico is done for if the flow isn't stopped within a week.  The area is already in a world of hurt if the flow stops right now.

So, how is our national economy as fragile as it is, supposed to deal with several states economies being absolutely ruined?

Have you pondered the upcoming hurricane season?  Just imagine what destruction that could cause.  I wonder how far inland it would be raining petroleum?  I wonder how effective a defoliant petroleum is?  I wonder how poisonous it would be to people and (food) animals alike?

What if this thing doesn't stop until it runs dry?

What happens to the environment/weather if this makes its way up the east coast and/or out into the Atlantic?
What happens to the national economy in THAT case?

Already there is talk about the gulf coast refineries having to shut down.  I wonder how expensive gasoline would get if that happens?  I wonder just how quickly the shortages would hit?  Do you think our economy can absorb $4/gal gas again?  What about 5/6/7/8/9 dollars a gallon?

I have more questions than answers here folks, but please pay close attention to this one, and please start start prepping in earnest.  This one might be beyond human capabilities to contain, and the only answer I have to that situation is "you better have some preps."

Good luck.

Raised beds done

Finally done.  Now to put some flagstones in the middle for a finishing touch. 

Yardwork-in-progress

Hard to believe only two months ago the yard looked like this:

 Now here is the same section of the yard after I pulled out just a couple little shrubs:

Getting there:

Lookin' good:

Early bird gets the worm:

So, how many rocks and bricks were hidden in there?  I made this:

And last but certainly not last....my rock pile!

Still to come, the raised beds.  Stay tuned!

Abandon hope all ye merry motorists

Apparently some people still think the economy is actually improving, that the recession has actually ended.  It has not, the collapse is in full swing.  I think part of the non-seeing issue is folks not looking at the big picture.  It is difficult to take the time and step back from the myriad of little problems that harass all of us and really look at where we are, and how we got here.

So let's take a step back and say that petroleum IS our economy.  It is the alpha and omega.  It is the backbone which supports everything else.  That backbone is weakening.   Our economy is predicated on growth.  Growth needs energy.  Without a growing energy supply, the backbone atrophies and weakens. 

Ok, so you see the issue illustrated in these three charts?  In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina crude oil hit a record high of $75 a barrel.  When oil hit $147 a barrel three years later, production barely nudged upward.  At these prices producers want to crank out as much as they can. They can't crank it up anymore.  This IS the bumpy plateau of peak oil.  We are on it right now.

So guess what?  Like so many other things, The Powers That Be decided to try to paper over these issues, leading to charts like this:

Unfortunately we have now reached this point:

Lending, borrowing, throwing money at the problem is literally like adding fuel to a fire at this point.  See what it's doing to the banking industry?

What this means is that, since we are running out of energy, they have tried to pump our economy by throwing money at it.  They have always done this, but now it just won't work anymore.  People are resistant to change, and so, for now, a veneer of Business-as-Usual remains, but make no mistake, our economy, our way of life, everything really...is now a zombie.  It's dead, it just doesn't know it, yet.

Now for a discussion of these very issues, here are two of my favorite people.












I have been pondering why I'm even bothering with my goofy little blog.  A large part of it has to do with my "guilt issues."  I can see the inevitable collapse coming full steam ahead, and I don't know why so many cannot.  But, I will try, in my own way, to help others to see it while there is still time to prepare for it.  That way, when the shit hits the fan and most of the people I know are saying "I can't believe it, how could this happen, why didn't anybody warn us?"  I'll be able to say I tried.  I made a fucking blog to show you what's coming, and what you should be doing.  What more could you want from me?  This blog is basically an exercise to avoid future guilt that I anticipate having.  Don't show up on my doorstep looking for a handout, you won't get it, and I won't feel (terribly) sorry/guilty about turning you away.  The time to get busy is right now.  Good luck.