i JUST MADE A BUDGET! (kountry living!)

[neilgin1]

doesn't seem like the gummit can, but I made mine...and i'll tell ya, its a good thing to do.

i'm enforcing an austerity fiscal policy, and there's an upside and a downside.

the downside is this, excepting ONE THING i'm bidding on, for the rest of 2013, I can make no more Ag purchases for FY 2013.

the upside is debt to income will go down significantly AND the "NCB" (neils central bank) will be stacking 24 $100 face value boxes of nickels, which though not a PM per se, IS solid HARD currency...cant go wrong with that.

if these guys cant clean up their (our?) budget mess...doesn't mean I cant clean up mine.

[Hawkeye]

Good idea. I have a vague budget, but I need to sit down and officially tighten the belt. I know that way too much money just slips through my fingers.

[agmoose]

Good idea. I have a vague budget, but I need to sit down and officially tighten the belt. I know that way too much money just slips through my fingers.

Www.enemyofdebt.com

[beauanderos]

Budget phoooey! If I made a budget I'd never be able to make myself commit to buying more silver and gold!

[neilgin1]

Budget phoooey! If I made a budget I'd never be able to make myself commit to buying more silver and gold!

I know, I know, I know!!!...why you think I got to get real about this?...I got a good stack, you know that....but if I cant hold onto it!...I might as well just piss into the wind.

PLUS..i REALLY want to buy a greenhouse, its not a LOT of money...but...AND I GOT to get somebody in here to bid the re-chinking of the log walls, and that HAS to be DONE before next winter...these winters can get intense......25 below with a 30 knot wind?.....it all takes money, you know that....and i'm selling a fricking GRAM of Ag, if I don't have to.

[barrytrot]

Zero new bullion purchases? Not even "quality rolls"? I say that you revamp the budget to be able to get 1 per month. Compromise is better than lock down. Your soul needs a budget too you know and a nice "dream roll" is goo for the soul!

[blackrabbit]

While a greenhouse and solid walls should be your priority, if silver drops much more it might be hard to resist the opportunity.

[mflugher]

can always search a few boxes of halves a month so that you stack grows a little...

Also u can always reinvest the nickels if the AG price gets too good...

[neilgin1]

Zero new bullion purchases? Not even "quality rolls"? I say that you revamp the budget to be able to get 1 per month. Compromise is better than lock down. Your soul needs a budget too you know and a nice "dream roll" is goo for the soul!

Barry, I know....but I GOT TO get those 18 "bricks" of nickels, and I think I got 7 already....that's $2500, that's the "Cyprus---bank holiday, Atms no workee"..account...that's two bricks a month, I already got the deal in motion at the credit union...that's the beauty about credit unions in a rural environment....its a whole different culture than tbtf "banks", where nobody cares....anyway, I put all Ag purchases on cards...BECAUSE I don't want paypal having my main account, plus if I ever get ganked in AG dealings ,I can do a charge back. But I stick with the same Ebay dealers,and i'm very very careful...I gotta pay those balances down...AND have 25 bricks of nicks...plus we just got a deal today, when a widow sold us hubbys herd of 60 sheep for $20 a head, and I had bought ALL the posts and fencing for the new pasture here.....that's a LOT of money,least it is to me.

I saw what my bru, Black Rabbit wrote....and yeh!!! if we could see, rolls of ASES between 360 to 450?...and hi quality rolls of 90's at 15times face?...oh heck yeh....but think about it...rolls of ASES in the 360 to 450 range?....with the numbers they been selling every succeeding month?....those prices....360-450 and 15 times face...I had bought a LOT, we gonna see those prices again?...and then I just continued, following the market up, but less. because I have "x" amount of frn's every month. Outside of farm equipment, books and airplane tickets for my boy...the only other thing I buy is Ag, and for this second, i'm sitting good...and also LT storage food items...oh oh, guess that profiles me...yeh, i'm a dangerous guy....buying 10 pound bags of Krusteaz pancake flour, and STORING them in...PLASTIC AIRTIGHT CONTAINERS!!!

HE's A MENACE!!! HIS IDENTIDY MUST BE CATALOGUED!!!!....buying pancake flour and precious metals...off to a FEMA "re-education " camp you must go!!!!!!

suck my Johnson, you motherfathers!!! (not you guys...the screwheads) lol!

[neilgin1]

can always search a few boxes of halves a month so that you stack grows a little...

Also u can always reinvest the nickels if the AG price gets too good...

that would be good, but its so rural, I don't have the dump banks...and the bricks, I just save...i'm so crazy, I save EVERYTHING, coffee cans, wide mouth food bottles, pill vials, paper bags, all neatly warshed and stored in sheds...I even save old motor oil...what can I say? I was raised by a Depression-era woman!...I been expecting this my whole life. I listen to the radio AS ENTERTAINMENT, and long wistfully for the Return of Ike to save us from either the pencil neck hippy geeks, now turned Beltway power brokers..or the other side, Mothers With Crazy Eyes, like Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin...and their media hubbys like Bill Reilly and Glenn Beck....ah, they're all so fricking spooky, from the legions of Obama-ites, all the way to the other side of aisle, the legions of vitamin D deficient white guys like Lindsey Graham and John McCain.

the only hope left is that the Rand Paul/Ted Cruz faction gets some real traction....but after yesterdays sad savage spectacle?....i'm very very pessismistic.

[Treetop]

plus we just got a deal today, when a widow sold us hubbys herd of 60 sheep for $20 a head, and I had bought ALL the posts and fencing for the new pasture here.....that's a LOT of money,least it is to me.

Im adjusting into the same mentality here neil. Cutting the fat so we can get everything paid off faster. We have a ways to go, but lots better then we were.

That is a great price on sheep! Any idea what kind? I dont know much about sheep, Im into goats which are easier to feed in my area. We have grasses here, but not at the levels you need for sheep or cattle unless you have tons of land. I was able to get enough posts just from my trees, but fencing sure aint cheap. Im going to try expanding only with my trees after having sunk over 1k into the metal fencing that will outlast me. Ive been digging into the old methods for that, lots to think about and cover befor eI really start trying it out and seeing how well it works with the goats.

[Country]

I know, I know, I know!!!...why you think I got to get real about this?...I got a good stack, you know that....but if I cant hold onto it!...I might as well just piss into the wind.

Words of wisdom here. Debt is slavery! CASH flow pays the bills...

[johnbrickner]

Neil:

I see your budget and I think it's fine. Chink the walls and stack the nick bricks. Put up the green house and the only thing I would add is start turning your yard (not already in pasutre) and "extra" land into a permaculture oasis designed around yours and your animals' food/energy/water needs. The nice thing about turning the land is it can be done long-term, strategically budgeted, over time.

The feeling of being debt free cannot be expressed in words. When you achieve this goal, you will look back and "know" it was worth the self-discipline, and any sacrifice required.

[neilgin1]

plus we just got a deal today, when a widow sold us hubbys herd of 60 sheep for $20 a head, and I had bought ALL the posts and fencing for the new pasture here.....that's a LOT of money,least it is to me.

Im adjusting into the same mentality here neil. Cutting the fat so we can get everything paid off faster. We have a ways to go, but lots better then we were.

That is a great price on sheep! Any idea what kind? I dont know much about sheep, Im into goats which are easier to feed in my area. We have grasses here, but not at the levels you need for sheep or cattle unless you have tons of land. I was able to get enough posts just from my trees, but fencing sure aint cheap. Im going to try expanding only with my trees after having sunk over 1k into the metal fencing that will outlast me. Ive been digging into the old methods for that, lots to think about and cover befor eI really start trying it out and seeing how well it works with the goats.

suffolks fpr sure....a mixture, its a complete herd, rams and ewes....it was the herd of this older hippy type. God rest, a real iconoclast from what I heard, no shoes, organic this, organic that.... my buds Frog and Frankie, sniffed this out and under instruction, just bought the whole lot....believe it or not, Sunday 21 April, we are having one heckuva blizzard right now. so work on the sheepfold stops, got two inches on the ground right now...I LOVE IT......I bought all the wooden posts, and tee posts, the woven wire, etc....I got three separate paddocks set...its the middle one we do first...this year, coz its gonna be OJT as far as sheep culture goes....we've never raised sheep before....and with this snow. not one inch of grass is up....so we got to throw in a round bail or TWO maybe, along with some cracked corn...the boys are going to flip a few head to the Amish, and make some of the front money back....i'm just going to keep 4-6 to start....Frog keeps livestock as pets, so we're going to park two rams over at his place.....and figure out which ewes we want to breed...for next year.

[mflugher]

Just FYI sheep are very hard to fence my buddy who owns some gas stations and runs a halfassed farm had about 20 sheep and they were rarely in their pasture. However they never seemed to run too far off.

Just a suggestion that you spend a little extra time researching fencing for the sheep before you just jump into building a run of the mill fence. You might find yourself rebuilding the fence if not.

[Treetop]

Just FYI sheep are very hard to fence my buddy who owns some gas stations and runs a halfassed farm had about 20 sheep and they were rarely in their pasture. However they never seemed to run too far off.

Just a suggestion that you spend a little extra time researching fencing for the sheep before you just jump into building a run of the mill fence. You might find yourself rebuilding the fence if not.

I cant speak for sheep, but this is certainly true with goats. Ive seen a cow walk backwards through a fence as if it wasnt there to avoid me, then remain inside the same fence once it was put back, until its last day. Goats sure arent like that. Dont know about sheep.

So neil, are you getting into the whole deal and shearing them? or hiring it out? My understanding it you HAVE to shear them?

Also I saw you say this in another thread...

and some billy goats to sound the coyote alarm.

I never heard of goats as an alarm, but do you have dogs? (mine get very quiet if coyotes are around) If so do you think they will chase around your animals? I ask because I thought I might turn you on to llamas. More precisely a SINGLE MALE llama. wont work well if you have lots of dogs around though because the llama might jack up your dogs, but llamas hate dogs of all types. If you put a single llama in with goats or sheep, the llama looks around and decides he must be the herd leader because he is the biggest. Unlike dogs they need no training to serve well at this role and interestingly they do better statistically then dogs do. they will do it all, watch the herd and herd them away from the threat as well as engaging and even eliminating the threat. Dogs usually need lots of training and attention to protect a herd whereas the llamas just need to be a single male with a herd of smaller animals and instinct takes over the rest. Might not fit your set up, but I thought Id throw it out just in case. I dont have enough land for this to even help, but if I ever did I expect it is the route Id go.

[neilgin1]

Just FYI sheep are very hard to fence my buddy who owns some gas stations and runs a halfassed farm had about 20 sheep and they were rarely in their pasture. However they never seemed to run too far off.

Just a suggestion that you spend a little extra time researching fencing for the sheep before you just jump into building a run of the mill fence. You might find yourself rebuilding the fence if not.

roger that....im factoring in a whole series of eff ups...learning curve...lucky i'm surrounded by REAL country boys, who like me, coz I don't put on airs....that counts a lot up here. 'know it alls' aren't well received. we got two 300 foot rolls of 36 inch woven wire, 8 foot long , 4 inch diameter treated wood poles, and t poles, every 10 feet I think, augered in....its a paddock that's good for 20 years, we think...little lean to manger in the back, where we cut thru some of my trees....give them shade...me and my neighbor both said, that we like lamb...nobody carries lamb, when they do its 7.99 plus....and i'm thinking, we might put 2.00 a deadweight pound into them, by Oct/Nov, we each can put 70-100 pounds of meat in the freezer?

if we do that the first year?...that wouldn't be bad right?, I spent about 500 on poles and fencing, steady eddie is putting in 200 for the sheep, and labor...then the round bales, sacks of cracked corn, probably be close to a 1000 for those first 200 lbs of dressed meat, which is 5 a pound, but then years 2,3. 4, 5?....if you can unhook from the grocery store in any way, that's a good deal these days.

[neilgin1]

.

So neil, are you getting into the whole deal and shearing them? or hiring it out? My understanding it you HAVE to shear them?

my neighbor knows a BUNCH of Amish....and we're going to see if we can work a wool for.......say, fruit preserves trade, or milled lumber....then I can get to know some Amish....and if you trade fair...and that's bunch of folks to know....then you start to get into post petroleum trading...one of those buckboard wagons?, they're anywhere from 5 to 15k...not the fancy rigs you see, and their horses are different, thick ankled to haul buggies and wagons...THAT kind of fencing?..for horses?...that's expensive....but KNOWING the folks that are kneedeep in both wagons AND horses?...and developing GOOD trading relationships with them?...invaluable.....not only on a human level, but pragmatic.

that draws us back into the silver market....think about this....post dollar, a LOT of our fellow countrymen, urban, Suburban Exurban....are not going to embrace trading silver coinage RIGHT away, whereas something tells me the Amish will KNOW silver's value as a currency, and they got a LOT of stuff to trade....and they know good and well that you just cant do straight barters on everything....needa medium to "translate", or smooth a trade, and those will be copper, copper-nickel, or silver coins.....they're already there.....the farmers markets?......its paper money NOW they take....but if folding money gets bad?...the Amish will be the ones to trade with.

I wish I knew right where this second to get an aussie shepherd, but I don't, so for 20 dollars, get a billy goat, and what I been told is, he'll kick up such a fuss. i'm right here. and can take a shot at anything trying to predate the tiny herd...hope I don't hit a lamb.

[neilgin1]

you guys made this a great thread for me, and I hope that if it did anything. it would be to encourage anyone who's on the fence?.....get out of the city or suburbs, soon as you can.

not panicky....not in some "buy every crazy toy, i'm on "doomsday preppers" show" kind of thinking....no no no.

but you all DID see the REALITY of the dress rehearsal that was pulled the other day, right?...i'm talking about Boston being "locked down" for a day, streets full of black armored vehicles, with lots of guys in black with black plastic weaponry.....going "door to door".

that's the "coming to a theater" soon thing....and that film doesn't have the happiest of endings.

I didn't much like the trailer, so I think i'll skip the film.....hope you all do too. Sincerely I do. much love to everyone reading these words, neil