tn high viking

I just finished four days of classes at www.valorridge.com in Harrogate Tn. Rifleman 1 & Rifleman 2. Was recommended to me by a close friend who told me "Book way out because this guy's classes are always filled" Having finished the classes, I highly recommend it, in fact I am extremely pleased with what I learned and how I shot after the instruction. First off the people are fantastic individuals - as people. Really interested in the success of each student. Just good people. Solid Patriots. No yelling or screaming, positive reinforcement. But very strict on safety Reid Henrichs is a fantastic teacher and instructor and has the actual field experience to back up what he teaches The facility is first class with distances out to 600 yards for long shots. Has a shoot house for teaching neighborhood defense, home defense, room clearing. Second class of 7 i was in had three students that had trained at Valor Ridge before and came back for more - they all drove 10+ hours to attend. I was the only one from close by - two from PA, two from FL, one from DC, one from KS which tells you a lot. So if you are looking for world class training right here in TN I highly recommend Valor Ridge

I have to travel to Chicago in two weeks and with all that is going on, a bit worried. I am a TN Handgun Permit holder, but from what I read Illinois and Cook County in particular don't recognize it. From my reading on the internet, looks like as a non-resident I can have certain guns (no "assault weapons") in my vehicle in a locked case and disassembled. Does anyone have any suggestions? or more first hand knowledge?

sadly, I think this is spot on

Bizarre for sure, but should give us all pause.   Unless you are an Odumbo cool aide drinker (if you are then ignore the rest of this post), we should expect more of this kind of thing.   Entitlement generation with no morals and easy access to prescription meds from their parents medicine cabinet and add to that the crashing economy which will make property crime increase and less and less scruples in our society about stealing.   And the Bernie Sanders crowd thinks the government should assist them in taking your property from you and giving to them.   People just don't respect other people's stuff anymore and I fear that is going to get a lot worse.

great thread. and all this took place in less than 24 hours. says a lot for the folks on this board

"Nothing stops a bad guy with a gun except a good guy with a gun" Like others have said - any competent, trained CCW holder in the area would have stopped this. Very sad.

Stock market is a lagging indicator IMHO. The underlying economic activity has been flashing warnings for a while.   As I pointed out in the original post, feed stock commodity prices for base raw materials have been falling world wide because demand for things like steel are falling.   Other indices that are probably more leading indicators than the stock markets are the Baltic Dry Index which shows the price to rent shipping capacity http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BDIY:IND and the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index which measures the same in the far east. http://www1.chineseshipping.com.cn/en/indices/scfinew.jsp Just look at what has happended there in the last week.   Finally, rail shipping volumes in the US are indicative of a growing or shrinking economy. This is from the Association of American Railroads released August 5, 2015, These are my excerpts you can read the whole press release @ https://www.aar.org/newsandevents/Press-Releases/Pages/2015-08-05-railtraffic.aspx   Commodities that saw declines in July 2015 from July 2014 included: coal, down 12.5 percent or 69,519 carloads, petroleum and petroleum products, down 13.6 percent or 10,691 carloads; and primary metal products, down 13 percent or 7,167 carloads. Excluding coal, carloads were down 2.8 percent or 25,776 carloads in July 2015 from July 2014.   For July 2015, combined U.S. carload and intermodal originations were 2,708,299, down 1.8 percent or 49,757 carloads and intermodal units from July 2014.   Total U.S. weekly rail traffic for the week ending August 1, 2015 was 559,125 carloads and intermodal units, down 2.7 percent compared with the same week last year.  For the week there were 289,657 carloads, down 4.8 percent compared with the same week in 2014, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 269,468 containers and trailers, down 0.3 percent compared to 2014.   North American rail volume for the week ending August 1, 2015 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 383,764 carloads, down 4.7 percent compared with the same week last year,   Mexican railroads reported 17,276 carloads for the week, down 0.6 percent compared with the same week last year, and 10,893 intermodal units, down 6.9 percent.   Canadian railroads reported 76,831 carloads for the week, down 5.2 percent, and 60,582 intermodal units, down 0.1 percent compared with the same week in 2014."

The big fail in your plan is an economic collapse, and you're stockpiling cash.  Do you actually think your cash will be worth it's current value after a crash?  If things are that bad economically, then your "cash" will not be money.   Yep. Currency becomes guns, ammo, food, etc. Luxury items like liquor, coffee, etc.   Both of you are exactly correct and I see that I was inarticulate in what I was trying to say - so let me restate. I am doing all I can do in the very short run (3-6 months) to earn extra $ and also not spending on unnecessary things in order that I can have ready cash to be used in the early stages of the downturn to acquire things people are liqidating to raise cash as well as things put on sale by vendors for the same reason or to take advantage of afformentioned falling commodity prices. In a few weeks, I will be adding another 300 gallons of diesel to what i aleady have.   Even if this downturn is the same as a normal recession or a bit more like in 2008, there will be bargains to be had. Back then I picked up lots of things people were unloading. Case in point, in 2009 I picked up a 2006 Chevy 2500SD crew cab for $15,000 off an Ebay auction - I was the only bidder. Guy owed the bank 21k, KBB trade in was $17,500. His business was cratering and he needed out from under the payment. I paid cash because I had it.   Then I picked up a new truck bed tank with electric pump off Craigslist that TSC sells for $1,299 and I paid $100.

I love the sky is falling threads that show up every time the stock market sees a correction Yes, I know and hesitated to post but when else would you expect "the sky is falling" threads, LOL. It is not the NYSE or other stock exchanges that I view as indicative, it is the fact that no one seems to need raw material feedstocks. In fact, I would say that the stock exchanges are lagging indicators.   As screwed up as it is, the U.S. is still the preeminent economic power in the world. Absolutely, we are the cleanest dirty shirt. That's why the US dollar is advancing against other currencies and likely will do so for a while. But that does not mean we are imune from what's happening in the rest of the world.   The entire world's population just quits producing anything? I cannot wrap my head around that concept No, actually the opposite - there is TOO MUCH production compared to the demand which is leading to lower prices for raw material feedstocks world wide across many many industries which is causing financial stress on those compaines.

So what are you basing all of this on? all the factors in the original post - i.e. massive deflation in industrial feedstocks across the board.   Couldn't this just be a correction and not a crash? Sure could, but I guess it matters what the definitionof "is" is, sorry could not resist that. What is the difference between a correction and a crash? Just magnitude.

What kind of income will be unaffected by an economic collapse? Honestly, I don't know and not sure anyone would be able to say with certainty, but a logical guess would be basics like food. So farmers might be one who's income is perhaps more likely to continue. Perhaps people that repair things since folks will try and keep things vs buy new ones - think car repair as an example.   Will my income continue? I am concerned about that and doing all I can think of to preserve it, but I really don't know. I thought in the 2008 downturn that luxury items would be the first to go and was totally wrong because the rich got richer.   So you're telling me the balloon is going up Yes, that is what I am saying, that it is aready up - just gaining altitude and rapidly   and we are going to see another 2008 no, much worse

How will you pay that? Honest answer is not entirely sure longer term, but I have a nice income (so far) and about 6 months of cash on hand. After that, guess I might be in the same boat as others, but only have 9 years left on the mortgage.   Would I like to be totally and completely debt free, absolutely. Do I wish I had paid down the mortgage principal instead of buying "beans, bullets & band aids" - not for a nanosecond.

I don't post here very often, but here goes and remember this is just my opinion.   Many of us preppers have been saying for some time that the most likely SHTF scenario is not an EMP or Carrington Event or Yellowstone super eruption, it is economic collapse and that rather than a single event or point in time, the SHTF will sneak up on us like a thief in the night - or to use another analogy we are like frogs being slowly boiled and not noticing. That there will be no announcement, no balloon going up, no trip wire that is easily recognized to say yesterday we were ok, but now SHTF is on. So I will go out on a limb (not really) and say SHTF is on now. I am ringing the bell, LOL DING DING DING DING. First off I would like to extend my sincere heartfelt thanks and attaboy to - Hank Paulson, George Bush, Ben Bernake, Barak Obama, Mario Draghi, Janet Yellen and the all the can kickers world wide that stepped up in 2009 to keep the Titanic afloat thus allowing me the time and money to go from barely prepared to "bring it on". Here's my thinking. The central banks have been pumping air into a leaking tire for years trying to keep asset prices up because the elites that pull the strings on the Fed and other central banks fear the decline in their assets which are mostly stocks, bonds and real estate. Very few of them even think about investing in things like we are investing in - think Janet Yellen has a grain mill, dehydrator, etc? But now all the central banks have reached the law of diminishing returns in terms of their ability to keep paper asset prices from deflating. The central banks have lost their ability to have the desired effect and can kicking is no longer working. Japan was first, then Europe, then China and now the US. IMHO the central banks are out of bullets but the deflation zombie keeps coming. Forget a rate hike, that was never going to happen - they were just jawboning. When (not if) we get an amplified re run of the 2008 collapse these folks are going to have huge paper losses. Like what happened to the house flippers in Fl, Ca, NV in 2008 only far far worse. I submit we are there now and last Friday -530 on the dow is just the beginning of travails. The problem is that by not allowing the cleansing of weak players in 2008 and rather pumping stimulus into the system they have propped up companies that should have collapsed then but were able to borrow money at historically ludicrously low interest rates to stay afloat. And those companies now must sell at break even prices just to stay alive. That has resulted in excess supply and resulting deflationary pressure. The shale fracking companies are a great example. They have to sell oil at any price just to stay alive, because they are all leveraged to the hilt. It is a vicious cycle that feeds upon itself. Demand is down at the same time supply is up. And the general S&P 500 has been artificially inflated by companies taking on relatively free money in the form of historically cheap interest rates and using it to buy back their own stock which causes the stock price to rise and EPS to go up because the divisor (# of shares)is reduced. In other words, stock prices are about as reliable as the Unemployment Rate. Look at this chart and ask yourself why are basic raw materials across the board plummeting in price world wide? Just look at those commodities that are used at the basic first build industrial items, i.e. these are the first to be needed in and economic boon and the first to not be needed in a bust. Here are a few over the last 12 months: coal from South Africa  - 19.62 % crude oil Dubai              - 46.77 % Indonesian Natural Gas - 51.33 % Aluminum                       - 15.85 % Copper                          - 23.29 % Iron Ore                         - 46.34 % Lead                              - 19.61 % Nickel                             - 40.30 % Tin                                 - 32.79 % And I only highlighted the industrial feed stocks. Look carefully at all the red on this chart and ask yourself if this is not in fact a world wide, commodities of all kinds "Canary in the coal mine" situation: http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/ And what do these imply about world wide real economic activity - I am talking about mining and farming - not reality TV, iPhones, or Facebook:   The world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, Caterpillar, Inc. reported an 11% fall in its global retail sales for the three months ending Apr 2015, marking the 29th consecutive month of declining sales. http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/1758...-the-29th-time And just yesterday, this from John Deere. John Deere’s latest earnings report showed a decline in sales and earnings...According to the report, net sales of worldwide equipment operations declined 22 percent for the quarter. Net sales in the U.S. and Canada were similar, decreasing 21 percent and 17 percent.As for the upcoming fourth quarter, the company expected to be down about 24 percent, compared with last year. http://wqad.com/2015/08/21/john-deer...-and-earnings/ So what do I think this means and what am I doing. Of course I could be wrong and certainly have been in the past. I have no investments in the stock market except a tiny retirement fund I can't easily liquidate. We have no debt except the mortgage on our retreat where we relocated to Tn from FL in 2010. Basically I am slowing down purchases and accumulating cash to be used for purchasing things at fire sale prices, just like happened in 2009 when Craigslist got flooded with items people were selling to raise cash. Just like weak corporate players many individuals are ill prepared to be laid off which is what the companies are probably going to do soon. Kinda like the scene in Trading Places where Eddy Murphy and Dan Akroid decide the price has dropped enough and start buying. Watch that movie - could be a harbinger of things to come. Don't be Don Amiche, be Eddy Murphy. The exception and to illustrate my point, we will now fill our propane tank with another 300 gallons of propane and purchase an additional 300 gallons of diesel, but probably not for a few weeks or a month because I expect further price drops.   I am also stocking up on fertilizer and the like for my farm. Well enough pontificating, just my rant and certainly YMMV, but if I am right it is on and we are in for a wild ride.

Just finished reading "Day of Wrath" by William Forstchen - in one sitting - it is riveting. Hope you are already familiar with his "One Second After" This is far better in my opinion.   I have read many of the SHTF novels, but this one seems the most plausable and terrifying. I highly recommend it.     http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1625781547?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00  

congradulations.   I will chime in with our experience.   We are early 60's and reasonalby good health. Bought a bit more land than you, but otherwise in the same boat. You will find the physical part of homesteading more draining than you are thinking, so think about that and plan accordingly.   I know you are chomping at the bit, try to control that urge and make a 5 year plan.   Go ahead and start some small things - chickens for sure (check out Buff Orpingtons) and a very small annual garden. Check out BioIntensive Gardening. http://www.growbiointensive.org/   I will differ on owning a tractor. It is a huge capital cost that can be spent elsewhere. Find a neighbor you can hire to bushog and do other tractor work. Get a rototiller instead.   We have bees and they are great and in addition to the honey the make your garden and fruit trees more productive, but there is a whole lot of knowledge required - don't recommend for a newbie.   Do some research on Permaculture. Basically plant perenials like bushes, fruit trees and perenial veggies like Asparagus. Basically plant once harvest many times.   Good luck. Be patient, but hang on to that enthusiasm.   Work hard to make friends with the locals.