They're Trying to take away my VA Benefits

I got a letter from someone in the VA last Friday. Apparently they are trying to take away my VA medical benefits. I'm afraid that I might have to start paying for Medicare and Obama care. They said that I hadn't replied to a letter I got last month. I remember calling the VA in Iowa City and telling them that the reason I had so much money in 2010 was that I sold my house.
Now they are bringing up some E-trade receipts and they are saying that I made too much money to be getting VA benefits. I'll go to the VA in town, here, and make some more calls, tomorrow.
I've been upset about this all weekend. I hope that I can get it straightened out. If I don't it will mess up my plans to go panning for gold, next year. It might set me back by a year or two.
 I told Gary about this yesterday. He said that I'm making too much out of it. I calmed down a lot when he said that. I was even feeling suicidal. I hate the idea of having another decade of poverty. I was just beginning to see a way out of it in spite of the fact that the US economy is collapsing.
On a brighter note, I went to Onalaska, today. I hung out at Barnes and Noble. For my Russian reader, that is a bookstore chain. I looked at books on homesteading and surfed the Internet. I had a coupon and a membership card so my sandwich didn't cost so much. I'm still buying parts for my Mosin-Nagant. That's a Russian rifle I bought for my gold panning expedition. I might need it for bears. If I'm near a large population center when the economy tanks, I might need it for cannibals. It might get that bad. If nobody takes the dollars, things could get really bad, really fast. Maybe I should ask my Russian reader how bad things got in the nineties. I saw something on YouTube about the collapse of Cuba; and things didn't seem to get that bad.
I'm sorry that I haven't been posting as often as I should. I'll post a picture of one of the etchings I' trying to sell on Ebay. If you think you might be interested in having one, they are on Ebay under Malcolm Childers. He's the artist.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes, tomorrow.
Craig

Finally some good news on the financial collapse

I'm not saying that the financial collapse won't come, but it might not be as bad as expected.
I found a good You Tube video about the financial collapse of Cuba after the Soviet Union collapsed. It was very similar to what I expect the U.S. and the world to go through when we either run out of oil, or the economy collapses due to printing too much money.
I was surprised that they didn't break out in riots and bloodshed. Maybe I don't need so much ammunition, after all.
People had to ride bicycles and walk. There was no gasoline.
They started growing their own food. The big farmers couldn't operate since they couldn't keep their tractors running. That meant that they broke up the farms and started small farms using oxen. Many had to move out to the country and till the soil.
Urban farming took off. People grew their food in apartments or back yards. Over half of their food was raised this way.
I shared this video on Google+ and Face book. I don't know if it took; I'll go to Facebook, later.
My old desktop died. I replaced it with one from Luther. I had to pay $52, so I'm not out much. I salvaged a hard drive, a DVD player, and some memory modules to use at work. I'll have to pay $20 to recycle the case and such.
I got the fundraising software working at work. I'm having troubles with loading a contact list. We have 454 contacts but so far I've only gotten 176 to load. I'll called the tech support and get it going Monday.
I'm going to show an etching by Malcolm Childers. I haven't decided which one yet. I'll have to see what I can get off of Google.

The name of this is "Lockheed Loadstar". I have it framed and I'm trying to sell it at Java John's.

Chatfield Bust

I went treasure hunting in Chatfield, MN last Sunday. It was a bust. The road that the treasure was buried at had been widened in the 40s or 50s and it was obvious that it had been found by a construction worker if it was there.
That brings me up to another reason that I don't think it was there. I looked up the FBI reports on the Karpis-Barker gang in the thirties. It appeared to me that they had time to get their ill-gotten gains to Cuba where they invested it in casinos and other gangster things. So I doubt that it was buried for more than a few months anyway.
There was only a mile or two of road that hadn't been widened so maybe I'll dowse there if I have the money for the gas. I'm not at all hopeful. Oh Well.
I'm still buying gold and silver. I bought a couple of ounces of silver, yesterday. I'm bidding on some gold today and tomorrow. One of the things I'm bidding on is a combination of 1/10 and 1/4 ounces of gold. For some reason it's not getting much bidding. It's worth over $500 but the bidding is only a little over $200. There is a reserve price that it has to go over for the seller to actually have to sell it. I don't know what that price is. I can only go to $360. Another auction is for a ring with a 1/10 ounce gold coin. It's worth, maybe, $170. I do want some form of gold to wear to bring more my way by way of the "Law of Attraction"

I just thought I would add one of Malcolm Childer's etchings. This one is named "Some with Strong Backs Waning". I'm showing a numbered copy of this at Java John's.
Later
Craig

I'm Back

I'm sorry that it has been so long since the last time I posted a blog. I have no excuse, I'm just being lazy.
Not too much has been happening. Jim told me how much he wants for his land ($25,000). I would have to come up with $6,000 for a down payment and closing costs. In a year or so I could do it.
I'm just wondering if it's worth it. If the book "Aftershock" is accurate, real estate prices will be down to 30% of what they are now in a year or two. Maybe I should just be patient and wait for the prices to come down. I would like to have a survivalist homestead for the depression or hyper-inflation (whichever we are stuck with).
I'm a bit lazy to really look forward to having my own garden and animals, but if that is what it will take to survive, so be it.
I need to get over to Lansing or Harper's Ferry and price mobile homes on the river. It might be that I could find a reasonably priced house right on the river. That way if I have to fish for food I could throw a line right out of my living room window. I'm thinking that the river would provide plenty of food for a long period of time.
I've been buying a lot of silver and gold. I'm giving up on that for a while. I need my money for buying camping supplies and food. If I don't pay Jim for his land I'll have a lot more money for survivalist things. About all that I really need is a tent and some propane bottles.
Talking about the collapse of the economy, the Dow sold off by over 200 points, today. Gold went up pretty strong. I think others are looking at things like I do. I'm not the only one who expects things to fall apart. Ammunition is still hard to come by, especially .22 long rifle. I go by Wal-Mart looking for ammo every few days. It's getting better but they are still pretty much sold out. Maybe the downturn in the stock market is due to the anticipated "tapering" of quanative easing. In layman's terms that means that they might not be printing as much money to keep interest rates down. Of course, that might be just the thing that starts the collapse. Only time will tell.
Saturday,I'm going treasure hunting. There was a treasure lost, not to far from here in the 1930's. A kidnapping gone bad resulted in the ransom being lost just off of a rural road. I'm going to try dowsing for it. I'll have to walk 10 miles or so but I believe in dowsing so I feel that it's worth a shot.
My keyboard ran out of power so I shut down in the middle of things for a while. I'm back home, using the desktop. That reminds me, the fan on my desktop is starting to make a grinding noise. I'll have to replace the power supply soon. That is a pain in the butt. I might just buy another desktop from Luther and use the old hard drive. I could use the new hard drive as a backup. They are no more than $90 for another desktop, there. I'll have to check their auction webpage.
I'm setting up a fund-raising program at work called Sumac. Today, I started copying contacts from our contact list into it. We're using the free trial version. It turned out that the thing that makes it a trial version is that it only lets you have 100 contacts. Tomorrow we'll see if we spring for the full version and load the rest of the 450 contacts. It's something to do. That place gets a little boring, most of the time.
Just for fun I think I'll show you the two Childer's etchings that I have for sale on Ebay, right now.

The train is named "Talkin Durango Flues" I forget what the other one is named; but they can both be found by doing a search of Malcolm Childers on Ebay. I'm only asking $100 to start the bidding. I feel confident that someone will make a bid. I have happy buyers in Spain, Falls Church, VA and Reno, NV.
Later
Craig

The Joy of Not Working

I just finished a book titled "The Joy of Not Working" by Ernie Zelinski. It's really good. I think I'll read it a couple of more times for all of the information to soak in. It talks about the soul-sucking drudgery of working in today's corporate world and dropping out to live on much less income but more freedom.
I feel that it is applicable to retired people as well. It's a whole book on what to do when you have more of your own time instead of selling it to the highest bidder.
I'm planning on heading out west, next year, and panning for gold. My first place to go will be Happy Camp, California. There is a club named "The New Forty-Niners, there. They own the rights to placer mine on miles of the Klamath River. I'll go there and get trained on dredging for gold. Later, I'll head out on my own and see if I can find gold elsewhere.
I lent the book "The Joy of Not Working" to Gary T. He has trouble with his job and it might encourage him to quit. I also loaned him "Illusions" by Richard Bach. It's a metaphysical book that Gary said was beyond him. He couldn't see how matter could be an illusion since he has believed in it his whole life. I told him to try to dissolve some clouds for himself. Maybe he'll try. I have about a 95% success rate with that.
Jim told me that he would sell his acreage in Harper's Ferry for $25,000. I'll try to buy it. I went by the bank today with some questions about that. I found that they would want 25% down and they asked if it was susceptible to landslides. I told them that I didn't think it was.
He also wanted an appraisal done; I'll have to ask Jim to do that.
I'm going to have to come up with $6000 for the down payment and the closing costs. I think I can come up with it if I sell my etchings.
The advantage of this place is that it fits in with my survivalist thinking. It's near the Mississippi River and I could have a garden and livestock on it as well. It's also good for hunting. I would feel a lot better if I had it; I could also use it as a target range for sighting in my various guns.
The disadvantage is that there would be hidden costs that would come up. Such as: installing a septic system, drilling a well, putting in fences and buying farm implements.
It might not be worth it. I got into the expense of having my own land back in the eighties, in California. I know that it adds up.

Too far with the Prepper B. S.

Maybe I've been going too far with the Prepper thinking. For those who never heard of it (Prepper) refers to being prepared; as in survivalist.
I've been buying guns and ammunition, lately. It started with reading the book "Aftershock". I just bought a couple of books on survival at Barnes and Noble.
I don't know what I'm trying to be prepared for. If the economy collapses, I'll still be living in a rual community ; where I'll be as safe or safer than anywhere else in the country. I live in a cheap apartment and I have a steady income from Social Security. I only have to provide for myself; I have no dependants. So why do I find myself buying guns and books on surviving in the desert?
I think I'm just being foolish.
I was discussing this train of thought with Sonja and she asked my if I wanted something bad to happen. We discussed the "Law of Attraction" and how I might be bringing negative things into my life by my thought. I think there is a tendency for people to think that they are more intelligent than others, just because they are more negative thinking. Maybe that is what I'm doing; but I think I'll continue buying ammo and camping supplies. There is an auction, this Sunday, where those are some of the things being sold. I'll be there.
Next year I'll run off to California to pan for gold.
Later.

Detroit, tip of the iceburg; or just a bump in the road?

By now everyone has heard about Detroit's bankruptcy. So does this portend the beginning of hundreds of municipal funds becoming worthless; or will Washington bail everyone out? I think Washington will bail out the Muni-bond sector just like they bailed out the mortgage business. After a tidal wave of defaults it will become apparent that wealthy people need to be bailed out again. They will also bail out the union members whose pensions are at risk.
They will just use quantitative easing money (which is just paper, anyway) to bail out everyone affected by the various bankruptcies.
I'm wondering how to profit from all of this. I feel certain that Detroit is the tip of the iceberg and we can expect more chaos. In the short term, interest rates will go up and trash the stock market, as well as gold.
I was thinking about buying junk muni bonds. Since I think the government will bail out that sector just like they did the banks; that might be a good, (contrarian) bet. If a person was to wait about a week or two; those bond will go down to levels lower than they deserve. I would pick the bonds of cities which may be considered "too big to fail". Detroit muni's might be my first pick. Then I might buy bonds from Michigan, which, apparently, has the same problems that Detroit has. California is also on the brink of bankruptcy, as well as New Jersey, and New York. Maybe a person should wait until they actually go bankrupt to buy them.
Of course, I wouldn't risk money that I couldn't afford to lose. I've lost a ton of money on junk bonds before. It's possible that your money in junk bonds will just evaporate, while the unions get bailed out. That is what happened with Delphi and GM.
On a different topic; I bought a .22 rifle last Sunday. It's a Mossberg that I got for $107. I was surprised that it was so inexpensive. I priced a Henry Survival rifle at $230. The Henry folds up into the stock so it would be handier, but the Mossberg will get the job done. If the economy totally collapses I'll be ready to hunt squirrels and rabbits for food. If I go out west I'll be able to find plenty of rattlesnakes for food.
I feel that this was a great step towards being independent of the civilized world.
I need to sell more of my etchings before I head out west to prospect for gold. I'll see if I can post a picture of one of my etchings here. It's named "Some with Strong Backs Waning".

I've got it hanging in my bedroom.
Later