If you had 10K free and clear what would you do?

Originally posted by Grimpachi
Whatever you do don't go looking in Vegas!!!!

I live in Vegas and I feel like a sitting duck. The problem is my wife and I have jobs that we both enjoy, and the money we make is more than we could make in most cities. My dad owns about 15 acres up on the Oregon coast about 5 minutes from the ocean. He has a well, surrounded by forests, lots of space for gardening, a gear shed loaded with tools. I know that the smartest thing to do would be to find a way to get up there, the problem is I have tried to live on the property with them 11 years ago and I could only take it for 6 months before they drove me nuts.

Vegas is a horrible place to be if shtf, sadly I will take my chances here, rather than be stuck with my dad and stepmom.

Another idea would be to convert your current home to solar power.The government has a 30% rebate for systems over .5kw I believe.

www.dsireusa.org...

A taxpayer may claim a credit of 30% of qualified expenditures for a system that serves a dwelling unit located in the United States that is owned and used as a residence by the taxpayer. Expenditures with respect to the equipment are treated as made when the installation is completed. If the installation is at a new home, the "placed in service" date is the date of occupancy by the homeowner. Expenditures include labor costs for on-site preparation, assembly or original system installation, and for piping or wiring to interconnect a system to the home. If the federal tax credit exceeds tax liability, the excess amount may be carried forward to the succeeding taxable year. The excess credit may be carried forward until 2016, but it is unclear whether the unused tax credit can be carried forward after then. The maximum allowable credit, equipment requirements and other details vary by technology, as outlined below.

dp

me i would get a gibson firebird, a gibson sg, a marshall fullstack or two, b.c. rich like the one kerry king has a les paul some fly buzzer lamps that look like blacklights and some grape ape

I'd go out and find 10 broken keyboards and make it so they go from

asdfghj l

to

asdfghjkl

and be happy in the knowledge that never again will someone be without the ability to spell knee accurately.

---

Or buy 10 thousand dollars. In coins. plenty of coffee change then.

reply to post by winofiend


coffee is good but mead is better

reply to post by jaws1975

Vegas is a horrible place to be if shtf, sadly I will take my chances here, rather than be stuck with my dad and stepmom.

It's not just A bad place to be, it is probably the WORST place to be for a SHTF event. It's 15 acres, so I'd recommend making the trip to OR if able. In that large of an area, you don't have to see them that much.

Right near Vegas is LA, and that city has got to be the worst location for ANY SHTF scenario...natural or man-made. Can you imagine the collapse of society and rise of gang rule there? Would make Kosovo look like a vacation.

I would head over to powerenze.com and buy a 3000 dollar portable solar system. I would pick up a good used toughbook prob $500. then i would pick up a good solid used dirt bike for around 1500$ . i already own adequate Weaponry and ammo so no need for that. i would scoop up various 12volt gadgets that would be useful say 500 worth. I would probably spend the remaining 4500 on long term food security and water purification.


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reply to post by Gazrok


I agree, also Vegas has virtually no food supply of it's own, so if transportation is disrupted you will see all hell break loose for a loaf of bread.

Originally posted by Retikx
I would head over to powerenze.com and buy a 3000 dollar portable solar system. I would pick up a good used toughbook prob $500. then i would pick up a good solid used dirt bike for around 1500$ . i already own adequate Weaponry and ammo so no need for that. i would scoop up various 12volt gadgets that would be useful say 500 worth. I would probably spend the remaining 4500 on long term food security and water purification.

 

Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

 

I like your thinking but why a dirt bike? You can't take it on the street.

I personally have wished that I could find very large dirt road communities where there are trade posts and food markets... but that has almost been done away with. The government owns all the roads and the airspace.. They have a way of infiltrating everything and we think this is a plus in some regards, but the highways are quite dangerous and have us running from town to town like rats trying to get to work... for wages that don't pay for all this *stuff* that is supposed to be great for us. I would personally like to see us giving more credit to the animals that rode us into our current domination... the horses. We now treat them like disposable show pieces when we could be giving them moderate duties and a lot more respect... but the age of oil and motor vehicles had it's way.

I want to do a research topic but haven't read the rules and guidelines yet... because in the US we can build bikes, but not cars... and I looked at electric 2 and 3 wheel vehicles... and they are as expensive as cars. There's no reason for this other than government control of the market.

I am very interested in conversions. It seems the ideas in threads on ATS about finding energy alternatives sometimes get bogged down by hard to reach ideas or impractical ideas and I want to avoid that in any research thread I do on this. I want cost efficiency to be one of the main issues for consideration. I want comprehensiveness to be very important... because you CAN convert a bike to be electric. I have known many people who build bikes here in the south so I'm not sure why this hasn't taken off. Most of the US built bikes are WAY out of the price range for people looking for efficiency... and they are still gas powered vehicles. I want to get down to only what is necessary... no bling, while using COMMON dependable parts and models... because that is the only way I see this becoming a common solution... but there has to be a step by step comprehensive blue print to approach such an issue and I want to compile and condense it so that one doesn't have to seek advice from a hundred different site or forums... and the instructions to be all inclusive and very detailed for the layman.

We have a problem in our society with efficient energy being kept out of the reach of the public... and if we want to overcome this, we might just have to do it ourselves rather than expecting efficiency to be marketed to us... because that isn't going to happen.

I would need help with this, but would also want to control the criteria so that readers do not have to dig through numerous posts of offshoot comments concerning impractical ideas and aside from not going over the rules yet, I'm not ready to lay out a criteria.

I know the criteria will involve some meager towing capacity (to pull a cart that might carry a small solar set up for a longer trip... dependable common parts, maybe honda? side car or trike convertibility, low cost, highway capable but not impractical power capabilities, simple design (no bells and whistles to save energy) and combine it with any well understood power source... not to mention top to bottom troubleshooting because I wouldn't want to build something not easily reparable or potentially dangerous. I would want to explore multiple power sources to see if the power source could avoid being fully integrated, because that would just raise the voltage and make it dangerous as working on an electric vehicle... which has a different color coding on it's cables because of how much current is in the system and they are more dangerous to work with.

reply to post by NotAnAspie

I like your thinking but why a dirt bike? You can't take it on the street.

Takes very little to make a dirt bike street legal.

The problem with solar power as a SHTF solution, is that panels wear out over time (and a relatively short time at that). While most have a 10 year life, the productivity of the panels wanes over time prior to this.... For a long-term solution, I'm not so sure it's the best option. Still, a nice option to have though, as long as you keep up on maintaining and replacing the panels (and batteries). Just an expensive option. Likely cheaper to make your own biodiesel and run generators as needed.

reply to post by Gazrok

Actually, solar panels are very very stable under proper conditions. The problem is not in the technology, but in the application.

If you just set a solar panel up in the weather, it will degrade fairly rapidly. The film covering that actually holds everything together is not UV resistant in most cases and will slowly yellow, dropping the amount of sunlight that can get to the panel. Humidity in the air will also corrode contacts and cause electrical resistance. And of course there is the problem of damage from storms (which is appreciable seeing as not many survival situations lend themselves to semiconductor doping and layering).

A little extra time and money spent during installation will fix most of these issues. A UV-blocking transparent film applied over the panels will slow the yellowing considerably. Electrical contacts should be gold-plated for corrosion resistance (this is why gold plating is used in the first place, not because it is a great conductor... gold is a worse conductor that copper). A decent wooden frame holding the panels securely along with a chicken wire shield will help with physical damage.

Without corrosion issues, UV issues, and physical damage issues, decent solar panels can last upwards of 40 years. The semiconductor itself is fairly resilient otherwise.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


Ten thousand dollars isn't really that much money anymore.

Survival isn't about money... it's about using resources. Money is just a resource, and not the most valuable one.

Did you know that you can get gasoline form the air? The air contains water, which has hydrogen in it, and carbon dioxide, which contains carbon. All you have to do is figure out how to get them out of the air and recombine them into the stuff we call gasoline, which is just hydrogen and carbon.

That's a far-fetched idea and probably impractical... but it shows the mentality one needs to truly survive and thrive no matter what. Look at what you do have, not what you don't, and don't ever assume you aren't able to do something. Once you make that assumption, you've already made sure you can't do it. If you don't make that assumption, you just might surprise yourself.

TheRedneck

If you had 10K free and clear what would you do?

Off the top, I'd take about 2k and donate it to an honest and trustworthy organization to help those in need.

Another 2k would finish restoring my old POS 1993 Ford Explorer XLT.

I'd spot my better half 2k to go spend on herself.

The 4k leftover would be split between paying bills, handing some to the kids... finishing the deck out back and taking a cool, fall vacation somewhere there's no crowds, no traffic hell, and plenty of things to do.

Originally posted by Gazrok
reply to post by NotAnAspie

 

I like your thinking but why a dirt bike? You can't take it on the street.

edit on 6-8-2013 by Gazrok because: (no reason given)

The first part, I know is to me but I'm not sure about the 2nd part. Although I know that solar can be more cost efficient over grid power in the long run, I would never recommend solar as the only off grid choice & this is why in my 10K investment, I would not put a lot of money into a large solar set up but perhaps a few for battery maintenance & trickle charging. On a small scale with low powered electronics, they can be pretty handy & replacement wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. On large scale, yes, other thinking at this point in time should be combined with this choice until the making & maintenance knowledge grows & the cost of solar comes down. I don't think any one energy option should be focused on.

I'm all for diesel & have been looking to buy one for years... however, even after not listening to all the people who have been telling me what a bad idea it is, I still explored it & have run into things that make it impractical. Most notably, the fact that diesel mechanics are more rare & production of large amounts of biodiesel might be too involved of a hobby to partake in, especially all depending on your living situation. Now if I could learn how to build a biodiesel bike from the ground up & was assured I could always find parts, I would be all over that because it would not take a lot to run it & I could probably handle the production of a small amount of biodiesel regardless although having never it done, one cannot say for sure. Around here, no one makes it hardly & those who do are not selling it. I don't explore generators too much although they can be life savers in some situations. Most I have seen are incredibly noisy & take a lot of fuel & can often defeat the efficiency... although I can't say I have ever seen a generator run biodiesel so that may be somewhat different.

In a vehicle, I don't see why additional alternators can't be added to moving parts, like on a gear being turned by the axles. I know they do this to an extent but in my opinion, not a big enough extent. Think about the force that turns an alternator belt. The force of the axle turning & the load it can carry is MUCH greater than that belt & could power MANY alternators & I know that many would not fit in a small vehicle, but a station set up with numerous alternators that could be parked on or something with attachable axle mechanisms could charge a heck of a lot of batteries in a short time. Voltage regulation would be critical of course to not kill the batteries with overload but my thinking on this comes from how torque & horsepower can be used... & IS used in a vehicle, but SO MUCH is lost simply in design. So much potential stemming from moving parts that isn't used.

To a much lesser extent, we already have fans sitting in the front of our cars. We go at speeds above 60 in regular driving & that is a fair amount of windspeed. To add many turbines would drag the aerodynamics down and take up space, granted... or simply look funny on your roof or maybe not as much, in your truck bed. but to a small reasonable extent, there is no reason why some small turbines could not be strategically placed to add at least a small amount of power. At least maybe for an accessory, rather than having unnecessary accessory power draining off your main charging system & making the need for the main charging system to be even larger & more prone to failure that can keep the vehicle from running, period. For example, a parasitic drain on your cars battery from a vanity mirror light will make your car completely & totally unstartable. So is it really logical to tie all these functions into the same CRITICAL charging system? I don't think it is. Solar accessories on a small scale could be quite useful, but no, you would never want to solely depend on that. Small limb falls on your solar panel & it's busted- unusable. A large investment in something so easily broken is unwise. However, if you have multiple power sources such as mechanical AC generation, diesel etc... a small portable solar trickle charging station could mean the difference of starting your vehicle or not. Starting power needs are large, but not nearly as large as the overall energy consumption of the vehicle, so solar charging while parked can insure you against complete discharge if the vehicles battery that has been driven to the low end of it's capacity or has been left parked somewhere with no power supply. it's energy & small panels are cheap...so who why not capture it for small applications whenever you are able?

btw, dirt bike tires can be ruined/ add danger in street use & a dirt bike w/o dirt bike tires defeats the purpose.

In my eyes the dirt bike is the ultimate lone wolf shtf vehicle. Great on gas. Can take lots of punishment parts array easily acquired. And i can load up a big frame hiking pack with food ammo my. 22 My 9mm water purification items and get the eff outa dodge in a hhurry if need be. being pursued by a vehicle? good luck following me through this farmers field over those hills and into the forest.

With the addition of saddle bags and an extra large pack i could get 1000km away from my current location in a real hurry if i needed to. before getting out of dodge id burry the rest of my provisions in a forest somewhere so i could use them if i ever came back.


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Originally posted by Retikx
In my eyes the dirt bike is the ultimate lone wolf shtf vehicle. Great on gas. Can take lots of punishment parts array easily acquired. And i can load up a big frame hiking pack with food ammo my. 22 My 9mm water purification items and get the eff outa dodge in a hhurry if need be. being pursued by a vehicle? good luck following me through this farmers field over those hills and into the forest.

With the addition of saddle bags and an extra large pack i could get 1000km away from my current location in a real hurry if i needed to. before getting out of dodge id burry the rest of my provisions in a forest somewhere so i could use them if i ever came back.

 

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ahh. so this is not just for an off grid scenario, but an all hell breaking loose scenario.

in that case, don't forget your bullet proof vest for they may take you as the "dirt bike bandit" come to rob them blind. it might come in handy if the S does indeed HTF and you plan to move about across private properties. You might have no choice if the situation arises so I'm not saying don't attempt that kind of thinking, but just remember how many shot gun owners there are.

oh for shtf? i would buy the components to make a 1k car run off of on demand hydrogen. (cheap if you know how it's done) four rifles chambered in 556 nato 7.62x 39 7.62x 54, and spend 3k on a .50 cal rifle because these are military rounds. you might scrounge dead bodies on battlefields for ammunition and parts for these guns. and i would get two or three really good grape ape plants that clone real easy. stock up on rice. my logic is if you have rice and ganja you have atmosphere and currency plus food. figure out how to grow rice in an aquarium too. find title loan places for a six to seven hundred dollar car that can go 110 mph

With 10K and AND an agreeable spouse?

Sell everything else we own, that isn't clothes, tools, or books.

Use the proceeds to buy some land that is
a) rural; further than 75 miles from the nearest city of 100K+.
b) more than 50 miles from any reactor or nuke target
c) in an area that gets more than 18 inches of precipitation annually
d) has water rights and a water table within 100 ft of the surface
e) contains some conifers with straight trunks at least 20 ft tall and 8-15" in diameter.
f) not to hot in summer or cold in winter for your abilities

One person can build a log cabin using only chainsaws, come-alongs, and hand-tools. For this reason, spend money on land, and improvise on housing.

For livestock, I'd start with chickens, then proceed to either donkeys or goats, and round it out with pigs and cattle; finally horses if you have the room, and ducks or geese if you have the water.

Choose the goats if you won't raise more than 2 diary cows.
Choose donkeys if you wont keep horses, or will turn herds of cattle or pigs loose on their own. (Donkey serves as guard-animal).

To make money later, you might consider spending the rest of your money on a small portable sawmill; you can hire yourself out. You could also look at getting a hay bailer and going into the hay business. If your land needs to be cleared, buy a log-splitter and sell the firewood in the city at Thanksgiving. You can get 5 bucks a bundle (4 sticks of wood). Or buy an old garden tractor or lawn mower, and sell to the local farmer's market.