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Backwoods Engineer
Backwoods Engineer
12 years ago

Looks like my question didn’t make it. Either Jack has a year-end backlog, or I need to try again.

BeninMA
BeninMA
12 years ago
Randall
Randall
12 years ago
Reply to  BeninMA

I agree, 2 liter bottles are the best and cheapest for the money.

I do however keep one of the Aquatainer 7 gal containers filled in my vehicle, and it’s bounced around for a couple of years with no problems. It’s cheaper than a water brick, but I still wouldn’t buy 20 of them.

http://amzn.to/R9DvX3

Charlie
Charlie
12 years ago
Reply to  Randall

I’ve had some of those walmart containers, full of water, for probably about 3 years now and haven’t had any leaks yet( I change the water periodically, of course). I’m looking for something better that I can afford but so far, so good. I really like Jack’s suggestions but if you live in hurricane country, I think you shouldn’t mess around and get something as soon as you can. Since it’s winter, now would be a great time to start collecting those soda bottles.

txmom
txmom
12 years ago
Reply to  Charlie

We have 4 of those 7 gallon aquatainer containers, and have taken many, many trips on the road with them, gravel included with no issues. My only issue with them is that they are so heavy when full, difficult for me to move by myself.

BeninMA
BeninMA
12 years ago
Reply to  BeninMA

Jack and Randall – Thanks for the tips!

shane
shane
12 years ago
Reply to  BeninMA

I have spilt them running on the beach too

Steve
Steve
12 years ago

Can I store water safely in a 15 gallon Harrell that had dr pepper syrup in it? I am worried I won’t be able to clean it sufficiently and the sugar from syrup will cause a problem. Thanks

Charlie
Charlie
12 years ago
Reply to  Steve

I have a similar question about one of those 275 gallon tote containers that someone had on craigslist that had previously contained smoke sauce. I was interested in buying it but became disinterested once I found out what was in it. I just thing that no matter how well you wash it, you’re always going to be tasting smoke sauce water.

Chris Fox
Chris Fox
12 years ago

I wrapped mine with 6mill black plastic so that no light would get though. Got the idea from LDSPrepper on youtube, he did a series on setting up ibc’s for rainwater catchment.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LDSPrepper/videos?query=rainwater

John R
John R
12 years ago

Besides twitter, there is also a service called Nixle. Nixle is a privately held U.S. corporation that offers both free and paid notification services for local police departments, county emergency management offices, municipal governments and their agencies. The Nixle service allows verified government agencies to send messages to local residents via phone, email and web. Information is delivered almost instantly to geographically targeted consumers. In 2011, Nixle served in excess of 4,600 government agencies and organizations in all 50 states. By August 1, 2012 6,000 agencies and 1,000,000 subscribers were registered to use the Nixle service.
http://www.nixle.com/

KC
KC
12 years ago

My mortgage broker and my builder both explained to me that the appraiser is now pulled from a random pool. As you explained in the podcast there used to be some form of steering from whoever needed the appraisal to be “X” dollars. I got to experience this firsthand in the past too. The problem this time was there were no comparable properties to match with the same preps I was putting into my home build. I had to come up with the difference in the selling prices of comparable properties and the extras I put in my property. Being a house build, I didn’t have the leverage over a buyer. No worries though I had backups to problems with my lending. I am glad to hear that you were able to work past your challenge.

Merry Christmas TSP and Happy Holidays to all!

Dan
Dan
12 years ago
Reply to  KC

I remember doing a refinance a few years ago and we wandome cash out for improvements. The appraiser the mortgage company sent appraised it above what we needed. So the company sent a second who appraised it lower then we needed. So we didn’t refinance. I will probably try to do just a regular refinance through my Credit Union. I want to knock it down to 15 yrs.

Jon
Jon
12 years ago

Your real estate observation is dead on. I buy and sell houses for a living. When we buy a house we always get an appraisal before we start the rehab with noted upgrades and repairs we are going to be doing. We also do the home inspection. After we get done with the rehab we also repeat the process. It is part of our sales tool when we sell.

Consider it before you sell. Because over pricing the home can come back to haunt you in the long run.

Norcal Mike
Norcal Mike
12 years ago

Garbage burning: please be careful doing this! (or don’t do it at all, the service can’t cost that much.) Just remember to burn the non-paper stuff only when it’s screaming hot inside, which wont be all the time.

Norcal Mike
Norcal Mike
12 years ago

Emergency responders: you can also see if the PD/Sheriff sends press releases via email and get on that list. Social media or old media are both reactive though, so maybe a scanner is better.

Re healthy meats and veggies: Some might try getting a new chest freezer and a half a grass fed beef each spring. 180# meat for ~$1,200 ($23/week). Costco has some good organic chicken. I agree with Jack about good protein and fats (animal fat, not corn, cotton, canola or soybean oil). Don’t trim those steaks folks, that’s the good part!

CBP
CBP
12 years ago

Well okay. . . that’s for saving me some money on the water bricks. The well went out in September for about a week until they could drill a new one. I was able to hose in water from the neighbor which I filled up 55 gal. trash cans (they are clean). Otherwise, I had gal jugs for drinking and cooking. The problem I had was the 5-6 gal jugs I had in the basement for washing and flushing. Nice idea, but a ***** for me to move up the stairs.
I didn’t like the price of the brick at all, but the size of the container was attractive.

karasukanzaemon
karasukanzaemon
12 years ago

So, what you’re saying is it aint gonna happen? 😉
This is probably one of the best services that you provide – and one that I really have not come across elsewhere. Keep up the great work!

bloody rich
bloody rich
12 years ago

Jack,
About appraisals – I want to make sure I totally understood the lessons of your experience buying your new home [as i have little real estate experience], so here goes- you said you had your offer of $130 accepted before the appraisal – so is an offer dependent upon the appraisal coming in close to it? So is that why when appraisal came in $30 under your offer, you were not obligated to stay with the $130? If the appraisal comes in above an ‘accepted offer’, can the seller then say ‘sorry, but you have to increase your offer’? Also, is the seller able to say ‘sorry dude, we don’t care about appraisals, stay with your original higher offer or we’ll walk away?’ I have purchased only one home in my life, and I see our appraisal came in at our accepted offer [which I assumed was partially self-fullinging, in that appraisers look at the offers]. And is this why contracts are not signed until after appraisals? If I understand correctly, then my questions may seem obvious, but I just want to make sure I understand as I plan to purchase a BOL in next couple years so want to know as much as possible.
thanks for the great shows.

bloody rich
bloody rich
12 years ago

Jack- wow thanks! I appreciate you putting so much time into your response.

markl32
markl32
12 years ago

Re: Body armor question for Mr. Sharp – are we no longer targeting pelvic girdle for a armored assailant?

Excellent answer on .380 v 9mm as well.

Sage of Monticello
Sage of Monticello
12 years ago

The listener who stated Rawles stated to be 6 hours from a major city is inaccurate. Also the Pacific Northwest is consistently negative in many of Rawles writings because of high population prisons in Western Washington.

I would recommend Jack researching the claims by listeners before agreeing with baseless criticism of Rawles.

I believe Jack really does not make a convincing argument that hordes are not a realistic scenario.

Hordes have happened in Katrina, hurricanes in Texas, and many incidents where natural disasters have occurred.

Strategic relocation is based not on fiction but on intelligent analysis of potential threats to civil unrest and dangers.

Norcal Mike
Norcal Mike
12 years ago

The listener indicated Rawles as saying 3-6 hours away from major metro areas. I’m not sure how accurate that is to Rawles, but I think Jack has a good point that we sometimes confine ourselves inside a specific example (fictional or not), when really there is a wide realm of possibilities to consider – most of which do not include prolonged or widespread “Without Rule Of Law” WROL.

How far outside New Orleans or Galveston would you have to have been to avoid those “hordes”? Ten, maybe 15 miles?

Check out Jack’s Youtube video (v=Jg1MmyMTghQ) about likelihood of WROL vs. EROL.

Sage of Monticello
Sage of Monticello
12 years ago

Re: Regarding unrealistic scenarios

Barring a filibuster, and 2/3 majority vote against an executive order, we are going to see a Fraggle Rock scenario of epic proportions with Diane Feinstein’s bill being passed: which mandates finger printing of gun owners and photographs taken as if they were sex offenders and bans on semi-autos.

I know a popular theme is to dismiss the idea the government could come for our guns.

I hope Jack really looks into the Feinstein amendment in the draconian unconstitutional actions that will soon come.

It’s time for us to stop being ostriches and falling into normalcy bias and believe these incidents will never happen.

happyprepperok
happyprepperok
12 years ago

Heard your story about difficulties with the assessment of your new property.
My parents have a similar story without the happy ending.
Mom and Dad are both in their 70s and both have also had strokes, making it difficult for them to take care of their property that consists of 20 acres in Southern Oklahoma, a 3-story house with a finished walk out basement and a large shop near the back of the property.
Recently, they finally found a young couple more than willing to spend the $280,00 for the property. Dad says that more than $250,000 was in materials for the house alone and he and Mom built it themselves.
The assessor totally ruined the whole deals in minutes flat. He did not count the 20 acres, the finished walk-out basement nor the shop and assessed the value of the property at $160,000. The young couple could not get the loan for the asking amount and Mom and Dad are still stuck in a property that they can no longer physically handle.
I go down when I can to help out, but we have property and many irons in the fire and live 200 miles away.
I don’t know how they could have combated that situation, but not one ending up winning anything in that deal and that’s just sad.

boboroshi
boboroshi
12 years ago

Something that might help for people trying to do more with Twitter (e.g. receive emails upon posts) is to look into IFTTT.com. IFTTT stands for “If This Then That” and basically lets you set up macros between various online services. It may not cover this exact case, but I use it a lot for automation (e.g. posting instagram photos to my flickr feed, etc)