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GAIA Host Collective
Who says investment is dead? I'm going to buy seed and check existing hand tools against what is needed for gardening. After that maybe more ammunition, more nonperishable food, and perhaps a few more jerrycans of gas.
If I get either of the two tech jobs open here in the region I'm going to promptly acquire a Yamaha Vino 125 for my commute.
My town will invest. If a business closes someone will put something in the space - I bet I can open a sustainable gardening shop in this town as long as I can pay the lights & heat for the space ... no rent required. Community investment at its finest ...
Someone here posted that a tractor can do an acre of planting in a few minutes but a human poking one seed in the ground at a time would take a week (estimates, for example's sake). This is just silly - the concept of intellectual property is still valid, but the nature of what is needed changes. The patent has elapsed on the little wood, metal, and leather gadget we use to stick sweet corn seeds in the ground and you can't find one unless you really hunt at estate auctions here ... this will be a needed device, easily made, and my investment for starting the seed poking widget factory will be along the lines of a pair of snips to cut leather, plus some stuff already in the wood shop. Research of history and repurposing of that which is already in place.
I'm expecting a property boom here for refugees, so I'm studying the locations and resources that are currently abandoned in my region ... it looks like a tumbledown farm, but its really a five acre parcel with a well, electric power, outbuildings suitable for animals and light manufacturing, and the local prefab building place can start making four hundred square foot cottages ...
http://flickr.com/photos/avyakata/sets/72157602211151483/map/
Investment isn't dead, but the scope will change dramatically, and the measure of value purely in terms of cash flow and liquidation value is gone.
I'm going for a 225cc Yamaha dual-purpose motorcycle, myself. It's an "offroad" bike that is also street legal. I want something that can handle the roads when they start getting really bumpy. Commuter scooters don't handle potholes very well. They stopped selling the 225CC model and the 2008 is a 250CC, however. More HP, but I'm sure slightly reduced MPG.
~Durandal (http://www.wtdwtshtf.com/)
I can do $2,300 for a scooter, but an offroad will cost double that :-(
The Yamaha XT225 Serrow is a good motorcyle and will probably cost you less than that Vino if you can find one a little used. Especially over its lifetime as scooters tend to be a little shoddily built. You should also consider a Yamaha Virago 250, Virago 535, Honda rebel 250, Suzuki GS500, and Suzuki Savage LS650. All of those are well built and fairly light bikes, the GS500 is considered one of the best commuter motorcycles and all of them should be available for <$2,500 lightly used.
I've been thinking about a scooter or a light motorcycle for a
while and I was wondering about a sidecar attachment for carrying packages, people etc. Do they make the bike more or less stable? I rode a lot in my teenage years both on and off road but I don't relish the thought of the possibility of road
rash at my age (57)and am looking for a more stable ride. Actually I have been looking at those 3 wheel scooters on the net a lot. (the ones with the single drive wheel in back)
Yeah, baby, you want to buy one of my scootercarts!
I have been looking at two wheel rides and wondering how I'm going to use them to pull my kayak.
My kayak is a much abused Otter XT 9'6" (3m) recreational model. I like the Otter because its short, easy for one person to handle, and cheap ...
So I was envisioning a trailer with a 9' (3m) aluminum tube, a 36" (1M) crossbar, and large bicycle style wheels. There'd be one additional crossbar to stabilize the boat and it would ride low to the ground behind the scooter.
Now peak oil crazies who like to kayak is not a large demographic and this would obviously be a custom job, but I can't be the only one about to transition to two inexpensive wheels as transport.
I think there is probably a market for a shopping cart shaped contraption with two large, bicycle type wheels, the cart handle at the back having LED brake & turn signals embedded, and the hitch to the scooter in front being a fold down. Hook the cart to the scooter, off to the market, detach the cart from the scooter and use it for shopping, then reattach the cart and drive home. There'd have to be a plastic liner /w lid option for rainy/snowy weather and I could see all sorts of delivery businesses doing this.
The are legal, physics, and electrical interfacing concerns but I'm sure this already exists in other countries ... I just want to see a small shop in Iowa cranking them out ... more of that relocalization in action.
I've seen Harley's pulling trailers before, and they were not even trikes. You might have a harder time with the scooter, given the low displacement of them, but it would likely work if you're patient on the zero to fourty.
~Durandal (http://www.wtdwtshtf.com/)
The Harley carts are *big* and meant for long distance pulling. I want twenty five pounds of cart and fifty pounds of payload - no more than a good sized child worth of load. I worry about the aerodynamic issues - a semi going by when you've got one of these lightly loaded in the slow lane might be a little bit dicey.
My vehicle is a 250CC Honda "Big Ruckus"
I lash a 90 Liter plastic storage box (Rubbermaid "Action Packer")
which I have modified with some eye bolts for easier tie down, to the passanger seat when I need to move lots of stuff and it works fine
The bike gets about 68 miles to the US Gallon, and is fine on the highway in the slow lane (top speed is about 120 km/hr) though I usually stick to secondary highways rather than expressways
A mountain bike with full suspension and many padlocks, chains, a security guard to protect your bike and some guns. That should sort out the travel side of things:-)
Oh and 10 sets of spare bits with lots of puncture repair kits and a large garage protected by your security guard to keep all your spare kit in. And if i know youv'e got this stuff your security guard is dead meat - my maurauding band of mad-maxian styled noephyte bandits will take over your garden and pillage your 10years supply or grain!!!
Silly. That's what landmines are for!
~Durandal (http://www.wtdwtshtf.com/)
Er, well, one of my recent "investments" is a Trek 8200 I think? Mountain bike I bought for $100 from a bum in downtown Prescott, I don't think it's stolen or, at least it's old enough that the original owner doesn't care. Really decent bike, with scratched/chipped paint for that battle-wise look. The word around here is the goat heads are so bad, the way to go is to get those "solid" tubes from Wal-Mart and just run those. Which I plan to. I can get around nice flat Chino Valley really well on something like that.
In the motorcycle area, the Vino 125 was one I was looking at, any Yammie 250 or so dual purpose bike will be good, and the Yam 250 Virago is a real winner. I was looking at financing one of those with insurance for $85 a month, of course the thing to do there is pay it off ASAP but that can get you out of your car and the car sold right away then put your car payments into paying off the bike.
A well cared for fairly modern bike will last a LONG time.
"A well cared for fairly modern bike will last a LONG time."
One word of caution...don't use synthetic oil (like Mobil 1, etc). Many well intentioned people seeking to keep their motorcycles running forever try to use synthetic oil in their bikes and it winds up getting into the clutch disk material (which resides in the crankcase and in the oil aka a "wet" clutch) and ruins it so that you'll have to replace the clutch pack. If you have a desire to use a synthetic, get a motorcycle specific oil from someone like Motul.
Also, if you're looking for the greatest longevity you should find a liquid-cooled bike. Air-cooled are great for their simplicity, but the tolerances have to be set much greater to compensate for the thermal swings they encounter - and then there are the thermal swings themselves. If you plan on sitting in stop and go traffic a lot...find something liquid cooled. Most air-cooled motorcycles will get pretty raggety by around 30,000 miles, and you might be able to coax 50 to 60,000 miles with exceptional care. Then you can either rebuild the engine or drop a new one in though rebuilding an air-cooled engine is fairly easy. Liquid cooled should last twice that, maybe more. Something extremely well built like a Goldwing can last 200k+ miles or more. Then there are air/oil cooled motors. There are varying types of air/oil cooling from light to full cooling by the oil, many Suzuki motors, some BMW, Ducati, and Victory use air/oil cooling. BMW's are a bit of a weirdo as it's generally accepted they can get well over 100,000 miles - crash bars recommended as the cylinders stick straight out the sides.
I should probably also note that many motorcycles are still carbureted and a bit uppity and you'll be a much happier owner if you're mechanically inclined enough to know when to put on/take off the choke ("cold start enricher"), look at the plugs to see how the mixture is, and know when something doesn't sound right.
The wet clutch thing is indeed an important detail to remember. I believe the problem is the additives that goes into most brands of auto motor oil to enhance lubrication: a good thing for the engine, but not so for the clutch, it's purpose afterall is to create friction between 2 or more discs so the power can be transferred to the gearbox.
But, but, but .... what if the marauding band of mad-maxian styled neophyte bandits all get malaria and really bad water and die before they can get going on a good run of pillaging and slaughter?
:) :) :)
What then,huh? --- Huh?
:) :) :)
I do think that all the tough-talking hard guys will melt in the face of disease, thirst, hunger, self-inflicted wounds, and of course the guns that others (also would-be hard guys) point in their general direction.
Back to the biking stuff -- it really works! If you can't do the HPV (Human Powered Vehicle) method, try some electric assist.
If that does not work, try the next step -- NEV with solar charging.
Or try a motorcyle or motorized trike. There are a variety of small motorised vehicles out there sufficient for local transportation of people and small loads of cargo.
If one truly needs to drive on the highway or haul really big loads, then it seems to me that the options are a bit more limited and the sustainable options might be a bit pricey.
Some folks do OK with biodiesel delivery vehicles "peace Coffee" here in minneapolis went from using bikes only to using a biodeisel truck when the routes just got to heavy and far-flung to make the bikes-only transport workable.
Here's a page on their van:
http://www.peacecoffee.com/van.htm
Here's one on pedal delivery:
http://www.peacecoffee.com/pedaling.htm
It takes a village to avoid pillage, and I guess we have to move around some of the categories in our minds before we can sustainably move ourselves and some stuff around.
...and so on, and so forth ....
I'd been looking at the Vino 125 ($2,300) but after reading this I started looking at the dual purpose ones. The places I go here are already pretty messy by urban standards, so I am thinking the wide tire TW200($3,500) might be the right thing. I do cringe at the 45 mpg it gets as opposed to the 125 mpg on the Vino, but you're right about road conditions ...
TW200 -
http://flickr.com/photos/fdrewett/54708371/
http://flickr.com/photos/rooibaard/911922149/
Ah yes, the SUB or sport utility bike is thus born. Quite why these things have to have such wide and clumsy tires is beyond me when a traditional dirt bike of early seventies vintage could race the length of Baja in less than 24 hours on a 3.00/21 front and a 4.00/18 rear. Unless you are living near a large sand dune which cannot be gotten around, the wide tires are just silly.
A 250cc motorcycle should be capable of an average 60 mpg or more; at low speeds the motor is way too big, but at higher speeds the cubic factor of wind resistance and the severely non aerodynamic nature of the plot makes the 250ccs work pretty hard.
Europe gets around just fine on 50cc mopeds. I've toured around Spain on 50cc machines and didn't find that my life was rendered incomplete by only going thirty or forty miles in an hour. The Honda Cub is still in production after nearly SIXTY years or continuous production. Must be a record. Viva Soichiro! Mind you, his design - and a lot of his others too - borrowed heavily from Italian designs of the early 50's, but he made it happen in the global marketplace.
Let's not forget that this little masterpiece was one of the first serious products exported from Japan after the war. Now if we could just come up with a diesel version running on chicken fat......with electric start, keyless entry and cupholders...no, wouldn't sell well in the Dakotas.
Here the TW200 gets sold to farmers who want them for utility use in their fields. I spend a lot of time outdoors and the added utility of 75cc more and tires and suspension to get into grubby places would serve me well. Urban SUV sales of any type are pretty much silly, but living here I could actually use one:
Having owned both the TW200 and XT225 Yamaha, I agree they're both great all-purpose, economical, low maintenance machines. The TW200 would be better if you need to deal with a lot of sand or mud. The XT225 is a better all around bike with enough power to haul a passenger and, with a milk crate on the back, you can pick up a week's worth of groceries. The roads down here in Central America are mostly pot-holed and the higher suspension of the 225 helps a lot with that, as well as handling the rough and rutted back roads. I usually get at least 100 km per gallon of regular gas. The 225 serves as a frequently used backup to my diesel Toyota pickup.
I agree with the XT225 over the fat-tired 200. I think it even gets a higher MPG due to the smaller rear tire compared to the 200.
~Durandal (http://www.wtdwtshtf.com/)
Good thinking Tipper!
I too have altered how "investments" are thought of. My new retirement fund is a little online business selling manual gardening and farming tools that are used in other parts of the world - figuring that we may someday have a larger need of such things in the US than we do now. Fortunately even now they sell well enough to make it worthwhile.
The tools include a grub hoe, a fork hoe, a Italian grape hoe, and a Ridging hoe. A grub hoe will basically do what a rototiller does, plus do trenching. A grape hoe is for weeding large areas - like between row crops and in orchards and vineyards.
We used to use these tools in the USA back before tractors became common.
I'm always looking to expand the tool selection - if anybody has any other ideas please share. In a few months I should have some long-handled mattocks and picks which are easier for normal people to use than the common short-handled heavy-headed hardware store variety.
I'm arranging to get handles locally (Missouri has small-scale handle amnufacturers) and have been looking into small-scale forging if anybody has thoughts on that to share.
Greg in MO
I've been thinking a lot about that forging stuff - we're in an 8.0M/s wind zone and there are platoons of wind turbines everywhere. Among other things this town has there is a metal fab place - they make widgets that go on tractors for driving wooden fence posts and all sorts of other stuff. We'd only need one wind turbine to drive an electric forge and they could cast on days the wind was blowing and do finish work the rest of the time ...
Are you at the contact number right now? I'd like to chat ...
I will be at the number on my website from 12:30 to 3:30 Central Time today.
Talking about small-scale manufacturing sounds great.
Greg
How do you determine who holds title to these abandoned properties? I currently am a renter in Lamoni and may be in the market next year for a cheap place of my own down here in Decatur County.
Thomas,
I find that the best way to determine ownership is to pull up to the next inhabited place you find and ask. I stopped to ask about a sweet one, hill top, small marsh below, and it is on a forty acre parcel a wealthy farmer has placed entirely in set aside so he can hunt ducks there.
If you're truly ready to buy the best thing to do is find a nurse who works in a care facility. They've got the inside track on who has five cares and kids that just want it out of their hair.
-SCT
Thomas,
the county tax assessor-collector can tell you who is paying real estate taxes on any piece of property and their mailing address.
I'm more familiar with the methods used here in Texas, but I think they are similar nationwide, but double check with the County Clerk and make sure the methods are the same in the state in which you live. A piece of property is sold to a Trustee,who actually forecloses if the property goes into default. After posting the prperty for a certain period of time if the old purcchaser can't pay for the property, its sold on the steps of the Courthouse to satisfy the lein (debt). The entity that lent the money is often the only bidder, and down here it happens on the first Tuesday of the month. The postings will be on a bulletin board at the Court House, and in many counties the County Clerk sells a list. In counties where the property is being sold to pay back real estate taxes or leins by various government agencies like a Hospital District, the Sherriff acts as the Trustee.
A couple of things to remember on foreclosures and tax sales. You need cash within 3 days to close the deal, so have your financing ready before you bid on the property. Many counnties, like mine ,Galveston County Texas won't let you bid on a property without a letter of Credit on file. Second, its well worth a morning watching the foreclosure procedure in the county. Third, never buy a piece of property unless you've seen it. Make sure you have a road or a right of way, and that its not encumbered so that it can't be used-what about sewers or septic tanks, how much will cost you to fence, to run electricity to the property. Make sure it doesn't have something environmental that will cost you more money to clean up tahn the land is wort, like drums full of unlabled toxic chemical or a mountain of old tires, both of which I've seen come with the perfect 10 acres in the country.
I spent most of last year working in Hudspeth County, Texas and there were lots of people buying small tracts from people on the internet, paying $200 dollars an acre on the idea that any land is worth at least $100 an acre. Wrong. They couldn't conceive of a peice of property thats 100 miles from a grocery, let alone a doctor or a book store and in an area where there is no flowing water in the county except the Rio Grande, Its pretty out near the National Park, but the land was salt flats and creosote bushes. No jobs, no nothing. About 1/4th of the county is owned by the state and they are happy to sell it to you Bob Ebersole
How do you determine who holds title to these abandoned properties?
You walk into the county Tax Map office. They have the parcels. Find the Deed. Everyone who works in Surveying knows the routine.
In many places, this information is now online.
Old fashioned corn planter:
http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=3774&itemT...
Got one a number of years ago.
Ours looks a little bit different but the operating principle is the same - tell me you can't make one of those out of scrap in the garage as long as you've got a tin snips handy ...