What’s wrong with tritium paint (other than the price) or some simple acrylic for the sights?

What else do you know that I would like to learn? Yes, that IS a serious question. I discovered long ago hat just about everyone I meet knows or can do something I would like to learn, and that if I take time to find out what it is and ask them nicely, usually they will tell or show me.

Thank you very much for writing. We enjoy what we do here, but the readers’ responses are the inch deep cream cheese frosting on the carrot cake.

Regards,

Linda

My head is hanging in shame twice, once because I wrote the chemical name down wrong, and because the e-mail I wrote you last night thanking you for pointing out my mistake didn’t get posted, somehow. Want to be my back up MacGyver? Seriously!

Linda

My head is covered with shame. Thank you so much for the correction! Will you be my adjunct chemical expert and MacGiver, please? Seriously! My darling Charles told me about the calcium CARBIDE, and I guess I wasn’t paying close enough attention. He grinned when I told him and said I know there is always going to be a test later!

Hope you’ll like a story I think is funny. The only time I ever cheated in my whole life was in highschool chemistry classes, and I’d do it again under the same circumstances. The Chemistry teacher had to quit right before school started, so the school board decided the superb Biology teacher could handle it. Well, Mrs. Giesenschlagg was one of the world’s greatest at teaching Biology, and under her tutelage I excelled, but she didn’t know a thing about Chemistry. We had NO textbooks. Why, I don’t know. She had some we could have been given, but instead she pulled out the weekly tests…and the first week she tested us on the NEXT week’s work, and so it went for the whole semester. I told her. I told my parents. I told the Principle. Nobody believed the school nerd! So…what would YOU do? Have a go at picking A, B, C, or D? Two other students and I decided–independently, or else it is one of the world’s bigger coincidences–that it behooved us to be “ill” every Friday for the rest of the semester. We took our make-up tests on Monday when Mrs. G. carelessly left the answers to Friday’s quiz on the blackboard. I don’t know about the others, but I gave myself a modest low A I would far have preferred to earn. I have always regretted my ignorance in this field, and I think I’ll ask for a gigantamongous chemistry set for Christmas!

Thanks again for the correction, and please suggest other chemicals it would be wise for us to accumulate, what they are good for, and any precautions we should take. You can write me at ranchLT4@gmail.com.

Warm regards,

Linda

PEOPLE ARE STILL EATING THE TOYS AND TREASURES OF THE PAST AND IF YOU START LOOKING AND TRACKING PRICES YOU WILL KNOW WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT TO BUY WHATEVER DURABLE GOOD OR LUXURY YOU FANCY.

We’re busy looking at diesel trucks, and you know why I advocate those. We have two dozen printouts of great vehicles from a thousand to two thousand dollars! Sure, they range from a ‘93 to an ‘83, but we’re prejudiced in favor of older, better-built cars. They are EMP-proof, go 50% farther on a gallon of diesel, have at least a quarter of a million miles left in them (one has 40,000 on a rebuilt motor, another is set up as a tow truck!), and we can get parts for them for the future. We’re inclined to get a Ford in case Gov Mot lets that portion of the business slide.

We picked up another ‘83 Mercedes Diesel 300 SD–for a thousand dollars. Replace the seat covers and she’s good for at least half a million miles. She’s in beautiful condition otherwise and Asia drove her home a hundred miles at 70. Dead steady on the road.

Darned straight this is investment advice! You NEED at least one diesel to cope with coming higher gas prices and the possibility of rationing and shortages. Remember the “fun” of the Nineteen Seventies? (I missed it because I was living in Europe, but there we got Sunday driving bans.)

The first class buggy was $2100, which is a big chunk…but last year it would have been twice that. There isn’t much market for buggies now, or much inventory, but who can say about 2022?

E-Bay is awash with sterling silver you can pick up for spot and sometimes less; at least half of the offerings list the weight. Everybody and his pet pig has told you to put at least 30% of your portfolio into “the poor man’s gold” that you can hold in your hands, so why not sterling service that will delight you, as well? If times become bad enough it can go into the melting pot; each piece is stamped “sterling.” With a small hacksaw and a scale you could cut it into half-ounce portions.

NOW is when we have to prepare for the future. My goal remains a dead heat between pulling cash assets down to zero and the collapse of the dollar.

“WHOA! Mama,” I can hear some of you exclaim. “Would you REALLY get down to nothing but pension income?” Yup. Unshakey as I think pensions are! It’s either stock up now or buy a wheelbarrow to cart Bernankes around in as they did Marks in the Weimar Republic. Ask the folks in Zimbabwe if cash is king.

LBT