This Week In PREPPING News - TUNNELS_ UFOS_ PETRO DOLLAR & MORE

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[00:00:42] Welcome back to the workshop where we create community, find freedom, promote preparedness and share success. I am Toolman Tim. Today is June the 13th, 2024. And this is episode four hundred and fifty six of Workshop Radio. How are all my fellow human beings out there this evening?

[00:01:04] This afternoon, maybe depending on what time zone you are in. It has been beautiful here. Definitely escaping the high, high heat that I would be experiencing in Tennessee at the moment. But still miss down south just a tad.

[00:01:20] But I am keeping myself busier than a one legged man at an ass kicking contest. Let's go with that. Yeah, it's been an absolute incredible couple of weeks here trying to get everything done. So anyway, let's open up since this is this week in prepping.

[00:01:38] We are going to open with a rule to live by. I put it in the old randomizer this evening and I ended up getting rule number thirty four. And this is one that I actually sent to a friend today.

[00:01:52] So it was I guess good timing for that matter.

[00:01:56] But this is one that my dad, a lot of my rules that I live by and I should really rename this from rules to live by to rules that allow my life to go better when I live by them. Let's put it that way. So here we are.

[00:02:11] Rule number thirty four. A change is as good as a rest. Now, this might be the shortest rule to live by that I have in my list.

[00:02:20] But what does that mean? Well, a lot of times, almost in every instance when an individual is suffering from burnout, it isn't because they're doing too much. It isn't because their body is too tired. Now, I'm not saying that isn't the case.

[00:02:37] But what I am saying is and what my dad has told me a lot over the years is a lot of times what you need is a change might be, you know, a new hobby, might be some exercise, might be a new job.

[00:02:50] And that has been something that I have lived by for many, many years. If you get to a point where you just feel exhausted all the time, mentally, emotionally, just absolutely tore down, you can sleep all you want. Sometimes it'll help. But a lot of times it won't.

[00:03:09] And a lot of times that's your body's subconscious way of saying, hey, it's time for a change, dude. You're messed up. You're not happy where you are. You got to change something in your life.

[00:03:21] And so that is yet another rule to live by by the great David Cook. I love that dude to death brought me up in the right way. And there are a lot of Davidisms that I like to share with you guys.

[00:03:35] But this one has been one that has served me incredibly well over these years. So anyway, let's take a look at who is in the audience this evening. We got some fellow delinquents in here. We got Digger. He was the first one in that I saw this evening.

[00:03:50] Pippin, Ryan Pippin. Good to see you. He's in a much warmer spot than I am. And what else? Angie Marie. Great to see you. Byron Roberts says, I hate to say my body is telling me that now. Change is as good as arrest. Yes, brother, it is.

[00:04:05] It's one of those things. And we are also on the vertical feed again. It is something that YouTube is pushing immensely. It's great to see David Hausfeld from Michigan over on the vertical feed. Hardway Alaska. Great to see you as well.

[00:04:21] So this evening I got a ton to cover. If we don't make it all through, then I'll bring it back for another episode at some point next week. But I got a ton I want to show you guys. So with that, we can move right on into...

[00:04:35] If anyone dies while you are kept in your fallout room, move the body to another room in the house. The time has come for Stranger Than Fiction. All right, guys. So I've got four stories tonight to share with you. Plus one more that I added last minute.

[00:04:58] I was sitting outside watching my girls play volleyball, surfing Google News, and I come up with something that I hadn't heard yet. So I threw it in to its own segment this week. So shut up, Tim, and let's move right along. Here we are.

[00:05:10] All right. So this is... This was a quick one. Not a very long story. And here, let's go. Purpose of century-old secret tunnels beneath this Florida city is still a mystery. So, Ryan, this is from your neck of the woods.

[00:05:27] And this is a story I hadn't heard before. So here we are. It's been years since a network of secret tunnels were discovered beneath Tampa, but their purpose remains a mystery. The subterranean passageways below Wiber or Yiber City, Y-B-O-R, somebody can tell me how to pronounce that,

[00:05:44] may have been used to smuggle immigrants, alcohol, or even money for the mafia, experts theorize. Man, I always love a good tunnel story. Definitely interesting. So right here, you can see a couple of pictures.

[00:05:57] I mean, they look like they might have been rudimentary sewerways at one time or another, but this person who has explored them before said, I mean, you can stand up and maybe bend over a little bit,

[00:06:08] depending on how tall you are, but you could certainly travel through them. One of the last known access points to the tunnel burnt down in 2001, but the city was dumbfounded to uncover another in 2018 during a construction project near an old bottling factory. Taking advantage of the entryway,

[00:06:25] researchers dove into the network to try to map the extensive system, even finding a spring inside. So was this a speakeasy? Was this something used to transport, you know, the devil's juice during Prohibition? I mean, were people kind of stashed away down there trying to get in?

[00:06:45] You know, illegal immigrants, immigrants? I don't know. I'm not sure what it was. I love to theorize who knows what, you know, what way it is or where it came from. But yeah, I love it. There's a few artifacts they found down in there, mainly old.

[00:07:00] They said a treasure trove of bottles, possibly proof the tunnels were used to smuggle alcohol. I mean, sure, you could say that. But I mean, alcohol could mean a lot of things. That could mean the mafia were hanging out down there.

[00:07:15] That could mean again that they were smuggling folks in or as B-Man J said over on the vertical stream, the Underground Railroad. I mean, who knows? There's probably a simple solution or answer to this. I'm not sure how something this large exists under a city that doesn't,

[00:07:34] that the city has no record of. They're like, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, to me, oh, I would be tickled pink to research this. This would be something that I would be opening up to, you know, the tourist industry.

[00:07:48] I mean, not that, you know, Florida needs any more tourists, but man, this would be a really interesting place of, you know, of exploration. I'd love to go in there.

[00:07:57] It reminds me of the the old civil defense shelter that I found in Edmonton that is completely locked away and is just a footnote of history. Like, how does this shit just get forgotten? And why can't we explore it, celebrate it?

[00:08:12] I don't know. You know, make an economy out of it. It doesn't matter anyway. So this was cool. I thought this was a lot of fun. B-Man J over on the vertical says there are a lot of unmapped New York City tunnels.

[00:08:23] Absolutely. Bradley Garrett, he is the guy that wrote the book Bunker. He actually spent I believe it was a couple of years in England going way down underground into a lot of the subway or the forgotten tunnels below the subway.

[00:08:40] And you can imagine what that would be like. I'd love to do some of that exploration, urban exploration. So anyway, I don't know why they haven't made a bigger deal out of this, but I thought you guys would enjoy that one next. This is a fun one.

[00:08:53] And you'll be like, are you seriously talking about Costco again, Tim? Well, yeah, I am. I'm going to say that quite often Costco is a preppers paradise, not a gangsters paradise, but a preppers paradise. And there is some serious shit you can pick up there.

[00:09:08] Now this is one that I did not see coming. And if you guys happen to see the somewhat viral video, maybe a year, maybe six months ago, I can't remember of a police officer in Quebec who said,

[00:09:23] you know, guys, there's a lot of car thefts going on in Quebec and Canada in general. And you know what you should do to keep yourself safe? You should leave your keys by the back door to make it exceedingly easy for the ne'er-do-wells

[00:09:36] to walk into your home, steal your keys and go away with your hard earned vehicle. That's what they said. Well, some people aren't happy with that kind of thing. And Costco started selling security bollards. And if you don't know what those are, that's OK.

[00:09:50] The first time I'd seen the automatic style was back in 2016, 17 when I visited Washington, D.C. And they have those people go into the underground parking. And as soon as they go under those what are basically security posts come up out of the ground.

[00:10:07] Well, Costco is now selling those. Check this out. Costco Canada. This is from the National Post. Costco Canada selling retractable driveway bollards to protect cars from thieves. The TikTok account Costco Finds Canada recently shared a video. These are manually retractable.

[00:10:26] These aren't the automatic type, but I bet you could put an engine or motor or something on it. The TikTok account shows them for sale for five hundred sixty nine Canadians. That's about 12 bucks American. So here we are. Let's slide on down.

[00:10:40] Last June, a report from whatever this letter agency said. Toronto saw a 300 percent increase in vehicle thefts from 2015 to 2022, with the problem growing progressively worse each year. In 2022, more than 9600 vehicles were stolen in Toronto alone.

[00:10:59] Now, Toronto is a big city, but that is a shit ton of vehicles, a metric shit ton. In fact, while police suggest measures like investing in any theft device, ignition or fuel kill switches, steering wheel, gear shift and hood locks were stealing steering column callers and electric alarms.

[00:11:17] Others have turned to bollards. Wow. I think these are kind of cool. So I would just love to have those in general, just to have they would be a deterrent. You know, I live right in town. The back driveway exits onto an alleyway, you know, a shared alleyway.

[00:11:36] And I've thought about putting an automatic gate back there. I want something up that says, hey, I don't want you here. Simple as that. But not sure if I could. Well, anyway, allowed versus able. Right, guys?

[00:11:48] And I've looked at it a few times to try to figure it out. Hardway Alaska says just by a stick shift. Well, that is very true now, isn't it? Now, kind of funny, but I was just watching a video this afternoon

[00:11:59] that was all about something that Kia did back seven or eight years ago. I can't remember exactly. They cut some corners. They didn't include the automatic shutoff system that works with electronic keys. And they also made it as a nine Lee easy to pop the steering column off

[00:12:20] and use pliers or something as simple as a USB wire to turn the car on. So apparently it was something like a 2500 percent increase in the city of Milwaukee. And then there was a tick tock challenge showing that you could absolutely

[00:12:39] Kia souls one B man J says there was a 90 second tick tock video that showed how easy it was to hop into a Kia, smash it open and get going. Like it's insane. So anyway, that definitely attributed a bit of the rise in thefts,

[00:12:56] but it has become unbelievable in Canada. So Costco, like I said, and what other uses could you use for these? I mean, I would love to have you could put a sensor on them. You know, like at the old video stores, you'd walk through the door and go,

[00:13:10] Bing, bong, that kind of thing where you could have that kind of sensor that would rise it up. I don't know. There's tons of things you could do. I'm interested in seeing what the installation process is.

[00:13:22] There was a whole another part of it right here. I didn't go into, but it says there's a company called Ballard Boys in GTA. That's Greater Toronto area. And they have they've made quite a killing doing this lately. They said the lovely thing about these ballards is

[00:13:39] when they're down, you don't know they're there. It's inconspicuous during the day when they're dropped. But when I come home at night and I'm putting the car to bed, I pull them up. There's no way for anybody to be able to

[00:13:49] futz around in trying to get the car between the ballards because there's no way it would fit. So I don't know. What are your guys' thoughts on those things? I mean, again, it seems like we're playing whack-a-mole. And in this instance, it's almost a literal game of whack-a-mole.

[00:14:06] These ballards come up. How long is it going to take until the thieves figure out that all it takes is a rare earth magnet? I don't really know this. I'm completely throwing it out of my ass here. But say you take a great big rare earth magnet,

[00:14:18] it releases whatever the catch is and drops it down into place. I don't know. But it won't take very long. I like it. I think that most criminals take the path of least resistance. And at this moment, you know, solid steel ballards,

[00:14:32] even if they're manual, are definitely not the path of least resistance. So I don't know if anybody's ever installed them or had any experience with them. I'd love to hear about them for sure. All right. Let's see what we got here from the community.

[00:14:46] Pippin says I've considered a speed radar sensitive speed bump system for side roads. I like it. And again, Hardway says just buy a stick shift. And Byron Roberts says we had ballards like that in town and all it took was a church key.

[00:15:01] I can see that. And what do you do then? Right. I mean, in five years, in two years at this point, you'll be able to buy them on eBay and a year after that on Amazon. So, you know, it is what it is.

[00:15:14] We up in Lloydminster where we have the big daycares, we had to put we well, basically the city forces you to install these firefighter boxes outside. So what happens is inside that box is the key to the alarm system and a key to the door.

[00:15:32] And so the other day when I set off the fire alarm. Yeah, I did because of drywall dust. The firemen showed up. There's supposedly only two keys in the entire city and they've been there for quite some time. So that's great. Hopefully nobody ever loses the key.

[00:15:47] Hopefully somebody's always around. But again, it's one of those situations. They're great until somebody figures them out and then they aren't so great. All right. Back over. B man J says vibration sensors are cheap and easy to use.

[00:16:02] And B man J says full insurance and you get yourself a new car. All kidding aside, insurance is always a good prep. You know, we're here to talk about prepping first and foremost.

[00:16:13] And I'm a huge fan of having all the insurance you can have because there's only so many things you can do to prepare. And insurance helps you cover your ass when the things happen that you aren't prepared for.

[00:16:28] So and Rachel Brown says church key that I know of is a bottle opener. I like it. Fair enough. All right. On to the next story. This is a fun one. This is from Daily Mail dot com and exclusive.

[00:16:44] This is going to be a fun one. I'm almost thinking about I've got some ideas for some new segments because what I kind of want to do with this show is flip certain shows, certain segments in and then certain segments out just as the news dictates it.

[00:17:01] So anyway, if you guys can come up with a name for something supernatural ish, you know, kind of like I don't know. We'll see. Anyway, I've got some ideas, but we'll see.

[00:17:12] So this one is the haunting connection between UFOs and America's nuclear weapons is laid bare in fascinating new study, which concludes they're trying to stop us from annihilating ourselves. Kind of a fun story. And I hope you guys enjoy this.

[00:17:29] And let me know. Let me know if you like this kind of stuff, if you'd like a short little segment on each week because this one kind of caught my attention because it is a bit about the nuclear apocalypse.

[00:17:40] So let's take a look. Since the U.S. detonated its first atomic bomb in 45, dozens of accounts of UFOs have been logged by military witnesses.

[00:17:50] But the connection between UFOs and nuclear sites has persisted in India, Russia and elsewhere around the globe, leading many to wonder are aliens stopping us from exterminating ourselves?

[00:18:02] Hmm. UFO reports over America's nuclear arsenal appeared to shift from sites where the bombs were made to missile silos and U.S. air bases as the Cold War arms race grew.

[00:18:18] Now, this is kind of interesting. It's a long article. I picked just some of the real key points out of it, but you'll see here UFO sightings moved from nuclear weapons manufacturing to nuclear missile silos.

[00:18:29] Now, does it mean that that's the only place that they saw unidentified flying objects? No, it doesn't. But there seems to be a bit of a pattern. So here we go. They're qualified, but haunting conclusion. This is what came out of this multi-year study.

[00:18:43] Data from this three decade long period lends credence to the idea that extraterrestrials or some other intelligence has methodically surveilled America's rise to nuclear power. Interesting. So here's a picture here from 1945 to 1970. I'm not sure. UAP, Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Activity Pattern Study.

[00:19:07] From 48 to 52, as America's production of atomic weapons first ramped up, waves of UFO sightings began cropping up over Washington State's nuclear production complex, as well as Los Alamos and other sites for the Manhattan Project.

[00:19:21] So if you see this right here, this is a little bar graph. And if you're on the audio only, it's OK.

[00:19:28] UFOs over US military nuclear sites and elsewhere moved from day to night. Interesting trend. Now, I don't know. There could be, you know, what do they say? Causation doesn't necessarily equal correlation or vice versa.

[00:19:44] But so in the 40s, almost all UFO sightings were during the day. And as time went on, more and more of them came at night. So I don't know, would that be something?

[00:19:59] I don't know. Would people be spending more time outdoors at night? Not really sure. Don't even know why, but these patterns in the historical UFO record, according to the researchers, were accompanied by another clear trend.

[00:20:12] The UFOs appeared more and more over armed and ready nuclear weapon sites. The apparent craft also started to appear more at night. From 52 onward, cases of UFOs probing near active US nuclear weapons took precedence with a wave of sightings around America's new ICBMs.

[00:20:32] Several of the UFO sightings, including incidents at Maelstrom Air Force Base in Montana, that they say UFOs deactivated ICBMs. I thought that was interesting. Oh, I think we might have a winner here, guys, but we'll get to that in a minute.

[00:20:47] So in other words, where do we go from here? Just the 45 to 75 studies Hancock believes that reasonable conclusions or theories can be inferred about these airborne mysteries.

[00:21:00] That they appear to show intentional study of America's most sensitive weaponry. And his research partner ventured even a little further. They may have a better understanding of the future, our future than we do.

[00:21:13] So I don't know. I have been interested in UFOs since I was a kid. Who knows? I don't know how much truth there is to them, but they sure as hell always I always find them kind of interesting and they seem to go part and parcel with some folks on the prepper sphere.

[00:21:29] So if you like it, maybe we'll talk about a few more. This one just loosely tied into, you know, nuclear preparations and stuff. But the whole idea that and you know, the Daily Mail sometimes plays fast and loose with some of their reporting.

[00:21:42] But I think the idea behind this was the push was that the aliens or whomever was trying to protect us from ourselves. So yeah, anyway, kind of interesting. I enjoyed it. Now let's take a look at what the names that people came up with in the comments here.

[00:22:04] Rachel came up with saviors from above. Byron Roberts come up with poltergeist prepping and paranormal prepping and B man J come up with the haunted prepper and prepper ghost.

[00:22:17] I got to tell you, I really like paranormal prepper, paranormal prepping. Now here's the thing. I'm not going to be able to say that 10 times fast, but I think that one was really, really good.

[00:22:29] So give me just one second here, guys. This my dog wants in and they're being an idiot. So hang on. Actually, there was two dogs, Angus and Beatrice, and they've never done this to me before.

[00:22:45] So hey guys, they wanted to come in and say hello. So now they get to lay down with me until they decide they want to go out. So it's a live show. Anything can happen. It's definitely not Memorex, is it?

[00:22:55] And if you're younger than 38, you probably don't know what the hell I'm talking about. So next story. Here we go. This is one that I actually found out about when I was down at the coin shop in Montana last weekend.

[00:23:06] And it was a good time. It went down. I always like going in picking their brains and chatting. And we got talking about the drop in the price of oil.

[00:23:15] And one thing that they thought maybe had a bit of cause in that, I guess, would be this story right here. This comes from India today dot I n Saudi Arabia and 80 year petrodollar deal with the U.S.

[00:23:30] for multi currency sales. So I didn't even hear about this. I don't know if anybody else did. Now again, this is the type of thing to just be aware of not to be nervous about.

[00:23:39] But this has been so it was I didn't dig into it a whole lot, but they say it was an 80 year deal that was originally signed in 1974. So I'm guessing since that would be 50 years ago that it must have to be renewed every term or so kind of like a mortgage.

[00:23:55] But it sounds like they decided that they didn't want to renew it. So at this point, I mean we keep talking about currency collapse and things and I don't necessarily think this is going to cause it, but it certainly isn't going to help things.

[00:24:10] It's definitely going to kind of facilitate the U.S. dollar moving away from being the world's reserve currency, I think. So let's check it out here guys. And if anybody's heard about it, yeah, share with me. But I hadn't until this weekend.

[00:24:24] So by choosing not to extend the contract, Saudi Arabia can now sell oil and other goods using different currencies. There's some interesting things here. The Chinese RMB, euros, yen and yuan instead of only U.S. dollars.

[00:24:40] But check this part out right here. There's also talk of exploring digital currencies like Bitcoin for transactions. This decision marks a significant move away from the petrodollar system established in 1972 when the U.S. stopped linking its currency directly to gold.

[00:24:58] So where does this go? Does this back Bitcoin into a corner and kind of turn it into a world reserve currency? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But I can certainly tell you that it'll be interesting to see how the oil market ends up reacting to this sort of thing.

[00:25:18] But either way, I think the option of being able to take multiple currencies is never, never a bad thing. You know, whatever you want to say about Saudi Arabia, I think this could be an interesting move on their part. And let's see, we got it says it's expected to accelerate the global trend of using currencies other than the U.S. dollar in international trade. We all know that kind of thing started with Russia and South Africa and a few other spots.

[00:25:46] But it says, additionally, Saudi Arabia has joined Project M Bridge and that's Amazon Mama Bridge, a collaborative effort exploring a digital currency platform shared among central banks and commercial banks.

[00:25:59] So again, another kind of central digital currency that is being developed maybe outside of the U.S. So yeah, this move by Saudi Arabia marks the beginning of a major shift in global economic dynamics, though its full implications international trade and finance remain to be.

[00:26:19] Yeah, yeah, we know that. So in other words, it could be a big deal. It's probably not going to be a big deal overnight, just something to be cognizant of the fact that, yeah, the petrodollar is no more, I guess.

[00:26:33] So we'll see. I would love to see us go back to a goldback currency of some sort, not that that ties into this necessarily, but just just the thought so.

[00:26:45] All right, so we are going to move on. This is a new segment. And again, I need a name for it. For right now, we're going to call it this day and prepping and maybe that's what it's going to be.

[00:26:57] But I started, you know, weekly. I will see this week in history kind of stories and occasionally there'll be a story that kind of tickles on the, you know, the aspects of prepping.

[00:27:09] And if you go to survival blog dot com, that's the one run by James Wesley Rawls just about every day they do this day in history segment.

[00:27:19] And so quite often I'll get something on there that really said, oh yeah, we should talk about that. But to this one, it was something I hadn't heard of before. So in June 12th, 1859, the Comstock silver load and that's LODE in Nevada was discovered.

[00:27:37] Now it would also be L-O-A-D, the mother load of silver. This was the first major silver discovery in the U.S. Hadn't heard of it. And it turned out to be quite a large gold depository as well.

[00:27:49] But real quick, the Comstock load is one of the most important mining discoveries in American history. It was the first major silver discovery in the United States. It's estimated that out of all the ore that was taken during this time, 57 percent was silver and the rest was gold.

[00:28:05] This was something that spurred on the gold rush. It was something that brought a lot of economic growth in that area. But it at the time, of course, was the first and for a long time the largest silver repository in the United States.

[00:28:22] So, yeah, anyway, if you hadn't heard of that, all the links tonight are in the show notes. I've been getting way better. I've got a how do you want to put it? I've got a real system for putting together the show notes for this week and prepping now.

[00:28:37] And so you can count on there being links to absolutely everything in the show note or at least almost everything. If I miss anything, somebody, you know, give me a slap because I'm pretty sure I got everything.

[00:28:49] So back to the community real quick. And Byron Roberts, I think you just talked the prepper files. I love that. That's actually a really good that would work for me.

[00:28:58] I like that for both. I like that for the paranormal one and I kind of like it for this day in history. We can dig that dig back into the prepper files.

[00:29:07] Well, we're going to write that down too so we don't forget it. But yes, I like that name quite a bit. And I wanted to mention anybody out there who is always looking for a way to support the workshop.

[00:29:18] If you happen to notice, I'm wearing this month's patch, not the one that's coming out to you guys shortly, but the one that everybody just got. I wanted to wait until everybody had got there so that I didn't spoil the surprise.

[00:29:29] But this month's was the Anarchist Workshop and it is a delinquent workshop take on the old Anarchist Cookbook. If you guys read that in high school or downloaded on the early Internet like I did, I have a soft spot for it in my heart.

[00:29:45] And I got a lot of really good compliments from folks who got the patch this month. So anyway, for those who are new around here, it's ten bucks a month or one hundred dollars a year. You can go to PatchOfTheMonth.co and you can sign up.

[00:29:57] So anyway, you get a cool patch just like that every month and sometimes some extra goodies. All right. So sliding right on into. You stay in the back roads and you keep your gun handy. Our country is still full of thieving murdering patriots.

[00:30:14] Get ready for I read it on the Internet. There we are, guys. This is I read it on the Internet and this is well, this is where I break down the top story or the top forum post on our preppers.

[00:30:33] And a lot of times I've said they come from a less extreme view of prepping. I would say that quite often they're very practical in there and there's nothing wrong with that.

[00:30:45] So you get a different look at prepping and you get a different look maybe from different people group as well or a different age category. Let's put it that way because it's pretty easy to fall into the hey, I'm late Gen X early millennial kind of echo chamber.

[00:31:01] And it's nice to hear from maybe a younger side of things. But anyway, this is a good one. This comes from Morning Librarian 18. What a name. Who is someone you shouldn't have in a group if the shit hits the metaphorical fan?

[00:31:16] If that's HTF, what types of people are good to keep out of your group in order to ensure the safety of yourself and ones around you? So anybody out there want to throw in something?

[00:31:25] But who are the folks that you should not have in a prepper group because a prepper group or a loosely affiliated group of prepper friends would be who you're going to work together even when something really bad ends up happening.

[00:31:39] So what do we have? We got a few here. Appropriate ad says the negative narcissistic person who has no skills that can be used but has a very vocal opinion on why you are wrong.

[00:31:51] Hmm. Anybody out there know somebody like that has no skills, no discernible talent to help the people group, the family group, whatever it happens to be. But holy shit, don't they love to tell you why you're wrong? Hmm. Yep.

[00:32:05] I'll agree with that one. How about this one from five cents a day? Funny enough, it's my father-in-law. At least my mother-in-law can use power tools and process a squirrel.

[00:32:14] I had to laugh at that one because as you can imagine, this quickly turns into a shit on my mother-in-law fest. And you guys know I do that enough that I don't need to. So next, damn it.

[00:32:27] I just realized that if anything like this actually happened, I'm going to die saving or supporting my mother-in-law. And she'll make every minute of it suck until that happens. And B.J.B. says people who never say I don't know.

[00:32:44] I included that one because I think a teachable spirit is pretty important. I want to say that, you know, the lone wolf who thinks they know absolutely everything, you're not going to last very long. But I really like that. I just thought, you know what?

[00:32:58] In other words, have a teachable spirit in your prepper group or family. And Steel Bandicoot says not admitting you don't know something gets people killed.

[00:33:09] And finally, people that don't contribute lying about everything, don't know any skills, don't want to learn and always seems like these folks always want to be the leader of the group, even though they don't have any skills that make them a good leader.

[00:33:25] So in other words, folks that want power politicians. That's it. Yes, that was low hanging fruit there, Tim. You didn't have to grab that. But yes, folks who love power but have no discernible skills and offer no benefit to the greater society.

[00:33:39] Hey, so yeah, I like that just a short short and sweet version of I read it on the Internet. Here we go. Ryan Pippen says you need power tools to process squirrels. I mean, it makes it quicker a lot faster. But yeah, no, I don't think so.

[00:33:55] I'm going to guess there should have been a comma in there. But Digger says another good name would be Prepper Rations. I like that one quite a bit too. All right. And so let's follow on to he's dead.

[00:34:11] They're all dead. Everyone you and I are in a dead world and I'm glad it's dead. Keep honky tonk of a world. Coming up next is Workshop Wasteland. This is where we take a look at post apocalyptic dystopian fiction music, movies, books, video games.

[00:34:30] It doesn't matter. We talk about it and it's going to be a short and sweet. We got like four quick articles. It was a busy newsweek, but not anything in depth. I had zero time once the weather gets nice like this.

[00:34:42] I don't have a whole lot of time to watch any post apocalyptic pop culture or mass media of any sort. But, you know, when the weather gets a little colder, I try to get a little more in. But that doesn't mean there wasn't some interesting news this week.

[00:34:56] So number one, if anybody likes Starship Troopers and I definitely have a soft spot for Starship Troopers, just the same director did this one and Robocop and Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie where he goes to Mars.

[00:35:14] Total recall. All three great, all kind of dystopian, satirical, dark humor filled sci-fi epics. So this one says do your part and join the fight in the new Starship Troopers extermination trailer. This comes from Collider.com.

[00:35:31] And if you're into video games this October, everyone will be called to do their part in service of the United Citizen Federation with the release of Starship Troopers Extermination.

[00:35:40] Now I got to tell you, I remember the first time I watched Starship Troopers and it was on VHS at my friend Lynn's house. We used to get down there. The whole lot of us would hang out on her couch in the living room

[00:35:52] and we would watch on an old floor model TV. And I didn't quite get the movie the first time I saw it. But the fact that that film from nearly 30 years ago is getting turned into a video game

[00:36:04] because video games are big bucks nowadays, kind of blows me out of the water. It shows some of the staying power of really good satire. During the IGN live event, a new trailer was unveiled announcing the first person shooter video game developed by Offworld Industries.

[00:36:19] The sci-fi satire franchise's universe will launch out of early access on October 11th. It's going to be on PC, PS5 and Xbox. I thought that was pretty cool. And Byron Roberts says, I liked it better the more I watched it. I as well, definitely.

[00:36:36] It was something again when you watch it a little bit older, you get the satirical bent to it. And you know what's really funny is Paul Verhoeven. He's the dude who directed this and Total Recall and Robocop.

[00:36:51] Also, anybody else want to guess what his fourth movie he was most famously known for? Yep. It was Showgirls. So how do you end for how do you go with three incredible movies in a row and then end up with the fourth one being Showgirls?

[00:37:07] I don't know. I mean, I get kind of where the satire comes in. But anyway, that's enough of here. You didn't think you came in to hear me talk about Showgirls, did you guys? Ryan Pippen says, would you like to know more?

[00:37:18] And if you haven't seen the movie, you won't get it. But if you have, you will. So there you go. There's the first quick story next. I'm not huge into anime. My daughter is.

[00:37:28] But you know what I do like is most anything that deals with the Terminator franchise. Well, OK, how about anything made in 1991 and before? But anyway, Netflix Terminator zero series has revealed who is voicing the new Terminator. And it's a phenomenal choice.

[00:37:43] One of my favorite actors in Hollywood that that part's not in the story. But Timothy Oliphant, what a great name, has been recognized for years as an exceptional talent. And he is now going to be doing the voice of the main Terminator in the Terminator.

[00:38:00] Anime series. Let's see. What do we got here? It's going to be on Netflix. It didn't say when yet. But it's Netflix hosted a new special called Next on Netflix animation.

[00:38:11] And so, yeah, it's going to have Sam Worthington, Jason Clark, Gabrielle Luna, a whole bunch of interesting voices. But Timothy Oliphant is going to be playing the main character in the series. So should be good. I'm looking forward to it.

[00:38:26] I may even sit down and watch a bit of it with Alice to see how it turns out. And finally, because I'm obsessed with now, I really enjoyed the first last of a series. And, yeah, it's been a year. Do I miss it? Yeah, I probably do.

[00:38:40] I probably do to go back and watch it again. But they made an announcement last of us season two, and this is from Deadline.com. Here it is. It's a case of good news, bad news.

[00:38:51] And I'm going to summarize it. But basically, season two is going to be seven episodes. So three episodes shorter, I believe, than episode one. But they announced that there's definitely going to be a season three and probably a season four.

[00:39:03] They've looked at the storyline of the second installment in the video game series and decided that it'd be more fully fleshed out over a two or three season arc. So if you're looking forward to it, great.

[00:39:15] If you think there they go, Hollywood just milking something for every penny. Probably also true. So we'll see. But yeah, so there we are. And we busted through that one quick. Next, we have nothing like eating under an open sky, even if it is radioactive,

[00:39:32] dropping the dime on precious metals. Yeah, so somehow I managed to get all my notes out of Jumble. I don't know. I put. So what I do for anybody who would like to take a peek behind the curtain

[00:39:45] and you're like, Tim, put that away. We're not looking behind the curtain. But so I've got three monitors set up here. I've got the vertical stream to my left. I've got my notes in front of me. Then you guys are directly to my right.

[00:39:56] And then on the far right is where I have all of my articles. And I take very good care before putting the show together of making sure the articles line up with my notes, except I totally screwed the pooch on this one.

[00:40:09] Don't know what happened, but it's kind of funny. Anyway, here we go. I thought this was an interesting thought experiment. You guys know where I stand on precious metals. Don't throw all your money into it.

[00:40:19] Don't cash out your R.S.P.s and put it all in gold and silver. And if you do it, your wife better not come after me and try to shoot me because it was not my advice. But here it is. If you'd invested $1,000 in gold 10 years ago,

[00:40:32] how much money would you have today? This is from Yahoo Finance. So 10 years ago, the price of gold set at $1,246 an ounce. Today it's worth damn near double, $2,350 and $65. That marks an 88.66% increase in value or an annual average return of almost 9%, not calculated for compounding.

[00:41:01] If you'd invested $1,000 in gold a decade ago, it would be worth $1,886.56 today. So nearly $1,900. That's not a bad return, but does it compare to say an investment in stocks? So this is a cool thought experiment. I want to elaborate a little bit on it

[00:41:18] because we want to make sure we're doing an apples-to-apples comparison. If you'd taken that same $1,000 and invested it strictly in the stock market, the S&P 500, you know, the top 500 performing stocks, Wall Street, that rose 174% over the last 10 years for an average annual return of 17.41%.

[00:41:43] That is double what you would have made on gold. Now, a caveat, and that is why anybody who tells you to invest all your money in precious metals probably sells precious metals. You know, somebody much smarter than me for many years

[00:42:02] has said 5% to 10% of gold in your wealth. Now, lots of smart people have said that, and the main reason that is is the idea behind gold and silver is it's a hedge against inflation. We'll talk about that a little bit more.

[00:42:19] You shouldn't, I guess what I should say is precious metals shouldn't be viewed as a way to make money, but it's a way for your money not to lose its value. And it's a really good way to diversify. You know, if you're looking at making the most money

[00:42:35] in the shortest amount of time, then the stocks are definitely way ahead of silver and gold. Now, you probably should be in both, but I'm not going to give you that advice, but that's the type of thing that Becky and I do.

[00:42:47] But again, I love silver and gold. I like it because it helps insulate you against economic crashes, against currency collapses, and if the, you know, SH was ever to TF, if the shit was ever to hit the fan, well, it would be something that would probably be worth

[00:43:06] quite a bit down the road. I don't think it's going to be worth much during a collapse, but post-collapse, I think it would be worth quite a bit. All right. Why investors look to gold? What does Yahoo Finance have to say?

[00:43:19] Many investors consider gold the ultimate safe haven investment. When the world goes to hell in a handbasket, investors turn to gold. Why? Precisely because it's been used as a store of value for millennia. Investors like gold as a hedge against geopolitical uncertainty.

[00:43:37] If global markets and supply chains look like they might get disrupted, investors flock to gold. In 2020, anybody remember what happened in 2020? I know there was something, but this old brain can't bring it up right now. In 2020, for example, gold jumped 24.5%. Likewise, investors retreat to gold when fiat currencies,

[00:43:56] and that's a fancy way for government printed dollars, lose value fast to inflation. Amidst all the inflation anxiety in 2023, gold rose 13%. Finally, gold offers a non-correlated hedge against stock market crashes. Again, a hedge against inflation, a hedge against economic downturns, the works.

[00:44:18] In other words, gold offers the big D. Did you just say that, Tim? Yeah, I did. The big D, diversification. A collapse in financial markets doesn't cause a collapse in gold prices. Quite the opposite. Many investors believe gold will rise in price if a bear market hits.

[00:44:36] So again, gold is another form of insurance. Gold is a great form of diversification. Gold is a way to hedge against inflation, collapse, currency devaluation, all of the above. So here it is. The reason you tuned in for this article. So is gold a good investment?

[00:44:58] Well, that depends. It's a defensive investment. Don't expect it to generate the same returns as stocks or real estate or pay any cash flow. Again, you're not going to pull money out of what you buy with gold and silver.

[00:45:13] But when the zombie apocalypse comes, gold will have value even if no other investments do. So again, there's the sum up. Should you have all your money? No. And that is the perfect reason.

[00:45:24] That shows the good and the bad or the good in the intermediate with precious metals. That's what it comes down to. Have some, but don't put all your eggs in one basket because you're not going to get rich off of buying precious metals.

[00:45:38] And for a guy who loves precious metals, just being honest, it's great to have a small portion of your money in that. But don't go balls to the wall and spend everything you got because Y2K2 is coming or whatever it happens to be.

[00:45:53] So all right, we've got two articles in dropping the dime this week. And the next one is I don't know if you guys heard about this, but this came from Business Insider dot com. And this was one of the big reasons that gold dropped this week.

[00:46:06] Gold is getting so expensive that even China's central bank stopped buying. So I was talking to the guys at the coin shop and one dude there told me that he was pretty sure that China's currency is gold backed.

[00:46:21] Now, I really should have looked that up before I went live this evening, but I did not. However, the fact that they buy metric tons, literally metric tons of gold should tell you something. China needs or wants gold.

[00:46:35] Here it is. China's central bank gold buying streak has been a major driver of prices that hit record highs recently. However, it looks like gold has gotten so expensive that even the People's Bank of China has taken a break.

[00:46:47] On Friday, official data showed China's gold holdings were unchanged in May from the prior month, which means the central bank didn't buy any gold. The pause has left gold vulnerable on more downside pressure. Now, here it is the benchmark price.

[00:47:02] So that's kind of the you know, there's like this mental hurdle when something goes above a price. You would think people would want to sell it, but a lot of times people try to buy it.

[00:47:14] But, you know, the real investors get skittish when it gets over a certain price. And in this this time, the benchmark is around twenty three hundred per ounce, about six percent lower than its record high of twenty four fifty per ounce on May 20th.

[00:47:28] Prices of gold or traditional safe haven asset have been on a tear this year, about 11 percent to date. In China, people are also loading up on gold as a store of value amid economic uncertainties.

[00:47:40] Who would have known all these years later that the one child policy would come back in turn a once thriving economy into a glorified retirement home? Because that is the big problem that China is quickly heading toward.

[00:47:57] But here it is, China's central bank gold buying had actually started to slow in April. They bought sixty thousand troy ounces of the precious metal. That was down from one hundred and sixty thousand ounces in March and three hundred and ninety thousand in February.

[00:48:14] So in those three months, well over half a million ounces of gold. That's crazy. Man, I would love to have even a percentage of that. Hey, but anyway, I had no idea China was buying up this much gold.

[00:48:27] And there is some talk among circles that say there's probably a reason China stopped buying and it's not because they're going to actually stop buying.

[00:48:37] It was just so that the market could cool off and the price would drop back down because I think they were pricing themselves out of the market. And, you know, I guess doing their due diligence. Right.

[00:48:48] So, yeah, anyway, so there is dropping the dime on precious metals for you guys. So here is yet another new segment name that we need this week. And so what I would like to do is maybe spread out the news stories a little bit.

[00:49:04] But just before I went live, I came across a tech segment, a tech story basically outlining if you guys saw just recently, Apple did their later latest developers kind of conference where they showed what's coming out in the next.

[00:49:20] I think it's the iOS 18. Well, it's kind of funny because a couple of days ago I was in a dead zone.

[00:49:27] I went to send a text message and I looked at my phone and there was a little satellite icon on the top and I thought, well, that's strange.

[00:49:34] Now, a year or so ago, I did a story, a segment on Apple, including low Earth orbit satellite functionality for emergencies only. So if you got lost, you know, in the northern woods or something, you could use it. It could message Joe and save your life.

[00:49:50] And some people had. Well, I didn't know this, but apparently they're getting ready to roll it out to just about everybody and not just for emergency.

[00:49:58] So anyway, I would love a name for a tech related segment, not something I'm going to do every week, but something I would love to do occasionally as the news cycle warrants for sure. So a name for the tech segment, anybody out there in the audio?

[00:50:15] If you are using Fountain, I've been getting quite a few boost grams over there. You can always leave your suggestions over there too. So here it is. This is from CNET.com, one of my favorite sites for tech related stuff.

[00:50:29] So it says I saw messages via satellite in action and its iOS 18 most underrated feature garden girl says tech with Tim. Damn, that's pretty good. I like that. So satellite messaging. If your iPhone already supports satellite connectivity, iOS 18 add satellite texting.

[00:50:48] So it's like I said, it's been something they've had for a while, but now they're opening up to non-emergency use and absolutely everywhere. Again, there's preppers who say I don't need roadside assistance. I don't need life insurance and I'll be damned.

[00:51:03] I don't need to prep with my cell phone. Well, I got to tell you guys something. My cell phone has become more and more part of my prepping plan every single day. Now, does that mean that I'm going to count on it?

[00:51:16] No, but you know, it would be like a dude being out in the middle of the woods and dying from frostbite because he has a big lighter in his pocket,

[00:51:28] but he's too stubborn to use it and he can't figure out how to rub two sticks together and create a fire. Why would I not use the tools that I have at my disposal? Now, could they fall apart tomorrow?

[00:51:41] Absolutely. Do I need to, you know, could I have to switch to, you know, a burner phone, de-Google phone and walk away from everything else? Well, I hope that never happens, but you know, it's always good to have plans for that.

[00:51:54] But here it is. I have recently incorporated and, you know, take it or leave it however you want. But I've started using the Apple wallet on my phone and I recently installed a device on my car, on my truck.

[00:52:08] Sorry that allows me to use my phone via an LTE or 4G connection to unlock my car, unlock my truck or start it in the morning. I already had a remote starter installed, but this allows me to use my phone.

[00:52:23] Couple of the reasons for that kind of stuff is when I go to events, I would love to be able to leave, you know, the majority of my money and wallet hidden safely inside my vehicle along with my car keys.

[00:52:36] I would love to be able to leave those in there. Now you say, well, Tim, what about, what about? Yeah, well, I always have contingency plans, I promise. And I'm going to talk more about that in a segment in the future.

[00:52:46] But I digress. I went down a big rabbit hole because I love the idea of satellite messaging. You know, should you only count on your iPhone? No. But can you count on your iPhone as part of a pace plan for comms, for finances, for whatever else?

[00:53:03] Yes, you absolutely can. So here we go. During Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, they talked about Apple intelligence, if you haven't heard about that whole bunch of other things, and they basically glossed over satellite messaging.

[00:53:18] But here it is. Now with iOS 18, Apple is taking the technology and expanding it so you can message anyone, even when it's not an emergency. So back a little while ago, Apple highlights some of the stories before its big shows.

[00:53:33] One feature behind one of the more dramatic rescues is emergency SOS via satellite, which iPhone 14 and 15 users have access to. So I was kind of excited. Apple's senior director of platform product marketing walked me through a demo of messages via satellite at Apple Park

[00:53:52] and remote part of the company's campus. And I'm going to insert there in an area with no cell service on a warm sunny day, night sent messages, emojis and even tap backs. Don't know what a tap back is. If anybody knows, let me know.

[00:54:06] Using satellites orbiting in the sky hundreds of miles above us. It's just like using iMessage that you're used to. Super easy. Knight said we have a custom protocol so that this is end to end encrypted. I like that. Now, of course, does Apple have access to it?

[00:54:23] Yes, I think so. I'm sure they do. But they say it's end to end encrypted either way. Don't send shit that you wouldn't want someone else to read. But it's a great way to send messages when you're off grid or out in the woods, the boonie somewhere.

[00:54:37] We have a custom protocol that's end to end encrypted. We had to do some extra work to make the data packets extra small because you need to be really efficient sending things up to space and back.

[00:54:47] And, you know, it goes on. It basically shows, like I said, a little satellite nugget there to show you. But he said the only tell that something was different at all was the time it took for messages to be sent.

[00:54:58] Most were almost instantaneous, but others took 15 to 20 seconds in one took just over a minute. But what surprised me the most was that he was able to receive incoming messages in SMS text using satellite connectivity with some caveats.

[00:55:14] If you use iMessage over satellite connection, all messages will come in no matter who initiates the conversation for SMS over satellite. You have to initiate the conversation by sending the first message unless that person is an emergency contact or part of a family setup.

[00:55:31] I like that a lot. So, I mean, they have to, you know, I'm sure bandwidth is a concern. I'm sure cost is a concern so you can set up emergency contacts or a family setup and those messages will come through satellite no matter where you are.

[00:55:45] But if you initiate a conversation with somebody, then it's fair game. The messages come and go via satellite, at least for the intern. So something else to think about that is satellite comms on a shoestring budget, literally free at this point.

[00:56:02] Now, nothing's free in this life. We know that. So either they're going to either eventually it's going to cause, you know, they're going to bring in the cost up, you know, to kind of upgrade to it.

[00:56:12] Or again, they're going to sell the information to somebody else. I don't know. I hate to be that dude. But anyway, this was something that really tickled the old gray matter this evening.

[00:56:22] And I wanted to share it with you guys because there is this is something that definitely affects us as preppers. So back to my delinquents in the chat and garden girl come up with three.

[00:56:33] It says three names talk tech with Tim, talk tech to me and Tim talks tech. And then Digger says Tim tech, the next generation. I kind of like all of those. I'm going to sit on those. Those are funny.

[00:56:49] Tim tech, the next generation and Tim talks tech. You guys, you know, I love alliteration. I don't know why, but yeah, it is what it is. So there you go. Oh, boy. All right. Back to single layout for a moment here.

[00:57:01] And we're going to talk about this week in the workshop. And I've had a busy, busy week. Busy enough that I had to postpone tomorrow's post apocalyptic book club because I have yet another project.

[00:57:17] I need to remove two walls at the new daycare because we are quickly outgrowing that facility. And holy cow, Ryan Pippen said tool man tech. Boy, I think I like that one.

[00:57:27] That one's pretty damn good. We're going to just throw that one in here to tool man tech. I like that quite a bit. All right. So this week in the workshop is what do I do there? Why do I do it? Two reasons, inspiration and accountability.

[00:57:41] And you guys have heard that many times before, but it is true. If I don't talk about what I do, I might be, you know, motivated to be imagine being motivated to be lazy. But if I don't talk about it, I might not get shit done.

[00:57:54] And if I don't talk about it, somebody else might not get inspired or think, huh, I could do that too. You know, that old lug from Canada can do something.

[00:58:03] Well, I bet I could too. We're going to start with something I've wanted to do for a long time. I'm glad I didn't do it in my last vehicle because I ended up trading it in.

[00:58:12] But I finally installed an inverter in the old RAM, the old new RAM, you know, the green one. And I'm really stoked about it. I have one more one more installation that's going to go along with it.

[00:58:22] But I took my time. I spent the evening last night going through the firewall in the front and then I ran the wiring all under the carpet.

[00:58:31] I took all the trim off without breaking anything, ran the positive and negative all the way to the back driver side seat. I hooked up a believe it's a 300 amp.

[00:58:43] I did all the calculations a while back, but it was a 300 amp breaker under the in the engine well. And at that point I had a working 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter under the passenger or the driver side rear seat.

[00:58:58] So that was great. I was quite stoked about that. But the final goal, well, basically until I come up with a new idea last night, was I also always wanted a 120 110 volt 15 amp plug in the box of my truck.

[00:59:14] Now, a lot of vehicles come with that now. Mine didn't. So I picked up all the supplies on Amazon and I took my rear.

[00:59:23] Well, yeah, I took one of my signal lights, rear signal lights out and I drilled an inch and three quarter hole right through the box of my truck. And you might think, holy shit. Anyway, yeah, I did that.

[00:59:35] It's waterproof. And if you want to see a video of it, I put it in the telegram group tonight. But I now have a completely working 110 120 volt outlet in the box of my truck.

[00:59:47] So now I can charge while driving the oh, man, I have a whole bunch of different things I want to. But the main one is my big power stations and the one I tested it tonight. The anchor draws at almost 1100 watts. No problem at all.

[01:00:04] And I decided since I've done that, that there's a console between where Alice and Charlotte say it's a fold down armrest with cupholders. And behind it is a flat plastic plate, a perfect place to install two AC outlets, a USB, a and a USB C outlet.

[01:00:24] And what I'm going to use, I found it on Amazon. You know those desk grommets, the things that allow you to pass wires through?

[01:00:31] Well, this one is going to be a well, it has the electrical end of it and then a tighten up nut on the back side. And I'm going to make that look perfect. So that'll give the girls outlets in the back as well.

[01:00:43] So that'll give me outlets between the two back seats, an outlet in the box of the truck and an outlet underneath the seat where I could also plug things in while I drive all 15 amp 120 volt outlets.

[01:00:58] I'm stoked about it. It was a job. I'm really proud of myself for doing it, but that wasn't the only tech I installed in the truck this week.

[01:01:05] I actually picked up a new dash cam because the one I had that was given to me by my brother-in-law ended up shitting the bed. So I bought a German, the little tiny one that is going to work absolutely perfect. And I got it set up.

[01:01:19] It takes voice commands. It's super tiny. It was tiny enough that I was able to install it on the far side of the main windshield on the passengers side there. And so it works great. It has a hundred and forty degree angle wide angle lens.

[01:01:33] And yeah, all you have to say is hey Garmin or something like that. And it'll take pictures, save some pictures, that sort of thing. So there was that. And then finally I installed a little device like this that does GPS tracking.

[01:01:48] It's called Drone Mobile and it goes down in the bottom of my window and it tied into the remote start function of the truck. That was quite a bit of fun finding where the wires went and patching that in.

[01:02:02] But the app setup was incredible. It's like five bucks a month to have LTE access to your vehicle. So I'm pretty excited. It was definitely a good install and a great upgrade for it.

[01:02:15] And I need to apologize, but my dogs are being bad again tonight. You guys are never coming in here again, are you? So there they go. This is what happens when Becky's not home in the evening.

[01:02:27] The dogs go, no, it's not her fault. It's just they when she gets home, they love to sit with her. And when she's not home, they wander and get into shit. So I know there you go.

[01:02:38] So yeah, dash cam drone mobile inverter in the truck. We took a field trip to Montana. Just kidding. My wife and I and my in-laws, Barrett and Amy, we went down for two evenings to Montana.

[01:02:51] Here's the story. I went down to do a little shopping, check out my favorite silver shop. But the main idea was that Barrett's racing engine was supposed to be at the border on Monday.

[01:03:03] So we left Great Falls heading to the border, expecting our parcel to be there around noon because that's usually when they show up. We get to the border about 11 o'clock. It's an hour and a half drive from Great Falls to Sweetgrass.

[01:03:17] Hasn't shown up. We decide, you know what? We better call FedEx and see what's going on. Usually I have no luck. We ended up getting right through to the dispatch guy and he's like, yeah, I know it says it's on the truck, but it didn't make the truck.

[01:03:33] And we're like, well, so what do we do? Becky says, well, I guess we go back to Great Falls. So we added three extra hours to our drive that day instead of a seven hour day. It was a 10 hour day.

[01:03:44] So an hour and a half down, picked it up off the the ramp at FedEx and an hour and a half back. And we made great time at the border. Didn't have to pay a whole lot of taxes, so that was helpful.

[01:03:56] There you go. Fixed a toilet here in the basement. The wax seal started going bad.

[01:04:01] You could hear it sucking air when it was flushing. So I replaced that and I fixed a leak under our kitchen sink that we hadn't seen but was making some kind of wacky smell under there. So again, always fix a loose screw, right?

[01:04:15] Oh, boy. Walked around a nearly abandoned mall, took some pictures. I don't think I posted much in the Telegram group, but it was kind of neat. It was like going back into the 90s. But this mall had a food court that doesn't exist anymore.

[01:04:28] And I would say 60 to 70 percent of the storefronts are empty. I don't really know what's keeping that mall open. But yeah, if you're ever in Great Falls, it's pretty interesting to check out.

[01:04:40] We went to a grocery store there and I ended up parking really close to an International Scote model 2. And if you guys haven't seen one of those trucks, well, I don't know why that thing just stuck with me, but I loved it.

[01:04:53] I think I'd love to get an old beat up one to fix up, but it would make one of the best bug out vehicles. And the latest model, the one that come out in 1980 actually had a diesel, a Nissan diesel engine in it.

[01:05:06] So I'm going to check that out for sure. And Garden Girl says tax shelter for the mall. Yes, you are right. And I also missed it there. I have to apologize.

[01:05:15] But they said their new truck has a 110 outlet in the box of the truck as well and they're great. Yeah, I'm glad to have one now. So anyway, International Scote, if anybody's seen them in the wild, they're awesome.

[01:05:28] We ended up going to a GNC and that's one of those like places that sell weightlifting supplements because one of the girls that works for Becky up in Lloyd, she asked if we would find her some of these energy drinks.

[01:05:39] And apparently GNC sold them. So we went there. That wasn't I'm not telling you that because of that. But I got talking to the guy because, you know, that's what I do talk to people. And we got talking about the caffeine content and things.

[01:05:52] And he's like, yeah, you haven't seen nothing. He says you need to check out this pre workout stuff called woke AF and you can probably figure out what AF stands for.

[01:06:00] That thing in one little scoop has three hundred and thirty three milligrams of caffeine, the same as two cans of Monster, the big cans. So that tells you something. I mean, that is heart palpitations and a heart attack waiting to happen.

[01:06:17] But the reason I bring that up is that would be an incredible way to stash or store away a ton of caffeine in a very condensed environment. So I've seen it. It looks really, I don't know, just getting close to it. Give me palpitations like I'm telling you.

[01:06:35] And this dude told me there's people that take three and four scoops of that before they work out. Your heart would be going 100 miles an hour. I couldn't even imagine. But I just wanted to mention it.

[01:06:45] So and then finally, this week I did a video on the Costco Duracell lantern. If you guys haven't seen it yet, it's been a really well received video.

[01:06:54] But it's funny how little things that you buy for in this case was 40 bucks Canadian, 30 dollars American end up being some of your favorite items. But I use that thing a ton in Tennessee. So check that review out if you get a chance.

[01:07:08] And next is a segment that kind of started last week and I decided to keep it going a bit called Food for Thought. And it's really just something that's been beaten around in my old noggin. And I wanted to share it with you.

[01:07:23] This one came out because this afternoon I was prepping for something else tomorrow is every second Friday. I have a managerial meeting with the two young people who are running our daycare in Lloyd Minster. They're great. I think the world of them.

[01:07:40] But their biggest problem is they're from Gen Z. Not really. But what that ends up causing me is I have a hell of a time relating to them because I'm just not getting where they're coming from in some ways.

[01:07:55] And so I promised to them that every two weeks we would have a sit down for an hour and do some management training. And so I've had to retrain my brain a little bit to kind of wrap around the mindset of the Gen Z.

[01:08:07] And it got me to thinking, well, you know what? That's something we're going to have to do as preppers as well because, you know, we're not going to be getting any younger.

[01:08:14] And eventually the younger generation is going to be taking over this world whether we want them to or not. So it would sure be nice to be able to at least speak their language. So a few thoughts on it and also shameless plug.

[01:08:27] Not really. But if you guys ever check out the community page or the community tab on my YouTube channel for quite a while, I was posting polls and different things.

[01:08:36] And we're going to get back into that because YouTube is putting a huge push on it and it's a great way to build organic growth. But I put a post on there where I want people to share their stories of interacting in the workplace with Gen Z.

[01:08:48] Now, I specifically said this is not going to be a shit on Gen Z thing. This is a I need to learn from them. I need to interact with them. So let's figure out what makes them tick. So I thought this was kind of cool.

[01:09:00] Here we are. The things that you can do for Gen Z to work with them or the things that bother them, that kind of stuff. But increase information sharing to alleviate fears of uncertainty. They are an anxious generation. And of course, these are all generalities.

[01:09:17] But the truth be told, whether we want them to or not, Gen Z is very open about sharing what they're making. And so you can't hide it. You know, I was brought up to never talk about what my salary was.

[01:09:31] But whether we love it or hate it, they do. They all talk about it. And it's just as simple as that. We can't stop them from doing something that's within them. So the more information you can give Gen Z, the better they feel.

[01:09:45] They don't want pat answers. They want to be shown the path to career progression, incentivize them. In other words, show them how they can do better.

[01:09:57] And a lot of that came out of covid because a lot of them were just starting to work and they got laid off or lost their job. And so they want to be sure that where they're working is the right place.

[01:10:08] They need autonomy to keep them motivated. That's not a problem for me. I've always enjoyed managing through autonomy, so that's not a big struggle for me. But they prioritize wellness and mental health.

[01:10:20] That's a little bit harder. And it's not that I haven't had my own mental health and wellness struggles over the years because God knows I have. But I grew up in an era where work didn't give a shit about that stuff.

[01:10:34] And so we look at Gen Z as weak and mentally fragile. And, you know, there may be some truth to that, but I had a good conversation with another volleyball dad here a few weeks ago. And he said, you know, sometimes I think maybe they got it right.

[01:10:50] And we don't, you know, we would. He said he had rushed all week to get all his work done so that things didn't fall apart when he left. And he realized it really didn't matter. You know, family really matters.

[01:11:01] Mental health and that kind of stuff. So there's a balance there, but it's definitely a thought. Gen Z embraces side hustles. And the reason for that is they feel loyalty is dead.

[01:11:15] You know, whatever you want to say on loyalty is dead. We had we had an employee walk away. She was one of our very first nonfamily employees, and she walked away this week with zero notice. It happens.

[01:11:28] I'm not going to judge her because I had my own struggles in the past where I did that as well. But the good side to that is Gen Z love side hustles.

[01:11:38] So if you're looking to bring somebody into your side hustle or bring somebody into your entrepreneurial venture, it might be something to look at. I kind of like that. And here's the big one.

[01:11:48] And this is the one that I've struggled with because I wasn't brought up in this mindset. Two things. Gen Z expects feedback to be immediate, but with context, explanation and discussion, not just criticism.

[01:12:04] I was used to two things where I worked one. If I fucked up, somebody told me maybe right away. But I could always count on the yearly evaluation. So here's the thing. Gen Z comes from a mindset where their nerves and their anxieties get away from them.

[01:12:22] And if an unexpected meeting comes up, they think they did something wrong. Or if you tell them they did something wrong, that's how they take it. They took they take it wrong if you don't give them context and area to explain and discuss.

[01:12:36] Now, from our generation, that's tough for them. That's what they want. And it's like, you know, you would never go to another country and expect them to speak English. So I'm not going to go to Gen Z and say, hey, I'm a boomer.

[01:12:52] Listen to me. No, I'm not really a boomer. But listen to me because I'm older than you. And yes, some of that maybe could be true. But more than that, I need to respect them enough to learn their language.

[01:13:04] And so I wrap that whole segment around. It never hurts to get to understand the younger people. You know, it's always that old man yelling at a cloud because the younger generations go into hell in a hand basket.

[01:13:17] And yes, there are some things they do that I don't like. But it doesn't matter because at some point they're going to be running the world, the business and looking after us in our retirement homes.

[01:13:28] I don't know anyway. But so hopefully figure it away to be able to maybe not accept everything they stand for, but at least embrace who they are and bring them into the prepper fold, because that's the big thing.

[01:13:41] You know, we all believe that being prepared is of utmost importance. But if we can't portray that, you know, Marshall McLuhan always said the medium is the message.

[01:13:53] In other words, people aren't going to hear your message if you don't present it in a medium that they respect, understand and are able to interpret.

[01:14:02] And so that's where I come down to this is if we want to share the gospel of preparedness, you know, we probably got to speak the Gen Z lingo. That doesn't mean, you know, Ohio and skippity toilet and having Riz or whatever my kids say today.

[01:14:16] Yep, I sound like an old man trying to sound cool. But anyway, there you go. That's it on Gen Z for tonight. Now what do we got left for you?

[01:14:25] Oh, we got one more here. It's the apocalypse in of days, the Judgment Day, the end of the world, my friend. Let's dig into the community mailbag. All right, we're going to reach into the community mailbag and see what we pull out.

[01:14:45] But this week and I did not put the person's name who sent me this this morning via email. I'd really like to be able to share it with you. But here it is.

[01:14:55] This is a Kickstarter coming out from Olight and we will bring this up so you can see it. So it is the O station X. Now, this is an interesting item. And they sent to me, they said, hey, I know you really like rechargeable batteries.

[01:15:11] Maybe you should check this out. And I'm probably going to back this Kickstarter for no other reason than it would make a great review video to have access to this early on. So here's how it works.

[01:15:23] And if you haven't, if you're on audio, I'll do my best to explain it. But this is kind of like a translucent brown plastic container. Top and bottom. Now, how does it work?

[01:15:36] Well, you put dead batteries in the top and they gravity feed kind of like a change sorter down into the charging bay. And then they come out one at a time at the bottom. So it's a charger, an organizer. And check this out. This right here.

[01:15:56] It has smart built into it. So there's a little drawer in the front. So if you put the wrong size in there now, the downside to this is it's only for double A batteries. They're also doing a triple A model as well.

[01:16:07] But if you put non rechargeable or you put the wrong size, it'll separate them for you. But I guess what I really like about this is it's an automatic charger. It takes some of the guesswork out of it. Now, of course, in true 21st century fashion,

[01:16:21] Olight tries to greenwash the hello to this product. I just don't think there's anything green about a battery charger made out of plastic. Now, somebody is going to fight with me and say, yeah, but it's recharging and it's yeah, I get it.

[01:16:35] I just quit it with the bullshit of the green whatever. I just like it. I like it because it recharges my batteries. I like it because it stores them. I like it because it charges things on a you know, automatically.

[01:16:46] I don't have to plug them in there and it just works their way through. It's an intelligent charger. Anyway, just thought I'd share that with you guys because it was something sent to me from a fellow delinquent.

[01:16:57] And I thought you guys would like to see that. So next here we are. All right. What did I get this one here? I got three booster grams this week that I wanted to share from over on Fountain.

[01:17:08] And first is from the Bitcoin Viking. And he said, hey, great show. Now I have to do a bunch of mesh network research. And if you didn't catch that episode, that was with my good buddy Jake from Ravenwood Acres.

[01:17:21] And he did an incredible episode on next generation emergency comms. So thanks, Bitcoin Viking. I appreciate it. Next comes from Jim Seifert, one of my biggest supporters over on Fountain. And he said, calling bullshit.

[01:17:34] Everyone knows that replacing lights with stop signs saves the municipality money in the long run. It's bullshit that the homeless is the reason politicizing this with these claims is typical media manipulation of facts. Dot, dot, dot again.

[01:17:49] He's not wrong. And that that spurs from last week's this week in prepping where we talked about Oakland replacing traffic lights with stop signs because they said the homeless people were stealing the copper in Jim. I don't disagree with you one bit.

[01:18:04] And finally, this one comes from Bitcoin plus food. And they said, hey, keep up the great work. He said, I had to smile when you mentioned you guys are hoarders. Yeah, you know, a little bit tongue in cheek.

[01:18:16] We try to try not to embrace that moniker too much, but it is one of those things that seems to come a bit part and parcel with preppers. But anyhow, he said, you do seem to accumulate mass massive amounts of stuff. But he said, check out Guy McPherson.

[01:18:31] He saw the end of days coming years ago, but gave up on the pressure of five years supply in reverse. Sorry. He gave up on the digging in approach. If you did survive an apocalypse, it would be so dire.

[01:18:44] You might not want the pressure of five years of supplies in reserve. His cat, oh boy, let's try that over again. His catastrophe predictions are also a little catastrophic, even though in broad strokes, he is probably on the button. So I don't know that dude.

[01:19:01] I haven't looked him up yet. Kind of an interesting I guess he's a minimalist apocalypse, apocalyptic person. I don't know. Just a thought, you know, I guess the reason I shared that was it becomes really easy to just buy all the stuff.

[01:19:17] And, you know, I know as a YouTuber who review shit all the time and get sent shit all the time and also buy shit all the time, I certainly can drown myself in stuff at times.

[01:19:27] So just a good reminder for myself. And that came out of episode four hundred and fifty two. So that was this week in prepping last week as well. And finally, a segment that I haven't done in a while. And that is the creator spotlight.

[01:19:44] And so usually when I will do this one is when I come across a new YouTuber or a new content creator somewhere that offers value to the workshop community and the prepper community in general.

[01:20:00] And so this is the power of the world we live in and YouTube in general. But you guys might have might or might not have seen my video of Battle Box.

[01:20:11] So I opened my battle box last week sometimes and I got a really cool flashlight in there, a tactical fighting flashlight with quotation marks around it. Really enjoying it so far. And I decided to see some reviews on it.

[01:20:26] And the dude that I ran into was this guy named Icy Mike, hard to hurt YouTube channel. And that's hard H.A.R.D. the number two and hurt H.U.R.T. He's got just over half a million subscribers.

[01:20:40] And I watched the video and he was one of those dudes I just clicked with right away. He kind of reminded me, I guess maybe a bit of John Willis in a sense. But the dude is former police MMA fighter and now trains other MMA fighters.

[01:20:56] And the dude does some reaction videos to shootings and fights. But mostly he does self-defense kind of stuff. And he prefaces it in the way that if you don't train, you're not going to do it. And it's great. The guy's hilarious.

[01:21:11] But he's to the point. His videos are, you know, in the eight to 15 minute range. So yeah, check it out. Like, you know, let's see. We'll bring up a couple of videos I've watched recently of his. I've actually watched quite a bit.

[01:21:23] But the most out of the most popular ones are the best self-defense, the best self-defense weapon ever. Choosing the best home defense weapon, hidden weapons and non-permissive environments. That one reminded me go into the Oilers game. The best self-defense technique for parking lots in public places.

[01:21:41] And it's not what you think it is. He literally opens with that and he's right. And the idea was, oh, pack yourself down, pretend you forgot something and turn around and walk back. In other words, if you think something's wrong, something probably is wrong.

[01:21:54] So his link to his channel, not that he needs my support, is in the show notes this evening. But yeah, so that, folks, is what I brought for you this week. I thought I would take a lot longer to get through all that.

[01:22:07] So I hope the show isn't too overwhelming. I throw a lot at you. You can always go back and re-listen to it. You can check the links out in the description. One more thing to throw out at you.

[01:22:20] I'm actually pretty excited about this, but Curio Bullion, the guy who does the custom workshop rounds for us, sent me an image two nights ago on Telegram. He has all of the blanks measured out and poured.

[01:22:34] And just yesterday, the press showed up or the die, whatever you want to call it for pressing the logo, the design into the steel, oh my goodness, into the silver rounds just showed up. So shouldn't be too much longer. Fingers crossed. And they will be shipping.

[01:22:52] So I'm looking at there's going to be a special patch for everybody. I'm looking at the price. Obviously, if you missed out on the early bird pricing, you missed out.

[01:23:02] But I'm going to try to find a way to incentivize folks to pick one up when they show up as well. So anyway, pretty excited about that. I'm going to be spending the next day and a half, no, the next two days in Lloyd working on the daycare,

[01:23:16] doing the management training, installing some locks for Becky, and then all day Saturday finishing up the pass through archways that I'm going to cut up. And yeah, so we will see. Let me see. We got Sunday evening.

[01:23:30] We have a great guest coming up and she is a lady who does well, let's say she is big into home births and being able to do, you know, be able to look after babies being born whenever needed to be pretty excited.

[01:23:48] She ended up getting sent over to me. Her name is Jessica. She goes by the combat midwife and she was sent to me again through a fellow delinquent spags. He said, Hey, you really need to chat with this lady.

[01:24:01] And I'm stoked to talk to her because it's a different topic that we've never dealt with on here. So tune in Sunday evening, 6 p.m. I'm excited. And other than that, guys, man, it's the weekend. Well, not quite. It's Friday Eve, as Ryan Pippen always loves to say.

[01:24:17] So get out, get shit done, knock a thousand things off your to do list, make tomorrow slightly better than it was today and get the hell out there and build your empire. And as always, stay happy, stay healthy and have a great week.