American Exit Strategy: Book 1 (15 page)

"$60,000 but it has been on the market for six months, they would probably come down." Wesley replied.

"How big is the property?" Matt quizzed.

"If I remember right, about 30 acres. It has a huge creek that feeds into Wood Creek Lake." Wesley answered.

"How far is it from the highway?" Matt asked.

"If you were walking straight to it, it would be about three miles, but the way the road snakes around those hills, it’s about seven miles off the 75 exit." Wesley said.

"Three miles is a little too close for comfort." Matt said.

"No one is going to find you that ain't looking for you. Only about half of the ones that are looking for you will find you out there." Wesley chuckled.

Matt's curiosity was sparked. He continued to quiz Wesley about the property. "Does it have any out buildings, any cattle barns?"

"Like I said, it’s mostly woods. There are a couple of steep meadows on the backside, but nowhere big enough to graze any cows. There is an old chicken coop; pretty big, but old. There’s also a metal work shed, it’s about the size of a three car garage. It has a good roof. The house is about 300 feet off the road, and heavily wooded. It’s very secluded. The nearest neighbor isn't that far, but you'd never see nor hear him as far back in the woods as that house sits. I think you should do it." Wesley answered.

"Do you have any pictures you can email to me?" Matt asked.

"Didn't take any, but I'll go out there in the morning and take a few. I'll send them before lunch tomorrow." Wesley answered.

The cousins said their farewells and Matt started thinking about what he would ask for their house. Similar houses in the neighborhood had sold for as much as $270,000 after the Fed had re-inflated the housing bubble through quantitative easing. But just like the bubble before, it had popped. As soon as rates had started to creep back up, home buyers had trouble getting mortgages and prices receded to lower levels than when the first housing bubble popped. The tax roll estimated their house at $70,000. That would be enough to pay the commissions, taxes and still have enough to buy the Blanchard place in Kentucky.  The county appraisal was always low balled to keep people from fighting the appraised value, but Matt and Karen would have to sell at a discount in order to get a quick sell.

The next morning, Matt listed the house for $69,900. He did what he could to get everything outside looking neat while Karen cleaned the inside.

Matt and Karen looked at the pictures of the Blanchard place after lunch. It was a really nice place. Like Wesley had said, it was a bit dated. Karen was not all that enthused with the place. Her mind had painted some type of cabin from 'The Little House on the Prairie' town known as Walnut Grove. The chicken coop was barely standing, but it was the closest thing to the image she had in her head. The picture of the coop had a background of red and yellow oaks and maples in their autumn glory. The morning light that the photos had been taken in gave a dramatic contrast in the knot holes and grain of the weathered wooden planks that the chicken coop was constructed of. The hinges on the door were black iron strap hinges that likely weighed a pound each. The latch was a simple wooden handle that lifted a cross bar inside the door. Some farmer had constructed it himself. While there were no berries this time of year, Karen recognized the blackberry bush growing on the side of the chicken coop. She imagined herself eating a couple of blackberries early in the morning before going into the coup to collect the eggs for breakfast. A smile subconsciously rose on her face.

Matt noticed and asked a bit surprised. "Do you like it?"

"No." Karen said as she tried to hide the smile. Having been caught, she started to chuckle as she turned away from him.

"Yes you do." Matt laughed. "You like that old beat up chicken coop."

Adam called that evening. "How ya'll doin?" He asked with his thick mountain accent.

"We're good." Matt replied.

"Wesley said you're thinking about the Blanchard place." Adam said.

"We looked at the pictures Wesley sent us. I like it. I would have liked to have had some pasture like you have on your place, but everything else seems suitable." Matt said.

"Not too many folks around here have much pasture. I can only support about 25 head of cattle on what I have." Adam said. "Lots of folks have taken to raising goats. They do well in the hills and eat just about anything."

"That's a good idea." Matt said as he imagined owning goats.

"You wouldn't be able to do much with solar out there, too many trees." Adam said. "That metal out building backs up to the creek. It is a big ol' creek too. I bet you could set up a water wheel turbine to generate some electricity from the creek. Of course that would only work when the creek is running strong, might not get much in the winter."

"I guess people lived for thousands of years without electricity. I hope it doesn't get so bad that we lose electricity. But you never know." Matt said.

"What do you think about buying silver and gold at these prices?" Adam inquired. "I know you've been telling me to do it for years. Randall made a pretty good case for it last night."

"I think you should listen to him. Get out of the dollar, whatever you do. How much cash are you sitting on?" Matt asked.

"Maybe $35,000." Adam said.

"Are you stocked up on all the food and ammo you can handle?" Matt asked.

"All set." Adam answered.

"Could you buy some materials for your roofing business? You will still need to keep doing something after the crash, and people will always need roofs. If supply lines are disrupted, materials could be hard to get a hold of. I would also get as many traditional tools as you can." Matt said.

"That’s a good idea." Adam said. "I could probably store $10,000 worth of materials in the loft of the cattle barn. What do you think about ammo for bartering with?"

"I think ammo will be the one dollar bills of the new economy. Silver and gold will be the big bills. Also think about things you can't produce like coffee. You can't grow coffee in Kentucky." Matt said.

"Maybe I'll put $5,000 in gold, $5,000 in silver and $5,000 in to ammo. I could probably buy a pallet of coffee, a pallet of flour and a pallet of sugar from Walmart for around $5000. I'll hang on to $5,000 in cash for paying bills and other things until it hits the fan." Adam said.

Matt replied. "I think coffee is a great idea. You will need to make sure everything is in something the critters can't get to. Mylar liners inside of plastic buckets will keep everything safe.

$5,000 won't even buy a whole ounce of gold. The current spot is $6,125 per ounce. You could buy 1/10th ounce gold coins. With the premium for the smaller coins, $5,000 will get you about seven of the 1/10th ounce coins. Your other option is to sink the full $10,000 that you have allocated for metals, into silver."

"I should have bought gold when it was $1,200 an ounce. I could have had 4 ounces for $5,000." Adam said with the regret of hindsight.

"No use kicking yourself now." Matt said.

"What is the spot on silver?" Adam asked.

"$175 per ounce." Matt answered.

"Wow, it was under $20 when you told me to buy it!" Adam said. "Did you buy any at that price?'

"A little." Matt said not wanting to rub it in. "I still think it has the most room to grow. Anytime silver and gold have been used as currency, the ratio has been around 20 to 1. The ratio now is 35 to 1. At 20 to 1, the silver price would be $306 an ounce, if gold remained at its current level. Besides that, silver is much more divisible. After the 90% silver market dried up, bullion dealers started selling tenth ounce silver rounds to simulate the value of the old pre-1965 silver dimes. Of course the 1/10th ounce silver bullion rounds have more silver than the old silver dimes, but it offers the divisibility for making smaller transactions in a barter economy. I bought several rolls of those of those back when silver was $55 an ounce. I was worried the price would go back down, so I didn't buy many. Retrospectively, I should have backed up the truck."

"Is it still OK to buy online?" Adam asked.

"It would have been better before the eve of Armageddon, but the risk of staying in paper is probably much greater. Why don't you split it up. Buy $5,000 now, then $5,000 when that order shows up." Matt answered.

"But the silver price is up $11 today. How long will it take to get my order?" Adam asked.

"Probably four to five weeks if everyone is trying to buy now. Maybe longer." Matt said.

"The price could almost double by then." Adam said anxiously.

"Then blow the whole wad at once and don't look back. I would have never given this advice before. I always tried to dollar cost average by spreading my purchases out over time, but we are running a little short on time. If panic buying hits the metals market, like you said; the price could double by the time you get your order." Matt answered. He wanted to give Adam good advice, but this was not the best circumstance. The future was uncertain and giving advice was tricky business in this environment.

Adam replied, "OK, I’m going to let you go. I’ll call the online dealer now and see what he can promise me."

Matt was mentally worn out from the pressure of trying to make the right decisions to take care of Karen and himself, but there was no way he was going to sleep right now. He went to the office to check out trailers online. Inflation had sent all commodity prices soaring. Even used metal trailers were selling for double what they had been selling for new. Most everything was over $10,000. Matt finally found an old horse trailer for $3000. He called and made an appointment to drive out to Davie, Florida to see it the next morning.

CHAPTER 22

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

— Thomas Jefferson

Pastor John Robinson called an emergency board meeting to discuss the Randall Speech.

"Gentlemen, I want to thank everyone for clearing your schedule on such short notice." Robinson began. "I have prayerfully considered what Paul Randall had to say in his speech. I have also considered what Anthony Howe has pledged to do upon his inauguration. I tend to believe him when he says he will put the new restrictions on firearms by executive order. I really believe we need to get out of dollars immediately and entirely. I have been on the phone this morning and negotiated several deals. They are simply pending your approval. I have negotiated what I believe to be a fair price for the farm adjacent to the Howard Young place that was gifted to Liberty Chapel recently. The deal would give us nearly 500 acres between the two farms. I have arranged two separate large bullion purchases with a local dealer and another one in Montana. I have also spoken with the CEO of Castle Arms in the Idaho panhandle. Those folks at Castle are really good people. They are not accepting cash, but they have promised to hold 200 AR-15s and 800 thirty round magazines if we can pay them in bullion once that transaction is finalized. In the interest of time, I will ask you to vote on the entirety of my recommendation. If the vote is not unanimous, we can go back and look at what needs to be changed. The chairman recommended a vote and it was unanimous. He then made a motion to allow the pastor to convert all liquid funds into hard goods by any means he saw fit. That motion also passed unanimously. There was a great deal of trust that had developed between the pastor and the board over the years. They were also in agreement that times were going to get very tough in the near term.

Pastor Robinson explained his plan to build barracks on the two farms and his plans to store up as much food as possible. The details would be worked out later. For now, they needed to act on the mission at hand.

As they left the boardroom, Pastor Robinson put Ron White in charge of storing up food. "I want you to see how much bulk rice, beans and wheat you can purchase from any nearby distributors. Recruit anyone you need to help drive trucks or make separate purchases. Robert Rust, the range master, is going to start building up the ammunition stores."

Ron asked "What about Castle Arms? Don't they produce ammo? I thought those folks up in the panhandle taught their children to reload ammo in homeschool?" Ron was only half joking. He was sure he remembered a story of a woman from Lewiston, Idaho teaching her kids to reload as part of their curriculum.

"They all shoot and they’re all homeschooled up there." Pastor John Robinson replied. "It only stands to reason that the kids probably reload. But no, Castle doesn't produce ammunition. I know a lot of folks up there have a lot of ammo, but no one is selling. They see copper jacketed lead as a precious metal. Albert Rust is good friends with a sales rep from Cabela's. He seems to think he may be able to get a pallet or two of .223 ammo. "

"Do you intend to engage the government?" Ron asked somberly.

"I pray it never comes to that Ron, but the Second Amendment is the teeth of the Constitution. It protects our right to worship. If we give that up, we will let them tell us who we can pray to as well. It’s all part of the same Bill of Rights. I will stand my ground. I don't want to die, but I will not stand idly by while a criminal government desecrates the law of the land and makes our country into a concentration camp. Once they are loading us into the cattle cars, it will be too late to defend ourselves." Pastor John replied.