One and a half years ago (May, 2009) I ended four and five-year subscription offers due to the threat of future inflation and the threat that posed to Backwoods Home Magazine. Now I’m going to end three-year subscription offers, probably beginning with the next issue. The reason is the same — the threat of future inflation. I figure the government can only print so much money (or the Fed can buy only so many hundreds of billions of dollars in government debt) before inflation takes off.

But then I got a really cool idea!

Why not let people buy a one or two-year subscription with regular paper money, but have them buy three, four, and five-year subscriptions with silver coins. Junk silver — old silver dimes, quarters, and “Franklin” halves  — is worth about $22 for every one dollar in face value of the coins, and silver dollars (which I prefer) are worth about $27 each. Paying in silver will protect the magazine against inflation because those coins will track inflation.

I’ll start it right away on the website, or as soon as Oliver can get a notice up. Anyone interested in doing this can go to several sites to buy silver coins. I’ve used APMEX and Monex. There is also Lynn Coins and others. I’m not that familiar with any of them, and the magazine is not affiliated in any way with any of them. If you live in the city, there’s also probably a coin dealer somewhere.

So beginning now, and for print issue readers beginning with next issue, you can buy multiple year issues, all the way up to five years — hell let’s go up to 10 years, if you buy with silver coin.

Following is the price schedule. I’ll discount years 3 to 10 pretty good.

1 year subscription —  $1 in junk silver or 1 silver dollar
2 year subscription —  $2 in junk silver
3 year subscription —  $3 in junk silver coins or 2 silver dollars
4 year subscription —  $4 in junk silver coins or 3 silver dollars
5 year subscription —  $5 in junk silver coins or 4 silver dollars
6 year subscription —  $6 in junk silver coins or 5 silver dollars
7 year subscription —  $7 in junk silver coins or 5 silver dollars
8 year subscription —  $8 in junk silver coins or 6 silver dollars
9 year subscription —  $9 in junk silver coins or 7 silver dollars
10 year subscription –  $10 in junk silver coins or 8 silver dollars

(Note that six and seven-year subscriptions are the same amount for silver dollars because $159 (the approximate price of a 7-year subscription) divided by $27 (the current price of a silver dollar) equals 5.88, so I rounded it down).

If you want to take advantage of this offer right now, go right ahead. Send your silver coins to Backwoods Home Magazine, P.O. Box 712, Gold Beach, OR 97444. Just attach a note that says it’s for “Dave’s silver coin offer.” (If you are afraid the silver coins may get lost in the mail, either send them FedEx or take out insurance on them.)

In fact, if you want to buy any of the anthologies and books we offer, you can buy them in silver coins and take 10% off the purchase price.

This will be interesting to see if this works. Maybe I’ll start a trend.

WARNING: Keep in mind that it must be silver coins you send us. If you send non-silver coins, such as the coins you may have in your pocket right now,  we’ll send you merchandise worth the face value of those coins. We won’t spend money on postage to return non-silver coins. If you don’t know what a silver coin is, click on one of the links above.

If you have any questions (especially regarding the value of Kennedy half dollars), email me at editor@backwoodshome.com. Put in the subject line: “silver coin offer” or something that will tip me off it’s not spam.

P.S.: As you can see, I’ve already edited this post (Nov 20) because I had screwed up the numbers when initially posted Nov. 19. Also, silver prices fluctuate every day, so if they fluctuate too much I’ll have to make appropriate changes to this offer.

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Lenie had her first “gig” last night. She played piano as background for diners at The Nautical Inn, just over the border in Smith River,  California. She played for three hours. She does this just for fun. The previous night she played piano before a crowd of about 500 people who attended the combined Gold Beach High School and Riley Creek Grammar School band and choir.

She’ll play again at The Nautical Inn Nov. 30, which is a Tuesday, starting about 6 pm. This is a great restaurant with a beautiful view of the ocean and very good food. If you’re a local and want to take your honey out for some nice food and music, I recommend it.

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I meant to post these photos Thursday after a party at my daughter Annie’s house in honor of the U.S. Marine Corps’ 235th birthday. Three marines were present: Annie’s husband, Erik Tuttle, a sergeant who spent eight years in the corps (two tours in Iraq) and got out this year;  Kyle Johnson, a captain who was deployed four times in five years (both Iraq and Afghanistan); and Monte Gennai, a Vietnam vet who was shot several times while in Vietnam.

The marines have a special fraternity. I never would have thought to have a party to commemorate my Army days. My brother, Jim, a marine who spent two tours in Vietnam, would have enjoyed this party.

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The Utah show was a big success, so now it’s on to their Portland show in May. We don’t have the dates for it yet. The show’s promoter, Ron Douglas, will also have a show in Denver in April and will look into having shows in Las Vegas and Washington state. I suggested Puyallup, south of Seattle, for Washington as that was a great location for the old preparedness shows in the 1990s. I told him I’d help promote the shows through BHM as I’d like to see this type of show, with its dozens and dozens of booths on everything from freeze dried storage food and emergency supplies to generators and solar panels, succeed. I think I’ll call Dave Belanger at Countryside and see if he’d like to get involved too. If you have any type of preparedness business and would like to exhibit at a future show, contact Ron Douglas at the show’s website.

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Lenie and I stayed the night in Sandy so we could attend a performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir this morning. It was at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) Tabernacle in Temple Square in Salt Lake city, and it was wonderful. I was filled with awe and respect the moment I walked into the Tabernacle. The organ must have been at least four stories tall and had a sound to match. It was one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever been in. The sound of the choir? Wow! Double wow! This is why the word “awesome” was invented — to describe things such as this.

It was a live half-hour TV and radio broadcast for the 360-member choir. A little trivia: Choir members ranged in age from 25 to 60. It was about half male, half female. This is the longest running radio broadcast of a choir, dating back to 1929. Today was the 4,234th broadcast. The performances are held every week and are free to the public.

Special guests at the performance (besides me) included Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and Thomas S. Monson, the president of the LDS church. Other guests included the Peruvian ambassador to the U.S., a ballet group from Berlin, and a Chinese delegation. We were among the other several thousand tourists and locals in the audience.

We’re driving back to Oregon now, will stay the night in Lakeview or Klamath Falls. A winter storm is due in tonight so we want to get over the mountains if we can.

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I’m in Salt Lake City (actually Sandy, Utah, which is a close suburb) at the Preparedness Show, which opens in the morning. While setting up the booth, I had a chat with Vicki Tate, the author in 1991 (with Peggy Layton) of Cooking with Home Storage , one of the best selling books from the BHM bookstore. Then I had a chat a half hour later with Peggy Layton, the original coauthor. Both now sell their own versions of the book.

It’s been like a trip back in time to the old preparedness shows put on prior to Y2K by Dan Chittock. In fact, Dan Chittock himself is here, not producing this show but selling his own products.

I wonder who else I’ll meet out of the past.

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Lenie and I have already voted by mail and are heading off Wednesday morning to Sandy, Utah, to set up a BHM booth at the Self Reliance Expo to be held at the South Towne Expo Center, 9575 S.State Street, November 5 and 6. There will be more than 100 exhibitors, and we’ll be in booth No. 102 . Tickets are $7, but you can get a coupon with a $2 discount at their website.

Wear a BHM T-shirt at the show (or buy one from us at the show and put it on there) and we’ll give you any one of our anthologies.  My data entry operator, Ellen Mellon, told me today to pack my snow chains because there is a storm brewing in the mountains between Gold Beach and Sandy.

I’m looking forward to a self-reliance expo, especially one I can drive to. This outfit will have another one in Portland, Oregon in May and I’ll go to that too. No more flying anywhere. I hate flying.

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