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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

>  >I think that in cold storage, very 
> dry corn can be held for several years. In normal storage, it's a year 
> or less.

In dry storage corn will keep 100 years.  I have barrels of corn I harvested 
15 years ago and it's just about as good as the day I stored it.  When some 
of 
the blue corn had been in storage 9 years, I wanted to plant a new plot of 
it.  Germination was nearly 100%.

Wheat will keep even longer.

The purpose of storing grain is not to second guess the commodities markets 
as if one were playing the stock market.  Rather it is for the purpose of 
stepping squarely out of such goings on.  It is to remove where you are going 
to 
get your bread entirely from the equation.  

I think I spent about $350 on wheat this last time and that augmented what I 
already had.  What that means is that I know I will have bread on the table 
no 
matter if there is inflation or deflation, boom or depression, whether I have 
cash income or not, no matter what emergencies or expenses arise, etc.etc.

Did anyone have a friend or acquaintance who postulated, "I've got an extra 
$10K coming to me, my morgage is 7% APR but this mutual fund routinely yields 
8%.  Should I pay on (or pay off) my mortgage or invest the money."  I was 
amazed at people's lack of insight into human nature in that they routinely 
said, 
"Do the math, you are ahead by investing the money!"

No you aren't.  You are better off with a paid off mortgage.

Many here, like me, well predate word processors.  Do you remember what it 
was like sitting down to a typewriter and writing a paper in which typos were 
not acceptable??   The pressure was on and it made us marginal typists 
nervous 
and more prone to mistakes.  Finding someone who could type 60wpm was rare.  
Now of days the word processors take away that nervousness.  So what if you 
make 
grevious mistakes!  Just backspace and go on.  Now just about everyone can 
type faster than 60wpm because the pressure is off.

Paid off mortgages are like that.  No matter what the math says, there is a 
magic at play that make the life with the lower mortgage more productive and 
more fluent.  Not to mention that those clever investors are losing their 
shirts 
right now.

Stored grain is that way too.  It doesn't matter if the cost goes down and 
you paid more this year than you might next.  Sitting on your stored bread 
for 
the next year or more is magic.  It accelerates everything you do just like 
word processors sped up your typing.


James