Posted on 03/08/2009 12:28:19 PM PDT by WhirlwindAttack
I've been here a while now, put a hundred into the kitty to keep the site up so I'm posting a vanity asking for some advice. My family are all liberals I don't dare ask them their opinion. So here goes.
My bride and I both see bad things coming. We are buying 5 acres in rural south central Tennessee on contract from a friend. No house, just partially wooded land. We've been saving our money and investing in heirloom seeds, long term food supply that we eat and rotate, and camping gear.
I weld and am a jack of all trades. My wife has only ever worked as a retail bookseller. We're healthy but a little overfed.
We are considering leaving our apartment in Indiana when our lease is up in May. It's in a college town of over 100K. and very liberal. The plan is to store what we don't need immediately ( we have storage available until July of next year.). Go down south, pitch a camp and dig a privy then go forth to find work. We will be planting a garden and trying to get a small cabin weathered in before winter. I want to build a home as we earn the cash money to buy materials and do this without a mortgage.
I would rather get out while I can and keep her safe than stay here and she feels the same way.
So here's the crux of the matter, I'm 48 former USAF and don't like to take rash jumps into the unknown. I have however been in the third world, started over with nothing twice and am with the love of my life. She is 30, brilliant, sews, weaves, throws pottery, and has the ability to build her own kiln.
She's a former LDS and fell right in line with my food storage quirks not to mention she's a dead shot with everything I've put in her hands.
She thinks that pioneering will be an adventure. I know it will be hard work. Her parents have told us they admire our courage and want to know when to expect grandchildren. ( Sorry gonna have to wait Mom )
FRiends I'm worried I'm missing something. I like the benefits of civilization like hot showers and flush toilets. But being out of the cities when they do go wonky holds more appeal.
I welcome your comments.
DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT!
You won’t look back.
We moved onto raw property 9 years ago (I was 50 and not in the best of health), with very little money, lived in a tarp tent for 6 months, built as we go. Used various kinds of trench latrines, outhouse and composting toilet for around 3 years. Bucket baths, etc. Very, very simply to primitive for some years (still not up to every modern standard). BUT WE OWE NOT A RED CENT!
DO IT DO IT DO IT!!!!
There is other stuff for mosquitos besides DEET. We use herb extract and essential oil mix we make ourselves. Perhaps not quite as effective, never used DEET, but works pretty well, and no chemicals to worry about side effects.
You might try to respond to me privately. I have about 125 acres in Ky which has been in the family forever. I’m keeping it “just in case” but I own a house in Indpls with enough space for a garden. I’ve never grown a garden but I’m trying to prepare for whatever happens. Actually my wife with her first husband tried living off the land in Brown County (you know where that is) back in the ‘70’s when the first wave of “end of the world” scares happened. It didn’t work out very well, tried to raise chickens and the foxes got them, tried to grow a garden but the soil was terrible and the varmints ate it, etc, etc. Maybe a small town like Mayberry would be best for survival but it is important to have people around you that you can trust when the s**t hits the fan ;-)
What do you plan on planting in the garden?
When the bloom came off the rose and the never-ending frost came off their toes the two came down to earth, back to civilization, got an immediate divorce, now he's remarried and happily living with a practical beauty in a nice, warm home in a small town in the Missouri Ozarks.
To each his own. My idea of roughing it is turning the heat down on my electric blanket.
Best of luck. See ya in Missouri in about three years when the scales drop off your eyes.
Leni
Whirlwind,
We live probably pretty near the area in TN where ya’ll are talking about moving. We are living on 16 acres out in the sticks; having built a house 23 yrs. ago, and we have very much liked living out here. We’re about 12 miles from a small town where we can get anything we need as far as supplies go, groceries (though we have a fenced-in garden spot where we raise vegetables and some bit of fruit as well). I don’t want to can, so we just have fresh vegetables in season and I freeze a very few in a small freezer where we also keep extra meats for when we don’t get in to town often. Our garden is raised beds and small and manageable in size. Bigger and it becomes a burden at times - you’ve almost got to fence in a garden here as the deer are plentiful; they’ve so far been sort of pets at a distance, but we may have to view them as food later on - and they understand this though we, the deer and the dogs have fun gawking at and chasing each other.
Reality check here - the weather here is generally okay and mild, but we DO occasionally have some pretty cold winter days as well as some hot summer days some years. It varies. If you want to try out camping in Tennessee, I’d suggest visiting, going to a campground and sampling being in close quarters for an extended period of time and roughing it. At first out here, we built a medium size shed and stayed out here comfortably in the simple shed and worked. It was a cheap, self-built shed, and we could have made it permanent, but opted for a larger house though we didn’t really have to.
We live fairly cheaply here,on a river and are able to fish, but don’t all that much, dug a well back at the first, but have to filter it as it is sulphur, so water is free. Of course, everyone’s electric bill is going up if Obama gets his way, but we built our house to conserve energy. We built a house with two bedrooms upstairs, which saves on electricity because we don’t have to do much heating or cooling to the upstairs - we use ceiling fans and room A/C’s up there when needed. Our master bedroom is downstairs, so we really live on one floor. We have given up very little in the way of comfort; have a single unit washer and dryer (smallish but adequate as we wear clothes more than one day most times).
So far, things are still holding on fairly well here with jobs, but who knows with these jokers in charge. It’s quiet out here most of the time, but we have gained some more neighbors in the past ten years, though none right up on us.
You all will need to find a place to market your products; and that depends on what is available near you as an outlet. People generally aren’t going to come out in the boonies to you, but there are different outlets all over the place to market crafts. We sell quite a bit online, but not crafts as we aren’t very crafty and together with other work manage to cobble together an adequate living, but we are not extravagant people anyway.
The important thing is to love one another and enjoy every minute as much as is possible. Everything else is just roody pooh.
Wish I could think of more to tell you. I guess we’re sort of fancy pants homesteaders. We love Countryside magazine as it is real practical and makes one dream.
Good luck.
Twinkie
Several of my inlaws here in Vermont have built their own houses. But I’d agree with the suggestion that you buy some kind of trailer to live in until you get it built. Then you can sell the trailer if you want.
My son-in-law started by building a composting outhouse. Then he built a one-room bunkhouse with a crawl space loft and a wood stove. Then he had a place to stay while he built the main house.
You need to get the power and septic in, and I would check that. Also, I wonder if 5 acres is enough to plant on and graze animals. I’m not saying to buy more now, because I suspect that land prices will drop, but you may want to buy more in future if you can.
Also, don’t get trapped by the zoning laws or building code. Make sure that you are cleared for the septic or the outhouse. And make sure that you have a well for water.
I might have suggested holding off for several months before this week.
No more.
Go NOW.
Even if there is a semi brief recovery—a huge IF—it will be short lived and horrors after will be much worse than anticipated.
Please read post 103 here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2201188/posts?q=1&;page=101
Even if super horrors are delayed 18 months—I think you’d be better served getting things ship-shape on your property than delaying.
Besides, you also need to build some relationships at the new place and those take time for exchanges and trading work etc.
The short of it with your family is—they are history. Sorry. Short of miracle conversions from God—that’s just the facts. They are on the slippery slope to hell and thinking they are enjoying the ride. Some will wake up in the traumas and many will curse God and die as Scripture says.
Be careful who you share your location with—blood or no blood.
You may as well kiss the life you have known good bye. It is virtually nonexistent already. In 24 hours, it could REALLY be nonexistent in a long list of ways. Pining away for it will not help in the least, as you know.
I wish I didn’t feel this way. But I do.
God have mercy. Praise God that you are as well prepared as you are.
Think of all who are not. God have mercy.
PLEASE BUILD PARTIALLY UNDERGROUND. I’m convinced there will be horrendous winds . . . domed structures . . . concrete domes would be best.
Also, mostly buried greenhouse structures can take advantage of the soil temp of 55* or so and the solar boost on top of that is not as steep as for a wholly above ground greenhouse.
Memorize Scripture.
Stay close to God. He is our only refuge.
Now more than ever.
God be with you.
Oh, as a P.S., comfort IS important after a while. I would advise against a two-story. I was barely still in my thirties when we built this one and I could skip up the stairs. Now, at 62 (I need to update my info on FR)I can’t any more; so I’d rather have one bedroom downstairs as a guest room rather than two. It hits one quicker than they think as they get older. We also have a central heat and air system and a good wood stove, plenty of wood and sources around that sell wood if we get where we can’t cut our own. It helps whenever money is tight, but it IS dusty, so if a perfect housekeeping system is your thing, be advised. If the electricity goes off, it’s nice, but here our electricity doesn’t go off very often. Always remember COMFORT in all things as it becomes quickly important as we get older, which happens faster than we wish it did!
You are very seriously wrong.
Dreadfully and dangerously wrong.
Please, please, please wake-up.
I hate to imagine the suffering you are headed for with eyes mostly closed.
You will likely be super derisive re post 103 here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2201188/posts?q=1&;page=101
but at least when it begins to occur you will remember and PERHAPS experience some educational enlightenment at that time.
Thanks for the input.
There is a thread on
about some super cheap emergency housing etc. such as for disaster areas.
Some are quite reasonable. One might be an excellent place to start on your new land.
Maybe I can find the link for you . . .
Here it is.
I’d suggest checking out all the links. There’s a batch in the beginning of the thread and some more further down.
God be with you.
Good advice here. The only thing I would like to add is that you go to the nearest towns, churches, coffee shops, etc and make friends. Know the communities before you take the plunge. That way you get local advice, contacts who can help in building and selling what you make.
Or if you have power you can do what I did on my old cabin that came with the place we bought. It was about 75 years old half log and the other side wood frame added later at some point. I had to install plumbing and figured the house was good for maybe a few more years. So I dug a cesspool and only ran the commode in to it. No one was ever the wiser.
Now I live a few hundred feet above where it was in a double wide. If times get hard I have enough land to live off of about 30 acres mostly woods. I could go out the back door right now and have fresh meat in short time. I've nearly ran over deer just leaving my driveway. Thankfully the home is paid for. I was criticized by some for not building a house. But I got a good size double wide on a 10 year note. 5 years into it I became disabled and unable to ever hold a job again. A wise choice that worked out for the best. We were able to swing the double wide payments but a home would have been at least twice the payments and on at least a 20-30 year note. It will last my life time anyway and I figure I may have another 30 years tops.
If this home became unlivable I have a 12X16 building beside it that would do nice till I addded on :>} One day work installing plumbing would have all creature comforts in it as well.
He does have one other option. Look for a used mobile home on the road he lives on that has the axles under it. They are dirt cheap as I sold one last year {12X60 still livable} for under $500. If really close by as in less than a mile have someone hook a farm tractor to it and pull it there. Beyond that though moving one around here can run several thousand dollars if done by pro's. Being rural has some advantages.
Could you try again with that link please?
Thanks
Nope. Tents are a drag. We had our day of canvas tents and canvas pop-ups, and the moisture and cold (or hot) are rough on the joints. Just enjoy whatever you do. Of course, I love Tennessee because I’ve lived here pretty much all my life. People here are generally down to earth, and we live pretty cheap at any rate. (Be sure to factor in eating out once in a while as it is such a stress reliever even once a week at Subway OR one of the good fish restaurants in that area. We stayed at a place called “Bevis’s Boatel” near there several years ago and they served good fish at that time at least.
I was born in west TN, and was taken to Shiloh Park often as a child with my parents. My great, great, great grandfather (yes, a Reb) was a soldier in the Battle of Shiloh. Good on Fig’s pottery and weaving and your metalwork. - I think that eastern Tennessee is a bit cooler in places, but then the black bears are a consideration up there. - We’re further east a bit from where ya’ll will be. There are lots of things to do in Tennessee that don’t involve a movie theater or other fol de rol.
Sounds good, and enjoy whatever you do!
Twinkie
I’m with Domandred on his idea of a small shack or small structure to live in for winter. It wont be easy but you can winter in a small well insulated building but not a tent.
A well lined wood burning or coal stove, a camping potty for night time use and dig an out house for day time use. And if you don’t have electricity you can use oil lamps and cook on the two burner camp stove. Catch rain water for everything except drinking. And when the winter freezes and the rain turns to snow just melt the snow.
Years ago when I was with my ex we spent a year with no running water, no heat, no electricity, no bathroom only a path, and we bailed our water from an open 100ft deep well.
It’s hard. But you can make it. If you have a roof over your head.
Good luck!
ooops. sorry.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread435307/pg1%27
Please let me know that you can access it.
Blessings,
If there is a south slope of any significant size at all . . .
You could build a concrete insulated trough . . . glazed over with double or quadruple polycarbonate sheets . . . say about 1 sheet’s width worth . . . Have a large somewhat filtered air intake box at the bottom . . . and an electric generating fan at the top . . . some wind current will occur on even partially cloudy days in lots of varied weather conditions.
The heated air could also be piped into even an underground living space depending on the terrain.
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