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Guest Post: Bugging Out of the D.C. Burbs
Guest Post: Bugging Out of the D.C. Burbs
by
Mrs. Cog
(And now a few words from my better half on creating a lifestyle change we can live with. - Cognitive Dissonance)
If there is one thing I dramatically misjudged during the great looting of the past five years, it has been the depth of the bag of tricks the banksters and politicians could use to perpetuate the game. How many times have we said in the threads here at Zero Hedge "This is it. Cue the deer Tyler"? We fall for it again and again. The dungeon masters are so artful in their game to pit us against each other simply because it works. If we are focused on "them" we are not focused on "us." Whether it is them at the NSA or the perceived enemies of the state, the state itself, or the crooks at 33 Liberty, our angry energy is collected and dispelled in ranting threads which are largely unproductive at bringing about any real change. In the end, we can only change ourselves. I think self reliance is perhaps the most important act of revolutionary change available.
Whether change comes roaring into our lives express freight train style via collapse or as a crumbling away of the periphery of what we thought made our individual world stable, the leading edge of the storm is here. Change is here whether we like it or not. Options are still available, but it is getting harder and harder to maneuver. Cog and I have elected to completely change our lifestyle so that we can at least try to deflect or redirect the nature of the change rather than waiting for it to be forced upon us.
After spending many months choosing the criteria we would use to best position our family for the future, there were several discoveries. There is no shortage of cheaply priced homes for sale in very rural areas. Although it is not "the norm" yet, other city folks are bugging out (permanently) to live in the sticks. Within a week of putting our new home under contract there were two other contingent cash offers on it. We had considered waiting to buy because the prices would be dropping dramatically when that shadow inventory hits the market. But we don't really know that for certain.
If inflation has set in when the excess housing inventory becomes available then we could miss the opportunity to buy at today's prices. What if capital controls (something we cannot accurately time) prevent us from moving funds around to pay for the property? We actually liquidated some of our PMs so that we would have no mortgage, considering it the act of trading one precious tangible asset for another. What if it becomes illegal or a huge red flag to sell physical gold or silver? The truth is no one really knows just what future constraints the banking or political elite will impose upon us so we have chosen to err on the side of caution.
Conversations we’ve had with a wide variety of people were by far the most revealing aspect of our decision to move. While interviewing the first moving company representative we found that there was an unusual trend going on in the DC area. People were moving in and out in droves, a phenomenon we were told usually only occurs immediately after a presidential election brings a change in leadership to usher out the old and in with the new. Not only were people moving out of DC to all the usual places such as the West Coast, Texas, and Florida, but there was a large and peculiar exodus to strange out of the way locations such as Montana, Colorado and the Dakotas. She was at a loss to explain why.
Our neighbors, mostly employees of the Federal government or companies who support it, have had interesting reactions to our news about moving far away. When we get to the part where we somewhat tactfully say, "we don't think things will be improving anytime soon with the economy or other conditions in this country..." everyone nods vehemently in agreement. They know. They, like us, support the very system that is bringing about our social destruction, yet we are all bound to operate within it. Complete strangers who we strike up conversations with, like vendors who come to work on our current house and see our boxes ready to move, all understand why we would leave a nice, large condo and move to a house on a mountain in the middle of nowhere. I keep expecting someone to ask if we have lost our minds, but no one does. The cat appears to be out of the bag.
Of our numerous encounters with present and former government workers, the more "inside" their experience and knowledge (their naturally gained intel) the more adamant their agreement is that indeed something wicked this way comes. One former Special Forces and FBI employee, now a small businessman, practically said run. <Talk about confirmation endorphins clobbering you over the head.> Thank you sir, I am in scadaddling mode!
This whole self sufficiency thing isn't easy either. Having heirloom (non hybrid) seeds doesn't imply organic gardening knowledge, let alone the ability to preserve the food and the seeds for next season. I have spent more time in the past year reading about herbal, alternative and emergency medicine than reading charts or attempting to trade. Although I have no intention of deliberately living without electricity (the new place has DSL and central heat/air), I am trying to prepare to take us off grid if only to combat future soaring energy costs. Hand tools for the garden, manual systems to cut logs for the “water” wood stove, solar panels for certain necessities... I am still astounded as I learn how "not" self sufficient I have lived my entire life without ever realizing it.
Acquiring the tools and the knowledge to begin living this way has been an adventure unto itself. It turns out it is far less expensive to buy books than to use all the printer ink and paper to print and retain, then learn the new skills we’ll need. Although I will certainly use it as long as I can, I am not depending upon electricity to enable me to read my .pdf eBooks and articles because that would require me to rely on outside help, in this case the power company. It's now evident to me that I am going to need many books to understand how people lived before the age of modern convenience and specialization. I am discovering that the actual tools needed are not what I thought they would be.
One recent purchase was a grain mill that can be powered manually or electrically. The mill will enable me to make our own flour from alternative grains I can grow or purchase in bulk and then store. After all it would be silly to be making maple syrup from our trees if we didn't have pancakes to dribble the syrup on. We also have a gluten intolerant child and I am not going to gamble that specialty foods will always be available or affordable to feed her in the future. Turns out there are really only three decent brands of hand operated grain mills available and they vary dramatically in quality and price. Do you think there will be any available when the first hint of a real food crisis finally takes hold in the mainstream media? How about solar ovens, dehydrators, pressure canners and the like?
There’s also the matter of being able to acquire what you need. Over the last year we have learned that many home improvement items from the big box stores are defective, warped, substandard, you name it. This includes brand name products. Quality control is not what it used to be. Things are made out of cheaper materials than in the past. In addition, processing the transactions for various purchases seems to be glitching more often. Cog was none too happy when his check/debit card was double billed for a tractor just a few weeks ago. This was done by a major corporation who kicked him around to several different departments without solving the problem. Thank goodness he IS Cog and could finally resort to his mind control powers in order to get resolution lol.
Step by step we are accomplishing what we set out to do, but it has taken a great deal of patience. For everything we set in motion we expect it to go wrong at some point and it often does. Just getting our utilities turned on with the services we were assured were available became a major problem. We consciously steeled ourselves for these types of troubles when we made the decision to purchase a home at the end of a back road, off a back road, off the back road on a mountain. If we had not learned to anticipate these problems I am not sure how we would have mentally handled all the roadblocks. I cannot imagine trying to do what we have done in the past six months in a year or two from now.
After all the effort and work towards establishing a new lifestyle it turns out that where we are going WE are "them." We are the “city folk” who think they can make a go of it in the country. We are the ones who used to work for banks and play in the stock market and think we have answers. We are the new people at the farmer's market with a funny accent and strange ideas and clothes. We are the one's invading the bunny, turkey, deer and bear stomping grounds. It turns out "they" is a relative term. It is not lost upon us that we have our work cut out in order to begin to fit in to our new community and show our value as good neighbors.
Our new digs are not exactly Galt's Gulch, completely independent from a decaying society, but one step at a time we are withdrawing our consent from the system we were indoctrinated into from birth to rely upon. At some point, with someone somewhere, the simple act of withdrawing will be the snowflake in the avalanche that will be the end of the long con, at least this leg of it. I know that I can once again sleep peacefully at night, knowing that we are working towards depending only on ourselves going forward.
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And the erosion of traditional community is one of their key objectives. Having 10s of hundreds/thousands of friends on FB is their idea of community and from their perspective it makes perfect sense.
"And the erosion of traditional community is one of their key objectives."
There is a very long history of Empires doing precisely that, of driving wedges into tight communities in order to divide and conquer. A few hours of research will bring up several examples of this right here in the USA. The protection and outright support of large scale drug dealers by the CIA/DEA wasn't just done to help fill the black budget coffers. A side "benefit" was chaos in the inner cities and the breakdown of community and family.
"The protection and outright support of large scale drug dealers by the CIA/DEA wasn't just done to help fill the black budget coffers. A side "benefit" was chaos in the inner cities and the breakdown of community and family." -- Cog
Short story: "The Queen of England is a drug dealer." I heard Lyndon Larouche say this back in the early 80s and it was at the time one more reason to dismiss him, certain that he was 'nuts'. Then years later I was reading about the Opium Wars where Britain fought a war with the Chinese for the right to sell opium in China! Oh, context! Britain coveted Chinese goods but had no foreign exchange with which to buy them and selling opium was their solution. I must have missed this lesson in high school... /sarc.
The illicit drug trade is a literal fire hose of cash and governments understand this very well and aren't about to let the mob suck in all the profits. Or, from another perspective, what election can't be bought with that kind of cash?
You probably already understood this, Cog, but when I started figuring this out it was a big breakthrough for me.
+1
For a Larouche reference...
"The Queen of England is a drug dealer." I heard Lyndon Larouche say this back in the early 80s and it was at the time one more reason to dismiss him... -- Ignatius
And dear old Lyndon had money. But look at how you reacted to him... Pretty good propaganda. Even now I feel compelled to distance myself, even though some of his research (that which I have been able to verify) is accurate...
And this begs the question: How do we overcome this decided elite advantage, the one-eyed-god?
We know there are people looking for... something. Occupy and Tea Party are ready indicators of their desire. But Tea Party management got bought out and Occupy was a put-up job.
Aye, there's the rub. In an age of astroturf, how does one create a leaderless, decentralized, local political movement with nation-wide effect?
What is our goal?
"....but when I started figuring this out it was a big breakthrough for me."
As it was for me as well. Just remember that the rabbit hole goes even deeper than you presently think. It always goes deeper than you presently think.
It was one of the main drivers of the American Revolution.
From Paul Revere's Ride:
Captain Levi Preston of the Danvers militia was interviewed years later concerning the events of the 19th.
The author relates the exchange to have been the following:
[A] historian asked him, “Captain Preston, what made you go the Concord Fight?”
“What did I go for?” the old man replied, subtly rephrasing the historian’s question to drain away its determinism.
The interviewer tried again. “…Were you oppressed by the Stamp Act?” he asked.
“I never saw any stamps,” Preston answered, “and I always understood that none were ever sold.”
“Well, what about the tea tax?”
“Tea tax, I never drank a drop of the stuff, the boys threw it all overboard.”
“But I suppose you have been reading Harrington, Sidney, and Locke about the eternal principle of liberty?”
“I never heard of these men. The only books we had were the Bible, the Catechism, Watts’ psalms and hymns and the almanacs.”
“Well, then, what was the matter?”
“Young man, what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves and we always meant to. They didn’t mean we should.”
Link: http://thelastbastille.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/paul-reveres-ride/
History is an important subject, and I've read a bit. But what will history write of us?
"But what will history write of us?"
That we were the generation that deliberately chose to ignore the lessons from history?
+1
For keen observation...
And the erosion of traditional community is one of their key objectives. -- williambanzai7
And the question always comes down to:
What are we going to do about it?
And I expect, based on years of observation, that ain't nobody gonna do nothin' useful... 'cept the elite.
Personally, I'd like to change that...
What do you think?
Teddy Roosevelt said "we each can do what we can with we hat we have." I think that is sage advice.
I agree. We need art.
+1 For recognising you can withdraw your consent.
-1 For not recognizing that we must withdraw our political consent.
Welcome to the country.
Different part from my country, but still the same country. Mind if I rant for a moment?
I'm a country boy, born and bred. Live here by choice and have for most of my life. You're fleeing the city. Abandoning your home, seeking refuge from an approaching storm. In my home.
Think about that for a moment.
I have a crazy friend, lives back up in the mountains, remote. It's better that way. But less remote now, because of you. All of you. He's a little wild and needs his space and more than a little understanding. You've taken some space, be generous with the understanding. I hope you're not afraid of guns. Pointed at you. Remain calm and don't spook him. He hasn't killed anyone I know of since Vietnam.
Did you purchase a hunting rifle? A shotgun? All of you? We used to have subsistence game stocks. And now? How about that fishing rod? Fish and game permits mean nothing, except to the state boys -- it's coin in their pocket. But it's our game. Don't get trigger and trophy happy. Hunting doesn't make you a man. It fills our bellies. Take only what you need. Sparingly.
Did you pay too much for your land? Thanks. You've just inflated our land values with your city money.
More people, more problems, and here you come, running from the problems you helped create in the cities. Bringing them to us... poor, old crackers and rednecks. Do you plan to be like some of the others and start a "we used to do it this way back home" chant?
I wouldn't. A new preacher began that crap a few years back. After about a year of it, I finally stood up in church, during the sermon, and asked him if it was so much fucking better "back home", why didn't he get his ass back there? That's a quote. I'm still here. He's not.
And plant a big enough garden for friends. We share around here. A friend brought my 97 year-old Granny Grace a couple bushels of corn the other day. Peaches are in right now. Mmmm. Good cobblers. My neighbor grows melons and peanuts for market -- and gives everyone around his fields some for the dust and bother (he's close to town). I've got a bunch of tomatoes right now. Want some?
We lived in Hawaii, in a rural neighborhood, and there, when people harvested the avacado trees, they brought each household as much fruit as they wanted, because the trees belonged to the neighborhood, then sold the rest as payment for their effort. When we harvested bananas, we gave well over half the stalk to our neighbors...
Be friendly. Be generous. And be tolerant.
We've got a lot to learn from each other. And we have to rely on each other.
Thanks for the rant. Nothing personal.
Welcome to the country.
Yes.
As you say.
Wish I could have put it at least half as well.
Good read. Thank you, Mrs. Cog.
Since I'm not capable of engaging in armed struggle to harm the totalitarian police state, all I can do is try to educate others as to what is happening here.
The worst part of seeing things for what they are is the social isolation from being shunned by the zombies all around me who would prefer that everyone around them validated whatever warped "thoughts" result from actually believing fairy tales like e.g., newspapers print truth, govt. exists to help us, etc. etc.
Repression is nothing new to the U.S. But what does seem to be new is the almost total lack of dissent.
I understand sociological "herding" and the ever-present "optimism bias," but all of those can't possibly be the full explanation.
Maybe there is some kind of "stupid drug" being adminstered. Whatever it is I seem to be totally drug-resistant. And if it's flouride, then why doesn't the flouride in my Gel-Kam do the same thing as tap water?
ZH is one of the very few places I've found on the internet where the clear majority of the posters are not the mindless zombies who seem to have replaced thinking humans.
In the past six months I've met only one person in real life who is not brain-washed.
I don't want to get involved with the local "preppers" because they're very distrustful and cliquish (for good reason) but mostly because I don't share their prevailing desire to kill not just the official thugs who might try to take away their guns, but also to kill anyone who might dare to steal some of their precious food due to hunger.
I was thinking earlier about the preoccupation with zombism in movies and popular entertainment. There seems to have been a shift from slash films to this genre in the past decade.
When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. The notion of a zombie as a lost soul longing to exist in a world that can no longer be possible for his or her kind (the waking dead) and winds up being an unwitting tool for those with sinister motives.
We have zombie masses, zombie homes, zombie banks, zombie TV and so on. Globally we even have zombie states. The zombie is the ultimate metaphor for a dissillusioned but controlled/vacuum sealed human spirit.
It resonates, does it not?
Better to live a short happy life than a long nightmare.
@wb7 we've got vampires too
Vampires are another example of lost souls living in a perpetual existence of doom. And you are right. There has been a resurgence of that as well.
They had their life essence sucked out of them and now they try to suck the vitality out of others who remain unspoiled.
The super hero films are also a release for the helpless or should I say hapless.
You can really go to town with this stuff. Do you see any MSM film critics doing that?
Exactly - Vampire Banksters, and the analogy of "Silver Bullets" comes to mind...
"Prepping" will only take you so far. The name of the game is sustaining yourself once your preps run out. So while we do prepare for emergencies, "prepping" was not the intent of our move. It is a lifestyle change that we are seeking. We truly do wish to be much more self sufficient and now the only thing stopping us from being so will be us.
The locals already know how to take care of themselves. We are not worried about them beating down our door if things go really wrong in this country. I suspect they will need to see about 5 years of staying power "proof" from us before they no longer worry that we might beat down their door if/when things go wrong.
"...sustaining yourself once your preps run out."
This is a crucial point, CD. Too many people treat prepping like a foodie treats dieting. The average Dumpling "goes on a diet" to drop enough pounds to ease the guilt and self-disgust when they return to the all-you-can-eat buffet. That's why "diets don't work". They don't work for most people because they are not committed to real lifestyle change. They are only willing to give up the unhealthy eating habits and get off the couch for long enough to get out of their 38" waist jeans into the old 34" waist.
Prepping as a "diet" will probably fail, in the same way and for the same reasons. That kind of prepper buys a Springfield XD and some ammo (but doesn't really learn to shoot or maintain the piece) and orders a 6-month supply of (very expensive) freeze-dried food. They hide the gun in the back of a drawer and stack the food behind the couch and then drive the Expedition to Red Lobster and say "Thank goodness we're finally ready for the zombie apocalypse".
For us, the change began a long time back on a volunteer trip to Haiti. We ate foods the locals prepared using herbs and spices for flavor instead of meat, fats and sugar (which they could not afford). The food was delicious and nobody got fat on it. We came home and learned how to cook like Haitians and Indians and ditched all the stuff in the middle of the grocery store.
Eventually we bought land on a mountainside in the Blue Ridge mtns. We did the basic prepper stuff but I also built a house that can work off the grid, with its own 30-gal/minute well and septic system, plus backup power if the grid becomes unreliable. It has a woodstove and we have three acres of woodlot. The house is a long way up a steep private road (gravel) and that means mandatory 4WD, but we already had a jeep. It's 10 miles to town, but if we get snowed in or the road washes out, we have water and heat and food on hand. We can put another log on the fire and wait it out.
For those who say "Yeah, fine for you rich people"--none of this was done with big bucks. We've never made more than about $30k in combined annual gross income. The land cost $10k because it was so steep and remote no one wanted it. I did all the work on the house myself, except the excavation/site prep (cost me $10k) and the well ($5k, but I had to build the well house over it). Everything was done with cash earned the hard way. I spent the last ten years working as a roofer. It's been mostly hard work, not just throwing money at contractors. Like pouring 100' of concrete driveway up a steep hill--by hand, because no ready-mix truck can get up there. Footers poured by hand, trusses field-built, etc.
We went to all this trouble because we think what's coming is not a brief, wrenching social dislocation that returns to normal after a few months or a couple of years. We think "normal" is gone for good, and the future is a long, slow ratchet downwards to a New Normal, interrupted by chronic sudden sickening plunges. For us, prepping meant leaving behind the old, debt-laden consumerist ways and getting used to a new, more rigorous way of living. Not a diet--a permanent change. Best of luck to you.
Thanks for the well spoken feedback. Mrs. Cog and I are committed to a lifestyle change. But we aren't so foolish as to think we should or could jump in feet first on an all or nothing basis. Baby steps is our motto.
One of the reasons we love our new property is because the prior owner was like minded and much of the work we were planning to do if we bought a less developed place he had already done. For reasons entirely unrelated to the value or condition of the property the owner reduced the sale price by 25% to sell quickly. It popped up on our search radar since prior to the price reduction it was outside our price range and thus never considered. We quickly inspected the place and knew it was the unique property we'd been looking for.
After closing we took more than three months to transition to the new place. That alone was a smart move because it allowed us to make minor repairs and upgrades without the pressure of needing to make repairs and upgrades because we were living there and had no choice. The amazing thing is that the prior owner left a fully stocked and functioning workshop in place. We had thought he might remove the tools, benches, equipment, storage cabinets full of fasteners etc before the closing. He did not and when we did the walk thru before closing I thought I had died and gone to heaven. He left behind at least $10k of "stuff". I am most grateful.
You were wise to make the shift in good time. Moving to a new area and a different way of life is a stressful change even when everything goes swimmingly, which just about never happens. Too many people are thinking, "Yeah, doomsday, zombies, collapse, whatever. IF I see it happening, then we'll get out of here and become more self-reliant."
That will likely be too late, but even if it can still be accomplished, it will be agonizingly stressful. You will be trying to sell your city dwelling into a bidless market, seeking out tools you can't afford and don't know how to use, and looking for that countrified hideout when the price of arable land has skyrocketed and the country folks are suddenly very mistrustful of outsiders.
People should not underestimate the effort and discomfort involved in such a major life change. I have old friends from Florida who fell in love with the mountains and spent two years searching for a place in the hills across TN and NC. I told them, "There's one thing you should know. When you come up here on vacation, it seems like a dream to live here. Relaxed, no demands on you, totally laid back. That's because you're on vacation. If you MOVE up here to live, it will be different. This will be where you LIVE, not where you vacation. All your everyday issues will follow you here."
The house below me went on the market when the old gal hit 87, had a stroke and went into a nursing home. They drove up from Florida and bought it the same week it was listed. After Christmas they moved all their stuff up and settled in. Before two weeks were up, they were hit by Transplant Shock: "Man, it's awful quiet up here. Man, we miss the grandkids. Nobody comes up here to visit us, and we feel so isolated. We made a TERRIBLE mistake.'
I said, "Maybe. It's too soon to tell. What happened to you is that you understimated the psychological impact of leaving the place you've lived your whole life and starting over in a new place. I tried to get this across, remember. You knew you were leaving your grandkids in Florida. You liked that it was quiet and uncrowded; that's the flip side of "isolated and no visitors". You'll need to give it some time, make new friends, learn your way around, adjust to a new daily map."
The wife said, "I can't take it. I'm outta here. Joe, you get this place ready to put on the market, and I'll see you back in Daytona."
After she left, I told Joe, "Do what you gotta do. But think about this; if the wheels come off the welfare bus, Daytona Beach will be like a Cesar Romero movie. You'll wish you were safely tucked in here, looking out at the mountain views and smelling the bread baking in the oven."
He's still here. She's still there. You gotta think about what you're doing.
Cog, having a good quality wood stove goes a long way in showing the neighbors you and the Ms. have "staying power".
Just saying.
We have a brand new water wood stove that seems to be the standard around here. The locals respect this type of hardware.
When it is fired up and pumping hot water thru the air handler (with heat pump shut down) it is just as comfortable as a "normal" central heating system. And with the stainless steel construction I expect many years of warm winters. Even have it set up to run off the generator (and soon solar panels and batteries) for those dark stormy winter nights.
Life in the Capital District ain't what it is cracked up to be. - Ned
Time to Escape to Ecuador!
http://yourescapetoecuador.com/relocation/making-the-move-to-ecuador/
My better half recently inherited 540 hectares (1300 acres) in the canton Cumanda region of Ecuador. It's about 90km from Guayaquil. Gorgeous forests and rivers. Thinking about building a bug out housing development for US expats. Could be a lot of fun.
Plan at least as carefully as Mr and Mrs Cog though. Pretty decent possibilities you have. If you ever take the plunge to move to Ecuador (and civilization is still civil), drop on down to Lima to visit our in-laws, maybe us in the future.
DoChen.
Moving to Ecuador is not in my immediate plan. Too much history here to leave without trying to instill some change from the present course. Although, as I learned a long time ago, it's always good to have a fallback position.
As far as dropping down to Lima for a visit, why wait until things get weird. You are practically down the street (Biscayne) and we can meet up anytime.
Glad you got the money to be able to do that op. The rest of us? Not so much. I'm just hoping my house appraises for the asking amount so we can finally dump this turkey and be renters until the storm blows over and we can scoop up another one for pennies on the dollar. Assuming dollars still hold any value by that point. It takes money to escape from the rat race and I tire of well to doers who puff their chest up and write op eds about how they are ditching it all for the prepper green acres lifestyle...
We sold just about everything we had in order to be able to make this move. I am upside down on my old personal residence and cannot sell it without taking a big loss, one we couldn't afford if we were going to change lifestyles. So we are renting it out which will cover most, but not all, of the monthly nut. That could come back to bite us big time depending upon how this all plays out. And while we already lived pretty close to the bone we are now getting pretty close to bone marrow.
It really came down to a few questions. If not now, when? How serious were we about withdrawing from the machine? Was it all just talk on our part? What were we willing to endure to make it happen?
We shall find out the answers as they appear and keep the ZH audience informed if they so wish.
CD is indeed lucky to have found you. My wife starts to cringe when I talk about what I believe is headed this way on the horizon. She still listens to me but she is scared and or doesn't want to believe it so I basically prep and make plans for exfil on my own. Selling this house and making it to closing at the end of the month right now is priority number one for me though. We already had one contract fall through from an appraisal that was soft and this contract has more money to put down to minimize that issue but we still have to get another appraisal now this week and if that comes back lower than the first then we are fucked and are stuck here. We are right on the edge of selling this place for what we need to break even and I feel that this little runup in prices is the last chance for 5 years that we will be able to sell and this hood is almost 80-90% minority black/hispanic and I don't want to be anywhere near here when SHTF.
Best of luck to you guys and with the house sale. I know how frustrating the real estate market can be to operate in.
To heck with nay sayers, you've got pioneer spirit, that should take you where you want to go. I respect your efforts, and wish you success in your new lifestyle.
good luck, just don't get old and sick, there was a reason the life span was so short pre industrial revolution, no there is no good answer to modern man's gestalt..enjoy your youth, perhaps living into the 8th decade was too much for us to ask.
One of the areas Mrs. Cog has jumped into is natural medicines and essential oils. We are both astounded by what we are finding. It is very clear to us that the Pharma industry has suppressed much of this knowledge in their pursuit of greater control and profits.
First off, congrats on acting on your beliefs- if more people did that one thing, we wouldn't be as far down the wrong road as we are today.
That being said, a few things to watch out for- just as an FYI, and so that you can prepare for them accordingly. Some of these will be dupes of other posters' comments, and I apologize for that.
Here's where I'm coming from- I was born in a town with about 10,000 people, and lived there until I was 19. I moved to the Twin Cities in MN then, and lived there for about five years- until I decided that the traffic, constant light and excessive noise was just not for me. So, I took the money I made in the city, and moved back to the place I grew up. My first wife and I looked at about ninety homes, trying to find the right place, and decided on a house less than 20 miles from where I was born- though it is in the next town, with a population of 3,000, give or take.
I'm 34 now, and have lived in the same house in my town for over ten years- and my mother was born here. But because I moved here from the bigger town next door, it's only been this year that I've managed to get the time of day from anyone in my town, and it was because my (current) wife worked for a couple of years in one of the two local grocery stores as a manager, and my kids have been in the local school system for four years.
Don't get me wrong, no one here has ever been "mean" to me or anything like that- they just act like I'm a stranger, and are accordingly aloof. I asked about it once, when I was talking to one of the older neighbors, and she asked where I was from. The funny thing is, is that it is evidently not where I was born and raised- I had to take her back to where my grandfather and his parents landed during WWII, and according to small town logic, that meant my home town was an hour away in a place I've only visited once in over 30 years. Lucky they gave me that much, and had people there themselves- otherwise, I probably would have been run out of town as the diabolical spawn of a Silisean and an Irishwoman.
So there's that. Other places have different customs- where I am, it's 99.5% German, Swede and Irish. Make sure you make good with the natives ASAP- I didn't think I had to because it's the same county I was born in, but I was evidently wrong.
The other thing is that you need to be careful with the herbs. Part of my five year bug-in was spent learning herbalism from a handful of very smart folks. (Ironic that my woodscraft would come from the "big city," no?) There are a lot of claims that books love to make, but only a handful of herbs have real effects, and a subset of those have dangerous side effects. Two quick examples, so I'm not just coming off as a big pharma guy- liquorice root actually will do wonders for your digestion, but if you chew too much raw root that has not been through a deglycyrrhization process, it will cause a rapid blood pressure spike and dramatic water retention that will cause your hands and feet to swell like sausages. If you are not in perfect health, this will kill you.
Second example is St. John's Wart, and I mention it because you've made the move you have. It is actually a useful natural anti-depressant, should times get a little leaner or tougher than you expect and you need a pick-me-up. But don't use it too often or too long- if you do, it will turn your skin yellow and make you excessively sensitive to sunlight, which will not help you grow food.
Echinachea doesn't have much supporting it, but there's not much bad to say about it either. I have a few little beds of it myself, and I'll drink the tea or take powered rhizomes during cold and flu season because it's not much work and it can't hurt- but it certainly is not an antibiotic.
OTOH, it'd serve you well to plant some ginseng yesterday. Take 5-7 years to mature, but it's good stuff for all sorts of things.
Last warning is security- leaving the city doesn't keep the big bad wolf away. Small communities beg and simper with the best when it comes to grabbing for funds, and it really doesn't matter if the local sheriff and his boys or a federal marshall stomps your face in- either way, you're still DOA. Best thing you can do there is make the local boys your accomplices, if you can- and hope it sticks. Like I said, I've lived here for a decade, and a couple of times a year, I take the local PD a big can of Folger's and a pack of donuts from Sam's Club a few towns over. It won't buy loyalty, just a pause if I ever need it. I do it because I have a retaining wall around my property, and one actual parking spot- when I got my first winter parking ticket, the deputy on duty shrugged and said the parking tickets went to their coffee and donut fund- so I bring them coffee and donuts now and then, and they keep the tickets confined only to big snow storms. In your case, depending on the town and the local PD, I'd note that most cops don't get a turkey from the city or county on Thanksgiving- and they really like it if they recieve one. Like I said, it's not sure-fire, but it might buy you a moment's pause that counts some day.
All-in-all, I sincerely wish you the best in your move- I've thoroughly enjoyed your articles for many years, and I think the place you've moved to is lucky to have you. Just make sure to put in the legwork so that they know it as well. If you need a suggestion, perhaps look into volunteering to help with the local food pantry- farms aside, rural generally means poor, and it will help you meet both the farmers and the townsfolk, without having to pick a church.
Updates would be greatly appreciated CD. You and Mrs. Cog are blessed to have found each other. Your story is a true inspiration.
All the best!
AB
Mrs. Cog and I did not find each other. In reality Mrs. Cog has taken me hostage. But what a way to go. :)
<This article was Mrs. Cog's sole inspiration and I am certain she would be delighted to keep ZH informed. I'm just the peanut gallery in this relationship.> :)
Sweet surrender. : - }
Indeed, keep us informed...! :)
I see a couple of possibilities with your upside down place. One is to wait for inflation to make your mortage worthless to the bank and pay them off with one gold eagle. The other is to wait till it gets so bad that the hoards burn the bank down that owns your note. Then there is always the option of already being bugged out and forgetting to make the payment.
Maybe we'll get lucky and hit the triple play?
<You can't win if you don't play.>
I joined the volunteer fire department. The state of California then levied a tax on all rual property owners for fire protection. I'm being taxed to put out my own fires. Anyway it's a good way to meet locals, beware of the politics though. They can be pretty rough in a small town. It will get you a good look at your nieghbors though.
+1
For doing...
I joined the volunteer fire department. -- joego1
stick with it- soon "volunteer" becomes unionized full-time and you'll be making 6 figures and sitting in a phat new firehouse and on your way to retirement at 50y.o. and drawing that big pension.
I'm already 58 so it would have to be someone younger than me willing to wait it out. I figure in the future we be providing our own services so why not start now.
I grew up in a small town, so small in fact that any mother within 2 miles of home base had implied permission to slap some sense into me if I was ever caught out of line.
I hold no illusion that we will be fully welcomed into the local community quickly. Like someone else said here in the threads we aim to be patient. But we are ready to just keep plugging away until they all cry uncle and let us in just so they can shut us up. :)
I grew up in a city but back then they had neighbourhoods. And very similar experience regarding the moms (and one dad who chased me down the street in his stocking feet).
I think you will do fine, am looking forward to the updates and thanks Ms. Cog for putting yourself out there - not easy.
Arcade Fire - Tunnels:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz-WDk7Tbsc