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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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I personally have not made it to the hunting phase... but I have had a stern shouting session with the fat bunny who gets into the garden. I have not been angry or hungry enough to draw on him yet, but there is still time.
"If the SHTF a rifle and a shitload of ammo and cheap whiskey will get you alot further than a Bible"
I don't know about that. Max Keiser said to get a bible, cut out the pages and put your handgun inside it.
It'll also come in handy if you run out of TP. There are a LOT of pages in one of those babies.
absolutely and completely agree Otto.
I reckon some raging drunk will trade me a shiny gold eagle for a $10 plastic bottle of rotgut.
5 Stars, Mrs Cog. Pls keep us updated with any helpful information you both glean from the move and re-settling. Your contribution is valuable as is Mr Cog's.
Well, Cogs, you have a lot to learn:
Here are a few tips:
1. The old-timers in your new rural paradise know a lot. Befriend them , and ask them all sorts of questions. If it is really rural, that means it is a poverty-stricken, subsistence-economy sort of place. The people there who have learned to live there know the land and the climate. They know what works, and what doesn't. You don't knonw these things. Don't try permaculture and fuck up a 100 year old pasture because you don;t know your ass from a hole in the ground. Start slow and ask questions.
2. Subsistence means all your priorities are inverted. If you have enough to eat, if you are warm and dry, and if you have enough clothes for the season, then your time is not worth what you think it is. By that I mean that you have 12 hours of a workday to use, and you might not get paid for it at all, but you better damn sure work hard, or you'll get behind. You get a day off each week, and on that day, you get to take a nap. Enjoy it.
3. Learn the favor bankk, and work to build up your account. Do as many favors and free work for people as you can.
4. Your neighbors will be small-minded, nosy, devious, back-biting, lying, gossiping slanderous fuckheads. Learn to forgive them. You need them, and they need you, but in the beginning, you will need them more than they will need you. If you are humble and agreeable, you will find real friends, and they will be invaluable. If you are an arrogant, clueless, ignorant dumbshit, the wrath of passive-aggressive rural revenge will be upon you. By that I mean that when you need help, no-one will be there for you.
5. Learn how to fix things, how to grow things, how to weave, bake, sew, weld, carve, train animals, tan leather... any and all practical skills are needed and admired.
6. Discover how to transcend boredom. When you are able to read the same catalog for the third time, and still find it interesting, you'll be about there. Hone your powers of observation, so that you are able to notice things like the succcession of weed species over the course of several years, or whether there are more or less pollinating insects, or how the weather patterns are changing or staying the same. These things are the wisdom that will cause you to starve, or allow you to feed yourselves.
Good luck, and keep us posted!
You're wasting your time--they're not going to make any friends coming to some rural area with their heads up their asses. The fact that they're posting their plans on the web for all to see is a good marker of how narcissistic they are. They need to find the other hippy types that live out in the sticks, the ones doing co-ops and crap like that.
I up arrowed you for this fucktard
" They need to find the other hippy types that live out in the sticks, the ones doing co-ops and crap like that. "
BTW do you play a fat boy from Southpark?
I'm going to try not to be too negative, but I don't buy this idea that we're going to return to the 1820's where we're all going to eke out a living as subsistence farmers tanning our own hides and such. While I agree that elements of our society that depend on massive amounts of energy will go away, humans are very adaptable, and I think a modified, more local version of our current way of life will emerge. In other words, we'll still be riding around in wheeled vehicles of some sort, we will still have electricity in our homes and the Internet. I think those who "bug out" and live a survivalist lifestyle are going to be disappointed waiting for the apocalyptic collapse that never arrives.
I won't be disappointed because it is truly what I want to do. If the shtf I will be in a good position to survive, I don't think the shtf is going to happen at least not like the hardcore survivalists believe. I got the land and am slowly developing it. Well is in, got a small spring I plan to develop, got pear trees, a tractor, diesel pickup.
So Elvis, bugging out is what many want to do by choice. Know your food, know your neighbors and get away from the prying eyes at every street corner.
A lot of truth in the Hank Williams song: a country boy can survive.
Who knows? I think the move out of DC suburbs is a wise one for numerous reasons. The DC area is going to be a total mess if things implode. Riots then the most severe police state conditions. Moving far away and being remote having a backup plan if only for temporary shortages seems like a prudent choice.
We do not expect the country or world to return to the 1820's. We do expect the standard of living to decline over time simply because the Ponzi financial system is not able to sustain itself without cannibalizing you and me in the process.
We prefer to be near the end of the cannibal line.
Way to go Mr. & Mrs. Cog! Welcome to the self-reliant zone. Been here since 2006, but started the ball rolling in 1992. Bought a disused pioneer farmstead on an island in the Pacific north-west. Finally made the "big" move in 06.
Don't regret it for one second! Days full of hard work and pride in what we have accomplished. Our fellow island residents are as an extended family, helping each other on our quest to further develope a solid community, in the image of an earlier time when people cared about each other.
So, welcome to your new paradigm. Those who join in on this journey (the ants) wiill be the future winners. Those who keep putting it off (the grasshoppers) will reap their respective rewards.
@mess nonster
Well said, great advice.
-1
You're talking about me again...
Your neighbors will be small-minded, nosy, devious, back-biting, lying, gossiping slanderous fuckheads. -- mess monster
+1
You better show up for church too...
Learn to forgive them. You need them, and they need you... -- mess monster
Fuck church--the human race will never evolve until we cast off the belief in invisible deities that control our lives. Just going to church to 'fit in' which a bunch of uneducated rural wingnuts is not going to be of much help. Those people will smell the city on you and ignore you. Most rural people are Free Shit Army one way or another, just like all the worthless city trash that fill up those human filing cabinets. It's just a different way to be poor.
Your right, this big beautiful blue marble in the universe was just an accident, just a random happening.
/sarc
i'm a tincture and ointment man meself. http://tjs-herbs.blogspot.com/
Wow, o wow, Mr & Mrs Cog, I (and all of us here at ZH) wish you the very best of luck in this move you are planning. As knukles said, Godspeed to you both.
DC is toxic now.
EDIT (if in time...):
Bet this article gets read the most and collects the most replies of anything ever at ZH...
"Bet this article gets read the most and collects the most replies of anything ever at ZH..."
I very much hope so.
For our part, we moved to the country (on a mountain about ten miles outside a mid-size Southern city) nearly four years ago and are very glad we did. Not fully prepped yet (if that's even possible) but getting there.
Unfortunately, almost no one in our circle of friends believes as we do, many of them so addicted to partisan politics that they have lost the ability to think critically and thus make any real sense of what is going on right before their eyes.
I'm talking about otherwise inteligent, well-educated people who believe that all will be well if only the "right" people are put in office, even if the "right" people are already in office. A friend of the left, for instance, who would be apoplectic if a Republican president were doing what Obama is doing, continues to defend him, completely unable to see that it makes no difference which party is in power, much less that the system is so broken that it is impossible to fix and is only being sustained by unsustainable money printing.
Very sad, especially since the more this mindset prevails, the worse it will be for all of us.
But thank you, Cogs, for sharing, and thank you ZH for providing this wonderful platform. We are in an endgame that is also the beginning of a paradigm shift of unprecedented proportions, not just as the American empire follows its Soviet predessor into the dustbin of history but as the nation-state itself, though seemingly perpetual, falls victim to its internal contradictions.
Good post and I agree with your comments.
We beat the crowd by moving to the country in '79- no mountains down here in SE Louisiana at the end of a dead-end road (but we are 125 ft above sea level LOL).
You wrote "...unable to see that it makes no difference which party is in power,...). It's worth remembering that when G. Wallace was running for President:
"George Wallace (1919-1998) ran for U.S. president in 1968 on the third party American Independent Party ticket. Asked in 1968 about the Democrats and Republicans, Wallace answered: “There’s not one dime’s worth of difference in the two parties. If you put all of the Republican leaders in a good cotton-picking sack with the Democrats, shake ‘em up and let the first one drop out, you’d stick ‘im right back in ‘cause there’s no difference.” Wallace had used the “not a dime’s worth of difference” line as early as May 1967."
Of course this and his opposition to the Federal Reserve got him shot.
BTW, I'm a damyankee...
Here is an excellent book for when you can no longer access your PDF's...
http://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Complete-Traditional-Skills/dp/1602392331/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373284849&sr=1-1&keywords=Back+to+Basics
Thanks Cog!
Not sure who cares: but a quick history of my past 2 years. My family and I moved from our 1/3 of an acre suburban life to a rural 4 acres that we're turning into a hobby farm. I am lucky to live in farming country and have a close friend (a surgeon) who owns the land all around me. We've met several of our neighbors (many are farmers) and are getting to know a couple who have very similar interests to us (master gardners and into renewing their property while growing/canning all the food they possible can). I count my location as very ideal for a tough future.
However, the land has been farmed for generations using chemicals: restoring it using permaculture methods (or natural farming) is HARD work that requires tremendous effort, trial/failures, and most critically: time. I am approaching 40 years old and in fantastic physical shape (kickboxing, MMA style circuit workouts 2X a week, running 3-5 miles a couple times a week, swimming weekly etc) and this physical labor of restoring ground to fertile soil is BACK-BREAKING.
Unfortunately, the nearest groundwater source is .75 miles away. Luckily, I have a well with the ability to lift the water manually if needed plus I'll have my barn roof gutters hooked up to a 1500 gallon cistern this month. That being said, my orchard requires nearly 250 gallons of water each watering (and that is with it covered with a foot of wood chips/mulch to retain water!!) plus my animals require about 80 gallons of h2o per day. Then there is also whatever my family requires: hauling water isn't easy. Plan accordingly. It's interesting to note: this year I haven't watered my gardens once (plenty of rain!). Last year I was watering nearly every other day and worried my well might dry up during the drought we experienced.
My advice: start a hobby farm yesterday. My orchards were planted as soon as I moved in (two years ago) and while we do have fruit on many of the trees, it won't be really productive for several more years. Due to a hard winter, we lost many trees (6). The 4 cherry trees are covered in fruit already, the apples are doing well, but the pear, plum, apricot and assortment of others are barren of fruit. Some years, you just don't know what you'll get!!
If anybody is under the illusion that living without modern chemicals or machinery would be romantic or fun: I respectfully disagree. It can be brutal, sweaty, drudgery while battling mosquitoes and flies. Animals need attention and can die for a number of reasons outside of your control. I have a steer ready to slaughter this week or next: it's taken 18 months to get him to this point. Imagine if he died unexpectedly after investing 18 months of effort into raising him. Farming requires faith/hope. You don't see the harvest under after the seeds are sown, watered, and weeded. An injury is one unlucky second away from happening to me or my animals at any point. A single thunderstorm could destroy 100% of my gardens for the year....last year a single hailstorm took out 1/3 of my corn patch. I lost a giant maple tree to a blast of lightning.
All of that being said, I happen to really enjoy the physical work --I get to tan while building my body!-- (I am a computer programmer during the day who sits for 8 hours except for an hour long lunch workout). I especially enjoy getting the produce out of our garden daily. There is great satisfaction with a life close to the earth.
Just don't think it's an easy transition or could happen post-collapse. Learn the skills today.
Also, if you're still reading this: if somebody like me can do it, anybody smart enough to be reading this website could build a hobby-farm, too. All the info you need is readily available online, in books, or at your local extension. The experience comes with effort.
Apologies for posting this twice. First time it appeared at the tippy-top of the comments on Ms. Cog's nicely done post. Still not sure how I fat fingered that into happening. Good thing (or maybe not) I'm not a prop trader for one of the big boys.
@Aerojet. In one of the past hurricanes to threaten the Houston area (Rita, I believe) there was a massive (and overdone) exodus. The highway grid lock was what one would expect when over one million people attempt to exit a metropolitan area at the same time. Sometime about the second day of the exodus, of the seemingly thousands of "on scene reports" during the local news casts, one had a video clip featuring an adult male indignantly whining and complaining about how the authorities (Read Gov.) needed to DO something! "We got people out here needing food, babies needing formula,..." At which point I immediately thought, Wait, you live on the Gulf Coast where hurricanes threats are a way of life. You know it's out there like 5 days in advance. You decide to take the local government's advice and haul ass. Yet knowing all of the above, you have made absolutley no preparation to feed yourself or your family for at least a few days?
To me, the above really drove home the point that there is a significant percentage of the population in these United States that simply will not think ahead much less plan and then execute said plan. They depend on others to make sure their needs can be met if there is a natural disaster, or any disaster for that matter. How many have considered that to get it right regarding the whole "interdependent" thing, it is predicated on first developing yourself through the dependent, and then independent stages before you can have interdependent groups? The more independent you can be when the need arises, the more choices you will have regarding who to associate with, who to conduct business with, and who your allegiences are with, period.
I read one piece of advice that said, "Don't be a refugee." What I've told my family is, "plan so that you are not in the crowd of 9000 in some Walmart parking lot waiting for a tractor trailer to come in with supplies of MRE's and water. You will be in a herd of cattle and will be treated as such."
OK, back to killin' snakes.