junk land drivel

JUNK LAND DRIVEL
Before we start today, a hearty hi ho and thanks buckaroo to JRG of Texas for another generous donation. Some of you are aware of the need to keep your name in the headlights so that you are picked for the Inner Secret Council Of Bisonia. Others just don't get it. Now, I got two e-mails on junk land. Here, that constitutes a landslide of interest so I felt compelled to write about it. Plus, I get that warm fuzzy feeling knowing I don't have to herniate myself trying to hatch an idea for the days topic. One loyal minion wanted to know about the more upscale land being sold, the other commented on the "advice" presented over on a gun forum over the unsuitability of junk land. I put the "advice" in quotation marks, not because I believe that it is horrid, unsuitable, dangerous and ill advised ( which I actually believe but am too polite to say ), but because when a pearl of wisdom rolls from my highly evolved brain it constitutes advice. When any other cretin grunts a few syllables it is merely background noise that you may safely ignore.
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More alert minions might remember that when I originally posted the blog www.dirtcheapdirt.blogspot.com I was very careful to only list lots that allowed RV's or travel trailers to park there full time. Unfortunately I simply don't have the Internet time to do that any more. It takes two to three times as long to weed out the more controlled lots. I get into work a minimum of an hour before I clock in. If I spend any more time on the land blog I wouldn't have time to read all my daily sites that keep me in a high state of paranoia. Perhaps some of you prefer a Jim that is mellow and relaxed, but I can't believe I would have very much of interest to say then. I need my infusion of fear and fright like a fat chick needs a daily Ho Ho ( that's for you, Biguns-I was going to say Twinkies ). It keeps me artificially motivated. Getting back to junk land, if we may, by publishing links to land with only price as a criteria there is going to be a lot of land unsuitable for the truly frugal. Not only do you need to be aware of con artists trying to scam you on your purchase, you also need to keep in mind that you might be legally conned.
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After we stole the Indians land fair and square, plus some worthless land the Mexicans weren't using ( and don't friggin cry me a river with Whitey Stole Our Land- you stole it from the Indians also, we just did the same to you ), settlers were pretty much left alone on their land. If you bought it, it was yours. Well, slowly but surely monied interests discovered this vast untapped source of wealth and any more land is just seen as a cash cow by a half dozen types of parasites. Now, through zoning and building codes and other regulation benefiting local taxing authorities and contractors and Unions and MegaCorporations selling building supplies and especially banks, you get to own land like a sharecropper gets to own farm goods. You pay all your life for the privilege of working it for very few benefits or rewards. And don't even get me started on all the asshat neighbors that turn you into the zoning police so your land doesn't endanger their property values ( thank God for the karmic justice of the housing bubble ), or the property associations that micromanage your home. By buying land with any zoning or building hassles, you step into that whole mess of the leeches hanging from your wallet until the day you die.
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So why do I include that kind of land, other than my lack of time to filter it out? Because I know one size doesn't fit all. You might have sold before the crash and have plenty of cash for a stick built home. You might prefer a conventional home. You have kids and need a regular dwelling. By buying cheap land you have plenty left over for a nice house. Etcetera. But don't buy the land and expect them to change the rules allowing you to have an unconventional home. They won't change. Too many vested interests are able to pay off their own home, send their own kids to Ivory Hall schools by screwing you over. We could be five years in the Depression with unemployment at fifty percent and still they wouldn't change the rules. Poor people never should have applied to live there. The people clutching on to the property there won't stand for any poor redneck trailer trash moving in and degrading the property values any more. It doesn't matter if there are absolutely no jobs in the area. It doesn't matter if they grossly overpaid for their lot twenty years ago. In fact, the more they paid the more they will refuse to admit they made a mistake and were played as a sucker and will fight you tooth and nail if you resist insanely expensive building requirements. Here in Elko, the county allows trailers without a problem. But as soon as you try to build anything they open up code books the size of the English Oxford Dictionary. And fees and permits are bad enough to make a king blush.
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Now, on to the inane comments about junk land. I've only read an excerpt on the thread over at AR15 forums. I could be blowing it out of proportion. Of course, I usually do that anyway ( which, by the by, leads me to this carefully hidden retraction on the oil import figures I've been giving- I inadvertently added six months to the decline of imports. It has been two years total at 8% a year, not the two and a half years at 8%,8% and then 4.5% I gave you. So, 16% total rather than 20%. My bad ). If I read it right, they are saying having junk land is stupid because you can't just arrive and have barren land, unsuitable for farming for lack of preparation or practice. To which I reply, duh. That is why you have a crapload of stored food to get you through several years. By itself, junk land is worthless for anything but squatting because you bought the land so cheap. Two acres of productive farmland cost $20k. Two acres of junk land costs $2k. Years and years of stored grains and beans, plus buying commercial fertilizer to condition the soil costs another grand. I understand the original point. Don't just buy the land and leave it and expect to survive on it with no preparations. But by not giving the advice to store three to five years food ( plus import the needed soil improvements ) to tide you over, you are just falling into the high cost Yuppie survival camp of buying everything high dollar to solve all problems ( like buying a hundred dollar Mylar bag sealer instead of using your clothes iron ).
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Again, I didn't read the whole thread and if I jumped to any conclusions I stand corrected. But, given that this is a forum on AR-15's, an overly expensive self defense solution, I somehow doubt it. If I am misquoting, this is still a good opportunity to remind you that junk land is still as good as overpriced land, given a little work and thought. I'll have more junk land drivel real soon, so stay riveted to your monitors.
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