junk land and employment

JUNK LAND AND EMPLOYMENT


A quick word on passive solar and backup heat. Due to Gore Warming, or perhaps El Nino ( El Nino ) or heck for all I know Intergalactic Rays Of Death from Martians, we had a record warm period for October and the first half of November followed immediately by record breaking cold. I would wager that we’ve already had more single digit and below zero temps than all last winter, or at least so many they are getting “normal”. They claim we’ll be going back into high teens low twenties for lows and above freezing for highs, which would be super peachy keen ( Peachy Keen iPhone Case - beautiful feminine peach carry case by Cute Cases ) with me, but they’ve lied like the rabid dogs that they are for the last month and a half, rarely being anywhere close to their forecasts. I don’t see why we can’t dock them pay for being wrong. Otherwise, why do they even have a job? If I were a General and kept screwing up figuring out what the enemy was going to do I’d be retired pretty quick. Anyway, despite being a few days in the teens as highs, when the sun was out we didn’t even need the heater running. Next springs project, right after the earth pipe, is to construct a black box outside one window for heat when we are away ( if the windows stay shut it doesn’t warm but if they stay open and it gets cloudy it gets too cold- the box will let in heat without open windows ). But for now things work out pretty good with just south facing windows, extra insulation, homemade shutters and dressing so it is comfortable over fifty degrees. Most Yuppie Scum would cry in pain, swoon in fright and frantically call the central air repairman if their McMansion got as cold as 55, but we are used to it and it saves a lot in heating.

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Yes, water freezes in the tin box. But the pipes don’t ( the sewer pipes do, but only for short periods- worse case, you have a chamber pot in use ). The buckets of water get a slight ice scum on the top. As long as you can handle the morning lows, and be happy with the sun bringing it up slowly to the fifties, passive solar can heat even a travel trailer half the day. It might not technically be “passive”, as there is nothing to absorb the heat and later release it, but close enough for poor folk. Now, to the heater. Last weekend our Mr. Buddy ( Mr. Heater F232025 MH9BX Buddy 4,000-9,000-BTU Portable Radiant Heater, California Only ) heater took a dive. And of course it did so in the evening as the outside temp was low teens. Luckily, I had bought a spare years back on seasonal clearance. And kept it plastic wrapped close to the back of the storage van. We were back in business before the inside temp went down more than a few degrees. Unfortunately, Home Despot no longer carries Mr. Buddy and I had to buy a generic Chinese heater ( $80 well worth the peace of mind ). But lesson learned. Back ups are essential, assume no repairs can be done. Always be extra paranoid. And, no matter how long you store supplies, they will come in handy.

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Living on junk land ( Country Property Dirt Cheap: How I Found My Piece of Inexpensive Rural Land...Plus My Adventures with a $300 Junk Antique Tractor ) is not paradise on earth, but it surely beats living in mortgage/rent hell. I won’t trade back down, even if it means I can’t get 15 cent a kilowatt electric ( compared to a ten year panel and two five year batteries costing $200, delivering an average of ten hours a day-assuming no clouds- 100 watts, 3 kilowatts a month, 36 a year, 360 in ten years for fifty cent a kilowatt hours if there was never any clouds. $1 a kilowatt is more realistic for solar ), or see my turds swirl down the toilet in water. Yes, it is hard to back the mental jump. It isn’t hard at all to move, just to decide to move. And while I say moving is easy, it does entail sacrifice. Not just being hotter or colder until you build a structure, not just drastically cutting electrical and water use, but having to compromise. Since you need cheap land on a road, nearby moving water, zoning for trailers and nearby employment, you are asking the impossible. You can get all the above, but not cheaply. Or, you can get it all without any nearby job. You must sacrifice something. In my case, I have to live in a frozen wasteland with no firewood or gardening potential ( earth sheltered greenhouses are on my far off list of things to do but I wonder how many calories it will produce or if I can haul enough water ). I might have gotten all the positives but I had to add an additional negative. It will be tough ( but possible ) to survive after the collapse here. One minion wrote and asked if Elko being a nuclear fallout free zone had any bearing on my decision to move here, but I must confess I didn’t know about that until he mentioned it. My criteria had been affordable/water/zoning/employment. You have to survive the Greater Depression ( The Second Great Depression ) before you worry about post-collapse living.

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Junk land, if you can’t find a lot near work, can only be a bug out spot. Either for massive unemployment or if cached, eventual destination after the rioting starts. You could move there anyway, but would need to figure out how to live just on Food Stamps ( my original planning had included the possibility of lower desert living hermit coming into town for Food Stamp groceries once a month, but it would have been infeasible with a wife I imagine ). Not much of a life, I think gainful employment is preferable. But if you get worried enough it is a possible sacrifice. My lot in east Texas is in a temperate climate, abundant lakes for fishing, trailer zoning, and absolutely no jobs. My Arizona lot, which I unloaded to a bigger sucker at a loss, has surface water 15 miles away and thirty to town. And at five thousand feet elevation I image bad winters. At $400 it wasn’t a bargain because of the negatives. Internet employment is mostly a myth, and becoming a writer takes years of on the job training before it pays. I did it, but it takes a heck of a lot of sacrifice and discipline ( I’m not trying to sound noble- it worked for me because I love it ). Junk land living will take living very differently. In more than one aspect. You will find the perfect piece for you, it just might take time. If you don’t think you have time, just buy the first close lot you can afford and treat it as insurance. Better to have it just in case, even if it isn’t feasible to live on now. In a year, it might be the only place to go. Junk land living with employment worked for me, it can work for you, but one way or another you pay some kind of price. Discomfort, radical adjustment to far less money, becoming a ward of the state, long bike commute. Something. I say it is easy, but I’m fully aware of the price paid.

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