junk territory

JUNK TERRITORY


A minion asked in the comments section about my choice in survival abodes. 31 degrees in the morning on June 2nd. Am I concerned I backed the wrong horse in this race? Hey, look at the bright side. On June 3rd it was 27 degrees. No, seriously, living in Elko sucks. But it is as perfect a survival spot as you can get nowadays. For Po folk anyway. Before we get down to brass tacks, let me premise this by saying that as with a lot of things in my life, I fell into this ass backwards. I only moved up to Elko because I wanted a job in an area that had lenient zoning for trailer living. Only after I committed myself to here did I realize how advantageous it was to post-apocalypse living. I don’t have to justify to myself that moving here was a good idea, please understand. I’ve never had any problem saying to myself, self, you screwed up now try something different. I’ve never allowed past investments to totally dictate my future, or if you will, I’ve never thrown good money after bad past a certain point. Remember, I bought land in Arizona, Texas and Arkansas. I could have picked any of those places to live. Even after I moved to Elko.

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Arkansas was a nice cozy little lot in the middle of the wilderness ( for that area ). It also was surrounded by vast tracts of No Employment. Texas also had little employment in the area, but at least a chance for some. Arizona probably had employment, but you had to commute at least thirty miles ( and surface water was 15 miles away ). Post-collapse, I didn’t see much farming potential in Arkansas since it was all woods, but I don’t know the area enough to say for sure. It could have been a great potential crash site. Texas, great for food and fishing, was only sixty miles downwind of a great urban pestilent craphole ( Dallas/Fort Worth ). And Arizona had nothing but remoteness as an attraction. But Elko, currently a foul artic craphole, or as I said earlier with far more poetic flare, a crap stain on the side of a desert wasteland, has far greater potential for PODA ( post oil dark ages ). To the west and south we have a 300 mile buffer between us and any significant population, and 200 miles to the north and east. We are an island fortress surrounded by a hostile and dangerous sea. Only coal from the Appalachians ( or wherever coal was coming from at the time ) and steel from Pittsburg allowed the whites to penetrate into the Great Basin and settle there. Before that, they could barely pass through without the journey killing them. Without carbon fuels, this place is inhospitable for farmers or would be farmers. The Piute Indians pretty much lived off end of river marshes fishing, the region is so bad. Of course, that was on the west end of the Basin. The east end receives far more rain. You can actually pasture animals here. In fact, the difference is so stark, the Piutes got there ass handed to them by the tribes from the east, who could keep and feed horses. I’m thinking the Ute tribe, but I could be off here. I have a book somewhere on local tribes and can’t find it.

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There is agriculture here, but it too is carbon fuel dependent. Not necessarily to irrigate but mainly because the soil here is pure D crap. Even with eastern grazing, the harsh winters only allow sustainable pasturing. Not on an industrial scale, which is what you would need to grow the grass to feed enough cattle to produce enough manure to fertilize enough cropland to feed an agricultural concern. In other words, only petroleum fertilizer makes feeding more than a village with potatoes possible. Grazing is self sustainable if the population of humans is steady. The animals fertilize next years grass. But if you take the grass to import to stationary animals who are fertilizing food production you will probably find yourself with less grass each year and you would have to go out farther each time for enough. Which is why practicing now with penned animals makes little sense. You would be importing feed. Your herds need to roam to eat here or the equation breaks down.

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Because Elko has such a bad climate ( winter can last six plus months, no clouds in the summer and plenty all winter long ), changes are good that as petroleum starts to run out, be rationed, and get really expensive ( you think $100 a barrel is bad now? We’re just getting started ), more folks will move away from here. Not because there won’t be jobs, as long as gold is far more expensive than oil it still pays to process the ore here-very energy intensive as it is tons of dirt to ounce of gold , but because the normal Yuppie Whore household loaded with debt in relation to income no matter how high, can’t pay a disproportionate amount for heating their house. Because I’ll be far less dependent on petroleum fuel, I can cheerfully bid them fair thee well asshats. The only thing close to being as bad as Yuppie Pukes are Moneyed Rednecks. Rednecks are my kind of people, but as soon as you throw too much money at them they turn into jerks. Pretentious snobs without the education.

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This is what I’m going to call “junk territory”, as opposed to “junk land”. Land is taking a cheap piece of land and turning the deficits to your advantage. A terribly rutted road means no one bothers you. No grid power means no neighbors will move in, while you make out just fine with a few panels. No county maintenance for snow removal means the same. Junk land, looked at the proper way, holds so many advantages that you are embarrassed you didn’t move there sooner. Junk territory is the same. Since it doesn’t fall into “oil age paradise” status, or fall into the Yuppie Survivalist definition of an agricultural paradise, us po folk can cheaply move there and make a go of it post-crash. The normal definition of desirable passes these areas by, which is to our advantage. No one else wants to be there. Less competition for resources, which will become very important indeed as the oil starts running out in earnest.

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Look at the Apache, living in one of the worst areas imaginable. They could exploit what little resources where there because of being tough, smart and having few competitors. Look at James DeKorne, author of “The Survival Greenhouse”. He moved up into the mountains of New Mexico and created a small self sustaining area for himself on a chunk of junk land. Junk land/territory is not a death sentence, it is an opportunity to do things the intelligent, unconventional way. The herd is a dumb beast, and the member on the flank get eaten by the lions. If you stay in your urban herd, you will be culled. Be smarter than a follower.

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