Vacation Land

Recently I was asked if we ever take living in a beautiful area for granted. My lovely wife and I do not. We still stop to watch the wildlife and sunsets. 

Today we decided to take the Sea Eagle 420 kayak out on the lake. It was a pleasant paddle with osprey overhead and loons checking us out. There’s a lot less motor traffic on the lake since the price of gas went up. 

After our paddle we went for a swim. The water was just cool enough to be refreshing but warm enough to be comfortable. 

In the evening I took the scooter on a long ride down back country roads. There was very little traffic. 

If you are going to live in a place that’s a vacation destination it only makes sense to stop and smell the roses. Otherwise, what’s the point? 

-Sixbears

Little tin boxes

My dad lives in a “retirement community.” That means it's a trailer park for older people.

It's actually not a bad lifestyle. The trailers are pretty low maintenance. There's lot of activities for people to do. People walk and bicycle all over the place. Dad seems to like it.

I tend to look at systems and self sufficiency. These trailers are connected to city water, the power grid, public sewers, and just about everyone has the phone/Internet/television bundles. Actually, it's not that much different that the way most people live.

Maybe you don't live in a little tin box, but most houses rely on outside systems to keep them going. Cut all the wires and pipes that come into your house and is it livable? Cut the power from most trailers and it's a tin box sitting in the sun. Dad's is somewhat better off than most as at least he has some good shade trees. How's your house situated?

Energy changes everything. Abundant grid tied electricity makes these tin boxes livable. People may look down on the humble trailer, but most “normal” houses don't do any better on the self sufficiency scale. It's not the house, but the systems that keep them going that matter.

Dad's pretty limited with what he can do with his trailer. The park has rules. It's not like he can drill a well, replace his sewer with a composting system, or put in alternative energy. When you move into a park, there are some things that one just has to accept.

Don't be too smug if you own your own house. Is there a homeowners association you must conform to? Sign any agreements? Restrictive zoning? Might as well be living in a trailer.

Rural life is different. Even a trailer out on the woods can be part of a self sufficient lifestyle. The land around the home makes all the difference. A good well, septic system, solar panels, and trees for firewood make my homestead a bit better for the long term.

My income is fairly limited. Because of that, I try and avoid bills that can go up steeply without my control. Electric rates can make huge jumps. A friend of mine is looking at big increases because a major industry that used to use power went out of business. The stranded costs of a big power plants will be passed on to the rate payers. My dad is looking at a 25% increase as his energy company has a couple of failed power plants to decommission.

My local power company will be doing rate increases for much the same reasons, but they'll have to do it without me. I'm completely off grid now. Perhaps they'll pressure government to outlaw off the grid living. I'm not paying for the bad decisions the local power company made.

Some places are being hit with huge water bills, or sewer bills. At least a person could always turn off their TV service and save some money that way. Sadly, TV can be hard to give up in most households.

Affordable and reliant energy makes all the difference whether or not life in the park is viable. On the bright side, it's just a trailer. It's not like leaving a mansion behind. Dad can always bunk in with me if necessary.

-Sixbears

Postal service

Recently the Postal Service sent the residents of my town a questionnaire. They will be cutting back our service and wanted some input. The best case scenario still leaves us with a significant reduction in office hours. Delivery times will also be affected. In a rural community, that’s a bit of a hardship.

People like me who live out in the woods rely on postal delivery. UPS still delivers, but some other parcel services no longer service my area. It wasn’t cost effective. I’m sure it’s not cost effective for the US Postal Service either, but that’s not the point. It’s one of the services that the government is supposed to provide. There’s nothing wrong with greater efficiency, but when it comes at the cost of service, that’s a problem.

For many people it’s a lifeline to the world. When you live far from town, having medications delivered right to your home mailbox is a godsend. I get everything from books to machine parts. Not only that, I’m one of those old fashioned guys who like to pay his bills by check. You’d be amazed at what gets delivered to rural post offices -everything from live chicks to honeybees.

The Postal Service has been around a long long time. Before text messages, cell phones, e-mail and every other electronic form of communication, there was the mail. It’s not instant, but it’s fast enough for many things. Should the grid get sketchy or the Internet go down, the mail should be able to get through. It’s old fashioned, but has the potential to be resilient. Gutting a reliable system is a mistake. Mail delivery tied us together when there was nothing else and it’s still important today.

-Sixbears

City life and safety

Paracynic made some very good comments about people being safer in the city. (Exits and Safety Tips) He’s right that if you have a heart attack in a major city, paramedics will be treating you in minutes and you are five minutes away from a quality hospital. Out here in the country we do things differently -we die.

My point wasn’t so much the merits of city vs country life. The focus was on how do you get out of such a place. People should think about it. Maybe you’ve got a private helicopter or a fast boat in the harbor. Maybe you keep a sharp weather out for trouble and lead the exodus rather than being caught up in traffic. Perhaps you plan on biking out down railroad tracks. Some people escaped Manhattan on 911 by kayaking off the island.

Around the world, the trend is for people to leave the country and head into cities. That’s where the economic opportunities are. My own ancestors were happy to trade life on a Quebec potato farm for factory work.

There are some real positives to city life. It is possible to live with a much smaller energy footprint. Cars are not needed. Big apartment buildings are more efficient than single houses. Everything you need is in easy walking distance. Political power becomes concentrated in cities. Who wants to be the king of empty space? Because of that power, the countryside will be stripped to keep cities going.

Some look at cities and see a teeming hive of activity. I see a box. It’s important to be able to get out of that box. My favorite solution is to not put myself in that box any more than I have to.

Cities can be nasty traps. The Warsaw Jewish ghettos. Sarajevo during the Balkan wars, New Orleans during the Katrina, Detroit any given day.

There are black swan events that would make cities serious death traps. tsunamis, EMP pluses, nuclear war, hurricanes, or civil unrest. I would not want to be in any desert city if the water supply was ever cut off.

That being said, Paracynic is right. The odds are that on any give day you are safer in the city.

That works as long as the infrastructure of the city is up and running. You can’t exactly live off the land in the city. A city is dependent on a steady stream of goods, food, water and energy to keep going.

Of course, everything isn’t black and white. The world isn’t divided up between New York and East Mooseknuckle. There are smaller cities that are quite livable. Plenty of country places really can’t support their populations, small as they are. I’ve a friend who plans to move to country when he retires, but he has some medical issues. He’s checking out property in the country near a top quality regional hospital. It’s small but well equipped and staffed by some of the best people in their fields. Moving out to the country doesn’t have to mean disappearing into the Bitteroot Mountains.

For me, the city has too many rules and points of control. Many of us country people figure we can just fade away into the bush. I'll take my chances in the country. Sure, I could die from an accident or a heart attack, but living in the city would kill me by inches.


-Sixbears

Risk Assessment

Over a couple of beers last night, my paramedic buddy mentioned how humans are pretty bad at risk assessment. People think that they’ll be safe in some isolated zombie proof fortress on an island somewhere. You’ve got to ask yourself: how many people have ever died from a zombie apocalypse? On the the other hand, how many people die every day from heart attacks? Someone in a remote isolated area is more likely to die from a medical emergency than someone in the city.

My home area is rural, but not necessarily what I’d call really isolated. There is a paved door that runs past my house. (a narrow, rutted and pot holed road, but a road none the less.) It’s even plowed by the town in the winter. A couple years ago there was bad car accident about 2/10 of a mile from my house. A state trooper happened on the scene soon after and radioed for an ambulance. The local volunteer ambulance crew could not be mustered. I think they may have already been on a call and didn’t have the resources to respond to a second call. The professional crew one town over was also maxed out due to a combination of out of state transfers and local emergencies. Eventually the town after them was able to must their volunteer crew and respond to the emergency. That accident victim survived, but suffered a lot longer than she would have in a city.

This is not a criticism of volunteer crews. They donate a lot of time and energy to provide a public service. I salute them. They get the same basic training as an EMT who works for a professional company. However, they don’t get nearly the same number of calls. An EMS crew in a busy professional company may go on more calls in month than a volunteer will go on in 5 years. Practice does make perfect.

Another buddy of mine is making the quality of medical care a big part of his relocation plan. He and his wife are actively looking at rural property but never too far from a very good regional hospital. It’s small, but well equipped and staffed with top notch people. This couple doesn’t’t have any major health problems, but they do recognize that being in their 50s, they aren’t kids anymore. They want the self reliant, low crime, rural lifestyle, but have calculated the likelihood of needing good medical care.

Medical emergencies is one major risk people underrate. I’ve done it myself. Only in the last few years have I made a point to travel with basic medical kits. When in my twenties, I’d go bushwacking through untracked wilderness without even a band-aid. I had a lot of faith my invulnerability. I’d like to think my risk assessment has gotten better over the years.

-Sixbears

Chimney Fire

Got a call last night from a friend of mine. He had a chimney fire and wanted to know that to do. I told him to use a fire extinguisher up the clean out door. Then I told him to squirt a tiny bit of water up the chimney. The idea is that steam rising up the chimney will put the fire out. At that point I told him to call the Fire Department.

This not the general order in which to deal with a chimney fire. Usually step one is to call the Fire Department. My friend lives in a rural area with a volunteer Fire Department and they can take some time to get there. Also, he has an extremely well built ceramic chimney that could have probably survived a chimney fire if nothing was done at all. Most chimneys will suffer damage from the intense heat of a chimney fire.

I was a bit surprised that he had chimney fire. The guy's been burning wood for years and knows how to do it safely. With his really good new chimney, I didn't expect a problem. The chimney fire was caused by the house not being completely insulated. The downstairs is, but not the upstairs.

With the upstairs unheated, the outside of the chimney was cold for a about 24 feet instead of the 4 feet or so that sticks out past the roof. That long cool chimney caused the smoke to condense on the inside. Eventually, sparks set the condensed creosote on fire. The solution is to finish insulating the upstairs. That job just got moved up in priority.

The next day, he had a guy coming over to clean the chimney. No doubt from now on he'll keep a closer watch on it. That's done by looking up the chimney from the clean our door using a mirror.

Having a couple fire extinguishers when out in the country is a very good idea. I've got a couple that I keep handy. I also have a long ladders and a chimney brush. If you a going to burn wood, you've got to keep your chimney clean.

-Sixbears

When the spouse comes on-board

Had a nice long talk with my buddy in Kentucky. Now for some time I've been telling people to at least get a small solar electric system. It's not necessary to run the whole house. Enough power to run a couple lights and the TV or radio make all the difference in the world when the grid goes down.

I guess he took my advice to heart. He went out and bought a small solar electric kit.

Then he had to tell his wife about it.

It's not like he's spending the rent money to do this. They can afford it fine. However, buying something without consulting with the spouse can sometimes be a dicey proposition -especially when it's a purchase one spouse might not agree with.

His wife surprised him. She thought it was a good idea. In fact, she suggested he spend considerably more money and get a more capable system. Soon he was back on the phone with me asking about equipment, suppliers, and system designs.

Then she comes home with a pile of books about building small energy efficient cabins. It occurred to her that a small rural cabin, with its own power system, could be a really cheap and self reliant way to live. This new attitude is about 180 degrees from the way she was a couple years ago.

He credits part of her attitude change to their summer visit at our house. She had a wonderful time out here in the woods. She swam in the lake. Paddled the canoe around a bit. We all went to the farmer's market together. After the market, everyone would get together for a campfire and some homemade music. Lots of family and friends around -smart, good people pulling together as a community.

She liked that and saw the value of our lifestyle.

It's encouraging. There's hope. People are figuring out that the conventional ways of living might not be the best -and certainly not the most fun.

-Sixbears

How the news travels

News still travels the old fashioned way out here in the country. Today I headed over to the local Forest Service agent for my annual fire permit. The local agent is an older lady who owns a nearby farm.

It would be rude to just get the permit and leave. Since it's a small town, she remembered me. We talked about cast iron cookware and discussed different ways of baking bread. The preliminary chit chat out of the way, she asked if I went to the new farmer's market.

I had, so she had lots of questions about the different products offered. No doubt I wasn't the first person to get grilled about the market. Her questions were in depth and detailed. Her farm wasn't represented in the last market, but I'd be surprised if she's not represented later on in the summer. She certainly knew all the other farms that participated and was well aware that most had sold out.

My day's travels also took me to the post office and the local store. Plenty of chit chat in those places too.

Some things the Internet hasn't replaced. I call it "Meat Space," where flesh and blood people get together.

-Sixbears

Littering

Litterbugs annoy the hell out of me. It's a small enough thing, but to me it indicates a major character defect. I've stopped being friends with people who litter. It's that troublesome to me.

Of course, I've got another reason to hate littering. Trash keeps getting thrown on my land. Happens all the time. Someone goes for a nice drive around the lake. They come to an undeveloped section of land (my land) and toss out an empty beer or soda can. I'm putting more of those out in today's recycling.

Litter breeds litter. If someone dumps a few old tires at the end of a dirt road, eventually they'll be a pile of them. Trash piles attract more trash.

There was a huge spike in illegal dumping when dump fees went up. For example, it costs ten dollars to dump a refrigerator. Tires cost money to dump. Some stuff is free. The town allows three pickup truck loads of junk to be dumped every year. I hate going to the transfer station. They poke around your load, looking for something with a fee attached to it. Everything goes in separate piles. There's always the chance of tire damage. It's a real annoyance.

As much as I hate going there, I do it. I hate the woods being filled up with junk more.

The litter problem varies quite a bit around the country. Some of the worse littering I've seen is in the Southeast. No idea why. Litter is all over the woods and people act like they don't see it. I once asked one guy why he was littering. He told me he was littering because the government didn't want you to. Now it's one thing to have issues with the government, but some things just aren't right.

One thing I've noticed a huge improvement in is there's less stuff thrown in the lake. The first warm swimming day I'd put on a diving mask and see how many cans and bottles I'd pull out of the water. It used to be quite a haul, especially after a long winter of ice fishing. Beer bottles fit so nicely down those holes in the ice. Those guys seem to have gotten the message. There are more fishing shacks on the ice than ever before, but very few bottles or cans show up now. Education can work.

Economic factors influence the amount of trash in the woods. At first, the littering problem gets worse as people avoid dump fees. Later on, they can't afford to travel out here into the woods as much. There are less people around to litter. Not only that, they have less stuff to throw away. If they can't afford that six pack of beer, there won't be empty cans out in my trees. I guess an economic downturn isn't all bad.

-Sixbears

The Truck that Works for a Living

I own one of the 1994 -7.3 liter turbo indirect injection diesel 4X4 Ford F 250 pickup trucks with the extended cab. Yeah, there's probably thousands of them on the road, but I've got one. It had to be that year too, and the early part of the year at that. Later in '94 Ford introduced the Powerstroke engine. While it made some gains in efficiency and power, it did so at the cost of much greater complexity. Many parts that were fairly inexpensive on earlier diesels became darn pricey.

My main concern, however, was that the pre-Powerstroke engine was much easier to convert to waste vegetable oil. I would never had bought such a huge beast of a pickup of I had any intention of paying for the bulk of my fuel. 90 - 95% of the time the truck burns waste vegetable oil. The oil is almost free. It does cost a bit to filter it. Last time I did the calculations it was somewhere between 10 and 17 cents/gallon, depending on the quality of waste veggie. The rest of the cost is my labor, plus some oil stained clothes that are unfit for public viewing.

Between the truck and my car, an old diesel Benz, I burn something like 125 gallons of waste veggie/month. That's instead of burning diesel. Some months I burn considerably more veggie, like when I go on long trips.

The truck had to be converted to run on veggie. There are kits out there costing thousands of dollars. Pay a mechanic to install it, and it's hundreds more. My conversion cost about $100 in parts -most of which came from the local hardware store.

The truck works for a living. Of course, I use it to haul all that waste veggie. It also hauls most of my firewood. Between the waste veggie oil and the firewood, the truck more than pays for itself. When any of my family or friends need a big pickup, I'm more than happy to lend it out. We've done everything from move 7 tons of gravel and ledge pack for a walkway project, to bales of hay used to cover a garden. I once drove over 300 miles in a snowstorm to pick up a used truck transmission for a friend.

The truck is also a portable power plant. I've installed a 2000 watt inverter with a 4000 watt surge. Very useful for power tools on a job site. It's powerful enough to run a 3.5 hp electric chainsaw. I use it to gather firewood on nearby National Forest land. Yup, I don't even burn gas to run a chainsaw. In effect, my chainsaw runs on waste vegetable oil.

I can load enough vegetable jugs in the back of the truck to take me over 3000 miles. How's that for range?

The truck isn't pretty. It's a mish mash of parts from a whole assortment of Fords. I painted it flat black using foam brushes. The beauty of this truck is that it is possible to keep it going with salvaged parts. A good friend of mine has been driving old Fords for years and has acquired quite a selection of parts, plus the knowledge needed to do repairs.

Occasionally, I do employ the services of a professional mechanic. Sometimes us shade tree mechanics lack the proper tools. I am glad that when I do spend money on a vehicle, it stays in the local community.

The high ground clearance and the 4X4 capability are darn useful here in snow country. It is a comfort to know that we are not snowbound if we don't want to be.

So, the truck's been extremely useful to me. When it dies, however, I won't replace it with new one. First, I'm allergic to car payments. Second, a truck has got to pay for itself and I don't see how an expensive new one would be able to . Finally, my vehicles have to be extremely cheap to run. For now, diesels running WVO do the trick. I'll most likely replace my truck with something similar. However, when that day arrives, I'll have to run the numbers, assess my situation, and only then make my decision. No telling what the future may bring.

-Sixbears

The Deal Breaker

Driving home this evening the snow was falling on an icy base. It took two attempts to make the corner to the road I live on. It brought back memories of when I first brought my wife-to-be to see my little piece of heaven.

I told her I wanted us to someday live out here in the woods.
-no problem, she said.

I'd like to build and live in a dome.
-no problem.

Dig my own well.
-no problem.

Heat with firewood.
-no problem.

In fact, she didn't have any problems with anything I proposed to do. She seemed like the woman of my dreams.

"Just one thing," she said.

I thought, Oh boy, this is the deal breaker.

"Just one thing, is this road maintained for year round travel?" she said.

At the tender age of 20, my ideal living location was something like my dad's hunting camp. Go eight and half miles down a dirt road. Take a left off a smaller, rougher dirt road for another quarter mile.

The cabin was sixteen by sixteen. Had a woodstove, gas stove, gas lights, a bunk bed, full sized bed, sink, table and chairs. It lacked electricity and plumbing. Water was from a brook down the hill. It had an outhouse out back. It came with its very own shooting range. To live at such a place full time I'd have made a few changes, but not a lot. Maybe I'd put in a solar panel or two, and maybe some book shelves.

The road was reliably passable by car about half the year. Some years it was plowed up to the side road. Other years it was plowed a few miles, but some years it wasn't plowed at all. In the dead of winter it was usually possible to get there by snowmobile. In the spring, during mud season, the road was completely closed to vehicle traffic. I did walk the whole way through mud and slush a few times.

For a single guy, the road conditions weren't a deal breaker.

The land I was showing my girl wasn't quite that isolated. Being on a small lake, it had a fairly busy summer population. In winter, only a few hardy souls braved the snow and cold.

Most importantly, the road, such as it was, was maintained for winter travel.

The girl became my wife and we eventually moved to our little spot in the woods.

She was right about the road. It's one thing for a single guy to hike close to nine miles to get home. It's another story for a married man with a family. Work, school, activities, and any social life at all require a bit more mobility. Life is full of compromises, but sometimes they aren't all bad. Sometimes a good compromise can save us from ourselves.

Tonight, the road is icy, but during the night, a plow and sand truck will come by. It'll be possible to head into town if I have to. Living on a plowed road makes my wife happy -such a small thing in the big scheme of things, yet such a big thing after all.

Good thing I didn't show her the camp first.

-Sixbears