I have been unemployed for 3 months now and at my age it is pretty impossible to find work.
I am more fortunate than most. Before the crash I cashed in half of my retirement and built a small house next door to my daughter and her kids. I cashed in 18 months ago and hired a young smart guy to help me build this house. I have to admit he did most of the heavy lifting for me and he had the know how for wiring, plumbing, and basic building anything a person wants.
The collapse took the rest of my money. Luckily I owe no money to anyone.
I have been looking at your advertisers and have bought a water purifier system, a solar system for recharging my laptop and various batteries, laundry stuff and now I do not use any electricity to do my laundry. I also bought a great solar oven and use it about 3 times a week. This week I made a pot roast with it, stew, and roasted a chicken. It does not take any longer than my gas oven to cook. It takes longer to heat it up but once that is done it goes really fast.
Before I started reading your blog we had a direct hit from IKE and much of my daughters home was damaged. My house had absolutely no damage. We all lived here in cramped quarters and reading your blog really helped. My daughter finally is totally back in her house with the kids.
I have about 3 months of food stored and it feels GREAT. My next venture is starting a garden. I have never had a garden in the south. I was raised in northern Minnesota and have no idea even what will grow in Texas. It gets so hot here… I imaging everything is cooked before it gets out of the ground.
Living where I live which is 5 miles from a town we cannot count on electricity to keep the deep freeze going. In fact we had an outage last night as storms rolled in. Overnight is not bad but after IKE we were without power for 3 weeks. It is very hard storing enough food without the ability to use a freezer but we do have lots of canned food, rice, beans, etc.
I am still in pre-K when it comes to survival but I am getting there.
My biggest fear is I for the FIRST time in my life have no health insurance. No job, no health insurance, getting older, 3 years away from qualifying for public assistance and I need to stay healthy.
Anyhow I just wanted to thank you for this blog you keep. Know that an almost retired grandmother shares the information with her grandkids daily and I know they will be faced with far more challenges that I ever was faced with. Unfortunately they go into their adulthood with the least amount of survival skills of almost any generation before them. I want to change that for them and this is helping…I mean really helping. Otherwise I would not have known where to start. I look forward to reading your blog daily… Anonymous – April 18, 2009 10:14 AM
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Hi ya MD, I too enjoy your writing
What I am finding “different” is how many people think its unusual. Maybe I am more of a fringe dweller than I realized? I believe it is an age related thing too,(and age of parents when they had their kids,ie my mum was a “1930 depression baby”
so, the entire family and the country, learnt to be frugal, efficient and mindful of the pennies.
You could trap rabbits for income, and to eat, all veggies and fruit was home grown and preserved, Kerosene fridges were the hot thing, so dry food and jams,preserves and pickles ruled. yummy!
My sister born in the city1950, has no survival skills at all, I and mum went bush 1959, she traveled and nursed or cooked etc. Hand washing, milking, making butter, digging and planting gardens and using what grew to advantage, Kohlrabi, will grow just about anywhere…and like Choko vine, a little goes a long way! I absorbed by osmosis I reckon, I can do all the girly things, but I also learnt how to do the blokey ones from watching too, carpentry, plumbing roofing , brickwork etc.. and reading books, nothing better!
I consider I am capable, and have land with a minute mortgage, live rural, leave home to stock up 2x a month, have a pc and sadly am not able to get off the grid , yet! My bill is 1/3 of anyone else’s though and it is not going without. just being mindful.I had an eco world and had to leave it, so I start again, pain in the butt, but i know what Not to do already, so this time will go faster and better. or else!
It’s sad to realize just how fast skills are lost between generations. What you advocate is sound living, and self sufficiency, not radical at all, eminently sane however. Amicus Curiae – April 19, 2009 8:23 AM
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