2015-06-18

Just heard on the news a snip of our USA presidents speech about the shooting in S.C.
he said something to the extent "this sort of thing doesn't happen in other first world nations."

He might have had a real argument had he added "... as much" but he didn't. In fact in France, and the Netherlands have both had some HUGE mass shootings in just the past few years. The one in the Netherlands killed DOZENS of children. Obviously these things DO happen in other first world nations.
He is, once again, trying to make an argument for outlawing guns.
Once again, like any politician, he is lying through his teeth to try and get to his goals.

A single armed parishioner of the S.C. church could have potentially stopped this headline crime, but gun control started in the south, specificly to keep people with certain skin colors from being able to defend themselves. Well, that gives what we got. White boy able to shoot a whole church full of  (mostly) innocent black folks.

ARRGGHHHHH!!!!!
At least the ties to the drugs the shooter was taken are being talked about more openly by the press this time.

My advice and experience on starting your own homestead / retiring on a tight budget.


 Think about it.
 
If you had a house that provided most of its own energy (including heating, lighting, and cooling). Provided you much of the water and food you needed. And had low to no maintenance costs, how much money would you save every month? now if that same house cost you nothing per month to live in, no mortgage, no rent, how much would you save? Do you think you can tough it out by "camping" for a summer or two to save up for buying the house that does all that? And once you are living in that house what would you do with the extra money you make?

Living "off grid" is a lifestyle for good health and a retirement plan that isn't effected by the economy or inflation. 
 
Quit paying rent (or mortgage).  
If you are on the west coast - “Go east young man!”
 
Seriously, the prairie and desert are the places for an average person’s sort of budget, the I-5 corridor is a rich yuppie stronghold. IMHO anything too close to a major interstate or town over 50k population is probably too much $ and regulations.

But, for only $3k cash you can get a parcel of more remote desert or prairie easily enough.

My 40acres cost me @<$8k in a state auction- the minimum bid because NO one else bid on it, too small for the corporate farmers and ranchers, --- it is on a county road, has clear line of sight to cell phone towers (at least from the top of its hills), has at least seasonal water, and power lines running though part of it. I had to fence it off from the neighbor’s property (they have over 40000 acres). The fence cost me about another $1,500 in costs but I paid incrementally as I could afford it / needed it. Oddly enough parcels smaller than @ 20 acres seem to go up in price per acre pretty quickly almost everywhere in the western USA. So it is a tradeoff and if you have the cash it is probably better to buy larger. (Also zoning on 20+ acres is a lot more lenient than on smaller parcels most places)

Current taxes, for the land unimproved, are @$200/year – the minimum the county will bill for any land. Even if improving the land causes a 1000% increase it will still be no more than 4 months’ rent.

We had to give up hope of having much in the way of trees, but we also live where there are no building codes/enforcement for private dwellings so hiding the extent of improvements shouldn’t be too hard- if we had to pay for permits/planning it could get expensive quick.

Be 100% SURE you find out what code enforcement and HOA rules are before you buy any piece of land. Some parts of NV will allow owner built with only a single permit declaiming all responsibility on the government’s part. On the other hand, some HOAs will only allow a McMansion built by a contractor who happens to be the brother in-law to the association’s president...

MT and WY are the best I found when I researched for statewide building codes but many other states are good in some counties and sucky in others.

Make certain you have access to a 4 wheel drive vehicle to haul building supplies to your parcel.

If it isn't already, you will want to fence off your parcel to some extent, at least marking the corners with a 'T' pole- they only run a few bucks each usually.

You will want to see your land over a period of at least a year (at least weekly visits) before building anything permanent to figure out which way the sun, wind, rain, and local animals come to your land, before you build anything permanent or make too big of changes. You could park a camper or tent there for that year. Me? the wife insists on four solid walls, a laptop computer and source of heat that keeps water liquid so we rent a house in town while building (costing nearly a third of our take home pay) so we visit almost every weekend during the spring, summer, and fall.

Winter showed us that at least part of the winter we need a snow plow for the 4x4.

Spring showed us we need to clear the brush well back from where we transit and poison the bugs even further (ticks are a LITERAL pain).

Summer showed us that 2x4's could be moved by just wind power, Much less big canvas structures like the canvas “carports” you can buy cheaply.

Fall showed us that putting clear no hunting signs up was barely sufficient and hunters - even old coots (from back east?) who should know better - don't have the best gun safety practices (loading a shotgun pointed in the general direction of our vehicle).

 Looking at where we left our truck. that is our valley there and our view - we aren't master of all we survey because we can survey so dang FAR!
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Now I have to tame the land (clear the brush to help get rid of pests, dig a better drainage pattern, plant a garden, etc.) with 40 acres you either need machinery or lots of time and labor. 20 acres would be easier, and flatter ground would help too. There are brush hidden holes big enough to sink a semi-truck tire in, dead partially grown trees, thorn bushes where we want paths, cacti where we want gardens, and a lot of fire danger in a severe drought year.

We are ready to start taming the land and get building, and have picked out the best building spot(s). It will cost us $1k to $3k to get the excavation we want done if our ancient little garden tractor can’t handle that.

It will cost @ $2k to $3k for the exterior walls in building supplies on our large (@1000+sq ft. interior) house design - that includes insulation and thermal mass to make it very cozy.  The roof system is still up in the air price wise as I scrounge for metal to use for roofing (instead of putting plastic and soil on it, we want to collect rainfall for water so a fire resistant metal roof is probably called for).

We already have most of our windows and exterior doors (used salvage and free dump picks, cost us @ $500 total). 

The heating systems will probably run us another $5k but that is because of lots of different systems (4 heat sources) and the intense cold we get (-40) and we can put it in piecemeal using what we already have (a portable propane heater) and upgrading as we can.

Water systems, electric systems, etc., will probably run us several thousand more as we buy them piecemeal- but buying them piecemeal will be a lot easier when we don't have to pay rent.
 
Imagine yourself too, free of the rent trap. What are you willing to do to get there? Every day you delay getting started is another day of freedom lost. Land, labor, and a bit of money miserly parted with (but a lot less than you might think) and some planning, can free you from the rent trap. Mortgage is just another form of rent slavery just with a built in end (just in time for you to no longer be able to enjoy it).


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