Archive for September, 2009
Sep
22
Utilizing the Utilities…
Posted by: | CommentsBefore we get started today I thought I would start with a couple of announcements…
First, I highly suggest that each one of you take the time to check out this episode of Survival Podcast… It is exactly what I believe about our current system and how we all need to be working to find our freedom in new and creative ways. Jack Spirko as usual has some fresh, if not profound, ideas about retirement that we all should at least spend a few minutes pondering.
http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/episode-278-preparedness-as-a-retirement-plan
Also, I want to remind each of you to take advantage of the subscriber form I added to the site, this allows me to alert you when new content is posted… Thanks!
____________________________________________________________________
Alright, where were we? I think I was telling you that I had made a few mistakes along the way. I suspect that I haven’t made the last of em either… Well, I know I needed to come back a step and explain what was required in getting the utilities all connected to our new home.
Where the water starts, the well head...
When I refer to the utilities, I mean the power, water and septic system… That might seem somewhat self explanatory but before getting into this project I hadn’t realized all the steps required to complete that.
Water and drilling the well are things we have already covered. However, how the water gets from the well or even the well house into the mobile home is a couple of additional steps. First, the water is pumped up and enters the well house through the floor. It then connects into our water system that travels to our utility water hydrants outside and then into the home. The entire system is pressurized through the use of a pressure tank inside the well house. This tank is kept pressurized by the well pump. Whenever the well pump is switched on, this happens automatically as needed when the pressure drops from use, the pumps pressure will recharge the pressure tank. This pressure tank creates the “water pressure” we all use inside our homes.
The next step in getting the water from the well house into the mobile home was running the water lines. These lines are how the pressurized system inside the well house gets extended to the home proper. As you would guess the water lines are buried down in trenches dug for this reason. The depth of these trenches is important, they must be below the local frost line. This is the depth to which the ground freezes in the winter months. As long as your lines are kept below this depth than you shouldn’t have problems with freezing up or bursting of the pipes. Just for example our trenches were 48 inches deep. We were told that 36 inches would have been alright but I felt better with that extra foot!
Another place that needs your attention when making the water connection is under the home. Typically the water line is trenched to just inside the skirting around the house. At that point it angles up out of the ground allowing it to be connected at the point designated by the manufacturer. It’s in this area from the ground up to the connection point, maybe a few feet, that your pipe may be exposed to the cold air under the house. Often the heat from the home will be sufficient to keep the exposed pipe from freezing. There are also a number of products that are made to assist you with this if you feel that its necessary. These would include electric heat tape and various configurations of pipe insulation. I chose to wrap our pipe with multiple layers of pipe insulation. This worked for us last winter which was quite cold and there was more often than not, very little heat from the house to help!
One of four perk test holes for the septic system
So now we have running water. That was a nice improvement and we were excited to have that system connected. However, the thing about running water is that it has to keep running… Through the tap, into the sink or tub and then down the drain… Oh, but its still running even after you can no longer see it. It must have somewhere to go! Surprise, the septic system. A marvelously simple system, at least ours was, for giving this running water somewhere to end up. In many areas the septic system has undergone a radical change. Some systems now require electric pumps and fancy control centers, etc. We were fortunate that ours only needed to be the more traditional style. That meant a 1000 gallon 2 chamber concrete septic tank and roughly 150 feet of drain field lines.
We hired our dirt guy to come dig what are called perk holes. Our county requires 4 holes be dug about 48 inches deep. The department of ecology will then send out their inspector to evaluate the holes to determine if a septic system can be approved for that location and of what design type they would require.
After the DOE has come and given their stamp of approval for your design then you are free to install the equipment. For us this required Mr. Dirt Guy to come back out and install the tank and drain lines. Once these were installed I was free to connect the house to the tank. This septic line also had to have a trench to accommodate running the line at the specific incline/decline required for good drainage. The last thing you want is to make a mistake while doing this installation. Fixing a problem of this nature after you begin using the system, well it wouldn’t be pretty.
Caps to access the septic tank for maintenance
The septic connection was made at a central point under the home also established by the manufacture. I didn’t have any trouble getting this all hooked up and running.
I had these both done and moved onto the next priority, which was the electric connection. This was again a fairly easy job but required care be taken so as not to electrocute myself before reaping the rewards of electric power to the BOL.
We had the meter base and power main already set. It is code where we are that this meter base be located not more than 30 feet from the home. It was just a matter of one last trench and a 3 inch conduit being laid to run the large gauge wire in. If proper care is taken to minimize the angles required in this conduit, the effort in pulling the wire can be greatly reduced. The manufacture had a convenient place to make the connection already in place, of course. It is a straight shot from the homes sub panel, located in the master bedroom closet, down to below the floor level. It took a little extra digging to get my trench directly below where the existing conduit came down from the house but easy enough in the grand scheme of things.
Meter base for feeding the house and well house
With the conduit in place, it was time to pull wire. We used what’s called a bull tape, like a mini tow strap, to pull the wires through the pipe! First you have to get the tape to run the length of the conduit. I had heard a tip that you can use a household vacuum cleaner to suck a plastic grocery bag attached to a string. This worked unbelievably well! Zipped right through with the string trailing behind. Simply attach the bull tape to the string and pull it through next. Followed next by the wiring. Now this took alot of elbow grease to get it pulled in. I had the neighbor outside feeding the wires down the conduit, while I was inside pulling for all I was worth.
A few hours from start to finish and we had power! It was exciting to have the last step in place and everything start feeling like a real house. Remember we had been staying in the fifth wheel up until this time. Nothing like a real shower after working in the dirt all day.
Power Transformer
We began using these systems as they came on line, as you would expect! With these all in place I turned my attention to the skirting we needed to enclose the exterior. You already heard about that… While framing in for the skirting I noticed a small puddle of water, at least I thought it was water under the house. Upon closer inspection it was directly below the septic line connection… NO, not leaking there? Yes, leaking there! Keep in mind we had been using the plumbing, including toilets for a couple of weekends by this time.
Well, back under I go to inspect this issue. The connection I made was fine, this is good news and bad! I had to open up the belly plastic to go looking for where the “Water” was coming from? After pulling a section open around where the pipe comes through, I found the problem. There was a fitting that connected the back bathroom drain with the one from the master bedroom. This is where the leak was coming from, right at where the connection was made. Now this is all good and fine to know where it comes from but now this joint had to be cut out and refit with a new piece. This meant I was working in tight quarters and unavoidably directly under the soon to be severed septic line.
We started by running a large volume of clean water through the drains. This helped assure that I wouldn’t be cutting a pipe with much black water, as its called. Whether it was true or not it helped psychologically. It turned out to not be to difficult of a fix after all. I needed to get a little creative with how everything got reconnected but this to was a good experience.
I continued checking this joint for as long after the repair as possible. Right up until i fully enclosed the area with the skirting. Problem solved, I think that the pipes must have been flexed in some way when they were disconnected for the move to our land. With stress on the joints it makes sense that they might not hold. I don’t anticipate having to go back down for round two, at least not at this joint anyway! Keep your fingers crossed, I know I am!
Alright, now we have everything back in timeline order. There’s still alot to tell in how this all came together and is still being developed but thats enough for today. I’ll be back tomorrow, see ya then!
Prepper
Sep
21
Home again, Home again…
Posted by: | Comments
- Beautiful September Day
Well, we’re back… Its always a challenge to actually leave the BOL! The BOD, loves the place so much and just doesn’t want to leave. We hate to disappoint her so we end up staying as long as possible, which in turn gets us home late in the evening. No one can claim we don’t squeeze out all the hours possible on a weekend trip… We do it for the BOD though, not for us of course… Anything for that BOD’s happiness!
The brown makes it all but disappear in the trees
The weather is starting to turn and it won’t be long until we have to start leaving the heat on again or we’ll end up with broken pipes! We installed some irrigation drip lines this last Spring too, for the fruit trees we put in. Actually, I enlisted the help of my brother for the project. He’s an award winning landscape artist and is a real wiz with irrigation, we’re all very proud of his accomplishments. I get the usual family discount whenever he works for me. Parts plus “Free Dollars an hour” labor, it probably actually costs him money but hey with a brother like me, its worth it. So, what I was about to get to is I’m going to have to get those irrigation lines emptied and blown out prior to our first deep freeze as well. So many things to remember!
Roofing problems
We had a very cold winter last year and I’m going to make plans for another one this year as well. We had one incident with a broken pipe last year in the well house. I had built an insulated room in the center portion of the cargo container and then had an electric heater set to come on when the room got down to freezing temperatures. I thought I would be slick and put a “Thermal Cube” devise on the power cord for the heater. This is a small switch that will turn on the power at 35 degrees and then turn it back off at I believe 45 degrees. Nice idea as long as it works! I had taken a day trip to the BOL for some reason, can’t remember now. I happened to go in the well house room before I left for home, only to discover that I had pieces of PVC pipe all over the floor. What the heck? I wish I had been able to get a picture of what I saw… The pipes come out of the floor and then go into the system and fill the pressure tank. I had pieces of broken pipe laying around and the water was still frozen in the shape of the pipes configuration. It would have been kind of cool if it hadn’t meant that I had no water until I fixed it.
All done!
As much as I like everything to go smoothly all of the time, these little set backs are good for teaching me the lessons while I have the hardware store and an income. I have extra parts put back now and the repair lesson as my guide, just in case this happens again. The only explanation for the failure is that the Thermal Cube was a dud? I decided quickly I wouldn’t be relying on any gimmicks in the future. I hate to rely on the grid for this need either but it’s what I have right now. I will have to figure something else out long term, maybe a small wood burner for once we get there full time? We’ll see…
I had a couple of projects to finish this weekend and also try to decide if the roof could make it one more winter. I hate to even have to risk it but it may be unavoidable. You can see that there are some spots that are looking REAL bad. I took alot of photos so I can get a roofers advise on what to do. If I have to put the roof on this fall it will be a new roof over the existing one. I have a real problem with doing this as it isn’t good long term and I HATE doing things twice… If anyone has some first hand experience with this dilemma, please email me, I would love to get some input!
I have had a real problem with actually getting my projects completely finished. Now I was good for 90-95% complete but if I didn’t get it done when I was initially working on it then it could go months before I’d be nagged, I mean encouraged, by Mrs. Prepper to get it done if I knew what was good for me! So this weekend was about tying up some projects.
Pretty Rough
As you can see, when I was painting the cargo container I had run out of paint. I was amazed at how much paint it took to cover this thing… I had started the project with 2 gallons, thinking I might even have a little extra… No dice, I used that 2 gallons and an additional quart I had left over from another project. At that point I was out of time anyway but I still had the entire back side to go? So I brought a couple more gallons and used 1 1/2 to get the last of it painted… Next time I’ll know, and I guess, so will you – It takes a five gallon bucket of paint to cover a cargo container, not including the roof!
I had additional trim work to complete on the last 2 windows I didn’t get done last trip. I still need to caulk the new boards in real good and then paint all the trim. This is something I was hoping to have done before for we start into the wet cold winter. Hopefully I can avoid the roof until spring and work on wrapping up some more small projects without needing any additional encouragement from my lovely wife! Thanks Honey!
I spent some time surveying my holdings with BOD and have added a whole list of projects and expenses that will have to wait for spring, as well as the needed finances. We do have an additional project or two slated for this fall if the weather will cooperate. I always have any number of things that could keep me busy, so don’t worry about me getting bored! Sounds like a great problem to have, bored at the BOL… Someday!
Prepper
P.S. – I’ve added a subscription form to the site. Please consider subscribing so I can alert you when ever there’s new content being added! Thanks!
Sep
17
BOD vs. Porcupine
Posted by: | Comments
Bug Out Dog - 0
Well, you have all had a chance to meet BOD. She is our 2 1/2 year old female Rottweiler. We got her when she was only 12 weeks old and she usually only socializes with family. Although she’s open to new people and playmates she doesn’t get the opportunity very often. She has a good life when we’re at our city house in Seattle, she lives inside for the most part. With a giant inside dog we feel fairly well protected… Not to mention the, oh wait – OPSEC…
BOD has recently began to show the encouraging signs of maturity. As I said she’s inside most of the time but not much gets past her when she out. We have a family of raccoons that stop by to tease her and she will even go after birds that enter her yard. She is also a thoughtful dog, if that’s possible? No, forget what your thinking, she did not remember my birthday or anniversary for that matter. She does seem to study things and hasn’t lost her youthful inquisitiveness. I like these qualities about her but she can be a little much now that she weighs more than a hundred pounds!
It is these very qualities that bring us to the story I was about to tell. It was a fine weekend at the BOL, they are all fine when you’re at the BOL. I mention this just for clarification, I realize not everyone has a BOL yet. Oh yeah, this happened last spring, also for clarification. Like I was saying, we had spent the day working on projects and it was just before sundown when this event occurred.
Let me back up and give you another piece of background information! BOD LOVES going to the BOL, this means she gets a lot more freedom! If you asked her where her favorite place on earth is, she’ll tell ya – the BOL, hands down! Now I know why I like BOD so much, we have the same favorite place! Actually, now I remember why I like Mrs. Prepper so much, same reason, go figure? The coincidences never cease?
BOD lives outside at the BOL and we try to keep her off her chain as much as possible. Sounds like a bad redneck cliche, a Rottweiler on a chain in the front yard? As long as someone is outside with her she can roam quite a ways before we miss her and call her to come check in… She has improved in this area lately as well. We have it down to a science, she comes back close enough for me to see her and then I tell her to go play and she’s off again. It was this exact scenario that we found ourselves in this particular evening…
I was getting all the tools and what have ya wrapped up and put back in the container for the night, when I realized I hadn’t seen BOD for quite a while? If we wait to long to call her she can get out of ear shot and we have to go looking… I called her a couple times and no BOD? I stopped at the back door to let Mrs. Prepper know I was going out to find the _ _mn dog.
I was heading to where the Quads were out near the container, muttering something choice I’m sure… When I hear something in the bushes not far off in the same direction I was walking. I stop and call the dog again, nothing, but I can still hear the noise? I head over to the edge of the cleared area closest to where I think its coming from. I can see a dark shape bobbing around down in the trees. There she is, what in the heck is she doing? I start yelling at her to get up here but she only stops briefly and then continues whatever game she’s playing? I’m pretty confused by this time and head in to get this dog straightened out, like right now!
As I get closer she continues to stop periodically and look up at me before resuming her pursuit. I get almost to her when she raises her head a final time and I see she has something black in her mouth. What the?? I initially thought it was a skunk but it seemed to small? I’m yelling at her to come when I notice that whatever she has in her mouth is bleeding… Great! I immediately think – RABIES…
About at this moment she tosses her head throwing whatever it is off into the bushes. I’m still confused and my brain hasn’t caught up with what my eyes are seeing. Now she decides to obey, and is coming my direction. Something wasn’t right but I still couldn’t see her clearly enough to know? As she got to me I see she’s frothing at the mouth, very spooky! She then drops her face to the ground and starts plowing her mouth along, now I see it, she has a mouth full of short quills. Son of a, she’d been chewing on a baby porcupine…
I grab her and drag her up toward the container, which as you know is my storage shed, workshop, garage and well house all in one… Hows that for a multipurpose prep? Right as we get back to the cleared area of the property, the sky opens and starts to down pour. Now remember, I’m from Seattle and I know rain! This ain’t rain its something else entirely, like some sort of sick test to see how much stimulus and distraction I can take a one time? I’m serious this is the worst rain storm I have ever personally seen. Oh, by the way, did I mention my good buddy had just been chewing on a porcupine? Talk about terrible timing!
I click the dogs chain on her and run for the house… Meanwhile the dog is going absolutely balistic trying to get these things out of her mouth! I get to the back door and I’m beside myself as I try to explain what the heck is goin on to my very concerned family.
After doing my best to explain what I had just seen to Mrs. Prepper, I went back out to attempt an intervention in my dogs pain. Wait, I also quickly called the neighbor that has been very willing to help me get my footing out there in the sticks. He had explained what he knew about removing the offensive quills. Which was to cut the very tips off the quills as this will allow you to pull them out with pliers… Sounds good, lets give it a try…
The rain never let up as my daughter and I tried to hold this monster writhing animal down while cutting the tips off the quills and pulling on them all at the same time. BOD had succeeded in getting quills in her tongue, the roof of her mouth, inside her lips and on both front paws. Now the paws I might have had a chance of handling but inside her hyper salivating mouth while she won’t hold still, with pliers and side cutters? Wasn’t gonna happen!
Mrs Prepper had called the town vet and left a message on their, after hours on the weekend, emergency – this is gonna cost ya line. We get a call back fairly quickly, which was very appreciated! They explained that they would need us to bring her in as soon as possible. So we wrestle the dog into her travel crate and we’re off.
A couple hours and a strong sedative later the dog was fine… I was able to go back with the vet to watch the procedure, me thinking that this might be good information to have now that I’m a redneck in training. I quickly had the delusions of my performing the next procedure myself shattered. They had to knock BOD completely out to get inside her mouth for those things. Our new vet was very nice and answered all my questions readily. I’m asking all the questions I can, all the time thinking that I must look like some dumb city boy that had to have the vet come to his rescue.
I asked if there was something I could have done to handle this myself? The vet kept from laughing at me and explained that they see 6-7 of these cases a week. What? Seriously its that common and there wasn’t anything I could do without drugging the animal. Now, I know some tough guy knows some sort a secret way but apparently its the standard practice to have the vet do it for ya… I was relieved to know it wasn’t my shortcomings in country culture!
Porcupine - 1
The vet also explained that dogs will react to the experience in one of two ways. Either they have learned their lesson or they haven’t, profound! Seriously, some dogs figure it out and others decide its a game and get to visit the vet from time to time. I’m really hoping my thoughtful friend has figured it out!
Prepper
P.S. – Please share “Prepper Nation” with a friend TODAY!
Sep
16
Water, water everywhere…
Posted by: | CommentsOK, I told all of you I would own it if I screwed up! Actually, this might be a regular part of the site… No seriously, I’ve made a number of mistakes and I’ll tell you about one today. It happens to fit right in with where we left off on the BOL updates.
I have been bringing you all up to speed with how the BOL started and has developed over the last couple of years. We spent a number of months looking at homes over a radius of hundreds of miles. We kicked tires, only figuratively though, because if they still had tires on them they wouldn’t have fit my profile. Crawled under and climbed up on quite a few homes before we made our selection.
Hard to see but the low spot is at this end, deeper than it apprears?
Last time we talked I explained how I had installed the skirting around the outside. This being the magical way of keeping the pipes from freezing and the nasties at bay… This brings us to the next chapter in the series… Winter 2008!
We had found our home and made the arrangements for the move. We were fortunate that the home already had gutters installed! Not a huge deal but a handy upgrade as they don’t come from the factory with them. I don’t like the all natural, just let the water run off the roof and splash mud on the side of your house style of doing things. So I was happy they were there and I didn’t have to make arrangements to have this done as well prior to winter.
When the movers were prepping the house to be moved to its new location they removed the down spouts and put them inside for me to reinstall at my leisure. Well, that’s all fine and dandy but all to often my leisure doesn’t correspond to when it would be the most appropriate for the work to have been completed. When we were able to get into the house to begin our projects, I took the down spouts outside where they sat staring at me for quite some time. Each trip we made to the property seemed to always find me working on whatever HAD to be done next. “Don’t have time to stop and do the little things”… You know how it goes! I choose to believe I’m not the only one that this happens to…
So summer came and went! I got A LOT of work done last summer, I’m kind of proud of myself… Before long the weather turned and we start into the wet season, remember I told you before about the rainy times. Rainy, right before it gets real cold and we are frozen solid for 3-4 months… One visit we’re complaining about the heat and then its WET. Guess what still hadn’t been done, that’s right, the downspouts…
No more ice rinks this year
Well, as usual we arrive late on Friday night, after our lengthy drive to get to our piece of paradise. Its raining real good when we get in and what do I see? Water running down all four corners of my new mobile mansion? I guess that’s what would happen if someone didn’t get the downspouts put back on. It was probably close to midnight and I’ve been up since 6am. To late to deal with this now… So, as a type A personality and prone to being a “Worry Wort”, I don’t sleep well knowing that this is going on right outside. It doesn’t help to know that the siding these homes have on them isn’t of the highest quality either!
No biggie, I just go out and reattach the downspouts in the morning. The job took all of about 20 minutes, including locating the proper screws… In the meantime it had stopped raining and the walls started to dry out. Problem solved… Although I noticed, being that I am a sighted individual, that we had a large pool of water sitting in the low spot next to the house. This was the end of the area our “Dirt Guy” had excavated to provide a level grade for the home to be situated on. Hopefully you can see it in the picture. It was 18 inches or so deep and the full width of the house. I remember thinking to myself no problem it was just because the downspouts weren’t on. Well, in hind site, I can’t understand how a reasonably intelligent man wouldn’t think that all that water needs somewhere to go, DUH!
Corner Example
We spend the weekend enjoying ourselves and returned home thinking all was well, “bring on the next problem”. Its usually this kind of cockiness that comes before a fall.
We spent a couple weekends in Seattle before getting back over to the property. In the mean time the weather had progressed from wet to frozen. We arrived again late in the evening as usual and all appears to be just as it should be – great!
Morning comes and I head outside, coffee in hand to survey my vast holdings. All “my land” as far as the eye could see. I’m just being dramatic, we have quite a few trees and so “as far as the eye could see” isn’t far at all! It sounds good though… Well, low and behold I have enough ice for my own ice rink. Obviously the rain had continued and with no where to go, except down my downspouts and into the low spot, what should I have expected?
Alright, frozen water 8-10 inches deep that would have to sit there until Spring… What could I do now? The part I still hadn’t clued into was that the water was under the house as well? Also, under the house is the concrete blocking that holds the house up and most importantly LEVEL…
I have no choice but to wait it out until spring to see if this is going to be a problem or not. It is expected that there will be some minor settling but not enough to be a problem… We’ll just have to wait and see… We had a long cold winter with an above average amount of snowfall.
Spring came and finally the water thawed out and after a few months the area dried out. We had made it through with no obvious damage! A close call, if the blocking under the frame had experienced to much frost heave I would have had to have had the house re-leveled. We’re experiencing some extra squeeks in the kitchen floor but not anything worth spending money to have fixed.
All corners tie together and out away from the house.
This entire problem could have been avoided with a very small amount of forethought on my part. 20 minutes to attach some downspouts and maybe 20 bucks for some PVC pipe to get them running the water out away from the house? I didn’t price what the re leveling was going to cost but I have heard that its not cheap, not something I would have welcomed after less than a year.
I have installed a proper drainage system for the downspouts now and we have had a couple of rains so far this year. Everything seems to be under control, at least for now. The water drains out away from the house a good distance so I doubt I’ll have this issue come up again. I did neglect to work a water catchment system into the piping when I put it all together? I’ll have to get back to that in the future, don’t want to waste a good resource don’t ya know!
Prepper
Peephole into a Prepper!
Posted by: Prepper | Comments (0)A Storm is coming - seek shelter!
I’m going to try to keep this short today as we’re getting ready to head out to the BOL again tonight and I have a busy day. I haven’t spent a lot of time explaining where my philosophy and overall world view came from. I told all of you that I would try to maintain an open book status with this blog. So here goes… A peek into the mind of Prepper, for background on how a seemingly normal guy could get so off track from the normal “Herd Think”…
Hi, my name’s Prepper… and I’m a “doomer”, then you all say “Hi Prepper”… Sounds like we’re at a doomers anonymous meeting. I say this only in jest, although I believe that we, doomers, could probably all benefit from sharing this sense of urgency we feel with others. “NO, not that, share my doomer views with actual people I can see, not from the safety of the computer screen?” Believe me I know, “FOOLHARDY”!
I think I’ve mentioned on another occasion that I have been this way for as long as I can remember. My folks would regularly classify me as a pessimist, or a real “Glass half empty” kinda kid… Anybody else remember experiencing that? I recall on one occasion being in the toy aisle at the local grocery/department store. I don’t remember what I was expecting to find but I had this realization that this stuff is a bunch of JUNK! I couldn’t have been more than 9-10 years old. I guess that’s when it all started, I took the RED pill, or was it the BLUE pill? Either way I started to catch on to the BS that we’re all being fed. “Stay in the toy aisle” as that’s where kids belong… fine for now but the BS grows as we age – “Stay in debt and on the rat wheel”, cause thats where American adults belong? No more!
Before you start in on the “This guys tin foil’s on to tight”. Think about it, we go to school for the first 18 – 25 years of our life. Only then to start working? How many years are we suppose to stay on the wheel now? Traditionally, according to popular belief, we will all work until we’re 65? Wait, I can here it already, “I can get out early at 59 1/2!” Yeah, maybe you can, but is that a real victory?
As an American male that is edging up close to 40 years old, I pay attention to all the “Horror” stories about health. I bet not one of you hasn’t heard about the guy that died of a massive heart attack at 35, an anomaly, I know. Still an anomaly at 55? Not so much… How’s that “early out” retirement sound now, 4 1/2 years to late for the guy whos’ number got pulled at 55.
I was explaining that I started to catch on to the system at an early age but what do kids know? I was taught you work first, then play. We had what seemed to me at the time to be a lot of responsibilities and chores at our house. Although looking back on it, Dad was extremely generous with his children. Seriously, I thank him regularly for instilling in my brothers and I a work ethic. I have succeeded in passing this on to my daughter who works incredibly hard and will succeed at all she attempts!
Sorry, back on topic, as a young man I knew I had to work hard and was fine with the concept. I went out and got the “Good” county job where you’re paid real well for a job half done! Not done well, half done or done “half _ss”. The cheese is put in front of us fortunate enough to get a cushy job like that and we are expected to put in our time and look forward to the 2-3-8 or however many weeks of vacation they grant us each year.
Good, or higher than average paychecks and enough vacation, insurance benefits to keep us from getting out of line. I see this as a classic example of where we now find ourselves in America, don’t rock the boat and we’ll all get along just fine. A few goodies in every bag and we’ll choose to stay on that wheel for as long as it takes to earn that fantasy retirement 20-40 years or more later.
I saw through this life of ease fantasy at about the 10 year mark in my county career. I was going to be turning 30 and kind of had an early mid-life crisis. I realized that I’d have to work for this government bureaucracy for 40 years and that was if I took the early out at 59 1/2, of course that meant less retirement pay each month too! You can’t have your cake and eat it too, don’t ya know! Poppycock, work for these drones for another 30 years, not me son I’m outta here…
When I had initially went to work there I had delusions that this would be a stepping stone and I wouldn’t stay long. My first day on the job I explained this to my co-workers… I was laughed at, if you stay a year you’ll never leave! That couldn’t have been a more true statement, no one ever quit! In addition to that, no one was ever fired either. Not quite no one but it was extremely difficult to get yourself fired. If you really screwed up and made a costly mistake, there was a consequence… You were expected to purchase donuts the next day for the entire crew, oh no – not donuts… Might cost a guy $50 bucks to make up for costing the tax payers $1000′s…
I always felt the undercurrent and hesitation that this thin facade of civilization couldn’t last forever. Then came Y2k followed by the housing and stock market booms, also disconcerting to a doomer such as myself. None of it made sense and I started to ramp up preps.
I was fortunate to have a best friend that was involved in prepping with me. Big purchases could be divided, money pooled for land purchases and other large one time expenses… I moved from one level to the next as money could be allocated. It has taken a lifetime to develop my families personal plans and goals.
I am now at a point in my preps that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and want to help as many other folks as possible. This prepping thing is a journey and far to often we travel this road alone or interact only via the internet. We often don’t know if the other people are actually doing the things they post about or are only dreaming, I’m not knocking the dreamers at all, thats how it all begins! I want to bring encouragement to our community, like I’ve been encouraged by so many others on the forums but also visual proof that these projects can be completed. The destination we are all seeking is possible and we can help each other get there!
I would now consider myself an optimist, a pessimist wouldn’t even attempt to get this prepping for the future thing off the ground. I know that there are all types of people in our community, at all different levels or degrees of preparedness. I would like to encourage all the silent lurkers to speak up and ask for help or offer it if your further along than the next guy. The more of us that reach the destination we are personally seeking the better off we all are.
Just some thoughts and insights from a guy working on achieving a better life than what society is offering. More independent and self sufficient than our keepers would like to see… Stick with me and we’ll go further together than we could go alone! Have a great weekend, get out and DO something on your list, you’ll feel more empowered on Monday!
Prepper