I enjoyed reading your article. Having lived in W.AZ and then NM, I could relate so much of it. I am surrounded by trees in E. VA now but would rather be back in the high desert anytime.

One thing I noticed not mentioned in your article was the tendency of those traveling through, not to, the high desert, have a tendency to have thief dogs get “lost” or just plain let them loose to fend for themselves. Which leaves us with packs of wild dogs not afraid of humans, unlike healthy coyotes. That was one of the main reasons we used to go armed. Hell, the local authorities sometimes even [provided] the ammo we used on wild packs. It was that bad when the main roads weren’t that many miles away. I can only imagine how bad it is now, with the current economy, foreclosures, and job losses.

Dave

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After reading [issues] #128 & #129  I realize that I don’t have all the equipment to make the trip.

I don’t have an on board attorney.
I don’t have a radar jammer.
I don’t have a passenger to keep watch on other vehicles.  ie cops
I don’t have a measuring device to make sure I stop at stop sign with my front bumper even to the stop sign.
I don’t have a glow in the dark or florescent orange seat belt to make sure the Gestapo can see it.
I don’t have a permit to transport my bio diesel in Oregon, I’m sure the Gestapo would want to check after he smelled my exhaust.  It smells like french fries and not donuts.

I did check the web for speed traps and sure enough Gold Beach is on the list.

Sorry I can’t make the trip this year, but maybe in the future when you get rid of the Gestapo.

By the way do they were the Nazi swastika?? And have nice shinny black boots??

I have even had the thought about moving there.  Sure seems like a real nice place, but I don’t want to have the watch my back all the time.  Sure wish you all the luck in getting things taken care of so you can enjoy Gold Beach.

Thanks for hearing my side.

Robert Widmar

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My wife and I have a cabin in northern Ontario and [instead of a refrigerator, we use] a Danby chest freezer with the thermostat turned up in the 38 to 42 degree range.

We only run the unit off of a generator for an hour  morning and night. Everything stays cold and once you get used to the idea it is a great way to keep food and cheap .

I think we only paid around $300.00 for it at Home Depot in North Bay last summer. It could just as easily be run off of a solar panel & inverter set up as generator, or small gas engine and alternator & battery set up as well.

We are very satisfied with it and is easy to use once you get everything arranged. Juices on bottom veggies on top,  etc. We use several different baskets and plastic containers to separate things out so it is easy to get what is needed to cook/eat.

[It is a] far cheaper method to use then Sun Frost, etc. units and if you wanted, a bigger insulated box could be built around it for better efficiency I suppose.

PS. we love your Magazine !!!!!

John & Susan Farris

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Enjoyed reading your article The art of living in small spaces very much.

I was born and raised in NYC but I have dreams of buying 1 little acre somewhere, and building a little 800 sq ft house. An average studio apt is half that. I’ve read your article twice in the past 7 days. I agree with you and many others, buying a house doesn’t have to mean “over 1500 sq ft”. A single person like me can live happily in 800 sq ft.

Eddie Colon

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I found your site from a link from survivalblog.com and somehow ran across the article of the Animal Rights Activists ruining what must be a totally hysterical event at your local fair.

I do understand their point but I do realize there are limits on what an activist group can do. Caving into to them only gives them power, but since that has already happened…I have a better idea!

For a close knit town, you can starve them out. As a retailer, you can refuse to sell anything to anyone and not have to justify it. Gas stations can refuse to sell fuels, grocers refuse to sell them food. You get the picture.

As Jim Rawles says, if you don’t like what is going on around you, vote with your feet and move. When all the town gets behind this movement, the activist will get the idea that he or she is no longer welcomed and move on. It wouldn’t hurt for someone in a restaurant to take away their fried chicken special stating they are contibuting to animal cruelty. If they got half a brain….they will leave, probably just before the local police or sheriff decides to join the unwelcome wagon.

Ken

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I’m writing a fast note to you while I’m getting dressed to go explain to the county engineer that I want to build my own house out in the country. I have no clue what to expect but judging by the phone conversations, perhaps he’s going to gently try to guide this 54 year old woman to pulling a mobile home on the property or just contracting a builder. I’ve been studying & drawing up my plans & using your dreams are goals with deadlines motto to push through just a little bit more every day. By the end of the month I think I’ll have all the kinks worked out. Today’s visit to the permit people is asking them specifics and for guidelines.

I’ve read everything you’ve written that I can get my hands on and wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your stories. Since 1980 I’ve wanted to build my own place but  have found excuses not to move forward. Finally I have the land and thanks to stories from you and Dave Duffy, am beginning to believe that I can pull this off. Personally I don’t subscribe to being a victim thus gotta keep going forward.

You need to know that I’ve enjoyed every article you’ve written and if you have any books out there point to them!  I’ll go after those too!

I’ll write more later but wanted you to know that your motto of ‘if not me then who, if now now then when’ was the catalyst that woke me up.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Marylynn Brooks
Mississippi

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Your otherwise excellent article has a couple of important omissions. The schematic diagram shows two deep-cycle storage batteries connected in parallel, but neglects  isolation diodes and fusible links, and there is no mention of either one in the text.

An isolation diode prevents one battery from discharging the other, while still allowing both batteries to be charged from a single +12VDC connection.  In actuality, as long as all batteries in a storage bank are diode-isolated, any number of batteries may be connected safely.

In a worst-case situation, and if directly connected to another, one battery (for whatever reason) could present itself as a dead short to the remaining battery(ies), draining all the ‘juice’ quickly enough to start a nasty fire and/or explosion.

I would also install a fusible link at each battery’s positive terminal, just in case… it would act as a high-current fuse, preventing the sort of massive current drain that could really heat things up in  a heartbeat.

In what I would consider a safe setup, each battery is contained within its own plastic battery box (vented to prevent the buildup of hydrogen gas) to catch acid leakage, connected to its respective fusible link, to a high-current conductor ‘manifold’ (I have used flattened copper pipe with holes drilled for connector bolt/nut/washer assemblies), each battery with its own isolation diode connected in series with its fusible link.

If a catastrophic failure were to occur, the fusible link would blow, removing the defective battery from the circuit altogether.

Talk to an RV dealer for more details, but the practice of directly connecting two or more high-energy storage components, without fusible links and isolation diodes is a potentially dangerous one.  I’m surprised the schematic diagram didn’t catch fire on its own.

Keith Savoy

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Nice bridge, Jim!

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Just a note to tell you how much I like your writings. They are GREAT!

I’ve been baking bread for a while now so you really struck a chord with your article about this, but I really like your perspective and look foward to all of your aticles and now that I found your blog I’ll checking it out regularly.

Hope all is well in the high desert today . We normally have mild winters here in central Texas but it is overcast and wintery today.

Best wishes,

Charles Allen

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I am curious why exactly you decided to settle on your present location?  While you drop some hints (suggestions of low tax and “reasonable” land prices), the fact that you provide no detail in this regard is a little perplexing.  Considering that you must have certainly kept your cost of living suppressed at your cabin in the PNW, makes many of us wonder at the meaning of the property tax issue.  I know that at one time your truck died and it seemed a major financial hurdle to replace it, from which time you were on foot?

Perhaps to pose a counterpoint, I currently live in Michigan, Napoleon Township to be specific.  It is not a wealthy community with a median income level of $43k/household.  I live on a dirt road, do have electricity and NG and due to our proximity to a sizable lake system a township sewer service was installed in the late 90′s which was quite expensive.

To get to the point, I pay nearly $400/month property tax for our 1/4 acre and 1300sqft floorplan home.  The summer and winter millage adds up to 46.01/1000 in property value or 4.6% of the assessed value per year.

It is specifically this high and unavoidable tax which could be increased at any time (virtually unavoidable now with the population in exodus, over 20% unemployment and a 50% drop in home prices, which are not reflected in our valuations).  For me, I see no possibility of retirement in this environment.

My search for my “Shangri La” has taken me to south eastern Colorado, specifically Custer County.  If you take a look at this website County assessor you can see that taxes on 36 acre lots and homes vary from $6 – $800 annually depending on whether they are zoned agricultural.  Centennial Ranch is an example of a subdivision which has a cattle grazing lease, which provides allows for agricultural zoning.

The location gets 16″ of rain per year, so is not nearly as dry as the spot you are in, and wells are generally successful.  The fact that the valley base elevation is approximately 7000ft does of course contribute to low humidity year round and one can forget about growing things without a greenhouse.  No need for air conditioning.  The area is not terribly remote, although obviously the farther one is off the beaten track, the more attractive the property prices.  I have been to a few places with my dodge ram 1500 (2wd) that were rough enough (in summer) that I was passed by others on horseback…..   One does have a large number of days per year with good solar insolation (clear blue skies) so passive solar, photovoltiac and water heating are all feasible most of the year.   In summer, the daily temperatures may rise into the 80′s but with the low humidity it feels very pleasant.

I am personally somewhat stuck with my home in Michigan, since if I sold now I would be walking away with a balance of about $80k that I would have to pay off (difference between mortgage and market price), so I figure I have a few more years to go before I will be able to get out of here.

Custer county has many of the challenges you mention, including lack of work opportunities in the vicinity.  I am fortunate in that my wife is an RN, so her job is very portable and relatively in demand and I expect to be gainfully employed building the home 6 months of the year and working as a migratory worker all winter during that phase.  Once the home is built I hope to be working on a consultancy basis for remote clients and I have a fair amount of time to work that plan out prior to the move.  Wireless and sattelite communications are certainly making cyber commuting easier all over rural america, the biggest hurdle is between the ears of your potential manager, where ever the work is at.

In closing I must say that I enjoy reading your essays, although it would be nice if you wrote a book and disclosed all the facts that are left out of your short stories.  I would buy it,that is for sure.

Best regards,

Keith Olivier
Jackson, MI

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