We arrived at our new home precisely 6 months ago.
Wow. Doesn't seem that long ago.
On the other hand, it feels like we've been here forever.
We're fully "assimilated" to the lifestyle here. The greatest compliment I've gotten in quite a while came from our landlord's wife. They live in CA most of the year and a few weeks back they were over at the house to cut down some dead trees in preparation for winter. I was helping/watching, and the wife asks how long we've been here. I tell her March, and she says "really? You seem like a mountain girl already."
We can't really tell if we're ideally suited to North Idaho, or North Idaho is ideally suited to us.
We're both happier, healthier, less stressed, more content. The kids enjoy the room to run and explore, and the doggies are in heaven.
We've met lots of genuinely nice people, made lots of friends, and generally established ourselves. We've sampled the local food oddities (German-style sausage, fry sauce, and tons of huckleberries), spent time swimming in the lake, and started exploring our new home.
There are quite a few differences between how people act here and how they acted in the deathtrap called the Valley of the Sun. Things move... slowly here. I've yet to see a single act of road aggression. People here assume you're not out to screw them over. Everyone tends to mind their own business. Yet, without the nosiness, there's a definite sense of community and neighborliness here.
Oh, and all that flak about North Idaho being a whites-only area? Yeah, I'd be more willing to believe it if I hadn't seen blacks, Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, even Sikhs... all at the same Costco at one time.
Even in itty bitty Sandpoint there's more than a few minorities, including the immigrants from Szechuan who run the local Chinese restaurant. The kids are fluent in both languages but well assimilated themselves. Quite the difference from Phoenix, where assimilation seemed to be a off-limits issue.
Everyone here seems to be from North Idaho, whether or not they started out here. It's a good feeling.
A few weeks ago I got Mel-napped by Tom of Tom's Garden after stopping at their garden stand. While showing me the grounds and how he got his tomatoes to grow in the climate we started talking. He and his partner Joe moved here from Massachusetts, Tom 16 years ago and Joseph 3 years ago. A friend visited from NY, and she remarked that "People are different here. So nice, and friendly, and happy."
Tom said, "that's because we all want to be here."
An openly gay couple from the Northeast, happier and more free in North Idaho.
So are we.
It was a good move.
Showing posts with label getting to where we want to be. Show all posts
Showing posts with label getting to where we want to be. Show all posts
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Relocation Research
Currently up at the Guncounter Forum is a thread about buying rural land: land rights, water rights, searching from afar, etc. etc.
Today this question popped up:
I wrote up a basic answer at the forum, but we've been getting this question quite a bit lately.
We did look at some of the Southern states, particularly Tennessee and North Carolina because I have family there. However the combination of humidity, heat, and land prices would do us in.
The more important question here is more universal. How do you research important fit issues like property rights and politics?
There's tons of sites where you can compare demographics, climate, taxes, and even gun rights. I've found property rights comparison sites to be thin on the ground and not very comprehensive. If you're a prepper there's James Wesley Rawles' list but the question I think is bigger than that. How do you choose an area to live that fits your needs and politics?
Unfortunately there's no replacement for long, intensive, first-hand research. Months in our case.
If you ask most people, the level of government most capable of making life unbearable is Federal. Bureaucracy, taxes, military movements, "world opinion" all contribute to that outlook.
Let's get this straight right now: the FedGov has absolutely NOTHING on local government. This becomes abundantly clear to anyone thinking of raising livestock, especially dairy cows. The local regulations are numerous and sometimes contradictory.
On the state level are health regulations, minimum housing standards, livestock treatment laws, and even laws concerning how to market the milk.
County level concerns zoning laws and whether or not you can even keep livestock on your back forty.
City and township laws tackle nuisances and neighborhood spats over the smell of the manure.
So determining where you want to live has far more to do with the specific laws concerning that locale that anything the FedGov hands down.
Any serious research into living anywhere therefore requires three different levels of laws.
1. State statutes and the state's constitution.
2. County bylaws and zoning.
3. City codes, if applicable.
To give you an idea we'll start with two of the reasons we moved to Idaho, Right to Farm and water/mineral rights.
22-4503.Agricultural operation not a nuisance -- Exception. No agricultural operation or an appurtenance to it shall be or become a nuisance, private or public, by any changed conditions in or about the surrounding nonagricultural activities after the same has been in operation for more than one (1) year, when the operation was not a nuisance at the time the operation began; provided, that the provisions of this section shall not apply whenever a nuisance results from the improper or negligent operation of any agricultural operation or an appurtenance to it. In the event of an alleged nuisance resulting from agricultural operations pursuant to a federal or state environmental permit or caused by a violation of the permit(s), terms or conditions, the affected party shall seek enforcement of the terms of the permit.
No break law? No nuisance. This was passed in response to a ton of people from out of state moving in and suing the farm next door.
55-101.Real property defined. Real property or real estate consists of:
1. Lands, possessory rights to land, ditch and water rights, and mining claims, both lode and placer.
2. That which is affixed to land.
3. That which is appurtenant to land.
Comprehensive land rights, a necessity for us.
Oh, and there's always this little gem:
If you can handle a little bit of legalese researching how a state feels about pretty well anything is pretty easy, if time consuming.
If the state passes your criteria, the next level is county.
We live in Bonner County because we want to be near Lake Pend Oreille. However, the tip of the lake is in Kootenai county, so why didn't we consider moving there?
Zoning.
We want to be able to use our land for agricultural purposes and personal purposes. One of these purposes is a personal rifle range.
Rifle ranges are incredibly sticky subjects for many, many counties. Not so for Bonner.
Personal rifle ranges are permitted in Agricultural, Forestry, and Rural zoning areas, provided that "Gun clubs and rifle ranges shall have a minimum area of 5 acres. Target areas shall be at least 600 feet from any existing dwelling, except that of the owner or caretaker."
The kicker is EVERY parcel zoned Agricultural, Forestry, or Rural is 5+ acres. That, and 90% of the private land is zoned for one of those uses. In fact, the state purpose behind Bonner County's land usage designations is to preserve those industries and the "rural character" of the county.
Yeah, we read a major "fuck you Californians" between the lines when we first looked at zoning too.
So yeah, to say that the county has no issue with people setting up a range on their own land is an understatement. In fact, when asking our neighbor for recommendations for areas to test the long-range rifle, he told us to look up so-and-so who lets him shoot on his land all the time. "Just be prepared for them to want to come along and try out your guns."
Did we mention we love the people up here?
This is what Kootenai county has to say about rifle ranges:
Sure, those are all reasonable expectations. But note how Bonner County government assumes you're not an idiot, but Kootenai has to make sure your plans measure up.
This is not an isolated example either. Most of the two counties' codes follow the same form; Bonner County's minimalism vs. Kootenai's desire for extra regulation.
What the county you live in decides to codify tells you a lot about how that government feels about the county's residents.
However, state and county still can't compare with the sheer pettiness of city government. If the area you're looking at passes the state and county sniff test, take a look at the city.
We don't live in an incorporated area. The closest city is Sandpoint, and we did NOT want to live in Sandpoint.
The short of it is the city council. Long version? The controlling, hypocritical, arbitrary and capricious acts of the city council.
Take some hippies. Transplant them into paradise. Give them power.
The big issue right now is the BID. The BID is a tax on Sandpoint businesses that pays for marketing for all of Sandpoint.
The businesses think the funds are being misspent (over 60% of the revenue goes to "administration') and so ran a petition to get rid of the tax. If they got signatures from 51% of the business owners by square footage the BID would be gone.
Lets clarify that... Not 51% of the business owners, or 51% of the population... The amount of tax paid is assessed on a square footage basis, so they decided the vote would be allocated the same way. They added up all the business zoned square footage in the area the BID applied to, and gave each business owner vote proportional to their share of the square footage. This of course gave huge weight to the larger businesses, like the Safeway, which are not locally owned.
The accusations are still flying as many of the signatures were "disqualified" under dubious criteria. For example, if the business was a partnership or sole proprietorship, then only a single assignee, whose name was listed first on their business license, could certify their vote. If the other partner signed, then they disqualified their vote. They also disqualified local franchisees and business managers of local branches of national chains, because they weren't the ACTUAL business owners.
That ended up disqualifying more than half the vote.
The drama is truly massive for a small town. And yeah, starting a business in Sandpoint, home based or no, is not on the table for us.
Oh and how much does the tax amount to? $104,000 a year. Not a month... per year... for all of the businesses combined.
Pretty trivial amount right? Well not to the people of North Idaho. If it was being spent as it was chartered for; improving parking (parking in Sandpoint is horrible), making local improvements, and business development, they'd be OK with it. But because 60% of the funds are actually being used to (at least in part) pay the salaries of two low level bureaucrats... No Go.
Have I mentioned how much I love these people?
Pay really close attention to the local newspaper for your intended area. What the news can tell you about city government is really important. Read the city codes, see how the regulations and allowable fines stack up. Check out whether your city council is made up of people with lives outside of town hall, or whether they get their rocks off making other people miserable.
If you can wade through all of the information (and it is a lot) then you'll really know if the area you're looking at is a good fit for you, your lifestyle, and your values.
Mel
Cross-posted to We Few
Today this question popped up:
I know I'm jumping on this thread a little late but would like a little info from Chris/Mel if possible.
You had mentioned that Idaho was a "right to farm" state and had other "leave me alone" qualities that pushed it to the top of your list. However you did mention looking at several other states as possibilities. What were any of the other more southern states(these old bones(sad being the same age as Chris and referring to myself as old) can't take the cold much any more) not including deserts that you looked at?
I can do the research of employment rates/income/cost of living, but don't know much about finding laws concerning property rights. I'm hoping to be out of jersey by 35(if my house sells and can find a palatable region). I liked Tennessee and southern Kentucky, the less humid areas of Georgia, the Carolinas(although hurricanes are a big issue in coastal states). And of course any state would need to be "shall issue"(not really a problem south of the mason/dixie).
I wrote up a basic answer at the forum, but we've been getting this question quite a bit lately.
We did look at some of the Southern states, particularly Tennessee and North Carolina because I have family there. However the combination of humidity, heat, and land prices would do us in.
The more important question here is more universal. How do you research important fit issues like property rights and politics?
There's tons of sites where you can compare demographics, climate, taxes, and even gun rights. I've found property rights comparison sites to be thin on the ground and not very comprehensive. If you're a prepper there's James Wesley Rawles' list but the question I think is bigger than that. How do you choose an area to live that fits your needs and politics?
Unfortunately there's no replacement for long, intensive, first-hand research. Months in our case.
If you ask most people, the level of government most capable of making life unbearable is Federal. Bureaucracy, taxes, military movements, "world opinion" all contribute to that outlook.
Let's get this straight right now: the FedGov has absolutely NOTHING on local government. This becomes abundantly clear to anyone thinking of raising livestock, especially dairy cows. The local regulations are numerous and sometimes contradictory.
On the state level are health regulations, minimum housing standards, livestock treatment laws, and even laws concerning how to market the milk.
County level concerns zoning laws and whether or not you can even keep livestock on your back forty.
City and township laws tackle nuisances and neighborhood spats over the smell of the manure.
So determining where you want to live has far more to do with the specific laws concerning that locale that anything the FedGov hands down.
Any serious research into living anywhere therefore requires three different levels of laws.
1. State statutes and the state's constitution.
2. County bylaws and zoning.
3. City codes, if applicable.
To give you an idea we'll start with two of the reasons we moved to Idaho, Right to Farm and water/mineral rights.
TITLE 22
AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE
CHAPTER 45
RIGHT TO FARM
22-4503.Agricultural operation not a nuisance -- Exception. No agricultural operation or an appurtenance to it shall be or become a nuisance, private or public, by any changed conditions in or about the surrounding nonagricultural activities after the same has been in operation for more than one (1) year, when the operation was not a nuisance at the time the operation began; provided, that the provisions of this section shall not apply whenever a nuisance results from the improper or negligent operation of any agricultural operation or an appurtenance to it. In the event of an alleged nuisance resulting from agricultural operations pursuant to a federal or state environmental permit or caused by a violation of the permit(s), terms or conditions, the affected party shall seek enforcement of the terms of the permit.
No break law? No nuisance. This was passed in response to a ton of people from out of state moving in and suing the farm next door.
TITLE 55
PROPERTY IN GENERAL
CHAPTER 1
PROPERTY AND OWNERSHIP -- GENERAL PROVISIONS
55-101.Real property defined. Real property or real estate consists of:
1. Lands, possessory rights to land, ditch and water rights, and mining claims, both lode and placer.
2. That which is affixed to land.
3. That which is appurtenant to land.
Comprehensive land rights, a necessity for us.
Oh, and there's always this little gem:
CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF IDAHOThe people have the right to keep and bear arms, which right shall not be abridged; but this provision shall not prevent the passage of laws to govern the carrying of weapons concealed on the person nor prevent passage of legislation providing minimum sentences for crimes committed while in possession of a firearm, nor prevent the passage of legislation providing penalties for the possession of firearms by a convicted felon, nor prevent the passage of any legislation punishing the use of a firearm. No law shall impose licensure, registration or special taxation on the ownership or possession of firearms or ammunition. Nor shall any law permit the confiscation of firearms, except those actually used in the commission of a felony.
ARTICLE I DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
Section 11.Right to keep and bear arms.
If you can handle a little bit of legalese researching how a state feels about pretty well anything is pretty easy, if time consuming.
If the state passes your criteria, the next level is county.
We live in Bonner County because we want to be near Lake Pend Oreille. However, the tip of the lake is in Kootenai county, so why didn't we consider moving there?
Zoning.
We want to be able to use our land for agricultural purposes and personal purposes. One of these purposes is a personal rifle range.
Rifle ranges are incredibly sticky subjects for many, many counties. Not so for Bonner.
Personal rifle ranges are permitted in Agricultural, Forestry, and Rural zoning areas, provided that "Gun clubs and rifle ranges shall have a minimum area of 5 acres. Target areas shall be at least 600 feet from any existing dwelling, except that of the owner or caretaker."
The kicker is EVERY parcel zoned Agricultural, Forestry, or Rural is 5+ acres. That, and 90% of the private land is zoned for one of those uses. In fact, the state purpose behind Bonner County's land usage designations is to preserve those industries and the "rural character" of the county.
Yeah, we read a major "fuck you Californians" between the lines when we first looked at zoning too.
So yeah, to say that the county has no issue with people setting up a range on their own land is an understatement. In fact, when asking our neighbor for recommendations for areas to test the long-range rifle, he told us to look up so-and-so who lets him shoot on his land all the time. "Just be prepared for them to want to come along and try out your guns."
Did we mention we love the people up here?
This is what Kootenai county has to say about rifle ranges:
"9-24-2: GUN CLUBS, RIFLE RANGES, ARCHERY RANGES:
A. Zones permitted:
1. Agricultural, agricultural suburban, rural:
a. Minimum area: Ten (10) acres.
b. Target areas shall be six hundred feet (600') from any existing dwelling and three hundred feet (300') from any property line.
c. All facilities shall be designed and located with full consideration to the safety factors involved with such a use.
d. Off street parking for all patrons will be provided.
e. A site plan shall be submitted with the application. (Ord. 393, 12-14-2006)"
Sure, those are all reasonable expectations. But note how Bonner County government assumes you're not an idiot, but Kootenai has to make sure your plans measure up.
This is not an isolated example either. Most of the two counties' codes follow the same form; Bonner County's minimalism vs. Kootenai's desire for extra regulation.
What the county you live in decides to codify tells you a lot about how that government feels about the county's residents.
However, state and county still can't compare with the sheer pettiness of city government. If the area you're looking at passes the state and county sniff test, take a look at the city.
We don't live in an incorporated area. The closest city is Sandpoint, and we did NOT want to live in Sandpoint.
The short of it is the city council. Long version? The controlling, hypocritical, arbitrary and capricious acts of the city council.
Take some hippies. Transplant them into paradise. Give them power.
The big issue right now is the BID. The BID is a tax on Sandpoint businesses that pays for marketing for all of Sandpoint.
The businesses think the funds are being misspent (over 60% of the revenue goes to "administration') and so ran a petition to get rid of the tax. If they got signatures from 51% of the business owners by square footage the BID would be gone.
Lets clarify that... Not 51% of the business owners, or 51% of the population... The amount of tax paid is assessed on a square footage basis, so they decided the vote would be allocated the same way. They added up all the business zoned square footage in the area the BID applied to, and gave each business owner vote proportional to their share of the square footage. This of course gave huge weight to the larger businesses, like the Safeway, which are not locally owned.
The accusations are still flying as many of the signatures were "disqualified" under dubious criteria. For example, if the business was a partnership or sole proprietorship, then only a single assignee, whose name was listed first on their business license, could certify their vote. If the other partner signed, then they disqualified their vote. They also disqualified local franchisees and business managers of local branches of national chains, because they weren't the ACTUAL business owners.
That ended up disqualifying more than half the vote.
The drama is truly massive for a small town. And yeah, starting a business in Sandpoint, home based or no, is not on the table for us.
Oh and how much does the tax amount to? $104,000 a year. Not a month... per year... for all of the businesses combined.
Pretty trivial amount right? Well not to the people of North Idaho. If it was being spent as it was chartered for; improving parking (parking in Sandpoint is horrible), making local improvements, and business development, they'd be OK with it. But because 60% of the funds are actually being used to (at least in part) pay the salaries of two low level bureaucrats... No Go.
Have I mentioned how much I love these people?
Pay really close attention to the local newspaper for your intended area. What the news can tell you about city government is really important. Read the city codes, see how the regulations and allowable fines stack up. Check out whether your city council is made up of people with lives outside of town hall, or whether they get their rocks off making other people miserable.
If you can wade through all of the information (and it is a lot) then you'll really know if the area you're looking at is a good fit for you, your lifestyle, and your values.
Mel
Cross-posted to We Few
Monday, June 07, 2010
The Self-Determination Project
So what brings a family of four 1400 miles, 15 degrees latitude and 3 degrees longitude to suffer culture and climate shock?
The REAL question is why we left.
Friends and family remain in AZ. Only our immediate family and income source made the move, and the income source is portable. So why leave (almost) everything behind?
Independence, self-determination, over-reliance, terrorists, and the horrible death trap that is Metro Phoenix.
Let's start with terrorists and the horrible death trap.
Imagine a bustling metropolis with 5 million people. These people live on mostly infertile, unforgiving ground. Fresh water is almost non-existent locally, and is brought in via a canal from a river on the state border. A river whose water rights are bitterly disputed by no less than 7! states.
Now imagine summers so hot that temps regularly reach and exceed 120 Fahrenheit, and people often die during the summer when their ac goes out. Imagine the electrical load needed for 5 million people to run their ac at the same time, and the inability of those with solar panels to keep up with their usage.
Imagine the lack of farmland, and the need to truck in almost every bit of food from neighboring states.
Now imagine the water grid, electrical grid, or transportation grid failing. 5 million people either trying to make do, or desperately trying to get out of town.
If someone wanted to make a REALLY big statement against the U.S., Phoenix makes a damn good choice. God forbid a natural disaster, or Palo Verde going down, or, or, or...
Like I said, death trap.
This came home to me about a year and a half ago while taking Chris's mom grocery shopping.
She bought only enough food to last a week, all of it processed. That's not particularly surprising for her. Then I started paying attention to everyone else in the store and what they were buying. Boxed meals. Prepackaged meals. Convenience foods. Not in large quantity either.
I never particularly paid attention before. We could easily eat for a month off of our pantry from the basic staples I keep on hand. But these people... what would happen if the grocery store just didn't get stocked? What would happen if no trucks came? How long could they live out of their kitchen cabinets? Do they even know how to cook from scratch if need be?
What if the water stopped flowing? How much did they have on hand? Could they even survive a full day if the faucet didn't work?
What if all 5 million of us got stuck in such a situation? Mass rioting is far too mild a term...
So we decided we needed to leave the death trap.
But where would we move?
It would make no sense just to move to another metropolis. All big cities have the same problem; lots of people dependent on lots of infrastructure in order to function. Over-reliance on systems they don't understand and no concept of what to do when systems fail. Also, city-dwellers deal with huge portions of their lives and livelihoods being controlled by city officials through public utilities, codes, property taxes, and police.
When there's a police officer on every corner, people forget that they need to defend themselves, and settle their own differences. When there's a police officer on every corner, sometimes the officers forget that people CAN be trusted to defend themselves, and settle their own differences.
Speaking of settling differences... that job has been taken over by the compliance police.
Code enforcers. HOAs. Byzantine zoning restrictions. All there to make sure you fit in and *gasp* don't cause home values to drop.
Scottsdale has the weed nazis. Code enforcers who come around after every rain checking for weeds in "desert landscaping". Code enforcers with the authority to fine.
Other cities want complete control over what type of buildings go up, to the point of dictating historical districts and to what level a homeowner can restore their own building. Some cities have ridiculous parking statutes.
Many, many people use these mechanisms in order to "encourage" their neighbors to fit in.
"Independent" becomes a very bad word... an insult in fact.
We didn't want to live in that environment anymore. We didn't need to live in the city anymore, so why were we still there?
But if not the cities, where? There's 50 states to choose from, how do you make a choice?
Now was the time for research, and some basic exclusionary analysis.
We started with the basics: gun rights. If a state didn't have shall-issue, or Vermont-style carry they got dropped off the list.
Then analyzed based on climate. We wanted a climate where the summer wouldn't be too humid. Pretty much everywhere east of the Mississippi, except New Hampshire, got taken off the list. We also wanted a climate that wasn't too Fridgid. Wyoming and Montana went into the iffy list.
We wanted mountains, with varied scenery. No Plains states. Besides, the weather on the plains leaves something to be desired.
Politics. Anywhere run by a hugely liberal capital got taken off the list. This killed otherwise suitable states, like Washington and Oregon, and made once strong like New Mexico, New Hampshire, and Nevada iffy.
Ideally, we wanted a low tax, no income tax state; but we didn't exclude based on it... Just not enough choices without income tax.
Fresh water, preferably with large lakes and lots of rivers; and a good, accessible water table. New Mexico got taken off the list entirely, and most of the rest of the west got iffy (leaving only small pockets of suitable territory in most of the Rocky mountain west states).
That left us with parts of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Montana, and Idaho.... Eastern Oregon or eastern Washington would have been good, but for the government in either state.
That is, until we decided we wanted to farm and ranch on a small scale.
Fertile land became very important to us, as well as a suitable growing season. Climate became more important, and so we decided we wanted a certain temperature range, and erred on the side of heating in the winter rather than cooling in the summer.
One factor remained; Chris needed to be within 2 hours of a major regional airport.
This became a huge issue. Lakes, affordable land, and proximity to an airport? Good bloody luck...
Then one day while looking at maps, I saw it. Tucked in the northern portion of Idaho, one of the deepest lakes in the U.S., and the biggest lake in the Northwest. Lake Pend Oreille. 75% of the shoreline Federal land, and the land prices made us drool. National forest all over the place and some of the most fertile ground in the Northwest. Plus, the mountain ranges funnel warmer air through the area so the climate is more mild than we expected.
Oh, and an hour and a half from Spokanes airport.
And no one else seemed to notice it was there. And if they did, they dismissed it out of hand.
"Idaho? All those redneck nutjobs? Why the hell would you want to move there?"
"Aren't there all those white supremacists there?"
"Isn't that WAY in the boondocks?"
(some of these are direct quotes from Chris's family).
Well, we knew better than to believe the stereotypes, so we started asking around and researching.
Redneck nutjobs? Some, but a very small minority. Plus redneck isn't necessarily an insult in our minds.
White supremacists? Yeah, there's still a few around, universally hated and scorned.
Boondocks? Well, that is kind of the point.
We wanted independence. We wanted to be able to take care of our own needs. We wanted as much self-determination as we could manage without ending up on a terrorist watch list.
Oddly enough, most of north Idaho feels the same way. The county north of us is where Ruby Ridge happened, and most residents rallied behind Randy Weaver not because they agreed with him, but because they were so pissed the Feds crossed that line...
People here like to be left alone. People here like to do what they wish. People here also like the stereotypes, because it means fewer of those damn Californians moving in and trying to take over...
...They REALLY hate Californians...
Moreover, while everyone we talked to is more than happy to live here; they'd rather keep the area a secret, so it doesn't get ruined. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get flak for posting this, and letting the rest of you know what you're missing.
So we looked at local ordinances, distances, travel times... We weighed all of the data and decided on Bonner, or the southern portion of Boundary counties (just because of distance and travel time. The northern part of Boundary county doesn't have much in the way of improved roads.)
Bonner county has figured out that if they zoned just right, the Californians would stay away. Thus, the vast majority of Bonner County is zoned some variant of rural, with various minimum lot sizes (outside of an incorporated area, certain zones NEAR incorporated areas that allow .5 acre per dwelling, or specially permitted "high density" housing... mostly trailer parks... it's a minimum of five acres per dwelling unit), very few restrictions on land usage, and most importantly, the "right to farm" (oh and Idaho is right to hunt, fish, and trap state too). Their idea of water, mineral, and timber rights? If it's on your property, it's yours. If you can drill it, catch it, cut it... you can drink it, use it, sell it, whatever
As for government interference, here's a snippet from the "Buying Land" page from the OFFICIAL web page of Boundary County, the county to the north of us:
So now we live in unincorporated Bonner County on Lake Pend Oreille. We're surrounded by wildlife, farmland, and good neighbors (though, frankly, the neighbors are too close... But it's a rental. We can live with 1.6 acres and neighbors 100 feet away, in exchange for the lake and the dock... at least for now, until we can find a good piece of property)
But our plan wasn't simply to "get away from it all" and change locales. We're making a major life change in almost every way possible. We are going to push the envelope to see just how much of our own needs we can manage ourselves.
What does that mean? Simply, we're taking over our own electric, our own heat, our own water, our own defense, and as much of our own food as we can manage. We're taking over almost everything we need to live from the ground up. No more being at the end of the fragile "production to shipping to store to consumer" chain; we are going to BE the chain.
Our ultimate plan, is to be as independent as a family can be, and as self-reliant as a family can be. This is an exercise in seeing if one modern family can pull themselves out of modern dependence, stop being cogs in a really huge wheel, and make a go at (mostly) sustainable living.
This is not survivalism, or disaster preparation (though it doesn't hurt). We just got really bloody tired of not having enough control over our own lives, or responsibility for our own lives.
Renting in the area is just step one. The next major phase in our plan will be buying land; a large parcel with good soil, reasonable access, and a good water table (wells here average 40 to 80 ft, with a good rate of flow).
We'll be drilling a well, developing a spring (if we have one, we have 3 on our rental property), and setting up a water catchment system. The goal is to use the well as little as possible, as 34 inches annual rainfall (and 72 inches of snowfall) is more than enough for our uses.
We're going to be setting up off grid power (and hopefully getting grid tie with sellback), most likely a combination of solar, microhydro (if possible), wind, and backup generator. If small biodiesel converters become more suitable for farm use, we WILL be making our own diesel.
We'll be planting some crops, tending a garden, growing an orchard, and planting various berries and brambles. We may not be able to supply all of our own food (salt not being a crop) but we'll see how much we can manage.
Livestock will be entering the equation eventually. We have no qualms about raising our own meat (they are not pets) and we're pretty damn sure we can raise some good beef on the incredible pasture around here. We're also thinking of running domestic elk, both as meat for ourselves and meat to sell.
We want to know everything we use and ingest, and where exactly it came from. We want control of our water, food, and utilities.
We want to take care of ourselves... We want INDEPENDENCE.
This is the beginning of the Self-Determination Project.
Cross-posted at We Few
The REAL question is why we left.
Friends and family remain in AZ. Only our immediate family and income source made the move, and the income source is portable. So why leave (almost) everything behind?
Independence, self-determination, over-reliance, terrorists, and the horrible death trap that is Metro Phoenix.
Let's start with terrorists and the horrible death trap.
Imagine a bustling metropolis with 5 million people. These people live on mostly infertile, unforgiving ground. Fresh water is almost non-existent locally, and is brought in via a canal from a river on the state border. A river whose water rights are bitterly disputed by no less than 7! states.
Now imagine summers so hot that temps regularly reach and exceed 120 Fahrenheit, and people often die during the summer when their ac goes out. Imagine the electrical load needed for 5 million people to run their ac at the same time, and the inability of those with solar panels to keep up with their usage.
Imagine the lack of farmland, and the need to truck in almost every bit of food from neighboring states.
Now imagine the water grid, electrical grid, or transportation grid failing. 5 million people either trying to make do, or desperately trying to get out of town.
If someone wanted to make a REALLY big statement against the U.S., Phoenix makes a damn good choice. God forbid a natural disaster, or Palo Verde going down, or, or, or...
Like I said, death trap.
This came home to me about a year and a half ago while taking Chris's mom grocery shopping.
She bought only enough food to last a week, all of it processed. That's not particularly surprising for her. Then I started paying attention to everyone else in the store and what they were buying. Boxed meals. Prepackaged meals. Convenience foods. Not in large quantity either.
I never particularly paid attention before. We could easily eat for a month off of our pantry from the basic staples I keep on hand. But these people... what would happen if the grocery store just didn't get stocked? What would happen if no trucks came? How long could they live out of their kitchen cabinets? Do they even know how to cook from scratch if need be?
What if the water stopped flowing? How much did they have on hand? Could they even survive a full day if the faucet didn't work?
What if all 5 million of us got stuck in such a situation? Mass rioting is far too mild a term...
So we decided we needed to leave the death trap.
But where would we move?
It would make no sense just to move to another metropolis. All big cities have the same problem; lots of people dependent on lots of infrastructure in order to function. Over-reliance on systems they don't understand and no concept of what to do when systems fail. Also, city-dwellers deal with huge portions of their lives and livelihoods being controlled by city officials through public utilities, codes, property taxes, and police.
When there's a police officer on every corner, people forget that they need to defend themselves, and settle their own differences. When there's a police officer on every corner, sometimes the officers forget that people CAN be trusted to defend themselves, and settle their own differences.
Speaking of settling differences... that job has been taken over by the compliance police.
Code enforcers. HOAs. Byzantine zoning restrictions. All there to make sure you fit in and *gasp* don't cause home values to drop.
Scottsdale has the weed nazis. Code enforcers who come around after every rain checking for weeds in "desert landscaping". Code enforcers with the authority to fine.
Other cities want complete control over what type of buildings go up, to the point of dictating historical districts and to what level a homeowner can restore their own building. Some cities have ridiculous parking statutes.
Many, many people use these mechanisms in order to "encourage" their neighbors to fit in.
"Independent" becomes a very bad word... an insult in fact.
We didn't want to live in that environment anymore. We didn't need to live in the city anymore, so why were we still there?
But if not the cities, where? There's 50 states to choose from, how do you make a choice?
Now was the time for research, and some basic exclusionary analysis.
We started with the basics: gun rights. If a state didn't have shall-issue, or Vermont-style carry they got dropped off the list.
Then analyzed based on climate. We wanted a climate where the summer wouldn't be too humid. Pretty much everywhere east of the Mississippi, except New Hampshire, got taken off the list. We also wanted a climate that wasn't too Fridgid. Wyoming and Montana went into the iffy list.
We wanted mountains, with varied scenery. No Plains states. Besides, the weather on the plains leaves something to be desired.
Politics. Anywhere run by a hugely liberal capital got taken off the list. This killed otherwise suitable states, like Washington and Oregon, and made once strong like New Mexico, New Hampshire, and Nevada iffy.
Ideally, we wanted a low tax, no income tax state; but we didn't exclude based on it... Just not enough choices without income tax.
Fresh water, preferably with large lakes and lots of rivers; and a good, accessible water table. New Mexico got taken off the list entirely, and most of the rest of the west got iffy (leaving only small pockets of suitable territory in most of the Rocky mountain west states).
That left us with parts of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Montana, and Idaho.... Eastern Oregon or eastern Washington would have been good, but for the government in either state.
That is, until we decided we wanted to farm and ranch on a small scale.
Fertile land became very important to us, as well as a suitable growing season. Climate became more important, and so we decided we wanted a certain temperature range, and erred on the side of heating in the winter rather than cooling in the summer.
One factor remained; Chris needed to be within 2 hours of a major regional airport.
This became a huge issue. Lakes, affordable land, and proximity to an airport? Good bloody luck...
Then one day while looking at maps, I saw it. Tucked in the northern portion of Idaho, one of the deepest lakes in the U.S., and the biggest lake in the Northwest. Lake Pend Oreille. 75% of the shoreline Federal land, and the land prices made us drool. National forest all over the place and some of the most fertile ground in the Northwest. Plus, the mountain ranges funnel warmer air through the area so the climate is more mild than we expected.
Oh, and an hour and a half from Spokanes airport.
And no one else seemed to notice it was there. And if they did, they dismissed it out of hand.
"Idaho? All those redneck nutjobs? Why the hell would you want to move there?"
"Aren't there all those white supremacists there?"
"Isn't that WAY in the boondocks?"
(some of these are direct quotes from Chris's family).
Well, we knew better than to believe the stereotypes, so we started asking around and researching.
Redneck nutjobs? Some, but a very small minority. Plus redneck isn't necessarily an insult in our minds.
White supremacists? Yeah, there's still a few around, universally hated and scorned.
Boondocks? Well, that is kind of the point.
We wanted independence. We wanted to be able to take care of our own needs. We wanted as much self-determination as we could manage without ending up on a terrorist watch list.
Oddly enough, most of north Idaho feels the same way. The county north of us is where Ruby Ridge happened, and most residents rallied behind Randy Weaver not because they agreed with him, but because they were so pissed the Feds crossed that line...
People here like to be left alone. People here like to do what they wish. People here also like the stereotypes, because it means fewer of those damn Californians moving in and trying to take over...
...They REALLY hate Californians...
Moreover, while everyone we talked to is more than happy to live here; they'd rather keep the area a secret, so it doesn't get ruined. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get flak for posting this, and letting the rest of you know what you're missing.
So we looked at local ordinances, distances, travel times... We weighed all of the data and decided on Bonner, or the southern portion of Boundary counties (just because of distance and travel time. The northern part of Boundary county doesn't have much in the way of improved roads.)
Bonner county has figured out that if they zoned just right, the Californians would stay away. Thus, the vast majority of Bonner County is zoned some variant of rural, with various minimum lot sizes (outside of an incorporated area, certain zones NEAR incorporated areas that allow .5 acre per dwelling, or specially permitted "high density" housing... mostly trailer parks... it's a minimum of five acres per dwelling unit), very few restrictions on land usage, and most importantly, the "right to farm" (oh and Idaho is right to hunt, fish, and trap state too). Their idea of water, mineral, and timber rights? If it's on your property, it's yours. If you can drill it, catch it, cut it... you can drink it, use it, sell it, whatever
As for government interference, here's a snippet from the "Buying Land" page from the OFFICIAL web page of Boundary County, the county to the north of us:
Another consideration is the economy of Boundary County, which is based predominantly on timber and agriculture production. Idaho is a "right to farm" state, meaning anyone who owns property has the right to use or lease that land for agricultural production; there is nothing the county can do to prevent a neighbor from going into the hog business should they so choose, even if the breeze blows your way. Much of the county is timbered, with over 75 percent of the total land base of Boundary County owned and managed by the U.S. Forest Service, the Idaho Department of Lands and the Bureau of Land Management. If you purchase a parcel because the trees on the hillside across the road make for a beautiful view, you shouldn't be disappointed should loggers move in later to harvest that timber.
I will admit that little snippet played a role in getting us to move here.Life in Boundary County is wonderful; the people here retain a strong pioneer spirit of hard work and of helping their neighbors ... most who call this community home would agree that you'll not find a more neighborly place anywhere else. But the rugged beauty and often harsh conditions mean that many of the amenities you may be used to are not available, and if you're used to relying on strict ordinances and regulations to help you resolve neighborly disputes, you'll be disappointed. It is the belief of the county that people who buy and build here have the right to build the home that best suits them; if the roof collapses under the weight of the snow, they'll know better next time. Conversely, you may build a beautiful home that meets the most stringent building codes while your neighbor may not; the county will not intercede on your behalf to make that neighbor live up to your standards.
So now we live in unincorporated Bonner County on Lake Pend Oreille. We're surrounded by wildlife, farmland, and good neighbors (though, frankly, the neighbors are too close... But it's a rental. We can live with 1.6 acres and neighbors 100 feet away, in exchange for the lake and the dock... at least for now, until we can find a good piece of property)
But our plan wasn't simply to "get away from it all" and change locales. We're making a major life change in almost every way possible. We are going to push the envelope to see just how much of our own needs we can manage ourselves.
What does that mean? Simply, we're taking over our own electric, our own heat, our own water, our own defense, and as much of our own food as we can manage. We're taking over almost everything we need to live from the ground up. No more being at the end of the fragile "production to shipping to store to consumer" chain; we are going to BE the chain.
Our ultimate plan, is to be as independent as a family can be, and as self-reliant as a family can be. This is an exercise in seeing if one modern family can pull themselves out of modern dependence, stop being cogs in a really huge wheel, and make a go at (mostly) sustainable living.
This is not survivalism, or disaster preparation (though it doesn't hurt). We just got really bloody tired of not having enough control over our own lives, or responsibility for our own lives.
Renting in the area is just step one. The next major phase in our plan will be buying land; a large parcel with good soil, reasonable access, and a good water table (wells here average 40 to 80 ft, with a good rate of flow).
We'll be drilling a well, developing a spring (if we have one, we have 3 on our rental property), and setting up a water catchment system. The goal is to use the well as little as possible, as 34 inches annual rainfall (and 72 inches of snowfall) is more than enough for our uses.
We're going to be setting up off grid power (and hopefully getting grid tie with sellback), most likely a combination of solar, microhydro (if possible), wind, and backup generator. If small biodiesel converters become more suitable for farm use, we WILL be making our own diesel.
We'll be planting some crops, tending a garden, growing an orchard, and planting various berries and brambles. We may not be able to supply all of our own food (salt not being a crop) but we'll see how much we can manage.
Livestock will be entering the equation eventually. We have no qualms about raising our own meat (they are not pets) and we're pretty damn sure we can raise some good beef on the incredible pasture around here. We're also thinking of running domestic elk, both as meat for ourselves and meat to sell.
We want to know everything we use and ingest, and where exactly it came from. We want control of our water, food, and utilities.
We want to take care of ourselves... We want INDEPENDENCE.
This is the beginning of the Self-Determination Project.
Cross-posted at We Few
Thursday, April 29, 2010
That's Why We Moved Here
(although we're in a far more mountainous portion of the state)
From Oleg:
From Oleg:
Of Idaho
These rolling hills are Irish-Green
But those who herein dwell
Have rifles that reach a mile
To send Cromwell's hosts to hell
To them Ruby Ridge was a warning
An alert to the fair and free
Like other, more recent incursions
Against them and you and me
Enjoy rolling hills of Idaho
They look Irish but hold more lead
In case someday reason fails
And the living might envy the dead
The Federal hydra seldom
Comes into these rolling hills
To it the climate is noisome
Though the locals are dressed to kill
Plain are natives of green and beauty
Simple and rough their talk
But they have enough math to know
How far long-range bullets drop
These rolling hills are Irish-Green
But those who herein dwell
Though wishing for peace and quiet
In war would do rather well
To them you are valued visitor
By whom they strive to do right
Those who come in friendship
Need not fear the rifles' might
These rolling hills aren't Ireland
But a more formidable land
And despite all the Pharaoh's armies
These people will win in the end
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
New Blog - We Few, We Happy Few
Chris and I started another blog detailing our journey from suburbanites to rural Americans.
We Few, We Happy Few, a blog dedicated to rural life, culture shock, and the quest for Crispin Ranch.
We already have a few posts up, including some background and our purpose, a post on shopping by the side of the road and the characters we've met, and the joys of dogs and fencing.
The AnarchAngel with remain more dedicated to guns, geekery, and politics.
We felt we needed a more... focused outlet for the changes our life is going through, and why we moved where we are.
Posts will be linked up of course.
Hope to see y'all over at the new place.
Mel
We Few, We Happy Few, a blog dedicated to rural life, culture shock, and the quest for Crispin Ranch.
We already have a few posts up, including some background and our purpose, a post on shopping by the side of the road and the characters we've met, and the joys of dogs and fencing.
The AnarchAngel with remain more dedicated to guns, geekery, and politics.
We felt we needed a more... focused outlet for the changes our life is going through, and why we moved where we are.
Posts will be linked up of course.
Hope to see y'all over at the new place.
Mel
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Idaho, We Are Here
Two days late by plan, and after a grand total of 31 hours of driving and/or idling (we spent a fair bit of time idling by the side of the road unfortunately), and 54 hours grand total (the last 18 of which we spent driving and/or idling by the side of the road)... WE HAVE ARRIVED AT OUR NEW HOME.
Because of the heavy, and not necessarily very stable trailer; I did all the driving this time (which is why we only stopped after three hours the first night. After a long day, I was too tired, and in too much pain to continue).
Yesterday... well, I was certainly too much pain, having had to deal with three tires blowing on two occaisons, including two just 3.5 miles from home (still dealing with that one actually), and god knows I was tired; but I was also wired, and we made the full 18 hour haul (including the time spent dealing with the blowouts) in one long go.
In the process we drove through five states; and Idaho twice (leaving Idaho to travel through Montana, and back in to Idaho) because there is no good way to get to Sandpoint from Pocatello by road, without leaving the state.
It was a total of just under 1600 miles, including a few side trips. I havent run the numbers in detail yet, but we burned about 140 gallons of diesel, at an average of right about $3 a gallon.
Amazingly enough, not only did the dogs behave themselves for the most part; but they had a grand old time... and so far they love the new place (there are DUCKS to chase!!!!).
Now, onto the REALLY hard part... Unpacking.
God help us...
Because of the heavy, and not necessarily very stable trailer; I did all the driving this time (which is why we only stopped after three hours the first night. After a long day, I was too tired, and in too much pain to continue).
Yesterday... well, I was certainly too much pain, having had to deal with three tires blowing on two occaisons, including two just 3.5 miles from home (still dealing with that one actually), and god knows I was tired; but I was also wired, and we made the full 18 hour haul (including the time spent dealing with the blowouts) in one long go.
In the process we drove through five states; and Idaho twice (leaving Idaho to travel through Montana, and back in to Idaho) because there is no good way to get to Sandpoint from Pocatello by road, without leaving the state.
It was a total of just under 1600 miles, including a few side trips. I havent run the numbers in detail yet, but we burned about 140 gallons of diesel, at an average of right about $3 a gallon.
Amazingly enough, not only did the dogs behave themselves for the most part; but they had a grand old time... and so far they love the new place (there are DUCKS to chase!!!!).
Now, onto the REALLY hard part... Unpacking.
God help us...
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Blowout
Just lost 3 hours to this:
I brought THREE jacks with me: a 12 ton high lift bottle jack, a 4.5 ton low profile high lift floor jack, and the normal screw jack that stows under the seat of the truck.
The bottle jack decided that it wouldn't take any load at all. Seems like a bad seal.
The floor jack work fine, until it was about 2/3 up to its full extension; when suddenly it wouldn't lift any more.
That's usually a symptom of a jack over its weight limit, but there is no way a 4.5 ton jack should be overloaded by a max 5 ton trailer (ok, lets say it's overloaded, and it's 6 tons instead of five... STILL).
The one that actually did the job, was the little screw jack that comes with my truck. In fact it worked perfectly, quickly, and easier than the floor jack... It weighs about 2 pounds, the floor jack weighs over 100...
The reasons it took 3 hours were threefold:
Location:Blackfoot,United States
I brought THREE jacks with me: a 12 ton high lift bottle jack, a 4.5 ton low profile high lift floor jack, and the normal screw jack that stows under the seat of the truck.
The bottle jack decided that it wouldn't take any load at all. Seems like a bad seal.
The floor jack work fine, until it was about 2/3 up to its full extension; when suddenly it wouldn't lift any more.
That's usually a symptom of a jack over its weight limit, but there is no way a 4.5 ton jack should be overloaded by a max 5 ton trailer (ok, lets say it's overloaded, and it's 6 tons instead of five... STILL).
The one that actually did the job, was the little screw jack that comes with my truck. In fact it worked perfectly, quickly, and easier than the floor jack... It weighs about 2 pounds, the floor jack weighs over 100...
The reasons it took 3 hours were threefold:
- I tried the floor and bottle jacks first, and NEITHER decided to work
- I didn't think the jack that came with my truck would WORK for something like this, so didn't try it until I had already workd a dozen different angles on the other two jacks
- I refuse to run without a spare, so we stopped by a tire shop off the next exit, and got one (which took about 45 minutes, including the time for the detour. The tire shop took 20 minutes to mount and balance the tire on our existing (and thankfully still good) rim.
I made a half joke after remounting the new spare on the trailer tongue "Now we're good, so long as we don't lose two at once"...
862 Miles down, 694 Miles to go, and some numbers to run alongside
So, as of 2230 pacific time (we're running the trip on Pacific, since we are starting and ending on it) last night, we've made 862 miles, in 15.5 driving hours plus 2.5 hours of meal and gas stops.
Our driving average is 55mph; and excluding overnights, we're making a real average of about 49mph.
It's not so much that we're "taking our time", it's really a combination of three things:
1. the trailer prefers to be driven between 63 and 72mph. Below that and we're a gear low to keep in powerband (and yes, you need to keep in powerband when you're towing a heavy trailer) and the fuel economy goes to hell. Above that, and the trailer sways more than is prudent, and the fuel economy goes to hell.
2. We've transited several major urban areas, across Arizona, Nevada, and Utah; in ALL of which was extensive construction. Also, we were on a 55mph piece of road the entire time we were in CA (us 95), and it actually IS a 55mph road, with lots of tight curves, whoopdedos etc... (it would be nice on a motorcycle, at a leisurely pace).
3. We spent a lot of time on long and steep uphill grades. We've basically been climbing the entire time since we left Phoenix; climbing from Phoenixes 1200 or so feet, to Ogens 4300 or so feet, summiting around 6500 somewhere in south central Utah.
Once we hit the plateau in between the big passes in central Utah, we were able to maintain an almost 70mph average; and our fuel economy went up to 12.8mpg, our best at 70mph for the trip. Our best overall for the trip was 14.8, but that was on a flat, smooth stretch of highway with no stop and go, but traffic restricted to 60mph for about 100miles.
Our worst mileage for the trip so far is 8.4mpg, on several of the long, steep grades; where we were lucky if we could maintain 3rd gear.
Our normal unladen fuel economy is 16-18mpg around town, and through the mountains, and 21-24mpg highway (depending on how much we put the boot to it). So yeah, it's a big drop, but it's actually a lot better than most trucks would be (a gas truck hauling this same load would likely be 5-7mpg), and it's about what we figured on.
We're going to be on the road again shortly... After checking the load, the lugs on the trailer and the truck, tire pressures and topping fuel and fluids (which we do at every fuel stop. You don't mess around when towing heavy loads).
We've got 694 miles to go, no more major urban area (Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Butte, Missoula, and Couer D'Alene, none of which count as major) to transit, and only a couple major grades to deal with (coming out of dubois up to Butte, then into and out of Missoula, and through lookout pass over to Coeur D'Alene) we should be able to up the average quite a lot. I think we can maintain 70mph most of the way, and average 60mph including stops for today.
We plan on making it to the house late tonight, with 12 driving hours, and 14-15 total hours (which is about what we did yesterday) under the tires.
Should be pretty.
Our driving average is 55mph; and excluding overnights, we're making a real average of about 49mph.
It's not so much that we're "taking our time", it's really a combination of three things:
1. the trailer prefers to be driven between 63 and 72mph. Below that and we're a gear low to keep in powerband (and yes, you need to keep in powerband when you're towing a heavy trailer) and the fuel economy goes to hell. Above that, and the trailer sways more than is prudent, and the fuel economy goes to hell.
2. We've transited several major urban areas, across Arizona, Nevada, and Utah; in ALL of which was extensive construction. Also, we were on a 55mph piece of road the entire time we were in CA (us 95), and it actually IS a 55mph road, with lots of tight curves, whoopdedos etc... (it would be nice on a motorcycle, at a leisurely pace).
3. We spent a lot of time on long and steep uphill grades. We've basically been climbing the entire time since we left Phoenix; climbing from Phoenixes 1200 or so feet, to Ogens 4300 or so feet, summiting around 6500 somewhere in south central Utah.
Once we hit the plateau in between the big passes in central Utah, we were able to maintain an almost 70mph average; and our fuel economy went up to 12.8mpg, our best at 70mph for the trip. Our best overall for the trip was 14.8, but that was on a flat, smooth stretch of highway with no stop and go, but traffic restricted to 60mph for about 100miles.
Our worst mileage for the trip so far is 8.4mpg, on several of the long, steep grades; where we were lucky if we could maintain 3rd gear.
Our normal unladen fuel economy is 16-18mpg around town, and through the mountains, and 21-24mpg highway (depending on how much we put the boot to it). So yeah, it's a big drop, but it's actually a lot better than most trucks would be (a gas truck hauling this same load would likely be 5-7mpg), and it's about what we figured on.
We're going to be on the road again shortly... After checking the load, the lugs on the trailer and the truck, tire pressures and topping fuel and fluids (which we do at every fuel stop. You don't mess around when towing heavy loads).
We've got 694 miles to go, no more major urban area (Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Butte, Missoula, and Couer D'Alene, none of which count as major) to transit, and only a couple major grades to deal with (coming out of dubois up to Butte, then into and out of Missoula, and through lookout pass over to Coeur D'Alene) we should be able to up the average quite a lot. I think we can maintain 70mph most of the way, and average 60mph including stops for today.
We plan on making it to the house late tonight, with 12 driving hours, and 14-15 total hours (which is about what we did yesterday) under the tires.
Should be pretty.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Callin out in transit
We're on the road to Idaho... or rather we will be BACK on the road to idaho again shortly.
We ended up leaving 36 hours late, for various reasons, and ended up only making a few hours last night because of how sore and exhausted we both were.
Now we're fresh, rested, and heading for Ogden before a major stop (should be around 8pm or so). If we feel good in Ogden we'll keep going another few hours, maybe to Pocatello, or idaho falls.
Trailer is working fine, truck is handling it no sweat (once I got the weight distributing hitch adjusted properly), and all is well.
Report from Idaho later.
We ended up leaving 36 hours late, for various reasons, and ended up only making a few hours last night because of how sore and exhausted we both were.
Now we're fresh, rested, and heading for Ogden before a major stop (should be around 8pm or so). If we feel good in Ogden we'll keep going another few hours, maybe to Pocatello, or idaho falls.
Trailer is working fine, truck is handling it no sweat (once I got the weight distributing hitch adjusted properly), and all is well.
Report from Idaho later.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Trailers Here...
...And it's a big bastard.
So am I, and you can see the scale thereof. It's a 28'x8.5' haulmark, optioned up the wazoo. Most importantly, extra internal D-Rings, upgraded wheels and tires (and most importantly, upgraded sealed permanent bearings), and upgraded electric brakes.
So am I, and you can see the scale thereof. It's a 28'x8.5' haulmark, optioned up the wazoo. Most importantly, extra internal D-Rings, upgraded wheels and tires (and most importantly, upgraded sealed permanent bearings), and upgraded electric brakes.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Hmmm... Interesting...
I wonder if this design will scale up well....
As it is, it's a bit small; though it seems a much better solution for a small multi-turbine array than most other small systems. Certainly much more efficient.
The list price for the "system" is $6k, but that includes interconnect, panel, inverter, wiring etc... which I wouldn't be using in my installation. All that would be handled at the central powerhouse, to match the solar, and backup generators into the battery bank, and grid tie.
According to Popular Mechanics, the turbine and mounting hardware only price, is $4500. That's something less than half what I was looking at for considerably larger conventional turbines of a similar capacity; and I'm guessing from the construction that they'll handle overspeed wind a lot better (no gear train to damage). Also, most conventional turbines have a startup speed of 6-9mph, and a cut off around 20-25mph of wind, this one has a 2mph startup, and cuts off at 42mph.
That's a hell of a lot more useful capacity on the average day. I just wish it was a bit higher capacity overall. In a class four wind region, more than 60% of the average day is spent at between 6 and 14mph windspeed; at which these turbines generate between 40 and 250 watts.
Even at 250 watts, that's only about 5% of our peak hour load (and a lot less than peak instantaneous, which may reach as high as 14kw when multiple AC units and refrigerators are kicking on). Of course we DO live in Arizona, in a poorly insulated house.
Long term, we're looking at living in a class 4 wind region (possibly a class 5 depending on the exact home site), and building towers above the treeline. Under those conditions, a turbine like that one would only realistically generate something like 2000-3000kwh per year; or an average of 160-240kwh per month (Honeywell says that in a class 3 zone it can do 2000kwh per year mounted on a house roof - about 75% less output than a class 4 above the treeline installation - so I figure my estimate is pretty realistic).
Although, we are looking at living in a net metering sellback region with a 100% tax credit after the federal 30% credit (capped at $20,000 total after federal). With that incentive program we could buy seven of them and the things could pay for themselves immediately; but it really would take something like seven of them, or more, to meet our power needs.
The average household in the U.S. currently consumes something like 12,000kwh per year; but about half that is the utilization of air conditioning in the sun belt states, or electric heat in the cold states. Outside the hot zone, and for households with gas or oil heat, the national average is more like 6000kwh.
Right now, living in Arizona, we use about three times the national average (or about six times the average someone in say, New Hampshire would use). We run from around 1500kwh in January to 5500kwh in August; and total around 35,000kwh per year, for which we pay almost $4000.
We once used 6500kwh in a single month (for which we were charged over $800), but that was with our pre-replacement 30 year old primary AC unit, plus a messed up air handler and heat exchanger, and running two large supplemental AC units 24x7 that entire month (not coincidentally, the month before the old unit died horribly).
We have what they call a "smart meter", which lets us see our spot utilization day by day, and hour by hour. Just for fun, we looked up how much power the house was using when we weren't even in it, for our vacation this past few weeks.
With us out of the house, the AC and all the lights and computers off, we used about 30kwh per day, just keeping the fridges and freezers cold etc...
Uhhh... that's almost the national average for people who are actually, you know, using their houses and AC and heat and computers and TVs etc... WTF?
For a little more masochistic fun with the smart meter, we averaged 50kwh per day in January, one of only two months this year when we didn't run the AC at all.
So... even on our best day, we're using about 1.5 times the national average juice, and about 3 times the average for a cold state; however, we are only using 20kwh more per day to run all our stuff than the house is using all by itself...
Ok that's screwed up right there.
Anyway, back to the cool stuff.
When we move, since we're planning on moving to a colder state, and not using electric heat; we expect to cut that excessive "3 times average" utilization down a lot, because of the dramatically reduced AC requirement. That still gives us a baseline of something like 12,000kwh per year however.
Any savings we make using hyperinsulation, and efficient lighting and appliances, we expect to more than offset with greater use of tools and power equipment (welders alone... oy).
Ideally, I'd like something that could generate more like 3 times that 2000-3000kwh per year, per turbine; and build an array of say, four of them, for total spot capacity, and for redundancy.
...But even as it is, with seven of them paid for entirely by tax credits (not including installation, and the towers of course) we could likely generate 14,000-21,000kwh per year...
That's pretty decent. Even when you account for losses in the storage battery system and inverters, that's probably most of the household power requirements at any given time (not include surge power when the welders are running, or the AC and fridges start up at the same time of course).
That would of course be in addition to solar, and micro-hydro if the property is capable of it; and back up diesel or propane generation for full capacity. Then of course there's all the storage batteries.... ooooh boy those are gonna cost.
Anyway, at that cost per turbine, if you've got enough land to set up six or seven of them (and we will) it's viable. Importantly, it's a LOT cheaper than an equivalent solar setup.
A solar system in the same region, with the same capacity, would cost about $120k. Of course you'd still get the 30% federal credit plus $20k from the state, for a $64k total cost to us, vs. a near zero cost to us (again, not including installation costs, just to keep it apples to apples).
Of course, as I said, we plan on having wind, solar, and generators (and would really love a property with micro-hydro capability) anyway. Ideally, we want to have a diversity of power sources, AND enough power even on cloudy days, or wind free days, to run whatever we need (again, short of the welders at full duty cycle etc...).
The great thing about combining wind and solar, is that when solar tends to be performing poorly, wind tends to be performing well; and vice verse.
Now if they would just get those cheap, relatively efficient, printable solar panels to market, we could do BOTH relatively cheaply.
As it is, it's a bit small; though it seems a much better solution for a small multi-turbine array than most other small systems. Certainly much more efficient.
The list price for the "system" is $6k, but that includes interconnect, panel, inverter, wiring etc... which I wouldn't be using in my installation. All that would be handled at the central powerhouse, to match the solar, and backup generators into the battery bank, and grid tie.
According to Popular Mechanics, the turbine and mounting hardware only price, is $4500. That's something less than half what I was looking at for considerably larger conventional turbines of a similar capacity; and I'm guessing from the construction that they'll handle overspeed wind a lot better (no gear train to damage). Also, most conventional turbines have a startup speed of 6-9mph, and a cut off around 20-25mph of wind, this one has a 2mph startup, and cuts off at 42mph.
That's a hell of a lot more useful capacity on the average day. I just wish it was a bit higher capacity overall. In a class four wind region, more than 60% of the average day is spent at between 6 and 14mph windspeed; at which these turbines generate between 40 and 250 watts.
Even at 250 watts, that's only about 5% of our peak hour load (and a lot less than peak instantaneous, which may reach as high as 14kw when multiple AC units and refrigerators are kicking on). Of course we DO live in Arizona, in a poorly insulated house.
Long term, we're looking at living in a class 4 wind region (possibly a class 5 depending on the exact home site), and building towers above the treeline. Under those conditions, a turbine like that one would only realistically generate something like 2000-3000kwh per year; or an average of 160-240kwh per month (Honeywell says that in a class 3 zone it can do 2000kwh per year mounted on a house roof - about 75% less output than a class 4 above the treeline installation - so I figure my estimate is pretty realistic).
Although, we are looking at living in a net metering sellback region with a 100% tax credit after the federal 30% credit (capped at $20,000 total after federal). With that incentive program we could buy seven of them and the things could pay for themselves immediately; but it really would take something like seven of them, or more, to meet our power needs.
The average household in the U.S. currently consumes something like 12,000kwh per year; but about half that is the utilization of air conditioning in the sun belt states, or electric heat in the cold states. Outside the hot zone, and for households with gas or oil heat, the national average is more like 6000kwh.
Right now, living in Arizona, we use about three times the national average (or about six times the average someone in say, New Hampshire would use). We run from around 1500kwh in January to 5500kwh in August; and total around 35,000kwh per year, for which we pay almost $4000.
We once used 6500kwh in a single month (for which we were charged over $800), but that was with our pre-replacement 30 year old primary AC unit, plus a messed up air handler and heat exchanger, and running two large supplemental AC units 24x7 that entire month (not coincidentally, the month before the old unit died horribly).
We have what they call a "smart meter", which lets us see our spot utilization day by day, and hour by hour. Just for fun, we looked up how much power the house was using when we weren't even in it, for our vacation this past few weeks.
With us out of the house, the AC and all the lights and computers off, we used about 30kwh per day, just keeping the fridges and freezers cold etc...
Uhhh... that's almost the national average for people who are actually, you know, using their houses and AC and heat and computers and TVs etc... WTF?
For a little more masochistic fun with the smart meter, we averaged 50kwh per day in January, one of only two months this year when we didn't run the AC at all.
So... even on our best day, we're using about 1.5 times the national average juice, and about 3 times the average for a cold state; however, we are only using 20kwh more per day to run all our stuff than the house is using all by itself...
Ok that's screwed up right there.
Anyway, back to the cool stuff.
When we move, since we're planning on moving to a colder state, and not using electric heat; we expect to cut that excessive "3 times average" utilization down a lot, because of the dramatically reduced AC requirement. That still gives us a baseline of something like 12,000kwh per year however.
Any savings we make using hyperinsulation, and efficient lighting and appliances, we expect to more than offset with greater use of tools and power equipment (welders alone... oy).
Ideally, I'd like something that could generate more like 3 times that 2000-3000kwh per year, per turbine; and build an array of say, four of them, for total spot capacity, and for redundancy.
...But even as it is, with seven of them paid for entirely by tax credits (not including installation, and the towers of course) we could likely generate 14,000-21,000kwh per year...
That's pretty decent. Even when you account for losses in the storage battery system and inverters, that's probably most of the household power requirements at any given time (not include surge power when the welders are running, or the AC and fridges start up at the same time of course).
That would of course be in addition to solar, and micro-hydro if the property is capable of it; and back up diesel or propane generation for full capacity. Then of course there's all the storage batteries.... ooooh boy those are gonna cost.
Anyway, at that cost per turbine, if you've got enough land to set up six or seven of them (and we will) it's viable. Importantly, it's a LOT cheaper than an equivalent solar setup.
A solar system in the same region, with the same capacity, would cost about $120k. Of course you'd still get the 30% federal credit plus $20k from the state, for a $64k total cost to us, vs. a near zero cost to us (again, not including installation costs, just to keep it apples to apples).
Of course, as I said, we plan on having wind, solar, and generators (and would really love a property with micro-hydro capability) anyway. Ideally, we want to have a diversity of power sources, AND enough power even on cloudy days, or wind free days, to run whatever we need (again, short of the welders at full duty cycle etc...).
The great thing about combining wind and solar, is that when solar tends to be performing poorly, wind tends to be performing well; and vice verse.
Now if they would just get those cheap, relatively efficient, printable solar panels to market, we could do BOTH relatively cheaply.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Getting to where we want to be - Part 2: Broke down
Something is stopping Mel and I from being where I want to be in my life.
Our bodies.
The last few weeks I had an inflamed meniscus (in the knee that still has something left to inflame, the right); and being the idiot that I am I still insisted on walking around some.
The inflamed meniscus made me walk funny, which caused me to pull a muscle in my calf.
The pulling the muscle in my calf caused me to walk even funnier which strained the other knee and calf; and did a number on my back. Which of course makes me walk funnier, and causes cramps in both the pulled and non pulled muscles (I was very careful about and constantly watching for clots. I know ALL about DVT).
Remember, at this point I'm still refusing to stay laid up in bed; because I am an idiot.
Finally, Tuesday night the inflammation has died down, but the walking on pulled, and cramped muscles has made my knees and calves swell up all to hell.
So yesterday, instead of staying in bed like I should have; I decided instead, I was going to sit in a chair for about 10 hours.
My swollen irritated, pulled muscle, cramped up legs responded by inflating like balloons (peripheral edema).
All because stubborn idiot that I am "won't let these damn knees stop me from doing what I want to do goddammit".
Yes, that is a direct quote from last weekend.
I'm fine. I know what all this is, I've been through it before... and knowing me I'll probably be through it again.
... but I think I'm going to finally break down and go get a handicapped registration on the car.
According to the docs I'm only "20% disabled". It feels kinda lame (no pun intended) to get a handicapped placard for that; but some days, I NEED that couple hundred feet of difference.
Just as a temporary measure, I've ordered some patellar straps. I've thought about ordering them before, but no-place ever had the right size for me when I checked. I found a manufacturer that makes one large enough (Cho-Pat) and ordered two of them a few days ago.
Now that I'm on good insurance again, I'm going to look into getting some new custom fit knee braces. I need the knee support; and they now have very comfortable designs that specifically support the patella (which is my particular knee issue - patellar instability, and associated joint, ligament, and tendon degenration, due to past injury).
They're also considerably cheaper than they used to be (my last one cost almost $2k. The knew ones are under $1k each) so even if insurance wont cover them, or will only partially cover them, I'm still going to get them.
I REALLY want to avoid further knee surgery, and especially knee replacement; mostly because the knees that are currently used in mainstream surgery (the only kind insurance will generally pay for) have about a 20-25 year lifespan. That means I would need at least two sets, one sometime in my late 50s when the body heals much slower... likely resulting in very limited mobility for my remaining years.
The doctors and engineers tell me that within a few years I should be able to get a knee replacement that will last me the rest of my life; I just need to hold out 'til my mid 40s if possible.
Of course none of this matters if I can't lose the weight I need to lose. When I can work out, I do great at losing the weight, but when I can't (and the repeated knee injuries often keep me from working out for weeks or months at a time), no matter what diet I try, I only have limited success.
Up until now, I haven't even considered bariatric surgery. Now however, I have to face that I need to do something fast if I want to keep my knees intact long enough to only need one set of knee replacements.
The knee braces and patellar straps will help, but the fact is, I need to lose more than 100 lbs; and get to around 265; if I want to preserve my knees.
My best diet projections have that taking two years, and that presumes I can maintain my excercise schedule. I've been able to take that first 40 pounds off a couple of times, but then I re-injure myself and it comes back on again.
I HAVE extablished much better and healthier eating habits then I had when I started on this whole diet thing a while back; but it isn't enough.
So, although I am still very resistant to the concept, and I may still choose not to do so; I am investigating lap band surgery, with associated liposuction and abdominoplasty.
It's going to take two years or so with a lap band to come down to where I need to be for my knees (presuming no additional excercise). Since I need to reduce the weight on my knees as fast as possible; and I'm going to need the abdominoplasty afterwards anyway given the amount of weight loss I need to achieve; I'm also looking at thereaputic liposuction and abdominoplasty.
The thing about the lap band surgery that I like is that it is adjustable to my needs and conditions; and eventually can be removed and reversed with far less complication than other surgeries.
The problem with it, is that in general docs don't like doing it for people with UC; however, because of comorbidities like diabetes risk, and my knees, I believe that it's justified.
Thankfully, Mel has far less, and far less severe issues to deal with. She's only a little overweight in comparison (about 50 lbs, on a 5'9" woman), she has severe panic attacks and anxiety issues, and she has pretty poor vision.
We're already working on the first two issues. Mel has been losing weight, slowly and with setbacks; but losing still.
We've been working together on her anxiety and panic attacks from the first time I noted she was having one. She didn't know what it was, and had never really heard of them; and had been mis-diagnosed several times as a teen as having some psychological issue or another. None of the treatments worked because none of them were actually useful for the problem she had.
Just talking it out, teaching her methods to control her anxiety, and her emotional state and its effect etc... worked very well. It brought down the frequency and severity of her anxiety and panic attacks greatly; but didn't completely eliminate them.
We were very resistant to the idea of pharmaceutical treatment for a long time. As I have said before, I believe most of the people taking psychoactive medication not only don't need it, but it isn't effective for them, and has lots of potentially negative side effects.
That said, there are still a lot of folks out there who can benefit from the right medication. It's important however that you have clear goals and targets in mind. You have to have a very good understanding of the problems you are trying to treat, and target the correct medications and dosages for the individual appropriately; making adjustments as necessary.
That means you need a real psychopharmacologist, who really knows their business. Most psychoactives today are prescribed to women by their gynocologists (yes, seriously)... and that's just not a great idea.
So, finally, together we decided that that last hard knot of issues couldn't be addressed without some clinical help; and that hopefully with medication she could finally work out the emotional issues that cause the anxiety (which could then obviate the need for the medication).
A couple months back, we found a therapist and a psychopharmacologist (who don't work together directly, but who do work together in her treatment, which is important) who she likes, and now she's on medication that is controlling her anxiety very well. They're still working to find the optimum balance, and that's a slow process (it takes about six weeks to stabilize on a new dosage or a new medication), but it's working. Mel is getting better every day.
Oh and the psychopharmacologist is a sharp one. Mels meds are on the $4 list at WalMart and the discount list at costco, k-mart etc... So even without insurance coverage, we'd be OK.
The hope is, as I said above; that the medication will control her anxiety enough, that she can address the underlying emotional issues that cause the anxiety in the first place.
Before the meds, any time she got down to a certain depth of emotion, she would just break down because of the anxiety. Freeze up, and start doing self destructive things etc... Now, she's able to start working through those deeper things, in the same way we have been working through the shallower things for the past few years.
The final health issue is one we share; we both wear glasses. I'm only moderately shortsighted, but Mel is both severely shortsighted, and astigmatic.
So, we've got a health care savings plan with our insurance; and we're putting enough into it every year that we should both be able to get eye surgery by the end of this year.
So, hopefully, in two years or so... maybe three; we'll be where we want to be with our bodies.
Our bodies.
The last few weeks I had an inflamed meniscus (in the knee that still has something left to inflame, the right); and being the idiot that I am I still insisted on walking around some.
The inflamed meniscus made me walk funny, which caused me to pull a muscle in my calf.
The pulling the muscle in my calf caused me to walk even funnier which strained the other knee and calf; and did a number on my back. Which of course makes me walk funnier, and causes cramps in both the pulled and non pulled muscles (I was very careful about and constantly watching for clots. I know ALL about DVT).
Remember, at this point I'm still refusing to stay laid up in bed; because I am an idiot.
Finally, Tuesday night the inflammation has died down, but the walking on pulled, and cramped muscles has made my knees and calves swell up all to hell.
So yesterday, instead of staying in bed like I should have; I decided instead, I was going to sit in a chair for about 10 hours.
My swollen irritated, pulled muscle, cramped up legs responded by inflating like balloons (peripheral edema).
All because stubborn idiot that I am "won't let these damn knees stop me from doing what I want to do goddammit".
Yes, that is a direct quote from last weekend.
I'm fine. I know what all this is, I've been through it before... and knowing me I'll probably be through it again.
... but I think I'm going to finally break down and go get a handicapped registration on the car.
According to the docs I'm only "20% disabled". It feels kinda lame (no pun intended) to get a handicapped placard for that; but some days, I NEED that couple hundred feet of difference.
Just as a temporary measure, I've ordered some patellar straps. I've thought about ordering them before, but no-place ever had the right size for me when I checked. I found a manufacturer that makes one large enough (Cho-Pat) and ordered two of them a few days ago.
Now that I'm on good insurance again, I'm going to look into getting some new custom fit knee braces. I need the knee support; and they now have very comfortable designs that specifically support the patella (which is my particular knee issue - patellar instability, and associated joint, ligament, and tendon degenration, due to past injury).
They're also considerably cheaper than they used to be (my last one cost almost $2k. The knew ones are under $1k each) so even if insurance wont cover them, or will only partially cover them, I'm still going to get them.
I REALLY want to avoid further knee surgery, and especially knee replacement; mostly because the knees that are currently used in mainstream surgery (the only kind insurance will generally pay for) have about a 20-25 year lifespan. That means I would need at least two sets, one sometime in my late 50s when the body heals much slower... likely resulting in very limited mobility for my remaining years.
The doctors and engineers tell me that within a few years I should be able to get a knee replacement that will last me the rest of my life; I just need to hold out 'til my mid 40s if possible.
Of course none of this matters if I can't lose the weight I need to lose. When I can work out, I do great at losing the weight, but when I can't (and the repeated knee injuries often keep me from working out for weeks or months at a time), no matter what diet I try, I only have limited success.
Up until now, I haven't even considered bariatric surgery. Now however, I have to face that I need to do something fast if I want to keep my knees intact long enough to only need one set of knee replacements.
The knee braces and patellar straps will help, but the fact is, I need to lose more than 100 lbs; and get to around 265; if I want to preserve my knees.
My best diet projections have that taking two years, and that presumes I can maintain my excercise schedule. I've been able to take that first 40 pounds off a couple of times, but then I re-injure myself and it comes back on again.
I HAVE extablished much better and healthier eating habits then I had when I started on this whole diet thing a while back; but it isn't enough.
So, although I am still very resistant to the concept, and I may still choose not to do so; I am investigating lap band surgery, with associated liposuction and abdominoplasty.
It's going to take two years or so with a lap band to come down to where I need to be for my knees (presuming no additional excercise). Since I need to reduce the weight on my knees as fast as possible; and I'm going to need the abdominoplasty afterwards anyway given the amount of weight loss I need to achieve; I'm also looking at thereaputic liposuction and abdominoplasty.
The thing about the lap band surgery that I like is that it is adjustable to my needs and conditions; and eventually can be removed and reversed with far less complication than other surgeries.
The problem with it, is that in general docs don't like doing it for people with UC; however, because of comorbidities like diabetes risk, and my knees, I believe that it's justified.
Thankfully, Mel has far less, and far less severe issues to deal with. She's only a little overweight in comparison (about 50 lbs, on a 5'9" woman), she has severe panic attacks and anxiety issues, and she has pretty poor vision.
We're already working on the first two issues. Mel has been losing weight, slowly and with setbacks; but losing still.
We've been working together on her anxiety and panic attacks from the first time I noted she was having one. She didn't know what it was, and had never really heard of them; and had been mis-diagnosed several times as a teen as having some psychological issue or another. None of the treatments worked because none of them were actually useful for the problem she had.
Just talking it out, teaching her methods to control her anxiety, and her emotional state and its effect etc... worked very well. It brought down the frequency and severity of her anxiety and panic attacks greatly; but didn't completely eliminate them.
We were very resistant to the idea of pharmaceutical treatment for a long time. As I have said before, I believe most of the people taking psychoactive medication not only don't need it, but it isn't effective for them, and has lots of potentially negative side effects.
That said, there are still a lot of folks out there who can benefit from the right medication. It's important however that you have clear goals and targets in mind. You have to have a very good understanding of the problems you are trying to treat, and target the correct medications and dosages for the individual appropriately; making adjustments as necessary.
That means you need a real psychopharmacologist, who really knows their business. Most psychoactives today are prescribed to women by their gynocologists (yes, seriously)... and that's just not a great idea.
So, finally, together we decided that that last hard knot of issues couldn't be addressed without some clinical help; and that hopefully with medication she could finally work out the emotional issues that cause the anxiety (which could then obviate the need for the medication).
A couple months back, we found a therapist and a psychopharmacologist (who don't work together directly, but who do work together in her treatment, which is important) who she likes, and now she's on medication that is controlling her anxiety very well. They're still working to find the optimum balance, and that's a slow process (it takes about six weeks to stabilize on a new dosage or a new medication), but it's working. Mel is getting better every day.
Oh and the psychopharmacologist is a sharp one. Mels meds are on the $4 list at WalMart and the discount list at costco, k-mart etc... So even without insurance coverage, we'd be OK.
The hope is, as I said above; that the medication will control her anxiety enough, that she can address the underlying emotional issues that cause the anxiety in the first place.
Before the meds, any time she got down to a certain depth of emotion, she would just break down because of the anxiety. Freeze up, and start doing self destructive things etc... Now, she's able to start working through those deeper things, in the same way we have been working through the shallower things for the past few years.
The final health issue is one we share; we both wear glasses. I'm only moderately shortsighted, but Mel is both severely shortsighted, and astigmatic.
So, we've got a health care savings plan with our insurance; and we're putting enough into it every year that we should both be able to get eye surgery by the end of this year.
So, hopefully, in two years or so... maybe three; we'll be where we want to be with our bodies.
Getting to where we want to be - Part 1: Goals
As I said in the introduction to this series, my wife and I are not where we want to be in life right now; and we've decided to make a co-ordinated effort to get to where we want to be as quickly and effectively as possible.
Of course, in order to get where you want to be in life; you need to figure out exactly where it is that you want to be, where you are, and then how best to get from one to the other.
So first, where exactly are we right now?
Of course, in order to get where you want to be in life; you need to figure out exactly where it is that you want to be, where you are, and then how best to get from one to the other.
So first, where exactly are we right now?
- Health and Body: Fact is, we're not doing so hot there. We're both overweight, I've got a lot of injuries, bad knees etc... Mel has some emotional health issues, and we've both got iffy eyes.
On the upside, all of those things can be dealt with. - Work and Money: We're a bit better off there. I've got a great job with a lot of flexibility in location, and very solid earning potential. Mel is also currently working for the fedgov, though that's only going to be for 18 months or so.
On the downside, we haven't been able to save... basically anything... over the past few years. Legal bills have eaten whatever savings we had. - Family: The girls are doing very well in school, they've got friends, we've got supportive family... things are generally great.
On the downside, we are still not clear of the custody issue. That means more legal bills, and that we can't move anywhere until it's resolved. - House and home: Where we live, is not where we want to live. We like our house and our neighborhood, but we don't want to live anywhere near a major urban area; and we want land.
- Education: Mel would like to finish her degree, and I periodically toss around the idea of a masters.
Also, we would both like to get more and better education in more practical matters. I'd like to get re-certified as an EMT, or maybe even a paramedic, and Mel is considering the same. We'd both like to take classes in various skills that would be useful around the home we'd like to have.
- Health and Body: Mel and I both want to lose weight. I need to do something about my knees. We both want eye surgery.
- Work and Money: The job situation is very good, we just need to be able to pay off whatever debt we have left (mostly the legal bills) and then save as much as we can as fast as we can.
- House and Home: This is the biggie. We are planning on changing states, and changing lifestyles. We want some land, outside of any major urban area, but with relatively easy access to one (for medical care, and for work).
- Education: That one is still fizzy. We both know there are thigns we want to do, but I think they're more likely to settle and come togheter after we make the other big changes we want.
Getting to where we want to be - Introduction
I'm not where I want to be in my life. Neither is my wife. Obviously then, we, as a family, are not where we want to be.
Oh sure, I've got a great job, and we've got great kids; and we're generally happy... but that doesn't mean we are where we want to be.
So a few months back, Mel and I started talking about this... kind of collecting the idea that have been floating around in our heads for a while; and decided to start really planning to deliberately move us from where we are now, to where we want to be; as quickly and effectively as possible.
I'm going to write a series of posts about this over the next week or two. Actually, I've got the first couple written already. I was going to post the first one yesterday, but decided not to post anything, because this is a serious topic, and yesterday was April Fools day.
Oh sure, I've got a great job, and we've got great kids; and we're generally happy... but that doesn't mean we are where we want to be.
So a few months back, Mel and I started talking about this... kind of collecting the idea that have been floating around in our heads for a while; and decided to start really planning to deliberately move us from where we are now, to where we want to be; as quickly and effectively as possible.
I'm going to write a series of posts about this over the next week or two. Actually, I've got the first couple written already. I was going to post the first one yesterday, but decided not to post anything, because this is a serious topic, and yesterday was April Fools day.
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