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  • From: tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] The Piggy Bank is empty, Wall Street reacts
  • Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 19:38:03 -0400

Gene GeRue wrote:


tvoivozhd---you don't come to eminent domain, it comes to you---in rural as well as city areas---clearly visible in property-taking electrical power lines walking across my neighbors' property, and in the current fight against gas transmission pipes intended to benefit Atlantic coastal areas, not Appalachian residents.


This is akin to stating the obvious: there are no certainties except death and taxes. Wise people weigh risks, make informed choices, move ahead. Fear steals movement.

Let me explain the change (the rapidly-accellerating change) from the African Veldt to today. In small-tribe societies, "investment" in land was more time-stable. Each tribe of about twenty individuals had to defend territory borders against land-hungry invaders or die. A simple task without complications'.


Whew! I will take today's conditions, thank you.


tvoivozhd---think the recent Bosnia, Somalia and Sudan events---same as African Veldt but on a larger scale (we now have Supertribes with numbers vastly beyond twenty members competing for land)



Investments, including land-investment are no longer time-stable.
Hidden undercurrents of risk lurk under the surface in an overpopulated world. You do the best you can to improve the odds and that's all you can do---plus maintain no illusions---hope your losses occur while you are young and mentally resilient enough to regain your footing.


So from your 83-year-old perspective, what would you do if you were starting over?


tvoivozhd---in the present state of my "wisdom", based both on triumphs and defeats, I would do exactly as I am advising my children (excluding owning a 56-foot twin-keel junk-rigged, twin-diesel , corrosion-resistant steel sailboat, and having dual real-estate bases in Belize and the U.S.---Belize is inherently safer than the U.S, with fewer of the amenities---with the second-longest reef in the world not far offshoreit has unsurpassable fishing with few of the nasties infesting the Australian reef.), my children are looking at land where climate-change is less long-term threatening, looking at essential water resources (big springs, creeks and pond-sites). Nice if that included substantial hydropower, but that may restrict land-selection too much, though hydropower is most convenient to use, if enough head and volume is available. You've GOT to have a lot of easily-provided, sustainable homesite energy in some medium available. Lacking hydropower I think that means a good-sized woodlot. No one should have a problem growing trees as a set-and-forget solar collector. Wood-gas is low-tech easy to generate and use, easier than biodiesel in U.S. locales. The most prolific of all biodiesel raw materials is oil-palm seeds which would grow prolifically in Belize. You could grow Jatropha in Corpus Christie latitude and climate, but their damned oil seeds do not mature simultaneously,making their collection and pressing slow and labor-intensive---so back to the ubiquitous woodlot, millions of junkyard engines and vehicles running on woodgas---some of the engines generating large amounts of electricity per the Clarence Goosen articles in the 1980's apex of Mother Earth News. It is a poor idea to rely exclusively on musclepower in your declining years, or in any other years, for that matter. Use windpower where appropriate and economical. I like the revised and cheaply, easily erected and easily taken down Robert Green parachute-wing designs and kits for usable power starting at 3 mph. ---stack parachute wing-elements for more torque.

You have to think out a good compromise between safety and risk in home real-estate location. I refer to mob-scene here if an abrupt energy collapse takes place. In a slower energy collapse characterized by soaring oil prices, mass-invasion by city-dwellers is less likely, and the chief physical and theft risk would come from small groups allied in armed robbery, Best defense against that is long. narrow, steep roads and organized, well-armed and murderous neighbors who hate uninvited intruders. Add to that some electronic surveillance equipment, nasty-tempered dogs and the risk is manageable. Distance from cities is important---thirty to fifty miles should be good insulation from city-risk and the farther out you go, land becomes cheaper. Use electronic commuting to work while you can where face-to-face-work is not essential. For me it would be a rural manufacturing enterprise---hard goods that do not require care and feeding of course.

I am also inclined to ride the Technical Horse as long as possible---get off when it isn't.. Primarily because the well-educated have a huge income and purchasing advantage in this uncertain, unpredictable economy---enabling those so-advantaged to do whar they want to do in a much shorter time-frame (fiat currency permitting)

Structures in a wooded surrounding, perhaps some pastures and hayfields will be designed and built to meet obvious hazards---fireproof materials inside and out being of first importance, plus a firelane barrier which is routinely maintained. Forget any firefighting ability but your own, and forget building insurance and fighting insurance companies to honor their contracts too. Bank the insurance premiums as a rebuilding reserve if fiat money retains any purchasing value.. Shouldn't have to mention the necessity of solar heat and naturasummertime cooling, incorporating deciduous tree-shading and three or four-foot well-anchored roof-overhangs, plus good insect, rodent-proof insulation.. Also pick a geologically-stable building site. If you're going active solar as Gene likes, use floor-radiant heating in a floor where the (liquid) tubes are easily repaired or replaced without a jackhammer.
And certainly maximize the esthetics by incorporating Chrstopher Alexander "A Pattern For Living" principles---doesn't add cost, buts adds to liveability, reduces divorces. Under no circumstances build a house higher than one story and make it wheelchair-accessible---you may need that capability tomorrow, and certainly will need it in advanced age unless you are so lucky as to end it all with a quick heart failure at age 100 before you lose personal mobility..
I know my family's genetic history, its genetic advantages and its genetic disadvantages that bounces back and forth between male and female genders as far back as I care to go. The bad genetic factors need to be carefully watched and so far as is now possible,, guarded against. Down the road a few years, I expect bad genetic factors will be hereditarily designed out of individual human genomes---we are not there yet. Minimize known environmental toxicities. Difficult, most of them you cannot see, feel or taste. Dietary factors should be primarily garden-based and ---there are others, but a Greek diet is good, olive oil, olives, Feta cheese green salad, nuts, fruit, some pasta and unconcontaminated fish, octopus and the like. Quite a bit of red winel

If you fall victim to unseen environmental threats as I have done with bone-marrow cancer you cope as best you can with treading-water medications, bail out if treading water becomes too onerous. So far I am too interested in seeing how my kids are doing, particularly my daughters, now the youngest has departed Virginia Beach, and the oldest mulling over the next step in her career path. Without the help of the oldest I would already have pulled the get-off-the-world switch. She pushes me around the VA rabbit-warren I can no longer navigate, and is a master of the VA paperwork blizzard I can no longer comprehend or create anew every couple weeks. C'est la vie.

Barring the brain-robber Alzheimers that affects everyone to some degree as they age, KNOWLEDGE is the ONLY permanent asset you retain. It is a good idea to supplement your knowledge with a large library, books are more permanent and easier to read than computer files. Computers are currently a fine means of accessing the knowledge of the world---print it out for the same reason you have books in your library---clearly visible, permanent, easiest of all to read. I have always been a toolaholic but tools have a tendency to walk away from time to time. Nevertheless, if someone is around to guard them at all times, learn how to use tools and acquire the most useful of them. A farm workshop is the heart of any farm---making it it possible to repair and if necessary make farm equipment as well as repairing and making workshop tools themselves. Computers are currently a fine means of accessing the knowledge of the world---print it out for the same reason you have books in your library---clearly visible, permanent, easiest of all to read

Tools themselves are a variable---I would hate to see the demise of chainsaws and factories manufacturing them. but if I were younger and a lot healthier I could get along with a double-bitted axe and two-man crosscut saw---fabricate a circular firewood cut-off saw powered by any small junkyard four-banger engine fueled by woodgas. Similarly in a BIG CRUNCH it would be difficult to impossible to to make in the home workshop a lot of things like wire-feed welders, plasma metal cutters, solid-state CNC machining-center controls. Back to the future of simpler, yet still effective workshop tools of three generations earlier.

My kids are pretty busy---it would be desirable that they take vocational classes, the same classes I took in my German-School days. Not likely to happen, so the next best thing is that they have tool-using books in their library and self-educate (careful---all tools have as much capacity to hurt you as to help you) Lots of workshop book sources---one of my long-time favorites is Lindsay Publications with lots of Golden Oldies useful to past generations and Golden Newbies from the more recent Gingery Series, which a few years back, were exclusively sold by Lindsay Publications---now Gingery has his own website.

And now down to fail-safe, cheap, compact communications. My kids have Ham Radio licenses and equipment. If all else fails a tiny low-wattage Ham radio will reach out and touch someone, starting with your family which may be scattered around the globe'












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