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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

All I can say is WOW.
I believe you James, that is not why I am wowing.
Short and simple-I'm envious.
You obviously have no mortgage for your land and home.  That is the way
to do it.
I know it is possible, especially without a mortgage, but challenging,
especially with kids, but since you homeschool, that saves a lot.
I was talking about this with my neighbor this afternoon.  This is the
neighbor whose parents were the original owners of this property before
it was divided into 15-20 acre parcels.  George built the house I am
living in, and his own house and barn and outbuildings.  He received the
land as a gift and spent 5 years building the houses, so he came out
mortgage free.  They are artists and have sold their artwork to provide
income over the years, and of course, George could talk the devil out of
his trident and horns. ;)  I asked him for eggs to incubate and they are
going to save me some eggs in exchange for me taking care of their
chickens and horses recently.  I had totally forgotten about that, not
thinking that they owed me anything, but it was nice to know that they
felt obliged to give me some eggs and maybe help me locate some ducks.
I was really puzzled as to what I could offer in trade and as it turns
out, I had already done it!  Cool.
Anyway, a few years ago, George started working for the highway
department because they had some health issues, like they needed dental
work, and wanted some insurance coverage.  After he had been working a
year, suddenly their health took a serious turn for the worse.  These
people have never been slackers.  Of all the people I know, James, they
probably live as close to how you live as anyone I know.  It was George
who taught me to render lard, gut a deer, etc. etc. He learned to smith
and forge from Jud Nelson of the Foxfire fame.  First his wife had two
heart attacks, then George had one.  Then while getting his workup for
open heart surgery, they discovered he had prostate cancer as well as an
embolism in his leg! It was surgery after surgery there for a while.
Everything hit them at once, and of course, their insurance hit the
lifetime maximum pretty quickly.  Now, they couldn't work if they wanted
to.   they are forced to go back to living the way they always have,
from the gifts of the forest and from bartering and selling their
artwork.  I actually think they are healthier now, and they certainly
seem happier.  It is almost as if they can't allow themselves to be sick
now.  It is a strange thing.  Anyway, so I went over there this
afternoon to see the deer George killed this morning and to see their
'new' woodstove. Until 3 years ago, they had always heated with wood,
but when George went to work they converted to propane and started
heating their home with propane.  Now, they can't afford it and have
gone back to heating with wood.  They both seemed like children at
Christmas talking about how good it was to have wood heat again.

Long story short, I guess until you wrote this below, I had this 5000/yr
thing all sensationalized in my head from reading Merkel's journey.
When I read what you wrote, I suddenly realized that it's really not
that difficult.  You are doing it. George and Nancy are doing it.  It
will be interesting to see what happens if they get sick again. I don't
know how they are paying for meds, probably the same way I would, and
that is by getting it straight from the pharmaceutical company through
some program.  I don't know.  Our mortgage will be paid in less than 10
years.  I want to do some calculations and see how little I can survive
on when that is paid.  Like James and George and probably a lot of you
guys, I have old vehicles that we just keep fixing.  Our youngest
vehicle is my truck, a 95 GMC Sierra.  What I personally will have to
make peace with is the lack of insurance coverage for healthcare and
medications.  That is our Achilles heel.  Oh, and Jerry, if you are
reading this, know that someone else I talked to recently also had luck
with the same diet/treatment for RA like your wife.  She also feels
'cured'.  Just thought I would tell you that...it gives me food for
thought as I believe that there are no coincidences in life.

Bev

Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:
> Ok, my fellow Homestead Listers,
>
> What's the mystery?  I don't like talking about the particulars of my
>  existence because there are too many people who just don't believe
> you and it isn't worth it.
>
> Some years ago I ceased grubbing for the bucks in my field of
> endeavor (LIMS, specifically pharmaceutical LIMS [Laboratory
> Integrated Management Systems]). Life was passing by and this is NOT
> the sort of role model I want for my children.
>
> So we began to do the subsistence, direct economy thing in good
> earnest. Mine is a family of six, we live in a 1200 sq ft house,
> maintian two (bottom feeder) vehicles, and as you can see manage to
> keep a dialup web connection.  We do not have health insurance
> preferring rather to invest our effort in health. Children get annual
> medical and dental checkups.
>
> Last tax year, 2007, our total income was $6000.  This year it is
> less.  We have no other or unreported cash income, no SS, disability,
> stipend, pension, annuity, nothing.  We are not tapping into savings.
> In fact we didn't actuall spend all the $6000 we had coming in.
>
> Our taxes are paid, our farm and house and vehicles are insured.  We
> eat better than most people in the world, and we have no unfulfilled
> wants.
>
> If this guy is going all year by himself spending $5000, he's a
> spendthrift!
>
> There is nearly nothing that one does with cash now that can't be
> done without it, or very nearly without it.  And it gets to be a
> habit finding the 'no cash' way.
>
>
>
> James   ---    the uber-pauper. 
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--
“Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to
hate. Hate leads to suffering.”        Yoda
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