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["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

Susan Jane; you've certainly had more than your share of life's problems. 
I'm so impressed that you have kept going.

We were a long way toward being independent and debt-free...no debt except 
the mortgage, and that was paid way down. Then my husband flipped out and 
left, demanding his half of everything. We had bought the place cheap, but 
real estate being what it was, the value of the land more than doubled, and 
THAT'S what I had to pay him half of. I took on debt that I'll be paying 
until I'm 80.

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "sjc" <indexer AT fairpoint.net>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 10:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Go ld -- feel free to ignore


> Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:
> > There is a method to this and it works every
> > time just as surely as eating your homestead fare makes a person 
> > healthier than
> > a steady diet of McDonalds every time.
> Sorry about that last post, guys, trigger finger....
>
> James, I get your point, finally (call me slow, you won't be the first
> :-) ).  I think the reason it wasn't sinking in is that that's pretty
> much the way I've lived my life.  By the early seventies, we had things
> going 'our way'--good, but not excessive amount of land, paid for and
> buildings made, healthy kids on the way up, crops and storage processes
> in place, etc, and were living off it, able to save a bit over and above
> budgeted amounts.  Life was rosy...one kid was autistic, which was
> almost unheard of at the time, but he was healthy and as a kid kept out
> of the medical and educational system's influence, he was coming along,
> making progress, and a relatively happy kid, and beginning to show his
> own promise.  It was all on a very pleasant forward track at that point.
>
> But what happens when something sneaks up and gets you from behind?  Our
> oldest son got an unprovoked dog bite which removed most of one side of
> his head, part of the neck, and part of the shoulder.  That's a lot of
> repair, and it didn't happen fast, or cheap.  Nor without respirators,
> halos, and.....and....    Life, and self-reliance, got harder, fast,
> when more time had to be taken to care for him (and therefore that time
> was not available for milking, etc, sometimes; it's really hard to milk
> from a hospital 30 miles away).  In the end, he had, in addition to the
> initial repair, 9 revisions.  The total direct bills came to well over a
> hundred thousand dollars, over a period of about 11 years.  All but one
> of the surgeries was necessary for being able to breathe, eat, or
> otherwise function correctly.  The 7th of the 9 revisions was
> essentially cosmetic (bone, fat, and skin work and some tooth/jar
> revision) so I suppose could have been skipped but that was the main one
> that actually allowed him to look like a human again, hard decision to
> make.  Since he's autistic and therefore already had a row to hoe, I
> decided I was in so deep at that time to go ahead with that one.  The
> last 2 were brain case adjustments and were "only" about $10,000 each
> but needed to be done.  No clue what all that would cost now....
>
> Never have I been sorry we had any of those revisions done, but to say
> the least it 'blew' our pretty picture, and our ability to be
> self-reliant, for many, many years.  It was too much for hubby, and he
> split for less stressful scenarios.
>
> So I started again.  Still had bills from the last time, of course, but
> I reasoned that I still had my knowledge, energy, and desire, and  I
> managed to get a piece of ground, get everything on an even keel, by
> working out and financing the house/ground as I went.  Eventually got so
> it was paid off and the house, although not finished, could be lived in
> (with motivation :-) ), and I got my livestock, crops in place, a bit
> saved ahead, and again managed pretty well for a while.  I still had a
> tiny bit (under $5000 by then) of the medical bills to pay, but was able
> to make that money from the homestead comfortably, at least at the rate
> it had to be paid.  I paid that off in August of 2001, and was very
> happy.  Now, I thought, the homestead only had to maintain itself, all
> of which was in place, and support a vehicle & associated costs
> (although I used a mule for much of what folks use vehicles for, my
> occasional trips out of here were too much for Herman) and I thought I
> would be well able to manage that.  Kids by now all gone and on their
> own.  Then on Nov 10 a tree fell on a small trailer I'd acquired,
> thinking I would someday retire into that (truly cool old '54 Spartan,
> 25', in perfect shape.   I'd thought I'd move into that and if none of
> the boys were in the house, rent it).  Well, have to rework retirement
> space, OK, still and in fairly good shape and have time to plan,....then
> 3 days later the house burned to the ground, for reason/s still
> unknown.  Nineteen days after that I was laid low (unconscious and
> unidentified in intensive care for 4 days with a temp of 106, with
> several more days in intensive care before I came to enough to spring
> myself) by some still-unexplained septic episode, that came to a cool
> $27,000.
>
> There's yet more, but no sense dragging it all through the mud.
> Probably the only other thing that makes, or might make, a difference is
> that I was born with both a blood clotting disorder, and a spinal
> condition that should have been treated when I was young, and wasn't, so
> I find myself ever-more limited by those, whereas I used to be able to
> stave it off with minimal meds, diet, exercise, learning how to move,
> etc.....all that's an unknown, as I decline to accept allopathic medical
> predications, too often 'off' (according to them I'd be dead long before
> now).
>
> So now I am back to being able to live, totally, off my homestead, such
> as it is, except for medical bills.  At some point, automobile costs may
> have to get added to that; depends on how long I can work now, beginning
> to age....   I know now it will never be what I imagined it might be;
> truthfully, I have given up a lot of the ideas I'd had for the place,
> all of which would have been well-attainable if I'd not been broadsided
> by the whatevers, but it functions pretty well for what's here, and now
> that I'm older, don't need it to be as active as once I'd have like it.
>
> My 'solution' has been to still live off my homestead, as well as on it,
> because this is where I choose to be.  I'm happy here.  At this point,
> between making some concessions (the sunspace will probably never be
> built, etc, ) and what it does make ( fleeces I've stored to spin,
> excess produce to sell, firewood sales).  It supplies my food, shelter,
> heat, clothing, etc needs quite handily, that's no problem, and I have
> enough left for an internet connection and to get to the library now and
> again, so I'm happy.  Depending on how events play out I may leave,
> although right now I'm thinking I'll be here quite a while, as other
> possibilities seem to be fading (or at least going on a long hold),
> thanks to the general economic picture.
>
> The thing I'm wondering from you is this:  how does one better guard
> themselves against these unforeseen events?  We had far more savings
> when it all started than most people do at that age, and no bills, which
> was almost unheard of.  I don't see how to save enough for these sorts
> of things; there has to be some other sort of plan for the 'broadside
> events', in addition to prevention, planning, and saving.  I've still
> never had a credit card, but did have one loan, for this piece of ground
> I'm on now; I got it paid off in 4 years.  It's not like I can go back
> and redo any of it, but my kids and I often discuss what might have been
> done differently, that is, to improve our own situation.
>
> And what will you do if your knees  quit, and could be replaced, for
> around $45,000 each, providing another 20 years' mobility?  Or, God
> forbid, some other medical issue comes up?  Totally optional, that one
> is.  Worth thinking about, though.
>
> That's the weak spot, or has been for me.  I've now spent most of my
> adult life paying medical bills to the point it made huge differences in
> the way things played out.  I'd like to be able to live my last years
> here, in relative comfort and peace, without thinking 24/7 about medical
> bills and how I'm going to be free of them......
>
> SJ
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