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[Bunjov AT aol.com]

Hah! Coincidentally, Bev, if memory serves, "superwoman" is the term  Gene 
used when he was welcoming you back to the list after your last long  absence?
Carry on, I say!
Sandy
Mid-Mojve
 
 
In a message dated 12/10/2008 11:04:49 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
erthnsky AT bellsouth.net writes:

James, I  am working on becoming superwoman. :)
I don't have any desire for more than  what you describe, and I pretty
much live the way you describe the path to  that..small house,,,,cold
house,,,woodstove, etc.

> There are  three things that are urgent in the lives of us all:  food,
> a  place to live, and the means to stay warm in winter and cook our
>  food.  If those three things are threatened, we are thereby, as  we
> used to say, grabbed by the short hairs.  We are in  distress
> immediately and we will expend whatever reserves we have or  agree to
> go into slavery ... eh ... I mean debt ... to relieve us of  that
> distress.
> 
> Now imagine a position where you never  pay money for your food, a
> place to live, or fuel to warm yourself and  cook your food.  Nor do
> you pay money indirectly for those  things.  If all your money were
> cut off, you would still have a  warm place to sleep and enough to
> eat.
> 
> It would make  you a financial superman.
> 
> There are many ways of going about  getting to that state.  It helps
> if you don't need hard to obtain  food, if you don't need or want a
> large house, and if you don't  require every far corner of that house
> to be 72 degrees in  winter.
> 
> What happens in his state is ALL your money becomes  discretionary.
> If you are skilled and clever, the vast majority of  your time becomes
> discretionary as well.

> But imagine if,  mortgage withstanding, you needed none of your cash
> for food, fuel, or  any other such urgent need.  If you chose so, ALL
> your cash and  ALL your discretionary time and effort could be devoted
> to eliminating  the mortgage.

We are trying to do that.  First step was  eliminating other debt, then
the mortgage..then, all income after the first  5K or so becomes
discretionary.

> 
> This is my version of  the Economic Basis of Homesteading.  Eliminate
> the urgencies down  to those things you can more or less be 100% in
> control over and  provide for yourself directly.   It is why we plow
> with a  horse, cut wood with an axe and crosscut saw, garden with a
> spade,  etc.  Whether there is money or not, we will have the three
> basic  necessities of life and everything else is negotiable.

That is my goal  as well.  It is why I am trying not to buy an electric
grain mill, for  example.  It is why I want to grow my own rice.  It is
why I went  to raised beds, etc.
> 
> 
> My formula is this:
>  
> Arrange a way (and circumstances) where you can provide your food  and
> fuel at no money cost to you.  This means that if there is a  money
> way to do those things and a non-money way to do it, always take  the
> non-money way.  Going into the past or being a luddite or  backwards
> has nothing to do with it.  It's money vs  non-money.  That's all.

We can buy beef or shoot bambi...you know  which one we do.
We've spent weekend after weekend getting wood for the  next few years.
It doesn't eliminate the power bill, but it does reduce  it.  I have been
trying to adapt to live with LESS air  conditioning, but that has been
harder.

> 
> Apply the  money you DO choose to make first to anticipate needs you
> know are  coming or are likely to be coming.

We do that when there is money  leftover after the mortgage and utilites
are paid.


You  know the cow is going to die some
> day.  You know the truck is  mortal. You know something is going to
> break in the house.  Don't  pretend that it isn't going to happen and
> that it's just a matter of  you being unlucky while others are lucky
> if it does.

I've had  several rainy day funds wiped out by illness in the family.
Sure, eating  right and reducing your risks by not doing stupid stuff
helps tremendously  with medical bills, but there are always things you
can't control, like a  drunk driver plowing into you, or an abcessed
tooth.  Right now, I  need $600 for glasses and and a checkup.  I have to
get new glasses at  least once a year because my eyes change.  I know it
is coming every  year, but I never have enough money to put aside any.
If I get excess, I  pay off debt.  It takes every ounce of energy and
juggling to break  even or stay slightly behind.  I haven't been ahead of
the game enough  to save in a long, long time.


> 
> Next build up a  personal grudge against your debt.  Be emontional
> about it and  even if it's only the deposit on the soda bottle you
> found in the  ditch, cackle with avaricious glee at the though of
> applying that 5  cents to your debts.

I've been doing that, too.  I don't think too  many hobby homesteaders
would be combing the woods for metal to  recycle.


> Take no prisoners and allow yourself no  respite.  The retirement of
> debt is meat and drink, man and wife,  it is what puts the lead in
> your pencil. Remember that you are now the  invencible and immortal
> warrior and it's because you have food and a  place to sleep no matter
> what happens.
> 
> I know people  in whom the fires have been lit and five years later
> they are out from  under a mountain of debt and their anticipated
> needs provided for.  And, says I, all because that bowl of soup on the
> kitchen table was  from another universe than what was in their purse.
> 
I'm not saying  I can't, because I know I can. I'm saying I am in
process...I may be in the  process of doing that for a few years yet.
Instead of 5 years, I need  9.  There are things that could happen that
could hasten that  timetable, but I don't want to think about
that...right now..if I can make  it through the coming year, I think we
can survive  anything.

Bev

-- 
“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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