Rural Freedom

Most books about the working class are written by elites 👨‍🌾👨‍🏭👷‍♀️

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Most books about the working class are written by elites 👨‍🌾👨‍🏭👷‍♀️

I just got done reading JD Vance’s much proclaimed Hillbilly Elegy about the rough and tumble life of growing up poor in Appalachia – the drugs, the poverty, the unstable home life. The hillbilly code of honor. Seemed like a decently accurate story having grown up around many hillbillies myself grown up in the mountains in farm country. But it’s written by somebody who resembled less and less a hillbilly after being a graduate of Yale Law School. His childhood memories may be valid but they come from a now elite perspective.

I recently read Kristin Kimball’s The Dirty Life, a book about a NYC journalist who fell in love with a back to earther and they moved to the Eastern Adirondacks to homestead and farm using horses and the tools of the trade. They might live a life close to the land today, but they come from an elite perspective.

A few years back I read this book, the The Land Was Everything by Victor Davis Hanson about an English professor who came back home to run his family vineyard in California. Again, maybe he has dirt under his fingers now and as a child, his professorship distanced himself from the working class. He might have gone back to the land but he still has those college educated roots.

Then there is the Firefox Books which try to document a dying breed of Appalachian living in the late 1960s by  students at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, a private secondary education school located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It’s a good tail of Appalachia but again it’s a story told in the third person rather than the people who are actually living the life.

Or Noel Perin’s Best Person Rural and his other series of books about living close to the land in Vermont. His observations were astute but again kind of represented an elite view of living off the land, out in the country. He was another of a dying breed but probably atypical of a farmer in Vermont.

Now I get that cow shit and silage probably smell the same wherever you stand. That many of the same experiences working on the farm – the animals and the work are the same if you are college educated or not. Growing up in Appalachian culture is not easily forgotten and the experiences documented in the books to remind me of experiences I’ve had in years gone by.

I guess true hillbillies and working folks don’t really have the time to write a book or the connections needed to see their book through publication. So we have to settle for third party accounts, documented through America’s elites, colored by the perspectives and values acquired through advanced education.

Indeed, while I’m certainly not Yale educated, I do know my college degree and professional occupation colors my view of the world. And I’m sure that many who read these kind of books are one or two steps removed from the land and the working class. I do worry such books while documenting such life also color the views of the elite.

How Much Land Would I Need to Own.

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When I own a land, how much land do I think I’ll want to own? I think I would want to own enough land to:

– Be able to hunt and shoot firearms at a backyard range, which would mean at least 500 feet from the nearest other house.

– Be able to ride four wheelers on my land, have some fun in the mud without making too much of a mess.

– Have enough land to hobby farm, such as pigs, goats, and other smaller livestock, which means they’ll need pasture and a bit of distance from the house.

– Be able to compost food, leaves, and other waste.

– Be able to burn trash and have bonfires, without causing a nuisance or smelling my neighbors burning their trash.

– Be able to listen to music as loud as I want to, hang lights outdoors, drink beer, and have a good time with buddies.

– Have junk cars and other equipment I’m working on, or saving for scrap use on my land without bothering others.

– Be far enough back from the road so I don’t have to see others or have others piering onto my land.

Obviously, none of that doesn’t require that much land if you have the right kind of neighbors and the right kind of state and local government that leaves people alone, but having more land often comes with having better neighbors that mind their business while you mind your own.

My parents have a little under five acres — surrounded on one side by city reservoir property — but I think I’d rather have closer to 50 with much less house and barns, as my focus would be the wilderness not having a fancy home or barnyard. Obviously, this is an expensive goal, but living farther out means you can get more with less money.

THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT OWNING LAND | What They Don’t Tell You

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I was listening to this podcast on the way in today. Taxes, maintance cost, acreage that is build-able, among other things are big considerations. More information is good, and while I don't necessarily agree with everything in this podcast, I am considering each topic they discuss carefully.

When I build my homestead trash incinerator! 🔥

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When I build my homestead trash incinerator! 🔥

They estimate roughly 1 in 4 rural residents burn at least a portion of their household trash. With most things packaged in lightweight plastics and paperboard, a significant portion of waste can be burned. Rural households that burn can often only run to the transfer station or the landfill once or twice a year as most can go up in smoke.

Most of it is inevitably burned in smelly trash burning barrels which are typically 55 gallon drum with holes shot or poked in it. But it can be done better. Burn barrels are fine for disposing of trash in outlying areas but they have several shortfalls that very from a nuisance to a downright public safety threat.

  • They can smell bad when certain plastics and other trash is burned – as they tend to smolder due to the trash being wet and not enough oxygen
  • Some of the chemicals released can be toxic, especially when trash solders due to moisture and lack of air
  • They pose a fire risk – as many are used without screens and are placed near grass or trees

Hot fires eliminate the volatile organic compounds, along with many of the toxins like arsenic, dioxin and furans from incomplete combustion.

I think when I build my incinerator, I would include a fairly high stack maybe 5-6 feet high to create a good draft. A good draft would mean a hot fire, with less emission and odors. Forced air into the incinerator using a blower motor of some sort would increase the incineration process. While a fan would take energy which is always precious on an off grid cabin, the benefits of more complete combustion with less odor and ash might be worth it.

Adding scrap wood and cleaner burning plastics to the fire could further help increase combustion temperatures, reducing ash, unburnt waste, smoke, toxins and odors. Rip roaring fires can make ordinary kitchen and farm trash quickly disappear.

I would sort the waste that went into it. Food waste is good for composting or feeding to pigs and goats. A lot of and metal can be recycled – although maybe it would be better to burn the cans out then waste perfectly good water which may be precious on an off grid homestead. Plus who really wants to wash your trash?

I would also take steps to make sure that the incinerator is away from grass and trees, and that the smoke stack is covered so no paper or sparks could fly out. This would allow disposal of waste even during open burn bans and dry conditions outside. Trash accumulates regardless of the weather in our consumer society. Every time you go to the mail box there is more paper trash and kitchen waste baskets are quickly filled with plastic wrappers, bottles and paperboard boxes. Homesteads also produce feed sacks, pesticide containers and twine needing disposal.

It would be nice to use some of the heat from the incinerator to heat water for washing and other chores around the farm. A lot of city people pay to get rid of their trash, it would be nice for waste to be an actual asset – heating water and providing a useful service on the homestead.

There are a lot of good plans on the internet for improved burn barrels and incinerators widely used on farms and rural homestead. A hot fire can eliminate most waste, saving money and time, turning waste into an asset rather than more fill at the massive garbage dumps.

Ep 22:Homestead Startup – How you can get more land for less money

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In this episode, we talk about how we were able to get a great price on land that wasn't even on the market at the time. We explain in three steps how we looked for land, found land that met our criteria, and negotiated pricing while considering start up cost and natural resource revenue opportunities.

Why I Think My Dream House Would Be Small

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I think my dream house or cabin would be as small as possible. As a single guy, I don’t need a lot of space, just room enough for a small table, a place to put a futon-style bed, a dresser, some room to hang clothes, have a stove and sink, a small propane heated shower, and a toilet or shitter bucket to take out to the outhouse.

I don’t really want or need a lot of space, because the more space you have, the more you need to clean. More space means more need for heating, more need for lighting and more room for stuff that will break. Fewer things, mean fewer things to fail and break and a simpler world to live in.

I look at horror with marble countertops and fancy carpets. So many things to break and fail. So many things I don’t think add much value to life. I don’t like complicated wiring or all that technology – especially nowadays when you can do almost everything on your laptop. I do like the big screen and a standalone keyboard but those aren’t something that take a lot of room. I doubt I’ll ever want internet at home, except maybe through my Smartphone.