Climate change is real and its impacting us all already and it’s going to only get worse. The politicians’ solutions – where they exist at all – are kind of bad, mostly consisting of evacuation centers and welfare and reminding people that it’s okay to walk away from the post storm deterus – they’ll cart it off to the landfill for you.
First off, recognizing that political activism is not going to protect me from climate change. The buck stops with me.
Buying a Prisus or electric car won’t protect me but buying a backhoe might.
Own a house that has metal roofing and remove trees nearby that could burn in a wildfire
Make sure the house and barn are well away from streams and flood plains that could flood in extreme rain
Have an independent off-grid electric system and on site fuel storage
Have a tractor with a front end loader to both bury debris and dead stock, and also fill in and repair washouts
Have extra materials like timber, plywood, gravel, dirt and culverts to make repairs after wash outs.
Not own a lot of material things that are easily damaged by water or smoke
Be willing to do with a lot less with the land rather than the property
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.
I am a country boy at heart. I might live in the city, work downtown and take the bus every day but that’s not where my heart is.
Seeing those mountains in the distance, the forested hills and the little farms and homesteads carved out of the mountains just touches something inside me. The rundown trailers, the old tractors, the pigs, goats and cattle. The rusting away junk cars, the burn barrels and the brush / debris pile some day soon to be burned.
A lot of people call them ignorant hicks and hillbillies. But I don’t know, I think anybody who can scrape together a living either partially or entirety off the land is pretty damn smart and educated, even if it’s not through traditional channels.
They call it rural poverty. A lack of material stuff. Although I don’t think one can really call homesteading cheap when you look at the cost of machinery and feed. And many of rural people live a life much richer than city folk.
That probably seems like a lot to the city or village dweller, but it’s really not compared to many other parts of country. It means having neighbors nearby and having restrictions on your freedom as your neighbors are close enough to hear you shooting your guns, smell your livestock and burn barrel. Or smelling their hogs or poop-filled diapers in their trash fire. Or the pow-pow of their AR-15 or the roar of the pickup truck without a muffler.
When I own my own land, I want have more acreage, less house and material stuff and more freedom to do what I want on my land. Less of a chance to be a nuisance to them, or have to put up with their nuisances that come along with rural life and freedom to live one’s life as you should. Land is expensive, but the farther you are out in the country, the cheaper it is. And if you give up a nice house for a shed-to-cabin or a trailer, you can afford much more land that can provide a buffer from between you and the neighbors. Live and let live.
I am often quite jealous of rednecks, because they know so much more about the land, mechanical things, and technology then I will ever know. They seem to make so much out of life and the things they own, and are able to fix and extend broken things that I have little choice to toss or take to someone else to repair. They have such a knowledge of land and natural systems, physical systems, and the way the world works, that I will never have a chance to fully understand.
