Homestead take 2

So a small break in the review threads series, which have kind of suffered due to attention being paid more towards the topic of this post, finding our own small homestead. Well, it appears that we’ve found it, and while it’s nowhere near as large as we had hoped land wise, it’s a heck of an improvement over our current conditions and fits a lot of the other requirements, including the financial one.  This is the second house we’ve bid on and had inspected. Unfortunately, the first one did not work out, but the second house is definitely an improvement, sometimes things are just meant to work a certain way.

So things came to a head with the previous property when the bank that owned it missed the closing date, said nothing for a week, then their realtor randomly asked us to sign an amendment pushing the closing date back about four months with no guarantee of actually closing by that time. At this point we’d dealt with them taking up to two weeks to respond to any paperwork sent to them, their contractor who de-winterized the home burst a pipe because of failing to let the pipes warm before putting pressurized water through them, and the reason for pushing the closing date was a title issue that supposedly had been resolved in December but apparently they had claimed that in hopes that they were going to be done in January instead of being up front with the issues.  The lie and asking for such a large amount of time were just too much, we decided to take a few days to search around while we had the chance to get out of the contract without too much issue.

At first, house hunting can be really fun as you get to look at all these ads and dream, but to be honest it can very quickly become a dull grind of trying to find something that fits most of your requirements, is in your financial range, and is within a reasonable driving distance of work/school. That really does narrow things down quickly, especially when you see places that fit well into what you want except are just out of your price range, kind of makes it easy to see why some people overspend on their homes.  Not that I advocate going over ones’ budget, much less even going near the top of the budget, but I can see how people fall into that trap. It all can be rather discouraging to say the least.

But then, it happens that right house just pops up, amidst webpage after webpage, ad after ad, that house pops up on the radar. I’d heard a lot of people say they just knew when they saw it, sometimes it took a few minutes of walking through, sometimes they just knew upon the first picture and when we saw this house, we just knew. For starters, it was a REAL house, not one of those manufactured homes that have become so popular as of late, but a house built decades ago. There is less land, yes, but it’s much better laid out, comes with not one but two strong springs, and the area just has a certain feel to it, a more welcoming feel overall. To be honest, yes, it does need work, and not everything is perfect, far from it but for us it works out just right.

Things are working much smoother than the previous home, this bank is moving much quicker than the previous one and is actually getting the things they say they will have done taken care of. Hopefully that means this drama is coming to an end and that we’ll be able to move onto the next step and actually start physical work on the homestead. Looking forwards to it!

Past year pt 2

What is prepping? Prepping is a variety of things, can be as small as putting aside an extra couple of cans each week to growing your own food, from preparing through foods to preparing mentally and physically. Prepping also does not specifically imply getting ready for collapse, one can also prepare for natural disasters such as the flooding that affected the Northeast or snowstorms.

In a way it’s kind of sad that today we have to consciously make the choice whether or not to “prep”.  It’s not exactly like our grandparents called it a choice; it was just a part of life. Such is the way of first world life today, so be it. For us it wasn’t a hard choice, but the basics of prepping were already familiar to us from our upbringing, to others this may be a drastic change in lifestyle. Either way, for those of us in a first world country it’s often a choice, for now.

I wish I could say that my initial reaction to everything was smooth and calm, but really it’s more of the typical reaction many will have, kneejerk almost panic. It takes a while to absorb everything, and there is so much to learn that I found myself spending days just reading back through old threads, debating each discussion and deciding my point of view. Suddenly things like Coronal Mass Ejections became very important as did the need to acquire canning supplies, build a bug out bag, and evaluate whether or not I was a slow crash or fast crash doomer, which seemed to be really important at that moment. While I’m glad to say that like many, I’ve since calmed down quite a bit since then and just take the philosophy of doing what I can when I can and not worrying about what I can’t, there are plenty who never get past that first phase and, to borrow a very apt phrase, are essentially doom masturbators. They’re the ones that just somehow need to live it 24/7, constantly talk about doom, and revel within the throes of possible doom. I will admit, it can be fun sometimes to cheer on things, like hoping that Wells Fargo pops up one day one the FDIC Failed Bank List, and I will throw a massive party should Monsanto finally go down in flames, but I don’t live it constantly.

It helps, I think, to first evaluate what you already have, as it both gives a starting point and a bit of mental peace. For us, we were already avid shooters  and I owned quite a bit of hiking and camping equipment. We’d also both been exposed to canning as children and the idea of raising decent sized gardens. Every little bit helps.