Sick Household Blues

We are down with a nasty stomach bug. Thankfully this is not the Oregon Trail or kid #6 would be toast for sure. Seriously kids on that show are like the random guys who went to the planet with Kurt and Spoc on Star Trek.

My gratitude for endless clean water as well as waste removal and modern over the counter drugs like knock off Imodium AD and Pepto Bismol as well as the re hydrating power of Gatorade is impossible to express. Unfortunately Wifey is pretty far along in the pregnancy so her medical choices are far more limited. Kiddo puked once and had a mild case of the runs but today is just fine.

Hopefully this clears up pretty quick because both adults down the the count and a crazy 2 year old is a rough combination. Anyway I hope your Saturday is going a lot better than ours is.

Day 1 On The Road

Tonight I find myself in Twin Falls, Idaho. It was a pretty long day on the road.

Went through a part of Eastern Oregon I have never seen before. Man that place is empty. It seems to lean towards ranches which makes sense as it is essentially desert. In case you wondered those ranchers unanimously favor Mitt Romney as measured by their signs. Also I pretty much paralleled the Oregon Trail (except opposite Wagons East style;) for awhile which is sort of cool. 

The Galco Miami Classic I recently purchased was comfortable all day long. More on this will follow.

Today I drank entirely too much coffee/soda and generally ate junk today and am currently paying for it. Tomorrow I need to ration the caffeine a bit and eat some actual real food.

Realized that tomorrow I will be going through James Dakin's back yard.  If I would have realized that earlier I'd have tried to meet him for breakfast or something. Oh well, that's life.

If I was a better blogger pictures would have been taken of my great lunch in a cool little place, all the sites and generally cool funny things but well I didn't do that. Anyway that is what has been going on today.

Taking Some Time

Currently on vacation at a great place. Having a nice glass of Oregon Single Malt Whisky. Have a nice day. I have lots of thoughts but will write them later.

Enjoy your week

Sunday Ramblings: What Have You Been Thinking About This Week?

It has been an interesting weekend. We're all pretty thrown off staying up at all hours and sleep randomly. Going to bed when the sun is coming up and drinking coffee in the early afternoon or in the middle of the night. Sometimes the meals I eat match up with my schedule and other times they match up with the time of day. The combination makes me feel kinda out of it and like I'm slightly drunk all the time. Yesterday I woke up and immediately had dinner. This morning at 6am Miley was having a beer. Half the time I can't tell you what day it is let alone if it is AM or PM.

Talked with Stephen for awhile yesterday.  He is doing a lot better which makes me really happy. Had some interesting conversation about life, guns and the economy. He sends me lots of interesting emails and I do my best to read them. We talked about precious metals some. Concluded that it might not be a bad time to sell gold if you plan to anywhere in the near future. However if you are still buying PM's silver still shows some opportunity. Personally I am staying away from gold and instead buying silver.

One interesting thing about interacting with people who come to something from a different angle is that sometimes they can expose you to a cool new piece of gear or way of doing things. For example after handling my Glock 19 when I was down there he really wanted one and recently got it. If there has been a person who wasn't happy with the Glock 19 I haven't met them.

Also I got to talk to my friend Ryan (lawyer type) which was cool. He is well. Getting ready to do all kinds of huge things. We had an interesting conversation about politics and such. It might be interesting how this upcoming election goes. During it and beyond we are both cautiously optimistic that the Tea Party will do some good stuff. He is excited that they may well win some stuff in this election. I think it is good that if nothing else they are shaking up the GOP and conservative base in general which is good.

Ryan (lawyer type) said something that really resonated with me. He said more or less that he was seriously concerned about the state of our nation and was just going to stop stressing it and just get his stuff in order. I had a similar realization some time ago and it has brought me a lot of peace.  I can watch the news now and usually not freak out. My stress level and probably blood pressure are at much more reasonable levels. Instead of worrying about this or that which may be or is happening I am putting mental time and energy into preparing my family. Instead of stressing this bill or that amendment I think about how to meet this goal or increase that capability. I suggest this sort of perspective to everyone.

Personally I am really tired of this whole crony capitalism thing. It breeds corruption, kickbacks and nepotism by rewarding connections far more than sound business practices. After some reflection I think I prefer welfare type socialism though it should go without saying that I dislike both. At least somebody can (incorrectly) think they are actually helping PEOPLE. Ya know the kind of people with connections who often move seamlessly between slightly above mid level political appointments and cushy advising/ consulting/ VP of nothing type jobs in business. Hook up GE or some hedge fund while you are working for .gov then get a highly paid job not doing much of anything for them afterwords. I don't like the idea of forcibly taking hard earned money from people and giving it to nonproductive members of society; however giving somebody welfare (social security, "disability insurance", mortgage interest deductions, "earned" income credit, etc) just makes me shake my head. Conversely rewarding a group of businesses who screwed our entire economy makes me want to throw up.

We got a bunch of formula today even though Wifey is breast feeding. It is good to have options and a backup plan. Other than that I did a lot of reading on various preparedness and financial stuff. It doesn't really seem worthwhile to do "What did you do to prepare this week" but I figured I'd mention what has been going on. Life is kinda busy for me but I hope you are still doing good stuff. If you want to tell me what you've been up to I would love to hear it.

Now that Walker has been born Wifey is officially a stay a home mom. We don't plan for her to go back to work (though if a good part time work from home opportunity arose...) until our last kid, we're planning on two, goes to Kindergarten. For us this is a very put your money where your mouth is kind of thing. We believe and research agrees that young children do better if Momma is at home with them.

Having a stay at home parent  is one of those things that is simple if not easy. To do it you just need to live on what one of the parents makes. This may well mean decreasing your lifestyle and probably means you've got to give up on keeping up with the neighbors. We would rather have Wifey taking care of our kid then a brand new BMW. Her being able to hang out with, take care of and teach Walker is more important then brand new furniture, expensive electronics and a closet full of designer clothes.

I've got a couple interesting posts coming up for next week. Hopefully you folks will enjoy them.

Interesting news article: Oregon Faces Cold Hard Reality.  Here is a teaser "Borrowing money to cover operating expenses is just plain stupid."

What have you been thinking about this week?

Oregon Trail series #4 Hunting

Oregon Trail teaches two significant lessons about hunting. First you might, for whatever reason, not be able to do it very often so planning on it as a primary food source is foolish. Second and probably more significantly there is no point in shooting it unless you can eat it. We've all shot 10 buffalo's, an elk and 5 deer and been able to carry a half a deer back to the wagon. In real life there is no point in shooting a deer if all you can use (before it spoils) is a rabbit or a chicken.

If you plan to shoot big game then plan to preserve it without a freezer. In the far north maybe shooting an animal just after the first freeze and eating it over the winter will work. Everywhere and every other time you will need salt and or a dehydrator or the ability to can the meat. Might be that you have big game desires and small game capabilities.

Oregon Trail series #3 You Have Died of Cholera

This is part two of the Oregon Trail series. Awhile back I talked about dysentery. While dysentery comes from a lack of proper hygiene; cholera comes from unclean water used for drinking or cooking. There are bacteria and or viruses with long names with long Latin names involved but for laymen like me they don't matter.  Cholera is the other half of what could be called the "shit yourself to death" illnesses. Almost unheard of in modern nations but very common in developing countries.

Prevention is fairly easy. Start with a plan to provide your family with clean potable drinking water. Our friends Directive 21 and Our Happy Homestead sell Berkley filters as well as smaller more portable options. I am preferential to them because they keep the blog going. However you can find quality water filters all over the place. Big name brands like Berkley and Katadyn as well as a couple others are the way to go.

Be especially careful when  dealing with or treating people who have cholera. Their butt pee is highly contagious. Wash clothes, bedding and anything that gets messy separately and clean the washer or whatever afterwords. It is prudent to segregate the sick to avoid spreading the problem. If possible only have those treating them interact with the sick. Bleach water and rubber gloves are your friend.

Treatment is largely the same as dysentery with re hydration being the main push. Oral re hydration is followed by IV re hydration in extreme situations if they can't keep fluids down. Antibiotics can shorten the course of the virus.

Have a plan to be able to reliably provide clean water for drinking and cooking so you don't die of cholera.

Oregon Trail Series #2 What The Oregon Trail Taught Me About Survival

1. Mr. "I'll take 4 oxen and all the bullets $1600 will buy me" was amusing. At least he was amusing to me, Wifey who played the game as a kid also didn't see the humor, I think that was because every boy went the all bullets route at least once. Our results were invariably unsuccessful. Breaking down or starving to death way before getting anywhere near running out of bullets. You have got to allocate your resources to meet many different needs. All the bullets in the world will not feed you. All the food in the world will not help a sick kid. Medicine doesn't make up for not having a spare jacket or a broken axle. Prudent people allocate their resources diversely to meet their many needs.

2. To capture this significant issue in its own lesson; bullets will not solve every problem or keep you reliably fed. Sure you can hunt but even a great shot might not see game that often. You need to store food.

3. Sanitation and hygiene are important lest you want to die of dysentery. That pretty much speaks for itself.

4. Something will happen so you don't want to spend all of your money. If anything the game under emphasizes this point. You don't know what is going to happen. It could be running low on oxen or the need to replace that extra spare axle. People take cash so you better have some available.

5. People die and not just random strangers but people you know. The game made this almost laughable with like a 30 percent mortality rate but lets not ignore the point. To think that your family will get through a prolonged dangerous period without outside assistance is probably naive. [Especially if that time included multiple violent confrontations it is almost laughable. If you think some guns, maybe a bit of body armor and a day once in a blue moon in the backyard trying to do battle drills will mean you come out heroically and surprisingly and completely unscathed you're more optimistic than I am. Once you consider that these contacts are more likely to be defensive than offensive the odds get even worse.] Getting your medical training and supplies squared away is a darn good start. Being careful and using proper safety equipment is prudent also. Someone truly out in the hinder boonies probably needs to worry a lot more about a slip with an ax then a gunfight. However while I encourage you to prepare as fully as possible for all these situations it is worth squaring yourself up with the fact that someone could die.

6. Whatever the risk don't be afraid to seek opportunities. There are always risks in life. However if you refuse to pursue any opportunities because there is some risk involved you won't get much of anywhere. It could be moving to another state for a new far better paying job with some real potential or deciding to become a single income household. It might be moving to a rural home, into alternate housing or even off grid. All of these possibilities have some risks (though death from dysentery is low on the list) that need to be accepted. Don't be afraid to accept some risk.

7. Be prepared for a long journey. No matter how much you spend or how hard you work the road to preparedness, like the trail from Independence, Missouri to the Willamette Valley, is very long. Some times it is going to seem like it will never end but unless you keep moving the end never comes. Then you just end up in Nebraska or Wyoming which are nice enough places but much harder to farm in than the Willamette Valley.

Funniest Thing I've Seen Today

Oregon Trail series #1 You Have Died of Dysentery

Alternate title: 3rd World Living Conditions: Water Filtration, Sanitation and OTC Meds

 Yesterday Wifey and I drove a long way. We don't listen to the radio and instead talk to each other while driving. What a novel concept. Anyway we passed a car with a trailer and a single horse somehow we got to talking about how it would be cool to have draft animals and a wagon and go camping Oregon Trail style. I said we would need an extra kid because one of them would die of dysentery. It is sort of a funny joke and I have been meaning to order the T shirt.

We both got a good laugh. Wifey then said we would also need lots of oxen to replace the ones that would die and 3 times the amount of food we actually need because it always seems to fall out of the wagon and get washed downstream at fording sites. After a second of silence I thought of something. People still die of dysentery. Almost never in America or western Europe or pretty much any other country that doesn't suck but by the thousands in Africa, less developed parts of Asia and South America. I would wager it will get some folks in Pakistan and China because of the recent flooding.

Dysentery is caused by poor hygiene. Basically you ingest some nasty stuff. In any case you catch it and start shitting your guts out. You then dehydrate massively and keep shitting and eventually you die. Dysentery spreads like wildfire because people are in close quarters and it is an environment with poor sanitation and hygiene. If 12 people are living in a little shack/ hut with poor sanitation and hygiene and one gets massive diarrhea it is going to spread.

Part of the reason that dysentery is so sad is that it is so avoidable. A bit of common sense sanitation and decent hygiene are enough to prevent dysentery all together. Prevention is as simple as regularly washing your hands, especially after going #2 and before cooking/ eating. Treatment is super simple. Re hydration and good cleanliness are usually enough. For worse cases a course of antibiotics are necessary. Simply keeping some pedialite or gatoraide around as well as soap, etc and having a plan to deal with waste is sufficient.

Our life patterns have changed dramatically in the last 100 years or so. In particular population densities in urban areas have increased and this whole suburb thing popped up. These work because almost limitless clean water is piped in and waste is piped out. However it doesn't take much to at least temporarily break those systems. Especially in densely populated areas such as the Gulf Coast all it will take is a hurricane to bring back a primitive standard of living in a hurry. If you exclude medical personnel and those with primitive outdoor experience via rugged camping or the military knowledge of primitive sanitation is woefully lacking. You can't take care of everybody but should certainly have a plan to take care of your own.

Some More Thoughts On The Plan

My recent post got some interesting discussion going. A couple things jumped out and I laid in bed unable to sleep for a couple hours thinking about them. First as Sgt. Jarhead noted one benefit of the region I am talking about is that the borders of Washington, Idaho, and Montana are close together. Also I would add that NE Oregon isn't too far away either. A group of people could choose to live throughout this region, having their choice of the unique characteristics of each state and still be pretty darn close to each other.

Pearls, our bestie gal pal from Oklahoma mentioned taxes, specifically states with no income tax. This got me thinking. As a longtime PNW resident I am familiar with driving from Vancouver, WA to Portland, OR to avoid paying sales tax and such. As a brief catchup for those not familiar with the PNW Washington does not have any income tax but does have sales tax. Oregon and Idaho do not have sales tax but do have income tax. All have property taxes to varying degrees.

Before I get started here is a disclaimer. I am not certified as a tax adviser or anything like that. If you are looking at taxes as a serious factor in a potential move it is probably worth it to consult a licensed professional like a CPA or something. Anyway here we go.

The folks at Retirement Living said what I was thinking in a more intelligent manner: Many people planning to retire use the presence or absence of a state income tax as a litmus test for a retirement (TOR adds: or retreat) destination.  This is a serious miscalculation since higher sales and property taxes can more than offset the lack of a state income tax. The lack of a state income tax doesn’t necessarily ensure a low total tax burden.
States raise revenue in many ways including sales taxes, excise taxes, license taxes, income taxes, intangible taxes, property taxes, estate taxes and inheritance taxes.  Depending on where you live, you may end up paying all of them or just a few.


I did some looking and found a few resources that might help. The good folks at the Communist News Network reported an estimate of the total state and local tax burden for each state, probably not a bad place to start.

Going a step further and far more into depth Retirement Living did a very comprehensive job of laying out the total tax situation for each state. This site shows things like property tax rates, fuel surcharges, cigarette taxes and of course a lot of specific stuff about retirement benefits. This sort of nitty gritty look goes a long way toward telling the whole story.

Those two resources give a pretty decent view of the generic tax situation state by state. For how this all affects your decision making it gets more complicated. Property and sales taxes can vary county by county or even between two cities in the same county. A small rancher or farmer who will own a good amount of land but not make a ton of money is going to be worried more about property and estate/ inheritance taxes than income tax.. Someone who makes a lot of money and lives a modest lifestyle (thus minimal property and sales tax exposure) will want to avoid income taxes. Some states tax dividends which could be an issue for you.

One word of caution here. I would not move to one state over another because of a specific tax rule that benefits you. As times get bad old rules like say, a homestead exemption can change leaving you high and dry. Look more at the whole tax situation of the state than any one little rule, even if it will greatly benefit you. 

Again if tax implications of different areas are an important factor for you it is probably worthwhile to consult a licensed professional like a CPA or something. If you are going to spend tens or more likely hundreds of thousands of dollars and relocate to a different state it is worth an hour or two and a couple hundred bucks to make an informed decision.

The Plan

Awhile back I walked about plans. Have been tracking my New Years Resolutions for awhile now. We have been talking about mid range and long term plans here at the TOR house. Codifying them onto the blog is however problematic. So much stuff depends on how long I stay on Active Duty and where we are stationed. A plan that would be practical if we lived at Ft Rilley, KS would not work in Ft Drum, NY let alone overseas. Aside from generic stuff like: working on our food storage, trying to grow some stuff, saving money, squirreling away precious metals, kit, weapons and ammo it would be difficult to make meaningful plans.

There is a plan that has been forming in our minds. This plan doesn't have a definite start point. It starts when I leave Active Duty. Not even going to get into when, how or why I might do that as there are so many factors involved including: job satisfaction, Op Tempo, family happiness, life conditions, and the economy. In any case this could be called the 'I get out' plan.

Here are a few things which shape this plan.

First a long time ago Wifey and I made an agreement that we will not live more than 45 minutes from a reasonable sized town (our definition for this is pretty modest). This was defined as something big enough to get basic services. Realistically we are going to need to live relatively close to a town of this size anyway.

That brings us to the second point. In order to live the kind of lifestyle we want and pursue our various desires we will need a decent income. Yeah yeah yeah multiple streams of income from small home businesses, etc, etc. I have read the same stuff you have. Not going to say that I don't think that idea works, just that I don't think it will work for us. We have and or will acquire the skills (still not entirely sure what we want to be when we grow up;) necessary to make a decent living in a fairly rural area.

Third it is true that some well paying gigs can be found in very rural areas. Moving out to Timbuktu, WY population 57 for a great job is a nice idea. The concern I have about a lot of them is what happens if that gig ends? You need a place where you could realistically get another comparable job. These days most workers change jobs or even careers a few times in their working life. Also while I am not sure the world is going to radically change because of 'peak oil' I do think that whatever form of energy we are using to power vehicles broadly speaking the price is going to go up, not down. The days of 75 mile one way commutes will likely be over in the not that distant future.

Also I have some serious concerns about the idea that you just telecommute to the 'good job' back in the city and can live in Timbuktu, WY. Simply put if you can do it via phone, fax and the net some guy in China or India could do the same thing for a small fraction of the cost. In general it is somewhat egotistical to think that nobody else could do what you do but in some cases it might be true. For those cases my previously mentioned concern about finding a new job still comes up. Maybe the firm of Anderson and Sullivan is perfectly happy paying you the same wage to work from home because you do good work and the boss likes you. What happens when Anderson & Sullivan closes or the boss who always looked out for you retires? Trying to convince Jenkins & Collins you are super awesome and they should hire you and let you telecommute might be difficult or impossible.

Fourth I am not fundamentally convinced that even if money wasn't an issue I would want to live in a super remote place. I don't need to be able to get pizza delivered or anything but it would be nice to be able to decide to go get pizza/ Chinese/ Mexican at 5 o'clock and eat before 7:30. Being able to go catch a movie on a weekend night when you are bored is enjoyable.

One of the parts I really like about the Inland Pacific Northwest is that while there are some reasonably sized towns there is little to no 'urban sprawl'. If you are say 30 minutes outside of Colville, WA or Lewiston, ID or Bend, OR you are out in the sticks. Admittedly finding a place that is relatively isolated but big enough to offer basic services and a big enough economy to make the 2-3 job changes that are normal is an act of compromise. It is however the best answer I can come up with.

Anyway now that those beliefs and observations are out of the way, here is the plan.

We are going to move to the Inland Pacific Northwest, probably Idaho but won't rule out the some parts of WA or OR. [Time for a tangent. Lots of folks talk about how Idaho or Montana or whatever are the best place to be. While in general I agree these places offer some real benefits there isn't a magical line of freedom and safety that matches up with any state boundaries. A guy two miles west of the Idaho state line doesn't have a fundamentally different reality than one two miles east of it. Ditto for Montana or any other state. End tangent.] We plan to purchase a reasonable fixer upper style home on a few acres. Most likely somewhat near a little town that is not too far from the kind of midsized town I talked about above. It would be off of any major highways and distinctly outside of whatever little town we are near. I would say 3-5 as a minimum, maybe a but more depending on what is available and prices. A wood stove is essential and a basement would be a big plus. We have been doing some looking and enough homes in that region have basements that finding a home which suits our needs and has one is realistic.

I would not say this is a picture perfect retreat plan. Then again a rural home in an area with a generally sparse population on enough land to have a huge garden, some chickens and pigs plus maybe a milk cow is a far better setup than most other options. I would rather have a comfortably sized place that we can easily afford and pay off at an accelerated rate than a bigger piece of land which we have to reach a bit to pay off at the scheduled rate. Maybe in a few years or a decade we would upgrade to a bigger chunk of land (if your income grows) but then again maybe we would just stay put.

Between an office/ guest room and a couple sets of bunk beds in the basement the place will be set up to comfortably house several more people. If they are not already present outbuildings will be constructed to suit our needs. In time we will set up a decent alternate power system and if it isn't already so retrofit the place to have the heat and kitchen stove to propane. This would allow us to function in a fairly normal manner during the couple of power outages a year that are the norm. My dream setup would have a spring but that is probably pushing it and would make our search much more difficult. Having a shallow enough well to run on Solar Power with a big retaining tank is a reasonable alternative that would not break the bank.

Also about the time this plan gets seriously underway the LMI and I will start changing some plans from talk into action. My co author Ryan and I have talked about this and he plans to move to the same area. We don't plan to live together like hippies in a commune but being in the same area would be nice. Chad will likely gravitate toward the same area also. We will likely have some other LMI involved who may or may not make the move. A plan of stocking up on fuel and well varied bug out routes will be figured out, probably as a group project since we tend to have interests in the same areas. Establishing some caches along said routes is likely to mitigate the issues of distance.

I am interested in any feedback or thoughts you folks have. Think part of my plan is unrealistic? Got a part you think can be improved on?

END

Friends, Travel and Ammo Storage

I got to see Ryan and Chad today. Had some lunch and hung around BSing for an hour afterwords. Wish we could have hung out more but it was good that we were able to make getting together happen. Haven't seen both of them together since Wifey and my wedding a bit more than a year ago and I shutter to think of when the next time will be. Guess my work has its costs.

Arrived back at home base and we are close to getting out of here. Got a busy day tomorrow and then things are about wrapped up here. It has been a good vacation. Got to see everyone pretty mcuh everyone which was a miracle in and of itself. Got to set foot in Washington, Oregon and Idaho so I saw a heck of a lot of the great Pacific North West.

As to my last discussion about the Pacific North West I should probably clarify. I am not saying conclusively that in some quantuntative way the PNW is better then else where. [I am talking in a completely subjective way. If you want to look at an objective assessment of states for retreat potential Rawles did a lot of smart stuff and ranked the states here. Don't have the time or energy to discuss my thoughts on this now but I can't help noting that the PNW occupies 3 of the top 4 spots with Montana just a bit to the east occupying the other spot. ] Admittedly most of my bias is almost entirely because this is where I am from. It is home and I love it. Not saying it is right for you but it is sure right for me. You probably like your region and that is great, not knocking it. I know a few good old boys from Georgia who would probably think it is the place to be.

Asside from some driving and seeing the guys I did accomplish one big thing today. Got all of my ammo put away properly and stored for the long term. I personally store my ammo in military surplus ammo cans with good gaskets and some silica gel inside, might be a bit cautious but ammo is a big investment. For silica gel I go to the cat litter aisle and look for the crystals then check the ingredient label till I find one that is 99% silica gel. [I would be very careful using this stuff for food storage but I don't care if my ammo gets a bit of a scent.] Last time I got some window screen like stuff and string but this time I got panty hoes which did the same thing much easier and with less effort. I did the same thing a year ago but figured since I am not sure when I will get back here to replace them and had to put some in the new cans it would be easy enough to go just put new silica gel in all of them.

Two More Reasons the PNW is the Best Place On Earth

I have had some help with this one. The observations of other PNWerners who have gone to other places to live have created this post.

Apparantly you can not get good Chinese bbqed pork in other places. I am talking about the stuff with the red outside which you get in a piece or sliced from the store or a Chinese resturant. An Uncle who has lived in a few other random states (in big enough cities it should have been there) always tries to get this when he comes home. I remembered this and got some of it at the store this morning.

Also Maple Bars are apparantly non existent outside the PNW. I learned about this because Bro In Law moved to Charleston, SC. They get doughnuts when big wigs show up and he asked why they never get maple bars. They said "WTFare maple bars?" and he told them to "google image that shit" and after some research it became apparant they exist only here.

It is so easy not to notice little things when they aren't present but I have been sure to get both of these things while back home.

quote of the day

"(503): I just fired a shotgun out of the back of a truck going 60. I am going to miss Oregon."
Textsfromlastnight