MrsMac and I were at a monthly radio club meeting last night. It is a VERY informal monthly meeting of a club I started two years ago. No president, no Robert's Rules, no treasury, etcetera. We not only talk radio's but politics, health, DIY projects, etcetera. We meet at a different restaurant each month and last night we met at MrsMac and my favorite Chinese restaurant.
Somewhere between the "pot stickers" and our entrees the question was asked of MrsMac and I about living in a very rural part of Pennsylvania. We started off with the negatives. They are,
Distance to...
> Grocery store (8-miles),
> Pharmacy (10-miles),
> Tractor Supply (20-miles),
> Hardware store I (9-miles, and their inventory breath is minimal),
> Hardware store II (14-miles, and they have everything)
> Doctor/hospital (30-miles),
> Restaurant (8-miles) heck the restaurant we were at last night was 30-miles from home, and
> Etcetera.
Labor...
> Our heat for the most part is wood for our woodstove.
I buy a tri-axle of logs in April (Now $700- ~10-cords). I
start the process of cutting them to length in May. By July I have seven cords cut and then the splitting and stack
commences. In the best of times that takes till early September to accomplish. Then soon as the weather
changes, typically late October, the bringing into the cabin split wood for the stove each day.
Emptying the wood stove of ashes twice a month. Dusting the house weekly to minimize the dust the wood stove
produces.
> The garden during the season takes up a lot of time. We have about 2,000 sf of garden. In the best of years, it
produces 50% of our vegetables needs for the year. This past year due to a drought in our area, we produced
about 20%. This year I am going to purchase a hose drip irrigation system. We have a shallow (10-feet) water
well for all of our house needs. Starting in July, I will monitor its depth. If it goes to low, the garden suffers as I
want water for the house.
> General maintenance. It cost a lot extra to bring a workman to the cabin for maintenance; Consequently, I do
95% of the maintenance on all at the cabin.
By this time, we all had our entrees and in-between the fork going to my mouth, I continued with some good things. Some of which are...
> Privacy. We have one neighbor, a small hobby farm across the way from us. After that the next full time neighbor
is about a mile away. After that about four miles away. There are about seven houses/cabins within a two mile
radius. Some are occupied year round while the rest are seasonal. They are used for a week or two in the
summer and similarly during rifle deer season.
> Electricity. When the electricity fails we are totally self-sufficient. We have two separate solar systems.
-
One is a 12-volt. It produces juice to run
the water from the cistern to all throughout the house. Also, this
system provides juice to our SirusXM/CD deck radio, Rinnai 'on demand' (propane) water heater. It also
provides juice to our 12-volt lights in our 240 sf bunkhouse.
-
The other is a 48-volt, 4.8 kwH system. This system provides juice to our three chest freezers, two refrigerators
and a bit left over for amateur HF radio, minimal lighting, and our entertainment system.
> When the regular electric fails to flow, we light up using Aladdin kerosene lamps and some battery operated
lights. The battery operated lights tend to be used more in the summer due to the heat that the Aladdin lamps
generate. As most of you know, the light from the Aladdin lamps give you equivalent to a 50-watt light bulb.
> For cooking we use
a propane range. The range uses pilot lights to fire the burners. No electricity needed.
> Security: I will not go into much detail here due to PERSEC however, my neighbor and I know if anybody that
does not belong here approaches or leaves. If someone comes down our 1/2-mile 2-track township dirt road and
we do not know them, we approached and asked, "Do you need help? Why are you here?" At any time, we can
block the entryway to our road. Did it during a two-week period at the beginning of the Covid-19 shut down.
As we were all opening our fortune cookies I asked, "Is it all worth it? The answer is yes folks". I continued with, "the security, self-sufficiency, privacy, etcetera, make it all worthwhile. When the SHTF, and it will, we are ready".
What we are missing for a SHTF situation, is additional labor. That is why I belong to three MAG's (Mutual Assistance Group). Lord willing, we will be able to help each other out.
