Thinking of bugging out to the country? Think again.

Uh, HOW do you label a FACTUAL post, based on a person's FACTUAL experiences to be a "fail"?

lol

This sums it up for me.

Great info, all you guys/ girls are coming strong with some great info. I truly appreciate it. I think I have the ventilation covered with my inline fans. Do you think that running ventilation from my dryer into the greenhouse would help with the temps, I am already going to run an inline fan through my hps lights into my greenhouse, it also helps with maintaining heat levels in my grow room, any thoughts?

There you go. There are many solutions to the problems we foresee.

Edit: typo

If you are using a drier, then you cannot use a static sheet ... those chemicals would be in the air coming out of the back end of your drier and end up in your food ... the drier vent would have to be low to the ground so the heat is used efficiently while it moves up through the air to the top.. there should be a fan of some kind in the top area of the green house keeping the air moving and circulating and some low vents that allow fresh air in as well as high vents letting stale air out. That will cut down on condensation on your walls and ceiling, keeping any moisture you have in the air for the plants to use.

I didn't have a drier, we hung our clothes on a line by the woodstove in the winter and outside in the summer. I also had metal screens in a frame, hung by the 4 corners with wire from the ceiling, near the wood stove, to dry my herbs on.. the air always smelled wonderful.

That's the problem with knowitalls/peopleonwelfare...
It's ALL profit in their eyes.

Unless you grew up here to begin with, you just don't have the mindset to truly make it. You have very little concept of how subsidized, pampered and protected your lifestyle is. You can't just pop out for any given need when you inhabit the boonies. Cops and ambulances can take hours to respond. Heat in the form of wood is dirty and dangerous from the point of felling to combustion, especially if you don't grasp the difference between soft and hard woods. Say goodbye to clean clothes, daily chores are not forgiving. Food? Hah! You have no idea how cheap your food is. You will spend more time raising crops and livestock than you ever did pushing pixels, and for not profit, but just to cover a per person 2000Kcal/day diet.

Speaking of which, how are you going to pay taxes and licenses? Your opportunity to earn in the sticks is severely limited, and you will be in competition from natives for what jobs exist; not something you want to bring on yourself. You think you hate immigrants? Flatlanders are not welcomed with open arms, even if you are white as the driven snow.

Why? Because of the attitudes you bring. I own over a 100 acres. However, the town now has a health ordinance making it illegal for me to own more than 20 pigs. This was shoved through by transplants. Now I do not use pigs as an income source, and have never kept more than one breeding pair, but just who do you think you are telling me what I can and can not keep in terms of livestock? It hasn't stopped there. There are now laws limiting the use of outdoor boilers to between October and April, and you can't just have any old boiler, it has to be the most complex one. Bullshit. It can take decades for the locals to trust you if ever, all because of the previous high minded urban refugees.

Life is not easy out here. Unless you are used to hard physical labor for much of the day, you don't stand a chance out here. Some make it. More than that have come and gone within a year or two. The bucolic country side looks mighty appealing from the outside, but unless you are ready for the commitment of your life to provide as much as you can for yourself, and do without, you are in for a rude awakening. Forget about discretionary spending on new fangled gadgets. Your budget will predominately be chewed up by the insatiable appetite of your implements and inputs for plantings and livestock.

Then there is the land. Few have any clue as to how many acres it takes to support livestock and crops. Realistically, the bare minimum to start a self sufficient holding for a family is 10-15 acres per person. Livestock need huge amounts of pasture in the summer and grain for the winter. You will also need a wood lot and crop land.

It is great to carp and dream, but get a clue; bugging out to the country is not all milk and honey. In the end you probably are better off lumping up with the rest of the urbanites in the coming fedghettos.

OP is living in a fantasy world that doesn't exist. The country has gone hitech as the city. Dairy farms have robitics to milk cows and operate tractors. I have no idea what the OP is nattering on about.

I am guessing that predation rates will be commensurate with population density.

Will I be immune to raiding parties or advance teams looking to set up on what i have built? I am not that ignorant.

What I will have is a lead in food production, and a community to help with defense. Those in the cities will have much fewer they can depend upon to help stay alive, and very little in ability to feed themselves.

Simple. You don't know shit about most small town America.

If it makes you feel better to believe that, ok.

But truth is truth.

My 30 year old kids think I am nuts for teachin them to live in the woods 30 years ago, now they are rething what I taught them how and what to eat in the woods and use for medicine

I have been in the woods 48 years and I don't care what anyone says, we are the kindest most helpful and well mannered people in the world... until you cross us.

If you move to the country... mind your own business if Joe has had a deer hanging in the tree for 3 days don't call Peta... it is a process that some like to do

Crackheads... don't stare at them, talk about them or report them, judges let them out in 24 hours and you're on their mind and they need a fix.

Real slow weird country folks... leave them alone, most of them get crazy checks and wackin you is just a trip to see family and friends.... and they always let them back out...

I don't think they count me as a old timer yet here... but leave the old guys alone... that is all we want anyway, to be left alone

This probably could be a whole thread in itself. Most people don't realize all the things you can eat to survive, and actually thrive on.

For example, 1 pound of inner tree bark (with the right type of trees) can give 500-600 calories + protein, and it even can be made into flour (or to make your flour go farther).

[link to survival.outdoorlife.com]

Also, insects are also a great source of calories, and have about 10 times the protein of beef.

Be careful though, not all bugs and trees are created equal. Learn what the hell you are doing.

Some other obscure foods include:
Thissles
Cattails (swamps)
Many types of flowers (roses and lilies in particular)
acorns (better cook them well)
worms
many reptiles (turtles are great)
almost all small animals


In fact, the thing that should be in EVERYONE's survival kits / bugout bags is an ample supply things to dress up obscure foods. A little sugar/honey, tobasco, spices, powdered butter, and other condiments can make even the most disgusting food a lot more bareable.

I'm pretty much talking about all scenarios here. Don't think for a minute you can just walk out the door with a bug out bag and head to the countryside. Any place that might be reasonable to inhabit probably already is someones landholding, and if it is not, the outsider just showing up and 'squatting' is not going to be welcomed.

As for going it on a couple of acres, I beg to differ. Let's say you can survive off just potatoes and a ruck sack of vitamins. Figured out how many acres of potatoes are required to feed one person for one year? The answer is not comforting. Then there is the wood lot for cooking fire, heating source and to build a shelter.

The whole notion of countryfication is phantasmagorical at best for most sub/urbanites.

2000 is a bare minimum with the amount of labor that I do. You can get by on 600 if all you do is push pixels. Try farming and see what happens on that little of an input...