This BIG CITY family is GOING GALT!
I was offered a job yesterday in a small town near our family farm in Oklahoma. The pay is slightly less than what I was making just a few short weeks ago here in Phoenix, Arizona...before I was unexpectedly LAID OFF (read The Axe Has Fallen). What a lovely Friday afternoon phone call that was...
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| Are these city girls ready for country living? |
Well, not us. We're done. We made a plan and said countless prayers. Now, by the Grace of God, we've had a door opened. It was disguised at first as tragedy after tragedy. I lost my job, my family health insurance, cars were breaking down, bills were coming due and phone call after phone call was going unanswered as I desperately looked for a new job.
As recently discussed (read I've Made My Case), Wifey and I had an idea of moving to our old family farm back in a little town in Oklahoma. It was only being used for occasional family gatherings but had, at one time, been farmed feverishly by my Grandfather many decades ago (before he came down with Alzheimers). Wifey and I were almost brought to tears when we received the welcoming response from my uncle (read The First Response).
How to make it work was our biggest obstacle. Like many folks out there today, we knew we wanted to move to the country for a better life but didn't know how to make it happen. Finally, one night, we decided to "reverse engineer" our plan. Sometimes, when I can't figure out how to get a problem solved from the beginning, I'll start at the end and work backwards. In this case, we knew WHERE we wanted to live but didn't know HOW to get there. For us, the first hurdle was for me to get a job NEAR the farm. Once an income was established, it was possible to conceive moving there. I just couldn't fathom moving my entire family out of state with no source of income waiting for me when we got there.
So this will be the first post, in a long series of posts, to share our journey. The past few years, I've shared on this blog what we have been doing to prepare for self sufficiency:
adding to our preps and sharpening our skills
catching rainwater in barrels
barter and trade skills
herbal home remedies
disconnecting from cable and meaningless liberal media
physical fitness
establishing a bugout location
bugout SHTF mock runs
building Wifey's uber-cool craft room
obtaining ammo when there is none
homemade beef jerky & dehydrating
and several posts on gardening, medicine and more.
Today begins the first day of our journey. Tonight we'll sit down with our six daughters and have "The Talk" about moving. I'm sure at least one teenager is going to flip out...and I don't mean in a good way ;-)
~OJD
If you wonder what I do for a living, I wrote about it (read What Does Daddy Do All Night?).
Comgrats. I don't envy you telling city bred teenage girls they are going country though.
ReplyDelete@PP Oh, I know. It won't be pretty. Truth of the matter is, the oldest teenager who will pitch this biggest fit...is the one that needs to get away the most. She is currently logging HUNDREDS of texts PER DAY on her little cell phone. A nice move to a quiet location will do her some long needed good.
ReplyDeleteYou are making the right move, although it will take the girls some getting used to. Glad this opportunity came up and you are taking it.
ReplyDelete@DD Thanks buddy. It will be a lot of work. Of this I am sure. But it will be worth it in the long run.
ReplyDeleteYay!! Glad things are working out for you. The pay may be less but hopefully cost of living will be less too.
ReplyDeleteLooks like it is all coming together. I am so happy for you & your family that you can get out of the city. Looking forward to the posts about the transition.
ReplyDeleteWe moved to a little-used corner of nowhere two years ago, from a suburban condo. I would be very hard pressed to go back; this is a move I wish we had made years ago. Having the well get struck by lightning and explode on the first day there was kinda disheartening, but I have never known better people, or begun to understand what liberty was meant to be, until I came here.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the neighborhood!
ReplyDeleteWe moved 10 miles from OK about 20 years ago. To be the fifth generation on the family farm. No house just land.
If I may recommend a few things we wished we had done first:
Windmill, Windmill, Windmill! No power no problem, wind blows constantly, and the water flows. Be smarter than we were and pay the extra for the hand pump option that goes with the windmill.
"Keeper" apples and "keeper pears" trees long term storage without preservation.
Peaches nectarines and sour pie cherries trees.
Build the barn twice as big as you dream you need.
To soften the blow for the girls: animals. hen chicks of dual purpose with docile temperament (rhode island reds, buff orpington), rabbits, dairy doe goats. These are easy to start with, and quiet.
God bless you, and your family.
Prairie Rose
@Kris I'm looking into all the cost-of-living stuff now. It looks like, compared to Phx, everything is cheaper..except food? Why is the food index so high back there?
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to figure that one out.
@Linda Thanks! We're excited too. Well, I am anyway. We have a teenager who isn't too keen on it yet. More on that later.
@Joshua I totally understand. Although I forget once I'm away for a while. It's when I return to Oklahoma and spend time around friends and family from there that I'm reminded what the folks are like. Out here in the city, it takes a long time to find a good friend. I've been here 21 years and I only have made a handful of good friends. Having family to rely on again will be great too. We have dozens of cousins for my girls to play with in OK.
@Rose That is EXCELLENT advice. Please, keep it coming. That's why I'm blogging this stuff. We're going to need all the help we can get.
Wifey and I were just talking about manual pumps today. I was telling her about setting up solar panels to run electric pumps in case power went out. But nothing takes the place of a solid manual pump.
First on my list of must haves is a STORM SHELTER!
Dual purpose storm shelter /root cellar is an excellent idea. Stores your potatoes, rutabaga, turnips, pumpkins, keeper apples and pears, winter squash, and parsnips without the canning. I hope to ease your mind a little about the tornado thing. Big ones in highly populated areas are rare, but terrible. If there is an old farmhouse, it almost certainly has a 'root cellar' or 'storm cave'.
ReplyDeleteMeet the neighbors, smile and wave. Tell them you are concerned about storms, if they have a basement or cellar or cave,ask if it's big enough for extra folks (after you know them a little). No one with room would turn away a young new-to-the-area friendly family if a tornado was taking aim.
Ask the neighbors how often the power goes out in winter and for how long, that will help assess your need. When a big winter storm is moving in get your extra bathtubs full of water for bathing and lots of five gallon bottles full for drinking. Big winter storms come with lots of winds-so the windmill will work great if the power fails. Add a teaspoon of bleach to the five gallon bottles and they will keep for a looking time.
Don't know about advice, but I can tell you to avoid my mistakes, LOL.
I'll check back with you, saw your story on Survival Blog.
All the best to you, your bride, and the six girls!
Prairie Rose
Just found your blog. Funny, I'm in the Phoenix metro area too and have been dreaming of making a similar move for years. Situation should allow that to happen within 5 years. Hope it's not too late then! Congrats to you for getting out of town, especially with the temps rocketing up this week. I'll watch your blog as you go Galt. Good on ya.
ReplyDeleteOJD, I don't know what the deal is with food here. I remember thinking that the food was more expensive here when I first moved to Stillwater from Florida. I can give you some good local couponing websites if you're interested. I save a lot of money that way.
ReplyDelete