Seriously?! Are You Kidding Me Right Now?

Maiden voyage in our camper...as of Saturday evening...three hours from home.

More info to follow...

Nothing Ever Goes As Planned but...GAME ON!

Sometimes Changes Happen for the Better!

Going Galt Series - Game On!

Three BIG things happened the past two weeks:

1. My contract in St Maries was terminated!
2. We purchased our first ever camper trailer!
3. I stepped in a culvert and twisted my &^$%#@@$# knee!

Whew!

What a rollercoaster this Galt Series has been. I'm telling you, the only thing we can count on in this life is CHANGE...and plenty of it!

Let's do a quick recap so we can move on to the exciting stuff...OUR PROGRESS!

Paying Other People's Bills

That's all it is when you work for other people. I've worked in healthcare for over 20 years now and I have made my hospitals millions and millions of dollars. Managing a radiology department is a tough business but the reward (for the owners) is tremendous. 

Even in small critical access hospitals, radiology departments can clear millions of dollars in revenue if the department is run correctly. Me, I get a decent hourly wage but terminated on a whim. It reminds me of one of my favorite books Your Money or Your Life?

But all we're really doing is trading our lives to make money for someone else in the end. Whether it be stockholders, a board of directors, taxpayers, or whomever. The only benefit is that we, the employee, know we are helping the patients find comfort (usually.)

So when my newest contracted hospital got a new CEO...all bets were off. Any time you switch over management, and this hospital switched every two years, you are in for problems. The CEO who hired me was all thumbs-up for the changes I had in mind for the department I managed. 

All that changed when new management was brought in. First, the Director of Nursing was gone. Then the Head of Human Resources was put on notice. So the writing was on the wall. The big squeeze was on and luckily, the way I was squeezed out the door left me open to unemployment options. 

So, I am fortunate to be back in my home that didn't sell during the Coronavirus pandemic. Family is reunited and all is right in the world again. I have taken our home off the market and already made big improvements.

Note to self: NEVER let a job split up my family for an extended period of time.

Camper Trailer is Priority in Many Situations

One of the key ingredients that were missing from my Going Galt plan was a trailer to live in. It comes in handy in several situations. 

• If you find your dream Galt property, you need a trailer to live in while you build your home. (see this concept in the success of Good Simple Living in north Idaho.)
• In some locations, like St Maries in north Idaho, most homes are old and small. My large family needed a trailer to pull alongside the rental home we had to give us enough sleeping rooms and bathrooms. 
• When commuting from the current home to Galt location, a trailer comes in handy during the trip for many reasons.

I was shopping at Blue Dog RV in Post Falls for a trailer to slide up next to my rental house in St Maries. I was lucky enough to drive up and catch an expo at the fairgrounds and see many different options. 

Blue Dog shared with me that they had sold 95 trailers in the past two weeks. Lots of people are realizing that trailers are idea during quarantines since they allow you to stay "quarantined" yet still travel. 

I was fortunate enough to land a beautiful Shadow Cruiser 277BHS. You can see it in 3D on your mobile phone here or a great walkthrough on YouTube here. 

We intend to use this to save us money and quite probably produce income.

With six daughters, we have lots of sporting events to attend throughout the year. Living in rural southern Idaho, that means a good deal of travel. Some games are four hours away and start at 8am. So overnight stay is usually required. 

Hotels these days average $125 per night. Our trailer pays for itself after using it only a couple of times in a month. 

Then there's RV Share. A good friend from church told me how he was renting out his trailer and hasn't made a payment of his own in several months. This was thanks to the ability to rent out his trailer like an AirBnB. 

With RV Share, you can rent out your camper with full insurance coverage for peace of mind. 

Lastly, we are now fully prepared for either Going Galt to our perfect property or falling back in a crisis if we should ever lose our home. Things still aren't looking that good out there, you know. The food supply is still in question. Our economy is on very shaky ground. Then there's the politics..

The Twisted Knee

Ah, yes. Just when you least expect it. I have never had any problems, aside from high blood pressure. No surgeries, broken bones...not even one single cavity. I'll be 50 years old next year and aside from being admittingly overweight, which I'm working on, I haven't had many issues with health.

Well, step into a shin-deep culvert while walking forward, and focusing on the horizon is a rude awakening, to say the least.

My foot shoved right into the pipe below while my body was in forward motion. I didn't take any pictures, which is odd, because I photograph everything. But let's just say the knee swelled up substantially and ankle sustained bruising and cuts. 

In the end, the Xrays were negative for fracture. I'm not sure how given the force of my 290 pounds pushing the opposite way the culvert had me locked in place. I took 800mg of ibuprofen immediately for inflammation. Jumped in an ice-cold bath for some relief. Then immediately wrapped it tight upon getting out of the tub. 

I kept the swelling from getting out of control and doing pretty good now on day 4. No longer using a brace but still feeling a slight pop when stepping forward with the affected leg. I'm supposed to go back for follow up in a week or two for several pulls and pushes from the physician. 

So there you go. Here are the major steps forward on our self-sufficiency initiative:

1. Broke free of the quandary that had me worried about starting over in a new town.
2. The family is reunited permanently.
3. Trailer secured for bugging out, camping adventures, and moving forward with building once we ultimately find our dream property.
4. Many items were sold or disposed of when we thought we were moving. We got rid of a lot of extra "stuff" that we didn't need. Our assets are much more manageable now.

Oh, and I can't forget that I'll be back up north in October to teach a weekend seminar on blogging at the 2020 Idaho Fall Farmfest and Horse Expo!

I did some informal polling on a few Facebook homesteading groups and asked if folks were interested in learning how to blog from home as a means of additional income. The response was very warm so I'm moving ahead! More details to come.