American Ride

Our America is changing and it isn't looking pretty. Constitutional rights are disappearing, school education is lagging, the Almighty dollar is all but a joke. Illegal immigration, lawsuit-happy money grabbers, GMO mega-corporations, half the country on some form of welfare...where does it end?

For our family, it ends now. Thanks to Obama care, one of the two hospitals in my company's organization closed it's doors permanently last month (May 2013). Now, our smaller rural hospital has been gobbled up in a corporate buyout. I was informed that I no longer had a job...over the phone on a Friday afternoon...while visiting Oklahoma for my Grandmother's funeral.

Thus begins our journey to relocate to the country and take care of our family ourselves. No more traffic, smog, insane crime rates, grocery store dependency, the bottom of the barrel public schools...and the list goes on and on.

Might make a great cable network documentary, right? I'll shop the idea out and see if I get any responses. Either way, as the Robertsons' would say (from Duck Dynasty)...

"WE GONE!"

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June 10, 2013
Discovery Channel Productions

Dear OJD:

Your submission has been received and will be reviewed by our development.
Proposals are evaluated based on the originality of idea and programming priorities in addition to other criteria.
All ideas are reviewed in the order in which they are received.
You will receive an email from our development team after your proposal has been reviewed.

Idea Title : The American Ride
Network : Discovery Channel - US
Submission id : 33980
Submitted by : OJD
Submitted on: Mon Jun 10 15:23:13 EDT 2013 

Hey, it's worth a try, right?
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Hi Nicole,

Quick update: June 10, 2013

Survivalblog.com picked up my story and has announced it on his site. If you aren't familiar with James Wesley Rawles' website, he is considered the Father of Survivalism and his blog SurvivalBlog.com has been at the forefront of survivalism and prepping for years.

Just him mentioning my story about moving from a big city to a small town has generated 8,000 pages views in 24 hours. This saga is growing exponentially and I would sure like to talk to someone about a video documentary. I hope you are getting these emails. Things are moving at lightning fast speed now.

Kind Regards,

Ron
aka The Orange Jeep Dad
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Update June 7, 2013

Hello Nicole,

Just a quick update. I landed the job in the small town right next to our little farm. Things seem to be working for us and moving at break-neck speed.

Hope to hear some ideas from you.

Take Care,
OJD

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Nicole Castings
Documentary Films

June 1, 2013

Hello Nicole,

We corresponded once when I received an email and questioned its authenticity. You were kind enough to reply and I came to understand that you are involved in making movies about real life.

Well, I have a real life opportunity knocking at my door and I thought I would share it with you to see what you think of filming it? I know, sounds weird. It does to me too. But I think I have something that America is craving right now.

Quick summary:

I'm a married 42-year-old male. I have six daughters aged 15 to 4. My wife is 37 and we've been married 15 years. We look like an average middle-income white family complete with two dogs, and a tadpole.

We've been raising our girls on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona and have become interested in moving to a farm in the country. We've dreamed of going back to doing things the old way where you make your own bread, grow your own food, handle your own livestock for meat and milk, homeschool, etc. The economy is getting tough, the government seems to be bearing down on the citizens, and we're ready to GO GALT.

For the last few years, we've been teaching ourselves how to cook over a fire, sew, garden, store food via canning and dehydrating basic medical care, prepping, etc. But we never knew how we would make our dream of living independently happen...until now.

Two weeks ago I lost my job of ten years. My family in Oklahoma agreed to let me live on our old family farm in the country which was abandoned 30 years ago when my Grandfather became ill. It is 160 acres of wooded farmland with a big barn, small one-room farmhouse, electricity, and water. That's it.

Through a miracle, I have been offered a job nearby at a local hospital and will be moving to the farmhouse in a few weeks. I will live there by myself for one or two months until I can afford to move my large family from big city Arizona to small-town Oklahoma. My wife will be on her own with all six daughters. I'll be at the farm laying out our plans:

-building a house large enough for eight people
-where to put the animals we want (chickens, goats, cattle, horses, pigs, dogs)
-fencing in the appropriate areas
-laying out where to grow crops using an old family tractor (if it still works)
-laying out where to grow our vegetable garden
-turning the old farmhouse into a homeschooling...school room.
-building a storm shelter (tornadoes!)
-building a root cellar
-and whatever else I haven't thought of yet

I have had (what I consider) success with both a personal blog (www.OrangeJeepDad.com) and a personal YouTube channel.  Because of my joy of writing and my ability to articulate, I think a documentary of our upcoming trials and tribulations will be comical, entertaining, and heart-warming.

Some things we'll encounter on our journey:

-moving from city life to country life
-teaching six daughters how to become self-sufficient with livestock and farming
-taking away all the social media distractions of the city and replacing it with slower, more meaningful country life
-no malls, fast food joints, schools with thousands of kids
-no traffic jams, smog, uptight city people
-settling into a small town where everyone knows your business
-bartering for goods with neighbors
-and my girls worst fear: how am I going to meet a boy in the middle of nowhere?

I'm sure you get the idea. Most of my girls are typical teenagers with lots of makeup, curling irons, iPods, etc. It will be a culture shock, to say the least.

I'm not much of a salesman, so I've said about all I can say. I just thought that the exciting, life-changing experience we're about to embark on would make not only for some good entertainment but it quite possibly help get other Americans out of the rut we all seem to be in, living in this consumerism-driven society.

We are "going Galt." Do you want to come along?

Kind Regards,
OJD

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