misteraven

@lord_casek Just noticed your avatar... That a legit MP5 or a clone? Nice either way. Fun gun to shoot for sure, especially if it still has a giggle switch on it.

Thanks man. Just shit I took with my iPhone. Have a bunch of nice studio cameras but they're either too expensive or too big to lug around and havent gotten around to getting a nice EDC point and shoot yet. Nope, but I've had elk, which is really great. I was too busy during hunting season to participate and dont have enough experience to not go with someone anyways so will need to wait until next season. Moose is a hard tag to get, but deer is just handed out and elk tags aren't too hard. Its not unusual to see a herd almost a 100 deep of deer in our yard at certain times a year. Also been seeing mink around, but beyond that we have coyote, wolves, brown and black bears, elk, moose, otter and all kinds of other stuff.

What Winter out here looks like...

Here's what winter out here is like... Negative temps, 300"+ of snow. Our home has a AAA energy rating due to triple planed glass, double thick insulation and the way it was designed. Our energy bill is a quarter of what it used to be, despite our being 4x the size of our old place. Mostly we heat with a single wood stove and if you take the time top process your own wood, just takes time and sweat. Its actually pretty fun, since the last few times I go out with my K9 trainer friend and we just hang out and talk shit while culling standing dead trees. We've come to see that it takes about 5 cords to make it through winter (it snows about 5 months out of the year) and a cord (for those that don't know) is a split, tightly organized stack about 4 x 4 x 8 ft. Because my wife likes to keep our home Haiti hot despite arctic temps outside, we probably need more like 7 cords to get through the winter. Got my chainsaw late in the season, but plan is to try and stack up 15+ cords come summer.

Here's what homestead type meals look like, including the aforementioned duck eggs. According to Paleo (and my doctor, health issues relating cholesterol have to do with LDL and the mechanism (size) of the vehicle that encapsulates cholesterol and not with how much of it you consume). As such, we eat eggs almost every day and so far blood tests have proven out that there's been zero negative impact (contradicting the shit they teach you in school about not eating eggs more than twice a week). Eggs are actually a very nutrient dense food. The dutch baby shown below.... Not so much, but very tasty.

Some general shots from summer... My daughter helping handle my friends working dog pups and some other stuff...

Some of the flock... We bought our birds locally as the local breeds are better acclimated to the weather. Chickens do best at temperatures between 40 and 75 degrees F. They actually deal with cold far better than heat and have no trouble at temps down to about -20 below so long as they can stay completely dry and out of the wind. On the other hand, temps up to 95+ get pretty dangerous. Ducks are even better suited and if I break the ice up on the kiddie pool, they're happy to jump in even when its 10 degrees outside. No idea how they do that, but they in fact complain if they don't have water to play in. Ducks are far smarter than chickens and have a personality similar to dogs. Chickens are just blank all the time and though they can be very friendly if handled regularly are literally dumb as rocks. The chickens lay very regularly and we get about 12 eggs a day when the whether is decent and there's plenty of sun. The ducks lay maybe 2 - 3 eggs a day and only when the weather is nice and the days are long. (Birds lay according to light so in the short days of winter, they lay far less). Duck eggs are super amazing and I suggest you guys go seek out a whole foods or whatever and try it. Like a better tasting, richer chicken egg thats also a bit bigger. Also, farm fresh eggs from organic free range birds are next level.

Also put in some raised beds and though we lost our first round of seedlings (family did a shit job watering when I was away fro two weeks), I think we did okay with it. I built two 4 x 12 x 1.5' raised beds. We got way more leafy greens than we can eat and did okay with the tomatos and really well with cucumbers and some other stuff. Its not hard, but does take some learning in regards to soil acidity, organic pest control and what to plant next to what. Even basic shit like learning that most leafy greens are only good when young, so you need to stagger your planting was something I had no idea about. I knew that at the supermarket, it often says "young greens" on lettuce and spring mixes, but never thought about it. Come to find out that as leafy greens mature, they grow tall and the plant starts developing a milky sap that tastes bitter. Even though you can keep picking leaves and eating them while the weather holds out, after about 6 weeks it goes from tasting amazingly fresh and rich to mostly bitter. Birds live them anyways so they got a bunch of old greens at the end of the season. Also learned that some plants can function stack. Like beets for example... The green leaves actually taste really great as salad and then you can also harvest the beet itself.

Here's a couple of the chicken coop I built... Paid to have a cement foundation poured as it helps predator proof and also makes it way easier to keep clean once it's been sealed. I finished it off in rough cedar fence pickets since its the cheapest cedar you can buy. Looks good, smells nice and is naturally pest and weather resistant. Windows came from Craigs List and were like $20. They're 100+ year old farmhouse sash windows. Still finishing the interior as I was planning to run some electrical and possibly plumbing into it to help automate some of the chores like opening / closing the coop door and keeping their water dish filled. It's designed to accommodate up to 60 birds, but presently I have 13 chicken hens, 1 drake and 4 duck hens. Plan is to start considering meat birds come spring since this is a laying flock and also planning to start selling eggs to the neighborhood despite many already have their own birds. Reason for it if I generate $1200+ a year in documented agriculture income, my property taxes are reduced 50% due to the AG zoning out here.

Since usually pictures are more compelling than written narratives, I figured I'd share some photos across a couple posts that might help paint the picture a little more of what life is like out this way. Many of these were posted to my personal Instagram (@allenbenedikt) but figure I'd share them here as well. If you guys dig them, I'll post more. Also happy to answer more questions. Last Spring...

Maybe I'll get my boy to reach out to them. Would be wild if they stopped back through.

Yeah man, happy to share. We still need to get on a call and I'll fill in as many blanks as you have the patience to hear. In regards to home schooling, I'm largely against government school and know full well that most of what they're learning (if they learn at all) is next to useless as far as practical application. If anything, they're learning to operate in a world that seems hell bent on producing drones that sit in a seat all day and put in their time. Its slightly better out here and we keep going back and forth, but reality is that they need to know how to navigate the world (and its bureaucracy) and personal relationships are important. I'm holding out to see how it goes and if we feel strongly that we're setting them down the wrong path we'll pull them back out. For now, simply going and learning to get through it is a lesson learned. Whole other subject, but I doubt college as we know it will look much like what they get presented with. We all know that going to college isn't worth the money it costs and that having a degree in most circumstances is hardly worth the paper it was printed on. Obviously there's professions that are definite exceptions to this way of thinking, but I've seen way too many people drop a quarter million dollars on a degree to wind up bar tending. Better off getting involved in real estate with that money and jumping straight into the work force so that you get your feet wet a half decade before whats normal and hopefully wise up enough (and be young enough) to consider going into your own business. My opinion is that the world will continue to spin out of control and that the few opportunities still available to a young person will be even less for their generation. I simply hope that teaching them independence and self sufficiency might give them a leg up and also hope that my own endeavors present an opportunity that they can consider taking over. Sucks to be so cynical but the idea of spending 4 years and a quarter million on a liberal arts degree or some other such nonsense and then join the ranks of working class so they can own a house in the burbs, squeeze out 1.4 kids and have two weeks off a year for vacation is a fantasy. Even if true, I'd sooner hang myself from the rafters then lead a life like that.

I dont think she's out here actually. I heard through a round about way she married Abysmal and is now living in Maine I think. He was from Wyoming originally. A good friend of mine was best man at his first wedding and still talks to him every once in a while.

Yeah man, my pleasure. I could go on for ages with all the gritty details, but figured I'd just everyone to death. LOL, actually was planning to bring it up to Os Gemeos when they come out to visit. Would be cool to see a giant yellow character on the middle of an alfalfa field. Not sure I'll ever get around to it, but has crossed my mind to maybe find a property edge and eventually put up a cinder block wall just to be able to have little jams. Likely my painting days are mostly behind me though. Somebody needs to be here working on the interwebz, designing tees and packing orders.

Well, we actually moved twice... Left NYC to LA where I was for just over a year before moving rural. Surprisingly, they hardly reacted to the decision to leave NYC. My son was playing a video game and didnt even pause. My daughter was excited, if anything. Though we were in LA, it was actually a fairly rural part of it and my wife decided to home school. It was a pretty easy transition as it allowed the kids more free time and pursue interests and kept the wife feeling fulfilled and busy. We sort of started experimenting with a more rural lifestyle by hiking a lot, grilling a lot and not really going out much unless it was to hike or go to the beach. I hated that period, mostly due to a douche bag neighbor that made things miserable (another story) and eventually that same guy bought the house I was renting and forced us out. I was at the tail end of a large contract client gig and was already wanting to move rural and feeling the pressure to buy something. That guy pushing us out was the catalyst I needed to get the wife on board and with a lot of work, a bit of luck and some family help we managed to pull off buying a property my wife had found. The dynamic was sort of like, she'd do it if it were done a certain way and the property we found was at the heart of it. Meanwhile the kids had gotten settled and my wife had found a really great home school group that met up once or twice a week so both my kids had formed solid bonds with friends. This created a lot of drama when we decided to move, but we got through it with the understanding that we'd finally own something and never have to move again. Also that what we were owning was far nicer than anything we'd been in before. We painted a picture of how ,much better life would be and all that living rural on sizable land would allow for and managed to soften the blow of leaving friends and family. Getting out here, it was impossible to find a non religious home school group as its just too sparsely populated. After finishing out the year home schooling they both started asking about going back to regular school. There's an unusual situation out here where an extremely wealthy individual has allowed for a lot of public projects and among them was building a completely modern high school. It's literally like a college campus with a school store and cafe and super open. They're now finishing off an huge greenhouse project for school / community agriculture programs and permaculture so its really super nice. The Junior High was rebuilt and shares the building with a renovated public theater building and sits at the center of a historic downtown area that literally feels like something out of a movie. Both are making tons of friends and after being here 13 months we're all starting to settle in and get used to the situation. My kids are old enough to remember NYC and understand what I do for 12oz. In fact, Supreme is a thing out here (oddly, but yeah...), so both my kids have sort of become the "cool" kids. Meanwhile I do my best to leverage my connections to all that to turn them onto the bigger picture and introduce homesteading / rural living topics. All in all, it was fairly smooth. Most the bumpy parts had more to do with getting over the hump of such a big move / purchase and having the ability to get them more involved with the lifestyle that this affords. For example, my daughter rides horses and was just getting to the point of learning to jump / compete. I'm not quite in a place to throw down on horses and that's been a bit tough since we own a barn and have so much land. But then again, I'm older and understand its a marathon and not a sprint and work pretty hard to improve my situation, so hoping that it all balances back out and my income once again exceeds my expenses. Honestly if I made the bottom end of what I'd been doing in NYC before walking away from it all, I'd be beyond living like a king now. As you guys have likely noticed, I'm sort of recalibrating things and changing focus. After having ignored 12ozProphet for so long because I was running an agency (and had monster overheads), I'm now going back and rediscovering new ways to bring it back in such a way that it makes sense to me and makes sense to where the market is. So far I'm constantly blown away by the feedback and every day presents new evidence that I'm probably on the right track. But it all takes time and because I work hard to preserve the integrity of what I work on, takes a bit more extra time. Guess I'm straying a bit from what you asked, but its all pretty intertwined.

Wow, thats big! Not just going rural but literally rolling it all back. Will sound corny or cliche, but the largest challenge is the mental part. Disconnecting yourself from all the things you thought you couldn't live without or needed. It'll likely take 2 - 6 months or maybe even a year to settle into your new way of life and to transition from being freaked out that maybe you shouldn't have done it, to the content feeling you get knowing it was a smart move (and likely a lot closer to how humans are supposed to be living). Second to that are the financial implications. I'm going to assume you aren't independently wealthy and don't need any income. If you can either work remote or commute back to the regular world without having it consume a majority of your time, that'll be the next challenge and definitely one I suggest you plan multiple contingencies for. Savings, very low monthly bills and a couple avenues for tangible income that'll safely cover your monthly overhead. If you can do it via homesteading, than that's obviously best. Example: Heritage, free range non-GMO / organic pork can go for as much as $26 a lb. Two adults could live off one big a year of its properly processed and stored, and there's not a ton of difference raising one versus 3 - 5. If you add a cow to the mix, it'll produce 5 gallons of milk a day (roughly), which goes a long way to feeding the pigs, so long as they can root well off your land. Factoring in some other small livestock like ducks (that can get $8 a dozen for eggs), you'd have a pretty nice setup going. Once you figure it all out and get it well coordinated in terms of efficiency and function stacking, it honestly isn't a lot of work either. Depending on your overheads, that alone might be able to cover it or at least put a dent in it. As far as the concerns you described, that's not too bad really. They sell hand crank washing machines that obviously aren't as easy as just throwing it in the wash, but also aren't too big a deal. You'll see that having the proper gear / clothes helps a ton and that working a homestead isn't like living city life in that you're constantly rotating what you wear and throwing it to wash anytime it gets put on. Not to say to slum it, but its rare that I wash my pants more than once a week for example. I'd say for this side of it, there's lots of books on the subject. Lost knowledge (or at least not as common) like when to put in your seeds, what to plant with what, when to rotate crops, how to process livestock, how to build a smoke house, canning, etc... Best bet is finding an old timer that can teach you, but I'm amazed at how much of that is out there online and on YouTube if you take the time to hunt it down. Obviously going totally off grid has its own unique considerations and likely the property you get considered the main ones (hopefully). Stuff like sun exposure, proximity to clean water, proximity to forested area, quality of soil, etc are all things you'll want to know. Likewise, what the area around you is like, how its zoned, any stupid shit like HOA, hunting rights, etc. You can likely get a feel for what you're up against if you literally try and make it a week with no electricity and using only one faucet in the house. Then maybe go for doing it a month. Personally I'm looking to eventually buy a bunch of land and have a place on it that is totally off grid, but for now I cant say we're living that basic. This being said, we do mostly rely on a wood stove for heat, we have our own well and do a lot to keep ourselves as self sufficient as possible (with ambitions to do increase it year over year). My electric bill is literally a 1/4 what it was in the city despite my house being almost 4x as big, but yeah... We do in fact have electricity. Beyond the above, if internet is critical, I suggest you confirm this with hard numbers. That was a gotcha when we moved here... That satellite internet that gets promoted everywhere here was nowhere what they claimed it to be and just about worthless. In another 2 years, it probably wont matter as 5G cellular is supposed to start out at about a 1gbps (far faster than most high speed internet), but for now its just a spec and doesn't exist. Likewise, if its mountainous terrain you might not even get cellular. Anyhow, if you have specific questions, as away. As said, I'm not living quite that simple but I've been moving more and more in that direction, have learned a lot and know a few people that are. Good luck and keep us posted.

I can relate to every word of what you wrote.

Surprised to not see more activity in this thread. I know theres at least a couple more that have made the move so unsure if they're just lying low about it. Likewise with all the gripes, thought more people would be interested in knowing how others have made the move. Anyhow, happy to answer questions if anyone has any.

Thanks for taking the time to respond @Mercer . Definitely got me thinking...

I'm really seeing this as an opportunity to make up for lost time. I'm now pretty well into the red, but not concerned. Honestly wish I had $50k to drop right now. Where do you think the floor is? Honestly thought it was at about $10k. Now wondering if we'll see it kiss $3.5 - $5k which seems to represent where it was before the crazy run up. Any shit coins you looking at right now? Really want to start putting $100 towards a handful of sub $0.01 altcoins just to see if anything runs up. Also, do you keep your crypto in action? In other words do you keep open sell orders and adjust according to what you see happening daily?

When did you get down, if you don't mind my asking?

You do realize the resort by my house is a top mountain biking destination right? https://skiwhitefish.com/mountain-biking/ Glacier National Park is about 15 minutes in the other direction as well. You're welcome to come visit man. Plenty of room for you (and the Misses) to stay comfortably.

No, I don't think being approached is such an issue for most people that they've methodically put up a front like that almost unanimously. Plus I probably had the same look on my face and was indeed pretty unhappy. You can see it when people are totally off guard as well. Sitting on the platform looking through a window at some dude just staring at the floor... Shit like that. Occasionally you see people smile at some half way decent performer on a platform capable of drawing a smile, and I suspect thats because for those few moments people forget their grind. And yeah I know what you mean about running into smiling people and wondering what their angle is. Last winter I slid off icey roads into snow banks a half dozen time. Every single time, someone stopped to help and a couple times 2or 3 people stopped to help. At first I was really defensive and was wondering what their angle was and just waiting to get hustled or threatened or something before realizing they were simply being nice. Seemed crazy that people would stop in the freezing cold snow and literally spend 30 minutes helping me dig my car out and help pull me out of the snow bank.

Hard to say what the defining moment truly was. There was a series of events that got me there. Like I'd said previously... Simply seeing how miserable everyone was each morning ion the train as I took my daughter to school. There was little difference between the average joe and what was clearly a well off Wall Street type. Then the realization that some of my neighbors literally made 100x my income, yet lived essentially the same life (minus the occasional escape they could afford that I couldn't)... Just left me feeling like there had to be more to life than what I had achieved or what they had achieved. Found myself annoyed at every noise, every jostle on the sidewalk, every siren, etc. Then when Sandy hit, realizing the first thing the City did was close off all the bridges and tunnels, leaving you having to fend for yourself. After having lived through 2 months without power under Hurricane Andrew and even a week or so of Marshall Law, then later 9/11 and that big East Coast blackout, I just sort of started thinking how fragile / fake / superficial so much of it seemed to be. My escape was going to Florida and Wyoming to go shooting with some world class tactical instructor and just found it harder and harder to come back to the "Real World". Couldn't really reconcile living in the Everglades for a week with a bunch of Special Operations dudes and then going to some expensive private dinner in NYC to politic with clients. Felt I was caught in between living two fake lives. Then I started thinking that I'd been there 15 years and even if I still loved it 110%, that you get one lifetime and I did my time in the big city. My daughter was almost old enough to start asking to hang out in the street with friends and I just decided it was time for a new chapter. Started thinking about the things I wanted and how more and more of it would be attainable if I could get a little breathing room. How doing that would be a better life and also a strong hedge against a lot of the trouble I see the Country / World heading towards. Ran some math and realized I could own acres of land, a huge house, a car, buy a round trip ticket every month to NYC and a week at a nice hotel and still be below the rent I was paying in Soho. Became impossible to ignore it all once I'd done that. Hasnt been all easy, but can honestly say that after years of feeling I hadn't reached the goals I expected for myself or be where I thought I'd be at that point in life, that I finally feel like I've made up for a lot of lost time getting to where I am now. Seems to have erased a lot of years of frustration and I'm genuinely content for the most part. Working on some stuff now that I hope will tip over and at that point, not sure I could wish for anything else. (though winning the Mega would still be pretty awesome).

@Ray Velcoro Good for you man. Takes huge balls to do what you did and glad to hear your story man. If you ever make it up this way, DM me... And definitely share some photos along the way.