A Living Magazine - Tap Root: Day 2 - The Social and Personal Method to My Madness

Back in 2014 I began to plan a strategy using my SelfSustainingProperty.blogspot.com to help me plan the set-up of my own land someday. Yet, even then, the desire to have a place that would be a capable of sustaining itself and me was much more deeply rooted and decades old.

Over 20 years ago I first got the itch to find a way out of the rat race; the hyperconventional, debt-based, synthetic social game, of complexification, and unbridled materialism - what I have called in my other blog (IWALLK.blogspot.com), "thing fetishism" and "thing worship." It is our obsession with material items, or what Terence McKenna once called, “the outside of things” that not only is depleting our natural resources and then leaving waste behind, but also pulling hard-earned cash out of our pockets and leaving massive debt behind.

As a child born in the late 1960's, and raised in a middle class family, living in a small coastal village in Maine, I had been taught and trained that there was no other way to survive in modern America, beside chasing the "American Dream."

Whereas the counterculture of the 1960's and the Vietnam-era problems of 1970's were prying open the tight clamp of the post World War II Leave it to Beaver and My Three Sons social mentality in many other places around the country, for the most part, Maine floated above these changes—or, better-put, outside of them.

When I grew up, fathers “knew best” and were “the king of their castle,” though they spent very little time there. It wasn't until I was in my teens that I realized how stupid this "father knows best" assumption was. In my family, learning not to take my dad's advice was the greatest realization in my young life at the time.

Socially, divorces were dirty little secrets no one talked about, women were berated for wanting equal rights and were even betrayed by their own sisters for attempting to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

Gasoline was cheap. The highways were packed with blissful, wasteful drivers. When you wanted to get rid of trash in your car you just threw it out the car window.

Up to 1970 cigarettes were advertised on TV. It was completely normal for every public space to smell like stale cigarette smoke—buses, bus stations, hotel rooms, restaurants, planes and airports, etc...

The state was only too happy to re-submerge itself into the remnants of "white bread" life in the 1980's. After the brief respite of President Jimmy Carter's attempts to bring environmental progress to an unregulated industrial orgy of pollution failed (Maine's Edmund S. Muskie's efforts, being the great exception), and unrealized efforts at liberalizing Nixon's militarization of social issues like his disastrous “War on Drugs (a “crisis” he intentionally made up to deflect attention from his secret and illegal carpet bombing of South East Asia—see “Operation Menu), the state settled back into a 1950's mentality.

Maine – despite eventually becoming known for its moderate policy views on the national stage in the 1990's, through to today – was still quick to adopt the more conservative ways of  Reaganomics.

The “Hippies” had become “Yuppies” when they reached their thirty somethings, and the trickle-down economics experiment to secure the place of the 1% (where the crumbs falling from their tables might sustain the 99% below them) was begun in earnest, lasting throughout the 1980's; reinforcing the absurd concept that “he who dies with the most toys wins.”

Excessive material consumption and unchecked consumerism fueled by unlimited corporate commercial reach through the six hours of TV that each average American was watching, turned the Capitalist ideal of the so-called “Free Market” into a greedy system of monopolization. Today we see the results of this.

No child can be expected to acquire the theoretical advantages of the mythical American way of life still-touted by those who control the economy and thus the society, without incurring life-long debt; debt that is impossible to fully repay. Upon reaching the age of 18 years old, the American citizen is forced to make the decision to borrow in order to buy into adult life. While these debts are framed as “ investments in the future” they are more often – and for the greater percentage of the population – chains of indentured servitude to the present system.

After high school graduation, the young adult "needs" a car in order to get to work. Sure, he/she can walk, ride a bike or take some form of public transportation. But not having one's own vehicle limits the potential jobs available to a circumscribed local area. Young people would rather have (or tell themselves they will have) “freedom” once they own their own personal transportation.

So, they take out their first loan...an automobile loan. Used car dealers have not stuck around for so long by being choosy with whom they extend credit. “Your job is your credit!” “No credit, low credit, bad credit?” We have all seen the ads. Here's an example from Darling's, a Maine car dealer...

Credit problems? Don't despair, all types of credit, from good to bad, can qualify for an auto loan. At Darling's we pride ourselves in crafting solutions for our customers and working with them to make sure their needs are being addressed. Darling's has strong relationships with local and national lenders and we are committed to finding you the perfect car loan.

Congratulations! You're just a step away from approved car financing that works for you…

But an auto loan is simply one spoke on the perpetual wheel of debt. It doesn't have to be a car that is financed first. Maybe generous or far-seeing parents were able to provide the wheels. That is a great start. Of course there are other strings attached to car ownership that still require at least a full time job--or RICHER parents. Maintenance, insurance, yearly registration, taxes, gasoline... These are the perpetual requirements for the “freedom” of driving. You own the car to go to the job, so you can own the car...

So, now that you have secured your ride to work, better make sure it's a good job. The next, or continuing, thing young adults are told is that a good education will put them further ahead. Even in-state colleges and universities run into the tens of thousands of dollars (which includes, full time classes, room and board, supplies, etc). The student of modest means (e.g. nearly all students) must again turn to loans.

Thankfully, perhaps, it is easier to get federal loans for continuing education. The risk then lies in the possibility that once the student graduates from college he/she will not be able to find a related job that then pays for the continued use of the now-aging car, a newly-needed apartment, and most significantly the ability to begin repaying the loan that allowed for that college education in the first place.

In many cases, this means the graduate has both an auto loan and a student loan to repay. Before he/she is even out of his/her 20's, the debt burden is well established. And, while the auto loan can sometimes be unceremoniously ended through repossession or bankruptcy, when it comes to federal college loans there is very little forgiveness possible for defaulting. Yes, loans can be refinanced by other creditors, terms maybe stretched out to lighten monthly payments, but it is likely to become a stone to which the former student is now chained to for decades to come.

Amazingly, this is when society, family and personal pressure lead many young people to decide to marry and start families.

Through the careful untying, reapplying and retying of debt-knots, couples can begin this chapter of their lives. It simply takes more debt. Society and the government are more sympathetic (with subsidies, tax incentives, and health care benefits) to struggling young families than they are with single individuals. But this only goes so far.

By this point young adults who hold debt begin the juggling game of trying to maintain credit scores. This often springs the inescapable trap of lifelong debt. And sometimes where only one person was infected, both members of a domestic partnership may become equally afflicted by the other's debt problems.

Unsecured credit cards are offered and accepted at very high interest rates, while debt is volleyed between these cards. Mortgages are then entered into. Every couple should want to buy a house, right? Well, even an apartment in Portland, Maine is at least $800/month.

Do you know a middle class person who has no debt? Are you yourself completely debt free? I'll speculate that the answers to those questions are “no.” Nearly all mechanisms of society are designed to perpetuate and serve this debt-based system. My grandmother once told me that she never had any debt at all, for her whole life. All that she built up for herself was accomplished through hard work and savings. That would literally be impossible in today's America—so far...

Well, I was part of it all. I reluctantly bought into it all. By the time I graduated from college, I was racking up credit card debt. That was in the mid-1990's when Wall Street bubbles were forming, and credit card companies were extending credit to everyone and their dog.

By the time I was 30 years old I held $40,000 in unsecured credit card debt. I knew this was irresponsible and it seemed there was no way out. But, I put the brakes on. I got a higher paying job (ironically) as a banker, hitched up with a refinancing firm to begin paying down my debt (at $400 per month), cut up all my credit cards and began the long slow process of freeing myself.

I also held $10,000 in college loan debt. I was very, very fortunate though that my late grandfather offered to pay that off. Still I had five years of austerity ahead of me to eliminate the credit card debt. And I did it. Afterwards, I was so shell-shocked about using credit that I never took out another loan, except from a family member to buy a used car many years later.

Over these last 20 years or so, the result of my debt phobia has resulted in the complete elimination of my credit status. Since I took no loans and was not paying into system anymore (something that would have been necessary for constant monitoring by the credit bureaus) I dropped off their map. I had followed the advice of my grandmother. But this is a different era...

Here in 2017 I stand with no credit report available and no credit score; maybe the only American adult I know in such a situation. This means anything I want to do that requires such credit history is not possible for me.

I cannot get an apartment, nor can I start a business—both of which I seriously looked into this last year once I was no longer able to work as a photojournalist. My original plan for buying land and learning how it could become self sustaining reasserted itself. I realized that I could no longer work for organizations who did things I didn't believe in, I was certain there was a better way.

What did I really need to survive? It turned out there are only five elements to modern human survival if one wants to be something more than an ascetic hermit. These are (in order of importance)...

WATER--a rainwater harvesting system consisting of specially designed gutters that let water in while leaves are washed over. The water will be collected by one or more large tanks. Maine gets approximately 44 inches of rain annually. That would provide more than enough water for storage and liberal use by a family of four, including the irrigation of their garden. I've used a similar system before and it works very well.

FOOD--having at least one acre of good land can sustain a family of four who farms the land, so that would certainly be enough for just me. The only import to the property would be meat and dairy products. Hens could be kept for eggs. I won't be slaughtering animals on my property for meat, but I could. It's just not my thing.

SHELTER--as you will see, the cottage would certainly be sufficient shelter for a small, low income person (better than the street, and without the cost of paying rent). One hundred and fifty square feet seems small. But I have lived in smaller spaces. Hell, I lived in a one man tent for most of two years. Some of the "Tiny Houses" shown on my other blog (listed above) can be as small as 100 square feet. The bathroom in this house would be the smallest possible space that can still contain a sink, shower and sawdust composting toilet. No water would be wasted. Gray water would be used for gardening. Urine would be used for fertilization. Human solid waste (called, “humanure”) would be added to compost with sawdust or wood chips (whose enzymes break down fecal matter and bring in beneficial bacteria--with no unpleasant smell).

HEAT--a stove that burns wood harvested sustainably every year through a technique called coppicing, and/or solar heated radiant flooring.

POWER--a full off-grid power system, with photovoltaic (PV) panels, and eventually, a wind turbine generator, with a large enough battery array for household power storage and usage.

I've discussed the above elements in great detail Self Sustaining blog and how I could utilize each. I encourage the reader to explore them in the context of my project by clicking on each.

Finally, I will have a chance to put all of this into practice. As discussed in the last post, I have bought 2.75 acres in Farmington, Maine.

Of course, this project is not just about demonstrating to the public the viability of a very small homestead to self-support--that is being done by many folks in different ways. First and foremost, for now, this will also be my place to live! In an upcoming post we will see the economic budgetary benefits to this kind of life style.