Saturday, May 27, 2017

Tomorrow We Get In

Tomorrow is when the votes are due back for me and my mother to join the commune.  All indicators point to yes.  I will be paying for my membership and moving into 'the Casita' which is a small building we are purchasing here.

The casita will eventually be our main home.  I'm going to move out of the RV completely and might rent it out or put it for sale.  Part of me wants to keep it so we have the option of travel when we feel like it...or just a big bug out vehicle if the SHTF.  Though...it's so expensive.  I'll probably be better off selling it and grabbing a small trailer if I need one.

My to-do list after I get in is long.  I'm still in the RV space at the commune because I don't have a long enough electrical cord to get to the RV connection a friend here put on the building for us.  That comes Friday.  We'll be moving over then.

After that we have a bunch of priorities.  We're staying in the RV for the summer, probably, since it's too hot to do much work outside.  We want to use the shower in the casita, however, so number one is to clean out the shower there and fix a big gaping hole in the fiberglass.  I'm not sure how to do it.  I'll take a picture and bring it to a hardware store.

Next, we want to be able to do our laundry in the casita.  That means buying a washing machine and getting it hooked up somehow.  We basically have to do this kind of stuff ourselves or find a good handiman.  The village is too far for us to get installation type services from the stores (I think). 

Once we have a washer, we need a good set up to hang dry our clothes.  We can't get a dryer unless we upgrade the electric.  I think we're fine without one. 

All the brush has to get cleared out.  Some of the trees are really close to the Adobe building, and are making cracks in the walls as their roots infiltrate.  I had to get rid of one bush already that was blocking the area where we need to park the RV.  I soaked the roots and then tied a rope to the back of the SUV and yanked it out.  I'm guessing I'll just have to do this a few hundred more times. 

The bushes have annoying spines, and I need gloves before I can continue.  As for the cactus, of which there are many, those things will probably be allowed to live.  I don't know how I can get them out without getting impaled by a thousand thorns. 

Anywho...a list is probably a good idea:
  1. Pay for the membership
  2. Buy the Casita and deal with the things needed for transfer of ownership 
  3. Get extension cord for the RV electric so we can move the RV over there
  4. Get Hughes Net Internet
  5. Fix and clear out the shower so we can start using it.
  6. Rip up the shrubs and weeds
  7. Get a washing machine and hook it up
  8. Get a shed to store all the supplies piled around the building
  9. Clean out the building and start setting it up to be a dwelling for us
    1. Get rid of the spiders
    2. Fix broken windows
    3. Put down flooring
    4. Install light fixtures/ceiling fans
    5. Install AC window unit
    6. Fix the back door (which is not secure)
    7. Fix the adobe cracks and leaking areas
    8. Put in a kitchen
    9. Purchase furniture
    10. Set up TV with Dish or DirectTV (probably Dish)
  10. Move in
  11. Fence the back yard
  12. Paint the front of the building like a Mexican Easter Egg
  13. Build chicken coop.  Get chicks.
  14. Build a greehouse.  Start aquaponics
  15. Get a flatbed trailer to tow with the SUV
  16. Get a carport as shelter for sheep. 
  17. Get sheep
  18. Find someone who will kill the sheep when they're ready
Oh God, I'm overwhelmed.  I'll leave it at that for now.  The good thing is that we have all we need in the RV, so we can move in whenever we're ready.  No rush on anything.

Friday, May 12, 2017

Last Pre-Commune Post

At the next monthly meeting the commune will vote on whether or not my mom can be members.  The Oracle is coming to divine the tea-leaves and there will be prayers to High Lord Zoraster so we might be assured my acceptance is of His great will.  At that time I will give up my materials and financial instruments so that all of the holy order may share equally, and further shall I partake equally of the work, which is currently the raising of soy beans.  Give praise, my friends, for soon I shall be on the path to true enlightenment.

Nah, I'm playing.  It's not that kind of commune.  :p  But we are going to be put up to a vote at the next meeting, and then I will be buying one of the plots of land here and getting back to homesteading.  We've decided on buying a 250sq ft adobe building and making it our tiny house.  The small parcel will let me get back to aquaponics (which I used to do with a modicum of success in Pahrump) raising chickens (chicken feed is 1/3rd the cost here as it was in Pahrump) planting and irrigating fruit trees (mulberry and pomegranite) and possibly raising some sheep for the meat.

We are proceeding as though we're going to be here for good.  My mom has started getting into the healthcare network here.  We're amazed at the quality we're finding in this rural area.  Gone are the 12 hour waits in emergency rooms or 2 month waits for doctor appointments.  My mom went to see about pain associated with her gallbladder two weeks ago and has already had a HIDA scan, ultrasound, and labs, all of which she has gotten the results of within a day or less. Does this sound normal to you?  It's not to me.  I lived in Boston and Las Vegas, and though I got great care at Brigham and Womens in Boston they were desperately understaffed and overcrowded.  In Las Vegas both me and my mother got horrifyingly bad care, and that's only if we set up camp in the ER for the hours and hours it would take to be seen.  When I was seen for kidney failure I was left on a gurney in a busy hallway for the ENTIRE time I was in the hospital because a room never opened.  AND I THOUGHT THIS WAS NORMAL.

So, Columbus and Deming get an A+ for the health services they offer.  Hopefully I'll be able to use them if I need them because I'm on Obamacare right now and my pre-existings are a list a mile long.  When I didn't have Obamacare I paid $980/month for insurance.  I can't afford to go back to that.

But enough about politics.  We've been in the RV space at the commune the last month and a half now.  We've met many people we like, and a few who we can't connect with.  The people in the village are super-nice, and this goes for Deming also.  Being on the Mexico border is nice too, especially when you need cheap meds. 

What wasn't nice was that my Verizon hotspot was bouncing off a Mexican tower and they said I was roaming.  The problem happened on and off for an hour or so until yesterday, when it went on all day.  I tried to get some kind of resolution, but you know how it goes.  I have to jump through hoops and accomodate them for a problem they're causing me.  I canceled my service today--which would be scary, since it was my only reliable Internet for the last two years, but I couldn't use it anyway since I was 'roaming' so screw it.

I went to the Walmart 30 miles away and got a T Mobile phone with a data plan that seemed reasonable.  It's really spotty.  I need to get a better solution, but I'll just deal with this for now.