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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 24th, 2023

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  • Big factor for me is whether or not either of you have lived rural before.

    I worked in a very remote medical center not too far from where you’re considering. I needed to send a patient to a hospital for a severe infection one of my first days there. Life flight refused because of winter weather. The ambulance driver came to me and quietly asked if the patient really needed to go today. After I told him yes it was striking to see them strap tire chains, shovels, and a generator to the exterior before leaving. They really weren’t sure they were going to get to town that night.

    You miss out on many of the benefits of modern medicine when you’re in a town of less than 20,000, and you’ll need to be ok with driving for hours for specialist care in a city of less than 100,000.

    I-80 in Wyoming closes so often for weather that they have permanently installed gates across all lanes.

    That being said, an adventurous and self-reliant lifestyle is one of the best things you can do for your health and longevity. If you know what you are getting into and think this would help you thrive, I’d say go for it with the agreement that if health changes you will move back to a city.


  • I’ve lived in 9 states and in every neighborhood many people have food producing plants. It’s one of the healthiest hobbies you can have.

    I love gardening and have a small orchard and have other food plants all around my house, but I still maintain a lawn because it gets my kids outside playing sports, it’s a very multifunctional space, and because covering every square inch of my property in food bearing plants would be way more work and time than we have to give. In every home (except Arizona) I’ve kept at least some portion of the property as grass lawn.

    Some people latch on to your idea but then a few years later end up with an unmaintained berry bramble of a yard full of invasive food plants that is totally unusable. Moderation and common sense in all things.


  • I’ll try to list things that aren’t in the typical internet echo chamber. Bring on the controversy. These are just my opinions.

    50% of the shelf space at the grocery store is just different forms of corn syrup, sometimes with some trans fat mixed in, generationally twisting our idea of what food is in a race to the cheapest, most addictive product.

    The only way it’s profitable for someone to knock on your door to sell ANYTHING is if they are obscenely inflating the price (think 100-600% markup)

    Most supplements, especially expensive ones with TV ads

    Dr Scholl’s and the goodfeet store

    Genuine leather is just about the opposite of what you’d think

    Bamboo fabric which is pretty much just a different way to say rayon but is pitched as a revolutionary and environmentally friendly cloth

    Most bladeless fans just hide fan blades in the base

    Many cleaning products don’t do better than diluted soap and water (even for sanitizing) especially the ones with TV ads

    Financial planners who are actually financial product salespeople

    Most single-purpose kitchen gadgets, especially as-seen-on-TV

    The realtors racket: I just paid $30k for an internet posting and mediocre advice

    Many personal hygiene products are just repackaging the same two or three active ingredients by the same one or two megacorporations

    Essential oils (even ignoring mystical claims) big names charge an order of magnitude higher than they should