jamesinwesttexas
New member
Hang in there Critter, things will get better. But the main thing is preserve your health in the process, especially your mental health. You can always replace the material things. Yes exercise [walking, jogging, metal detecting] is very important. About 10 years ago for me it was a change of scenery that helped and I traveled a bit and then in the middle of a trip from east Texas to west Texas I decided I was going to just stay in west Texas with my horse and a couple of dogs. It really helped to have my friends [pets] along. It helped that my license was good out here and jobs were not hard to find, but I haven't had to work that much. I basically squatted on an abandoned tract of land 2 miles from any neighbor and over 50 miles from a grocery store, dug a hole in the ground and covered it with tarps for my house and built a small horse barn out of wooden pallets and old used tin. The tarps soon blew away and disintegrated in the west Texas sun, my truck broke down and I had no vehicle at "home" and for a little while my house was an old couch with a piece of used tin over it and I spent part of the rainy season literally sleeping in the rain and drying things out between wet spells. But I was just happy to be out here and things have improved a lot with help from friends. I use a solar panel and battery system for electricity and a radio connection for internet. I catch rainwater and store it and haul a good bit of water but have learned to be very conservative about water. I did go back to east Texas to retrieve a few things but I wound up abandoning some land and quite a few valuable possessions, some of which my brother saved. And I would do it again and just might do it again as I have been thinking of a couple of other good places [far from west Texas] to live for awhile. It would be nice to have a lot more money to operate with but I know it can be done on less and that's the challenge. I will be taking the GT if I leave. Good luck. James