Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.

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Don’t despair—prepare.

It seems like everything is converging, coalescing, the good and the bad. If you’ve been reading our pioneer journal over these past two years, you may be sensing that too. We’ve been writing about the coming dystopia, and how to prepare for it, what works and what doesn’t. There seems to be a theme. Let’s get busy as the going gets tough, because it’s clear that nobody is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves.

Pioneer Update

We got our Costco raised bed garden (on wheels!) up and running this past weekend. It was a fun exercise. Apparently, there’s a lot more to this than just throwing in some dirt and seeds! Our diligence turned up the Seed to Spoon app so we’re on the seven day trial. It allows you to specify your garden size and lay out what you want to plant. The cool thing is that it warns you about plants that are “bad neighbors” (the ones with Trump signs in their yard?) and shouldn’t be placed next to each other. We would have screwed that up badly. We went with things of substance—potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, parsnip, eggplant. Now we wait for buds to get budding!

And yeah, you could use the rationale “Those are some expensive veggies, why not go to the grocery?” Because, well, we’re preparing for those shelves being empty, as we’ve shipped out all the ag workers, and poisoned our food, as we’ve canceled those silly FDA food inspectors. There will be no pesticides in our grub.

Tomorrow is another round of surgery for me, ugh. Next week, we move the White House covered wagon pioneer RV from our former beautiful campsite to standby near where we live now. That will complete our new transition.

Also, we got out for the April 5 protests. It was wonderful and magical to be among the massive crowds of sane, happy, motivated, patriotic citizens. There are plenty more to come, make sure you participate!

A Survival Plan

I mentioned convergence. The stock markets are continuing to crash due to this extreme nonsensical idiocracy. We’re heading to a deep recession or maybe depression, on the fast train. The worst of circumstances may well occur—stagnant economy and high inflation like in the 60s and 70s, a very bad combination that’s hard to fix. We’re likely heading for the “distraction” of a massive global shooting war, on top of the trade war.

Our once beautiful democracy and economy, the envy of the world just a few months ago, is being burned to the ground. One of the world’s biggest insurers is predicting the collapse of capitalism due to climate change. Imagine losing your home like so many in the Midwest did this week, and having no insurance to replace it. On top of being laid off due to recession. That’s how depressions happen.

Ok, that’s the bad news.

We’re always thinking of solutions, all day every day. We wrote about our trip to Europe, and as fantastic and utopian as things are there, it’s just not Plan A right now as we both have elderly mothers that need help. However, if it gets that bad, we may have to bail anyway. Good to have options.

But, while there, we saw a people who have always lived happily in smaller spaces. Giavana, Pia and I have been doing that for years, in an RV and now in a small apartment, after selling our home and attic, closets, basement, and garage full of useless neglected crap. So as a first step, why not bring that model here? Why can’t we all start behaving in that successful way, which is less stressful and better for your financial success? Americans are famous for our gluttonous shopping, our McMansions and land yacht vehicles, for having way too much of everything. Let’s change that.

Our point? Stuff is about to get much more expensive. People already have far less money due to the Trump crash, and that’s about to get worse as they lose their jobs. Corporations are to blame for the most part. Fix the problem and fight back. Fix one is to sell, share, and barter among ourselves at discount prices. Make that former gluttony a huge advantage to each other. Get on your neighborhood discussion boards, like nextdoor.com, reddit.com, or discord.com.

Need a lawnmower? I bet someone within a mile of you has an older or spare very functional one that they’d sell you on the cheap, far less than you’d pay at the store. Ditto for just about anything you need. If we all get out there, list what we have, or what we can do for others, think of the benefit! Same with thrift stores, and with food, by using farmer’s markets. Or mom and pop restaurants instead of those ugly, poisonous chains.

There are so many ways to cut back without harming your quality of life. For example, commercials have brainwashed us into heaping large gobs of toothpaste on our brushes, when a much smaller amount is just as effective, especially if you don’t then rinse or spit it out. Ditto for laundry detergent and so many other items. Again, Kiss Your Money Hello (and Financial Stress Goodbye) is the ultimate guide to saving money and Plan Your Money Path is the same for planning your financial life. Read or listen, get them for free by ordering from your local library.

Cut your reliance on expensive vehicles where possible by walking and getting a bike (or e-bike—they’re awesome!) Learn how the public transportation works in your area—buses and trains. Sell anything you haven’t used in a year, including clothing. Pile up your money, be frugal. Enjoy all the wonderful, free goodness of our parks and libraries (before they’re paved over).

We need to converge as a society—the good among us, anyway. We’re seeing this happen, out of necessity. Hard times always bring that sort of thing. Families save money by sharing space, like in the old days here in the US. Communities begin to coalesce and share.

In our area, some folks have started a discord server to bring this about. The main purpose is to move toward building our own intentional community/ecovillage, as we’ve been advocating for and written about in past posts. Quite European! The result has been phenomenal. We now have subtopic areas where people in this area are mentoring and sharing with each other on topics like personal security, gardening/farming, communication, bushcraft, survival, medicine/first aid, and disaster preparedness. It’s bringing about everything we’ve discussed above, and it’s beautiful to behold, watching it bloom. We’re also facilitating in-person meetings/training on those topics. Make it happen in your area, your survival may count on it.

As we build and form these communities, so much more becomes possible. We can shelter those we need to—young people from being drafted into a war that might kill them, marginalized people from the hate on the outside. Underground railroads have been quite effective in the past. We all might need one at a certain point. Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 is just starting, what an example of all this!

The other thing that’s coalescing here, at least for us, is the return to faith or at least hope for so many, with the popularity of The Chosen. We’ve binged the first four seasons for free by using their app and web page, and seeing season five at the theater, which is spectacular. Even if you don’t believe, it’s epi