Darkland|org

The property owner has been listening to a lot of Jordan Peterson, and for the first time amid their poor health called Social Security and Medicare a Ponzi scheme. They have Medicare, but as mentioned in a previous rant, they won't see a doctor. They've been eligible for Social Security since last year and have yet to apply. If you look through the images I've posted of the property, it's clear they are far from "well off." I'm terrified and on the verge of an anxiety attack. I've never heard such thinking from them. I fear for my place to live now. Suppose they swing hard right.

I pay them rent to live here, and as I've mentioned before, I had to convince them to let me pay them. I've even begun to refer to the space I live in as, "home" in the last year, instead of saying something like "when I get back to where I live"; "...the space I have"; "the Shack." 

It'll be eight years that I've lived here next May, and the reason it works for me here is that it's a converted garage that a single 32.5 sq meter (350 sq ft) room. It's quiet and there's enough room to move about, unlike an a 7.5 sq meter (80 sq ft) bedroom in a house. So it feels like a living space. And I've been given free reign to make improvements which I pay for myself. Honestly, I'm happy to spend the money when I can. There are also photos of the space that show the dilapidation it was in when I started living here, and what it looks like at present.

I pay US$300 per month to live here, including utilities, and pay an extra US$100 per month from November to roughly April to cover running a heater. It used to get down to below freezing in here for the first three winters I lived here. (I spent the winters of 2018 - 2020 with family in California.) Now that the ceiling is insulated and I put storm boards and foam insulation over most of the windows, it actually holds heat when I run a heater. I don't think it ever fell below 11 °C in here last winter. I'm modest in my heater use and aim to keep the temperature between 14 and 18 °C.

I can't afford to live anywhere else and don't want to live anywhere else. The Shack has no plumbing. I urinate in to a bottle and defecate in to plastic bags that I have to haul off-site. I bathe in a 283 liter (75 US gal) stock tank with water from the house. I like my small footprint in the world and feel like I'm at home.