In the 1980s early on, there was 10% unemployment nationwide and about 25% to 30% unemployment in mt. Shasta where I lived starting in 1979. My new wife then lost her job as a hostess at a local restaurant and so I was thinking about moving to another area (during the week) and only coming home to shasta for Weekends. A friend of mine said: "Your wife would be vulnerable to many men who are interested in her. If you go get another job you could lose her and your kids might not be safe too (i had one son from my first marriage and she had two kids from her first marriage.
So, my friend showed me some inexpensive land near his 2 1/2 acres without electricity but with a stream on the land with a perfect view of Mt. Shasta at 4000 feet elevation. We decided to buy this land and build a home there so this is what we did. This way we could home school our kids without being killed by rent every month. So, from 1980 to 1985 I figure we saved around 60,000 dollars in rent by doing this.
Also, during this time we bought a business and were given another business by a friend who took care of a man before he died who owned a mail order business who was single. So, this decision of buying land with our savings really turned out well for all of us.
My parents came up in their motor home because my father had just retired in 1980 and he helped me build this house on the 2 1/2 acres of land. His building skills went back to the 1930s or further because he was born in 1916 in Morenci, Arizona.
So, we built our house on land we paid cash for out of our savings. And we bought cross country skis for the 5 of us because we could get 7 feet of snow at a time there where we built our house.
We built an A-Frame house because it sheds snow and the roof won't break with 7 feet of snow falling at once (even if you are not there to shovel it all off at the time).
So, we learned to park our International Harvester 4 wheel drive Scout II (maybe the best off road 4 wheel drive I ever owned with a locked rear end and great ground clearance at the time. It had a 6 cylinder engine for great gas mileage too. It could push 2 to 3 feet of unplowed snow and keep going which was amazing at the time.
I presently still have my 2011 Tundra 4 wheel drive with a small 8 cylinder engine which you cannot replace really now. However, I have heard they make a 6 cylinder one that might be good too with great mileage like mine in overdrive. It's a 6 speed 2 range 4 wheel drive with 2 wheel drive too on the rear wheels.
The Scout II (1974) 6 cylinder engine 4 wheel drive broke it's u joint at one point so I just put it in 4 wheel drive and kept driving after I removed the drive shaft and U joint until I was able to get it somewhere to get it fixed. Amazing 4 wheel Drive!
At one point since I had non- metal edges on my cross country skis I slid several hundred feet on ice one day sideways and realized that was the last day I would ski without metal edges. So, I bought wide downhill skis used and put cross country bindings on them and never had the problem of almost dying skidding sideways on ice ever again. Metal Edges often can save your life!
Also, if your metal edges fail you often you can use the base of your ski pole to stay alive also. I had to do this on Coyote black diamond run one day on the newer parabolic skis that tend to over steer if you are not used to them so I wound up over steering and going down a hill backwards so I dropped to the snow and jammed my ski pole into the snow and luckily it saved my life on this black diamond slope at Mt. shasta Ski Park.
However, it scared me so bad I never skied Coyote run ever again and preferred the Douglas black diamond run instead ever after that. Better to stay alive! It's no fun if you die skiing!
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