Michael Hansen

Thanks wood, the camp/bunkhouse idea was separate from the foster kid's idea.  It would be just that, a camp that kids could come to for a week or two.  Anyways, my wife and I just had an interview with Teaching Family Homes in Marquette, MI.  It went very well.  It was for a live-in position on their 40 acre campus.  We would have 6-8 foster kids and we think it would be a great way to start and from there build our farm.  If it's something we would like to continue, we would make sure we built a few extra rooms to accommodate some extra kids.  We'll find our next week!

Thanks Emerson, it seems you have some well thought out/researched opinions.  I agree with Jonathan's criticism though.  If this were just a conversation most of that would be irrelevant, but it seems to be in the form of an essay or research paper.  Some people don't take criticism well though and can misconstrue it as a personal attack or that they disagree with your opinion.

You also didn't state as to weather you wanted to make this a conversation or wanted an opinion on the essay.

As a side note, one of my best friends is named Emerson... You don't see that too often.  (His mother was a Literary Arts professor and was almost named Thoreau.  But his last name is Jahn, so the name Thoreau Jahn would lead to some confusion as to where to "throw John")

My family has been entertaining a similar idea for some time.  We want to set up an Alaskan style dinner theater on Friday and Saturday nights.  Serving Alaskan King Crab, Red Salmon, Corn Fritters, Homemade Sourdough Bread, Ribs and Steak.  My Father-In-Law (Mike Campbell) would sing a few sets and then I (dressed up like an Old Sourdough) would recite some Robert Service, like The Cremation of Sam McGee, and my wife is a fiddle player with over 20 years experience. Maybe if we were lucky we'd be able to find some other local talent as well.  What a hoot that would be.

My Father-In-Law retires next week and will be leaving Alaska to their retirement home in Florida.  One of the local radio stations in Anchorage had a 1 hour tribute to him as a farewell.
 

Well Alaska is the Northern most and Western most state (and Eastern most depending on which map you're looking at.
To fly from Anchorage to Seattle only take about 3 hours, and since Alaskans have no professional sports teams, they usually identify with Seattle teams (i.e. Seahawks.)  Unless they are a transplant from the lower 48, then they usually root for their home team.  I do miss Alaska greatly, I'm just not a huge fan of the 9 months of cold.

Thanks for all the advice guys.  If we decide to go this route, I'll make sure I have the kids out there 1st to make darn sure that they want to live without TV and video games.  I think any kid who decides that this life would be for them would work out just fine.  You can't help them all, but there are some out there that would excel in life if someone took the time to guide them.  As far as buildings go, everything I build will be permitted and up to code. 

Thanks guys, I guess that's better than having to take my wacky ideas of being prepared and other such nonsense to the Meaningless Drivel forum.

Hmm, I thought my intentions were specifically to steer clear of the doomers, crop circles and tin foil hats and discuss Emergency Preparedness and Self Sufficiency as they would pertain to real world events.  I also like the idea of wilderness survival.  There are natural disasters that affect many people every year. Tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, snow storms etc.  Hurricane Charley destroyed the area I'm living in right now.  People went without power and decent water for weeks.  Look at the Northeast Blackout of 2003. 55 million people lost power for less than a day, and lost their minds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003

I guess my comment about peak oil put you at odds with the topic, in the 1970s it was considered a pretty fringe idea.  Here in 2010 I think most people have their eyes open to the fact that cheap energy won't last forever and Permaculture plays a major role in my emergency preparedness and self sufficiency.

I would love to have an area devoted to discussions on this topic, but with a Permies.com flavor.  I've been to a few out there, but I can't stay for very long.  I find the subject pertinent and interesting, but the screwballs and nutters just kill it for me every time.  Most people are unprepared to deal with not having power for a few days let alone weeks or months.  Yes indeed there is the possibility of a major catastrophe befalling the world or U.S., or possibly just your region or state.  But I do not believe the sky is falling and I'm not a religious person.  I do not believe that aliens have taken over our government and have secret bases under the Denver Airport.  I do however believe in real world problems and events.  I spent 2 years in Bosnia, a beautiful country that was once a popular tourist destination for much of Europe.  I've seen that country torn apart by civil war.  Neighbors killing neighbors, children and families starving and burning their furniture for firewood.  I also believe we'll be going through a peak oil transition in our near future.  There will come a time when people's power and water will be rationed, and people will be given ration cards for certain items they buy from the grocery store.  When I was in Germany, we had ration cards for coffee, tea and tobacco.  I didn't smoke, so I let my friends buy smokes on my ration card.

I would love to have healthy talks about this subject without feeling like I need to back out of the room very slowly.

If you don't think a separate forum is necessary, then I can start a thread somewhere.  Thanks!

I'm no expert, but if sprouting seedlings is your only goal, something like this might work out.

http://www.bikudo.com/product_search/details/108557/disposable_plastic_food_container_fruit_box.html

Or possibly building a long box with windowed doors set in at an angle that you could just set seed trays inside and close the door. Like a mini greenhouse.

I kinda kicked the hornet's nest over there on countryplans.com lol.  I dunno what got into me, maybe it was the twins getting into the tube of Desitin before I had my coffee.  I normally don't voice criticism on the webs, but I had my daddy voice on this morning.