An Unsheltered Life

This blog is called “An Unsheltered Life” because I’m only physically sheltered. Emotionally, spiritually and mentally, on the other hand…well, it’s not difficult to learn when the lessons hit you left and right.


My name’s Sarah, and I’m twenty-seven. Single, no dependents, living on thirteen acres in the middle of nowhere with my parents and most of my four sibs. We moved out to this tract of land eighteen years ago, after we had more than enough of city life and began looking for some room to peacefully, quietly grow up and live our own lives.

When we moved out here, we weren’t thinking about the world going berserk. This was in the early 1990s, when things weren’t really all that bad. Lately, though, most of my sibs and I don’t really want to move out. Four of the five “kids” (the youngest is nineteen now – I’m the oldest) are still here. It’s weird, because we’re all adults and could get our own places, but this is home.

When we can afford our own acreage in the middle of nowhere, we’ll move out, maybe. But we aren’t about to move into the city or the suburbs, or even into the trailer park near our place, which is crammed full of tiny lots barely large enough for a mobile home and one vehicle. We aren’t falling for the sucker bet that is the current housing market. We’d rather stay here, in the trailer that’s paid in full, than lose everything.

Besides: most of us are college students, so we’re still trying to figure out what we want to be when we finally grow up, and find ways to get there if we can.

Tough times are here, folks, and I don’t see them getting easier. My family and I have an advantage because our lives have always been a bit challenging. We have things pretty good now, by our own standards, but we know that this won’t last forever.

This blog is about what we’ve done, or are doing. I don’t feel qualified to write about what’s still pending for us, because I tend to prefer shutting up when I have no idea of what I’m talking about. I don’t know where I fall on the “survivalist scale,” as far as prepping goes. I’m not the most prepared out there, but I’m not the least ready, either. Let’s see how this turns out.