Are We Finally Moving?

As readers of this blog are aware, I have been talking about our plans to relocate for quite some time. Since becoming fully aware of the crises heading our way - or already here - such as peak oil, climate change, and a faltering economy, we have felt the need to find a place of our own where we can really dig in and adapt to a world with lower energy inputs.

We've wanted a place we can make as energy efficient as possible, a place where water is either not a concern or can be harvested, a place where we can grow much of our own food, a place where we can bike and walk instead of driving, a place where we can form community, and a place where we will be reasonably happy. At one time, we were also looking for a place that would accommodate my sweetie's mother but she has since made other plans to move into a smaller, more affordable place of her own.

My sweetie's done the primary research on relocation over the months, er .... years, while I've looked at paring down the household while making sure we have what we'd need for areas under consideration. I picked up gardening books for the far North, the Midwest, and the Pacific NW. I stocked up on yardsale quilts to eventually make nice warm window quilts and picked up a book on heating with wood as we considered moving to regions that have real winters. We considered rural areas here with my sweetie commuting to a city apartment for work but that didn't work out due to land prices, cost of commuting, and the unappetizing idea of being apart so much.

I've appealed to you for suggestions of places to live. I've tried to explain to local friends and acquaintances until I was blue in the face just why we didn't think the desert SW was a sustainable or viable place to live, especially due to climate change-induced drought and rising energy costs as a result of peak oil. I've suffered through hot summers here while waiting, still in limbo, for our plans to come together resulting in a move to somewhere green.

In the meantime, the economy took a nosedive, the housing market collapsed, and unemployment rose steadily. Suddenly, the idea of relocating with no job lined up or a new job that could be eliminated the following week started to feel risky. One of our fallback plans has been to provide some kind of service or goods in a home-based business if formal employment fell through. With rising unemployment, foreclosures, and increasing poverty, though, the number of potential customers drops as well. More risk. We still hung in there, though, with my sweetie checking the MLS listing in the Pacific NW on a regular basis. Despite the economic situation, though, house prices are not falling up there at the rate we expected. Unemployment, on the other hand, is rising at an alarming rate. These do not combine for a pretty picture.

We've come to a decision. It is one that has been niggling at the back of my brain for some time and I finally voiced it aloud a couple of weeks ago. I think it had been in the back of my sweetie's brain, too, because he readily agreed that it was our most realistic plan.

Are you sitting down? Are you ready to find our what we're planning now?

We are not going to relocate. We are planning to stay in Tucson. After you've picked your jaw up off your desk, I'll explain. Given my previous comments and posts, it seems crazy but there are some good reasons for this decision. It will make sense to you soon.

My sweetie has a job here, one that is unlikely to be eliminated anytime soon. While he may have to take paycuts and/or work furloughs (along with all the other employees), it still provides steady income. It's not enough to make us rich or allow us to upgrade to a super fuel-efficient car, but it allows us to pay the monthly bills. That is nothing to sneeze at in this economy.

Home prices are coming down in Tucson, although it may be a while yet until we can find something affordable that's not in a ghetto. We've started looking and are not entirely discouraged. Being able to house-hunt in the city we live in takes away the time pressure of finding something during a very short visit to a new place. It also means we can get a fixer-upper and do the biggest, messiest work before moving in.

We have access to great local food. My CSA provides us with fresh produce, grains, and beans year-round. There are a number of farmer's markets with quite a few local vendors providing produce that we like to eat. There are opportunities to get food for free or barter from friends' and neighbors' yards in the form of citrus, olives, and prickly pear fruit. (We're not as keen on mesquite beans but that is another option.) My sweetie is learning to garden in the desert conditions.

We already have some community ties. I've been involved with the CSA for several years and a number of members there are food preservation nuts, too. My sweetie has some connections with the local bike community. There are also local groups for solar cooking, permaculture, biking, slow food, sustainability, and organic gardening. We plan to start checking them out and get more involved since we'll now have a stake in this area's future.

But, I can hear you say, what about the problems you've talked about before? The size of the city, the heat, the lack of water? These are concerns and we are considering them.

The slowing economy has put a damper on growth. New home construction came to a grinding halt as the housing market collapsed. Water issues are going to be a limiting factor here. With increasing unemployment, there is less appeal for people to move here. Increasing temperatures (due to climate change) and rising energy costs may drive away some of the current population.

One advantage of a larger community is that budget cuts may reduce services to bare bones but hopefully not eliminate them entirely. Smaller towns may not have the same resiliency in a budget crunch. Tucson is also on the major West-East shipping routes by train and truck so goods will continue to be available. Places off the beaten path may find delivery costs drastically increasing with rising fuel costs.

The heat is something we both suffer through each summer. One problem in our rental house is that half the ceiling fans don't work. If they did, the moving air would go a long ways towards more comfort even on the hottest days. When we get our own place, we will make sure there are ceiling fans, an evaporative cooler big enough for the house, and we will weatherize. Our house-hunting budget includes upgrade costs for things like dual-pane windows and ceiling fans (which is why we have to find a cheap house in the first place). We're also looking at smaller houses as they are cheaper to cool and heat.

We would also move more of our cooking outside in the summer. Besides the solar ovens, we have plans for a rocket stove and possibly a cob oven. I want to eliminate as much indoor cooking as possible during the hot months. I don't know if I can do canning on a rocket stove, but I hope that will be a possibility, too.

The winters are mild enough here that better insulation will go a long ways towards reducing utility costs. In our own place, I'd have no qualms about putting up window quilts. I haven't done that here because it would require permanent mounting of boards (into masonry) over the windows. Our landlord wouldn't be too keen on that.

Regarding water issues, that certainly concerns us. However, we're already well adapted to using our water very conservatively and are always on the lookout for more ways to cut back. My sweetie is constantly researching ways to garden more with less water and I work to reduce water use in the house. With our own place, it would make sense to invest in harvesting water from the entire roof as well as contouring the property for best water retention for edible landscaping. While city water will likely get far more expensive here over time, we don't expect those services to disappear in our lifetime.

There are other advantages to staying in this community. I have friends here that I would sorely miss if we moved away. I already know the bike routes, the best places to buy bulk foods, the feral produce trees, the sources for animal manure and compost, and the culture here. Staying local significantly reduces the cost, and difficulties, of moving. Staying here also minimizes the stress on my mother-in-law by eliminating the need for her to consider a cross-country move and by ensuring we will always be within a couple hours' drive should she need us.

We think we can make this work. I even ran these thoughts by Sharon to see is she thought we'd lost our minds, but she agrees that if anyone can do it, we can. So, does anyone want to come be our neighbor? Ha!