Eileen Muza is one of us (“The Pioneer of Ruin,” HCN, 9/17/18). How many of us there are, I have no idea, but we can be found in condemned houses in cities and scattered across the countryside. I myself bought a piece of land adjoining the Chanchelulla Wilderness Area in California in 1987. I moved into a 1958-model house trailer that had been abandoned for 10 years. Out of a $498 Social Security check, I paid $243 a month mortgage and had $255 a month to live on for a start, for food, car and firewood. There is no telephone or public power here. I did a lot of the work myself toward fixing the mess up. Eventually, I got a USDA grant for a roof and a water tank. The local community action agency gave me an oil heater and some help every year for heating oil. I got a VA pension and some help from other sources. I’ve had trouble with dope growers and various “social workers” trying to run me out. It has been a real hardship to make a go of it, especially now that I am in a wheelchair. But I won’t give my home up. Real estate prices have gone so high that it seems like only the rich can afford an apartment or a house. So we homestead the modern way: We find a rathole to crawl into and fix it up. We gather materials from dumps and other abandoned places and make do. And we find inner peace.
Carolyn Munn
Hayfork, California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Abandoned places.
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