Heat lamp vs Heating Pad

[kodster]

uggh... do not blame you. We decided to stow away in this tiny mountain community & shoot for self-sufficiency. But everybody we know has left

Yea, even here in North Dakota, where we're at now... we live in a tiny rural community. Only commercial business here is the local bar, where you can buy prepared food as well as alcohol, but everything else that is commercial is either agricultural or oil industry-related (we're just inside the edge of the Bakken oilfield that straddles from Montana, eastward, about a third of the way into North Dakota). And we love it. The next town that has all the amenities we need is only 8 miles away, and if we need more than that, Minot is an hour away. So, needless to say, we're content here. House is paid for, so just month-to-month expenses. One of the things that we're hesitant about returning... we'd be taking on a mortgage again, too... and with the high cost of living there on the west coast... major deterrent.