Surviving

I began to tell about a personal survival situation in my last post. I had been working as a foreman in a machine shop for eight years when it shut down and moved in 1980. I immedaitely got a job a night superintedent in an electronics firm. In 1982 that plant shut down and moved to Mexico. My wife divorced me because I could not hold down a steady job. At least that is what she said at the time. I had bee running a small part time landscaping business at the time and decided to take it full time as I could not find another job. I had to move the business out of the house I had been living in as she got the house. I rented a large house with enough space for both my landscaping equipment and to refinish furniture which I was attempting to sell at a local indoor flea market. I sold everything I had including a piece of property in northern Wisconsin to finance my going full time in the business world. I did well in 1982, building up a good sized clientelle for spring to fall lawn care plus some major landscaping jobs. I also did fairly well at the flea market. In 1983 the bottom fell out. The summer was very dry and people did not want landscaping done. the following winter was warm and dry and I sold only a fraction of the firewood I had the previous year and made very little on snow removal. These were the two things I did to make money through the winter. By the spring of 1984 The business was deeply in debt, I was three months behind in my rent and behind in my utilities. The flea market business had taken such a downturn that I had given up my spot in the indoor market and moved everything to my house and went occasionally to other markets. I was not making much money at these markets, sometimes not enough to pay my gas, meals and spot rent. The credit card companies were dunning me for the money I had used to run the business, my landlady was about to evict me and the utilities were about to shut me off. Stay tuned for my next posting and I will tell you how a survivalist gets out of a situation like this and what I did.