I can relate to the extended family - I've got my wife and 3 kids, plus my parents in-laws, sister in law, and her two kids living with us. I was the only one with full-time employment, so they could not afford to live on their own. I've worked for private industry (logging company), state govt, and the federal govt. When you work in natural resources, a lot of the jobs are in one form of gov't or another. On the ground, the jobs are about the same, really, its just the large-scale politics that differ. As we say to each other, it's just a different load of BS depending on who you work for...
As far as the mechanics of the furlough, we did not get official notice until Oct 1, but we were all watching the news and were kind of expecting it. We will not be paid unless congress passes an act that provides for it, which I am not expecting! Everyone in my unit is on partial soft-money because as Fenix said, there is less money for domestic programs as 87% of taxes goes toward wars, social programs and pensions. That means that we need to bring in outside money from people willing to pay us to get jobs done for them in order to cover part of our salaries and all of our operating costs. Those deadlines will not change, so we'll have to work double to cover the shortfall when we return. We're exempt from overtime, so we'll just have to do the work for the same salary. I'm not complaining about the pay - I know I have a good job in general and scrambling for soft money is part of the new normal as well. Most of us would work for free through the furlough just to keep up with our projects, but we are forbidden to volunteer during this time. The locks have actually been changed on the building!
Well, I'm off to put more stuff on craigslist and work with my FIL in the workshed. We machine plastic parts at home for more income, and now it is our only income!
Cheers, Dan