Background To It All

We've lived in urban or suburban areas most of our lives. My sister, who is 16 years older than I, is nearing retirement age (beyond this information she would kill me) and was looking to get away from cities and back to a more simple, more efficient, and more 'robust' lifestyle in retirement.

I wanted that, too. There is something good--a good, in fact--about building your own building, about producing your own food and having care of the land. Perhaps it goes back to our being made from 'dust' and returning to 'dust', something profoundly spiritual and physically re-creative (in both senses of the term) at the same time

There are socio-economic and political implications for wanting to do this, too. The American experiment may have run its course; rising gas prices put constant pressure on the consumer. All of this will be explored in detail later.

For now, here is the basic plan:

1.) Get land in conjunction with my sister, her husband, and their son.
2.) Start gathering information on how to 'homestead', live off the land, lard the lean earth, etc.
3.) Find methods of building that are low-maintenance, cheap, but strong and long-lasting.
4.) Build my (small) house first (within the first six months after purchasing the land); I move there.
5.) Start the fruit trees, start the outbuildings for food production, and get the land 'ready'.
6.) Build my sister's house within 18 months of land purchase
7.) My sister's family retires to the land.

AND do all this for as cheaply as possible.

Now, the caveats.

I am not a builder. I can hammer, patch drywall, lay tile, or do pretty much anything only because I don't know that I can't! Show me how, and I'll do it.

On the other hand, I know people who do know these things. I can act as facilitator for a collaboration. I can look for creative financing. I can scrounge for scrap and supplies. I'm in my late 40s and in poor shape physically but am a former athlete trapped in this now-sedentary body.

My sister has never been a 'worker' per se; she and her husband are academics. Their lovable, clever, but anemic son has never really used any sorts of tools other than whilst working on a car engine.

I plan to channel my deceased father's knowledge--he was a builder--and will this plan into actuality.