Day 955 (Daily Post)
Day 955. I must be rather excited about my impending move to a new place because I am once again awake long before the sun with my sleepy mind exploring strategies for getting myself setup there and mulling over some of the logistics required to do so in a way that will make things a bit easier.
Since where I will be initially setting things up is beneath a thick canopy of trees there are some factors that my brain just won't quit thinking about like the potential for mold and mildew, the lack of any grass (or other ground cover foliage) that would keep things from being churned into a mucky mess by me and the dogs' foot traffic, the potential of falling trees and branches and lightning strikes. As a rule I generally try to avoid living under trees because of those factors but given the range of my dogs and the way the property is situated with a nearby paved road which is something completely alien to my dogs' experiences...the best fit at the new place for them is back in the woods and under the trees which is conveniently backed up against miles of undeveloped wilderness.
From what a local fellow was telling me about the area I am moving to there is a lot of bear activity and they are not all that shy about coming in folks' yard and rifling through the trash so I will have to be extra careful with having food around and take that into consideration as I am setting things up. Thankfully the dogs all are familiar with bear activity and rather adept at keeping them at bay.
There is also a good bit of coyote activity but I doubt they will be as problematic as they were here (where I currently am) especially since I won't be running them out of their winter den and moving into it like I did upon my arrival here. I might work the dogs some to drive the coyotes off but again the paved road is problematic in that regard as well so I will have to wait and see how I feel about it when the time comes and exactly where the coyotes' circuit/territory is.
As I have been going through the motions of dismantling and packing stuff down here I occasionally find myself questioning the sanity of my lifestyle choices while simultaneously marveling at having spent much of my life learning the skills required to live the way I do as well as acquiring the gear to do so. At this point I feel like my gear scenario is pretty complete (or complete enough) because over the last several years I have been able to build out my electricity generation/storage systems as well as my water harvesting/storage systems which is pretty damn amazing because those have been on my itinerary for a very long time.
My goal for a number of years now has been to find the right place to build my own permanent shelter and although I have built a few to 'make do' along the way I have never quite achieved that goal with any sort of longevity. I was preparing to do that here but as we all know my plans were arbitrarily changed for me with the whole 'having to move' thing but fortunately I have acquired most of what I need to at least get me started on a shelter and if push comes to shove I can always setup my mini-shelter because even though it isn't all that large it is at least cozy, dry and warm which is all that is really required for sleeping and enduring foul weather purposes.
Everyone that gets into the homesteading, off-grid, low impact living stuff has all sorts of ideas about how to do stuff, what they would do, what they would need etcetera but in truth the most vital things are having/learning skills that make doing things without much in the way of funds possible, flexibility in being able to actually adapt to the surrounding environment, being aware of the actual impact upon said environment and most importantly maintaining an if not actually 'good' attitude at least one that is 'workable' and can maintain a focus on solutions instead of problems. Truthfully most folks are better off just keeping their homesteading goals purely in the realm of fantasy because it is taxing, difficult, stressful and downright arduous to arrive on a piece of raw (or mostly raw) land with no infrastructure in place and not just start but actually accomplish their homesteading goals.
On the flipside to that any schmuck with enough revenue can assuredly 'throw money' at a scenario and create whatever the hell they want but I think in doing so they sort of miss out on the real rewards that do not have a 'price tag' attached to them. I will leave it up to the reader to puzzle out what said 'rewards' might actually be but suffice it to say that if your heart, mind and soul isn't comprised of one part sheer grit and three parts fortitude undertaking such a task will be a crushing experience but hey getting 'crushed' is not all that bad as long as you can get back up again, learn something from it all and just keep moving forward.
Anyway I keep telling myself 'Here we go again Jacob...right back at square one with this homesteading dream of yours!' and although there is some margin of validity to that it is not wholly accurate because I will this time be moving to a functioning and established homestead and will merely be setting up my own little area there as I also contribute to the larger homestead around me. My biggest fear in it all is that I might become mildly domesticated (hold on while I shudder in sheer horror at the very notion) and somehow lose a bit of my post-apocalyptic hardiness along the way. Yet simultaneously I am looking forward to being around folks I love and love me and hopefully the inverse turns out to be true and some of my said 'hardiness' will rub off on them. The way things tend to go though a little bit of both will probably occur and we will all be thankful for it.
Well I have rambled on enough for one cloudy morning and now that the sun is actually making it's way over the mountain I am going to wrap this up by saying thanks for reading and thanks for being in my life no matter how tenuous that might be because it sure means a hell of a lot to me.
