Homesteading

As much as I've been loving my experience here, my mind has been focused elsewhere for the last few weeks. I've always been a planner; I love to have at least a basic idea what direction I'm heading in. I find that when my future is murky I tend to feel like I'm in a rut and depression charges in fast and hard. After spending a few weeks feeling super depressed here (and after determining that home sickness was a contributing but not causing factor) I figured that it was time to sit down and start thinking about what my new and improved one, three and five year goals were going to be. That seems to have hit the nail on the head because now that I have my cogs rolling, I'm feeling a lot more enthusiastic and focused. Naturally, that doesn't mean I have my plans figured out yet. Right now I'm just brainstorming, but I'm doing it at a much larger level than I have before.

This trip and the months leading up to it threw me into new territory financially. Quick background: I moved out of my parents house when I was 19 and aside from a one year stint at Mom's house (which was not done out of necessity), I've lived relatively independently since then. There've been times when things were tight and I had to borrow some money to stay afloat, but those were few and far between; for arguments sake, I've spent the last 10 years supporting myself yet like most middle-class folks, in a near-constant battle to keep myself in the black. The last few years I've found myself in jobs that weren't satisfying or enjoyable but offered a larger paycheck. I feel like I was always looking for more money to give me just a little more breathing room (and therefore a little more freedom to do fun things). I'm now considering going back to school for a degree I'm not terribly passionate about simply because it'll give me more money. Is this really how I want to spend the rest of my life, constantly chasing down a bigger and better job to match my bigger (not better) lifestyle? Do I want to be 50, counting down the years until I can retire and FINALLY start living the life I want?

Obviously the answer to that is easy. I want to live my life now, not pass it off until I'm old enough to retire and hope that my body will cooperate enough to allow me to still enjoy myself then. I want to do the things that make me happy, even if that means living on a meager amount of money and making heavy cuts in the way I live. Seeing how people live here has opened my eyes to how wasteful we are in the states. People here are way ahead of the game when it comes to reusing items and energy efficiency, not because of environmental concerns but because of lack of money. It's made me realize that living frugally is totally possible and would open up a lot more opportunities for me to do the things that I REALLY want to do with my life.

So I sat down and thought, if I had all the money I needed and could do anything I wanted for the rest of my life, what would it be? I'd want to live in a cabin deep in the woods, have lots of privacy but still be close to my family. I want to have the opportunity to travel and help people, but I also want to spend the majority of my time at home, so I can raise a family of my own. I want to do build my own furniture and dig out a root cellar. I want to spend all day in my garden and fall asleep under the stars. Why not do that now? I can't imagine anything that would make me happier.

I've wanted to "live off the land" since I was a little kid. I remember reading My Side of the Mountain and falling in love with the idea of being completely self sufficient and surrounded by nature. That's one of the reasons I love backpacking so much, I love knowing that I can survive with some basic tools and supplies, all the other crap I have is fluff.

I've been really inspired by a ton of blogs I've been reading lately, especially www.WaldenEffect.org. There are tons of stories out there of people who got tired of the endless grind and constant need for MORE, so they simply took themselves out of the equation. They saved enough money for a bit of property, moved into a tent or built a little shack and lived there debt free forever. You can grow plenty of food to support a family, raise chickens and pigs for meat and manure and use the trees for heat and fuel. I would have no mortgage and super low food costs, that accounts for a huge chunk of my budget now. My bills would be limited to property taxes, electricity (with the goal of eventually switching to solar), propane for cooking (which could also be switched out to wood if I got REALLY gung-ho), phone/internet (which I couldn't live without-at least not right now), gasoline and car insurance. There would be start up costs but once I was established I should be able to live a relatively cheap existence for a really great lifestyle. Also I'm actually have a huge advantage as a nurse because I can even work telephonically part-time and continue to earn a pay check.

If you're wondering where travel fits in here, I figure if I want to do a volunteer stint like I'm on now, the winters will be dead time. I can easily travel and volunteer during these times (provided that I had someone to feed my animals while I was gone).

I've been doing a ton of research into Homesteading (the practice of living off the land) and I know that I can make this work. I'm going to use the next nine months here to build up my knowledge base, determine how much I need to save up, and then work my butt off for an early (semi-)retirement in the next three years :) To help me on my way I've taken up another volunteer position helping out on the farm here. Staring Saturday morning I'll be out there building up a relationship with the head gardener who will hopefully take me under his wing and teach me all there is to know about growing amazing organic vegetables! After an "internship" there for a few months, I plan on switching over to the granja or farm, where I'll learn about raising livestock like chickens, goats, cows and pigs. Hooray for a free education!

Here are some pictures that have had my heart racing lately, enjoy!

This house is a cob house, a home thats made from mud and straw for around $8,000. Lots of homesteaders have them since they're sustainable and super cheap to construct! DREAM. COME. TRUE.