(written over the course of multiple days, starting on the 30th and ending on May 3rd)
Howdy folks!
There’s not a whole lot to report, which I guess is kind of funny because the life upheaval is in full swing. 🙃
The going forward plans at this point are for Thomas to have a tiny home here on Haven Hill. Not sure yet whether He will buy one already built out or buy a shell and have Jim or someone else finish it.
Pros and cons. Pros, it’s already done, plug and play. Cons, you don’t know how good of a job they did with everything, and you don’t get to choose yourself how it’s designed.
The tiny home will likely be set somewhere on the back of Liz’s property down by the tree line.
I think that’s pretty much a given at this point (the tiny home thing there for Thomas).
For my mom, she’s proceeding in that same direction. So far, the tentative plan is for her to have a tiny home and a tiny storage building. Things could change, but that’s the going forward plan at this point. That’ll give her a footprint here for her Arkansas family and make it easier to travel/be elsewhere with her blood family.
As for me?
😅
Everything is still quite a bit up in the air. 🙃
I could do the tiny home thing as well, as Liz and Mike have been super generous in offering their land for us to live on.
My tentative plan going forward, however, is that wherever I live next is going to be mine mine.
That’s pretty much my most solid decision at this point (nothing is set in stone right now). I’ve greatly appreciated the generosity of those over the years who’ve let me live at their places–most recently, Chrysti, Steve, my mom, And the rest of my Haven Hill Arkansas family.
Now at this point in my life, I just want a place that I can come home to that’s mine–a place I can do what I want with, when I want with, and have it actually be mine, a place that if I ever actually have a family, I can leave to my children.
I’ve mostly given up on that dream, though (having a family). There’s still a flicker of life for that dream, but it’s mostly dead (The Princess Bride’s mostly dead 🙃). Not all dead.
Funny how life goes. In a million years, I never would have guessed.
I’m grateful to have the option of having my own place. There are many who do not have the opportunities that I have.
🙏
So I’m looking all around for different possible places to live. I don’t think I can ever do a neighborhood again, not in the traditional suburban sense, that is. Certainly I want neighbors: I just don’t want to see their houses. I don’t like seeing man-made buildings. For me, my haven is nature. And I want my home to be my haven.
That’s one of the reasons why I want to build myself a hobbit home. 🙃
Depending on cost, I might actually do that first. Though I’m looking at several different options… Buying an RV trailer like my sister and brother-in-law, buying or building a tiny home…
First things first, though. I have to figure out where I want to live. I don’t know the answer to that question.
…though New Zealand keeps coming back to mind. 🙃
😁
Maybe…
Nowhere is home though, honestly, and there’s nowhere that I am actually excited about living. So it’s one huge question mark. Where do I choose to live?
I’ve also thought about just being a nomad, traveling around just trying to do good all over the world but without a home of my own.
🤷
I think the main reason that nowhere is home is that I don’t have a significant other. I think if I had a significant other, then anywhere with that person would be home. I think my significant other herself would be home.
But I don’t have a significant other, So I guess I just need to figure out where home is going to be… make a choice.
I don’t like choices that feel permanent. I know they are not permanent, but still… the hefty commitments are hard. Unless I’m 100% confident, I like having simple and relatively easy exit strategies. That’s one of the reasons I’m a mobile mechanic and don’t own a shop. Low overhead. No rent commitments. No long projects that force me to stay going on them in order to take care of the customer.
So where is home going to be? Geographically, I look around, and I just don’t know. Logically, being near family would make sense, but there are deal-breaker issues with each of those places for me. Utah is too crowded and too smoggy and too expensive, and winters are too long , and it’s just too much of a desert, and I have too many painful memories and reminders of the hardest things of my life there.
The West Coast can be absolutely gorgeous in places, and I would absolutely love to be in some of the places there, especially in Western Oregon and West Central Washington, but I just struggle with the politics And the resultant public policy. I’m more of a libertarian, though I am unaffiliated, And my views on freedom and economics don’t fit in that environment, not as a place to live, at least.
That’s one reason I’m grateful to live in the United States, where I have the ability to move from state to state. I love the way our country is structured. To me it’s brilliant, But it means that the geography that I love might not always be the place I feel comfortable/at home.
And that’s okay. It’s great, actually.
South Dakota is just too… cold. And there aren’t enough trees for me near where my sister and brother-in-law are.
Arkansas is humid and quite hot in the summertime. Pretty miserable, at times…
Nevada, down near my dad and stepmom, is just… an oven and a barren desert. 🥵
So living near family… yeah… There are so many deal breakers.. Not that I don’t love my family! (Sorry family!!! 😅)
My heart longs for the mountains, and I want to be on a piece of property that has both fields and hills and a river running through it, and my dream would be to have a waterfall on the property! Trees and wildlife. I don’t want to see the neighbors. I would prefer a non-humid climate, but… The nice places that aren’t humid And that have mountains tend to be either in areas where the Price is way too high, politics don’t match, or they are too deserty.
I have to finally do that pros and cons spreadsheet of what I’m willing to sacrifice and what I’m not willing to sacrifice.
I’ve never finished it…
(sigh)
Let’s see, updates on my axed leg…
It’s been improving steadily. Each day it seems to be a little bit better than the day before. And today I didn’t even take ibuprofen. As long as I don’t try and pivot, the pain is just mostly achy. If I try and pivot, then it gets really sharp.
Stitches come out on Wednesday, along with getting more x-rays to make sure it’s okay and healing properly and the fracture isn’t increasing.
Still walking with a limp, And evenings are definitely a good bit more painful having walked on it all day, but I’m super grateful to be where I am at this point in the recovery.
🙏🥳
No running or jumping for a little while longer. 🙃
A significant portion of my preparation for moving has been in putting stuff up for sale. I’ve got a 40 ft extension ladder but I put up for sale, my mom’s lawn mower trailer, My Autel ECU programming device, the refrigerant that I bought when I was trying to help Stevie with his house, and the refrigerant recovery tank that I bought for the same reason…
I’ve got three vehicles listed for sale right now… My CNG van, the BMW Z4, and the Volkswagen. Trying to sell as many things as I can before May 31st.
🤞
Lots of other things will be going up on the chopping block soon.
Sell sell sell!!!
Realistically, there’s a very high likelihood that I’ll end up being a nomad for a while. I’ll probably sell enough of my possessions to get to the point that everything I own can fit into two vans: One will have all of my tools in it, and one will have all of my personal possessions in it and will be my house.
That’s my preparedness plan, at least. 🙃
My big doggy van is perfect for that, though the gas mileage is atrocious. 😅
The mileage problem is caused by its shape… which also happens to be a good quality at the same time.
What else… Since I’ve neglected to do JustAnswer pretty much all month except for at the very beginning of the month, I spent quite a bit of time doing JustAnswer the last handful of days of the month. I was hoping to get up to what I made last month, but I didn’t quite make it. I forgot that JustAnswer’s new day starts like 5 hours sooner than it’s supposed to. I think maybe their clock is on like Greenwich mean Time or something like that.
I ended up with a little over $1,900 for the month through JustAnswer, before taxes, so that’s decent. This is the first month where I’ve regressed. I’ve increased how much I’ve made each month until now. But maybe I’ll make up for it in May, especially given my screwed up leg. 🙃
It’s a crazy busy time right now. Lots of stress. Lots of logistics to try and figure out. Lots of decisions that have to be made that we can’t avoid or run from.
What else… Tried to fix Jim’s car, but found out that the issue is more than what I was hoping it was, so it was more than I wanted to take on given where my health is right now.
Had a good long conversation with Stephanie about life and the hill and everything that’s going on right now. I’m grateful for the love of my Hill family gives me. 🥰
Took Mom out to dinner. Forget which night it was, But we’ve all been stressed to the max lately, and it just seems like a nice time to just go out to eat instead of having her worry about trying to fix something for dinner.
We are lucky we have that option– to just go out to eat because we’re too mentally and emotionally fried to think about trying to come up with something to make.
We had the some people from the state forestry service, or something like that, come out and walk around the property with us with their suggestions and whatnot for how to take care of the property here. They reinforced some of the things that we’ve been thinking we ought to do, and they gave us some additional information as well, so that was nice.
So that’s the update for now. Sorry the updates have been sporadic and far between.
Love and hugs!
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 