The long term?

It's a conversation we had again today and that we have regularly because people always ask us, "but you are going to buy a house, right?"  It shows how our choices make others uncomfortable - breaking norms always does.  I've thought long and hard about the stereotypes about people living in trailers.  I just don't give a shit.  Living in the moment is more satisfying than worrying about what comes next.  My choices are wide open and I like that feeling.  I could, hypothetically drive away from here tomorrow - it would take me a couple of hours to have my house on the road.  It is liberating.  I am not tied down.  There is a lightness of living with less.  You have to experience it to appreciate it completely.

I was invited in to tour a beautiful fifth wheel a month or more ago.  An older couple lives in it.  It was very nice, but I just couldn't see why I would need all that.  Maybe my Hideout will grow too small over time, I don't know.  But for now I am channeling my inner child - the one that liked to build forts in the woods.  I feel secure in this space.

We met another family full-timing with two kids aged 7 and 5.  They have a monster, 49' fifth wheel toy hauler with a patio deck that slides out as well as 4 or 5 other slides.  That beast must have cost $80,000 or more.  It was beautiful, but really too extravagant for my tastes.  National Parks would be off the table because the rig is too big.  Also, when I see these huge rigs I wonder about gas costs...they must be astronomical.  Our 6-cylinder Tacoma guzzles gas when the Hideout is being pulled, but nothing like a dually!  Will we upgrade or buy a house?  Neither option sounds good at this time...

We've been thinking about a cross-country trip for so long that it's almost like I can't see past it. It's hard to think long-term when you have to deal with so much change and adjustment in such a short period of time.  But we do have a long-term plan...

Our long-term goals at present include finishing our self-sufficient home on our land in NE AZ.  That project has been in the works since 1998 - holy crap - 20 years this March!  I will have to share a history of all the work that has gone into that land over the years.  We were children with no handyman experience when we bought the land dreaming of living off the grid with no mortgage or utility payments.  Over 20 years we have obtained a septic system, a well (complete with both a solar pump and a back-up hand pump), and a 500 square foot SteelMaster building. These three things are not connected - though we have all of the necessary components to do so.  We have also improved some of the roads and built a shed around the well.  However because of our inexperience we have made dozens of mistakes along the way and have been frustrated by the length of time each project takes.  Now that we are done having babies (which severely hindered our ability to move the project forward), and now that Sister is approaching 4....we should be able to resume work with the assistance of Brother - who, at 8 years old, may finally be a help rather than hindrance.  This remains to be seen... Having purchased the land while childless we never considered the hazards of being in the high desert far from civilization with kids.

So...there it is - we will live in the Hideout and do some traveling until we have a home base on our land.  When that project is complete then we can decide what comes next!