Into Uncertainty

Leaving the Northeast and looking toward Alaska and the wilderness is what consumes most of our time now.  Moving out of a spacious farmhouse, that we’d like to sell but haven’t yet, is mind boggling.  What do you do with all this stuff that we have accumulated? 

We are heading into uncertainty.  To no firm job, and a 30 year old 8 x 12 log cabin that needs major repairs.  Yet we still have to live here until the farm sells.  What do we pack and what do we leave unpacked to use?  Amazingly our five kids can’t wait for the adventure.

For one whole year we laid our farm in the hands of a popular farm realtor.  Not one soul did he bring to see our lovely little farm.  One family happened to see the listing on his website and came up to see us on their own.  They arrived out of the blue!  My house was a wreck.   But they were very impressed that our children were in the kitchen doing dishes.  I spent the next hour giving them a tour of the land and buildings.  They thanked me nicely and were gone.  They had to sell their own place first. 

Determined, we gathered up the videos and photos taken over the years here and created a YouTube tour of the farm.  We were thrilled that almost a 1000 people saw it.  Several people contacted us via email but again nothing panned out.

Plunging on ahead we contacted a friend and local realtor.  The broker was impressed with the homesteading possibilities of our 53 acre farm.  So many things are already set up.  Barns, storage, shop, root cellar/ walk in cooler, garden area, apples trees, raspberries are just a few things. He was eager to link to our website, blog, Youtube channel and Facebook pages.  Potential buyers could follow our story and begin to create one of their own by purchasing our farm.  As we forge ahead in this new path we hope the expanded exposure will bring a buyer so we can make summer plans. 

Back to the Farmer Markets we go if we are still here this summer.  But some of the markets need to be reserved by April 1st.  Will we know what is happening by then?  We are to the point where new displays are a must.  Ideas for the new displays are rolling around in our minds.  It is a definite go ahead to make them as they will be useful in Alaska.

How do you take five kids, two dogs and two parents across the country, feeding and housing them with a very limited budget?  Add in that we have numerous food sensitivities and eating requirements that don’t allow us to eat out.  Everything must be prepared from scratch with hard to find ingredients. Of course that’s a no brainer.  Get an RV.  Oh wait……any RV that we can afford always has major issues, most of which are mold.  Our family has serious health issues with mold.  Scratch that idea.  Anyway, where we want to go exploring once we hit Alaska would probably tear up an RV!  Then we discovered people are remodeling buses into mini homes.  What a great idea!  The ideal solution for us.  Lots of room, a serious undercarriage that will handle most back roads and relatively inexpensive.

 I was planning to rebuild an old farm trailer to be road worthy.  It would enable us to carry more of our stuff when we moved.   Crunching the numbers to make it happen, I found that it would seriously remove too much cash from the tiny budget.  We would just have to toss more stuff and make do with the bus.

Now I am spending time each day on craigslist, eBay and auctions international looking at used school buses.   

Our next task is to figure out how we are going to support ourselves now that we are transitioning from a commercial farm to living in the wilderness.   Building on our experiences, skills and knowledge base we are working on several diverse income streams.  

Rhonda is drawing from her experience on the farm.  She has been making cheese, soap, baking for farmers markets and running a farm kitchen, cooking with the raw ingredients produced on the farm for 20 years. 

Several books are in the works they will tap her knowledge to bring tips and recipes to those wanting to gain an understanding of farmstead skills.   These books will be designed to help those wanting to get started baking for farmers markets, making cheese, or running a farm kitchen using farm produce.   Insights for those already living on a farm or small acreage, and wanting to produce more of their own products will fill the pages of these books.

Sharing Children’s stories and the adventures of the many wonderful farm animals that have shared our lives is another exciting opportunity to bring together Rhonda’s love of art and storytelling.

I am working on compiling the stories and adventures of my life and love of the wilderness.  I will also be chronicling our move into the wilderness.  Providing inspiration and practical insight for others dreaming about or planning to move to the wilderness is a passion of mine. 

There are also plans in the works for developing a manual for moving into the wild.  Filled with stories of people who have made the move successfully.  Gaining insights from each story to inspire and guide others craving for the freedom and peace of a life in the wilderness.

Soap making and Salve making will continue.  Building on both of our lifelong fascinations with herbs, wild edibles and their medicinal uses, we will be bringing more natural products to the public.   Wandering through the forest gathering each season, the bounty the wilderness provides, has been a dream of ours for many years.

Gathering from the forest natural materials for handcrafted items like baskets, bowls and other useful household utensils will round out our plans.