We Can Do It – And We Did

When we first determined to seek out and move to this place at the end of the road, we were committing to a leap into the unknown. We would be moving to a new place where we knew no one, with no jobs or income, with no house or shelter other than two small tents. We intended to build our own house completely by ourselves even though we had never built anything larger than a small wardrobe unit for an early apartment that had very minimal closet space. We had the limited proceeds from the sale of the small house we had sold, planning very optimistically to use those funds for living and building expenses.

Were we crazy? Many of our friends and family definitely thought so. Many people, maybe most, don’t even consider the possibility of doing many tasks for themselves, by themselves. They feel they must rely on an expert, a professional to do almost everything for them. But we have discovered over the years since that time that some friends inwardly envied us, wishing they could break away from where they were in life, from unsatisfying jobs or living conditions, to pursue their own special dreams.

I had always been a bit of a crazy dreamer. One of my favorite activities from elementary school years onward was to be dropped at the public library where I would spend hours randomly browsing the shelves for books that caught my fancy. I read about explorers, inventors, philosophers, poets, architects, artists, and other exciting people. I consumed books about nature, science, construction, Native American culture, boats, foreign lands, and much more. At home I would pick a volume of our old encyclopedias and leaf through, reading whatever article I chanced upon, information tucked away somewhere in my young mind, perhaps to be recalled years later at some relevant moment. So many things were of interest to me and I had found the key to learning about all of them: libraries and all the books they contained.

That early experience of mine set the stage for a lifetime of learning and doing. I knew that information about everything was readily available. I could find details on any subject, study it, absorb it, think about it, and make it a part of me. I came to see that I could learn about anything and to believe that I could learn to do anything I really wanted to do. I didn’t necessarily think I could do everything as well as an expert or professional could do, but I did believe I could do the things I wanted adequately and satisfactorily for my purposes and needs. I also knew that doing things for myself would bring great satisfaction, the joy of seeing the finished project and knowing I had accomplished that.

So we came to this place at the end of the road over 38 years ago now. We struggled, we worked hard (very hard at times), we made mistakes, we changed plans, we re-did what had been done (sometimes more than once), we put projects on hold (sometimes for years) while other more pressing matters (like earning some income to pay for life’s necessities) had to be dealt with, we persevered. We’re still at it. We still rely on the library and books and now the internet for information and inspiration. We still work hard, doing and sometimes undoing and re-doing. And we still have the joy of the process and the satisfaction of seeing the end result. Hopefully this will continue for the rest of our lives which we expect to spend here at the end of this road.

Were we crazy? Yes, absolutely, with crazy wisdom. I highly recommend it.

A Place To Be

I longed for a place away from the city, away from crowds of people rushing about, away from traffic, away from noise and pollution, just away. It wasn’t that I didn’t like cities and people. I just wanted to be able to interact with them on my own terms, how and when I wanted to be with them. I wanted time apart from them, time to be on my own, time to interact with myself.

I’ve always loved being out in the woods by myself. During my pre-teen years, back in the time when kids were allowed go out and play, finding their own entertainment and activities, I would spend hours wandering in the wooded areas near our home that had not yet been replaced by subdivisions. I could explore and think and observe and create. It was wonderful.

So when we decided to make our big move, to leave the city and jobs and friends and family, we moved to the country, to a place set apart from the things we wanted to leave, to a place with open spaces and woods, a quiet place at the end of a yet-to-be-built road. We listened often to the lyrics of the song sung by Helen Reddy with their special meaning just for us:

What would they say
If we up and ran away
From the roaring crowds
And the worn out city faces
Would they carry on and on
When they found out we were gone
Or would they let us go
Would they tag along
Or would they know to

Leave us alone
We’d live in the country
Leave us alone
We’d make it just fine
Happy in a one room shack
And we’d not look back
Now would we

To some family and friends it was a strange and unexpected move. Their questions reflected their puzzlement. What was there that we were going to? As far as they could see there was not much to draw us to this piece of land seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Why go there? What will you do with 9+ acres of land with nothing on it except fields and woods? Some of them eventually came to understand what we saw here. Some unfortunately never realized why we came. But we knew all along. It was and is a place to live simply but well, a place to learn and grow, a place to be the people we wanted to be.