I Want to Be a Farmer
That’s no doubt a naive statement.
We’ve hit yet another road block with the house design (see previous post). I thought we had it! Here we are trying to design a functional and sweet home we (or someone else) can get emotionally invested in. THAT is good design, one that grows attachments with it’s occupants. We have jumped so many hurdles. We’ve followed the cities requests. We’ve designed, modified, designed again, modified again, called every department requested, talked to everyone to finally arrive at a situation we felt confident would make everyone happy.
When James went in for what we thought would finally be approval we were yet again belly punched. Not only were we denied and basically told to start over, he was told that ‘he was lucky’ they were letting him even build on the lot at all (so far, they aren’t letting us do anything though!). The arrogance of that statement though! It sparked some fire in me.
I am tired of jumping through these hoops…
I think getting approval for the actual tiny house may have been a better use of our time! I’m already too invested in our next goals though, move the tiny house elsewhere and live tiny again. We’ve decided to let things rest in Boise for a while. We will let council members change out after the election and go from there. I will tell you, this state of mind this city is in right now is ridiculous, there is absolutely no wonder we have a housing crisis. 100% the cities doing, certainly not our neighbors objections! It makes me all the more excited to leave this city behind in favor of a smaller more personal community.
This has been my happy place
I have been following the Longest Acre Farm Instagram for a while. Whenever I am feeling overwhelmed and frustrated they have become my happy place. Their home is beautiful, their animals look happy, their kids do too! I think they are doing meaningful and rewarding work. It helps me confirm that I want to back the hell away from all these political and social teeter-totters that just seem to come with exploding cities. Where some see opportunity, I see frustration… (I am sure the reverse is true for others)
I want to live a simple life based around meaningful work and self-reliance. At this point I am pretty sure I could easily go weeks at a time without dealing with most people. I love my friends and most of my family but a little space sounds nice, too.
Self-Reliance and Meaningful Work
We honestly don’t need much to live off of. I’m pretty good at minimizing my spending. I don’t care too much about keeping up with the standard dynamics. I think we can get by with the work we do online (custombrandshop.com and this site), and it fills our buckets for now.
Even though The Longest Acre Farm is on the other side of the country it gives me the feeling of ‘home’ in the same way driving through the Palouse did. James sees opportunity in the lifestyle shift, too. We both went to college in Moscow but both failed to see the absolute beauty in the geography. I think I love it a tad more than James (travel will be a big part of our future too!). Being completely honest, we’ve now been to 45 National Parks and they can’t compare to the Palouse to me. I’ve never cared for the oceans (I’m a bit scared about that much water in one place!), oceans of fields though, I’m in! My roots (like most people) go back to farming. I’m only one generation removed. I’m very lucky that my grandparents passed some love for our lands onto me.
We’re not looking to compete with factory farms
Quite the contrary, we’re looking to remove ourselves from that whole system:
- I am looking forward to teaching my kids how to grow food. I feel like I NEED them to know that basic skill.
- I want to cook delicious meals, eat with the seasons, and learn how to preserve it. That feels important to me.
- I want to continue to share our life’s journey with others. Maybe help some others find their confidence to walk into the unknown.
- I want to live a joyful life, keeping hold of my passions and my perspectives.
- I want to live in my tiny house again!
Now we wait for the land to thaw to go find our new home base, I’ve got 12 properties on my short list to check out! I really want a view like this when I am older and the knowledge that we can make that work!
