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Going back to my blog feed a year ago …

It seems hard to believe it was a year ago I took a drive out to Grandma Moses Country – you know along the Batten Kill and NY 40 – Buskirk, etc looking at land that way to potentially buy and build my homestead out there. I still can’t believe a year came and went, and while I looked at houses and explored my options so little happened. Still just a dream, as I put away more money, boosted my savings and investments.

It’s now a bit tough when I look back at what seems like a wasted year, when I could have had land. I could be getting chickens at this point, planning a garden. Doing on my own composting, heating with wood not freezing in my dumpy apartment. My net worth has gone a touch since the market declines, and it’s painful as I could have baked in some of that by buying something.

But as I’ve said time and time and again, In my mind, a rural suburban subdivision that smells like cow shit is really no better than living in the city. So many of the options I looked at were essentially that, a lot of money, not a lot of land, a long commute without much of a value proposition.

If heaven wasn’t so far away … I keep telling myself.

Another View Of The Hills

It’s fine, and I know it will be fine for now. But I feel like I’m wasting time, though I think when you run the numbers, it actually come out ahead staying where I am even with higher rent. Small apartments are cheap to heat and light, and bicycling to work saves a lot of money. I can put off replacing my pickup truck for a while.

SVGZ Graphic: LAUS - Peak Year of Employment by County
Map: Cascade Lake

I am always jealous of all the rednecks … 👩‍🌾

I am often quite jealous of rednecks, because they know so much more about the land, mechanical things, and technology then I will ever know. They seem to make so much out of life and the things they own, and are able to fix and extend broken things that I have little choice to toss or take to someone else to repair. They have such a knowledge of land and natural systems, physical systems, and the way the world works, that I will never have a chance to fully understand.