That was the words I uttered under my breath as I looked at this one house that popped up on Zillow outside of Coeymans for $250,000. Just a few meetings with a realtor, a lawyer, inspector, selling some stock and cutting a check. Ten acres, on a back road I used to explore a lot when I was in my younger years, looking at homesteads with their burn barrels and horses and cattle.
But I really don’t want it. I don’t want to have to drive to work, the commute through all those speed traps. Being trapped in a house and homestead, having goats and pigs to feed, leaky roofs and floors to replace, dealing with broken appliances and scheduling septic tank pumps, so they can haul away the shit to the local landfill.
Yet it had the acreage I was interested in and a woodstove. It would be a commute but it would be mangable. Yet it also was New York State. It was rural, so I could have livestock, I could have fires, though I’d have to a bit careful what I tossed into the fires lest neighbors start complaining about the smoke. I could build my dream homestead, add solar, get a quad to ride trail and a tractor to work the land. But it’s also kind of rocky, marginal ground, though if I brought in some organic matter like food scraps and grain and hay to feed livestock, I could build the soil up.
And the thing is buying now would block future plans. It’s true you can sell property, and that property gains value over time, but there is also the cost of commuting, maintaince of property, taxes. As an asset class it’s not very deversified. It’s not clear if I bought land today, if I could easily sell it and move out west eventually where there is more freedom to own guns and burn debris. I’m not sure if even want a grid tied property, O r all that technical equipment modern houses require.
2.3 percent of Americans have heart attacks in any year, which works out to heart attacks being something that occurs 1 in every 43 years of American’s lives. However, the average age of a heart attack in Americans is not at age 43, it actually 65.5 years for men and 72 years for women.
Last night after work I decided to ride out to Five Rivers in hope of hearing the spring peepers, to read a bit, listen more to the audio book I was listening to, and get away. It was such a cold early April morning that I knew once I got home, I would most likely just have dinner and go to bed, which is pretty much what I did. Not many spring peepers though because it was so dang cold. The wind died down by evening but the mercury struggled to make it to 40 yesterday and most of day including during the evening commute had a stiff breeze.
Eggs with onions and spinach this morning and last night was salmon, onions, beans and peas. Good stuff. And dessert was frozen fruit and oatmeal milled up with some sugar-free maple syrup. I really need to get some of the real stuff, I just am always so resistant to eating anything with too much sugar, due to my dad dying from diabetes. But then again, I do eat a lot of fresh and froze whole fruit so it’s not like I’m not eating a lot of sugar at times, though I avoid most added sugars unless I add them and then I tend to go for the types not early digested.
Need to get bananas but with cold and bumpy ride on the bike, I should wait until after work, stopping at the grocery store on the evening commute. Also need baking powder. True both are more wants then needs – I have other fruits I can cook with and use baking soda with cider vinger, but it’s nice to have for good cooking. Trying to have a glass of water with breakfast rather then so much coffee as I find myself dehydrated and peeing a lot from all that coffee I’ve been drinking lately. And I mean, it’s what the doctor recommended I do a few years back.
Going to be shit weather tonight through the first half of weekend pretty much like usual, but that’s to be expected these days. Even next weekend in long range looks wet for next Saturday, which kind of sucks for Mom and Dad’s anniversary party but also at least I won’t feel like I’m missing much stuck in town. That said, maybe I’ll do something from Thursday evening through Saturday morning, i.e. Good Friday but it depends what is decided if that’s going to be a holiday or not depending on the status of the state budget. If not I guess there is always the next week, though soon the black flies will be returning to the woods.
Lately I’ve gotten into watching videos of people building small, simple off-grid cabins in the back country. Not so much because I want to necessarily want to build my own, but I want to understand basic building concepts and how small, simple cabins are constructed and materials used.
The thing is I don’t want to own a modern house ever. I don’t want to have something that requires a dumpster and a charge account at the local big box store to constantly be cycling toxic materials in and out of. I don’t want to spend my whole life working hard and spending money just to literally toss it into a dumpster. It just seems like modern houses are full of flimsy, short-lived material quickly dirtied and discarded.
I have fallen in love with look and feel of tongue-in-groove walls in part due to look of the natural material, but also because I perceive it to be more durable, easier to install and replace. The scraps are wood, so they can be safely turned into heat in a wood-stove or enjoyed in a bonfire. Same is true with wood siding, such as rough cut lumber, log cabins, or other wood siding. Most of that isn’t loaded with toxic chemicals. If you can’t relatively safely burn it or bury it as back fill it on your land, I don’t think it should be part of your homestead.
I love the idea of rain water collection, rather then deep wells that are in many cases literally sucking the ground water dry in great parts of country. Or urban pipes and reservoirs that divert great rivers. Likewise, I’d much rather have gray water either be captured for gardens or returned to ground in a leachfield where it can be reabsorbed back into the ground. Much rather compost poop and urine in humanure or at least put into ground to biodegrade rather then flushing it down a toilet and having the solids stored in a tank to be pumped out by a big diesel truck then hauled to a sewage treatment plant and ultimately a landfill.
Likewise, while I am watching the grid slowly green itself, I am not convinced that much of solar panels and wind turbines being built are mostly window-dressing. While grid tied solar might save you money the idea of building my system myself and having complete control over at least my electrical system seems so attractive – especially to a hobbyist like me.
Is it going to happen this year? Probably not but now is the time to research options and continue to save and invest and work towards making the dream a reality.
in hope of hearing the spring peepers, to read a bit, listen more to the audio book I was listening to, and get away. It was such a cold early April morning that I knew once I got home, I would most likely just have dinner and go to bed, which is pretty much what I did. Not many spring peepers though because it was so dang cold. The wind died down by evening but the mercury struggled to make it to 40 yesterday and most of day including during the evening commute had a stiff breeze. 
and last night was salmon, onions, beans and peas. Good stuff. And dessert was frozen fruit and oatmeal milled up with some sugar-free maple syrup. I really need to get some of the real stuff, I just am always so resistant to eating anything with too much sugar, due to my dad dying from diabetes. But then again, I do eat a lot of fresh and froze whole fruit so it’s not like I’m not eating a lot of sugar at times, though I avoid most added sugars unless I add them and then I tend to go for the types not early digested. 
I should wait until after work, stopping at the grocery store 
on the evening commute. Also need baking powder. True both are more wants then needs – I have other fruits I can cook with and use baking soda with cider vinger, but it’s nice to have for good cooking. 
Trying to have a glass of water 
with breakfast rather then so much coffee 
as I find myself dehydrated and peeing a lot from all that coffee I’ve been drinking lately. And I mean, it’s what the doctor recommended I do a few years back. 
If not I guess there is always the next week, though soon the black flies will be returning to the woods.