Why I have become such a work-a-holic lately. Well ok a work-a-holic for actual pay :O).... I was a work-a-holic anyway lol.
I have made it no secret that the plan is for us to retire in AR in the Ozark mountains where I am originally from. We are going a bit west of where I grew up.
We are really stepping up the search now for property and actually putting a time frame to all this! I cannot tell you how very excited that I am.
Soooooo a couple years ago when the opportunity came to go back into Interior Design working at the design studio, I took the job as you guys know.
Me working is helping a bit to get us there quicker. Its just added a bit of punch to our time table :O).
We we will be scaling back home size wise... a small one bedroom cabin is the plan for there :O)... I am very much looking forward to that. At this point in my life I have so much I would rather do with my time beside clean and keep up a big house! Its just honeyman and I, we never had children so we don't need a big house with lots of room for big family gatherings or guest rooms for kids and grand kids etc... A one bedroom cabin will be perfect for us! We have sort of been all over the place on property. We go from thinking what we have now 27 acres... then we think well should we get more? ...then we think being on the water to not being on water...ROFL yes its a bit hard to figure out but I know we will know the right property when we see it. We have found a great realtor who has been very understanding on how all over the place we are. She says when her and her husband moved there they were the same way and she understands, she must as she has been very good to work with. Our first realtor didn't understand and seemed to expect us to buy a place after one trip to look. I knew we had to find a different realtor after that trip LOL.
We want to have enough acres to have elbow room and privacy but not enough to work us to death. I will of course need room to garden and grow herbs and and and and because you guys know I have to grow stuff and a lot of it.. its what I do.. :O) and ultimately its my favorite thing to do!
Besides growing stuff there will be many things to do there. Wonderful outdoor things to do, running is going to be great there! Lots of places for trail running! Cycling as well, so many great cycle trails. We plan to take up kayaking as we feel we will both really enjoy that. Hiking as well lots of places for that. If you love outdoor stuff AR is a great place for that! Holistic healing and organic gardening have a good foot hold in this area of AR. But on the same hand there is a highly rated hospital in the larger town that would be within driving distance should one need it for something major. We will be living rural. That is what we want.
So that is what kinda fueled my taking up the offer of the job at the design studio which has led to me working A LOT :O). Its been a bumpy ride as you guys know that have read my blog a while know. I struggled hard to keep up and adjust to the demands in the beginning. I have cut back some on what I do outside here and that has been a bit hard for me. But its short term and I know that. My gardens are not as well kept, I don't get to do as much growing in some ways but I am still doing a lot! The new garden plot wound up proving to be a bad decision so we let that go back to grass. I have two good sized gardens now and that seems to be all I can keep up with for now.
There are things I still plan to do while here but I can take with me, Bees are one of those things! I will of course be rooting off a lot of plants to move and even digging some things up, some of my bulbs etc. Splitting Iris and such. Splitting and potting some of all my medicinal herbs. Whoever buys this place will surely be getting a wonderful set up and be so far ahead of the game with all that we have done here and put in plant wise and such. The hoop houses and raised bed gardens. The fruit orchard etc.
As soon as we can find the property we plan to put a Barney rubble (travel trailer) on it and leave it there. Then we will be able to go there and stay over the next 4-5 yrs. Get our barn built etc.... Then we will retire and move there full time! So I will have time to move lots of plants! We then can live in the travel trailer while our cabin home is built. I know what they say, the best laid plans..... but with luck this will all work out as we would like it to. I am a planner by nature. Its how I do things. I make plans, they can change as they need to... they are not written in concrete, but my nature is to plan everything so this is the plan :o)....
It feels so good to finally be putting a time table on all this! :O)
... that is why I am working so hard right now and pushing myself as hard as I am.
8 comments:
Don't forget you need a tractor :)
Sounds like a great plan, the ozarks look incredible. Off grid living there would be amazing. I joke with my wife that in twenty years when the kids have grown up we should go live in the wild for ten years then come back here but she's not very keen!
It'll be great to read about it if you do it so make sure you keep blogging!
Sounds like a great idea. Look forward to following your blog and seeing your new dwelling being constructed.
Texan,
What a wonderful plan! Hubby and I keep talking about where we want to go next. We talked of going back to Texas, then finding a place up in the mountains so we can fish for trout. Were still undecided, we will eventually figure it out. I'm so happy for your and your husband. Your on a path to finding the land you want. The idea of using a travel trailer to live in while in the process of gradually moving from TX to AR is a great idea.
In fact, we maybe doing the same sort of thing when we figure it all out.
I love having a plan...it just makes everything so REAL.
Sounds like a wonderful plan to me. I am so excited for you. It will be fun staying in the travel trailer and working on your property. Five years will fly by!
Good job working so hard to make your retirement dreams come true! AR and the Ozark Mts. sound like a fantastic place to live.
Texan - i searched for 8 yrs before i found our dream property - the Framboise Manor! i called hubby and sent him a link to our property and we knew we had found IT! i sent the realtor an email 20 mins later and we bought the property, sight unseen, in under a month. it met all of our qualifications. was it perfect? NO. did we just move in and everything was roses? NO. did we go through a lot of heck in the past 5 years? YES! but we love it and we are finally at a place to start truly enjoying it.
sit with your hubby and figure out what you really and truly want. do you want a cottage with a well already there? do you want running water on your property? so you want waterfront? do you want electricity? do you want a septic already installed? how much land do you really want? how far away from the nearest town do you want to be?
my hubby and i found that the more we searched online and found properties that we loved, the more we were able to figure out what we really wanted...really needed from our land. you guys sound like you are very close to getting your dream property...and if you believe - it will happen!
and you can take your AMAZING skills anywhere and still make a bit of money on the side!
i am very much enjoying your blog and reading through all of the back entries! xox
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