The Campfire Trail: July 23 - Resort Adventures

July 23, 2022

Day 215 of the Adventure

Base Camp Coffee of the Day: English Toffee (just like it sounds)

Our Black Jeep parked by the waterfall

It's not that noticeable yet but we are losing about a minute a day in sunrise time. The morning coffee and campfire ritual is getting a little harder to start as early as before (waiting for it to be light enough to actually see) In yesterday's post, I unfolded a little of our motives behind starting this next chapter of our journey. Moving towards retirement is a big part of this. I've always said that "retirement" for us probably won't look much different than working was. At 61, I'm beginning to have a change of heart over that. statement. Over the past few years, I've lost a lot of the enthusiasm I've always had for building, creating and pushing the boundaries of my imagination. I think most of that has been the result of us requiring so much from that energy to build out our business for the past 20 years or so. (If you're new to this story, here's an example of one of many treehouse cabins we've built over the past few years) The creative energy in my brain has not really diminished, it's just that my physical energy regarding the execution of that mental energy is having a hard time keeping up.

Plenty of work left to be done

When Shelley and I discussed slowing things down a little, we also talked about doing something that still had purpose to it. I've never been the kind that would do anything just for the sake of "doing it". I could never, for example" retire and build birdhouses as a hobby. Yes, the local birds may love it, but unless I was on a mission to house all the birds in a ten square mile area, it would just be "busy-work for me. No, for me to "move towards retirement" purpose needs to be present. Which brings us to what we are calling "Camp Run-Amuck". (By the way, I doubt whether "Camp Run-Amuck" will remain our signature identity. It is fun for now but will likely change at some point)

After a recent "Sunday Morning Breakfast in Camp" video, Shelley and I had a talk about this experience. We likened this whole process to an extended, perpetual campout. With that mindset, we've discovered that the tedious process of clearing woods, building roads, pulling stumps, installing things like septic systems and solar energy plants has become an exercise in creative adventure. That's just us coping with the early part of the "birthing" of a homestead "Homeplace". There are more things to do than there are hours in the day to do them. The purpose of this journey is entirely different. Yes, it provides us an outlet for our creativity and a very cool place to live life, but there's more to it than that.

Over the years, we've experienced ourselves and watched friends and family experience the struggle of following a true dream of thriving in life. Not necessarily related to wealth or poverty, but simply struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. Never gaining a feeling of relief from the everyday grind to survive. We certainly have experienced that in our lives at times. We decided, as a purpose, to begin to create an environment of life that intentionally reduces the stress of those pressures. It's partly for ourselves, but also partly as an inspiration, or "Roadmap" for others to follow. So, I suppose that if we are to be successful in this adventure, it will only prove itself out by the number of people who begin to find a new purpose and vision for life. Learning and developing a new, more "self-sufficient' lifestyle for themselves. One that creates greater freedom from the pressure to survive until the next paycheck.

I'll begin to unfold more of this in coming posts. Until then, most of our content will be YouTube based and we would appreciate your support simply through a "Subscribe" and an occasional "Share". You can do that through the various video links on the page here. I am also creating an email newsletter that a "Subscribe" through the sign up form on the right will connect you with.

As we end our morning breakfast videos with; "Here's to having an Excellent Adventure, and may the stopping never start."

Adventure Quote: "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to our courage"

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