The Campfire Trail: November 18 - DIY Homestead - An Expression of Contented Living

November 18, 2022

Day 413 of the Adventure

The pic I was referring to from 11-17-22 posting

I was browsing through some pictures of life around the cabin and noticed I had uploaded one that had a busy background of tools, ladders and exposed wall insulation in it. Of course, it's no secret we are working on the cabin to complete the interior of it as we have time and opportunity. The thought occurred to me that as a reader (or viewer of the videos) things around here probably look very chaotic and possibly, unlivable. It also occurred to me that a lot of what we are doing is largely a matter of personal perspective. Many of our friends, family and even total strangers are very open to us about our project here. the impressions are everything from "That is so COOL!" to "Are You CRAZY?" The "Are you crazy?" comment came from my brother-in-law whom I love and he was not being derogatory in his comment. He was referring to the amount and intensity of the work we were embarking on at our age. We all had a laugh over it as we had to agree that, yes, being in our 60's (early.... or at least fairly early 60's) "Crazy" may indeed be the appropriate term or description. I'm sure that others who have not been so vocal about our endeavors have secretly thought to themselves "Why are we putting ourselves through all of this effort". Believe it or not, I have given serious thought to this and pretty sure I can answer the question honestly.

It goes without saying that the idea of retirement has been in the forefront of our thoughts over the past couple of years. Eleven years of owning and operating resorts, up to four at a time for about four of those years, has given us the right to consider retirement. In fact, we are still quite involved to the one remaining "Treehouse Resort". All of them required effort, energy and expense regarding both improvements and operations. The resorts offered us a wonderful opportunity to live a dream, and it really was a dream business. The last year of it, however, was beginning to tell us that something was going to need to change. We could either keep spinning the plates ourselves, find someone to spin them for us or decide it was time to stop spinning plates. I have to admit, that was not an easy decision. Neither of us have ever been afraid of hard work, but the question was never about the work. The question was whether we were ready to begin working towards a personal lifestyle part of our life rather than the business one.

As mentioned previously in many other postings, we love the outdoors, camping life, woodsy surroundings and a "Cabin in the Woods" experience. I was reminded just this morning of the memories being recalled by family members when reading our posts or watching the videos we've published. Memories of life's quiet and fond moments. Things like soup simmering over a wood stoked fire. Fresh bread baking in the oven. Gathering something, building something, or creating something useful, or just living a simple life. I think we all have our own "Mayberry" version of life memories. The trouble is that so many of those memories are living in our distant past. We seem to be reluctant to consider that today is a great day for creating new and relevant memories. Our Cabin in the Woods quest is certainly part experiment in developing a self-sufficient lifestyle. One that others can use as a pathway or perhaps "prototype" for their own personal journey. A much larger part of it is following our own path towards a quieter and relaxing life with a contentment that comes from building that existence out in our backwoods property. It's work, for sure, but it's a content work filled with the satisfaction of taking a day at a time and enjoying the process. It's how we are okay with tools in the corner, insulation still showing for the time being. Even the 4am stoking of the wood stove is really not work. It's an expression of contented living......

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “You always have free will to choose your path.” ― C. Toni Graham

Base Camp Coffee of the Day: Lost in the Woods (Guatemala)

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