Back on Track

As I mentioned, in the latter part of '05 and the majority of '06, not much happened at the land. We were able to do a few things. We had the driveway graveled, which if you are familiar with NC red clay you know this is a BIG deal! We also had the power run up to the land and had a temporary pole in place. We went up to "visit" our land when we could, but it wasn't very often and it wasn't very productive.

I lost my dad on August 25, 2006. That didn't help much with being motivated to get things done. I didn't know it then, but when I look back now, I know I suffered from depression after his death. I didn't really care about doing much of anything.
Fortunately, I didn't stay in that state for long. With much help from my wonderful husband, I got back on track and WE got back on track. In December of '06 we started construction on the "barn". The barn was to be storage below and living space upstairs. It would be our house until we could build the main house and then it would serve as a guest house. That was the plan. I'll tell you more about that later.

I remember coming up the driveway right after construction started. It was just in the framing stage, but it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I wept tears of joy, literally, at the first sight of it. We were REALLY doing this. My dad would be so proud!

By February of '07 the building was built. It was completely enclosed but unfinished inside. Why you may ask........well, because the money ran out! We still just had the temporary power pole up and had to run cords and rig lights for lighting inside. There was no plumbing. There was no water. We didn't care! We went up every weekend. We hauled water. We took a camp toilet. We even made an outdoor shower. (Propane burner, big pot to heat water, a 12 V pump to pump the water to a hand held shower head = hot shower! AAAAAAHHHHHH!) We were so happy! We took furniture up that we weren't using at home and made a living space upstairs. Couches, tables, an air mattress for our bed, a grill to cook on. Life was good!

Delusions of Grandeur

Well, here we are. We have our land. Now let's get to work! It's summer in NC (= hot!). So, what sounds like a GREAT idea??? Let's go up and clear land.....with just us and a chainsaw....and tent camp. Yep, that's what we did. Well, that's what we attempted to do! LOL! Don't get me wrong, the camping was great. We just loved being up there knowing that we finally had our place. The clearing of the land.........less than successful. The bright side is neither one of us ended up with heat stroke. Somehow.

So, after several unsatisfactory attempts, we soon figured out that it was going to take more than the equipment we had to get anything done, at least to get it done while we were both still young! To get us going we called in a local guy to clear a small portion of the land and cut in some paths. And then things sort of ground to a halt.

Shortly after we bought the land we had a trip planned to the UK with Jon's mother. After we returned, my dad's health took a turn for the worse. So quite a bit of time went by and nothing happened at the land. We were ok with that.....other things had to be tended to; but areas of land that get cleared don't just stay that way!!

A Little About Us

Before I start telling you about our experiences on the land thusfar, I thought I would tell you a little about us and how we got from there to here.

I was born and raised in SC and have lived in Beaufort since I was 13. Believe me, my hand never had to touch a hoe growing up! LOL! I did grow up hearing all about my great grandma's and grandpa's farm. I loved to hear my mom, aunt, uncles and grandma tell the stories of that time. While they would talk about the hard work and hard times, their was such joy and sense of family in those stories......and in all the old pictures we would have to pull out at every family gathering. It was great. I still love to get out the pictures and look at them all. Maybe from all of that is where my desire to live this lifestyle comes from. I'm not sure.

Jon is from Australia, and it would require a whole new blog to give you the story of how he ended up in Beaufort. :-) Growing up in Australia he and his family lived in rural areas, but he is not from a farming or homesteading background. I think his thoughts on "getting back to basics" is a little less romantic than mine. His is more matter of fact. Depend on yourself, not on others........and your life being full of "things" does not mean you have a full life.

Anyway, we met in 1988 and were just friends for a long time. Well, not that long I guess.........we were married in 1992. We married young (I was 21 and he was 24) and at the time had no big plans for what the future would be for us. In fact, we had no plans at all. We worked hard, but we sure didn't have the 'what do we want to be when we grow up' thing worked out. I don't think it was until around '99 that we really started talking about a place "away" somewhere.

It started with wanting a cabin in the mountains. Well, it didn't take long to figure out that if you've got a cabin on a mountain, then the land is pretty darn steep and could be a bit of a challenge if you want to actually USE the land. So, as time passed, the plan evolved. What the needs would be. What the wants would be. What did we really want to do.

It still took us years, as you've already read, for us to find the land....but it did help to know what we were looking for. So, that's us. Now I'll tell you what we've been up to.

Should've started this about 9 years ago!

The husband has been after me for quite some time to start a blog, telling about our journey toward living out our dream of a simpler, more self sufficient life. Well.......finally I'm going to give it a go.


About 9 years ago.....give or take........we started the search for our Utopia. While we live on the coast in SC, where it seems everyone wants to be, we longed for something else. Land.......and as much of it as we could afford. I still wanted to be close enough to get home to my parents if I needed to, so we limited our search to NC, TN, and KY basically. We knew we wanted enough land for livestock (of different varieties), a vegetable garden, an orchard, etc. We wanted some type of water on the land, whether it be a creek or a pond. We also knew we wanted little to no restrictions.

Jon spent countless hours online searching for properties in the "state of the week". LOL! From there we would contact realtors, load up the car and head out on one of our adventures. And let me tell you, when you are looking for rural property, sometimes just FINDING it at all is the adventure! Every spare amount of time we could get, we were in the car and on the search. The good thing about us is we knew as soon as we saw a property if it was a 'no' or a 'let's talk more about it'. Unfortunately, a lot of those long road trips resulted in a lot of 'no's'.

So, fast forward to 2003. I accompanied my mother to her 50th high school reunion for Swannanoa High School. We stayed in a B&B in Black Mountain. I was over the moon. It was just so beautiful. I came back home with real estate books in hand and telling Jon that we had to go back up so' he could see this area. Well, he was pretty smitten too....BUT Black Mountain is quite pricey!! At least it was in 2003 and early 2004. So, we expanded the search out a little.

We ended up in Rutherfordton, NC. This is where we finally came up with a definite 'YES'!! The moment we drove onto the property we literally looked at each other and said "this is the one". It was perfect. 17 acres, 2 creeks, very few restrictions (none that were deal breakers) and even a bonus of gorgeous mountain views.........AND we could afford it!!!!

Whew.......who would've thought it would take so long to find a piece of land??? Well, if you know us then you know we don't do anything spur of the moment or impulsively. There are lists and lists and more lists. But, we did it. We bought OUR land. What we had been searching for for years.

Now what?