In late July of 2017, I lived in suburbia and one day this thing arrived in my driveway, where it would stay for a solid 4 years as it slowly took shape as my future home.
By November of 2021, it was complete enough to move to what would become my remote mountain homestead.
Before moving in, I set myself some milestones. First, I would give it at least a year — spend some time settling in, experience every season. Unless the whole thing was absolutely untenable, I should keep at it at least a year. At that point, doubt having learned some lessons along the way, give it one more year, presumably being acclimated to this lifestyle , the region, and knowing what to expect as the seasons change, putting to good use the lessons learned the prior year. After two years, I should have a solid and rational sense of what this life is really like and from there could make a fact- and experience-based decision about whether to continue.
That first year milestone arrived a few days ago and seems like a fine time for some reflection.
First, the obvious: I’m still here! There have surely been challenges, but none of them so severe that I was not able to find my way through/around them. I’ve gotten into routines for life’s necessities, for work, for keeping in touch with my people. While I don’t have much at all in common with the others who live nearby (“near” being a relative term out here), I have found nearly all of the people I’ve met to be friendly and kind, decent humans. It’s commonplace for pedestrians and motorists to give a wave as they pass. The lady who runs the local ice cream shop knows my name and I know hers (everyone who is surprised, stand on your head). I’ve made friends with the (now former, as it was a very slow job out here in cow country and she needed something more engaging) postal clerk. Because there’s so little happening out here, the opportunities to organically meet people (unless I’m into bars, trail riding, or have kids — all of which do not apply to me) are very thin, on top of the total population also being very sparse in the first place. I’ve met a couple of quality people some distance away in the nearest city, via a dating app, actually. Those ladies turned out not to be suitable candi-dates but we’ve since become friends, which has been good for my feeling connected out here, even with their being roughly an hour’s drive. An hour in another direction finds other friends of mine, from another life. And I maintain friendly ties with the couple who did my site work here a year and a half ago, who actually live close by. All of this contributes to feeling nicely at home.
Even so, unless I venture out or specifically invite people here, I won’t see another human in the flesh during the ordinary course of my day. My remote work encourages video meetings, so I do see my coworkers every day or so, on-screen. That helps against feeling isolated.
My friends routinely ask what has been the most surprising, what were my biggest challenges, etc. My answers to them vary in the moment according to what’s top of mind. Here’s what my answers would be right now:
Most Unexpected
- The people — I had my own preconceptions/prejudices about what country people were like, given my affluent suburban upbringing. Those stereotypes have been nicely broken. The people here are just as intelligent, kind, and friendly as you might be lucky to find anywhere, no matter the differences in our backgrounds and personal choices.
- It’s easy to be dirty — living on a dirt road, in the forest, bringing in wood every day for heat, there’s just no way to keep dirt out of the house or off of clothes. Many people out this way are farmers or work in dirty industries. Trail riding on ATVs is very popular here. Earth is Earth and wearing some is just fine. Indeed, avoiding it is pretty much impossible out here and it’s been easy to accept that. When too much Earth gets in the house, I sweep it out.
- The internet — I knew this before moving here but nevertheless did not expect urban-grade fiber optic internet to be available here, yet it is. I have 200Mb service and could have gigabit service over the same line if I wanted it. This has made remote work — and those video meetings — quite convenient.
- Heating with wood — I really like it, even given how dirty, inconvenient, and imprecise it is. I like the smell. I like the fire light and the sound and the radiant warmth. I like coaxing yesterday’s embers into today’s fire. I like being pleasantly surprised when some hickory makes it into my firewood load and my stove smells like barbecue sauce. I do have a propane heater for backup and for keeping the house from freezing when I’m away in the winter, but nearly all my heat comes from hardwood.
Most Challenging
- My Address — this has been the single biggest frustration of the last year. A couple of weeks before moving in, I had an official physical address assigned by the designated county office. This included formally naming what was once an anonymous dirt path, making it an officially recognized private road. I was so excited to have and get to name my own road! The fellow at the county office said “it can take some time” for the new address to propagate into the world. “Some time”, as it turns out, was a WHOLE YEAR. Despite repeated attempts to submit the road to Google Maps, only two weeks ago did they finally accept that my road exists and add it and my numeric address to their map. I had to call in to FedEx and UPS numerous times to get them to add my location to their private maps so my deliveries would actually arrive (a few went astray and were never recovered, some were merely delayed). Motor freight has been hit-or-miss, though usually the carriers would call me and I’d give them directions to find me without the benefit of my road being on their GPS maps. Banks wouldn’t let me change my address to be here because my address wasn’t in their database. Entering my shipping address for mail-order items was occasionally refused for the same reason. What a huge headache! Since I live an hour from any significant retail centers, I do most of my shopping online — so yeah, delivery issues just make that much worse.
- Workshop build-out — the actual building has been moderately challenging given the 10′ high ceilings and trying to work around all the things that would be stored in shelving units along the walls while I build the walls. This put all the stuff in the middle of the room, making it very crowded when combined with the machine tools and the building materials themselves. Add to this a need for a large open area to fabricate wall sections and the whole thing becomes a big game of Parking Lot. Add to this the lack of heat (indeed, the stove installation will be completed today) and you have a very cold, often sub-freezing environment in which to build. Sure, I could have waited til spring, but that would just push the completion date out even further. That, and even though today the workshop isn’t yet finished, I can at least do minor things in it now, like the cuts required to make the wood shed and the sawmill hut and the porchlet.
- Office build-out — due to how the timing worked out, office construction also happened in freezing and sometimes sub-freezing temps. The power system for the whole W.O.G. lives on the wall in the office, so without the office, I had to run on generator power and temporary worksite lights and a little electric heater which was barely enough to keep the place warm enough in winter to get joint compound or paint to dry (and it took several days). There are still some finishing touches to add to the office but other things have higher priority now, since the office is functional now and other functions need to be brought online before I will spend time on details like window and floor trim.
- Meeting people — given the challenges of meeting people, I decided to try some dating apps. What a disaster! So much ghosting. So many fake profiles. So many people not really ready or able to commit time and energy to the process. And of those few genuine potential connections, invariably they lived far enough away that (for them) it was a deal-breaker. There were a few local-ish possibilities. Two of those became friends (yay) and the rest fizzled quickly. I closed my app accounts. I may try again later, but I think my time would be better spent on other things.
Changes Planned
- T.H.R.O.N.E. Room — after some use, it’s become clear that the T.H.R.O.N.E. bench itself needs to be re-done. It is too high and the seat is too far back. These will require a re-build of that whole section, sadly. It’s not urgent, but making these changes will increase comfort and ease-of-use considerably.
- The Bednette — it seemed like such a good idea until I’ve spent a year sleeping on it. At no time has it been comfortable, though most nights it is comfortable enough. I’d rather it be actually comfortable. The cushions tend to shift in the night, too. Speaking of the cushions, not only do they make for a mediocre mattress, they also make for mediocre seating. They’re not well suited to either role. I still have my Murphy Bed hardware kit and am now thinking I’ll replace the Bednette with that. This would allow me a proper mattress and easier conversion from dining to sleeping. I can use my existing table top as a gate-leg table, folding down under the bed at night. What I lose is the permanent seating, which isn’t especially comfortable, so I’ll need some folding chairs. These aren’t likely to be more comfortable, but also aren’t likely to be worse and at least the bed will become more comfy and convenient. Also, I can stow 3 of 4 chairs in the loft or elsewhere, allowing more room when I don’t have guests. The other thing I lose is the ability to stretch out on the benches as if they were a chaise lounge. This is nice for watching movies or reading. But given the relative sizes and positions of the benches and table, it’s not particularly comfortable either. It seems all the compromises made to establish the Bednette simply resulted in not-quite-good-enough performance for all aspects. The Cozy Loft was meant for this reading/media role but was never developed. Perhaps this is my motivation to follow up with that.
New Stuff Planned
- Apiary — I am planning to build some beehives this winter in anticipation of starting an apiary in the spring. My plan A is to attract local bees rather than purchasing some, in hopes that they will be adapted to the local climate and flora. If that fails, I’ll see about purchasing some.
- Gazebo — I am interested in having some outdoor leisure space that is covered and screened-in. I’ve begun a design for a timber framed gazebo which will actually be quite a bit of work to build, though it would be a lovely show piece, unlike those roughly-made utilitarian structures I’ve built this year. We’ll see about that. It’s still just an idea for now.
- Water front — the cove needs a dock (and the dock needs a boat), a bench for changing clothes, and some trail work between there and the house. Will these be 2023 projects? Maybe, maybe not. We’ll have to see how the winter work goes.
- Hot Tub — I have a fantasy of a wood-fired hot tub for down by the water front, as well. Like the gazebo, it, too, is just an idea at this point, not a bona fide plan.
That’s it for structures and land development. I want most of the land to stay wild. There’s a small chance I’ll put in a green house of some kind, but that’s a topic for another day. There’s also plenty of wild land that needs to be freed of the old scout camp detritus and other creative work to be done in the woodshop, so we’ll just have to see where motivation wanders as the future unfolds.