One year ago, Brett and I were at a crossroads in life. We felt a call for change, but weren’t sure exactly what it should look like.
The pull was felt from many factors. We started reconsidering our 8-5 office life in response to the pandemic and already had a glimpse of entrepreneurial freedom from the success of short term renting our house. We met with a financial planner and realized we were in a favorable position to get off the “hamster wheel” sooner than anticipated.
Putting pen to paper
I keep a daily notebook, inspired by Rachel Hollis’ Start Today journal practice, and excerpts from this time last year are telling.
We outlined five year plan comparisons of staying put and expanding the homestead vs. leaving it behind to travel for much of the year.
One day Brett would be designing an addition to our detached garage with living quarters to allow for year-round renting of our house (while I researched raising meat chickens and sheep), and the next we were exploring the possibility of buying a boat to take down the Mississippi and live in the south for winter.
Never would I have imagined 12 months later we’d have spent the summer living out of our camper on a new property as we demolish a dilapidated mobile home and rebuild our own place to live.
So what happened?
Here’s a glimpse at the timeline showing our crooked path:
September 2020
- Bought a yacht with plans to fix it up, offer summer lake tours for our vacation rental guests, and potentially start a fishing charter business in the south during winter.
January 2021
- Toured a campground that was for sale and got financing approval from the bank.
- Ended up deciding it wasn’t the right opportunity at this stage of life.
February 2021
- Brett started getting job interviews for positions he had applied to over the past year, most of which required significant amounts of travel or relocation.
April 2021
- Brett accepted a new job offering more flexibility and travel and left his employer of over 10 years.
- With the new gig based two hours from our house, we considered renting an apartment nearby, but ultimately decided to put an offer on a 13 acre property.
- Lived at campgrounds for a couple of weeks while waiting to close on the property. I continued with my current role but now working mostly remotely.
May – August 2021
- Closed on the property and moved our camper to its new home.
- Spent the summer working our jobs, managing the vacation rental, demolishing the mobile home, and planning what we could build in its place before winter.
September – October 2021
- Broke ground on our new “camp” and working to make it livable before winter.
Watch the progress
Here are two videos I created to share updates with friends and family.
Reflecting on the whirlwind
This year brought the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Now that it’s winding down, I’m excited to share more about how we made everything work. Like how we lived (and I worked) out of the camper without electricity, running water, or a septic system. Or how I kept my homesteading values alive after having to abandon the garden at home and losing our chickens to predators.
That’s our story. What parts are you interested in hearing more about? Or, more importantly, are you also feeling a call for change? Let me know what’s on your mind in the comments below.
