November 2, 2015
Hi. I'm Lee, the male half of our dynamic duo. LouAnn is our homemaker extraordinaire, resident husband and child psychologist, our gourmet cook, our complete domestic engineering crew, and my biggest cheerleader.
My job is logistics, the bulk of the driving, the mechanical engineering, the financial engineer, the chief grunt work laborer, and to be available for whenever she allows me "in her kitchen." The rest of the time, I go away from home and am a softball umpire, along with officiating other sports sometimes.
I was born in Brooklyn, NY, weaned in Queens, NY and grew up on Long Island. Then, I moved to Pennsylvania for four years, and have been down in Florida for the past 12 years. A few months ago, I stumbled into a career opportunity that allowed us to begin a journey back to LouAnn's roots, country living.
We have talked occasionally about reducing all of our "citification," and now, my career seems to be taking me into Ohio, which would mean a two-three month road trip each spring. In addition, our middle son, Michael, is graduating from the University of North Florida in December. Real estate prices in Florida are completely obscene, and rentals are ridiculously expensive as well. So, the opportunity arrived, and we have decided that a more rural, off-the-grid life is our destination, probably in Eastern Ohio.
A few weeks ago, we ventured up into the Columbus and Youngstown areas, and found that real estate closings are approximately 45-60 days in the area. So, we were a bit early to go house hunting. Our lease at our present home doesn't expire until the end of February, so we aren't looking to close until about the end of January. As a result of finding out we were early, we stayed for a couple of days in Ohio visiting LouAnn's sister and brother-in-law. Then, we came back to Florida for our return to family and my return to work. We are planning to return to Ohio to house hunt, leaving Florida on Black Friday.
LouAnn has been really good at getting me foundational reading material for what we hope will be a family farm. My initial joke about the idea of starting a farm was, "How much does a cow eat? I haven't a clue, but it's a HECK of a lot." So, as it sits now, our plans are as follows:
Our goal is a fixer-upper of a home with between 5 and 10 acres of land in Eastern Ohio or the Western Edge of Pennsylvania. The first year in our home will be most likely spent doing fixup and setup work around the house.
Our eventual goal is to have a cow/calf combination for milk and meat, some chickens for meat and eggs, and some pigs for pork and profit (along with the animals' completely natural fertilizer and grass cutting ability.) We intend to grow enough food to be provided with veggies throughout the year, along with growing grass, alfalfa and feed crops for the animals, using wood from the acreage to feed our wood stove or wood stoves (I LOVED wood stove heat when I lived in PA,) and using the products of our labor to make as much of our sustenance natural as we can.
We have been reading labels, and seeing the artificial nature of our world, and have realized that so much of our world has contaminated the lives of us and our children. It is time to reject the crazy nature of what our world and society has become. It is time for us to go "back to the basics." I hope you enjoy our trip along with us.
'Til next time,
Lee
No comments:
Post a Comment