Absolutely not. Very good, Dharma. Maybe you, Dave and the family can come up and visit me when Kole and I can afford to do the same.
Nic.

I find it said that so many think that you always have to have the biggest most expensive everything to be happy.  I live in a house that is too big and I can barely afford it.  (We built the house so that me parents could live in it, but they don't anymore).  So, I really just waste money.  We have a small TV which looks very small in the TV cabinet that it's in (which I bought at a close out furniture store so that I could afford all of it's non-trendy, last forever, oak goodness).  So many days I ask myself why I spend money on "wants" instead of "needs".  I wonder what life would be like if my house was half the size it is and that I actually *used* all the rooms in it.

If you want to know about country life, just let me know.  Because this country girl knows how to survive!    Seriously, except for this year, I always plant a garden (this summer is just too busy to have time to care for it).  I also live far enough out in the country that we have a well and septic and no cable.  We don't have central air.  And we own a generator because we have been out of power for weeks at a time in the past (rural areas get fixed last when storm knock down lines).  Kind of ironic that I have so much *stuff* that I very well know I don't need.

Nicky: I'd love to do that! And you and yours are welcome to come visit us whenever you want to or can as well.

Karma: My dad grew his own, and we also had chickens when I was a kid.  The only things I don't know much about are keeping pigs and goats...and what I know about canning and preserving you could write on the back of a postage stamp!  Still, it will be a learning experience for me.  I forgot to mention the generator part, we want to have one of those so that if the power goes out we won't be totally lost.

I relish the thought of not having so much 'stuff'.  I try to be minimalistic now, and am somewhat successful..I just would like to take it to the next level.

There is fantasy and there is reality. You will probably get what you want when you retire, but you can never tell. It sounds like you're not to far from living it now, except for the size of your house.

and what I know about canning and preserving you could write on the back of a postage stamp!

I know how to can.  I also know that the prime time for canning is during the hottest time of summer so you boil your brains while doing it.

But, you can get a lot of good food for winter....or a lot of botulism if you don't can your tomatoes right

Dehydrating food is another good way to preserve some foods (like fruit and mushrooms).

Dehydrating food is another good way to preserve some foods (like fruit and mushrooms).

We had a food dehydrator, an electric one.  I dried fruit on it, and Dave went jerky-crazy for a few months.  I don't know what happened to it....it prob'ly broke and got tossed out. 

My mother said that a chest freezer is a good idea..that what what you can't can you can prep and freeze.

Sherye, I'm actually enjoying being minimalistic.  The base commander has banned livestock in base housing or else I think I'd have chickens already!

The only thing that would ever stop soemone from acheiving dreams like this is urbanization. It is nice to know that there are few mainly unspooiled areas where you can find enough land to live this dream though. Montana, Minnesota, and other underpopulated areas. I too hate living in such close proximity to heavy concentrated humanity. I hope you get to live your dream.

Thanks, Greywar!

My husband's a southern Indiana boy, and there are some places around his hometown that we've talked about acheiving our dream of isolation at.  Here in SD there are plenty of places to attain solitude, but the winters are so damn brutal I'm not sure I'd want to rough it up here.  Besides, I have this dream of being barefoot or in flip flops for most of the year and that's impossible to do around these parts...you can do it for 4 months at best.  Any longer than that and you risk losing your toes to frostbite. 

It's not that I'm anti-social, I just really dislike living around other people.  I don't like having to put up with other people's BS, and in turn I don't want them to have to put up with mine.  I want, as I said, to spend the end of my life with my husband, doing our own thing with no-one to poke their nose in - unless we invite them to.

or a lot of botulism if you don't can your tomatoes right

That was great, Karma! It made me laugh.

a few miles away from anywhere and out of sight from the neighbors

so that you can run around naked outside right?

It's not that I'm anti-social, I just really dislike living around other people.

My husband and I are the same way.  We built our house on a couple acres.  Placed it on that land knowing pretty much where the neighbors next to us would have to put a well and septic (which would determine where there house was).  That way  we figured that both houses would have more privacy and all would be good.  What we didn't know was that our soon to be neighbors are absolute morons.  Instead of building there house so it faced the main road and have the driveway off the private drive that they have to come in, they faced it toward the private drive.  They also put their house on an above ground basement and half assed filled around it.  So, if they look out their whole back of the house, or are in their "back yard" they are looking directly in our backyard.  Since they sit up so high, even a privacy fence won't block them.  Since they sit up so high, they can also see into our side bedroom window from their kitchen.  It's just so irritating.  In the summer, they leave all their windows open so that while we're sitting on our deck we can hear everything from their house if we want to or not.  Morons.  I wish I had more money so that I could line the property with a ton of trees.

our soon to be neighbors are absolute morons.

You just can't seem to get away from them, can you?  You move out into the sticks, and they follow you out there!  I'm sorry.......!!

Yes, MJ, so we can run around naked outside if we want to...saggy boobs and nuts and all.  *rolls eyes and sighs*