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It's official, we've gone hippie!


michaelhobson
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The 'For Rent' sign went up in front of our house today! We were just renting ourselves, so not much to it really, we gave our landlord 60 days notice when we paid the March rent.

 

So, a few more weeks until we give notice at our jobs, then April 27 is our last day of work!

 

We're planning to live outside for at least May - September, then who knows. We'll spend our summer traveling and working on a 7 acre organic veggie farm. If we're happy in West Virginia, we may build a little straw bale cabin to spend the winter in. There are also some vacant log cabins on the land, they are very isolated, but still an option.

 

We'll see how it goes. I haven't had this much freedom in over a decade. I'm sure it will change us, who knows who we will become or where we will end up. Trying to forecast the future though, we both see ourselves happy on the land in West Virginia for at least the next year. We'll keep you posted.

 

 

PS We plan to live in the woods in the distant left. This entire open space past the greenhouse is almost all now in cultivation. The only thing lacking is enough people to work the land.

 

http://farmeducation.org/images/garden1.jpg

 

The smaller 1/2 acre educational garden:

http://farmeducation.org/images/current1.jpg

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Sounds like fun?!? That may just qualify for the understatement of the year!

 

To me, it sounds like a life dream realized! It sounds like hard labor and self-sufficiency. It sounds like FINALLY being able to appreciate little fluctations in the weather and time spent with family and slow cooked simple food that tastes that much more incredible because the sole "investment" was our own time. It sounds like following our natural inclinations as the seasons change and...where did I find you michaelhobson? Oh yeah... lucky me.

 

(Tigress, I'm still around - though I feel myself withdrawing from the internet - I spent entirely too much time during the day staring at a computer screen at work and I'm enjoying nights of incense, scrabble, night walks and book reading)

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Sounds like fun?!? That may just qualify for the understatement of the year!

 

To me, it sounds like a life dream realized! It sounds like hard labor and self-sufficiency. It sounds like FINALLY being able to appreciate little fluctations in the weather and time spent with family and slow cooked simple food that tastes that much more incredible because the sole "investment" was our own time. It sounds like following our natural inclinations as the seasons change and...where did I find you michaelhobson? Oh yeah... lucky me.

 

(Tigress, I'm still around - though I feel myself withdrawing from the internet - I spent entirely too much time during the day staring at a computer screen at work and I'm enjoying nights of incense, scrabble, night walks and book reading)

 

that's exactly what i meant, i was just trying to saving myself some time.

 

Edited by andgbr
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This sounds like it's going to be an awesome adventure!!! Will you still have internet access somewhere?

 

Hehe, we're going to be living at New Vrindavan. There is a slim chance we can get a free laptop before we head out, if so there is wireless at the temple. If not, we can likely use the system at the Farm Education Center. If all else fails, there is always the public library in Moundsville, WV, about 20 minutes away.

 

Just to clarify too, the 7 acres is just the garden! The entire farm is about 2,000+ acres and the surrounding land is undeveloped and mostly unoccupied, so there is endless opportunity for hiking, wandering and swimming in creeks!

Edited by michaelhobson
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You realize that you actually have to wait for the wheat to be ripe before you can make cup cakes right ?

Seriously, it sounds awesome!

 

What? We'll have to splurge and buy flour!!!

 

We want to build a clay oven to bake in! Now that's hippie.

 

Grains are so cheap to buy, most people never grow them. I never have, but I might try it this summer. A friend of mine grew an acre of rice one summer and ended up with over a hundred pounds of rice!

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I am very excited to hear of your new life adventure! Congratulations for taking the steps to achieve your dream! I intuit that you are on the leading edge of culture, learning the skills that all of us need. I am proud of you Michealhobson and Veganmadre!

 

Bowing Deeply In Your Direction, hands in Gassho, eyes on your eyes,

 

Jonzen

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I am very excited to hear of your new life adventure! Congratulations for taking the steps to achieve your dream! I intuit that you are on the leading edge of culture, learning the skills that all of us need. I am proud of you Michealhobson and Veganmadre!

 

Bowing Deeply In Your Direction, hands in Gassho, eyes on your eyes,

 

Jonzen

 

Thanks Jonzen. Funny you should say "leading edge of culture". I will not claim any such grand statements for myself, but it is something I have been thinking a lot about lately.

 

I'm reading Jeremy Rifkins 1995 book titled The End of Work. I'm only half way through, but so far it has given a good history of our transition from an agricultural economy, then industrial and now technological. So many of his ideas about where things are heading have become reality over the past 10 years. I'm curious to finish the book and hear his ideas about what was/is to come.

 

So far, everything he writes is pointing toward most middle-class type jobs being replaced by more and more machines. I don't think he even envisioned the few jobs left being outsourced all over the world. So, where does that leave us?

 

One option is of course returning to our agricultural roots and simple living. Turn off the air conditioners, televisions and microwave ovens and figure out what we truly need to be happy productive humans.

 

Most of you have probably never heard of Helen and Scott Nearing, Eliot Coleman or Forest Farm or The Good Life Center, but if you have the following is pretty inspiring:

Juli and I are using this down time to reflect on our past successes and how much we have learned and grown since last March when we took residence at Forest Farm and made it our home. What began as a temporary arrangement, a welcome rest in our search for a permanent home, has blossomed into something much, much more. A short while ago, our neighbor and friend Eliot Coleman made us the offer of a lifetime, one that would have made Helen and Scott proud. One evening over dinner, he told me there was a small parcel of land available at the back of his property, if we wanted it, for $33 per acre. This was the price he paid Helen and Scott for it nearly forty years ago, and the same price they had paid over fifteen years before that. This is a great example of how changing our society's view of land from a maximizable investment to a resource to be shared can help young people get their start without going into debt. We have accepted this amazing offer and are in the process of working out the details.

 

That's right $33 per acre in 2007 for land on the Maine coast! Eliot Coleman is awesome for continuing the Nearing's tradition of refusing capitalism and refusing to make a profit on his good fortune of 'owning' land.

 

Learn more at http://www.goodlife.org/glc_news.html

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Woot Woot! It's even more official now. We got a formal invite from the Proprietor of Santee Farm to camp near the garden for the summer! Not only that, but we are welcome to use whatever facilities we need/want such as common kitchen, showers etc.

 

We also have the opportunity to work on some organic agriculture research projects going on at the farm for West Virginia State University. There is the possibility to actually earn an income from this type of 'work'.

 

Things are really shaping up.

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holy crap amazing.

 

that sounds so awesome.

 

I just left my job.

 

Cool man, that's the first step. See you out in the world somewhere this summer.

 

Congrats to all of you (Topher, MH, VM)! It is inspiring for me to read how things are changing for you!

 

We'll keep posting. You can live through us for the summer.

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