June 10 2010
Guilford, Vermont
It’s a foggy day here on top of the hill at Sunrise Farm. A perfect day for gathering thoughts and putting words on the screen, perhaps even feting out something useful in the process... It’s been a month now since moving to the farm and the transitional stage of moving in has morphed into living here now. The garden is growing well and promises a bountiful harvest of summer and fall long eating. I’ve planted four long rows, perhaps each more than a hundred feet in length, 140 feet long I’ve been told. I’m astounded at how this can give me so much pleasure from conception to completion while Paul finds the whole subject profoundly boring, so much so that even a stroll along the outside edge presents an unwelcome chore. It just looks like a bunch of dirt and some green stuff to him, “…ho hum, must I be bothered….” Reading about gardens and gardening, I imagine might present the same kind of boredom for you my readers, if you yourself are not into gardening, so perhaps the topic might be left for another.
Our primary focus and goal since returning has been in locating a parcel of land where we can construct our new home. As many of you have come to understand if you’ve been reading the posts, our intention is to create a sustainable homestead that we will mostly build ourselves with as little hired help as possible at a minimal cost, eliminating the need for borrowed funds. The end goal is to have a home which provides its own energy off the grid, thus no bills due to power companies, and provide our own food and fuel. In Vermont we are blessed with an abundance of wood, not only for fuel for warmth and cooking, but also for building material. Likewise we have an abundance of rocks and stone. This part of the country was once covered with sheep farms and it is common to find old stone walls surrounding large fields where once sheep grazed. The evergreen pines drop a carpet of pine needles which soften in their return to the earth, while the deciduous trees leave another covering of composting material returning to its source to rebuild the soil. And most important of all, this is a place with abundant water. Now this is not the best place for lounging in the water to cool off on a hot day; no the water is icy cold and it takes a long hot spell to entice me to make my way through brush and down sometimes steep hills, shed my clothing and submerge this body into a swimming hole, but I will not go thirsty and neither will my garden go dry.
So beginning on the day we arrived, hours after stepping off the plane in fact, we have visited “properties” (don’t get me started…) land for sale all over the state, well halfway throughout is more accurate. We have tried to narrow our search to listings under $50,000 using the Brazilian philosophy that people ask twice what they expect to get. That may be true in Brazil where we were, but here we have not yet had the opportunity to test our supposition. We did however veer from our initial guidelines and check out some higher priced things which included small houses, camps or trailers, thinking we could extend ourselves if for example a $10,000 well already existed or a septic system was in place or a temporary shelter could house us saving months of rent and we looked upwards of a $100,000 asking price. But we quickly came back to our senses when we remembered we don’t have that much money and that would require borrowing which we are determined to avoid.
We began the search by internet while still in Brazil and had several places lined up to visit, mostly pieces with 10 acres listed in the $40,000 price range. As all projects go, one learns as one goes refining criteria for searching. We quickly came to realize that our search was costing us a lot of money in gas, not to mention the time spent driving around, not doing other things. When searching for land, one does not always have the assurance that they will indeed find the land in question. Many times there are no signs and nothing marking the boundaries, leaving you in a vague state of wondering if you are indeed in the right place. In fact, just this week we found ourselves in a position of extreme excitement, ready to reach into our pocket and hand over $20,000 for what we thought was absolutely perfect and just what we were looking for. There was no sign, but the arrow on the Google map assured me we were in the exact spot, given all the information we had about this almost 10 acre piece with southern exposure listed not much more than $20,000. We found a place to pull off the road and a roughed in driveway which wound through the woods up a gently sloping incline to a sunny clearing surrounded by state forest land. Perfectly private, perfectly secluded, yet sunny and ready to build and plant! I was already designing in my head where everything would go, albeit with a modicum of restraint because a) we both felt that it was too good to be true, how could it be listed so low in price and be that perfect, and b) we didn’t have any reassurance we were in the right place. Turns out we weren’t. Yesterday we met our realtor there with a plan to meet the listing agent to confirm it was the parcel in question. When the lister never showed up we could only assume we were not in the right place. This was confirmed by phone and email last night. Good lesson in not having desires or getting your hopes up! This always sets the stage for disappointment and indeed I was in a bit of a meltdown last night not directly caused by the disappointment but certainly aided by it.
Emotional states come and go like waves cresting and falling. If you’re attuned to this fluid process of movement you can ride out the wave until it passes, but if you have no facility with this exercise and you are inclined to label the emotional state or find a cause for the now labeled problem, it can drag you along the ocean floor through the tumultuous current of destruction. I had a meltdown last night. Back to the trailer after this rather cold and damp futile exercise of determining if we had found our dream site, I prepared what is usually a fun dish for me to make, paprika noodles. Cooking in a trailer is challenging at best, with little counter space and inadequate pots. At the point in the recipe where I stir 2 tablespoons of paprika into sautéed onions, carrots and celery, I inadvertently stirred in 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper. Easy mistake, identical color! But it wasn’t until the paprika fell out of the cupboard later that I realized what I’d done. With little hope that it could be salvaged, I tasted a tiny speck of the dish, only to have my mouth on fire like someone had torched me with a welding torch! I’ll spare you the rest of the details but meltdown pursued. It was a good lesson though; a nice reminder to stay unattached to outcomes.
We’ve seen quite a number of pieces of land for sale now over the course of the month since we began our search. Often we’ll head off to an area that will have 3 or 4 different places within a short distance of one another and try to plan to see all of them. It’s really necessary because of the distance and travel time to each place. They haven’t been far as the crow flies but here in the mountains, the crow might fly, but you do not. Although we have an incredible interstate highway which is not only fun and easy to drive (no Brazilian potholes or crazy drivers) they only get you part of the way there and then the small roads which either traverse the valleys or curve through and up and over the mountains can wind along forever. So many times we’ve set out for a half a day, only to return more than 3 or 4 hours past when we expected turning each excursion into an all day affair. The day is pretty well shot afterwards, because we are both exhausted from the driving and navigating. I am the navigator. This has become my role in life for many years now. Paul often gets the idea. I take the idea and run with it and then figure out how to get us there. It fits with our human designs. He is a manifesting generator and I am a projector, but that topic I will save for another time of perusal.
Searching for land is equally if not more of an intuitive process than a logical one, right brained versus left. Certainly one sets out a list of guidelines and then attempts to meet all the criteria. In our case we require enough land that can be made fertile enough to grow sufficient food for the two of us and whatever animals we decide to add to our homestead. As extreme introverts we desire perhaps more than most a setting that is private and secluded and as very sensitive people quiet is very important to us, so being in a village or near a highway isn’t right. Some of these things offer us a small advantage as what is desirable to us is often the opposite of many other buyers who’d prefer a parcel with good road frontage where the cost to bring the electric to the house is reduced and the snow plowing is shortened by being as close to serviced roads as possible. In our case a minimal road frontage with a long access in is more to our liking. We always look for something with southern exposure and most Vermonters will tell you that’s number one on their list. If you are on the north slope of a mountain you can lose weeks of sunshine and warm temperatures at both ends of the growing season. But all these factors in mind, there’s still a “feel” you get in a place that’s either right or it’s not. It’s not always discernable or explainable, but you know if a place feels like it could be home or not. Sometimes not right away, but it creeps in sometimes days later.
Our number one factor is of course cost because we are working with a set amount of money which most people will tell you is a ridiculous amount to even consider being enough. We refuse to be stopped by what most people believe is possible. But that narrows our choices down quite a bit and we need to have greater imaginations about what is possible because of this factor. The perfect place may not exist in our budget, so we have to imagine ways to find perfection where it may not seem possible at first glance. It can’t always be achieved but every now and then it can. Last week, for example we found a very small piece in a state forest. We had just determined that the smallest piece we’d require would be 3 acres if the setting was right and surrounded by state forest does make a small piece fine when nothing but forest surrounds you. No pesky neighbors! This one had only 2.8 acres, but we considered that it might be enough. The clearing was just a bit too small and facing the wrong direction so we had to determine if enough trees could be cleared to allow sun to hit the garden for at least 8 hours a day from mid May through mid September. This one had an old trailer on it which had seen much better days and would have been more of a liability than an asset. Having lived in third world conditions, we are now in a position of reevaluating what’s acceptable and what isn’t. Our standards for drawing that line have changed since our year in Brazil.
This is a cool practice and one that I suggest is a good growth opportunity for those wishing to expand their horizons. We did this before when several years ago we moved north from the southern climate of the gulf coast of Florida to the northern climate of the east coast of Massachusetts. We spent a summer camping and living in a conversion van in Canada, driving all the way north through Nova Scotia and up to the northern tip of Newfoundland. 54 days and nights we lived in that camper so that by the time we arrived at our house on the Cape, it felt so much further south than it did from our Florida perspective. What had once seemed so cold on our visits north now seemed relatively mild compared with the northern reaches of Canada. Likewise our experience of trailer living which for me personally would have not been something I ever yearned for as a desirable opportunity but more of something to be avoided, after our exploration through Brazil actually felt like upscale digs. I jest a little because we lived in some really cool places in Brazil but we had opportunities to live in some very primitive and austere conditions. Perspective is everything and this is my only point. Trailer living is quite cozy and has many advantages over living in a big house. Yet anyone who enjoys inside things like cooking would probably tell you living in a trailer wouldn’t be their first choice- there’s simply not enough room. But I digress (again) I was simply trying to point out that we initially considered that if a property had a trailer on it, it could be an advantage as a place to live during the building process, saving rent. Of course a tent is an option and many people if the climate is good enough will set up camp during building. We have since revised our thoughts on this a bit. For a few thousand dollars there are used trailers to be had. Even a new one can be financed for about $150 a month saving hundreds a month on rent during the building process. We considered this as a way to be on the land while building. However we have recently discovered yurts. At the public library while searching for books on building with straw bale, I found a step by step book on building a yurt. Granted it was written in 1998, but the techniques still hold and while the costs are certainly a bit higher now, then the author and builder spent around $300 in materials to construct his home. Even if the costs have risen ten times, that will still provide us shelter for $3000. This now is our latest plan. We intend to construct a yurt to live in during our first building season. Later it can become an art studio, a guest house, yoga or meditation studio or whatever…. If we find the right piece of land soon, we figure we can have the yurt constructed by fall. We won’t spend the winter in it except for an occasional few days in good weather as our friends here on the farm have offered to rent us their still under construction apartment over their new garage at a wonderful ly reduced price until spring when it will be ready for seasonal guests or full time renters at the real value of its rental potential. This gift is a blessing to us enabling us to move slowly into the decision making process.
I’d like to take a few minutes here to talk about perspectives and expectations. Since this blog is morphing into a kind of personal finance blog, how to live without a mortgage and things of that nature rather than the older version which was more of a travel blog, esoteric exploration kind of thing, there are a few points I’d like to touch on now and then. Most of my readers to date have been following along with these writings because you know us and were interested in our adventures and I know that some of what I muse about are of no interest whatsoever to you. You have a different lifestyle and economically, no worries, everything is running smoothly. Cool. That’s great and I am happy for you. There are some of you maybe and maybe some people reading this who I don’t even know who have concerns about reductions in reliable income and how to adjust your lifestyle to give you the freedom you desire. I love the line from the song that Janis Joplin made popular, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose….” It is. Stuff ties you down. It enslaves you. Having less is a source of freedom. Without stuff you are free to go where you wish. You are free to do what moves you. I learned invaluable lessons in Brazil, things that never would have made it across my view screen. When I try to point out the occasional example I get looks of wonder and see silent thought bubbles of pity. But allow me to use the following as an example. Before we moved to Brazil we had a beautiful home on a hill full of many really cool things. Life was more convenient. All seemed well except for the underlying worry of whether the next years consulting contracts would come through or if it might be necessary to find more work. There was a mortgage to be paid every month, health insurance, car insurance, power bill, telephone bill, internet bill, blah blah blah and lots more. An ordinary American life, nothing that extravagant but certainly more than many people have. But if someone had said to me you can trade this in…. all these money concerns, for a life with very little expense…live in this trailer…. You’ll be happy…. I’m not sure I would have believed them. It’s a little like going to Newfoundland to get to Cape Cod. I needed to go live in a third world country and see how little I really needed to embrace a different kind of lifestyle, no job, no mortgage, no bills, yet the potential for unlimited happiness and freedom from other’s expectations.
One of the things I did over the course of the last several years was cut back from the expectations of having a job and earning a living. I was able to do that because my partner was earning good money when he worked and he set the example of not having to work every day or even every week but only occasionally when he’d be hired for a “gig.” I assuaged my guilt by taking on projects of cutting back our expenses. Often I could find ways to save us as much money as if I was out working. I got quite good at finding ways to save us from spending. I also took on the project of becoming self reliant. That meant growing our food, building furniture; if there seemed to be a need, I tried to figure out how to fill it without spending money or hiring someone to do it. I learned a lot. I learned that I could provide for myself in a way that allowed me not to have to work for someone else or even for myself. That was freedom. I grew to love this kind of freedom so much that I will do almost anything to keep it. For a while I tried my hand at being an artist and selling my art. That gives you at least something to say when people ask you what you do. It lets you off the hook from being a bum who doesn’t work. Or a homemaker; god I hate that label. It sounds so demeaning and worthless. Days when I did have the chance to stay home with little kids, I liked to call myself a “domestic engineer.” It had a more worthwhile connotation and believe me I was a skilled engineer of domesticity- no joke. I do like being an artist but there’s so much pressure to produce art that meets your own standards for what is art, not to mention the pressure to sell it. Consignment’s easy; lots of places will show your work if they don’t have to make a financial commitment. But not all of us can be artists, or not be artists all the time…..But this conversation isn’t about art, it’s about lifestyle and what one needs to be happy. Problem is that we all already have too much. So the starting place is more difficult. If you do what I’ve done and decide to sell it all or give it away and move somewhere else, it’s easier, especially if you have a destination that seems exciting and calls to you. But if you’re not starting over in a new and exciting place how do you free yourself from all your possessions and commitments and debts? Food for thought…….
June 11, 2010
Took another drive over to visit the area where the mysterious $23,000 land is hiding and believe we found it this time. The skies opened up just as we stepped out of the truck and so we did not yet walk in to explore its potential, though we are eager to do that because we love the location. The drive from where we stay now takes around forty minutes and through 3 or 4 villages which are charming and progressively more remote. I noticed yesterday that we drive alongside a river nearly every time we go out. I am so in touch with and aware of water these days. I am feeling reassured that I have returned to a good place because of the abundance of water here. It seems more important than ever.
June 16, 2010
Since last report, we have had the opportunity to revisit the land in Readsboro on a sunny day to walk the boundaries. The small hope we were holding out was dashed when we discovered that the narrow road frontage leading into the bulk of the parcel goes entirely through wetlands making the prospect of building a driveway through quite costly. Not simply this but the fact that the entire landscape was nothing but a fern forest floor, either in low wet land or on a slope. These factors had us eliminate this once potential parcel from consideration. From there we drove north on Route 8 to Searsburg where we visited a “camp” on 26 acres across from the Deerfield River. On paper this looked quite promising, as most will, but up close and personal, this was one more to check off the list of potential future home sites.
What we’ve begun to do is consider a broader range of possibilities. As we add up the costs involved in building from scratch we are finding some factors which are discouraging. I can’t say this is true of every area around the country or the world for that matter, but here in Vermont before a building permit is issued the land must pass a “perc” test. This is a process of digging a hole, filling it with water and timing how long it takes the water to drain. It’s likely a bit more complicated than that but put rather simply, this is necessary to determine if there will be adequate drainage to put in a septic system to dispose of waste water. It is also necessary here in Vermont to have a septic design. Whether or not one is planning to have a septic system with a leach field where the waste water (both grey – everything from sinks and tubs – not toilets- and black- the water from the toilet) is routed to seep under the ground, it is none the less required to have a professional design produced for your property. As far as septic is concerned we are exploring less costly options like a composting toilet or perhaps an outhouse close by attached by an enclosed walkway, as a septic field can cost as much as $10,000 after the perc and the design which will be up to $2,000 or $3,000. Grey water can be routed through a French drain (one option) to water the gardens. Septic aside, a well needs to be drilled assuming one does not yet exist which can run in the neighborhood of $6,000 to $10,000. If a driveway is not already in place this can easily cost $5,000 and upwards, depending on how much distance needs to be covered. Most usable parcels of land around here are being listed in the $40,000 price range and upwards. So we are estimating that before we buy our first building material we will spend a minimum of $40,000. It’s as I mentioned earlier, quite daunting when one wants to avoid dealing with banks and mortgages. I’m not sure a simple small and basic house could be had much under $80,000 to be honest, though I’m not yet giving up hope that the unlikely can be achieved. However…..
This being the case, it occurred to us that we might be better off looking at very inexpensive homes rather than simply land. We originally looked at what is called here in Vermont, “camps.” These are generally off the grid vacation cabins and cottages – very rough often. Sometimes they will already have a well. Often they are built on good land and are in remote places, which is just what we are looking for. But this past weekend we picked up the local real estate magazines outside the door of the Chelsea Royal Diner where we like to have Saturday morning breakfast, and discovered many new options to consider. One is a farmhouse with 3 barns listed for $75,000. This holds so much appeal for us because in addition to having some farm animals, we need lots of studio space for painting, building and quite possibly ceramics. This bargain is not only a fixer upper (how could it not be at that price) but it is in the northern most part of the state, probably within commuting distance of Canada and could be very cold. I’ll have an update later after we visit it along with several other new possibilities. Stay tuned as the adventure continues, stateside……