trying to set myself up better

A Change of Pace

now why would i want to get rid of this? 

      Well coming up on the New Year and reflecting on the old has recently had me thinking of what is best for myself. How can I most benefit myself in the future when I am not able to do half of what I am doing now? How do I want to live and where? Pretty much the where is all figured out since I really hate moving.  So it is the how I am more concerned with. Am I going to stay in my piece of shit trailer, it isn’t that bad and keeps the rain out most of the time, or am I going to replace it with something else? If I am I need to devote all my effort into building something else, but what?

     I have talked this over with a bunch of friends and most came to the same conclusion , you are getting old and feeble , when this happened I don’t know but apparently it is quite obvious as it seems to be the trumpet call of my queries. They say you need to prepare yourself for that day when you can’t do anything but sit and look. Well I hope that day never come but still I have seen some old folk forced out of their home mainly because they were not able to negotiate stairs, or family and friends were afraid of them falling. Well hopefully i can avoid those pitfalls by designing the perfect senior place.

     Well if I did nothing at all the trailer wouldn’t be very senior friendly. It already has a roof leak and yes I can fix it, but usually once a trailer roof starts leaking it is going to leak forever, also some times by the time you realize you have a leak there is already roof rot going on and structural problems as they are made cheap. The roofs are flat for the most part and you could cover them with another roof as the central section already has, but still it is just a trailer under a roof. Not the kind of place I want to live in the rest of my life as it is dreary and architecturally unappealing when I know I can build a better house. All the time and effort that would go into building on this piece of shit, would better be spent building the ultimate senior house.

entrance 

       I have no desire to move elsewhere unless it is beside a lake or river and build something or to just have a cabin to visit in summer as a getaway . Regardless I plan on making hay, doing the greenhouse thing, and carving as long as I can here on the farm. I am also a big fan of the view out my windows and need to take advantage of those more. As far as I know our family intends to keep this property in perpetuity as long as possible and for sure as long as us kids are survivors and in need of a place to live. We have taken steps to assure these properties will be preserved, and it is in my interest to have a place to live where I have my freedom and can live cheaply, as well be able to provide even a part of my food as needed  or at least have that advantage afforded to me. I would like also to have the privacy I need to maintain myself for psychological reason. It drives me crazy to live where people are coming and going in your life constantly. Some people thrive on it , I don’t. I think it tends to lead to ignorance as you assume all is well with a person as you never have time to interact due to the commotion of life. People have been known to lay dead in the street for hours until someone comes along and cares enough to check to see if they are ok. We ignore our fellow man and build walls emotionally to even be concerned as to the health of others as long as we are ok, then everything is fine. I think rather than be ignored in public I would much rather make sure I do it in private if it is to be done at all, so the further away from mankind the better. Doing this alone will put you back in touch with nature which isn't all bad.

side view

       For me considering all my options, I am single elderly now that I have reached the ripe old age of 59, I am handicapped, meaning I have a back injury that prevents me from doing some things, and making tasks normal for some folks getting increasingly harder for me to do. Also I have available to me , here on the property , enough materials to build me a house for free if I really wanted to. as well  I have the place to do it as I intend to replace the existing structure with a rebuild on the same foot print where it already exists. And in the long run should it ever be necessary that we would need to sell the property then it would increase the resale value of the property compared to what it is today.

     I just know I need to take care of my future and myself presently in a much better way than I have to this date. My time to be able to make major changes as this are limited and I have no intention of letting time slip by on frivolous other tasks less important to my welfare than this. This has to be my primary goal or objective for the next 2 years. I hope to have something completed in less but at the minimum you need a t least 1 year from time logs are cut till a person should live in a cabin. Grandma told of a family that moved into a log cabin back in Monroe county and all came down with pneumonia that killed all the kids, two I believe and the wife, and he was sick for a while as medicine in those days was mostly home cures. You know like, make a poultice out of road apples and apply to your chest every hour. The moisture from the logs wicked into the inside cabin air and was ever present in the cabin, and with it all closed for winter, made fresh air less available, so this moisture contributed to the pneumonia problems as grandma suggested or heard.  

      Aesthetics is a major concern as I try to improve the overall look of the property and incorporate landscaping and overall simplicity of construction into a visually appealing home that is not only good to look and  is earth friendly , but is also good to look from at sites here on our property I enjoy looking out my window at now. Of these most notably would be he activity at the ponds I built years back. I have a tractor available with a bucket to raise timbers as opposed to lifting. It is a replacement for my back and though it takes time to do stuff with it , it is far safer doing it with the tractor and thinking the project out in those terms of utilizing what I have available to me now in terms of resources and materials need to complete a new house. I also have a dump truck available to haul materials I need in quantity like gravel for concrete, as well I own a mixer for making the concrete. I have most of what I need available to me now and intend to take advantage of all my resources when I design this perfect house.

     This would create a perfect storm for most the most imaginative part of my soul as I intend to use my talents in carving to add personal touches to the structure I build to make it mine and memorable to all who would want to visit and view carvings of wood displayed as I think they should be as I incorporate the carvings into my overall structure. This is why I am having a moratorium on my carving and will refuse to accept any requests for a carving from anyone else except what I need and desire to furnish my own house.  I also plan on writing as I proceed in the design process and provide pictures to document my building process on my blog as I go along.  And since I am single and if I die single then everyone can have an auction of my carvings after I am gone and have a big party as they scatter my ashes here on the farm as I prepare to take my next journey into the afterworld.

the view i want to capitalize on minus the screener , it has to go this year. either i get it working or get rid of it .  notice the downed trees above the spring.