First fact-finding mission
First of all, I wanted
to thank everyone for your well wishes, both here and via email. It's
meant so much to us to be embraced with such positivity and kindness.
Please know that your gestures have been noticed and appreciated!
Now...on to the
adventure! Saturday, unable to think about anything other than our
transition, we
filled all of the feeders and waterers up high and hit the road. Mark's
working up a video log with more in-depth thoughts, so I'll keep this
post fact-light and picture heavy.
The difference between
land-searching now and land-searching a dozen years ago is astonishing.
Nowadays, everything is on the internet, either via Craigslist or
realtor sites. So after zeroing in on our intended destination ---
Athens, Ohio --- we hit the web and hunted high and low until we found
a property we thought would work. Then we got in the car and drove
north.
The first property was a
disappointment. Although it was surrounded on three sides by the
national forest and had loads of potential, it was going to take a
massive amount of time and money to bring up to speed. Since part of
the purpose of this move is to take a step ahead rather than a step
back, we decided to give this one a miss.
The second property
became The One That Got Away. Although there were some downsides
(including a price at the high end of our possible spectrum), the
property was pretty close to perfect. A small house only a little
larger than our current living space but with half of that space
consisting of a livable basement, a beautiful shed/barn, and fruit
trees in production, plus all of the isolation I crave. We contacted
the realtor as soon as we hit our crash space for the night...and found
out the property had been sold that very day to someone else.
Of course, we didn't
expect to find our homestead during a whirlwind, two-night trip. Our
primary goal during this first adventure was to check out the area and
see if we were even on the right track. And, after spending the night
in the Passive House
and visiting the local Unitarian Church, Mark and I both came away
confident that this area would indeed be a very good fit for us. Looks
like our to-do list will change from planting and weeding to packing
and land hunting for the foreseeable future.
Thanks for coming along
for the ride!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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When i finally move, I will take with me: a pot of comfrey (which I need in the spring, and which represents my Massachusetts roots), most of my records, and a CD player; some photo albums, etc. That would be my "rootball".
I am looking forward to your explanation for the draw of Athens. In actually looking for a new abode, I hope you look at the hrs of sunlight you can receive, both morning and evening. And if there is anywhere to swim nearby!
Try out that park, another time, Hocking Hills, since I think like-minded people do bird and camp...
I'm curious to know why you've decided to abandon SW VA and move, essentially, north. Why Ohio? Any other areas you've considered?
Good luck with your move. I went through the same thing 19 years ago when I moved from Philly down to NE TN. I really wanted to live in the Asheville area, but it was so darned expensive then and then there was Federal income tax, state income tax, state sales tax and the wages were abysmal at best. I wanted to make sure that by the time I retired I had the house/land paid for and didn't have to worry about anything.