Settled in. Life so far on the River.

All winter I was dying to write a blog once I had adventures to write about. Now that I have adventures.... I can't sit still and write. Excuses, excuses.
Our room at the outpost has come together nicely. Vincent still wants to add some shelves to cut down on clutter. Clutter is challenging in one room where you sleep, cook, work, and store books and plastic toys. We are so grateful to work in a place that welcomes our whole family. I suppose it is all family here though. Outside our door we have herb and vegetable seedlings coming up. The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway is 30 feet from our porch. At 12pm every day Lia leaps up to the whistle of the train and shouts "bye train, bye train, bye train" and we run out and wave to all the passengers.

The past few weeks Vincent and our friend Richard have been finishing the basement in a rental cabin. Lia and I would come by with lunch. Hopefully Lia and I will be cleaning that cabin for some extra money.

We also went with the Allen family to Blue Hole on the upper Ocoee river. When the upper Ocoee is not running you can find great swimming holes to play in.

For Mothers day we went down the Toccoa River in Funyaks.

This past weekend Lia and I visited raft guide Amanda and her 6 month old baby Lyla in Atlanta. We all went to the aquarium with free passes. Yess :)

We still eat out a lot more than I would like. Now that we have a mini fridge, hot plate and grill I want to get into a cooking routine. I started doing P90X again with some adventure interruptions... I hope to make working out in some fashion a daily goal. I'm limiting myself to no more than a beer in a day. Taking care of my body and family is what matters to me. Also I would like to find a local church to go to. The rural churches are different than the city churches and I need to get over my timidness. I miss my time with God and other believers. I miss reading everyday.
Vincent and I check in with each other on our decision to raise Lia around the outdoor rec community. Well... I check in with Vincent about it haha. It's so important for us to be examples and guide her especially when in a society that does not always choose to do healthy things. At the same time, I believe we are surrounding her with amazing people who love her and have respect for nature, play, taking care of each other etc.. Maybe one day Lia's home school education will be..online class time, kayak down the Nantahala river with Papi, care for her garden and animals, work on some art, identify plants and rock formations on the trails, helping me cook dinner. :)

Breathing deeper with less.

Backpacking has been philosophically inspiring to me. All you need, on your back. Freedom. Ultralight backpacking takes it to another level. No back ache, more miles, more freedom. It’s empowering when you realize you don’t need. You don’t need a pillow, 3 pans, a change of clothes. You don’t need restaurants, a bathroom, entertainment systems. Something about roughing it makes me excited. I find that the more luxuries I have the more lazy, drone like, bored, detached, and restless I feel.  That could be a bit of an exaggeration.. but when I feel the rush of euphoria walking through the trees.. it does not seem like an exaggeration. I find myself talking to God and breathing deeper WITH LESS.

Having as little to no debt is also part of it. Buying land and slowly making a home on it could be one way. It could be wise to buy a foreclosure with a house on it. Rather than paying more than mortgage in rent while we pay off the land to eventually build a yurt. It will all fall into place. Why be debt free? So we can pick up and live on Vincents primitive family farm house in the mountains of Puerto Rico for a winter… of course. Freedom.  Also Freedom to GIVE. It blows my mind how "charitable" the U.S. Gov. is while we are broke as a joke. Collapse is the only logical result.  I want to share REAL wealth.

Homestead Hunting

Vincent, Lia, and I met with a broker on Friday. She showed us a good bit of properties under $100,000 that had some kind of land. This was all triggered by a beautiful almost done remodel 1940's house, 4+ acres on prime property in Georgia, $85,000....a foreclosure. It sold the day before we called. So this put us in another direction. Originally we wanted to find some foreclosed land by the end of summer that we could slowly inhabit...camping-->garden and RV---->yurt with water and electricity etc.. But sheesh, with all the foreclosures, we might make out better if we buy a HOUSE!
So we visited houses. Some too close to the road, 5 acres..but on the side of a mtn, neighbors too close. One diamond in the rough made our hearts light up. 3 usable acres with a stream running through it, surrounded by woods, tree house, garden spot, 1 mtn in view, 2 sheds and a coy pond. The house is a 3 bed 2 bath PERFECT. So...we walk in the front door and your hit with cigarette smoke. The floors are ripped up, the bathrooms are nasty, no kitchen.. it needs to be bulldozed.

It has potential though. If we get the land for a steal and rebuild on the foundation for all around $100,000 we might could pull it off. Vincent was an electrician in North Georgia for years so we could probably get some construction buddies....... ahh but no use getting pumped up about it. This land would be a killer investment and odds are by the time our ducks are in a row someone with a wad of cash will scoop it up and turn it into the million dollar property it could be. We will keep marching forward and who knows. We have a whole summer of Ocoee river adventures ahead. It's all exciting and it's all good.

Katy and Whitney braving early season water on the Ocoee. by: OAC guide Evandre

Rolling up to the start line of summer.

It's March 26th the first day of white water rafting on the Ocoee. Vincent just drove off to the outpost in the cold pouring rain. I know he wants to get out of guiding today. We are still living in the Georgia house right now. 17 month old Lia and I just finished reading every book on her shelf + all the books from the tiny library down the road.
We are staying in a spacious, luxurious house in a small neighborhood full of people who wave and smile. 1 mile down the road is a playground with a duck pond, library, and a pizza shop that serves Sweet Water beer. Soon we will trade it all for a 13x15 room with cinder block walls. Old school buses stacked with Riken and NRS rafts squeaking outside our screen door. Public showers. PBR beer. Oh but it feels so right for us!It is a different set of luxuries. Friends all around, the river, hiking trails, sweating in the sun, roughing it and making money! Saving money!
As a lover of the outdoors I always new I could never trade it all in for a suburban life when I had a family. I knew my husband would be a hardworking outdoors man with unconventional dreams. I knew our children would grow up in the outdoor rec. world. As backward and messy as it has been finding my way.. it feels more clear and right than ever and I know God had his hand in that.
The process of cleaning up our living space at the river has begun. It looks like I might have some WORK cleaning bathrooms and rental cabins after hours. Giving me a break from Lia and a little money to add to our jar. It feels like we are slowly rolling up to the white start line of summer.

First blog entry ever

We are not on the River yet...but possibilities of what this summer will look like are being tossed around. What room will our tiny clan occupy? A garden? Where? A chicken..(don't push your luck) Will we continue P90X? Maybe Ill get up early and run before Lia wakes(HA), Ducktown, TN public pool, Blue Hole swim lessons for Lia, possible work for ME? Vincent balancing raft guiding and his grown up job AKA real job. Will I sew? Will I actually write this blog? And the question that I don't want the answer to yet...what after? Will we be closer to our plot of land with an outdoor shower, cozy home, and a cow named cow (because she is for dinner)?