A comment from Theresa on "I wanna rock" made me realize what everyone has missed out on in my silence over the last few years,
You mean you haven’t gone camping or trekking since that rock incident? You must have missed out a lot of the activities. I hope you feel better soon.
I certainly did not miss out on any activities, in fact, the activities have been why I don't blog anymore.
To sum it up in a cluttered rambled mess:
After wrecking my foot, I accepted a sweat-equity offer from one of the places we WWOOFed at. In exchange for keeping a 300 acre "nature preserve / off-grid e-commerce business / organic garden" running, I was offered a remote 44 acres and a dilapidated cabin to rebuild, along with the financial backing to do it.
In January 2007, we moved to an apartment near the property and began the slow process of rebuilding. I worked with dozens of volunteers from around the world, learned things like "how NOT to build an earthbag wall" and how to use bottle jacks to pick up and level a house. In 2008, eight weeks before our wedding, we moved into a 5th wheel camper on the property full-time and set to work. The gardens went in, we got married and (as materials became available) the cabin went up.
A year later, the cabin was wired, plumbed, leveled, windowed, painted, and roofed. All that was left was to finish the inside.
For most of my life, I have made it a habit to trust in others. If everyone held their word and trusted everyone else to keep their word, we would live in a beautiful world. That said, sweat equity is no equity unless you have contracts. Trust no one at their word when you have more at risk than you can afford to give away.
In 2009, after pressing to get our agreement in writing, I was "furloughed" from work on the "nature preserve" and it was made clear that it was time for us to go.
We were left without the land we had poured our souls into, but had gained an incredible and practical education, and what a journey we had. It was worth every moment, and had our time had ideally placed us within the community.
A year prior to the furlough, after many long talks with the deer, birds and lizards who frequently came to watch me work, I knew some human interaction was needed. I took a two day a week job as a warehouse worker at the local Farm Supply. When I asked the boss if I could come to work full time, he gave me a nice raise and told me, " Whenever you are here, you wander around and improve things. I want you to keep doing that." I did. We did very well as I moved up the ranks...
Since then, I have continued my travels in the professional world, with an intense focus on retaining and magnifying my ideals through the businesses I work for. I now find myself as director of the old "Real Goods Catalog". In 2002, I received a copy of the Solar Living Source Book, and it became one of my motivations to find a spot of land in the wilderness and make a go at having a fully independent lifestyle, something that led to the walk of 2006.
No, Theresa, I have not missed out on any activities. I spent my teens and twenties learning and living the lifestyle described in this blog, I've gotten older and slower, but I have continued to grow and learn. It's been a long trip.
With thousands of miles under my heels and wings, I'd venture to say that some journeys of a thousand miles stay in one place.
...and...
I'll blog more, I promise.
