What Is This?

That first post probably needs some explanation. Probably a lot of explanation.

Where do I start?

How about I start with where I am in life right now. Currently I am sitting in a tiny house on wheels surrounded by boxes of My Little Ponies.

Why? Wut?

For now I want to focus on the present and my ultimate goals and leave my motivations for a later post. My husband and I have purchased a five acre plot of land in rural Kansas. We are presently transitioning from the suburbs of Kansas City to a simpler and more sustainable life. These ponies were a major part of my life and now they are playing a major role in this transition.

We are attempting to do this whole thing debt free. The land was purchased with cash. We own it free and clear. We were able pay for it by cutting our expenses down as far possible and saving our money. Now we have the land, we have a humble little temporary home, and it's time to build our permanent home. I have a three point plan for doing this and not taking on debt:

1. Work our dicks off
2. Sell our unnecessary belongings
3. Work our dicks off some more

Seems pretty solid. Maybe.

So, I've been here selling off my collection on eBay. If you've never sold on eBay before let me just tell you this: it is a lot of work. I spend countless hours cleaning, and photographing, and editing, and fighting eBay's crappy interface, and making boxes, and packing, and printing, and rushing to the post office. Then sometimes they look at me from their boxes and I feel just a little regret that they're being sold off. Just a little.

Shut up and get in the box

The ultimate goal is more than worth it. Having our own little place out away from the beige fog of suburbia has been our pipe dream. Only the past several years have pushed us to reconsider how feasible it really was. Turns out, it is fairly feasible.

Maybe.

This land is my land. It is not your land.
It's real grassy... aaaaand it is my land... errybody sing!

Right now we're largely pushing papers around, getting permits, and raising money. We have a root cellar/storm shelter dug out and trenches for the water lines. We've run into some delays because of permits and banks and paper work. I'll be posting more about these delays later, but for now I'll just say, I'm not shocked by these delays. I'm just disappointed.

We'll be building our house largely ourselves. I've found so much inspiration from the tiny house movement and many alternative building movements. I'd love to do straw bale. I'd love to do earth bag. We chose a location that is relatively lax when it comes to building methods, but either of those methods are still going to be outside of our local code. I still think we can incorporate the spirit of these movements in what we do.

We plan on growing some crops and raising some livestock. Mostly small things like chickens, ducks, and rabbits. Eventually perhaps we'll have goats or sheep. My husband has experience working on a farm. Full admission, I do not have a great deal of experience. All I really have is some time in a greenhouse, many years of gardening, and the times I visited my great grandmother's farm. Those visits probably won't help. I was fairly young and was mostly told to just stay out of the way. In fact, my most vivid memory of the farm went something like this:

This is still largely how I learn things.

That is why I've decided to start this blog. The response among our friends and family has been immense. We've received so much support. We have some people that think we're nuts (they're probably right). We have people that are supporting us and think we're nuts. We have people that would really like to do what we're doing. So, if I can share our experiences, our triumphs, and our mistakes maybe I can help someone else reach for their dream. Or you can just laugh at us as we blunder, fumble, and possible electrocute ourselves. Either way, I'm good.