The Great drift to the south

137 followers

6 years ago

Crushed and uprooted, my family was forced to sell our home on a very tight time line. We were trying not to be pushy on sellers, but found anxiety got the best of my wife and me.

We managed to sell slightly more than what we paid for it, although through our haste we ruined our chance to sell it for much more.

My family was homeless shortly after I under sold my plants, animals, shut down the aquatic systems, and putting those; including the rest of the household things in storage.

Thankfully it was Summer, we lived in a park in a tent with our two cats and one dog for three days, waiting for my wife to finish her final days at her job.

I felt relieved that, at least, we didn't lose everything and we had some money.

We purchased an SUV that could tow a trailer-home, because we have plans of leaving the mess and congestion of the city and entering a more relaxing smaller city or town, find land and build.

The Drift

We have three automobiles, but only two drivers, after a couple days of juggling vehicles and scouting our direction, we sell the truck very cheap.

Now the SUV is driven by my wife and I am driving our van with "Manual Reverse." The transmission is failing and requires human power to go in that direction. The purpose of the van is a temporary sleeping area for my wife and me. Oh, and the two cats and dog. Do-able, not suggest able. Thankfully my giant son was visiting his brother, but we were on the way to retrieve him shortly.

My wife wants to be near water, I want to be amongst the trees, so we decide to go west towards the coast. Joyful and hopeful we venture into the farm lands with the extensive fields of spaces, bordered by trees both evergreen and deciduous.

The Summer heat of the City Valley slowly gives way to the approaching mountain air, fresh and invigorating to breathe.

Thick and ick

We found it! Boy, was this the place! we found a sign saying, "Land for Sale,"

It was in the woods: quiet, secluded, trees, with carved trails, flat land with grass, gently sloping hill sides. The ideas were racing through my mind and I gleefully flitted through the trails scouting and planning.

Ah, I am so excited, also it is neighbored by an impenetrable, gnarled land twisted with under growth and masses of thorn bushes. My wife stands up on the hill side with the leashed and restricted to prowl around dog. I hear a truck approaching from down the road.

I run swiftly up the hillside of my new-found homestead to greet the driver and see If I could acquire more information from him or her about this paradise. The truck stops at the road with a very bright-eyed me. "Hello, I am very interested in buying this land." The truck driver, responds through his beard, "Well, this is my land, the land you're looking for boarders mine."

Before amazement evolved to ghast, I smile, apologized for the intrusion and get back in the SUV with the family and leave.

To the sea

Trees of the forest meet the sea; it is mid-day and the warmth of the sun is being shunned by an increasingly thick wall of fog. It is cold and gloomy, yet everyone wants to get their feet onto the sand and see and hear the ocean up close. The dog already senses we are near and perks up to any possibility of exiting the vehicle.

Low Tide, and as we walk the hardened wet sand, we discover the retreated sea offers solitary rocks riddled with holes, caverns, and caves. Some are actually tunnels, and one was like a cathedral's high ceilings.

Our day was closing fast, the earlier fog dissipated and exposed the beauty of the ocean veiw. The evening sun dipping broadly across the sky and into the sea horizon created evolving and ever forming sunsets, both with clouds and mounds of land jetting and dotting about the landscape. Magnificent visions, worthy for any photographer of any skill level.

Home?

We purchased a travel trailer. This was our plan: buy a trailer home, be mobile until we could find land, park on the land with the trailer and build. Not so easy when you just get up and go with no job, no direction, just dreams.

It is quiet here, and I should be getting a job soon, working with plants. My wife is working as well, and my son wants to start working and pitch in, to help with our dreams of building a home in the trees, literally.

This space, this place has many areas to go and stay and be silent; wind, rain, and bird song is the only sounds to be heard. Although, on the highway, evidence points to the numerous log trucks, service trucks, pick-ups, travel trailers, and RV's. All coming to transform the landscape in purposeful ways.

Squeezing to settle in

Out of time and dwindling funds we struggle to settle in. During this whole adventure, my Laptop computer had been hijacked over the internet at our previous address for looking into ads on land ownership.

Thankfully, my brother is a computer wizard, and fixed my computer during a two-day visit at his house. I needed to get back and write! Many new things had happened at Wealthy Affiliate and I missed them all!

So, now I am working on projects to post and sell on-line, I have limits, because I live in a trailer, I don't own land or even have an apartment.

Slowly, things are looking up as both of us are gaining more hours, I have started to post and sell successfully on eBay. I have some art items on consignment in the local shops. [no sales yet]

A hopeful unknown

We have reached far, I felt many times of being alone on making decisions during this journey, but am reminded by both my wife and son that it was collective. They would soar in spirit upon fortune, and share or at least wait patiently idle during ill spells.

I look across the trailer hallway from my bed at the back, armed with laptop and phone I hope to achieve new success and find new challenges over the internet and returning to activity with WA. My son continues to improve in school, and he seems comfortable enough in his small space-exposed to the kitchen.