I find that some of the manual labor and stress involved with trying to keep basic infrastructure running is easier to handle than the stress I get during my day job.
Like somehow when my stress is tied more closely to survival, it tickles the fight side of the fight-or-flight response more so than the flight response that you have to squash to maintain a job.
Having said that. We are not really that utterly remote. There is a gas station, Post office, and small grocery type store, about 18 minutes away.
That 18 minutes can seem daunting sometimes if the plows haven't been out in the middle of winter though...
I'm sure there are moments of regret when I'm standing outside with a kettleful of water I warmed up to thaw the pipes to restore function to my toilet. But in general I don't think I regret it. I feel strangely anxious every time we go to the city now.
It is amazing how circumstances will mould the things we want. Our yard has been covered by 5 feet of snow since December. All I want is to see some green...
Very much in the forest. We originally bought 6 acres off an abandoned logging road and just cut enough trees to park our RV.
Since then we have gone from the little RV and carrying buckets of water from the creek and using an outhouse to having a well, septic, and a tiny house.
It has been a ton of work, but every year is less work.
I used to be a HEAVY pepsi drinker but as I got older thew sugar didn't agree with me so I replaced it with sparkling water. I was going through a sodastream cylinder every 3 to 4 days. Whereas this bad boy costs me 40 bucks, and I have a 40 dollar deposit that I'll probably never get back because I will always have a cylinder.
Just go to a welding gas store or resto supply store and get 'beer gas'. CO2 is CO2.
You can buy an adapter to connect the big cylinder directly to the sodastream. I have been using mine this way for 3 years. I pay about 40 bucks for a tank of CO2 that lasts ~5 months.
I bought some land and spent the last 3 years converting it into something usable for an intentional community.
Community I always thought the hardest part would be getting the land drilling a well sitting up solar etc. in fact, the hardest part is convincing people that you are serious about letting them come live on your land as long as they help work.
I've even taken to offering one dollar 99 year leases so that people could feel like they have some agency over the piece of land they choose to live on.
If I was a billionaire anyone suggesting a meeting would be fired out of a cannon.
These chuds sitting on enough wealth to buy an island and live out their lives in pure bliss still taking meetings just shows how terrible they are at making decisions.
I don't know about that. My wife is in her late 40s and grew up in AB. Her education was deplorable. She is a very smart person, but her early school years were basically useless.
I find that some of the manual labor and stress involved with trying to keep basic infrastructure running is easier to handle than the stress I get during my day job.
Like somehow when my stress is tied more closely to survival, it tickles the fight side of the fight-or-flight response more so than the flight response that you have to squash to maintain a job.
Having said that. We are not really that utterly remote. There is a gas station, Post office, and small grocery type store, about 18 minutes away.
That 18 minutes can seem daunting sometimes if the plows haven't been out in the middle of winter though...
I'm sure there are moments of regret when I'm standing outside with a kettleful of water I warmed up to thaw the pipes to restore function to my toilet. But in general I don't think I regret it. I feel strangely anxious every time we go to the city now.