What is this about?

What is this about?

This is a blog by Hal Hurst about my wife, MM,  and me, as we transition from an inner city empty nest to a more sustainable country life.  Maybe it will have some value for others in planning their own escape -- either as example or cautionary tale.  We'll see how it spins out.

The big picture will be filled in as I go, but for now here's the 100,000 foot view:

We have each retired from pretty good blue-collar jobs- me in aerospace technology and MM in nursing.  We each got to the point where the dehumanizing daily grind of being cogs in the corporate machinery was unbearable, and retired because we had saved up enough money to make it possible.

We have built up some equity in an inner city townhouse and hope to use that to get us into 5 sustainable acres somewhere green as a haven for us and our children and generations to come. Physically, we are unexceptional.  I'm 66 and have some of the health issues to be expected of a man my age- overweight and mild blood pressure , arthritic knees and at present some acute problems with foot ligaments that slows me down.  MM is dealing with many of the same problems. But we agree that life is for living, and we will work with our limitations toward our goals.

On the positive side, besides our financials, I have spent my life acquiring skills and solving problems.  I have been cabinet maker, carpenter, farm hand, refrigeration systems designer, ship fitter, electronics hobbyist, laser repairman, handyman, gardener, aquaponics hobbyist, developer of sub-irrigated planters, maintaining computer databases and complex spreadsheets.  I feel by this point I am a walking solution looking for problems.

At present we are in the final stages of preparing our townhouse for sale.  We have pared down our lifestyle and moved a lot of our possessions into storage, and plan another drastic round of simplification right now.

Zooming a little closer, there's permaculture.  I've been reading up on it, going to a few places where permies hang out online and in the real world, watching online seminars, reading some more, and a lot of it makes sense to me. I have dined on a steady diet of how-to on everything from raising chickens to reforming the landscape to bring water to the desert.  Check out the first chapter of Don Quixote for reference to another such scholar who thought he would put his studies into practice.

 I therefore have reason to believe that I have a chance of establishing a comfortable retirement for myself and my wife, and a future haven for our descendants. Not work-free, but pleasant and manageable.  Starting small with room to grow.  Permaculture has already taught me a lot about organizing my priorities and avoiding pitfalls that would be tremendous drain on time and money.  So I plan to incorporate permaculture where I can, but not worry about becoming some kind of paragon.  And that is my goal in life.

I figure at my age I have one big adventure left, and this looks like the start of it. As I have been fond of saying lately, my retirement will keep me in peanut butter sandwiches while I work to fulfill my goals of sustainability.  And, really, what more can I ask for, in the time I have left in this world?