Used Yurts R Us! (More about the yurt journey!)

Hard to believe that picture is where it all began.  Wow!  How far we've come in just two years!

I’ve put off writing this for quite a while because I simply don’t know how to give you even a tiny idea of what the last two years have been like for us.  How can I put words to the joy that a flushing toilet or hot water can bring?  Or the bliss that a night sky, seen from land that is yours, can mean?  Or, on the other end of the spectrum, how can I explain the agony of a frigid night when the damn fire just won’t stay lit?  Or how much it sucks when everyone’s sick and there’s only one tiny camper bathroom?  Most people who know us have heard the basics about how we decided we could no longer afford student loans AND rent AND still prepare for retirement, so we came up with the Grand Yurt Plan. 

Buy cheap land in the country, live in a camper while we save money to buy a yurt, build the platform, put up the yurt, and poof!--become rent and mortgage-free in 2 years.  Those are the basics, but I haven’t written down the details because I believed that these things can never be explained with any sense of the reality of the situation.  Lately, though, I find that I am composing this in my mind everywhere I go.  That usually means it’s time to just get off my bum and put the proverbial pen to paper.

Two things happened that put the wheels in motion: first, we took a class called “Possibilities” with a wonderful friend named Marna.  Through guided exercises, we saw clearly the ticking clock of life and knew it was time to make some dreams come true.  Financial freedom.  Our land.  Our home.  Gardens and goats and chickens and forests.  I had always imagined myself a sort of theatrical Tasha Tudor, singing and writing and cooking all day long at my beautiful bohemian farm.  Greg calls himself “Dr. Forest Fractal Moonshadow.”  Clearly, we needed to leave our urban gentility and make a scary left turn into new territory.

Secondly, our landlord in Hillcrest wrote an email to us on October 11, 2010 stating that our lease would not be renewed because he planned to sell.  Crap.  We hated being at the mercy of someone else’s whims.  Once, in Missouri, we were kicked out of our house when the Assembly of God foundation bought our house.  Renting is useful when your credit is less than ideal and you don’t have thousands of dollars at the ready for a down-payment, but it sucks for feeling free and independent.  We needed a new option.  The “Owner-Finance” land signs we saw all around rural roads gave us the germ of an idea.  A plan began to form, and the adventure began. 

On January 1^st, 2011, we spent our first night on our newly-purchased 3.5 acres of land.  We had bought a 25-year-old camper from an old fella who had used it two weeks every year for hunting.  It was 26’, with a “bedroom” at the back, a tiny bathroom, a kitchen, and a couch that converted to a bed.  A pull-down bed completed the sleeping arrangements.  Our first night was wonderful.  We lit a campfire outside, had stew and smores, and watched a movie with Greg and I on the couch and the girls crowded on the top bunk bed.  We marveled at the sky.  Stars had never meant so much before. 

Reality came crashing in two forms:  a “hundred-year” snowstorm, and the simple act of getting ready in the mornings.  The snowstorm was a wake-up.  Nine inches of snow—a giant amount for Arkansas—was dumped all around our little camper.  As luck, AKA the Universe, would have it, both of the girls were away at the time.  Bee was with grandparents, Maddie was with cousins.  Thank goodness.  When one is in a large house made of steel and wood and bricks, a big snowstorm can be a delightful, cozy thing.  When all you’ve got is a tiny camper and a few space heaters, being surrounded by acres of deep snow is a bit of a fearful thing.  Beautiful, but fearful.  Were we warm enough?  Yes.  In the camper, we were pretty much always warm enough.  It was such a small, narrow space that the heaters did just fine.  Our heads got cold back in the adult bedroom during that record-breaking cold snap early in that year.  That’s about it.

After four months of living in the camper, we bought a rent-to-own storage barn so that we could move our furniture and things out of one of those PODS things.  As we moved beds and boxes and furniture into the little 14’x20’ barn, we realized that it could become another living space!  We were positively giddy!  We put down our bed, Bee’s bed, and the couch for Maddie to sleep on.  We had just enough space for those and a dresser, a refrigerator, and a wee bit of floor space in the middle.  Everything was sort of scrunched together, but there was so much room compared to the camper!!  Maddie spun in a circle in the middle of the cabin, loving the “roominess” that a 14’ by 20’ space gave her.  What luxury!  We put the television on top of the dresser.  A small window provided a breeze (and later a window-unit air-conditioner) and on warm nights, we opened the doors and enjoyed the sounds of tree frogs and the donkey down the hill, who sounded just like Chewbacca. 

That spring was lovely, blissful, and filled with moments I wish I could give to you.  There were also plenty of times of uncertainty, fear, and what-the-holy-hell-were-we-thinking.  And those opposites are what my next post will be about!  Stay tuned for the best and the worst!