I’m about a five weeks out from the big bounce. It has been roughly two years in the making from concept to completion and while there have been a few roadblocks, and the annoying cost over-runs and changes for cause to the original design (eliminate the master bedroom fireplace, as an example), it’s not been as bad as it could have been.
Blue Ridge Reservoir (below), six miles as the eagle flies from the White Wolf Mine.
How would my grandchildren ever really know anything but the fiction of the suburbs if they didn’t haver the opportunity to spend time with grandpa, fishing, shooting, hiking, and clawing over rocks in the 4×4? The answer is that they wouldn’t. They would go on, thinking that the world they inhabited was the ‘real’ world – video games, strip malls, unending traffic, etc. I grew up in the very rural Intermountain West so I knew the difference when I lived in the synthetic land that paid the bills.
I’ll start moving stuff into the garage in a little under two weeks once the garage doors are installed. I’m going to try and get all of the tools, extra bedding and detritus of a life stuffed into to two U-Haul loads and then get professional movers to pack the furniture and the stuff I don’t want broken into a final load using Bekins or Mayflower or one of those fancy movers.
I haven’t completely solved the bandwidth problem and it may be that the whole blogging thing will go the way of the dodo bird and the iron horse. I’ve been too busy elsewhere paying for the compound to spend time there on the problem. It remains to be seen if I land a contract that I’ve been chasing – which will take me away from the WWM more than I want it to. Decisions.
Life only offers us two things: time and the choice as to how to spend it. It’s not a polemic, but it’s religious in that there is a sense of peace when you spend your time well. Most of we little people spend our time earning money that we spend on those we love…and buying guns, and ammo, and knives, and canoes, and boats, and so forth, that we don’t get to use enough.
Glad to see you're finally getting in there. It does appear to be some really pretty country. Though my wife lived in the Tucson area years ago, my Arizona experience is limited to the Four Corners country and that's a whole different ball of wax.
Four corners is about a four hour drive from the house. Not far, but not close either.
Fair winds and following seas on your move. Our move to Texas had fair winds, but the seas? Umm..not so much. We just had new carpet installed the bedrooms. I repressed the urge to bolt out the front door at the sight of another empty cardboard box.
As a young lad in the 60's, I grew up in the California gold rush country. More than once we trucked our horses up Hwy 88 and then packed into the high Sierra's for a week. I hope the wilderness calls to your grandkids. It breaks my heart when I see someone standing in the great outdoors staring at hand-held electrons.
You will give your grandchildren a legacy few will have.
I owe it to the grandchildren to give them the best that I can.
My daughters (who have been exposed to the great outdoors as children and teenagers) married city guys. The city guys want to go and explore but they've never really had the shove that it took. Now they can stay in the mountains and getting them hooked on the place won't be all that difficult.
Preach it brother, and congratulations on approaching the finish line on the White Wolf Project.
How would my grandchildren ever really know anything but the fiction of the suburbs if they didn't haver the opportunity to spend time with grandpa, fishing, shooting, hiking, and clawing over rocks in the 4×4?
Stunningly well-put!
I look back at the summer I spent with my cousins in Twin Falls, ID working on their Appaloosa ranch as some of my most cherished memories, as well as an important learning time.
The Big Cities can be nice places to visit if you're careful, but as the old saying goes, "I wouldn't want to live there".
I, too, hope your progeny hear the call of the wilderness. It changes you, for the better, I think.
Do what YOU need to. And yes, treating the kids to a dose of reality high in the mountains WILL be an eyeopener!!!
It's a long road to get my "cabin of dreams" built. Would I do it again? Likely not. Am I glad that I did it? Oh, yes!
I can't imagine growing up in a city or the burbs with that being all that I know about nature.
They need to be taught skills. Lots of skills.
Five Weeks. Wow, times are fun when you're having flies. I would advise taking a couple of weeks when you get moved in for some long deep breaths and naps. It's a slower life in the yonder (I should know), so enjoy it.
Congratulations on your project, Larry.
I expect to do something similar within the next year or two- nothing elaborate, just a place in the country where the air is clean and people are rare.
I grew up in the suburbs of L.A. In the '60s when I was a kid it was actually quite nice. Ruined now by crowds, traffic and congestion, it will be a relief to move on. The megalopolis grew gradually- the constriction is noticeable only in retrospect. One looks back with fondness and regret.
The malaise which has settled over much of the State makes occasional forays to the mountains and deserts that much sweeter.
=TW=
I'm glad you're almost at your wondermost point. May you and your family enjoy it all with you.
Great result and an outstanding location for your International Operations HQ.
I'll 2nd drjim too — gotta get away from the strip mall faux reality, great gift to the kids if they'll take it.
My idea is to take a month (off and on) to move and settle. I'm not as ambitious as you are – doing it in a couple of weeks. Then again, you still live in California in that fast lifestyle. ;^)
Los Angeles was nice once. Orange County was even nicer. Not really now, though. I spent 21 years working at the Orange County District Attorney's Office and watched changes in the area. Everything changes, time marches, the mountains are more inviting.
Thx, Cube.
Your compound in Hill Country complete with custom shooting range inspired me.
Others spend most of their time earning money and wasted all their time on it so they missed enjoying life
Gantry Crane
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