Another lost soul

[Onestep]

Well, been busy with life in general and haven't been around much online, including here (said Capt. Obvious).

A year ago I decided to go out on my own and leave the company I had worked for 25 years off and on. It had gotten out of control to say the least. Good thing is I had a couple other companies lined up that wanted to use me on a contract bases. They came thru and even the company I left has used me from time to time (go figure). Been working enough to just pay the bills but some months have been lean, but we are getting by.

At the same time, we decided we didn't need the big house we were living in (or the mortgage) as we had plans to downsize eventually anyway. Timing looked right with the rising house prices so we put it on the market and sold in a few months. Been renting since while looking for a smaller house to purchase with the proceeds. The price range we can afford puts us in a very busy price window so pickings have been slim to none. We have a pretty definitive criteria of what we want so that affects our searches as well.

Because we are renting, the garden has been limited to small areas around the house, 1 above ground I built and containers. Still we've been able to keep our hands dirty. Plus, a friend had a garden that we had helped with so they allowed us to expand it and use a portion for ourselves. They have since sold that house and will be moving on.

The wife has another 5 years till she can retire, (I'll be 62 this Sept) and at that time we'll decide where we want to end up. We just went on our first vacation in about 5 years to visit like-minded friends in western Montana and loved it. We plan on going back in the winter months to see if these Florida crackers could handle the colder weather. If so, you never know...

Anyway, just wanted to touch base with ya'll and let you know I'm still kicking for now.

[bacpacker]

Good to hear from you OS. Glad things are working out for you guys. Hope you find something you like.

[ElevenBravo]

Sounds good OS, thanks for checking in! The first year of any biz is the hardest, the make or break... if you make it past 1 year you should be okay, given you continue to run it right, etc..

Like your downsize idea... you can start putting money in a sock and invest in canned goods and ammo.. :-)

(I had the PERFECT image for that line, but its on my other 'puter..)

EB

[Katrina]

Good to hear from you. Tell the wife I empathize with her, I have about that long too. Unless DH thinks I can go sooner, he's crunching the #'s now. He was forced to "retire" earlier than we planned, so we're about 3 years behind where we had planned to be.

[realist]

OS the one thing about retirement is it is better than the brochure!!!! At 62 you should be getting Social Security this year, good for you. My wife is going to retire in 12 days so it will be nice to travel whenever we want. However that won't happen because we will still work but should have more time. My mother-in-law lives just out side of Glacier and has found Montana can be rough. I always thought I would not like snow but I have found it is not too bad, it is the ice which sucks. Your growing season is only about 4 months so you have to be ready.

[Onestep]

Realist, tell me more about the rough part of living in MT, besides the ice and snow?
The 4 month growing season doesn't scare me as I'd build a greenhouse for sure.
Just kickin' some ideas around is all but any input from those that have experienced it is always welcome.

And Katrina, the wife would like to retire sooner for sure

[Willie51]

Onestep, great to see you back buddy. I have a friend that lives in eastern MT near the ND border. He does get -30 winters at times, but he loves it there and will never leave. You can always come up here to NW FL which is north of you.

[realist]

OS if the snow and ice don't bother you it is not so bad. So many people have problems with it because it limits what they do, others look at it for opportunities. My wife has no interest due to the cold which would mean she would be shut in till the spring. Me on the other hand look at the cold as time to go hunting. A friend of mine told me once if you live in the real cold area, he was from Alaska, to make sure you have a large shop on your property. This way when your equipment breaks you put it inside for the winter and use that time to repair it. I on the other hand think he had a big shop to get away from the misses so she did not kill him during a long winter night.

If you are in construction it can be really tough building in the snow. On the west coast for instance if it rains people don't go to work but as you move farther north that changes to working in driving rain. Change that to snow or ice and it is hard framing a house in the snow. My father-in-law did construction in Montana for 30 years. The big thing is to have everything closed in before winter than use the winter to finish it out. Out here we sub out everything, back there the contractor does everything.

If I lived back there I would have a greenhouse too. But mine would be dug down so that the majority of it would be below the surface to use the earth to keep out some of the cold to increase my growing season. I'm one of those people who would like an earth sheltered home to be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

[Onestep]

Thanks Realist. I suspected it was the snow, ice and cold winters you were talking about.
That's one of the things I noticed up there, most properties had barns/shops and a lot were bigger than the actual houses.

[ElevenBravo]

Like your downsize idea... you can start putting money in a sock and invest in canned goods and ammo.. :-)

(I had the PERFECT image for that line, but its on my other 'puter..)

EB