I have news!

In January I was finally gifted with an opening from my husband. Of course, I took it and ran with it. He finally agreed to help me buy land!

You might wonder why I don’t just take the option of my family’s land. Well, it never seemed to want to materialize. It was one step forward, two steps back time and time again. The final straw being that my mom decided to give an acre to my sister and cousin/BIL. With them “building” (not sure how they will afford it) a dwelling on the property I was going to buy, I withdrew, recognizing (finally) the energies for me living out there again were not aligning and probably never would. Ultimately, my family land is still an option but it has major caveats and I am unwilling to compromise.

Once I decided to turn my back on that option completely, a door opened and progress was fast. I did my own search and found a promising property – 9.92 acres with a massive pond. When we went to look at it, my husband was so blown away that he stated right then and there, “This is it!” So, we made an offer and everything came together seamlessly.

On March 11th we closed on the property!

The land is located about a hour northeast of our family home and 50 minutes east from my family’s land. Unlike most of the area which is poor soil, limestone rock, stubby trees and prickly pear cactus, this place has fertile soil, tall grasses, and water aplenty. The pond is the jewel of the property, taking up the entire back pasture. It is spring fed, 21ft deep and looks more like a lake than a pond. The previous owner told us it has never run dry in the 20 years he’s lived there. The minute I saw the pond up close I was sold. It was exactly what I had envisioned when I thought of where I wanted to spend the rest of my days.

The drawback to the property is that the previous owner had left much trash and debris along with a 1997 single-wide mobile home in poor condition. The mobile home can be salvaged if we want, but I am uncertain still about it’s future. We might demolish it, burn what is flammable and sell what we can as scrap. We might remodel it. Or there is a final option of donating it to charity. We might also consider selling it, but being it is so far away, someone will have to pay quite a bit to move it.

The property currently has agricultural tax exemption meaning the property taxes are really low as long as the exemption is maintained. I have decided to lease some beehives to continue the ag exemption rather than try and put goats, cattle or some other high maintenance animal out there. I won’t be living there full-time for a while and bees are very hands-off. The lease includes all hive maintenance.

My plan is to build a small house/cabin by the pond to fulfill my vision. When it is complete, I plan to live there full-time for the rest of my life. It will take time, however, as my youngest is about to be 10 years old. So, in the meantime, it will be used as a retreat.

My husband is not planning on living out there. So, ultimately, this land provides us with a solution to our marriage problems both short-term and long-term. My boys absolutely love the land, so it gives them plenty of space to roam, fish, swim and camp whenever they feel the need. The land also gives me an out when it comes to my family, the family land and all the drama around my mother’s assets once she passes away. I am 100% okay with walking away from that mess and never looking back. I will happily sell off my portion of whatever I am given. And finally, the land offers me a creative outlet – designing and building a small house by the pond and creating the the kind of space I need to find clarity, peace and fulfillment.

Here are some pictures of the land. You can see the beautiful parts as well as the less than beautiful parts (trash and mobile home). There is also a turkey vulture in one picture. 🙂 You can see my husband and son on a small boat (conveyed with the property) in several pictures.

Below is a picture of the house I want to build by the pond. It was selected by my boys because it has sleeping lofts above the two bedrooms. I like it because of all the windows. Imagine them facing the pond. What a fantastic view!

While we wait for the house to be built, we will have our RV parked out there so that we can stay overnight comfortably. There is a brand new well on the property that needs to be finished (wired, holding tank and pump house). What is amazing to me is that the previous owner had a pump set up that pulled water from the pond. The water is filtered four times and pumped into the house! So, we will have water available from two sources. I always wanted a semi or fully off-grid home and having this alternative water option is really awesome!

I will update as things progress. Step one is the clear all the junk and figure out what to do with the mobile home.