A countdown, not to an end, but to the beginning.
January 15, 2022: 1,666 Days Remaining
Well here we are! Today we added the countdown clock and it’s at 1,666 days. That may seem like a lot to a lot of people but to us it shows that we’re past the 75% mark in achieving our goals set in 2006. When Tealah and I got married we vowed to find the fastest path back to the deep woods and the solution we settled on was to knock out 20 years of military service, retire with half pay, and start a homestead in Trout Lake Michigan. At times that goal seemed impossibly far away as we remodeled homes, learned new skills, and invested in the tools of our future. However, today feels different. Perhaps it’s the countdown clock. Perhaps it’s because we’re in the last location prior to our permanent move home. We just hit 1,200 subscribers on YouTube, got our store up and running on this website, and are in talks for (possibly) our first brand deal. For the first time it really feels like we’re reaching out beyond the military life and beginning to set up our next venture. While every step along the way has been in that direction there is still a subtle shift today that I find invigorating.
Ok, enough about my personal feelings at the moment. Let’s teach something! This has all been about capability. Specifically our capability to set up a homestead in the deep north. Capability requires you to have the Means, Motive, and Opportunity to take action or complete a task. I like to break these down into: Means-Skills & Tools, Motive - the Desire or Discipline to act, and Opportunity - the Time. If you don’t have the capability then you need to get someone with that capability to do it for you or live without the task getting accomplished.
Enough with the vagueness. Let’s use an example. You need to get fresh water out to the animals on a daily basis. You’d LIKE to just be able to turn on a faucet over their trough and not have to carry a bucket 50 yards everyday. In order to make this happen you need the skill required to dig a trench, splice into you water line, hook up a freeze proof spigot, secure everything into place, and rebury. The tools you need include a shovel, pipe wrenches, and a hacksaw. The materials you’ll need are pipe tape, PVC glue, PVC, spigot, couplers, and gravel for underground spigot drainage after shutoff. The time you’ll need is about 10 hours mostly digging. Finally you’ll need to have the desire to do all of this. IF you have the skills, tools, materials, motivation, and time. You will do it. That’s how it works! Everything you’ve ever NOT done in your life was lacking in one of those categories. Take a moment and think about it. What was something you didn’t do? What were you lacking? For us this is what it all boils down to. We want to run a homestead in Michigan. As broke, inexperienced, 18 year olds with no tools, skills, or materials back in 2006 our willpower meant nothing. We had all the motivation in the world but lacked nearly every other component mentioned! This is why we’ve spent the last 16 years (and the next four to go) building our skills, buying the right tools, building up materials (or learning how to make them), and setting aside enough money to bridge any unforeseen gaps. The only thing we have to wait for at this point is the time which brings us back to the countdown clock.
I hope this first post is a good foundation for showing our thought process and goals because we’ve got a lot of work to do, a million skills to master, and an infinite number of possible projects ahead of us. Come along on our journey and learn with us. It won’t always be easy, but it will always be worth doing.
-Travis
