The Specifics

The general image I try to present of home on range is great for helping others to envision their own Chazown, but since it’s MY blog, let me describe exactly what I want to have. Now keep in mind that some of these points are higher on my priority scale than others, and we all know how My Plan works out, but there’s nothing wrong with dreaming perfection right?


· The name of the state doesn’t matter so much. I want a state that has no income tax, good benefits for military veterans, and good homeschooling laws.
· I want a piece of land, 5 to 500 acres, that has rich soil good for both plant and animal sustainment and has no history of misuse (over use of chemicals, etc).
· I want to live within driving distance of good sized military base (<100 miles) for getting things like prescriptions.
· I want to live within commuting distance of a large town/small city so that anyone who joins us on our little adventure but is not fortunate enough to be able to retire as early as 38 and collect a check forever, can still find enough work to live on and pay the bills.
· I want to have four seasons.
· I would prefer land that has a historic house on it, 100 years old or so, that we could live in while we build a newer house that will become our home. The old house would then be renovated and used for guests or having parents come live in after retirement.
· The new home would be built with socialization in mind, having big open rooms that flow and of course a great kitchen. There will be a wood burning fireplace in the common area, possibly a wood burning stove for warmth and/or cooking, and the master bedroom will have a gas fireplace.
· There is plenty of forest around to provide firewood for the house and adventures for the children (and me too!).
· We have built, in the yard somewhere, a brick smoker/grill. We have a large greenhouse out there as well.
· Somewhere on the property there is a lake, stream, river, creek, pond, or other body of water for swimming in on hot days.
· We have a very large garden, an acre or more, where we grow every kind of vegetable available to us in that region.
· A ways out there is our orchard where we grow (insert fruit tree here). Near the orchard we also grow berries that keep us fat and happy the year round.
· Over there is our chicken yard where we get the manure for our garden as well as eggs and meat for us to use and sell.
· We grow our own pine trees in different stages and every year we go out and cut one down to bring in for Christmas.
· I think I’ve picked up pipe smoking from Gary and we’ve started to grow our own tobacco.
· We as a family (and community too) make our own bread, cheese, beer, and maybe wine.
· Any produce or other commodity we have extra we sell on the weekend at the farmer’s market or to local restaurants.
· We live near enough to family and old friends that we can walk or bike over to their house, only after calling first of course.
· There is large meeting hall that everyone is free to use and there we play games and have parties all the live long day.
· I was thinking of maybe having a restaurant, open only a few days a week for limited hours, where we as a community could cook and serve the items we produce with our friends. Maybe even do it on a donations only basis, similar to how Bakersville does it. This one’s still up in the air.

These are rather specific specifics, I get that. I’ve learned to be pretty flexible with these types of things. But why can’t I have a dream? The thing I’ve learned is that if I long for something enough, God will provide. It’s just the manner of getting what I want that always seems to differ.