The first steps are the most difficult

I signed up for a class with the Log Home Builders Association and booked the flight and the rental car for that weekend. I do believe it is one of the many (hopefully) good decisions made recently regarding the direction of my life.

Regarding the class, I decided some time ago that I do not like home construction and ownership as it is commonly packaged and sold: drywall and matchsticks on a tiny lot in some satellite-suburb, where you spend your weekends mowing the law, cleaning the gutters and weeding the flower-bed. Oh, and let's not forget painting the house every few years.

Screw that.

My concept of an ideal home includes a solidly-constructed building (more here) on many acres, both of which exist as an extension of my means of production; a prolific garden, space for livestock, timber growth, and a house that requires an absolute minimum of upkeep. Furthermore, it should be financially-efficient to build and operate. Anything else is creating busy-work for yourself, and I am wholeheartedly against that mindset.

My conscience is yelling from the Great Society Bar, "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."

We can't see the clock, but I can tell you it's close to last-call for this pig-sty. So, I'm getting my jacket, finishing my pint, and leaving for home. Where that is, I ain't sure yet, but it sure ain't here.