We Closed on the House, the Shackhaus, It's all ours now.

One for Jasper

One for Me

And one for Ralph's Place. 

Here's our waterview - btw, behind the trees is the mighty Bagaduce.

Guest Quarters or Bonfire? Guest Quarters.

Jasper found a lady love on the property. She's not likely to set sail ever again, but still - he has a crush.

But the 1963 Duracraft aluminum racing boat shall be rehabbed immediately. Immediately. Her name will reflect her 007 Bond-like sexiness.

Reintroduction: The Milking Cow and the Shot Gun

I fielded a few questions about the blog yesterday and saw the need to restate an official statement of purpose, or introduction to this blog. Please forgive any repetition in advance.

March 2008

It's been nearly a year since I returned to Maine form Los Angeles in order to help care for my father. In that year everything has changed. The economy collapsed, the political climate shifted radically and so did my ideas of how I want live and how to go about making that manifest.

It seems to me that instead of pursuing some of my more lofty dreams as I was in the big smoke, it would be wiser to move more intentionally to a self-sustaining lifestyle, one more impervious to the ups and downs of the market, one more invested in living well, living responsibly, living independently and advancing my economical situation by reducing my dependence on an infrastructure run by a bunch of usurious crooks!

So I've made the move to Maine permanent, decided to get a milking cow and a shotgun, I'm going to hunker down and sit out the apocalypse!

Teamed up with my partner Jasper (a sustainable-living-DIY pro and a carpenter/) and presented with an opportunity to buy a piece of land with some buildings on it in the area we love for a price where the mortgage is less than a modest monthly electric bill or cell-phone bill, I find myself leaping blindly into my own new world order. We are, with nearly no financial means, aiming to be both productive in the world at large and significantly self-sustaining at home within a year. Maybe 18 months. Because we don't have much money to invest in expensive eco-technologies we are both fluid and relaxed about this goal, we will do what we can, and we are presented with the exciting challenge of being exceptionally resourceful.

We're making this blog because we think it's necessary to show the difficulties of living well and living responsibly on an extremely limited budget with limited time and limited resources. Jasper has a full-time job which he will be keeping and he likes to sail and travel and make art and fix up old cars. I make art full-time and carry many freelance jobs and then I write fiction on the side. We do not want this project to consume our lives. It will consume our lives but we will fight against that while still trying to achieve the seemingly impossible.

Nervous and Waiting

We are still waiting to hear back about this property. We have gathered the necessary money. The title search is being performed by the lawyer. We want this property. We need this property. We love this property. We have big plans.  We can think of nothing else. We are a people obsessed. We draw houses and barns all day long. We research building and renovating techniques both ancient and modern. We argue about imaginary heating systems. We worry about trees not even on our property. We are already planting the gardens.

We wait for Lawyers and good luck. 

Imagining Little Studio

Yes, we added pontoons and an outboard motor to the imagined little studio. 

And yes, that's Pushkin pulling the studio  from the front. 

It's a studio ready for the apocalypse.