Not political. As some of you may have noticed from various diaries and comments I’ve made here and on dKos, my husband, Sam, and I have been going thru a stressful period. Sam works for a large IT services provider and in November he learned that his current contract was set to expire and that he would be laid off at the end of March. That deadline got extended to May 9th. Starting in January, he applied for other positions within his company, most of them clustered around the DC area, and we waited anxiously to see if he would get a new contract. We put a rental property in Macon, GA, and our house in Roswell, GA up for sale so that we would be liquid, debt-free and ready to re-locate wherever.
Behind it all, we are hoping to change our lifestyle: we want a small organic farm that can contribute to our own self-sufficiency and develop into an income-earning venture by the time Sam retires in 8 years. We believe that the rising cost of gas and oil are going to usher in a re-birth of small farms using time-tested, pre-oil-dependence methods. And, even if we are wrong about that, we’ll still have a good life, living in harmony with Mother Earth.
I cannot convey in words how distressing the past four and a half months have been. We made numerous trips up to DC for face-to-face interviews and searches for affordable farming land. The cost of real estate in Northern Virginia is so outrageous that we were confronted with the possibility of only being able to afford a few acres of land and living in a travel trailer. It was a grim prospect but, fortunately, none of those job opportunities worked out. In all cases, they hired someone less experienced and, frankly, cheaper than Sam.
Then, two weeks ago Sam noticed a contract opening in Lynchburg, VA and applied for it. At first, I was nervous; the only thing I knew about Lynchburg was that Jerry Falwell lives there. A lot of the real estate agents have crosses and fishes artfully interwoven with their logos. Ugh!
But, the more I researched the place, the more excited I became. It’s beautiful country, snug against the Blue Ridge Mountains. Instead of clearing land and building a house, I found small, established farms for sale for under $150K. There are already a few organic farmers in the area just to confirm that our goals can be realized. I looked up the ’04 election results and was surprised to discover that Kerry only lost by 5% so this is pure purple territory and our votes could make a real difference.
The days clicked by and the tension grew so thick in our house that Sam and I had trouble even looking at each other. Suddenly, SUDDENLY, over the last 10 ten days everything has come together. The house in Macon is set to close on Monday. We got our first offer on this house on Friday. And Sam got the job in Lynchburg! Woo Hoo! We’re moving in three weeks!
We’re currently investigating a 30 acre farm for sale 20 miles south of Sam’s job. Somehow I don’t think there’ll be broadband in the neighborhood and I might have to drive up to a McDonald’s in Lynchburg to access a WiFi hotspot on my laptop. Oh, blog withdrawal is going to be horrible! But, hey, there’ll be garden plots to till, baby chicks to keep warm and sunsets behind the Blue Ridge Mountains to cleanse my angst-ridden soul.
Now, for some fun: Sam is crazy about getting a flock of Araucanas, a.k.a, Easter Egg Chickens. Native to Chile, these birds lay eggs with shells in a range of colors from pale green to turquoise blue. Sam thinks everyone will want green eggs with their ham. LOL! So I ask you… Would you buy blue eggs?
