I hinted at it before but I may as well say something now before the actual moving day: I'm probably going to be on here a lot less after a few weeks. In the near future, I'm going to be restoring an old house in a distant land, starting the initial phases of growing my own food on a larger scale around it, and experiencing fatherhood for the first time. 
I admit I'm scared because change is scary and moving sucks so bad that it was a primary plot driver in the film Inside Out, but these are lifelong goals that I've been shooting for for a long time and I am the metaphorical dog that finally caught the car. 
I won't say I'll never return here but the new focus should take priority. That said, I highly doubt that all the proverbial grass I'll be touching out there in the months and years ahead will suddenly make me like Gambo or Richard and Mortimer, contrary to what I've been told before. 
I may lurk a little bit but that may run the risk of getting pulled in again if I do that; I know my weakness there. I admit I like posting here and I like a lot of the people here on Hexbear. What may stop me is that moving out of state is a bit like a reset on my location and livelihood in a way that may make it a bit harder for people to find me for those that I don't want to find me, be they 
or just toxic internet people. That's a nice thing and I effectively forfeit that perk if I get pulled in while lurking.
Maybe this is a pointless thread, especially because I'm not leaving quite yet, but I wanted to get it out there anyway because I'm abuzz internally about it. Even if it's scary and my nerves are a bit frayed in the final stages of signing papers and getting travel arrangements booked in advance, I have to remember that in some ways I'm very lucky and fortunate to get this far, and if I don't blow this I'll be living off of the land in ways that would make some of my ancestors proud. 
Not the chud ones, but fuck them. 
Cool man
as someone who has done the move out to the country, here’s a few things I wish I had been told early, should you find any of it useful:
- spend a year at your new place before planning your garden, especially if you are moving in winter. Find out where it’s actually sunny. The shadow that extends from the treeline in summer is longer than you think.
- soil testing is your friend. look up soil testing in your state, a lot of states even offer the service for free. You tell them what you want to plant and they tell you how to amend.
- start small and grow from there. One or two raised beds is plenty. The produce you grow at home will be the most expensive fruits and vegetables you’ve ever eaten, you don’t want the initial scope to be overwhelming.
- start your fruit trees early, they take a loooong time to produce.
- strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are prolific spreaders and will take over large areas. Plant them and let ‘em run. Plant a LOT. 25 plants plus. Otherwise your yield will be a couple of handfuls.
- look up the preventative care schedule for your plants of choice. Otherwise you will lose many to pests and disease.
- deer are a fucking menace, anything you don’t fence will get eaten.
- drip irrigation is relatively inexpensive, easy to set up, and will save you a lot of time and water
- go buy yourself a copy of the illustrated guide to pruning. Tree maintenance will be a huge chore and expense, and you can save yourself a lot of future pain by pruning trees while they’re young.
- if you are moving somewhere with cold winters and no gas line a wood stove will pay for itself. It’s remarkable how many people heat with oil instead of wood in the US. If you have to replace a furnace consider a wood boiler, I know I would.
- you can get free wood and wood chips with chip drop. These are waste products for arborists, you are saving them disposal fees.
- if you decide you need to buy power equipment, more is more. This stuff saves you time so buy once cry once.
Idk there’s a lot more, if you have any questions feel free to dm me. I’ve been at this for about 5 years now and the learning curve is steep and expensive. This isn’t even getting in to the kid stuff lol.
I hope you find your new life rewarding. I love living in the country and would never consider going back. But it’s a lot of work!
I appreciate the tips and advice; some of it I already knew (I already do smaller scale gardening and have eaten a good deal of what I grew before the snails could get to it), but reminders help, especially for long term planning. Yeah I'm moving in winter so that's both cheaper for purposes of buying land but also means even more planning is needed before seeing results.
As I sailed into Shadow, a white bird of my desire came and sat upon my right shoulder, and I wrote a note and tied it to its leg and set it on its way. The note said "I am coming," and it was signed by me.
A black bird of my desire came and sat upon my left shoulder, and I wrote a note and tied it to its leg and sent it off into the west. It said, "I'll be back,"
I'm about to reach some lifelong goals I set out for over a decade ago, so yes, I'm excited and also scared.
experiencing fatherhood for the first time
Good luck man!
Yeah, I might need it!
Here's to a new chapter of UlyssesT's life. May it be more fulfilling than the previous chapters and set the stage for even more fulfilling chapters.
Current closing chapter isn't actually that bad, but it'll be nice to leave California behind after four-plus decades in it, and there's some truly new experiences for me to look forward to ahead.
Wow, I'm happy for you comrade! Absolutely living the dream. I'm looking out the window at my tomato plants and my morning glories and thinking, "Maybe someday I'll get that chance."
I've still got all your books sitting by my desk here. Should I move 'em up the list and give ya a big critique before you go or should I just let ya be? Speaking of which, are you planning to write more, and if so, how could I stay up to date? Maybe let me in on the secret if you abandon this name?
I've still got all your books sitting by my desk here. Should I move 'em up the list and give ya a big critique before you go or should I just let ya be? Speaking of which, are you planning to write more, and if so, how could I stay up to date? Maybe let me in on the secret if you abandon this name?
Please do; I'll be around until about the end of the month so if you have any feedback for me please message me before then. I do intend to write more and in fact I'm writing another book now as a collaborative project with my wife; we haven't yet decided if we're using my pen name, hers, or some sort of synthesis on the finished project.
My next solo writing project is a big TBA thing and I haven't decided whether to continue under the same pen name or not. The vibes will be different enough and sometimes the almighty algorithm weighs a new name more favoriably, increasing the chance of something taking off and getting cumulative attention.
