Everyone has different transportation needs and levels of comfort on rough driveways, or roads. Last week, our driveway screamed for attention through unfortunate circumstances. There really isn’t a road budget available in our finances this spring, so I’m trying to make lemonade from the lemons (ruts ) in the road with sweat an no money.
We have been driving in now for a month now, and don’t really expect any driveway adventures until
Part of living in a beautiful remote location is taking care of the “entrance” fees. The snow is gone, the mud is drying up, and we can drive our 4WD Jimmies all the way up to the house now. I’m never fond of mud season at all. Since we live near a popular summer vacation destination, Lake Chelan, we know many “snow birds” as we call them. They stay here during the balmy summer months, and head south for the winter (typically to Arizona). I don’t really envy that at all because winter has a beauty all its own! I’d consider becoming a “mud bird” if it were practical. You know, live somewhere else for about 4 weeks a year when the snow melts, welcoming mud season, and travel is a challenge. Alas, we have animals to care for, kids to school, and most importantly, no budget for this imagined yearly pilgrimage.
When purchasing your off grid property, the access road, or “driveway” is a priority right up there with the water question. It takes planning and resources to get some road work projects completed before your move. This will pay great “travel rewards” for many years, however, these projects are always expensive by their nature. Unfortunately, that was not our situation, and “getting home” is too often a challenge.
This year’s mud season is shaping up to be interesting, but not too difficult.
Being self sufficient in your lifestyle is very helpful when you live off grid in a remote area, When I speak of self sufficiency, I refer to physical needs and not emotional, since we all need to be part of a community of others (peers, family or believers). Anyway, one of the key elements of self sufficiency is the understanding that everything you plan may NOT work as expected and you may need a backup plan.
I find the word “backup” kind of interesting because it implies redundancy. When you have ‘it’ you are back – up and running in whatever didn’t work out, or failed. When you choose to become your own power company,
The way Down (note little chicken on right side)
Don’t you just hate it when you loose something of value? Especially when that loss means a lot more work and a greater delay getting home? Last night we had one of “those” nights coming home. Jackie and I loaded up the cargo sled for town since we needed gas for the generator, propane for my office heat, and 3 bags of laundry. The key decision was made when I told her, “yes, lets take both snowmobiles.” even though everything fit on the cargo sled. The non-hauling sled is the newer fun and fast Polaris XLT that is my treat for all the extra winter chores.
“Ok. Jackie, kids, I think its time to wait outside the rig, I don’t think it or the snow is too stable!”, I heard myself saying New Year’s afternoon. I keep swearing to myself that this won’t happen again. Another year and another incident on the “washboard” with snow. At least this year it wasn’t dark, but unfortunately I wasn’t alone, so my family got to witness the sometimes frightening madness.
