Dawn419
Almost Self-Reliant
Hi All! 
Doc and I have spent about the past 15 years together dreamin' -n- schemin' about having our own little slice of rural heaven. We really hoped to find a raw piece of land that we could use as a blank canvas, to be able to paint our own picture on, of those dreams and schemes.
On June 16, 2009, that blank canvas became a reality when we bought 17 acres of raw land here in the foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks.
Our woods:
Some of the family thought we wre crazy and a few of them were excited about what we decided to do and how we planned on living for awhile. We have no children (but the dog and cat beg to differ), and planned on living with no electric for awhile but we did have city water hooked up before we moved onto the place (we're kicking ourselves over that decision but I'll explain that further along...).
We went back to TN to start packing and looking for a travel trailer to live in.
As soon as we got home, we went to tell our best friend/neighbor our good news and show him pix of the place. He was excited for us and said "guys, I'll miss ya's but what a long strange trip it's been!". My face lit up like a Christmas tree and I told them that there is the name for our place!
We found a 1974, 22" Prowler that was just what we were looking for. It was in our price range and needed a little work which equaled perfect for us!
The bedroom of the camper was set up with bunk beds so doc changed that up and built a queen sized bed out of the lower bunk and we decided we'd use the upper bunk to store our clothes (using laundry baskets like dresser drawers.
).
He made the platform of the bed using plywood that is hinged in the center so that we can lift up the front half and have easy access to storage underneath it. And it is easy...as long as us and the dog and cat aren't all in here together if you need to get under there, which usually ends up being the case! I mean, where is the fun if ya ain't got an audience, right?
Before making our permanent move out here, we made several trips out here to help work on roughing in our driveway and clearing about 2 acres for a place for the camper, 10' x 20' soft-side storage shed and the chicken coop. We lucked up and some of my family helped us doing the roughing in. We were also fortunate that the summer of '09 was cooler and wetter than normal so it was nice for working on the place.
Looking up the "driveway: from the clearing:
Some of our clearing:
We really wanted to leave more trees in our living area but the more we thinned out storm damaged trees, the more of them we found. So for safetys sake we cleared out more than we had hoped to.
Well, I'm gonna give your eyes a rest (and mine, too) and will post a bit more tomorrow!
We hope you enjoy our journey!
Dawn
Doc and I have spent about the past 15 years together dreamin' -n- schemin' about having our own little slice of rural heaven. We really hoped to find a raw piece of land that we could use as a blank canvas, to be able to paint our own picture on, of those dreams and schemes.
On June 16, 2009, that blank canvas became a reality when we bought 17 acres of raw land here in the foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks.
Our woods:
Some of the family thought we wre crazy and a few of them were excited about what we decided to do and how we planned on living for awhile. We have no children (but the dog and cat beg to differ), and planned on living with no electric for awhile but we did have city water hooked up before we moved onto the place (we're kicking ourselves over that decision but I'll explain that further along...).
We went back to TN to start packing and looking for a travel trailer to live in.
As soon as we got home, we went to tell our best friend/neighbor our good news and show him pix of the place. He was excited for us and said "guys, I'll miss ya's but what a long strange trip it's been!". My face lit up like a Christmas tree and I told them that there is the name for our place!
We found a 1974, 22" Prowler that was just what we were looking for. It was in our price range and needed a little work which equaled perfect for us!
The bedroom of the camper was set up with bunk beds so doc changed that up and built a queen sized bed out of the lower bunk and we decided we'd use the upper bunk to store our clothes (using laundry baskets like dresser drawers.
).He made the platform of the bed using plywood that is hinged in the center so that we can lift up the front half and have easy access to storage underneath it. And it is easy...as long as us and the dog and cat aren't all in here together if you need to get under there, which usually ends up being the case! I mean, where is the fun if ya ain't got an audience, right?
Before making our permanent move out here, we made several trips out here to help work on roughing in our driveway and clearing about 2 acres for a place for the camper, 10' x 20' soft-side storage shed and the chicken coop. We lucked up and some of my family helped us doing the roughing in. We were also fortunate that the summer of '09 was cooler and wetter than normal so it was nice for working on the place.
Looking up the "driveway: from the clearing:
Some of our clearing:
We really wanted to leave more trees in our living area but the more we thinned out storm damaged trees, the more of them we found. So for safetys sake we cleared out more than we had hoped to.
Well, I'm gonna give your eyes a rest (and mine, too) and will post a bit more tomorrow!
We hope you enjoy our journey!
Dawn
I look forward to reading about your adventures.
.
