I’ve been gone….

I’m back.  What, you didn’t notice I was gone?  Well, I’ve been gone.    I haven’t been writing long winded blogs or posting vaguely funny videos for nearly a year now.    And yes, this is exactly why you’ve had a deep-seated feeling of unfulfillment over the past year.   A lack of P60+.

So, what’s up with the disappearing act, you ask?  Well, I have been busy.   You see I tackled one of life’s most stressful situations this year.   I moved.   Never one to do things simply, I didn’t move once, I moved four times this year.   When I say I moved four times I don’t mean I pushed my shopping cart from shelter to shelter.  No, I moved into four different homes this year.  Moving four times isn’t a world record, but it sure feels like one.

How was it?  Well, it was scary, exciting, hard but mostly exhausting.   If moving four times in eight months isn’t on your bucket list, then I suggest you leave it off.  You can live vicariously through my moves.   I’ve packed, unpacked, and purged enough for everyone reading this blog and the population of greater Saskatoon.

Here is the Readers Digest version of what set me off on this odyssey.   After completing my epic G2G challenge whereby I ran a marathon a day for three days, I had a hard look at what I was going to do next.   I realized that one of the things I always wanted to do in life was to live in a more rural area – maybe a farm.   As my wife and I are empty nesters, there wasn’t much holding us to our (then) current home.   The real estate market was red hot, so we decided to go for it.   We put our house on the market last fall and planned to move into the family cottage – not a farm but a toe in the (rural) water.   Our house sold instantly, and we were faced with our first problem.   Our closing date was January 15^th, but the cottage wasn’t winterized.    It would have been slightly warmer than moving into an empty appliance box.  The solution, rent the place three doors down (that was mostly winterized) and move into ours in the spring.  So, we moved to cottage country the day before a massive winter storm – welcome to the neighbourhood.

After a challenging winter, we schlepped our belongings down to our cottage (move 2 for those of you keeping score).   The plan was to take the next few months and winterize the cottage.   We’d never done anything like it, but we were up to the task.  Hell, I’ve been watching “This Old House” for years, how hard could it be?    As we investigated all that was involved and started work, we were overcome by the unmistakeable odor of “money pit”.   Oh, this was going to be more than just adding insulation and a cord of firewood.  This was a big, expensive undertaking on a relatively lean budget and short timeline.   We also came to the realization that the place was simply too small.   So, the plan changed, and we started looking for a new home.

We found a fantastic place that seemed to tick all the boxes.  We bought and sold in short order.  Unfortunately, there was a gap between closing on the cottage and taking possession of our new home.  So, for several weeks we settled into an Airbnb in the gorgeous Beaver Valley (move 3).   Finally, mid-August we moved into our new home, relieved and exhausted – move  4.

As you can probably imagine finding time to write blogs and shoot videos was nearly impossible.  Just finding my camera was a monumental task – “it’s either in the Bacardi Rum box or the filing cabinet – where’s the filing cabinet?”

The takeaway in all this drama isn’t the fact we moved four times, it’s the fact we moved once.   When I tell people the story, about my dream of living in the country, in an energy efficient home with a huge garden and orchard, many tell me that they’d love to do the same.   When I ask them what’s stopping them, they mumble about how they can’t and have a series of vague reasons.   The truth is they can.  You can.  I did.  We’re all one decision away from a completely different life.  You just need to make that decision.

Was this change easy?  Hell, no.   There were many brutally tough choices.   In fact, this whole adventure is a gigantic gamble.   I don’t know if it’s going to work out.  You see what I recognize is that sometimes a dream is just that, a dream.   But I needed to see whether I could fulfill my dream.    I didn’t want a life of regret that would eventually morph into resentment for the things I didn’t do.   I don’t know about you but I’d rather live with a failed effort then a dream that never got a chance.

So “Green Acres” we are here – cue the theme song.  We’re settling into our new home and life.  I’m looking forward to this chapter.  I have no doubt it will be full of adventure with great new stories to tell.   Sure, there’ll be growing pains and adjustments, but they’ll be much more satisfying than the same old routine.   Project 60+ is going to be a big part of this new adventure so I hope you come along for the ride.  It’ll be informative, entertaining, and inspiring – and I promise to keep the moving stories to a minimum.   So, hang around we’re going to have fun!