PERSONAL READINESS > Hide Site

Hide Site/Bug out location Part 8

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Flyin6:
Let's begin with reenergizing this old topic.

Many of you have seen a deserted and run-down property in Rural Kentucky come back slowly, bit by bit. It has been a long road but today the place is completely functional and can be turned into a homestead without a major effort.

Th summarize where we left off in Part 7, which should have seen a major change with me actually moving and living there permanently, but the thread ended with my putting the place up for sale. I did that because, in an unexpected turn, Kat told me she did not want to live there, but preferred staying close to the grandkids. I went along with that, but it hurt. I felt like I was walking away from a big piece of my life, and sentencing myself to a life in Suburbia.

I suppose the whole exercise was necessary to show us that the only thing that really makes any sense is to move there and abandon the increasingly expensive life in a bedroom community near a metropolitan area. I want to say the latest tax increase was the final nail in the coffin. We will not make a monthly tax payment equal to a mortgage payment, and that will never go away. Further, there is the HOA thing, and increasing human pressure. With the remoteness of the farm, no one is coming, ever! It is located in the least populated county in Kentucky, and life is just different there. You have neighbors, but they stay away for the most part. There is not any sign of an overbearing government or oppressive anything. We only ever get busy for a few weeks during Deer season with the rest of the year devoid of any drama or outsiders.

From the Hide Site perspective, the place is remote. I do not actually even have a physical address! My annual tax bill is about the same as a single month's where our "big" house is located. There are still not any building regulations inspections, licenses or anything else associated with building. Just build what you want in the manner in which you desire, and no one will ever check.

It is odd how God worked all this out. I sold off a ton of stuff and implements mostly, but the actual things I really need mostly remained behind, and I still have them. Once the light bulb turned on, I pulled all the marketplace ads for the equipment and de-listed the property with my Realtor.

Having done all that we reevaluated our original plan and found it to be viable. We will convert the shed into a usable cabin, and then move into that. That's when we get busy clearing out of the mansion and get that house ready for sale. I will add another small storage building for the things we wish to keep and chuck everything else. The barn will come online as the primary place of work, and I will continue to improve the property.

Speaking of which, I started in hay production this year. The farm yields 100 ish round bales a year at the present time. I will likely continue with that since it is actually two free cuttings of the property. At $33 a bale, there is some income in that as well. I ordered a replacement sawmill today. I went back with the same mill I owned before, the Woodland Mills HM130 max. I will only set it up to cut 16' logs this time, and not the 20-something stuff which I actually never cut before.

https://woodlandmills.com/hm130max-portable-sawmill/

Flyin6:
We are currently reviewing "tiny homes" on YouTube to get ideas about what we want our cabin to look like.

I will be starting with the same old 16' X 32' story-and-a-half structure I built some years ago. It is due some paint and a roof repair, so it is excellent timing. At a minimum, it will get wrapped on three sides with a porch. I will remove about half of the second floor to get some cool vaulted space. I am thinking of making a space that will work efficiently for 2 years, I will need to add some square footage. I am talking to a builder at the moment about that. Initially, I am thinking of attaching a 20 X 24 pole barn structure with two full floors. That will house a master suite, a big closet, a laundry room, and a vacant second floor for storage/expansion/growth.

I think that is cost-effective and possible to be built with existing savings and no mortgage is necessary. I have never owed a dime on the property having purchased it with money I saved while contracting. Looking down the road, when the big house finally sells, the funds that yield will be used to build a comfortable 3BR on a basement Cape Cod on the top of the hill not far from the cabin. The cabin then becomes a guest house.

Flyin6:
We are also reacquiring some necessary implements that are needed now to start a general cleanup. We have suffered some wind damage and I have done next to nothing on the farm for about a year. Obviously, we need to baseline the place to get it ready for the coming construction. I purchased a tractor grapple which I will use on the Kubota MX6000 utility tractor. The Kubota SVL-97 will do the heavy lifting.

Flyin6:
Today I pressure-washed the SVL-97 and got that running well. Yesterday I did all sorts of maintenance on that Altoz RX766 tracked zero-turn which I used extensively today.

Flyin6:
Then it was nonstop grass cutting with both machines.

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