Dave and I have been kicking around the idea of getting some land somewhere. We were thinking of buying a couple of acres down in Sandy Valley, but I don't think we're going to do that now. For one thing, the developers are already buying up most everything out there, so there is ONE plot of land to choose from, and it's about $15,000 more than we anticipated. Also, it's a pretty... trashy area (for lack of a better term). There are a lot of meth labs, etc. around out there because it's so remote. I know in time that would all calm down, and the junkies mostly stick to themselves, but still. The view out there is beautiful, I would love to have land out there - as long as we had enough land that we couldn't see our neighbors. ;)

We're going to just sit tight, pay off our debt, and start saving money. We now are thinking possibly in Canada somewhere - the land is very inexpensive, as long as you're a ways from a big city (like Vancouver area would be WAY too expensive). As an example, I found a *gorgeous* plot; 21 acres, covered in trees, 2000ft of lake shore (Lake Michigan). It was breathtaking, and it was $119,000 Canadian. It was 10 minutes from a decent-sized town. The pic is below - I would love to wake up to this view every morning!




In order to do that, we have to be self-sustaining. So we are going to just save money so that we won't have a mortgage when we move, and since Canada has universal healthcare, we won't have to worry about buying our own health insurance. The taxes are more, but with our own garden we won't have to buy a lot of the most expensive stuff (other than meat) - we could have our own milk and eggs. I already make most
of our food from scratch, anyway, and I would start doing that even more now (for practice). I've never really had a garden, but I grew up on a farm and was around it all my life, so I'm not completely useless out there. My mom used to can a lot of things from our garden, so I'm not too worried about that either.

Anyway, I really feel it's possible. I'm already so much farther along toward that dream than I ever thought I would be (as far as quitting my job and being home with our daughter), so why can't we go all the way? I figure where there's a will (and time!), there's a way.

I just think it'd be so cool to have something like that. And then invite several of our dearest like-minded friends to build a home on the land somewhere, and life is perfect. :)