The Countdown - Get Yer Move On...

gonetroppo (54)in #life • 6 years ago

Today is the 1st of June, and our departure date beckons ever nearer. Come June 18th, if all goes according to plan, we will be on the road to paradise with our dog Wilco and hamster Miss Molly. So for the moment my posts here may come a little sporadically, when I manage to find a gap.

They say that moving home is one of the most stressful events you can experience in life. How much more so when moving right across a large country like South Africa... Not that I feel particularly stressed about this move, rather I feel excited to embrace the life I have dreamt of living for more than ten years already. A life of simplicity, living off the land, dedication to a higher cause, and somehow finding a way to weave my beloved music into the fabric of such an existence.

We've had to sell our small car and buy a 4x4 because the place to which we are moving is a rural town that can only be accessed by dirt road. We will be moving onto a piece of land with nothing on it but a wooden wendy house, in the middle of winter. At the moment the temperatures there are close to freezing, and as winter progresses it will drop below zero as well. It is bound to be a shock for us, who are moving from the perennially warm East Coast of SA. It never really gets that cold here on the South Coast of KZN, and many folk believe that Winter here is actually the most pleasant winter weather in the whole world.

Wilco in the perfect Winter climate of the south eastern coastline of Africa.

Not so much the area we are moving to - which is known for it's very cold winters. The land we will be living on is completely off the grid, that is, no electricity will be supplied by the government! But that is the way we want it. The Government services in this country have been becoming increasingly unreliable over the past twenty five years. A case in point is my home town, where we have been without water in our local area for days on end maybe ten or more times in the last year. Once we arrive on the land, we will be cooking on a gas stove, and there is a small solar panel that is able just to charge cell phones and hopefully laptops as well, so I should be able to keep somewhat connected here on the glorious and revolutionary platform of Steemit. Growing food straight off the bat will be a challenge, it being the middle of Winter and all. But of course most everything about life for us after the 18th is still an unknown, and for the moment there is so much that needs to be done to get us there.

One thing I have realized is that moving exposes the amazing build up of stuff that one accumulates just by living day to day. I've decided, as much as reasonably possible, to reduce my book and music collection, which in and of itself is a very difficult task. I love my books and reading, and after beginning to work through the books, another realization dawned on me... Since there is no electricity where we are moving, the books will become even more valuable commodities to my life and existence than they are now, what with the endless distractions of the busy modern world being exchanged for a simple life free from the mad rush. So I decided that it would be far better to reduce or even eliminate the LP and CD collection, because I won't be able to use it anyway, right (at least until we can afford enough solar panels to drive amps and LP/CD players, which can be expensive). So I began working through the music, which has always been (what I thought to be) a vital aspect of my life up to this point. Needless to say I have been teetering between the extremes of renunciation and attachment on this issue, and am still not quite settled up on the outcome.

With CD's you feel you can always copy them across to the computer at hi-res (FLAC) with Exact Audio Copy and you still have that music. Hard drive storage and time are the main issues there. But then again, CD's are far lighter and easier to transport than vinyl. But vinyl... So damn heavy and difficult to transport, is definitely more painful to separate with than the digital CD's. Vinyl is almost it's own art form... So you see, these are just a few of the difficult decisions I'm faced with at the moment.

Added to this there are many other little things, like the 4x4 we bought has quite a lot of rust that we did not know about, and is costing a hella lot to sort out and a bunch of other stuff that needs to get done...

But as they say in South Africa, "A Boer maak a plan", or "a boer makes a plan", not that I'm from pure boer stock, but at least 50% boer blood - so I have that going for me...