Aspiring Homesteaders, starting with a trailer

[kellijaebaeli]

Hello everyone! My friend Cindy Bollmeyer referred me to this site. I'm veteran and Indie Author, and My wife, Melissa, has taken on the role of homemaker, and also a budding writer in her own right. We have just purchased a salvage 2001 Sportsmen travel trailer, and we will be renovating it in anticipation of our trek north to Wisconsin. The ultimate goal is to purchase land for homesteading there, but until then, we are purging about 80 or 90% of our "stuff", giving notice to our landlords in Holiday Island, AR, and getting the trailer more comfy and road-worthy. We've already started a Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG1hYJ ... mAxvA_zh7g) to document our journey, but haven't made the first video yet. Like most of you, we decided we want to live life on our own terms, as self-sufficiently as possible. We got to a place where we were stuck just waiting for our savings to increase to the amount that would allow us to buy the land, but it just seemed like limbo, and there were other issues concerning how to go about that, when we weren't living in the area we wanted to be in. Then the flash of inspiration--take our home with us, on wheels! LOL. It seems like it will solve all our major problems with the plan, so we found a salvage trailer and got it home, only to find that we couldn't park it in our driveway because of the restrictions. So now we are looking for a place to park it to do the renovations (I have another post about that under maintenance, seeking suggestions). We are both looking forward to getting to know everyone in this community.

[Bethers]

Welcome to you both!

[bluepinecones]

Welcome from north AL

[monik7]

Welcome from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sandi

[snowball]

welcome
good luck in achieving your dreams
sheila

[gypsyrose1126]

Welcome from WI

[ypsi56]

Welcome !!

[BirdbyBird]

Welcome to the forum. The preparation is all part of the adventure.

[IrishIroamed]

Welcome from Illinois. Read your blog about the purchase and initial back-up frustrations with Dooflingywhatsit and the confusion on whose left & right when backing up. Check out this video on YouTube from the Long Long Honeymoon couple (loloho for short). It's a 10 minute vid of their back-up process. https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-adk-adk_sbnt&hsimp=yhs-adk_sbnt&hspart=adk&p=backup+a+travel+trailer#id=3&vid=0363f6d1f0e42fea083c0d76aa8b408b&action=click

I had 2 semi-drivers helping me to learn the art of backing up and I always felt like I was jack-knifing the stupid thing, so I did what any self respecting 'I've gotta do this woman' would do, I Googled it! Turns out both of them left out an important step (#2 here http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/02/06/how-to-back-up-a-trailer-like-a-man/ ) I still can't do it in one shot, but I'm getting better (or taking pull through sites when I can )

Have fun on your new adventure and keep us informed of how it's going and where you'll be.

[JudyJB]

Welcome to the forum. And best of luck to you in your new endeavor!