Here is what we’re doing: As an empty-nest+1 family, we are beginning a 10 year journey of mobile homesteading. Some would call it “full-timing RV life” but the “R” means recreation. This decision is not (only) about recreation but more about a new kind of lifestyle.
We’ve owned and sold three houses in the past 30 years. We currently rent an apartment, now that three of our four children have become adults and moved out to live their own lives. What do we do with the final 10 years before retirement? How do we address the challenge of living with our youngest adult child who will be living with/near us long-term due to medical issues?
Because I’m a software engineer, I would naturally answer these questions with a blueprint style of thinking– map out the projects and figure out exactly what we will be doing. This blueprint approach doesn’t fully address our current life situation however. I need a new type of thinking, which I’m calling “spider web”; because I watched a massive spider build a web outside our window the past few days.
Instead of making blueprint goals and mapping how to achieve them, making spider web goals is about living out experiences, adapting to changes, and making an environment to live. When the weather ruins the spider’s web, it just makes another one and eventually moves on to make another web in a different place, kind of like living in a mobile homestead.
How to begin? I have a list of significant challenges and a subscription to the Escapees RV Club.
Challenges
- domicile address in Michigan
- internet fast enough to support mobile work
- campgrounds for initial stay and alternative stay
- vehicle with enough towing capacity
- mobile homestead (i.e. “RV” fifth-wheel, toy hauler, etc)