Season 3: The Next Adventure

So, Season 2 got a little derailed by the whole Covid-19 situation, and us getting caught up in trying (a couple of times!) to buy a house. More on that in a minute.

We have been living here in Southern Tasmania for two years now. Milestones and anniversaries can be instigators for contemplation and reflection. There has been some pretty serious and intense soul searching over the last few months here at FFVT HQ, it has gone a little something like this:

What are your values? What are the deep truths that you know in the core of your being that influence the way you try to think, the choices you make, the way you interact with other people and your satisfaction with life? It's big and powerful and heavy stuff, but worth your time and energy to contemplate. Here are Adam's top few values, and by no means exhaustive: - To be kind - to myself and others. - To walk gently upon the planet. - To spend quality time with my darling wife - To spend time in nature - To care for my physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing - To be part of community, and have genuine and meaningful connections with other people.

- To use an oxford comma, use it well, and use it often. And Ruth’s: - self care - looking after by body and mind as I age (hello 32!) - nurture my relationship with my best friend - my husband - have meaningful conversations, connections and care for my friends and family - continue to reflect, learn, listen, challenge myself, be mindful and grow as a human - to do what is in my power to reduce harm to planet earth (low waste, vegan, minimalism) and enjoy nature now - trusting my gut, learning to listen to my intuition on what the right thing to do is Side note: It is okay (actually very healthy) to be married and not agree on everything. Somewhere along the way after our last big adventure, road tripping in Gary, we sunk back into the mechanics of Modern Life TM. Rent a three bedroom house, fill the house up with stuff, work full time to save as much money as possible to get a deposit to purchase a house to get a big fat debt from a bank and be a secure cog in the machine of society, indentured by indebtedness. That list of values above didn’t include selling all my time for bank debt. It doesn’t include accumulating stuff. It doesn’t include selling all the time available for living to accumulate as much wealth as possible before retirement/death out of fear that you wont have enough, be secure enough, or be able to pay someone to look after you. In this swirling miasma of self reflection, there are a few core truths that resonate loudest at the moment: 1. We moved to Tasmania to experience the beautiful natural landscapes, and spend time in them. 2. The level of physical fitness and mental wellbeing in our bodies has gone down over time. 3. We have found connection and community with many others in our new home. 4. We are doing pretty great at the walking-gently-on-the-planet thing. On the spectrum from rampant consumerism to austere monk, we are comfortably monkish (but not too monkish). 5. Life is better when we spend more time together, like when we were on the road. After very nearly buying a huge chunk of debt from a bank - twice! In the form of a house, we have decided to abandon that ideal for the next big adventure: A debt free life. A life of enough, where selling all our time to provide things we want/need is not our primary mode of operation. Enter, stage left, the vehicle of our liberation: A Tiny House on Wheels (that is both legally and technically a Caravan, Mr Planning Officer). Over the next few months (years?) as we design and build a Tiny House on Wheels, we will use the opportunity to steer life back towards what we really value: Working less (selling less of our time to others to meet the needs we can't satisfy with our own skills), spending more time together, spending more time in nature and caring for our wellbeings.

Over the next few weeks (months? years?) you will see the blog follow our tiny house journey from idea, through planning, design, construction and occupation. Beautiful photos from Ruth, Spreadsheets and Statistics from Adam and words from both of us.

Next time we will look at step one - which, believe it or not, is not designing a tiny house - it's decluttering and deowning things from our lives and house, so that we figure out if we can even do this tiny house thing.

All our love,

Adam and Ruth

Foraging for Vegan Treats.

Season 3 Statistics:

Mortgage purchase attempts: 2