I just went back and read that original post. It was a little bit of time travel. 10 years ago I had just started doing my own podcast and working hard towards the retirement plan. Then life happened. A lot of life happened. We survived, my Sweetie and I. We still have the farm and it's paid for, but there's still a lot of work to be done.
Last time I checked in, we had just been downsized by our employer. I was headed to college for an energy sustainability diploma, but an IT job came up. A friend worked there already so I had some insight into the company culture. I vetted this company like I was going to buy it. There's no way I was going to walk into something like I'd just came out of. I talked to people in the area and in the industry. No one had anything bad to say about them at all.
Then I went to the interview.
I felt like I was talking with old friends. Next thing I knew, over 2 hours had passed. Well, I got the job. It required us to move, but it was a move to an area we had already been planning on moving to. Sweetie will graduate in about a month or so and is on track to be the top of her class. I had no doubt. She could always outcook most people, but now she is truly hitting chef level.
The plan is still the same...sort of...
Now we're moving toward getting some land, growing vegetables, light livestock, and stocking a pond with fish. But, we're planning on building a small restaurant too. Very small, reservation only. It'll take us about 5 years to get to that, so we're about 10 years behind on the retirement plan. We'll run the restaurant during spring, summer, and fall and mostly close it in the winter. Except maybe special occasions or if someone wants to book the whole place for an event.
The winter will be for us. She'll work on her menu and plans for the next season, I'll work on my writing and such, and we'll hopefully do some traveling. Just thinking about that brings my soul some peace.
Some hurricane-level life winds blew us off course twice, but we managed to not capsize. Now we're correcting course and getting underway again. Survival is an attitude and the first rule of survival is don't die.