I am about to embark on my life’s journey. It’s a big one! I don’t really have an end goal or a destination in mind. I mean, I do – Oregon. But that’s a big state. I don’t have a specific location to go yet; no actual address belonging to anyone yet. I don’t have a job when I get out there or anything. I don’t have a place to stay, other than the van I live in. This is really going to be a True Adventure.

That makes me think about my mom. Actually, I’ve been thinking a lot about her lately. She’ll be gone one year on the 18^th of this month. I’m currently staying by her cousin Bobby’s house in Florida as a landing pad between my former life and the new one coming up. Growing up, we took road trip vacations, where “getting there was half the fun.” We never got lost going anywhere; it was “having an adventure” along the way. I’m about to go on a true adventure, and Bobby and Sandy’s house is a great place to start. He built a sail boat and they both quit their jobs when they were in their 30s and sailed around the world in it, for 3 and a half years! I’ve brought up my worry about finding a job or some way to support myself and he has been the biggest supporter, telling me “Don’t worry about it!” He knows that it’s out there for me. He knows I’ll find something that calls to me. I’m so glad that he’s confident! But no, really. That gives me hope and confidence in myself. He’s right and I needed to hear it.

I really am thinking about starting up a little farm for myself. Start out with some chickens. Sell their eggs and sell the veggies that I can’t eat myself. Learn how to can, make jellies, jams, pickles, etc. Year two, I can start introducing things like ducks and goats. I read that duck eggs sell for a premium to bakers and goats not only produce milk that I could use for, well… milk, but I can also learn how to make goat milk beauty products that I could use. When I get really good at all this stuff, I’m thinking year three, I can maybe get some bees and get a mini orchard going. By that time, I should feel confident in my products enough to start selling them. I could either go into town and sell them consignment style, or even have a little stand or store right on my property if the location allows it. My cousin’s wife, Sandy, does her morning routine every day. She grabs her bird seeds or ant poison (which is organic and she informed me it doesn’t really work, they just move away a few feet from the original openings so she’s basically just chasing them around her yard all year), and goes around throwing seeds and picking any stray weeds that she sees growing where she doesn’t want it. That, combined with her neighbor feeding their chickens in the morning, made me really think about the possibility of doing just that for a living. Could I really just take care of my property and animals, and have that provide for my living expenses?

I do need to be careful because a lot of my ideas came from asking questions of Copilot, the AI that my phone has in it. I know that AI is bringing people down strange and unusual places. People are being led to do extreme things because of their conversations with AI. I recognize that they are most likely not having innocent “Can I run a farm by myself?” conversations, but AI is making people believe things that are not real. Can I really run a little tiny farm by myself? Are goats really as big of jerks as I have heard? I am getting my ideas from Copilot, so I don’t want to be led astray.

I’m living in the present moment and have my next stop planned out but only that far. I’m going to take this day by day, once I get going. I want to focus on eating better too, not so much processed food. Rex has been really enjoying the fresh vegetables that Sandy slips him as she’s preparing dinner. And though he really has no interest in the fruit, I need to start buying and eating fresh fruit and veggies that he would love me to share. My body agrees with Sandy’s cooking as well. Even growing up, I didn’t eat this healthy. A bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice was standard fare. Foods like eggs or pancakes were really for when we had Breakfast for Dinner nights. I’ve never had a poached egg for breakfast! Sandy makes gourmet meals that deserve photographs taken of them. Always fresh fruit or vegetables in it somehow. Dinner always has fresh veggies as well. We even had lobster one night! The diversity and the freshness feel healthy and it’s been just under two weeks. I want to focus on my diet and keep up the healthy eating, and live in the present moment. No fear, No worry, Just Adventure.