I sold the cabin

What's next for this Substack? It ain't over!

Maybe you saw this coming. Maybe you’ve picked up on the slowing progress or the general tone of frustration around here. I’ve decided to sell the cabin and to start a new project this year.

If you are here for this cabin pipedream, and for that alone, I’m sorry to disappoint.

If you’re interested in permaculture, in sustainable projects, or in my writing, please stick around! I have a new project in mind. And this substack is going to continue on, I promise.

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To be honest, I’ve been thinking about selling this property for a while. At the end of every post I’ve written over the past year, I typed out some paragraph about wrestling with the idea of selling the 15 acres and the cabin. Then I deleted the paragraph. Then I hit publish.

The photo I fell in love with of the cabin property

Finally, the opportunity to sell just made sense. In January, I wrote an email to my neighbors asking them if they’d want to buy the land before I put the property on the market. I had lots of interest and an offer 7 days later. We closed on February 15th.

The new owner is a neighbor that wants to expand their own property. I was able to sell privately, which made the process very easy. Two lawyers and a cash offer. The deed is done.

Throughout the past six years of owning this property, I have slowly realized that my dreams do not line up with the reality of the land. It’s seasonal. It’s remote. It’s steeply sloped. I live 1,764 miles away.

What this cabin wants is to be a hunting cabin getaway for a local handyman. I know that’s not going to be me. I’ve made peace with letting this project go into the hands of the next person. I’ve learned some good lessons. I still have big dreams.

Mostly, I’m excited to enjoy Keuka Lake again instead of feeling behind on projects every time I’m there. I’m glad to stop flying across the country to mow my lawn. It’s definitely more sustainable this way.

So what’s next?

Our plan is to move to New Hampshire this coming spring and to buy a house with a few acres of land. I’ll have so much more to write about when I better integrate my day-to-day life and my outsized dreams of orchards and gardens.

Now, all this doesn’t mean the end of this Substack! I love writing these updates and reading your comments. I plan on crafting a permaculture design of the new land we buy, sharing projects as we do them and writing about all of that here.

I also plan on expanding the subject of this Substack a bit. The narrow scope of just writing about this cabin project has stunted my writing a bit. I’m writing more these days and plan to share it here.

Later this year, I will rename this Substack and continue publishing. While this is no longer going to be “West Bluff Food Forest”, there will be a food forest and all the fun projects that come with it. Better yet, I think this time it’ll actually happen!

If this all still interests you, please let me know in the comments.

If you want to unsubscribe from here, I totally understand that too. Thanks for sticking around all these years.