I Remembered A Story Today, Maybe It Is A Cautionary Tale

This morning we did not have PT because the roads were really bad. It was nice because I got to go back to bed for a few hours which is a rare luxury for me. Anyway I remembered a story about a guy I know.

He is a long time friend of Pa's and my one time employer. An interesting fellow, one who would probably have been a lot happier as a Mountain Man circa 1840 or so. He really didn't like to work much which was fine because his economic and material ambitions were minimal. Really he liked hunting, particularly with his hounds. His wife made a few bucks training mules and he had a pretty cushy seasonal gig.

They lived on a few acres (5-15 I don't remember) with a little house outside of a tiny town. They had a big garden and hunted a lot. I think they went up to Alaska to hunt with a friend and just hang out for a month or so most years.

He lived near a tiny town but it was near the freeway. Also it was getting a lot less tiny than it was when he bought there. He started feeling crowded and wanted to move to Montana. They started looking at some significant acreage, like hundreds of acres. He found an amazing place in Montana at a great price. However a great price for a few hundred acres of decent land is still a lot of money.

This fellow moved to a very nice isolated place. However by purchasing far more land than he previously had his mortgage doubled or tripled. He was no longer able to just work seasonally and make it. He is a very skilled carpenter and so was able to make darn good money building homes. Pa told me of him talking about building during the winter and needing to stop every 20 minutes or so to shovel all the snow out of the way.

I wonder if this fellow is really happier now? I wonder if he wouldn't have been better off purchasing a smaller plot that was roughly in the price range of his previous residence. Being able to go bear hunting on his own property must be awesome but that point is somewhat mute, since he is out hustling enough money to pay the (relative to his income) huge mortgage instead of chasing bears and cougars behind a pack of dogs. 

I don't know what is best for anybody else. However I think it is worth considering the lifestyle you want to live as a limiting factor for the kind of place you want to purchase.