Blog Post #9

It was rather coincidental that Yahoo posted this video on their news page yesterday, because I have been mulling over the possibility of downsizing my house to something smaller. You see, when we are in Minnesota, we live in a small, two-bedroom house that has a tiny kitchen, one bath, and one living area which also doubles as the dining room. We love it.

This year, as I was floating on a raft in the middle of the lake, I met a man who had been coming to the same lake as me since 1958. He's the first person I have ever met who had been vacationing at the lake longer than I have. I started in 1970. Turns out this man is the owner of a lovely hand scribed log cabin that's about 180 square feet, and coincidentally, he's looking for someone to buy it. He's getting ready to move to England and will no longer need it. I told him I'd be interested in looking at it, though I am on the five year plan and need to wait until all of my kids are through high school. He quickly informed me that the cabin had no plumbing and was surprised when I said, "Doesn't bother me. There's a lake to bathe in, and I love to camp."

So my husband and two of my three boys toured his little cabin and spent the ensuing evening talking about what we could and couldn't do in a place that small and would it be worth looking into leasing it next summer if it didn't sell.

So that's how the wheel in my head started turning. Then the video on Yahoo, and now I'm ready to go purchase Jay Shafer's book. Lots of people are "going green" these days, and I suppose that's a good reason for wanting to live in a place so small. For me, it's more about shedding the unnecessary material things. I think there's a lot of freedom in that. I'm tired of being bogged down by "things." I think if I lived in a place like the homes Jay Shafer builds, I would have more time to get on with living my life.

I think this guy is on to something and the world needs to pay attention to him.