Twenty years seems significant because, at fifty-eight years of age, I have a good chance of being hale-and-hardy for another 20 years. After that all bets are off. That is what I deduce when I look around at the guys I drink coffee with. The horizons start closing in at age eighty. At seventy-eight they are moving refrigerators by brute strength and cutting firewood. At eighty-two they start hiring kids for the heavy work and are heating with LP gas.
It occurred to me that I really don't have any plans for what happens after Kubota leaves the nest.
He is perched on the cusp of the nest and flapping his wings...and I have nothing.
Being lazy, I asked some people who are wiser than me for guidance. Some are wiser by virtue of life experiences. Others are simply wiser.
One wise person said that they had a twenty year plan but some recent health issues made them do some re-thinking. He was diagnosed with cancer in March and has been staring death eyeball-to-eyeball since then.There are no guarantees that we will have a tomorrow.
Another wise person said that having the last kid leave the house was a little bit like having a spouse die. Everybody suggests that it is a good idea to do NOTHING for the first year after a spouse dies because one's emotions are cavitating. They suggested that I was being too hard on myself. They suggested that I just get used to the idea of our "family" being just Mrs ERJ and me. Six months seemed like a reasonable amount of time to them. Then think about a twenty year plan.
Another concern involves boomerang children. We do have a plan for that. A trailer behind the barn and a separate electric meter.
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my plan as always been to prep for me and my family now , and after im gone hope the preps / skills and exp .. will go on in my kids... etc.. all we do is long term, trees, infrastructure, etc etc. I have always believe like in the old country.. that your kids dont HAVE to leave.. you can have 3 even 4 generations living in one big home or at least on the same land, so that there is a continuity to the preps,, where i leeave off they can pick up and continue so they dont have to start from zero... its not a bad thing to have several generations living on site, pooling resorces, child care of kids , grandkids even great grand kids.. and besides how it has always intended to be, we take care of our kids when they are young, and then they take care of us when we get old.. i truly think culture made a big mistake going to the , get the kids out of the house and far way.. families were meant to live together like a villiage or clan... like i said if not in one BIG house then on the same land in several homes.. but all with in walking distance..
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