A Few Realizations After Camping for Two Nights on My Land (Finally!)

I’ve been very weird about my land since I took ownership of it in September 2020. I’d been working on it since late July and I even had the key to the creepy barn, but I had no desire to stay there until very recently. I feel like my reluctance has been some bizarre combination of being comfortable and feeling at home at my friend’s place, and of having some bizarre mental block about the whole thing. I can’t really put my finger on why I haven’t been eager to spend the night except that it all seemed a bit dark and scary over there. Throw in a mild dislike for camping and a strong like for my morning routine and creature comforts, and I guess we have our answer… somewhere in between ‘I’m scared’ and ‘I don’t like to be uncomfortable’.

Well, thankfully I finally got over myself! It only took seven months. Winter gave me a great excuse to stay put due to the cold weather, but that justification wasn’t going to last too much longer, so I checked the weather forecast for sunny days and nights where the temperature hovered somewhere around 5 or 6 degrees and I decided to camp. In order to make it a real thing that I couldn’t back out of, I told friends and invited people to stop by to say hello, help with some work, or have a drink around the fire. I think the general thing people were thinking was ‘finally!’ but besides that, I got lots of encouragement and I even started to look forward to it.

Taking the leap and staying on my land ended up being a really great experience… I really don’t know why it’s taken me so long. I realized a bunch of little things on my little camping trip that will all help me as I make plans to move onto my land permanently, and here they are…

I Love Everything About My Place Except That It Feels Too Exposed

My place is set across four main terraces along a narrow piece of land next to a public road. The road is only used by the very occasional tractor, walker, and random dog and I could go days without seeing anyone, but it feels like I’m really ‘out there’. At the top of the land there’s a two-story, glorified tool shed right behind me that’s used very occasionally by people tending to their olives and grapes. I hardly ever see them but I know that when people are around, I won’t have much privacy. Finding a good spot to pee outside is always an adventure!

This is all ok and I knew what I was in for when I bought it, but I was surprised at how much the openness irked me. In order to feel cozy and safe I’ll need to focus on adding a few fences, walls, and leafy bushes and I already have a few ideas in mind for each terrace. First up, I’ll be adding a wall on the very top terrace by the house so that I have one enclosed and private space right next to my building. From there I’ll work my way down each terrace, adding bushes and eventually fences. I didn’t think feeling exposed would bug me so much and my priorities have shifted around a bit as a result of my mini camping adventure.

Being Able to Work on My Own Land is an Amazing Feeling

At the risk of sounding super annoying, waking up and being able to work on my own land really is the most wonderful feeling. I couldn’t wait to get up and get to work! Part of that was due to the horrible sleep I had in the tent, but I’d like to think that most of it is because it’s an amazing thing to be able to design and build a little space in the world that’s my own. I know that it’ll be easy to hop out of bed each day and power on through the work because seeing the results add up over the days and months is an incredible feeling.

I’ve done lots of work exchanges over the years and they’ve great for a variety of reasons, but it’s a much different feeling working towards building someone else’s dream as compared to building your own. I know my own work style and I know that the more thoughtful I am in my design at this stage and the more I take my time to make things exactly how I want them, the happier I’ll be. I can do everything at my own (painfully slow) speed with my own obsessive ways thrown in the mix, and the only person I have to answer to is me. Basically, I’ve realized that I’m 100% in my element doing this work and there’s nothing I’d rather be doing.

I Don’t Love Camping

I want to love it, I really do, but I never seem to get a good night’s sleep in a tent. I suppose I could solve this with a more pimped-out mattress situation because that’s my main issue, but I’m also crap about staying organised and keeping things in their places. I think I basically just suck at camping. Fortunately, I don’t need to be camping on my land – I have a building to stay in! I think that with this fresh dislike of sleeping in tents at the front of my mind, I should be more motivated to make the barn livable. It’s certainly an option to move to my place and camp until the building is ready… but camping blows. Solution? Focus on doing what I need to do inside the building so I can sleep inside!

I Know Nothing About Starting a Fire

I attempted a small fire while I was staying at my place and it basically ended with me running away to heat up some soup while my friends toiled with the terrible firewood I bought and collected. Turns out, fig wood doesn’t burn… which I think I already knew. It was free and I guess I know why! I also learned that the firewood I did pay for also ended up being exceptionally crappy and that I basically need to learn more about such things, especially before I get a wood burning stove that can get all mucky and clogged when unseasoned or the wrong types of wood are used.

If Washing Isn’t Convenient, I’ll Be Gross

This is probably embarrassing to admit, but there it is. I mean, I’d like to think I’m quite a clean person… I shower daily, keep my clothes clean, brush my teeth well, wear deodorant, etc etc. Ok so I definitely wash my hair way less often than in my previous non-rural life, but besides that I’d say I’m pretty up on the ol’ personal hygiene. What I’ve realised, however, is that this is probably because it’s all very convenient. My friend has an awesome, hot shower with amazing pressure and I’m all set up in her bathroom with all of the bits I’d need for my daily routine. On my land when I was camping, I was not set up. I washed my face once. I forgot my toothbrush and toothpaste. So if I don’t want to descend into a questionable routine of self care, I’ll need to sort out a private little bathroom spot where I can organise my things and bathe without having to make trips down a terrace to get water in a bucket. I don’t know why I am this way, I’m not proud, but now that I know I can attempt to head off any future grossness before it goes too far.

If Cooking Isn’t Convenient, I’ll Eat Badly

As with the cleaning thing, if I don’t have an organised spot for storing and preparing food, I’ll basically eat crap. Though I did manage to heat up tomato soup one of the evenings, it was a surprisingly traumatic experience since everything was all over the place and I didn’t have a decent spot to put anything. Ok… ‘traumatic’ might be an exaggeration, but I was most certainly perturbed. I suppose I also managed to whip up some guacamole too while I was there, so it wasn’t 100% me eating dry cereal out of a bag. But that was a good portion of my diet those few days, I have to admit. So I definitely realized that, if I don’t want to spend my days eating dry cereal, then I’ll need to set up a more organised kitchen space.

Lighting and a Good Hangout Spot are Important if I Don’t Want a 7:30pm Bed Time

Don’t get me wrong, 7:30pm is totally an acceptable bed time, but I wasn’t necessarily so excited to crawl into an uncomfortable tent that early. Unfortunately, I chose a particularly windy couple of nights to camp and it got quite chilly as the sun went down, so my options were to sit in my cold, super-cluttered stone barn, or to crawl into the tent where I could at least be cozy. Since I was exhausted after a long day of work, I opted for the tent, but if I had a nice place to hang out and some lights set up, I might not have been so quick to (attempt to) go to sleep.

I Like Having People Over

I’ve had lots of people stop by my land over the past seven months just to say hello or to chip in with a helping hand and I really enjoy playing host. I had a little gathering around the fire when I camped and it was lovely to be able to welcome people and to feed them soup and whiskey (once accidentally at the same time… sorry about not washing that cup!) and to see what the space feels like with a few people thrown into the mix. Once the Covids go away I’m also looking forward to hosting friends and family from further afield and I’ll want to have my place set up to allow this. I’ve got loads of work to do but I’m working on the ‘party terrace’ already (priorities, people!) and I’m trying to figure out how best to fit longer-distance visitors into the space.

Being on My Own Land Is Great, but I Feel Like an Imposter

I’ve never owned a house, or a campervan, or anything like that. I’ve owned a backpack and spent an absurd amount of time living out of that as I travelled or rented places along the way – but I’ve never owned my own home. I’ve never even lived by myself before, if you can believe that! So this is weird. Really weird. I’ve wanted this for a long time and worked hard to get here, but I have a strange imposter feeling being on my own land… like someone made a mistake and will show up one day and tell me to move on. It’s odd, I know. But it’s a feeling I have and I’m sure, as time passes and nobody comes knocking on my door to evict me, it’ll eventually go away.

Summary of All That I’ve Learned from My Two-Night Excursion to 10km Down the Road

Ok so my little camping trip wasn’t the most epic adventure but I feel like I got loads out of it, even if it was just a short stay. When I made the list of priorities for moving onto my land by spring, I thought the big things like having electricity, a wood burning stove, and a window would be the sticking points, but I actually think I’d be able to live without those things (for a few weeks, anyway). It’s the comparatively little things like not having a a place to cook, clean, or even a spot to put a mattress inside that would frustrate me the most. It’s spun my priorities around yet again, though this seems to happen weekly anyway.

I’ve ordered my solar system, the bezzanine (bed/mezzanine) is nearing completion, I’ve made spots to cook and clean, I have the stuff I need to at least make a window in my metal door, and I feel like my move-in date could be very close. I do have it amazingly good where I’m staying and it’s easy to get comfortable, but I think I’m almost ready to fly the nest!