What Do I Want? American Dreaming

We've tossed around and experienced all kinds of options for organizing our living situation.  In the process, we've eliminated certain options and thus narrowed down what appeals to us.  We want to stay out West.  We don't want a large house or a yard that requires a lot of maintenance.  We want access to high speed, reliable internet.  We don't want to be moving our home every few days or even every week or two. 

Speaking for myself, I want to live in a community that has a fair number of people who are interesting and interested in alternative lifestyles, lifestyles that reject the consumer mindset and that respect and live in close contact with the natural environment. 

I want a permanent home on a piece of land that I can develop, with small garden areas.  I want to live on a property that has enough privacy that I can walk around naked and take an outdoor shower without neighbors or passersby gawking at me. I want to be able to wander off the property in multiple directions to explore the wilderness, without worrying about the dog or me getting hit by a car.   I want dark skies and a view of the land that is uninterrupted by the signs of human civilization.   I want a place where I'm not eaten alive by insects for months on end.  I don't want so much snow, freezing wind, and below zero temperatures that the dog and I can't go outside during the winter.  I want to be able to live mostly off-grid, and to make use of renewable natural resources to provide for my some of my basic needs: shelter using natural materials from the area and situated to take advantage of the natural environment for heating and cooling, I want to create electricity from the sun, and gather water from the ground or the sky, I want a climate that will enable me to grow things I can eat from my garden.  I want to be able to barter goods and services with fellow community members.   I want to get to know and have long term in-person relationships with people from my community.

At the same time, I want to travel some of the time, for extended periods.  I don't want to be utterly disconnected from the larger world.  I want to see new things, hike in and explore a variety of new environments, encounter new people and new cultures, eat food from places I've never eaten before, and learn about new plants and insects. 

I want to avoid long- or medium-term immersion in certain kinds of environments:  places where people rush and compete and consume beyond basic needs, and where the environment is filled with human made objects such as office buildings, parking lots, advertisements, strip malls, big box stores, cars and rvs, black top or concrete surfaces, signs and billboards, and manicured lawns.  I don't want to be surrounded by people who accept the status quo and hold in contempt those who have pursued other ways of thinking and living.  I don't want to be around people who are angry, frustrated, and mean. 

I don't want to be surrounded by people who are just like me.  While there are certain kinds of people I don't want to be around (angry, frustrated, mean, conventional),  I do want to be around people whose politics are different from mine and who are willing to respect views other than their own, and who know and believe things different from me.   I want to be around people whose prior life experiences differ from my own. 

Is this possible?  What would it look like, in terms of day to day living?  How can I get there?  

My thoughts over the last few days have been this:  buy a piece of property here in New Mexico, specifically a place that is suitable given the desires I named above.  Pay cash for this property. Park our rv there and live in it temporarily while we develop the property over time by building a small home that runs on solar, uses a water catchment system, and re-uses gray water for irrigation.  Since we do have physical constraints and M. has a full-time job, much of this building would need to be done by someone else whom we could hire. 

When the weather is inhospitable, probably November through mid-April, we could travel to a warmer climate.  One possibility is to have a second piece of land, maybe with another tiny house, that runs on solar and with water catchment.  Another is that we could stay in some of the long-term rv boondocking locations in southern New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and California that do have cell and data service.  At some point, I'd like to travel to the north during warmer months: I'd like to experience the Pacific Northwest, and places like Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho. 

This is my vision of the American dream.  

And, just for contrast, here's George Carlin's take on the standard American Dream. 

I've always thought of this song as the soundtrack to my vision of the American Dream:  

 

Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime 

And you may find yourself
Living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself
In another part of the world
And you may find yourself
Behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house
With a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, well
How did I get here?

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was

Water dissolving and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Under the water, carry the water
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again in the silent water
Under the rocks, and stones there is water underground

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go to?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? Am I wrong?
And you may say yourself, "My God! What have I done?"

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again in to the silent water
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Look where my hand was
Time isn't holding up
Time isn't after us
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was
Same as it ever was

Letting the days go by (same as it ever was)
Letting the days go by (same as it ever was)
Once in a lifetime
Letting the days go by
Letting the days go by