Sheesh. Last post was July of 2022 and here we are in April 2025. My how time flies!
We have not been idle. The thing is – we have posted a new video up on youtube on our channel every week for quite a while. Well – since July of 2022! But I have not posted them here on the website. I should I guess as any content on youtube is owned by them and they can take it down or delete it if they wanted! Not good!
Much has happened if you are on the email list and not on the youtube subscription to be notified for new videos coming out. (You can click the link to our channel below and click “subscribe” and “notification” to be sure and see the videos if you like)
Let me try to quickly come up to the present!
In a very strange and mysterious set of events in November of 2023, we were made aware of a piece of property in West Virginia that looked very interesting. At the time, we still had our hands full of projects in the Georgia home we had moved into in 2022 and had no thought at all of moving anywhere else!
We moved in June and July of 2024. It was painful. But necessary. When the Universe (God) tells you to do something you do it. If there is one major lesson I have learned in the last 6 decades it is simply that. Do what your inner voice tells you to do. It is the Universe speaking directly to you!
And I have to say that we are exactly where we are supposed to be. On the top of a mountain, at the end of a road, with no mail service! Awesome. You should see the night sky with no ambient lights to block it. You should hear the sounds of nature with no man made noise at all (with the exception of a low rumble of a train in the winter every now and then.) You should taste the water coming directly from a natural spring into our house. And you should see the 280 degree view of mountaintops from our point of view.
Shelly and I are living in (and remodeling) a hunters cabin first built in the 1940’s from rough sawn oak. It has “character”
We have been redoing everything – including building a 32 x 72 shop with the 64,000 pounds of Georgia lumber we brought by truck during he move!
I’ll start uploading videos here as I can so we have them saved but they are all available at https://www.youtube.com/@FollowThePhillips if you would like to catch up.
I’ll try hard to keep this up!
This is a vide o we did soon arriving last summer.
It’s hard to believe we started clearing a forest 4 months ago and yet are harvesting the most tasty tomatoes today!
This is a great video with Ryan and Shelly showing it off!
We are posting videos every Friday and Sunday mornings but I don’t think you want me to send you each one! If you really wanted too see them you could just subscribe to the channel and get notifications!
You know how grown kids are moving back with their parents to save money (or whatever)?
Well, Shelly and I moved in with Ryan!
More changes!
We sold the RV, bought a house and some wooded acres on a small mountain in Georgia in March.
Yep, things are different than in February when it was -48 in Minnesota!
This update is in July and to provide some sort of feeble excuse for the almost 6 month interlude let’s list some of what we have accomplished in the 3 1/2 months we have been here!
Moved from the RV into a house – repaired body damage and roof damage from the winter, cleaned up and sold the RV
Bought and assembled a bandsaw sawmill. We have cut up enough lumber so far to build a chicken coop, an addition for the shed, and enough to rebuild the large front porch. (Video about sawmill here)
Cleared the forest, fenced and planted a garden. Tomatoes are tasting good! (video about tilling here)
Built a chicken coop and chicken tunnels around the garden, now occupied by 5 chickens. We already lost two to the neighbors dogs and one to not being able to get an egg out! (video about chickens here)
Designed and installed an irrigation system from the pond. Video coming!
Added a 10 x 14′ extension to the existing 10×16 workshop. Video coming!
and more…
Shelly and I are finding this life so very different than our last 10 years on the road. We now have to walk much more just to fix dinner! And walking back to the bedroom and back makes us want roller skates!
Of course, the work involved in setting up a new (to us) house and personalizing it is tremendous.
We created a new channel on youtube and are posting these videos on that channel. You can find it by typing in back to basics tewtiy. A new video goes up there every Friday and Sunday morning. Most of the 20K subscribers (and comments) at the moment are from Ryan’s Tewtiy gaming channel but we hope to expand our audience to people like you – so please share the videos if you like them?
Thank you so much for sharing this journey with us. Many have been with us through the different “phases” of our life including 10 years of High Country Stables, the sailing for 5 years on YUME, then the four years traveling on the Airstream, and two fifth wheel RVs. We hope you stay with us as we build a place where we are as self sufficient as possible, as safe as possible from the craziness in the current world and a place we call home.
We created this video for you as walk down memory lane with Ryan to get us here.
We are very blessed to be able to share life with one son, (the other is still in the Air Force), and plan for the future together. There are really huge ideas to be fleshed out and manifested into reality.
There were more comments from the last post than any other post in quite a while. Actually, all the comments were basically the same.
“That’s cold! Not me!”
I have always found a good for every bad, an up for every down – and thought you might like to hear what we have discovered so far.
Yes it’s cold. But you sure do appreciate the warmth when you come in!
For someone who is usually busy with projects, this enforced inside time has allowed me to set up a music ‘station’ and practice – a lot! This is something I have not been able to do in the boats or the RV’s and I am very much enjoying it! In addition, by being in one place for several months I actually get to play a regular gig!
Shelly has taken up painting, and as in all things artistic, is turning out some pretty cool stuff. With the extra space in the cabin, she also has much more room for yoga and dance exercise!
It is amazingly still and quiet. There are no roads near us, no streetlights (or lights of any kind actually), and no other noise whatsoever except nature. It is wonderful! And the stars and moon on the snow at night are incredible. We are on the lookout for the Northern Lights.
When we go the 5 miles into Ely, there are never any lines in the grocery store and we now know the owner/manager who quickly gets for us anything we ask (like my favorite Tillamook ice cream!). We are known by the postmaster, mail carrier, the fed ex and the UPS drivers!
We do have to watch for the wildlife – especially the deer. They grow big deer around here!
The beauty and stillness of a sunny day after a snow storm is hard to describe to those without the experience.
When we do finally make it to a beach in the summer, we will have a much greater appreciation for that too!
So I would ask you to think about what you might have going on right now, that might seem to be a negative thing and find all the positive things that offset it.
Sheesh. Last post was July of 2022 and here we are in April 2025. My how time flies!
We have been redoing everything – including building a 32 x 72 shop with the 64,000 pounds of Georgia lumber we brought by truck during he move!
