donheff said:Wow, that brought back some memories. I'm a city guy. I live in the heart of town and will probably do so until I die. But that description took me back to a friend's family's cabin on a trout stream in Michigan somewhere south east of Travis City that I visited a couple of times aboy 35 years ago. The setting was absolutely gorgeous exactly as you described. The cabin itself was a warm, roomy, homey affair that made you want to just sit back and relax. You could hike up the stream in either direction and see no one (that has probably changed over the years). I learned to fly fish (poorly) there and caught a couple of brown trout (at least I think that is what they were). I still wouldn't want to live there but it would make a great get-away place. C-T - you would be in heaven at this place.
shiny said:Helen, IIRC you're in Oregon right? I was just in the Portland area this weekend and like it a lot. Good move! (although the place you're moving from sounds lovely, too bad you can't keep both) What do you think of the Lake Oswego area? (seems nice, but it is full of PUDs?)
BigMoneyJim said:Helen, my first thought when reading your post is how are you going to enjoy the place in retirement if you're not enjoying it now? I can see that not having to commute daily might make it more tolerable, but still....
I say enjoy your life now. I ticked away 5 years paying off debt and not really living, and it's hard to get back into the groove afterwards. After paying off debt and having a long-term vaguish plans about early retiement I find myself saying "now what?" I'll figure it out, but it sounds like you've already figured out what will make you happier now.
Any chance you can rent your country place out or sell grazing rights or logging rights (for part of the property) or something? Just tossing out some income-generating ideas if you might be able to hang onto the place without a cash drain. That is, if you'd like to keep it.