Schlepping is a drag. Especially as you get older. It is inevitable, of course, if you live remote. You simply have to bring stuff in less frequently which means you schlep in larger quantities when you do.

Living out here, we naturally do with less. Somewhat. As I mentioned, a big portion of consumption is simply a result of exposure and opportunity. Without that, you buy less and, we are without that relentless exposure. In fact, we hardly participate at all in the three biggest discretionary purchases currently popular in North America. We rarely go to restaurants. We rarely buy tickets to events and we don’t continually buy electronic gear. The fifth biggest is tobacco products and we aren’t much of a player there, either. We still read, travel, drink and have dogs, tho.

And some things – and you’d be surprised what – are consumed at the same, if not greater level than when living in the city.

Like hardware and building supplies to state the obvious.

Food is consumed at the same, maybe a smidge less, since things like ice cream melt before getting them home. And we live and are influenced by a sub-culture that values home-made and home-grown. We do like to keep up with the Hatfields and the McCoys. But, generally speaking the consumption levels remain the same. The receipts seem to say that, anyway.

Then again, we try to buy in bulk and the social currency out here is in providing meals and hospitality to visitors and that happens at a greater frequency than in the city. So, there may be a bit more food that is consumed. Whichever the difference, more or less, it is negligible.

Booze is much the same but that is due to good planning, really. We have ‘wine on the go’ at the local DIY store and, when I buy scotch, I buy enough to keep abreast of needs. Rice, butter, milk……..we may run out; scotch? Never. Good planning.

Mind you, as we get older, we seem to drink less. So, I dunno.

Stuff and stuff-getting is still an issue to some degree, tho. Weather, topography, boats, ferries……..all the logistics come into play for everything – even a roll of toilet paper. But, by and large, after seven years or so, we have got our systems down pat and that is an accomplishment. Getting your systems working makes it do-able.

And so we come to one of the great ironies of ‘getting away from it all’. You spend a lot of time still getting some of it all and, even more ironically, you spend a lot of time designing ways to get more of it all easily. The irony, of course, is that getting stuff and getting it easily is best accomplished by living in the city. Sheesh.

The hardest items to schlep (for me) are food, gasoline and propane and, when we had to do it the hard way, water. The basics: water and fuel and food. Before the cabin planning: plan those.

We eventually ‘bit the bullet’ and now have propane and gasoline delivered. A few years ago, John plumbed in a mile long one-inch pipe that carries enough water from our distant stream to our cistern. 85% of the on-going heavy lifting was alleviated by just those two decisions. And by heavy lifting, I mean 40 pounds plus. Under 40 pounds doesn’t count.

Get used to it.