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Once again, this morning, Dnipro is under attack by the dark forces from orcistan. People are dead and wounded and there is damage to property worth millions! Of any decent currency! Not for the first time I wish for the power of telekinesis/portation to deflect the missiles and install the anti-air batteries that are slowly arriving in Ukraine.
It frustrates me that I am 1000s of kilometers away and all that I can do for now is pray, encourage, donate, and put pressure on Western governments to help. Yes, I’ll be there to help rebuild, but the less we need to rebuild, the better. Even seemingly unhurt people get damaged, inside. And that damage is permanent. Forever.
I also rage-donated money in a friend’s memory. I’m still angry, but at least now I can feel better about it!
That ends the short version of the news that I consider to be important, today.
This is day five of Camp NaNoWriMo and my second blog entry. By the time it’s published, I would have worked on it for three days, though, so some words would have already been counted and added. That’s OK. I didn’t want to post too short an article, just for the sake of getting something done, anyway.
Hello, Property!
Let me introduce you to the property I would like to buy… It was off the market for a long time, and now that it’s back on, my Kyiv-side lawyer’s ulcers will start acting up again!
The property consists of two completely wrecked wooden buildings on a massive plot in a village near the Belarusian border. It’s on the market for dirt cheap, not only because of the state of the buildings but also because some other problems need to be addressed before any construction/rehabilitation can commence.
I’ll post them as they come to mind. These are not in any particular order of importance.
This place is way out in the boondocks of Ukraine, on a good day!
Despite having a railway station and regular(ish) 4-times daily passenger trains (twice in each direction) literally within walking distance from this property, the village itself is far from the hustle and bustle of what is commonly known as civilization. On the one hand, that’s a good thing, as it means that I probably won’t be woken up in the wee hours of the morning by all kinds of alarms, but on the other hand, I know I will miss SOME creature comforts.
But that’s future worries. Practically, it means I need boots on the ground and a good pair of hands to help me with arrangements. I must also be prepared with plan B and the rest of the Roman alphabet.
I considered renting a pet-friendly apartment and commuting to the site daily, but that won’t be practical. I’d likely camp out in my garden for a while. That’s not a bad thing, but I hope I can put up a proper cottage before winter hits. That place looks COLD!
The old structures must be demolished and the pieces taken to a dump site.
Unfortunately, as the buildings are rotten and broken, and have also been originally erected in the USSR era, I can’t trust the wood not to contain either black mold or serious chemicals. I would rather not be exposed to that. Therefore, I plan to have the building rubble completely removed from the site and disposed of appropriately. I’ll keep the foundation slabs, though.
I plan to have a topographical survey of the property made as soon as I have the title in my name to enable me to plan my backyard farm. That means I will know where to place the building rubble for easy removal. Permaculture is practical like that, sometimes.
Serious Earthworks
From the pictures that are posted with the advertisement, I can already see that there are some drainage issues to address. While the solution would be expensive if it were the only digging project, I also want to have a couple of swales dug, and pits for septic tanks, cisterns, and such. By my reckoning, I can save time and money by having everything done simultaneously, but that would involve meticulous prior planning and design. Once again, the drone survey would be invaluable, so that’s very high on my list of priorities.
There are quartz quarries in the area, so I will hopefully be able to obtain crushed rock cheaply and quickly. And countertops, later.
Setting up workshops, storage, and a canning kitchen for summer
I have already thought about swapping out the functions of the two existing buildings (the ones I plan to break down anyway) as the barn has a better orientation. I’ll be eventually rebuilding on those foundations, to save effort at the planning office, but I need storage space and a workshop quickly, and somewhere to work once the fruit harvests come in. I may invest in freight containers for those needs and have them fitted with the appropriate technologies for their purpose.
I am also thinking of building an extra office space/garden flat/studio from where I can pursue my creative dreams. It will be on skids, in case some nosy council representative wants to interfere.
Traveling, Transportation, and Local Consumption
At first, I wanted to buy a small car or even a van, but then I realized what a pain in the donkey that would be. Not only would I have to pay licenses, do maintenance, and keep the vehicle fueled, but I would have to redo my driver’s license entirely at some point. On top of that, the roads are narrow, and potholed and people drive on the other side of the road in Ukraine.
I have decided to buy an e-tricycle for adults, with ultra-thick wheels for handling sand, snow, and mud. I want to hitch at least two wagons and a travel trailer to that tricycle, but not all at once! Building and traveling with that tricycle trailer will be part of my eventual video channel offerings. For longer distances that I don’t want to do slowly, I can always take the bus or the train.
There is a great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. In it, she details her family’s decision to homestead in rural America and to consume only local (to them) products and services. If I remember correctly, she set a 50-mile radius, and each family member could have one exception to that rule.
I plan to set a similar guideline for myself, but in my case, the rule would be 90% “made in Ukraine” and 10% “imported from anywhere else”. In all fairness, much of what I possess will be what I come with from South Africa. And there will be books…
What scares me about this?
Being a writer, I tend to live in a world of “what if?” That makes for great plot ideas, but if you overthink it in real life, it messes up your mind. I think of all the things that could possibly go wrong and I tie myself in knots when trying to tie up the proverbial loose ends. Many things can go wrong. I am not naive about this. This is a big move and a massive gamble. I shall have to grow a spine and lots and lots of courage and determination and develop a lot of self-discipline. Yes, I am generally extremely lazy (Bite me!), but when I have a goal set, not much will keep me from reaching it. The problem is that my goals leave no room for the washing of dishes or the mopping of floors. And living in a disorganized holy mess won’t do at all! So my biggest question is: will I be able to handle everything by myself? And what if I can’t?
I have a legal person in Kyiv. Roman and his firm will be in charge of my affairs in Ukraine. That means that they will also have power of attorney if something goes horribly wrong. I don’t want to think about that, but life happens, and that’s one of the things that I need to consider.
Roman knows that I was interested in this property before. It was priced much lower, then, but the paperwork was for my effort and pocket. The current owner is now doing the paperwork, but that made the price triple! However, it’s still selling for a song and I plan to pay for it from incidental savings. The legal and administration fees will probably be more than the purchase price! Roman doesn’t know that the property is back on the market. I don’t plan to tell him. Yet. I’m evil! He can’t imagine me living in the boondocks. I can. I grew up in a small village. I can be happy in such a place.
What scares me the most about this whole move is whether the locals will accept me. Most rural communities are extremely insular and I will not only be someone from outside, but I am also not Ukrainian! I think my language skills are decent, but I still have much to learn. Afrikaner traditions and Ukrainian traditions are very similar, though. So maybe it won’t be so difficult. Anyway, now that that is out in the open, it doesn’t seem like such a big fear after all! I’ll be the crazy cat lady who speaks bad Ukrainian. I probably won’t be accepted universally, and since I am a people pleaser, it might be a difficult pill to swallow at first. However, that is also a habit that I need to break. I can’t please everyone every time. And somewhere in the process I need to discover ME, not the person I think others want me to be.
Wishful Thinking or Manifesting Reality?
They say if you want to make the gods laugh, you should tell them your plans. And I am quite aware of the proverb that you should not count your chickens before they hatch. Many things still need to happen before I can put in an offer for this property, and in that time, someone else may see the potential of this place and have the money and the ability to close on everything before I can even take a deep breath. It has happened before. (It hurts every time, believe me!) However, something feels “right” about this place. I can see myself planting rows of fruit trees, berry bushes, and grape and kiwi vines, tending to chickens, ducks, and bees, and riding my tricycle all over the place.
And when a dream is so big that it scares you, makes you happy, and brings tears to your eyes all at once, it’s worth pursuing.
Slava Ukraina!
