When I bought the property last year, I wondered what a plot of land would mean for me.

The short answer is that it means the Canadian government has won.

I am exhausted by all the lies and half-truths I have to tell to be a true full-timer in this country. I especially worry about losing my health and vehicle insurance coverage.

The government demands that I have a truly fixed address, not someone’s yard or a mail forwarding service’s office, and now I’ve got it. They want me to spend the bulk of the year in one location. That’s likely going to happen now that I know the property is going to work out as an RV base.

But I did capitulate on my own terms. Most people in rural Saskatchewan have PO boxes tied to a lot number, not a street address. So no one will care that I don’t have a proper house on my lot and being a property owner will likely reduce the amount of scrutiny I might get about how much time I’m actually at my place.

I have a property that will be low maintenance and which I can improve at a slow pace, with absolutely no pressure to develop, so I can keep spending more of my money traveling.

I also have the peace of mind that if Miranda ever becomes road unworthy, I can park her on the lot, cover her with a heatable structure, and then have a paid home to retire to should I ever need to stop moving.

I don’t know if I will ever think of Haven as being ‘home.’ I don’t think I have the kind of personality to truly have a ‘home’ as per the conventional mindset. To me, ‘home’ is a place you don’t want to leave. I really don’t feel that I could ever live in one place all the time ever again and be satisfied. Therefore, I don’t believe I ever could truly have a ‘home’ outside of Miranda.

Growing up, I always had two visions for my life. In one, I was the globe-trotting nomad, in the other I was a homesteader. I thought that RVing had allowed me to find a compromise to those two visions, giving me the freedom to travel while still having a home. But I think that RVing plus a low maintenance property is doing a much better job of merging those two conflicting dreams.

I am still a full-time RVer; the land doesn’t change that in my mind. Right now, Miranda needs a few repairs that make me shy about taking her back out on the road, but they’ll happen in due time. I do think I am going to slowly start traveling less with her and that a heatable structure is going to rise up in the list of priorities.

One of the many reasons I wanted a truck was to be able to pull a lightweight trailer behind it. I think the time will come in the not so distant future where Miranda will stay behind in Saskatchewan in the winter and I will travel with just a small trailer. The expense of driving a huge ’97 motorhome is just going to keep mounting and I think Miranda is about to reach the point where she is going to get old and decrepit very fast; comfortable for living in a fixed place but worrisome to take on the road.

If any of this is a shock to anyone, you haven’t been reading the blog that closely. I had a 10-year plan for traveling with Miranda and I’m already at the half-way point in that plan. Now that I have the property, some parts of that plan are a lot easier to firm up now.

Of course, I could still meet that dashing American and get the chance to live as a true nomad in the States, but that’s not a sure bet. It’s good to have a backup plan. 🙂