Falling Sky Is Not Enough

Well, here we are, first post time on a new website.  Hello.  This is Over The Hills And Far Away and it's going to run alongside Falling Sky for the foreseeable future.  But why the deuce have I set up a second blog when I have enough trouble keeping the existing one interesting?  Well, see, there's a purpose to this one.  Really.

See, it's about a plan.  Plans are good.  This one's great.  At the end of it, the Lass & I will be living on the Isle of Skye in a newly-built eco-house.  We'll have a good, reliable source of income.  We'll be growing vegetables in the garden.  There'll be a cat or three prowling around the land, maybe a beehive and some chickens.  Solar panels on the roof and heat from deep in the ground will warm our water.  A windmill will catch the wind that blows over & around the island, sending power back into the Grid.  We'll be able to speak and write in Gaelic.  There'll be a car, but it won't be used all that much.  I'll be producing paintings and prints on a regular basis, selling to both buyers online and in person.  Our home will be filled with books, records, CDs, artworks and photographs.  Some nights it'll be full of people, eating, talking, laughing, drinking.  Others it'll seem almost silent, a little outpost of light and warmth, a refuge from a disintegrating world.  Always, it'll be ours.

Good plan, innit?  But how in green gables do we make it happen?  That's where this site comes in.  It'll be a bit like a del.icio.us page, a repository for links, books, information, anything that may be of use.  But it'll also be a record of the various paths it'll take to get there, from learning a new language to learning to drive, job-hunting to plot-hunting, the building of a house and the development of a garden.  That's a hell of a lot to think about, especially here, right at the beginning.  It'll probably be years before substantial moves are made, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to do right now.  The first practical step is to learn Gaelic, which I intend to start in 2007, so you'll be hearing about that one way or another.  In the background I'll slowly be paying off debts and learning to be a better, more prosperous artist - any major developments will be hollered about here, no doubt about that.  And any useful books or texts relating to all of the above will be covered here, partly to make sure I don't forget anything important, partly so anyone wishing to do anything similar will be able to see what books are worth a read.  And, through it all, I'll try to keep things interesting and enjoyable, rather than cold and dull, so even if you don't give a hoot about the road to self-sufficiency, hopefully it'll still make a good read.

Will it succeed?  Will we succeed?  Stick around and, over time, this is where you'll find out.