I work/commute 64 hours a week. When I’m not working I am either beekeeping, building hives, or spending time with my wife. Every other Saturday (when my wife is working at the hospital) I lay on the couch and do absolutely nothing – then I loathe myself for wasting the time.

Then there is the list of my hobbies: writing, fly tying, fly fishing, inventing, furniture making, cooking, home design, gardening, raising livestock, reading, mead making, video games, traveling, learning a new language, learning to play the piano… I’m sure there are other things BUT I don’t have time for any of them… or when I do have time I’m too damn exhausted to care.

A lot of Vlogs and Blogs this past month have talked about their upcoming plans. The vision of what I want my life to be, looks something like this.

In the year 2024: Living on a homestead with my wife and kids, in a house I designed and built myself (My first job was designing homes).

During the spring I’ll bee-keep from sun up to sun down and the same during the September honey harvest. The rest of the year will be much more laid back.

When my wife leaves for work and the kids are off to school, I will check on the animals and do the morning farm chores. Then I’ll go back to the house and have coffee and read the paper.

Later I will put on a pot of soup made from our garden vegetables and meat birds to slow cook for supper. With the smell of thyme and parsley wafting through the house, I would go to my study and work on my next book, sticking to a ridged 4hr writing day. (Toe Tags & Tequila wasn’t a big success but I maybe my next book will do better)

After lunch I will divide my days between beekeeping, gardening, mead making, inventing, or just learning new things.

On the weekends I’ll spending the day fishing with my son or playing video games with my daughter (or vice versa). In the evening I’ll pile next to my wife on the chesterfield couch (the one I’ll have made myself) and watch movies.

In the winter, when the farm is quiet, we’ll take trips like we used to do when we had more time – maybe visit someplace where I can use the new language I learned from the Rosetta Stone program I bought but never had time to use.

2019 The truth is, I am working towards that very dream. Every beehive I build gets me a little closer.

While my present children are grown (21 and 23). My wife and I have decided to start again and have been trying to have more kids. We had a miscarriage this past October but we’re still trying and I just feel like it is going to happen.

On those Saturdays that I do nothing, I actually watch how-to videos on YouTube.

I’ve already drawn the first draft of my dream home and my wife and I have already started looking for land in the northern Arkansas and southern Missouri area.

We don’t travel as much as we used to but I’ve already booked my room for a fly fishing trip in Hatch, UT in April 2019 and my wife is going to meet me in Vegas at the end for a few days.

Right now, I feel like I am either too busy or just wasting time but I hope that at the end of my five year plan it will have all worked out. And when no one is looking, I still work on my next book.