Even though I love living five minutes from the grocery store and 10-15 minutes from the hospital, Costco, Target, and most other places we need to go on a weekly basis, there is a strong appeal to living in the middle of nowhere, only coming to civilization when we need to.

Where we live, there are few naturally occurring trees (unless you’re in the forest, and then you risk forest fires, which is a real danger around here), so to have any significant privacy, you have to venture pretty far out. So that’s an issue.

I also put something into words recently: At our current house, I don’t venture outside on our patio as often as I wish I did, because it isn’t a private space. Depending on the part of the patio, either one or both neighbors could show up in their own tiny yards and see me. But if we had walls or fences all around our space, I’d probably go out there all the time, as it would feel more like an extension of our indoor space, rather than an exposed, public, outdoor space.

At a previous house, we had a fenced-in back yard which was sufficiently private, but it had no shade. So being outside meant sunburn, if I were out for more than ten minutes or so (yes, truly).

Those two things together mean I need to live somewhere with a private outdoor space with at least part of it shaded.

And, living in a hermitage with a private outdoor space would be lovely, so long as it was no more than 5-15 minutes away from my weekly needs.

Now, how do I make that happen?

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