We Took a Big Gamble! - Hope it pays off someday

In 2020, I left a pretty solid career as a truck driver in the USA. It was the only job I ever found that I enjoyed, and it was also the only job that I was ever able to amass a substantial amount of savings from. Prior to that, I was never very successful with my attempts at entrepreneurship, and also hated pretty much every other job I had. Additionally, those were all pursuits that barely put any money in the bank account at the end of the month. Trucking was different. I liked it, and it also paid better than anything I had done prior. At one point in our journey, my wife and I lived together in a truck for over two years, and concentrated heavily on saving as much money as we could. We sold everything, eliminated all expenses except for consumables, and trucked 70 hours per week, sometimes for weeks on end. We just wanted to get ahead in life and secure some economic mobility, which had eluded us throughout our twenties. Ultimately, we dreamt of owning our own land, with our own house, and living abundantly in a large-scale food forest.

Before even purchasing any land, we decided to put the cart before the horse, and pay a friend of a friend to grow over 10,000 tree saplings for us in his home nursery. We gave him fifty percent up front, and planned to pay another fifty percent "in about a year and a half" whenever we found a place to plant them.

Well, we took a bit longer than anticipated, but eventually we found a place within our budget that would fit the bill. We bought 16.5 hectares in the high jungle of my wife's native country, Peru. The property had 10 hectares of open pasture, which was enough to accomodate all the trees.

Anyway, here's what the place looks like 2 years after sticking the saplings in the ground:

Nice video,
Good luck to you both.

Melissa Ferrin wrote:Nice video,
Good luck to you both.

Thank you.

lovely! I am far to the south of you but the terrain and vegetation look very similar. (zone 9b, southern Brazil).
You've got some beautiful fruit trees, just imagining them ten years from now is a lovely thought. Definitely 10000% better than eroded pasture with brachiaria!

those native elephant ears may be a useful food crop as well, depending on what they are. There are many types and some have an edible spinach-like leaf (great for using to bake bread or steam fish, but also good eaten like spinach); others, the leaf has too much oxalic acid to be safely eaten but the "potato" is worth eating.
This is a good resource, assuming you can get automatic translation to make it usable since it's not in English- if you're interested and google translate doesn't help, let me know. http://www.matosdecomer.com.br/2014/06/taiobas-confusao-guia-definitivo-de.html

Tereza Okava wrote:lovely! I am far to the south of you but the terrain and vegetation look very similar. (zone 9b, southern Brazil).
You've got some beautiful fruit trees, just imagining them ten years from now is a lovely thought. Definitely 10000% better than eroded pasture with brachiaria!

those native elephant ears may be a useful food crop as well, depending on what they are. There are many types and some have an edible spinach-like leaf (great for using to bake bread or steam fish, but also good eaten like spinach); others, the leaf has too much oxalic acid to be safely eaten but the "potato" is worth eating.
This is a good resource, assuming you can get automatic translation to make it usable since it's not in English- if you're interested and google translate doesn't help, let me know. http://www.matosdecomer.com.br/2014/06/taiobas-confusao-guia-definitivo-de.html

Thanks.

I didn't know the elephant ears are edible. What part do you eat? Hopefully you're not confusing those plants with Taro.

we eat the leaves and the stems.
But you need to be 100% sure what they are. Eating taro leaf would be bad. What I have is Xanthosoma sagittifolium.

Oh my goodness.... Applause, Applause and more thunderous Applause!! I meet lots of young people but I didn't think any of you were willing or even capable of doing this any more. You are sacrificing and working your butts off for your dream?? Way to go young dude!! I am so impressed by you and your young wife! Most of the young people I meet would be terrified that they might break a nail building a food forest! And how close is the local spa because they must get their hair done and a facial at least once a week! And isn't this forest air conditioned? What if their face melts off?

I am so impressed! And I enjoyed your video. You have restored some of my hope for humanity. It took me several decades of hard work and sacrifice to finally achieve my little dream. I lived in my old Chevy van several times for a total of more than 2 years. Twice, in  the southwest desert while I was holding down a 60 hour a week job! And it was so worth it. But please remember.... the end result is not nearly as important as the journey. No matter what great heights you conquer you will eventually sit back in your rocking chairs and reminisce about the journey you took together. It's the journey that is so important.

I hope you can feel me cheering you both on. I wish you all the best! Please keep us posted.

Tereza Okava wrote:we eat the leaves and the stems.
But you need to be 100% sure what they are. Eating taro leaf would be bad. What I have is Xanthosoma sagittifolium.

I looked at your link, and I don't see any pictures that look like the plant we have. I think that must be the correct genus though: Xanthosoma.

Debbie Ann wrote: Oh my goodness.... Applause, Applause and more thunderous Applause!! I meet lots of young people but I didn't think any of you were willing or even capable of doing this any more. You are sacrificing and working your butts off for your dream?? Way to go young dude!! I am so impressed by you and your young wife! Most of the young people I meet would be terrified that they might break a nail building a food forest! And how close is the local spa because they must get their hair done and a facial at least once a week! And isn't this forest air conditioned? What if their face melts off?

I am so impressed! And I enjoyed your video. You have restored some of my hope for humanity. It took me several decades of hard work and sacrifice to finally achieve my little dream. I lived in my old Chevy van several times for a total of more than 2 years. Twice, in  the southwest desert while I was holding down a 60 hour a week job! And it was so worth it. But please remember.... the end result is not nearly as important as the journey. No matter what great heights you conquer you will eventually sit back in your rocking chairs and reminisce about the journey you took together. It's the journey that is so important.

I hope you can feel me cheering you both on. I wish you all the best! Please keep us posted.

Thanks for the great words of encouragement. Very sage advice too about enjoying the journey. Sometimes we get too bogged down in the day to day chores, and it's a nice reminder to just stop every once in a while and take in the scenery. The food forest will never look the same in the future, and we will not be younger. I do feel very blessed to have such a strong ally in my wife and whenever I reminisce about our journey, my appreciation for her grows even deeper.