Leaving the US took us almost ten years. I had wanted to leave since the George W. Bush administration but just couldn’t quite pull it off. Collapsing empires aren’t the best places to raise families.

Yet dropping everything you know and starting over again isn’t a choice most people would make and we almost didn’t make it ourselves. We left a paid-off homestead, a profitable little plant nursery, a circle of friends and a good church, family, and the comforts of the first world.

And I would do it all again.

I never tasted freedom until we walked away from “the land of the free.” Freedom to build what you like, freedom to plant corn in your front yard, freedom to live without a million regulations.

It’s a strange feeling. Sure, things don’t always run smoothly and getting a washing machine repaired might take three weeks – but who cares? I can tear out the plumbing and install composting toilets and no one will inspect the place or fine us.

Weird, right?

But beyond that perk, I am finally getting to work with tropical crops seriously. I have helped many people learn to garden in Florida and the US, but the research I am doing now could help in some of the poorest nations on earth. I hope the Lord uses some of my ideas to bless others.

Right now I’m still learning and making lots of mistakes, but over time I will collect data, try new ideas, and use low-tech solutions that could be applied in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and elsewhere in South America.

And we’re having a lot of fun. Losing a car or a few tendons is no big deal, right?

Thank you all for sticking with us even though we’re gardening outside the experience of many of you faithful readers. I appreciate your comments and thoughts and ideas.

Today we’re going to have a little family holiday and enjoy nature. The gas is off so we’re cooking outside on an open fire, as you can see in the video I posted last night… but we have lots of fruit to pick and a beautiful creek running out back where we can go swimming.

I still remember how much fun I had making my announcement after arriving:

I hope you all have a wonderful day. I’m still trying to get back on track after the car accident, but I will be posting some great stuff this week.

All the best.

-David