Title: I'm 51 and Done Playing a Game I Can't Win: Moving Home to Build
I'm 51, and I'm done playing a game I can't win.
I've spent my life as a plumber and HVAC tech. It's honest work, but it's a young man's game, and my body has stopped keeping up. I have a lesion on my spine between C5 and C6. For four years I've fought to find out why, and insurance has been a wall the whole way. I'm about $2,000 a year over the limit for real help, so I get to stay poor and stay in pain.
And the trade itself has changed. Many plumbing and HVAC companies have been bought up by private equity, where the goal is maximum profit and high-pressure sales, not honest work and fair prices. With California's cost of living climbing every year, there's less and less room for a man like me.
I'm not afraid of hard work. I'm done breaking my body for other people's profit, with no clear outcome. I'd rather spend my days building something that lasts.
My sister lives on five rural acres in Kentucky. I'm going to build a small home there on a foundation, help raise my nephew, and put my hands to work on her land. Every day I'll add a little more.
I'm not asking anyone to carry me. I'm asking for the push to get there.
Phase 1: 
The move: a 5x8 trailer, registration, fuel, and lodging. I'm shrinking my life down to my books, my tools, and my computer, and towing it myself behind my Tacoma.
A simple tiny home: materials, foundation, and hookups for a bed, a kitchen, and a bathroom. I'll do the building and the plumbing myself. I don't need luxury. 
Phase 2: the land
Anything helps rebuilding my sister's barn and starting a small working farm: milk goats, a couple of sheep, and chickens, using modern methods to make her land produce. I want to earn my place there, not just show up.
I'll post updates along the way: the trailer, the foundation, the first goat, and a small deck with a fire pit where I'll drink my coffee and watch the stars.
If you donate, thank you. If you can only share this, thank you just as much. It means more than you know.