Lynn and I came up with an idea for a family craft. Make a tabletop model of our "dream place", the homestead we hope to have within 10 years. We started with a piece of flat cardboard torepresent the 15 acres that we hope to buy somewhere, sometime. Over the next few months, we plan to work with our son, laying out in this model things like woods made from twig branches and fern, topography contures of flour and salt paste, model ground shelter, etc., kinda like the maps and volcanoes we made in school. This way , while saving and investing for it , we can have a visual representation and our son can help take part in planning what someday will be his.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 13, 2000

Answers

Jay, THis is such an awesome Idea! Can we copy it? I think this is a wonderful way to involve your son in the planning of your future, as well as making it concrete for you and Lynn.It's amazing how excited our kids have gotten about planning our homestead just in conversation- I think using a model to visualize will make it that much more real (and EXCITING) for them. On a side note, I'm a terrible person-I didn't let you know that the updates arrived, and I've already devoured the pages- I loved them! Thank you so much!

-- Kristin, in C. Alabama (positivekharma@aol.com), December 13, 2000.

Don't know if this will help you at all, but my mom and dad made a model of a piece of land (they had the topography map). They laid out the map, traced off the contours, then used those as a pattern to cut pieces of corregated cardboard to match. They then glued their layers together, and hey presto, they had a model of the property. They marked the places where there were significant trees, drilled holes, stuck in dowels (stained) for the trees. They glued hunks of that railroad model moss to the dowels to simulate the foliage. I think they were working in 1/8"=1 ft scale.

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), December 13, 2000.

Jay, what a GREAT idea!! I have always enjoyed "creative visualization" exercizes, and often sit with my eyes closed and "see" my land. I really believe that we have the power to draw to us what we focus on. I recently added 2.2 acres to my landholdings, bringing it up to 4.7, Yippee!! I think the model would be fun, and a wonderful, practical project for winter! Thanks for the idea! Hey, you're a published writer, huh? Cool!

-- Cathy in NY (hrnofplnty@yahoo.com), December 14, 2000.

I just got to thinkinking how I did these things in school and on my model railroad and its something that can be ongoing. As your skills and desires may change , so can your dream model. And some ideas that you dream can be incorporated into your present also. All of us can have a great time doing our models, molding our dreams, building to our futures.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 14, 2000.

This is a good idea -- I used to take my daughters out in a sand pile (natural, not a sand box) and we'd build little houses and landscape around them. We had a lot of fun, but it was strictly a summer activity -- this is something you can do indoors!! I'm going to do something similar when we know what our new property will look like, to get the buildings situated, and figure out the light each area will get, and so on.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), December 14, 2000.

Good idea. For a while now we have been working on a scale modle of our next house. Had enough of drawing and wanted to see how it would look. And had some time to kill while stationed in Korea. We hope to shortly close on a piece of land in Alaska. Waiting on the offer we submitted.:-) So enjoy your building.

-- Anthony J. DiDonato (didonato@vvm.com), December 14, 2000.

What a great idea! Making the contours with the cardboard is good, too. I'm going to turn my children loose with this idea, our survey & map and see what they come up with. A wonderful homschool project! Thanks!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), December 14, 2000.

Thanks Jay!!!We just bought our first country land and have to wait till spring to plant. This project could keep my farmer-wanna-be hubby happily planning until then! Our 14 year old homeschooler will love playing in the "dirt" with Dad! Thanks again.Q.

-- queen (queenbuffness@hotmail.com), December 14, 2000.