Financial Independence - Is it for me?

Financial Independence!!!

That's the main topic on my mind today.  There are so many things that I want to do, but I just don't seem to have the time for.  I dream of working shorter hours so I can spend my time improving on my mad skills, or learning new ones. 

-I want to tap trees for sap and make it into syrup.
-I want to keep bees
-I want to garden
(Okay, most of this is food related, I need other things...)

Oh yeah,
-Bike a significant distance.
-Hike a lot
-Camp a lot
-Travel more

This sounds great!  It's not that I don't want to work...I like being useful.  But I'm frustrated by the fact that I can't take a few months off to hike the Appalachian Trail.  Who is going to let me not work for 5 months out of the year?!?!

I've been reading a few blogs, (1500 Days and Mr. Money Mustache to be precise), read Your Money or Your Life (a few times), and have squirreled away money for almost my entire adult life.  I've come to the conclusion that I just need to start putting that money to work.  (Most is already in investments, I don't have any outstanding loans except mortgage, btw).

I'm kind of risk adverse.  I don't want to own a rental property.  That sounds like work I wouldn't enjoy, so what's the point of that?  Do I pay off the house and then work on income investments, or income investments and then pay off the house? 

SO MANY QUESTIONS?!?!?!

Do I write a blog about it? 

Do I comment on other blogs about what I'm doing?

Is any of this blogging required for Financial Independence?

Has anyone tried to do this, and then failed?  If they did, and didn't blog about it, did it actually happen?

Where are my sunglasses?

Is this post just the incoherent ramblings of a mad woman?  Does it even matter?

April Snow Showers bring #30daysofbiking

It's the beginning of April, and there are quite a few inches of snow on the ground.  This is a big disappointment for me.  I took the pledge to do the #30daysofbiking, and I'm only on day 4.  The first three days were in the snow.  This is what it looked like on day 3.

Not even fair.

However, I've done the past three days without much incident.  They were short, quick, and to the point. 

I've noticed that biking does make my butt hurt - not because of muscle use but because bike seats are not that comfortable.  I think during the summer my hinder toughens up because I usually go for much longer rides without so much discomfort afterwards.  (I don't really notice that my butt hurts until it's the next time to get my rear-end on the bike again). 

Another weird thing I've noticed is that biking in the winter isn't that bad.  I was expecting to hate it a whole lot more than I did.  This is a good discovery.  I may have to extend my biking season to include some snowy days.