A Dream of Castles

According to this random website I just found:

To dream of being in a castle, you will be possessed of sufficient wealth to make life as you wish. You have prospects of being a great traveler, enjoying contact with people of many nations. To see an old and vine-covered castle, you are likely to become romantic in your tastes, and care should be taken that you do not contract an undesirable marriage or engagement.

My dream is to build my own castle. In a way. This is the plan:

The Plan

Look, there's even a heading so you know for sure this is where the plan part is.

I want to buy a house with a large piece of land, in the forest. It probably will be in the south somewhere. On this land, with my house I will have: a medieval tavern, a small fort, a forge where I can make my own swords, cabins for friends to stay for SCA and LARP type events, an archery range, and a tree house.

The tavern will be a splendid wood, wattle and daub style structure, with a kitchen and of course lovely ale and wine type drinks.

Not quite as big as this one.

 Many days I'll go out and work on my swords. I'm sure at first the ones I forge will be pretty bad, but I can give those away or hang them up on the walls in the keep. The keep will be a simple rectangular stone structure that will also double as a feast hall. It will have small towers and of course banners with colorful heraldry. Also it will have a rampart that can be defended -- all of this of course for my friends to fight on and from, whether they are fighters, archers, or even mages. 

You see a castle in the distance. "I take it." Okay, you take the castle.

I'll make it so we can have a big bonfire near the tavern, and at night we can tell stories and sing songs around it in our costumes. 

The treehouse will be fantastic. I'll find a nice tree near the edge of the woods and build a structure with a room and a sleeping balcony area. I plan to screen it off against bugs, but leave the top and sides open so you can breathe the cool night air, as well as look at the stars while you sleep. I'll probably have some nice replica looking lanterns there as well, electric but they will look period. (Don't want to burn down my treehouse.)

One part of the plan I'm really looking forward to: I want to build most of this stuff myself. I'm sure I'll need some help with parts, but I imagine the satisfaction of putting in the work of building all this and I feel very happy indeed. And how nice would it be to have a lovely wife there along to share it with me? Even without a lovely Eowyn... I would still greatly enjoy sleeping in my tree, forging swords, shooting a bow, having friends around the campfire... and creating new adventures. 

I hope to allow LARP and renaissance groups to use my place for free every weekend. And during the week I'd have my quiet forest home with my keep. We could even bring children in for events and introduce them to the wonderful world of fantasy, swordfighting, and archery.

Now, I'm not sure where life will lead me or what I'll be doing. I might even only live there part of the year and let my LARP friends from the south live there and take care of it for me. This is only one dream of mine as well. I have many, including racing cars again. 

I know, all this costs money... but in the south you can get a house and land inexpensively, and if I build a lot of this myself, it wouldn't really be astronomical. It would be worth it, to have this dream.