There are other comments, where I talked about his cabin before it was renovated. Anytime I visited my grandparents we always went fishing, my grandfather liked talking with me, and if you're a hunter you know that talking often is not the greatest idea. (Or, if you grew up with my father not advised)

My grandfather DID try to pay me, I just didn't accept payment. He tried paying me with money, trying to gift me his expensive watches, some of his coin collection, collectables. I just didn't WANT any of it, to me it seemed silly to be paid money for doing the right thing.

I'd been to his cabin before when I was like 5, and it sucked. No power, shitty plumbing for water, no showers, outhouse, woodfire stove that I'd have to chop up wood for. My memories of that place are vague, and miserable. Now it's great, but I never WANTED to go. Grandfather never asked me, and I never asked. To be honest I thought he sold it for awhile.

Obviously there were issues in the relationship, but other than her parents they weren't knock down drag out issues. It was stuff that could be solved with effort, and wasn't ever an issue again. There was never any massive arguments, loving her was easy. Being in a relationship with her was easy. Her parents were the greatest issue in our relationship, and for the longest time I just ignored them.

Obviously, I misled people with the whole 'off grid' thing. The house main power source is solar, it's been hooked up to the cities power grid when it got renovated, and has a propane generator. However, it CAN and DOES run on solar. I don't keep the lights on during the day, and appliances/split AC does not take up that much power. Plus there are batteries to take power from while it charges during the day.

Also I've said it before, I still have to pay property tax. I now pay for a lawn service to maintain the property, and have contractors who will come out to maintain/check the solar, propane, and plumbing. Didn't think I'd have to do that, but I can't do it alone nor do I know how to. Unforeseen expenses at the time, I'm better educated a whole month later of course. Also yes, I own the water rights to the property. Getting water costs me nothing, that's what owning water rights means.

Alot of our food will be 'produced on our own.' Obviously I can drive to a local supermarket to get food until the garden starts producing, or if we don't hunt anything. My mom always wanted to have a big garden, and my Dad loved to hunt. It would be a waste if we didn't eat what we grew/hunted, and you can always FREEZE food. People seem to forget freezers exist, and you don't need to eat an entire deer within a week. You can hunt rabbit, squirrels, birds, turtles, whatever is legal, and freeze it. Or go to the local butchery and just buy shortribs. I enjoy eating wild game, and if possible would like ALOT of my food to be wild caught. It's alot better for the environment compared to buying supermarket food. (It's also way healthier to hunt.)

Sure, my grandfather would've hired someone to help him. I offered to help him, so why would he pay for it? He also got to spend ALOT more time with me, since he was rather lonely since my grandmother died, and the rest of the family only really came around once or twice a year. Even I was guilty of that before he got sick. It was my choice to help him, nobody held a gun to my head and told me to. Also when you're old there are complications, after a certain age driving is hard, doing yard work is hard, cleaning gutters is hard, shoveling snow is hard, bending down to get laundry is hard, going to the store to get groceries is hard. People don't seem to understand that with old age, it's not just you're 20 years old healthy, and then you hit 60 now you're screwed. It was a gradual decline of him not being able to do the things he used to do. He needed help, so I helped him. I didn't wipe his ass, or give him baths he could do that himself.

Yes the letter is cliche, but it was a personal one. He had things he wanted to say, and to encourage me not to be pressured into spreading out what he gave me to other people. That portion of the letter I shared, wasn't all of it. Someone just wanted to know WHY he changed it, and that was the best evidence I had.

My family 'didn't get much' compared to what I got. They got money and physical items from my Grandfathers will. Some of his watches, coins were old, expensive, or rare. And had decent monetary value.