Interesting article on modern hermits

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/\When I purchased this place the real estate market here was in a real slump.You could purchase 40 undeveloped wooded acres for around $250 an acre,if you could find bottom land for sale it was around $1,000.I paid $18,000 for twenty acres,four open and cleared, a spring,old hand dug well with a date carved in the cement from 1917,marketable timber,and a house with a 1/4 mile private drive.You won't find a deal like that now.Places that were selling for around $70,000 are now going for a quarter of a mill.The spring has a history,supposedly Frank James used it.But you find such claims about him in the Ozarks often.One of the old timers that settled this valley told me the story.Of course there is suppose to be confederate gold buried somewhere around here.Another common folk story.
Its better to skip the realtors, hang out in the coffe shops and ask the locals about land for sale.
I've made wine from different fruits,one year was a really good one and I made 15 gallons.Depends on early frosts and animals trying to carry off stuff.Grapes tend to get the brown rot fungus here so muscadines are more of a sure thing.There are now many varieties to choose from and a growing market for them.I just watched a Farm Bureau vid on production for profit.Im going to increase my tame black berries,a variety called Triple Crown that yeilds like crazy and is thornless.The birds get a few,but I haven't seen much damage from them.I did have a huge black raspberry batch but a bear got in it and wallowed it down.That won't happen again with the dogs I have now.My Catahoula is fearless.The man that raised them is part Choctaw Indian and hails from the Catahoula lake region in LA.She's the classic blue leopard with tan points,a beautiful dog.I had two,a male named Bowie that was black and white spotted with a bob tail.Some drunk as*hole teenagers in a side by side shot him on the road..I can't prove it,but I know who did it.....revenge is a dish that's best served cold. He was still just a pup,only ten months old.A big puppy at around seventy lbs and a real sweetheart.
There are persimmons and paw paws in the woods,the down side of the paw paws is they get ripe during the peak seed tick season.Expect to get covered.Carry duct tape to remove them,works like a dream.
Sometimes it's meanly amusing to see the look on a newcomers face when they get in a bed of them.Millions of small ticks the size of a grain of pepper.
One thing I'd love to have is a small pond for fishing.I have just the right location,but not the funds.You used to be able to get a grant for that but not anymore.
I haven't seen that YouTube series.Thanks for sharing.
The Catahoula Cur dog song.
https://youtu.be/FTmXh1MbWms

^ You got a helluva good deal for 18k!

I use landwatch.com or Craigslist since with me working and not able to go galavant accrross the country at will most all of it has to be done from home. Landwatch seems to be the best source I've found so far.

Unlike the people on American Homestead, I'd really really like to have electricity and indoor plumbing. Call me a wussy but oh well, I like hot and and cold water on demand and to be able to flush the john. I could get by without if I had to but I'm not having a compost toilet in the damn house. I'd rather dig a hole and build an outhouse over it and use it even in the winter. I'm gonna have electricity and internet, too.

At the shelter we had a catahoula leopard named Justine for a while. She was very quiet and sweet but did not do well with other dogs if I remember right. Someone adopted her at one of the big adoption events we had.

Ticks have never bothered me (so far) but skeeters, chiggers, black flies, horse flies, and no-see-ums do. Maybe a tick repellent could be made from troll blood extract?

If you can build a fish pond big enough you could install a turbine/water wheel and generator on the downstream side of the dam and generate your own electricity. The dam size and flow rate would determine how many kW you get out of it. It might be something to look into...

We had to plumb this house so we could run a washing machine,I could hand wash clothes but I didn't want to.It took a few years to get the septic tank installed so we used a outhouse.We used ashes in the winter to cover the offal and lime in the summer.There was never any flies or odor.In really frigid weather we used a five gallon bucket on a porch for emergencies late at night.If you get the trots it's no fun to head to the outhouse in ten degrees.We had to pay some over distance to get the power in,around $500,then we had to get an easement from an adjoining land owner.She was a dyed in the wool tree hugger,or so she claimed.She said she was very protective of her trees.We offered her a cash incentive and she said"where do I sign".LOL
A neighbor generates his own power from a small creek using a pelting wheel.He uses a gas Servel fridge and gas cooking stove.One neighbor is about as far off the grid as you can get.Hauls water and has no power except for a small solar panel he uses to run a light bulb and to charge his cell phone.He actually lives under a rock not joking.
I'd love to do solar,my house gets good sun and the price is going down.Maybe some day.Im down on "bench" land near the river so I don't get that much wind,but on the mountain tops there usually a breeze all the time.Good possibility to generate with that.

Catahoulas can be aggressive to other dogs,most of the cur breeds are.They are also not a cat friendly breed unless raised with the cat.I had a helluva time introducing a throw away female Lab.The Cur was only nine months old and the Lab around six.The Cur kept attacking her and dogs never get into a fight where there is a water hose handy.I made homemade pepper spray and used it to stop the attacks.I'd spray it in her mouth.Later on all I had to do was get the spray bottle and she'd stop her aggression.They are buddies now.They have a very strong prey drive so not really good for the suburbs.If your neighbor's cat or dog comes into your yard it can go bad really quick.They are excellent climbers so you'd have to have a tall secure fence to keep them in a yard.
They excell at homestead dogs,you can hunt with them,they will herd cattle,keep varmints out of the yard,and are excellent watchdogs.She never tries to bite people that show up,but will bay them till I tell her it's ok.Then she wants them to pet her.People used them to baby sit the kids,you don't have to worry about someone trying to snatch a kid.The old Cajun man that had a cooking show,Justin Wilson claimed his Catahoula saved his grandchild from going onto a busy street.Said the Houla grabbed the kid by the pants and drug it back in the yard.

Ticks don't really bother me,I get a few,never got the chiggers.Just too mean I suppose.But the no-see-ums are the worst.I even had to use a repellant with deet this summer to work in the yard.Not to many mosquitos here,more seasonal when the wet weather creeks start to dry up and there are pools of standing water.They are usually gone in mid summer.I have noticed that the new people seem to get ate up by bugs.Maybe you are on to something with the troll blood repellant.

/\Yup,he has a den under a large rock.He moved here from the west coast about twenty-five years ago.Nobody thought he would last but he's thriving.Fooled all of us lol He has a wood stove,a good spring and a pond.He's all set.Cuts all his wood by hand.
He's getting close to his seventies now and still going strong.He never gets sick,I beleive his lifestyle is the reason.
A highly educated man,employed by a large university when he was younger.
He also brews beer under that rock,and its better than most American brews.

I wonder how many people here have heard of dick proenekke? he was a retired engineer who got tired of civilization and as soon as he saved enough money, cut loose and headed as far away from it as he could manage. on PBS they show the narrated 8mm films he made of himself in the late 60s living on his own in the wilds of Alaska, making everything from scratch, living in a cabin made of logs that he hewed himself, burning logs in a fireplace he made rock by rock. people like him are just amazing and in my view, akin to superhuman.

That would have been a very interesting person to have known.I'm glad his cabin will be preserved for others to see.
Have you ever grown any veggies Blabby?Im thinking that your climate is pretty mild and has a year long growing season.

not enough land around my tin can to grow anything and too much shade from all the tall evergreens surrounding me. great to keep cool in the summer but lousy for growing stuff. not allowed to touch the trees, community covenant.

/\Everyone needs a good shade tree,I'm very thankful for mine which is perfectly placed.
Do you like mushrooms? You could get the plugs and drive them into small logs or even stumps of they are fresh enough.You can keep the logs upright so they don't take up much room.They like your climate and tha shade.Im trying my hand right now with oyster mushroom spawn.They grow wild here so I thought it would be a good choice.Of it works out well I may try to grow some to sell to the organic restaurant in town.They bring a good price and I could do with some extra change jingling in my pocket.

it is moist and verdantly green like Kermit here, 'shrooms all over the place just pop up like nobody's business, there are people who tramp about in the brush collecting 'em. I never liked 'shrooms but glad others do, they are welcome to 'em. the most common kind, I don't know what they're called but they're maple-brown and irregularly shaped, low to the ground. they sprout, then rot within a week.