Homesteading

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My grandparents did it as part of the Great Depression generation. My inlaws pretty much do it. It's tough when things aren't going well. However, the self-sufficiency is attractive. We're trying it but in small doses with a PLAN. We scaled down our fancy house to a smaller, older home with a few acres, a barn, and a well. We had lots more land before but didn't actually NEED it for what we were doing. I recommend reading the Tightwad Gazette books, Dining on a Dime, and anything by Dave Ramsey. It's hard to do without a big stockpile of an emergency fund. And you really do need some kind of job, even if it's just part time or working from home as a freelancer, because you will need money. And don't assume that you will be going it alone. You will need some social interaction for assistance, learning opportunities, and bartering.
If you don't mind moving and living in a cold climate, it's my understanding that properties are dirt cheap in and around Detroit Michigan for obvious reasons. The average home price right now is around 13,000. Lots of homesteaders are moving in, buying several properties next to each other, tearing down or recyling all but one of the homes, and are being successful.

Your partner's castle might work well in a variety of public and private ways (including fishing (or even a hatchery) and swimming in the moat) and in conjunction with a campground having a private area with cabins or cottages for community residents.

I think he had in mind to make it an educational facility for school groups, but the people he has a lot of talented friends who would join him in that side of things, so it wouldn't need me.

I like the idea of cabins/campground. It would be far less intensive to run than other accommodation styles (such as a B&B), and would allow the site to function as a venue for our reenactment group a few times a year.

Alexander Pope, "Ode on Solitude"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X-ma52ifos

This is one of my main goals. To have a nice piece of property where I could live as sustainable as possible, and I could drop out of this world and into my own.

Have you seen http://www.earthaven.org/? They seem to be the most fully developed intentional community as of yet. Not that I have the money to join right now...

I think "homesteading" is misunderstood.

Homesteaders do not pay for the land. Maybe that definition has changed, but you aren't "homesteading" in the classic sense if you are doing it on land you own outright.

Homesteaders find land they want to live on that is not really owned by anyone (one could say the state owns it, but nobody, not even the state, is laying an active claim to it).

They set up, improve the land, make a life. After X years of doing this, they are the lawful owners of the land via having improved its value by "taming" it.

The modern legal concept is known as "adverse possession." You go onto someone else's land, claim it openly and notoriously for a given period of time (usually 10 years), and you can petition a court to recognize the land you've claimed as your own. The legal theory being that the lawful owner should have acted to eject you from their land and by NOT doing that, they waived their right to the land. The legal theory behind this follows two basic schools. One being that a person who improves wild land should be rewarded for the work they invest. The other being that someone who owns land but takes no interest in protecting their property does not deserve to retain it.

The Chinese are known for supporting eleven people on a half acre.

A stack of old tires filled with loam and compost will produce a hundred pounds of potatoes.

My grandmother lived in town, two lots. One was half garden, half chicken coop, switched every year. It produced most of what we ate.

I have been looking in warm areas, cold is expensive. Warm, evaporate some water, Swamp Cooler, and life is good.

Web marketing means a Post Office, and little more.

I know an ex town with houses, power, wells, just no people. It is on the road to some big natural attractions, Carlsbad Caverns, some large National Parks, so money does flow through.

The main thing is cost, low to get in as a full owner, low taxes, and the cost of living gets so low, that money sticks around.

My idea is not living there full time or forever, just having a place to call home, when nothing else works.

An area with natural flagstone, adobe, a hut of your own is a few months work.

With a little water, Dallas and others sell a compost of feed lot wastes and yard clippings by the 40 yard truck load. One of those would make a garden that would last a lifetime. It will cover 1,000 sq ft a foot deep, and that will feed a family, and their chickens.

My view of the American economy is not improving. Machines stop when one part fails, it is a complex machine. I look to having something before the food riots.

Rural has problems, cities have bigger problems. Living through a year or two of disorder, I chose rural.

The cost per person of just having stored food, emergency supplies, is higher than having a place in Bugout Town. When it's time to leave, where will you go?

Katrina did it to me, six weeks with friends, we would have not lasted two months. I was not at all prepared to just go. Now I am better, motorcycle, full campng gear, but go where, is still a problem.

Katrina spared my house, just above the flood, but the economy was gone. Life is not a sure thing.

Camping in parks is my short term plan, but that might last months. I am seeking someplace I can start over. A hut is better than a tent, and a garden better than shopping, which may have problems.

After Katrina, the ATMs were down, the power for gas, store cash registers, for about a week. I had cash, bought food on the way out, and we barely made it till the power returned.

Of the 1570 people who died in Katrina, most died from thirst in the week waiting for aid.

For one, another whole system is expensive, takes labor, but Inventor's Disaster Time Share Condos means there will be water, food, and a group ready to survive what comes next.

For continued snowfall, I picked south. For flood, up a bit. It is about the same distance to anywhwere, and near Amtrak. For social disorder, about one person per square mile.

There is also a good pocket of irrigated garden crops near by. Food by the truckload all year. Most of the neighbors are cows, for sale at $0.53 a pound, slaughtered, cut, wrapped, frozen and stored for a bit more.

It has buildings, wells, power, post office, and a couple of people.

I am going to visit soon, several prospects, and was planning on buying a house. I could just as well buy the town.

If no disasters come, it is still a good vacation area with attractions, very quiet, and cheap.

Solar power, off grid, windmills, satellite internet, broadband Wifi. Nitrogen filled drums of corn, rice, beans, wheat, and a great view.

With the decline of trade and trucking, the containers, 8' x 40' to 53', and the trailers, same size with wheels, are getting very cheap. $5,000 instant homes.

My goal was to move my publishing to a secure location. So begins an economy.

Having a well, power, is worth $10,000 and up, the land is worth less.

I look at places that will never be worth less.

Please, please keep me posted!