Jesse Mulalley

Moving the road to the south slope will help melt snow and reclaim valuable gentle sloped part of the land. The picture shows the upper pond.

The fruit tree plan is apples and a variety of apricot that grows wild all over mineral county. There's ponderosa, Doug fir, and rocky mountain juniper growing wild already so I'm just going to let those go crazy for now. Right now the choke cherries are out of control but I will leave them for the birds at the moment.  

I want to move the driveway north onto the south facing slope, that will be the largest earth moving project.

Thank you for the suggestions, I will do more flat type of terraces. Similar to the old logging roads that are overrun with vegetation now.

I have been interested in permaculture for a few years now and it is finally time for me to break ground. Step 1 is swales so that tress can start growing and I can get some shade! Power is available at the west boundary but my plan is to have everything off grid using solar panels and water batteries in the form of ponds, one at the top(E) and one at the bottom(W) connected by and underground pipe. All comments, unsolicited advice, and dad jokes are appreciated.

The cabin is an open floor plan with a vaulted ceiling, it is about 900 sq ft of open space. I also have a fireplace and forced gas heat to keep the place warm. The minisplit works well in the summer as an AC unit.

Hello, I just finished building a 1600sq ft cabin in Superior MT and I installed a dual zone minisplit that I bought on Amazon for $1800 delivered. Elevation is about 3300 ft and temperatures don't get below 0 F in the winter. The minisplit works great for heating and cooling the master bedroom with the door closed but the second head unit in the kitchen just can't keep up. The unit is supposed to work down to -20 but I found that any temp below 10 F the minisplit would freeze up and go into dethaw cycle.  The unit came precharged and I was able to complete the install with a vacuum pump and AC manifold that I bought off Amazon for $100 total. Do you have questions about general functions or installation questions?

I grew up in Missoula but lived in Helena for 4 years, I have a friend that lives in Jefferson City and my cousin lives in Helena. I am very familiar with the area if you have any questions about the area please feel free to send me a DM or we can continue this  thread.  

I was thinking about putting aluminum pex heat transfer devices on the back of a solar panel.
https://www.pexsuperstore.com/product/25-extruded-4-ft-aluminum-heat-transfer-plates-for-1-2-pex/

On demand water heaters have recirculation pump systems built into them. The other option would be to add your own pump with some sort of controller.

Just some thoughts.

How is the search going? You are pretty brave trying to find land in January. Hopefully you find your dream spot.

Check out this site for property information in Montana, don't pay for OnXHunt.
http://svc.mt.gov/msl/mtcadastral/

Most of Montana has long cold winters. Inexpensive remote property over 5000' elevation is usually very sloped property with limited seasonal access. Internet is usually DSL outside of the cities, starlink could be a viable option in the future if you plan on looking into it. I grew up in Mineral county and lived in Bozeman and Helena, ultimately my wife and I purchased land next to Missoula. Feel free to message me if you have questions. I am jealous you were able to get out of the DMV, we live in Arlington and I am itching to get out of here.