posted 7 months ago
I bought a mostly hillside property 12 years ago, 30 some acres that stretches from the bottom of a hill to the top where it becomes flat. Nobody lives at the top because the road is dirt and rugged (only 4x4 vehicles can drive it), only used by power companies and ATV'ers. There's a nice view and looks great on a sunny day, depressing on a damp grey day. I bought it with the intention of living there one day and developing it with the option of living off the grid. Back then we had the great recession and I wanted to get away from modern society, away from jersey where I felt out of place and didn't feel my dream is possible. I traveled and lived in NC where I had land closer to family, lived in WA and OK. Now I'm married and my wife doesn't want to live in east KY, but meantime this property is sitting there all these years.
Now I want to rent it to one or two parties who want to live off grid. I bought it with plans to live there off grid, because it's big and private enough to sustain that lifestyle. While I appreciate growing food and being good to the environment, permaculture or even homesteading isn't exactly my thing. I don't like dealing with animals. I've cut so many trees and I'm always cutting vegetation to keep animals at bay, to deter flees snakes and mice etc. I've lived off-grid with little money and it was hard, but my only bill was a data plan. While I no longer live that way because I'm married etc, I know there are people who need a place to set up camp and call home. My mother was homeless and land became useful until we bought a house. My friend lives there now in a minivan with a tent and chicken coop. He "stewards" the land and lives there free because it has nothing except trees and dirt and it's in the hood, a semi-rural run down hood outside city limits. He has no desires except to work a few hours a week and live in peace with his dog grow stuff and travel once in a while. That's just an acre but I also have this bigger property and want to gauge the permie thoughts or ideas in that kind of arrangement.
In real life, I don't really see permie people very much. I see rednecks living in campers on their friend or uncle's lawn, maybe growing a crop or 2, trading drugs or a guy with a farm raising goats as a side hustle, but not so much the hippie greenthumb types I saw when I lived in western washington.
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