Hey All,
My wife and I are very excited to get out of the rat race and start our own homestead! We finally got out of the
mortgage trap and have a bit of cash for a
land purchase.
We are both mid 30's and have 6 kids (2 who don't live with us from a previous marriage).
Here are some of the requirements we were applying while looking for land:
At least 10 acres to have a bit of a privacy buffer.Have a southern facing, low slope section.We enjoy wooded, hilly environments. Not crazy about very flat areas.Prefer a nice stream on or near the property. Could be used for hydropower.Couple of acres of wooded section for wood heating?Low regulation area since we will be using composting toilets, strawbale housing, livestock, solar power, multiple dwellings (future guest house), water collecting, and grey water treatment.Low humidity. We prefer colder areas over hot.Avoid swampy areas and flood zones.Prefer other homesteading neighbors if possible.Prefer access to cable internet. We could run our own wire on the property. If not, can probably make due with satellite connectivity.Most family is near WV and PA, but we can make flying arrangements for visits.Homeschooling friendly.Farmer's markets or other natural markets for trade. Could also trade with other neighbors who grow their own.Doesn't have to be close to a city for jobs, I'm going to attempt to work from home using software skills.
I'm currently leaning towards NH mainly due to my initial interest in the Free State
Project and the hope that it would have less regulations going forward. Also that area seems very friendly for locally produced goods. I also like the look of the moss covered granite in the rugged streams and conifers.
We are open to options though since this will hopefully be our permanent home. My wife was leaning towards VT because she has some friends there, but I'm a bit cautious of the extra regulations there. The other area we were interested in were northern Idaho for the ruggedness and beauty and possibly western Montana. I had read some warnings about invasive Canadian Wolf species in that area though.
I grew up in WV area, but haven't been too happy about the government regulations and what is being done to the land with gas drilling and clear cutting.
We're mainly hoping to lean on some
experience from other homesteaders based on your areas to see if those areas above are good considerations or there are areas that we are missing.
What areas would you recommend to look at to satisfy the above requirements and others we didn't think of for homesteading? It could be outside of US, we are just not very familiar with other areas.What do you think about the choices of NH, VT, Northern ID, Western MT? What are some pros/cons of these areas from your experience?
Thanks!
-Onyx