Start of my off grid homestead in South-Central Washington state!

Hi everyone. I just wanted to share my new homestead journey on 10 wooded acres in the very southern part of Central Washington, along the Columbia River Gorge.

About me: I served 4 years in the Navy and bought property here with my wife of the time who was also in the Navy. I was 2 years from getting out. About a year before I had a helicopter touch down on top of us, adding yet another back injury to the list of back injuries, that I already had gotten in the Navy. Needless to say I'm partially disabled now and me and my wife have divorced but are still friends.

So I started preparing to go off grid knowing now is the time if any! I only have a few years to do this before I will likely be unable. So I got out here to my property with a bad travel trailer that I will be using for storage and a better one that I now am living in.

I've also landed a temporary job (6 Months) at the hospital in the closest town out here which I'm going will help me overcome the hardest obstacle, the water well! The Wells out here are about 80-700 feet! I'm hoping for around 100 but we will see!

I have set up 6,  100 watt solar cells and 5,  12v deep cycle batteries. We are going to hatch chickens and just got an incubator to do so! Have I mentioned I've been out here 2 weeks?

I am also documenting everything on my YouTube account, which I will post only after reviewing the policies haha. I haven't had a chance because I've been so busy working on everything!

Pictures

Hey Brandon welcome to permies. You have quite a nice spot for a homestead, with what appears to be a nice open sunny area perfect for a garden. Do you plan to grow some of your own food?

Yes, I plan to grow as much of my food as possible. Also raising chickens for eggs. Both for myself and for profit perhaps. It's on the list of many things I would like to do but need to find the time haha

Looks great Brandon.

Curious, what is the zoning for land, type of building allowed,  and how is the local govt, i.e. restrictions regulations licenses etc?
I've heard WA has some issues with water rights and such?

Keep up the work, glad you just went for it!

JD

Sorry I took so long to get back on here, I've just been so busy. I just finished my latest college term yesterday and I work full time. When I'm not busy I'm usually still busy (lol) hanging out with my 2 year old son.

As far as the county goes they allow you to drill a residential well and draw up to 5,000 gallons a day and water up to one acre of garden. I am going to be watering everything with grey water anyway so I doubt they care. If I get  a larger garden than that (highly doubtful) and they care I will just tell them it's used water anywhere. I will just run up to 5,000 gallons down the sink while washing dishesnh;h hand y6
My drain hole will give new meaning to the term "loophole", lol.

As for building, my property is zoned gr5 which means general rural in 5 acre lots. So a guysses. They have strawbale buildings in our county and often people build whatever they want with an outbuilding permit and get away with out a certificate of occupancy.

Something else that worried me was power/utilities as I want Just solar and some places REQUIRE you connect to the grid. I was also afraid even if I never used the grid because many places the power company have added a monthly minimum "connection fee" to get their money from you. I hate that risk so I made sure of this before buying.

The area could be an amazing off gridders paradise so if anyone is looking for a cheap beautiful place that is open to the off grid living of ALL types,  just pm me! More like minded people the better!

The only thing is water can be VERY, VERY DEEP! they run between 100 and 750  feet at the worst, however average is about 100-200 which is very affordable.

So I got an address for my property, took it the post office which who then said to wait for a call from the mailman who services my area(Woodland Road). I get a call from him informing me that he didn't know if my address exists... I'm thinking  "Did no one tell him this was a NEW address??"

So I call the post office back to let them know that Again. Next I have another voicemail where the post man says my address is 218 and not 2118. He doesn't exactly try to blame the wrong address on me or say that they gave him the wrong address. But I do know I gave them the correct address 100% lol so it wasn't my fault!

Anyway I have attached pictures of my mailbox. Now I can get mail and a new license in my state eventually.

It's the perfect height as well!(shouldn't it be?? Lol)

What county in Washington are you in?

You have given the authorities quite a bit to work with, should they ever decide that you have built something inappropriate or that you're using water inappropriately. Your complete address is here. Perhaps some editing is in order so that your average 10 year old can't pinpoint exactly who and where you are.

It will be permitted, just not as a residence. This county doesn't care about almost anything either. They don't care about water, which for now I'm hauling.