Anyone from Northern Ontario?

[kitaye]

We are beginning the looking stage of purchasing our future homestead, and building an off the grid home. We are tossing around either Cape Breton Island or Northern Ontario. Hubby has been to Cape Breton and loved it. We've also had several people at work tell us how great it is.

Neither of us have been to Northern Ontario but we've heard some areas are quite nice. We're looking at the Cochrane or Timmins Areas specifically. Currently we live in Cornwall but hubby's work may take him elsewhere before we are ready to move offline.

So anyone from those areas what are the pros and cons of:
Farming
Gardening
Solar and Wind Power
Land Accessibility
Seasonal Weather
and anything else you think we need to know.

[Ross]

Indian land claims? Cape Breton has quite a lot of disputed lands. Better climate than N Ont, but more severe winters. New Lisgard is N Ontario's farm land but there are good areas scattered through out. Not sure I could handle the manditory dunk tank swim in Deet to venture out doors in some parts

[wr]

Moonwolf lives in the northern part and would be a wealth of information. If he doesn't happen to drop by and see your post, you might want to send him a pm.

[DaleK]

I don't live there, my inlaws are in North Bay and I have some farming friends in Cochrane and New Liskeard. One thing to consider is that almost everything is more expensive in the north. When we were paying $1.07ish for gas last week my inlaws were paying $1.30 and I'm sure it was more farther north. Farming wise you can grow good hay and pasture and small grains in Cochrane. Land's cheap but moving higher. Shouldn't be much different for solar or wind than most places in Southern Ontario.

[brreitsma]

Kenora district is absolutly beautiful with fabulous fishing. Only problem is people far out number jobs.

[kitaye]

wr - Thanks for the tip. I'll see about contacting him for his thoughts. I must say the photos he shows of his land is wonderful

Dalek - We're wanting hay, grain, as well as regular kitchen garden veggies.

brreitsma - I'm hoping, and we're planning, that by the time we're ready for this next big step we will not need a job but can be completely self sufficient.

[OntarioMan]

IMO - Cochrane and Timmins are too far north. Not much farming up that way.

As mentioned : Areas in the northern Ontario clay belt from around Cobalt to Englehart would be a decent choice. Land is relatively cheap, fairly low land tax, wildlife, clean water (including artesian wells), forest (wood heat) and the people are great. Although I've not researched it, I really doubt these areas are especially suited for solar or wind power - although wind would depend on the exact location. In these areas, you'd almost want a location with some wind (maybe hill tops and such) - not for wind power but to try to keep some of the bugs away in summer.

One interesting aspect of these areas are "unorganized" townships - in these areas, it almost appears as if you can basically build whatever/however you like. Perhaps there is someone here who knows more about "unorganized" northern Ontario townships - and they'll contribute to the conversation.

[Cabin Fever]

Northern Ontario...do you mean like the southern shore of Hudson's Bay?

[wr]

I do remember that agriculture isn't a huge deal up there but I can't see why one can't grow a garden and Moonwolf has a great thing going. Fishing is great and he seems to have no end of edibles he gathers and I couldn't see why hunting would be a problem. Unless things have changed since I lived up there, hunting was a great source of incomes for some of these communities.

[Runestone]

I'm in NE Ontario between Sudbury & Sault Ste. Marie. There's some nice farmland on Manitoulin Island, St. Joesph Island and the Echo Bay area. The winters are not all that bad, and I can attest to the fact that you don't need a dunk tank of DEET on Manitoulin
I'd suggest looking in this area since it's not as far north as Timmins/Cochrane.
I agree that New Liskeard, Earlton is a great farming area (Big Clay Belt) and those communities are not that far north of North Bay.
Good luck on your search

[tamatik]

I just got back from Sudbury/Espanola yesterday.dad,s funeral.I lived in the area a few yrs ago and now I,m hankering to get back.The bugs were bad and it was 95F..strange for this time of yr.I looked aound Massey for propertys.There are several farms and hay seems to be the main crop.but grains(straw) are also grown.I looked at a small place that I found online and it was advertised for $69k and when I got there the guy wanted $80k.It wasn,t worth $40k.But I did find another farm that the fella wasn,t considering selling.Spoke with him and the seed is planted.Apparently he was thinking about selling the farmstaed but the cost of severance was holding him up.He had the farmstead rented but spoke horror stories of tenants.I think there is a good possiblitity for him to come around..I mite even offer to split the $$ for severance, .The 2 real estates that I dealt with were.Lee Peters realty and Ken Naples realty..espanola.Both were UN helpful.So I ended up just driving the area and found several possibilities.My budget was $50k for a small house and a few (4/5) acres.THEY ARE THERE.The one place $80k said he would leave all his chickens and turkeys and even the bees,Still..The house had been altered so poorly that it will fall down soon.not acceptable, but it does show the possibilities.Sudbury area seems to be rebounding again with mines being reopened and Prices rising.
my 2 cents

Gord in BC

[Rob30]

I live in Mattawa in NOrthern Ontario. I can tell you life is good here. Farm land is no too expensive, taxes are not oo high. Lots of farmland with livestock and forrage crops. Our farm supplies about 90% of our food plus my inlaws, brother in laws family, and we sell alot. We raise meat goats, sheep, cattle, pigs, horses, and poultry. We cut all of own hay. Our garden is big and we usually have more vegetables than we need.
The nice thing about our area is the water and bush. Nice mature and well managed forrests. Fishing and hunting is great. We are about 2-3 hours south of Timmins. 4 hours west of Ottawa. 4 hours North of Toronto. This keeps us close to the cities markets but far enough away that we don't see city folk.
I can tell you Timmins is darn cold. Winter is long. If you are a homesteader and don't get out much, you won't like long winters.

[kitaye]

Thanks for everyone thoughts so far. It is enlightening.

CF - The properties I've seen online were in Cochrane Township so halfway between Georgian Bay and James Bay. We've also seen listing for Algoma and Manitoulin Island.

Runestone - My impression from looking at Real Estate online that Manitoulin Island was 99% summer cottages. Just about every place said Recreational Property so I assumed we could live there year round and farm. Please tell me I was wrong, cause that is a lovely area according to all the pictures I've found so far.

[kitaye]

Thanks Rob30. That sounds like a good place to start looking too. According to Google Maps Mattawa is about halfway between Ottawa and Sudbury which is much closer to here and that suits hubby much better. What are the negatives where you are? If there are any.

Hubby just asked if you had to live in Northern Ontario where would you NOT want to live and why?

[Rob30]

The only thing I can think of is the distances to good marklets for your products. If you decide to sell livestock, or even aquire livestock. We raise meat goats and sheep. The best markets are in southern Ontario. But they are he same markets the people in other provinces use. The weather is not as good as southern Ontario, but better than farther north. You can alway tell when you enter southern Ontario in summer. You hit a wall of smog at about Barrie.
Jobs are harder to come by in Mattawa. But North Bay is only 45 minutes away. Thats where I work. I am a nurse in a Psychiatric hospital. Thats another thing. Our little hospital is better than most. I am in and out with ,y kids in no more than one hour if they are busy.
Properties seem to be starting to go up in price, but they are still better than alot of other rural areas.

[DaleK]

If your hubby would rather be closer to the south, you can still find some good deals in areas of northern Hastings, Lennox and Addington, Peterborough counties, parts of Haliburton and Renfrew. Areas like Plevna, Bancroft area. Some of them are pricy but if you look there are some bargains too, within 1 or 1.5 hours of the 401. One thing to watch for if you want to raise livestock is that in some of the townships around Algonquin Park you aren't allowed to shoot wolves so if they decide they're taking your livestock all you can do is grin and bare it.

[kitaye]

Thanks Rob30. I've started adding Mattawa and environs to my MLS searches. So far nothing has jumped out at us.

Dalek - Hubby originally wanted to be in the Prescott to Kingston corridor but the price of land there is just out there on most places. Pretty much anything with enough acreage to do what we want is running well outside our buy range just yet. That was one of the reasons we decided Northern Ontario might be a better option. I'll look around Bancroft and area to see what's available.

We may have to put this whole idea on hold until we can financially retire rather than buy the land now and develop it as we get closer.

[JohnCaper]

Originally Posted by Ross

Better climate than N Ont, but more severe winters.

I know its an old thread but just wanted to clarify - I've been in Northern Ontario and I live in Cape Breton. Severe is an over-statement for Cape Breton unless you're in the Highlands.