New Guy Intro

[CircleStarRanch]

My wife & I have had some serious discussion during our prepping about going off-grid for good. That way , when TSHTF, we won't even notice. In all of of our prepping and homestead pre-planning we have decided to stay in Arizona. When considering what disasters could realistically befall someone, Arizona is least likely to be affected by hurricanes, tornatos, earthquakes, heavy flooding, or extreme cold. We really only have a few concerns here: Extreme heat, water availablity, and hostile foreign nation invasion. So keeping that in mind, we examined Arizona's geography. We would want to be above 2500' to avoid extreme heat but less than 5000' to avoid cold. We would want to be within an hour's drive to town. Not being paranoid, just realistic, we would not want to be any closer to the Mexican border than we are now (Phoenix metro area). So we are consdering getting 75-100 acres north of the White Mountains.

On this amount of land we can build a totally off-grid home, barn and other outbuildings. We are already in the process of harvesting and storing rain water, storing grains and other dried foods, manually grinding wheat, making sausage, cheese, and beer in our suburban home. My wife has years of experience gardening and canning. I have a lot of experience in "cowboying", having owned horses and assisted in cattle operations. So the homestead would include a large garden, horses, a small draft horse, goats, and chickens. A windmill powered well pump will be used to back up water harvesting and provide water for the critters. We would summer-over a small herd of calves - keeping one in the fall for meat and sausage-making. We both have commented numerous time we were born in the wrong time period! Our only concessions to the techno-world would be solar generation of electriity to power pumps to move water from the collector barrels up to a 500 gallon water tower, and provide minimal house and yard lighting. We are still considering keeping a cell phone - but it depends on coverage area.

I know this all sounds like a pie-in-the-sky idea, but it is something we really want ... no need ... to do. So I will be lurking a lot and posting if I have anything to contribute.

-Dutch

[PNP Katahdins]

Welcome, Dutch! Thanks for including your general location, it really helps for getting useful answers and input.

Peg

[Callieslamb]

Welcome!
My Grandpa owned land around Prescott- Cherry, I think it was. It is a beautiful place. The smell of the pines and pinion trees I can remember to this day. So much nicer than Phoenix in the summer. He ran cattle up there. I don't know what it's like in winter, but Grandpa's house got water from a spring - no pump, no well - year round. He had fruit trees and a large garden.

Best wishes on realizing your dream.

[Explorer]

Good Luck! Have you visited the area you would like to move to? North of the White Mountains and below I40, about a 60 mile stretch, is high desert over 5000 feet. Less than 15-20" of moisture a year and the good water table is about 200-300 feet down. North of I40 is the Navajo Res. Temps in the summer are normally 90-100 degrees and winter is in the teens (last week it was -19). Little surface water and you need deep wells to run cattle. The positive is there are few people outside of the small towns, mostly all under 10,000.

[Tricky Grama]

Welcome! And your plans sound doable to me, good luck.

patty

[Wolf mom]

Welcome CSR - Wolf mom here from the SNOWY White Mountains of Arizona. The "old folk" say it's the coldest winter in 40 years. I moved up here from Phoenix 7/8 years ago. There was a guy that lived in Phoenix that was doing what you desire to do, about where you want to move, but dropped off HT a few months ago. Too bad.

Wanting to build totally off grid sounds like the only rational thing to do N of the White Mountains, but water will be a problem. Even harvesting rainwater if you want to run cattle and have a large garden. I have 2 parcels of land - one has a 450' well. The other, 350'. Although the WM is on the largest aquifir in AZ. it's deep and getting deeper with more people moving in. If you google water consumption, cattle, Navajo County, maybe Navajo County Extention Service you'll get some statistics. I have a neighbor that runs a herd of prize Angus in Forest land & that's one of his main concerns.

Lots of inexpensive large land tracks, elk and antelope tho. Another poster mentioned Prescott/Cherry area. Great place - no cheap land. Dunno if there's any large land parcels left. The same with Payson and Cottonwood

Whatever you do, have fun doing it and be organized. Coming from Phoenix, this was culture shock not being able to run to the store when I wanted something. And getting worse with the economy. No stores, no jobs.

If you want to pick what little is left of my brain, just PM me.

[glazed]

Warm and hearty welcome to HT.

My grandfather lived somewhere out in the middle of nowhere near Flagstaff.

[Windy in Kansas]

Welcome to the forums.

[TxMex]

Howdy and welcome!

I really wanted to move to the area you are talking about but I just couldn't justify the initial cost and the tax rates, so ended up in Arkansas.

It is so exciting when you are just starting out! I recently restarted again on my new place here and it is so cool to look around and see what all I have accomplished in a mere 3 months. Finished fencing for the goats yesterday

Hope you enjoy the forum.

[Forest]

Welcome Dutch!
This has been a great site for me, I hope you'll find lots of good info here.

I just drove through Arizona on I40; gorgeous place and really gets the Homesteading imagination going! But just looking at the landscape did make me wonder about water security as well.

[Tracy Rimmer]

It sounds like you've put a great deal of thought into it, and I can only say, keep doing that.

One thing I *WOULD* point out is to NEVER underestimate the value of a reliable water source. I'd put that WAY high on the list, personally, but you know your area best.

[jwal10]

Welcome, I am doing what you want to do only on 1 acre and no cattle. Just goats, rabbits and chickens. A lot of garden. I kept the cell phone, that is how I am here. It is cheap. Yes water. Oregon has a lot but it does get dry in the summer. I am totally off grid, gravity fed spring. Both microhydro and solar panels, kept it simple, 1 porch light and 4 inside lights only 12 volt. 5.8 cuft. refer is 24 volt from the microhydro. Wood stove for hot water. Good lick and enjoy the journey. A lot of hand labor but done daily no big problem even with my disabilities....James

[kabri]

Welcome!!!

[Callieslamb]

Originally Posted by glazed

Warm and hearty welcome to HT.

My grandfather lived somewhere out in the middle of nowhere near Flagstaff.

Do we have the same grandpa?

[oregon woodsmok]

Not pie in the sky. There are people who are doing it and succeeding with it. If you want it badly enough, you can do it.

[oth47]

My brother lived in Concho Az some years back..when we went out to visit him I was really surprised to see so few windmills.The wind never stopped while we were there.Brother's fil had 40 acres he was taking care of.

[CircleStarRanch]

Thank you all for the welcome!

@ Explorer, Tracy, wolf Mom & oth47

We are looking in the St. Johns/Concho area, and have visited up there several times (albeit on a Harley). I know that is at the upper end of of our elevation scale but there are large tracts of inexpensive land available. Being a desert rat, water has always been my number one concern in our prepping activities. We harvest water off our house in the metro area that gets less annual rainfall as that area, so I know we need to drill for more for critters. I have bookmarked the Arizona Dept of Water Resources' Well Registry web site, so I have an idea of how deep I will need to go.

Again, thank you all for the welcome and words of encouragement!

-Dutch

[NewGround]

Welcome CSR from another newbie. Sounds like you have a workable plan. I'm working to get off the grid myself, I figure I'll be able leave it for the others ;-)

As a kid we used to live in El Paso (army base) and I've done a little dreaming of moving back west (Texas or Arizona) one day. Water, water, water... All else is easy. Looking forward to hearing of your progress.

[Fae]

Welcome to HT. I have nothing to add since I have never even been to AZ but I say if that is your dream then go for it but do it deliberately.

[Beeman]

As soon as horses come up in the starting plan I always have to wonder.