High desert homesteading....

[Utahskr]

I'm having some difficulties in locating advice on homesteading in the high desert of southern Utah, Nevada, and Arizona region. I'm able to snag 2 acre parcels for about 500 to 800 bucks a pop in undeveloped subdivisions (in the middle of nowhere) but can't seem to find a group of people that have experience in these regions. Any help is appreciated as my google fu is weak.

[edcopp]

You might want to hunt down "Nevada" who posts here. He has lots of good info. Perhaps search the archived posts.

[DreamHomestead]

The first issue you will come across when buying in that area is where you are going to get your water supply from. Secondly, what do you intend on using your land for? Many crops/plants cannot grow in the desert and those that can might require a lot of water. There is much to think about before heading to the desert to homestead!

[Dixie Bee Acres]

When I lived in southern Nevada, I had a neighbor who had a very thick lush green lawn, he also had a small vegetable garden. He only watered his lawn once a week or so. Noone else had any grass to speak of. Found out that he grew his by hauling in several truckloads of horse manure, spreading it on his yard then tilling it into the sand. Then he seeded the lawn, scattered some straw on it and watered often till the grass started growing.

My point is, even tho there is basicly nothing there but sand, horse and cow manure is somewhat plentiful, and if you can get some and work it into your ground, you can grow.
Water can be an issue. There is plenty of water if you drill a well, but you have to drill plenty deep to get it.

[TxMex]

Water is the reason you don't find many people homesteading in those areas. Also the soil tends to be thin with lots of rock and solid rock not far down. Lots of stuff there to eat gardens. Though this land is cheap in places, you would spend a lot of money compensating for the climate and terrain. It will probably be cheaper in the long run to settle somewhere else. Cost of living is also higher in those areas than many others.

[Pinetop Hunting]

Cody Lundin maybe?

[NamasteMama]

I can tell you a bit about Northern AZ. You want to be east of the I17 and well south of the I10 to find decent land. Look at Concho, Snowflake areas for places that have good mirco climates to grow.

[kirkk]

I live approximately 30 miles south of the Grand Canyon in the high desert area of Arizona. I can tell you from experience that water is your main concern. Collect all the water you can through rain water catchment during the "rainy" seasons and buy the rest to supplement.
The soil is poor, you either have to amend the soil heavily, or build raised beds with manufactured soils in order to grow anything. You'll also need to fence the garden in in order to keep free ranging cattle out. I personally have 6 4'X8' raised beds, 10 earthboxes, and grow sprouts to supplement animal feeds.
Using solar power out here is great! 300 sunny days per year. Build a big enough battery bank, and you'll never worry during storms.
If you plan on raising animals, keep away from commercial breeds, find breeds that will do well with grazing and supplement with feed. ie. Nubian goats, pot belly pigs, rhode island reds, wild turkeys etc
Don't spend huge amounts of money for septic, use compost toilets. You can use the byproducts to amend your soils, it needs the nitrogen. Reuse grey water to water trees, bushes, etc.
Your goal is to improve your land over time so that eventually it can sustain you and yours, and hopefully have some excess to sell or barter. B.T.W. The best part of having land in the middle of nowhere,... low property taxes!!!

[DryHeat]

There used to be extensive citrus groves near where we live, but back in the 1950s, 60s, 70s. Then the water table dropped a lot, I'm told, and the key factor became how much electricity it was taking to raise the simple weight of water up from several hundred feet down, so the groves were abandoned and turned into residential plots. Simply having a great aquifer to tap isn't enough, you have to calculate the cost of raising it up, not just the initial drilling of the well. As everyone says, these arid regions take an amazing amount of irrigation if you're trying to grow veggies more or less out in the open. Dry air= unexpected transpiration loss, especially with wind blowing.

In south AZ, over around Willcox off I-10, some pick-your-own and truck farm operations seem to do pretty well, it's a bit higher elevation and cooler temps than "the Valley" areas.

[Wolf mom]

"Undeveloped subdivision"?? What do the CC & R's say?? Be careful that they can change and you may not be able to have your animals, etc. in the future. This depression will not go on forever & you need to think about that.

Yup - water is your main issue. NE Arizona sits on the largest aquifer in Arizona BUT many have to haul water as it's so costly to dig to reach it. (I have 2 wells - one is 450 ft, the other 350 ft deep.) That becomes old pretty quick due to the time involved

Electricity is your second factor unless you plan to go wind &/or solar. And that can be costly. Forget a well as it needs electricity (brought in or battery stored) to pump.

Third is soil. As has been said, we have lots of clay that needs tons of additives. High desert growing season? Short - so you can't grow certain vegies.

Then there's the elk and more elk or deer and rabbits that eat the bark off trees in the winter. Not to add chicken killing coyotes (but they eat rabbits and wood rats.) So ya gotta think about lots of fencing.

And you have to look at distance from services. Dunno how old you are, but older usually seems to need more services - that translates into cost for gas.

Then there's roads - or lack thereof. Shall we say ruts? Unless someone has a motor grader - forget the county if it's in an "undeveloped subdivision". That means having your truck become a beater pretty darn quickly.

Trees? High desert has juniper and that sort. Cut hardwood oak for wood stoves cost $200.00 a cord and up.

Cheap land can translate into a poorer county unless you have a large manufacturing facility, large city or something that generates revenue. To you, that means few to no services.

Neighbors, back up support - few close by to assist quickly if you get in trouble. And few visitors.

Here, there's an area of 40 acre parcels going for $20,000 "east of Snowflake" that encompasses all of the above. Only the poorest or most hardy live there.

Which are you?

That's the downside - there's also lots of great reasons to live "far out".

[joebill]

Also, take great care with titles. The great land scams of the past involved establishing a subdivision and then selling each parcel a few times, then going to Brazil with the money, then often coming back and doing it again elsewhere.

Don't even consider it without a survey and title insurance. Not long ago, one of my friends encountered a guy living on his ranch who thought he had bought it. In fact, the realtor had showed the guy 40 acres of his ranch and then sold him another piece up the road. The guy came back to the piece he had been shown and set up camp. Big mistake. Turned out the guy DID own some land, but not what he had been shown.

You can still buy cheap land around and about in Arizona and New Mexico, especailly NM, but your life will be a lot simpler if you go South from where you had planned. I'd suggest talking to a lot of locals before deciding anything anywhere. Courts are often unsympathetic to those who leap without looking.....best of luck.....Joe

[Freya]

First you need to tell us what "homesteading" means to you... what is it you are looking for and want to do?

[wharton]

http://www.thefieldlab.org/Home_Page.php

Spend a few days reading this blog and you will be years ahead in your quest. It's about a guy who is thriving in the desert in Tx. He has worked alone, building everything from a home and greenhouse, to dams, over the last 6-8 years.

There are also small groups of older RVers who have inexpensive lots in areas like you speak of. They spend months at a time in "neighborhoods" they create there, since it's dirt cheap and a good way to live a low cost, low stress lifestyle. That said, they pretty much roll up to their land as a fully self contained unit with extra water storage capacity and solar onboard. Good luck.

[texican]

The land is available, because no one in the past wanted it.... even when it was free. Almost every acre of good land was homesteaded back in the 1900's... when large aquifers were discovered, a goodly portion of the arable 'desert' was patented...