How Isolated ... ?

I wouldn't mind being 10 miles away from the nearest neighbor. A drive of an hour to get to town wouldn't bother me. As it stands I usually have to travel about 45 minutes to get most of my supplies. Closest town for me is 12 miles but it is small and doesn't have much and is expensive. I have often thought about moving to the high desert since land is cheap and I love lots of sun (but not heat). Being all by myself would probably get to me if I lived real far out but a wife or having some good friends near by wouldn't bother me in the slightest to be 50 miles away from the nearest neighbor.

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when we first bought our house we were one of less than a dozen on the entire road..we liked it like that..but unfortunately, people sold land and houses popped up by the dozens..now we are a whole lot less isolated that we would have liked..also the land on both sides and across the stree from us sold and houses went in..so now we have neighbors within 100 feet on either side and one straight across..used to be 1/4 mile on each side and no one across

WEll, how far out is just as important as "where" to me. I hate desert land. HATE IT!!! I hate, hate, hate flat land.
So, with that in mind

I would live days away from any populous. Only problem is DH needs to work to pay for anything we would do. Any place we lived.
So IF we had the money to outright buy a place and pay for the set up I would move to a deserted island (so long as it had a mountain on it) and be content. We would have to bring in mail order brides and husbands for our children cuz I would NOT want to have them move away. LOL

Realistically, my children need some contact with "other" life and people. You know, so they can find their other halves. And DH needs work. So out far enough to feel isolated but close enough to a town and work is ideal for us.
We cant see a neighbor from our home. We can hear one of them but only when they are around and right now they are not.
The other neighbor is around the mountain but not so far we cant be neighborly.
Town is close but its small and not imposing. DH commutes. We go in for church, groceries, and to get mail. Only bad thing? Our road (we own it) has a right of passage for/by the forestry dept. They put a sign up showing national forest entrance. We get all kinds of buggers traveling through. Some stupid heads even try it when its so impassable we (us and the neighbors) have to load sand in the track to spread on the road so we dont slide off the mountain. But they dont seem to get a clue.
I hope one slides off the mountain. Maybe hell tell his friends and they will stay home. LOL
We joke that if the SHTF and things get real bad we will just fail a bunch of trees across the road and them no one can get in. They would have to do it on foot. LOL not just anyone can DO that.
Soo, short answer? Our place is far enough out since I cant just go buy an island.

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"If we ever forget that we're one nation under GOD, then we will be a nation gone under." - R Reagan

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. ~ D D Eisenhower

Twice in my life I have lived on a ranch where the nearest town of any size was about 60 miles away ... small town (post office/gas station/a few grocery items) was 10 miles. Nearest neighbors were one mile in opposite directions along the only road (gravel). The nearest neighbors in any other direction were between 6 miles and 40 miles away. I was more contented under those conditions than any other places I've ever lived.

Circumstances have dictated that most of my life I've lived in more heavily populated areas, although still rural, but if I had my preference, I would definitely choose the place with the fewest people.

I would like to own a section myself. Out where you are looking that might be enough to graze about half a dozen beeves. I went to high school with a fella last name of Lacy who's granddad owned the double ought (00). They had a couple of sections from what I understand. Anyway hope ya get what ya want.

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Big D Farm Blog

We have 40 acres in what I used to think was the middle of now where but were not that far out. We are about 13 miles from the closet town but they don't have alot there so when we plana trip to town we usually go to the bigger one which is 45 miles or so. We make a day of it & do what ever we need to. No close neighbors. There are 8 houses on our road which is 2 miles long but only 5 of them have people living in them.

If I had millions I'd be like Wisconsin Ann & own thousands of acre's, there has to be wood's with it for hunting & I would make my house back off the road pretty far but not probly in the middle. Don't have millions & we actually Love where we are so I'm happy.

All around us on the other roads are not very many houses either, mostly farm land.

You have my sympathies, the exact same thing happened here as is happening over most of the southeast. When I was young and growing up here, (Harpers Ferry WV) no one wanted to live here, in the sticks, the boonies, with the hillbillies. Now they started building all of those huge houses and suddenly, everyone wants to live here along with their mother and uncle and my children will never be able to afford a house here. That's why we went further into WV where it is cheaper, but our farm is still only five miles from a small town, a town much like the one I grew up in. I don't dislike people, I like to visit and such, when I chose too, but I don't like them breathing down my neck when I am outside working and don't have time to visit.

I can't wait to retire to the farm, this area is ruint

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Raising grass-fed beef and lamb.

There is a big difference between (1) the amount of acreage you live on and (2) how isolated you are. A family could be living on 3 acres and the nearest neighbor may be 10 miles away. Conversely, one could be on 640 acres and be living adjacent to a large city 1/2 mile away.

IMHO, the question should be "Do you own your view?" If a family owns their view, people can move in next door and you might not even know they are there....at least you won't see them...depending on how close they are, you may hear them.

The thing to remember is, what is isolated today, may have hundreds of nearby newly-built McMansions or feedlots tomorrow. At least if you own your view, you don't have to look at them.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

The middle of a wilderness area if possible. I dreamed for years of being a hermit. There is a story in these parts of a hermit named Mason Evans. I fell in love with the man and the story. Even as a child I longed to live in those caves he hung out in and lived in for all those years, alone. I now have a man in my life and would find it very hard to not have him around. But if he would agree to it, I would find that long lost cave, move in and hope to encounter humans as little as possible.

I love seclusion. I spent 5 weeks alone in a wilderness area in the Cherokee National Forest back in the 90's. It was one of the very best times of my life. I saw humans only once when I discovered them camping off trail. I watched from a knob and almost went to say hello, but decided it was not worth it. I succeeded in not speaking to or dealing with another human the entire 5 weeks and it gave me an experience I will never in this lifetime forget. I loved it...and craved more. When I got picked up and taken home, I thought I would lose my mind. Just the sound of the jeep as we drove off the mountain was too much to handle. I did not want my bf to speak and within 15 minutes of getting home, I wanted to go back.

So I would go to the extreme, as far as I could go. No access to stores or electricity. Live totally self sufficient and my goodness would I be a happy woman!

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There is another consideration to think of and that is this, "Why is isolated land isolated?" Much "isolated land" is that way because it is typically not fit for human inhabitation. In other words, it may have one or more of the following negative characteristics: there's no water or the water is not potable, the soils are poor, it's swampland, it's hilly and rocky, it's reaches 110ºF 300 out of 365 day, it's frozen 8 out of 12 months, no roads, no services (mail, EMS, fire, etc). Now, you could probably survive in one of these locations....with a lot of hard work...and/or with a lot of dependance on outside goods and supplies. But I dare say that many....even o this forum...are not into subsistence survival.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

Where I live now was an answer to prayer twenty-five years ago, and I'm still contented with it. I have the best of all possible worlds, and only a touch of the worst(which keeps me humble and constantly learning).

I have a 'modified' homestead; in the midst of neighbors and social activity(five narrow acres on a lakefront), but with room to do my thing when I want to, raise some of my food, cut my fireplace wood, plant flowers, make compost, stir the dirt, fish, hunt woodchucks, run my 9n, observe nature, go for walks with my five(5)granddaughters, cruise on a pontoon boat, and so many other things.

Even as a kid on an Indiana farm, I was not really isolated--we had a small airport a mile away and we were in the overhead flight path. And if you ride a schoolbus for twelve years, well, you're gonna rub elbows with lots of people--some of whom you like and others you don't like. Same way in college, with that closeness of dorm living. And I lived in a suburban neighborhood for seventeen years before moving here. I think that one needs to learn ways of creating the amount of isolation, if you will, or remoteness, or whatever psychological space you need--and to have it available when you need it. So, I don't mind being around neighbors, but I do need a "place" to go to. So this property, and its century old 13 room house offers plenty of "hidey-holes" to serve me so I can regain my serenity and return to the crazy side of civilization.....

I like my neighbors best when they are in Florida--which is now--but when they come back, I greet them heartily from behind the hedge which I've pruned for maximum density while they have been gone........ Usually things get hectic around the holidays (Mem. Day, July 4th, Labor Day) because of the lake activities in full swing. But I can get my fishing done during the weekdays, and I can go back in the garden, or barn workshop, or the woods whenever I need a break(which is enough isolation for me) and if the neighbors and quasi-suburban noise really press in on me, I take the twelve gauge down with me and fire off a few rounds for 'target practice'. I kinda like being an enigma to my neighbors.

“They cannot scare me with their empty spaces between stars -- on stars where no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer home to scare myself with my own desert places." Robert Frost

We are 20 miles from anywhere, and that is great except that one or sometimes both of us work in town. I am now commuting 40 miles one way, he's about to start working in that town too but we'll carpool.

The drive gets old. The good thing is that we are fairly off the beaten path.

Today we're both home watching the beginning of an ice storm, with the forecast being 1/2 to 1 inch of ice. Chili is cooked, pigs are fed, water is stored, and the wood is dry and in the house. Bring it on!

We're 12 miles from pavement/town, 50 miles from a town big enough (8K) to support a WalMart, 100 from a town big enough (20K) for a shopping mall. My county is nearly 1000 square miles with 1005 residents.
Our county has one town with only 200 people.

By 98% of folks' opinions, even those on this board, we're already pretty isolated.

That said, I'd really have liked to find land somewhere up in the western Sandhills of Nebraska. Around Hyannis, Arthur, Ellsworth, Mullen...
We've lived on ranches up there that were isolated enough mail only came out every other day because there were so few people, so far apart.


It was divine.

But, it's also extremely difficult to find a small enough patch of ground up there, that we'd be able to afford, that someone is also willing to part with.
So here we stay. And I suppose we'll just have to deal with the "crowd."

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

I think this goes both ways. There are many people who don't have much kind things to say about cities and the people who want to live in them. It is indeed a puzzle why these different mindsets seem so threatening to the other...

As a city dweller, my ideal is probably a lot more crowded than many would prefer. My front door is about 30 feet away from my neighbors' front doors and I'd sure like to have a lot more room. I enjoy being around people, and and although the idea of living "in the middle of nowhere" without a neighbor in sight sometimes appeals to me, I've never experienced that level of isolation. Realistically, I don't think I would like it for the long term. I could adapt, but I think I'd go crazy if I couldn't get out where people are on a regular basis.

At the minimum, I'd like to have at least a few hundred feet between my and the neighbor's house.

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Ever tried? Ever failed? No Matter, try again, fail again. Fail better.

- Samuel Beckett

We paid $20 for our 40 acres in KS.
And the prices sound rather steep for the quality of ground.
Those are western Kansas prices, or central Nebraska. And we have both dirt and grass.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

And people seemed happier with their neighbors didn't they?
I've developed the idea that when you don't seen people but once or twice a week you treasure the connections when you do see them.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

if I could go on hiatus for 1 or 2 years in the middle of now where live in a simple cabin and listen to the birds sing. That would be all the solace I would need. Yes we need people in our lives, but sometimes we need the quiet to get to know ourselves and what we are capable of conquering.

I live in CO now, about 5 miles from a little town, and work 25 miles up in the national park here - nearest neighbor is just over the hill, but out of sight. It's good, but not far out enough. When I was young, my father bought a remote ranch in CA, and I loved it there - it is now part of a national monument,
(right on the San Andreas earthquake fault!) so I can, and do, go back every few years to see the old house. It was 20 mi. on a dirt road to the nearest P.O. gas, phone, market, all in the same tiny building. We had no electricity, no phone, and the neighbors were 5 mi away. I loved it and have always wanted to go back. Life was simple - I remember my stepmother teaching me and her daughter our times tables by counting out dried lima beans. However, 1953 was a winter like CA is suffering through now - so much rain that everything is mud. After being trapped at the ranch for two weeks, Dad had to ride out horseback to get us food. No vehicles could travel on the dirt roads. Remote, but wonderful.

I can remember my father riding horseback the three miles down to the county road during the winter to pick up mail once a week. We were feeding cattle with a team and bobsled, no 4-wheel drives then and no way to clear roads.

SFM
http://kaleidoscopefarm.blogspot.com...n-and-now.html

I would agree with you on this. But I would also have to say that I would be the exception to that. As I age however, I wonder how long I would be able to say that with confidence.

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