How Isolated ... ?

Homesteadwi5 · #41 01/21/10, 10:31 AM

there's no such thing as too isolated (for me) Dw disagrees though.We do live in an area with very minimal population,the closest town has around 90 full time residents,out our back door is just shy of 13,000 acres of county land before the first blacktop road,then it's a mixture of county and paper co. land for the next 25 miles or so. we are within about a 30 mile drive of a 7,000 person city though.

country_wife · #42 01/21/10, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mama Crow

Made me smile, Wisconsin Ann.

And, Old Vet, I'm talking even more isolated than that. I'm talking, like, 70-90 miles from the nearest town (and even that would be considered small.)

If y'all have time, now or later, please watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDz6l...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwDoL...layer_embedded

I love the area ... and have visited often ... this is the Big Bend National Park and the Big Bend State Park area.

I have found, so far, the following land for sale by owner.

Five acres ... $800.00

Five acres ... $2,599 at $65/Month or Cash Sale for $1,399

Five acres ... $1500.00

Ten acres ... $1500.00

Ten acres ... $3000.00

Twenty acres ... $5000.00

Twenty acres ... $6000.00

Fifty acres ... $14,000.00 or best offer

Property tax last year (2009) for 40 acres was $65 and some odd cents.

So I'm wondering how one would adapt to this climate as homesteaders ... I'm sure the same principles would apply, but they'd have to be tweaked.

I can't get the youtube loaded (dialup, dontcha know

). Is this land in the area of Alpine, Texas? I looked up that area on realtor.com and found some great deals, with some catches: There's a maintenance fee for anything in the Terlingua Ranch area (what's up with that?) and then there are the listings that don't include mineral rights. Figures, cause otherwise it sure looked tempting.

As for isolation, if I could, I'd own my own island.

Almost forgot..speaking of homesteading in this area, have you seen PBS Texas Ranch House?

QuiltingLady2 · #43 01/21/10, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mama Crow

If you had the opportunity, how isolated (as far as location) would you go? How deep, or how far, off the beaten path would you go? Or would you even want to?

And the other part of that Q is how many 'others' have the same idea?

No Man or Woman is an island. You can survive alone..... but, surviving together means as the old saying goes - Many hands make for light work.

firegirl969 · #44 01/21/10, 02:56 PM

DH says if we won the lottery, we would buy the big parcel of woodland that ajoins the back of our property. It is owned by a big timber company. He said we would put a cabin the the middle of it away from everybody. I would love that.

willow_girl · #45 01/21/10, 03:07 PM

I like it both ways!

My husband's house is in a plan, on a cul-de-sac. We're friends with all our neighbors, and we take turns throwing block parties and such. You can hardly go outdoors without running into somebody and stopping to chat! Usually we get together with one or another couple almost every weekend -- go out to eat then go back to someone's house for dessert. It's fun!

My place is in the country, but it's only 4 acres with houses all around. Still, I can go up on my top lot, where the trees block the view of the road, and it's very quiet and peaceful. Just me, the cats and the cows. I like that, too.

MariaAZ · #46 01/21/10, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willow_girl

I like it both ways!

My husband's house is in a plan, on a cul-de-sac. We're friends with all our neighbors, and we take turns throwing block parties and such. You can hardly go outdoors without running into somebody and stopping to chat! Usually we get together with one or another couple almost every weekend -- go out to eat then go back to someone's house for dessert. It's fun!

My place is in the country, but it's only 4 acres with houses all around. Still, I can go up on my top lot, where the trees block the view of the road, and it's very quiet and peaceful. Just me, the cats and the cows. I like that, too.

Now THAT sounds like my kind of plan!! City when you want city, country when you want country!

chewie · #47 01/21/10, 10:30 PM

we are closer to others at our place now than we were at the last ranch we managed. there are definite plus and minus to both. i love solitude, riding my horse and not seeing another house/human/car/anything for hours. that was amazing, i did not grow up that way but dreamed of it. but, here, i have someone to ride with me instead, which is great!

having teenage daughters means trips to town faaarrr more than i'd like, but that is what i gotta do. so for that, being closer is great too. the fact his mother feels she can pop in any ole time she feels like, ugh, not so great. running any sort of home based business is tough--can't sell to the goats!
and i certainly miss the view of miles and miles of hills and nothing else!! if money weren't an issue, i would certainly go for the 'as far as possible' route. until i hit that lottery tho., this is as good as it gets! (mind you, i think i've hit the lottery living the way i am/where i do currently anyhow!!)

Ravenlost · #48 01/21/10, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wisconsin Ann

If I could own a couple thousand acres of forest/land...I'd plop my house right down in the middle..as far away from people as possible

Then I'd build a small airstrip and fly my ultralight or homebuilt into town.

there ya go. oh...and there wouldn't be a driveway.

Sounds good to me!

We own 96 acres eight miles from town, four miles off the highway. The house is a half mile off the county road. On our south side we have two neighbors we can see. One of them owns the 40 acres behind us (our west side). On our east side is the county road and across the road is swamp and cotton fields. It's in a flood plain, as is most of our property and that to the north of us. Our north property line runs up the middle of a large creek/canal. On the other side of the canal are fields for miles and miles. Since all this is flood land no one can build on it, so we won't ever have any more neighbors.

We're still not isolated enough.

bruce2288 · #49 01/21/10, 11:38 PM

I agree with on the Nebraska sandhills, truly gods country. i spent many summers there as a kid and later on road construction crews. used to deer hunt on Saults and Minor ranches north of Hyannis and Monahan Ranch north of whitman. I love to sit upon one of those big hills and drink in the view.

HermitJohn · #50 01/22/10, 05:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by therunbunch

DH would be happy as all get-out to live on his own planet,

There you go. I want my own planet also. Dont worry wouldnt want to crowd you folks, I want my planet in the neighboring solar system....

7thswan · #51 01/22/10, 06:26 AM

I'm With Ann,except I'd need a small chopper, my Dh is ill. This piece of land we have now is perfect, I'd just move the house off the road. Our soil is perfect, numerious springs, a stream ect.Michigan is Beautiful. The Taxes are high here (where we are)tho. When Dh retires we are thinking of moveing to a huge(thousands of acres) gated hunt camp. If I'm alone I'll be moveing to the cabin. The soil there is sandy and I'll need to do much work on a garden site and remove some trees. Thinking of planting some fruit trees up there, but the deer would kill them. I couldn't handle the heat that some folks live thru. Being secluded is great tho, I don't even like the phone.

ErinP · #52 01/22/10, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bruce2288

I agree with on the Nebraska sandhills, truly gods country. i spent many summers there as a kid and later on road construction crews. used to deer hunt on Saults and Minor ranches north of Hyannis and Monahan Ranch north of whitman. I love to sit upon one of those big hills and drink in the view.

Perfect example of how small the population is. lol
We went to church with Minors when we first got married ('97) and DH's dad ran the Middle Prong unit of Monahans for a number of years when DH was in grade school.
Oh, and a friend of mine down here, is a Minor. Her grandparents had the main place north of Hyannis/south of Merriman.

You folks who are looking to buy your way into isolation are going about it all wrong. You just need to pick a more rural part of the country.
It's cheaper, all the way around.

MN Gardener · #53 01/22/10, 08:49 AM

We will be building on 85 acres which is surrounded on 2 sides by 1000's of acres of county land and another side by our neighbor who has 600+ acres in conservation. We are about 15 minutes from a medium size town. Although the county land is public, we don't see many people because there are creeks and a large ridge that would have to be climbed in order to access our side of it. We occasionally see our neighbors, but that is only because they are my in-laws! We love it out here!

prometheus · #54 01/22/10, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronbre

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

That happen to us in Colorado also. When we moved I swore I'd have a lot more land and fewer neighbors. Our new place has 100X the acreage and our nearest neighbor is about 2 miles away. I figure some day it will happen here too and I'll need to move even further out, but that works too. The older I get the less I want to see/interact with people at all.

Old Swampgirl · #55 01/22/10, 09:41 AM

In my heart, I would love to be very isolated but my mind over-rules that idea. When I moved here in '94 there were very few neighbors & about 15 miles to a grocery store. I live on 48 acres on a dead end road, but not at the dead end. Now, they have a new grocery & hardware about 5 miles from me. More & more people have moved into my area, especially after Katrina, and little subdivisions are everywhere. The best part of my isolation now is that the sides & back of my house are very private...with only the view of trees. I love this. Guess this is about as isolated as I'm really going to be, especially with the price of gasoline; I'm grateful for the conveniences.

bergere · #56 01/22/10, 09:51 AM

I always had a dreamed of owning a couple thousand acres with a working farm in the middle and away from human man made noise. But that is no longer possible because there are very, very few places in the US like that.

Was hoping we would be able to stay were we are at. Is only little over 14 acres but we have forest land on 3 sides and if I want to see my neighbors house.. I have to walk out into the pasture.And those neighbors are wonderfully quiet!! Think it is the best we will ever have. It is very nice not having close neighbors.

ErinP · #57 01/22/10, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bergere

I always had a dreamed of owning a couple thousand acres with a working farm in the middle and away from human man made noise. But that is no longer possible because there are very, very few places in the US like that.

That's really not true.
There are a lot of places like that.

You just don't see them when you're whizzing by on the interstate...

prometheus · #58 01/22/10, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErinP

That's really not true.
There are a lot of places like that.

You just don't see them when you're whizzing by on the interstate...

Sometimes even then you can see them way off in the distance. Eastern Montana (West Dakota like we call it) is full of those kind of places.

bergere · #59 01/22/10, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErinP

That's really not true.
There are a lot of places like that.

You just don't see them when you're whizzing by on the interstate...

Erin,

National Geo did a pretty through research about Man made noise all over the US. There are very few places where you will not hear any man made machine, Airplane or road noise.
Most of those places are in the middle of our National parks.

And to assume I just stay on the Freeways is.... lets just say you don't know me, don't know every where I have been and so on.
I have been places that are three/four hours in from any major street, Gravel roads to dirt tracks... way out in the tweedles and I can still hear man made noise.

ErinP · #60 01/22/10, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bergere

Erin,

National Geo did a pretty through research about Man made noise all over the US. There are very few places where you will not hear any man made machine, Airplane or road noise.
Most of those places are in the middle of our National parks.

And to assume I just stay on the Freeways is.... lets just say you don't know me, don't know every where I have been and so on.
I have been places that are three/four hours in from any major street, Gravel roads to dirt tracks... way out in the tweedles and I can still hear man made noise.

I was just saying that isolated areas are just that; isolated.

And I'll bet a noise map would be very similar to the light map that i posted a few weeks ago:
How Isolated ... ? - Homesteading Questions

How Isolated ... ? - Homesteading Questions

Larger version available here

If you go where it's black, not just light grey, you'll rarely hear man made noises unless you're near a roadway.
And as you can see, there are still large swaths of black.
Even light grey, like where I live, is still pretty quiet. Beyond towns/roadways, you hear farm equipment at certain times of the year and that's about it.

Like I said, there's still plenty of country that is isolated. But there's a reason it's isolated afterall.
And if you can still hear man-made noise out in the "tweedles," I guarantee you aren't too far out, yet...