Hello: I would love to meet others in Montana who are homesteading so to speak. Just someone to befriend on those long winter days, some one to write to and hear from. Share successes and failures , laugh and pout. Someone times I read about all of the homesteaders back east and feel like I am all alone trying to do it here in the Cold Place. Thanks!
Hello sisterpine! I am a single Ma of one beautiful little girl. We recently moved to Broadwater County. We do live in the community but aspire to be as self reliant as possible anyway. Someday I hope to have a small bit of land with horses, garden crops, and a cabin. I'm a "conservative" in that I try VERY hard to conserve energy and water and do what I can to keep the resources we have clean and available. I hate waste! lol We don't drive a car and walk, bike, or carpool when required. Anyway, the little one is getting into things she shouldn't be...Mama ears can tell! *grin* Good Day.
HI there, I live in Whitehall Montana. My husband and 2 boys moved from Pennsylvania 7 years ago. I got pregnant soon after we arrived so now we have 3 boys. We live in the mountains and have nubian dairy goats, chickens dogs, cats, 4H hog & lamb, and will soon have rabbits. We do have modern conveniences but try to do things the home steader way. I would love to write. I am a stay at home mom. I also hope to start to make cheese & soap from my goat milk. Hope to hear from you. Mary Lou
.................As a general proposition .......How hard is it to get established in Montana , survive the first winter..(due to cold and snow) assuming an individual found a 5 acre tract and got their water well and septic installed. Can you build pretty much any kind of home you want without the planning and zoning folks sticking their collective noses like they DO in Colorado??? Montana is such a gorgeous place but getting established would seem to be a real test of courage, skill and tenacity.......opinions.....thanks, ...fordy...
fordy, we purchased our 40 parcel with no covenents back in 1991 for 30,000.00. access is by forest service road which gets snowed in during the winter. we park down at a ranch below and snowmobile the last seven miles to our home. house is built to code or better though no permit was obtained and no inspections done. police will not respond for anything short of a murder and then only in the diveable months. as far as i know the main types of houses that have been up here in the past include, soddy, stick cabin, log cabin, a yurt, and mobile homes. so it seems you can do what ever you like as long as you dont force the neighbors to kill you off! the section we live on is surrounded on all sides by state and federal land and the section divided into 20 and 40 acre parcels. there are currently one of each for sale. dont know if this info helps or not! good luck
mary lou: i would love to correspond with you but you must let me know how to contact you. or you can email me at kathleenczech@yahoo.com to get us started!
Ha ha... I feel completely the same way my friend... I feel the VERY same way! Apparently though, there are more of us in this neck of the woods/plains, than is realized! I always thought I was alone in my part of the state and even into the neighboring state, but I've already met a few within a 100 miles. Send me some words sometime, would like to keep up with you. Joel
Sisterpine I am in Ekalaka, MT. You are clear across the state from me and I am sort of lonely too. Now the school has me subbing everyday for the next few weeks, its great to have a job even though everyday is a different grade or class. I was so bored this winter because we only had moved part of our household stuff. I had my sewing machines here and my fabric still in IL. This will start to change next week when another load comes across. We are trying to find a house to purchase. There are several vacant houses and buildings in and around town but nobody wants to sell, many are owned by people who don't even live here and no longer even come here to visit. I can't even seem to find an open business property to open a new business. MT is interesting to live in I need more info on gardening here though if you want to share. What fruit trees and veggie varieties work here?
You're not alone! I'm just outside of Billings and even though we only have 1/2 acre, we operate a csa program and soon will be getting chickens and rabbits for canning, selling and freezing. Regarding relocating to Montana - Hmmm, I have lived on the extreme west end of the state and now in the mid eastern part of the state and I'll tell you... if you don't mind the wind... come on over. You will always have some sort of air movement from a breeze to 75mph wind gusts so be prepared. I hate the wind... like the state. You have your choice of the mountains or the prairies, big city shopping or small town stocks and most folks are friendly although perhaps a bit cautious until they get to know you. Property is still fairly cheap unless you want to live around here and even though we live in Montana, the cities and most towns have building codes that must be followed if you are within certain distances of them. Counties as well have their own set of guidelines to follow but at least you won't have sound ordinances to worry about. I am assuming that you want out-of-town property to homestead so a lot of the regulations won't apply to you.
Springhill Montana, family moved here back in the 1860s, outside of Bozeman. Fordy stay one winter and see if you like it. People and summers are great but winters are real hard.
Sisterpine...I'm over in one of those eastern states, but I thought I'd mention...A bunch of us NC homesteaders formed a Yahoo Group so we'd be able to discuss things that affected us specifically...the weather, our hurricanes, where feed was available and at what cost, getting together to ship in hay, splitting poultry orders. All sorts of stuff. We started with four people, and we're up to nearly 20, I think. Just an idea for you guys. Meg
Sisterpine, I've lived in the Mountains about 20 miles east of Darby since the April of 93That's at the south end of the Bitterroot Valley. I have a trio of goats one to freshen any minute, a pair of Dexters,two donkeys, two mini mares, a Paso Fino stallion two turkeys and I don't know how many chickens. My son has built a greenhouse for me because the wildlife and cold weather love my gardens.I can't wait to try this out.I live at 6200 feet and have a devil of a time growing outside anyway.Inside I have tropical birds to liven up the long winter days, you never know what they will say to you.I also have my citrus and banana trees for a touch of back home, They are doing well. I do home healthcare but can walk(trudge)to work.I've cut my town trips to once a week unless an emergency and plan to cut them down even more.Plan to can more including meat because electricity can't be counted on, hope to go off grid like my son did. It has taken a while and plenty of trial and error, but right now everything pulls its own weight, I cut way back on the critters. Also keep LGDs, we have mt. lions, bear, coyotes,wolf packs and a lone black wolf up here so it is never dull. Life is hard here but I wouldn't trade it, I feel at home. Helen
Well not offically in Montana right now but we do spend every weekend we can about 30 north of Billings working on establishing our homestead for retirement. Was just up there over the weekend and started the loft in the cabin. I do make it to the Butte area about twice a year as my mother and sister live there now.
I'm across the border in Idaho north of Idaho falls. I'm about alittle over an hour from West Yellowstone and about the same from Dillon. We do have a similar climate.
Hello SisterPine, I live out side of Helena Montana. I would love writing back and forth with other Montanains (sp?). Meg Z that's a great idea. So how do you start a group in yahoo?
Hey I went to yahoo and found 2 montana homesteading groups. http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=Montana+Homesteaders
I'm in Great Falls -- deifinitely not in the mountains, but the Highwoods are only half an hour away, and I can see several mountain chains and the Rocky Mountain Front from around here. We run a greenhouse. Being at a lower elevation, our warm seasons are *slightly* longer than those in the mountains, but the gumbo (clay) makes gardening challenging. Since we're on the edge of one of the larger towns, there's no lonely except the one we make ourselves; but it would still be nice to hear from all you others!
