I was listening to this podcast on the way in today. Taxes, maintance cost, acreage that is build-able, among other things are big considerations. More information is good, and while I don't necessarily agree with everything in this podcast, I am considering each topic they discuss carefully.
One of the problems I face with finding a home is the life I love is literally miles from nowhere. I spend so much time wilderness camping where often the nearest house is five miles or further away – and sometimes further. Usually the same is true with other campsites – miles away.
There is just very few places anywhere near the city that is like the life I spend up in the wilderness. Places where I can burn stuff and shoot as much as my heart desires without any neighbors nearby. Where I don’t have to think about how much noise or smoke I create.
It just seems like every house and land you look at is nearby another house, anywhere near the city. Maybe country lots are slightly larger than your typical suburban and urban lot but not by much. There is some half decent places but they’re all on the border of too far to reasonably commute on a daily basis.
The truth is that I need to look west where there is more land and things are more spread out. But that is going to take a complete reboot of my life, starting from scratch and that isn’t easy either. And it’s damn scary too.
Known as "The Legendary Black Redneck," Joel Patrick is a young black conservative influencer heralded by the right after criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement in a viral video. But after making a video criticizing the capital insurrectionists, he was suddenly ostracized by thousands in his online community and even lost close friends. With only his infamous bright-orange lifted truck in tow, he now heads down to Florida from his hometown of Dayton, OH to attend conservative conferences and confront his former allies.
Tankless water heaters have long been a go-to for off-grid properties. They quickly turn propane into hot water, which is good. But I'm wondering about the pros of cons with solar and even batteries being so inexpensive these days - compared to a heat pump water heater or even a conventional water heater. Water heating is pretty energy intensive, but if you can do it with solar, it's one less thing to bring on the homestead. Not to mention the possibilities of traditional water heating using a solar collector, as has been popular with eco-conscious families and homesteads since the 1970s, though there yo uhave
I think my dream house or cabin would be as small as possible. As a single guy, I don’t need a lot of space, just room enough for a small table, a place to put a futon-style bed, a dresser, some room to hang clothes, have a stove and sink, a small propane heated shower, and a toilet or shitter bucket to take out to the outhouse.
I don’t really want or need a lot of space, because the more space you have, the more you need to clean. More space means more need for heating, more need for lighting and more room for stuff that will break. Fewer things, mean fewer things to fail and break and a simpler world to live in.
I look at horror with marble countertops and fancy carpets. So many things to break and fail. So many things I don’t think add much value to life. I don’t like complicated wiring or all that technology – especially nowadays when you can do almost everything on your laptop. I do like the big screen and a standalone keyboard but those aren’t something that take a lot of room. I doubt I’ll ever want internet at home, except maybe through my Smartphone.
You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to own my own Don’t Tread on Me Flag but was too embarrassed to spend the $8 to buy it.
I’m a life long liberal Democrat who loves guns and burning things that government is involved in too much in our private lives. I’ve always kind of liked the Tea Party message of defending the second amendment, individual empowerment and less government interference with the lives of private citizens.Government shouldn’t regulate individuals like it does large corporations. You might say my views are closer to Malcom X and Huey Newton then Donald Trump or Paul Ryan but I couldn’t find an inexpensive Black Panther flag that I liked. Moreover, nobody knows what the meaning of the Black Panthers is anymore. The Panthers flag just isn’t that nice color wise, especially next to my Blue Marble Earth Flag or now my Rainbow Flag. I thought about getting a Molon Labe flag but I didn’t like the colors or the military undertones. I’m not a war monger but I believe in citizen empowerment and the right of self-defense and self-reliance.
I’ve long flirted with the Tea Party because I love the Man (lol!) and his aerial highway patrols as much as the next person, but I also think that Obamacare has helped a lot of people even if I think that the subsidies should have been a lot more generous for middle class families. Why can’t government help people get healthcare and an affordable college education without spying on our emails or beating up on the farmers just trying to do their jobs? Animal rights and environmental extremists have gotten much too much control in our society today. People who are ill informed and act only emotion, have no role in our governing. I’m more concerned with air pollution from coal power plants and large landfills then marginal farmers in the mountains grazing cattle and rednecks burning trash and riding quads in the woods. Not every acre of land should be declared wilderness. We can have public lands with great backcountry camping and trails, hunting and fishing but we can also have logging and mineral production to help pay for upkeep of the land.
I believe we can have a government that works for the people and promote the common good without treading on people’s rights.
On Friday I went into the office rather than work from home with it being a cold and rainy day. I realize some days are going to be that way, but still it’s tough to be stuck at home in my relatively small apartment with not a lot of places to get up and stretch my legs. From a cleaning and maintenance perspective my apartment is too big, and indeed when I own my off-grid property I think I would want something smaller.
As a raw number, 500 square feet sounds big but it’s just 5 foot by 10 ft, in one direction too small for me to lay down. 750 ft is bigger than that, 7.5 ft by 10 ft but hardly expansive space. Even 1,000 ft is considered a tiny house by modern standards. But small is nice as it means less space to clean, less space to heat, and less room for clutter. If it can’t fit inside, it can fit in the burn barrel, the compost heap, the dead pit, the scrap metal pile or the landfill. There is just too much stuff in this world and industry is always pushing more on us.
If I had my way, I’d probably have a single room cabin which by definition is easy to clean, heat and maintain with no internal walls. Just room for a bed, a propane range and and oven, small refrigerator, woodstove, small wooden table and maybe my old rocking chair. A gun rack on the wall, a place for the solar batteries and maybe a dresser. And nothing more. A chest freezer for meat I’ve harvested is best stored outside in a shed with electric fence. Don’t need anything more. I’d rather do my business in a outhouse or external building incinerator privy with quick on propane heater, and likewise the same for showering. Keep the moisture and smells outdoors.
Space for stuff isn’t the issue. It’s space for stretching my legs on particularly cold and wet days that are inevitable in the woods. Wet days in the truck camper as claustrophobic, as the screen tent or under a tarp. I just like to have space to walk around indoors. Even my apartment seems too small to be cooped up all day. Maybe I’m just spoiled by downtown office hooked up to the Empire State Plaza and the half mile plus of tunnels. But I guess on a homestead there is always animals to feed and wood to split even on a rainy day.