How remote should a homestead be?

[Tuckahoe]

How remote does a homestead need to be? Does it have to be in the middle of nowhere? We have a 10 acre mini farm in eastern NC. We are five miles from a small town (gas station, grocery store, small hardware, bank, dollar general store) We are over 20 miles from a city with 5000 people.

[TNDadx4]

It really depends on why you have it.

Did you move there to be away from the city crowds, collapse of the economy, nuclear terrorism, etc?

Do you need access to electricity, medical care. etc.?

All of these and more should be considered.

Generally speaking, I look for something far from "potential or major targets" (Big cities, stadiums, power plants, dams, bases) that is also not along the probable path that people will take when leaving the city en masse during a crisis. Also, I am not near any hurricane prone areas or railroad tracks (chemical spills, etc.).

All that being said, I don;t believe that any location has everything. It really does depend on the scenario that you are preparing for. If you're just looking for a quiet place to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city while being close to some of the comforts that you're used to, while realizing your dream of self-sufficiency, then you may already be where you need to be.

That's just my .02 :)

[Shamrock1121]

I liked what TNDadX4 mentioned about "potential or major targets". When I was a kid in the 60's, we lived near a town that had the largest runway in the US (also an Air-Base), and my dad delivered mail to the Atlas missile silo sites all over the central Kansas area. Where we lived was pretty remote - until you factor in the largest runway and missile sites. :o

Your age and health may also be a factor you would want to consider.

-Karen

[Tuckahoe]

We are about 35 miles from the largest USMC base in the world. Should I worry?

[jen_in_southtexas]

My place is 13miles from the city limit of about 1200 population. I am about 40minutes from a big city. My place is way out there. The only people that pass by are people that live down the road. I like it there.

=j

[TNDadx4]

Tuckahoe: If you are 35 miles out, depending on wind patterns (for nuclear hits, if that's what you are worried about), you should be pretty safe. I would keep in mind that there is no place that is 100% perfect and we can't plan for everything as much as we'd like to.

I see from your profile that you are a Christian. Keep the faith and Jesus will see you through no matter what happens.

I hope that this helps.

[kawalekm]

Another factor to consider is the possibility of future growth. In the area around our house I see the remnents of old farms where the family has sold off all the land except a tiny nucleus around the family house. It's silly to look af some of the huge farming implements parked in the back that the family has held on to, when today the whole thing is surrounded on 4 sides by housing developments.

That was a big factor in selecting our homestead far up a dirt mountain road. I didn't want to see a Walmart parking lot on my property line in 5 years! That gives us lots of privacy, though the down side is that we're an hour away from the nearest medicial services or fire station.

[GoodDaughter]

There is a lot to be said for both sides of the argument. Where I am now (home and land paid off seven years ago) has always been very conducive to my self-employment, because I am about 20 miles from a city of 25,000 and another 20 to a major city. My neighborhood is rural but it only takes a short drive to get to all the grocery stores and everthing else. Good for business, bad for peace and quiet.

I have a nice chunk of land in another part of Texas which is very rural. It is 15 miles to a very small town that doesn't have anything other than a convenience store/gas station and a little cafe. Next largest town which is the county seat, is another 15 miles, give or take. Not much there either, except police/State Trooper, ag extension office, tax assessor and all the rest of the county government offices.

I have started building a cabin on this land, but it's going to be a slow process. The main reason I think I want to live there is because it's quiet. No noises of neighbors (there aren't any for at least 3 miles). The only traffic noise is from the road, which doesnt' carry a whole lot of traffic. Only occasionally can I hear airplanes from the metroplex, but they're so far up the sound is barely audible.

I know this doesn't answer the OP's question, but it's the reason I want to live in a much more remote area. Peace, quiet, air that smells like grass or cedar and not petrochemical drift. No blaring stereos from inconsiderate punk kids. A place where I just have some room around me and don't feel so crowded. I don't care for crowds.

[LeatherneckPA]

This is a question I am currently wrestling with as well. So far, I have decided that this is a deeply personal issue. Some might think less than 10 miles to all major services is about right. Others may think that if they heard a car today it's getting crowded.

What I have come up with so far, for my preferences, is 10 miles to a town with at least one grocer, one bank, one doctor, and a hardware/ag store seems about right. Major medical, malls, and Wal-Mart should be within an hour's drive. An airport can be as far as three hours away. That ought to about do it.

[WileyCoyote]

When I looked for our homestead, I found many places that were 'in the middle of nowhere' - the closest town with a grocery store was an hour's drive.

We bought on the edge of a small town with 125 people. It has a small hardware store, a feed store, a restaurant/bar, a convenience and gas store, and a bank. The closest medical care, grocery store, and large equipment stores are 48 miles away, in a town of 2800 people.. several hours in snow, all lined up on a state highway. The closest Wal Mart is 180 miles, the closest interstate 80 miles. Our property expands to the north of town.

We moved here because it was the most property we could get for the money we had to spend, and also because they have no ordinances - none. We can build or do whatever we want as long as we don't inflict ourselves on other people. The water is pure and clear. The land is amenable for what we want to do. The people are friendly but mind their own business. The traffic on the State highway is almost nil. There are no jobs in 100 miles that draw illegals, and no places that accept non-workers. We are three hours from a small military base and tiny airport (the airport only accepts small prop-engine commuters from Denver, an hour and a half by flight away). Any terrorist would be ashamed to try to cause havoc here; there is simply no one to intimidate. ;) ;D Folks here carry guns as a matter of course. At night all you can hear is the crickets or the locusts, and the coyotes in the hills.

The more skills you have to not only survive on your own, but to use as self-employment when you need cash, the further out you can go. The more dependent you are on grocery stores or repair shops or medical care, the closer in you should live. I order many of my supplies off of the internet, and went to town for the first time in three weeks yesterday because hubby had a doctor's appointment. I have been busy baking bread, canning, cutting wood, cleaning and organizing, and prepping the garden and chicken yard for next spring! Also ordered my overwintering onions for planting; getting their bed ready now. "Going to town" is a pain in the whoosis now.

[TNDadx4]

WileyCoyote - It sounds beautiful!

We can hear the interstate (~4 miles away) at night time, but mostly, it's really quiet and peaceful. The stereos that GoodDaughter mentioned make it around here now and then, but very rarely. We are more likely to have motorcycles race down our closest main rd.

[Tuckahoe]

Wiley, You are remote. We are 25 miles from Walmart, 20 miles from I-40. Our nearest town only has 900 people. We have a great school too.

[bassntrout]

Unfortunately, it never seems to be far enough for some peace and quiet! ;)

[Catalpa]

Unfortunately, it never seems to be far enough for some peace and quiet! ;)

Ain't that the truth!!

[Justacowboy]

Our place is 8 miles from the pavement and electricity... 20 miles from a small town.. just one family owned cafe and a post office and about 70 miles from a walmart totally surrounded by forest service so no neighbors to speak of... not living there full time yet but hopefully in the not too distant future..

[WileyCoyote]

DH and I walked up on the last ridge today. This is quite a walk for him, a 20 acre trek straight out from the back door. We wanted to check out the gully. Previous owners used it as a dump site, and it is full of "stuff"... old shingles, old kitchen/bar equipment, lots of dried out tree limbs/stumps, boards, shelving, pipe, cow and antelope skulls, even a small wooden building! A treasure trove for a dumpster diver like me. It's still a little warm here (90s) but when it cools off we'll be going back down to it and digging stuff out - firewood for the stove, of course, and the old boards for building, and even the metal to haul to "town" and the recycling plant. There's a lot of carpet back there too; might come in handy, folks here put it between garden rows to keep the weeds down. It is inaccessible by a vehicle, even a 4WD truck, so we will have to get a 4wd ATV with a bed to haul out the stuff (which we are planning on anway). The horses nickered at us as we went by them in one of the valleys (yeah, I'd harness a sled to them to get the stuff, but they are only renting the pasture - not ours) and the only sound was the wind in the wild oats. So peaceful and still. It wasn't until we got halfway back that we could hear the school band practicing!

There is an old well with a broken up cistern two hills back; we studied it today too. When we put the cows out there (in three years) we may restart it. The eight foot long stick in the rusted pipe was wet at the end. The cistern is stone but has mostly filled in with dirt; I'd have to do some digging to see if it can be fixed or will just have to have a trough put in.

While we like the minimal 'bustle' of our tiny town, we can get away from it so easily. And the kids here don't drag race around the school, don't have boom boxes blaring in town, don't have their pants down around their knees (makes it very hard to rope and ride, which is what many of them do once the last bell rings). The peace on our property is simply wonderful. Yet having neighbors to wave to from the porch and yard is comforting, too!

[9er]

I'm ten miles from a Nuclear power plant and 20 miles from Detroit. Believe it or not, I'm out in the country. As long as the farm fields are bought up for subdivsions, life is good for me.

[cinok]

Some of the concerns are medical care which can be remided with a good first aid kit and first aid training. You could take a first responder course or most comm colleges offer anEMT program.These skills and a good kit are also useful during a SHTF/EOTWAWNI. Also remember a helicopter ambulance subcription (you pay a monthly rate and you call and they come.

[leera]

Ideally I'd like to be as far out in the sticks as I can get.......however,in reality we need to keep in mind my DH's medical issues,and should not be more than a 30 mintues drive to a hospital that can handle his needs.

Where we are currently wouldn't be bad if had some property,right now we're in town,in a dinky little trailer park......

We have the financing all set to buy a house,just having a hard time finding one that will go FHA in our price range.

I'm 30 minutes from work and 15 mintues from a large hospital(which unfortunately we've gotten to know pretty well),I do most of my shopping in a city that's 15 minutes away,as we don't even have a small grocery store here anymore.

9er;I know just about where you are....I'm 20 minutes southeast of Lansing here.

[Lobo]

WileyCoyote,

You have the dream home I would love to get someday. I was on a place in northern ME that was 3 hours beyond the paved road and loved it! My nearest human neighbors in the winter were about another hour further away.

Lobo

[cabinman]

As has been stated this is a very personal question. I also think that there is a direct correlation between how self sufficient/self reliant you want to be to how you remote you can/should be.

Also are you in survivalist mode? or just want to grow your own food and be fairly self sufficient? There are many degrees of homesteading.

I can see for some being totally self sufficient within a small rural village, while others would want and need to be miles out into the wilderness.

I guess there are different answers for different folks. :)

[flatwater]

A homestead is more in the mind then in the location , so it depends what makes you happy. I personally like it out in the sticks but with that said you have to give up some things. It's a balancing act.

[firegirl969]

We live 10 miles between two small towns, and 40 miles from the next largest town that has Walmart, movies, restaurants, a mall. Our driveway goes between two pastures that are fully fenced and we have a gate that we lock out by the road. (Yes, I am sort of a hermit type.) Nearest neighbor is across the road, and they stay to themselves, but if we need them they are there, and vise versus.

[randallhilton]

How remote does a homestead need to be? Does it have to be in the middle of nowhere? We have a 10 acre mini farm in eastern NC. We are five miles from a small town (gas station, grocery store, small hardware, bank, dollar general store) We are over 20 miles from a city with 5000 people.

Fer 'nuf out is all relative and the more relatives you have, the further out you want to get. ;D

Our homestead is less than 4 miles from downtown in a rather major metro area. In other words, the burbs. We're working towards sustainable water and power, victory garden and chickens (we just fit within the zoning requirements for yard birds).

If you're familiar with "Where The Red Fern Grows" you might recall that Billy's mom considered it an answered prayer that his coon hunting venture earned enough cash to allow the family to move into town. I guess nobody is satisfied. ::)

I've seen estimates that over 80% of the population is pretty much tethered to town. In our case, moving out would sever quite a few benefits we have so for now, we're staying put. That doesn't mean my heart isn't out in the country -- I was raised out there but "out there" now has a Joe's Crab Shack, IHOP, Jack In The Box, several apartment complexes, a couple of housing developments -- all on my rabbit hunting territory.

If I were to move out, my main criteria would be to get beyond the light pollution so I can see the Milky Way and watch satellites pass. That pretty much means we would also be able to hear the night sounds as well as the waking of the wild in the morning (there's no better orchestra!).

I don't know that it's possible to get out far enough to be safe from crime. I have an acquaintance who had their farm house stolen. The bad guys just jacked it up off the foundation and hauled it away.

Out in the country, if your neighbor lights off a brush fire you could get into trouble fast. If you stick a pitchfork into your leg it's a long way to town for a band aid. And we would probably never heard of the Donner Party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party) if there were Wal-Marts along the way to Kalifornia. I think they were a little too far out.

If you have animals, who watches them when you go visit those city bound relatives or if you have to go to the hospital. If you go to town, can your significant other fend off the bad guys who know that 911 is a long distance call? But it sure is nice to be able to step off the back porch in your underwear without hearing the neighbors gag.

So how far out? It's up to you.

[txplowgirl]

That's what a .357 is for. Bad guys ;D

[tufhelp]

There is also the ratio of how old you are to how far you are from emergency services - As they say in Redrock, if you live out here, don't go hurtin' yourself...

We're just shy of 30 miles from a very small town and 60 miles to medical facilities. If you could stand the rough ride, there is a cross country route to hospital, about 30 miles on county barely maintained road.