How would you use this 20 acres of raw rural land?

[Judy]

Hauling water is the one thing I would not do. Otherwise it sounds like a dream to me. Can you have a well put in?

 

[Rozzie]

Couple of other thoughts: Would you be going into the city to work? If so, look for options to make showering / bathing easier so you have a bit less water to haul. Many truck stops have facilities you can use for showering. Campgrounds often do, as well. Whether or not you have to "pay" in order to use the showers varies. (At some, you could pay the $5-10 primitive camping fee & have access to water to fill your jugs/tanks & take a hot shower. In other places, it can be over $20 and would be ridiculous to pay.) Gym memberships, or a single one credit course at a nearby community college, also would allow you access to showers -- and a place to charge your cell phone, laptop, etc. Just use their library facilities or workout facilities while they charge.

This may be far cheaper than hauling water from a pay location.

Make sure you have ample cheap ways to access water before going to situation where you are hauling water! Definitely IMMEDIATELY start capturing rain water if you go to this situation. Use it for everything except drinking/cooking.

Another option is to have a big water tank installed and pay a company to fill it from time to time. This is not available everywhere, though.

Make sure you check the laws, too. These types of living arrangements are illegal in many places. Even staying in a camper more than a certain number of nights is illegal in some places, even on your own property.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Can you provide a googleearth image of it?

Before purchasing our little patch of heaven, we considered topography, orientation to sun and plant communities. Had vision but realities of land forced some modifications. Been fun every step! Except for oppossums; I wish money could be made off them because I would be rich.

 

[dewey]

Thank you for the replies -- great ideas and it's very

to see what you would do with it (or are doing with yours now)!

I also liked the compound idea (we have one here in town, but another couldn't hurt

).

In reply to questions...the cabin is an authentic Lincoln Log style cabin and is around 1500sf. It was a beautiful cabin and very nice until vandals stripped it inside, including the wiring, and also tore off the porches and tore down all the out buildings and pens. It's only a shell now. It was well built and a comfy home years ago for the previous owners who raised their family there. They used generators for electricity and hauled water for their gardens and livestock.

We wouldn't mind squatters.

It'd be nice to have caretakers there.

A nice garden would be great although a cactus or tree farm might be all the farming that would fly....family owns a 2000 acre hay ranch in another state and that's all the hay and large scale farming anyone wants to see after summer cutting's done there, lol.

I wouldn't mind hauling water with the right set up. Did that for a long time on a different property here. Another one had a well which made things a lot easier, though, lol.

txhomegrown, I hope you get it all set up the way you want and can get started soon. We have several RV's that could be moved onto this place, and it's a good time to buy RV's cheap...and you mentioned tents, have you seen the medium-duty one (10x16?) for like $90 at wally world? A year ago I picked up another RV 35' long for $500, old but perfectly livable...figured it would also be handy for storage if ever needed.

We do have generators, some food storage sheds, trucks and hauling trailers, and roughing-it type gear. As for me, I'm a little older now, kids are grown, and really roughing much beyond a few days camping at the dunes isn't much appealing to me, lol. I do have medical issues so reliable water and power would be a must. It'd probably take $3K to rewire the cabin and fix it livable (family trades), and about that much more for water storage.

Goat farming would be great, too.

Wouldn't take much to run hot wire & cross fence some areas.

 

[dewey]

Quote:
Good suggestions. We've owned it for years now, it's paid off, and residential (homes, RV's, or MF homes), horses, cattle, any livestock are allowed. There's nearby cattle ranches and residences (several miles away). It's 15-20 minutes away from a convenience store and very upscale custom homes with a golf course, waterpark, etc. Probably sounds weird but places are like that around here.

 

[dewey]

Quote:
Can you provide a googleearth image of it?

Before purchasing our little patch of heaven, we considered topography, orientation to sun and plant communities. Had vision but realities of land forced some modifications. Been fun every step! Except for oppossums; I wish money could be made off them because I would be rich.

Haha, here it's coyotes! And nearby mountains and miles and miles of undeveloped land means bobcats along with other things.

There's just a tiny runoff that runs through part of it, usually dry of course until monsoon floods or other heavy rains. Even then always no problem getting across. The cabin is up on a 3' tall stem wall. We build bridges, among other things, so a bridged moat wouldn't be out of the question if ever needed.

(ETA...yes, aerial maps were done, we've been here and owned the property for years and know the surrounding lands like the back of our hand. Aerial maps are

. )

Your patch of heaven sounds great. Do you raise livestock there?

 

[dewey]

Quote:
Inexpensive sure is the way go. We do have RV's that could go on it. Although, there's a house (cabin) shell on it that wouldn't take too much to get spiffy again.

 

[dewey]

Quote:
Solar panels on the roof for limited power. Bee hives in the yard and a helluva garden.

My idea of paradise. Are you willing to take on squatters, as I can put in a wood stove (deadfall on 20 acres will keep me warm into perpetuity), get the septic hooked up, and I come with my own bees, seeds, compost secrets, and chickens and goats.

Land... the only thing God is not making more of.

Pricelesss.

You're invited.

 

[dewey]

Quote:
We've had a couple of out of town folks ask about hauling in & holding their cattle on it, others wanted to do a commune type thing but our liability would have been too much.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Raising chickens and fish (bluegill now). Will be keeping a couple American milking devons and four nanny goats to manage pasture for free range chickens. Will get a couple behives from brother next spring. Hope to have about four acres with fruit trees and fruiting bushes to be developed over coming years. Will be putting in several wildlife ponds for amphibians and another specifically for aquaculture.