Homesteading within 40 minutes of amenities

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frugalor

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Hi,

I am super new on the idea of homesteading. I have watched some youtube videos on it. One suggests that homesteading should be not too close and not too far from amenities, costco, walmart, home depot, hospital, dentists, etc.

Where would be some of the locations for this setting?

I want to homestead but still get access to high speed internet. Is this pretty easy?
 
I think the distance from ”amenities“ is a personal thing so its hard for me to tell you what to do as I don’t know your circumstances. I am a strong advocate of staying away from crowds and being as far away from civilization as you can be. This makes for long and carefully planned trips into town, and not being in the range of fire response or other such services.

I think the most important things are what the property has. Adeguate and unrestricted access to water, is the soil suitable for your intended purposes, if there are zoning restrictions, can you afford the property taxes, do you have neighbors and are they compatible with your intended purposes, are there commercial or business developments in the area that might impact what you want to do, weather, etc.

While distance to amenities is an important consideration, there are a lot of other considerations.

The lifestyle is a lot of work, and you will need to have a strong work ethic and a strong back, or a lot of money.

If you would be willing to share a bit more about the state and other factors, advice could be better tailored for your circumstances.

Best of luck!
 
Welcome to the forum from Oregon. We wanted to be an hour from a large city. We found a suitable property that hit all of our goals, water, southern exposure, semi lax building laws etc. However as we get older some of the things that come to mind are 15 miles from an ambulance. 30 miles to a hospital etc. As far as high speed internet we get our via cell tower.
 
I am in California. From what I can tell, California is not a good homesteading state. I think Oregon is one of the best states for homesteading. @Cascadian, what you said about ambulance and hospital is important. Where would be some of the homestead lands that can fit this criteria?
 
The best spot for someone in their 20s or 40s is a lot different than for someone in their 60s or older. As people age their health declines and access to medical facilities becomes more important. You do not want to drive 1 or 2 hours for doctor appointments. You really don't want to be an hour away from emergency medical care.
My brother goes to dialysis 3 days a week but fortunately, the dialysis center is only 5 miles away. If we had to drive an hour each way it would be our major activity for 3 days a week. There was someone on here that had to drive 4 hours to dialysis 3 time every week. That would be a 15 or 16-hour ordeal.
As for high-speed internet that will be difficult. We are close to a cable internet line but have not been able to connect yet. They are finally coming down our road so we should be connected soon.
Right now we have 3.5 Meg download speed and we are lucky to get that.
 
frugalor said:
Hi,

I am super new on the idea of homesteading. I have watched some youtube videos on it. One suggests that homesteading should be not too close and not too far from amenities, costco, walmart, home depot, hospital, dentists, etc.

Where would be some of the locations for this setting?

I want to homestead but still get access to high speed internet. Is this pretty easy?
Click to expand...
In my experience, that is a moving target.

I used to live there but then came the first traffic light. Not long after the loggers arived cut down the forest on the hill opposite mine. Then the earth movers... After that 800 housing units sold with the pitch of "wonderful view" (of my forest!).

6 generations of my family have slept under my roof and we are too old to move so we are staying put.

My 2 cents

Ben
 
"Dispose" of your assumptions, or at the very least examine them carefully. People are born and raised and spend their life attached to being near amenities. Now days you can have nearly everything you need delivered to your rural or deep rural, or out in the wilderness homestead. Reducing the number of trips to Walmart. Now this is "extreme" but I go to town for supplies and medical stuff once a year. But as I am in my mid 70's I am now planning to move to a small remote town, maybe something like Homer, Alaska.
 
I aim to go the traditional route. I will stay away from the amenities until I drop dead from a lack of them. It's a long day to get to the first town and back and even longer to get to one that has anything like a hospital to offer. I hope daily that they never get the bridge washout repaired, and no one will deliver or repair anything out here. I go to town with a truck and a sixteen foot trailer. At $5-6.00/gal gas, I make it count. If I need a bolt and don't have one, there is no running to the hardware store. Can you treat your own animals for what ails them or willing to do the dirty in bad times? If not, stay close to the amenities.

Is this a lifestyle you and your family could live with?

Most people will be happier and better off close to the amenities. They are not for me. To me they are an encroachment.
 
I once had the only home on an island. There was no power, phone, and my radio wouldn't reach anyone due to the mountain behind me. Satellite telephone back then was way beyond my means and said mountain might have blocked that as well. I loved the lifestyle

Today I'm in my 70's with multiple chronic medical conditions. I live in a single story house 10 minutes from a hospital and 5 to 10 minutes from most of my doctors. Three minutes will put me at a grocery store and ten minutes will put me at atleast 4 major grocery stores. An hour puts me at 2 Costco stores and if rumour control is correct a new Costco will be 3 minutes from me. Major medical is available in about an hour.

The amenities that I needed in my youth were far fewer than what I want today.
 
Have you ever lived without amenities for any length of time? Before committing to a course of action that may not suit you what about a test run?

Can you feed yourself and family without going to the store for the next 60 or 90 days? Try it now in your current situation, just don't go to the store, no more pizza or chinese take out either. For instance, can you cut your own hair or mend your clothing? Maintain your health needs? For months on end?

Don't forget your sanity! Most people are born needing to be around others to one degree or another. Some people have to be around others, constant contact or their "cheese will slide off the cracker" permanently. Other people are perfectly happy and content not speaking to another human for months. Which one are you? Or where do you fit between those extremes?

You can test most the conditions remote living would require in your current situation... You'll have a good idea of exactly how close you'll need to be to amenities without spending a dime.
 
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frugalor said:
I am in California. From what I can tell, California is not a good homesteading state. I think Oregon is one of the best states for homesteading. @Cascadian, what you said about ambulance and hospital is important. Where would be some of the homestead lands that can fit this criteria?
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Fugalor Oregon has very diverse climates ranging from 50 inches to about 10 inches of rain. What we did was pick several large cities and then look on the internet about them and surrounding areas. When you narrow it down take a trip and have a few places in mind. We contacted 2 realtors to show us properties in different areas. I can tell you one of the areas didn't meet our expectations at all. Almost all of the available land was on a slope. You can use sites like sperllings best places or citydata to find info on towns. It lists climate, politics, religion ethnicity etc. The place we ended up was the one we thought was out of reach but wanted to see anyways. As far as my location my neighbors told me after I moved in they hit their limit on californians. Good luck 😁
 
Back in the early 1980's our little group made some rules for the property we wanted to buy.
We decided it was best to be outside any major fallout area, at least 10 miles from any major roads, far enough from major population centers to allow for dispersion of the population, in an area that had natural concealment and big enough to house all three families. We found our spot and built on it. One of the families grew up and we lost one of our members to cancer. My brother is still living "on the mountain" which is a safe location but a hard area to grow crops.

I am looking for another spot well below the 5000 foot altitude of the mountain. We started with 125 acres and found out that it was too small for three families. I'm looking for at least 640 acres but it will likely end up bigger.
 
I got the farm or 2/5 of it. The day I was born it was two miles from two different small towns & twenty four miles from a city.
They all are creeping closer.
 
frugalor said:
That seems to be a good homesteading site, right? Is that a fair price?
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I don't mean to be disrespectful, or confrontational.....but you have a "LOT OF WORK" to do, especially as America is super high speed advancing on a big event. You will likely be stuck with your choice, suggest you spend the time doing research.

I would also factor in "Wildfires". And the communists state and large city governments, yes they are slightly junior to California in that area.
 
We'll it is less than a mile from the largest freeway in the state. That is a no go for most of us. It has many good qualities going for it fertile land, water rights are a huge plus. Medford is beautiful. I don't know how fast it is growing but Eugene is a little north and one of fastest growing cities in the US. As far as price I no idea. That is too much for me. We found our property on landwatch initially also. 14 acres for $135,000. It really boils down to what you want for your family. Find a reputable realtor and take a drive.

Here is a joke I told our realtor.
A couple says this place is nice but we really wanted something more expensive.
The realtor replies great I can show you this one again tomorrow.
 
frugalor said:
I have no idea about land prices, especially in Oregon. I did some search, and this seems to be very close to amenities: 654 Hartley Road

That seems to be a good homesteading site, right? Is that a fair price?
Click to expand...
Howdy from WA state. I agree with about everything the others have mentioned. Your character, ability, and knowledge should be your first indicators. (I am a "the farther from other people, the better" kind of person.) Amenities aren't high on my priority list. As far as the property you showed, it appears to be farm ground. I would question flooding. That area gets quite a bit of rain (usually.)
 
What are you planning to grow or raise so you don't have to go to Costco or Walmart? That should tell you how far away you want to be. Otherwise you'll be driving alot. I'm in a town of 800, mostly Amish. They have their own stuff here, just have to know where to look. Bartering is common. But even they hire a driver twice a month to stock up at Walmart that's about 15 miles away in a smallish city.
We're on 23 acres which is a tiny farm around here, but it is handy to have a little amish store in town. I'm usually in there a couple times a week for something.
 
A lot of good advice so far, but if you haven't lived in a rural area before, it might be a good idea to find a place to rent first, to find out if you like the rural life. I sometimes don't leave home for a month at a time.
 
I have an army buddy who has a ranch on the very eastern edge of Oregon. Very low population density, good water, great growing climate, etc. He says it’s perfect in every way except for the state politics. Says he feels like he is on a perfectly good plane that is purposely in a nosedive. He may be looking to sell…
 
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