It is always getting harder and more expensive, but I truly believe that almost anyone who is physically capable of holding down a job could probably pull this off.
We got extremely lucky and got our land for relatively cheap at the beginning of the sale from a subdivision of a bunch of forestry land.
But it is not uncommon to find it even cheaper if you can look around in some of these tiny towns in the middle of nowhere.
We were on the other side of the country so we couldn’t really negotiate as we needed a place to land the trailer when we got here.
Other than that, we’re basically dedicating most of my salary to doing improvements every payday as we can afford it. I do make quite a good salary but nothing extravagant.
It’s much easier to not spend money when you have to drive 15 minutes to get a pop or some gas… So a lot of the total budget can go into improvements. And I am a pretty cheap bastard so a lot of it is cobbled together
But it will keep improving until eventually It feels like a real house. Or so I keep promising my wife… ;)
The chipmunks who will climb onto my lap to eat and the blue jays who scream every morning if I don’t bring them their breakfast, are the perfect balance for dealing with human problems at work.
Well then. Settle in. This story gets longer every time I type it.
Historically - my work has moved my wife and I around 2-3 times per year. Not just to different cities, but countries and even continents. At last tally we had lived in 8 cities in 3 countries across 2 continents, in ten years…
Then we got ‘stuck’ in Switzerland for 11 months due to covid lockdowns, on what was meant to be a three week trip, and I told myself I would never move again.
So when we got back to Canada I started looking in earnest for some cheap land to buy and just settle in. As it turned out, cheap land didn’t really exist anywhere with civilization, so we bought 6 acres of forest in the province of Quebec with a creek dividing it in half at the far end of a logging road 5km from any services.
When I say any services… I mean it. Our piece of land didn’t even have a driveway. So we started clearing small trees (we have a rule that any tree over 6-8inches in diameter earned their place, and we have to work around them) and got our travel trailer settled in.
We built some DIY solar to keep the lights on and phones/laptop charged. And I drove to the closest town each morning to check in with work and commit any changes I had made the night before and attend any meetings that couldn’t be converted into an email.
We then carved a few paths to get water from the creek, and dug an outhouse.
Over time we went from hauling buckets up from the creek and boiling them on the propane stove to do dishes and showered using bags hanging from a tree behind the trailer - to eventually having a gas pump and some garden hoses that we could fill the trailer’s tanks with.
Once we had the basics of cooking, heat, and waste taken care of I focused on building up the solar system to allow us to have actual internet service from Xplorenet satellite internet so that I could work from home instead of driving to town every day.
Then the work really started… Clearing land and building a small amish style shed (12ft X 28ft with a 4 ft screened in porch) and getting it insulated. We got the insulation done, and the woodstove installed just in time for the first big snow and moved into the tiny house from the trailer.
We then dug and installed our own septic system and built a 10x12 addition to act as a bathroom and put in an old clawfoot tub that we bought from an old guy on the side of the highway. I then set up a 12v PEX-based water system and propane camping water heater to service the bathtub and a kitchen sink.
It is primitive, and involves some prep every time we need hot water. But it is getting improved all the time.
At this point the hoses from the creek would freeze rapidly, so we replaced the system with two 1000litre IBC totes that live up against the house so we could fill them both up and put the hoses away instead of having to pump water daily.
After about 16 months of this weird 1880s lifestyle with internet access the power company finally agreed to come hook us up. And then life changed massively again.
We could now run our desktop computers, put immersion heaters in our water tanks, and generally spend less time worrying about things freezing or waiting for the sun to charge enough battery to run the vacuum cleaner.
I’m forgetting about 99% of the details here. I suppose at this point I should be turning this into a blog or a post somewhere… But that will have to wait for a time when daily life isn’t so much physical effort. I can barely afford the time to shitpost and leave snarky comments that I do now :p
This coming Spring will be time for a water well and starting the housing for a few chickens, ducks, and a goat or three.
And last but not least - The lights that brought me to this thread. Ignore the vapour barrier ceiling and unfinished walls. I’m working on it! Solar Lights as indoor lighting
Our little house in the forest started out fully off-grid for the first year. As a result of that our ceiling lighting is actually 4 strands of solar garden lights wrapped around the rafters.
It isn’t as bright as this aisle. But it is 100 individual leds strung up semi-randomly and has a similar feel.
I have been seeing a lot of posts that call out simple things like how I dress as indicative of being some MAGAt or bigot and I was just venting that out here. Like jeans and a plaid shirt with sunglasses are now the uniform of the standard racist asshole - But I don’t think it is fair to lump everyone in those clothes together. And if someone posted the same thing about a distinctly 2000s fashion, or dyed hair, they would get corrected quickly, but since my style is ‘old’ more people feel open to judging the book by its cover.
I did not mean to offend, or call you out personally, and I will try to be better about how I express these things going forward.
For reference - I am in my mid-40s, but I need my chain wallet since I bounce around the forest/homestead on tractors or dirt bikes a lot while building or doing chores, and would certainly lose it without some tether. I don’t have any excuse for my ponytail other than i have just always had it :p I’m sure baldness will end that soon too!
Why is it always ok to shit on chain wallets, long hair on a man, or any other non-political style choice?
I sponsor and attend protests - have done so since the '90s. I help out at shelters and food banks and soup kitchens. I champion the causes of all people who are oppressed or otherwise neglected by society.
But my fucking chain wallet and ponytail make me less of a person?