Okay, so the short version is – no sale.

The biggest issue was that once you made your way through all he other lots that were for sale to get to the one of interest, you were pretty high up and the road was the only flat spot to be had.

On the bright side, there was plenty of elevation drop for the creek to facilitate minihydro, and the property was bordered on three sides by national forest. Also, the main access from the public road had a nice small bridge that could easily be removed to limit access.

It was approximately 40 miles from town, so not too far for convenience, but it was far enough up Ninemile Creek that you weren’t going to get a lot of traffic up that way.

Since I’m not going to grab it, here’s the details for those of you who are curious.

This lot was part of about a dozen that were for sale,  but this was the only one that was surrounded by national forest. The other lots were interesting, but they didnt offer the privacy I wanted.

So, the search continues. Im not bummed out by t, I expect there to be a lot of ‘not quite’ before I find the right one. And although I would like to get it done sooner rather than later, every week that goes by gives me more money for a purchase.

So…still looking. This piece was the one closest to my location that I’ve come across so far.

Every time I get optimistic about a piece of property, it sets off a flurry of background activity in my brain. I start thinking about construction techniques, power generation, privacy issues, water procurement, septic management, vehicle and foot access, square footage, and, of course, how to pay for the darn thing.
Im heading out to look at this property tomorrow and its going to be a bit of an adventure. It’s past a locked gate, which is nice, but the roads (and its a very generous thing to call them ‘roads’) might be challenging. The realtor said they had to chainsaw some trees out of the way to get down the road. Interesting.
As I understand it, we will most likely be able to drive in a ways and then have to go the rest on foot. Not a problem…just pack a bag, grab the GPS, lock and load, and off we go.
Last property that I was interested in enough to go look at was a non-starter because of the road access. This one might not be as bad. Its a county road up to the gate, and then its a matter of some logging/mining road/trail for about a mile. After that, it branches and then its about 300 yards to the edge of the property. That 300 yards might be overgrown-needs-to-be-reclaimed ‘road’ or it might be hospitable to a small pickup. We’ll find out. However, I fully expect that, if this comes to pass, a 4-wheeler (or side-by-side) is going to be in my future.
Theres a lot of things to consider before pulling the trigger on something like this. I can only really afford to do it once so I’d like to get it right the first time. I need to see if the terrain is amenable to building, what the access is like, etc, etc. Lotsa things to factor in. Some are dealbreakers, some aren’t. Some can be mitigated, some can’t. There’s no way to tell from just a Google Earth view and some photos that were cherry-picked by the realtor. Just gonna have to do boots-on-the-ground.

This weekend I’m going to go look at a property for sale. You know it’s gonna meet your parameters about remoteness and lack of people when the realtor strongly advises you to bring along bear spray. I, of course, will err on the side of caution and bring Best Millimeter and an HK91.

This particular property is close enough to where I currently live that I can go there on weekends and not spend all weekend driving, but far enough that if things get hairy youre gonna have a helluva time getting to me.

Its priced in such a manner that, if I like it, I may be able to swing the adjoining parcel as well and buy myself some buffer against future neighbors.

We shall see. I’m heading out there Saturday and it should be a bit of an adventure.

Still hunting for property. It seems like whenever I find something that looks reasonable, there’s some little thing that queers the deal. And, before everyone chimes in with ‘perfect is the enemy of good enough’ or ‘if you wait for the perfect piece you’ll never find it’, I’m quite aware of that, thank you. However, there are some things that I’m simply not willing put up with.

Whats the criteria? Well, theres a couple things:

Minimum of 20 acres – Way I see it, this gives me enough space for privacy and various additions to the landscape as I see fit. I have no upper limit except for what I can afford. Im willing to go down a bit in acreage if it gives me something that is of paramount importance –  running water, pond, a spring, well, mineshaft, caves, etc. A 35-acre parcel with no water vs. a 17.5 acre parcel with a year-round spring? No contest.

Price – I’m really trying to keep it below $200k, but I can stretch it maybe 10% if something is really attractive.

Roads – Absolutely dont want a piece that is bisected by a road. I’ve seen quite a few properties that seem ideal and then you look at an overhead view and there’s some road running right down the middle. I have found a couple pieces where the road either dead ends at the property, which is rather nice, or the road paralells one side of the property which is acceptable. What I dont want is a road cutting the property in half so every Billy Bob in the county can go roaring across my property at 3am.

Neighbors – Obviously the fewer the better. One thing Im noticing is that a lot of people build right on the edge of their property line so as to butt right up against the piece I’m looking to buy.

Terrain – I dont want something thats all vertical, and I don’t want something that is basically a parking lot with grass. A little rolling is ideal with some high points and flat spots. Trees and more trees.

Elevation – I’d like to keep it below 5000′ and certainly not up near 6000′

Proximity – I need it to be within reasonable (2-3 hours) of my current location so that I can reasonably get there on weekends and days off to perform work. There’s plenty of stuff six hours from me, but I need to be closer for the purpose of working on the place on the weekends. And, while Im not living here forever, I can’t just pull up stakes and move to an empty stretch of dirt. There’s that ‘in between’ time where I’m going to have to live here, and work on projects there…..and that means the closer the better, within certain parameters.

So, its a bit of a balancing act. For example, I’ve found a few pieces that were hundreds of acres within my price range, but they are basically flat-as-a-cookie sheet prairie where you can watch your dog runaway for three days. Nope, want more timebr, cover, and terrain.

Contrast that with the place that had lotsa trees, a year round spring, privacy, but was all vertical…an entire sloping side of a mountain.

And the place that has 20 acres, a developed well, a two-car garage on a slab, fiber internet, and phone. Annnnnd….neighbors butted up right against the property line with a huge house and several garages.

Like I said, I understand that ‘perfect’ may not exist. I am willing to accept 95%, 90%, or maybe even 85% of what I want. But…there’s some stuff that is just a dealbreaker.

I can only afford to do this once, so I wanna make sure I get it right the first time.

I’ve mentioned a few times that I dabble in ‘the market’. A bunch of those investments spat out some dividends Friday and about half of that amount gets funneled into the Land Purchase fund, and the rest gets reinvested. So, as a result, I’ve got a little bit more money to put towards getting a chunk of nowhere.

Unfortunately, this late in the year, it is unlikely I’ll be able to actually go walk any potential acquisitions. I cannot imagine that buying a piece of property that you viewed when it was under a foot of snow is a good idea. It does, however, give you some information on how accessible that place is in the winter, but I need more info than that before plunking down a hundred grand.

While I like western Montana for its mountains, and disdain eastern Montana for it’s flat-as-a-cookie-sheetness ( you can watch your dog run away for three days over there, its so flat) there is lots land between those two extremes. I’ve seen quite a few listings just west of Great Falls in the Cascade area that look interesting, and even some up near Choteau and Augusta, but nothing that ticks off enough boxes on my want list to make a trip there to look. Closer to home, the Helmville and Drummond area have some stuff but now youre up in the 5000′ foot range and snow is a bit of an issue at those higher altitudes, along with a shorter growing time.

I did see a very nice chunk up north of here but it was, unfortunately, on the reservation and I am not touching that with a ten-foot pole. Regular local politics is a clown show, tribal politics (and its racial overtones) are just pure anarchy.

Ii don’t mind waiting until spring to get ‘more serious’ about a purchase. It gives me more time to put together more money, and it also gives me time to explore more possibilities online. However, I’m getting older and I don’t want to be too old to enjoy a piece of land when I finally get it. I really hope that next year is the year I take this step and then can get started on the headache of infrastructure.

Speaking of, I did see a piece of property that was almost a contender. It was in an area that a fire had gone though and wiped out. The trees had started to comeback, and the property already had a well and septic on it, as well as a couple foundations where the buildings used to be. I passed on it for reasons, but here it is if anyone is curious…

Before you say anything, I fully recognize that it is unlikely (but not impossible) that I’ll find a piece of property that is 100% of what I want, and I’m okay with that. I can live with 90-95%. Or if theres an outstanding feature that makes up for a lack of another, I might even be okay with 85%. But I can only really afford to do this once, so I’d like to get as much of what I want as I can on the first go round. So..the hunt continues.

A while back I looked at a piece of property that had the acreage and distance that I wanted in a piece of dirt, but one of the tings that queered the deal was the road.

See, I don’t mind a piece of property that says in its listing “have to snowmobile in in the winter”. I have no problem with that. I have a fantasy of taking a week off over Christmas and ensconcing myself in my cozy little casa and watching the snow pile up outside as I listen to the fire in the woodstove crackle and I enjoy the utter lack of people.

But the problem is, while that sounds awesome there are other things to consider. If youre buying a piece of land with the intention of building on it, you need to get things there. And while a barely-a-road is great for keeping the Golden Horde at bay, it works against you when it comes to things like well-drilling rigs, propane trucks, cement mixers, prefab concrete septic vault flatbeds, cranes, and a bunch of other rather large and cumbersome vehicles that youre probably going to want to have to make things easy.

Could you build your dream bunker using just supplies you haul in on a small trailer on the back of your four wheeler? Sure…I’m sure it’s been done. But your expenses are going to multiply at an exponential rate. A dozen ten mile round trips to haul what could otherwise have been done in one fell swoop with a large flatbed truck  is an expensive way to do business.

And so, we are back to the survivalists dilemma – you want remote enough to give you privacy and keep folks away, but you need it to have a level of accessibility that directly results in the opposite.

I suppose one tradeoff is to lower your expectations – either on the privacy and remoteness, or on the grandeur and scope of what you plan to build.

Of course, people will start mentioning in the comments how there are super 4×4 trucks that can navigate a 90-degree incline and climb hills that would freak a yak. Well, that may be true…but the odds that Billy Bob’s Well Drilling or Guido’s Concrete Pumping in the middle of Sheephump MT has those is….slim. Now, another option would be that you have a decent road to get in the vehicles and equipment you need and then once thats done you make the road indecent. There’s a thought.

And let’s not be confused…a simple dirt road is fine. There’s a lot of equipment that can be brought in on a regular dirt road. I’m talking about a road that is rutted by cattle, poor drainage, and a host of other factors…in addition to being narrow and bracketed at points by trees right up against the edge of the road.

So, what I’m saying here is that something I hadn’t thought about factoring into the decision process was the accessibility of heavy vehicles and equipment. Look, I love the idea of being far enough back in the sticks that every yahoo without a 4×4 is gonna look at the route to my place and go “Yeah, no.” But I can’t afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars doing some logistical workaround to a problem that is avoided by simply not having a goat trail for a road.

That property I mentioned in the previous post? Its now under contract. (Not me, btw…)

So….

Which one of you savages snapped it up?

I’d mentioned a while back that someone I know was living in a not-quite-tiny-house. The interior dimensions, I believe, were something like 17’x15′, including a closet and bathroom. There was a sleeping loft upstairs and despite the small size, I thought it was rather adequate and comfortable for one person. A small enough footprint that you could tuck it away somewhere ‘just in case’ but if you had to spend a winter in it you’d be comfy and not get claustrophobic. They were nice enough to send me some pictures, so I thought I’d share. Keep in mind, this doesnt really meet the definition of a ‘tiny house’ but it is very compact and, in my opinion, efficient.

The kitchen sink doubles as a bathroom sink, which works surprisingly well. There is no stove, which I thought was odd, but a couple electric conduction hotplates (as well as a microwave or instant pot) bring up the kitchen features.

For someone like me, who doesnt really care about aesthetics or decor, its enough space for me to line the walls with wire shelving full of supplies and gear and still have space to live and sleep. For two people…well…they better be pretty close.

This particular place has no basement. If I could, I’d build something like this as a hidden getaway but build it on a basement for storage purposes. But, still, I rather like this little place. It’s in someones backyard in town so it has sewer and electric, but I would think a small place like this would function in an off-grid environ as well.

This is the only house like this I’ve gotten to actually examine close up. For one person who doesnt want anything glamourous it seems pretty nice. Its inspiration for future projects, methinks.