Moving off grid to the middle of nowhere is not for everyone. You need to look at your own circumstances and do what is best to insure your survival. If you are in a location offering relative safety and a debt free home, you are probably better off staying where you are.
But realistically how many people have their homes paid off and free from the threat of bank foreclosure? Do you? Most are a paycheck away from living in a cardboard box and turning tricks for food. If you were to lose your job where will you be in two months?
Then there are those of use who prefer to live a more simple life, to enjoy nature and avoid the stress that goes along with debt and the ungrateful widget of a boss barking orders while scrutinizing our every move.
Some of us simply crave the freedom that comes with living away from the masses and the watchful eye of neighbors. We find most people rather repulsive and prefer to avoid contact with them as much as possible, but have no way of paying for the farmhouse on twenty acres.
This is where the concept of junk land comes into play. It can be bought for little or next to nothing, compared to the tract in the suburbs or comparable rural farm land. Who knows you might be able to sell that bass boat or maybe the extra car for enough.
The problem with junk land is that it is less then perfect or it would not be considered junk. But the lack of perfection keeps the price low and within our means. After all if the land was desirable everyone would want it driving the price upward. No; when buying junk land you get less than perfection and the need for improvement.
Most property in this category will have been strip mined, clear-cut or be barren desert. Anything of any real value will have been removed years ago. You could get lucky and find that one in a million gem but don’t bet on it you will likely lose.
In my case I bought part of an old strip mine. The topsoil had been removed along with the coal years before. Trying to dig into the hard clay is like striking rock, forget about a conventional garden it is raised beds or nothing. I have been working on my “tire garden” since the start of winter and it’s finally ready for spring planting.
Don’t expect to be near the power lines. I am about a mile from the line and need to make my own electricity. This is not as complicated as it first seems, a few solar panels, batteries, inverter and a small generator will get you up and running in a pinch. Just don’t expect unlimited power.
My land has no water from the city utility. It is dry land, another reason it sold cheaply. For the first few months I hauled water in five gallon containers. This sucked and didn’t fit well with my plans of self-sufficiency.
For a time I even considered moving to a new location, then while out on one of my treks through the surrounding countryside, I discovered the most beautiful substance, water flowing from a hidden spring about three hundred yards from my trailer.
Walking in the area just about everyday you would think I would have spotted it sooner, but no I had never been past this exact spot, passing within twenty five yards on numerous occasions.
I dug around the source and built a retaining wall of concrete block to funnel the water through a two foot piece of PVC pipe, which makes it much easier to fill my jugs.
After trimming out a makeshift road from the trailer to the spring I can get my Chevy Blazer within seventy five yards from the spring, which sure beats the crap out of carrying it for three hundred.
Junk land is not the perfect solution but it may be the only one you can afford. With work, luck and determination you can turn it into a home. Just don’t expect perfection and be willing to make a few sacrifices and to do a lot of hard work before reaching that point.
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