Hey villager this is Henry again. Just from your description of the property and location trust me if you can do it on the property all the things to be self sufficient on the property in less than 10 years you have to know how to perform miracles. When I started on my property I HAD MY 3 boys (grown up and hard working) helping me and my uncle from Europe also helping me for a year. ( we were slavering ) .My property already had road and building site ready.
Further you go up north and more remote site you would not believe how hard it is to find good and reliable subcontractors or any reliable help. It took me good 15 years and very hard work (with my wife) and my boys always coming to help me to be where I am today. Also it took lots of money and I was preppering for it for many years ahead by buying tools, building materials, even clothing and small machinery like concrete mixer, shovels, hummers, axes ,chain saws. You will find out the hassle local authorities give you trying to get permit for doing what you want to do.
Of course also that time I was much younger , no way I would be able to do it now.
Almost impossible for one person.

Henry

Im in the huntsvillemare a few times a year. I don't know how mulch help I can be but I would like that place as a backup plan.

Sounds like you have found a very interesting place indeed, I know how much work you can get done, if you stick to it and go for it, its amazing how much time and effort some thing take when you are first starting out, that can be come second nature, the 2nd dozen or 2nd hundred time you do something LOL

Never give up on your dream, small steps can get you to amazing places, and if you can get folks to help, things can go so much faster, today I got together with a group of likeminded folks and we had one of our work bee's, today was canning, we had outdoor propane stoves running pressure canners, and we have chain lines on the prep-work, dozen and dozen and more dozens of jars of fall produce was done and put up in a single day, many hands make light work and the time fly's with the chatter and clatter.

Hey villager this is Henry again. Just from your description of the property and location trust me if you can do it on the property all the things to be self sufficient on the property in less than 10 years you have to know how to perform miracles. When I started on my property I HAD MY 3 boys (grown up and hard working) helping me and my uncle from Europe also helping me for a year. ( we were slavering ) .My property already had road and building site ready.
Further you go up north and more remote site you would not believe how hard it is to find good and reliable subcontractors or any reliable help. It took me good 15 years and very hard work (with my wife) and my boys always coming to help me to be where I am today. Also it took lots of money and I was preppering for it for many years ahead by buying tools, building materials, even clothing and small machinery like concrete mixer, shovels, hummers, axes ,chain saws. You will find out the hassle local authorities give you trying to get permit for doing what you want to do.
Of course also that time I was much younger , no way I would be able to do it now.
Almost impossible for one person.

Henry

Always good to hear from someone who has done it in that environment, Henry! ...and it's a credit to your family, too. Must have had many huge challenges.
If i have to do similar alone, i would find a smaller place, for sure.

My son is fairly savvy in many areas, nutrition, environment, etc., and will likely join me when he sorts out his partner-life.
Besides large scale gardening, i'm a contractor also, and have had most of the tools for quite a while, trailers, tractors, implements too......all gearing up for many years for this potential community....made up of screened folks as to their likeminded willingness.....not just in prepping. That is a given, but in other relevant ways/values, too.
The neighbor who took me thru the property on his wife's atv is also a builder, and i met 6 of his neighbors as they were warming up around the stove in the garage after coming back from the morning moose hunt.
I offered to pay him for the tour, but he said, "naw, it's what we do around here....help each other out". (He had no problems building his (conventional-type) house.)
Time will tell, but my intention is to blend with that kind of attitude there,...as i already do where i am, but focussing on different criteria.
As for local authorities/permits, in this unorganized township, remember that i don't anticipate septic or hydro hookup , ....only a well or 2.
Solar outhouse has been built for 4 yrs. stored at my rural garden space. I sold my regular cement mixer after my last cement-related job, and am watching for a 3-pth good deal, or making one. I won't likely have hydro up there for welding, but i intend to get a truck-driven alternator accessory welder from the U s . for smaller use.... ..selling my miller mig.

Hey villager that sounds good . If you ever make final decision feel free to PM me and drop to my place I would love to tell you all my mistakes I made and I am sure that would help you more than anything else. There are sure some things I know now that would do different if I do it again.
Henry

Hey Henry

Why don't you tell us all about the mistakes - it would be educational and valuable to most of us? I know I'd appreciate it!

Hey Villager,

I checked out the pictures. Looks like paradise if you're a hunter, but a nightmare for farming. Do you have any plans for the agricultural bent? Maybe they exist and you just didn't include them in the photo series, but I didn't see any pics of cleared fields or sowable meadows.

A mature forest isn't hard to turn into a plot of land, but all that bedrock looks... like a challenge.

Aquaponics would be better than farming and sowing for wild foods/herbs.

Hey Willager this Henry again. I hate to tell you but hopefully you see how fast you are loosing time. If you bought few acres somewhere in bush to start with by now you could have nice little cabin ready to move in. Maybe even a partner to help . In my opinion we are very close to something very serious to happen. ( I hope not , but the situation is telling me it is) .Trust me time is running out. Stop dreaming. Just being honest with my feelings.
Henry

I hope you realize that to develop virgin land into your kind of vision will take at least 20 - 30 years or million dollars. Talking from experience trust me.
hope you have the money or time and power.
Henry

Hi Henry: Yes, it could well be a million-dollar project, and/or variable combo of time/money. I can't imagine how i would rather use the time i have...for the benefit of those to follow.
I've initiated/participated in this direction before now and don't intend to stop.
I've been inspired by many examples over the years and by your own brief shared life-story not long ago. Thanks for that!
I look fwd to sharing more if/when i live closer 🙂

...villager

My sentiments exactly. I've no thought for myself. I will enjoy the time it takes to build up the property and train others while doing this. Life is a journey.

Hey villager. If you watch the news you notice that lot of young people now are leaving the colonies , and you are trying to put together people that mostly never even experienced real family life.
Please do not take it personally but years from today you will be where you are now. Trust me on that one.
Henry

Why are you negative Henry? Just because you can't live like this, doesn't mean no one can.

Blake,
Henry does live like that and has for years. In my opinion after meeting Henry, he is not being negative but the voice of reason. It is good that we have ideas but he has the experience to share.

I know of a couple of people that have tried and have ended up with burn out because the actual was harder then the dream. I know in my city life that I think something will only take "x" amount of time and I get disappointed in myself when it takes longer then I had thought it would. I image the same will happen when I start to build. So if you think something will only take 6 months, double it at least. The one property that I am looking at the people bought less then 6 months ago and already they are giving up. As far as I can tell, all they managed to do in that time was turn part of a barn into a living space. They did not even manage to get any of the land turned for planting, nor any trees planted, a walk way done....nothing.

I for one hope that Henry continues with his honest comments on how it really is to start. It gives me a chance to think a bit more, plan a bit more and hopefully be prepared for what will come.

I have been at it five years and does it ever seem endless. Villager will do fine if he finds just a few hard working souls to help out. Problem is finding even one hard working soul. People are always commenting about how hard working I am, but I feel I am slacking off. I am nothing like my parents and neighbors were when growing up. I would be ashamed of my efforts if Aunt Bertha and Uncle Alan were to rise from their graves and visit.

Henry talks negative because he knows first hand what it takes to get the job done and he has experienced first hand what a "bad situation is". I suspect he is also like me and knows how hard it is to find people people with the gumption required. I don't think he is against Villager's project, but more worried and discouraged that it won't get off the ground. Henry is old school, he tells it as he sees it, but he is always offering a helping hand so I don't believe he is trying to be negative; more just his way of encouraging Villager to keep on keeping on. Henry's advice is also aimed at trying to save Villager some back breaking work if he is unable to procure more people with the same backbone.

There are increasingly more and more adds on the internet by older people with land looking for help on the land in return for supporting them in their homes in their old age. Some of these offers come with contracts of land or total inheritance if the right people apply. It is taking years for these land owners to sift through the chaff and find people who are not just free loaders, but willing to put their backs into it and make a stable environment for all involved. What Villager wants to do is a huge undertaking that he needs to push as quickly as possible, but at the same time, needs to use caution and common sense. I am rooting for even a one man show as I like to know there are people still out there with the pioneering spirit.

Thanks Oldshool for understanding exactly what I mean. I am talking from many years of experience not just my own but also what I saw. I had a business for 20 years making cottage furniture. I met and try to help many, many people that had the same idea. Trust me I know what I am talking about. I can show you people that are doing it right now, after years of struggle are trying to sale the property.
Not trying to be negative but very realistic after experiencing it myself. That is why if somebody is interested I am wiling to sit down and discus all the obstacles and difficulties . It would be pages and pages to write it.
After about 20 yrs finaly I can say I AM INDEPENDENT, I AM FREE, I AM READY, I LEAVE MY DREAM LIFE.
Henry

To add in my .10 cents (inflation ya know)....and gonna try make this as short as possible.

Villager, boy oh boy..do not wait for others.....you may never find them.

I have to agree with Henry on that. Go... do what you can do, now.

It's work like most never dreamed...damned hard work!
The time flies by and you have no idea how it went by so fast. While that was taking place, so does your body age. With that aging, the body does not hold up as well as you'd like.
Your body in on a it's own time clock. When it punches out..be it thru over use of said body or thru arthritis or whatever that hits it....your time is up.
You can't roll it back.

Besides that (if that's not enough to contend with) at times everything, elements included, seems to fight against you.

How do I know.....?
That's how I have lived for years.....fighting to get things done.
Sometimes you get something done and Ma Nature throws you a fast curve and wrecks what you have accomplished... back to square one with lost time.

Then there is people.
Fighting to get others to get off their ninnies and pitch in if they want the benefits. How many has pitched in..? Very few, then they quit after they found out how hard it really is.

I have waited for promised help....never showed up. I wasted precious time while waiting. So I stopped relying on the.. "Oh yes I can come over to do that" even after an agreed amount of dollars were decided for a job.
Each thing that was supposed to be done, delayed another project, which in turn delayed yet another. It's like a domino effect. 🙁
Trouble is that time never came, but the seasons went and came and still nothing.
It really screwed up my plans big time and talk about missed opportunities. *sigh*

Had I known years ago, what I know now...I would have not involved others but struggled along to get what needed doing a different way. Many people have no idea and talk (promise) that they can do it and live it..but when it comes right down to it...they go poof!
But I will not give up...call it stubborn or whatever...this is my way of life.

I can certainly tell you time is often more precious then money. You can make more money, but sadly you can't make more time...nor slow it down. No amount of money will get back that time either.

Hope you listen to others with experience that has lived or living thru it and you (and others) see it as a guide and a benefit....not as being negative or a put down. 🙂

Hey OldTimeGardener just want to complete your comments AMEN. Thanks for putting it in more details and maybe more trust to it.
Henry