Yonuh, my own two cents' worth frmo a "Yooo-ropean"   with a totally different mind set.

1st, WATER is more important that power. If you can't have clean, dependable running water for personal hygiene and cooking, you can't live there. Gone are the days of hand-cranked water pumps. You want to be able to have a decent showerm, wash you clothes and your food, keep the house clean.

2nd, Communications which means both television/internet and the all-important telephone. TV / Internet you can up/download via satellite, if cable is to expensive to deliver (nobody in his right mind would pay 8-10 miles of cable across the range). Here in Europe there are internet service providers who will provide a satellite link, which is just as good as medium quality DSL (meaning, 256-512Kbs speed) with a dish pointing to the stars.

3rd, power. I put this last because it's the easiest to procure and/or manufacture. The wise choice would be to be to build a house with a siamesed electrical system, start on grid, and create your off-grid generator. Gradually switch your devices from grid to independent as you progress, until you can safely live off-grid. Then do a serious, in-depth risk assessment and determine the odds of an emergency/convenience to be on grid once again, in order to boost power availability or use dedicated devices (even medical appliances) My advice, however, is never to kill off your contract with the local power grid; at bestm, re-negotiate your customer priofile so that, with zero consumption, you pay a simbolic petty fee for the sake of keeping your options open. Better safe than sorry.

We decided to get the land. We have made the deal and the contracts should be here sometime tomorrow or Monday depending on how slow the mail is.

Like I said before, it will still be a couple of years before we make the actual move.

Mpescatori:

We have researched the water and though we will have to have a well drilled between 100 and 150 feet which is actually pretty deep for a water well good water is still accessible.

For communication we still plan on having our cell phones, apparently there is good cell service out there.

As for power, I have already outlined our power solution, and we probably will be on grid at least until we get the solar and wind generation up and running.

Buy 2 or 3 old train boxcars or those shipping containers off a boat. Cost a little more than $1,000 a piece. Connect them together, stack one on end for a loft, frame the inside, wire, panel and you have a nice house for almost nothing.

hey yon was it you that built a windmill ? how did that ever come out??

stinger wrote on 08/26/11 at 23:52:43:


Definitely something to think about and do some research on, thanks for the idea.

Well,, toss me nearest town & general directions, Im anxious to see what youve found,, Im excited for you,,

Ill loook at that later, thanks.