buying property

[george hayduke]

Hey guys i don't really know how to word this but i will give it my best try. i've been testing my skills in the wild for awhile and feel confident now that i can handle the extremes. i want to build a log cabin in Alaska and live in it. if i don't build my own cabin i'd like to find some land with a cabin already built. i don't want to build it just anywhere in fear that ill be building it on someones land and i'll get bothered later on... so i've been looking into purchasing my own land and building a cabin. i was just wondering if any of you had any suggestion on finding property in rural areas. i need to find some cheap land but wild enough that i can forge for and hunt my own food to a degree. i also plan on harvesting some of my own food. i want my cabin to be as primitive as possible too. its not going to be some luxury suite but i will make it comfortable enough to call home.
i'm also just looking for some advice while surviving Alaska's cold winters. i've done it other times of the year, but never in the dead of winter. and if you have any other stuff to share with me please do.

[STB]

Hey
I sorry but i have no advise, but in a similar situation. Not really looking at Alaska, more northern ontario. Iv found some land 40 acres for 9000. Which does not seem to crazy and there are big plots. I was wondering what sizes some of you guys thought would be reasonable.
Thanks

[Gray Wolf]

I think there are a lot of things that you both need to think about:

If your going to keep your car or truck, then you need a road, if not you need a horse and pack mule, and know how to take care of them and their needs.

For any emergency's there will be no phone service or online service. You'll need a sat phone (regular cell won't work. Ham radio is an option) and a sat card for your puter if you want one.(for many reasons) but for all of these, how will you create electricity.

You'll need to be near a good clean constant water supply, very near.

You'll need an abundance of firewood and a place to keep it.(Preferably dry) without gas for a chainsaw, lots of chopping is needed, I do mean alot.

If your growing food, check how good the soil is, and the growing season, so you'll know how much land you need to grow your food to last through non growing periods.

What are the hunting laws, how will you keep or treat your meat for year round.

Your water supply must contain a good supply of fish. How will you keep or treat the fish for year round using. Unless your proficient at ice fishing. And what are the fishing laws.

These are just a few things, hopefully you get where I'm going at with the list you need to make, to help with your decision, even things like, soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, etc.
Most people take or overlook the simple things around their homes for granted. Go room by room and ask yourself what do I need and what can I truly live without. Are you going to make your own oils for your lighting from the fat from your kills?

You may decide that you want to live closer to a town, or neighbor, for some supplies etc.

Just think this through. JMHO But I've seen many, many people not make it after so much work and the expense of buying their wilderness dream land and home. Some even loose their lives when they didn't have to, from accidents and sickness because of the lack of communication abilities. Plan it all out on paper, every detail... Remember the average life span of people living even in the late 1800's out in the wilderness, was half of what the life span is today.

[george hayduke]

hey gray wolf thanks for the advice. i have been thinking this out for awhile. i'm very serious about it too. i've spent a lot of time thinking about this decision and i know its what i want to do. i know it wont be easy either. i've spent time alone in the woods before just never in the interior of Alaska during dead winter. i know what it takes to chop wood. growing up my great grand parents had a wood stove in their house until they died. i would have to chop wood for them. granted its not fun and its hard work... but i look at it this way, it beats the cubical 9-5 job stuck in traffic until 7:30 life.
starting out i'd like to have my cabin close to a small town in case i needed to resupply on small things. i might even keep my truck until i become comfortable without it. however, if i live say within a few miles of a small town i don't want to purchase that land. if i purchase land i want it to be further in the wilderness. i don't want to squat on someones land either. so i was thinking about looking into becoming a caretaker of someones land and cabin. does anyone even know if this possible? or does anyone tried to be a caretaker of someone else's land and they agreed you could live off it? i guess i could just by land close to a small town in alaska anyway. its not like there are very many people up there, plus i could sell it when i need too.
anyway- thanks for the advice again. i definetly want to get every detail of this right, i know i sound like im thinking out loud sometimes.

[Smok]

Gray Wolf is right about the wood supply , You should look up the PBS show about the 1860 pioneer reenactment , one thing they were judged on was if their wood supply would last the winter ...you would not believe the wood needed I cannot recall how much sorry could not help it

[Rick]

George, I would offer that you are looking at two extremes. On the one hand you don't want to be locked into a 9-5 with a long commute but the wilderness life you describe has the same sort of restrictions. You are offsetting a long commute with hours of chopping wood, etc. It that's your life style of choice then I applaud you for knowing what you want.

I just thought I would suggest a compromise. There are plenty of outdoor jobs for anyone who wants to step away from the 9-5. Wildlife services, guides, outdoor instructors, gear testers, etc. Just a thought.

If you are interested in purchasing government land then this link might help:

http://pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/fed_p...ndForSale.html

[wareagle69]

look up www.aloneinthewilderness.com

a guy named richard preonoke moved to twin lakes alaska in 1969 and lived there for 36 yrs. he was 52 when he went in and 86 when he moved back to california. great book and video, also ask owl girl about alaska.

stb. where r u guys from? where abouts in ontario r u looking to buy.maybe i can help if i know what u r looking for.

[STB]

Hey
This is a link of one of the sites we were looking at,
http://www.recreationland.net/recrea...eage_For_Sale/
The good thing alot of the land is within 45km of a town. Which you could walk two a couple time a year to get what you need and in the beginning this could be very useful. Really it does not matter too much where it is, as long as the price is reasonable. At first i was thinking the bc coast, you would ahve a supply of salt, long growing season and not much snow(just a **** load of rain). But northern ontario has land so cheap its really tempting. And that guy who went into alaska to lived reminded me of a book i read called lonesome lake of this kid(19) going into a bush near Bella Colla and living there for his holy life. And how he did it.

[wareagle69]

i like northern ontario, lots of land to live off of, decent hunting and fishing and woods lots of wild edibles and towns close enough to get supplies..

[george hayduke]

waregale69- thanks for the link. i am familiar with richard preonoke already, a hero of mine with out a doubt.

anyway- i've decided that its wiser to have a town nearby, say within a couple of miles in case i need to resupply or an emergency. i'm trying to find property in the northern part of the matanuska valley in Alaska. maybe something near talkeetna, alsaka is what i'd really like. i've also been looking at the interior of Alaska south of Fairbanks as I hear you can find cheap land around there. Anyway a couple more problems I am having is I want to find land that doesn't have a yearly tax to it. This has created some problems. And now since ive decided to be close to a town, finding land that isn't near anyone can be trouble too. i want to my cabin fairly distant from anyone else. i'm going up there for the solitude not to live in a neighborhood. thankfully upon arrival in alaska ill have someone to live with initially, and once i finally get up there i assume it'll be easier to find the land i need. i'm going to flying up there in the early spring.
anyway thanks for the suggestion guys, ill keep you updated. i really like this forum. lots of good advice on it.

[george hayduke]

Hey
I sorry but i have no advise, but in a similar situation. Not really looking at Alaska, more northern ontario. Iv found some land 40 acres for 9000. Which does not seem to crazy and there are big plots. I was wondering what sizes some of you guys thought would be reasonable.
Thanks

aye- i too am wondering what would be the right amount of land to buy. keep in mind i want to use this land to fish so ill obviously need a water source just for obvious reasons. it'll need to be clean too if i'm going to drink it. hopefully in alaska this wont be a problem. i also need enough land to hunt game and harvest as much food as i can during the summer.
im going to keep my truck at first so i can resupply but eventually i may have food brought into me a couple times a year and i can ration it. i'm pretty confident ill be able to pull this off. its not like im trying to go up there with just an ax and knife. as i slowly rewild myself ill slowly shred the modern conveniences i once needed. i see this as a long term thing. not anything thats going to happen over night even though i have experience surviving in the wild... i've never tried something for this long term.

[Canadian-guerilla]

Hey
I sorry but i have no advise, but in a similar situation. Not really looking at Alaska, more northern ontario. Iv found some land 40 acres for 9000. Which does not seem to crazy and there are big plots. I was wondering what sizes some of you guys thought would be reasonable.
Thanks

just a quick caveat on buying this land
1 find out if you will retain underground mineral rights to this land
2 find out if there are any mining companies/activity withing a 100 mile radius

i'm just mentioning this because,
i believe there is some gov't law
that states a mining company can explore
for minerals without the landowners permission
and this company can " explore " any way they deem fit
with no reimbursment to the landowner
i've been following the troubles at Sharbot Lake between the native
Algonquins and some money-hungry uranium mining company

other than that
40 acres for $9000, sounds pretty good

[STB]

Thats a very good point i did not even think about. Ya so far this is one of the betetr areas for price. BC way too much money, but best growing season, ontario good prices alright growing season, lots of animals up there. And too me alaska out of question(being Canadian) and the yukon would be cheap and such, but very short growing season. So now i just need to keep my eye open for something decent. Alot of the land up northern ontario has streams and such flowing though it, dont know how clean they would be could get it tested, but worst comes to worst i boil my water. And ill see about that mining stuff, because iv seen some horrible things about mines and how dirty, and the by products to them, not the best you for, or anything in that environment.
And 40 acres seems pretty big, thats about 12km by 12 km, which is a lot of land i think. Not to sure tho what it would take.
thanks again

[nell67]

[quote=Canadian-guerilla;14558]just a quick caveat on buying this land
1 find out if you will retain underground mineral rights to this land
2 find out if there are any mining companies/activity withing a 100 mile radius

i'm just mentioning this because,
i believe there is some gov't law
that states a mining company can explore
for minerals without the landowners permission
and this company can " explore " any way they deem fit
with no reimbursment to the landowner
i've been following the troubles at Sharbot Lake between the native
Algonquins and some money-hungry uranium mining company

other than that
40 acres for $9000, sounds pretty good.

Yea I'd say thats a good price for 40 acres,I just gave $24,000 for 3 acres last winter

[woodwose]

Hey guys i don't really know how to word this but i will give it my best try. i've been testing my skills in the wild for awhile and feel confident now that i can handle the extremes. i want to build a log cabin in Alaska and live in it. if i don't build my own cabin i'd like to find some land with a cabin already built. i don't want to build it just anywhere in fear that ill be building it on someones land and i'll get bothered later on... so i've been looking into purchasing my own land and building a cabin. i was just wondering if any of you had any suggestion on finding property in rural areas. i need to find some cheap land but wild enough that i can forge for and hunt my own food to a degree. i also plan on harvesting some of my own food. i want my cabin to be as primitive as possible too. its not going to be some luxury suite but i will make it comfortable enough to call home.
i'm also just looking for some advice while surviving Alaska's cold winters. i've done it other times of the year, but never in the dead of winter. and if you have any other stuff to share with me please do.

Hey George, let me turn you on to another survival site that may be able to help you... http://www.survivalblog.com/ When you get there, look in the upper right corner at the end of all the word links in the banner. Click on SurvivalRealty.com . JWR, the owner of this website continually monitors and looks for survival real estate and can probably steer you in the right direction. He also has some good advice. Good luck.

[woodwose]

STB, I really got a good chuckle out of your avatar...

[Rick]

Nell is sure correct on the mineral rights. At least in the U.S. My brother was in the oil business for several years and the surface owner has little say when it comes to accessing what's underneath.

[george hayduke]

Nell is sure correct on the mineral rights. At least in the U.S. My brother was in the oil business for several years and the surface owner has little say when it comes to accessing what's underneath.

thanks guys i am all too aware of this being from Appalachia thanks to strip mining companies that come through here and flatten entire mountains looking for coal. they've kicked 1,000's of families out of their home.

[Rick]

A different question but ties into this thread. For those of you that homestead, do you have an earth bermed or underground home?

For those of you considering homesteading, what kind of dwelling do you have in mind?

[nell67]

Nell is sure correct on the mineral rights. At least in the U.S. My brother was in the oil business for several years and the surface owner has little say when it comes to accessing what's underneath.

the credit on that one is for canadian guerilla,I was just quoting him, Rick For some odd reason,it didnt completely show up as a quote?