Away

[greenstorm]

There's a 160 acre place near town. It's off-grid, tucked up against the mountains with it front to the broad valley full of hayfields. There's a roughly 1.5-2km driveway to get there, accessed from the driveway of the house below, which is basically on the road. This drive goes through woods, pops out into a field, pierces into woods again, and then opens into the little clearing in which the house and its 5 outbuildings sit. It's tidily kept, despite the fact that its inhabitants are dead and its current owner lives abroad.

Rumour is, it has a pretty good push-button generator/solar system that the gentleman who lived there made for his wife.

Rumour is, it has gravity fed water.

It's certainly beautifully quiet, remote in a cozy secluded way rather than a frightening way.

It's not currently on the market but when I mentioned having too many neighbours to my friend, she said she thought it may be looking for another owner.

There's a barn and a chicken coop for sure. I've only driven up the driveway and left but the people at the bottom of the driveway, who care for it, may be willing to show me around.

I don't think one can get a mortgage for an off-grid place.

I could bike to work from there, it's on the road to the dump so it avoids the problematic part of the highway I currently avoid navigating. It's 10km to work instead of 13 or so, but not all paved.

I'd said I don't want to do off-grid since it would be too much work, but right now my only grid umbilicus is the power line. My water comes from on-site, in the well (a mechanical powered system, not gravity fed). My sewage goes into my lagoon. My internet is wireless (I'd need starlink up there, I bet).

So it would be learning another electrical system. It would be paring back some electric use, ditching active hydroponics and maybe most grow lights, not sure how much a freezer draws in summer (I turn mine off in winter anyways).

Something something fencing.

Roughly 3 acres cleared and groomed currently, about what I use on Threshold.

SW slope at its back. Olie Creek (the map says) goes along the base of the hill behind it. It would be colder than here, shorter season by a little, I think.

Receiving slope on SBS dw 3, technically.

I could have people there without being watched. I could go outside without clothes and feel comfortable again, which I haven't since the neighbours across the way moved in.

I would not regret having planted the trees here if I moved.

I have no need to move. I can explore this slowly and gently and see what I think.

Comments

[yarrowkat]

oooooh. it sounds very beautiful. and possible?

[greenstorm]

Yes. It's prompted me to assess my electricity use though, which seems quite high: I have the vacuum sealer and the woodsplitter and the freezers and the meat grinder and the laptop and the little aerogardens and growlights and the vacmop. Some things (wood splitter) could be done as generator-use activities easily; the vacuum sealer maybe not so much.

But, as my friend said, I could at least go tour it inside and see how it's been set up.

[yarrowkat]

certainly that! look at your annual kWh usage and then look at it by month, and then, if you can, get information about how much the system generates on a sunny day in summer, a sunny day in winter, and a cloudy day in each. you may be pleasantly surprised and at the least you'd have enough actual data to make a good decision. lights mostly require very little power especially if they can be LEDs. refrigerator can be DC which will be more efficient because it skips using an inverter. etc. we find that heat and power tools are the big power draws in our system.

[greenstorm]

I think there's propane, which should do the fridge, actually. It'll be fascinating to see what's already there. Most of my power tools are cordless.

I realize being without a dishwasher and a washing machine would suck (line drying is fine) but honestly might be fine trading an hour or two of generator time every second evening while I run All The Machines and top up the batteries for a hardline, not sure.

I appreciate this advice a lot! I'm not sure if the people who remain know anything about the system, but I can ask!

[yarrowkat]

it sounds very promising! and certainly interesting, even if what it reveals is that Threshold is the right place to be. :) and you're very welcome.

[greenstorm]

I had a chat with the neighbour at Threshold about maybe buying his property some day when he's done and moving into his little cabin and renting my house out. It would certainly be nice to reunite the two properties.

[yarrowkat]

oh, that's a lovely idea. would it feel less crowded, if the two properties were reunited?

[greenstorm]

Definitely! And also less... segmented. They're both relatively long thin pieces, roughly 250' x 700' ish.

The neighbour, who's retired, is definitely doing more work on that property than I could get done, so maybe the current situation where he does a bunch of work and then maybe hands it off to me (?) is a good one.

[yarrowkat]

i hear that, about the land feeling segmented. the main parcel of our land is 150' wide and 1010' long. the second parcel doubles the width at the front, but just for the front acre, as that piece is a small almost-square that's only congruent on obe side with the long parcel. it did help a lot when we bought that piece!

[greenstorm]

150 is very narrow! 300 sounds much more comfy, I'm at 250.