I have been to Coos county myself a few times, and I don't think it is a good bug out location for someone in the south. If it is a really bad crisis situation the highways would be clogged with people going north (remember hurricane Katrina) and the Notches (Franconia Notch, Crawford Notch, etc) are bottlenecks that could be deadly. Grafton county on the other hand has the advantages of being half the distance, no bottlenecks to get there, and there plenty of huge empty areas. I remember a Leer jet going down there in the deep woods about 15 years ago where the town boundaries are marked on the topo maps as "undefined". It took two years to find the wreckage, that's how rugged and remote the terrain is. Besides, there are a lot of government listening posts up in Coos on the Canadian border and even rumors (for all the tinfoils out there) of a FEMA camp on Lake Francis (though I find that hard to believe). I'd choose something further south for myself.
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deciding on a retreat
- Thread starter mg42doc
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mibro
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Until fairly recently I thought the Black Plague (Black Death) was a once-and-done thing. Turns out the Black Death was present in Europe for 300 years. "The plague repeatedly returned to haunt Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the 14th to 17th centuries. According to Biraben, the plague was present somewhere in Europe in every year between 1346 and 1671."
Holy crap. Life is so easy and predictable now in comparison.
I agree the bugout to Coös could be difficult but I'd probably wind up dancing back and forth along the border and coming in through Bethel on Rt.26. There are dozens of potential routes. As far as the US/CA Border goes, I would never live in Pittsburg. I have a friend that has a place up on the hill off of Hall Stream road. I sat on his porch with him one day and we were looking down at the river/border only 750 yards away, too close for me. I also wouldn't want to be on the East side of the National Forest. Between the Sate & Federal Prisons in Berlin you could have at up to 1,500 unwanted guest's knocking on your door to borrow a cup of sugar. What I like about Coös is the distance from Portland & Manch-Vegas. Refugees and the looters/raiders that follow behind them, would travel North on 93. I don't see people climbing the hills up Rt.3 to Colebrook, I think Rt.3 will be the road less traveled. I'm looking in Clarkesville, Stewartstown, Colebrook, Columbia, Dixville, Errol, Dummer, Stratford, Northumberland, Stark, Lancaster & Jefferson.
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JayMcB
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I'd look further south, but that's just me.
When we found our place (after 2+ years of looking in VT and NH), it had several criteria.
NOT in Suckachusetts. While there are rural properties in the western part of the state.....no. Just say no.\
Distance - 2 hours of less from us.
Land - 40+ acres
Water - on the land.
Fruit trees (bonus)
Hardwoods for firewood
Back from the road.
Taxes = manageable. Less than 1/4 of the house here in taxachusetts
House = habitable. Well insulated. Functional kitchen.
Basement = dry. I got an unexpected ~$10k bill because the idiot who built the house backfilled the foundation with the clay on the property instead of good fill and water got in at spring melt. A shit ton of water - Like running out the garage door shit ton. Proper foundation drains, fill and external waterproofing and insulation, and it's BONE dry now for 2 years.
Okay I looked a little further south, but still in Coös. My Dad and I put down a deposit Sunday on a piece of land in Twin Mtn, my decade long search has come to an end. Now comes the real work.
Congratulations, After searching on and off for 6 years, I bought 5 acres in Grafton County in 2014.
I spent a lot of time this summer cutting in a driveway and fixing up the logging road that leads to the property. It is a lot of work, but it is also a lot of fun. I have bought several houses over the past 30 years, but I don't remember ever being this excited about those purchases.
What are your plans for the property?
JayMcB
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Congrats! let me know if you have any questions on what NOT to do
![[thinking]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/010.gif "Thinking [thinking]")
I'm never happier than when I'm on our land up there. Even slogging wood for the stove at -7, or doing bucket work to clear the driveway. You can smell the freedom. Tinkering with the MEP-002 I just got for up there.
I'm never happier than when I'm on our land up there. Even slogging wood for the stove at -7, or doing bucket work to clear the driveway. You can smell the freedom. Tinkering with the MEP-002 I just got for up there.[/QUOTE]
That's a good size generator, are you off grid?
That's a good size generator, are you off grid?
Thanks, l'm going to clear some of it for fields and a house & barn.
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Congrats! let me know if you have any questions on what NOT to do
I'm never happier than when I'm on our land up there. Even slogging wood for the stove at -7, or doing bucket work to clear the driveway. You can smell the freedom. Tinkering with the MEP-002 I just got for up there.
Thanks, will do.
We did this in 2014. We spent some time defining our objectives. One included direct access to a recreational area like a state park. We had some other goals like being 20 minutes or less from Mt Sunapee. We set a minimum lot of 10 acres, three bedrooms, budget, property taxes (which can vary a lot by town) etc.
Zillow allows you to create a custom zone to search within. It will also notify you of new listings or price changes. Before I even talked to an agent I did "drive bys" of a list of properties. Rest assured that the pictures in any ad are the best ever taken, from the best angle. So the drive-by eliminated a lot of them.
For example there was a property listed that seemed perfect in every way. When I looked at it there was another house behind it on a hill: no privacy at all. We looked at another "perfect" house that had a driveway half a mile long, uphill, which wouldn't work for us as part-time residents. And another with a tax bill "enhanced" by a "view tax."
We have friends from the area who recommended a buyer's agent. She saved us at least $10,000. We also talked to local business owners who sometimes knew details of the property.
Pricing strategies were all over the map. We also looked in the price history as people who bought high were often unwilling to take a loss. Long-time owners with low acquisition cost and good reasons to sell were easier to work with. The place we bought had been on the market for 15 months and they'd reduced the price four or five times until it was down near the assessed value.
Our first choice sold before we made an offer. We made an offer on the 2nd place but had a third picked out just in case. It's worked out well.
All told I probably spent four or five half days looking before we even went inside one. But the research helped us pick the right place.
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definitely right. You can rule out a lot of properties by simply driving by.
I've made use of street view (which isn't useful for the more rural properties) and satellite views, which give me a good look at the neighbors and how close they actually are. A property that looks secluded via the realtor's pics, can have a neighbor an arms length away. Been there, seen that.
We found a near perfect property this summer, only bad thing is there was a sex offender living a mile away. We decided not to bite on that one, as we have little ones. I don't need some Chester The Molester lurking about the woods.
I've made use of street view (which isn't useful for the more rural properties) and satellite views, which give me a good look at the neighbors and how close they actually are. A property that looks secluded via the realtor's pics, can have a neighbor an arms length away. Been there, seen that.
We found a near perfect property this summer, only bad thing is there was a sex offender living a mile away. We decided not to bite on that one, as we have little ones. I don't need some Chester The Molester lurking about the woods.
Congrats! let me know if you have any questions on what NOT to do
We closed last Friday, here's a *snip* from a post I did about
six years ago on a thread titled You Only Live Once ....
I've been thinking about this for a very along time,
now I only hope I'm not too old to accomplish it.
I only have a third of the land I mentioned in the post but I border the National Forest on two sides, about 1 mile total and half of that is damn near straight up.
I paid more than half up front, the pisser is now I'm broke, really broke. But no Mortgage, just a loan from my Dad. He bought the small piece with the house, I bought the big piece with the land. I'm gonna have to start selling stuff. When I sell my house that should make things easier.
We're going to put a barn on my Dad's land so we'll have more room for storage and equipment.
I've been reading this book by Ben Falk, The Resilient Farm and Homestead. He's in Vermont and he does site evaluation; www.wholesystemsdesign.com. I believe he's been a speaker at Porcfest at least once. Anybody have any input on him. He seems to be the real deal, I like a lot of what he's doing.
I can relate to the piss pore broke part, I just put 3 kids through college.
Not having much money to devote to my land, I looked for other options to develop it.
I bought an old equipment trailer that someone was going to junk, I changed a few bearings and lights, and I was able use it to pick up a storage container. I bought a bunch of 3" foam insulation boards from craigs list to insulate the container.I gave it a camo paint job, and installed a wood burning stove and a couple of bunks.
Now I have a low budget and relatively secure cabin in the woods that I can use while I try and come up with the funds to build something.
Not having much money to devote to my land, I looked for other options to develop it.
I bought an old equipment trailer that someone was going to junk, I changed a few bearings and lights, and I was able use it to pick up a storage container. I bought a bunch of 3" foam insulation boards from craigs list to insulate the container.I gave it a camo paint job, and installed a wood burning stove and a couple of bunks.
Now I have a low budget and relatively secure cabin in the woods that I can use while I try and come up with the funds to build something.
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I wish you luck on building your farm. One thing that has always amazed me is that people can make money raising chickens.
I often buy an entire roasted chicken from Market Basket for $4.69 and I can't see how they can sell them that cheap.
Then I go to the meat dept, and look at the price of beef, and I think that the guys that raise the beef cattle must be making a pretty good living.
I often buy an entire roasted chicken from Market Basket for $4.69 and I can't see how they can sell them that cheap.
Then I go to the meat dept, and look at the price of beef, and I think that the guys that raise the beef cattle must be making a pretty good living.
I'm not looking to farm to make money per se.
In a perfect world I'd like to have a farm up and running or at least have the infrastructure in place. That way, when the day comes that I can't go to Market Basket or I need a wheel barrel full of Greenbacks to buy a loaf of bread I'll be able to take care of " Me & Mine " in house. It'll be a while before I can afford a Foundation & Septic System so I'm going to work around that for now. I want to figure out my layout first. Then I'm going to clear some of the land, plant some fruit & nut trees, berries, hay, wheat and oats. Do some small scale vegetable farming to see what works. Maybe some chickens and rabbits down at the existing house to start. My wife wants a goat, I told her not yet, damn Jamaicans. My lofty goal is to have a livable, functioning place by 2020.
In a perfect world I'd like to have a farm up and running or at least have the infrastructure in place. That way, when the day comes that I can't go to Market Basket or I need a wheel barrel full of Greenbacks to buy a loaf of bread I'll be able to take care of " Me & Mine " in house. It'll be a while before I can afford a Foundation & Septic System so I'm going to work around that for now. I want to figure out my layout first. Then I'm going to clear some of the land, plant some fruit & nut trees, berries, hay, wheat and oats. Do some small scale vegetable farming to see what works. Maybe some chickens and rabbits down at the existing house to start. My wife wants a goat, I told her not yet, damn Jamaicans. My lofty goal is to have a livable, functioning place by 2020.
JayMcB
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if you have no infrastructure up there, look at a used travel trailer to get you THERE. They're pretty self contained. Add a solar panel or 2 and some batteries (as they are already set up to run on 12v), and you have workable space.
Once you do build what you're going to build, you'll have an instant guest house.
Set up a primitive rain catchment system for water if you can't haul it in, and even a dug outhouse for waste. Just keep some lime around.
![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
They can be had for cheap $, and at least you'll have a place to lay your head out of the rain and bugs while you prep the land, etc. If you decide to import labor to do any of the work, you can offer them a place to stay and control your costs.
namedpipes
NES Member
Do NOT get a goat.
Their milk tastes like unmentionable substances. Goat Cheese is even worse. They'll eat the stuff you're growing in the garden because they will NOT stay in their little pen. They will step in the milking bucket deliberately. They will head butt you with or without horns. They smell bad.
Goats are basically little bearded *******s.
if you have no infrastructure up there, look at a used travel trailer to get you THERE. They're pretty self contained. Add a solar panel or 2 and some batteries (as they are already set up to run on 12v), and you have workable space.
Once you do build what you're going to build, you'll have an instant guest house.
Set up a primitive rain catchment system for water if you can't haul it in, and even a dug outhouse for waste. Just keep some lime around.
They can be had for cheap $, and at least you'll have a place to lay your head out of the rain and bugs while you prep the land, etc. If you decide to import labor to do any of the work, you can offer them a place to stay and control your costs.
One of the things that I liked about the land is there was a small separate lot with a small but very nice house.
My Dad bought that, so we have a place to to stay each weekend while we work.
My wife grew up on Goat's Milk & Meat, I'm not crazy about the Meat but the Milk isn't too bad. I've had it in Jamaica. When I was a little kid in the 60's, I was road tripping with my Grandfather. We had stopped at a farm next to where my Grandmother had grown up in the Finnish enclave of Templeton. He was talking to the farmer while he was milking a goat. He told me to open my mouth and the farmer squirted a teat full at me. I didn't like it. He told when he was a kid growing up in Sicily that's the only milk he would get and I didn't know how lucky I was to grow up in America.
I took my wife up last Sunday to show her what I spent our life's savings on. Luckily, she was pleased. Of course she wants to know how soon they'll be a house there ![[hmmm]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/009.gif "Hmm [hmmm]")
