For sale: Beautiful 4 br country home with full wrap around porch, wood burning stove, 2 full baths all on 1.8 acres of heavily wooded land – ULTRA PRIVATE. The dining room is like a solarium, Hickory wood and tile floors. It also has a workshop in the basement and a shed in the backyard that will bring you and your family many lifetime memories together. 4 miles to town, 3.5 miles to schools, 1 mile to the fairgrounds and only 30 minutes to Lake Cumberland, Kentucky. Own this house for $716/mo.
rural land
Best Places to Live with Minimal Building Codes: Small Communities in Decline
Consider investigating small rural communities with lax building codes for homesteading. Many of these communities are in slow decline and eager for new community members. Keep an eye out for properties for sale and related community information online. Many properties come on the market when seniors pass away and children want to live in big cities. Look for areas with good water and established gardens with good soil.
New Zealand Bug Out Cabin
I’ve been corresponding with one of our readers in New Zealand about low cost, alternative cabin building ideas with disaster preparedness in mind. We’ve talked about a whole range of ideas such as using straw bales for energy efficiency. The design presented here is DIY friendly, affordable, suitable for a grid-down situation and can be easily moved if desired.
Things Are Coming to a Crossroads
We live in a crazy world, that’s for sure. Many serious problems are now simultaneously coming to a head: groundwater depletion, pollution of groundwater with fracking, mining, industrial and agro chemicals, risk of nuclear war, concerns over Fukushima radioactive fallout. Experts say the oceans are expected to be depleted of sea life in just 30 years. (Most people now live near the oceans and rely on seafood for sustenance and income.)
Areas With Few or No Codes: Ozark Plateau
We’ve had a lively discussion for years here on our Natural Building Blog about the best places to live with few or no building codes that make it easy to build a home out of low cost natural materials and create a homestead. In my opinion the Ozarks is a top choice for natural building and homesteading in the US due to many factors.
Best Places to Live: Scenic Byways
As a young man, I traveled across Nebraska on Highway 20 that parallels the main east-west interstate across the state. It’s very beautiful country. The scenic byway was far more interesting than the interstate which I had traveled many times going back and forth to Colorado on vacation. Places like this would be a great place to homestead.