What we learned in our first three years of homesteading and mountain living.
Nobody tells you the little things to consider when you move away from civilization. You know, those little things that turn out to be big things that you may not know how to solve in the moment.
Maybe people assume you know what you're getting yourself into by moving to an off the grid, or nearly off-the-grid location. Maybe they don't have a clue either what it takes to survive mountain living or to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Or maybe they're quietly reading your social media accounts and laughing at your mistakes — as if they could live it better.
We didn't make the decision to move on a whim. Between us, we'd lived on acreage, worked on cattle ranches, participated in large-scale farming, spent thousands of hours in the mountains, led scout troops, and so on. We had survival skills, foraging know-how, and a huge desire to find some peace and quiet. We told our realtor we wanted +/- 20 acres. He found us a lot more than that.
Our new mountain homestead
We put an offer down the same day our soon-to-be mountain homestead went on the market. We didn’t ask about trash service, road maintenance, or a number of other "government" services. Spoiler alert: There are little-to-no government services in some areas of the country (yet they oddly expect you to pay your taxes). Any plans we’d had of slowly moving to a more off the grid lifestyle were accelerated overnight.
The big bonus: We began a life of greater self sufficiency, hard work, peace, and quiet (until the rooster arrived — later resolved by a well-planned dinner menu).
100 Mountain living surprises (1–25)
1. Road maintenance
Road and driveway maintenance is usually the responsibility of the land owner — from the county road to the garage. For us, this is about two miles. Think about that next time you have several feet of snow on the ground, or pot holes, or mud, or washouts, or a dead skunk, or ...
2. Trash
Nobody cares about your trash. There’s no trash or recycling service. None. And, it costs about $20/load to take a single trash bag to the dump. You’ll want to find another way when you’re off the grid.
3. Waste
Nobody cares about your sh– either. You maintain your own septic tank and only use products that won’t damage it. No septic tank? Have fun with your composting toilet. Not sure how to manage that? Enjoy some light reading with this Humanure Handbook.
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4. Limited water
Just because it’s a faucet doesn’t mean water comes out of it. There are more water issues than we can list when you rely on a well in the mountains. This also leads to very creative water solutions that we’ll get into in future blog posts. Sometimes that's using a smaller wash basin after melting snow ... just to wash a few basic dishes.
5. Getting water
A well must be maintained or you have to haul your water in — 200 gallons at a time. You’ll probably need a bigger truck if you're set on mountain living.
6. Truck
Oh, you don’t have one? You’ll want one at first. You’ll need one eventually. And then you’ll need a bigger one. You’ll learn more about towing capacity, tires, and the weight of water than you ever cared to.
7. Internet
Whether you’re homesteading or living off the grid, this may or may not be a thing. We checked internet coverage in our area since we wanted to work entirely from home. The task of ensuring we had reliable internet was another matter altogether.
8. Cell service
Depending on where your homestead or farmstead is located, or the route you take to get there, you’ll most likely have unreliable or nonexistent service at times. Mountain living complicates this further. We got lucky. We have service on our property, but anytime we leave, we enter a 30-minute dark zone.
9. Big predators
Lions, coyotes, and bears, oh my! They’ll watch you while you’re hiking — and will occasionally face off with you. They also like to prowl around looking for food, wrappers, toothpaste, mints, or any number of “smellables” at night. It's just one of the joys of mountain living.
10. Small predators
Racoons, skunks, snakes, and other small predators can fit through tiny spaces — and they’re naturally drawn to small livestock.
11. Other animals
Not everything is a predator, but you can expect pack rat infestations, various birds, bats, giant beetles, and other things. Not all are scary or gross. Turkeys are beautiful until you’re chased by one, and the deer are magnificent until they eat your garden.
12. Chicken threats
In addition to producing eggs, chickens lure in bobcats, bears, coyotes, racoons, snakes, etc., so you’ve got to have a “predator proof” chicken coop!
13. Electric fences
High voltage, solar-powered, electric fences can save chickens and crops.
14. More predator proofing
Can you dig it? All the animals here sure can. Dig-barriers around animal pens save lives.
15. Gardening
High-elevation gardening is a whole new ballgame. The summer sun is hot, the winters are cold, and summer is shorter. Get your seeds ready but wait for the right season to start planting.
16. Protecting the garden
Deer and bears are attracted to unprotected garden space — especially when leaves are young and tender or fruits are ripe.
17. Last frost
It’s common to lose plants when the last frost is unpredictable, a common struggle with living in the mountains. It’s especially frustrating when that last frost can occur in June.
18. Snow
It’s not unusual to have a big snowstorm in May, and sometimes June, and four feet in March (which sucks by the way).
19. Snowed in
It’s essential to have food and supplies on hand in case you get snowed in. Some roads are completely inaccessible after a big (or small) snow. Get cozy and have dry firewood on hand. To be honest, I enjoy this part of mountain living! And, we even found this great firewood rack that helps us stack it up in advance.
20. Snow damage
Four feet of snow can bend your gutters out of shape and damage your roof if you don’t have snowbars. It can also crush sheds and cause other weight-related damage.
21. Clothing
Suburban clothes are not mountain or homesteading clothes. Closets can quickly change from office wear to Duluth “firehose” pants and Tractor Supply work shirts once you've taken up mountain living. And workboots … we never thought we’d own so many boots.
22. Power
Power outages are more frequent. You learn to get creative about those moments when there’s no electricity. This could mean cooking over an emergency stove or charging your cell phone with a power bank.
23. Smoke
The smell of smoke can elicit immediate panic as wildfire can be a constant threat in some mountain areas.
24. Fire mitigation
Fire mitigation is no small task, especially when it’s been neglected for 20 years. It’s also absolutely necessary if you want a home to return to after a fire evacuation.
25. Baking
A sudden elevation change will absolutely mess with your cakes, cookies, breads, etc.
A life we don't have to escape from
Mountain living is a great way to learn self reliance and emergency preparedness in everything you do each day. It also teaches you a lot about having adequate food storage, and how to survive scenarios where necessities disappear like water, electricity, the ability to travel, etc.
The above may sound daunting, and I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences. I believe you’ll find the tradeoffs worth the effort and learning. When we chose this life, we wanted to create a life we didn’t need to escape from. We wanted to build our “best life”. While there are times we literally can’t escape (haha), nothing has been so rewarding.
Prepare for long-term hardships by starting on your one-year food storage plan.