Be Prepared Channel: Detour - How to find your personal retreat/homestead

Welcome to another episode of the Be Prepared Channel. Sorry I am LONG overdue to post a podcast and blog post. So I thought I would give you a quick update on where I am, and what I am doing. I don't want to leave people hanging as we have a lot to cover over the next few weeks with our kits and things we need to get done.

Unfortunately my computer I use for doing my podcast has suddenly decided something is not right. So I have ordered some replacement parts and hopefully will get it back in operation soon.

But today I want to post an article that specifically relates to what I am doing at the moment and why I am late getting anything posted here. I am in search of a home in Nebraska. We are in the process of moving this summer if the plan holds together and as part of this move we are attempting to find a home that will qualify as our own personal retreat/bug in location. So I have been driving back and forth between Colorado and Nebraska and will be taking another road trip again this weekend. So I have been spending a lot of time on the road and out looking for a house. So I thought I should share what I am looking for in a home and give you an idea of some of the things that might be of help to you if your thinking about your own personal retreat or bug out/bug in location.

Personal Retreat/Bug In Location:
Now the term personal retreat or bug-in location could mean many things to many people. In my family have a very limited budget and with the economy being bad and getting worse we are looking for something that meets our needs, has the resources and things that we feel will be essential going forward to be prepared and be able to produce food and possibly income for our family.

When I started this search back in Nov 2009 I had this romantic idea of what I wanted and that it would be away from people as far as possible with a fair amount of land. Well reality is a bitter pill to swallow as the search has worn on I have learned a thing or two about "need vs want", and the budgetary constraints of trying to do what I want. We experienced some pretty harsh weather this winter and we realized that the idea of being "out in the boonies" wasn't going to work when you have to commute daily into "civilization" for jobs and things. So we have learned we have to compromise and to come to grips with what we can afford. The closer you get to "civilization" the more expensive land and homes get. So we have had to downsize our expectations.

I prefer something outside of the city, but not some huge distance away from the city/communities. I am not ruling out an acreage in the city however if I thought the property might meet our needs. I know you will hear many in the survivalist or prepper community talking about bug out locations that are back in the sticks or up on a mountain. I think in a world of cheap energy for transportation something like that would work, but I don't personally believe that will be the case and that fuel will skyrocket in cost and could be difficult to obtain or afford. This limits the effective distances that we can realistically live from family, friends, neighbors, and local communities. We will still need to be able to access local communities and towns for our own needs we cannot meet and to still possibly have access to medical facilities if needed. The next consideration is that we would like to make this a mini hobby farm where we can grow a lot of our own food and still have access to local farmers markets and things like that where we could sell/barter our own excess for things we need with other farmers and to sell into the cities and towns. Obviously your mileage may vary and only you can judge your own needs and what you think is going to work best for you. In our case I think rural but still within some reasonable proximity of the local communities will work best for us.

We started looking for acreages. What we found right away is good land is hard to come by and is very expensive. We are finding that if you can find good land then the house isn't workable or very old, dated, and has it's own share of things that complicate what we are hoping to do. Large acreage is out of the question at this point. The land is just too expensive where we are looking. So as the search has worn on since last fall we are finding that it is hard to find anything that is usable, and is very expensive, or too much of a compromise to achieve our objectives. So the amount of land we have been willing to consider continues to get smaller. So we are still in the thick of the hunt for a place that will work.

We have seen a few that would be an acceptable compromise over the last month and I will be going out again this weekend to look at a couple more places and to visit a few we have seen before to decide if these are still worth considering.

Something else I learned from Jack Spirko over at The Survival Podcast is the concept of permaculture. He mentioned the Dervaes family who have turned 1/10th of an acre of tillable land and turned it into a business and it feeds their family. It was this revelation that opened my eyes to the possibilities, and also helps relieve some stress in our search to find a place with a large acreage. We can do a lot with very little space. If you have not checked out Jack's site and podcast give it a look. Jack is very knowledgable, and like all things in this lifestyle we are all learning together and Jack does a good show.

Here is a sample of some of the info you can find on the Dervaes Family:

Homegrown Revolution:

What's really required?
What are we looking for then you might ask? Well lets go over some of my basic search criteria in our homestead search. You have to remain flexible, and be willing to consider your options and what is the best compromise to get you what you need.

Location:
1. Prefer outside of the cities or towns, but within a 30 or 40 minute commute of jobs and shopping.
2. Prefer to be somewhat close to smaller towns and places where we can barter, trade, and sell our wares from our hobby farm.
3. Prefer to stay off of highways, or heavily traveled roads if possible.

Desired Characteristics:
1. Has good southern sun exposure for solar power and for gardening.
2. Has a well, or cistern for reliable water supply that does not rely on public utilities.
3. Has a septic tank, again do not rely on public utilities.
4. A good site for installation of wind turbines for power generation and for pumping purposes.
5. Prefer flat or gentle rolling land that can be easily gardened or farmed.
6. Enough acreage that we can produce enough to feed our family and be able to possibly sell, barter, trade for other things we need from the things we produce on the land. At this point we have compromised down to a least 1 acre minimum for this home, but more would be better if the land follows number 5 above which is usable land.
7. Needs to have a basement or cellar for food and supplies storage.
8. Prefer land with outbuildings(ie barn, sheds, garage, shop)
9. Enough room that a group or extended family can stay at our home comfortably if needed.
10. Fireplace, wood stove, or other alternative source of heating and cooking in the home.

Wants but not essential:
1. Water feature like spring fed pond, creek, or other water feature that could be used in an emergency.
2. Would like to have natural gas or propane for cooking.
3. Would like to have a home that has been modernized with energy efficient windows, doors, furnace, water heater etc.
4. Would like to have updated appliances and kitchen if possible.
5. Would prefer a home with mostly wood, tile, or other hard surface flooring... ie no carpet if possible.

What's your plan?
Next thing that needs to be touched on is your plan. We have been working on our kit up to this point on the blog and podcasts, but we also need to be making our plan. What is the plan if the stuff hits the fan(SHTF)? Are you planning on grabbing your stuff and bugging out? Getting out of Dodge(GOOD)? Bugging in? I know we haven't talked about the plan yet on the podcast or blog but it is coming in an episode soon. I had the good fortune last year of attempting a bug out drill from Maryland to Colorado. I won't get into the details here, but I took an opportunity as we were moving to Colorado to use it as a drill to treat it as a bug out. So all of my planning was put to the test. All I was taking with me was just the essentials and my prepper supplies. Needless to say this is very educational and eye opening. Anyone who is thinking they will use the GOOD plan needs to do some dress rehearsals to see how realistic this is. For me personally I figured out pretty quickly that this was not a good plan and thank God there wasn't a SHTF situation or it would have been UGLY. So our primary plan will be to bug in and our property search will have this plan in mind. If you do plan on bugging out then learn about caching, and pre-staging as much as possible to increase your changes of getting where your going and having what you need. So our bug in plan means the home needs to be as self sustainable as possible. It needs to be able to provide as much of it's own heat, energy, and food as possible. So in buying a place we are looking for a way to make our home more sustainable, more resilient to the economics and variation that can happen in an emergency. While the property most likely won't have all these things at the time we buy it we do pay attention to those details when shopping so that we can attempt to get as much as we need and want right out of the gate. For example renewable energy needs to have a good southern orientation and a clear path for sunlight to get to solar panels. Wind generation needs to have ample space for tower sighting and enough room so that towers can be taken down and tilted up for maintenance. Distance to the home is important as you want to keep wire runs as short as possible. Water catchment and collection is important. The ability to get water even when power is off is essential and most homes with a well use electric pumps. So when considering the power requirements for your home don't overlook your power needs for your well. You might even consider the idea of adding an old fashioned hand pump to your well as a backup.

The ideal vs reality:
We initially started this process last fall and were looking for a geothermal home to address what is going to be a long and ongoing concern with energy and energy prices. We found exactly 2 geothermal homes in the area for sale. One we were very interested in and it was our mistake for not making an offer right away and it sold before we circled back to reconsider an offer. The second geothermal home did not offer adequate space in the home for the needed storage and preps. This makes it a compromise on too many levels. We have not completely removed it from the consideration, but it is lower on the list until we feel we have exhausted all other options. The size of the land is more than adequate. It does not offer the best terrain for gardening or larger scale food production. The property does have a pond on it which would be good for possible stocking with fish to supplement our food needs. There are exterior buildings, but not in great shape and have dirt flooring. Someone had attempted to build a root cellar but it is so small and has been neglected for decades that it is for all intents and purposes useless. So while the home design fit what we wanted the implementation of that design in conjunction of the other features make it challenging and would require a substantial additional investment to make the home and property useful.

So this has left us searching conventional built homes for the right combination that will best meet our needs. So far we see that to find something that meets all our criteria is starting to appear to be impossible. So we are learning the art of compromise and trying to best prioritize our needs so that we make the best choice possible. We have been looking since Nov 2009 so we are trying to be patient, but this is challenging. One of the challenges is recognizing a decent compromise when you see it and acting quickly. We have seen a couple of places now that were a good compromise and by the time we recognized that fact those homes were gone. Funny how that works even in a down economy and buyers home market that people recognize a good thing and jump on it quickly. Those that don't have that right combination of things languish and sit on the market. So we know that there are others out in the market place looking for the same things that we as preppers are shopping for. So we are slowly coming around to the point of learning that hoping for something better when your looking at something "pretty good" will hurt you and you will miss an opportunity. Hopefully we will have the smarts to recognize the next "pretty good" home that we see and make an offer.

Being prepared for what?
The last thing I want to touch upon when looking for our personal retreat/bug-in homestead is what kind of scenarios are you preparing for? What kind of emergencies, disaster, or situation are you preparing for? What is likely to happen vs what "might" happen? As much as we would like to think we are prepared for anything the sad reality is that everything we do is a compromise. We are forced to give up things in order to get other things in the trade off. So deciding what your priorities are is a personal choice and what is most likely to be the things you have to address in your situation.

Check with your local authorities, long time residents, FEMA maps to determine if you are looking at flood plains, fire hazards, or what are some of the things that have happened in the past in your area. Those are the things you need to be aware of and prepared for. Granted we could be preparing for global thermonuclear war, pandemic disease etc, but let's properly weight those threats in your priority list and use that info when selecting your next home(or even prepping your current home). Sometimes the things we choose to prepare for may not be realistic and could frustrate you personal plan and preps. So make sure you do a reality check periodically and make sure your not too close to the situation, and are still looking at the situation with the proper perspective. Emotional involvement is sort of like going to the grocery store when your hungry... Your not going to make a lot of good decisions when your attached to the decisions from a position of weakness/need. So do your prepping now while we have some sunny days to make some hay.

Summary:
Prepping your current home, or looking for a new home that is more geared toward prepping is not an easy task unless you happen to have an unlimited budget. Finding what we are looking for has been challenging, fun, and educational. I hope at the end of this search we will have something good to report back to you and maybe even some sneak peaks at what we decided to buy and what we will be working with out of the gate as we try to setup our prepper homestead.

I hope you found this interesting. I will post a followup to this over the weekend to let you know how things are going and shift gears back to some of the things we have started on in this blog. Over the next week or two we are going to circle back around to our first aid kits and I will show you what I have been assembling for my First Aid supplies kit, and we will be following up on the Energy Self Sufficiency series and taking you into home energy saving tips and things you can do to put more money in your pocket. So keep us in your prayers, and your fingers crossed for us as we continue our homestead hunt this weekend.

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