Driving to your Property?

[Highbeam]

There's nothing you can do to prevent people from snooping around when you're not there. They are local, they know when you're gone and come by when you aren't there. All you can do is put up a sign, a locked gate, and don't leave anything there of value. I bought a 20 foot shipping container to store stuff in and they broke into it once about a year ago and just last weekend they tried again.

The best you can hope for is that they don't leave garbage.

Look at the working forests to see what the logging companies do to prevent tresspassing. They know they can't keep everyone out but they can at least make it difficult. I have dug a tank trap and piled stumps in locations where folks can access the property to keep out the wheeled variety.

If you try the mean stuff like nail boards or big wads of barbed wire fence in the trail then you can expect the same treatment from the locals. They will seek revenge.

I actually wrote my name and phone number on my no tresspassing signs so that I can be contacted by a good neighbor or if someone needs me for something. Like to tell me that my place is on fire, kids having a rave, or cops needed to cut my lock.

I'll be making the drive on Saturday for another day of clearing.

 

[3RRL]

Knute,
as higbeam said, you just can't keep everybody off...no matter what. In my case I'm at the en of a culdesac like captainjack and then my dirt road starts. I have a chain across the road which may mean nothing??? But at least a deterent. Second, there's a huge ravine that carries water some of the year that is just impossible to get across unless you use the dirt road. On each side of the road I had giant rocks placed so that no one could drive around the chain to get to the other side. The ravine is a natural barrier. I have found horse prints that went around and over and back onto my road but then??? Also have a neighbor whose drive starts about the same place as mine and he lives there year round keeping an eye out. No one should be in there so if he hears anything he investigates. Other than that, I keep everything of value in enclosed tents and tarps and chained up together. They might be able to get in but could not get out with it unless they drove a truck in there to load it up. My neighbor would surely find them first...I hope.

Captainjack,
I'd really like to see some pictures of your property. It sounds really neat. Check out my recent post under build it yourself about the backhoe subframe I made for the Kama.

 

[3RRL]

I wondered if any newer members were driving to their property? TBN has grown quite a bit. Also, I wanted to take this opportuinty to share the "face lift" for my camp. I added a giant tarp in preparation for the rainy season. The old tents and canopies have been up for 2 years solid now and they're starting to leak a little.

 

[1bush2hog]

I'm not a new member, but I drive 3.5 hours to our property. Sometimes I wish it was closer and sometimes I'm glad it's not - that way I don't feel so guilty if I can't work on it all the time

I'm usually a weekend warrior about once a month, working like a dawg for 2-3 days, then taking the next week to get over it, but I'm not complaining. I'm very thankful to be able to have property, as well as, to be able to work it.

Most of the time my trip is solo as my wife stays at home with our teenagers. Maybe one day they will all be as country as me

 

[JRobyn]

I thought I already replied to this thread once before, but I didn't see it when I just went back through it!

We drive almost exactly 200 mi, usually every other weekend. We are blessed that my in-laws live about 10 mi from our 200 unimproved acres, so we can stay with them whenever we're there. We sold 18 acres in the interior to the in-laws and they built a little barn and have now added a nice cabin and donkeys/goats, so they are there most every day. Plus, one brother in law lives on about 100 acres ajoining us on the north, and the other BIL has bought 45 acres ajoining us on the south and is now building there. The property was once a tobacco farm, so about 25 acres are cleared and fenced field. FIL now has about 5 of that for donkeys/goats. Our two horses get the rest to themselves. There's maybe another 25 acres that are level enough to someday be useful, but the rest is too steep for anything except privacy buffer! About all we have now is a rough partly gravelled road (about 3/4 mi). We have bored some well test holes and have water at about 65 ft down. We are going to start the septic/power permit process this weekend, mostly so we can start getting power run for the in-law's cabin. Hope to actually start building our place in 1-2 years.

Here's a shot from our field gate across a little hollow to "Pa's" barn. In between the barn and that ridge behind it is another hollow that drops about 200-250 feet. The coyotes have dens in the sides!

 

[billbill1]

Rob, as much as we have conversed, I hadn't looked over your pictures before yesterday. You've got a very nice place and it will make you a wonderful home for many years. Beautiful landscape!!! Too hot of a climate for me but otherwise perfect.

 

[ratter]

Wow you guys are dedicated. We live AND work-from-home on our property, and I find it hard to get anything done as it is. If I had to drive some of these distances, I don't know what I'd do!

 

[BSVLY]

New member-1st post.

We are in the process of purchasing 21 acres in rural, central Nevada. These parcels are considered farms rather than ranches. Ours will be our retirement home and a retreat until then. The property is 400 miles away with the trip taking around 6 1/2 hours. The last 4 miles are on an unpaved, graded county road.

We will travel there year-around & every month or every two months; depending on the season.

This property (we hope to own) is located down on the lower end of a rugged 100 mile long valley named "Big Smoky Valley". The valley floor is generally sitting at 5,800 feet and is between two parallel 11,000 foot montain ranges. The place where we are buying is where the valley fans-out into a flat basin at the south end and the farm is situated at 5078 feet.

There are only 21 families in the "Lower Smoky Valley Farms" area. We will be family No. 22. There is BLM land right accross the street and big circular alfalfa farms either side. We are on the last street of the developed land and have a clear view South to the nearest town some 24 miles away-which twinkles in the pitch darkness. The milkyway is very dramatically dispalyed here; being one of the remaining darkened areas at night in the cont. USA.

We are assuming a small farm that was a victem of a divorce. So there is a small house, 200 foot Well, Septic, a few dozen trees & totally fenced in barbed wire-all put in new10 years ago. Luckily, due to the big mining concerns up the valley, we have good stable power on the property. Other than that-it is barren. So tons of things to do to make it a home.

This link is a VR panorama of the Big Smoky Valley. The panorama is taken up near the Northern end of Big Smoky Valley-yet the surroundings are very similar to our lot. Tip: Use your mouse to move panorama

Big Smokey Valley VR Panorama Link-Click

I enjoy reading this site very much. So much to learn and do!

Thanks
Rich

 

[JackieB]

Hello all; First let me say how much I enjoy this forum! And this thread , as I had no idea that so many other people also lived like we do, as vagabonds!

My husband & I have been driving to our "other" land for so long now, we will have withdrawls when we finaly geta house built. Our first land was a nice parcel that had been in his family, used to pasture the calves for the dairy. Trouble with that parcel, he owned iot along with 2 other siblings and his dad. We really could not do our own thing, so we sold that parcel for a very good profit and bought down the road. Another few years of commuting to feed horses on a daily and sometimes 2x daily basis, until that parcel became valuable. Now we have bought in the next county along a state forest border, deer and bear are our neighbors! This time we were able to buy 50 acres and split with my FIL and have 20 acres to sell. Due to land restrictions, we can only sell off a 20 acre ( or more) parcel, so we had to keep 15 each. smaller than what we would have liked, but doable.

I drive out every day to feed the horses and on weekends we stay in our RV on the property. We have very little shade, this is summer here in Florida, so it can be pretty hot, we can run the generator in the RV, but the propane runs out fairly quickly. We are waiting on the power company to put in our transformer, we then get a temporary pole to at least run our RV AC and water pump for horse water. Yahoo!

One thing is for sure we have got our money invested out of that RV!

Jackie

 

[3RRL]

Wow, that's some RV you have. Looks like a load of lumber coming in too? And great panoramic view by BSVLY.
I really enjoy reading the stories and seeing the pictures. It amazes me the diversity of our country...really. I' sure like to see more pictures of your land and how you guys ALL do it. It's your dream world like ours so we share it.
A lot of you have circumstances like we do and it is interesting to hear about each one.
Bill, our climate really changes from hot Summers to cold (but no snow) Winters. Spring and Fall are the most pleasant but the land takes on a different appearance. In Spring, there are millions of flowers surrounding you and small seasonal water ways.

Here's a couple of Spring pictures at the property.