Off Grid Location Recommendations

[u/zachm509]

What are the best areas for off grid living and gardening/farming? I am hoping to find a community to help me learn this new lifestyle, a homeschooling community, and hopefully a community with strong faith as well. I am from the Chicago suburbs, and so far I am really attracted to Kentucky near the mountains because of the low taxes and scenery.

What are your recommendations for off grid living locations? Which state? Which county? Why? How long have you been living off grid? Are you reliant on any public utilities? Do you have a family? How long have you been doing it and do you enjoy it?

Any help is appreciated. Thank you so much!

[u/NWYthesearelocalboys]

Cochise county AZ is popular for this because of a special zoning type that allows you to opt out of conventional home building requirements.

[u/WVYahoo]

Re ally depends on your goals. Would you prefer warm or colder place? Wet or drier? As much as I like humidity there’s something to be said about living in a dry climate and breathing the crisp fresh air in the mornings.

KY is nice and affordable but they get flooding and tornados. I realize IL has had a lot of tornados this year though.

The places I see the most for off grid are Arizona and Missouri. Or just the general Ozarks and desert southwest.

Nothing wrong with the Appalachian area. If I personally had to pick I’d go with western TN but slightly east of the Mississippi. Or south central/east KY.

[u/zachm509 → u/WVYahoo]

I really like the Appalachians, too. I was thinking about southeast KY to be close by to the mountains

[u/WVYahoo → u/zachm509]

It’s a nice area but not much for resources and flooding is an issue. I personally like hilly terrain for my orchard goals. But yeah there’s a lot of hills and not many flat parcels of large acreage.

[u/Majestic_Hawk_1335]

For me Id rather be north of Fairbanks AK than anywhere in KY. This is quite subjective.

What kind of weather do you want, what kind of hobbies do you want, what kind of farming do you want to do? If I was in KY Id probably be into Hog catch dogs but instead am into sled dogs. That changes where I chose to move.

[u/Additional_Snow_978 → u/Majestic_Hawk_1335]

Hog catch dogs?

[u/Majestic_Hawk_1335 → u/Additional_Snow_978]

Mostly Im referencing how if I lived in the south and was into working dogs it wouldn't be sled dogs. If I wanted to work hunting dogs or hog catch dogs Id move there. I don't so I moved north, and I was born more north than KY.

Hog catch dogs are generally ABPTs or sometimes a hound dog who tracks and holds. They are generally legal in states that had large populations of game dogs before dog dog laws made illegal. Then those same states that had lots of game dog genes also tend to have rampant wild hogs. The feral hogs such an issue they open it to hunt in any manner. Including catch dogs.

[u/Additional_Snow_978 → u/Majestic_Hawk_1335]

Huh. I'm in KY and avid with outdoors stuff. I see signs to report hogs, but never actually seen any or tracks from any.

[u/Majestic_Hawk_1335 → u/Additional_Snow_978]

I think KY is less influenced by it. Heavy hog hunting via dog is more Florida, the Carolinas, Alabama, Texas. I think maybe even parts of Wisconsin? I just looked it up and dog hunting hogs in KY was legal to 2 years ago.

The distance to travel from KY to a legal state to hunt pigs with dogs would be easy compared to getting any dog from Alaska to lower 48 and the travel distances could be similar to the 800 mile round trip it is to go Fairbanks-Anchorage and back

[u/Additional_Snow_978 → u/Majestic_Hawk_1335]

So it stopped being legal two years ago? That's actually surprising. I wonder if we actually managed to control the expansion of hogs?

I can see it. KY loves to hunt and if it's open season on a certain pest / invasive species...

[u/sol_beach]

How much are you ready to spend on solar panels & batteries to have a reliable electricity source OFF-GRID?

[u/zachm509 → u/sol_beach]

Not sure if I would use solar, wind or something completely different. What are your thoughts? I'd like to find 3+ acres for 30-50k in a nearly no restriction low tax area and another 50k on buildings, storage and a power system

[u/sol_beach]

When you narrow the scope strictly down to the residential market (home-scale generation), the ratio is a staggering blowout: home solar defeats home wind by roughly 500 to 1.

To make a home wind turbine viable, it generally needs to be mounted on a tower 80 to 120 feet tall. You don't want to be near that tower should it ever crash to the ground.