How is the property hunting coming along, you ask? Nothing terribly remarkable. Im going to look at a property this weekend that is in a region known for local cops and fire retiring to. On the one hand, most of the cops I knew here in Missoula are mostly of like-mind, or at least not opposite of it. And having those kinds of people nearby could be a handy thing if you hit the point where collaboration and cooperating with neighbors becomes critical.
The piece I am going to look at has a spring on it, I am given to understand. I have also been warned that it might be a bit swampy in that area. I am wondering if perhaps developing the spring and giving that water a place to go might remediate that. Dunno. Won’t know until I actually go an walk it, which will be this weekend, I think.
Still haven’t ruled out the other property yet. But I’d like to have a few more options to choose from. In the meantime, my bookmarks folder is slowly filling with links to well pumps, septic layouts, concrete form construction, PV systems, maps, etc, etc.
What are the biggest challenges? Finding a piece of property with some type of water, isn’t bisected (or worse) with public-accessible roads, has some flat building spots, isnt butted up against another piece of property that had someone build their house right on the edge of the property line, isn’t several hours away, is at least 20 acres, and isn’t more than about $225k. Tough find.
These things take time. Looked at a great place N of Frenchtown a few years ago; sadly it was a bit out of my price range, then the California exodus began and it sold above asking.
Some of these property’s you have looked at and posted appeared to be the standard fair to poor forest conditions in the west these days. Of all the things you have talked about with them aren’t you concerned about wildfires?
Not particularly. Anything I build is going to be remarkably fire resistant, I’ll be removing a bunch of trees, and there’ll be other defensive features.
Check out these pumps.
https://hackaday.com/2025/10/02/how-hydraulic-ram-pumps-push-water-uphill-with-no-external-power-input/
Don’t settle, don’t choose the Good Enough, especially since you’re not in a time crunch.
I’ve owned 4 houses, 3 of them on acreage.
The time I settled I regretted it. You’ve got time – keep looking.
Build relationships with locals and realtors so that you hear about the off market stuff – in my experience, that’s where you’ll find the best places.
Unrelated to your current post. I looked at the price of silver today. Based on where it was historically and the price I was paying when I subscribed to the metals pump which you turned me into, I realized that I’ve been following this blog for over 10 years. Unbelievable.
If you find a decent bit of ground, that lacks a flat/level location for your lodging, consider the application of a modest amount of explosives to create it. My sister bought a mountain peak that the prior owner removed enough to build a good sized home and hobby tower that got repurposed as a repeater site.
The only problem to my mind was the lack of driveway winding around the peak to keep the incline reasonable. It ran straight up the hill, and getting up there was a bitch, even with it being paved. You probably wouldn’t be enamored with such a visible location, but the process can be used on a lower level of a hill to create a shoulder site.
That was a weird, but neat, location. Wake up on a weekend morning, have the cloud level top be just below the peak, and have a dozen hot air balloons floating at your level. The flatland around there was mostly vineyards, and they would launch those balloons from there. If you walked out the door, the cloud top would be just below your feet. The back room was about 30 feet on a side, with 3 sides of glass. 3000′ elevation of a named mountain, that showed some of San Fran at night.