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Get to know your property before you build

wind and rock

OK, you have purchased your land, you are all excited about getting your off-grid homestead going, but before you set your first post, before you lay your first board, there are some things you should do first, taking these steps will help to insure your place will be the best place it can be.

The first thing you should do is walk your land, especially if there is acreage concerned, you need to get to know your land as best you can, pick out more than one potential spot, then camp out on your land, as often as you can, for as many seasons as you can. Try to be there during rain, wind and such. The reason this is important is you NEED to know where the winds blow, the direction, you need to know how the drainage works, you don’t want to build where it’s going to flood.

You need to know where the sun comes up and sets, assuming you are going to use solar power, and assuming you are going to use passive solar to heat your home, knowing the direction the wind blows, all of these things will help you make decisions as to where to place your home and which direction to point your place.

If you have lived near your land then you should know much of these things, but it’s still a good idea to take it slow and make good decisions about the location of your home, that’s not something that can be easily (or cheaply) moved if you make a mistake.

When I bought my property, I moved some 500 miles away from where I grew up, the location where I grew up had south and west winds in summer, north winds in winter. Where I am now, I was surprised to discover that the winds blow most typically out of the west most of the year, in winter we don’t get a north wind, but more typically an easterly wind if the weather is about to change, but still mostly a west wind. Fortunately that didn’t affect how the sky castle was built, but the first winter could have been much worse, the house wasn’t finished and the west and south wall were 2 layers of builder’s plastic and wire, the assumption was we needed to protect the north wall, well that wasn’t where the wind blew, it blew on those unfinished walls.

Doing this will also allow you to get to know any neighbors if you haven’t done so already, hopefully you have already done this and have a good rapport with them.

Take the time if you can, to get to know your property before building something permanent, this will make your life easier down the line.




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2 Responses

  1. IMO, getting to know your property first before building is the best advice anybody could give to a person about to move to a new place. I camped at my property for a year at several spots before i found one that was perfect.

  2. Thank you, I am in the creating part of my off the Grid life. I am getting older but would like to plan something to leave my children and especially if I do not get to finish my dream.

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