The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

More moving questions

Soil test hole

We've racked up a bunch more reader questions about our upcoming move --- time for an answer post!

"When are you moving?" --- Everybody, including me


We've opted to do everything by the book this time around, which means lots of slowdowns and bureaucracy. Heck, it took three solid hours just to have the trailer put officially into our name and permitted to move a mile down the road!

At the moment, we're waiting on the septic system to be installed --- getting approved already took a month and a thousand bucks. We're also working out the kinks on getting the trailer set up and  hooking up electricity.

Speaking of which:

Mobile home
"Are you going to be able to connect to the grid in your new location?" --- Chris


We are. Although off-grid living is inspiring, solar panels aren't yet within our budget if we want to stay out of debt. So we've put in our work order with the electric company and are hoping cleanup operations down south go quickly so residents of hurricane-damaged regions can get back on track...and Ohio workers can return north ASAP to hook us up.

New property
"Why does the house need to be butted up against the road?" --- Chris


The property we're moving to is another big parcel without very much "usable" land. Only the half acre or so closest to the road is flat and easy to manage, so the rest will be earmarked for hikes and mushroom gathering and (possibly) pasture if I get the animal itch again. Despite my hankering for privacy, I'm willing to make this swap in exchange for easier accessibility of off-farm manure!

Earth star
"I wonder what your projected tax savings are over say 10 years. Cheap land, cheaper house?" --- John


Our taxes will actually be a bit more up there than they are down here. But, it's true --- living in a trailer is going to be a huge savings based on Ohio rates! I'd say we'll pay a third to half as much as if we'd chosen the same-sized plot of land with a conventional house on it. Definitely a bonus to the pocketbook....

More once we have anything to report. In the meantime, I'm launching two fiction books at once and starting on the third since writing up a storm is my best approach at pretending to be patient. You know what they say --- fake it 'til you make it!



Anna Hess's books
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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Hi Anna and Mark,

Thanks for your answer. It seems to me that the basic problem is that there too many people depending on people like you who grow things.

Just my opinion. The only way out I have wondered about is what you are doing.

Reduce you 'tax' footprint.

Thus my real question. I am must too old to do what you both are doing :).

warm regards to you both, John

Comment by John Fri Sep 22 10:33:36 2017

Thanks for answering my two questions. I can see the appeal of building up front of the block, if it means you save money on building a driveway. Those things are expensive to re-gravel, every few years or so!

We built at the front of our block, to save money running electricity cable to the house (we already had to install one power pole) and to avoid having to drive over a gully that would periodically flood.

Comment by Chris in Oz Sat Sep 23 07:42:06 2017
Better to get it all done with the blessing of the local government, then have problems later! I recall one of my wife's family getting stuck for a day on the dead end road they lived on (Klondike rd in Duffield VA) because some semi professional "mobile home movers" got a trailer jackknifed in a turn and did not have the equipment to jack and crib it over. Luckily nobody needed ambulance services on that road but the blocked in residents sure were hot!
Comment by Eric Mon Sep 25 07:08:23 2017





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