I bought this land last year and will make the move in a few months. I'm excited but nervous! Having some decision fatigue trying to decide do i get a plot graded? Driveway? Fencing? Workshop or a garage first? Lease a tractor and try to install my own geothermal for a greenhouse? Sharks or gators for the moat??? LOL
My goal is to live simply. I'll get a trailer at first. I want a giant garden and greenhouse. Wouldn't mind making a product but hate the logistics of selling. Planning on using a generator but open to ideas about renewable energy.
A landshare sounds like a good idea but I'm nervous about what could go wrong. What would a tenant expect in such an arrangement?
by Think-Cry-5284
25 Comments
Where will the water for the moat come from?
What is the water situation? That’s the major issue with most properties in Nevada. Well, that, and the alkaline soil that covers our land.
i need a drink just looking at this
What’s the water situation,everything depends on that
I do understand we all have different tastes, but why buy where water, most probably, will always be an issue?
I don’t get that one thing with desert type purchases, am I overlooking something???
I mean, if you’re Elon Musk, & can build-create-engineer whatever is wanted, needed, okay.
But, otherwise, I sincerely don’t get risking water access.
The lack of trees would depress me
Beautiful country. Vacationed at Soldier Meadows Ranch in the 90s.
They should pay you to take that land.
Have you priced out what it’s going to cost you to drill a well ? A 250 ft well can cost you a minimum of $12-$15,000 not including permits. You may have to go as deep as 500 ft depending on your elevation. Add in a pump, tank, filters, and electric and that’s another $2000+.
I could throw a football over them mountains.
If coulda put woulda put me in we woulda won states
IS there water to be even *dug* for?
I’m on the east coast. How does 20 acres feel out there? Small because a neighbor can see you without trees? Large cause it’s wide open? Genuinely curious
you should really research dessert living before you move. water will be hard to get. harvesting water will be hard to maintain. water delivery will be hard to afford.
you will also need to know what you can build. you might not even be able to build any permanent structures on that land.
next you’ll need to learn how to grow food in a literal dessert this will tie into the water issue also. shade trees will be mandatory to create anything remotely comfortable.
Isn’t the start of Bladerunner 2049 on a homestead in Nevada? I thought the idea of building a closed-cycle water and greenhouse system was pretty cool. Or maybe it was supposed to be California post-apocalypse and was filmed in Nevada.
You have infinite solar power and heat. Look into that system of black plastic tubing that goes on roofs: your gator moat can double as a hot tub basically for free. I don’t think that crazy/awesome salt battery solar mirror system along I15 scales to a residential level, though that would be cool.
You’re surrounded by towns called Eureka and Jackpot. Have you considered mining for silver up in that there patch of the Silver State?
When you say you’ll have a well dug, have you done a test bore? I have a client in Arizona with a perfect forever home site, designed out their age-in-place house. They redid their well report since it had been a decade. Nothing. Totally dry. They sold and bought land in Wyoming.
A giant garden and greenhouse? You better be damned sure you’re gonna find water because there’s not a drop on the surface, and trucking it in will get real old, real fast
Usually if you don’t see anything growing out of the ground for miles in any direction, it’s because nothing can grow out of the ground for miles in any direction.
That’s not to say that you can’t grow stuff there, it just means it’s going to be a very uphill battle against mother nature.
The first major hurdle is going to be water. Does anyone in that area have a successful well? You’ll have to pay the well drilling company regardless of whether they hit any water or not, so it’s best to not waste any money on it unless you know for sure there’s water down there. If not, your only real option is to get a water tank truck delivery and a huge holding tank. Honestly, if there isn’t a good aquifer to drill into, your best bet is to sell this land and buy something somewhere else. Without a good water source, you literally cannot do anything. And if you are able to put a well in, you’ll need to get that drilled ASAP, because it’s output capacity dictates what you can do with your land.
Regarding electricity, using a generator full-time is a very, very expensive proposition. You’re probably going to want to get solar panels and a battery bank as quickly as possible, before you spend all your money on gasoline for the generator.
If you don’t mind sharing, how much did it cost you?
Investigate native plants, especially ones that can either build up the soil, produce food, and/or help sequester water.
Build water catches like berms and swales.
I’d find water first before spending a nickel on anything else.
First priority should be a water catchment system – even in the desert, capturing what little rain you get with proper swales and tanks could be the differnce between success and failure.
Consider a walipini – the weather in Nevada is notoriously variable.
There is a young gentleman in the Arizona high desert around Joseph City and Holbrook. He has a YouTube channel documenting his homestead from having only a van and dirt to having a working farm. I think it is Frugal Off Grid or Frugal Homestead. It might be worth your time, especially the water and garden tips.
How deep and how much is that well gonna cost?
I can’t imagine that being “cheap” at all.
I think the most important thing to start with is a list of infrastructure priorities and work from there.
For me it would be
1. Shelter
2. Water
3. Power
4. Access
5. Kitchen garden
6. Rainwater harvesting
7. Shade trees
8. Livestock infrastructure (fencing, waterers, forage development)
Stop. Check on water regs. Reno, and Nevada got brought up on charges for water issues a while back. Don’t assume anything