YOU CAN STILL HOMESTEAD TODAY!!! WILDERNESS and REMOTE LIVING is AVAILABLE!

At 53 yrs old Dick Proeneke left everything behind to live in the Alaskan Wilderness

Alone....

YOU CAN STILL HOMESTEAD TODAY!!! WILDERNESS and REMOTE LIVING is AVAILABLE in 2017!  Although many of the government homesteading programs are gone, the dream of homesteading a remote or wilderness homestead is still very accessible and available. The state of Alaska has many remote parcels available for "over-the-counter-land sales" <=click or paste - http://dnr.alaska.gov/mlw/landsale/otc/

where you can purchase remote properties over the internet direct from the state of Alaska with your credit card. Their website has maps, pictures, evaluations and descriptions of available parcels with a wide range of prices from low couple thousands $2k on up to $50 or $60k depending on the locale and size of the parcel, type of ground etc. Its worth a look if you are Alaska inclined.  They also have a purchase and remote parcel staking program for 1+ year residents of the state that is very attractive as well. The state of Alaska also offers very attractive financing to residents on land purchases from the state of Alaska.

Canada has many affordable wilderness large acreage parcels where you can still homestead today. Many are very reasonably priced and Americans can stay at their Canadian homesteads up to 6 months a year. Dual Citizenship is also available which would make full residency possible. With dual citizenship you must realize that if borders are closed during time of war you will have to remain on whichever side you reside when the border closes. However, I must say that Canada has some of the most beautiful wilderness areas/habitat.

Another way to acquire remote properties in todays economy is through tax sales in many states. These are properties that have been forfeited back to the state because the land owner did not pay the land taxes. Often these are remote recreational secondary properties that the owners felt were extra baggage in tight times and let them go. Many are undeveloped because they were not the owners primary property. These are usually able to be acquired for very low prices when you agree to pay the back taxes. Check state websites for these tax sales. We were able to secure a 10 acre remote parcel between two national forests for just $4,000. We used some of the trees to build and we have no neighbors for miles. 

It all started for us when we decided we wanted to have good clean food. We were locked into a suburban area and couldnt leave right away due to our debt load, but we decided that we did have enough room to grow our own food. We hunted on public land for red meat, we raised chickens and ducks for poultry, just a few. They gave us meat and eggs. We fished local lakes in a cheap boat & canoe we bought off craigslist which gave us a way to harvest our own fish. We dug the worms in our own yard and collected them after the rain, we stored them in a cooler full of dirt with a screen over it and then used them as needed.  We also planted our yard into strawberries, asparagus, and alfalfa. We used cherry and apricot bushes for shrubbery, and planted apple and peach trees for our yard trees. We planted grapes for a hedge row on the fence between our place and the neighbors which made a nice privacy screen as well. We also tapped the few maple trees in the yard to learn how to make maple syrup and sugar. We planted a vegetable garden and learned to can them for storage.  We therefore gained some practice before we actually headed into our wilderness. Having all this knowledge really helped us feel more in control and much more secure in our abilities to succeed on a homestead.  We were already heating with wood at that point and I had made many 1 pot suppers on the heating stove, but I soon ventured into the idea of having an oven too so finally bought a wood cook stove. It was marvelous! But thats a story all on its own!  I learned to make jams, jellies, juices, jerky, soups etc. all stored away for winter, all organic, all healthy. So the move to a remote homestead was smoother for us than it might be for some, but one of the things that was not so smooth was getting accustomed to a lack of electricity. Our income primarily comes from the internet, through making buckskin clothing and other mountain man items, and through the sale of homesteading items we acquire at vintage auctions and estate sales. So we needed a way to have internet access and the ability to run our laptops at our remote location. The solution came through Verizon Wireless. We purchased a smart phone which had hot spot capabilities which meant we could get internet signal to our laptops through the phone. We then purchased a few solar panel kits and some batteries, as well as a cheap 1000 watt generator. This gave us adequate power to run two laptops on internet for work, and by streaming movies through Amazon Prime and netflix where we can view movies of our choice as well as documentaries, independent films, National geographic, History, Discovery etc for $7.99/mo - if we can find the time to watch them! So we stay connected with the larger world inspite of our seclusion.

Getting into homesteading and wilderness living is really just taking measure of what is really really important to you and finding a way to preserve that while deciding what is NOT important. Then going through the steps of peeling that away, until you have centered on what is your essential character and pursuing that character. Your wilderness homestead can be exactly what you want it to be, that is the freedom and liberty of remote living. There are still laws and regulations to some degree, but fewer restrictions than in areas of more concentrated populations. That is the essence of wilderness living...Freedom to live, not just exist, but to grow, learn, stretch your mind, and physical abilities, to really LIVE!