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Thank you MtSilvertip. Your input was very helpful, I appreciate it. We'll certainly check it out.
I'll apologize now for my little child-rearing rants.
Everyone is entilted to their own opinion, I can fully understand how there are some parents who may not agree with spanking their children and that's ok...they are their children to raise. However, people take it to awhole new level when they accuse parents of hitting,beating, mistreating or other wise abusing their children over a spanking on the butt. I dare anyone to first meet with my children, speak to them and supervise our interactions with them and then try to tell me they are abused and mistreated. Our children are the only real treasures on this earth and they know it, they know how very loved they are. They also know when they have made a poor choice and are held accountable for those choices, just like we are.
People should be a little more careful with their outrageous accusations.
Hey Mg, I believe that was the other area my father in-law mentioned wanting to check out..he was saying it was off of North fork road....
Yup! Take the 'back road' north out of Columbia Falls and just keep goin'.
Nice country. Remote. Beautiful. Excellent hunting and fishing. There is a small entrance to Glacier Park there, but trust me, the touristy types don't know about it and wouldn't go looking for it even if they did.
Thank you,MG. Yup...that's the area my father-inlaw was talking about checking out!
My only concerns with the area would be a) I'm having a heck of a time find any property up there more than 100 acres or so ( for less than a Million) and b) one that had been previously mentioned and justly warranted, would be the farming/ranching restrictions on the area because of being so close to Glacier Park.
In all honestly, we'd like to Homestead again. That's what we had in PA up until a little over two years ago. It had been in the family dating back close to four hundred years, from generation to generation. Unfortunately, a particular semi-distant family member had allowed greed to slip in to his bones and he and his wife,through several real back-door dealings leased the minerals rights and such to a drilling company. Not long after that the land my husband and his family knew..was gone. All without any sort of family meeting or " what say you?". The local community grieved along with us and felt just as blinded and betrayed as we did, we could have taken it to court and more than likely won. However, our family legacy had been tarnished and greed along with deception had taken hold and the rest of us wanted no parts of it.
We don't want to be off on an island all by our selves. We loved our home, we loved our community and we would like to have that again. I suppose when it's family that does the cutting, those scars seem to take a little more time to heal is all.
Last edited by Pioneer_living4us; 04-23-2013 at 05:51 PM..
Thanks Clark! I can completely understand everyones reactions..and you're right, I'm sure most people have a very romantic and naive picture in their head as to what that lifestyle entails.
We realize just how rough and unforgiving Montana can be, especially for the lifesyle we are wanting. And yes, you're right..we miss what we grew up with. We're from there wasn't paved or ever gravel roads; it was dirt..with pot holes the size of a car. There was no such thing as " State Maintained roads". When you had 3 - 6 +ft of snow ...you better be able to drive through it or plow it yourself because if not, your not going anywhere. Iced over dirt roads was even better lol. The closest town, that had one store...a little whole in the wall "Corner Store" was it's name, it sold your staples but it was over 5 miles away. The closest town with services was between 35 - 40 miles away, depending on the way you took..there were only two ways and one of them was called " deadly hollow". That should tell you something! As for home heating you had either wood or coal..we didn't have heating oil until years later. We did have electricity though, but if the power lines went down...well, you better get out your lanterns because it was sometimes for weeks, not just mere days. The power company just couldn't get their trucks through the roads until the storm broke but luckily my Dad was an electrician and did that stuff for a living. Need a plumber? Better become one! Need a carpenter? Better become one! Need to dig out your septic? Ya...have fun!
Need to do some logging for the pretty little cabin you'd like to build...well ya better have an old Ford 9n tractor,chains and a good old Stihl, the kind our grandparents had..not the kind they make today and get it done. Low on your estimate of wood for the winter? Well, have fun for the next eight hours! What I'm trying to say is that where we grew up, you really were on your own...no police,certainly no ambulance and you either figured it out and did what needed to be done or you weren't going to cut it. You earned everything darn thing you had or you didn't have it.
I realize Montana does not compare to westerna PA but we still want to learn what we don't know, look around see what is available, what is do-able and what isn't.
PA has changed, what was once rural,no longer is. Subdivisons and pipelines have taken over and people have seemed to have lost their manners and their salt. Not somewhere I am going to raise my family,period. No one is going to tell me that spanking my child because she/he seemed to have a lapse in judgement as to how the parent-child relationship works is "abusive" or against her/his "civil rights", I know folks who have had this happen.No little boy is going to slap my daughter acorss the face and it be called " growing pains". Nonetheless, there is no place left to hunt big-game in PA..even small game is near gone. For people who eat off of what they hunt, that's a big deal. My husband and my father-inlaw have always been in love with the west..Montana and Wyoming mostly...so that is where they'd like to be.
So, we'll see. Maybe that part of Montana isn't for us, maybe it is...I suppose we'll find out!
Again, thanks for your advice,honesty and help.
PS sorry for the typos, my hands type faster than my brain can keep up.
I'm from WV so to some degree I can emapthize with you. Folks here generally are not in your business, but then again folks in WV were not either. Western PA is not that much different. Yinzers and 'eers are not that far apart. I'm not sure what backlash you've experienced, but I had no issues raising my family in my town with my neighbors, friends and peers. We all were very conservative and traditional. Not much different here, frankly.
I think I can safely say that land, large tracts of land, are cheaper in WV than in MT as well. A lot cheaper the farther south you go in WV. I have a relative with 300 acres in WV, back off a road no one travels and an hour from Winchester, 45 minutes from Berkely Springs.. His wood is abundant, can grow a garden sutable for year round living and comfortably live off the grid if need be. Snow can be a pain in the butt there, and it is heavy and sloppy but he has an old road grader he uses to plow his road to the main road. Takes a full day, but he can do it.
You are not going to get that in Western MT. You are going to pay some coin for that kind of acreage, especially with any water on it. When it snows, you are not going to be able to keep up with it without a commercial plow let alone drive through it. One day of snow in Boulder this past winter and my friend buried his Yukon in a drift. It took 6-7 guys with shovels to dig him out enough to get a truck to yank him. That was not a serious storm at altitude either.
I seriously dont know if you comprehend the enormity of the situation at altitude along the divide. It's not to be taken lightly.
The comments regarding disciplining wasn't a backlash towards us, it happened to some other folks we know. However, in all fairness, the town they had relocated to was more suburban with condo's and such. The area we're from was very conservative and traditional, no issues there..except for we lost our homestead a little over two years ago. However, some of the new building codes and zoning laws in PA are becoming a little ridiculous. Not to mention gas pipelines are everywhere right now. Big game hunting has been affected in certain places.
We have family in WV,beautiful state.
We're not running away from PA, or anywhere for that matter. My husband and his dad have always loved going out west and since we no longer have a homestead in PA..there really isn't anything keeping us here anymore. We've been researching MT for almost a year now..will be making a trip up this summer and a few other times after that through out the year.
You're right, I probably don't realize the enormity of that situation. Which is why we need to make several visits, talk with locals ( like you and the rest) and drive around. I do know of two folks who have attempted living out in Polebridge. However, the fact that they built a Yurt to live in year around..kind of leaves me with more questions than answers at this point.
Thank you for your input,Threeun. I appreciate it and we may reconsider living in area that gets 9ft + of snow on average. The truth is, until we actually visit MT and drive around, spend time with the locals...we're not really going to know where we'd like to live. We need to get our feet on the ground and discover MT!
Last edited by Pioneer_living4us; 04-24-2013 at 07:09 AM..
Finding 600+ acres in Montana other than the Eastern side might be tough. Another thought is 35 miles from a town is not considered "remote" in Montana. I don't consider myself remote and I'm more than 50 miles from the nearest town. I'm at the top of the Rockies and can tell you that there are no parcels of land for sale here that even come close to the amount you are looking for.
Deep snow country is found at higher elevations. Most of the higher elevation land in Montana is public land..National Forest. Because in Homestead days no one wanted high elevation or desert dry land. The only land holders at high elevation were miners holding mining claims. Some claims are patented which means the land is owned outright (so can be bought & sold) while unpatented mining claims are public land parcels which have been "leased" for mining development.
There are small parcels within the forest that are patented mining claims but it would be rare to find one any size. Usually they are for sale in the 20 acre or so size.
Timber companies were off-shoots of railroad companies and ended up with checkerboard sections throughout public forest. Many of these sections (640 acres) have been land exchanged-traded- over the years to consolidate holdings. The timber companies have real estate divisions which sell land.
History, Yes, I have been spending some time researching those options. Lots and lots of research still to do. I think it will be a little easier once we get our feet on the ground in MT. Then we will be able to drive around to the areas that interest us and go from there. There are always compromises to be made on everything in life. ..we may not find "exactly" what we'd like to have but we'll find what we need and we'll be happy and grateful having found it.
Thank you for your help.
Location: A Very Naughtytown In Northwestern Montanifornia U.S.A.
1,088 posts, read 1,946,460 times
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Originally Posted by Pioneer_living4us
Magoo, Thank you for your post.
History, Yes, I have been spending some time researching those options. Lots and lots of research still to do. I think it will be a little easier once we get our feet on the ground in MT. Then we will be able to drive around to the areas that interest us and go from there. There are always compromises to be made on everything in life. ..we may not find "exactly" what we'd like to have but we'll find what we need and we'll be happy and grateful having found it. Thank you for your help.
Pioneer, I'm thinking that once you get here you just may decide on a lower elevation and still have plenty of privacy and elbowroom.
Those deerflys, black flies and mosquitos at the mountain tops will drive ya crazy. !
Having a garden is nice too and the valleys in western Montana seem to be not bad in the way of biting bugs.
I thought "mountain top living" was just for the single, old, bald, long nosed guy with huge ears, a super long white beard and size 16 boots !!!
(And a mule to keep him company)
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