Hill\Mountian Folks (Knoxville, Jackson, Burns: 2013, health insurance, mortgage)

[ljay42]

Originally Posted by kamilavalamp

P.S. I know I may sound like a nutcase

Originally Posted by kamilavalamp

I haven't been to Tennessee. But I live where there are so many cameras and advertisements and high-born stuck-up back-stabbin hypocrites telling you what you can and can't do all the time that I would do absolutely anything to go where you don't always feel like a prisoner having to get permits and permission just to pick your nose. To go where there is something left of the freedom we are supposed to have as Americans and where I can live without debt and build a life with my own 2 hands. Please tell me there is a place where I can do this. I am so tired of feeling like I'm in a soviet bloc.

Originally Posted by kamilavalamp

P.S. I know I may sound like a nutcase

Ok then.

[kamilavalamp]

Originally Posted by Wmsn4Life

So you're one of the high-tax, blizzard refugees. I get it. We have a lot of those.

I think you should start one step at a time, with a vacation.

No place is perfect, and I guarantee you won't find what you described in your OP.

Just take some time off and regroup.

Ok, I'll start by coming down there for uncle dave macon days.

[kamilavalamp]

Is what I'm looking for is a thing of the past?

[JMT]

Originally Posted by kamilavalamp

Ok, I'll start by coming down there for uncle dave macon days.

Did you not look and see that the Uncle Dave Macon Days festival is held in Murfreesboro, a booming city of 120,000 located within Nashville's metropolitan area? How is that going to help you find someplace with no billboards, no neighbors, and a town of only 40-50 people?

If you want to come down and see someplace more, well, backwoods, try Jammin' at Hippie Jack's which is located in Crawford, a former coal mining community that is miles from nowhere, deep in Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau region between Monterey and Livingston.

Jammin at Hippie Jack's - Council of Americana Roots Music

From the web site:

JAHJ evolved out of a documentary produced by WCTE-PBS in 2006. The star was Jack Stoddart, a fine art photographer whose life was spent living on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee documenting the vanishing culture of the Appalachian “hill people,” who even in the late 1970’s and early 80’s were still working the land with horse and plough, and surviving in seclusion.

Sounds like maybe something you could investigate.

[creeksitter]

If you are truly trying to avoid radio waves - there is a place called Green Cove in WVA with a radio observatory - surrounding area is blacked out for radio waves, cell service etc.

As far as your self sufficient ideal - that is fine to pursue for yourself but be aware that many of your neighbors will be on disability or at least food stamps.

p.s. you'd have to find a county that opted out of building codes if you want to build new.

[kamilavalamp]

Originally Posted by creeksitter

If you are truly trying to avoid radio waves - there is a place called Green Cove in WVA with a radio observatory - surrounding area is blacked out for radio waves, cell service etc.

As far as your self sufficient ideal - that is fine to pursue for yourself but be aware that many of your neighbors will be on disability or at least food stamps.

p.s. you'd have to find a county that opted out of building codes if you want to build new.

If I own 10 acres or so of land will people really come looking to complain that my log cabin isn't up to code? That's the kind of thing people do in CT that I want to get away from.

[Creekcat]

Originally Posted by kamilavalamp

If I own 10 acres or so of land will people really come looking to complain that my log cabin isn't up to code? That's the kind of thing people do in CT that I want to get away from.

Probably depends on the county you choose or if you choose to stay off the grid and build it yourself, the way you want too. Make it hard for the inspector to get there, as in really poor access road, and I'm sure they will leave you alone.

[MrsApt]

Originally Posted by kamilavalamp

Is that the kind of hospitality I can expect from the people of Tennessee? I know I may sound like a nutcase or somebody that watches too much tv but I genuinely want this kind of simple life. I am not one of those people that wake up one day and decide to live off the land with no idea how. I have been thinking about it for years and I have spent years learning all the skills I need to do it and I understand and gladly accept the back-breaking labor it's gonna make for me so please treat me seriously.

Wanting this life doesn't make you a nutcase. You should certainly be able to find it in Tennessee, we have it here in California in the various remote towns nearby. Especially one which is totally off grid.

I will green you with my favorite town. I've tried to no avail to find a book or reference for off grid towns in the US or at least in my state

You have nothing to apolgize for, this is an excellent thread. Good luck to you in finding what you seek.

[MrsApt]

Originally Posted by kamilavalamp

Is what I'm looking for is a thing of the past?

Absolutely not but you have much research to do, unfortunately

[BirdieBelle]

Originally Posted by Creekcat

Probably depends on the county you choose or if you choose to stay off the grid and build it yourself, the way you want too. Make it hard for the inspector to get there, as in really poor access road, and I'm sure they will leave you alone.

If it's their job to find you, they will find you. Building codes exist for a reason, and if you build in a county that has building codes, the inspector will find you. They won't just say, "oh well, bad road. Can't get there!"