Hardships & Truth of living in the Middle of Nowhere

I wanted to share a life update and some personal experiences of what it’s really been like living in a remote area with 20 acres. If you are thinking of moving to the country, if you are thinking of homesteading or living off the land, I want to share some of the things that people don’t always talk about. For those visiting from YouTube, thanks for stopping by! I wanted to share a little more about life here.

Rural Northwoods

For those who don’t know, I moved onto 20 wooded acres in 2018. This is our second winter and it is rough! Last winter I was going through a weird adjustment period to life in such a desolate and remote area. I think I am experiencing that again, but there’s a lot more to it. Please just bare in mind that part of why I’m struggling now might be due to winter difficulties like I went through last year. It’s a lot easier in the summer (to forget all challenges) when the animals awaken and are out and about nearby. Before I begin, there are many wondrous and beautiful things to see and experience in a rural area like this, if you like the outdoors. For this area of the Midwest, we are limited with our time every year as the winters are long and things get dark extremely early. So, though there are many beautiful animals and wildlife – there are many difficulties as well and that’s what this post is going to be about.

The Street Last Winter

When it comes to living in a remote area, sometimes the reality of it isn’t understood, until personally experienced or told about it. It seems sort of like a fantasy that would be so ideal and carefree, to live in the woods. But, the reality is that it’s a lot tougher than that. I chose this particular home and land after searching for months and months and driving across the state repeatedly to view homes and land that were available. There was a certain price range that we could afford and with that in mind, there was always a trade-off.

But, this house was newer, well-taken care of and was like a blank canvas. It also had a huge, beautiful, newer and large garage. The land was absolutely stunning beyond words. I love the pine trees and the beauty of them towering over and around the home. But, the land wasn’t overly usable in terms of farming or gardening, and that is a bit of an issue as it was something we had wanted to do.

Being An Outsider

One thing I overlooked more than anything was the strangeness of our family moving to an area outside of a very small town – full of people who almost all have lived here their entire lives. It’s weird. I’m not saying they are weird – just us moving here is as odd to them as it seems odd to me that they have lived here forever. Hope that makes sense. I do understand if someone is content and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. But, I was brought up moving often and my personal view on life is that everything is an experience and adventure. And, moving here has been a big learning experience for my family!

Managing the Snowfall

Unexpected First Snowfall this Winter

It’s been hard lately to post content to youtube (this is my channel for those who don’t know) or even on here regularly. The work outside has kept us very busy this winter. This photo here was taken I believe during one of our first snowfalls of this winter. It was a snowfall that I did not expect, which is why my car is parked outside!!! We now have about 4x as much snow and besides the ground, we have to keep shoveling off the roof of the home and garage so they do not collapse. That in itself is a massive amount of work to keep up with – and we were using a roof rake. But, it stopped working (too much snow) so we had to take the ladder out and go on the roof to shovel it off. If you were to fall off you would likely be fine as the snow is so deep at least! The reality of living here is that although it is gorgeous, it is tough.

Internet Service and Challenges

Backyard & View from the Studio

There are a lot of weird intricacies related to living here. Prior to signing on the dotted line, we were told there was internet service here that was decent, if not, good. I think that is one of the biggest issues I am having (See 2023 update below as this is no longer an issue)!

I’ve worked online in different capacities, for years now. I have dsl internet that I had to finagle my way into getting as they kept saying “no” to renewing its use here. The prior owner had it and said it was good – but they refused to let me sign up for it. I went to the local office but they were not open for customers. There was an actual office with workers, but you could not access or speak to them basically, which I know makes no sense. Instead I had to call a call center and talk to someone many hundreds of miles away. I called numerous times and on one occasion they said ok to it. The service is around 400kbps speed, often much, much slower – kind of like dial-up. I also have a contract for Hughes satellite internet which is often around the same speed as dsl, surprisingly. It is said to be 25mbps but it just isn’t. It is usually 400kpbs or less.

When it snows, it often does not work at all. So, when it comes to uploading a youtube video, it can take me 12 hours to sometimes almost two days – most often 16 hours though. Cell service isn’t strong enough for it either. So, often times if I post a video a week – I end up driving 20 minutes away to the actual cell phone tower and park outside of it, loitering, for an hour or two until it uploads.

Even though I’m right outside of the tower and cell service should be normal like anywhere, it’s still really slow! But, that is my best method so far! The cost of all these services that barely work – comes close to $300 a month. When I watch youtube videos on my TV, everything is so blurry and comes in at about 144 pixels! So, I realize these are what I would call “first world problems,” but it’s really hard to try to make money, connect with the world and not waste all my money away – when spending so much on this stuff that barely works. Also, though I said this is a “first world problem,” I have lived in numerous developing countries (ie: 3rd world) and they now (not then when I lived there) have internet that works really well and is high-speed. So, I don’t know what to call this type of issue but it’s frustrating!

Garbage Pickup & Septic

So, besides the technological issues, when I first moved here we didn’t have garbage pickup service available (we have it now for $50/mo. and it’s worth it). I had to store our trash in the garage. It was too much to burn. We have bears around here so I was always at risk of drawing them in and that freaked me out a little. The other yucky issue here is that I need to check our holding tank (we don’t have conventional septic) often to see how full it is. When it gets higher up, I really need to check it daily to be safe. When I say check it, basically there is a sewer (manhole cover) that I open up and peer into. We will be happy to never do again someday. We have to get that emptied about every two months – sometimes we can go every 3 months, but not usually. Basically, all our water that is used from the showers and sinks and toilet, go into the holding tank. When full, I have to call this company over and they pump it out with their truck and supplies. It costs about $200 every time and sometimes it’s cheaper (in the summer) around $150 per time. Because there is a holding tank, there is no bathtub. That is a luxury I miss more than anything. It was my way of relaxing and letting go of the stress.

Studio

Building More Rooms

Because I needed more space, we built a studio on the back of our garage and we all put so much work into it and absolutely love how it turned out. We installed a propane ventless heater in there for me and I am renting out a propane tank just for that room. The other propane tank is for our home heat. And, lately the temperatures have been around -20F and the room has become quite difficult to heat up. When using that vent-less propane heater, it creates massive condensation (none of us knew this beforehand – oops) and so we have to keep a dehumidifier in there.

Saving Cash & Driving Long Distances

One big reason for living here was to save money. When living so remotely, you also have to think about what is nearby. To get to the nearest decent grocery store, I drive about 40 minutes. There is no pizza delivery or fast food (there are one or two fast food places 20 mins away). For this reason, you will be healthier and have to cook things from scratch at home. I don’t mind, but sometimes I wish there was a healthy fast option but there aren’t. There is one grocery store a bit closer but it’s a lot more expensive and not worth it to me to shop at. The nearest Walmart is over an hour away. There is no Menards sadly – as we love that store.

So hardware and building supplies sometimes cost nearly double (the wood doesn’t cost double but supplies often do). So I try to buy as much on Amazon as possible when little things are needed, as it’s cheaper. Since living here, my car has taken a beating too.

Medical Care Options

The last thing I wanted to mention is something that I never thought of prior to living here and that is medical care. The options are limited. When needing to go for care, you have to drive an hour or two or even more to see a specialist. That’s difficult with the driving conditions. The doctors available around here aren’t the best.

Driveway, First Winter

The very very last topic I wanted to mention relates to the isolation. I don’t know of many people who enjoy this much isolation.

January 2023 Update

If you’ve read this far, thank you! You got an in-depth glimpse into what I was experiencing when I wrote this. I no longer feel that stress, isolation or being overwhelmed by the work of living here. I’ve completely adjusted to everything and I am content with this home. Life has changed immensely since I wrote this. I think I was experiencing 3 issues when I wrote this – culture shock or isolation adjustment issues, being overwhelmed by the weather and snow, and I was extremely frustrated with lack of proper internet services. I think the issue with the internet was one of the biggest problems.

I wanted to share that I ended up getting T-Mobile’s rural home internet service and that fixed my “dial-up” dsl issues. I would absolutely not recommend ever using Hughesnet services, as that cost me a ton of money and the internet was slow and unreliable. I also signed up for Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet and it took over a year of waiting, but I finally got it. It is incredible! It allowed me to get rid of the T-Mobile home internet and all we use is Starlink. It’s extremely fast and reliable.