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Cool country BOL from desert.

4K views 9 replies 5 participants last post by  floridanurse 
#1 · (Edited)
Desert dweller here. Looking to obtain BOL in case of grid down in summer. Looking to Southwest Prescott, yarnell, skull valley, maybe pine lake by Kingman. Avoiding Williams, flag due to Cochin county, avoiding Alyson snowflake due to distance, avoiding it Graham due to distance.

Heard there are 100s (!) Of halfway houses for chronically mentally ill in Prescott.

I know of problems in Ashfork with meth tweakers raiding houses when owners are gone.

Looking for same kind of info.
 
#2 ·
Be aware that more and more counties are quietly instituting closed borders. During a crisis no one shall be permitted to enter some counties without proof of residency (valid ID, etc). Just something to consider. It's not a bad idea to get DL with different addresses on them for this cause.

Ash Fork is reservation (maybe 1000 residents); I'm not sure why anyone would consider this as a viable option unless they are a tribal member, related to a tribal member, or a very, very close friend of the tribe.
 
#4 ·
I'm in phoenix and looking north to the flag/williams area for some acreage. while society thriving - will be used as vacation retreat - fun family cabin for summers and weekends, etc.. close to snowbowl for skiing, is there fishing here in AZ? i'm new here. also, near forest land for hiking, ATV/snowmobile fun, homestead gardening, low maintenance edible landscaping, having fun with family..... etc....

If we have an event of some sort.... well, I can get there on a tank of gas, and it will be our bug out location. food storage, ammo, guns, seeds, self sufficient homestead, etc...

The OP said he was avoiding williams/flag because its in coconino county? I'm new to AZ, what's the issue? etc....

I have just started the process of looking but my big things are - if possible, water rights and mineral rights....

ability to have a private well seems absolutely necessary since water is more scarce here.
 
#6 ·
Sure wish the OP would join us too......

I speculate that the concern with Flagstaff is that it is a significant population center with an order of magnitude concern with winter/snow concerns. There are other choices with less need for dealing with this aspect of preparation, not that Flagstaff is anything like Fargo, Billings, Cheyenne, etc.

The other thing, of greater concern (in my opinion), is a few thousand college students at NAU who are not: 1. Arizonans; 2. Prepared; 3. of sufficient mindset to think they are responsible for their own existence.
 
#7 ·
coconino county is a liberal cesspool.

the people tend to be arrogant and self important. very few decent people, a whole lot of **** heads. appropriately enough, the mountains nearest flag are the "san fransiscos", fitting, no ?

their county admin and planing and zoning are nazis, absolute nazis. any and every modification of your land is subject to their judgement and scrutiny, but basically you'll be told no and subject to huge fines. former contractor(who used to install rain water catchments) and have seen it many, many times. just not worth the trouble or effort to deal with.

The NAU churns out liberal **** heads who couldn't pour **** out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel. hippies, degenerates, over grown manchildren and other losers have sit ins, cry ins, die ins, parades, demonstrations and generally hate everything I hold dear. This attitude is palpable in the town, especially in closer proximity to the "university" (lol) . there are some nice and decent people there, but...they don't vote or not in sufficient numbers..

The surrounding area is heaven on earth. smallish town (flagstaff) with real 4 season weather. good hunting, fishing, skiing, winter sports, tourism, etc. really nice place...except for the liberal scum that flock there. they may as well be californians.

one post SHTF concern i see would be an invasion from Phoenicians, whether or not they have a destination in mind or not. Most of Payson, FLG, prescott would be inundated with phoenicians if a grid down happens in the height of summer. might be interesting if they appropriate your home or land before you get there.

ASHFORK- not indian or tribal. just isolated and rural. the area is slightly warmer than williams, summit, flagstaff due to it's lower elevation ~5000 amsl. most homes outside of AF proper are off grid. but tweekers abound and will absolutely rip you off. reports of cops being shot, homes broken into and then flooded, burned or horribly vandalized, even 1 where it was squatted until the rightful owner arrived and they fled. not a good place unless you're there fulltime to guard it. then if SHTF you may have to fight an adhoc tweeker army. too much wrong with AF. However it is in yavapai county, much friendlier to humans than coco.

WILLIAMS- very nice small town, tourism dependent jobs, nice people, more "arizonan" than the FLG residents. but still in coco. would love to make a BOL there...just cant do coco. don't need meddling in my affairs when it comes to a grey water or rain water system.

Ironically, a county supervisor once won an award for his rainwater catchment and wise water use home that he built. it was declared illegal by the coco PZ. kept very quiet. coco has huge water issues (water table 3500 feet thru solid rock. wells are a multimillion dollar enterprise). you'd think any wise water plan would be good, but he just built it and didn't seek permission from PZ first.
 
#8 ·
Water in coco county. see above issues.

most areas, if not on a traditional water infrastructure with buried pipes, hydrants, etc. will be a "hauled water community" any area outside established city limts or municipal water service areas will be paying $0.04 per gallon hauled to your house. you can haul your own for half that price. many do. there are adequate filling stations in the outlying community.

williams city has had issues with adequate water wells. the last time a well was brought in successfully, the governor made a trip to dedicate it. the well has since failed. their problems persist. they have entire lakes surrounding Williams to provide water (winter run off) and they are still cutting it close. outside of williams, you'll need a catchment, not a risky $100,000 well.

with gutters being diverted to buried or semi buried tanks, catchments are common and everybody (except a PZ inspector) looks the other way. I lived on rain water for years. 1000 square feet of roof area will provide 625 gallons of water per inch of rain. a catchment can be made on flat ground with simple materials if your roof isn't big enough. the big thing is the ability to actually catch the water when mother nature decides to give it to you. You must have adequate tank space to catch it and hold it until you can use it. most homes have 1 single 2000 gallon or smaller tank. it would be very simple to buy several 2000 or 2500 gallon buryable tanks and hook them in series to obtain 10,000 gallons of capacity. I've seen simple systems, owner installed that work flawlessly. done on the cheap and kept quiet. anybody can rent a backhoe and the sight of someone towing a large water tank to their home will not draw anyones attention.

10,000 gallons ? not crazy, just remember "2 is one, 1 is none". the whole point of prepping is to have it when you need it. a poor rain year or extended drought or an increase in demand (house guests, garden demands ?) necessitate the storage capacity. a family of four can learn water conservation and reduce their water use from 20k gallons per month to 1k gallons per month. i know, i did it. showers and toilets are the biggest culprit. use grey water for the garden.
 
#9 ·
cautionary tale about BOL in AF.

an acquaintance of mine had some acreage in AF, off grid, off the beaten path. He gets a phone call from the USFS telling him he has to come get his trash and threatening him with illegal dumping charges.

WTF ?

Seems his trailer home on his isolated BOL acreage in far off rural AF was the target of tweekers who towed his trailer into the woods, cleaned it out (just long term food stuffs) and then torched it, right in the middle of the danged forest. Could've been a disaster, but luckily it wasn't.

((typical tweeker behavior, they could've just back their van up to the trailer and moved the items into it and left without anyone noticing. Instead, they hooked to it, towed it 20 miles down the interstate, then into a national forest, then clean it out, then torched it under cover of pine trees. Tweeker logic knows no bounds and trying to understand it is a waste of time. when dealing with tweekers, never assume they reason and function like a human, act accordingly)).

Anyway, unless you're there to watch it and guard your turf, AF is out of the question.

Cody Lundin had a nice off grid part buried house there that was on his show about 10 years ago. don't know if it's still there or if he still lives there.

ALSO-with the advent of "simply safe" and "x-10" systems that give you real time alarm and video of your home, that might tip the odds in your favor. I know a buddy who could talk to his dogs at home via intercom from work. he would watch their expressions on camera when he talked to them. could be beneficial dealing with interlopers when you're notified.
 
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