The Search

For months, my husband - we'll refer to him as "R" - and I perused sites like LandWatch.com and LandandFarm.com for raw, undeveloped land in Maine.  We viewed so many pieces of land online that our eyes were crossed.  I did so much research on town laws and ordinances to see if our plan would work.  Our intention was to stay within 300 miles of our home so we could easily travel there on the weekends.  We plan to visit a couple of times a month until my stepdaughter - we'll refer to her as "N" - graduates college in a couple of years, at which time we'll relocate permanently.  In the meantime, we'll build an off-grid cabin, establish a garden, build structures for small livestock like goats, chickens, turkeys, pigs, etc.  R works in the union construction field and may continue this path after we move.  I work behind a desk as a secretary and never want to work behind a desk again.  Our plan is to eventually trade in our mid-size truck for a full-size truck and get a plow, in addition to getting a skid steer for a potential plowing business.

October 7, 2017 - Burnham

The first place we visited was in Burnham, Waldo County, Maine (257 miles, 4.5 hours, same-day round trip).  The land was 20-some-odd acres with one border along a beautiful stream, and the road was an actual paved road (unlike those to follow), however there was no driveway, so that is a process in and of itself.

Burnham, Waldo County, Maine

Wanting to get the lay of the land a bit, we started bushwacking where we thought the land was situated (there were no boundary lines that we could locate from the street, and the realtor was not meeting us for the viewing).  After a short hike through pretty thick brush heading in the supposed direction of the known creek, we found a bit of a path that we followed for a ways until we ran into a nice man and his friend who informed us that we were, in fact, on his land (the second time it's happened to him since the land went up for sale).  We apologized and explained the situation, so he showed us the property marker at the edge of the creek and we explored a little more from there.  The land was low, and the neighbor told us it often floods out from the river and can be very wet.  We weren't really impressed with the land, despite the breathtaking autumn view, so we headed back to the car.

Burnham, Waldo County, Maine

October 21, 2017 - Bradford

The next property we visited was in Bradford, Penobscot County, Maine (299 miles, 5.25 hours, same-day round trip).  This land was located on a discontinued town road that had been converted into an ATV and snowmobile trail (which we were thrilled about given that our family already has a passion for riding).  A discontinued road is not plowed or maintained by the town, but the property was located a short distance from the road - less than 1/4 mile I think - so we weren't incredibly concerned.

Bradford, Penobscot County, Maine

The land was owned by a logging company at the time (which is common in Maine, we found).  They'd done all they'd wanted to with harvesting the trees from the land and really left a mark..  The cleared areas were rampant with raspberries and there was a beautiful babbling brook through one portion of the land, but there were also a lot of other wet areas which may potentially hinder our intentions of having a garden and small livestock.  We checked this place out twice because we really liked the location, but in the end it didn't feel quite *right* so we continued our search.

Bradford, Penobscot County, Maine

November 11-12, 2017 - Amity

The third piece of land we visited and deeply considered was 40+ acres situated all the way up off Route 95 Exit 302 in Amity, Aroostook County, Maine (426 miles, 7.5 hours, two day trip).  Since this land was so far away and we spent an extended period of time exploring, we decided to book a local hotel in a nearby town that accepts pets since Willow and Tyson accompanied us (as they had for the other land-seeking trips and a few other unrelated overnight camping trips).  This was going to be their land, too, and we felt it important for them to be involved in the search.  We are a family of adventurers! (Side note - we went on a 900 mile round trip journey to get Tyson when he was 12 weeks old, and years later when 9 week old Willow came in to our lives, we drove 530 round trip miles to scoop her up!)  It was their first experience in a hotel room, and they both behaved extraordinary.

Tyson and Willow at the motel in Houlton, Maine

This was the first property we looked at that had an existing structure.  The cabin was in very rough condition, but we try to see past the surface to the bones.  It had potential, despite the massive amounts of trash and animal excrement...  Plus, there was twice the amount of acreage as the previous pieces of land which was an incredibly big draw.  We even saw a moose print at the end of the driveway, and spoke to a local who said there was a moose who lived in the area that you had to watch out for - moose can be incredibly dangerous.

Amity, Aroostook County, Maine

There was a second structure used as a shed. We were intrigued, and very interested, but the property left us with questions which left us uneasy that could not be answered because it was a bank sale and the property is sold "as is" without disclosures.  Thankfully, I like to find answers to questions, and when browsing a forum, I came across information regarding the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory.  You can go to this site, plug in an address, and it will tell you if there are any wetlands present and if so, what kind of wetlands they are.  Thank all the gods that I came across this information because when I plugged in the Amity address, it turned out that 90% of the land is considered wetland.  I was blown away, and we were very discouraged, but onward we trod!

The cabin is in the bottom left corner; the only portion of the land not considered Wetlands

Found At Last

It was on Craigslist, of all places, that R found our gem in the rough located in southern Piscataquis County.

Piscataquis County, Maine

November 23, 2017

R and I first visited the land on Thanksgiving.  We decided to forego the standard Thanksgiving celebration with one a little less conventional, thinking of it as a celebration of dreams.  Tyson and Willow came along, as they had to our other land visiting adventures.  They fare well in the truck, and Willow has even learned to utilize pit stops like the rest of us.

There is a local motel up the road a mile that we rented a room at for the weekend a couple of times before we were situated at camp.  We were very pleased that it accepted pets.  Willow and Tyson were both very well behaved guests.

Willow waits for dinner at the motel.

We weren't exactly sure what we were looking for because we weren't provided with any pictures.  The land is located about 2 miles down an unmaintained town road (i.e. jeep trail) with a spattering of off-grid, nearly most appearing abandoned, camps along the way, so we narrowed it down to two of which we thought one were the right parcel...we just didn't know which at the time.  We initially ended up at the neighboring camp.  It had seen better days and had likely been uninhabited for a while, but had a killer view of the stream.

The neighboring property overlooking Bog Brook

Willow the Grey Ninja

Tyson looking handsome in his Weatherbeeta jacket

We checked out the second parcel which turned out to be the one.  The previous owner had, so far, just built the shell of a cabin, but completed a lot of culvert and water diversion work.  A Starcraft Satellite camper was left behind and is in pretty good condition.  It has some potential with a small fridge that runs on propane which will be helpful in the summer, in addition to a small apartment size stove that runs on propane, too.  We could hook up our generator to it, but we don't want to listen to the noise.  Candles, headlamps, and lanterns work just fine.

Driveway looking out to the trail

First view ever of our future homestead

It has some potential, but needs a lot of work obviously.

December 2, 2017

The next time we visited, we went there with a purpose.  We knew for sure which land we were viewing this time, and since we planned on bushwhacking through the woods to see the stream frontage and to get a better lay of some of the land, we decided to leave Tyson and Willow back home to hold down the fort.  Without them, while we missed their presence, we were able to cover much more ground and really absorb the beautiful, magical forest.

A snippet of the views we see driving in to camp on the unmaintained town road.

Looking out to the stream through the woods.

Black and white birch are abundant

Looking out towards Bog Brook

Facing west

Facing east

Looking back towards camp from the stream

Now that we knew for sure we were in the right place, we also inspected the cabin and the camper a little more, but both were locked so we just peeked in the windows.  The camper appeared to be in decent condition inside, like it was kept relatively clean, and we didn't see any glaring leaks or evidence of past leaks.

The cabin shell is a little bit of a let down. R has worked in construction for decades, and he's already built a garage at home, and I am a capable gal as well - so we were planning on starting from scratch when building our final cabin, but it would have been nice if the existing cabin shell were salvageable.  However, we're not too sure at this point, and venture it will at least be good for burning.

R and I are optimistic with what we've seen.   The land is beautiful.  We don't have much of a concern for the camper and cabin, and figure we'll find something useful to do with them in the least.  Time to contact the owner for negotiations!