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The Shocking Ups & Downs of Owning Western Rural Property (Patreon)

Published:
2026-08-07 16:07:31
Edited:
2026-08-07 16:09:23
Imported:
2026-08
Tags:

Content

https://youtu.be/_qeIyFbE0vE

You guys gave me some great LIFE questions when I asked. Here I address just ONE of them. A long term paying donor Matt asked if he should move from his rural Michigan property to come out west and get the same. The answer isn't as straightforward as one might think. In this feature length Nutnfancy Systems Philosophy video I discuss many of the pros and cons of both Eastern and Western Rural properties.

Having grown up in the Southeast I am familiar with Eastern wooded properties and enjoyed them immensely. I will contrast this experience of what I've do out west now. Some of the downsides might be shocking. East vs West: I don't think one is better than the other but go in with your eyes open. I will talk about pricing, self sustainability, water, bugs, critters, ability to shoot an AR15 out your house window, flood and fire dangers, need for heavy equipment, stocking up things in depth, remoteness, and much more.

I also will give you my cool incremental plan for settling on Western property that will allow you to save money.

Files

The Shocking Ups & Downs of Owning Western Rural Property

Patreon.com/nutnfancy Clubhouse gave me some great LIFE questions when I asked. Here I address just ONE of them. A long term paying donor asked if he should move from his rural Michigan property to come out west and get the same. The answer isn't as straightforward as one might think. In this feature length Nutnfancy Systems Philosophy video I discuss many of the pros and cons of both Eastern and Western Rural properties. Having grown up in the Southeast I am familiar with Eastern wooded properties and enjoyed them immensely. I will contrast this experience of what I've do out west now. Some of the downsides might be shocking. East vs West: I don't think one is better than the other but go in with your eyes open. I also will give you my cool incremental plan for settling on Western property that will allow you to save money.

Comments

Stuart

My wife and I moved from a townhouse in a city to 18 acres in the mountains of east Tennessee about 3 years ago. Best move we've ever made. We have genuine freedom here. None of my old city friends understand it and they never will.

Ted Hetzler

Moved to middle Tennessee, about 2 months ago from Florida. Like the mountains to the east. Would love to get back west though. Lived in Az and New Mexico for abit

Kirk Fickert

Have the ole family farms in the Midwest. Absentee land owners but I have a dirt runway, Quonset hut/hangar and a Cherokee I can fly down there in about 45 minutes. Have a L46XX Kabota with front loader, box scraper, land plane, disc, box scraper, sprayer, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a couple more implements. Unfortunately only had time to put about 15 hours on the tractor this year. Lease out the land for share of the crop. Makes enough to cover the rest of our expenses. Have water wells, electric, solar for some of the wells now, and sandy soil that acts as a natural filter.

The Nutnfancy Project

That is an awesome setup. I don't Midwest rural as well as the others. I here South Dakota is a great place too, cheaper land out there. I would do TN, SD, KY, maybe Missouri. Great to hear about your Kubota and implements too; it's mandatory out here too.

Gilbert Cuzdey Jr

Great topic. We moved from the suburbs to the woods. I'm in North Mississippi on 7.2 acres with a little mini homestead, and yes, I do shoot all the time although I can't quite fit a 500 yd range on my property lol. I think N Mississippi, W Tennessee, NE Arkansas, N Alabama is a great area to get property. We're 30 minutes from town, yes we can see our neighbors but they also watch our back as we've learned. Sometimes one of them plays music a little loud but hey, we all moved out here to do our own thing so that doesn't bother me. Real estate is relatively cheap out here. Yea it's humid, but I also lived in South Louisiana for 10 years and it's way worse there so it's all relative I guess. Also lived in the high desert for a time so I get the appeal of a dry area.

Charles New

So sorry about your mom, i lost my mom in July . Tough times for sure, take care Nutn.

JFire

Glad to see you are safe, good work with the tractor! I can’t wait to get away from city life and get space…yes with all the ups and downs. I want space to go fishing, hikes, nature and outdoors. I want my kids to experience the beauty of the world

TRJ

Thank you for this video! Very helpful information. I live in New Hampshire. I sometimes succumb to the grass is greener on the other side. I love my 6.15 acres but wish I could dirt bike on the western public lands and trails.

smead

Just a hint: We have life flight insurance thru our rural electric coop for $3 a month. You might want to check?

Matt Mann USA

I got home from a hard day's work around 2200 and saw this video in my inbox and it made my day! Thank you so much, Nutnfancy! We live on 40 wooded acres here in upper Michigan - 25 to 40 minutes from town depending on which town we're going to, and I think you and I are totally on the same page regarding property preparations and amenities. We could shoot out our windows pretty safely in any direction without the nearest neighbors caring. Gunfire is pretty common around here. I've built a 50-yard pistol range, a 100-yard .22 range, and a 400-yard rifle range. I also have a 20-yard archery range in the barn that extends out to 50 yards with the big door open. My biggest concerns about moving West have been what to do for work, the drought, and what looks to me to be a scarcity of firewood. We heat our home with a wood stove, so we're warm all winter even if the power goes out. I cut, split, and stack twelve face cords of wood myself each year; it's almost entirely maple and it lasts us for six months. I'd be concerned about finding enough wood out West to last through the winter, and it looks like most of the wood out there is pine - so I'd be concerned about it burning too fast and creating excessive creosote in the chimney. The thing you said that surprised me most about living out West is having to scrape a 200-yard-wide fire break. That is a lot of land to scrape! Our property is almost entirely hardwoods with a few random evergreens scattered throughout. It's so wet here that it's usually difficult to start a fire if you want one, so wildfires are near the least of our concerns. We burn most of our trash on site; I only take bulky plastic trash or trash that won't burn into town maybe three times a year. I guess with the fire danger you can't burn your trash in Wyoming? Our well has water at just 25 feet below ground - we're never lacking water here. The humidity makes things pretty miserable, though. Having lived by the ocean before, and with all the humidity here, I only own stainless steel firearms. I bought blued guns when I first started buying guns, and they all rusted. It's so humid here that even though the temperatures rarely get above 80° - you get drenched in sweat doing any kind of manual labor. The snow here causes lots of extra work. A foot of snow lingering around for a week out West sounds awesome. This past winter we got around 21 feet of snow. It only ever amounted to about 4 to 6 feet on the ground at any given time, but the ground was covered from just after Thanksgiving to mid-April, with shoveling (including the roofs) and snowblowing on almost a daily basis. I really don't want to have to keep clearing snow for half the year as I get older. Once the snow melts in the spring, we usually have a few weeks of mud without any shade, and soon the bugs come out, and they are atrocious. If you drive at night, the mosquitos hit your windshield like a steady rain and can make it nearly impossible to see. When you're outside, you have to be covered head to toe in clothing treated with DEET or you'll be swarmed and bitten incessantly. The bugs have recently begun to dissipate - August and September are the months we all look forward to here. October is nice too, but it gets cold and it's not uncommon to see snow again by Halloween. I doubt we'll move West anytime soon, but it's something I think about regularly. We already moved nearly a thousand miles to get here from the East coast. I'd move another thousand miles or so West if the conditions were right. Let me know if you're ever visiting the Great Lakes area - I'd love it if you'd stop by! Thanks again for making this video!

Bravo

Yes the dust and wind. Things if you are born in the west you don’t really notice and if you haven’t lived in you can’t understand. My wife also hates it but so much of the rest we love. It’s also amazing how inconvenient being 60 min from a grocery store or Costco or Home Depot is. Get ready for every weekend to be an epic all day quest to do errands. We are semi-rural and it’s always freaking something on the property. First, thank you for posting your stargazing activities. Please do more. Would like a “for beginners guide” with starter gear and technique. Second, MORE EB.

Bravo

We live in the Front Range rockies so not quite where Nutn is but consider… I find the winters to be much more mild than in the Midwest. In many of these places, yes it’s cold. Yes, you get snow. BUT. We might get dumped on with 2’ of snow over a day or so. Within a week it’s gone or much reduced. Yes you need to plow but my friends in Wisconsin get a big storm or a smattering of snowy days… and it just builds up until June. Being -10 F in 10% humidity is not the same as 34 F in 90% humidity. It is much easier to get warm and stay warm in the dry cold. We tend not to really need our stove until it’s hovering around freezing. You can get a lot of sun out west so if your house has some decent windows in it, it can get HOT fast. Even in the winter. Something to worry about in the summer if the heat bothers you. Clean your chimney once a year or so. Never had any issues burning pine or aspen or anything In our Quadra. We burn for most of Jan/Feb without stopping. Otherwise it’s intermittent. You likely don’t need a 6 month supply of daily burners depending on where you land out west. Generally we can find a neighbor or church or someone trying to get rid of wood. If you are way out in the high desert maybe you won’t get this? High winds take their toll on a lot of trees during the year. Many people can’t deal with it or don’t want to. Especially as they get older. If you have a truck and are willing to do a little leg work you can load up. Personally, having spent some significant TDY in the Midwest, I think if you can hack winter there, winter in the western mountains or high desert is no big thing. But yes, fire and drought are huge problems. The heat and dust is a problem. In many areas, insurance companies are either charging impossible rates or just won’t insure your property. One is an affordability problem. The other will prohibit you from financing construction so you’ll have to come cash-in-hand. More food for thought.

Anthony Hernandez

53:07 the banks may have an issue w the P.O Box set up, could potentially close your checking account all of the sudden like they did me

hoplite ⚔️

Thanks for the vid. Love this content. About to get serious about some forest land in Eastern Canada. Thank you 🙏 Uncle Nutn!

Matt Mann USA

One of the reasons we moved to upper Michigan is because I didn't want to be hot anymore. It was very hot in the mid-Atlantic where we came from, but it was also very humid. Here, it's not as hot for as long, but it still gets above 80° for a bit of the summer and it's at least as humid as it was farther East. The humidity is what really makes things uncomfortable. We traveled to Colorado in April this year to buy a rust-free vehicle and drove it home. I stopped for gas at the Conoco station in Kadoka, SD before getting on I-90. I was wearing winter clothing for the return trip since it was still cold and snowy here, but it was 85° in Kadoka, and I couldn't believe how good it felt! I checked the weather there on my phone and it said the humidity was 18%! I wouldn't mind living farther South to avoid the extreme cold and snow, as long as it's someplace dry. I've been looking on Zillow at Wyoming, Utah, and Western Nebraska and Kansas. I definitely wouldn't mind not processing firewood at all anymore, in addition to not shoveling snow. When we were considering moving here, we heard that the snow and bugs keep people away, and we thought that was a reasonable trade-off for living in a beautiful sparsely-populated area. But the snow and bugs don't really keep people away - they just keep people from moving to the area. We get millions of tourists driving through year-round to see the lakes in the summer and to snowmobile in the winter. We're about as remote as you can get on the Eastern half of the United States, and it might become truly isolated in WROL, but when you can't enjoy being outside for most of the year - and with all the snow shoveling, and breaking up ice dams on the roof, and vehicle rust from the road salt, and everything being frozen for so long - you've gotta start wondering if it's really worth the trouble.

The Nutnfancy Project

I grew up partially in Miss. and know it well. I was a young kid but I loved it. Great people there. I also did my USAF King Air C12F flight training in Biloxi. I admire your setup you have there. I'm surprised about how many TNPP have property, great to see. I also think of MS as a STEALTH state. Not too many think of it and as you know, good property values down there. And no fires ;-)

The Nutnfancy Project

THank you Charles. She wasn't doing so good so probably for the best she passed on. Just my one legged sister and I left from the family. All others are dead.

The Nutnfancy Project

Thanks. There's some great commentary here. Put MS, TN, AR, AL on the shopping list too. In some ways, as discussed in the video, might be the smart play vs Western property.

David Eslamizar

My gf’s dad has property out in the sticks. I stayed up there for a year. There were chickens, ducks, and they were all my little buds. They had two cats, and Joey the black panther was my ride or die. I would camo up and protect the ducks and chickens from predators. I could shoot right in the backyard. What I didn’t like was the rats and whatever chewing up your car under the hood. To be able to shoot and go on adventure was fun, and it’s a good place to burry problems 😉 jk. I’m not “religious” but Jesus is indeed king and he has shown me a sign, finally lol and I have a pic of it and maybe one day I’ll share it with you. Nutn, you have been a father figure for me as I never really had a dad in my life. I appreciate all these years of knowledge, and I greatly appreciate you keeping it real. May the lord protect you and your family, bless you all, and I hope to get gear checked by you one day lol ✌️ and ❤️ my brother!

Gilbert Cuzdey Jr

Exactly, nobody wants to move here so I don't have Californians and New Yorkers voting in lefty policies.

The Nutnfancy Project

"Get ready for every weekend to be an epic all day quest to do errands.">> EXACTLY, it can kill a whole day. And thanks for the support on the Stargazing, I'll start bringing you guys along. I don't have a real rig, just an S50 but it's simple and easy. Also for EB; with your comment I"ll be posting more.

RB

On 3.65 ac in MD with a home. We have at least a $200k backlog in infrastructure like fencing, gates, sheds, water storage, solar, etc. Driveway about 200 yds long. I bought a 20-yo JD diesel tractor just to mow grass, plow snow, and take the trash cans down the hill and back up. Otherwise 500/no to cut grass and 450 ea to have the driveway cleared. But we have one actual close neighbor family who we are friends with and it's Narnia. We're enjoying 2 fawns this year who visit multiple times a day to graze. Does all day every day. A 6 pointer. 6 wild turkey hens in the front yard. Beautiful wildlife photos from our 4k CCTV. Red foxes, kits, raccoons, birds, owls, hawks. Fruit trees. And peace and quiet. No range but let's say the 2nd floor windows make great blinds for bow hunting.

Bravo

Please keep going with EB. It is my favorite thing on the internet right now. I will keep saying so.

Carl Bailey

We still have the family farm in Ohio and even though we don't fsrm it anymore, it is still a lot of work. You get ground hogs that decide to move into your pole barn. A storm will blow a door in on the main barn. Acient standing seam roofs need painted. There is always something to do even with us hiring out stuff now. Add in an 1820's farmhouse that has been added on to twice and you can see where this goes. But the lane to the back is also a mile long shooting lane backstopped by a hill and 15 acres of hardwood.

Carl Bailey

You are living my retirement dream. We love the Smokys.

Zack Smith

What’s up fellas, long time listener (10+years), first time caller. I live in north western nc with my wife and kids. Wilkes county to be exact. It’s rural for around here and although it’s got some light pollution when it comes to star gazing, I can ring steel out of my windows at ~250 yards. Anyone wanting to move to nc, it’s humid. Walk outside and start sweating instantly. Also, my area is definitely red but the big cities turn nc as a whole purple which really sucks. Keep up the work, I really enjoy the philosophy videos nutn.

Spencer Price

Moved to Tennessee from Utah. Hope to afford some acreage one day.

Echo Sierra

OGs remember Nutn fantasizing about the Supercub bug out site in Nevada

Wyoming Homesteader

I know this may come as a surprise, but I live in rural Wyoming. We heat our home primarily with wood; although we do have central heating, it runs on propane, which we only use as a supplement to the wood. The wind here is unmatched, and due to our frequent windstorms and the fact that Wyoming is the only state that has recorded snow in every county and every month of the year, most newcomers don’t last a year. We typically experience winds at about 20 mph, and we don’t put up wind hazard signs until the wind reaches tropical storm force. My property often experiences microbursts and downdrafts with speeds of 150-200 mph. Hail will also destroy your garden every summer if not protected. Some winters, we may only get a couple of feet of snow, while other years, we face regular blizzards, so snow management is always a consideration. My family originates from the Great Lakes region, so moving here was a crucial learning experience in water management for a homestead. Unlike my relatives in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, who calculate animal density by animals per acre, we figure out how many acres per animal in the intermountain West. I’m not joking—just keeping chickens can be a challenge here. The areas that can support larger livestock like cattle, horses, and sheep have been owned by the same families for 150-200 years. In Wyoming, you don’t own surface water; it belongs to the state, and you can’t block its flow. Drilling a well can cost between $20,000 and $50,000. The closest Walmart to my property is a three-hour drive away, and the nearest grocery store is 45 minutes away. If you don’t have a plow or a tractor with an attachment, you may be unable to leave your home until the snow melts because no one will come to plow your road. Firearms are not just a choice but a necessity to keep bears, mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes off your property. Many deer in the area are diseased and not safe for consumption. I could go on, but the one real advantage of living here is that I rarely see my neighbors until we are both in town

Bravo

This is my favourite kind of TNP content. Within the next few years ill be starting my own small homestead on some property I got for a steal from my family so this stuff is extremely valuable to me. Also I recall that Wranglerstar on youtube had a similar idea for young guys to build their outbuilding first and have a trailer in it for getting out of renting as and becoming more independent, family starting etc. Keep up the great work Nutn’.

Parker Jones

Nutn, I love the video. My wife and I live out west and have property. I would love to see a video on ideas and plans to defend a rural property. I know you have discussed doing armed patrols when in the city and setting up micro communities. I wonder if with the increased stand off distance you would just use LPOP’s? Thanks again

Kirk Fickert

There's a service in the area around our farms where it's $35/year called life flight. I keep it around.

steve garrett

The biggest threat to your freedom isn't the government, its not iran, its not Russia. its the number of dumbasses you live around. after covid my wife and I said, lets GTFO! so I found a special place the allows me to operate my business and not be too far out of bounds on some land. We friggen love it!! I was always a country boy, grew up on a ranch in texas, my parents raised horses and cattle. its funny how people who live in rural areas seem to have an abundance of common sense. The quite nutn talks about !!!!! YES we hear mainly farm animals of all sorts are the main sounds. its 5 acre minimum lot size out where we are. We lived in Herriman UT for 25 years and it got to the point that every few months roving car break ins would happen. shit was stolen from our garage. yet we complained the whole time about illresponsible development and dog kennel housing being put in around us. The city ignored every word every resident ever said about the subject and called them NIMBY's fuck all of them. I left. I have a 35 hp kioti tractor, and its nice to have an excuse to push snow more do something with it. The downside is the expense of all the stuff we wanna put in.

Mike Browning

Oddly enough, I’ve done exactly what you said. In 2017, my wife bought 40 acres near Billings, MT. Moved onto the property early summer and dry camped for 1-2 months while we waited for a utilities to come in. We built a 40x60 pole barn and installed power and septic and parked the RV in it. We lived in it for 3 years while we decided on a home (site, type, foundation) Year 4 is when we began to have a house built. Contractors did a terrible job and house was in many HUD violations. We never moved in. Year 5 a female neighbor decided to trespass onto our property with a horse and get into it with my Wife. The neighbor refused to leave and advanced to attack my Wife. My Wife pulled her gun, not a shot fired, and was threatened with arrest. The best lawyer dash cams and our security cams are what kept my wife out of cuffs. Year 6 we sold the property and moved to Nebraska. It’s like you explained my 2017 to 2022 back to me, minus all the legal defense.

GarageJim_RMB

A lot of great information and experiences Nutn, if I could add to a couple things. Do your due diligence prior to, can be a lot of hidden details (ask me about Utah). I would get a survey, since there are not any fences it can answer a few questions. I went solar, I am not a submarine pilot, but there is plenty information out there and not to far out of the range of an above average DIY'er. I choose a community well, works out well. One more thing, you talked about property values. I bought 5 acres in Utah, kept it for a year, choose to move on, sold it and bought 40 acres where I am know with no cash out of pocket. And last, stand on the land, take your shoes and grab a hand full of the dirt and as the Creator-"Do I belong here?" Thanks Nutn!!!!

Duardy Parron

Your metal building is sweet. I think your flag is facing the back wall :)