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We moved to our current home almost five years ago. We never intended for this to be our ‘forever home’.  We chose the location based strictly on work opportunities.  It was always our plan to live here during our working years but to retire to a quiet little town elsewhere in Wyoming.

Since that time things changed for us. We began to look at things differently. Our world view changed.

We began to discuss what we would like to have in a new property. Originally we planned to stay near the town we currently live near mainly because my husband works in that town. But the more we discussed it the more we realized one of the things we wanted to change was his job.

Moving to a new location and changing his work situation sounded like a good plan.  We began with a very broad idea of what we were looking for in our new property. The list was pretty basic;

1. Stay in Wyoming

2. Have somewhere between five and 40 acres.

3. Be near recreation activities (hiking, hunting, fishing, etc).

4. Have a water source such as a river, lake, or similar nearby.

5.  The property would not be part of an HOA with CC & R’s and the county would not have a ton of ‘rules’ and require permits and inspections excessively.

6. If at all possible, move to a place less windy than our current place.

If you are looking for your own homestead, I encourage you to make a list of things you would like in your new place. You might want to have more details on your list. I’ve seen other peoples homestead dream places that included things like a pond and a stand of trees. Or you might be looking for a community of like minded individuals in which to build your homestead.

Whatever your list, know in advance what you can be flexible with and what you can’t.  We’re pretty happy with the property we found but it’s not perfect. The first day we went there after we actually owned the land the wind was blowing crazy bad. It was also hot and miserable. Those few hours we were there I thought we made a HUGE mistake.  Less wind was something on our list and it was as bad as we get at home. And it was blowing from the wrong direction (which is actually why it was so bad)!  Now I’m glad the wind was blowing on that day. Knowing that while the wind usually comes from one way but is a booger coming from the other direction was helpful. We can plan for a wind break to help with the odd direction.

Would you like to know how our list turned out?

1. We did purchase property in Wyoming.

2. We have 20 acres.

3.  We are about ten minutes from national forest which has hiking,  hunting and fishing opportunities. We are 1/4 of a mile from a hunting walk in area (hunters access). Our land borders BLM (more hunting access). We are about five minutes from a good sized river for fishing and waterfowl hunting.  There are also many ATV trails and other things nearby and we are 30 minutes from skiing. We are also quite near Yellowstone (I haven’t decided if this is a plus or minus).

4. While we do not have a water source on our property, there is a creek very nearby and a reservoir not far plus the river about 5 minutes away.

5. We did have a fright in our purchase process thinking our property was in an HOA but it turned out that it was never formed so it doesn’t exist. The county is pretty good about building. There are no building codes and the permit process is very simple. The only thing inspected is the septic system.

6. Yeah, well. This is Wyoming so I should expect the wind.  It does help keep the bugs down. 😉

Looking for your dream property? What things are on your property shopping list?

This post originally appeared on a previous blog. I’ve updated it to share here.