Spots To Avoid (And Check Out ) For Homesteading in Virginia
This Video is from the Youtube channel: “Off-Grid with Curtis Stone”.
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About Curtis Stone:
Curtis is one of the world’s most highly sought-after small farming educators. His book, The Urban Farmer, offers a new way to think about farming𑁋 one where quality of life and profitability coexist. Today, Curtis spends most of his time building his 40-acre off-grid homestead in British Columbia. He leverages his relationships with other experts to bring diverse content into the homes of gardeners and aspiring small farmers from around the world. Learn more at FromTheField.TV.
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Gaylax is like a Mayberry. It has a great Bluegrass culture and fest each fall 🎉
Galax too populated, drug crime
At least someone else know@@danphillips4590
@@larkasojourn4849 Due to the high crime and drug activity, I avoid Galax like the plague. It ain’t Mayberry. Not a place you would want to raise your children.
I’ve been waiting for Virginia. I have my eye on a property right now in Surry County.
Need any volunteers? 🙋♂️
Thank you.
Virginian here! Thanks for looking at my state! Those mountains, the Appalachians, were once the highest mountain range on earth and they are beautiful all seasons!
Yep! Oldest current mountain range on the planet, created when Pangea was formed in the carboniferous period.
I was hearing that creepy stuff happens there… not sure if is true
Please do North Carolina… thanks for Virginia… that’s my home! 🙂
On a five acre homestead with reasonably good land with a water supply, you can obviously grow all the fruit and vegetables a family needs.
If you grow all your own meat, can it be done sustainably without outside inputs. I know you can grow all the chicken and rabbits you could possibly eat. What about larger animals, even beef and dairy animals.
SW Va here!! Most rural farm land 5k/acre, wooded mtns less. Highest temp so far this Summer 90F.
I live near Galax, VA. There aren’t any Amish in the area. There are a handful of Mennonite. There are several things you should be aware of when buying property in this area.
1. Christmas Tree Farms – they spray toxic sludge from the ground and the air. Drift and run off can affect your property, livestock, water and garden.
2. Microclimates- I can leave my house during the winter and see the temperature drop 9 degrees within 2 miles. These mountains can cause the weather to do crazy things. The weather can be vastly different within a short distance.
3. Growing- The soil in the valleys is much more fertile than on the hilltops but the hilltops get more sun exposure. This must be considered when picking property.
@@jerrywayne4887 Terrace your hillsides.
@@jerrywayne4887 Galax, VA has one of the highest crime rates in the state of Virginia
@@jerrywayne4887 Galax, Virginia has one of the highest crime rates in the State of Virginia. Just Google it if you doubt it.
@@my_channel_44 I do terrace mine. I have a high tunnel and a barn on a terrace now. It’s not common around here though. Thanks.
@@asktodd2000 I have friends in local law enforcement. MS-13 is in Galax which is where I work. Tons of meth around.
Curtis: check out Buckingham County. Rural, geographic center of Virginia, close proximity to Lynchburg, Charlottesville and Richmond.
I grew up in emporia. That’s crazy it was the first city you named
@@ajmoore43 Is Emporia, VA Safe?
The D grade means the rate of crime is higher than the average US city. Emporia is in the 17th percentile for safety, meaning 83% of cities are safer and 17% of cities are more dangerous. This analysis applies to Emporia’s proper boundaries only. See the table on nearby places below for nearby cities.
The rate of crime in Emporia is 36.14 per 1,000 residents during a standard year. People who live in Emporia generally consider the southeast part of the city to be the safest.
Thanks so much for covering Virginia and appreciate your input on areas to avoid. Virginia is a very beautiful state with many opportunities near smaller towns. We do have fires and drought periods like we have now so no burning allowed. Traffic is insane on I95 and I81 so avoid if possible!
I am in Coastal Chesapeake, VA.
It has been nothing short of AMAZING for homesteading. PLUS I am an extreme fan of fishing. It will take me a lifetime to just try all the different species and terrain here. Got my lifetime fresh and salt licenses. Zone 8A (though it was 7F at sunset with high winds the Winter before last which is zone 7A temps).
That being said, I definitely do have citrus up against the South side of my home. They are small but starting to grow. Even the MEYER lemons survived that cold without a problem on their first Winter with some C9 Christmas lights and a 1.5 oz plant jacket.
I have been catching wild bees (great success rate keeping treatment/inspection free), cows, horse, chickens, a dream garden, and lots of newish fruit trees. Ready to throttle back now at 6 bee hives and with the amount of critters/garden I have. Just need to maximize the space and time for a while. May stop where I am.
Now I am building out a 1436 Jon Boat to start harvesting Crab, Shrimp, Red Drum, Sea Trout, Flounder, Tautog, Striper, Catfish, Crappie, Bass, White Perch, etc., etc. Paid $500 for the used hull and am around $1,800 into a well working boat… but going To make it nice next. Like REALLY nice. Adding aluminum casting decks and all.
We dream of moving towards the mountains at some point. Making bank at my new career here right now though. Teh VA mountains are AMAZING. I like them just as much as the North GA mountains I grew up in. Surrounded by fresh water where I am at. Salt is 30 mins away.
We are on a 10 acre, off-grid, debt-free homestead in central VA. The entire center of the state is full of rural land and still 40-60 minutes (at 60 mph) from a large enough city for those that need the income and commute to work. What you need to look out for are landfills and neighbors with large fields of crops that get chemicalltly sprayed.
We would like more land, but we actually don’t want to be more than an hour from a large city. When you get so far from one city you’re nearing another one anyway. Land prices anywhere desirable have skyrocketed in the last 4 years. We have built 6 houses since 2002. We have never found the southern border or mountain areas to be desireable.
Thank you 👍
Hi Curtis, I am a cattle and sheep farmer in Southside Virginia (Charlotte County). I farm regeneratively on 300 acres. I’m about an hour east of the mountains and 100 miles west of Richmond, the State Capital. I’m less than 30 miles north of the North Carolina state line. Your assessment of the State is very accurate! We benefit from a large Amish community. A couple of weekly Amish auctions provide a great source for livestock, hay and other farm equipment. The biggest threat here are Dominion Energy and mega solar companies. They are buying up valuable farm land and installing 1000’s acres of dangerous and ineffective solar panels.
Looking forward to you doing IlliNOI, and focusing on the south I’m sure, it’s absolutely lovely down there “in” and around the Shawnee NF. 🤫😅
I live in the northern “safe” area. The issue we are dealing with is pressure from NOVA pushing property valuations higher and higher. I think Curtis nailed it with his choices being Southside near the NC border and the panhandle area. Property values there are still reasonable. Probably could go with another set of red circles that are a 25mi radius and plop one down over Roanoke, C’ville, Staunton, Harrisonburg, Winchester, Leesburg, Fredericksburg,
i grew up in Va…it has been blessed with abundant beauty and wildlife…though I love the Valley…were I a homesteader I would embrace the Tidewater region…the fertile soil and plethora of fish species at one’s fingertips is remarkable…I reside in SC and miss the beauty of Virginny, but I scarcely recognize the place…run from Richmond and NoVa…the humidity is bearable…
Great point on turnaround driveways. They’re a must for access by trucks, especially firefighters here in rural Australia. Our rural firefighters are volunteers from the local community and if they don’t have easy (straight drive through) egress from a property they won’t risk getting trapped defending your buildings from a bushfire.
Virginia here, too: Because of the nuclear threat, you want to be as far from DC as possible (SW area), and I believe the safest place is on the western side of the easternmost range of the Appalachians. So in other words, between the two “ranges” of the mountains. People will find it challenging to hike over the mountains from either direction; it’s the safest place from tsunamis in a potential pole shift, the mountains will block nuclear blast; the temps cool off at night in the mountains so less AC needed; water is plentiful; game is plentiful (within the Jefferson National Forest); lots of edible wild plants; and much less expensive properties. Only thing to be careful of is siting a home in a “holler” where land can flood in heavy rains. Important to site the home at higher elevation and farm, graze, or garden in the “holler.”