Field notes

Land, plainly explained Page 6

Guides and honest answers about buying raw land, living on it, and making the most of your acreage. No jargon, no pressure, just what we would tell a friend.

A yellow crane lowering a wood-clad modular home section onto piers on a cleared desert lot

Living on Your Land

Mobile, Manufactured, and Modular Homes – What is the Difference?!

Mobile, manufactured and modular are three different things, and one of them has not described anything built since 1976. Here is what separates them, and why your county decides more than the manufacturer does.

Jun 27, 20244 min read

Crater Lake seen from the caldera rim, deep blue water ringed by steep cliffs with Wizard Island rising near the western shore.

Camping & Recreation

Adventures in Klamath County, OR: What Is Open and When

Crater Lake's Rim Drive is usually not fully open until mid-July, the redband went catch-and-release this year, and Lava Beds is in California. Here is the county with the dates attached.

Jun 23, 202413 min read

An aerial view of a combine and grain cart harvesting a frost-covered corn field beside a rural road and farmstead

Living on Your Land

Regenerative Farming

Most writing about regenerative farming is aimed at somebody running a thousand acres. On a small dry parcel the principles still hold, the timelines are slower than advertised, and the water law decides more than the soil does.

May 12, 20246 min read

Top of a red and white lattice cell tower, panel antennas mounted on every face, against a flat gray sky

Living on Your Land

Rural Internet: What Are Your Options?

Every rural internet comparison starts by asking for your street address. Here's what actually works on a parcel that doesn't have one yet.

Apr 28, 202411 min read

A man crouched on the forest floor cutting a green branch with a folding saw beside a tent

Camping & Recreation

Learning Bushcraft

Fire, shelter, water and a sharp edge. Learn those four and a night outside becomes pleasant instead of miserable. A plain guide to the skills, the kit, and what to practice first.

Apr 16, 20246 min read

An old cast iron hand pump pouring a steady stream of water into a wooden barrel.

Living on Your Land

How to Put a Well on Raw Land: Permits and Cost

In several states you are not the one who files the well permit, your contractor is. And owning the ground does not entitle you to the water under it. Here is who permits what, what it really costs, and the free hour of research that tells you how deep you will have to go.

Apr 4, 20249 min read

A small pale green cabin with a porch and steps standing in a clearing at the edge of woods.

Living on Your Land

Tiny Homes on Rural Land: The Category Decides Everything

A tiny home is not a legal category. It is an RV, a manufactured home or a site-built dwelling, and which one it is decides where it can go, how it is financed, how it is taxed and whether it holds value. Same house, three completely different outcomes.

Mar 22, 202410 min read

A bare plowed field running to a low horizon under a wide sky of scattered cumulus.

Buying Raw Land

How Big Is an Acre, and How Much of It Can You Actually Use?

An acre is 43,560 square feet, which is the least useful fact on the page. What matters is how much of it survives setbacks, a drainfield and a well separation circle, why a 40-acre parcel is often not 40 acres, and what the federal data really says about price.

Mar 10, 202410 min read

Two people at a desk passing a navy folder of documents across a laptop and a calculator.

Buying Raw Land

Understanding Deed Vesting: A Guide to Property Ownership

How your name sits on the deed decides whether the land reaches your family smoothly or through a court. On owner financing you get the whole note period to decide. Here's every option, and what the rules look like state by state.

Jan 28, 202410 min read

A vintage class C motorhome parked alone on flat open desert ground with a low mountain range behind it.

Living on Your Land

Setting Up an RV on Your Land: What Counties Allow

Almost every county separates recreational RV use from living in one, and the line is a number of days. That number runs from 21 in six months to 180 a year depending on where you are. Here are the actual ordinances, including the one county that bans generators and the one whose widely repeated limit is wrong.

Jan 14, 202410 min read

A steel farm windmill standing beside a dirt road on open grassland under a blue sky.

Living on Your Land

Wind Power on Your Land: What the Federal Numbers Say

One average modern wind turbine implies roughly 290 acres of project area, so leasing a small parcel to a developer is not the question. The real one is whether a single small machine beats panels, and the federal cost data has a clear answer.

Jan 2, 20248 min read

A surveyor total station on a tripod standing on bare graded ground against a blue sky and a distant treeline.

Buying Raw Land

Land Surveys: What You Need and What You Don't

Your title policy insures that you own the parcel your deed describes. It takes an explicit exception for where that parcel sits, how big it is and what is encroaching on it. Here is which survey answers those questions, when you genuinely need one, and the comma in your deed that is worth 280 acres.

Dec 15, 20239 min read

While you are here

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Off-Grid

CHECKOUT TEST - Earthsure Equity 2 - DO NOT PURCHASE

Synthetic property for verifying live checkout and payment routing. Not a real parcel.

CHECKOUT TEST - EPeterson EV Roth - DO NOT PURCHASE

Synthetic property for verifying live checkout and payment routing. Not a real parcel.

CHECKOUT TEST - Earthsure Equity 1 - DO NOT PURCHASE

Synthetic property for verifying live checkout and payment routing. Not a real parcel.

The Buyers List

See new land before it goes public.

New parcels come in all the time, and the good ones move fast. Join the Buyers List and we will send you a note when land that fits hits the site. A short welcome series, then new land as it comes in. Unsubscribe anytime.

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