A handful of years ago, Susan and her husband bought a 12 acre piece of land in the middle of Nowhere, Maine. The land was unimproved, with no well, no road, no electricity, and no telephone. They moved their trailer up on the land as soon as they were able to clear a road up to the top of the hill. They bought a generator for electricity, and dug a well for water. They bought a cell phone. And they live a perfectly happy existence, beating to death their vans, trucks and jeeps (they have to get a new vehicle pretty much every year) on this driveway you see here. One mile to the top of the hill. Pot holes like you wouldn't believe. I was constantly scraping the underside of my rental car. In winter, they have to park their vehicles at the bottom of the hill and *walk*. My sister does it every morning, taking the kids down to the school bus. In winter. In *Maine*. ~shudder~

They own an excavation business, and have a backhoe and dumptruck. Plus, being in *Maine* (which is a very communal state, in some aspects), and knowing *everyone* the way they do, they were able to trade a lot of labor and materials out in favors and tasks done with the heavy equipment in exchange. I've never seen such a network. Susan's husband would do some hauling for a guy, who would come out and work on their septic system in exchange. A guy was getting rid of a barn, and let them have it for free if they hauled it away themselves. They used the lumber for the floor of their addition. It's a system that works very well for them.