A Slice of Solar Powered Heaven

Brian and I are taking a trip out to Colorado in May in hopes of securing retirement property. Yeah, I know it's still about 17 years away, but we figured, why not buy now when it's cheap (cheaper, anyway), pay it off while we still have income, and live there when we are ready to leave the armpit.

Anyway. The only problem is that we'd actually like property that's NOT on a cliff (wouldn't matter if we did - that stuff costs like a million dollars) that we can put a few horses on, ideally. Well, that's not the only problem. The biggest problem is any property we can reasonably afford that's actually what we want is literally IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE. So in the middle of no where, in fact, that there is no power service there, and you're lucky if there's a silly telephone line in the area, too. Here is a picture of what we're talking about. This particular property is listed for $39,900 with an annual property tax of a whopping $6. That's no typo. Not bad for 36 acres, huh?

The real estate people say that "green" is the way of the future, and the people out here have solar powered homes and sometimes backup wind generation power. This is actually something that home builders are very familiar with out here. The nearest McDonald's is 100 miles away (I asked).

That sounds lovely. I just don't know how "back to the basics" I'm ready to go. I mean, you have to really be self sufficient to be out here. Want groceries in February? Hop on the ol' snowmobile and look for your driveway.

Actually, it isn't that bad (according to a local) but it has been this year. Wow, I'm rambling. Anyone know of other real estate out that way that looks (and costs) like this?