I can see the allure and sounds tempting but I couldn't make the sacrifices needed to live that far from everything. Maybe in another 10-15 years.
Sure, I eat venison - giant chunks cooked low and slow on the grill - but I can't get a good burrito to save my life. Then, there are the locals - whom I love dearly - but they'll slap ketchup on a steak, throw it on a grill for 10 minutes, and call it BBQ. In the "ethnic" part of the nearest grocery store, they have "taco kits".
I can't get a pizza delivered. I don't even bother having mail delivered, I get that in the village. Why? I don't actually have a zip code. I don't live in a town. I live in an unincorporated township. My driveway is nice and paved. I just had it retouched. As soon as I hit the end of my driveway, it's dirt roads until you get to Rt. 16 and can head into the village.
I got mad at my DSL provider. I really should have just sucked it up and accepted it, but they just let me go without service for two months. So, I decided to use a cell phone. Ha! I am so remove that I'm HAPPY if I can get 1 Mb/sec download. My upload? Oh, that's around 0.06 KB/sec...
None of the above is in jest. Those are real numbers.
I thought I'd try that new satellite service but those don't pass by my house. So, I have Hughes Net to keep the missus happy. It sucks. It's worse than the cell phone service, but it's good enough for her because she doesn't do much more than browse a few things.
Oh... If my road isn't passable, I need to do the work to fix it. I do have a couple of neighbors who chip in, but it's largely all me. When there's a giant snow storm, it's me that plows it out. However, I actually enjoy that. So, I consider that a bonus, except the equipment to do a good job is very, very expensive. I do drive a 'luxury' truck when it's that time of the year (or when I'm towing a car somewhere)/
I could go on... I will...
There's actually a farm 'across the road' that's so important that I own it. Actually, I just didn't want some jack*** from out of state to move in and screw the place up. So, I bought it. Yes, I technically own a farm. I don't actually lose (much) money on it, if you ignore the purchasing of the farm.
Amazingly, my other "neighbors" (a very loose definition for that word here) are all gainfully employed. I don't know how they do it. I do nice things like plow their driveways, 'cause they'd otherwise be spending four extra hours per snow storm just to make it to work. The equipment they do have is just barely adequate and it's a 10 minute task for me to plow them out.
I have one weirdo who lives further afield than I do and he doesn't want to be plowed out. He just parks just up the road from where I stop plowing and walks in. If his snowmobile is working, he rides that. He doesn't leave home often. I'm pretty sure he's the next Unabomber. (Nah, he's alright. He's just weird. He also went to MIT, but his brain broke back in the 70s and he now lives deep in the Maine woods.)
If any of you think this is weird or that I'm exaggerating, I assure you that I am doing the opposite.
It's actually much weirder.
And, well, as I've said, I love it. I absolutely love it living here. I not only love it, I live here on purpose. I could live pretty much anywhere, but this is pretty much the first time I've called any area 'my home'.
We have a couple of Mainers here. They'll understand.
(I ain't even sorry for the novella. I'm celebrating early.)