Having been an avid lerker to this site for many months now getting brave enough to start posting. There have been many threads that I have read with so much information that, my head is beginning to hurt. We (me, OH and son) have booked our flights landing in toronto. RV booked and we are going to tour NB, NS, PEI and NF. OH favours NF at moment and has been looking at courses in the uni there. I have been drawn to NS originally from other trucking sites. We have had all the literature from the tourist sites, we have read realtors sites and provincial sites. But I have found this forum to be the most unbiased (and most humorous in some cases) and what I would like to know is:-
The places that most people miss out on. The places that make your neighborhood the reason that you wanted to stay. I know that everyone has their own real reasons and no one can make up another persons mind but if you think that there is a special place that we should visit, let us know.
We plan to drive out to the east fairly quickly then spend time on the way back in the areas that we like the most, which leads me to...
How good was your realtor. As we are looking over a broad area we know that we are going to have to see a lot of people on the way. We have set aside 10 weeks for our tour, but if we are going to make contacts, job applications etc.. we are going to be busy.
Ideally we would like a place with a little land. Grow our own veg (when not covered with snow) and have a few chickens for eggs.
What are your thoughts?

Our realtor was excellent. If popping between NB and NS if you want to meet up for a chat just let me know

Hi Tony
Welcome to Be, where in Wales are you?
Sorry I'm in Vancouver so can't help with other areas but wanted to say hi
Terese

We will be passing through and will be glad to meet with anyone on the way who can help us. Landing June 8th. Picking up RV on 9th. From there only the road knows. We will be taking the laptop with us so we can keep up to date and PM all involved. Thank you.

Hello to you. I don't live in Wales anymore. I did live in South Wales, Cardiff, Newport, Swansea. Now living in England.

I live approx 30 mins from NB/NS border just outside Amherst but we can arrange to meet up in Amherst if you don't fancy driving to my house although we have plenty of land so no problems with your RV

Tony,

I'm replying on this thread as opposed to the Self Sufficiency in Newfoundland one for convenience sake.

I think full self sufficiency in NL would be a tall order. Subsitence here over the years very muchd depended on catching fish and you are not allowed to do that apart from 5 weeks of the year. Having a small holding or a bit of land and growing your own veggies would be possible. Your challenge though, is going to be doing it around St John's if you want to be close to the University here.

In the greater St John's area, land and house prices are pretty expensive compared to rural areas of NL and NS/NB. So getting your acre or two for an affordable price would be the first challenge. The second is the land itself. Much of the terrain round here is either bog, rock or forest. Newer lots either consist of fill with a skim of topsoil on top, or are blasted out of the rock with a skim of topsoil on top. We have the former and to create a veg patch for us required a couple of truckloads of topsoil and a mini-jcb!

There are areas and lots around with more establish pasture/farm land type lots but they are more the exception rather than the rule. If you do decide to look around St John's then look in St Phillips and the Conception Bay South (Topsail to Holyrood) as this area has a microclimate with better and longer growing season than St John's and the Easternmost coast.

If being near St John's is not so important then look at the Clarenville and Eastport peninsula areas and central/western Newfoundland. Essentially the further west you go, the better the scenery is! The downside is that if you want the amenities of a city then you have to live near St John's.

Aside from the self sufficiency bit, I can recommend NL as a place if you like rugged indvidualism (and thats just the people). I'm a part time graduate student at the Uni so if your wife needs any help with MUN then let me know.

Cheers,
AX

Silverdragon. If we can we would like to meet at house so that we can see how the other half lives. Realtors are one thing, we could view houses everywhere, but living with the day to day niggles are things we would like to know about.

Atlantic Xpat. Your information is most useful. If we were to choose NL and OH were to do a course at MUN then we would probably what live within about an hour drive. Have seen properties on MLS down at Aquaforte with the land at a reasonable price but this may be too far out to commute each day and if the growing season is too short then it may be irrelevant anyway. I have to agree that there does seem to be a lot more properties in the Maritimes with larger acreage at lower prices.
We never planned on full sufficiency, but we have grown our own veg for a number of years (nothing like knowing what exactly goes into your food!) and had planned on expanding to some chickens and maybe some livestock.
If the soil is poor as you describe better get some sheep like back home in Wales.
Have done research work for local company on solar heating, ground source heat pumps etc.. and had planned to install some thing, again not necessarily to go off grid but something that would eventually pay for itself.
What is the going rate for topsoil over there? Here it is about £35 per tonne to buy, but there are are always people giving it away for free on sites like freecycle.

Fine with us, just get in touch once you know what you are doing dh works from home and I am generally around so not a problem popping in

Cool.
Will PM you when we are in the area so we can meet up.

About $200 for a tandem truck load. No idea how many tons that is. 10?