Homesteading = Great

If you've ever considered homesteading, you know, getting away from it all, you may want to use this magazine to bring together resources to help you do it. Short on cash? You can homestead your own ranch for about 2/3 the price of conventional living, and still have DSL. Try it!

Earth-sheltered housing is using the earth's natural year round ambient temperature of ~54*F at about 8' underground to heat and cool your home. You can pay less for your home's heating and AC costs, as well as use less fossil fuels and electricity using this method.
http://www.daviscaves.com
Ten bucks a square foot -and- low maintenance

Housing materials can be very expensive and require a lot of maintenance. Building your house out of ferrocement is the strongest possible choice. Cement is strongest when within 1/4" of support structure, even chicken wire. You can build a 10,000 square foot house out of ferrocement with building materials that will cost you under $15,000. Rugs and paint are extra.
http://www.ferrocement.com

You can even drill your own well. Well drilling is a service that can cost $10,000 or more. Using a tripod or Kelly Bar to drill your own 75' well will cost you much much less and produce the same water. You may want to seismographically test the ground before drilling, but this is a natural andnon-intensive method to get water from your land.
http://www.lifewater.ca/ndexdril.htm
You Can Drive Your Own Well -popular mechanics 1970
Improvements in Well Drilling 1980

And you can filter your own water too with sand clay and microorganisms, like the earth does.
http://www.slowsandfilter.com/
http://sthig.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/02/slow_sand_filte.html

Put a greenhouse on top of this earth-sheltered home, carve out bays for spacious high R-value windows. You'll insulate your home and have a lovely second-story window's peak, a private conservatory, and you'll be able to produce a considerable portion of your own foods.

Next I'll show you how to add a ferrocement pool to the joint that will require no chemicals to maintain.
Natural Swimming Pools

And if you've got some good space you can rig up a permanent magnet windmill to produce a few kilowatts for your electric bill. You may want to invest in some 3D-printers to turn your shed into a machine workshop, if you've got enough money for a new car and want to start a business. Add to this setup a biodiesel car and you've got an earth-friendly family sized dwelling that will show up from bare land for under $100,000 and be yours forever.

We can live like this if we want.