"How far is the GRID installed and how far is your next "door" neighbor ?."
GRID is at least $500K away... 10 miles maybe?
I'm not really sure where the nearest neighbor is who lives there, there is a guy with a cabin running off a generator a few miles away, I saw him once...
"Go for 48 volts Battery bank, though for me a higher voltage would be better."
I am now planning to use 40 6V 220AH golf cart batteries from Costco.
"Get a Diesel form the beginning."
Well... I will as soon as I can afford it, I'd like to spend around $5K and get a real nice one but it will have to wait a year.
"If you land has a stream with some head, it may be one of your best assets"
Yes I fully plan on putting a pelton wheel on the 30gpm/100ft head spring as a project once I'm out there.
"How is your land, wind regime, for a wind mill ?."
I think there are a couple places not too far from the house where a windmill would work, I plan on tackling that after the hydro.
I have cut down the initial number of panels to 8 Kyocera 205W panels for a total of 1640W, I have done some energy saving tests at my current house and am confident that we can cut usage down to 400KW/h per month or 13KWh/day.