If the meditator is suited to it, is living in a wilderness cabin committed to solitary practice potentially preferable to a retreat center? My heart is drawn to this option, and I'd appreciate any practical advice from those who have experience with this kind of practice, including the money side, what kind of supplies are needed and in what amounts, whether you absolutely need a car, etc.
This can be awesome, but how far out are you talking?
Would you have to use a chainsaw, for example? That can cause major injuries (forehead, thigh, calf...). Not a great tool to use after tranquility meditation.
Same with axe, maul and wedge. It happens that the axe glances off the wood and legs are next in line.
I'm not trying to be frightening at all: You just want to have a plan for this stuff. It can help prevent it. Did I mention the axe/maul can glance off the chopping block and legs are next in line for the hit. Bad news. And chainsaws... they pop right back up at the face or go straight through to the legs. If you don't use these regularly, it's truly great to put in some hours with someone experienced first.
Propane lines can get frozen with condensation if you're somewhere cold enough, so a wood stove for cooking is useful, e.g. not relying on fuel.
Truly to be in the middle of nowhere with stream water and a lot of canned food and lots of old lock-down old sealing military boxes for storing rice/potato flakes, beans/nuts/whatever-else-you-want-rodent-poo-free is awesome.
Animals that should be asleep in winter or fat and are not are dangerous. I think there are more moose injuries than bear injuries in northern climes. Moose get grumpy in January (not much food) and are really suffering these days due to tick predation and no body fat. Remember: bonk a big animal in the nose if you have nothing else and don't get in that position in the first place.
I suggest take a lot of green/black tea (metabolizes blood sugar more slowly/helps teeth), sugar/maple syrup, fat (oils, nuts, not butter-- gets rancid) and canned/boxed milk/milk substitute. Eggs take a while to spoil, weeks and weeks. Still, crack them one-by-one in a separate bowl when making stuff to be able to throw out the rotten ones.
Take some blue foam if you have to poke a hole in ice for water; cover hole with foam and snow and you can have access to fresh water all winter.
Buy a tough fishing vest and keep staples in all the pockets: pocket knife, duct tape wrapped around pencil, pocket knife, lots and lots of strike anywhere matches in an old film container or tiny aspirin bottle, aspirin, sugar/snickers bar/glucose or honey tube, spare light, fresh batteries. In the back pocket of vest, have spare wool sockets. Wear the vest when leaving the cabin/homestead/yurt/tent/lean-to...
Only take wool and synthetics when hiking about.
Take a lotta dried food. Lots. And plan for rations for a two-week delay from your exit time if you're in a snowed-in area/winter flooding area.
Hmmm. Take the Samyutta Nikaya?
Good luck

(Seriously, can we get some scout DhO badges for this stuff??)
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If you're going to be somewhere that winter exists, consider packing in a good bit of blue foam insulation. It gets old fast to spend eons getting firewood (which needed to be dry last year to burn well) and watching the ice pile up on the wall/floor/ceiling cracks. I'd take a pile of 2" insulation. If you're thinking of using natural supplies, just consider fire hazard; consider that hazard all the time actually. Take a smoke detector and spare batteries and do everything you can to not get in the position of having a cabin fire.
I guess to sum up: small mistakes/carelessness can have huge consequences in a rural/remote setting. It takes some time to realize this, at least it did for me and I could always hike to a neighbour's place, though we were all very remote (fly-in part of the year).
Sooo, if you're inclined to this, go for it. It's awesome to be in a vast quiet, natural area, but there's suffering there, too. Did I mention starving "ghost" moose, due to tick predation? Hard to see wild animals suffer the effects of climate change, repeated mild winters and resulting big tick populations...