Spent Sunday at the park. Most of the time was spent installing Unbuntu (an OS) on my laptop, configuring the new Raspberry Pi that I acquired to use as the wireless controller for here at the park, and the three Ubiquiti mesh wireless access points that I was now in possession of for the park. Once those more interesting projects were complete, then I moved on to laundry. There were two sets of washers and dryers and I had two loads worth, and just enough quarters to run each machine once. How convenient. Chatted on the phone with friends and family while waiting for the laundry to complete. As I was taking the still damp clothes out of the dryer, I was thinking back that I should have remembered that never in my life on a coin op dryer have I had the clothes dry with the first run of the dryer. Oh well. As I was walking back to the camper with the still damp clothes, I was pondering where I could put them to dry out. As I started to lay them out on the couch and chair, it occurred to me that I could open all the cupboard doors and hang shirts from them. The heavier jeans I just laid out on the chair and couch. I even finally found a use for the window valences. Glad no one is really in the park to see what I hung from the valences… 🙂 With all the clothes hanging everywhere in the tailer, it really killed my motivation to clean the trailer around the drying clothes. Oh darn. I was really bummed… So I watched youtube videos to make take my mind off of it. Video theme for the night was recovering and reusing lithium batteries. The video’s changed my mind to spend the extra money up front on used lithium batteries instead of the new lead acid batteries I had been planning on using with the notion that it will save $$ in the long run. The LI batteries I found on ebay will cost 2x what I had budgeted for the lead acid batteries but I will also get 2x+ the storage capacity as what I would have gotten with the lead acid batteries and they are expected to last 2x+ longer.
Lead time is 40+ days. I will likely order here in the next few days.
Worked today to earn a paycheck. Seemed like back to back meetings all day. I had an hour or two to deal with email and work on other things.
Forgot to mention that Sunday my realtor informed me that we had a new offer on the house and gave me a few options in terms of a counter offer. Told him what I wanted to do for a counter offer. He emailed the paperwork today which I printed, signed, and scanned, and emailed back. This evening he notified me that the buyer signed off on the counter offer. Fingers crossed that the inspection happens on a rainy day so the neighbors aren’t out.
Minutes after sending the counter offer back to him, I was notified by my eldest daughter who noticed the garage door open and stopped to close it that 2 of the 5 rooms in the basement had water on the floor. Ugh.
Asking for help is difficult for me. Don’t know why. Didn’t have much choice in the matter so I reached out to my brother Brian who was thankfully available and willing to assist. As there was not much I could do, I proceeded with my plans to go to the property and review the earth work with Francisco, Tom’s ranch hand. I am happy to say that with a few minor corrections he was in agreement with everything I proposed. Made me feel good that I was able to translate a little bit of that book knowledge on dessert water management into actionable plans. We agreed on an hourly rate for him to do the work using Tom’s backhoe. Tom and I had previously agreed on arrangements for the backhoe. He will do the work this Wednesday. Looking forward to getting that done so I can move on to other matters. That is not to say there won’t be more work that needs to be done. This is just step one to do the obvious. More in-depth study of water flow across the land will be necessary before investing in any more changes though.
Next is trying to sort out placement of the RV+shelter, house, water cisterns, etc. Once that is done, I can with confidence outline where I want fencing installed. I can also then contact Victor from Elbrock water systems to then assess an appropriate location for a septic system and provide a design for it. Once that is done, then I can check on getting a building permit, street address, and RV permit. Once I have a street address, I can begin the process of checking on internet options. I’ve already got plans brewing in my mind on how to get it from the box on the street to the area I want to build in which is about a 1000 feet away. Once everything for internet at the property is lined up and scheduled, I’ll take a day off and move. I’m thinking all that is going to take a month or maybe two.
Well, I think I wanted to write more, but I keep falling asleep at the keyboard and Sasha is snoring away behind me. I’ve got a few more pics to post. They are a PITA to get off my phone but will try to get them posted this week.
Night all.
Seeking Simplicity 