At the Park – Days 68 – 75

Hope you have time.  The evening is young and I expect this will be a long one.

I guess I will start by apologizing for leaving you hanging on the Home Expo show.

After walking by it once, I slowed down and found Sierra Vista Building Supply’s table on the second pass.  We chatted about my plans to build and suppliers for the various resources I would need.  He informed me they supply metal roofing from ABC Metal Roofing.  They don’t supply lumber but he directed me to the B&D Hardware and Lumber store in Douglas.  For trusses, he directed me to Southwest Truss.  I forgot to ask about windows.  I also stopped and chatted with ladies from Southeastern Arizona Credit Union as well as the folks from the Sierra Vista Symphony.

During my lunch I emailed Southwest Truss with the building details of the carport and requested a quote.  I called B&D Hardware and Lumber and asked about lumber and delivery.  I can order the lumber I need, and they will deliver.  By the end of the day, I had quotes for the trusses from Southwest Truss including delivery.  I also reached out to a seller on craigslist for a 26′ covered car hauler.  I figured I could use that for a multitude of things.  The only thing I have thought of thus far that I can’t use it for is hauling the tractor.  Over  the next couple of days we agreed upon a price (substantially less than he was asking).

Monday evening as I was walking Sasha, I struck up a conversation with Drew who has been in construction.  He invited me to sit and talk so I did and we chatted well past dark.  He voiced concerns about putting any kind of lumber in the ground out here given the multitude of termites out here (which I noticed the first couple of weeks upon my arrival).  He indicated that the treatment used in lumber doesn’t last very long.  His recommendation was to build the carports with steel.  So this set my mind off in a whole new direction.  I had already been planning on minimal use of lumber in the house, so I don’t have much concern there.  I will ponder whether or not to try to move away from lumber for the few places in the house I was planning on using it.  I’m thinking unlikely.  The car port and covered patio are another matter.

Given the uncertainty about construction methods for the carport which I had planned on mounting the solar panels to and the desire to not delay the installation of the solar system, I spent the rest of Monday evening considering options for where to place the solar panels.  The conclusion I arrived at was that it would be best to do a ground (pole) mount system.

Tuesday afternoon I emailed Northern Arizona Wind and Sun to update them on the change in plans and requested an updated quote for the solar system.

Tuesday evening was spent preparing a laptop computer to be used as a network video recorder for the camera that was due to be delivered Wednesday as well as googling and reading about building with steel pipe.  There is a lot of used steel pipe from the oil industry around here.

Wednesday evening was spent getting the video camera up and going.  I figured out that the laptop I was planning on using wasn’t going to work so I needed to install a different operating system.  To do that I needed a USB stick.  Going through my collection of USB sticks and labeling them has been on my todo list for a long time.  So I took the time to do that.  Downloaded and installed Debian 9.  I like that much better on my HP laptop than Ubuntu as I could never get Ubuntu’s video drivers to work right after the screen blanked out either because the screen saver kicked on or the lid closed.  Installed the NVR software which is used to manage the camera as well as record the video.  Temporarily mounted the camera in the trailer, and called it a night.

Although I had planned on making my usual Douglas run Thursday evening for shopping and dinner, I had to cancel and deal with issues at work.  By the time I was done with work, it was too late to get cleaned up and go to Douglas.  I fixed myself some food, gave myself a haircut and trim, then showered.  Played with the video recording system some more and called it a night.

Friday afternoon my Phantom 4 Pro drone arrived.  I got it charging, looked through the skimpy manual.  Watched a few videos on how to get it ready to fly and it’s basic operation.  While it was charging, I decided it was time to move the security camera outside.  I know it was recording things inside the trailer that nobody wants to see.  I then prepared some fried rice for the potluck and headed over to the potluck.  After the potluck I decided it was time to try to get it in the air.  Unfortunately, my phone would not connect to it (the phone is used as a display of what the camera on the drone sees, and enables you to configure the operation of the remote and drone).  I spent a fair bit of time Friday evening trying to upgrade firmware and getting my phone to connect.  No success.  I decided it was time to put it up for a while, so I did, then headed to the tavern for some more human contact.  After getting back from the Tavern I worked on getting the video streams accessible from the internet.  I configured OpenVPN on the firewall, created accounts, signed up for dynamic DNS (DDNS) so the same name can be used all the time regardless of what my IP address is.  Configured the firewall to keep the DDNS IP address <> name mapping current.  Called it a night.

Having stayed up way too late Friday evening tinkering with the video connectivity, I was looking forward to sleeping in Saturday morning.  Sasha had other plans.  I took my time getting around as I planned to eat lunch there so I didn’t want to get there too early.  First stop was at Wells Fargo bank to setup an account.  I had called the credit union earlier in the week and learned that because I don’t live, work, or have family in AZ (yet), I can’t open an account there.  While at Wells Fargo, I learned that I already had a checking account, so I just had her update my contact information and order me a debit card.  Why do I need an account locally?  For large cash purchases such as a covered car hauler found on Craigslist.  Yes I will be careful.  I plan to meet the seller and see it first with no cash on me before making the withdrawal.  Anyway… Back to Saturday.  I then headed to lunch at La Fiesta Mexico.  They were very busy so service was much slower than usual.  While eating lunch, I got a call from my boss (work) about issues with the migration of another team’s application into production.  I talked him through some changes that needed to be done and mentioned others that likely needed to be done.   He didn’t want to execute those additional changes due to process and security concerns so they would have to wait for me to get back home.  He told me not to rush.  Next stop was the hardware/lumber store to find pipe and materials to build a hoop house/barn to be used for storage.  I looked a bit but I had not done all the research I needed to do and my mind was not into trying to figure it out on the fly given the issues going on at work.  So, I moved onto TSC and grabbed a couple things that were on my list.  Then onto Walmart for groceries.  It was my plan to have a mocha latte on the way home given how little sleep I got the night before but when I got there I found the coffee shop had closed 30 minutes earlier.  Plan B, drink the 5 hour energy drink I’ve had in the truck since the ride down from Michigan.  Once back to the trailer and groceries were put away, I took care of the issues at work.  More tinkering on the drone to no avail.  Noted that their online chat support would be available Sunday afternoon.  Ok.  Time to table tinkering with the drone because I was getting frustrated and it was unproductive.  Worked with Brian on accessing the video feed from the internet.  Success.  🙂

Sunday… What to do…. I really want some aerial video of the land / property before I do anymore work on it so that I have some good before and after images, but is it really worth it to keep delaying?  Decisions, decisions.  I decide to hold off and see what tech support has to say.  I calculated that they should be online around noon my time.  So, I take some stuff to the property.  While there, I pound in some T-posts and tie a small tarp to it to give Sasha some shade.  I’m hoping to start spending a fair bit of time at the property soon and would like to start taking her.  That is assuming I can get her into the truck again…  It has been awhile…   Grab some stuff from the shed for a project, then head back to the trailer in hopes of getting a hold of tech support for the drone.  No luck.  They are not online yet.  So, I google some more and tinker some more.  Make it worse in the process.  After upgrading the firmware on the drone, the remote won’t sync up with it.  Ugh.  More googling.  Don’t really find much of anything on that issue.  Work a bit on constructing a one man water level but realize I forgot to grab clamps from the property so I don’t get much done.  I decide I want to move the video camera closer to the trailer.  So I do.  Jury is still out as to whether it is a better or worse location.  Finally reach tech support for the drone.  After working with him for an hour or so, verdict is it needs to be shipped in for repair.  I email the seller on Amazon, explain the situation, and ask if they can do better.  Cheryl finally contacts me after not being lucid for two days, vomiting all day the third, then having a bad headache on the forth (major dental work).  I work with her to get access to the video stream from the internet.  Once she is setup, I do some research on a mini PC to use for the video server as I want to use that laptop for other things long term.

Monday morning I have an email from the Amazon seller regarding the drone.  They will exchange it.   Yay!  I make breakfast and prepare to go to the property for a few hours (don’t have to work as it is Labor Day).  At the property, I dig the easy-up out of the shed and put it up in the area I cleared by where I plan to build.  I sit, relax, and think.  I envision where the water cisterns will go.  I envision where the solar panels will go.  I envision where the outdoor shower will go.  I envision where the compost bins will go.  I dig out my laptop and add the cisterns, outdoor shower, and compost bins to the drawing.  I review my book on constructing water cisterns and resolve to myself that I will be buying them.  I contemplate where to put the pond.  I grab a soil sample to do a water test to figure out how much sand/clay/silt there is at the top couple inches of the soil.  I contemplate how/where to build screens for screening the rocks from the dirt and sorting the rocks by size.  I eat lunch as I continue to alternate relaxing and observing the nature around me such as the butterflies flying to and fro, then thinking about various aspects of developing the property.  I finally decide to pack up so I can get some work done at the trailer.  I was torn between leaving the easy up up and staking it down vs taking it down.  I decide to take it down.  It, on the other-hand, did not want to collapse. So I went with it and put it back up and staked it down.  It will be interesting to see how long it survives.  The monsoon season is pretty much over so I’ve been told that the winds will not be that strong for the next few months.  Packed stuff back into the shed and headed home.  Back at the trailer, I completed constructing the one man water level, cooked dinner, and started working on the blog.  That brings you up to date.

Regarding progress on wrapping up loose ends in Michigan.  Still waiting on the closing for the property on Augusta Drive.  Seems that the tenant has refused to move out of the property on Michigan Ave, so the Realtor/property manager was going to get what ever court paperwork was needed to enter the house and move his stuff out for him.

Hoping this week (albeit only four days left) will see significant progress on multiple fronts.

Sorry no pics tonight.

That is it for me.  Good night all.