Category: Roughing it at the New Homestead

Getting settled on the land while continuing to get utilities sorted out.

At the property – Days 1 – 14

Jan 29 – Feb 11

I have been busy busy busy.

I am happy to announce that I went two weeks without getting pulled over for anything.  Whoo-hoo!

Rather than a day by day, I’m thinking I’ll go project by project with some random events and thoughts thrown in here and there.

Random thoughts/event #1:

  1. When driving 45 minutes to the store, remember your wallet.
  2. When running low on fuel because your dumb ass forgot your wallet, fuel conservation becomes #1 priority.
  3. Keep 5 gallons of at home for emergency situations, then make the gas station your first stop.
  4. See #1. Let’s try to avoid a third time…
  5. Time to setup apple pay, I always remember my phone.

Water:

I have been being ultra conservative with my water usage as I didn’t know when I would get the water tank I ordered.  After two weeks here on site, This evening I just dropped below the 2/3’s mark of the fresh water tank I filled before leaving the RV park.  Note, there is nothing fresh about the water in that tank.  It has gone stagnant.  Pee-ew!  I use it for dishes and washing my hands.  Thankfully I also filled 12 gallon milk jugs to use for drinking and cooking.  I just refilled those at Rusty’s this past week.  I started clearing out a large area for water tanks (the one coming plus 3 future), then decided time would be better spend clearing area for just the one coming and I changed location of it as well.  I cleared the new smaller area, then placed a ring of rocks around it to contain the gravel that they would be delivering to set the tank on.

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Ring of rocks in preparation of gravel and water tank.

This past Wednesday, they finally came with the water tank.

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5000 Gallon water tank installed and filled with water.

After finishing the water tank, they quickly dug a hole for the septic system and the next day they delivered and installed the septic tank.

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Septic tank filled with water for the leak test.  Check out all the rock on the side of that hole.

Random thoughts/event #2:

  1. Don’t try to take photos of a rabid fox with one hand while trying to hold your rifle with the other while maintaining a safe distance.
  2. When you encounter a rabid animal and if you are armed, shoot the damn thing so you are not left wondering if / when it will come back.
  3. If you miss the first shot, be patient for another opportunity/shot to present itself and take it.

WiFi at the RV Park.

Before leaving the park, based on packet capture data I took while trying to figure out why the wifi was performing poorly, I identified that one of Rusty’s office PC’s must be infected with malware. One night I went over to the park and cleaned her PC of 3-4 pieces of malware.  Additionally, she has the park fully booked and with all those users, the WiFi has become really unstable.  I spent 2 evenings there working on the WiFi, Saturday evening being the most recent.  In looking over the alerts, it is looking pretty stable compared to what it was.  I’m hopeful that I finally got it sorted out.

Solar system

I’ve been running the generator every day to charge the batteries.  That is really getting tiresome.  I’m looking forward to having the panels installed and quietly charging the batteries all day without burning any gas.  To that end, I’ve been working hard to get the ground support structure completed and ready to mount the panels.

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Mark where each solar panel support post is going to be placed.
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With all the rock, once again the auger could not drill the holes deep enough.  I ended up digging out the holes with the back hoe.  With Ricks help, we got the lower row of posts all assembled, leveled, and in place.  The following Saturday, Rick came over again and helped me screen dirt, frame in the mini trenches to minimize the concrete needed, mix 20+ wheel barrels of cement stabilized earth, and fill the holes.  That was a grueling day of work.
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First tall post in position and ready for some concrete stabilized earth.  I did this one by myself.  Got it in position, plumb, forms in place, screened the dirt, mixed and poured 4 wheel barrels of earth, concrete, water mix.

I’m hoping to get one more tall post done during the week this week, then finish the other three on Saturday.

Sunday I/we should be able to start assembling the framework on the posts in preparation of installing the solar panels and maybe even install the panels if the weather permits.  I’m hopeful I will be running on solar and only using the generator on cloudy days or when power needs demand it.

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Sunrise Saturday morning.

That’s it for me tonight.  Time for some sleep.

Night all.

Cary