Rural life ... my truck broke down, it's on the side of the highway, 4 miles from home. I have to go fix it tomorrow. Luckily I already have the parts I need, and a friend lives near where the truck broke down, and will help get it running.
I found that with the summer rains, there was a leak along the ridge beam of the house I'm building. Got the ladder and tried to fix it. Next rain, I'll find out if I got the leak or not.
The little garden is growing great, and my one watermelon plant had a fine little watermelon on it, about half grown. I came down off the roof and found one of my dogs had picked the watermelon and was eating it on the couch.
My solar upgrade seems to be working well. The water pump is doing better with the new little pressure tank - once I figured out I should let some of the pressure out.
I have a big water tank, and have the water hauled. There is one water hauler, who has one water truck, and one well to fill up from. If any of them go down, no water. This worries me. I need to hand dig a cistern, line it, and set up some gutters and piping to collect rain water.
Two years ago I plopped down on my land in a tent, in a place where I didn't know anybody. I had a generator, some water jugs, a fence for my dogs, social security and my old VW truck that was always getting stuck in the sand. Now I have some friends, an old RV, a shed, the first part of a little house that's almost ready to move into, good solar power, running water, propane, a second bigger truck, lots of tools, and a driveway where you don't get stuck.
All this off-grid/homesteading stuff takes a lot of hard work. But it's worth it.
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Rural life ... my truck broke down, it's on the side of the highway, 4 miles from home. I have to go fix it tomorrow. Luckily I already have the parts I need, and a friend lives near where the truck broke down, and will help get it running.
I found that with the summer rains, there was a leak along the ridge beam of the house I'm building. Got the ladder and tried to fix it. Next rain, I'll find out if I got the leak or not.
The little garden is growing great, and my one watermelon plant had a fine little watermelon on it, about half grown. I came down off the roof and found one of my dogs had picked the watermelon and was eating it on the couch.
My solar upgrade seems to be working well. The water pump is doing better with the new little pressure tank - once I figured out I should let some of the pressure out.
I have a big water tank, and have the water hauled. There is one water hauler, who has one water truck, and one well to fill up from. If any of them go down, no water. This worries me. I need to hand dig a cistern, line it, and set up some gutters and piping to collect rain water.
Two years ago I plopped down on my land in a tent, in a place where I didn't know anybody. I had a generator, some water jugs, a fence for my dogs, social security and my old VW truck that was always getting stuck in the sand. Now I have some friends, an old RV, a shed, the first part of a little house that's almost ready to move into, good solar power, running water, propane, a second bigger truck, lots of tools, and a driveway where you don't get stuck.
All this off-grid/homesteading stuff takes a lot of hard work. But it's worth it.