June 3 2009 update.

Last Friday, May 29, I found my developement permit in the mail box. That means that now I can apply for a building permit. I have been going over some last minute things before sending my building permit application. Just want to make sure about some things before commiting myself to the exact spot that I chose to build on. Some things on my mind, that I am trying to figure out are, high speed internet (can I get connected if I build there?). Insurance. Is insurance to run a wood stove, and propane space heat in a small shack, with alternative power going to be worth it, or will it be reasonable. I guess it is quite possible that things like that could make it hardly worth being off the grid when you could hook into grid power. I guess the reality of everything finally hits a man right in the head. lol. I love solar energy. Just experimenting with it and learning about it. I guess you can't put a price on education. I'm pretty sure that I am going to go through with it, but like I say, just want to make sure that everything is going to be right. It will cost me atleast $8500.00 to hook into the grid. I can buy some pretty good solar equipment with that. My power system is going to end up costing more than that. That is to be expected, and I don't care about that. I'm sure it will pay for it's self in the end, I hope.

And then I get thinking about things like, if I decide to add onto my house in the future, I did'nt leave much extra room for that. Hell with it, I don't need to add on. The bigger it is the higher the taxes, the more the insurance, the more to heat, the more to clean the more to maintain. Thats why I chose to keep it small to begin with. Some people still think I'm a nut job, but I no longer give a shit what other people think. I actually get a real kick out of watching the expressions and comebacks from other people when I tell them what I am up to. Some think that I am totally whacked. These are the people who live in the big houses with the attached heated garage, the same people who, if you were to take there salary away from them for a month, they would be totally screwed. Yip, I'm the nut job. Anyway, I did'nt come on here to run people down, just thought I would throw that out there though.

So, now I need a building permit, then I will need electrical, plumbing, gas(propane), private sewage disposal permits, and also a permit for installing a wood stove. For now, I am going to get the building permit and see how that goes, I am undecided yet if I am going to put in the electricity and plumbing myself or not, but I think I will do it myself. I have been doing alot of research on some of these topics. I guess if everything is done to code, thats all that matters. I will be sending in the building permit real soon.

I have been a very busy man lately, and I even had alot of help from my mother. Cleaning up the building spot, and I built a 8x12 power shack for all my electrical goodies. (Batteries, inverter, charge controller, generator(s), etc.) I have also been doing alot of research and educating myself on things. All the while my pay job had a bit of a splurt there, but now I think things are slowed down a bit again. It kinda sounds like work will be pretty slow this summer(I hope). lol. There are two of us truck drivers that haul all the bosses equipment around from job to job. The other driver will be doing what he can to keep up and sometimes I may have to come into the picture when he can't keep up to things.

I hope that once everything is under way and all the building starts, that there will be very little work interruptions. I can't wait to start building, but it might be a few days just yet. I still have alot of prep work I can be doing, it seems to never end. All the legal issues, and permits are tough, just because I don't know the routine, but after this one, I'm sure it will all be second nature to me.

I have been spending alot of time out there, and living in my rv quite alot, so I hav'nt been keeping up to many other blogs lately. The weather has been pretty good here, I need to take advantage of every bit of time I can. (And here I am writing a blog. lol).

Here are some pictures, they are nothing special, but I'll put them up anyway.

I had this old horse trailer for awhile now, it will never be road legal again, finally it is paying for it's keep. All this wood came off the building spot. It is not the best quality fire wood ever, but I think it could be pretty valuable in a pinch. It might even save me from burning the deck someday.
The building spot before the cleanup.

This is the building spot, cleaned up alot from what it was. That used to be a big pile of wood, all the way from the front of the truck canopy to the bush. We bucked any burnable wood up and either put it in the wood shed or the horse trailer, depending on the quality. The trailer and wood shed are now pretty much full. Here is the power shack. That is the plan for it at this time anyway. I insulated the floor, and the door is going to be insulated when I build it. The rest will be insulated, if need be, when the time comes. Alot of the work I have done out here in the last while had all kinds of weather interruptions. Just get started shingling and then the clouds pop out from nowhere. Thats the way it goes.


My mom had a little bit of old paint laying around at her place, so she decided to bring it on down and paint the inside of the outhouse. It had no paint inside at all before. She since painted the inside of the door a really neat blue also. I did'nt argue. Paint away momma. It actually looks really nice, a big improvement to the establishment. She also hung some wildlife pictures. Now I can kinda picture what might be waiting outside for me, as I leave the leu.

They said, "more video". Well, not in so many words. lol. So here is another video. I thought I should film this incase something should happen to me, they would know what happend. Well ok, I lied, I just wanted to see myself in action again. lol.