Snow, Batteries, and Solar Panels.

This is the veiw from my door. (Front porch???) I don't know, sometimes I think maybe this is the spot where I should have built my house. To late for that now though.

The building spot is actually straight ahead and between the black trailer and the garage. It will do.
The battery bank. I know, the wiring is a mess, the cables are all different sizes and it is just plain messy. But it works. lol.

Today I was putting some solar panels on the shack. I did'nt get them all up there yet. For a change it did'nt snow all day long and it was pretty warm, but I did have to shovel the roof off this morning so I could do my thing up there. Alot of the snow that used to be up in the trees melted or fell off. Actually today I could hear all kinds of crashing sounds around me with clumps of snow falling from trees and sliding off the garage roof etc. I hope my frozen meat stays that way.

P.S. Still lovin it.

Life is way different now.

I'm just sitting here in my cozy little shack. All 192 square feet of it. And I am loving every minute of it so far. This is where I live, there's no turning back now. Today I just bought 6 new 12 volt deep cycle batteries for the power system. That will be much better than the two smaller ones I was using from the RV. If I want to nuke a cup of coffee with the microwave or make toast with the electric toaster, I just do it. No need to start the gen set right away. I don't have any solar panels up yet, but they would'nt have done much good the last couple of days anyway, with all the snow and cloudy weather. It snowed a bunch yesterday and today here. The snow has alot of disadvantages, but it also has some advantages. Since fall came and the leaves blew off the trees, I sorta lost some of my privacy. But with the new snow, I am totally secluded again, just the way I like it. The snow is making a bit of a mess around my house construction that I want to get moving on again soon. I hate to even uncover anything and start. This whole month was off and on wet and muddy and snowy, so if I were not in the process of moving out, I don't think I would have got much building done anyway. I can't even remember where I left off, but I am sure that it will come back to me soon. I also have a real strong feeling that work is going to phone me right at the beginning of November. I'm pretty sure that I am getting due for all our safety courses (first aid, h2s, whimis, and all that stuff). I am really not looking forward to all that. Who knows, maybe they don't want me there anymore (yaaaahhhh). lol.
I just tried downloading a picture again, and it just dos'nt seem to want to work for me. I even edited the photo first and brought it down to size. I don't know what's going on. My new internet service seems to run not to badly other than that. I'll get it all figured out eventually I hope. I love this lifestyle that I am living right now, even though I find myself really keeping an eye on things like propane, water, power and internet usage. Everything is more work. I now have to wash my dishes by hand, fire up the generator periodically and whatever else.
I can see by using the computer and monitoring my inverter display, that my new batteries are going to make life a whole lot simpler for me. Anyway, thats all for now.

Lots of snow.

Well I am all settled out at the acerage. I do have a mobile high speed internet connection, but I can't seem to upload a photo to my post yet. Maybe the pictures are to large, I don't know. I have been doing a few preparations for winter. Today I put on a propane switch over valve so that the propane will empty a tank and automatically switch over to the full one. My propane system is one concern that I do have with the oncoming winter. We do get some pretty frosty weather here sometimes. It is not real uncommon for the temperatures to drop as low as 40 celcius/ 40 Farenhiet or colder. At temperatures like that propane can quit flowing. I am trying to come up with a simple solution to try and avoid things like that before the time comes. Alot of times all that is needed is a 100 watt light bulb under the covered tank. If I happen to be here then I guess that could be arranged, but if were gone for a couple days, which could happen easily, then I don't know. I'll have to figure something out.
The shack is great. So far it has been keeping me toasty warm at temperatures about 0 celcius/ 30 Farenheit and about 3 to 4 inches of snow. Tonight is supposed to drop to about -9 C/15F. That will be a little bit of a test. It should be good though. This is just a bit of an update, I will get some pictures up soon.

Empty House (Mobile Home)

I don't have the time for a real post at the moment. I have been living out at the acerage the last couple of days and came into town for a final cleaning on my town property, where I still have an internet connection. The place is pretty empty. So far things are going good at my new arrangement. I will post again soon.

The Process of Moving

I went and picked up a shed that I had stored at one of my brother's place. I used to keep my quad and a garden tractor in it, and my brother would store his garden tractor in it for the winter also. But I went out and scooped it up. I had it parked out in front of my place in town for a week while I was slowly putting alot of my stuff into it. Then I hauled it out to the acerage, tied the skids to a tree and drove away. There she sits, still loaded. Done deal.

I got the mound plumbing all glued up and covered. Hopefully it is all done right.

I put more gravel over the pipes, then a layer of landscaping cloth, then about 3/4 of a big round bale of wheat straw. Over the straw, I put all the dirt from the top layer of my basement diggings. Then I covered it all with some nice topsoil that I hauled in from the new Ritchie Bros Auction site awhile back. I need to touch it up a bit with the quad and a drag of some sort, just to smoothen it all up a bit, then seed it to grass and watch it grow (next summer).

Traction (the dog) is putting it all to the test. Mom was out giving me a hand with this project too, she was a big help doing some raking on the gravel layer, and picking roots out of the first layer of dirt, and of course lunch and other small jobs. I can't even take all the credit anymore. I think I am starting to rely on the help, (maybe not a good thing), but it does get things done alot quicker. Thanks Mom. (I feel like such a slave driver sometimes).

Today was kind of wasted day running around town looking for something, but I don't even know what. Tomorrow I am planning on taking some more goodies out there, and getting started with setting up my tempory home out at the acerage. I hope to have it situated and with some kind of a power source tomorrow. Reality of moving is kinda sinking in lately. I have to admit that I am a little stressed out lately with all that is going on. But on the other hand, I can hardly wait to get out there and get living a totally different way of life. It's going to be interesting.

It's a Sofa's Life.

And then we'll give that worn out old couch a little taste of some snow.

Wasted Trip

But not a wasted day. It was a really nice morning, warm and calm, but that changed in a hurry.
By the time we got half way out to the acerage it was raining pretty good. I did'nt waste much time out there. I unloaded the few things that I hauled out and headed it right back to town to get something accomplished right there at home where I came from in the first place.


Mom and I proceeded to boxing things up and cleaning out lots of useless garbage. I really need to learn to let go of junk. I have old bills from the year 1834. Well not actually, but it is probably safe to say that I would have, if I were alive back then. I said goodbye to alot of stuff today, including my old couch. It is out on the deck getting a good taste of the rain we are getting. I brought the matching love seat out of storage to put in its place for now. This is the kind of work that mom really shines at, cleaning and packing. She loves it I think, (crazy women). I, on the other hand, was'nt really enjoying it all that much. lol. We did get alot done though, but there is still alot to do yet. I really can't wait until this part is over.
Every day I have been eating some of my tomatoes. I don't think I have had a completely ripe one yet though. I just can't wait that long. At first I kinda thought that all the tomatoes would ripen together. But I have been keeping up to them so far. It is like a contest to see who will win, the tomatoes or me. So far I am in the lead. All I know is that they are very tastey. It is simply amazing how these things come to be. I'm still scratching my head on this one. Amazing.

The Sewage Treatment Mound

This basement floor picture was taken on Oct 1, I do have a little more done to it than the picture shows, but I hav'nt touched it since the 1st. We have had quite alot of rain lately so I have been doing other things instead. I am really eager to start getting some walls framed up, but I know that there are more important things that need to be done also.

I finally got that door on the shed that I built this summer. I could be needing that sooner than I think. I have also been trying to clean up at my in town place and trying to have it ready for the renter at the end of this month. When I head out to the acerage, I usually have some kind of load on my pickup also, gradually getting thing moved out there.

Another project that I have been focused on is this sewage treatment mound. I would really like to have it out of the way before snow flies. This is what I was working on today mostly and will probably be working on tomorrow also. Hopefully it will be completed after tomorrow. I would like to move my tempory shack into this area somewhere and get it all set up to live in, but I can't really do that until I am done with the mound. I have to pick up some pipe fittings in town in the morning and get all this stuff glued together, then some more gravel over the pipes, before I proceed with the straw and all the other goodies. But first I think I might haul a load of garbage to the dump and load up the old Dodge with some more stuff for the acerage.

I sure hope they don't phone me to go to work this month. I would really hate to turn down the work after all they did for me, with using the truck and all. After October I don't really care, but for now, I just have so much that needs to get done. Forgot to mention that on Saturday I hauled three loads of gravel out there. It was kind of a muddy situation, and I had to spend an hour or so washing things up when I was done, but atleast I got that done. I should'nt have to haul anymore product for awhile now. I hope. I also stole (purchased) a round bale of wheat straw from the boss for my mound. So the rain did'tn really slow me down too much, but there was a lazy day in there somewhere I can remember.