A New Bird Changes My Plans.

So I was just about ready with the camper, all I needed was a truck to back under it. I was thinking about cleaning out old red where she sat so that I would'nt interupt too much of the robins life with the eggs and all. I wanted to just quickly borrow the truck and back it under the camper real quick, then I was going to return it to the mother robin. I thought I would just lift that tailgate a bit and have quick peak first.

Well, I guess we'll go to plan "B".

I was real busy the last few days. I have been camping out at the acerage most of time. Thought I would come home tonight as I do have business in town. I have been working till about 10pm every night, but I am so cozy in my camper most of time, that I forget to get a real early start on things.

I know that all this waiting around for permits and all that, seems kinda stupid to alot of people out there. Thats all I can do. I have been told by many people in the past that this is the way it is. I have been told to apply early, because it takes along time. But with me, it was a quick decision. If I could do it all over again, I would do all the things that I am doing right now, and then apply for the permits in the fall. I did'nt decide to start with things until I realized that we could be pretty slow at work. So far, so good, with the slow at work thing, I hope it stays that way for awhile. So far, the other driver has been keeping up. With my luck, it will speed right up about the time they approve things. lol. I sure do hope not. If I were to take a leave of absence, it could be a leave, period. There is alot of drivers out there looking for a job. Of all the things that seem to give me any anxiety, it is usually that stupid cell phone, when it rings. What ever happens, happens I guess.

I do have the building spot all cleaned up, and kinda ready for action. The only problem, is that I will be the one supplying all that action, or most of it anyway, and I am not real experienced at it all. I have been doing alot of research. I have an idea, but, all the little things that need to be done just right. My foundation, all the drain pipes and how they go to the septic tank, wiring, the mound. I sometimes wonder if I'm too close to the bush line. I guess they'll let me know if I am. One thing that I am confident in, is that my little 16x24 foot shack, will not be too small. At least thats what I am thinking now. lol. I am actually gaining space. Outdoor space. Who needs inside space when you got all that privacy outside. And then I also have a little garage. I guess I don't have that where I live right now. I am actually gaining space.

The price of permits here in Alberta, is the way she goes. You gotta live with it, or move into a den with a grizzly bear. It is a small worry for me. That is just the way it is. It is a one time thing, until you go to add on, build something else on your propery or something. If you don't mention it, there could be fines. If things ar'nt up to code, it could have to come down possibly. I did put alot of thought into how I was going to live on my chuck of land, and do things totally different from what I am doing now, but the more I researched things, the more I learned that you just can't go and do any old thing that you want. I am sure that there are alot of new lessons coming my way also. I know that when it is all over, I will be alot smarter. Maybe not alot happier, but alot smarter for sure.

Well, here it is, pushing 2:00 am on my clock again. Better get off here for now.

How daily plans can change.

What a day. Seems evertime I make a plan, something out of my own control seems to change things for me. First I had this big plan in my head that I was going to move the old camper, that is going to be in my way when I start to build. It has been sitting there for awhile. So I thought I would put it on an old blue ford that I have sitting around out there doing absolutely nothing.

First I had to scrounge of a battery. I was'nt sure what I had kicking around that was any good. The one in old blue had a lose positive post. I could almost pull it right out of the battery. I found a battery in the back of another pickup. I did,nt think it would be any good, so I tested it. It read a little more than 12 volts. When I think about it, I remember this battery. A guy at work threw it away sometime last year, because it was no good. Well is sat outside all winter with no charging, and still has 12, so it can't be all that bad. I put it in old blue. She fired up, then quit. I tried again, and away she goes. I made her my new ranch truck, just then. I was so proud. I cleaned out the back of the truck, is was pretty much full of wood, metal, junk, etc. I even swept it out with an old broom that was in there. I never sweep the box of truck. lol. The old truck ran good to every different location, and when I went to start it up to go to the camper, it totally refused to start. I don't have time to diagnose this old truck. So, I thought I would grab old red.

Old red also needed a battery, so I took the one out of old blue and put in there. Old red also needed to be cleaned out as she to, was full of junk, wood, and metal items. So I did my rounds, metal pile, good wood pile, junk pile. As I was approaching old red from a distance and from behind, I noticed a nest on the back bumper. I lifted the tailgate a bit and had a little look. There were four litte robin eggs in there. I think they were robin eggs. So this plan changed again. I kinda thought the mother bird must be kinda wondering whats to become of her eggs. So I immediately took the truck back to where I found it. I walked a way from it and watched, as not to long after, a robin, swoops down and under the tailgate of the truck. My plans changed again temporarily. I was'nt sure what I should have done. I think, I might finish cleaning the truck out, where it sits, and get the camper all prepared to put on. Then I might have to steal it from the robin temporarily and quickly put the camper on. I could just move it with one my good pickups I guess, but I would like to leave things stacked for now. I've got too much junk laying around.

In other news, I am still waiting on my building permit to approve. It should'nt be too long, they tell me. A few days yet. I am still doing a bunch of prep work, and cleaning up junk out there. I finally got my backhoe out there from my brothers place. I did a 7 hour job cleaning out his corrals for him before I took it away. There was a alot of cow manure flying around for awhile there. I've been getting a bunch of othere little jobs out of the way as well. It sure seems that the long days I put in, sure do go by fast. And alot of the time, little seems to get accomplished.

The developement permit was $100.00. The building permit and private sewage permit combind was $800.00 plus. I asked her how much for a normal sized house. The building permit on a normal house would range from around $2500-$5000. Already, I feel as though keeping it small has paid off. Taxes will be alot less also.

I hav'nt read any other blogs yet, for a couple of days, it's now almost 2 am, so gotta go.

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.

My Front Porch

In reading Hermit Jims post this morning (http://hermitjim.blogspot.com/2009/05/do-me-favor-if-you-will.html), I find that (meadowlark)http://justwanderingthrough.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-front-porch.html is having a porch give away contest, or something like that. So I checked it out I don't know if the contest is for the nicest or the ugliest porch, so I thought I would take a chance that it was all about the ugliest. I think I got this one won hands down. I'm almost embarassed to even show this, but what the heck. My porch is just a deck. Nothing real special.

I used to get alot of use out of my deck, until the neighbor next door upgraded and moved in a new modular beside me. Every since they did that, I suddenly quit using my deck to sit on. I probably like my privacy more than anyone I know, yet I have less privacy than anyone I know. I can't bitch, I just assume that this is town life. What can you do? Move. lol. So thats what I am going to do.

Since they moved their modular in a few years ago, they started using the entrance nearest my deck, when anyone, (there company, kids, who ever), needs to smoke, they are right outside my deck. I find cig butts on my lawn. Their two dogs use the same entrance. Now, I like dogs, but I kinda wish I could sit on my own deck, without constantly being yapped at. It got worse, since we put in the chain link fence, absolutely no barking and yapping is muffled. I do thank my neighbor for giving me the incentive to get the hell out of town. When I get moved, just like Jim, I plan on having me a kick ass porch. I don't really care what it looks like, as long as I can enjoy all the sights and sounds that surround it and a piece of it shelters the rain and snow.

I realize that my deck in town could use alot of TLC. And while out taking the pictures, I was reminded that I had better get the lawn mower fired up real soon also. I know, I am slacking. We had a lot of snow on the ground a couple days ago, this morning it is all gone. Here are some pictures of my deck and porch.

This last photo is the veiw from my deck looking at the neighbors main entrance. Really hope I did'nt depress anyone this morning. I know soon that it will be much better for myself. I can hardly wait. Life is good, and can only get better from here. I hope.

New Calendar Needed

I woke up this morning out at the acerage to find alot of snow. Now it is 6:00 pm, I am now at home, and the snow still has'nt let up yet. I really must be looking at the wrong calendar, because I thought the month of June was about 12 days away. This is why it is called the "great white north" I guess.

Anyway, I spent the last 5 days out at my acerage. It was the May long weekend in Canada. Victoria day. I went out on Thursday and got home this afternoon (Tuesday). There were a few old friends that came out for some of it, and we did a bunch of camping and ATV'ing. Even the hermits gotta get out and play once in awhile. The weather was not real great, but we had alot fun anyway. The bush was nice and muddy, just the way we like it. I have a few pictures from the extra long weekend.

There were some minor damages, but no one got hurt.
The beaver were pretty busy building a dam.


We did see some wildlife, including elk, moose, squirrels, lots of different birds, a wild quad drivin jack russel and a weasel right on my own land. That might not be a good thing if I were to have chickens some day, but I really don't see much in the way of mice either.

Well that was my weekend. There were others with cameras out there too, and some other photos may come my way through email in the near future that could possibly get posted. The weather on this camp out was actually quite miserable. Rainy and cold. Friday morning was -5 celcius, I think I heard the radio say. There was frost on everything. I always had my furnace stoked right up at night. We did'nt let the weather hold us back from having fun though.

Splitting Wood.

Call me crazy, but I really enjoy splitting firewood by hand. I have a hydraulic wood splitter that you pump by hand. It is a little slower than all that powered up stuff, but it will split a knotty pine like nothing. I have never split a days worth of wood in my life. But I have been doing a fair bit of it lately. I built a wood shed recently out of a bunch of old lumber I had laying around, and in the process of cleaning up my building spot, I thought I may as well split the wood and have some on hand just incase I find myself in a cabin on my miniature ranch someday soon. I put a video of me splitting a log. Very entertaining stuff. lol. Just wanted to see if a video would upload, thats all. It's nothing special, just wanted to show off my splitter that I picked up at an auction a long time ago, for next to nothing. I don't even know if the video will upload or not. Anyway, so the wood splitting is kinda fun for now, but I wonder when it gets old. I can see me maybe getting tired of this wood splitting style someday in the future, but for now, I guess this will have to do. Does anyone out there happen to know how many cords of wood I would need to heat a 16x24 shack through a cold winter? How long does a cord of wood usually last? It sure seems like it takes a long time to split it anyway.

I have been keeping myself pretty busy lately. Got the backhoe running, and my quad, and I have been doing some cleaning up out there. Also research. I have been reading alot of different things, on framing, and wiring etc. I usually just go and build things and not even worry about it, but it is a little different when you know the inspector will be involved.

They're forcasting snow for tonight, and by the sound of the wind outside, just about anything might blow in tonight.

Waiting for the word GO.

I know it seems like nothings going on over here on my end, but believe me I have been going like a wildman over here. Yesterday, I finally got my stuff over to the county office, after drawing more pictures and all that for most of the day. Finally. Now, I don't know what, wait and see what I can and can't do on my own personal paid for piece of land, I guess. Kinda feel like a grade three student trying to get permission to go to the bathroom. I can understand why they need to do things like this though, I for one had all kinds of strange plans up my sleave, but having to go through the permit process kind of brings you back to reality a bit. lol. I honestly can't believe how long it took me to plot my peice of land on paper though. I did have a few other things hold me back however, such as work and what not.

Now I have been busy with other important things pertaining to my little project. #1, still hiding from work as much as possible. #2 Trying to get some front wheel bearings and seals for my old quad. It's been riding around in the back of my pickup on three wheels for quite some time now. The goodies should be in maybe Thursday. I went to a bearing place for my parts. Two bearings and four seals all for the price of just one bearing at the local Kawasaki dealer. They don't need my money very badly I guess.

#3 The old backhoe really needs some tlc, for she will be pretty busy for awhile in the near future. The beast.

She needs a couple new pins and bushings in the bottom of the boom.

It was an interesting day. I got all greasey and dirty and I loved it. Anything is better than measuring and drawing all day long. I got the boom off the tractor, and pins in hand. Tomorrow I'll see what I can do to beat John Deeres price for pins and bushings. Maybe I can get some built, and save a hundred bucks or so. Maybe I can build my own. We'll see. So thats whats going on in my life at the moment. Still being frugal, still being Candian and still being a hermit and still trying to keep everything as simple as possible, which is sometimes easier said than done.