Chapter 85...Paving Prep and Cool Trees

Off Grid...Chapter 85 8-10 Yay. Today is the first day of work for our paving crew. They have a lot of prep work before they can even start the paving. They have to tear up the majority of our old large gravel so they can make a more solid base for the pavement. Here is the side driveway scraped of our old gravel. Next they start working on the back parking area. Here they are digging out the dirt and gravel. It takes all day just to get the driveway and the back parking area scraped. Here is the driveway ready to go. They took all of the gravel that they scraped up and spread it along the rest of our driveway. They also added some extra gravel and dirt to our pond wall. After they left for the day, Mike and I went down to check out the pond wall. When we got there we saw a package at the gate. Woo hoo it must be our 2nd awning. We get the package and head back to the house. Here is Mike standing on the pond wall. We get back up to the house and open the awning. Oh no. They sent a different color. Well it looks like we will have to send it back and hopefully they will get it right the 3rd time around. Later on Mike, Niki, and I go for a walk. We took a break and sat on a knoll in front of our house watching the deer. While we were sitting there I heard a "whoosh" from behind. I turned around just in time to see 6 deer running by us about 5 feet away. It happened so fast. I think the deer were as startled as us. It was really cool. 8-11 The paving crew is back. Today they have to run trucks of gravel and pack it down before they can lay the asphalt. Our first load of gravel coming up the driveway. Dumping the gravel so the guys can spread it out. While we are waiting for the next load of gravel the workers start spreading and packing our walkway. One and a half hours later we get the second load of gravel. Oh this is going to be a long couple of weeks. They only have 1 driver today and it's a long way to the gravel pit. This is the load they dumped and spread in our parking area behind the house. That's all the gravel we got for today. One of the workers took the roller outside our gate and got it stuck. Why he went outside our gate and onto the grass is beyond me. All day he was backing it onto the walkway but not this last time. So that's all for today's work. It rained that night. Not good. 8-12 Five guys showed p this morning to get their roller out. Only problem is they didn't bring any chains, vehicles, or equipment. So of course it is Mike to the rescue. Here is Mike getting them unstuck with our tractor and our chains. It amazes me how unprepared some contractors are. How does anyone ever get work done when they don't have homeowner(or Jimmy's) help. Since it's another rainy day the contractors left. hopefully they will be back tomorrow to work. That afternoon Mike, Nike, and I went for another walk. This time I took my camera. First we spotted a deer but i couldn't get close enough for a good picture. Then we walked along the ridge line and up to the top. Niki was a little hot shot running ahead of us. All of a sudden she stopped dead in her tracks and came running back to us. As we kept walking we found out what spooked her. She stumbled across 2 turkeys fighting. The poor little pug. We made it onto the old logging road and down to the entrance to our property. On the path we found an awesome and unusual tree. The trunk of the tree comes out of the ground but instead of growing vertically it grew at a bend. At the top of the bend 2 trunks are growing straight up and that part of the tree isn't in the ground. I tried to take a couple of pictures but it isn't really clear. In this one, you can see the trunks are growing up and not attached to the ground at this point. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool. Lisa

Chapter 69...Getting The Motorhome Off The Mountain Fiasco

Off Grid...Chapter 69 This is the day I have been dreading. Mike wants to move the motorhome over to our other property so we can work on it and possibly put it up for sale. It will be much easier to show it and test drive from that property. 6-10 Ok, here we go. Mike thinks he will be fine driving it down our driveway. He is more concerned about our tight turn and the trees in our right-of-way. I am worried about the top of our hill. The mh is like a huge 40 foot box and it is the biggest thing that has ever been driven up top. Mike starts the mh and lets the air bags fill. While we are waiting I make sure everything is secure inside the mh. Mike is ready. He starts driving and gets the mh maneuvered through the top gate. Now he is headed down the driveway. I look up from the camera and my heart stops. The whole back corner of the mh is tilted and leaning off the edge of our driveway. It looks like Mike and the mh are going to roll down our hill. OMG. I go running down to see what happened. As I get closer it looks even worse. Now I am really freaking out for Mike. I open the door and Mike calmly tells me it stalled which means he lost the power steering. While he was trying to re start it he couldn't turn it because of the steering and now the back tire is off the road. Mike is now stuck inside the mh and it won't start and it is really leaning down hill. At this point I really panic and even start to cry a little, which is so unlike me. I yell at Mike that we should call Jimmy or someone, anyone. He tells me that won't help because no one can get past us on our road to help us. Oh great now what. Mike tells me to stop panicking, after all he is the one in the driver's seat. Yeah sure. Mike is my world and my best friend and all I can picture is Mike rolling down the hill with the mh. Finally he gets it started. He tells me he is going to try and go forward and get back on the road but I have to keep him out of the ditch. It's a slow nerve wracking go but he makes it back onto the road. Yeah. He tells me it wasn't as bad as I thought. "the back wheels are dual and only one was off the road." Oh gee that makes me feel so much better. All I can say is Thank God Mike doesn't panicky. If it had been me driving I don't think I would still be here. I am so relieved Mike is back on the road and he is ok. Here is where the HM stalled. And where he is off the road. Pictures don't do it justice but trust me it was very scary. I get into the jeep and follow Mike to the bottom. Now our next dilemma will be getting out of our tight right of way. I follow Mike all the way to our front gate at the bottom. He stops so that I can open the gate and the mh stalls again. This time it won't restart. Here we are stuck at the gate and no one get get in or out. Mike is more stressed about this than he was on the hill. I said "who cares?" this we can fix, I hope, and there is no danger to us. I ask Mike if he knows what is wrong and why is Mr. Coach stalling. He says it sounds like the m=h isn't getting enough gas. Ok, so what do we need to do? Mike says we have to go back up top and load up with tools. Thankfully the Jeep was behind the mh. Once before we had trouble with stalling and we had to take it in to be serviced. Thankfully Mike watched the whole procedure so now he can do the work himself. It's also a good thing he watched because the mechanic made a mistake and Mike even asked him specifically if he checked for leaks. The mechanic said everything was fine. We started it up in the parking lot and sure enough we had a gas leak. We get all the tools together and bring them inside the motorhome. Our diesel engine is in the back and to do this job you have to access it from the bedroom. Mike unscrews the bolts over the engine cover and pulls it off. Next he slowly starts taking things apart. He finds the lift pump screen and cleans it out. It had a lot of debris so hopefully this will fix the problem. Mike tries to start Mr. Coach and we get nothing. I ask if it could be the fuel filter. He says "let's go replace it". Thankfully we keep spare parts around. We go outside to the back of the mh. Mike unscrews the filter and there's no gas in it. There is supposed to be. So we put a new filter on and go back inside to try again. Mike tries again to start it with no luck. He tells me to start it while he checks the lift pump. The pump doesn't seem to be working which means it isn't feeding any fuel to our filter. I ask if we can manually add some diesel to the filter. Mike says we have no choice but now we have to get some diesel and we don't have a can around. Off we go back up to the top to siphon some diesel out of the tractor. We get the diesel and head back down to the front gate. We add the diesel to the filter and the coach starts. Woo hoo. Now it is getting late and we are concerned about leaving the property and getting stuck and blocking people. We decide to make the move tomorrow. At least it will be an easier day. Now Mike just has to back the motorhome back up our driveway and park by the barn. No problem, lol. Mike gets it parked at the barn. Once it is parked Mike does a recheck on the engine to make sure we don't have any stalling problems tomorrow. He finds a loose connection on the lift pump and as simple as that seems Mike thinks that might have been our problem the whole time. He fixes the connection and starts it up and keeps the mh running. All seems to be good. Mike wants to take no chances tomorrow so he calls Jimmy and asks if he can come over in the morning for back up. Just in case we can't make it out of the right of way. Jimmy says he'll meet us in the morning. Ah, now we go up for a well deserved break from a very stressful day so far. I never want to repeat another day like that again. After our break we go up top to see what else we can do. Now that the mh is gone it looks like we have so much room. Mike wants to get it all cleaned up so we can have grass. Woo hoo. First he wants to bring our extra piece of culvert down to the barn. Chaining the culvert to the tractor. Bringing it down to the barn. I hop onto the tractor with Mike and we bring the culvert down to the barn and unload it. On our way back up Mike says "do you think we can move that dead tree to the fire pile?" Sure let's do it. He pulls us close and I hook one end of the chain to the tractor bucket and wrap the other end around the dead tree. Then Mike lifts it. Mike drags it to the fire pile. We go back and hook up one more dead tree. We have so many downed trees on our property and eventually we will have to hike in the woods and cut a lot of them up. That will be plenty enough for any future fire wood. Right now we just want to clean up the road driveway area a little at a time. We go back up top and Mike does a little raking and seeding in the back yard where the motorhome was. As we are looking down the hill we notice the cows heading to the motorhome. Uh oh. We don't "think" they will mess with it but who knows? That bull can do a lot of damage without even trying to. Mike and I get a few t-posts and some leftover electric fence wire and go down to block the motorhome off for the night. Mike puts in some t-posts Our temporary fence for the night. Whew. We are done for the day and it has been one heck of a day. Tomorrow has to be so much better. 6-11 Yay, it's a new day and Jimmy is bringing the dozer in case we get stuck then he can pull us. It looks like it is going to pour son hopefully we can get this done quickly. Mike and I head down to meet Jimmy at the barn. It starts to rain while we are taking the temporary fence down. Oh well, we won't melt. Next I go back to the Jeep to drive it out to the main road. As I get closer to the Jeep I hear a hissing. Uh oh, not again!! Sure enough the Jeep has a flat tire. Mike comes over and we change it together. We are getting really good at changing tires. Finally I can move it out of the way. I get out to the road and it starts pouring. By the time I make it back to the barn I am soaked. Both Jimmy and Mike are nice and dry inside the barn. I asked why didn't they move the mh onto the gravel. They were waiting for a break in the rain. I hope there's a break. It's not looking good. Finally we get a chance top move the mh. Mike goes to start it up and I go out to help direct him out onto our driveway. Jimmy waits in the barn because he is only here for stand by, Mike starts to back out and he starts to slide. The land next to the barn is now all mud. He pulls forward and tries backing out again. He is slowly backing out and he starts to slide again. There is nothing he can to and the MH slides sideways into the barn. Now Jimmy comes out of the barn and says "want some help?" Wise guy!! He tells Mike I'll do whatever you want. Now Mike is a little skeptical because he doesn't want to cause any damage to the mh. If we hook it up this close to the barn we could really have some damage. Finally Mike says "ok let's go for it". Mike hooks the chain up to the hitch on the back of the mh and to the dozer. Then he gets back into the driver's seat in the mh. Jimmy is ready and waiting on the dozer. I am off to the side in charge of communication between them. Jimmy slowly starts to pull while Mike tries to steer. This is really tricky because it is so slick. If they move too fast it could slide right back into the barn and possibly go through the wall. They get the mh away from the barn after a few tries. They get it pulled out of the mud. And finally onto our gravel. This is the mud mess we left behind. Mike will have to clean it up once it dries. I thought today was supposed to be an easier day. Well now that we are back to where we were yesterday, lol, we can get out of our property. At least it hasn't stalled. Mike starts to drive it out the driveway and past our gates. By the time Mike gets to our turn on the right of way Jimmy and I are there to see if Mike can make it. Mike says this is fine and he can make it. Yeah we are out of the property and on the main highway. Woo hoo. I follow Mike all the way to our other property and he gets it parked on the pad. On our way out we decide to fix the fence that the motorcycle ran into last week. Ah now we can go back home and take a break from the last 2 days. The things I have learned this week. Women, namely me, panic much quicker than either Mike or Jimmy. And 2 good things from this week. Mike is safe and the motorhome wasn't damaged. Well that is the story for now. We had one heck of a two days and the "real" today hasn't been much fun either, lol. I hope you all enjoyed the story. I will write again next Monday as long as there is no major problem. Have a great week.. Lisa

Chapter 63...More Big Equipment And Moving Things

Off Grid...Chapter 63 Hi everyone. It has been such a busy week here that I have to split this chapter into a part one and a part two. Monday 5-18 It is freezing out this morning. Isn't this May, lol? I have been covering my poor little veggie plants and seeds at night. Mike talked with our grader, Jimmy, this morning to see if he was coming over to work today. He said he got backed up because of the rain last week so he can be here on Wednesday. The next call Mike makes is to our concrete man, Jim. He said he could squeeze us in between a couple of jobs to do our walls and patio. He will be here on Wednesday and Thursday. Uh oh that means we have to get the block out before then so Mike has to call Jimmy our grader back. Mike told him the situation and Jimmy says "no problem I'll re-schedule my guys and make sure you have the track hoe and some help tomorrow. What a guy. Jimmy always comes through for us. Finally after getting all the contractors lined up Mike and I venture out of the house. First we stop at the dump and on the way back we stop in at the Farm Supply. I decided to buy the pressure canner that they have because I'm afraid if I wait too long they will be sold out. We talked to David and his daughters for awhile. They are planning a "huge" garden. They are doing 3 or 4 big gardens. They are all pretty funny to listen to because the girls both said they wanted a smaller garden than they had last year. Well David tilled up more land this year, lol. It looks like they are going to be very busy. Now that I have a pressure canner I told them I'd be more than happy to take any extra vegetables off their hands. They said no problem. It starts to get a little warmer and Mike says we should go over and mow the other property in case we get stuck with all the contractors and can't get there this week. Sounds like a plan so we load up the trailer and head out. It must have rained really hard here. The ground is saturated. Oh well we will just have to do the best we can. After about an hour I was up by the road weed eating and Mike comes along with the mower. Next thing I hear is this really load sound. Uh oh Mike hit something with the mower blades. It turns out he hit a stump that he has never hit before. He hit it this time because the ground was so saturated that the mower sunk in lower. Sure enough he bent the blade. Oh well. Time to go home and fix the mower. We make it home and Mike takes the mower off the trailer. He puts our homemade ramps under the front wheels and I help him unbolt the blades. Finally we get them off and Mike bangs out the dent, sharpens them, and we put them back on the mower. While Mike was sharpening the blades I started moving some of our leftover wood and tools away from the building. We need to clean up the yard so the track hoe and trucks can fit in here and move the buildings around tomorrow. It's supposed to be 32 degrees tonight so Mike helps me cover the plants. Tuesday- 5-19 Woo hoo. Today is a big day. Mike and I get up at 6:30am(which is so unlike us, lol) to get ready to help out today. Well it turns out we ended up waiting on the contractor but that's ok because at least he showed up. One of Jimmy's workers, Eric, showed up and brought the track-hoe to the top. Woo hoo the "big boy" is here. First on the agenda is to pull out all the block from the front of the house. We put all the blocks in originally to hold the dirt and keep the hill from washing away. Unfortunately between the weight of the dirt, the rain, snow, freezing, and warming temps. the blocks slid forward. Another lesson learned. If you do a berm house make sure you "pour the wings." Mike tells Eric to start on the left side of the house. Mike wants him to pull these block out from the top so that Eric doesn't have to ride over our septic tank and gas line. Mike is hooking the chain to the block. Eric turns the track-hoe and brings the block to the top. He will stack all the block up top and later they will load it up into a dump truck and haul it out of here. After about 5 trips back and forth the last block from the first side is coming out. Onto the other side. This time Eric has to bring the track-hoe down front because the solar panels are in the way. Taking the first block out on the second side. Mike hooks the chain to a half block and Eric starts to lift it. Uh oh, it's a miss and they lose the block and it starts to roll. Oops!! Thankfully it didn't hit the house and no damage was done. It seems like we disturbed the home of a little mouse. He is really cute "as long as he stays outside, lol." Now that Mike and Eric are closer to having all the block removed I need to hustle. Both of our shipping containers have to be completely empty so that they can be moved. Oh yeah did I tell all of you Mike changed his mind? He didn't like how far out our green container was so now he doesn't want to do the "covered garage" plan. We are going to swap the containers. First we have to pull the green container out. Then we are going to put the gray container where the green container was but we are going to turn it in the other direction. Does this seem a little familiar to you? That's because this is where we had the gray container "originally" last summer, lol. Ok, back to emptying the buildings. We hooked up one trailer to the Jeep and hooked the other trailer to the 4-wheeler and we backed them both up to the gray building. This will make it easier to get everything out of the way. Mike and I are just about done when reinforcements arrive. It's Randy 1 and Randy 2 to with a dump truck for the block. They are also here to help move the buildings. This time we know how to move the shipping container the easy way. The guys hook up the chains to the top of the green building and attach it to the track-hoe. Randy is able to lift the whole building with no trouble. Cool. I love the power of big machines. Now that the green container is out of the way it's time to move the gray one. They can't lift it yet because the gray one is too close to the fence. Here they are pulling the gray container out. This is organized chaos. I have to show all of you what this looks like from the top. I hike up the back hill to take a picture of our yard. We are so lucky we made this much flat land last year, lol. The buildings kind of look like 2 trains. Once the gray building is out of the way they lift up the green one and carry it back to spot. We put it on the piers and level it. Yay one container is done. Next we go back to the gray building. The spot needs a quick re grade because we are now turning the building the other way. That gets done and the chains a hooked again. They lift the gray building, set it on the block, and get it leveled. Yeah. Both building are moved and are in their final(I hope) locations and leveled. Woo hoo. Just as we are finishing up Jimmy shows up to check on things. He is just in time to help us move the big wind generator, lol. Of course the breeze picks up as soon as we are ready to take it down. We get the chains hooked to the pole and the track-hoe. Jimmy and I stay on the ground to help guide the pole when Randy pulls it out with the track-hoe. Mike is on top of the track-hoe making sure the blades don't get damaged. With the power of the track-hoe, the wind generator, pole (concrete and all), is lifted right out of the ground. We get it down and Mike and I take it apart. We decided we are going to use just the solar panels. The wind generator produced power for us during the nights in the winter when it was windy out but it wasn't consistently windy enough to produce much power. We would be better off with more panels if needed but I think we are just fine. Right now the panels can get us through 5 days with no sun so we are happy with that. The panels are also easier to maintain and we don't have to worry about them falling over, lol. Now that everyone is gone we can start putting everything back into the buildings. Mike is in charge of the gray building and I get the green building. It's been a long day so for now we just want to get it all inside in case it rains. Wednesday 5-20 Today is the day our concrete crew is supposed to show to do the footers for the walls. Mike starts out by digging out the hill by the house. The concrete crew needs 4 feet to put the footer in. Mike is digging out the dirt. All the block is gone and we are ready for the concrete crew. So much for last weeks picture of the front of the house, lol. Unfortunately we get a call and the crew won't be here until tomorrow. That really stinks because because Jimmy got over here last minute to help us with the buildings so we would be ready. Oh well at least we got it all done. Mike and I go up top and finish cleaning the yard area. We load up all of the wood onto the trailer and take it to the barn. On the way we stop off at the burn pile and we get rid of some of the real junk pieces. Now you know it has to be real junk because Mike and I never get rid of anything, lol. Here is the yard all nice and neat except for the tore up grass. Mike and I spent the remainder of the day organizing the buildings and grading and raking the yard. Well I am going to stop here so this part of the story doesn't become too long. We are in good shape for the concrete crew. I hope you all enjoyed this first part of the chapter. Lisa P.S. Sorry for all the words in this story. Mike hates my stories when it is just too much reading, lol. I'll have more pictures and less words next time, lol.