Chapter 21...Underground Propane And Septic Tanks

Off Grid...Chapter 21 Back to Monday- 8-18-08 We were woken up this morning by trucks coming up our driveway. Obviously it's someone we know because they know the combo to our gate. It was 2 of the men from our grading company. They were here to work on another ditch line. Because our road is so steep, it needs to be worked on a little at a time starting from the highest point and working our way down. When we had our first ditch dug we had to wait for a heavy rain to see what the water did. It worked to a certain point and now we have to add another ditch on the other side of our road. Working on the new ditch line. Using a dump truck to move the dirt. Just more equipment. They dug out the dirt, loaded it into the truck(because this is neater), and dumped the dirt for our future pond wall. These rocks also came out of the ditch and will be used for our pond. This is the new future pond site. We moved it down the road and across from the barn. Now we will wait for more rain, which will be hard because we are in a drought, and see what we need to do next to keep our road from washing out. Later that day Mike unscrewed the green board, where I forgot the insulation, and I put the insulation in. Mike re-installed the wall. The corner of the wall is left open until we install our shower. Tuesday- 8-19-08 Today our propane company showed up with our 1000 gallon tank. This is them digging a hole for our tank. Getting ready to put it in the ground. The subcontractor who is digging the hole is new so it took him numerous times to get the hole big enough to get the tank in. Finally they got the tank in the ground. While this was going on I went down to my Wild Blackberry patch to pick some berries. They have been growing wild for years. They need some TLC. I would love to trim them back, clean out the weeds, and maybe fertilize them so I have better and more berries next year. Does anyone know how far I am supposed to trim them? Advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. We also have a lot of apple trees, as I've mentioned before. I wanted to pick some but I can't reach any. The cows beat me to it! I have to buy a fruit picker which is a long handle with a basket and tongs at one end. You reach up with the handle, grab the fruit(apples) with the tongs, and the fruit falls into the basket. Now I just have to find one. I was told that you can store apples underground very easily. You dig a hole, put some straw down, layer non-bruised apples without them touching, put straw back on top, and put the dirt back. Apparently the apples will keep for months like this. I'll have to try it out as soon as I can reach my apples ha, ha. Back to the house and the propane man. These are the gas lines he is running throughout the house. More gas lines. And getting neater. The propane man took most of the day to do this job. Mike and I don't do well with other people around because we can't get anything done. I also used all the insulation we have and almost finished the bathroom. We need to get one more pack. Mike is almost finished installing the green board in the back of the bathroom. Wednesday 8-20-08 This morning Mike went down to the house and started installing our septic tank and our 36 inch wide plastic chambers. We installed a 750 gallon tank. And attached the chambers. The tank and chambers are both plastic for easy handling. We installed a filter in the tank and used 4" pipe to connect the house to the tank and then the chambers to the tank. We used the plastic chambers as opposed to the old perforated pipe and gravel for a few different reasons. One because we are allowed, two they don't clog like sock pipe and three you can use 50% less drain field. Finally we got that done. After that was done we got a call from a couple, Mae and Jim, who we know from camping. They are in town and wanted to stop and see us. They are the sweetest, nicest older couple we know. They are still best friends and they do everything together. I want Mike and I to grow up and be just like them. Anyway, it was great to see them and we had a really nice time. Later on Mike and I went back to the house and used up almost all of our green board. We are almost done with all the small pieces in the bathroom. Now the bathroom is all green and "really" ugly. Thankfully it won't stay that way. I also got a pm from another neighbor. He was told about our story and he lives across the way from us, way up high. We can see his house but not clearly. They also have some solar. He and his wife are supposed to come and meet us "today". I love this area. The majority of the people are really great. That's all for now. I hope you all continue to enjoy our story. Have a good day! Mike and Lisa

Chapter 20...Pex Is Awesome...Drywall Is Not

Off Grid...Chapter 20 We had a very productive end of the week. First of all let me tell you that we have been successfully running on our own "M&L Power". Mike had to make one modification so far because we kept popping 60amp fuses. He fixed that and everything is good. When Mike perfects our system I will give you all the details. Thursday- 8-14-08 Mike ran most of the pex plumbing for the bathroom. And the kitchen. He used the pex tubing and ran them through the walls. The blue is for cold water and the red is for hot water. We also finished wiring the master bedroom and the kitchen for electric. Today was also mowing day at our other property. It took us a little longer than usual because Mike had to put the sharpened blades back on the mower and I had a lot of weed eating to do. At least there was no beaver dam this week. Maybe they moved down the creek. I hope. We got back home and started sheet rocking the bedroom. Our first 3 walls. Friday 8-15-08 Today we had to make another Lowe's run. Sometimes it seems like we live there. We had a big list with a lot of little things to get. When we got home we started working on more plumbing. Mike had to start "connecting" the pex piping. This is how you connect pex piping. First you cut the pipe down to the size you need, then you put crimp collars over both pieces of pex, and then put a Tee or an elbow inside the middle of the pex pipe. Slide the crimp collars over the Tee or elbow then with a crimping tool you crimp the ends. That's it. Pex with a connector. Another piece added to the cold water. And Mike crimping it. Then we hung more drywall. We had to stop and go back over to Nicole's to finish the plumbing on her bathroom sink. Last time we ran out of parts. Mike got that done and now Nicole can paint and tile her bathroom. Saturday- 8-16-08 Today was an awesome day. We got so much done. First we sheet rocked the back wall and side of the bedroom. Then we put sheet rock on the bedroom/kitchen wall. And more. After we got the sheet rock done on the bedroom/kitchen wall I was able to put the insulation in. This is my favorite job. I love doing insulation. I even told Mike to stay away from my insulation ha, ha. I finished the kitchen wall. Before any questions come up we are only insulating the bathroom, kitchen and bedroom interior walls. The front of the house was sprayed with insulation. We are "not" putting insulation in the exterior walls that are surrounded by dirt. The reason for this is we are more concerned about keeping the house "cool" in the summer since we have no air conditioning. We will have no trouble keeping warm in the winter because we will have a propane fireplace. So this is intentional although not conventional. Mike finished installing the sheet rock in the bedroom and then he showed me how to tape the walls for Spackle. I did great on the walls I could reach but then I had to use the dreaded scaffold to reach up high. I'm not really sure what my problem is with the scaffold but it makes me really nervous. Mike was making fun of me because, after all, I'm only about 4 feet off the ground. I told him he has to tape the high spots. This is Mike doing a much better job. We also hung the bedroom door and we made a last minute decision. We have a nice sized opening at the top of all our interior doors and we have no windows in those rooms. So we are thinking about installing some kind of decorative glass above each of the doors. At least this will give us some lighting and we thought it would look nice. Here is our door. Looking at this picture it looks a little crooked. We have to check that today. I didn't look bad when we hung it. Then Mike started spackling the bedroom. Overall, we had a great day. Sunday- 8-17-08 Mike started off the day by installing the drain pipe in the back wall for our washing machine. Then he installed the vent pipe in the bathroom. He also cut down some of the pex pipe, added connectors and crimped it all together and then stapled them to the wall. Now everything is getting neater. Sunday 8-17-08. We started to sheet rock the front of the kitchen wall and then we got to the angled wall which was a headache. If you remember when we put the original wall up there was no plan to do an angled wall and doorway so now we have to modify. Mike had to add some "scrap" 2x4's and back cut the sheet rock to make this unusual angle work. We got the one side done. Only 3 more to go. Mike got tired of doing small boards with lots of cuts so we decided to put a full bathroom wall up. We are using green board for the entire bathroom which is waterproof. First we had to add some scrap to screw the green board into. Our first board is up. Can anyone see what I forgot? Oh yeah, we have to take that board back down so I can put the insulation in. Oops. We also installed one sheet of green board on the back wall. Thankfully we don't need insulation on that wall. We are really moving along. Mike thinks we will be finished with the "inside" of the house in September. That's good because we need to be out of the motorhome before it gets cold. As usual, we hope you are enjoying our story. Lisa and Mike