Chapter 94...Baby Calves and Apple Tree Blossoms

Off Grid...Chapter 94 Mike and I have been very busy but not so much with our land and house. We also got some much needed rain. Hopefully this will turn everything green 4-19 While I was on line that morning Mike yelled to me to get the camera and check this out. I went to our front door and looked out. Our gray cow had a calf and the calf is also gray She hasn't had a calf since we have lived here. I'm not sure if this calf will be friendly considering her mother is the most unsociable cow you have ever seen. Here are some baby pictures: Isn't he/she cute? Right after that we got a phone call. Someone is coming to look at our A/C for sale. While we wait I go up and plant radishes and carrots in my garden. The man shows up, buys the A/C, and tells Mike he does Aerial Photography. He says he will come out sometime to take pictures of our place and send them to us. That would be so cool. Later on we noticed Jimmy, our grader working across the way. He just bought 20 acres across from us so we went to visit. Mike talked to him about making more flat areas on our land while we were there. Back at home I mowed the back lawn. 4-20 Big day for us today. We are supposed to close on both of our properties that are close to town. We find out that one of the closings has been rescheduled for the next morning. While we waited for the afternoon to close the one piece, Mike spread some extra Lyme on our lawn. My little onions are just starting to pop While I was over getting water I heard all of this buzzing. There were hundreds, or so it seemed, bees in the blooming apple tree. I couldn't get a picture of the bees in there but here is a picture of the apple tree blooming. The apple trees all over the property are blooming. We got to the lawyers to close the property and then went with the couple to walk it. They are happy and we are happy. On our way we got a call from Mike's daughter. She asked us to watch her daughter for a few hours. She just helped us with the payment on a heater that we sold to someone in Montana so we owed her. Our granddaughter stayed with us for dinner and then we went in the mini motor home. She loves it. She wanted to stay in there all night. We promised to take her camping for her 6th birthday in June...she is thrilled....and so am I, lol. 4-21 We closed on the second property this morning. Woo hoo. This is the one that was very time consuming for Mike and I. No more mowing and weed whacking....happy dance....yay Now that both properties closed we can sell our zero turn mower. Mike got a call and a man is supposed to show today. While we waited Mike went down and graded the gravel part of our driveway. We waited and waited and no one showed up. Later that afternoon we got an e-mail form him. Apparently he was afraid to come in our gate even though we left it unlocked for him. He said we were barricaded I guess he has never had cows. Oh well. 4-22 We had to go to town to pick up a big box to send the heater out. We got home and Mike packed it up. Once we are back home Mike and I try to figure out how we are going to re do our shower. For those of you who don't know, the floor in our shower cracked last year. We knew we would have to do something about it when we got back home. Mike decides to call the manufacturer to see what they say. Hey it's our lucky day. They had trouble with the foam in the floors of our shower so they are sending us new walls and a new floor. It will be a lot of work but at least we don't have to build a whole new shower. They are supposed to send it out next week. Then Mike gets a call about our wind generator...the big one. He has had more headaches with this and than anything else. People call and have no idea what it does. So he has to give lessons. It would be ok if they were really interested in buying it but these people have no intention of buying. The think they can plug in 1 wind generator into their house and they will run everything. So this one man says he wants to see it. He shows up with a 16 foot trailer While he and Mike are talking I go down to finally work on the wild blackberry bushes. I brought my gloves, clippers, and one bucket, lol. Yeah, soon enough I figure out the bucket is worthless, lol. Here is the first mess. And after I did some cleaning. Now I have to figure out how to get my stacks of briers out of here. It's too steep to bring the 4-wheeler and trailer. I think I will have to bring a tarp down and drag them down to the driveway. After 2 hours with the man he doesn't buy the wind generator. Mike is not a happy camper over the waste of time. Like I said, if you are really interested we will bot help all we can....it's the people who are just wasting time that we have trouble with. Oh well. 4-23 We get another call about the lawn mower. This man is 2 hours away. He gives us a time that he will be here. While we wait, Mike takes me to the greenhouse at the High School. They grow plants from seeds and sell the plants every spring for .25 each. I am so excited. Last year I was too late. Woo hoo. I went a little crazy. I got 28tomato plants, 4 yellow squash, 3 zucchini, 8 peppers, some marigolds and nasturtium. I can't wait to plant them in my garden...but I have to wait until after May 10 When we get home the man shows p. He is thrilled with the mower and he is also happy the other man never came through our gate, lol 4-24 Not too much going on. It has been a rainy week. After people have been on our parking area Mike decides to blow it off and clean it up. We do have some new grease stains 4-25 Our morning view with the clouds over the mountains. Niki and I checking out my onions.  And she's watching Mike. Today we promised to take our grandson to the movies. We can only do one grandchild at a time, lol. They are just too much when they are together. We went to see "How To Train A Dragon"..which was actually pretty good, pigged out on popcorn and candy and came home so our grandson could see Niki. All in all it was a very good week. Lots of waiting, stress, and lots of ups and downs but it all worked out. Hopefully we can stop dealing with so many people and get back to work this coming week I hope you enjoyed our shorter story this week. Lisa

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