Chapter 58...Baby Cows, Catfish, And More Property

Off Grid...Chapter 58 What a crazy week for weather. The beginning of the week we had freezing temps and it was too cold to work. Now we are in the 80's and it is too hot by midday. This year it seems like we have had 2 seasons instead of 4. We have summer and winter. Monday- This morning we have to meet the surveyor at a small piece of property we are buying from Jimmy that is on the main highway. This property will serve purposes. One it needs to be filled in and we have plenty of knolls that need to be cut out on our land to make more flat and usable land. And 2 hopefully it will be a good investment. It is only 1/4 mile from us which is fantastic. We will use the dirt from out property and fill in the new piece at the same time. Mike and I meet with the surveyor to stake off the land. We like to be present so that we can walk off the property lines with the surveyor to add extras stakes with ribbons. This way we know "exactly" what the property lines are and there are no problems with neighbors. This is the land. Here is Mike at the top staking it off. After we finish with that we head back home and on the way we see the three baby cows. Tuesday- It's not looking too nice out. We are supposed to have a snow/rain mix tonight. All I can say is Yuk!! Before the really nasty weather arrives we decide to go over to our other property and hang the For Sale signs. On our way we stop at the building supply to pick up plywood to hang the banners on. Wow, when we get to the other property we are amazed at how high the grass has grown. We knew we had to mow soon but we got so used to the cows doing all the mowing for us at home. We will have to get back here on a dry day and do some serious mowing and weed eating. It's too high for me to use the push mower so it looks like I will have to weed eat for hours and Mike will have to do a double cut. Oh well. Life is all about choices and it was more important for us to work on our fence to keep the cows out. So now we pick the trees we want to hang the signs on. We screw the 4x4 banners to the plywood and I hand the sign up to Mike to hang on the tree. It is so windy here. It almost feels like tornado winds. Not exactly the best time for Mike to be on a ladder with a big piece of plywood. We get both signs up and then we hang the box and all the fliers I made to sell the property at the front gate. When we get back home we try to plug the tire that I got a flat on. Mike takes out his plug kit that he's had since he was a mechanic and we try to fix it. Unfortunately the tire has a large slit instead of a hole and we can't plug it. We'll need to get another tire. Wednesday We had an appointment to meet the surveyor in town to pick up the new survey and to pay him. It is still cold out so today we do paperwork. Thursday- Finally it's starting to warm up. Woo hoo. Mike has an appointment in town. I dropped him off and then I drove around to talk to people and hang For Sale fliers. I talked to everyone I met, lol. And to think I used to be shy. Friday- We've had a day of heat and dry weather so it's time to tackle the mowing and weed eating at the other property. It is 86 degrees today so it is a hot one. Thankfully it isn't humid. Usually it takes us 2-2 1/2 hours to maintain this property. Today it took 5 hours. Mike was on the riding mower the whole time and I was weed eating. I have to do all the weed eating because Mike can't do it since his hernia operation. Can I tell you how much I hate weed eating? Mike says I'm really good at it because I have a good rhythm. Yeah right, he's just happy he doesn't have to do it, lol. Here I am with my weed eating attire. I think I am the only person in the world who has to wear a piece of plastic and 2 old socks on my right arm. I get bad burns from the weed eater. It must be the way I hold it. Needless to say we got most of it done and it was a rough day. After about 2 hours my arms started shaking. I also took a break and laid back in the shed and my back froze up and I got stuck. Mike had to pull me back up. Ya gotta love getting older, lol. Mike also had trouble with the lawn mower overheating but we are good until next week. Yeah. Here is a picture of the fish and a white catfish in our pond. I know Hawk J will enjoy this. Once we got back home and unloaded we took a break. Later on Mike mowed our grass by the house. What a difference. Not much grass here. Saturday- Wow it's another hot day. We have a little more fencing that needs to be done and then we will be finished. Woo hoo. We only have 3 poles to dig in and do the cross bracing. Unfortunately they turn out to be our hardest poles and we are depleted of energy after yesterday. Here are the next 2 poles and cross bracing. Finally we get the last 2 poles in, do the bracing, and screw on the bird house. We are done with the poles. Yeah. Tomorrow we will work on the wire. Sunday- While I start the laundry Mike goes up to cut the tops off some of the T-posts. We had 5 posts that hit solid rock and we couldn't pound them in too far. Mike wants the posts nice and even so he cuts the tops. Next he starts to spray paint the poles. We hate that the T-posts are gray with red tips. It looks ugly and unnatural. Here he is spraying the T-posts green. Next we finish up the wire for the fence. First we have to take all the old wire off and add more wire to make it longer then we can stretch it tight and re hook the wire to the T-posts. Here is Mike adding more wire. Yippee. It's time for a big happy dance. No more fencing and just in time. Our post hole diggers broke, lol. Mike and I also re-adjust the main gate. It was a little high on one side. Now it is nice and straight. It is extremely hot out. Today is 86 with a "real feel" of 90. I said to Mike let's go inside our cave and cool down, lol. The house so far stays at 68without any air conditioning. We have a new summer routine. First thing in the morning we open up the front doors and let cool air in. As soon as the sun gets close to the front of the house we close the doors and the blinds. This seems to keep the house very cool. After dinner we open up again to get some more fresh air through the house. Later on, after it cools down a little we head out to do more work. I am determined to get the hill along our yard and walkway seeded and curlexed. First I have to rake it out which is no easy task. I slipped a couple of times and almost ended up in the barbed wire fence. Not good. My pants are all torn up. Here I am raking. While I am raking the hill Mike checks on the motor home and does a little maintenance on it. He started the engine and poor Niki got all excited. I think she misses living in the motor home. We all do a little. Mike waters it down before we add the seed. Now the hill is even more slippery and I have to get down there to staple the curlex We bought 2 kinds of seed at David's on Saturday. We don't want to have to weed eat this hill. David recommended a mixture of Red Creeping Fescue and White Dutch Clover. This is all new to Mike and I so I hope it works. We spread the seed and Mike helps me roll out the curlex. He staples the top to the bank and I staple the bottom. Aah, the hill looks so much nicer. After we finish that we put everything away. It's 8:30 and time to go in. Well that is our story for the week. I hope you all enjoyed spending time with us. This next week is shaping up to be a very busy week. The sun is out and it's time for Mike and I to bust our butts, lol. Lisa

Chapter 57...How To Install A Barbed Wire Fence And Bracing Poles

Off Grid...Chapter 57 Sunday 4-12 Today was a beautiful day. Lately it seems like Sundays are our best days of the week. Even though today is Easter Mike and I can never resist working when it is this nice outside. It's another story about fencing but we are now almost done. Mike, Niki, and I head up top to get all of our tools ready to work and of course Niki finds the most comfortable spot on top of a concrete pier. It must be nice and smooth for her, lol. Mike really wants to work on our fencing in order so we are going to work on the next section that is behind the building. First we have to remove a couple of T-posts and wire so Mike can get behind the building with the tractor. This section had a lot of rock in the ground so we don't want to move many T-posts because we might not be able to bang them back into the ground. Here is the old corner post behind the building. This post has staples so Mike has to get them out. Unfortunately he is leaving big gouges in the pole from removing the staples. This is why Mike hates using staples because it is such a mess to fix and tighten wires. Next we dig 2 new holes and install the new poles. Then we add the bracing. Another corner done. After we get the tractor out and we reinstall the T-post and barbed wire we work on the pole by the well. We are going to add one more pole and bracing. The next 2 poles. The bracing is done. We are working our way around the property. Next we head down the hill along the side of the house. The next pole to work on is the one by the walk thru gate at the front of the house. We dig a hole and install another pole. Unfortunately we are out of material and we have to wait for tomorrow to continue. It was a very good day and everything went smoothly. We got 4 new poles in and cross bracing on 3 of them. Monday 4-13 So much for our nice weather. Today is much cooler and it is drizzling out. Yuk. Oh well, at least it's better than snow, lol. It's time for a dump run. Mike and I hook up the trailer and load up all of the trash. We drive all the way to the dump and find out they are closed. We have no idea why and the sign out front says they are open. Mike is not a happy camper but we have no choice but to go back home with our trailer full of garbage. On our way out of town we stop at the building supply and pick up more boards for our fencing. We strap it all onto the trailer and head to David's. We need one more fence pole. On our way to David's Mike suggests we try the other dump and see if they are open. Someone must be smiling down on us today. That dump is open and they let us in. Woo hoo. Now we don't have to bring the garbage back home. We pick up the pole and head home. It is too cold to start working so we have breakfast first. We go out to the small gate and start to work on the bracing. It's done. Next we tighten the barbed wire and clip them to the T-posts. Here is Mike working on the side of the hill. Yeah, our longest run of fence is done. We clean everything and put all the tools away. Our Realtor in FL called us about an investment opportunity in FL so we have to make a trip down. Tuesday 4-14 We picked up a rental car yesterday and loaded up. This morning I packed food, clothes, and Niki's stuff for our long trek to FL. About 12 hours later we make it to our hotel and we are exhausted. Wednesday 4-15 We go and check some real estate and make some decisions. Later that night we met with old friends. Thursday 4-16 While we are in FL we pick up some For Sale Banners for our other TN property. We will put them up next week and sell our piece that is close to town. We put an offer in on a house in FL and it was accepted. Woo hoo. We got an awesome deal and Mike and I are very happy about it. It wasn't the original house we went to FL for it was better. Friday 4-17 The dreaded long drive home but we are all very happy to be back on our mountain top. Saturday 4-18 We are so tired, lol. Mike has been working on the metal for our new solar mounts. He sanded them down and repainted them. They are now ready to go. Other than that we caught up on laundry and rest. Sunday 4-19 It turned cold and rainy again. So it's another forced day off. I know this bad weather has to end soon. I don't ever remember this long a winter here. I think the bad/cool weather will be done late this week. Yippee. I hope you enjoyed our quickie story.  Lisa

Chapter 55...Making Concrete Forms And Fencing

Off Grid...Chapter 55 We had great weather Saturday and Sunday but now that seems long gone. We are now expecting anywhere from 2-6 inches of snow today and tomorrow. Yuk. Isn't this supposed to be spring? Monday 3-30 We got our concrete quote this morning for the poured wings on the house, a front patio, and a pad for the 2 shipping containers with a floor in between the two. It came in almost double of what we expected so we need to re think this. We went to David's and picked up ten 8 foot poles so we can start working on our perimeter fence around the house. We also looked at some concrete tank covers that were 3x3. We thought we might be able to use those under the corners of the shipping containers rather than doing a whole pad that would mostly be hidden. They were $120.00 each and we would need 8 of them. Tuesday 3-31 It's a cool day out so we are not working outside. We did get a load of gravel delivered to cover the spot in the driveway that we tore up last week from the culvert. We went to town and stopped at the masonry supply to see what they had for pads. They had a ton of stuff just nothing we could use. Concrete blocks aren't strong enough. Wednesday 4-1 It's cold and rainy and we are stuck again with no work. Thursday 4-2 Finally it looks a little nice out. I had to go to the dentist and Mike started working on our fence. He started redoing the fence around our house. Originally we had our single corner posts and 2 strands of barbed wire. Last fall we started to add a 4th strand of barbed wire but we never finished it. We are also going to install the extra poles we bought next to each corner pole and make corner braces. This will make the fence stronger and hopefully keep the cows out. Mike started working on the first pole next to our gate and he installed the cross bracing. This is what Mike did today. He said he missed me and hates working without me. Ah isn't he sweet? Friday 4-3 It's really really windy and cold out today. No work again! Saturday 4-4 Yeah. It looks like we are going to have a nice day. I see blue skies. Woo hoo. First thing we do is load up the trailer and go into town to the building supply. We picked up 8 boards for our cross bracing some 2x4's and also 320 pounds of concrete. Once we got home we got all of the tools together and started working n our first fence corner. First we have to take off the existing barbed wire so we can start working. After that we can start digging the poles in. Here is Mike digging a hole for the pole. Mike and I take turns with the post hole digger and our metal bar. It goes much faster when we work together. First pole is in. Next we have to measure and cut the boards for the crosses to brace the poles. Mike is measuring the board to be cut. Mike installing the cross boards on the poles. Here I am screwing in the eye bolts to hold the barbed wire. We like using the eye bolts instead of staples because it is so much neater and it is also very easy to tighten later on. The staples always look very messy and they are a pain to repair if you ever have to tighten your fence lines. Both poles are installed on both sides of the corner pole and the bracing is done. Now we just have to paint everything so it looks really nice. After that we reconnected the 3 strands of barbed wire that we took off and we added 1 more wire to the fence. The first section is done. Howard, Ivalee, and Eric showed up to clean some wood out of the barn that Mike said they could have. They think 1 cow will have a calf within a couple of days. They will be back each day to check on her. Eric told me that if a cow lays down to have her calf with her back going down the hill she can't get up on her own and she can die there. I thought he was joking but he said he's seen it happen before. The cows won't roll over on their own. Back to work. Mike decided to make our own pier blocks for underneath the shipping containers. We need to make eight of them 4 under each corner of each building. We are making them 2x2x4 with rebar in the concrete for reinforcement. First we cut up the 2x4's to make our forms. Here is out first form board. While Mike starts cutting the rebar into smaller pieces I start mixing the concrete and shovel it into the first form. Here is the second form with concrete and rebar in it. We made two concrete pads now we just have to wait for them to dry. We used two 80 pound bags of concrete for each 2x2x4 form. Each pad cost about $10.00 to make as opposed to $120.00 for the ones at David's for the pre made 3x3's and we won't even talk about what a full pad would have cost. Now that's what I call a deal. We only have six more to make. For a very bad week at least we had a full day of work. I am holding off on Sunday for next week. I'm afraid with all this bad weather coming in I won't have a story for next week. Keep your fingers crossed that the forecasters are wrong. I will leave you with this picture of the sky last night. I hope you all enjoyed the story.  Lisa