Chapter 125...Turkeys, Deer, Snow and Mountains

Off Grid...Chapter 125 It has been a wonderful and very mild winter. Mike and I have been super busy in March so I better finish up with February February was mostly about cutting wood and cleaning up. Fortunately we didn't need all of the wood we cut. Before I start that let me tell you about the new RV refrigerator in case anyone else runs into this problem. We had trouble getting the freezer to get cold enough and the refrigerator was too cold and freezing things like celery and lettuce. We called our supplier and they sent us a new thermistor. Mike installed it and it fixed the problem. It now runs fine and I can switch back and forth from propane to electric with one button We should have done this in the first place OK...onto some pictures. We had a trailer full of wood from the buckeye tree to bring down to the house. Mike is cutting it up into smaller chunks to fit our wood stove. Stacking it up in front of the house. We will have to come up with a better place for our wood for next winter. Our turkeys are back....I am so glad they made it through the winter alive And another trip down to the pond to clean top the old buckeye mess. Mike drags out vines that we stored in the barn. We have to take these to the burn pile. Once the trailer is loaded we take them to the burn pile and I start to unload the vines. Yay..the vines are done. Now it's time to clean up the wood and shavings around the buckeye site. Mike can't stand looking at that "bright white" stump so he wants to cover it. He shovels up some mud and throws it on top of the stump. And then he smears the mud around. Yup...that should work Niki loves...and I mean loves the wood stove. Unfortunately she thinks she can lean against it so we had to come up with a way to protect her. Here she is enjoying the heat but blocked off from the danger of leaning against it. 2-15-12 Wow it is a beautiful day. Mike, Niki and I go out back behind the house to cut some more wood. We have so much down on the back hill and it's pretty easy to get to Mike cutting up some wood. The hill I have to throw it down. Sometimes it takes me 3 throws to get it to the bottom of the backyard As you can see Niki must be tired that day. She did not follow us "up" the hill. She decided to wait for us in the yard. I think she may be the smart one, lol. After we get the wood thrown down the back hill, it's time to load it into the tractor bucket to bering it to the house. Mike loading up while Niki supervises. And the next two days after such beautiful weather we got snow The second day. I may not like it but it sure is pretty. After it all melted we got back to our beautiful weather and more wood cutting We went back to the section behind the barn where a big tree fell a couple of years ago...or was it last year Anyway, this huge tree fell on top of briar bushes...not fun to cut and clean up. Mike worked on cutting while I had to throw the wood into a gully. Then I had to get into the gully and throw the wood back "up" to where the trailer was. That day was one heck of a workout Now I will leave you with the deer that we saw right outside the front door. That's all for now. I really had only wood cutting pictures for the whole month and it is just not that exciting, lol. I hope you enjoyed the story. Right now Mike and I are building a big shed with mega shelves. I will write about that in a couple of weeks. Lisa

Chapter 123...RV Refrigerators, Building An Insulated Box, and Cutting Trees

Off Grid...Chapter 123 Mike and I have been trying to keep busy but it isn't so easy when most of our work is outside work. We still manage to get things done. As I told you before, we moved our water pump outside to give us more storage space. Hey..who doesn't need more storage space, right? Mike got the pump hooked up outside on the side of the house. Next Mike had to build a box for it and then of course I got to paint it. Mike cutting out the board insulation for the box. We have to make sure the water lines don't freeze while outside. Adding the insulation to the box that Mike built. Mike walked away to cut more insulation and guess who found the box? Time to bring it outside. We got it screwed to the house. Adding more insulation board to the front of the box. The front and the top are on Mike sticking on the asphalt sheeting we had left over from our roof. It's a little cold and stiff so Mike uses his torch to heat it up. Mike cutting off the extra edges. Our water pump is now protected from the elements Another day and another project It's time to work on the new refrigerator. We bought an RV refrigerator which can be manually switched over to run on either propane for winter or electric for summer. Hopefully this is the answer for our situation Anyway, since it is an RV refrigerator it is not freestanding. That means it has no base, no sides, no top, and no door panels. Mike has a plan to build it all. First he starts by cutting up a 4x4 post for the base. He lays it out for the base of the refrigerator. And then he screws it all together. The back of the refrigerator. We moved our old refrigerator into the living area so we could get the new one in place Now we have two jobs that have to be done. Mike needs to make sure the gas is ready to be hooked up and we also need to run a 12 volt line in the ceiling from our breaker box and out to the kitchen and then down the wall. The refrigerator gets switched over from gas to electric using 12 volt. I helped Mike run the wire in the ceiling, sometimes I am very grateful for ceiling tiles and no sheetrock on the ceiling, lol. Mike working on the gas line. Adding more foil tape to the refrigerator for extra insulation. Mike working on the 12 volt line. We took down the old cabinet that was above the old refrigerator since the new refrigerator is smaller. Mike is sanding the wall so I can paint it. Now we have to test it out to make sure everything works right. If all goes well then we plan on buying a second pantry. We will have a pantry on both sides of the refrigerator to use as the sides. So now we wait Of course Princess Niki is in her usual spot. OK...another day....another job. Since we didn't plan on being here for most of the winter, we are running out of wood. It's time to find a tree and do some cutting. There is a Buckeye tree that our cow family wants us to cut. Supposedly the buckeye is toxic to cows Anyway, since it is easy for us to get to that will be the first tree for us to cut. It is right by the overflow from our pond. Hopefully it doesn't land in the water. I hide by the barn while Mike starts to cut Mike gets out of the way as it starts to fall. And it's down. Now it's time to cut it up and clean up. Of course some of it did land in the water Mike starts cutting while start cleaning. Mike cutting. I get the small branches cleaned up and ready for Mike to cut smaller. We get one trailer load almost full and we are out of gas. Time to go Once we get it all up top, we have to unload. Mike and I unload the wood to bring down to the house. The tractor sure makes hauling wood easy That's all for now. We have to still get the cabinet for the refrigerator and I'm sure we will be doing a lot more wood cutting. I hope all of you enjoyed this story. Have a wonderful day and I will write in again soon.