The 10 Most Recent Posts

I made my final payment on my shed today. Now I'll start saving for a real cabin. I already made some initial inquiries so I have an idea of what the "damage" to my bank account will be.

And then, even after it is delivered, I can only do so much each month. It might take me 10 or 12 months to save up enough for the cabin. Even with what I can save, I will have to take out a loan (so I can get started sooner rather than later), but I don't want the loan I will have to take out to be any larger than absolutely necessary. And then it'll take some time to outfit the interior so I can move into it. It could be 18 months before I'll be able to move into it.

But I'm sure the time will pass by fairly quickly with all the work I'll be doing.

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My contractor finally called me today. His wife has been very ill lately and he has had to focus all his time on getting her better. The last time we talked, he said he wanted to get my small shed/outhouse and water storage tanks and supply piping done by Thanksgiving (of 2025). Well... that didn't happen, but I'm hoping we are back on track now. He offered to stop by tomorrow with all (or most) of what will be needed for the job. Then we'll talk about completing the progject. Very cool!

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Well, guess what? He was a no-show. We agreed that he would come over at 10am. When 2pm arrived and he was still a no-show, I called him. If I hadn't called him, we might not have talked today.

I guess I'm way too overly optiistic, but I thought it was really going to happen this time. His wife had another health emergency which he had to take care of. Completely understandable, but the worst part of all this is... no communication. After he had taken care of his wife, and the emergency had passed, he could have called me.

Oh well, now he is saying next Monday, the 23^rd. We'll see.

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Something seemed "off" to me about solar panel/battery charging setup, so I went out to make sure all the connections were tight. Well, I must have used a bit too much force because one of the connectors broke. To be fair, I think it was pretty marginal to begin with. I looked a bit closer at it and it appeared to be somewhat "blackened" as if there had been a electrical short. Either that, or mabye more likely, due to having been in the hot sun for over a year, it just "gave up the ghost".

What broke was one portion of the "Y" connector I'm using to combine the output of the two solar panels and send the electrical output through a single set of wires to the solar charge controller inside. So for a short time, I'm down to one 100 Watt solar panel. It's definetly not ideal, but since it's bright and sunny outside right now, I'm hoping I'll be okay until the replacement wiring gets here on Monday.

I've been trying to keep all the connectors shaded and out of the sun as much as possible, but I must have started that a bit late in the game. When the replacement wiring gets here, I'm going to do a better job at keeping them out of the direct sunlight.

I can use my Android tablet for much of my online day and only start the inverter and desktop computer when absolutely necessary. The most important thing (for me) is to keep the battery charged enough to keep my 12V refrigerator/freezer running.

This just makes it all the more important to complete my Bluetti set up properly and start using that.

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Well... it looks like today will also not be the day for my contractor to show up on my property. I wasn't holding my breath, but I was hoping. He was supposed to be here at 10am. Now it is noon and he hasn't shown. I also called him to ask him what his status was. No response yet. I'll wait until late afternoon and call again and suggest we try again on Wednesday.

The replacement wiring for my solar panels should be showing up later today.

I waited until early afternoon and called him again. He didn't answer, so I left a voice message. Then I left to pick up my solar wiring at my mailbox. On the way back, he called (fortunately, I took my phone with me). Sure enough, his wife needed more medical attention. He said he would be able to stop by on Wednesday at 10am. If I was super cynical, I would be saying to myself, "Surrrrre!". But for some reason, I think it may happen this time.

I installed the replacement wiring and it all looks good. I won't really know until tomorrow after sunrise.

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By mid-morning the battery was fully charged. It looks like my very minimal solar power system is back to normal.

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Well... he didn't show up at 10am as we discussed, but he did show (at 11am). Whoo Hoo!!! He delivered two 300 gallon water cisterns. He also delivered 500 feet of 1/2" ID poly tubing and some fittings. That should be more than enough to go from the cisterns to the outhouse/shed (and back again to ensure there will be no freezing during the Winter) with enough to run to the greenhouse I plan to build. We'll install a small 12V water pump (similar to what's used in RVs), a solar panel and a battery (for 24 hour operation) to circulate the water in Winter. There should be enough pressure due to gravity to get it from the cisterns to the outhouse/shed. If not, I'll get a more "capable" pump and a pressure accumulator to pressurize the system. Time (and experience) will tell.

The first photo shows the cisterns themselves, waiting to be moved to their final location. The second photo shows where we will be placing them - the highest point on the property.

Today's Photos

Later, he'll return with the right equipment to move the cisterns to their "permanent" locations which will be on top of a stack of pallets about 3 or 4 feet high. Then, either during that trip, or a later one he will bring the walls, floor and roof for the shed which he has already built at his location.

I mentioned I was going back and forth between an RV and an empty shed (and then outfitting it to live in as a cabin) but was now considering the shed option due to all the maintenance requirements of an RV. And he said that as long as the RV was in relatively good shape to start with, it might be the way to go. In my case, it wouldn't be subject to all the maintenance requirements caused by the bouncing and vibrations when used on regular road trips.

And the RV was my first choice, because I can just move it onto the property and move into it. No 6 months to a year of outfitting the shed to turn it into a livable cabin. That, and the shed itself would cost about the same as an RV and then it would still require all the prep work inside. So now I'm back to the RV idea. But I have about 6 months to make up my mind (maybe a year). I'd like to save up enough to pay cash for it (or at a very minimum, half). There will be some extra costs associated with the RV. Not a lot, but some. I'm thinking I'd really like a metal canopy to park it under to keep the sun, rain and snow off the roof. That will go a long ways towards minimizing the maintenance required.

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Starlink is having a promotional special. The normal price is $50/month. Last month their special was $40/month for the first six months. This month it is $35/month but only for the first four months. So the overall discount remains the same: $60. I have until the end of the month to decide whether or not to order. There is no upfront cost for the equipment and only $21.22 is due during signup. I don't know when they will bill me for the hardware, but the fine print says that will cost $349.

I'll be signing up for their lowest cost service. I'm sure I can upgrade in the future if I really feel the need for speed. I'm sure I will be blow away by even their slowest speeds. I've been using my phone's hotspot for internet access so far. It's very slow, but at $0 per month (over and above my cellphone service plan) it can't be beat.

The plan I'm considering has typical download speeds of between 80-100 Mbps and typical upload speeds of between 15-35 Mbps. The next higher plan ($80/month) is 140-200 Mbps down and 15-35 Mbps up. Their fastest plan ($120/month) offers 170-320 Mbps down and 20-40 Mbps up.

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I called my contractor today and he actually answered the phone. I'm hoping that means he is able to devote a little more time to my project. I asked him about the status on my project. He wasn't specific at all, but it sounded like he is working on it. I didn't get any kind of firm completion date. Everything depends on his wife's health condition and how much of his time is being devoted to caring for her.

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A couple of weeks ago, I upgraded my phone plan to the next level (they called it "+"). I thought it was going to be an extra $10/month, but it turned out to be only $5/month (nice). I did that because I was having major speed problems.

I didn't notice a huge improvement right away, but after a week or so, it did seem to be better. And then just yesterday, I noticed the 4G icon changed to 5G and the connection strength went from 1 to 3 bars and now varies from 3 to 5 bars. (It had always been at 4-5 bars and 5G when I went into town to run my weekly errands, but then it would degrade when I returned home.) I'm not sure all of this recent improvement is because of my upgrading plans. It could be because they upgraded the nearest cell tower to me, adding more and possibly newer equipment to handle more subscribers.

Whatever the reason, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I was getting real anxious to sign up with Starlink, but now I'm not so sure. I may not have to. Or at least, I'm not in such a hurry now.

Also today, I walked around the property a bit with a specific purpose in mind. Since I paid off my shed, I've been thinking about what's next. At first, I thought I would have to forget about any shipping container or pre-built shed since I don't want to chop down any trees to get either of those types of structures onto my property. But after my walk, it looks like there is a good path between existing trees that will allow either of those structures to be positioned in an open area without any tree cutting. I may have to move some dead wood and level some of the pathway, but it looks like it can be done. It won't happen any time soon, but it is encouraging nonetheless.

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