The 10 Most Recent Posts

This is what I woke up to. Not much. Maybe an inch or two, but enough to keep me in my shed for a couple of days. Even with brand new tires, I'm not sure I want to venture out onto the roads unless it's close to an emergency.

Today's Photos

The first of two 30 lb propane tanks I have ran out last night, so I hooked up the second one. Once the roads clear, I'll get that one filled.

That tank lasted at most 1/2 a month. I had used it a couple of times on previous trips, but not much. It will be interesting to see how long this one will last. I'm sure the rest of this month.

A 30 lb tank holds roughly 7 gallons. At $2.69 a gallon, that's roughly $20 per tank and $40 per month. But I'm hoping it will be only for the coldest months. I plan on getting a wood burning stove up and running before next winter.

By the time the sun was setting, in all but the shadiest spots, the snow was pretty much gone.

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Not much has been happening since my last post. Just normal everyday life kind of stuff: running errands for supplies. I had to refill my 30lb propane tanks twice and of course get food.

Today it's snowing again and it looks like more for tomorrow. Then I'll get a few days relief and could get more next week. It is Winter after all and I'm at about 6,600 feet. Not much is "sticking". Almost as soon as it falls it melts. Tomorrow might be a different story.

Because of the weather, I need to watch my battery charge level. The battery is being charged, but if I'm not careful about my electricity use, I could use it faster than the panels can recharge the battery. Yes, that's right. One battery. And it's an AGM (lead acid) so it's best for the life of the battery if I only use half or so of its maximum rated capacity. I have 3 LiFePO4 batteries (which are okay with being taken down to zero percent of charge), but I need cables and panels to get them set up. I already have the solar charge controller and pure sine wave inverter. Hopefully, I can get this upgraded system up and running before too much longer.

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I just gave my contractor what I hope will be the majority of the cost to put a storage shed / outhouse on the property. We will most likely place it just off to the side of the septic tank. It's a 1,250 gallon tank, so it's not likely that it'll have to be pumped anytime soon (especially with just me living on the property). But I think it would still be wise to put it off to the side so there will be ready access to the pump out opening of the tank.

I'm not sure the exact size, but somewhere around 5' x 8'. Enough for some storage, a toilet and a small shower. I'm hoping that won't be "overkill", given that I'll be getting an RV at some point. But that will be a minimum of 6 months from now and could easily be a year. And it could be used for guests. And even as an emergency backup for me to use if the plumbing system in the RV decides to break down.

Pretty soon after that is complete (or maybe during the same construction timeline) he will work on getting a 250 to 300 gallon water cistern on the property. We'll put that near the gate which he says, given the downward slope of the property, is about 6 feet higher than where the shed/outhouse will be. In addition, we talked about mounting the tank on a stack of pallets a few feet high. I'm hoping that will be enough to gravity feed the toilet tank and shower. Definitely not firehose pressure, but hopefully enough so a pressure pump won't be required. Putting it near the gate will also make it easier for water delivery. I may have the water delivered for the first fillup and then use a smaller drum and my truck every so often to keep it topped off.

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Very little activity on my shed/outhouse. My contractor's wife is experiencing some health issues, so understandably, most of his time is being spent helping her. It looks there will be chances of rain during most of the days next week, so maybe the week after that.

I started using the 12V 55L refrigerator/freezer I purchased a while back. I got tired of buying ice a couple of times per week (both the cost of the ice itself, and the gas and time to get it). It was working fine, but the 50Ah available from the 100Ah AGM lead acid battery (along with the PWM solar charge controller) just wasn't enough to run it all day and all night. When the sun was out the solar panels could keep up with the demand of the cooler, but it ran out of charge about halfway through the night. I had to shut it down and hope the food inside would stay cool enough until morning when I could start it again. I put up with this for a week or two and then finally decided to switch over to one of the three 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries and MPPT solar charge controller (SCC) I purchased previously.

During the first few days everything seemed to be working fine. I don't know what changed, but I had to start shutting down overnight again. The SCC has an area where three settings for the LiFePO4 battery can be changed from their defaults to what the vendor of this battery suggests. Those changes haven't had the desired effect. The battery is not being charged to 100%. I still don't know why. I've been sending emails back and forth to the vendors of both the battery and the SCC, but no luck so far. Up to now, I've only changed a few settings. Just recently I found an area in the SCC display interface where just about every setting possible can be changed. I'm going to try that and see if I get any better results.

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My GasOne rocket stove arrived today. It took three delivery attempts, but that's another story for another day. Everything about it screams quality, from the packaging to the stove itself.

Today's Photos

It weighs a ton (actually closer to 15 lbs). It has a cast iron cooking support surface and steel outer casing with lots of insulation. I can't wait to give it a try. It's overcast and windy right now and may rain soon - maybe tomorrow.

One reason I'm excited to finally have this is because I can now cook meals that take much longer to prepare. Up to now, I've only been warming up meals (and not particularly healthy ones at that). Mostly because I'm cheap and didn't want to use that much propane ($$$). At least not with an acre of dead wood ready to use. But also, especially this time of year, the more cooking I can do outside, the better.

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Since I moved here, I have suspected there were mice on the property. I ordered traps, mint-scented moth balls and sprays and a few traps, but only last night put out the traps.

Today's Photos

The second and third pictures show a "live catch" mouse trap. It didn't catch anything. But I don't know if that is because the bait I put in there attracted more ants than mice. Maybe the mice stayed away because of the ants. The third trap in the first picture (the 100 year old style of trap) didn't catch anything. But it could have been due to how I set the trap. I might not have left enough "travel" room for the tripping pad. I'll be more careful to be sure I'm setting it propery next time.

The first two traps caught one mouse each. And I like those because I can empty the trap without even getting close to touching the dead mouse. Not that I'm squeamish or anything, but still...

There are now two fewer mice in this world. I'm going to keep putting the traps out every night until I stop catching them. Then, maybe once a week or so.

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I had to get a replacement Mr. Heater Portable Buddy propane heater. The first one lasted just about one year. I shouldn't have believed the information I found on the Internet. People said they ruined their heaters because the hoses they were using were leaking oil into the heater and clogging areas within the heater that would then cause it to stop working. This was due to the high pressure in the hose between the tank and the heater caused oils to be driven out the hose material and into the heater. I bought the hose I bought due to their recommendations so this wouldn't happen to me (and I think even Mr. Heater recommends this hose).

This time I purchased a filter to go between the hose and the heater. It only cost $12. I should have been overly conservative and used the filter even though it was my understanding (at the time) that it wasn't necessary due to the hose I bought. Oh well, lesson learned. The filter is supposed to be replaced yearly. That's part of what I was hoping to avoid by buying the special hose.

So far, the replacement heater is working out fine.

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WOW!!! It is windy! We got about a 1/2" to an inch of snow yesterday (it was gone by the end of the day) and today we got wind. I don't have an anemometer, but the weather app I use said the gusts were from 15mph to 40mph and I believe it. I went around the property picking up stuff that had been blown away and then anchoring it so it wouldn't happen again.

I had to anchor my solar panels a couple of times. The first time, I found one completely turned over. I returned it to its normal upright position and then put some heavy boards on the support racks, thinking that would be good enough. Not so lucky.

This second time, one was moved (still upright) but it was as if someone picked it up and repositioned it about four feet forward and two feet over to one side! It was almost directly in front of the one that didn't move. I put it back where it was supposed to be and this time I anchored them both with more heavy boards and some screw type anchors used to attach a dog's leash so he can run around but still be limited to the length of the leash.

I'm hoping all that will do it. That, and the wind is supposed to die down to about 7mph tonight and not much more than about 20mph during the next week. I am very grateful that no wires were ripped out of their sockets and all I had to do was to return them to their original positions.

When I get off my butt and build the wooden support base for the panels, that should add enough weight so I won't have to do much beyond that. If the wind gets really howling and I get really concerned, I can place a few sandbags on the wooden base.

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Something weird happened last night with the propane heater setup I have. One tank ran out (as has happened many times in the past) so I switched over to a backup tank I always have ready. I turned off the heater, then closed the valve on the empty propane tank. I then disconnected the hose from the empty propane tank and attached it to the full tank (making sure all the connections were tight). I then opened the valve on the full tank and lit the heater.

I hadn't yet crawled into bed, so I kept checking on how everything was doing. It wasn't very long before I noticed the heater acting a little strangely. It was kind of "huffing and puffing". I've seen that before. I think it's a sign that there might be some air in the system or for some other reason, the heater is just not getting enough propane.

But this was the first time it had happened almost immediately after making the switchover. I've been careful to open the valve on the propane tank very slowly at first (I've heard from a couple of sources, that if opened too fast, the surge of pressure can cause problems). Then, once the system is pressurized, it can be opened to the full open position more rapidly.

There was no smell of leaking propane, so I shrugged it off and went to bed. But because of this huffing and puffing, I don't think the propane was being burnt completely. And sure enough, my carbon monoxide alarm went off. I got up and got some fresh air into the cabin.

I looked at the heater and it had shut down, but of course, it was still set to low. I turned it to off and looked at the pressure gauge on the propane tank. It was in the red (empty). But I knew that wasn't the case because I lifted the tank and it had the weight of a full tank. At this point I had no idea what was going on.

I messed around with the tank valve and turned the heater on and off a couple of times. The pressure gauge still was in the red, but the heater was working better. I went back to bed. The next time I checked the pressure gauge, it was reading right in the middle of the green, where it should be. I still have no idea what really happened, but everything is working fine now. Weird.

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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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