3R Home and Barn Project

[woodlandfarms]

Rob, on your road build, you got any estimate of its length and how long it took you to get it made?

[BayouMan]

Rob,
Great to see you continuing to make progress at your place. The road project looks like it might have had a few pucker moments involved with it.
I noticed some sort of pen in the pictures with your nephew. What is the purpose of the moveable design? Does it allow you to move the cage with young chicks to get to new grassy areas?

Mike

[jayste]

Rob and Loretta, WOW! what a place! I went back to the beginning and came forward and what a ride! The place looks great! Looking forward to the next stages. Won't be long and you guys can stir fry some of those great vegetables in with some rattlesnake meat and dine at that great table! I think this thread has to hold the record for replies and views!

Jay

[3RRL]

Hi guys,
Thanks for the replies and continued interest in this old thread.
Jay, it must have taken you some time to read the darn thing? Yeah, there's always work to do around the place, but Loretta and I are really enjoying it. Rural living sure is different than the rat race in the city, at least for us. We still go down to the Rancho house for 2 days each week for work purposes, but it's not that bad. Our home down there has been completely remodeled and freshly paint so we can try to sell it now. This week it's getting it's final cleaning so we can start having open house there. Selling that place will be a financial burden off our shoulders.

Woodlandfarms,
That last road I pushed in took about a week's worth of work.
I didn't work on it full days though, so I would say it took about 25 to 30 hours to get it like it is. From the side of the home down to the meadow where it connects, it's about 500' long. But the part that needed to be carved out of that slope was only about 200' to 250' at the most. Once I got it going down hill and into the meadow, it was just clearing a road path ... way less dirt moving. Like PAGUY says, I've got roads and trails like that all over the property now. There are only one or two more I need to make to get to a couple areas. They are handy not only for access, but offer some cool walking trails for the misses and myself. Then when the kids come up to visit, they ride the ATV or hike on those trails too.

Mike,
That chicken coop was something I made a couple months ago.
It's exactly what you thought, a movable coop so the chicks have different grass and such under them. But now they are all pretty big so during the day the coop is open and they free range all over. They get back into it to roost for the night and I close the door to keep the critters out. If you go back several posts or a couple pages, I wrote a whole story about the coop.
There are lots of photos how it works and a video too.

[SilverbackMP]

You may have covered this, but what kind of AC are you utlizing? My parents have solar as well (not nearly as extensive as yours) and I am thinking about upgrading their system so that they can get some AC. They are getting a little old for Missouri Summers with no AC.

Thanks

[3RRL]

Originally Posted by SilverbackMP

You may have covered this, but what kind of AC are you utlizing? My parents have solar as well (not nearly as extensive as yours) and I am thinking about upgrading their system so that they can get some AC. They are getting a little old for Missouri Summers with no AC.

Thanks

Hi,
We are using a 5 ton unit with split level controls. It has the easy start up feature and then starts going full blast after a couple minutes. We can turn the upstairs or downstairs off or run both. It takes quite a draw to run it (like 4kw) so we only run it for a max of 2 hours at a time, and only on days over 100F. We have fans in every room which use a lot less power and they keep us comfortable.
There are times when we will start the generator when we know we will run the air plus the washer/ drier and also the irrigation pumps. We try to run everything we can when the 20kW generator is on. It powers the units and still charges the batteries. During the hot Summer, we may do this routine once a week so we use about 4 to 5 gallons of propane when we do it. Otherwise, the system will provide enough power to run either or, but running everything at the same time draws the batteries down.

[SilverbackMP]

Thanks for the info. My father only has one array (not sure on watts), an True Sign Wave inverter, a bank of deep cycle batteries, and an Onan (20Kw?) Propane Genset. They've been running it for about 15 years (before green was cool). They installed it because the electric company(s) wanted way too much $$$ to run to their home site.

The batteries have been replaced at least once, the Genset has been replaced once (first one was a Chinese Diesal), and the inverter has been replaced once (first one was Trace, second one was from whomever took over Trace's business).

I suppose he would probably be better off with a second Panel Array and more batteries before installing an AC unit.

I am considering one or two of those "mini" units (not sure what they are called) that are popular in Asia. I know they are available in the states as well. I am looking at one as I type this in my apartment in Seoul, Korea and it is branded as Carrier. A good chunk of them are LG branded.

Sorry for the small thread hijack.

Mike

[MikesTractor]

Rob and Loretta,

I found this thread 3 or 4 weeks ago (I don't know how I missed it), and have been reading it 8 or 10 pages at a time (I also read all of the smaller linked posts like the clutch repair and the front axle repair). The whole thing reads like a best seller.

Well, I just finished reading the entire post and all I can say is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! The house, or should I say "CASTLE", is beautiful. The breath taking views are endless. You and Loretta's attention to detail is incredible. Your retirement dream (both of you) is coming true with all the hard work you are putting into it.

Congratulations on your , and I hope things continue to go your way.

Mike

[thunderworks]

Hey Rob,

What's up at the house . . . inquiring minds want to know!

[3RRL]

Hi guys,
We are working away at a few projects.
I really should get the camera and post some photos for you guys so you know what's been happening up here.

On the list is putting up a 6-1/2 to 7 foot tall fence around the orchard and part of Loretta's garden. The deer are having their way with our little trees and veggies.
getting the garden.

We finished up the Oak table and stools.
They came out pretty good. The stools are going to have one more coat but they are for outside anyway. The table looks good to us and is now inside the home. We got the deep burned out pockets all sealed and you can really "see" into them like we wanted. We are pretty happy since it's our first try at this.
I do have a couple photos of that...





Additionally, we added more irrigation valves which run underneath the wood deck so we can get to them easily. We have been spending a lot of time figuring out when we should put underground pvc in for all the sprinklers we have now. We actually have two small lawns in front and a few flowers and shrubs in the backyard (the hillside) that made it through the hottest months and survived the deer.

Last is we just had a bunch of our kids camp up here for Labor day weekend. We had a great time together. We dove hunted every morning and got our limits a couple times. We also played golf together for the first time in several years. That was especially great for me since as kids, we used to play together all the time.

I promise to get more photos once we start clearing for our 1/2 acre pond area. That should be real soon.
Again, thanks for the continued interest, and we hope everyone is doing well out there.