At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Russ, thanks for letting us slide. We'll put the garden on the north west corner like you suggest. However, right now, that's where our stack of logs sits. It's a big stack and I can't say that moving it excites me. We'll see if putting the garden close to the NW corner will be adequate until the logs are gone. I figure we've got enough firewood to last quite a long time.

 

[Obed]

Here's the house site. The pictures were taken looking toward the west. The garden clearing can be just seen through the trees in the upper left hand corner of the first picture. We are on the ridge line so the property slopes downward on the left side (south side) and the right side (north side). A 4 bedroom septic was installed in the fall of 2008. The drain field runs through the trees on the north facing slope and run east to west.

 

[Obed]

After 20 years of marriage, 6 months ago my wife got pregnant. This event has rocked our world. This will be our first child. What a blessing! The wife is due this coming February. The baby sealed the decision to sell the 61 acres. We are building a house and having our first baby at the same time. The wife has been so busy dealing with the house project, she's not had time to get stressed over Junior. However, Junior's arrival makes getting out of the camper a little more pressing.

 

[TheGoose]

Congratulations!! It's funny the way life works out.

 

[ruralruss]

Russ, thanks for letting us slide. We'll put the garden on the north west corner like you suggest. However, right now, that's where our stack of logs sits. It's a big stack and I can't say that moving it excites me. We'll see if putting the garden close to the NW corner will be adequate until the logs are gone. I figure we've got enough firewood to last quite a long time.

You don't want to put it too close to the corner for a few reasons. First the trees will suck up the water and nutrients more than you might imagine. Second it will get a little more sun out a bit, and thirdly the deer. You probably will will have to fence it. A wise old man told us once "you won't have any problem with the deer as long as it is easier for them to go around it instead of over it". For 13 years his wisdom has proven accurate. We started with a 50' by 40 foot plot with a 4 foot fence. Never had a deer in and we have hoards of them here. a few years later we added on a 50' by 100' area with the same fence. The deer got in and wrecked the place! My extreme animal loving wife said, "if I would have had a machine gun I would of mowed um down". You see she puts a lot of work into our garden. We put up a 7' chain link fence and have not had a problem yet, about 10 years. Very wise man indeed.

Oh, congrats on the young one. Just imagine the things junior will see by the time he is your age!

Russ

 

[dave1949]

Congratulations on your baby! I can understand your desire to get into your new home.
Dave.

 

[Cook123]

There really is nothing like rugrats! I enjoyed the whole story. Thanks

 

[Diamondpilot]

If that camper is a rock'n____________. Well you all know the rest. Congratulations. You did right by going with 400 amp. You never know and now is the time to do it. Plus with 2 sepeate systems you have a backup on that long of a run. I had my wire break underground after 12 years only 15' from the pole. Guess which end they started digging at to find the break? Yep, tore up the whole yard. Same thing happened with my dad, he has 2 200 amps also. One failed.

That part of the country is neat. I travel to Lake Norris about 3 times a year. First time I ever saw a public road that took 4 wheel drive to get up. The area we visit is in a housing boom and to watch the guys work on a 80deg slop with a dozer then build a house is nuts but neat to see.

Chris

 

[Obed]

The deer got in and wrecked the place!

Russ, just curious. Did you have any dogs around? How effective are dogs at keeping deer out of a garden?

Due to the woods, I'm sure the deer are going to be a challenge for the garden. We plan on getting a dog after we move onto the property, maybe a German Shepherd. I hope we can let the dog roam free. However, if the dog starts roaming the adjacent neighborhood, we'll have to lock it up.

 

[Obed]

You did right by going with 400 amp. You never know and now is the time to do it. Plus with 2 sepeate systems you have a backup on that long of a run.

I should clarify. We will have 2 separate runs from the transformer to the house, only 50 to 75 feet. The 900 ft high-voltage underground run from the street to our transformer is one system/line. There's no backup. If the power fails along that 900 feet, we're in trouble, especially because our natural gas and phone are in the same trench 2 feet above the power line.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Congratulations on your baby! I can understand your desire to get into your new home.
Dave.

Thanks Dave. The wife and I have adjusted fairly well to the close quarters in the camper all these years. However, I'm betting the baby is going to make the camper feel mighty small.

Obed

 

[dave1949]

Thanks Dave. The wife and I have adjusted fairly well to the close quarters in the camper all these years. However, I'm betting the baby is going to make the camper feel mighty small.

Obed

Yeah, the list of baby support items is a long one. Crib, changing table maybe, high chair, car seat, 60 cubic feet min. for all the toys grand parents and family send, diapers, clothes, etc. It is downright impressive And all that's before the baby learns to crawl or walk
Dave.

 

[theboman]

We spent 6-8 weeks last fall in our 5er, that's me, wifey and a 3 year old. The 5th wheel is a nice sized one at 37' but it was really great, most the time! Weather held out pretty well only had to run the heater a week or so. We spent about 1 month on our land with a generator. We ran the generator as needed to charge the battery thru the day and 2-3 hours of evening TV. We hauled water to shower/cook/drink in a 32 gallon trash can with a can liner and used a siphon hose to put it in the holding tank. Hmmmm.

Holding tanks. Now that was another story but we took care of the business and let me tell you I HATE those little blue totes if you must know... I LOVE honey dippers (and Baker Septic here in Grayson KY is AWESOME!!! Above and beyond and he is #1 in the #2 business!).

It was a great experience. The 3 year old asked nearly every night, "daddy, are we camping again?"

 

[Obed]

Our 5th wheel is 36 ft long with one slideout. We insulate the waterhose from the spigot to the camper and run heat-tape inside the insulation. The coldest weather we've experienced was 7 degrees. The water did freeze on us that night. With temps in the teens we do pretty well without freezing as long as we drip the water in the sinks. At times, the bathroom froze when the kitchen did not. We found a susceptible spot in the "basement" (the storage area below the bathroom) where the pipes tended to freeze. On very cold nights, we place a small electric heater in the basement and that normally keeps the bathroom water from freezing. We run two oil filled electric space heaters in the camper living spaces. Our propane furnace has developed an intermittent noise in the fan so we rarely use it.

 

[ruralruss]

Russ, just curious. Did you have any dogs around? How effective are dogs at keeping deer out of a garden?

Due to the woods, I'm sure the deer are going to be a challenge for the garden. We plan on getting a dog after we move onto the property, maybe a German Shepherd. I hope we can let the dog roam free. However, if the dog starts roaming the adjacent neighborhood, we'll have to lock it up.

I am sorry I can't give a real answer. We did not have a dog when the first incident happened. We got one now. She actually looks very scary, an 80 lb. Rot, and black and tan mix, but if you get near and she does not know you she will lay at your feet and whine. She will occasionally bark at the deer but usually does not get off the deck, oh and did I tell you she is lazy to! Great dog however. One thing to remember about dogs is that they have poor eye site. If they can't smell the dear the deer can eat your garden practically a few feet away from the dog.

Russ

 

[Obed]

My wife worked with a designer and created the house plans. It took the better part of a year. After finishing the plans, it was decided that the house was too big and she started over. The designer was very patient. He is a retired draftsman who was in no hurry. So the second house plan was finished. Then the wife got pregnant and guess what? She changed the house plans again. We were going to have 2 bedrooms on the main floor, plus a dining room with a closet that could be called ad 3rd bedroom. If we ever finished to attic or basement, we could get more bedrooms. However, with Junior on the way, the wife wanted all 3 bedrooms on the main floor. So the house plans changed again.

 

[Obed]

The tractor has really come in handy with the house project. I really don't know what I'd do at this point without it. I'd have to pay someone to do all kinds of little things. For example, I needed to move this pile of topsoil that was scraped off the house site to another place out of the way. Now I can use this topsoil at my leisure. That wouldn't have been the case without the tractor.

 

[Obed]

I needed to prep this spot so that the well drillers could park their rig and drill the well. Once again, the tractor made the task not just easy, but also fun. These pictures were taken in August of this year (2009).

 

[Obed]

In September, the well was dug. We have the option for city water but we prefer well water if the water is good. We hit good water without iron or sulfur. Yay! At one point during the drilling, some pressure in the well sent up a bunch of mud out of the well. You can see the results. The well is a little over 300 ft deep. The steel casing goes down 200 feet. Cost was somewhere between 10K and 12K including drilling, materials, pump, pressure tank, and installation.

 

[Obed]

Here are the pump installation pictures. You can see the pitless adapter that runs through the pump casing 2 feet below. The pressure tank is temporary. Once the house dried in, a permanent pressure tank will be installed in the basement.