Purveyors of Magic

Do you know what this is in the photograph?

You are right, it is an extension cord.

Wire wrapped in plastic with plug ends on either side. You plug one side into a receptacle designed to bring electricity to all the modern appliances the average person has in their house.

We don’t have any of that, but soon that will change.

The process of adding electric service to our homestead has been a long and arduous process. Along the way we have learned to do without by using solar and battery operated lighting as well as a wood stove to keep warm.

Our greatest problem has been keeping the house warm if we both have to leave for unlike electric or gas heat, you have to tend the fire for it to stay warm. Leaving meant the house would get cold, and even freezing.

This went for the cat too. We found a terrific solution to keeping the cat warm, hand warmers. Take one out of the package, put it under the cat’s blanket, she stays toasty for 10 hours, plenty of time to get the errands done.

For us, step one: Getting electricity started with logging a part of our land. This included the permit, which took just about a month for approval. Then we waited a week or two for the loggers to move off the property above us and come down to our property. The logging took several weeks, and we have lots of clean up. But they were terrific and left us with nice piles of wood for cutting for all of next year. Costs were a couple of thousand which was taken off the total at the end. Taxes were paid first, never wait until the last minute to pay the taxes, just pay them a few days after you get the check. It was a relief to pay them right away long before they were due. The process was full circle complete and stress free once it was over.  After costs and taxes, that brought in just enough to both reenergize the pole and to add a receptacle to plug in an electric cord. Hence my obsession right now with the magic of electric cords.

Step two: reenergize the pole, get a permit, wait for the inspector, who was very nice by the way, fix the three small issues on the pole, hammering the rods that hold the copper ground wires flush with the ground, change out the receptacles for outdoor water resistant outlets, and add an extension to the collar for the outdoor box that holds the outlets, they were too close to the box above and would not let the lid open properly. Small fixes but we wanted to make sure we got it right from the get go so we weren’t frustrated by the additional weeks delay. Parts and such cost about a thousand, but could have been more if a pole had to be purchased so we saved a thousand there.

Step three: Pay for the application to Inland Power and wait. Just a couple of hundred dollars, this brought a credit check. No big deal, but the costs added up.

Step Four: The designer had to come out to the property, check the pole and equipment where the transformer will hang. Parts, labor and taxes have to be paid by the customer. That means us. The transformer alone is, labor will be another thousand plus a few dollars. $200.00 for the designer, another $200.00 for a deposit. All of this to get the magical electricity through that extension cord.

Step Five: Plug in the electrical cord, add a bar with several outlets, and we will have electricity in the house. Temporary solution yes, but we are so excited to even have that after seven months without.

Step Six: Pay the monthly bill to keep it coming. $19.99 service fee, and use costs.

Step seven: The future is a feeder line and box on the house itself, this will cost another thousand or so, but that we will have to save for. We pre-pay for everything so we don’t have a mortgage or loan fees. Our money, what little we have goes for lifestyle increases.

In a way extension cords and electricity are magic, for one minute in history electricity wasn't available, was not in existence, and the next poof, like magic it became a part of everyday life.

I wonder though, was the magic our ability to do without and still do the same things everyone else does, sort of anyway, to be comfortable?

I will miss these days without electricity.

(Not, har, har...)

The author and her husband moved onto their land last August without a finished home, lived in a tent, while they began the building process for a tiny house. Along the way, they are learning their real needs verses their wants and are building according to need. It’s starting to look like a house, which is great considering the neighbors call it the Pallet Palace…indicative of the used and gleaned wood in the building process.  You can look back over the blog to see the many hopes and dreams and then the actual outcome of the process. It has been a great journey thus far.