I Wish I Could Tell You It’s Boring, But It Is Not

By now you all pretty much know we moved out into the woods. When the journey began, we were not prepared for the transition. But we have survived and made a list of things that have to be done before the next winter. The list of just the basic needs that need to be completed is rather long.

Build a fence around the house and house landing to deter both the wild animals and the hunters from coming nearby. This has been fun so far, but the bear is coming too close for comfort. It is lazy so the fence will do its job.

Build fifteen storage boxes for firewood big enough to hold a harsh winters worth of burnable wood. I found a really cool example right in Spokane and got a good picture for reference. We are still collecting pallets and instead of stacking the wood two story, we will build a linear group of boxes that double for the fence along the road.

Cut all the curing wood, split, spray to deter bugs, and stack in the boxes. Build one more dry storage unit eight foot by eight foot with metal roof.

Save enough over the next five months to purchase 170 feet of ten gauge wire so we can plug in the thirty amp service to the tiny house. This will allow us to get a real refrigerator as well as wire up two of the rooms in the house for heat. We of course have learned to live a bit colder, but keeping the house at a cozy 50 degrees when it is freezing outside will keep the house from shrinking and expanding too much, as well as reduce costs. Electricity is the least expensive way to heat a house if one does not have free wood laying around to burn all winter long. Even with our huge stacks of wood this last year, we had to buy wood. Our stacks were green and everyone knows, you don’t burn green wood. It causes creosote to build in the smoke stack and that can cause a chimney fire. At the same time, one has to monitor a wood stove to keep a constant temperature, which keeps me home too much for my taste. I do like to get out and get some work done. At some point we will have the internet come right into the house, once we actually get a feeder box and all the Romex and such. For now though, I still have to hang out at the nearest wifi café to get work done.

Finish the bathroom. We of course built an RV style bathroom to get us by, but now we need to finish the walls of the real bathroom. With all my story telling, I decided not to tell the story about the most recent bathroom snake. Of course all you construction type people will think I mean one that clears out the pipes, when in fact, this one had rattles on the end of its tail and it cleared out the RV bathroom until my neighbor just happened to drop by while I was still outside screaming at the snake. The finished bathroom will have walls.  It will still be RV style, but with a great deal more style. It will actually look like a real bathroom too. The body has not waited but the mind has and I will be so much happier to have a bathroom that actually looks like a real bathroom and keeps out snakes.

Finish the kitchenette. We were recently blessed with one of those Pro Plus Nuwave cookers. Instead of worrying about a burner stove, I have gotten out my cookbook mind, dusted off the cover and thought of all the things I could do with this cooker. I do not believe we will need a stove in this house. This cooker will do it all, including boil water. What else do we need but a sink, that the kitchenette needs. Plus a counter top and a cupboard or two to keep the dust off the dishes.

Move the road. This one of course will take a year. We have measured and we have more ground to cover than we thought, it is just under 300 feet. I have completed eight 16 foot wide linear feet of the road so far. I know, it does not sound like much, but when you use a shovel, and half of your body does not work so well, it does take time. It’s worth the pain though, for the peace and quiet will be wonderful. The lack of annoying neighbors will also be a treat. Some things are worth working towards.

Mind you, this list is just to keep us comfortable if this next winter is a hard and long one as we are anticipating. It is by no means the whole list of necessities most people assume come with renting a house or apartment, we aren’t doing that, we are building hearth and home from scratch. It is a much longer list. It is a juggle to decide what has to come first. Electricity to the pole came first now the rest of the needs most people live with without thinking how the services and such actually got in the house, are in saving and planning stage. They move in, they call the service companies and within a few days the service is turned on. Not out here, everything has to be built in before we call any service company. I swear the next time someone says just call xyz and they will come out and turn it on I think I’m going to hand them a shovel and get my whip out. You know what will come next. Har, har.

Phone, water, sewage, garbage service, plumbing for the soon to be finished bathroom. Then there are the hard surfaces that help to keep out the mud and dirt. The pathways from where we park to the front door. Wood? Or will we do cement? It all depends on what I can find for materials. Free is preferred. But of course there is no such thing as free, there is the cost of gas, as well as effort and time. These too have to be factored into the gleaning process.

Then there is the road to be moved. Every day, I take my shovel and bucket and move about 50 shovelfuls of dirt here and there in anticipation of building needs, even in this mild winter I had to use a long pick to break up the frozen earth to continue with my everyday goal. To move the road, it is going to take a lot of shovelfuls.  

Take that necessity, water. There is no such thing as running water out here; it’s not even walking, we are still carrying it to and fro. We have however witched the land and know where the well should be situated to get fantastic running water. Now one of the goals is to save for this need. To dig a well one must get a permit, the witching should have been done, you know where the well will go and then the process can begin. In theory anyway. Beginning costs are around six thousand and can grow from there. You have to pay as you go too with this particular project, and cannot use a credit card. That is a bit of a deterrent. Especially when one is not rolling in money. We don’t do credit either, for that is a serious hole to dig out of, we do have a credit history and once we took stock of the money we were giving to the credit card companies, we realized we were giving up about 30% of our income. What a waste of money. Credit is a trap most people should not get into. Hard work and using the money you do have effectively is much more satisfying. Amazingly enough we have all the toys most people have, they just aren't as big. But they are paid for and that is a huge stress reliever.

Visual instructions for
the phone cord housing.

Now, this afternoon we will be working on the land line. Who knew after fifteen years without a land line we would have to put one in out on the property. 

Cell phones do not work on our mountain unless you are at the very top. We are not at the very top. We are responsible for getting the equipment in the house and the line to where the box will attach itself to the outside of the house. 

Unfortunately, that part of the tiny house is not built, so we will have to put in some framing to support the line. This means we will build a portion of the wall. I will show you a picture, it is rough, we know, and that part of the tiny house will be built this summer too. It’s not a very big area, about eight feet by twelve feet. I did say tiny, did I not?  I bet you thought it would be a matter of calling the service company, nope, we have to put in the line.

Anyway, there is my update on my job. As you can tell, there is not that much to do. Snort.