Property Photos~

        These photos are a little glimpse of the 4.66 acres off the grid~



The Entrance~
 

The Drive Way~ It's about 500 ft. long~

More of the driveway~



The beginning of the front yard~

Tool shed behind home, with solar system. 285 watt panel on roof~

Drive towards chicken coop below~

The chicken Coop~ 5 hens / 1 rooster~

Parking spot and Cob / Straw Bale house footings on right~

Haul water system. 300 gal.~

June / July & August build~

       Back in May 15th I had the property surveyed. A special thanks to my new neighbors and friends out here, Lester and Linda, for allowing me to stay at their place prior to this!! On May 16th. Scarlett and I spent our first night on the land. It was great! Stars / peaceful / quiet. Except for the coyotes, and other critters of the night! He he! The next day I walked all over the 4.66 acres. I was like a little kid ! The place was exactly what I wanted. My *dream property* so to speak. I spent the next few days looking for a spot to start building. Well...I found one! It was perfect, It's the photo above with the chairs on the sub-floor The pic. above is my view! The next few weeks I spent traveling to Show Low. A town that has everything, about 45 minutes away. When I came back, I got started building. No mess'in round here! I got the show on the road. I started with my footings and floor. I dug down to hard clay, which was about a foot deep. I then filled it with rock, and set the cross blocks on the rock. Peice of cake! Just made sure everything was on the level. Let me back up here! I built the floor first in my excitement and put the concrete blocks in , and leveled after the fact!!

       Next came the framing! Everything was was going pretty smooth! The framing was an easy part, but setting the first layer of 1/2 " plywood sheet was a little tough for me! But!! Alas!! God works in mysterious ways! A friend of mine who goes by the name of Steve, called and wanted to come and visit me, bring some supplies, and offered to help!! Thank you very much, Steve!! When Steve arrived, and just to let people know that friends are friends are friends!! He traveled 5 hours to visit!! *Twice*!! The sheeting went up pretty fast after he came!

       Then....after the sheeting came the felt paper. Wouldn't you know it, By the way, Steve went home!, the wind came up and blew for the next four days, after I put the felt paper on! Half of it blew off, and I had to start over! Punishment.....for when I was a baaaad boy, in my younger days!! :) lol   The wind died and all went well after! Next came the finish exterior siding, of which I *really like*!

       This siding is sold at Lowes and or Home Depot. *no advertising here*! It is very reasonable and needs no water proofing! Just......put it up!! On the corneres for trim, I split 2x4's in half and put them on. They look great through my eyes! I liked it!! The wood trim around the windows was from a place down he road. *I just took them*! Some people would call it stealing, but I call it cleaning up the neighborhood! The place has nothing but thrashed trailers on it, and is an eye sore to the area and community, as far as I'm concerned. I considered myself as cleaning, by taking the wood!! Ha!! Next photo is the finished exterior and outhouse~

       Well.....everyone! This is what Ive been doing, trying to get ready for Mr. Winter. Next month I'll be insulating the home, and working on th inside. Hopefully it will turn out, just as nice! I have plans for an outdoor kitchen, and a Vogelzang wood burning stove, called Lil' Sweetie, to keep me warm in the days of rain and snow!! The outdoor kitchen will be between the bathroom and home. It will be covered. There will be a adobe/cob oven and stove. *Can't wait*!!!! Well.....folks, as Bugs Bunny says, *That's all folks*!! See ya'll next month~Me

The Outhouse~

       June~ First things first

I moved to a spot where I was happy with the view, and location, to build my home. My Buddy Tom said that I should build an outhouse first. I took his advice! It's always good at times, to listen to your friends!

       First thing I did was start digging a hole. Well as I was digging, I realized....*how deep*-*how big*? How much do I poop:) lol So I went online, and looked up outhouses to build. Up came this plan, and it seemed easy enough for *me*! The photos up top are of a few stages! I had one small question....what if friends came over to stay? How long would it take to fill? This is not just any old outhouse! This is Johnny's outhouse! So I got ready to go to my neighbors house to ask him about, how deep to dig the hole. Well....all of a sudden, here comes Lester and Linda. My neighbor from 6 miles away!! Lucky me!! I showed Lester the hole, which was 2 ft. x 2 ft. x 2 ft. He said his was a smaller hole, in the ground. That was humor!! It lasted him 2 years! So what I did was build the outhouse on skids!! Smart huh?! If it filled up I could dig a new hole, and pull it forward with my truck over the new hole! Sometimes I scare myself with my ideas!:) I figured that in a year or so I would have to pull the outhouse forward a couple of feet over a new hole, and waaa laaa! Ka-done! I gave myself about 18 ft. That way I could move it forward about every year or so, or when it filled. That's about 8 or 9 years of doing, you know what!! In that amount of time the old pit could be covered with straw, wet down, turned over every so often and in a year or so, the fertilizer could be used in my garden!! Huh?! How 'bout them apples? By the way...I use *lime* to sprinkle over everything, and with the vent on the side and the *black* 4" pipe, *that creates it's own suction* when it heats up, there is *no* smell folks!! Woo hoo!! In that amount of time I would be all *pooped out* !! Ha! This was my first endeavor. It took me 2 weeks to complete, at about $175., and was not real easy, but, not that bad at all. the digging was the hard part, because about 6" below the topsoil the ground is hard pack clay!! Whew!! I did it, so can you! I found this rather funny writing about and could have had many more wise cracks, but kept the humor down to a roar!!!  next episode, I will go through and show the building stages of my *home* being built. Till my next post, thanks ya'll~Me

Update-June 19, 2012

       Howdy everyone! It's been awhile since I've posted anything. Last month on May 17 .I had my property surveyed for the nominal fee of $700, which was quite a bit less from the original $2000 Stacy quoted me! Whew!! I was happy with the lesser amount! The place turned out to be a stones throw down the road from where he and I thought it was, and much more beautiful than I expected!! There are so many Juniper trees! Many of them look prehistoric in the way they are growing. Why is the place called Cedar House Ranch? Well....there are supposed to be Cedar trees, but as it turns out, over the last century or so, the trees co-mingled and all the trees have the same type of leaves as on the Juniper! So much for my Cedar trees, and the name of my place! I'll keep the name, mostly cause I like it, and it has a nice ring to it!! Ok, here we go!

       I spent the first night on the property! You know out in the wild blue yonder! Let me tell ya. It was just beautiful that first night. There was no sounds of traffic, cars, trucks, and especially sirens! It was dead quiet!! I stayed up later than usual enjoying the stars! I couldn't believe that there were so many of them! Scarlett and I had a great time. Not a woman folks! My new puppy! She was a 8 week old English Mastiff. She is 3 months now and growing by leaps and bounds! Ok....back to the property. The next day I walked all over the 4.66 acres! That's a lot of dirt folks! I was looking  for a place to start building. Every spot I looked at was just as beautiful as the next and the last! I finally settled on a spot close to the top of the hill, and the property line. The top of the hill for gravity usage on the water. I have no well as yet! Maybe never, but I will have to haul water! I will place a tank at the top of the hill for the first home, and the shower! *Yes* a shower!! I just finished the outhouse! It really came out nice ladies!! I plan to put a small sink, and mirror in it, so I can put my make-up on! That was a some humor!!! I haven't done that for thirty years, when I dressed as a woman for Halloween! Boy! Those high heels nearly killed me!!! By the way! That's Scarlett up top. She's hard to get to hold still. She, sits, stays, and lays down on command!! I'm doing real well, and so is she!! We're both learning!! I've completed the bathroom. Yes...you'll have to tip toe through the snow when it comes...brrr! There is no segregation here! One serves all. Olay!! I'm working on the first home at the moment! I'll post one photo, so that you can see where I'm at, as far as my progress!! With this folks....I'll hit the dusty trail, and promise to keep ya'll posted on the way the home comes out!! Thanks~Me

How it started~



The Grass Hopper~ 5x8

      About six years ago, I had a heart attack. This was the beginning of my retirement. Could not work anymore. Ok? I healed up, thanks to my doctors care and a complete change in my diet. So....about three years went by, while I lived in a couple of different studio apartments. My last studio apt. I didn't like the place or the owner. He was a drunk, and still is, but that's his problem! I was sitting in the apt. one day watching TV and  the commercial came on. I looked up at the wall, then looked at the wall to my right, then the other two walls! I had a question for myself. What was I doing here? I couldn't answer!! I thought that I should be out enjoying life. You know traveling, discovering a new pyramid or something!! That's when I decided to travel the western states, visiting all the state and national parks. Ok? I had no RV type trailer of any kind, but I did have a beautiful sand rail that was nothing but a money pit!! So..... I sold the rail and it's trailer, and only cried for two weeks! Ha! (just kidding) That was when I decided to build a teardrop trailer. I found plans for one called a Grass Hopper, of which there is a couple of photos of the little bugger up top. I spent the next three months building the Grass Hopper at my friend Jim's shop. Thank you Jim. I have a special thanks to Jim's son, Kory for helping with the build, and especially for helping and doing  the wiring. The Grass Hopper trailer came out beautiful! I hit the road jack, and wasn't planning on coming back no more, no more!! I became.....I don't know, I just became!!