Well, we’ve had one of the coldest stretches in many years. Over 84 hours below freezing, with lows in the single digits for three consecutive nights. Being that cold for that long has different challenges when you are off-grid. While we had a few issues, we will give thanks to God the Father for the blessings He has provided.
First there are battery considerations. The cold can drain batteries down quickly. We ran the generator a part of every day to ensure the battery bank stayed fully charged.
Then there is the plumbing. We worked diligently to insulate the pipes and water fixtures, but we didn’t imagine the 500 gallon tank would freeze. While it didn’t freeze solid, the ice was several inches thick inside the tank. So we surrounded it with burn barrels and kept fires going until it thawed. After thawing, we went to the co-op to get straw bales to provide insulation for the tank.
Unfortunately, some damage was done to the pump through that whole process, lessons learned. We will be upgrading our water solutions, and replacing the pump as well as moving it to a more sheltered location.
1600 gallon water tank
We will be adding this 1600 gallon storage tank to the existing 1550 gallon tank that is in the watershed. Then move the 500 gallon tank from the side of the cabin into the watershed as well. Trenches will be dug and water lines will be buried.
We also worked on the firewood supply for next winter. Tim got about half of it split and we stacked it in the old woodshed. There is still a LOT of wood to split.
Being off-grid means freedom, self sufficiency means freedom. Freedom means a lot of hard work.
Yes we had damages, nothing like it could have been, tank had many blessings starting with the cost – story, thankful we had the generator and it started in such cold weather, found parts to fix existing issues and make it better….may be more I overlooked but God has watched over and protected us and given us so much to be thankful for despite the bumps in the road.
After several years of a 5 gallon bucket, composting toilet, we have running water. And an actual flush toilet! Plus a shower, which is a game changer when we spend more than one or two nights in the cabin.
So nice to have these amenities
There are still a few things that we need, a hot water heater, the ceiling finished, but it’s “livable”.
We made an enormus amount of progress over the summer and fall. We are now 90% complete and have started sleeping in the cabin when we are down there working on it.
At the end up April 2022, we upgraded the trailer to match the capacity of the F350. This will facilitate hauling larger logs for sure.
In May, we got windows installed, 99% of roof completed, installed cedar on ceiling of porch and deck, hung lights round the barn. We also upgraded the backstop on our firing range by using cutoffs from the sawmill. We also repurposed part of a metal shipping crate to hang a gong.
In June, we finally milled a couple of the logs we harvested in April. Turns out it was wild cherry. Very beautiful, smooth grain. These made some beautiful slabs, one of which will become a kitchen counter in the cabin. The saw mill went down during this operation. One of the standard blade guides had a bearing go out. Luckily we had the ceramic upgrade kit. We also stained the outside of the cabin a light gray, trying to get as close to old barn wood as we could.
During June-August we also got the front door framed out. We milled a poplar log that was down for about 18 months, this will be used to build the doors. It took through the month of July into early August to get them built out, hinges mounted, door knobs installed then hung on the frames. These are heavy doors and we had to use 16 inch barn door hinges with bolt on pivot. Back door is solid poplar, front door is poplar panel with walnut cross pieces. I thing sycle has gone above and beyond in creating beautiful doors to secure our little cabin in the woods. We also started installing the insulation and cedar ceiling in the cabin. It is slow going, this is not cedar that we milled, we purchased 1/4 inh tongue and groove and it is not easy to work with, very fragile.
September saw challenges in installing the wood flooring. Our order was shorted by two boxes so we had to be very careful and strategic with our cuts and placement. And just before we got to the halfway point, our 20 year old flooring stapler bit the dust. We lost 2 hours of work while we went in search of a replacement. Due to the remoteness of our property, it takes forever to make a trip “into town”. When we returned to finish the job, we found that a copperhead had taken up residence in the cabin, no telling actually how long he had been hidden there. But I’m sure he made a good dinner for the local possum when we tossed his broken carcus into the woods. We also purchased a woodstove for our heating source. Yay! no more kerosene. September was also a month of clean up, collecting oak and hickory from trees that were either dead or knocked over by storms. “Free” fireword is very labor intensive. Betty helped with so many projects at the farm as well. In just two 10 hour days, she and sycle accomplished so much: firewood gathered and split, kindling cut from scraps, shoe mold in cabin, weed eating, purchased a mattress and boxspring (YAY no more cots), covered spaire trailer tire to protect from dry rot, measurements for curtains. I’m sure I’m leaving somrthing off the list. Most weekends in September had some form of firewood work, gathering, splitting, stacking, etc. Not sure we’ll have enough for the winter. Not even sure we’ll have enough for deer season…
Wiring work and caulking began in October. Because the logs are flat stacked, there really aren’t large spaces that would require chinking but we do have small gaps that require caulk. October was also the beginning of Krav Maga Black Belt Bootcamp for sycle. This greatly limited his time at the farm through mid-December when he did earn his Black Belt, First Degree. So getting to the farm early Saturdays and working through the day, returning home early Sunday morning made for some exhausting weekends. This also cut into our deer hunting, but that is okay as the black belt was a priority. We got three circuits run in the cabin, wall plugs, ceiling lights, gfi for back porch. Nice progress but we also said farewell to our old girl Shadow and laid her to rest next to her brothr Hiro. We continued to split wood, pine scraps for the firepit, hardwoods for the woodstove. And the lights in the barn started acting like they have a connection loose. We killed the breaker and will have to troubleshoot at a later date.
November was about cleanup and organization. We needed to get the generator into the barn but it was so cluttered that we needed to cleanup first. We moved the wood stove into the cabin, staging it for install. Installed some shelving in the barn and picked up everything off the floor and organized it. We did manage to get a hunt in the weekend after Thanksgiving. In 3 days hunting we saw no whitetail, which is odd, but with clear nights and an opening day that sounded like the 4th of July, it was not surprising. We got the generator moved, that was a feat as it was tight quarters for the tractor with very little room for error. It took a bit but we got it patched into the soloar unit. We didn’t get the 2-wire auto start set up we have time. We were able to test it through and the inverter chargers work well. We also got a refrigerator for the cabin.
And we’re up to January. Between Black Belt and Christmas, not much was accomplished at the farm. We got the oak planed out for the window trim. The big windows are now wrapped in red oak and we built a sheft to start reducing clutter in the cabin. Finished install on the wood stove, works great! We have built a kitchen counter from some of the wild cherry slabs and planks. Also refilled the kindling bin.
That pretty much catches us up. I know I need to be better at updates but life is busy.
We have lucked into an enormous red oak when some good friends needed one removed from their property. It was dead and had a hollow spot near the base of the trunk. This made it a dangerous felling as we had no idea how far up the hollow went. But we’ve had a bit of experience with felling trees so we decided to help them out.
We secured a strap around the trunk about half way up so we could encourage it to fall in the direction of our choice so as not to damage any power lines or buildings. The strap was attached to a snatch block then secured to the back end of the 1 ton pick-up, again, so we could direct the way it fell.
After the initial cut, it got hung on the tree next to it.
Sycle cut a nice wedge and I put tension on the line, he then began the final cuts. It got hung in the branches of the tree next to it and started to twist, making it very unpredictable and dangerous. That also made the wedge ineffective and it was sitting on the stump, completely detatched from the trunk. The truck was proving to not “have enough ass” to pull this tree down so we let out the 12K lb wench and secured it to another tree in front of the truck. We had the 1 ton truck, assisted by a 12K lb wench and it still wasn’t enough to pull this tree down. Time to bring in the tractor. After very carefully securing a chain around the lower part of the tree, above the cut, it was attached to the front of the tractor. Finally she started to come down, taking out a locust tree with her. It was very scary and kind of awe inspiring at the same time.
TIMBER
All that was left was the clean-up. We managed to get four good 8ish foot logs out of the straight part of the trunk. It was all the tractor could take to get them loaded and they about overloaded the trailer. These logs will be milled down for doors adn floors in the cabin.
Off loaded at the farmWe paint the ends to control the rate at which they dry, which minimizes cracking
The experience hauling these logs the 148 miles on a trailer that was just a little too small accelerated the timeline on replacing it was something a little bigger.
20+5, gooseneck with 2 -10K dual axels. We can haul just about anything now.
Sycle took the second week of May and stayed at the farm to work on the cabin and catch up with some chores. He mounted the big windows on the sides of the cabin, finished out the last trim pieces on the roof, cleaned up the cut offs from the saw mill, and installed the cedar on the ceiling of the front porch.
We went from this…to THIS!
Piece by piece, we are getting closer to being able to inhabit the cabin. It will be nice to have a dry, comfortable place to stay on hunting trips, and during construction of the “big house”. We have already begun sourcing trees and logs to start milling the lumber. Looking for locust trees as they are nature’s pressure treated and will not rot when in contact with the ground.
Oh, and I checked on the spring last time I was there, it’s still flowing nicely and the dam is looking good.
Since we’re not always on-site, we knew that the garden plot was going to be a hit or miss. The (mostly) pine mulch from the forestry mulching creates a bit of a challenging environment for garden plants. Even though it was tilled several times before planting, it still poses a challenge. And the deer, along with other assorted critters, have taken advantage of the easy food source. But they haven’t gotten everything. And yes, I know there are weeds growing along with what we planted, like I said, we’re not there all the time.
TurnipsCarrotsSummer SquashSummer SquashCorn? Or Grass? Sycle thinks it’s corn…
To date we have done so much already, but there is so much more to do. Let’s see, we’ve had the driveway put in, we’ve put up a “barn”, we’ve had a forestry mulcher come in and clear about 5 acres so we can put in a garden and the build site for the house, and we’ve put in some veggies. We’ve worked on the spring to get it almost to the point of being usable as our water source for the farm.
I don’t expect we’ll actually yield much from the garden this year, but it will get the wild life used to having a food source. Yes, we had the ulterior motive of bringing in the deer. We do want to be as self sufficient as possible. Here’s a gallery of progress pictures. I’ll have to get sycle to upload the video of the spring from today. It is flowing so well that I am sure we have a viable water source. Stay tuned for the next update…
The first thing we did was to cut in a driveway. A friend with a bulldozer was a great help with that, as well as the spot for the barn. It took a bit of time to get everything graded and the build site level. But steadily we made progress.
And then there was the first camping trip. Memorial day weekend 2018. And because there were so many deer tracks, we just had to build a hunting stand.
Found materials to build a deer standprimitive camping308 round for size reference
Then came the barn, and with it, a somewhat less primitive campsite.
The hunting “cabin” inside the barnA bit “rustic”
That’s a very condensed version of the progress made in 2018. There is still more to come.
Just over a year ago, 28 acres of land were purchased in the tiny town of Scott’s Hill, Tennessee. It is literally in the middle of nowhere, on a much slower pace than just outside the Nashville Metropolitan area where we now reside. With abundant trees and wildlife, we knew right away it was where we want to spend our retirement years. And, to be as self sufficient as possible, we decided it would be a farmstead.
So, do any of us really have any first hand experience at running a farm? Not really. We all grew up weeding Mom’s gardens. We had relatives with farms, but we were pretty much raised in the suburbs. So with a lot to learn, and excitement to fuel us, we are on our way.
City Girl on the Farm 