I can only imagine what the night sky looks like out there.

Good luck with it!

I have a friend that did something similar in the mountains of CO. He built the two/three car garage first and finished it out inside to use as a small house while constructing his main house.

Congrats. Mind if I ask how old you are? That sounds like a lot of work for retirement. I figure 40 to 50 years old so you prolly still have the energy.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Btw, I added a couple of tidbits in my op. I am sure you have thought about them.

The other thing I would absolutely look to invest in out there would be a diesel powered skidsteer. A necessity if you are truly going to make a go of it.

No plans to grow our own food, but wife does want a green house to hobby with. So that's on the agenda for summer. Local beef is easy to obtain and relatively inexpensive. Also have plenty of elk and pronghorn on the ranch, so hunting is on the agenda as long as I can get a tag.

We have two dogs. They are city dogs to this point and we will just have to keep them close by till they settle into country living.

There are access issues during monsoon. We have 3 ways to get to from town/property if needs be. Ultimately the plan is to always be prepared for 30 day stay without getting to town. You should see my mother in laws stash of toilet paper

quote:

Originally posted by cusingeorge:
I can only imagine what the night sky looks like out there.

It is amazing!

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Congrats. Mind if I ask how old you are? That sounds like a lot of work for retirement. I figure 40 to 50 years old so you prolly still have the energy.

I will be 49 in Jan and wife is 40. So we have some gas left in the tank.

Drove to flagstaff and picked up my solar system. Probably 4000lb of panels, batteries, copper wire, and associated equipment. Unloaded it the next day. two days later made a run to Lowes for the cement, posts, and harware to build the mount for the solar array. close to 60 pieces of 2x4 and 4x4 lumber, 10 sheets of 3/4 plywood, 50 bags of quikrete and 20 bags of gravel. Unloaded next day.

I think we are in good shape to get the majority heavy lifting complete in the next few months. After that
it's all just putter projects

Two days ago out hunting for property line marker pins the wife and grandson took a break from "mountain climbing". His words.......

Needs a shooting bench and a cooler!!!!

That is really really nice. I'd love to win the lottery and buy a mountain in NC and create a compound for the family to live nearby...and of course shoot stuff.

Thank you very much for sharing this, sir.

Very, very happy for you and your wife.

It's wonderful to see when plans work out.

Hoping that you will please continue to share your adventure!

Gives one hope and a warm feeling

(57)

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Needs a shooting bench and a cooler!!!!

That is really really nice. I'd love to win the lottery and buy a mountain in NC and create a compound for the family to live nearby...and of course shoot stuff.

Shooting bench is on the agenda, as well as an ATV to go change long range targets, and a skeet/trap throwing machine.

I really want one of these with the foot and wireless release: https://www.atlastraps.com/AT-250_p_12.html

quote:

Originally posted by ersatzknarf:
Thank you very much for sharing this, sir.

Very, very happy for you and your wife.

It's wonderful to see when plans work out.

Hoping that you will please continue to share your adventure!

Gives one hope and a warm feeling

(57)

Thank you sir. It's been a long road to get here and we still have some hurdles, but it's getting to be like walking into the pastry shop. You can smell the fresh cinnamon buns, you know it's coming, just have to pay, take a seat and enjoy.

I will continue to post on this as often as I can.



Sunset from a couple nights ago......

Thank you both for your service to our country. Enjoy your retirement and when you get a chance you might want to plant a few trees .

One of my favorite places in the USA is the high desert of Arizona, particularly the little crossroads settlement of Wilhoite. My favorite uncle moved there in the early 1990s for health reasons and several aunts and cousins followed him. Sadly they have all passed except Uncle Jim's widow and she manages the Prescott library.

Awesome plan and I can't wait to see it come together.

With the exception of the location, we prefer NW PA, I would love to do the same.

Accomplished a few things the last couple of weeks. In addition to having both our grandkids with us for the holidays.

We got some snow two days ago and there are a couple good hills for little tykes to sled on. So of course grandpa was elected to pull them up the hill after their free rides



Cement and lumber to install solar array hauled out and unloaded.



Aluminium racking pieces and base lumber for solar panels.



Built a couple of work benches and promptly filled them with stuff! Shortly after this I cleared one off to at least have space to work.



From two piles of personal stuff for the home down to one. Might not look like much, but we went through things that have been in storage from our house that sold three years ago and either donated or threw out enough to fill my 8' truck bed twice.

Also a better picture of the Conex/future man cave in the garage/building.



Picked up enough fencing to do a nice 1000' foot of fence or about 1 acre enclosure of field fence to start with. Will be doing more field fence and other cattle type fencing in the future. I am also resigned that my truck will never be truly clean again. Ever. Again.





My personal accomplishment for the week was getting the power wall backing board mounted and the assembly itself up. But it was also big kudos to the spouse. That thing weighs about 225lbs. It does have a bracket that mounts first that it is hung on and then more bolts added. But still awkward and a pain to get done. But, done it is.



305w panels x18 waiting for their racking.



16 6v 428ah batteries in their blankets waiting for me to build their insulated box on Monday.



I was following with the fencing in my truck. This is the wife hauling tools and the new burn barrels in hers. This is a traffic jam in the hazardous snow and mud out here........

I love the pictures. Very envious but it’s a retirement well deserved.

Make sure to keep updating.

Super awesome, dude. What an adventure and how nice to have your in-laws close and with some experience. Please keep the thread updated!

Wonderful !

Thank you very much for the nice, big update ! ! !

Lots of progress.

Please don't forget to take breaks to appreciate it, sir. We are



PS - have faith, one day your truck will again be clean, even if for a brief time...

I'm loving this thread, thank you for the picture heavy posts and allowing us to live our dreams (at least a little) through your accomplishments.

so the cattle just roams around?

I was wondering about the cattle too. Is there a lease that you have to let them roam on your property or can you fence them out?

This is one of the best threads I’ve seen on the forum too. Please keep us up-to-date as you progress during the year.

quote:

Originally posted by slabsides45:
I'm loving this thread, thank you for the picture heavy posts and allowing us to live our dreams (at least a little) through your accomplishments.

Always a pleasure. I'll keep up as there are updates to give.

quote:

Originally posted by SigM4:
I love the pictures. Very envious but it’s a retirement well deserved.

Make sure to keep updating.

Thank you. More surely to come.

quote:

Originally posted by scsigs:
so the cattle just roams around?

Arizona is a free range state. See below.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
I was wondering about the cattle too. Is there a lease that you have to let them roam on your property or can you fence them out?

This is one of the best threads I’ve seen on the forum too. Please keep us up-to-date as you progress during the year.

Thanks. I am thoroughly enjoying all of this. I really am anxious to get things done, but the wife is keeping me in check and we are taking our time and not stressing.


In the area we are in there are 3 ranchers with about 1500 head of cattle. We cross all three leases they have when going out to our ranch (and have to open and close two gates as we go). This week was bad with the cows all over the roads on the route. I am not sure why, but my father in law thinks they stick to the roads because of better footing when it snows and they know there aren't any holes to step in. Out on the range land when it snows, although they have routes they travel, getting off the path is dangerous and they sense that they can't see holes that can be stepped in and get broken legs which would be a death sentence for them.

Arizona is free range for cattle in most of the state. So if you don't wan't cattle on your property, you have to fence them out. Also the fence must be built to a certain standard or you get no compensation if they do damage.

Woven wire at 48" with a single strand of barbwire at 56" is the standard to keep the cows out if you also have animals. We have two dogs. So there will be 1000' of that with 2' of chicken wire at the bottom to try and help keep down the snakes too. Outside of that for the rest of the property I will eventually do 4 strand barb wire.

This looks awesome!

I have 11 years left in the Army, my wife has 9. I’m going to have to pitch something like this to her...I love the isolation, I’m not sure if she’s go for it!

quote:

Originally posted by xwesler:
This looks awesome!

I have 11 years left in the Army, my wife has 9. I’m going to have to pitch something like this to her...I love the isolation, I’m not sure if she’s go for it!

This is definitely a scenario where both parties have to be on the same page.

We are about 90% in agreement on things. The 10% difference is really just about abilities vs willingness to try new things.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sigolicious,