I think you’ll find that chicken wire won’t keep snakes out. I wouldn’t waste my time or money on that addition to the fence. Baby rattlesnakes are less than a half inch in diameter. And bigger snakes will crawl under the fence without any difficulty.

quote:

Originally posted by Ozarkwoods:
Congratulations on your next chapter. Love the pics and I am enjoying your post. We can feel the excitement and content you are experiencing and the preparations needed to live off grid.

Thank you. It is a great adventure and I am anjoying it. Hardest part is currently being patient. There is a lot we want to accomplish, but there are restrictions beyond my control and I am all kinds of antsy to git-r-dun!

quote:

Originally posted by Woodman:
Beautiful St Johns! Six churches, one bar. I came through in March 2018 with a full pickup of grapefruit, fresh off a Tempe tree.

Gave some to a parking lot vendor then took a break out by "The East Side" Catholic cemetery. If I'm not getting my towns confused, I found a church thrift store north of town on the east side of the highway, on 61 . 191 and gave the nuns/laypeople some grapefruit (it is not coming up on a map).

Definitely my kind of living. Beautiful country.

There used to actually be one stoplight here as late as Feb 2017, not any more. It's just that small now. You're right, beautiful country.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Congrats on the new Toyota. She'll get dirty and dusty out there.

Already is. Day two involved a trip to the ranch to feed my inlaws horses while my father-in-law was in Tucson getting a check up.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

Is that one of those big feral hogs we've heard so much about? Given the size of those tusks growing out of its head I can see why a 7.62×51 is recommended.

Where is the 1500m rifle range going?

Actually, I'm just jealous. That's a beautiful spread.

Funny, we just saw her again yesterday and it appears her mane/ridgeback/mohawk is getting longer. She is a sight from 2 feet as you drive past.

Congrats on what looks like a wonderful adventure.
Not sure my wife would go for the isolation out there long-term.

This weeks accomplishment.........Had to leave 3500lbs of Ammo, bullets, and brass in Virginia when we left. To much weight in the penske truck. Stored at a friends warehouse and shipped to us this past week. Arrived yesterday and loaded into the conex for safe keeping. I suppose slight brag, OTOH, I am never moving that sh*t again!





Getting slightly more organized. Gonna go and get lumber for Benches and shelving in a couple weeks after the grand kids go back home. Add that to the project list!



And......Drum roll....... our favorite free range cow dropped a calf in the last week or so. Most unique color cow I have ever seen. Super cute calf too. He was playful, but I didn't have time to get video.

Congratulations on the retirement adventure!

Thanks for sharing the journey with us...

Well, grand kids headed home last weekend, now to get some work done........

There were various "roads" and two track around me that needed attention. So I now have about 200ft of driveway and a little over 2 miles of road leading from the "main" county road.




Leveling out around the building and placing the dirt in front so I can actually drive into the garage once its cleared out. Cinder will go on top of this part of the driveway and in the other areas leveled out before this years monsoon season arrives.



I'll also be adding retaining walls and some french drains for these areas before the rains get here.








Here is where the fun part is........Area graded and holes augered for the base posts for the solar array!



Today we finished off with the posts and cement.





Wife and I hauled 50 bags of cement, 10 bags of rock, 15 buckets of water, and the posts up the hill today. We sat and watched the sunset......



When we got home, I dove in!



I hope everyone is enjoying their first month of 2019. It's kicking my ass, but I'm giving it hell too!

Whoa.

Awesome.

Thank you always for sharing this wonderful adventure

Now you know why I mentioned a skidsteer is a necessary machine out there.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Now you know why I mentioned a skidsteer is a necessary machine out there.

Oh yes, a 25-35hp tractor with FEL, Backhoe, and gannon is in my near future!

Did some shooting and hiking today. Savage 12LRVP in .223, Black Rain 18" varminator in .223, and Larue OBR in 308 are all zeroed for new altitude.

You can just make out my building in the first picture.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Now you know why I mentioned a skidsteer is a necessary machine out there.

Mark, your advice and commentary on this subject are spot on. Thank you.

Although last week was a rough week for us in regards to family health matters , the show must go on. As much as we would like to drop all this and head back to Virginia to be with our grandson, this isn't really an option right now. All of the grand/great grandparents have reached out to one another and we are all staggering our arrival so as not to inundate My daughter. We have a plan to spread out our time so as to get our grandson, daughter & son in law the most support over the longest time.

Over the last two weeks we have accomplished quite a bit.

600ft of woven wire fencing, 19 holes augered, 4 corner H-posts, two supporting H-posts, 3 gates with H-posts, and 50ish t-posts. Should work well to keep out cows and other medium sized miscreant animals.









After getting the posts set in cement for the solar array, they sat for a bit while we did the fencing and some other small projects. We finished this all yesterday. Today, weather permitting, we will mount the panels and trench about 30ft for the conductor wires to the power panel.

Sig, I'm glad to hear things with your grandson have a positive outlook.

A long time ago I lived in Payson for a year. It was mostly a dirt road town then (yes, that long ago...) We moved to Phoenix for about 5 more years and then back to Tn. Really love the area out there. In-laws retired to Phoenix so we still get out there frequently.

I have a 50hp tractor that I bought with a backhoe. For me, in the dirt we have, the backhoe was a complete waste of money. I would have been far far ahead keeping the money and renting a mini-ex when I needed to trench. In the end, I am now renting mini-ex's anyway. Part of that is due to the fact that our property is more hilly than not. It is much faster to use a mini-ex that I can swing around on a hillside than re position the tractor.

The backhoe itself is a pain to install and remove. I have to take the 3 point stuff off and bolt the backhoe to the sub frame. This gives me a stronger platform than a 3 point backhoe but getting down and crawling around under the tractor is something I like to do less every day. About the only thing I use the backhoe now is removing trees. I had a ripper tooth built for it. I use the ripper tooth to cut the roots and then push the tree over. That way I don't have stumps to deal with.

I just added a 3 point turbo saw to the mix. If I can get the tractor to the tree it cuts down to about 1/2" below the dirt so no stump to worry about. I will probably sell the backhoe this spring.


I hope things out there continue to go well, Mark

quote:

Originally posted by mark_a:
Sig, I'm glad to hear things with your grandson have a positive outlook.

....... For me, in the dirt we have, the backhoe was a complete waste of money. I would have been far far ahead keeping the money ......

.......The backhoe itself is a pain to install and remove. ........

I hope things out there continue to go well, Mark

Thank you for the kind words.

After more research and talking a bit with my father in law and old rugged cross, we have pretty much decided we are gonna look for a wheeled skid steer. I'll start out with just the bucket and tracks for over the wheels and add other attachments as the need arises and funds permit.

I wish I'd bought a skidsteer. I don't do much "typical" tractor stuff. 95% of what I do could be done better with a skidsteer but at twice the price. I do like my tractor though. The front loader gets a ton of use, mostly with pallet forks on it.I'm amazed at how much I use the forks.

I have most of the typical attachments and they do a good enough job but their are plenty of times the extra couple thousand pounds a skidsteer weighs would really come in handy. Plus, having the attachments in front would keep me from having to turn around all the time to look.

For something really cool and unique, check out a telehandler. those are extremely handy

Finished mounting the solar panels last Thursday. Started getting the wiring going on friday and the weather kicked in. Nothing accomplished in two days and the next 3-4 arent looking great. I'll be out of town till beginning of March, so this is it for a while........

Being my own power company is probably one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life.

Took your last post as an opportunity to review your entire thread.

Many great accomplishments and looking forward to more updates!

You are in the right place for it brother. Hope the AC is up and running soon. The ice maker too. Also hope they are of the big variety

You might have told us this and I've simply forgotten, but how much will that solar array drive, energy wise? Will it power anything that pulls as much as an a/c?

Great pics, still living vicariously through you.

I was wondering the same thing too. Seems a little light for powering a house.

This may or may not apply to your land, or your goals, but it is still fascinating and eye-opening, and it may be of value to you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSPkcpGmflE





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