Going Off Grid in East Tennessee; The Story and Chat Thread (Bristol: property taxes, trains)

[ylisa7]

lovesMountains- I will take a picture of the front of the house but it isn't done yet. It is still a work in progress, lol.

texasfirewheel- We have a 2005 plain Wrangler X. It's the no frills version
I'm not sure if I would but a Chrysler at this time. Good luck with a new one. We plan an keeping our Jeep until we run it into the ground, lol. We don't have many miles on it so it should last us a very long time. It's not worth it to trade it.

hiknapster- I know about the rain, yuk. Thanks for the tip on kitty litter. Why so many oils spills?

Granny Sue- Thanks for visiting. It's so funny I just assume everyone knows our story when I'm on other forums. Glad you stopped by.

[TFW46]

Thanks for the info, Lisa. I'm a no-frills person and it's good to know that others appreciate the no-frills Jeeps.

[TN Tin Man]

Just a idea for a roof for your containers. Mini Warehousing Storage Containers | Roofing Systems (http://www.mini-warehousing.com/roofing-systems-/tabid/59777/Default.aspx - broken link) Looking good

[ylisa7]

Hello everyone. I'm back at it again early. It is really cold outside right now. Wacky weather. Niki and I just got back in from trying to make friends with the calves. It's a very slow process. One came up to the fence but stayed about 5 feet away. Oh well, we'll keep trying. Anyway, it has been a very interesting week and we got a variety of things done.


Monday-
Today was not a good day because the rain is back. Yuk. It's a good thing we did all the mowing at the other property yesterday. We decided to take a ride to kill some time. First we drove to David's and I looked at some pressure canners. Wow, I had no idea they were so expensive and David has a good price on them. It's times like this I wish I "grew up" country. Then I could get some hand me downs.

After David's we stopped at Jimmy's to pay him for moving our shipping container last week. We stayed for awhile and talked because with the rain no one is working outside.



Tuesday-
Yeah. It is a beautiful day today. We need to finish the roof on the shipping container. First thing Mike does is go up top, get on top of the building and he sweeps the water off the building. We can't work on it until it is dry.

After it dries we start working. Mike starts out by grinding the rust spots, and there are a lot of rust spots. Then he blows it off using the electric yard blower, and then he can spray on the rust restorer.

Here is Mike using the blower.



The top of this building is a disaster.



But at least we have the view from on top of the container.



Here I am scraping the rust, along with some knuckles, off the building.



Mike is doing more grinding. Oh what a messy and dusty job. He started out using a mask unfortunately it didn't help too much. Too many small rust/metal particles in the air.


While Mike finishes working on the roof I finish scraping off the numbers and decals that were on the side of the building. I have no idea how we are going to make this thing look good. Mike is done with all the prepping on the roof. Next we get to roll/paint on the elastomeric roof coating.


Wednesday-
Mike starts out the day by mixing the 5 gallon bucket of elastomeric for the roof. He can't get all the clumps out with our mixer. We bought this coating from Lowe's last week but we think maybe they let it freeze at one point because we can't get it smooth. We have no choice and not enough time to run to town to exchange it. Rain is supposed to come in later and Mike wants to get this job done while the roof is already prepped.

Mike starts out rolling the coating on the roof.


And


While Mike works on the one end of the building I help out by using a brush and painting in some of the ends and curves.


Blinded by the white light. Hey it's kind of like our landing pad on our roof, lol.



Finally the roof, which is very important, is done. Now it is protected and there will be no leaks. We beat the rain and it should have enough time to dry before any rain comes in. After we clean the roller and the brush we decide to make the last, yes the last 2 concrete piers. Woo hoo.



For the last job of the day I grab a can of spray paint and finish spraying the fronts of the T-posts.



Thursday-
Thankfully we didn't get much rain last night so once again it's time to go over to mow the other property. It only took us about 2 1/2 hours this time. Woo hoo we are finally looking good.

Later on Mike helped me build my first garden box. I am so excited.

Here is my garden box with the weed cloth in it.


Mike is spray painting the rebar for my climbing plants.


My first garden box is ready for plants. Yay!!!



Friday-
Mike talked to Jimmy about coming over to move our other shipping container in place. If the weather holds out he will be here on Monday.

Mike has to get ready for the big solar move. He spray painted the new metal brackets that we bought.


I left Mike and went into town to buy plants and seeds for my garden. I talked to "everyone" at the garden center. I was there for over 2 hours. I had to call Mike just to tell him I was ok, lol. I think I might have bought too many plants but I am just so excited to finally be doing a veggie garden. I've wanted one for about 10 years and other things always seemed to come up.

When I got home Mike was meeting with Jim who is the on site concrete man. He has to talk to his partner but he thinks they may be able to do our concrete work next week. Woo hoo. That would be so awesome. If we could get that done Mike and I could really get some work done. Jim will let us know on Monday when they can make it out here. Keeping my fingers crossed.

It looks like things might finally be moving in the forward direction. Mike told me we have to take the satellite dish off the ground mount and put it on the pole. He wants to put it on the old pole that used to have our small wind generator on it. At least that one is cemented in the ground so my dish shouldn't move around.

Here is Mike unhooking the satellite dish.



Now we have to add a spacer to the pole because the pole is just a little smaller than the satellite mount. Mike is wrapping leftover vinyl around the pole and taping it to make it thicker.


Next he clamps the first part of the satellite mount and clamps it down.


We are done. The satellite dish is off the ground and mounted to the pole.



Saturday-
Today we drove into town to go to the annual Home and Remodeling show. This is the same show last year where we met our concrete crew and the spray foam insulation contractor. I can't believe it has almost been a year since we broke ground on our property. This time last year the County had us scheduled to install our culvert. We couldn't even get a truck across the old bridge last year. Boy have we come a long way.


When we got home Mike painted some more smaller brackets for his solar mounts. Then he found our old concrete frog and spray painted him green. We've had this frog forever and he has been all over the country with us. Mike re sprays him every couple of years. He will soon be sitting on our front patio. Woo hoo.



While Mike is playing with paint I go and play with my garden. Here I am mixing more of the "special mix".



I watered everything down and got my first seeds and plants in the ground.




To see details about my Square Foot Garden please visit my story at:
https://www.city-data.com/forum/garde...ml#post8853592


As requested I took a picture of the front of the house. At the moment it leaves a lot to be desired because we still have a lot of work to do. First we are changing out the concrete block and "pouring" concrete walls. Then we want to re paint the house a dark green. After that we can do the landscaping. Oh yeah and we will also have a patio. So here is the "before" picture.



Sunday-
Well I hate to say it but it rained all night and most of the morning. It is also very cold out. This has been an absolutely crazy year for weather. I did go up top with Mike to cover my garden against the cold weather tonight. It supposed to get down into the 30's.


That is the the end of our week in the Mike and Lisa world. I hope you all enjoyed the story and I will write again next week. If all goes well we will have a crazy and busy week. Yay!!!!

Lisa

[piperspal]

Great pics YL7!! The view from the container roof is breathtaking.
How soon will you be building the observatory deck over it?

I love things that we manage to take from place to place, like your frog.
Lucky guy - he's been with you all over hill & dale....does he have a name?

Oh, also - so glad you posted a before pic of the fromt of your home - a nice reference point for some of your descriptives!

[lovesMountains]

Yes, thanks for the picture of the front of the house - I can really see the potential there - it will be so beautiful when you are all done

[Jaxson]

Saturday-
Today we drove into town to go to the annual Home and Remodeling show. This is the same show last year where we met our concrete crew and the spray foam insulation contractor. I can't believe it has almost been a year since we broke ground on our property. This time last year the County had us scheduled to install our culvert. We couldn't even get a truck across the old bridge last year. Boy have we come a long way.

You've come a long way baby in a year! Amazing how much 2 people can get done when working together towards the same goal.

[ylisa7]

texasfirewheel- It's good to be no frills. I like nice but don't need extras. Update on the Jeep Hardtop. We love it. It is so much better than the canvas. Since this is our only vehicle Mike and I really enjoy how much quieter the Jeep is now.


Tinman- Hey buddy. Good to see you. Thank you for the link. Yes that is very similar to what we wanted to do. But of course Mike changed his mind and now he doesn't want to do that. Details will be in a future chapter, lol.


piperspal- Yeah we could most likely put some chairs up top. The frog is Mr. Frog. HA, ha Mike and I are so "unoriginal" when it comes to names. We have Mr. Coach, Mr. Jeep, and Niki was already named when we got her at 7 weeks(we also call he Pugsly and Puglet). Anyway, Mike is very happy to put Mr. Frog on the new patio(when we get it).


lovesMountains- Your welcome for the front of the house picture. We have a lot of work to make ot pretty and it is going to be all torn up again before it gets nice.


Jaxson- Thank you for being so sweet. Mike and I love working together and if we weren't on the same path we wouldn't have gotten half the work done that we did. We are so lucky that we enjoy being together and working with each other.

[Granny Sue]

Ok...I've become a groupie! My BIL would love a project like this....sadly my husband is Tim the toolman while my BIL is Al.

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[TN Tin Man]

Need some chicken wire around those gardens.... calling all rabbits and other creatures of the night . Buffet is being served fresh greens....... Or have Niki stand guard