Going Off Grid in East Tennessee; The Story and Chat Thread (radio, location)

[ylisa7]

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful week. Thank you all for the well wishes for Mike. He is just fine. I'm glad you all like the color choice on the house. We like it so much better even though it will more than likely make the house a little hot. We'll see how that goes.

HeadOfTheLakes- Thank you for writing in. I will tell Mike about your suggestions and let him take care of things.

TheGeezers- You asked about the frozen pipe from last winter. That happened because our dirt sunk in that area and a small portion of the pipe was exposed. This year we have more dirt around it and Mike is going to add an insulated box to keep that pipe from freezing. Thanks for reminding me to add that to the list. I forgot all about that. Now I can remind Mike, lol.


Well it's time for Chapter 66 in the Mike and Lisa world so here we go.

7-2
We finally got our new battery vent. Mike took it out of the box and figured out what needs to be done. But before we can do that job we have to go over to the other property to mow. On our way we stopped at our dirt pile to fill some 5 gallon buckets with dirt. We have some extra trees at our other property that we planted 2 years ago. We will bring some back and plant some in our backyard. Hopefully they will survive.

When we got to the other property we saw that the back field was hayed. It was a rough year for the farmers this year. We have had so much rain which made it really hard to get the fields hayed. I also got another surprise when I started to weed eat. Our next door neighbor did the weed eating on his side of the fence. Woo hoo. Just one section that I don't have to do this week.

After Mike and I finished mowing and weed eating we picked out a few trees to dig up and take home. We started a small nursery on this property with very small trees for future transplants.


Mike is digging one out.


We picked out 2 more trees and dug them out. Then we filled in the holes with the dirt we brought from home.


Our first 3 trees are loaded on the trailer.



We get back home and unload the mower and the weed eater. Then we pick an area to plant the trees. Mike starts digging a hole for the first tree.



After the 3 trees are planted Mike stakes the trees to protect them from the wind.



Then he waters them.



Now we have to try and keep them healthy until they establish. Hopefully they will make it.


Our first 3 trees are in.



Later on we got a call form our neighbor Albert. He said as much as he and his wife want our other property they can't buy it right now. They have to sell their land first. Oh well- back to the drawing board.


7-3
Wow, it's really cold out this morning. Don't get me wrong because i am not complaining, lol. I hate the heat. Niki and i went up to check the garden and I picked my first two squash. Woo hoo.



I think it is so cool to be picking my own veggies.


Now that Albert isn't buying our pother property we have to start advertising. We made up some flyer's and now we have to go over there to move the signs around. We take the trailer and a ladder and head to the other property. On our way we stop and fill up a few more buckets of dirt. We might as well get a few more trees while we are there.


Mike getting dirt.




We get to the other place and go around to the back. We put the ladder against the tree and Mike and I take down the big For Sale sign. Then we bring it up to the front of the property.


Here I am banging a t-post in to hang the sign on.


We hang the sign, install a box up front and put the flyer's in the box.


Then Mike takes the backpack sprayer and starts spraying the weeds on the driveway. While he is doing that I go over and dig out 3 more trees and fill in the holes. Then I load them onto the trailer and wait for mike to finish.


When we get home we plant the new trees and Mike fertilizers the new grass to give our lawn a boost.



7-4
All I can say about today is Ugg!! It's just one of those days. I think all of our problems from June are catching up to us.


Mike is working on our new battery vent. First he installs a PVC elbow and pipe into the battery box. Then he puts the battery vent with the fan on top of the pipe.



Next he has to hook up the wires to make sure it works. The fan is supposed too automatically turn on when the batteries are gassing. He hooks it up to the inverter first but since we don't use the "mate" on our system it doesn't work. He had to reprogram some things to get it to work. Next he hooks the wires to the charge controller and tries the fan. Ah success. The fan is working.


Then Mike goes outside while I hold a coffee can up to the roof so he can drill a hole. I catch all of the metal filings while Mike files the edges of the hole. Here is the hole for the new pipe.



Next Mike has to add a piece of PVC pipe to vent the gases outside. Here he is measuring for the pipe.



Finally our new battery gas vent is in and things are safer.



After that Mike goes outside and climbs up top to put the cover on and seal it.



Just one more thing off the list, lol.


7-5
It's a dreary rainy day. Mike noticed that our tailer for the mower which is made for our mower is staring to bend and basically fall apart. It doesn't look like the company used strong enough metal. Mike called Tractor Supply and told the manager we just bought this trailer this spring and use it about once a week. There is no way it should be falling apart. He told us to bring it in so he could look at it. Well it's a rainy day so we take the ride down the mountain to Tractor Supply. The manager comes out to look at it and he tells Mike "this shouldn't happen". Ya think. He can't do anything about it know until he checks with the higher ups. Yeah right. That means they won't do anything. So everyone don't buy a zero turn trailer from Tractor Supply because even though they are supposed to be made for zero turns they aren't strong enough. Mike and I will just put braces under the gate when he rides the mower on and off. This way the trailer shouldn't break.


That's all for this part of our story. All I can say is Thank God June is over. It was a terrible month for us. It seemed like everything went wrong. First the motor home fiasco, the flat tire on the Jeep, the computer broke, the Internet satellite stopped working, our generator didn't start, we had a water leak, our water pump didn't work when we tried to drain the water tank, our charge controller didn't work so we had to send it back, the starter on the mower died, our land deal fell through, and now the trailer is bent.

Sometimes life just throws curve balls and you just have to keep on going. We got through all of the obstacles in our way but i really hope July is a little better because we could really use a break, lol.


I hope you all enjoyed the update. Have a wonderful week and I will write again by next Monday.

Lisa

[Pam& Bill]

Lisa,
Enjoyed the update.... when it rains it pours.......... sometimes bad things just tend to happen all at once and it is overwhelming.
Pam

[Jaxson]

Thank you for the updates it was a very nice bedtime story for me. You know I am canning veggies been a long day girlie! Tell Mike great job and Niki nice back side shot to us.

[piperspal]

Great update as always, Lisa.
If ya ever give up the country life (yeah, right!), you might want to look into becoming a pro on the poker circuit.
You do an excellent job of playing the hand you are dealt.

[Hawk J]

I Hope you don't have anymore troubles Sis & Bro....................


Have a Wonderful Day.......................................



Texas Holdem Poker is one of my favorite games

[vacation bound]

Hi Lisa and Mike. Well even though you have been thru the mill in June, and Pam is right when it rains it pours. You are still coming along great with what you have been doing. Everything is looking great and your garden also looks like its producing well. Have a great week.

[Neecy]

So sorry about all the issues you've been having - but lets hope that August brings better days for you!

[hiknapster]

Beautiful garden, Lisa. Do you fertilize and if you do so, what do you use?

I know it can be overwhelming, but in the scheme of things those are all good nuisances. Sickness or worrying about where to live or if your kids will eat is much worse.

I something breaks around here I think, "Wow! I have a house!"

[SweetPea1001]

Sorry Moose I was talken about the pics on the previous page. lovesmountains pics are beautiful also.

[sassykat&joe]

Well, darn it, we just bought a trailer from TSC for our riding mower. haven't used it yet, checked the book and it doesn't say anything about "zero turn", so maybe we got lucky for once.