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Lisa and Mike ,
I have looked at your posts in the last 2 days and your land is beautiful!I love ponds , I see you have one, love it!I wish you much joy and happiness !
Hey Phyll,
Nice to meet you. Your the one with the cows watching you right? Are they behaving? I actually like the cows but they are so nosey and curious. I had one of the baby cows lick my hand the other day. It was strange though because it wasn't like a dog lick. It was more like their way of touching and checking things out. He also licked my dogs face.
Yeah I love our pond but that one is at our other property and we aren't there anymore. We have to dig a pond here and it will take a long time to be like the other one. It also won't be as big.
Hey Phyll,
Nice to meet you. Your the one with the cows watching you right? Are they behaving? I actually like the cows but they are so nosey and curious. I had one of the baby cows lick my hand the other day. It was strange though because it wasn't like a dog lick. It was more like their way of touching and checking things out. He also licked my dogs face.
Yeah I love our pond but that one is at our other property and we aren't there anymore. We have to dig a pond here and it will take a long time to be like the other one. It also won't be as big.
Lisa
LOL, yes I am the one with the cows,I am alittle leary of walking by them, but I DO LOVE watching them and hearing them, and my famly makes fun of me because I like the smell of them,to me it's nature .I would love to live next to them.Oh, I am sorry about mixing up the ponds.I have small preformed one,I had 2 preformed bigger ones when I lived in NJ.I left all my fish in them when I sold.I was kind of sad of that.One day I would like to touch a cow and get close,(no I never have before).I want to wish you so much luck with your home and look forward to seeing your photos!It's beautiful!And it's nice meeting you too!!!!!!
hello, lisa... can I ask you about your wind power generator... from what I read, wind power for homes is almost basically useless unless you live in a windy area and even then the power that it generates is extremely small compared to solar energy... is this your experience as well? Is the electricity generated by wind power pretty much almost useless... the reason I say this is that a lot of homes require a good amount of electricity and it seems wind power doesn't really provide much... this is based on the KWh output in their specifications...
We just bought our first home and I am exhausted unpacking, fixing plumbing disasters, raking. We have no idea of what we are doing and no purchased or borrowed book seems to help! Then I read your adventure and I feel like a wuss.
Actually, I LOVE reading this thread. Thank you for taking the time to do it. Your instructions are wonderful! I wonder if we should all print it out ahead of time, in case of disaster!
Anyway, thank you so much for sharing your life and adventure with us.
evilnewbie- You are right as far as not using wind power as the base for a home system. Our wind generator's rated power is 200 watts at 28mph and "one" of our solar panels is 135 watts. They are about the same price for "each one". Of course one you better have sun and the other you need wind. Wind is a backup. Keep in mind there are some times when we won't have any sun for a couple of days, especially in winter, and I will be thankful for any juice my wind generator can offer. Our wind generator also has the capability of running 24hrs where as the solar panels can "never" get power for 24 hours because the sun shines only so many hours per day especially in the winter.
We also won't be using much electric. The first thing you need to do in order to either go solar or off grid. Conserve. If you can't do that then you better have buckoo bucks.
Heidi- Congratulations on your new home. I hope you build many happy memories there. How is your plumbing? Did you work it all out? I don't know what you are trying to learn but check out Home Depot and Lowe's. They offer weekend homeowner classes that might be helpful. I always thought I would like them but I have Mike to teach me anything. Best of luck with your new home.
How did you find such a beautiful piece of property
Lisa,
My wife and I are about to begin looking for a piece of property for our retirement home and I was wondering how you found such a beautiful piece of property? Did you have a realtor or did you know the person who was selling? We will be looking for a property like yours in North Georgia, but are unsure how we should start.
You and Mike are doing a fantastic job with the house. Not only that, I am always impressed with your ability to explain the processes in a written format! Most people have a very hard time conveying information in a clear concise manner. You nail it everytime
Your home reminds me of a project that Les Stroud did about 2 years ago. He built off the grid with solar and wind. I think that he had about the same size solar and wind turbine set up that you and Mike have, except his house was a refurbished 100 year old farm house in Canada. With your house being mostly surrounded by earth, not to mention a milder climate, you should be fine with your power generating vs usage.
Good morning everyone and thank you for all the wonderful comments. We really appreciate it.
Chapter 11 Week of July 28, 2008
To start off with I just want to share a couple of pictures I got this morning.
This is Niki with #65(tag). They have already met.
Niki meeting #6b for the first time.
All of them together.
I just thought those were cute and had to share.
OK, back to our story.
Monday-
We finally got back to doing some construction on the house. This week we are having spray foam insulation done so "we have" to close up the house. We only have the eaves left but we have been so busy that we never got back to them. We were determined to get this job done "today" unfortunately it was a Murphy's Law day. Things just didn't go right. Nothing went well for Mike and he ad all kinds of problems with drills and screws. While he was definitely not having fun I just kept quietly helping him. We had to measure and cut the boards, then Mike would climb up the ladder with the drill, and I would hand him the board to install. I stood at the bottom of the ladder with a pole raised above my head and held the board in place while Mike screwed it in. It wouldn't have been a bad morning except Mike had a bad drill bit and it gave him trouble all morning.
Installing the eaves.
We finally finished that job and went inside to get out of the heat. Later that day Mike's daughter, Nicole and grandson A.J., stopped by. A.J. is 10 and he wanted to know where the rest of the house was. I think it must be hard for kids to visualize how the house will be when there are no walls up yet. Howard's granddaughter also thought it was small. We had a nice visit but we had to rush them out because Mike and I had to get to our other property to mow. We left to go mow and as soon as we got to town the sky turned black(rain) not a good thing so we had to turn around and come home.
While it was raining Mike and I went back down to the house to change out one of the electrical panels. It kept popping fuses so we changed it to a 60amp box and Mike re-did all the wiring. This should have been a quick job but of course it took longer than expected.
Tuesday-
Mike started the day by getting the other 3 solar panels and the two brackets and put them on the roof. We decided to bolt the panels to the brackets right on the roof. This way we wouldn't have to carry all 3 of them together and then have to lug them up on the roof.
Our set up for installing the brackets to the panels.
We were short 3 stainless steel washers so we had to drive to David's and pick them up. I hate it when you run out of something so small. When we got home we were able to finish the job. We finished bolting the solar panels to the brackets, then siliconed and drilled in bolts from the top of the roof to the inside. Then Mike went down inside the house pulled the bolts tight and put washers and nuts on. We finally have all 6 panels on the roof (this is all we have right now).
A picture of our panels and wind generator taken from the roof of the motorhome.
We also picked up two 60amp fuses and Mike put them in the box. He is running his circular saw from our own power and we didn't pop any fuses. Woo Hoo.
Here is a picture of our wind generator spinning. I wish I knew how to show it to you while it is moving.
It is really cool and I love the sound it makes.
Mike also graded the walkway on the side of the house, again.
Everytime it rains we get ruts in the walkway. We aren't sure what we are doing with that section yet. For now I guess we will either put curlex on it or add some gravel just to keep the walkway from washing out.
Mike then took the tractor down to the house and loaded everything from the inside of the house into the bucket of the tractor. We have to empty the house out because the spray foam insulation is being done in the morning. While Mike was busy doing that I started painting (primer coat) the eaves that we installed. This ws not fun at all. First of all I had to be 10 feet high on the ladder, which you all know I don't like, and then I had to paint above my head. This is a definite recipe for disaster and what does Mike say to me? "Don't get paint on the ladder". I'm worried about falling off the ladder and he's worried about the paint. So I covered the ladder with an old sheet to protect it. I got about half done.
Mike told me to take a break because we have to go mow in a few hours.
Later that afternoon we finally got over to our other property and we were able to mow and weedeat. It seems to take us about 2 hours each week just to do the minimum. Mike hates having to go back there and do this but we have to. When we got back home we made it up our whole road without 4-wheel drive. It's time to celebrate. Our roads are getting better but of course they still need a lot more work.
Wednesday
This is a big day for us. The spray foam insulation is getting done, then our house will be completely sealed and we can start on the interior construction. YTat's our favorite part of building. Then you can really see things getting done.
The insulation company showed up on tiome, actually a little early and they got to work right away. While Mike and I emptied the house with help from one of their crew, the rest of them got everthing set up. They covered our doors and our electrical with plastic to keep it all protected from any overspray and they got all their equipment set up.
This is one of them just starting to spray in the insulation.
The material we are using is called Apex Earthseal Foam 1.8lb which is a closed cell insulation. That means it drys "hard", is waterproof, and it is a vapor barrier. It is the highest renewable resource content of any spray foam, adds structual strength, decreases energy costs by 60%, improves indoor air quality, eliminates air infiltration, and more.
It's pretty amazing stuff. This is it on our ceilings.
Spraying it our front wall. Check it out.
And
This is the front wall and ceiling.
Once again we got lucky with our contractor. They did an excellent job even more than expected. They were testing a new spray gun and we actually got more insulation than planned. Thank you Clay. Good job and "Happy Belated Birthday" if you are reading this.
They also did a good job of cleaning everything up after they were done. They scraped all the floors and took all their garbage with them.
During that time I was back up on the ladder trying to finish the eaves.
Ahh. Finally done.
It was a hazy morning but Mike took a picture from the roof of the motorhome.
It was a really good day. The house is sealed up like a drum and now we can start working on interior walls. Mike just has to order the lumber.
After dinner Mike and I took our first walk "together" since we moved here. We have been so busy working that we haven't gone exploring. We started walking the fence line to the front of the property. At times it got steep but we made it down through the woods and to the front gate. We have tons of apple trees and some blackberry bushes. From the gate it's a long way back to the top. We started walking up our road, passed the cows by the barn, and started picking up rocks and throwing them into the ditch. About 1000 rocks later we made it to the top of our hill. If we did this every night we would be in great shape.
That's pretty much what we did for the past 3 days. Mike said we could take a day off now that the house is completely sealed up. We'll see. He already made the lumber list and it's "big".
We hope you are enjoyiung our story. Have a great day.
Lisa and Mike
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,I am alittle leary of walking by them, but I DO LOVE watching them and hearing them, and my famly makes fun of me because I like the smell of them,to me it's nature 
.I would love to live next to them.Oh, I am sorry about mixing up the ponds.I have small preformed one,I had 2 preformed bigger ones when I lived in NJ.I left all my fish in them when I sold.I was kind of sad of that.One day I would like to touch a cow and get close,(no I never have before)
Then I read your adventure and I feel like a wuss. 
How did you find such a beautiful piece of property
