# I did it!



## Green Lilly (Nov 8, 2018)

Awhile back I mentioned on one of the threads that we were looking to sell our current house and purchase a home with more land and more out of the way. This is something I have been gearing up for in the last couple of years. It was my biggest goal and we finally did it. We sold our awesome house that was only on a half acre and surrounded by development and purchased another home that's on six acres and mostly surrounded by farms. Due to my work I couldn't get out of the area completely but I feel like this change will give us a much better chance during rough times. 

The new house is a bit of a down grade compared to the other one but with the land, I now have more options in being self reliant. An acre of it is cleared and the rest wooded. I have already built the new chicken coop and cleared a couple pines. I ordered fruit trees and purchased raspberry and blueberry bushes. I also ordered the greenhouse and will be building the shed this week. I will work this fall to build my raised beds. There is a lot to do and I am looking at everything with a "being prepared" mindset.

I also wanted to tell you guys that I am really glad to have found these boards. I lurked for a long time before being brave enough to actually signing up and interacting. You guys are a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate the time you all take to help folks like me.


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## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

That's awesome and a giant step in the right direction. A fancy house is nice but nothing compared to being self sufficient. Plus you can't beat the feeling of shaping a property to suit your needs and wants. Instead of living with the sheep in town. 

Now get out there meet and make friends with those new neighbors.


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## Marica (May 5, 2019)

That is so awesome. Good job! Don't forget to put in your own firing range. Nothing quite like plinking on your own property.

We are coming up on 10 years on our 60 acre farm. Lots of work. Lots of work. But I sit here at my desk and look at what's going on in the world, or travel to a city like Seattle or Atlanta or (God forbid) Chicago, and I wouldn't trade being here for anything. 

Good luck! Don't forget to look at the night sky. I'll bet it's considerably more awe-inspiring than what you saw in the city.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

Great job! Good for you.


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## JustAnotherNut (Feb 27, 2017)

Have you considered in ground gardening with raised soil beds? Beds without hard structure sides?

If your garden spot is sloped at all, or even if it's not......just dig trenches and heap that soil to create the beds. Those trenches (or swales in permaculture) help trap the water & nutrients and feed it at the roots where the plants need it and prevent run off. Using mulch on top of the soil in both the pathways/trenches and the raised plantings help conserve moisture and cut down on weeds

This guy has some great ideas on permaculture and on a grand scale as he has done some projects like greening of the desert... https://www.geofflawtononline.com/

Either way......best of luck in your endeavors


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## Green Lilly (Nov 8, 2018)

Thanks everyone. This property is literally a blank slate. No infrastructure except a rain collection system that is stored in an underground tank. I will be a busy bee for quite awhile. If anyone has any tips or anything they would like to share when getting started from the ground up, all will be appreciated.

FYI- I already have plans to order some Slippy pikes so that part is covered. :vs_lol:


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## dwight55 (Nov 9, 2012)

Good on you for your "move", . . . you'll love it. I seriously enjoy sitting out on the front porch sometimes, . . . coffee in hand, . . . the only noise I hear is the flutter of the flag on our flag pole. Congratulations on having the opportunity and seizing it as well.

One of the first things we did when we got our 10 acres, . . . almost 25 yrs ago, . . . was build a small dirt mound where we could plink at short distances, . . . and just have fun when the "city" folks came out.

It has been really fun, . . . plus when I'm having a bad day, . . . dropping a half dozen mags from a .22 Buckmark, . . . somehow helps the day. Got to concentrate on those sights for good groups, . . . so the other stuff gets shoved out of the brain hard drive for a while, . . . later it only comes back in pieces, . . . not all at once.

May God bless,
Dwight


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## Marica (May 5, 2019)

Green Lilly said:


> Thanks everyone. This property is literally a blank slate. No infrastructure except a rain collection system that is stored in an underground tank. I will be a busy bee for quite awhile. If anyone has any tips or anything they would like to share when getting started from the ground up, all will be appreciated.
> 
> FYI- I already have plans to order some Slippy pikes so that part is covered. :vs_lol:


One of the first things I did was to establish an asparagus bed. Takes a few years before you can harvest but boy is fresh asparagus delicious.

I'd also recommend looking into how frequently the power goes out *at your house*. Don't know how rural you are or who your provider is but it's useful to know in terms of prioritizing your preps. Most companies either have these data or will send someone out to do a detailed meter reading which will show how often the power blips. First thing a new neighbor asked was if we had a generator yet. That was a clue!

Also-- and excuse if you already know this-- redundancy is key. How many different sources of energy do you have to boil water? Because you can't make coffee without boiling water!


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Congrats, that's wonderful and I forgive you for getting a better location before me! :tango_face_wink:


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## Green Lilly (Nov 8, 2018)

dwight55 said:


> Good on you for your "move", . . . you'll love it. I seriously enjoy sitting out on the front porch sometimes, . . . coffee in hand, . . . the only noise I hear is the flutter of the flag on our flag pole. Congratulations on having the opportunity and seizing it as well.
> 
> One of the first things we did when we got our 10 acres, . . . almost 25 yrs ago, . . . was build a small dirt mound where we could plink at short distances, . . . and just have fun when the "city" folks came out.
> 
> ...


Yes Dwight, one of the first things I noticed on the first morning after we moved in was the quiet. I was sitting on my back porch, coffee in hand and I could hear the distant mooing of one of my neighbors cows. I had a sense of peace settle over me that I have not felt for a long time.


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## Green Lilly (Nov 8, 2018)

Marica said:


> One of the first things I did was to establish an asparagus bed. Takes a few years before you can harvest but boy is fresh asparagus delicious.
> 
> I'd also recommend looking into how frequently the power goes out *at your house*. Don't know how rural you are or who your provider is but it's useful to know in terms of prioritizing your preps. Most companies either have these data or will send someone out to do a detailed meter reading which will show how often the power blips. First thing a new neighbor asked was if we had a generator yet. That was a clue!
> 
> Also-- and excuse if you already know this-- redundancy is key. How many different sources of energy do you have to boil water? Because you can't make coffee without boiling water!


Yes Marica! I have been eyeballing different asparagus plants to see what will work best in my area. I already have a spot picked out.

I would be lost without coffee for sure! This house does not have a wood stove or fireplace so one of the things we are adding is a wood stove with a cooktop for just the purpose of being a back up source of not only heating but boiling/ cooking. We are meeting with the fireplace vendor this week to look at options.

I agree about redundancy. I try to think, how would I do this certain thing...say if the power went out or the well failed. I have been talking with Elvis about solar options for my well. That is one of the things that really bothers me, access to potable water.

I will need to check about the power and that is a good thought! We have a small generator but it wouldn't power too much. The development I lived in before was one of the ones that got power back really quick after an outage. It didn't cross my mind not getting it back fast now that I am further out. Thanks for that!


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Green Lilly said:


> Awhile back I mentioned on one of the threads that we were looking to sell our current house and purchase a home with more land and more out of the way. This is something I have been gearing up for in the last couple of years. It was my biggest goal and we finally did it. We sold our awesome house that was only on a half acre and surrounded by development and purchased another home that's on six acres and mostly surrounded by farms. Due to my work I couldn't get out of the area completely but I feel like this change will give us a much better chance during rough times.
> 
> The new house is a bit of a down grade compared to the other one but with the land, I now have more options in being self reliant. An acre of it is cleared and the rest wooded. I have already built the new chicken coop and cleared a couple pines. I ordered fruit trees and purchased raspberry and blueberry bushes. I also ordered the greenhouse and will be building the shed this week. I will work this fall to build my raised beds. There is a lot to do and I am looking at everything with a "being prepared" mindset.
> 
> I also wanted to tell you guys that I am really glad to have found these boards. I lurked for a long time before being brave enough to actually signing up and interacting. You guys are a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate the time you all take to help folks like me.


Goods news congrats. I used to have an old pal with a few acres. He said he outlned the outter propertry line with grape vines on a drip system and allowed to grow onto a 4 foot section of hog wire mounted on a Metal Tee post and trimmed up occaionally to fit the wire. He let old ladies come out and pick grapes and made enough to pay his taxes and such things. Sounded like a good plan to me. Doesnt interfere with anything going on in the interior of the property. This link here looks pretty informative if you get interested. 
https://www.gardenguides.com/93361-build-wire-grape-trellis.html


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## dwight55 (Nov 9, 2012)

Green Lilly said:


> Yes Dwight, one of the first things I noticed on the first morning after we moved in was the quiet. I was sitting on my back porch, coffee in hand and I could hear the distant mooing of one of my neighbors cows. I had a sense of peace settle over me that I have not felt for a long time.


Let me make another suggestion: get one of these and a fairly good size 12 volt truck battery.

https://www.harborfreight.com/autom...-modified-sine-wave-power-inverter-63432.html

And then go throughout the house, . . . change every bulb over to an LED bulb.

You can then (when the power goes out) fix up a couple of your circuits in the house for lights, . . . and when the power goes off for a short time, . . . you don't want to fool with the generator (or don't have one), . . . you simply plug this little doohickey in and presto, . . . lights in abundance.

PM me if you are seriously interested, . . . I'll give you the rest of the info on what you need to do, . . . but you can do it yourself, . . . in an afternoon, . . . for only a few bucks, . . . and you can do like my wife and I do . . . if the power goes out, we plug this in, . . . and if it gets late, we just go to bed.

The next morning, if necessary we can hit the generator, . . . but so far we have not had to, . . . power came back on in time.

May God bless,
Dwight


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## Marica (May 5, 2019)

> We have a small generator but it wouldn't power too much.











Our generator lives in the garage but we pull it around to the covered patio that's between the house and another structure that we call the bunkhouse. We mainly use it to keep the fridges and deep freezers powered up, etc. But one year we had a power outage that lasted for six days I think. 8" of snow which I know is nothing in the north but it's debilitating in Mississippi. This forced us to move from the house to the bunkhouse b/c there's a wall unit propane heater in there (redundancy). We basically set up house here-- there's a sort of mini-kitchen & full bath so we were good.

The one serious piece of advise for you if you do wind up getting a bigger generator is don't be me when that snow storm hit. As you say, what if? Think ahead to where the generator will be, what loads it can take for running various appliances (check online), most importantly, how the things that will be running (or cycling through running) will be connected. What lengths of heavy duty extension cords do you need for your generator network? Where does the main cord enter the house (especially if it's really cold). How many splitters will you need to go off into different areas of your home? Don't forget to include a "power station" for your gadgets & gizmos (or use solar power station batteries like Jackery and others sell).

After the snow melted and I could get to town, the first thing I did was create a little schematic showing exactly what was going where, determined what extension cords etc. we'd need, and went and got all new stuff. Then I labeled the cords indicating length. And all of this went into one specific tub inside but near where the generator would go. The extension cords do NOT get used for other purposes. The schematic is in the tub, in the flashlight tub, and on the fridge.

Works so well our two sons-in-law-- who had never set up the network-- had us up & running in 15 minutes once. Daughter 2 worked with John to cook an oven meal on the stove top, Daughter 1 tweeked things to get some nice lighting, and we were having a normal family dinner at the dining room table in an hour. And all b/c I hadn't planned properly before the snow storm!

EDIT: My god I prattled on. Sorry.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Excellent @Green Lilly

Keep us up to date on your projects and when you're ready for Gen-U-Wine SlippyMade Pikes, we got your covered!


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## Green Lilly (Nov 8, 2018)

Dwight- I will reach out. I definitely would like to have something like that in place.

Marica- That is a great idea! I like how everything is for that purpose and easily found in one place. I will do something similar. I would definitely not want to lose what we have in the freezer. If I had a gen set up that could power that through a short outage as well as long enough during a long term event that I could can or dehydrate whats in there I would be a happy girl.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

Your property sounds like it is rural. If so, do you have an oil furnace? One consideration for a generator selection is that if you get a military surplus generator, you can use your furnace fuel. It’s nice to have 250 gallons of diesel fuel in my furnace oil tank. The milsurp units will run on furnace oil which is usually nothing more than high sulfur diesel oil. I’m pretty sure that any of the new diesel generators marketed to homeowners for standby power will require low sulfur diesel.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Heard diesel generators are cool but pricey. Most of the yups I know who bought big pusher MHs wound up wih propane generatos to save a few buck I guess. Now think we did decide one time that diesel can detererate with age...but it dont bother propane to set too long. Whats the time limit on diesel? Thanks.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

I put diesel additive and biocide in my furnace fuel tank every year. Should be good for 2 to maybe 3 years. Military generators are pretty tolerant and can run on some pretty nasty fuel. Propane doesn’t deteriorate with time but propane has fewer BTUs per gallon than gasoline. So if you by a 2 kw gas genny and convert it to run on propane, it’s capacity will be less than 2 kw. 

I have a Honda generator I converted to run on gas or propane. I also have a milsurp diesel genny so I can burn gas, propane, diesel, or furnace oil. I also have solar panels so I have everything covered.


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## JustAnotherNut (Feb 27, 2017)

Green Lilly said:


> Dwight- I will reach out. I definitely would like to have something like that in place.
> 
> Marica- That is a great idea! I like how everything is for that purpose and easily found in one place. I will do something similar. I would definitely not want to lose what we have in the freezer. If I had a gen set up that could power that through a short outage as well as long enough during a long term event that I could can or dehydrate whats in there I would be a happy girl.


Depending on which type of freezer you have.....food will stay frozen for a couple days for uprights and possibly up to a week for chests. Even the fridge freezer will stay cold for up to 6-8 hours and the fridge for 3 or 4 hours. You just have to remember, every time you open the door...cold gets out & heat gets in. So if you get into those appliances often.....then they won't stay frozen as long.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

During Sandy the lines at the gas station were around the block. As I remember a fight broke out. Everyone was needing to feed their generators.


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## Marica (May 5, 2019)

Annie said:


> During Sandy the lines at the gas station were around the block. As I remember a fight broke out. Everyone was needing to feed their generators.
> 
> View attachment 99737


Good point. Be sure to have enough gas on hand! It's hard to find definitive information on run time per gallon b/c so many things factor into the calculation-- size of the load, kind of gas (USE ONLY NON-ETHANOL), efficiency of the generator itself (people claim Chinese generators are not efficient), etc. The internet is not good for trying to figure some things out b/c everyone just repeats what everyone else said. That said, people claim that at 1/2 load a 5500W generator will consume 18 gals/24 hrs. but that's running continuously. If that's correct, it's 0.75 gals /hr. So if you had, say, 6 5-gal tanks of non-ethanol gas, that'd be 40hrs. with a half load of 2750W which is actually quite a lot unless you're running a window unit A/C or electric space heaters.

And like someone said, deep freezers and fridges stay cold if left unopened.

What do y'all think? How long-- in real life where you're only running the the generator periodically while you're awake (so not at all at night)-- would 30 gals last you?


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## JustAnotherNut (Feb 27, 2017)

Marica said:


> Good point. Be sure to have enough gas on hand! It's hard to find definitive information on run time per gallon b/c so many things factor into the calculation-- size of the load, kind of gas (USE ONLY NON-ETHANOL), efficiency of the generator itself (people claim Chinese generators are not efficient), etc. The internet is not good for trying to figure some things out b/c everyone just repeats what everyone else said. That said, people claim that at 1/2 load a 5500W generator will consume 18 gals/24 hrs. but that's running continuously. If that's correct, it's 0.75 gals /hr. So if you had, say, 6 5-gal tanks of non-ethanol gas, that'd be 40hrs. with a half load of 2750W which is actually quite a lot unless you're running a window unit A/C or electric space heaters.
> 
> And like someone said, deep freezers and fridges stay cold if left unopened.
> 
> What do y'all think? How long-- in real life where you're only running the the generator periodically while you're awake (so not at all at night)-- would 30 gals last you?


We have a small Makita generator that would probably only be used for the freezers for a couple hours at a time, every few days or so. So 30 gals would last us awhile, I would think. We also have a woodstove for heat & cooking, and a camp stove and plenty of flashlights & fresh batteries, candles and lanterns, along with a big mirror that if need be can be set up to reflect more light. But generally, when it gets dark, go to bed. During the day, open the curtains for natural light.

Where we live now, our power has only been out for a few hours at a time and it hasn't been necessary to pull out and set up all the emergency gear......but where we used to live, we had lost power for days at a time with a 10 day stretch one winter. We shoveled snow into buckets to melt by the stove just to flush the toilet and wash dishes, and had to go to town for drinking water. We had had a woodstove then as well.


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

Congrats on the purchase! It's always fun to start with a clean slate. When considering a generator I would suggest a duel fuel that runs on both gas and propane. I keep gas on hand but I have to rotate it. Propane is easier to store and lasts forever if you maintain the container. I sized mine to be able to run the whole house except the ac units, for that I got portables. Just picked up a smaller portable generator that runs on gas only for emergency backup. I live in hurricane territory so I thought it prudent to have a spare.

Congrats again.


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## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

welcome to the dream..
we only have two acres, but it is good for us.


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

Green Lilly said:


> Awhile back I mentioned on one of the threads that we were looking to sell our current house and purchase a home with more land and more out of the way. This is something I have been gearing up for in the last couple of years. It was my biggest goal and we finally did it. We sold our awesome house that was only on a half acre and surrounded by development and purchased another home that's on six acres and mostly surrounded by farms. Due to my work I couldn't get out of the area completely but I feel like this change will give us a much better chance during rough times.
> 
> The new house is a bit of a down grade compared to the other one but with the land, I now have more options in being self reliant. An acre of it is cleared and the rest wooded. I have already built the new chicken coop and cleared a couple pines. I ordered fruit trees and purchased raspberry and blueberry bushes. I also ordered the greenhouse and will be building the shed this week. I will work this fall to build my raised beds. There is a lot to do and I am looking at everything with a "being prepared" mindset.
> 
> I also wanted to tell you guys that I am really glad to have found these boards. I lurked for a long time before being brave enough to actually signing up and interacting. You guys are a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate the time you all take to help folks like me.


Glad you stopped lurking.


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

dwight55 said:


> Let me make another suggestion: get one of these and a fairly good size 12 volt truck battery.
> 
> https://www.harborfreight.com/autom...-modified-sine-wave-power-inverter-63432.html
> 
> ...


Dwight, can you do a post on this? I am interested in how you wired it to the breaker box. I have a 2000 watt model that I plan on using as a back up but have not got to the figuring out part yet.


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## dwight55 (Nov 9, 2012)

MaterielGeneral said:


> Dwight, can you do a post on this? I am interested in how you wired it to the breaker box. I have a 2000 watt model that I plan on using as a back up but have not got to the figuring out part yet.


I'll start a new thread . . . "Using Inverter Power for Emergencies"

May God bless,
Dwight


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