It's Electrifying!

   I love the fact that our land is "off the beaten path", out of the way, and a little hard to get to. But when it came to getting power out there, holy crap it was hard!

   Apart from the endless back and forth conversations and emails that my sister had to endure with the local engineer and surveyor to make sure that we were covered logistically, the physical labor was taxing... that word doesn't even sum it up.  As for costs, the power company was going to supply poles to get to our land, and all of the wire we needed to make the 800'+ run underground to our transformers. As for the conduit ($1600.00) and digging, we were on our own.

   Once logistics were solved, it was time to start the hard stuff. We could have hired someone to dig the 52" deep trench, but it would have cost us close to $2k to have it done and we would still have to assemble the conduit. So we chose to rent the equipment and put in the "sweat" equity, emphasis on sweat! Keep in mind, this is early September in south Alabama. Since my schedule was the most flexible, I chose to spearhead the work to get it done as fast as possible, well sort of. In my first partial day on the Terramite T7, I was able to do only about 30-40 feet in 3 hours. I was praying that I could make this go faster as I got more comfortable on the backhoe, because at this pace it was going to take forever.

That was about 3 hours in.

the next day was much better, and I was able to knock out about 150' that day.

This was taken mid-way through day 2.

Day 3 is when I really found my groove, and destroyed over 200' despite having to fight a lot of roots and 3 stumps. But by this point, my butt was so sore from sitting on the backhoe for most of the day with very few breaks.

It's hard to see, but I started way down just before it turns, and kept moving until sundown.

Day 4 was Saturday, which meant soccer had priority over work. By the time I got out there it was already 12:30. But, brother-in-law came out shortly after me and took over digging. I took this opportunity get some conduit put together. Of course, that was so easy. I was able to assemble 53 runs of 3"x10' conduit in about an hour, but had to stop because I was waiting for us to finish the ditch. 

   Take this lesson from me, schedule 40 conduit filled with nothing but air is very buoyant. If there is water in your trench, you have a few options; put something heavy on the conduit and throw enough dirt on it to hold it down, strap on the waders or mud boots and stand on it while dragging dirt in the trench with you, or get a sump pump to move the water out. Not having any of the above, my stupid self left it to deal with later, praying it would dry up, yeah right! Another note, when you put conduit in a trench, be ready to fill it back in IMMEDIATELY. I left it open until the end, and I'm sorry I did. Not only did the rain compact and harden the piles of clay, but on the day I was pushing everything back in, it rained so hard that the conduit was floating less than 2' deep when it was supposed to be 48" deep. For those who would think, "just push the dirt in on top of it, it will sink." you probably slept through high school science and physics. I'll let someone else explain it to you. The other issue with the rain, was that this backhoe was not equipped with tracks, man could have used one with tracks.

   Back on track to day 5. After church I headed out to the land. My brother-in-law calls me over and points to the right rigger and says "watch". Now, I know hydraulic systems are usually a little leaky, but this was like a small geyser spraying out of one of the knuckles. Did we stop, NO! We had work to do. So he went and got hydro oil and I babied the riggers as long as I could. Until it went dry... We dumped 2 gallons into it and I kept on trucking. Still taking it easy on the rigger, it made digging a little harder. The next day, I got her returned to to good folks at Blue Rents and they had it fixed in a few days and back to me to finish up. 

   That day it rained was such a setback, I had cave-ins and conduit floating in several places. I devoted hours to re-digging areas, pinning down conduit with the bucket and dumping dirt in by hand, and fixing separated pipes. Let's talk about re-digging areas on a trench. Take it from me, you do not want to park the heavy end of a 4,000 machine on the edge of a 4 foot deep hole. It's not a fun feeling.

   In the end, 3 temporary power poles were up, inspected, and a week later, the power company was out there putting their poles up and running wires!

Why I needed tracks.

Temporary power pole.

poles and wire finally going in.

A transformer! We finally have transformers!

Water!

   There are three essential utilities that we needed to tackle next; power, water, and sewage.  I'll back track to the power once that is complete.

   As we discussed our water options, there are only 2 options; county water (available in our area), or well water.  Now, because of the self sufficiency of a well, that was my first choice, but the family out voted me by 2 to 1 for county water. While wells had a higher upfront cost, company water was going to cost us in the long run, and in the wake of the West Virginia water contamination debacle, I was strongly urging us to go with wells.  As logistics unfolded, we learned that the water company in our area draws their water from 5 different wells, additionally they stated that they would have to place our meters at the edge of our property, as they would not come onto private property to read a meter. Why was this such a big deal? Anyone with expereince in a field relative to home construction or repair can tell you that running water lines 300'-500' is not only a pain, but it is also costly. Add in the $1200 meter and other hook up costs from the water company, and it was starting to make drilling a well look  like a wise financial idea.

So after some back and forth with a local drilling company and my family, I initiated the process of drilling our three wells.  Since I did a lot of the leg work with this and I was out there first to spectate when they arrived on Friday, we started with our well. It had been a rainy week and they ended up getting their big drilling truck stuck in the mud trying to get it on-site. So they pull out this slow, little "mud slinger" on a track system, to which I gave a little chuckle, as I knew what they were about to do. I promise you, this little thing that couldn't be bigger than Mini Cooper, but sure enough, they hooked it up to this giant diesel truck and pulled it out of the mud, and made it look easy.

   After getting set up, they started drilling. If you've never seen a well get drilled, you're not missing anything. Honestly the highlight was when they were cleaning it out and the pipe cap poped of and sprayed water everywhere. Of course, that was the moment when all of us had just put our cameras away.

So, after drilling 63' they stopped and put PVC down the hole and cleaned the well, only to discover that the water table was only 11'. Since it was not good enough, the expert decided to keep drilling. As a handyman it was almost disheartening to see them pull 64' of 4" PVC and cut it just before every collar. Thankfully, I learned today how they were able to salvage those collared ends of the pipe. I digress. Once they got back to drilling, I decided to get back to work myself and wandered off to continue digging for electrical conduit. I guess I shouldn't have left them alone, as we were paying by the foot after 65'. By about the 15th time checking their progress, I really left them alone this time. So once I saw them moving their equipment to the next lot, I walked over. This was the kick in the pants I was not expecting, yet fearing based on how long it was taking. So I asked, 123'! They went an additional 60', what! I mean at 123' I think my water is imported by the time I get it up and to my lips. They tell me that was just what 'mother nature' required, stating that they were still getting sand, and hit "a rock" at 123'. Half joking, and 100% serious I said, "You probably hit bedrock", they agreed. But after they checked the water table, we have water at 63'. For those who can't add, 60' is one heck of a well. The question is, is the well half full, or half empty?

All joking aside, these guys did a fantastic job, and I cannot wait to try the water. At 123' it better taste like a pure, Austrailian waterfall.

In The Beginning

  Being a year into this journey I struggled with where and what to start with, so I figure we'll just start at the beginning, like Star Wars Episode I, except without Jar Jar Binks.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... Just kidding.

   This all started with my father's vision of having a family compound and farm for him to retire on here in the Alabama gulf coast. When we were all approached about the opportunity and he pitched his vision to us, my older sister and I (and our spouses) were the only ones truly interested in taking part. So the search began for a piece of property large enough for my parents, and us five children and our families (just in case the other decided that they wanted to join us).  He started looking for something around 40 acres, which would be plenty of room for 4 houses, farm land, pastures, orchards, greenhouses, hunting preserve, and a hardwood forest.  And a creek was also a plus.  I know, thats a lot for 40 acres, but it can be done, we've seen family homesteads on less than an acre.

   The first 40 that we looked at was beautiful, very picturesque with a house, hunting grounds, out-building, shed, and even a creek. After walking around, we all liked it, but it wasn't quite the one. Since we had all gotten our hopes up for the first one he showed us (I tend to see something or catch a vision and run away with it, and of course I'm disappointed when it doesn't happen like I imagined it), I asked that they not show us one until they were ready, after all, it was their money, their retirement, and their legacy to pass on.

   The next one we looked at was a blank slate if you would, it had a "creek" in the wetland area, and a little hunting plot. They originally talked about just buying 20 acres, but when it was all said and done, my dad was convinced that we needed 40. I'm glad he went with more, it will give us more room to do everything we want. 

   They made the purchase in the late spring/early summer of 2013. Since then we started by planning divisions, marking lots, posting "no trespassing" signs, exploring, and began the VERY strenuous and stupid process of trying to clear thick underbrush with machetes and other hand and gas tools. It was like trying to kill an elephant with a pellet gun or chopping down the mightiest tree in the forest using a herring. One day my brother and I managed to cut a 20' wide, 200'+ long path/road with gas powered weed wackers with a the brush cutter attachment in about 4 hours. After taking pictures, we heard, "that's it?" as if we were just piddling around the whole time. If this was a deciduous forest, it would have been no problem, we could have cleared this with a few chainsaws, but this was thick innertwined underbrush, in the middle of an Alabama summer, in pants and long sleeves! It wasn't just hard, it was stupid. Eventually we dug into our pockets and hired some experts to do some clearing for us. 

The next phase was to look at setting up essentials like power and water. Stay tuned...

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! We wanted to start this to document, record, and share insights about our homesteading adventures. As it stands we are beginning the process of creating a place to call home.

Over a year ago 40 acres were purchased, of which we were given a little over an acre to do with as we please.  In the last year we have been through the tedious process of clearing underbrush, cutting down trees, making roads, and building gates.

My eventually goal is for my family and I to create a completely self-sufficient or nearly self-sufficient homestead here in the heart of the gulf coast, complete with rabbits, chickens, goats, cows, sheep, bees, huge gardens, orchards, greenhouses, and even aquaponics, and much more. Of course everything will be non-GMO and organic.

Thanks for checking out our blog and following it, there will be plenty more to come as we continue getting all of the essentials and build.

Blessings,
Gulf Coast Pioneers