# Lifestyles & Discussion > Freedom Living >  Going to be Semi- off grid for a couple of months (VIDEOS ADDED)

## Schifference

Pulling an old Jayco Camping trailer to South Carolina where I purchased a dilapidated old house that needs lots of work. I plan on living in camper a couple of months this fall and a couple more in the spring. Refrigeration will be small. I don't want to spend lots of time or energy on food.

I decided to purchase a pressure cooker canner and some canning jars. I am going to can meat, soup, and other meals before I leave. I think if I can have good homemade food ready to eat that doesn't need refrigeration I will be living large!

I plan to have electricity turned on at the property and am hoping to run a 50 amp cord to the camper. Should have plenty of power. Water could be the big issue. I have been told that there are 2 wells but I don't think either one is in service at this time. It is one thing to get drinking water at a store but another to have to haul water for washing and other things. I am hoping that I can get a well working quickly even if it is just to shower or wash clothing. 

I will go there with my wife for a week or so and try to get a few things set up and leave the camper. Then I will return home and drive a smaller vehicle and tow an auto trailer that I already have so I can use it for supplies and such. The vehicle I will use is a 1997 4Runner that tows a boat fine but will probably not tow or move that heavy Jayco.

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## XNavyNuke

Good for you! Looking forward to reading the updates.

XNN

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## angelatc

This is so cool.  I wish I could get my husband to do something like this.

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## oyarde

Have fun .

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## Suzanimal

> This is so cool.  I wish I could get my husband to do something like this.


You can take mine. He'd do it in a heartbeat. I'd need water and electricity before I even considered attempting that.

Best of luck to ya, Shiff!

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## Danke

> You can take mine. He'd do it in a heartbeat. I'd need water and electricity before I even considered attempting that.
> 
> Best of luck to ya, Shiff!


my homes have all the modern amenities.

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## Schifference

I will not be leaving for a two weeks.
I just ordered the pressure canner and supplies and I have lots of things to wrap up around here before I leave. One of our tenants was evicted at beginning of August and the huge apartment needed a makeover. 
My wife will only be with me for the first week or so. We will go there and hopefully get set up some. We will return home and she will return to her paying job and I will go back to South Carolina. As mentioned this property needs lots of work. This is a long term plan to move there. So I plan to work spring and fall for several years to make that house a home. 
I never did any canning. I was looking into getting dehydrated prep food but opted to get the canning equipment. One serving of dehydrated meat is 24 grams. Yes I understand that a huge portion of water has been dehydrated but the cost seems pretty expensive. Then after reconstituting it I would have to make it into a meal. I think with the canning, I can open it up and eat. I also think we can use the canning all year.

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## William Tell

Awesome. Just be careful with canning things like meat. It's great if you do it right but if you do it wrong it can kill you. Make sure you know what you are doing.

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## Schifference

> Awesome. Just be careful with canning things like meat. It's great if you do it right but if you do it wrong it can kill you. Make sure you know what you are doing.


Seems pretty straight forward. Purchased a pressure canner. It seems like you can just dice, slice, or cube it. Leave it on the bone or take it off. Loosely fill jar and don't even have to add liquid. Pressure can quarts for 90 minutes when below 1000 feet altitude.

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## William Tell

> Seems pretty straight forward. Purchased a pressure canner. It seems like you can just dice, slice, or cube it. Leave it on the bone or take it off. Loosely fill jar and don't even have to add liquid. Pressure can quarts for 90 minutes when below 1000 feet altitude.


Just do it right, have everything clean and sterilized and don't get botulism and you should be good.

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## angelatc

> You can take mine. He'd do it in a heartbeat. I'd need water and electricity before I even considered attempting that.
> 
> Best of luck to ya, Shiff!


I;d rather keep my husband at home making money, and I'll go down and do the rehabby stuff.  He's much more likely to freak about not having water or power than I am.

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## opal

It's still summer for a while in SC.. when you get there, throw a couple seed packets of marigolds around.. should keep some of the bugs at bay when they come up.

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## oyarde

> Awesome. Just be careful with canning things like meat. It's great if you do it right but if you do it wrong it can kill you. Make sure you know what you are doing.


Ya , better to let the squaw dehydrate it .

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## Schifference

The pressure canner and all the other stuff arrived this week. Went out and purchased the least expensive beef I could find I think it was eye round, some cheap pork loin $1.89# and some chicken breast. Got a little over 7# of each meat. I also bought some celery, onions, and baby carrots. I cut the celery, carrots, and onions and put them in the bottom of a quart jar. Then diced meat into bite size portions and crammed them into the jars. My wife took a container and dumped some spices into it and mixed them up then put some on top of each quart jar. No added water. A little while later we had jars of cooked food. They all sealed. We opened two of them and 4 people had dinner. The beef was super tender. I am going to be canning my butt off over the next few days. I plan to slaughter some of my rabbits. We also plan to can some meat only in pint jars. When we do the meat, we will spice them differently so they won't all taste the same. I am super excited about this pressure canner. This thing is awesome!

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## Schifference

Still alive after a couple of weeks of eating canned meat.

Found a water well with water in it. Water is only a little over 20 feet down the hole and about 12 feet deep. The well is encased in a 2' diameter cement prefabricated, stackable style column. I put a Harbor Freight shallow well pump with a check valve. After getting the pump primed I was able to get some water out. Problem is the pump reaches its maximum then won't pump any more water out. I can only pump about three feet of the water about 70 gallons from the well.

I am heading back there tomorrow for a couple of months. I have a submersible pump and tank I am going to hook up. I know the well produces. The area I am in is purported to be in an 11year drought and the well still has water. After pumping out 3 feet, the well refills in about half a day. My new neighbor, a nice 70 year old guy that has a farm in PA says he has drilled many wells. He says the longer a well sits the less it produces. He says that if I pump out a substantial amount of water from the well repeatedly the veins that supply the water will once again open up and refill the well faster. Considering that 70 gallons is only 1/4 of the water in the well, there is more than enough for me to get water and probably more than enough for the house. This is obviously an old school well and not a 300 foot drilled well but it is water! I plan to put a 10" canister style cartridge filter after the tank, and another small canister filter at point of use. The small filter I use to use under sinks on the cold water side. That cartridge is rated at removing everything as small as .1 Micron. That is right not 10 micron but .1 micron. I figure at first I will run the well and let it produce onto the ground for a few days without running it dry before putting any cartridges into any of the filters. 

The house is very appealing from the outside and is big but needs lots of work! All the first floor floors and joists are rotted and need replaced. I tore up all the carpet and rolled it up and put it off to the side. The kitchen first had hardwood floors that got bad so somebody put a layer of OSB and tile over it and then when that went bad they put another layer of OSB and carpet over that. After pulling up the carpet, I had rotten OSB. The 6x6 beams the house sits on are also bad in places. I plan to support the carrying walls from the ground to the ceilings. I will pour footings and put in concrete block piers. I plan to snap lines and cut the wall studs higher up and replace the 6x6 beams with tripple 2x12 and attach a new 2x6 to the bottom of the wall studs. After laying plastic on the crawlspace I will then put 2x8 floor joist attached to the top of the new 2x12 beams thus raising the floor. The house has rough sawn lumber sheeting both on the interior and exterior of all studs even interior walls and is still very plumb. They have wood paneling on all interior walls on top of original "Beaver Board." The original ceilings were over 9 feet from the floor and were also rough sawn wood covered with Beaver Board. In most rooms someone dropped the ceilings and put in drywall. When they did that they ran wiring for outlets, HVAC in the ceilings and then blew in 12" of insulation between the Beaver Board and the new drywall dropped ceiling. All that is going to be removed. Even when I raise my first floor I will have tall ceilings. 

The house has approximately 1600 square feet on the first floor and has the ability to have over 1000 square feet upstairs. When it was built 1923 I think, they never had living space on second floor. There are no stairs to get up there. The first floor ceiling joists/second floor floor joists are not adequate to support living space and will also need to be replaced. A large decorative dormer sits across much of the front of the house. The height to the peak of the roof is more than 13 feet from the second floor floor joists. I will plan to put in floor joists and support them by my new strategically placed first floor carrying walls. Once the foundation/piers/beams/floor joists/floors are in the house will be a different place. 

I laid out a plan for beams in a manner that no floor joist would span more than 13'. So I will be able to use dimensional lumber to reframe everything. My wife has been doing interior room layouts for months. When you only have a couple of supporting walls that you design around and everything else is considered open you can put your kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms..... wherever you want. 

This is a long term project where I intend to spend time in fall and spring. I expect it to take several years. House will be all new inside and out including doors and windows. 

Fire ants are terrible down there. The property has been vacant for several years and they have taken up residence in the yard. Amazing how many come out of a mound. Drop a leaf on a mound and wow just wow. Step on a mound and regret it. I purchased some boots. The bits burn at first then itch like hell and blister for a week or more. I plan to eradicate them from the perimeter of the house where foot traffic is expected most.

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## oyarde

I usually make up a batch of napalm to wage war on stinging ground insects that live in large groups in the ground .

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## Schifference

Got the well working the first day I returned. Put a submersible pump in it with a pressurized tank above ground. Right after the tank I put a large 10 inch 20 micron filter to catch the larger debris. I put a Y after the filter so I could run a garden hose directly off the filter or run a hose to my camper. At the camper I put a .5 Micron filter. After I got the water pumping, I shocked the well with some bleach and sprayed the inside of the well casing down for some time with a garden hose. The water was pretty dirty the first couple of days. I did not use filter cartridges at that point because I knew the dirt had all been stirred up and the filters would get prematurely, clogged. After a couple of days the water looked much cleaner. Each day I pumped out over 150 gallons and wasted it. With the filters in place the water is very clean and has no odor. Each day I run the well for an extended period in the morning and evening extracting at least 150 gallons of water each day. I am told that using the water will make the well replenish itself faster than not using it. It has not rained her in over 20 days and no rain is expected in the near future, but I have water everyday. 

In regards to the house, I have been busy demolishing things from above. I have removed most of the secondary drywall ceilings and the massive blown in insulation. All walls were covered with paneling and Beaver Board. I have removed most of it. I thought it would be best to get everything from the roof down that was not necessary out before I remove the floors on the first floor. It is easier to get things out while on a floor than on the dirt. I have found some areas where termites have devoured areas. I see no signs of active infestation. The place looks better with everything I take out.

I brought an auto trailer with me. The first day I went to the dump I was offloading it and a worker came over and helped me. He told me that if I loaded it with a strap or chain under the load he would pull it off with his heavy equipment. All loads since then have had a large strap under and around the load from front to back. The guy hooks up a chain to my strap and gently pulls the entire load off my trailer making the task effortless.

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## Schifference

Most of the floors are still in place. The back wall is totally rotten/eaten by termites. There are large 4x4 or larger posts that go from the beam to the double top plate that look good but are not. You can take a screwdriver and push it like a knife thru butter into the studs and posts. The beams are the same. I think the rear wall is the worst part of the house. It appears they poured a concrete porch at one time and nailed some 3/4 boards to the beam and buried them into the dirt to hold back the concrete and act like a form. They left those boards in the ground. I think that gave termites and moisture a direct highway to the rear wall. From front to back the house is 48 feet long not counting the front or rear porches which attach to the main house. The roof rafters are very long. The rear wall that is rotten supports the main house roof and back porch roof. It is an intimidating process to remove a 33 foot long wall that is supposed to hold up the house, even with temporary support walls in place. I have poured footings, put in piers, beam, header under double plate, and new studs for the rear wall. Big job for one guy.

Was busy yesterday cutting some low hanging branches around the front and side portion of the property. I have dedicated a place for a future garden and want to build a hugelkultur, https://www.permaculture.co.uk/artic...ts-hugelkultur. I am placing the newly cut green logs on the ground making a pretty good size stack. I then laid the branches on top of those and piled a large portion of the rotten lumber on top.
I have a full day today of finishing up with the trimming and removing all the branches. At this moment I cannot get out of the driveway because of all the branches. I did not want to haul all that untreated old dry lumber to the landfill. There is no stain or paint on any of it and should make some very good soil for my future garden.

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## Natural Citizen

That's a lot of work for one person, Shiff. Stay safe.

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## Schifference

I will be building a new supporting wall 13 feet in from the back of the house. This wall will support the roof rafters. I will be replacing the large 8x6 sill beam on the entire house. In some places it is solid and other places it is rotten or damaged by termites. I am replacing the 8x6 beam with a built up triple 2x12 beam on top of new piers. The beauty of this plan is that presently studs and posts sit on top of an 8 inch tall beam. I support the wall, pour a  new footing, where I want my piers, stack my concrete blocks and fill them with concrete to same height as original beam. On top of the new piers will be a piece of pressure treated 2x6 to protect my dimensional lumber from the concrete. So I have a 1 1/2" high piece of pressure treated wood, then an 11 1/4 inch new beam, then I nail a new bottom plate to the studs, posts that I cut to a new height. This raises my new floor higher than the old floor was and gives me nice good solid wall studs to support my house. The new floor joists will be easier with this strategy also because I will nail a 2x4 ledger to the bottom of the 2x12 beams and then use 2x8 floor joists that sit on top of the ledger and toe nail them to the beams. Yesterday I cut the bottom off the rear 13 feet of the wall studs on one side of the house and put the new bottom plate, and beam in on top of the new piers. I could not get a good angle to cut the studs with a circular saw on the inside of the house where I have a temporary support wall so I just went to the outside, snapped a chalk line and fired up the chainsaw. I cut the beam into a couple of sections, and cut off all the upright supports at my new desired height and installed the beam. Now I am preparing the other rear side. I have removed the floor joists, removed a hot water tank that was installed half buried in the crawl space dirt, and then removed most of the debris on/in the dirt crawl space in this area. I have removed the exterior siding and 3/4 horizontal rough sawn from the bottom 18 inches on the outside and inside, the top rough sawn from the inside. Today I hope to build the temporary support wall and hopefully dig my new footings while removing the existing concrete block or whatever exists where I need to dig.

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## Schifference

Back at it. Huge project but beautiful property! 

I got back here a couple weeks ago. I picked up my youngest son at the airport on the way. He was on spring break. The camper utilized as living quarters had plumbing leaks. The camper is a 1993 and I have once already fixed leaks. We decided to just run new PEX and be done with it. 

The camper toilet water connection was screwed up. I took the toilet out and set up a bucket compost toilet. 

Last fall I was using a portable on demand propane water heater. The last day I was here before I left, water was squirting out a round brass/copper figamagig. That unit needed to be mounted outside and was very temperamental. I did away with that and purchased a 4 gallon 120 electric hot water heater for less than $150. I turn on the electric unit a half hour before I want to shower and then turn it off. I have showered twice off of one heating cycle. 

Lots of work to do here.

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## Schifference

Fell off a ladder a couple of weeks ago onto a pile of broken concrete blocks and hurt my knee. Bought a 1960ish 40hp tractor with a front end loader and a bush hog. Ordered a PTO driven wood chipper. Tractor ran like crap when I got it home. Needed a battery but ran bad. Previous owner rebuilt carburetor. I changed all ignition, coil, points, condenser, removed fuel tank, replaced an exhaust flange that was broken. Tractor runs like a top now. 

Tore down a chimney. Lots of bricks. Still 2 chimneys to be removed. The one I removed was in the way of where the new sill beam needs to go. Presently have 35 feet of the right side of the house supported on a temporary wall. Poured all new footings and today put in concrete block foundation. 

Been doing lots of landscaping. Have a Hugelkultur that is a work in process. Removed about 50 overgrown trees between two fields. Big job. Removed as much of the soil as I could. It looked very rich. Dug down as deep as I could with front end loader. Lots of stumps. Put all the wood I cut down into the hole and put the good dirt back on top. Planted two pear trees, a peach tree, a blue berry bush, and an apple tree.

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## angelatc

so awesome.

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## phill4paul

Sounds like you're "get-in-er-done." Keep on truckin'.

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## oyarde

> Fell off a ladder a couple of weeks ago onto a pile of broken concrete blocks and hurt my knee. Bought a 1960ish 40hp tractor with a front end loader and a bush hog. Ordered a PTO driven wood chipper. Tractor ran like crap when I got it home. Needed a battery but ran bad. Previous owner rebuilt carburetor. I changed all ignition, coil, points, condenser, removed fuel tank, replaced an exhaust flange that was broken. Tractor runs like a top now. 
> 
> Tore down a chimney. Lots of bricks. Still 2 chimneys to be removed. The one I removed was in the way of where the new sill beam needs to go. Presently have 35 feet of the right side of the house supported on a temporary wall. Poured all new footings and today put in concrete block foundation. 
> 
> Been doing lots of landscaping. Have a Hugelkultur that is a work in process. Removed about 50 overgrown trees between two fields. Big job. Removed as much of the soil as I could. It looked very rich. Dug down as deep as I could with front end loader. Lots of stumps. Put all the wood I cut down into the hole and put the good dirt back on top. Planted two pear trees, a peach tree, a blue berry bush, and an apple tree.


 Any specific reason you took out the trees in between  the fields ?

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## heavenlyboy34

> Fell off a ladder a couple of weeks ago onto a pile of broken concrete blocks and hurt my knee. Bought a 1960ish 40hp tractor with a front end loader and a bush hog. Ordered a PTO driven wood chipper. Tractor ran like crap when I got it home. Needed a battery but ran bad. Previous owner rebuilt carburetor. I changed all ignition, coil, points, condenser, removed fuel tank, replaced an exhaust flange that was broken. Tractor runs like a top now. 
> 
> Tore down a chimney. Lots of bricks. Still 2 chimneys to be removed. The one I removed was in the way of where the new sill beam needs to go. Presently have 35 feet of the right side of the house supported on a temporary wall. Poured all new footings and today put in concrete block foundation. 
> 
> Been doing lots of landscaping. Have a Hugelkultur that is a work in process. Removed about 50 overgrown trees between two fields. Big job. Removed as much of the soil as I could. It looked very rich. Dug down as deep as I could with front end loader. Lots of stumps. Put all the wood I cut down into the hole and put the good dirt back on top. Planted two pear trees, a peach tree, a blue berry bush, and an apple tree.


Them's impressive shenannigans, oldster!

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## Schifference

> Any specific reason you took out the trees in between  the fields ?


Big mess. Lots of vines. Small trees too close. Lots of junk piled there. Now new trees in same place. I left 2 trees one at each end of the area but trimmed them way up so everything can grow.

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## Schifference

Going to be here for 3 more weeks. Done with the construction that I am going to do this trip. Reframed one large section of wall. Applied this expensive natural insecticide called BoraCare. If insects eat the wood they die. Put sheeting on the wall followed with house wrap. 

Now going to turn my efforts to more landscaping. My new wood chipper arrived and required some assembly. I have not yet put on the tractor. Need to remove the bush hog and check the length of the new PTO shaft. Today I expect to do some wood chipping. 

My wife is going to join me later in the month for about a week. We will drive home together.

My older Boxer that I brought with me has been living the dream. About a week ago he thought it would be a good idea to guard the property. He tried to tell a skunk to get off the property. That didn't work out to well for the dog.

There was a large pile of cut branches, vines, and whatever else. I set fire to one section of it and kept feeding/pushing the fire the other way. Ended up burning all that out and discovered that area must have been the original fire pit area of the homestead.

A neighbors friend stopped by and chatted for awhile. He told me that he had considered purchasing this home to flip but too much work. He also told me that this house was the original homestead of a 1200 acre estate.

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## Schifference

Heading back south in next couple of days.

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## Aratus

Good luck! It's a ZOO now in d.c!

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## Schifference

I arrived here on Tuesday afternoon. The ground growth, can't call it grass because I don't know what is growing, was over 6ft tall in places. When I left just before Memorial day, there were no trees growing next to the foundation. A little over 3 months later I have these broadleaf trees, empress, I think, that are towering above the roof line. Very invasive trees. 

I brought a zero turn mower and have the old tractor I bought in the spring. The tractor was stored at a neighbors barn. I unloaded the zero turn and cut a path from the house to the well. I needed to run a power cord and hose to the well. Don't you know the next day I see one of the bigger tires on the zero turn was flat. I had flat tires on the big tractor last spring. The closest place to get a tire fixed is about 10 miles. This past summer I purchased tire spoons, patches, and some basic special tools for fixing tires and tire tubes. The problem was I was having a very hard time trying to break the bead on that stupid wide tread, small 20 inch tire. I tried a hydraulic bottle jack on the edge of the rim using my Yukon hitch as resistance but the jack just kept sliding off. It was hot and I was not making any progress so decided to just drive to town and get it fixed. Cost $15. I picked up the tractor from the neighbor and bush hogged the majority of the cleared property. Then got back on the zero turn to clean up. Don't you know yesterday another flat on zero turn. I was kinda finished for the day and was not going to drive to town so I decided to see if I could demount that tire. I put the mower in the shade and removed the tire. I remembered that I have a farm jack here. I have not used it for its original intended purpose, because it tends to be not so stable but for breaking the bead on that tire, it was the bees knees. The jack is about 3 feet tall, has a solid rectangular base. I put the tire on the ground under the Yukon, got the jack on top of the tire next to the rim and once again used the Yukon hitch as resistance. That jack was beautiful and allowed me to use my foot to keep the base where it needed to be while pulling on the top of the jack to keep everything in place. A couple of clicks on the jack and the bead was broken. Got the tube out, glued a new patch over the hole, and put it back together. Saved $15 and a drive to town and gained the confidence from the victory. 

I thought that due to the potential bad weather, it would be wise to clean up the outside before the weather turned. Who knows if I will even get any rain now.  

I have lots of saved wood that needs to get moved inside the house. Then I need to remove flooring and joists then build a supporting wall to support the left side of the house then remove old piers and blocks, dig and pour footing, remove sill beam, put concrete block foundation, new sill beam. Then do the same on the front of the house. The rear and right side of the house has new foundation and sill beam. About half of the inside of the house has no flooring, just dirt crawl space. The entire floor will be removed and down to the dirt. I left some of the floor because it was easier to haul out trash on top of the old floor. I would imagine soon when I open the front door there will be a 3 foot drop to the dirt. I will put temporary concrete block steps. I expect by Thanksgiving the entire foundation and sill beam will be new. The rear wall has all new studs and some of the right side has been rebuilt. 

After I am done with the foundation and sill beam, I will encapsulate the crawl space before putting in floor joists and floor.

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## Schifference

Found a good place to store the used salvaged wood and moved other things that needed moving.

Tore up the hardwood flooring and floor joists on entire left side of house. Removed all rough sawn lumber that runs perpendicular to the studs on the interior of the left wall. 

In strategic places I tampered down the crawlspace soil and placed concrete blocks and a double 2x12 beam on top of them. Above at the ceiling I had to build supports that will enable the wall to be supported with temporary studs. So got the ceiling and ground ready for a temporary wall. Set the temporary beam, then put in the temporary studs. Removed exterior siding on the wall. Total length of this wall not counting front or back porch is over 48 feet. The wall on the other side, right side of the house was done this past spring and was even more complicated because it has a 9 or 10 foot alcove that jutted out 3 or so feet from the main wall. Most of that wall is newly framed with all window openings, covered with OSB and house wrap. 

I have a delivery of 84 80lb bags 2 skids of premix concrete and a skid of concrete blocks arriving Monday. Between now and then I am hoping  to remove the exterior rough sawn lumber that runs perpendicular to the studs. Then I need to remove the old brick piers, and all the 4x8x16 concrete blocks they have between the piers. Then remove the existing wall studs and then hand dig my footings. The good thing is that the soil is easy to dig and since there is no frost line I only have to go 12 inches deep or deeper if that works better. Another plus is the old tractor with the bucket loader makes moving the removed debris much easier than doing so with wheel barrow.

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## Schifference

Above videos made yesterday. I have a couple skids of concrete and a skid of block getting delivered today. I still need to dig footing. I did not remove old concrete block in area where I have temporary supporting concrete block so as to not disturb. Will pour most of footing and deal with those areas at a future date. First time I ever recorded directly onto youtube. I have limited data so this worked for me. I record once and share links with friends and family. Still pictures do not grasp the concept of the repair as does the video.

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## Schifference

Less than 30 seconds shows footings dug.

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## Schifference

Just got finished removing the last two chimney's/fireplaces. Big Job! Huge rocks on/under ground supporting base. They were probably 35 feet tall. Patched the roof prior to all the rain from Michael. 

Been simultaneously working on a dilapidated 16x24 building. Originally there were two buildings. Last spring I removed all but the floor from one of them. Previous owner had an arts and crafts business. These buildings were full like hoarder style, of all kinds of junk. Hornets all over. Over the past year I got rid of most of the contents. The building that is still standing has rotten sill beams, and doors. The floor is all caved in. Originally I was planning on tearing it down but it was not a priority. Then, I got this great idea. I decided to remove the floor, fix the sill beams, and use it as a barn/garage to park my tractor. I salvaged 12 sheets of 3/4 OSB and most of the floor joists. The joists were all pressure treated 2x6 and most of them were in like new condition. I tripled them up and utilized them for my new sill beam. There were 2 entry doors I will only have one. I opened up one of the 16 foot walls and have decided to put in an 8 foot garage door. Today I plan to frame that wall and put in an entry door that I already have. Besides the garage door, I have zero dollars in the repurposing of that building. It is amazing that we had a dilapidated tear down shed/building that looked terrible that has been transformed into a nice barn/workshop/garage. 

Now that I have removed the chimney's/fireplaces, I need to get out any and all debris that are not necessary before I put sheeting on the exterior walls. After getting debris out and before the sheeting, I plan to pour footings and put in piers that will support at least one of my carrying walls.

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## shakey1

Very ambitious project... kinda similar to what I'd been workin' for the last 5 or 6 years... hard work but good for the soul. Best of luck to ya.

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## Superfluous Man

You're probably already familiar with M. D. Creekmore. But if not, you may enjoy checking out his blog, as well as his book, Dirt Cheap Survival Retreats.

It's been years since I read his blog, and I haven't read his book. But he frequently writes about the kinds of things that would be helpful for someone doing what you're doing. IIRC, he uses propane for most of his power needs, including his refrigerator.

https://www.mdcreekmore.com/
https://www.mdcreekmore.com/books-by-m-d-creekmore/


His former blog was the following, which I see has recently changed hands and is now being run by someone else.
https://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/

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## Schifference

Compilation of the barn and wall video's.

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## Schifference

Heading back to work on this project for a month of two. Leaving Tues morning. Plan to take down and rebuild the front wall and front porch. Then bottom 10 feet of all exterior walls and foundation all the way around is new.

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## Schifference

Drove here on Tuesday. Got flat tire on auto trailer. Wednesday tractor would not start. Filed points got it going. Proceeded to cut 5 foot tall vegetation with tractor and bush hog. While cutting on flat ground in straight line front left spindle broke on tractor and the wheel fell off. Got the well going Wed morning pumped out about 60 gallons. This morning I noticed the pressure was not great. I determined the well is low and not refilling. Contacted company to drill new well. Well probably needs to be 350 feet deep. Maybe around $8000? Internet service tethering with Tmobile here sucks. Terrible speeds and often no signal. Cricket was much better.

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## Danke

Are you trying to escape your wife and daughter?

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## Stratovarious

> Drove here on Tuesday. Got flat tire on auto trailer. Wednesday tractor would not start. Filed points got it going. Proceeded to cut 5 foot tall vegetation with tractor and bush hog. While cutting on flat ground in straight line front left spindle broke on tractor and the wheel fell off. Got the well going Wed morning pumped out about 60 gallons. This morning I noticed the pressure was not great. I determined the well is low and not refilling. Contacted company to drill new well. Well probably needs to be 350 feet deep. Maybe around $8000? Internet service tethering with Tmobile here sucks. Terrible speeds and often no signal. Cricket was much better.


I'm not a well guy, but have been around a few.

How deep are your neighbor's wells 
Did you 'shock' it (light charge, or chemicals)
Do you have immersible or above ground pump

I used to have a 3000 gal/min well 15' from my house,  the well I have now is probably about
30 gallons a min. 

Looks like a great project though that you have going, nice work.

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## Schifference

> Are you trying to escape your wife and daughter?


No need to escape. Open communication is key. Dearly love the wife. Don't like the daughter and told her so the other day. Told her to grow up. Told her if I am her problem her problem is solved. She is an adult now and I don't need to do things for her. She is not 6 and if she wants to exhibit attitude and ungratefulness and entitlement she can seek that from others. I love her but do not like her. We do not have to be friends.

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## Schifference

> I'm not a well guy, but have been around a few.
> 
> How deep are your neighbor's wells 
> Did you 'shock' it (light charge, or chemicals)
> Do you have immersible or above ground pump
> 
> I used to have a 3000 gal/min well 15' from my house,  the well I have now is probably about
> 30 gallons a min. 
> 
> Looks like a great project though that you have going, nice work.


I think the area is in a pretty intense drought. The well is shallow. I forget the particulars. I think they call it a bored well. It is about 35 feet deep and when full the water level was about 15 feet from the top. There is about a 2 foot concrete prefab round casing that contains the water. In the past I could get about 120 gallons at any one time and it would refill in half a day. Neighbor said back then that the more the well was used the faster it would fill because the veins would open and flow better when used. It is obvious that it is dry here. The fire ant hills are all crusted over. When you disturb the pile a few come out but nothing like i remember where a leaf falling on a pile would cause masses to come out. Grass all brown. 

I think new wells below the bedrock in the area are 350 feet deep. The well driller I contacted said usually 2-400 feet gets you an good well. I did not shock the well this year. I just hooked it up, pumped out about 80 gallons, Put on some filters and hooked it up to my camper. There was a slow drip at a connection. The next morning I had water pressure and after a few minutes I noted the pressure drop. Went looking for leaks or running water and saw the drip. Took the cover off the well and water level way down. Hours later it has not risen. If it rained I would think there would be water in the well but we will want reliable water supply here. I am glad that I now know this well will not provide. Most bored wells in the area have dried up and people have drilled modern wells into bedrock.

This well was not in use by the previous owner. There was an old 220 volt motor disconnected laying on the ground. I did not know if the pump had stopped working or?? The previous owner originally owned all the property around. A family member lived next door. They just tapped into that well.

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## Stratovarious

> I think the area is in a pretty intense drought. The well is shallow. I forget the particulars. I think they call it a bored well. It is about 35 feet deep and when full the water level was about 15 feet from the top. There is about a 2 foot concrete prefab round casing that contains the water. In the past I could get about 120 gallons at any one time and it would refill in half a day. Neighbor said back then that the more the well was used the faster it would fill because the veins would open and flow better when used. It is obvious that it is dry here. The fire ant hills are all crusted over. When you disturb the pile a few come out but nothing like i remember where a leaf falling on a pile would cause masses to come out. Grass all brown. 
> 
> I think new wells below the bedrock in the area are 350 feet deep. The well driller I contacted said usually 2-400 feet gets you an good well. I did not shock the well this year. I just hooked it up, pumped out about 80 gallons, Put on some filters and hooked it up to my camper. There was a slow drip at a connection. The next morning I had water pressure and after a few minutes I noted the pressure drop. Went looking for leaks or running water and saw the drip. Took the cover off the well and water level way down. Hours later it has not risen. If it rained I would think there would be water in the well but we will want reliable water supply here. I am glad that I now know this well will not provide. Most bored wells in the area have dried up and people have drilled modern wells into bedrock.
> 
> This well was not in use by the previous owner. There was an old 220 volt motor disconnected laying on the ground. I did not know if the pump had stopped working or?? The previous owner originally owned all the property around. A family member lived next door. They just tapped into that well.


That $8000 price sounds pretty good considering 350 to 400 ft, especially if you can 
get some good water and slow draw down out of it.

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## Schifference

Had a well drilled. Hit bedrock at 140 feet. Ended up going all the way to 645 feet. Hit 1.5 gallons per minute at 330 feet. Got 2.5 gallons per minute at 420 feet. Guy had a problem with his rig at 540 feet. Some electrical component that operates the rotation of the hydraulic drill was faulty. Guy has a new rig. He had part overnighted and came out Saturday to finish after receiving his overnighted part. Ended up with 4 gallons per minute at 600 feet. The deeper you go the less gallons per minute a family would need. There is 1.5 gallons per foot  stored in the 6 inch hole. Guy seemed to think the static level would end up around 30 feet. Static level is where the water level is in the well after it fills completely and is not being used. If well was 630 deep with 30 foot static level there is 600 feet of water in the hole. 600 x 1.5 gallons = 900 gallons just in storage not accounting for the water entering into the well. Since the well was an unexpected expense this trip, I tried to keep expenses to a minimum. I did elect to drill deeper than some people would have gone. My theory was if something happened to one of the "cracks or veins", I would still have water. The morning after the well was drilled I checked the static level. It was way down at 113 feet. The cost of a pump placed at 600 feet by professional's was $3500 not counting any ditch digging or getting water or electric from the house to the well. I did some math while the guy was still drilling and decided I would just use the submersible pump I had in my old bored well. I thought I could just pump the static level to the pump and would have more than I need while doing this work. I was disappointed when static level was 113 feet. The pump I had if hooked up to a pressure tank would not pump higher than 114 feet. I spoke with the driller and he told me it would take a couple of days to achieve static level. The 113 feet measurement I got was at 10am. I talked to the guy at 2:30pm. I went out and checked the static level again and it had risen to 77 feet. I don't know how high it ended up because I dropped my old pump into the hole with 100 feet of pipe and called it good for now. 

The local hardware store has pipe I was having trouble finding elsewhere. They also matched an internet price on 6-2 direct burial UF-B wire when considering the cost of the wire plus shipping. The also gave me the name of 3 people that do ditch digging. What a great place. I called a ditch digger and he came out with a New Holland skidsteer with a ditch attachment and dug over 150 feet for $200. The guy had a special ditch shovel. He asked me, "do you want to borrow this shovel?" Very cool. I have to dig under the garage and clean up a few spots. The shovel fits perfectly in the ditch. Today I plan to lay the wire and pipe. The pipe I elected to go with is belled end PVC. Obviously it needs to be glued. It comes in 20 foot lengths. I am hoping to have water this evening that is not running thru a garden hose. 

When I had no water, I ended up using a 60 gallon food grade plastic barrel. I put it on a flat trailer. I put a shallow well pump I already had on some saw horses and used it to pump water out of the barrel. My sister is here with me. The two of us could get 3 days out of the barrel even showering daily. 

I still have several years that I will be working on this house. Putting a submersible pump that I already had in the well that meets my needs seems like a great idea. When needed, I can put a pump deeper and attain more water than I will ever use. I have options of just going deeper and using the hole capacity with the recovery to static level, going down to the first crack at 330 feet, down to the second crack at 420 feet or putting a pump down deep at 600 feet. I felt I would rather put money into the hole than in the finishing. The pipe and wire I am putting in today will be capable of handling a bigger pump placed deep. 

Cost me a little over $8000 to dig the hole. They charged $11 per foot to drill, $5 per foot for the casing into the bedrock, $150 for grout, and $70 for permit. The pipe I bought was $10 for 20 foot length. The 6-2 wire as $1.70 per foot.

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## PursuePeace

Very interesting. 
I'll have to go back and read more of this thread.

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## Schifference

Some of the work I did while there.

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