~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~

[EweSheep]

Love the photos. Dale is not baaaaaaaad looking! I can not believe he and his men using manual post hole diggers instead of using a tractor post diggers for that job, it would have sped up the process!

I love HH's scooter! I bet it gets excellent gas mileage!

 

[HHandbasket]

I average about 80-85 mpg or more on the scoot. It costs less than $4 to fill the tank--has a 1.2 gallon tank, and I generally get roughly 100-110 miles between fill-ups. I have been driving it for a year, and in the year that I've had it, I've put less money in gas in it than it used to cost me to full up the tank of my minivan just ONE time. (In all fairness, I do drive it less now that we've moved to the mountains, and I didn't drive it in the cold months.) It's still a good trade-off. If I can ride the scoot at 85 mpg for at least six months of the year rather than drive the car, I'd rather ride the scoot. Toot toot, beep beep.

And it's not very often I'll get in the car and go for a little drive just for the pleasure of it. But I've been known to just get on the scoot and "go for a quick little ride" and be gone a couple of hours or more.

Ya know, Linda didn't tell you guys this, but SHE has one too. She hasn't ridden it yet, though. I'm gonna teach her how. She's gonna totally groove on scootin' around the mountains... can't wait to see her toodling down on Mt. Aukum Road

ETA: The workers use manual posthole diggers because of the angle of Linda's property... the yard is terraced & I don't think there's any way they could get the post hole tractor up there. Besides, we do things the old fashioned way out here in the mountains. Folks out here ain't skeered of hard manual labor.

 

[gryeyes]

Gack. I think I drove the whole way here asleep, this morning. Despite the big cup o' Chevron coffee and two home-made brownies.

Fence crew is here. Contractor and crew here picking up the huge tree rounds. (I asked to keep one - "For a table or something?" he asked. Nah, I just want one. Pick out a nice one to leave behind for me.)

Dale IS a cutie. So is his 6 year old daughter (she came with him one evening when he dropped off the lodge poles). He says she takes after her mom.

I think I am awake enough to go take some pictures now.

And I have ridden/driven MY scooter once! Around the block.... Not stopping at stop signs because I don't know how to do that yet.

Waiting on the Building Inspector to approve the propane work, now.

 

[NYRIR]

Looking forward to update today

I live vicariously through other peoples lives

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the scooter pic. It looks like a blast and you two will be so cute running around town together.

Dale looks like he needs some groceries on him. I'd be sharing some of those homemade brownies and then some.

Does Dale have any hardworking single brothers?

Can't wait to see more pics.

Oh - and I think you need to paint your tank, since you bought it and all. I think it would look great with grass, shrubs, and chickens on it with a little white picket fence around the base with wildflowers and ornamental grasses.

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Colors to paint/avoid: http://www.propane101.com/propanetankcolor.htm

Painted tanks: http://www.ohiobarns.com/othersites/arttanks/artistictanks.html

Flower tank: http://www.ohiobarns.com/othersites/arttanks/wi/ATk49-53flowers.html

Watermelon: http://www.ohiobarns.com/othersites/arttanks/wi/ATk49-53watermelontk.html

Butterfly: http://www.ohiobarns.com/othersites/arttanks/ar/04-36propane.html

Train tank (add a little banty coop?): http://www.ohiobarns.com/othersites/arttanks/oh/35-16train.html

 

[Buugette]

Maybe you could do a chicken tank... ?

 

[maclady]

I have to say I found this thread today and read through the whole thing as I was doing laundry. It is terrific to hear of the good news and Happiness of someone who seems like a great person. Gryeyes, I hope your new home will bring you much peace and happiness. Looks like a terrific place. Can't wait to see pictures as you get everyone settled into the new home. Congratulations.

 

[gryeyes]

First, y'all gotta know that HHandbasket and I had a discussion about that propane tank, first considering plastering it with all the refrigerator magnets I've collected over the years..... then we got serious and I proposed the subject of painting something on it to Farmer Lew, because he's quite artistic. I DO have a plan for what I'd like painted on it. But it's a secret until it's completed.

Oh, Sweet Cheeks, those links to the painted tanks were simply amazing - thanks so much for posting them! Dale, D Fence Man, is indeed a cutie, but even IF he were available, or any of his rather nice crew, those would definitely be Mrs. Robinson events but without the glamour. Noop, it wouldn't be pretty. Mwaaahaaaaahaaaa!


I keep having little verbal spasms about owning my very own gully. It makes the fence fellas laugh. "Not EVERYbody has a gully, that's for sure," they say. We were gathered up by the back fence line, on the side of the house, overlooking my gully. "Good place for a barbecue, down there in that meadow..." Oh, not only do I own a gully, but there's a small MEADOW at the bottom of it!

Here's a picture of a portion of my gully as it levels out into the meadow area, with John the contractor walking across it.

The fence fellas are fascinated by the idea of the whole garage being turned into a chicken coop. One of 'em has had chickens, or knows somebody with chickens, and is familiar with some chicken behavior. I told 'em all how the gully will be bug free very quickly after the flock is up here, and how some of my chickens are breeds known to be good mousers. Told 'em the tale about tossing dead mice (killed by electronic mouse trap) into the back yard for the Chicken Keep-Away Games. The guy with his limited chicken experience burst into laughter and said, "Oh yah, you should see that - them chasing each other and stealing things away from each other!"

One of the other guys then said, "You could get the same effect here if you tossed a beer into that periwinkle there, with a whole fence crew. "Oh, look, the big guy's got it! Oh, no, now the little guy's got the beer! Will he get to keep it?""

Front fence line.

The contractor came back today, with his nephew, to load the HUGE tree rounds into an old flatbed truck with a lift, for delivery to the community church about 2 miles away.

It took at least five trips for them to get all but two of the rounds; I requested those two to be left behind. Dunno why, really, but I want to keep one, and HH wants one, too.

Huge tree. Just huge.

I counted the rings, and that tree was AT LEAST 130 years old. I counted from the very first ring out to the gnarly bark layer.

I'll have to discuss the Correction Notice issued by the Building Department inspector with my contractor. Y'see, when I applied for the permit for the propane work, the county discovered an un-inspected building permit issued in 2006 for the then-new electric circuit breaker work. It had never been signed off... so that job got added to my permit process.

The propane work passed inspection like that <*snapping fingers*> Not so that old electrical work.

But they're easy fixes. John should be able to take care of them, too, just about like that. Still need another inspection, though. <*sigh*>

I called the well pump guy and asked him what he would charge for a ... dang, I forgot the official name of the process AGAIN, but I call it a Flow Rate Performance Test.... on the OTHER well on my property. We'd originally thought it was and old, abandoned, bad well, but it was really used by the next door neighbors until the former owner of my property decided they couldn't use it, they'd have to pull the pump and drill their own well on their own property. When ya take the cap off, and look down into the pipe, visible water is glistening down there.

I know what it cost to do it for the "current" well, during the home inspection process. I figured that was a special "real estate sale" price. The pump guy totally understood what I wanted to do (save a whole chunk o' money by using this well - if it's good - instead of digging the current one deeper) and IS giving me a good price to "sound" the well depth, put together the pump and pipe to run one of those tests, using a generator to run it. If the well is very deep, he will have to use rigid metal pipe instead of PVC, and that will require the use of the boom truck to load it... But sounding it, later this week, he said, will give us the first step in determining what to do.

Won't be back to the property until this coming Friday, which I'm taking off work. By then, the fence will be completed.

 

[gryeyes]

The "alternate/prospective" well is 250 feet deep. The pump guy can use plastic pipe for the flow performance testing process.

I am going to be bringing a small contingent of my flock up to the property tomorrow: Angus and Kate, the Toulouse goslings (although Angus ain't too little and gosling-like, any more),Kate's packing peanut crew chicks, and some gift chicks being shipped to me and which are expected to arrive in the mail today ( or maybe tomorrow).

Without running water, and just the hose to the neighbor's spigot, I'll need to lug the five-gallon bucket across to the coop. I can do that for the relatively small number of fowl involved in this First Wave Flock without worrying that they'll go thirsty. (Because I go up there so often.)

Trust me, as soon as I have running water, I will move EVERYBODY to our home in the foothills!