What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Winds howled to 68 mph today. Fires to the north of me have us in smoke. Feathers and corn leaves everywhere!
Worked on DS apartment today for 8 hours.
SO tired. Glad he hired movers though for 80% of the stuff. I couldn't do more of those steps with these heavy boxes. Nope. Guys didn't even use dollies. Carried boxes loaded with CAST IRON and dishware two and three boxes at a time up 40 stairs !!!

 

[WthrLady]

Aw, thanks for your concerns! That was part of what I did. I dug into the county records, such that there are, and checked the plat map. Also got the most recent google maps satellite imagery. Can confirm, no previous structures on the property. No previous wells dug or septics buried. Electric at the property line, but we're likely to go solar.

Owners bought it years and years ago, probably for a pittance, but ended up retiring to Florida instead. Property sat undeveloped, alongside it's seven identical sister properties that are also undeveloped. It's an hour from the largest town in the area, and almost half an hour from any gas station or grocery stores. Mesquite is considered a pest out here, so nobody wanted to touch it, or live that far from town/the oilfield proper. It's outside the Permian Basin proper and for some reason no one likes to commute. Despite a perfectly good state maintained highway. Property has perfect access to that highway, butts right up to it.

It's just wild land. Probably a larger ranch subdivided at some point when the land was no longer fit to graze cattle, aka taken over by mesquite which outcompetes the native grasses if you let it. And this stuff is all at least five to ten years old by the growth stage. Possibly much older. I won't know until we get it and start clearing out some.

We are absolutely getting it surveyed. And we insisted on going through a title guarantee company and they're going to pay for it. Then we checked out the title guarantee company with a third party realtor to make sure it was legit.

I have also viewed the topographical maps of the area. The property sits at a high point, above the 500 year flood plain for the river, three miles away. It is ten feet above to be specific, which in this giant, flat, nothingburger is actually impressive.

Largest possible concern is brackish/nonpotable well water (which we already have at the rental and we filter through RO). We won't know till we dig and send off for a test, but if the water is bad, we've got ways around that. Like our RO system, lol.

More tomatoes are getting ripe on the cherry tomato plants. We still don't have a frost in the forecast.

The only other thing I can think of is WATER RIGHTS! CAN you drop a well????

 

[pennyJo1960]

Y'all! We made an offer, they countered, we're taking the counteroffer. Very satisfying horse trade. Now we'll go under contract, but ask for a contingency that if the survey turns up less than ten acres we can back out. I'll be happy if it's at least nine, but less than that and we'd need to reassess the amount.

You will have wonderful time.

 

[Elyrian1]

The only other thing I can think of is WATER RIGHTS! CAN you drop a well????

This is what I found

"Groundwater in Texas is governed by the legal doctrine known as the Rule of Capture. The Rule of Capture essentially provides that because a landowner also owns the water beneath his property, the landowner has the right to pump as much water as he wishes even at the expense of his neighbor. Under the Rule of Capture, a landowner needs no permit to drill a well and pump groundwater, and he may pump as much water as he may beneficially use even if that causes his neighbor’s well to go dry. He may also sell the water withdrawn from the ground for use at any location. What is the remedy for a neighbor who worried about his well going dry? Drill a bigger/deeper well. In light of this, many refer to Texas groundwater law as the “law of the biggest pump.”"

 

[Elyrian1]

If it's ten acres, no permit needed. Less, permit *may* be required. We'll find out

 

[igorsMistress]

Computer crashed last week on my phone. Computer from Dell suppose to be today?

Well shoot, that’s a bummer Penny. I hope your new computer showed up today!

 

[WthrLady]

This is what I found

"Groundwater in Texas is governed by the legal doctrine known as the Rule of Capture. The Rule of Capture essentially provides that because a landowner also owns the water beneath his property, the landowner has the right to pump as much water as he wishes even at the expense of his neighbor. Under the Rule of Capture, a landowner needs no permit to drill a well and pump groundwater, and he may pump as much water as he may beneficially use even if that causes his neighbor’s well to go dry. He may also sell the water withdrawn from the ground for use at any location. What is the remedy for a neighbor who worried about his well going dry? Drill a bigger/deeper well. In light of this, many refer to Texas groundwater law as the “law of the biggest pump.”"

We can too, unless we've experienced a drought and then they regulate new wells within an area.
People here a few years ago bought 80 acres without checking the new well situation, nope no wells allowed, so they were not allowed to build, been paying on their 550,000 mortgage on the land for 6 years, with nothing on it and they cannot sell it since no one wants to buy it if they cannot build on it.
Just making sure you thought of that.

 

[WthrLady]

Here's another goofy thing here. You need no permit for out buildings if you are building it on more than 20 acres. If you buy 20 acres, that doesn't count as your home will take up part of that 20 acres. So you have to buy in excess of 20 acres to go permit free. Crazy things you find out.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I am Back on new computer. Need to go collect eggs.

 

[Ascholten]

If you haven't looked at airships, they're pretty fascinating science. Capture water off the roof and run it through filters/UV, get solar set up along the roof front, no AC needed because of cooling tubes through the berm on the north side. The greenhouse on the front/south makes hot air, that rises out vents, sucks cool air in through the tubes, and the whole house is cooled with constantly moving air.

Recycle the gray water to water the plants in the greenhouse, use composting toilets in the bathroom, bury the compost in a no grow zone or further process it for safety... It's fairly self-contained. as much as anything can be, I suppose. Septic has a 3-5 year upkeep so I'm humming and hawing over that.

The composting toilets are all self contained AND certified for use in a house so you can live that way w/o anything else. if it's just YOU using it, you know what is inside you so that showing up in your plants might not be an issue. I think it's 8 months to a year for poo to break down to be considered 'safe' but either way, if you are worried, dig a ditch and bury it, if all you put in there is blackwater then it should last a long long time.

urine, unless you have an infection, is sterile to begin with. Dilute 10 to 1 or so and can be used directly. I add mine to my 'compost tea bins' to combine with all the other liquid i get off rotting / composting grass, leaves, parrot poo and other things that go into the composter, and occasionally 'tinkle out'. I pipe it right out to my plants when I water so I can control who gets what.

air conditioning. you'll learn..... I'll leave it at that


the water, yah they want to sell you a s41t ton of bs filters most of which you do NOT need to make your water drinkable. If it's off the roof, unless you threw plutonium up there, it pretty much IS about drinkable to begin with, you don't need all these fancy schmancy crap they are trying to sell you. UV can be a pain in the ass, the bulbs are expensive as sin, it really IS bad for you to be exposed to it, especially when it's concentrated like that, You should look into ozone instead, ozone is very cheap and much easier to work with AND does the exact same thing the UV does. If you heat your water up above 190 you won't need either of those either. Got a lot of power just a quick on the fly hot water heater and once pass it into your storage. even cheper and even fewer parts to break down.

aaron