Govt Stimulation burning a hole in my pocket.

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,643
Reaction score
19,843
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
Going Monday for a walkthrough on this place in the woods. Wife says it's a little small but I can fix small, maybe. Need to look at it first though.

Simpson IL has a population of 60, and is inside the Shawnee national forest. It sounds like my kind of "city". Who knows, there might just be a Bigfoot family nearby.
Screenshot_2020-04-16-13-18-12.png



 
Last edited:

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,643
Reaction score
19,843
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
Never fails... In the midst of moving, turkey hens started hatching eggs. These lil guys are 3&4 days old. I'm feeding them ground 18% all flock and distilled water.

IMG_20200718_114018409.jpg


IMG_20200718_114006536.jpg


I have them on the screened in porch. Of course Baby Bear thinks he's momma hen. Everytime they start chirping, he comes and gets me, whining and pushing on my arm with his pig nose. I'm not sure how well this is going to go over. Turkey's raised by a Rottweiler.
IMG_20200717_202512845.jpg
 

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,643
Reaction score
19,843
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
Barn find, literally... Wife came out to the barn looking at my mess and said what are those? I said well, kind of looks like a pair of maple book cases don't it? Next thing you know I'm cleaning them off and getting them ready to become canning jar shelves.
IMG_20200806_201314066.jpg
 

wyoDreamer

Super Self-Sufficient
Joined
Sep 29, 2014
Messages
1,798
Reaction score
2,443
Points
267
I am excited for you two. What fun to move to the new place. I remember the feeling when we moved to our forever place. DH thinks its funny when I say I am leaving this place feet first, but it really seems like the right place for me. One of his favorite things to do when talking to someone about our place is tell me "so-&-so offered me a job, but we will have to move to somewhere else" and I reply with "I'll miss you! I surely will."
 

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,643
Reaction score
19,843
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
So yesterday my wife and I were sitting on the back deck which is a very strange place. The deck is square 12x12 and sitting on cement. I thought to myself this very odd. Why put a treated lumber wooden deck on a cement pad? So I grabbed a penny out of my pocket and dropped it trough one of the spaces between the deck board and listened, sure enough it made a splash.

So I called my neighbor John who grew up in the house and he told me it's a cistern he even told me where the sand filter is. I said oh yeah? How deep is the cistern? he said it's between 12 and 14 feet deep and he said he and his brother cleaned it many times while growing up there. Then I asked him is it lined in stone? he said yes.

I thought to myself damn I gotta fill that in and that's a good three dump truck loads of gravel. But then... A thought come over me, why not just pump it out and make it into a root cellar with a cement floor?

I believe that's what I'm going to do. It's not far from the back door of the house. I believe could put down some drain tile with a sump pit and a sump pump and coils of plastic pipe on the bottom cover them with pea gravel and run up one of the walls for future geo thermal heat and cooling, for the house eventually. Then I could pour the floor in 6" of concrete.

I would need to get a good look at the walls and either leave them or pour cement walls. But heck at 12 to 14 foot deep and 12x12 square. It would pretty much have to stay nice an cool down there all your long wouldn't you think?

Where it's at I could even build the stairs to down to the root cellar, where they are accessable from inside the house. It could double as a storm cellar should we ever get a tornado.

The hard work of digging a hole has already been done. It seems to me it would be fools work to not take advantage of it. What do you guys think?

I'll get a few picture later today.
 
Last edited:

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,643
Reaction score
19,843
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
I got my 200 amp 220 volt breaker box moved and rewired. Amazingly the man cave has a brand new Carrier 25HCE4 air conditioning / heat pump with an additional electric furnace. That's never been turned on. The batteries for the thermostat still have plastic wrapper on them and the electric pannel never had power to it.
IMG_20200721_191906621_TOP.jpg


IMG_20200720_191816690_HDR.jpg


Our Electric Coop engineer is coming Tuesday to meet with the electrician to give the go-ahead to upgrade our meter main with a meter main combo breaker box and give me a 200amp 220 volt drop to the man cave. Then I'll have air conditioning & heat :)

My wife and I moved a little more stuff early this evening. She did some unpacking in the cool house while I took a shower in sweat working on the electric in the man cave. She then mowed the lawn this is the third time she's mowed the lawn and she's getting a lot better at the zero turn. She got it done in an hour and 15 minutes this time. I was apprehensive at first but she's happy I assigned her lawn mowing duty. She has a floppy hat with a hole in the back for her pony tail and radio headphones so she can listen to KLove Christian music while she's mowing, I'll get a picture of her mowing next time. 😂
 
Last edited:

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,643
Reaction score
19,843
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
Soon to be my office. I have to put in a cold return air duct in the back 3rd of the man cave. The cold air return is in the unfinished two thirds. When I put in the extra cold air return, I'll block off the one that's there now and the rest of the duct. That way I can use the centeral heat and air as long as I keep the doors closed to my office and brewery.
The pole barn building is 28 x 42. The back 3rd 16 x 28 is fully insulted and and sheeted in 7/16 OSB. I already moved the thermostat into the office.


The previous owner started putting 1x6 pine T&G V groove on the ceiling. Not something that I would waste my money on but I just need to hang the rest, to finish it.
IMG_20200813_202251754.jpg


For the walls I think I'm just going to mix paint and drywall compound, tape the joints and finish it rough textured in some chimpanzee fashion. So mud and paint at the same time.
IMG_20200813_202320412.jpg


i pulled the hand carved woodpecker white oak desk I made for my daughter long ago out of storage. The thing is heavy duty. She doesn't have a need for it right now so it's mine now :) I cut all the lumber on my sawmill for this desk actually it's made out of one log.
IMG_20200813_202509614.jpg


you may have noticed the floor? The pole barn was built on a continuous (single pour) cement slab. The previous owner paid someone to come deep clean it and stain it. Yes that's right, Minwax Red Mahogny wood stain. Again not something I would waste my money on but I think it looks pretty cool, so leave it as is 👌
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Top