Govt Stimulation burning a hole in my pocket.

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,714
Reaction score
20,137
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
Here's a picture of the orchard that we'll expand.
IMG_20200706_203118007.jpg


I'll post more pictures later, I need a shower.
 
Last edited:

Mini Horses

Sustainability Master
Joined
Sep 2, 2015
Messages
7,127
Reaction score
14,673
Points
352
Location
coastal VA
Wow, if you see someone wandering and moving in there -- it's me. :lol: That's a lovely place!!
 

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,714
Reaction score
20,137
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
Wow, if you see someone wandering and moving in there -- it's me. :lol: That's a lovely place!!

Last evening my wife and I were sitting on the back deck. Our neighbors came over from across the road in their mule ATV to visit. John actually grew up in the house and told me so much about the place and it's history. He told me how all of the out buildings are wired for electrical showed me where all the cables are run underground. Much to my surprise, the underground electric cables are actually 200amp copper mine cables, instead of aluminum like you have to install now because copper is so expensive.

He also showed me a 3rd well out in the pasture. He said it's about 14 foot deep and it's currently covered with a very thick steel plate that has thick plate sliding door for water access and cleaning. He said that's what the would use to water cattle back in the mid to late 70's. So there are now 3 wells on the 20 acres. He told me so much more about the history of the place where buildings used to sit and what they were for. Where the chicken house was, where the wash building was, where the hog pen and building was etc... Also interesting to note there are two septic tanks on the property.

Also... In the back corner of the 20 acres is another house, a well and outhouse. That he and his brother built for his brother's wife then first got married. You can't see it because it's all overgrown. No one has lived in it for 30 plus years but he did say their's a old woodburing stove and wood burning heaters in it plus a bunch of "real old" stuff. I asked him where the road is to get to the house. He said they plowed the gravel road under, so no one could access it from the road. it's only accessable by horse back, foot or ATV. This peaked my wife's interest expecially the wood stove and heaters. Who knows what i might find in there? Adventures... I'll eventually get back there I'm sure.
 
Last edited:

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,714
Reaction score
20,137
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
10,714
Reaction score
20,137
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
My son and favorite daughter in-law helped move a little yesterday. I asked them to bring fishing poles and my granddaughters. We didn't have and bait. But we backed out pickup down to the pond and fished with rooster tail lures, that I also use for trout.

We had a blast. Seemed like every cast we caught a large mouth bass. Some small and others a good pound or a little more. My grand daughters were in the bed of truck with me. I would cast, hook a bass and they would take turns reeling them in. My granddaughters and I only fished less than an hour. I counted we caught 32 bass. It took longer to get them off the hook, than it did catching them. Because both my grand daughters insisted on petting every one they reeled in, before I would throw them back in . Those girls are so cute and gave me a work out. My youngest granddaughter so funny when she would reel in one of the bigger ones "paw paw it's to heavy", I couldn't help but laugh, just too cute. I'm Looking forward to more days like that.

I don't know how many bass my son and daughter in-law caught. But they were having a blast in bed of their truck the same as we were in mine.
 

CrealCritter

Sustainability Master
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
10,714
Reaction score
20,137
Points
377
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
It sounds like a dream home!

I do like it 😁, amazing how differnt it is 3 1/2 miles deeper into the country than were are now.

Our nearest neighbor across the road has a restaurant setup in their barn. My wife and I were over there this evening just talking... Real nice folks, just a older husband and wife. Friday nite is always catfish fish fry and this week, smoked pork chops with 5 differnt fixins. Their restaurant is open in the afternoon and evenings Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday and Wednesday for Church. Monday & Tuesday just because I guess. They did say they open for breakfast lunch and dinner during the deer hunting season though.

John was outside welding a hopper on a treadmill, when we pulled up. He was saying he was going to make loading the basement with firewood easier this year. I guess you put some fire wood in the hopper and flip the switch and it acts like a conveyor instead of hauling it down to the basement. He said the treadmill was going to the landfill anyways.

Then he showed me the wood furnace he built to heat the restaurant in the barn over winter. The guy is quite the tinker and metal worker is all I can say. I asked how much that wood burning furnace weighed? he said oh about a ton. I mean it's huge.

i asked John who was the local electrician and he told.me of a guy about 15 miles away. He said you won't catch him on Wednesdays or Sundays because he preaching at the federal prison. Sounds like just the guy I want to come an put in a main to my man cave, a Preaching Christian Electrician. John joked and said yeah when he comes over he'll probably say something like if the word of God don't shock you, the electricly will. :lol:
 

Latest posts

Top