Pulling the ripcord. Major life change

In reply to 914Driver :

We had problems with hawks getting our chickens so we put this Net material over the run and its works like a charm.

In reply to Rons :

Ahh. Makes sense.

Replaced the hydraulic hose on the loader this morning and finished clearing the snow.

Finished installing the backhoe subframes.

Next up is installing the hydraulic hookup for the backhoe.

Sunny and cold today. -9c but the 40kph winds make it feel like -19.

Funny you mention geodesic domes, the kit I bought is a hub set from the folks at Magidome in B.C. it builds a 14' diameter,  1v dome with 2x4x8 lumber. I cut and drilled the struts last week and coated them with Thompsons Water Seal, this morning I installed the hardware and assembled a couple frames so I can put it together outside on the next quiet day.

If it works well, we will use them again for another greenhouse, chicken run and possibly a sauna.

Working out a per square foot cost, the dome is a little more than half the cost of a commercial hoop house, uses material I can buy locally and probably holds up to the weather better. Time will tell.

I also finished the hydraulic connections for the backhoe this morning. Next step is to get the backhoe off the trailer and assemble it.

We didn't get any baby chicks out of the eggs we bought. A screw up on my part with the humidity in the incubator, I misread the instructions. 

The person we got them from is going to sell us more so we will try one more time.

I can buy hatchery chicks locally but I feel like birds from a local farmer will be healthier in the long run.

My pallet of potting mix is in at the co-op so I have to go pay for that tomorrow or the day after, then figure out where I'm going to put it.

Somewhere in all this, I have to go furniture shopping. We have some friends coming to stay next month and I've been told that we need a couch.

I check in with this every time you post.  It's super cool, and keep them coming!

And deep inside I'm scared spitless, cuz that world is a whole bunch of unknown to me - I'm so impressed of how you've taken it all on!

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks for that, it means a lot.

I'm scared too, not sure all of this will work out but I'm sure going give it everything I've got.

I'm more scared of not trying, just doing the same thing until there's no time left and I can't do it anymore.

I figure I only get to go around once so why not try as much as possible. How does that quote go? "To suck all the marrow out of life"

Fun day out today. Made some deliveries, picked up some fresh chicken eggs for the incubator because we messed up hatching the last ones, ordered a new couch and chair at the furniture store, then drove home through a blizzard. Last 6km was walking speed.

We also found a great grocery store with a café inside called Pitchfork.

They sell a lot of local produce and quality food which they also serve in the café. 

I had a great bagel with lox and cream cheese, wife unit had the avocado toast and I found the best cappuccino I've had since moving here.

Might be a good contact to have once we're producing enough to think about selling commercially.

Much nicer day today.

Spent some time in the grow house today. Potted up some herbs for sale and tried to figure out why some of my tomato seedlings are yellowing and wilting. I think it's lack of water. I've been holding back on my watering because I'm worried about damping off. I watered well today and I'll see how they look tomorrow, could be time to pot them up too.

Put the light fixtures in the chicken coop and removed some janky wiring left by the previous owner. 

We got some snow in the yard from the storm but not enough to worry about. It's supposed to snow tomorrow so I'll wait until Friday to clear it all again. We're supposed to have a week of sunny weather after that so I'll be trying to get the poly greenhouse built.

Sunny and calm today so we assembled our dome greenhouse.

Impressed with how strong the resulting structure is. 

Now to see how well it stands up to our weather.

 Looking at the thermometer in my kitchen, it's currently -10.3c outside and +13c inside the poly greenhouse. I'm happy with it so far.

Today was a trip to town to get mail, deliver some cat grass to some customers and buy some groceries. 

In the mail was some new membranes for my reverse osmosis water treatment system and a new booster pump.

Our system has two pumps, one of which was replaced in August because it failed completely. I wanted to replace the second one and change the membranes since water production had dropped.

The date written on the old pump was 04 and the old membranes was 2014. More than overdue. 

We have guests coming to stay next month, with three women in the house, I need the water system at 100%

4 new membranes, a new pump and 2 new flow restrictors.

This is a water saver system set up in series, normally you get about 3 gallons of waste water for every gallon of clean water on an R/O system. This system runs the waste water from the first membrane through a second membrane which cuts the waste water ratio from 3:1 to about 2:1.

This is the first bit of our treatment system. Water passes through a particulate filter (small blue filter), the through an iron filter (big black tank) then through a three stage filter, 5 micron, 1 micron (if i remember correctly), and carbon block. Then it goes through the r/o system.

 Maximum allowed total dissolved solids in drinking water is usually 500ppm, mine is 23ppm.

Last stop is a roughly 300 gallon cistern to feed the house. The toilet runs off water from the three stage only, everything else is fed from the cistern. 

Happy to note that my water tank went from half full to full overnight. 

Before replacing parts, it would take about four days of careful use to bring the level up that far.

In reply to ShawnG :

The RO feed by a well I assume?

In reply to Stampie :

Yes. The feed line comes up out of the slab in front of the pressure tank. The well is about 400 feet from the house.

We have city water to the house but we're not hooked up to it. As long as the well is good, I see no need to pay for water.

We're running off a 340' deep well that was drilled in the 1970s. 

There's an older one about the same depth that was drilled in 1958 but is not in service. We need water at the barn, there's hydrants there but they're not functional. I'm going to dig the lines up in the spring and see if I can put the old well back into service to water the animals.

It's the weekend and I'm taking a break.

Wife unit has been worrying that all I have done since we got here is work. I'm inclined to agree with her at this point. Usually I sit and read for a bit in the evening but it's almost always farming books.

My shop is cold and if I'm going to the trouble of lighting the fire, I'm going to be out there for a while.

I had started building a kayak before we had to move and the project had to be abandoned. Today I dug out the patterns, moved some hand tools into the basement and got started. I measured, I can get the boat out when it's done.

Today was spent potting up about 120 rhubarb seedlings, cleaning up after horses and starting backhoe assembly.

Cab adapter brackets are installed, these space the backhoe out from it's usual spot because it needs to clear the tractor cab. 

Stabilizer feet are installed as well.

Next step is to move it off the pallet with the loader, hook up the hydraulics to the tractor and use the stabilizers and arm to mount the backhoe to the tractor frame.

Once it's on the tractor, I can finish assembling the arm and install the bucket.

Pruned and potted up tomatoes in the greenhouse today.

Moved the backhoe off of the pallet and moved the last bits off of my trailer so that I can go to the city on Friday and pick up my water tank.

So glad I installed bucket hooks on the loader.

Just stopping by for the usual plus 1s and to say this is one of my favorite threads to read on here. Thanks for keeping us posted. 

Keep up the good work.

In reply to Toyman! :

Thanks very much!

I actually forgot to mention. The last of the legal shenanigans on our property got sorted out last week.

I've been staying quiet about this, just in case it didn't get sorted out and lawyers would have to be brought in.

When we were making an offer on the property, there were a few things that were odd but not a deal breaker. First was an outstanding water bill of about $35,000 to the township which we put into the sales agreement that it was to be paid by the sellers once we purchased the property. The second was that the people we were dealing with weren't the owners. The owner was in Vancouver and his parents, who we were dealing with lived on the property.

Not really a big deal, we had everything in writing and I was very careful because my parents got burned on a realestate deal when I was a kid and it bankrupted us.

I did some careful googling of the parties involved and from what I could piece together, they weren't a terribly trustworthy bunch of folks. People from the town confirmed my feelings when I repeatedly heard "You bought XXX place? I hope you got a lawyer!".

We took posession in May, didn't arrive until June and gave the people plenty of time to clear out, which they still couldn't manage to do on time as I posted previously.

August rolled around and I got a property tax notice from the municipality, showing over $36,000 owing still. WTF? call township, realtor and lawyer, get told "It's being dealt with, don't worry" I'm worrying of course, wife unit is telling me I'm overreacting.

I let it go for a while, checked in after a few months, same pat on the head and shooing away "It's being dealt with".

I let it go.

January rolls around and I check in with the municipality again. Bill still isn't paid. WTF? Now i'm getting pissed. 

Ok, squeaky wheel time. We start calling our lawyer and realtor every week for an update and being a general pain. Finally I get a call from our lawyer. He tells me that the lawyer he's been dealing with is not representing the owner but the parents of the owner, he had no idea there was another lawyer involved and we didn't either.

It turns out this all started ten years ago when the owner came out, and turned the city water connection on without having them do it and without permission. The parents were using water for around 8 years without a bill and without the water department knowing. When the water department found out, they fined them and handed them a bill which they did not pay. That bill plus interest was what we were dealing with.

We start complaining more.

February comes and I get a visit from the water department to make sure the curb stop is still locked and the water is not hooked up. Hmmm...

Keep complaining, lawyer has told us to call another lawyer at his firm who is dealing with this. Other lawyer says payment is being authorized.

Check with the township in March, Woo!!! bill has been paid!

An $8,000 fine and water bill had been ignored until it turned into a $40,000+ bill because the water department had been applying 24% interest monthly to try to get them to pay. If they had just sucked it up and paid the fine when they got caught, they would have saved a lot of money.

Our lawyer was having trouble understanding why I was upset until he finally figured out what was going on. I didn't want an unpaid bill turning into a lein and I didn't want to have to take someone to court to get it paid.

A ton of stress is gone now. What a mess.

I have a document from the township proving we're free and clear too.

Knowing what I know about these folks now, I can understand why the front door has been kicked in at some point and why there are some fake security cameras and a doorbell camera on the house. Folks in town are telling stories as well, now that they know I'm not like the last owners. It sounds like they burned pretty much everyone in town and had to leave.

Funny thing is, the last owners are friends of our friends. We didn't know this going in but found out once we told people we were leaving. Our friends said "Oh XX and XX are such nice people and he does such wonderful renovations, you're going to love the place". Right, sure.

Ahh, deadbeats.  Such fun.

Finished building half of the chicken coop today, moved the quail in to their new space. They seem happy.

ShawnG said:

Our lawyer was having trouble understanding why I was upset until he finally figured out what was going on. I didn't want an unpaid bill turning into a lein and I didn't want to have to take someone to court to get it paid.
 

how did your lawyer "finally figure out"... ?

that seems like Lawyer 101 to me.

What an ordeal about the water bill. Definitely weird what folks feel they can get away with and then are shocked when they get caught and have to deal with the consequences...

Cool about the kayak build.  I have bundles of cedar strips a buddy and I made 25 years ago, waiting for me to make the time and space to build a baidarka I have plans for.  On a shelf 9' above the floor in my garage.  On the plus side, there should be no questions about them being dry after 25 years of seasoning. 

Shawn the pictures of the prairie sky remind me of a video

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

ShawnG said:

Our lawyer was having trouble understanding why I was upset until he finally figured out what was going on. I didn't want an unpaid bill turning into a lein and I didn't want to have to take someone to court to get it paid.
 

how did your lawyer "finally figure out"... ?

that seems like Lawyer 101 to me.

I guess his school was grading on the bell curve.

I'll be using a different law firm from now on. I had one in B.C. that treated me very well but I had to use a Saskatchewan lawyer (so I was told) for this deal.

Maybe I slipped up and didn't look carefully enough for a lawyer. Google reviews were just "meh" for pretty much every law firm but that's to be expected, considering there's bound to be a loser when you get a lawyer involved.

I've spent a lot of time camping, backpacking and hiking all over British Columbia. I've never seen anything like this. 

The northern lights lit up the whole sky over my house tonight.

I feel like I'm in a Robert Service poem.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

      By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

      That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

      But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

      I cremated Sam McGee