Going Off Grid in East Tennessee; The Story and Chat Thread (Central: lawyer, legal)

[Katsmeeyow]

BAD Jaxson! BAD! LOLOLOLOL!!!!!

I love any type of water, just don't like ponds etc.... when they get too much brush around them - darn moccasins!

Everything is looking mighty fine and as usual, I am feeling like a total slacker!!!!!!

[younglisa7]

mommy2krj- Thank you for writing in. Mike and I love east TN. Do you get to visit your Pa?

sienna- Hey there. It's good to see you.The nursery pots were leftovers from the plants we bought from Lowe's. Check with a landscaping company. Maybe they have some they give away after they plant trees and shrubs for their clients. Hey if it's free...it's worth a try.

toobusy4this- I haven't been to your area but I know where you are. Love the video of Jack. You are more tolerant than I am. Niki put one paw in my garden and she got a "don't do that" in that tone that she very rarely hears. She can sniff but "no stepping" in my garden, lol.

Furd- The trees have enough space in between...at least according to the planting directions. They may be a little close to the house but we plan on trimming them. The are all slow growers so they won't get out of control.

Jaxson- I don't usually let Niki out with us when there is big equipment around. She's too little compared to the machines. But I did sneak her out yesterday for a bit.

The pond is actually about 8 feet deep in the middle. Mike wants to put fish in it so he and Niki can go fishing. The property that we sold with the big pond has a lot of fish in it. The new owner said we cold come back and take some fish when we are ready. Now we just have to figure out how to transport catfish and bass.

If there are any bubbles in the pond I am not swimming in it, lol. Actually whenever we saw bubbles in our old pond it was usually turtles.


kygman- That is a good idea...except I think we actually got rid of the small round poles. I'll have to check. But that wold be harder to attach to the fence.

Kat- I am not a fan of snakes either. Usually I find them when we are moving rocks around. Thankfully I have only seen a couple i the whole time we have been here.


Someone asked about bears one time. Sorry I don't remember who it was but I have never seen a bear here. And I never hear about bears around. I did see some hunters about 2 years ago with a little black bear in the bed of their truck. I have no idea where they got him.

[Gue]

I love the new pictures! The sunset is magnificent! I'm glad you took the time to enjoy it!

Your garden looks great! You can tell those are new tomato cages! Mine are all mangled up!

I love the stories about the momma cow! So happy Mike got them reconnected!

Did you plant any curly parsley? I was telling nms that the monarch butterfly caterpillars are back on my parsley. They love it so much!

Everything is looking so green & gorgeous!

[mommy2krj]

Lisa,
I haven't been down there in a few years unfortunately. It's hard to get away sometimes with kids and all. My cousin just drove down there for a visit with him though!

I just love that whole area. It is beautiful!

[macoliver2]

younglisa7..could you send me the link to your 2nd florida flip house. I was keeping up and then it got busy around here. I missed seeing the 2nd- or the 3rd(?) I am only into april so I haven't caught up yet. I don't know how to send a private message to you-- sorry (MrsCL0)

[jlrbhjmnc]

The rocks on the pond wall are cool! Looks great.

[AnnieA]

Are you all going to use the new electricity or continue to generate your own ? Thank you for your posts and the wonderful stories and pictures.

[younglisa7]

Originally Posted by AnnieA

Are you all going to use the new electricity or continue to generate your own ? Thank you for your posts and the wonderful stories and pictures.

We will continue to generate our own. I'll tell you "all" about it on Monday.

[mango23]

Originally Posted by younglisa7

My husband, Mike, and I finally found our piece of paradise in the TN mountains. We are building a berm house, covered by earth on 3 sides, that will be solar and wind powered. We will have no electric. We are so excited about building a self sustainable homestead.

We closed on our property the end of April but we couldn't get any trucks in because of the existing bridge:



We did get lucky since that bridge is on a county road so if we paid for the culvert the county would install it. We paid for a 24ft x 14ft x 8ft culvert:



The county installed it on May 20. This is what our new bridge looks like:



This is the entrance to our property:





And the view from our future Homesite:



I hope you enjoy our story. We are a little farther along but I don't want to give you too much too soon.

Lisa and Mike

Hi

I came across your posting yesterday just by chance and spent the better part of last night reading them and looking at your pictures. I have really enjoyed them. Have you consolidated all you stuff in one place such as a website? I have to ask also, although you may have already talked about it. Is this a lifestyle change or an experiment? I have lived in Europe but it was not meant to be permanent just an experience. I always had the knowledge it was not really a commitment and I could bail out anytime I wanted. That made it more of a adventure then a real lifestyle change or commitment. Just curious. Again, you may have already talked about this but there is so much to read. What has this all cost you to date?

[younglisa7]

Originally Posted by mango23

Hi

I came across your posting yesterday just by chance and spent the better part of last night reading them and looking at your pictures. I have really enjoyed them. Have you consolidated all you stuff in one place such as a website? I have to ask also, although you may have already talked about it. Is this a lifestyle change or an experiment? I have lived in Europe but it was not meant to be permanent just an experience. I always had the knowledge it was not really a commitment and I could bail out anytime I wanted. That made it more of a adventure then a real lifestyle change or commitment. Just curious. Again, you may have already talked about this but there is so much to read. What has this all cost you to date?

Welcome and thank you for writing in.

I have learned to never say never. Right now Mike and I plan on keeping this land forever and then his daughter will get it after we are gone The kind of land we have, from ridge to ridge, is practically non existent in this area. We spent years finding it and we are in no rush to get rid of it. We have a great location and a beautiful piece of land. Some may think we have to make sacrifices the way we live but we really don't. Mike has us set up with the solar and it is really easy living this way, at least it is with the way we built our house

We have ongoing costs so it's hard to say. If we just put the road up to the top, did the grading, built the house, dropped a well, added the septic, installed our solar system and hooked everything to the house, added furniture and plants we would be under $100,000.(That's without us changing things, lol.) There has been a lot of trial and error, that's how we learn. That does not include the price of the land. Raw land is a big undertaking and it is constant work to maintain especially bigger land.