Going Off Grid in East Tennessee; The Story and Chat Thread (Chattanooga: deal, trees)

[ylisa7]

Hi all. Thank you for all the responses. Mike says thank you for his birthday wishes.

So this is what we got. Picture #3 is a keeper. The jeep is fine and the mailbox is still standing. At least it was today, lol. That curve in our driveway scares me to death when it is raining or snowing. Mike loves it. I can't wait until we get that section paved.

SMG- Between the wind and the sun we have been doing pretty well. About once a week we use the generator to do the laundry and vacuuming. While we are doing that we also charge the batteries for a couple of hours. Our batteries are storing much more power now so we can go longer without sun. We are about an hour from Bristol.

Thanks again for posting.

[Judy P.]

Lisa I envy you more with every gas and electric bill I get!!! I live in Ca. in a 2 bedroom 1 bath home and our last gas and electric bill was $222.00. Our last water bill ( we had a leak while we were at my parents home) was $300.00!!!

[Lillie Meredith]

Happy Belated Birthday Mike. Oh my goodness so much snow WOW!!! Lillie

[CosmoMoon]

Wow that is an absolutely beautiful piece of land! Thank you for posting pictures!

[nuala]

Hi Lisa,

Just making my way through all the story. Wow! What a great job, beautiful property, and ----free---- living!

Our property has only well installed so far, and we'll be building a traditional house (not berm) but with all solar/wind power.

I'm not sure if you have a solar washing machine (they may come as washing machine/dryer in one)? They take the battery current and up-convert themselves.

Great info, I will be coming back for technical details as we actually building this summer.

nuala

[southdown]

Originally Posted by younglisa7

Good Morning everyone. This week is more of an update. We were snowed in for 3 days so we didn't get anything done. I do have some snow pictures for you.
....

wow - that is some beautiful scenery thanks for sharing

[James125]

Lisa,

Thanks for keeping us updated. I've been following this post with interest for over a month. I think a lot of us have an appreciation for what you are doing. I am particularly interested in how well your battery system holds up.

James

-----------------
Free tips and information on how to add wind and solar energy to your home
http://www.windsolarenergy.org/

[CosmoMoon]

Okay so I just finished reading all the posts. You and Mike did a wonderful job with the house! And like you already knew, the view you have is amazing. I know it was hard work with everything you guys did, but looking at the pictures you posted, it looks so easy. Haha. Thank you so much for sharing everything with us!

[ylisa7]

Good morning everyone. It's been another week where we couldn't do any outside work. Mike and I decided to get some of the "fun, lol" things in life out of the way.

Monday- It was a cold and dreary day. We worked on a small project in the kitchen. When Mike made more shelves for my kitchen pantry we just installed the raw wood. Today we decided to cover them with the contact paper that we bought. First we had to unload all the canned good one shelf at a time.

Taking the first shelf out.



Mike covering the first shelf.



The first shelf back in the pantry.



Tuesday was a wonderful day because I had to go to the Dentist. Oh joy. I went to town and went to the dentist which wasn't bad except for my wallet. After the Dentist I went to the "big" library and got a new card. Woo hoo. More books for me. I was in heaven.


Wednesday it didn't look too bad outside. After breakfast we loaded up the trailer with all the garbage and stopped at the barn on the way out. We had all the cardboard from our furniture still in the barn. We loaded that up and headed to the dump. By the time we got to the dump it was windy and rainy. Yuk. On the way home we stopped to check on our other property. Ah, finally we got enough water for the pond and smaller creek to re-fill. The fish should be very happy.

That night it got very windy and we were concerned about the larger wind generator. We have had so much ground saturation between the snow and the rain that the wind generator moved and tilted. Mike said we had to go up and do a temporary fix. Eventually we will be moving it to another location. So we grabbed the flashlight and the tractor keys and headed up.

Here is Mike setting the tractor bucket against the wind generator pole. This will hold it for now.



Thursday I had to get up very early to take Niki to the vet for shots and a bath. I dropped her off and did some more shopping for my pantry.

Friday we spent cleaning and organizing. Our grandson, A.J., came over and spent the night. It was his first time staying in our new house. I made brownies and his favorite "pizza chicken" for the occasion. We had a really nice time. He was really, really good.

Saturday we got up earlier than usual with A.J. We all had a big breakfast then we took him home. Our granddaughter was sick so we didn't stay long.

Sunday. Oh no. I have a sore throat and an earache. Not good. On the bright side I planned my garden or at least I am working on it. I decided to do the "Square Foot Garden" using three 4x4 beds. Has anyone done this? I will be growing tomatoes, beans, cukes, lettuce, spinach, peppers, carrots, zucchini, and yellow squash. I have my drawings all done and I am very excited. Spring, where are you?

Mike is also starting to get sick so I made a big "mama Leonie" pot of soup to get us through.


Soon it will be warm and we will have more work and more pictures. We have so much to do outside we will be busy for months. We can't wait. This sitting around is driving us crazy.

Have a great week and I will write again next Monday.

Lisa

[Pam& Bill]

Lisa,
Loved your update. In the past I have done 4x4 square garden beds. There used to be a show on Discovery channel that was called something like "Square Foot Gardening" that gave me the idea. Having 4x4 beds is easy to reach to weed on all sides. But I was lazy about growing things vertically, which gives you more bang for your space. I think I only put chicken wire fence up in two beds and grew Cukes and Green Beans on the wire. I'm sure you'll have greater success then I did.
Pam