2 Weeks left...

2 weeks to go, and we're in...I can hardly believe it! So much I've done, and so much left to do. With the weather getting uglier by the week, I need to work a little faster, but I was constrained by the unfortunate fact that we had no money for a long while.
God has come through, in the form of my parents, who co-signed a loan for $15k. It's actually $21k, but we agreed to use only 15 of that, and fund the rest ourselves. A very fair bargain, considering that otherwise, we would not have the money to make the jump. I would have had to sell my gold, and probably my bike and truck, which would have been unfortunate.

Tommorow, I'm going to buy the generator. I've settled on a decent model, a Champion 4500watt, sort of bottom of the line model. Manual start, but it has 120 and 240v blocks.
The generator is going to be the sole source of power for a few weeks. Our original plan from the start was a renewable energy system with a wind turbine and a few solar panels. Then, I thought I could save a bunch of money by putting in grid power. I even paid for a trench to be dug for the line coming off the road! Then, I found out how much the buried cable would cost...more than $6000! That, plus $4100 for the one power pole and transformer, and you've got more than $10k. And that will buy me a wind genny! Not a good or big one, but maybe it'll last 4-5 years, and I'll build a better one. I'm waiting for the thin-film solar technology to reduce the price of solar panels, then I'll get a bunch of those too.
The wind turbine won't provide all of our power on it's own, we still have to run the genny to keep the batteries fully charged, but it won't be on constantly. Maybe an hour a day, sometimes more or less. The 8 batteries in the system will be the most expensive, running me about $2800. Later on in the year, I'll add 8 more batteries to expand my reserve capacity. I can't afford it yet, but within a year I should be able to.

The propane company is going to put in a huge tank, and also do the hard pipe under the house. At first I thought they would only do the tank, but they agreed to do the whole thing, so, awesome! I just need the gas dryer, gas stove, and the conversion bits for the furnace and water heater. Those guys are coming in four days, so I've got a lot of work to do! I've got trenches to dig, and lots of heavy stuff to move. I also want to build a wooden box around my trailer so it can fit more stuff. Then, we pack, and move. Then, a wind turbine, and skirting around the outside.

I still have to finish the water too, although that's nearly done. The woodstove comes after that then.
I have 9 days off in a row to get it done, so it shouldn't be too tough, but it'll be cold!