Turns out that my neighbor is a facebook user, and I just happened to look him up. I spoke with him some, and I don't think we'll have any trouble from him again.
The llamas escaped from our property about a week ago, and were congregated into my neighbors yard. We were very fortunate that they didn't get to the road, they easily could have! I think they were after the trees in his yard. He called me at 7 am, and I ran out the door to the truck. Before I'd even started it, I saw that the bylaw officer was at my gate!!!
We herded the llamas out into our pasture, and spent most of the day getting the fence fixed up, in scorching 32 degree heat. I've never worked as hard in the first 27 years of my life, as I have this last year alone....and I love it!
I got a bit more money from my business taxes for last year, so I'm pushing ahead on the workshop project. I'm not sure if I mentioned our plans yet, we're going to sell the mobile home we're in now, and move into the workshop, which will be converted into a cottage. We'll stay in the cottage for about one and a half years, until we finish building our house. We will be building a home for our friends first, which will probably take all next spring, summer and fall. We'll break ground on our house, and start the foundation, but we won't have time to build it until the following year.
We have to sell the mobile, and recoup our money. Only then can we start saving and stop paying so much in debt! I had the seeds of a plan to sell the mobile as an "off-grid" home, and include the batteries and renewable energy devices as part of it. I would move it onto whichever parcel the buyer wanted, and probably build a permanent foundation for it, which would give the buyer a better setup, and let them mortgage it as a permanent home. We would purchase and install a rack of solar panels, and the buyer would set up his own water supply system (I could probably build a small water collection tank for not much money by using dry stacked concrete blocks)
I want to set up color brochures, and a website to advertise the house. I plan on doing all of this over the wintertime, and we're gonna try to get about $120k for the whole package. This will not only pay out the rest of the mortgage, but will also give us a bit of extra cash to re-purchase the renewable energy items that we will be selling.
Speaking of renewable energy....my turbine collapsed!!!
We had a heck of a wind storm a few days ago, and the pole that supports the tower just could not hold up. It bent in half like a pretzel. It was the thickest steel pole that I could find, and it wasn't enough. Obviously, we need a stronger setup for a wind turbine out here, the wind can be extremely punishing!!!
The turbine is actually not damaged badly, just two of the blades broke off. The blades can be replaced for a few bucks, and the pole is about $80. Probably $150, and an extra $50 for more guy wires....a necessity. I'm going to fill the steel pipe with concrete too, as an added measure of strengthening. I hope it's enough... That turbine produces about $60 worth of electricity a month, so I want to keep it!!
I'm working tomorrow, so I'd best go to bed now.
Quite likely within the next couple of days I will start framing the wall of the workshop. I've got almost all the bags laid out for the foundation, I just need to cover them with concrete! It shouldn't take me long, a few days to hammer at it should be sufficient. It takes a while to mix the concrete, even with the mixer (that I now own for almost $700). I've placed one side already, as you can see in the pictures below. The water tank is also pretty much finished, just needs a coat of water proofing.
Water tank about a week ago, floor is poured, final wall under construction.
Concrete block retaining wall, which will be actually inside the building shell. It simply holds the dirt back in my little "basement"
One perimeter beam poured, the wooden forms are the 2 x 6 boards that I have now used to frame the floor above the water tank. Nothing is wasted! I have a lot of backfilling to do on the trench and block wall, which unfortunately I have to complete by hand....boooooo! It is good exercise though.
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