Author: Dean

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First Steps Done

 Framing done & inspection by Natrona county passed!

Framing done
Back wall

The metal roof (color is Taupe – a light grey/brown) should be in the week of Oct 18th with the side walls (color is a darker brown) should be in a week later. 

I need to get the doors installed inside the containers (in the middle of the grey container and near the back wall of the blue one). Longer term plans are to use the grey container as a workshop and the blue container for storage of my household goods until I build a house and general storage for the trailer.
Next week (Oct 11) I should be getting the first 6 apple trees and a pear tree delivered by Stark Bros.  I plan to put them behind the back wall above to both hide the next door neighbors house and to try to protect them from mule deer & antelope until they grow a little bigger. 
The solar power system should also be coming in over the next couple of weeks. I bought a kit from the AltE store (website HERE) that is a medium size off grid system.  
Sometime over the next week or two I should get a visit by the well drilling company. I talked to the company recommended by a couple of people and got on their schedule. I’m expecting to get good water at about 400-425′ down. It should cost about 15-20K. I will also be collecting rainwater off the roof as a backup. 

My lease on the apartment is up on Thanksgiving Day.  So the two-three weeks prior to thanksgiving I plan to move into trailer for the remainder of the Winter.

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Roofing Going Up! Thursday 9/30

 Things are moving right along.  Starting this week they tied on extensions to the truss work that went up last weekend.

Trusses erected.

It turns out there is a tremendous amount of framing to be done to finish out the roof. We had to erect the two side walls on the outside of the containers, add all of the hurricane clips to tie the walls to the rafters, bolt the side walls to the containers.  Finished up most of the framing by Tuesday. Rain washed out most of Wednesday, we finished up all of the framing about noon today and went out to Menard’s to get 60 each 4’x8′ 5/8″ thick strand board.

Roof framing done!

Once we got the sheets of strand board they started slapping them up on the roof.

Took about 3 hours to get half of the roof covered.  Should get the rest of the roof covered tomorrow morning.


Half Done With the Roof.
Another View

In other news, I got the propane bottles re-inspected and filled; and then tested out the heater. After one false start (probably due to air in the lines) it started up and heated up the trailer nicely (it was 45 degrees out so getting the heater going was timely), Also checked out the propane hot water heater and that works fine.

Visited Bridger Steel Company (about halfway to Menards’s) to pick out steel for the roof and siding. After looking at what was available in the area (they have the same supply chain problems as everyone else) I picked out a light brown shade for the roofing. I’ll let AT actually order it, since he’ll get a contractor’s discount.

Finally, I gave the apartment my 2 months notice, I have to move out by Thanksgiving (Nov 25th).  At the rate this is going I don’t see any issues. 

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Walls Going Up

We started off the week getting gravel delivered and spread between the containers. 

Dumping gravel between boxes

It took most of the day to spread the gravel and get it more or less level. But levelling it out provided a firm base for the scissor lift.

Gravel levelled & graded

The next step was to glue & bolt some 2×6’s to the edge of the container and erect the side walls.

First wall going up.
After erecting the sidewalls, the trusses go up.

Trusses up!

The next step will be to add extensions to the trusses out to another wall on the outside of the containers. The roof should extend beyond the containers by a foot or two.  The next step after that is to cover the roof with 4’x8′ sheets of stranded board and then with metal roofing.

Starting to take shape

While they were erecting the trusses, I was in Portland doing closing on the condo. I had signed all the paperwork a couple of days previously, but decided to fly back to Portland just to be sure. As it turned out it was needed. The original deed was issued to the family trust and the title company needed a copy of the Trust Document as well as Lindsay’s Death Certificate.  Ultimately the sale went through and the Trust Company paid out the proceeds on Friday afternoon.  I cleared enough to allow me to pay off the land loan and finance the initial stages of construction.

I flew back on Saturday morning. 

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Making Great Progress

We seem to be making great progress.  This week we got both containers up on the concrete pads, welded 1/4″ steel plates that next week will be bolted down to the pads.  The welder also had a plasma cutting torch so he cut out spots for a door in each container.  See below for pictures.

Pouring second set of pads late last week.
Early this week swinging container onto pad.
Inside first container cutting
door with plasma torch.
Note extinguisher-I was the fire watch
Inside second container cutting
door.

Both container with door cuts.
The second container has the door about 2 feet from the end. I had originally planned to have it closer to the corner, but a molded plastic/metal vent would have to be cut in half so I elected to move the door slightly.
Plans for the next few weeks:

Erect 4′ walls on top of containers to support roof trusses.

Put roof trusses above the walls to allow 12-14′ overhead clearance between containers to allow room for the 5th wheel trailer to park underneath.

Put on metal roof over trusses, and wall off the South end of the structure to allow trailer to be parked out of the prevailing winter winds.

Put down layer of gravel between containers and park the 5th wheel trailer in between the trailers.

 

In other news the Condo in Portland was on the market for about 4 hours before I accepted an offer. The offered price was $617K, well above the asking $599.9K with the provision that it be accepted before 9:00pm. It is scheduled to close next Friday 9/24.  Counting down.

I met with doctor with an eye to establishing a Personal Care Physician. She happened to be a female, Dr. Corrie White, but after having Dr. Lori Gluck for 20 years it was a non-issue. She was younger, (est mid-30’s) but knowledgeable and we discussed my health issues at length.  She wants to see me in 2 months for a A1C check and foot exam (poking) and is planning to do bloodwork, etc.  I asked her my go/no-go question: “What is your opinion of Ivermectin?”. She immediately acknowledged that that was a medicine whose use was now heavily politicized.  She acknowledged it’s use for 20 years without issue, until COVID hit. I think she gave a reasonable answer.  

One final note, I will be moving the location of this blog. Being hosted on blogger dot com, and run by Google I exist only until I get cancelled.  I have decided to move it offshore where I can let my freak flag fly. When I have a firm address I will post it here.

 

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Making Progress

 It’s now into the second week of September and I am finally making progress. This week we started pouring the pads for container #1. They are 2ea  40’x2.5’x1′ concrete pads (basically $1,058. of cement). AT had a couple of minions on call to help with pouring, surfacing, and edging.

Setting forms for first Conex Box
Pouring the East Pad

The forms should come off tomorrow and we’ll set them up 26′ to the East for the other container. Should get them set up and poured by Friday.  Next week we should be able to place the boxes on the pads and sink the epoxy filled bolts and weld the plates on the containers.

Tomorrow the Health Department is due to come out and we can site the leach field, septic tank and space for the backup leach field. I have a neighbor, Bob, from down the road who will be bringing a backhoe down to dig a trench so the Health Dept can profile the soil under the leach field to ensure it will drain properly.
Out in Portland, there was a slight delay with finishing work in the condo; the granite countertop wouldn’t fit in the elevator so it had to go back to be cut into separate pieces. It’s in now, the relators getting pictures, setting the price and getting ready to go live next week. Below is what the new kitchen looks like.
Note to self: Do this a year before you sell.
This week I am getting serious about finding a doctor on the East end of Casper.
I have been sorting out doctors on the web, and have 4 or 5 candidates to interview. I’m primarily looking for one that takes Tricare For Life/Medicare and would be willing to prescribe a particular horse de-wormer, if needed.  (Turns out Express Scripts will supply it as prescribed).
In other news Sis (my older sister, Dawn) has escaped from Canada. She is currently in Southern California sorting out her options. More to follow, but the hard part was actually getting out. Only 4 airports allow flights to the US (or anywhere else out of country), and COVID tests required 72 hours prior to flight.
One final note, I will be moving the location of this blog. Being hosted on blogger dot com, and run by Google I exist only until I get cancelled.  I have decided to move it offshore where I can let my freak flag fly. When I have a firm address I will post it here.

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Spinning, spinning, mostly in control

Things are still rattling along in my move to WY.  

1. My brother Jon came out for a week to help me get started.  Jon, and his wife Cathy, have been roaming the country in their RV and visiting and often helping friends and family with various projects. With his advice (and hectoring) I spent over $2K in tools and misc fittings to get one of the containers set up as a workshop that will make it possible to do much of the rest of the work on the property.  While he was here we met the neighbor across the street, who happened to be a contractor.
Over the week we looked over the property several times and came up with a plan to set the two containers on a firm foundation and span them with roof trusses and put a fence across the southern end. This will allow us to put the trailer under the roof, between the containers. This should make the RV much more livable in a sheltered environment.  The contractor is waiting for the Bldg Dept and a Engineer to define how to specifically to anchor the containers and what specific anchoring methods are needed for the trusses.  The contractor has given me a preliminary estimate of  $10-12K for the initial set-up. 
I spent a hectic three weeks in Portland getting the condo cleaned out and prepping it for the work to get it ready to sell.  I had initially planned to have 3 weeks getting it ready with the US Best Construction Co. beginning work around the end of August. What really happened was that Sal said that he could start on the 28th of JULY, if I could get the condo ready to be worked on. We started scrambling and managed to get the condo emptied and the work underway. They estimate that they should be done by as early as 28 August, certainly by the end of the month. The condo should go on the market a month earlier than expected!

I’m back in Casper, and we apparently have the engineering approvals, waiting on the Bldg Dept for permits and  AT (Arland Taylor) should be ready to start work next week. 
Right now I’m packing for a week long cruise with Jan & Mike on Carnival out of LA. I fly out tomorrow morning at 6am and get in to Long Beach airport at 9:11am. I’ve got my proof of vaccination (Go team J&J) and a negative COVID test from yesterday. I really do need a vacation.
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Spinning Barely In Control

The game is afoot! On many levels.  Things I have in the air are:

1. Jon came out for a week in Mid June.  With his help, suggestions, and guidance I am now outfitted with tools & equip to get started as a landowner. Also discovered the neighbor across the road is a contractor who is currently underemployed.

2. Initial work on Casa Kling is underway. Although I am in Portland for the next couple of weeks, work should be underway to level a plot of land, reset the containers, erect a roof over them and park the 5th wheel trailer under shelter.

3. Work is rapidly underway to get the condo in Portland ready to sell.  The expected 2-3 weeks of prep work has been compressed to 2 days before work starts on repairing walls, getting ready to paint, and so forth for a 34K extravaganza that should be done in 14-21 days. The condo should be on the market by end of August.

3. 1-800-GOT-Junk folks are coming back for a reprise (they cleaned out the garage) to haul out everything that I don’t keep.  All the artwork and a bunch of stuff I’m keeping is going into a storage unit in Beaverton while I sort through and make a couple of trips back and forth.

4. I will try to update this later in the week after the condo work is underway.

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Why I Love This Place – Part II

 I got a call this morning from a nice lady at the State Engineer’s Office. She was inputting my well application into the computer and I apparently had not filled in a blank on the second page that indicated that the person who wanted to put in the well was myself, the landowner.

In my experience, when something like this happened, the clerk entering the information would reject the form and a week or two later, if I was lucky, I would receive the rejected form in the mail, which may or may not have indicated what the problem was.

In this case she called me up, got the information, entered it in the computer, and remarked that the engineers who reviewed the applications would probably get it reviewed within a week or two,  In other words she took action to resolve the problem and reassured me that the application was progressing.  

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It’s Alive !!!!!

Starlink Antenna
I got the 5th Wheel trailer moved to a better location so I installed the Starlink antenna on the roof of the RV (with bricks on the legs to help hold it down)  and put the remainder of the components on the desk inside the trailer.
Connecting the phone it gave me an initial estimate of 150 Mb/s.  It immediately wanted to shut down for a couple of hours to download an update to firmware.  I’ll go back tomorrow and explore it some more.  So far it looks good.  The longer term plan is to wait until I get the carport cover and then move the antenna to the roof of that.
Note this is not Wyoming in the background.
I got a firm quote of $7965 before tax (which should be $400). That is a price that  includes on site assembly. 

 

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The Rain May Never Fall Till After Sundown….

 It’s now late Monday evening and there has been some rumbling and distant lightning strikes and a gentle rain is falling. It has happened a couple of times and it strikes me that this might be a recurring pattern. I would presume we get some significant solar heating during the day with some strong thermal uplifts, but with the overall low humidity it would take a while to build thunderheads, and therefore the lightning and thunder and rain at night (rather than at 2pm like in Hawaii, Florida, etc). 

It was reminded of my high school play, “Camelot”, when Arthur is selling the whole deal to Guinevere by talking up the weather (and the title of the piece; at 1:31).

I’ve been talking to the girls & Patrick about my trip to Portland at the end of the month. I’m going to extend my stay through about the 17th of August to get the condo ready to sell. Patrick has agreed to come back with me to give me some help moving stuff into a storage unit/and or into the condo. The girls will be holding the cat hostage for his safe return. I’ll plan on a possible return after the cruise in late August to take the final load and pick up the cat. That handles what to do with the cat during my 7 day Mexican cruise with Jan & Mike.
Should be moving the trailer closer to it’s final resting spot tomorrow and waiting to hear back from State Engineer for permission to drill the well. I am certainly not being bored with nothing to do.