Finally underway! My upstate NY 20 x 40 off-grid gets started

[AdironDoc]

I like the stain color.

Thanks! I put up regular knotty pine TnG in the guest camp but got so tired of seeing the same old thing in everyone's place, I decided to change it up just a tad in the main camp. No more clear, light, Ikea look. The stain is early american, which to my mind, brings out much more character in the wood. The boards range from clear, to very uneven, knotty, and even beat-up looking. It also darkens it enough to look more rustic. It was exactly what I wanted. Hello hunting cabin. 

[OlJarhead]

Very interesting door.  Seems it's 3/4" planks (maybe T&G) with 3/4" boards used to tie it all together and screws securing it.

Very simple and very rustic....hmmmm....I like it!

Thanks

[frankbjorn]

Hi Glenn, Great going! Youve sure done alot since you started groundbreaking your cabin. Great country cabin!love Rune

[new land owner]

Thanks! I put up regular knotty pine TnG in the guest camp but got so tired of seeing the same old thing in everyone's place, I decided to change it up just a tad in the main camp. No more clear, light, Ikea look. The stain is early american, which to my mind, brings out much more character in the wood. The boards range from clear, to very uneven, knotty, and even beat-up looking. It also darkens it enough to look more rustic. It was exactly what I wanted. Hello hunting cabin. 

I agree with what you say about the clear pine look.  My plan is to do a waincotting 42" high and drywall about that.  I was asking about the strain color because I saw something similar at a restaraunt close to my camp and am going to do both the waincotting and the wood ceilings with that color stain.

[AdironDoc]

I agree with what you say about the clear pine look.  My plan is to do a waincotting 42" high and drywall about that.  I was asking about the strain color because I saw something similar at a restaraunt close to my camp and am going to do both the waincotting and the wood ceilings with that color stain.

There's a restaurant in the Poconos that has exactly that. The wainscotting and ceiling and moldings are all medium brown. The wall is drywall painted some sort of muted green (hunter?) With some cream colored deer in frames, a couple wood ducks on a shelf, and rifles on the wall. Looks great.

[AdironDoc]

Hi Glenn, Great going! Youve sure done alot since you started groundbreaking your cabin. Great country cabin!love Rune

Thanks, brother. You'll have to come up and see it when you can. Maybe when Stein comes up from Florida next month, we'll grab dad and all get together. That will be a first.
Love Glenn

[AdironDoc]

Been hearing more howling than ever and also bear scat all around the camp. Could be the mild winter led to a rise in populations..  My neighbor caught this on the border of my camp in the fall and something tells me they're back even stronger this year.

[AdironDoc]

Got a 170 New York acres of secluded wooded bliss and a stream to boot. To me, it's beautiful. But, I took a vacation over the last two weeks and saw some sights that shame any I've ever seen. I must admit, Colorado and Wyoming have got to be some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. You can't look in any direction without thinking it's a postcard. Forget Aruba, maybe one day I'll build a small cabin up in the hills west of Colorado Springs! Seems less expensive that most places around here. I've been around the world rarely saw places that combined such stunning beauty, accessibility to nice town/city, and reasonable prices. I may work in the city, but somewhere in me is a cowboy ready to gallop out into the old west!

I've heard of a horse with no name, but a town?



Wyoming:



Colorado Springs:

Hiking through a remote area, saw plenty of roaming bison, mule deer and whitetails. Cooled my heels in this trout stream.


Colorado/Wyoming border:

[CjAl]

as a truck driver wy is the most miserable state in the country so i think you need mental help. lol

come back next month when it starts snowing. did you know a WY windsock is a length of 5/8" chain?

friends of mine just bought land in southern CO. COA is certainly scenic. i turned them onto this site since they are going to build.

[AdironDoc]

as a truck driver wy is the most miserable state in the country so i think you need mental help. lol

come back next month when it starts snowing. did you know a WY windsock is a length of 5/8" chain?

friends of mine just bought land in southern CO. COA is certainly scenic. i turned them onto this site since they are going to build.

lol, yes, the trip north on I-25... 8 hours of endless sand and sagebrush. Wasn't interesting until I got to Dubois. Northwestern Wyoming makes up for it with staggering peaks and green valleys, no? Loved Jackson Hole, and Yellowstone was all that. 500K state population?.. That's less cars than I pass leaving the city each night. Love the idea of being where nobody is on your ***, hassling you over this and that. Can't say I love the winters, though, even with my roots 300 miles north of the Polar Circle following reindeer across glacial tundra. Maybe I'd better be a Colorado snowbird..

[CjAl]

my favorite area is the columbia river gorge between wa and or. i also really like utah but that is probably the jeeper in me

[AdironDoc]

i also really like utah but that is probably the jeeper in me

I hear that! Wasn't in my jeep    Had a economy rental. I explored the hills outside Rock Springs, WY, and noticed a number of County "Roads" marked with signs and all. As they climbing into the hills and mountains, they became little more than dirt trails with ditches and ravines cutting through them. Creeped me out being in that Hyundai Forte so I always turned back. Creeped out driving a few feet from the edges of the roads up to Colorado's Mt. Evans too. Me, the Hyundai rental, and 14,000 ft with certain death. Jeeping would have rocked. Maybe next time...

[pmichelsen]

I may work in the city, but somewhere in me is a cowboy ready to gallop out into the old west!

I'm the same way, my city life is a complete 180 from my cabin life.

[AdironDoc]

I'm the same way, my city life is a complete 180 from my cabin life.

Yeah, I think we're all the same in that regard. When we can't actually be at our cabins, we know they're there waiting for our return. An antidote for the ordinary. If I'm looking a bit lost in thought at work, my employees say, "don't disturb him, he's back at his cabin" 

[OlJarhead]

my favorite area is the columbia river gorge between wa and or. i also really like utah but that is probably the jeeper in me

That's my home

But I like the gorge much further north above vantage   But then, somewhere up there is where my cabin is

[CjAl]

a good friend of mine lives on top of a mtn. a ways north of the Dalles. i just love the area. i ran potatoes and onion out of there for years

[AdironDoc]

Had a great weekend up at the camp. Septic is in. Now I need to figure out where to get my water. The spring box project has been frustrating owing to the length of the run, and the need to put a solar system at the pump. My neighbor (1/2 mile through the forest) just got a dug well. They hit springwater at 8ft with tremendous refresh rate. My builder did it for her and witched it before digging. I've got similar topography, a low sloping area not 100ft from my back porch. I've asked him to witch it. Not sure I buy into that, but heck, it's worth a go. Like he noted, "dem der spruce are a water tree and if'n ya hit water now during this powerful dry spell, ya ain't never gotta worry none". Sounds reasonable.

Did I get any actual work done? Well, only if you consider this work.. 

[suburbancowboy]

I do a little work like that at my place almost every weekend also

[rick91351]

Mark Twain wrote the coldest winter I ever spent was the summer I spent in San Francisco.  I guess he must have skipped Wy.  I love the Columbia River Gorge from The Dalles down to Bridle Veil.  I seen a couple spots pretty live able up toward the Canada border. 

SNIP.......................................... Love the idea of being where nobody is on your ***, hassling you over this and that. Can't say I love the winters, though, even with my roots 300 miles north of the Polar Circle following reindeer across glacial tundra. Maybe I'd better be a Colorado snowbird..

OH they are there........  Just takes a might longer to find you that's all.  Every state has its quota of *** crawlers.  They are assigned per capita.

SNIP.......................................................

I may work in the city, but somewhere in me is a cowboy ready to gallop out into the old west!

SNIP........................................................

Be careful there cowboy, lest you wake up ridin' an oily horse with sleet running off your hat down the back of your neck.  Whiles your lookin' for three head of cows and calves that failed to gather with the other cows when you gathered them here a couple weeks ago.  Your out $1600 to $1800 per pair plus most livestock people do not want to see any animal end up in a bad way.  You loose sleep, you freeze and you do what ever it takes to get them all in.   All you know and have to go on is you have found fresh tracks and they are some where in this big old ten thousand acre pasture and the sleet is turning to snow.  Mean while your out three bulls at $2000 a pop that are more or likely holed up in some quakey grove in another allotment that right now seem to be a half day away. 

I have known a few very educated people that left their old life style for such..........  and loved it.......   Then there was even a ION cowboy (Idaho, Oregon, Nevada) that was a Shakespearean actor turnedin to a for hire cowboy and a good one.  He so I hear would entertain those he rode with recitin' the Merry Wives of Windsor, King Lear or Romeo and Juliet.  Well if you muffed a line it was certainly not a big deal!     

There was a ranch down by Bridgeport, Ca that offered such a menu for professionals such as yourself.  They came every year and helped on the ranch but not all at once.  They threw ropes, worked the cattle in the spring, moved the cattle, doctored sore eyes and bad feet.  My uncle knew the place and the history of it.  Sounded like it was a real treat for those so inclined.  Sort of a dude ranch but not really, more of a working cattle ranch, very little glitz and glimmer but real cattle work.  Not the morning trail ride be back at noon for a bite and off to nap or the boutique so you can scurry back for the real chuck wagon dinner at six.....

Before you throw your hat at  Co. come to Idaho, Doc.  You will not believe it.  Most people are freeway bound and never see anywhere anymore.  Idaho is one of the worst states in the Union for that.  They drive I-84 down the Snake River Plain.  It sort of reminds you of Kansas or Oklahoma.  But get a few miles to the north or the south and it is a different world.   

[nysono]

I witched my well and dug 12 feet...........all the water I will ever need, crystal clear and cold.  Dug a 12 x 14 hole 12 feet deep, let it fill and pumped it with a trash pump for 2 weeks.  I then set a 3 foot cement tile on about  a 6" bed of stone, a 6" sched 40 PVC through the cap on the tile and filled around with a triaxle load of cobble stone (2-4") then back filled with clay.  I have about a 1300-1500 gallon resorvoir that recovers in about 7 hours when pumped dry.  Cost me about $400 total.

[AdironDoc]

I witched my well and dug 12 feet...........all the water I will ever need, crystal clear and cold.  Dug a 12 x 14 hole 12 feet deep, let it fill and pumped it with a trash pump for 2 weeks.  I then set a 3 foot cement tile on about  a 6" bed of stone, a 6" sched 40 PVC through the cap on the tile and filled around with a triaxle load of cobble stone (2-4") then back filled with clay.  I have about a 1300-1500 gallon resorvoir that recovers in about 7 hours when pumped dry.  Cost me about $400 total.

That's great! Hopefully, mine will be at least half as successful as yours. BTW, how do you do the initial dig? I wish there was a way of not committing before knowing if there's water. I don't own a backhoe so will pay for every effort.  My neighbor hit water at 7-8 ft. A two person auger, earth auger bit and two 4ft bit extensions? Still sounds like heavy work since the extensions don't have any flange to lift dirt.. I've seen backhoes with augers.



Hmm.. there should be a quick and simple way of testing?

Glenn

[nysono]

That's great! Hopefully, mine will be at least half as successful as yours. BTW, how do you do the initial dig? I wish there was a way of not committing before knowing if there's water. I don't own a backhoe so will pay for every effort.  My neighbor hit water at 7-8 ft. A two person auger, earth auger bit and two 4ft bit extensions? Still sounds like heavy work since the extensions don't have any flange to lift dirt.. I've seen backhoes with augers.



Hmm.. there should be a quick and simple way of testing?

Glenn

I took the chance after myself and my brother witched it and came up with the same thing. 1 vein going norht and south and 2 crossing it east to west within about 10 feet.   I am lucky that the guy that has the camp near me has lots of heavy equipment and he has given me use of it for the cost of fuel.  So on Mother's day this year we dug a big hole and crossed our fingers.  As we got down to the 8-9 foot mark we counld see small veins coming in, just a trickle, down another 2 feet and more started.  I kept pumping the hole out everyday for 2 weeks, those veins kept getting a little bigger each time.  After the 2 weeks we stoned the bottom, set the tile and went from there.  I kept pumping with a trash pump down the stand pipe for about 3 more weeks just to get all of the sediment washed through before setting the submersible.  As dry as things are right now, if you have any moisture, cattails, cowslips or other wet loving vegetation I would get a douser up there and have them take a look.

[AdironDoc]

Sounds great and I'm looking forward to scouting the low lying area immediately surrounding the camp. I also bought a hand held earth auger to play with. I watched people on youtube digging their wells, 10ft in a hour and up to 30ft with lengths of pipe for an extension. Seemed like an interesting way to spend an afternoon. Hopefully I hit sand, not rocks.

A few people dropped a length of PVC in their newly made hole, followed by their well pump. If not for a well pipe, I'd at least see if there's any wetness before committing to a big dig.  I can hand auger to 15ft or so, drop in a length of wood in with a rag on the end, and see if it comes up soaked. If it's all a wash, it'll at least give me the exercise I've been lacking! I'll survey the plants this weekend. Been bone dry, so any moist areas I see could be a winner. No cattails, but the whole forest is Spruce and fern, which I believe like it moist.

[nysono]

you could try withching yourself, I had never done it until a few years ago.  2 pieces of brazing rod works great, if you interested in trying it PM me for more details. 

[AdironDoc]

you could try withching yourself, I had never done it until a few years ago.  2 pieces of brazing rod works great, if you interested in trying it PM me for more details.

Thanks for messaging me. My friend the builder and I gave a try at witching yesterday  . Walked down the slope not 40ft from the corner of my camp and crossed a vein three times. The skeptic in me kept a close eye on the dowser's hands to discern any noticeable movement that would cross his rods. Saw nothing but the two rods jump as if something hit them. If he had done it intentionally, I expected some sudden motion, a momentary lag, and rod movement. I saw no movement of the hands. The rods are on swivels and can't be quickly rotated. Moreover, he predicted water at the base of the gully. He seemed genuinely surprised to find it half way up the slope. That makes it less likely he "steered" his findings. We walked the vein all the way to the creek bank and though no water was seeping, we did notice that the water there was much colder than the center of the creek. Seems the vein empties into the stream there. Anyway, he's 8 for 8 in hitting pockets for shallow wells at 15ft where most others have 85-150ft wells drilled. We'll see this week if he was right about it. If so, I can say goodbye to the 600ft of tubing, solar pump and panel, and 305gallon storage tank.

A bit hard to see the rods move, but I tried to take a video of him in action. He seemed a bit camera shy at first
https://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee314/glennjakobsen/?action=view&current=20120722_095718.mp4

Rods in hand


I wanted to hang some curtains to soften all the angles of the windows in the main area. I'm no decorator but I knew I liked the color when I saw it. These toppers don't block light, just add some color and warmth to the room and lessen the effects of the 10 white vinyl clad windows against the logs. I rather like the way it turned out.


Can't wait to hear what happens...