Communication Is Key, Homestead Thoughts, Teamwork Gets Shit Done, Life Is Lovely & A Standby Electrical Micro-Grid
I am glad that I somehow managed to write that last post before I fell asleep because otherwise my entire day would have gotten skewed trying to get it written out and tried to have time to do other stuff as well. The day wound up getting pretty 'skewed' anyway as far as getting projects done because I wound up making a visit to a store and then later spending some time having a rather candid conversation with a fellow homesteader that was both in my opinion necessary (for my own peace of mind) and to sort of 'check in' with each other and see where things stood in regards to the homestead and its inhabitants. The conversation was nothing 'bad' or anything and since I often filter/censor myself on other folks' land (like a good caretaker knows to do) I invited the person to go across the creek with me to where some of us made those garden beds earlier in the year and where I go when I just need to get off the property for a bit, clear my head and basically be my unfiltered self.
I think that it is difficult for folks to keep in mind that as a land steward (caretaker) that I am always 'at my job' (and place of work) and the only time I tend to let myself get truly comfortable and not one hundred percent on the job is when I am in my shelter and even it is simply my own little sanctum where the job is always just beyond the shelter door. It really is a good arrangement and one that I have done for a number of years because honestly being at a workplace every moment of every day can be pretty damned taxing on the mind and having a place to get away is essential for my own mental and emotional well-being and is more superb self-care than needing a place to 'escape' to or any horseshit like that. All that said I have a lot of practice at 'walking the line' (so to speak) when it comes to my own behavior on other folks' property but occasionally I just have to get away from both my cozy sanctum of a shelter and the land itself so that I can let my guard down, get outside the box and fully unplug from work. I always look at it as a way to vent some steam and gain some perspective which frankly is the most difficult thing to hold onto especially in regards to the dynamic (constantly changing) nature of human communications and human relations in general. All of which makes it very important for me to get the occasional 'reset' from it all so that I can continue to give it all my best in a clear-headed fashion and free from strife or anxiety.
Something that I do not talk about much either is that in this instance of my 'job' I am living on a piece of land with folks that I am friends with (and like I wrote about before moving here) in the past we had all lived together for a few years so we have some rather strong avenues of communication and know each other all well enough to be considered family to one degree or another. Of course we all know how awkward and dysfunctional families can be but at the end of the day we are always 'in it together' when it comes down to it and honestly have a lot of love for each other regardless of any dysfunction along the way... as good families tend to do! In other words, me living/working here is much different than the usual aloofness that I tend to maintain at places which is pretty damn good because hell we all want to be loved and I find this particular scenario very rewarding in ways that most places/jobs are not and I get to enjoy some human companionship along the way that has helped me grow as a person. I also find the scenario deeply inspiring and that inspiration gets absolutely reflected in my creative projects so no complaints there because I do not mind taking the time to share my journey along the way because I am after all enjoying said journey so damned much and yeah that goes even for the more difficult times that are always going to occur regardless of the scenario.
Thankfully the pressures created by the current situation in this country have yet to crush the spirit of the folks here at Fantastica but I would be lying if I said that things have not been heavily impacted by it and put a tremendous strain on folks in a number of ways and especially financially. For my part aside from using a trickle of grid power, roughly three gallons of water a day and occasionally needing a ride to the store... I am self-sufficient and for many months lessened (and in some cases like food fully removed) any reliance that I had begun with the folks here when I was first getting things setup. Of course all of that occurred many months ago and since then I have given to them whatever I can along the way just to help their scenario because damn it is hard to watch folks suffer and I think it is a good way for me to show my gratitude outside of all the little things that I do around the place to improve (and/or) maintain it. Like I have said numerous times before nothing in my lifestyle has really changed over the last many months while everyone else's life has gotten stood on its head and with that occurring I often find myself to be the rock that others can sort of lean on when they need it. I wish that I could spell it all out better than that but hopefully you understand what I am saying without the need for me to complicate things further with more words.
To be blunt the folks here (and myself) have really risen to the occasion of the times we are living in and while none of us are perfect we all have done our part to help the place (and each other) grow and become what it is today. There really has been a heck of a lot of progress here over the last four hundred and thirty odd days and many of the projects we have done have actually turned out pretty damned awesomely even though we are mainly just laying ground work and continuing to beautify the and clean up the property itself. Of course we have also maintained, repaired and made improvements to the place and done so with a 'lets do it once and be done with it' mentality because if we are not working towards the long-term then what the hell are we doing. There is also the things that we have done that are quite 'hacky' band-aids (workarounds/solutions) for problems that occur but overall we acknowledge them as quick (temporary) fixes and begin gathering the resources to fix whatever it is properly. When folks truly work together towards a common goal the effects can be astounding and having worked alone a lot I really do understand the value of honest teamwork that is rooted in love and a sense of integrity not just on a personal level but for the place as a whole which is fucking epic in my ever not-so-humble opinion.
Well, the sun is all the way up and since I only got about six more meters of that trench dug I better wrap this up and get an early start on my day working outdoors. I do not think that I mentioned this before but I did come up with a safe solution for running that water line and electrical line in the same trench by putting a GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) outlet at the beginning of the electrical line that will be in the trench so that if the wire gets compromised (and/or both it and the water line gets compromised together) that the electricity will shut itself off at the source where the wire is plugged into the GFCI outlet and be incapable of electrifying anything buried within the trench or at the shelter site. The electrical wire that I am running is essentially a very long extension cord that I fabricated and has a standard 120 volt AC male plug at the beginning of it which constitutes it being only an extension cord and technically not 'electrical wiring' as far as codes and such go. There are long term plans to run real water and electricity supply lines out to the shelter site as well as other parts of the property and what I have been doing now is just temporary installations until we get to that part of doing things.
Something that I have not mentioned to anyone is that the electrical line that I have run now can easily be converted to supplying power to what is now its starting point in one of the buildings at the homestead proper. It is actually pretty cool because I can either send AC power from the solar shack via inverters or raw DC power from the solar panels along that line as long as I keep it below fifteen amps. Basically my plan is that if the grid ever goes down for an extended period of time I can supply the homestead proper with enough power that the folks there will be able to charge devices and be also capable of accessing the internet by providing power to a wifi router backboned on my 4G cellular connection. I am also planning on installing an extra empty piece of tubing in the trench so that we can later pull one or two Cat-5 (data) cables through it so that we have a couple of hard wired networks on the property. My only concern in doing so is that the empty tubing might get crushed before we can get the data cable to pull through it but I guess if that happens I could always dig up the damaged portion and repair it so no biggie there.
Okay, now I really have to wrap this up and get out the door and start working! I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
The beginnings of the micro-grid installation!
Thanks for reading!
More about me: I have been doing property caretaking (land stewardship) for many years (decades) and live a rather simple life with my dogs doing what most folks would consider to be an 'alternative minimalist lifestyle' but what I often just think of as a low-impact lifestyle where I get to homestead and spend the majority of my time alone with my dogs in the woods doing projects in the warmer months and taking some downtime during the colder months.
A little over three years ago I began sharing the adventures (misadventures) of my life via writing, videos, pictures and the occasional podcasts and although my intention was to simply share my life with some friends it undoubtedly grew into much more than that over the years and now I find myself doing what equates to a full-time job just 'sharing my life' which is not even all that glamorous or anything but hey folks seem to enjoy it so I just keep doing it!
The way that the Fantastica Chronicles came about is that I was living at another place when I started chronicling and sharing my days but eventually I wound up moving to a new place. The new place is a homestead named 'Fantastica' so I started with 'Day 1' upon my arrival here and just kept documenting my days much like I had done for the previous nine hundred and fifty-seven days at the last place that I lived.
I have mostly done that 'documenting' at Fantastica exclusively with words (and pictures) opting not to do the videos because as I learned at the last place, sharing videos over an intermittent and slow internet connection is horribly time consuming and what I often think of as an 'ulcer inducing' experience. All that said, I opted for simplicity with the documentation and have no real regrets for doing so.
The way that I look at it is that I give it all my best each day and while some stuff I write is better than others I think that for the most part I do a pretty good job at doing what I am doing which is simply 'sharing my life' as candidly as I possibly can and whatever folks get (or do not get) from it there is always the satisfaction of me doing what I set out to do... which is to simply share my life.
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That Is All For Now!
This post was originally posted to the Hive Blockchain here:
https://peakd.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/the-fantastica-chronicles-day-432
