Going off the grid, our family story.

[YoPengo]

Thank you for sharing your story. I love this shit and can't wait for the next update.

 

[RiverDave]

The only pic I can see is the first one. All others don't show. FYI

Weird.. I gotta ask forensic, because everything shows fine for me?

 

[SJP]

This thread is riveting. :thumbsup

So cool.

 

[OldSchoolBoats]

This is amazing. Best thread of the year. Hope one day I can live like this. You are definitely living many of our dreams. Keep it coming!!

 

[wsuwrhr]

You're doing what most of us wish we could.

This is amazing. Best thread of the year. Hope one day I can live like this. You are definitely living many of our dreams. Keep it coming!!

Damn, I thought I had made it when I could buy a home on a half acre with thoughts of being self sufficient.

50 acres? YOUDAMAN.

My wife would be in before the end of the first sentence. No doubt.

 

[plaster dave]

Very cool thread. You are a badass. I commend you on all the hard work you are doing and knowing how you want to live the rest of your life and going after it. [emoji106]🏻[emoji106]🏻
Btw I can see all the pics.

 

[wash11]

We finished the water system 1 year to the day after purchasing the property. To keep from burning out I would take a day off here and there to work at my neighbors place. He runs around 300 head of cattle on 25,000 acres and the whole operation was just fascinating to me. I honestly couldn't get enough. I wanted to know everything there was about it!
Then............ a calf they named Kachina was born to a cow with crappy mothering instincts. "Can you and Amy help bottle feed Kachina? " Duh.

And that's when we were hooked. Somehow that one experience made it personal for us and we've cared about every single one of them like they were our own since. It wasn't long before we really started to talk about what it would take to make this our last, forever job. Fast forward to the "Here's the beef" thread, we've stayed the course.

 

[wash11]

Many of you have already guessed, you gotta have the other half on board. I'm a lucky, lucky guy. Amy wants this every bit as bad as I do. Her energy and enthusiasm are key to getting us this far. I would grind it out all week by myself and she would come up and lead the charge for the next three days. She can work side by side with any guy I know, and then some.

 

[Sbarry]

Subscribed! This is awesome!! Thanks for sharing [emoji106]🏼

 

[Taboma]

I've certainly enjoyed you sharing this awesome story both written and the great pics :thumbsup:thumbsup

We've had 40 acres in Northwestern AZ. @ 4700' in the pinyon pines and juniper for about 10 years, well is in, grading, house pad, enough fencing to keep the ATVs out and we do have power to the property line.

I've been retired for a few years, currently patiently waiting for my wife to get fed up with working (Which she really enjoys) and join me in retirement Of course being honest, she's not quite as excited about living in the sticks as I am, but she's coming around

If you don't mind me asking, have you built a house yet ? I'm still undecided on manufactured, mountain style modular (A-frame, cabin etc), or site built, so many pros and cons for each.

 

[wash11]

Major construction projects stopped for awhile so we could save more money. We still had plenty to do without spending a bunch of dough, thankfully. Through all this we never stopped researching food and how to grow it. After tasting real raw honey for the first time I went full geek on honey bees. I bought a bunch of books, watched hours of youtube videos on beekeeping. Pretty much what I do anytime I get interested in something.

Locally, there was a beekeeper in Havasu having trouble keeping bees on BLM land by the lake. People were kicking over or stealing the boxes and she would have to move them to Yucca to beat the summer heat. We struck a deal. I provide the ground and water if she provides the bees and equipment so I can gain real world experience. A big win for everyone involved.

We are a couple years in and I've learned a ton. Our bee lady has since become part of our little family and comes up every weekend. The number of hives goes up and down. Up to 15 at one time and down to 7 really strong, thriving hives. We no longer need to hit the store for sweetener.

 

[wash11]

I've certainly enjoyed you sharing this awesome story both written and the great pics :thumbsup:thumbsup

We've had 40 acres in Northwestern AZ. @ 4700' in the pinyon pines and juniper for about 10 years, well is in, grading, house pad, enough fencing to keep the ATVs out and we do have power to the property line.

I've been retired for a few years, currently patiently waiting for my wife to get fed up with working (Which she really enjoys) and join me in retirement Of course being honest, she's not quite as excited about living in the sticks as I am, but she's coming around

If you don't mind me asking, have you built a house yet ? I'm still undecided on manufactured, mountain style modular (A-frame, cabin etc), or site built, so many pros and cons for each.

Stay tuned, a lot more content to come. We've stayed busy the last few years.

 

[shintoooo]

What an awesome thread. This offsets all the gay threads Grads has posted throughout the years. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to updates.

 

[wash11]

Corral building time. We've all heard stories of yesteryear when neighbors would come together to help with big projects, barn raisings etc. That piece of Americana is not dead, you just gotta get off the pavement.
The neighbor brought in a truck load of old oil field pipe and called the fellas. Not knowing a damn thing about corral building, I jumped on the chance. Besides, do you have any idea how well you are fed at a working cattle ranch?
This is the same neighbor that loaned me the ditch witch for my water lines so it was only fair that I did the water system for the new corrals. My daughter, Sadie and I knocked the whole thing out in 12 hours before the cross bars went up. Some of those 13 year old ranch boys can stick weld better than 1/2 the guys I know.







Over the course of a week we got enough done to sort and brand calves. Still working on it to this day btw. We'll probably all get together again this spring and bang out the rest.

 

[mbrown2]

Amazing thread...

 

[TLAW719]

This thread is just epic, easily one of my favorites. I am subscribed. Thank you for sharing. I might have missed it, did you say where about in northern AZ your property is?

Something like this, has been a dream/goal of mine for a good 7+ years now.

 

[wsuwrhr]

Fucker. Now I am just jealous.

 

[Flyinbowtie]

Wash, I just showed this thread to the wife.

Looks like our dreams are from the same server, LOL.
The only problem is my grandkids are a long ways from AZ, and she quickly pointed that out to me, or we would be PM'ing for info on your little valley.
Still trying for my deal in Nevada, this one may not happen, just too big a bite for me to chew right now, but my turn will come.
In the meantime, I will just have to be happy with my little spread up here, and live vicariously through you.
Well done, enjoy every minute of it.

 

[Flyinbowtie]

Fucker. Now I am just jealous.

You just need to move, my friend.
They have electricity and stuff out in the country, lots of machine shops up here, have been for years.
UPS even.

 

[FreeBird236]

Awesome thread, truly inspiring, Best of luck....:thumbsup

 

[DILLIGAF]

Gina would love to do this for sure. I doubt if I would have the drive or energy to get it all done though. Great job on your end :thumbsup

 

[wash11]

We had rented and borrowed lots of equipment at this point and had a good idea of what we needed going forward. The backhoes were far and away the most versatile machines for our purpose. Figure $1600 per week with transport not including fuel and repairs. One crapper that we rented broke 4 times in 7 days. 80 mile round trip to town for parts each time. Months of research, as I had zero equipment experience before starting this, had given me the basics of what I was looking for.

By now we had become pretty good at saving money. That, along with selling off stuff we could part with finally had us able to start shopping. I was ok with my reality, my budget would only go far enough to buy an older machine. I have a decent set of tools and am pretty fair with a wrench so I set out looking for something in nice shape that needed basic wear items taken care of, nothing major.

I drove 300 miles in every direction from Havasu and looked at a ton of stuff and finally made a deal on this. It was ten years old and fleet maintained by a large underground company in Phoenix. They had put a fresh paint job on it as well as new tires and a few other things that would have been tough on me and my wallet. It was ready for a full service which was actually perfect as I had wanted to learn the ins and outs of working on it myself.









First trip to the Deere dealer was an eye opener. They are pretty proud of the parts but at least everything was quality and an absolute exact fit.







New, updated control panel to show correct hours on machine.





Rebuilt the seat assembly as it has 4.2 million moving parts. Huge difference, and fat guy approved. New spring, shock, switches and seat belt assembly.





New dual battery setup and all new cables with switch.







Replaced all 4 billion grease fittings and cleaned out a few plugged passages before pins got wiped out.





This all took a couple months after work but sure was nice doing it in a climate controlled garage with concrete floors (as opposed to ranch dirt), toolbox close by and a big compressor. I have a much better understanding of the machine and could likely handle a larger repair as needed at the ranch.

It was like Christmas morning when the transporter delivered from my house to our exit.

 

[RiverDave]

Joel you are taking this to another level! Holy shit!

RD

 

[wsuwrhr]

I would love to own my own backhoe. I'll probably have to settle for a bobcat.

You are just teasin now.

Brian

We had rented and borrowed lots of equipment at this point and had a good idea of what we needed going forward. The backhoes were far and away the most versatile machines for our purpose. Figure $1600 per week with transport not including fuel and repairs. One crapper that we rented broke 4 times in 7 days. 80 mile round trip to town for parts each time. Months of research, as I had zero equipment experience before starting this, had given me the basics of what I was looking for.

By now we had become pretty good at saving money. That, along with selling off stuff we could part with finally had us able to start shopping. I was ok with my reality, my budget would only go far enough to buy an older machine. I have a decent set of tools and am pretty fair with a wrench so I set out looking for something in nice shape that needed basic wear items taken care of, nothing major.

I drove 300 miles in every direction from Havasu and looked at a ton of stuff and finally made a deal on this. It was ten years old, fleet maintained by a large underground company in Phoenix. They had put a fresh paint job on it as well as new tires and a few other things that would have been tough on me and wallet. It was ready for a full service which was actually perfect. I had wanted to learn the ins and outs of working on it myself.

This all took a couple months after work but sure was nice doing it in a climate controlled garage with concrete floors (as opposed to ranch dirt), toolbox close by and a big compressor. I have a much better understanding of the machine and could likely handle a larger repair as needed at the ranch.

It was like Christmas morning when the transporter delivered from my house to our exit.

 

[Racey]

Dude.... I'm sitting here in my shop reading this thread just jaw dropped..... :thumbsup Absolutely incredible man, hats off to you and your family, you wanted something different out of life and you guys got up and made that shit happen.... :thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

Hands down thread of the year right here.

Impressive work, incredible story, this right here IS the American Dream....

 

[NicPaus]

I would love to own my own backhoe. I'll probably have to settle for a bobcat.

You are just teasin now.

Brian

Rent a Cat before you buy a Bobcat. The controls fold in your lap with the backhoe attachment instead of getting out of cab and sitting on another seat with the Bobcat. My little machine is great for the city.


I have been following your thread on Glamis Dunes since the start.

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

bitchen :cool

 

[dread Pirate]

This really is the way people are supposed to live. The biggest thing I wish I had done is plant more fruit trees in the beginning. Time goes fast and those trees would be 15 years old now.. My water system is getting a complete revamp this year because of the drought. What was enough isn't anymore..

Thanks for posting. Some things are done a little different in other area's and it's great to see your ideas. :thumbsup

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

how do you get anything done ? HOT WIFE

 

[rivermobster]

Hard to believe this has been Years already. What an amazing amount of work!

Congrats Joel. To you and your clan and your crew.

Just shaking my head at how fast the time has gone by...

 

[wash11]

The next major project on the list was fencing. We are on a old grazing lease where the cows still have the right of way. In other words, if we don't want them at our place it is up to us to fence them out. Honestly, I like waking up to the cows in the morning but with the dirt work we'll be doing and several thousand dollars in newly planted trees on the way- we could lose weeks of work and a bunch of dough in just a couple hours with grazing cows just doing what they do.

There are several types and styles of ranch fencing that all get the job done but we really wanted the look and quality of Juniper/Cedar fence posts. It blends perfect with our native trees and will easily outlive my kids (there are similar posts around our area that were put up in the late 1800's, still functioning).

Originally, I had planned on doing the fence myself with help from friends on weekends. This would have taken the better part of a year as the fence line is over a mile long. In the end I was able to round up a great group of cowboys that fence for day wages. These guys are absolute animals when it comes to work. I don't know how else to put it. 12 hours was the shortest day they worked. I can put out a good days work but trying to keep up with them left a mark and at the rate we were going I was happy to be covering the labor charge.

Clearing 6000 feet of line with chainsaws and pounding 6' T-posts every 12 feet by hand with several needing to be drilled into solid rock took 4 very long days.













Next up was holes for corner posts and gates. Three feet deep, some in solid rock. They picked up a big compressor from town and a jackhammer for those. They work well together, passing it around with the others clearing the holes. At this point it was easy to see how much money I was saving with these guys here. The amount of money lost by me taking that much time off work to do it myself would have been 3 or 4 times what I paid out.





Then it was time to start setting posts. Tamping bit on a jack hammer to fill in all three feet. These things are so stout, you wouldn't want to hit them with a truck.





After posts were set it was time to set lateral posts to make the "H" brace. This was the great thing about hiring experience cowboys, the tips and tricks that only experience brings. No screws, just wire and tension holds it together. That's old school.

 

[wash11]

Hanging the wire, quarter continuous mile







Pics of the finished fence.

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

we have 5 ac ,I've been buying cedar posts and wire a little at a time should be ready to re fence our place this summer right now we have 18" of snow on the ground , im paying 7$ a post ( cedar city ,ut)

 

[coolchange]

WOW, that's crazy (good). I would just like to have a place to put a Yurt someday. Took a lot of balls to do that, and you can't do it if Everyone's not on board. Props to you and the wife AND the kids.:thumbsup

 

[Sleek-Jet]

Curious, why not just fence a couple of acres around the house?

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

Curious, why not just fence a couple of acres around the house?

because its your land :cool

 

[Joe mama]

This has to be the best thread ever!!!I hope you can continue this for years to come!! I can't see nothing but a life story continuing from now on...Thanks for the great read and look forward
to many more post..:thumbsup

 

[wash11]

At this stage of the game I had learned a whole bunch from experience and being smart enough to listen to some long time residents. I also listened to everyone that had done anything similar.
"I wish I would have done this or that different" is a common theme in those conversations. "I should have planted the trees up there" "The garden should've been closer to the house" "I like where the chicken coop is in relation to the house but.........." "That road would've been easier to maintain if......."

I had a pretty good idea what it costs to run equipment and was getting better at estimating time and energy a given project might take. The idea of doing things I might regret later had me constantly stressing over a real plan for the future. One that might save me some of the "I wish I woulda........" moments.

The more I read and researched the more fragmented my plan became. So many good ideas but on paper it looked like a mess. It lacked flow and overall I lack vision for fine details. Big picture stuff? I'm your guy. Water systems and fencing were a no brainer that just required work. Where to put the chickens in relation to the clothes line? Not your guy..... at least I wasn't.

The ideals and theories of Permaculture seemed interesting enough although I had trouble relating to the Utopian dream filled hair farmers that were going to save the world with compost toilets, rain water and homes built of recycled tires with 2 liter soda bottles for skylights. At least, that's the crap that would show up on my facebook feed.

I found myself in a typical internet "rabbit hole" one evening in a search for ideas on how to set up a homestead. A few videos later and I was watching some pretty interesting stuff at geofflawton.com. Once I got past the message of "this is how we can turn things around, this is how we can save the world" I found myself researching some of his claims. Turns out the theory isn't new, they have 40 plus years of data and mature projects to prove the ideas.

In a nutshell, Permaculture is the science of working with nature to produce a desired result as opposed to trying to beat her. This can only be done through great design and a massive amount of inputs up front on a large project like ours. He offers an annual course that promised a clear vision for designing a project site while you work toward a Permaculture instructor certificate. 12 weeks, $1000 and a bunch of my time. Whatever, it's a lot of money but it doesn't take long to spend $1000 running equipment on a project that might need to be re-done later. 30 day money back guarantee? I'm in.

It started February 1st which was perfect as the property had a nice blanket of snow covering the muddy roads underneath. It was break time anyway. Two weeks in, my mind was blown. I won't be asking for my money back. Four weeks in, I already identified several things I should have done different that would have saved me several thousand dollars. Six weeks in, "Holy Shit, I'm in over my head". At about the eight week mark my thought process started to change. I could easily see contours and grades and had a new understanding of what I was looking at as I walked around the property. Everything looked different. Everything. To complete the course and get the certificate I had to submit a completed project design that showed I had learned the material. Not sure I cared about a piece of paper but a good design is what I set out for to begin with. After an estimated 300 hours of work, it was nice to get certified.

The first thing I had to do was make an accurate Topo map of our property to address drainage and take advantage of water catchment. Some areas are lucky, the maps already have this pretty accurate. The best one I could find was up to 15' off in places so I did this by hand with the help of Google Earth Pro.



Next is Zone 1, basically the house and the things you visit several times per day. It takes into account seasonal wind direction and sun angles as well.


Zone 2 would be your main crops, swales- food forests etc. Still close enough to zone 1 as you would hit this stuff on a pretty regular basis. With multiple species of fruit trees, shrubs and nitrogen fixing trees planted on the swales you have a major portion of your irrigation covered as well as keeping pests from bouncing from tree to tree as in a mono culture. It's a bit more complicated than that, but you get the idea. The typical orchard arrangement is no longer part of our plan. It is also set up in such a way to easily use electric net fencing to run chickens through during the harvest to keep bugs down then follow up with pigs to take up all the dropped fruit as well us root up and fertilize the ground. Pretty sanitary systems with multiple benefits.



Zone 3 is your nut tree forest systems and aquaculture along with animal pens etc. Again, being able to periodically run pigs through to clean up fallen nuts cuts down on feed costs and adds the kind of quality that would be impossible to purchase as feed. While the electric nets are up, run your meat chickens through to pick out fly larvae and bugs in general for free nutrition and sanitation. Per square foot, there is not a more efficient way to grow protein than a healthy pond. Add the benefit to periodic irrigation from the nutrient dense pond water to nut trees down below and you have a winning combination. The pond was designed after checking with Arizona Department Of Water Quality and the county. There are certain restrictions so we had to change the design around to make sure we were legal.



Zone 4 is your 20-30 year old productive hardwood forests. Enjoy them as you grow old, invite more diversity or harvest to build with or sell. That will be up to my kids. Please notice the area that stays cleared at the bottom of zone 4. That's my 250 yard shooting range, it'll stay that way



Zone 5 is an area that you leave as you found it but since this project we have added the area where the steers will be finished at the very top.



I'm sure many things will change, some already have but I walked away from this with a plan that makes sense based on sun, wind, weather, soil tests and water samples. I also have an understanding that allows me to change the plan around easily without disturbing the fundamental concepts. This was easily the best 3 months I had spent on the property. It's hard to measure the amount of money it has potentially saved us.

 

[wash11]

Pics of said shooting range.

 

[wash11]

Curious, why not just fence a couple of acres around the house?

I hope my posts that followed answered that question. To accomplish our goals we will really need to use all of our land at some point. There will be more fencing inside that fence to separate the living areas from the steers finishing.

 

[Sleek-Jet]

I hope my posts that followed answered that question. To accomplish our goals we will really need to use all of our land at some point. There will be more fencing inside that fence to separate the living areas from the steers finishing.

Yep, it did. [emoji106]

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

DO you have gophers/squirrels? they will rape your fruit trees big time :grumble: I haven't found away to stop them yet on ours

 

[wash11]

DO you have gophers/squirrels? they will rape your fruit trees big time :grumble: I haven't found away to stop them yet on ours

No gophers, a few squirrels but I expect more to come as soon as there is more food for them. The best I can do is hope to keep them under control by trapping and shooting. The sheer number of trees we expect to plant should allow us some loss but yeah, we fully expect daily battles with varmints and predators.

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

ya with the little problems come bigger problems to eat the little ones , we now have large hawks / big ass owls/eagles that go after our small dog and chickens , plus we have a shit load of dove feeding on our garden/ chicken feed .water so this brings in big birds to feed on them :grumble: we love seeing the big birds but now we have worries of losing the dog/chickens , so come spring I will run 20-30lb fishing line from our farm light to the coop about 15'? off the ground I think that will solve our dive bomber problem

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

No gophers, a few squirrels but I expect more to come as soon as there is more food for them. The best I can do is hope to keep them under control by trapping and shooting. The sheer number of trees we expect to plant should allow us some loss but yeah, we fully expect daily battles with varmints and predators.

with you having a back hoe dig the hole for your new tree bigger and line with 1/2"x1/2" welded wire then plant the tree , roots will grow through and gophers will have lunch but the tree will live , I did this with a couple peach trees so far so good

 

[rivrrts429]

I'm so fascinated by this, awesome thread. Showed my wife your thread and she's just as amazed as I am. We're hooked.

You really are providing and building something that can last forever. The planning and learning that goes into a project of this size is amazing.

Ya'll should be very proud of yourselves and I'm glad you've shared your journey with us. We look forward to following along.

 

[shan]

with you having a back hoe dig the hole for your new tree bigger and line with 1/2"x1/2" welded wire then plant the tree , roots will grow through and gophers will have lunch but the tree will live , I did this with a couple peach trees so far so good

I wouldn't think gophers are a problem in that kind of ground. They don't do well with the rock.

 

[TITTIES AND BEER]

I wouldn't think gophers are a problem in that kind of ground. They don't do well with the rock.

LITTLE BASTEREDS are everywhere after you plant something ,your not planting a tree in rock :grumble:

 

[sfury]

Wait a minute. Don't you owe me for the codes? Lol I want in on this great escape. Lol. But really good luck and we wish you the best.

 

[Andy01]

This is something I bet many of us think of or wonder about. Thank you for posting your story, this is absolutely amazing to me!! Did you ever post where this is?

Again thank you for posting, and keep us up to speed as it moves towards your goal.