60+ year old thread.

I am glad a lot of people still live in California! Yes I would have bullet proof glass in my car and conceal carry all the time if I still lived there. Nothing against Ca but it sure has changed since 1970 when I left. I need room to stretch and if I want to leave my truck unlocked with my wallet and key in it I can. Just a personal choice for me, I would have a hard time dealing with people Tagging My Taco or stealing it!! This is a summer time picture of our place and most of our land. We now own to the far ridge in the back ground and that mobile home has burned up in a wild fire a long time ago. We bought up the 80 acres it was on. Every tree in this picture is ours plus more you can't see. Were remote but I love it!

 

Evening all:
I'm with you Mark on being self sufficient , that's a gorgeous spread that you have there.

So does mine, it's a shame what's going on, actually been going on for a long time but getting way worse as time goes by.

 

Sorry I did not add -- "if I lived there and/or owned it"

 

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!

We've got the frost-free hose bibs on our house, too. They are definitely needed here in our part of the world.

 

Yep, frost proof everything. I've seen -36°F here. When we built this place, the well guy was grumbling when I wanted the well line 4' below grade. I said don't argue, just do it. Day after a deep freeze, when the sun comes out, the frost line will actually go deeper before it retreats and may take a week or more just to get back to where it was.
I know people who store bottled drinking water in their unheated garage. This winter has seen freezing temps in south FL.
Just because we get a warmer few days, doesn't mean the ice will magically vanish.

 

Thank you for sharing all of the wonderful pics in this post and the posts that follow. Do you have a hired hand to help with the maintenance? I see a lot of daily work in the pictures, but it is good work to help keep you young and in shape. Your home is really beautiful, and I like the layout. Also spotted some JD Green which I also like. Stay warm.

Our home is on slab construction. Early on in my life I worked for the phone company and went into too many homes with leaky basements so not having a basement was not a problem. Life is about choices so choose wisely. I only have a few life decisions I regret.

Tom: Interesting post on the Parkinson's. Are there eating strategies to help minimize food going into the lungs?

Today is my Niece's Baby Shower. First one I have ever been to so it will be interesting. Couple loads of laundry and going to call it a day.

 

Good Morning Porch Peoples! Last night was supposed to be the last "hard" freeze. Get a couple more nights of "just" freezing, then we're out of this for a while. Fine with me!

 

Speech Therapist. There are exercises I do. It's the muscle that moves in your throat to help close the airway when you swallow.

You can get "water thickeners" to also help. Thick-it or Thicken-up are two. Mix them up to have thick water in your sports water bottle. It helps with swallowing. Some foods are more challenging than others.

In the morning, my vitamin stack I take with yogurt. Vitamin B complex, Vitamin D, Magnesium (helps with legs cramps and keep things moving), Fish Oil, Tumeric (for my knee joints). The big pills are hard to swallow; hence yogurt or apple sauce helps.

Parkinson's medications should be taken on an empty stomach, but pills are tiny and can swallow with water.

 

I remember hearing that last year before the big freeze!

I've been enjoying the "Bush Radical" homestead building series on Youtube.

For a while, in my 20s I lived in a 260 sq ft house. Single, post-college. I was working a crazy number of hours and would go riding long 100-mile bike rides with friends on my day off. I enjoyed it. A Friend had bought a large property in San Jose, so that was the MIL cottage behind the "big house" 1200 sq ft. An Italian family had orchards and had built a series of homes for his extended family. Hence how I came to live in a 260 sq home.

Links to the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYAoKN1BT3c

 

Last week should be our big one this year. ( )
Sorry about your fall! I needed water softener salt anyway, so I bought some extra. Had a bucket by each door, and a bucket of sand in the firewood wagon. Hardly used any out front, mostly on the narrow side.

 

Morning all:
I could easily live in one of those tiny homes, but would need at least a 50X100' pole barn next to it for all the "stuff"!

 

I'd love to find five to ten acres. Room for a dozen tiny homes. Large outbuilding for my woodworking, metalworking, repair shed. Everyone has to pitch in maintaining grounds. Edible landscape (native plants). Blackberry hedges as barriers, Fruit Trees.

I wouldn't mind passing along the trades to younger people when I retire. In tiny houses, you don't have a lot of stuff but a place so people could build their own tiny homes. Show them why they want an 11'6" (some states limit to 8') wide tiny house with a 6" stick frame (heavy but better insulated to save energy). Ditto for plumbing along one wall (cheaper to build, more accessible service). Southern exposure with windows high up under an overhand (winter sun helps heat the home, summer sun shaded by overhang).

My kids' friends are always amazed by my "can do" work philosophy. Thankfully lots of great YouTube videos out there. To learn about wood framing a home, check out Larry Haun's videos. My sister was a single mom with three kids. Bought five acres, she and the kids lived out of a single wide while building her own home. Dad was retired and would go out and give her guidance. She did it!

We're all over 60, so a lifetime of learning. I love to pass that along, but first to admit I am too talkative!

Friends had a potluck with a bunch of random people over. One of the younger guys was 30 and unsure if he should take a job overseas. The Host said, "why don't you ask everyone here what they think" Kid's comment was, "they wouldn't get it." Our Host lived in Japan for ten years, I lived in Germany (EE working for Robert Bosch), another was an English Teacher in China, so on. Suddenly he realized why the Host said, "join us for the evening" We had all lived abroad at one point.

 

I wish we had a hired hand to take care of the place. I do most of it and at 70 it is getting harder. I love running my JD4044M Tractor it is what makes my day in a snow storm. Some like taking there TACO out in the snow I do it with my tractor and love cleaning it up nice. The place keeps me in shape and young compared to most 70 year olds I know! I just put in a couple windows on my porch I am enclosing. Had to take a over the counter pain pill at the end of the day! I do not take any medications now and just push my self more to do stuff. Big thing on my place now is getting it painted again. I used to do it but ladders are not as much fun on 2 stories!! Wife took this of me hard to get one of me since I take most the pictures!

 

When I lived in Lander, Wyoming - I got an education or two about "frost depth". The full depth of cold earth penetration is about 3 months after the coldest day outside. Our freeze-ups there would come on near the end of Feb or early March if you can believe it. Amazed me - I grew up in southern Missouri. My sewer line froze one winter in the last week of Feb. Had to have a local guy come and use a tape and steam Jenny to work through to the main. These were pipes that were 6 ft. deep.

 

I also like building tiny buildings they don't tax them here!! The wood 10x12 one started out to be a walk in Freezer and has 6 inch walls and super insulated but turned into a storage building. The metal 10x20 building is 95 % Metal and the framing is 2" box steel and 2 1/2" angle iron. Bought a bunch of it at a auction. Then in my shop made a plan and drilled it all out and bolted it together on site. Then put strips of wood on it to screw the tin to. It was the last building I built. It will be there for a long time with treated wood 2x6 floor and all the steel framing! My JD Tractor is parked next to the steel one and the wood one is behind it. My first building on the place I built was my small barn not really small but my big barn in 48x60 in size. I did the insides on the big barn for my Daughters Cows she has. She started buying them as Calves at 12 yrs of age then went into being a Taxidermist for a living. I made her 6 ft dia drums for doing her hides in. They had a 1 hp motor that spun them to soften the hides. Try making a rolling dual drum device turning at 19 RPMs with heavy flopping loads in them!! There working the frame is 2" Box steel I welded up. Wrapping the plywood was hard on the drums. So for the last 25 years on my place I just was building a farm for her and it kept me in shape to! Now her Big Building is full of stuff she sells on line. That was my last wiring job doing her shops power and AC work.

 

My underground stuff is also 4 ft deep. When I did the underground wiring and water system I had guys digging trenches and covering them all day long. I put a lot of conduit and cables in the ground for future stuff on the place I had in mind to do. Every building on my place has power and water even all the way to the street for my entrance 350 ft from the home! I am jealous of my Daughters Bay it has a 17 ft tall ceiling with a 24 ft long steel beam with a rolling hoist I put in for her. She uses it for Wild Game and livestock butchering in her work. I get to use it once in a while but my shop is tiny compared to hers. We took the top off a smaller 24x48 building and expanded it to a 2 story 48 x 48 building. She wanted big and got it. Cost her $70K but now that would be $140K to do!! Glad she invested in good stuff! I did the AC/Heat System myself they wanted over $10K and I did it for $4K being a commercial electrician these things were easy for me. Used to be a Commercial Electrical Contractor for 13 years sothis stuff was normal things to just jump into and do. Just wish I was 50 again I could make 18 year olds look bad working! These pictures to me brings back many memories of good times cause this is what I did for enjoyment and for me this stuff is hard to give up!

 

Nice homestead!

I'm getting chilled just looking at those photos!

If you are ever in Walla Walla and find yourself at 5th and Popular. That was the old family homestead of my Great-grandfather. His sister was one of the nuns who held found the hospital. He donated the property for the sisters to build a clinic. Providence Hospital is still there today.
He lived to be 80 years old (1841-1921). My Dad's cousin, Maxine, is still with us. She will be 105 in April. Kids made her give up driving when she turned 100.

 

Boy if I can live that long I will be so happy! I have left my mark in this world like my Grand Father and Father did. I could have had a lot of fancy toys but I wanted a homestead. Did a lot of it myself or helped learned on big stuff get guys to help or it takes forever to do. I love the look of framing it goes up do quick and to me the lines are neat to look at. I have a lot of respect for Carpenters! They do stuff Doctors, Teachers and Lawyers only wish they could! Been in construction all my life and think with out us there would be no buildings to live in and roads, bridges ect built. We are way more important the the so called White Collar Worked who think there in charge! They just talk for a living us Construction Workers Build Stuff for a living! I have wired Schools, Intensive Care Rooms in Hospitals, Gas Stations, Seattle Opera House, Air Plane and Boat Lifts, 180 ft Tall Warning lights on Fort Lewis Smoke Stacks the list is real long! This smoke Stack was the highest job I did. Worked out of a 3 ft square bucket hung off a crane boom. I climbed it first to prove I was not scared of heights that was a bitch a long open back ladder to go up! When your blood and sweat goes into your home it means more than just buying one, it becomes part of you. OK off my high horse just hate when we are forgot and who made America!

 

A beautiful homestead Willie, in more ways than one.

 

Thanks it is sad to me that kids grow up id concrete cities and don't have things other then what people sell to them. Video Game places, Hang outs with groups in places and I am not even sure what you can do in the big cities but spend money and walk around? No gardens, animals to raise family stuff like you do on a farm. Now it seems to be all electronic fun, facebook, twitter, and other on site places I have no idea what there called. Some of the cities kids grow up in they can't even walk down the street? I am glad I was able to raise my child living here she has learned so much and most was what she taught herself to do. She wanted to be self employed and was a strait A Honor student in school. Me I got bad grades and dropped out and joined the Army at 18 and went to Vietnam. Got out and was on my own 1200 miles from the rest of my family.

I just started working in construction and it took off from there in Washington State. Never went back to live in California it was not for me. Seems Old People talk this way about there past life and younger ones have cool cars to start off with to express themselves. I had my cool cars and did all kinds of stupid stuff till I learned I needed a life and family to make it all worth while living! One thing I did do was I kept my long hair just to show I was not a conformist and to show hair did not make the man it was just hair! I love it when some say you need to cut it to look like a respectable person and I just laugh! Anyway just fed my Cats out in my shop that keep the mice away and on the way back for lunch I took a picture of my Daughters Completed Shop and my 2022 Toyota TRD!

So I still have Cool Cars and Trucks even tho I am old! Soon my 2021 Challenger gets to be uncovered and drove again and that one brings out my youth big time! PS If you look at the hood of the truck you see a pipe going up the side of the house. It is a 1 1/2" water pipe and a 60 GPM Sprinkler Cannon that will put water out 80 ft and do a 160 ft circle over the home and shop. When on it is like a rain storm dumping 60 gallons of water every minute on the buildings. This is part of my Fire Fighting system I did for saving my place. I have over 17 big sprinklers now in places for this reason. I can put out 350 GPM at 50 PSI to run them out of my underground 6000 gal tank during a wild fire. It saved the place this last one we had.

The Nozzle on the pole is aimed at my tree it started to explode in the last fire and I had to wet it down to save it! Now a 1 1/2" Fire Nozzle will do it for me. Did not have time to take pictures during the 2020 fire homes were exploding near us and I had to get ready. It got real loud when it hit burned up to 3-10 from the barns in places and the winds had picked up to 50 MPH. They lost over 175 homes in this one. Burned all around our place only took a couple trees in the distance. It sure let you know how small you are when you can't leave and have to fight to save it.

In 20 mins I used 4,000 gallons of water and was so black when it was over from the smoke! I took this of me just after I shut the water off I was so tired! First time I posted this picture brings back bad memories it was like being in hell! I have fought over 100 fires for the USFS never was I ever in this much danger and no way to leave. If my equipment had failed I would have lost everything. My Daughter was at the big barn in the safe zone and my wife was manning a fire hose at the little barn. I was on a 1/12" at the hose keeping the 3 pumps going!

The fire started 8 miles away at night so I took a picture and got some sleep after I set up the pumps and hoses. Then all hell cut loose in the morning. Cops and Fire Fighters were telling us to go but we had over 100 animal to care for. Soon it was only us on the hill that stayed real quit for a while then it got loud and scared the fuck out of us but we held on I knew it would work if we did! Never lost one in the fire! I never want to do this again it is all automatic now to fight the wildfires! Were all green again just like there was never a wildfire! Lots of people that left can't say that near us!