Hints of things to come

There is a lot going on around my little farm and I feel at times that I am being pulled in many directions at once. so below is a little hint at one of the major projects that have been in play here for the last few weeks. Let me know what you think is going on.

The currently running project is useable at the moment, but far from being finished.  and this area of the property looks vastly so stay tuned to my YouTube channel for what is going on. For bigger hints check out my Instagram! Enjoy

Changes to YouTube, Google+ and a New Google + Community

Off Grid Jenn | My Sustainable Life

I don't know what happened but for some reason I am no longer the owner of the Off Grid Documentary Community on Google +. That is okay really didn't go anywhere to begin with. I think I lost the permissions when I deleted the accompanying youtube channel a while back when I had pretty much lost all hope of ever getting my dream off the ground. 

Well I now have a new community titled Off Grid Jenn | My Sustainable Life I plan on posting in there a lot! I hope you will stop by and take a look. If your feeling up to it Join as well. 

I have been making a few changes here today on my Google entwined Social Media sites. I have deleted all but two of my YouTube sites and their accompanying Google+ pages. To be honest it was a bit much to deal with. Not to mention extremely confusing when trying to simply upload a video. I don't like having to have my YouTube and Google+ linked together like they are. I feel it was a bad move on Google's part. The better thing to have done would to have combined the two into just one site. I like aspects of both sites but it is a bit much to deal with at times. The being forced to  constantly flip between the two is annoying as hell! Not to mention that when I went to delete a seeming unrelated Google+ page it completely took out my business webpage, and all attached Google+ Pages. I nearly deleted all my youtube and Google+ accounts then and there. 

I have taken a few deep breaths now and calmed down quite a bit. Life is back to good at the moment. I am hoping that the addition of the new community will be a successful one. 

The Joy of Utility Hookups... or not

Not Worth The Hassle

When I first thought about moving back to Virginia I was a bit apprehensive as I knew that getting the luxury of high speed internet would become a thing of the past, and that any hopes of getting my television shows delivered into my home would require a satellite dish and all that comes with it. On a home a satellite dish is a wonderful thing; however in an RV is a rite pain in the ass. Having to re-point the thing every time you move your RV is a hair pulling experience at best. I could regale you with stories of the fights that have broken out in my home just trying to get it sighted in; however I will spare you the gory details. The move back to Virginia required me to leave my beloved Dish Network for Direct TV, with whom I loathed from way back. An apparent change in company policy forced me to switch back to Direct TV, as the very reason I left them has been adopted by dish and vice versa. Go figure.

On Monday October 6^th, Dominion Power came out and hooked up my power. Shortly after came the guy that my landlord sent out to install my fifty AMP plug and breaker into the power box so that I could access my electricity. I have to admit that the Park manager seems to be on his game, and is very sweet to boot.

So when I moved down here to Kitty Hawk, I was excited to have Direct TV come out and re-point my dish, to the tune of fifty three dollars. What I got was a lot of aggravation and headache. Tuesday, October 7^th, Direct TV was to come out to sight in my dish, The guy that showed up seemed like a nice guy but shortly after getting out of the vn he refused to site in the dish at all claiming that there was a tree in the way. Mind you that my neighbors on either side have Direct TV hooked up and their dishes pointed. I think this guy was just plain lazy as he could have set up my dish on either side of me and got a signal. Mind you I had a signal so I knew he was lying, I needed him to put it on a pole and sight it in a little better. Needless to say I threw him off the property and canceled the service altogether. Even got my money back for the aggravation.

This left me with the dilemma of not having any television, at all. I had previously scheduled Century Link to come out and install my Internet, however that was not to have been installed until October 13, Mind you today is the 12^th.  After looking at the Century Link site I was saddened to see that their only offer for Television stations was in fact Direct TV. I remembered being told by Nik, the park manager, that Charter was the local cable company. After looking at their site I realized that I could get higher speeds of Internet, Cable Television and a home phone much cheaper that Century link. After a phone call to Charter I was scheduled to have my service installed, that happened on October 8^th the day after Direct TV basically refused to even attempt to site my dish in, and nearly a full week before Century Link could get here to install my Internet.

I set up the appointment and had my Internet installed along with TV, and a Home Phone a few days ago. I could not be happier. Century Link was understanding and canceled my install without hassle.  So, After six weeks of crappy, free wifi internet I am back to the modern age with High Speed Internet, I have my wifi router, My home network is up and running, and the awesome installer even hard wired in my Apple TV to the modem stating that it would speed things up when watching it. I agree it has quite a bit in fact. I will admit this little tidbit; I really liked Direct TVs’ DVR setup where I could record up to six shows at once. The Genie was a wonderful thing. However, given the service I received I think I made the better choice.

All in all it has been interesting just getting here and getting things set up. I guess it is a good thing that I plan on being here for a while. I have all the convenience of my apartment back in Orlando, albeit in a smaller space, and without a washer and dryer at this point… UGH!

My Adventure Continues…

Tiny living

I am really starting to like living back in the RV again. I have to admit that it has been a bit of a culture shock after three years in a nice one bedroom apartment. I have to admit that I kind of want to just hook up the RV and do some traveling. But for the winter at least I am stuck where I am so that I can figure out where I want to go and how I am going to do it. The down side will be leaving my Jeep behind, as I can’t drive two vehicles at the same time.  I also have quite a bit of stuff to go through and get rid of.  I will be setting up an e-Bay store to help make a little bit of money in the process. We will see how that goes.

Moving back into the RV had the challenge of downsizing, yet again, and I got through that all well  Just to name a few things there are so many other things that have had to be done.

She needs a bath!

and good. The other challenge is that when you stick an RV into storage for so long that when you pull it out there are a lot of little, and not so little, things that need to be fixed. My list has included everything from replacing missing cabinet door handles, bay door locksets, seals and clamps, scrubbing walls, to replacing busted vent covers, and re-caulking nearly every seam on the outside of the trailer.

On this particular weekend the vents got replaced, and hopefully the caulking of the exterior fixtures and the roof seams on the slide will stop the water from getting into the RV all together. I am crossing my fingers on that one as every time I have caulked something it has not seemed to help. I think at some point I am going to have to strip all of the caulk, rubber sealant, and spray rubber off the RV and start with a completely blank canvas. Having to do this will suck as I admit that I have an aversion to heights. Luckily my ex-husband has been nice enough to drive down from Maryland and assist me with all the roof stuff.

Part of my living room

On the interior I was happy to enter on that first day to find all the furniture, with the exception of my kitchen table, gone from the trailer all together. The blank canvas allowed me to pull in most of the pieces from my apartment to create my new space. The key to adding the furniture from the apartment is that it has had to be bolted down to the floor and to the walls. Not a major thing to do but does take a hot minute to complete. “L” brackets have been a godsend! I also invested in a few packages of Museum Putty that allows me to tack down things to the desk and the bookcase so that I am not constantly putting things away and pulling them back out every time I move the RV. 

The best experience from moving back into the RV is that I do know a few design things that I do not want in my tiny house when I build it. For starters I want much better windows, and a lot less of them! Wall space in my RV is at a premium and I have a lot of things that I would love to be able to hang up, unfortunately I cant. So in the Tiny Home I will have to make the space to hang pictures and things. I have had the thought of stripping the RV down to just the trailer and building my tiny house on that, I do plan on just buying one of the tumbleweed trailers though.

But for now, my story continues…

More Cabin Pictures

 Only thing missing is the roof! I have to admit that I have been having a bit of fun putting these together and creating them. I added a second story set of lofts, the walls are four feet tall and will have a simple roof. I plan on adding a window to the front top of the house and a few in the sleeping loft. The front loft as well as the bathroom have pocket doors for access, there is a small wrap porch, and Sliding glass doors that I am considering making french doors, as that is what my daughter requested.

I think I am going to do a video and talk about my design choices. It still has a lot of work to be done on it.

Click on the image below to see in larger view.

It is a process!

So I have sat all day in my recliner between doing my chores and watched a ton more of youtube videos on everything from Earth ships, Solar Power, gardening, and I even learnt how to Figure out Truss structures!  I did find a plan for the first of the building I want to construct on the land I want to buy. My Ex has even offered to help in the process, It is pretty much a garage with an office and an apartment on the top. I figure that I can live in the apartment while two of the three bays of the garage will be a workshop, one being a garage. and the office being an office. Once I get the other buildings in I would most likely use the apartment as a guest house while turning the office into a hydroponics garden. It is just an idea anyway, If all else fails I have an all in one solution. It is a goal any way and one that looks like something that I can accomplish. 

Got my New Yankee Workshop videos, I plan on purchasing more over the next few months. Like I said in an earlier blog I want to build my own furniture for my house and now is the time to design my own plans as well as buy the plans that I want. Anyway I am finally off to bed as it is almost 2 am. Night ya'll