I've been eye balling some Marlin's in 22lr but they cost about 3-5K$ here If I lived in the US I'd AT LEAST have a 10/22 and a lever gun in .22lr.

A Minature Rat Terror, errr, Terrier.



Eventually, there will be other dogs, both working/herding and house. I am not intending to let the current dog run free on the land, even with me. It's too unexplored and she could get away from me and disappear from sight. Plus, I don't think she's ever been around where cactus grows and there is the possibility of snakes as well. She'll say on a leash outside; once, down the road, the containment area is built, different story.

Well, I may be like those people, like my mother, buying plants at Home Depot, filling up the car.....but I can't picture Mom having, driving an M35a2; I can see myself having something like that, though....maybe.

Got to go.
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("Oh, it's work all for sugar in your tay,"––lyrics, (w,stte), song, "Drill ye terriers, Drill" (a grade school song))

If you're looking to grow some food since you're starting from scratch it's a good opportunity to look into permaculture.

Basically it's maximizing the advantages that plants provide one another in order to have less work.

Water and/or electricity first. Unless you have a generator.

I'd skip the containers, two of them would be near the cost of a two or three car garage kit from your building supplier. Build the garage/shop/barn as an outbuilding with simple bath and camp kitchenette. Live in that while building the main house. I think the garage is a nice skill builder as well.

Get a 5x10 trailer for the Forester. If you later need a truck, hit a local auction.

When you get there, nail guns and Dewalt DW718 compound sliding mitre saw. Nail guns can be had used, then resell when you are done. The saw, buy new with a spare blade, sell when done. Same with the truck and trailer, buy used and sell when finished.

Where is this 10 acres?

You need a lot of leverage. I've had to use an 8' length of 1-1/4" pipe to break lugs loose, fortunately such a pipe is easily carried in that truck. The wheels are heavy, unless the flat is on the front or you have 5 tons loaded, it can be driven at reduced speed. Bear in mind these wheels are 3-piece and many tire shops won't work on them because idiots have been killed from improper assembly. The duals are safer as the flange rings are captured, the fronts can blow the flanges off at lethal speed. Inflating newly mounted tires should be done remotely and in a cage.

Manual transmission and manual steering mean these vehicles are a pain to drive. 58 MPH top speed and you must wear hearing protection as they are LOUD. I've driven them thousands of miles. You will spend more time repairing them than driving, wheel cylinders and bearing seals always leak. Unless you have multi-ton loads to haul, get a light truck.

Shipping containers like to rust when buried. There are methods to slow this, coatings are destined to failure (even Carboline Carbo Zinc or equal). Expect 10 year life span or less.

1. build airstrip
2. have that c130 land
3. Get onthe motherfucker and get the fuck out.

Oh, my dear... Has your "rat terrior" ever come in close proximity to a skunk? If not, you are in for ... an overly interesting experience.

Find out what works for your neighbors for ''de-skunking" a dog and keep some on hand.
It WILL happen. Especially when you get some more 'herding' dogs.





A 10-22 rifle should be adequate. You should have a .38 Special or .357 Magnum also; they are great all-around guns and easy to find snake shot for. Yes, snake shot. You don't want to be shooting bullets anywhere near your house (which contains pets and presumably loved ones). Shot is available in most any pistol caliber but usually doesn't reliably work the slide on a semi-auto. Old_Painless has an article about snake shot on his site, theboxotruth.com.

If you cared to expand on the economics of a windmill, I'd read it.


We're hoping to have a well dug soon, and if I could power it via an economical windmill I'd be interested.

I'm down with that, cowboy

Parts will be in the $3000 range for a 12 foot diameter head and $3000 for a 21 foot tall tower. The pumping section will depend on depth to water, figure on $25/foot to water depth plus tower height.

A full package will consider your water needs, wind averages and depth to water. If the permanent water table is less than 100 feet, the smaller units work fine to get you 500 gallons per day. A cistern is a must, it will get you through the lulls and is also part of the total system package. Polyethylene is the best, cypress is next but harder to clean.

Plus they look quaint. They are fairly immune to problems but need lubrication. Also, storms can tear them up. Eventually, you will need to pull the sucker rod and pumping section, this is a good deal of work. If you have to pull the entire pumping section, you will enjoy aluminum pipe wrenches and a small winch. Grandpa used cast iron wrenches with a block and tackle.

Yes, it costs much more than a submersible electric BUT you can do all the service easily. Keep a pump cup on hand with a few spare sucker rod sections (they can corrode or wear out). Also get a fishing tool for when the sucker rod drops so you don't need to pull the string. This drops down the bore of the pipe and captures a broken sucker rod. Using the rope attached to the tool, you pull the broken sucker rod up.

Thanks! That gives me something to ponder over the course of the next few months.

These are low-flow 12 VDC systems. They have the advantage of providing free energy to pump the water out of the ground. Their disadvantage is that they pump very slowly. A 220 VAC pump will fill a large tank in a few hours, then shut off; these systems must run all the time.

12 vdc well pump

more solar water pump

I was out at my ranch yesterday. First of all, ZERO bars on the cell phone, no signal out at least.

It's about a tenth of a mile wide with essentially the highest point being at the entrance.

Travel time, it's about 30 minutes away from town and civilization. That's the way it is where I live; in five minutes by bike in three directions, one can be on a country road. For the ranch, in the surrounding lands, there's a fire station, perhaps a church or two, little closer to town maybe, perhaps a farm business.

But the nearest gas station and convenience store is almost 30 minutes away with grocery stores and civilization about 5 minutes after that. That's the way this town is, one moment you are out, the next moment you are in.

Heading out my direction, especially when getting close, it is "peaks and valleys" with a lot of valleys. Driving out yesterday when I was on the final road, I was often wondering if I was on the right road, the surroundings so different from my ranch.

This was my first trip on my own, the realitor drove the first time, and I was seeing if I knew the way in my mind. Saw deer and road runners on my way back.

Especially because the lack of cell phone, one thing I need to add to my plans is becoming a Ham operator. I need to check with the landline phone company to see if they go out that far, they should, but I'm paranoid of perhaps going down and not having a reliable way of sending out a distress signal.

Further, I need to figure out how much I need the internet at home; my work place is the Net so it is not like I would be totally cut off.

As such, all things considered, being off the grid is more of emergency measures than the eventual day to day living. Yes, I am thinking of generators, windmills.....and a solar system of a sort for a water column to feed a turbine, but I can't see that powering all my power needs every day year round. It might come to that some day in a way, such as if I am using the grid to keep my batteries topped.

I'm not a survalist; I am "the girl with lots of backup plans"........and as an engineer, I have the mind to figure out how to do them.

Keep the ideas coming in, please, including insurance. I talked with my company yesterday and they don't do it on undeveloped land, so I shall have to look around.
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(After finding out their Raptor has been discovered. "So what's plan B?"––Helo
"Plan B is the same as A, C, and D; get off this damn rock."––Boomer, (w,stte), "BSG-75")

OP must be a city boy.

Well just reading a little of the link tells me that the antennae needs to be on high land. Now, in the eventual house, maybe, it might be up atop the observation silo, a place to gaze at the stars......and watch the grounds in places the cameras won't cover.

Thank you for the dream encouragement; with as much work as this ranch is going to be (one of the reasons why it is cheaper, its remoteness and lack of easy house construction), I am doing a constant reality check on myself.
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("I have been tracking your starship since it entered this system."––Flint, (w,stte), "ST: TOS")

Someone asked earlier where the ranch is. If I didn't answer before, in Texas hill country.

Looking over the letter a gf sent me last year, all she posts about what she does (has a horse farm in coastal plains Texas), the internet may not be that much of an issue because I may not have the time to be on it away from work. I may not need cable. More later.
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("I get up early, milk the cows, gather the eggs, plow the back 40."––Amish farmer in police station and when asked 'and then', "Breakfast!", (w,stte), "Barney Miller")

temporary shelter that will later be your storage shed. Add water and power. I have thought about writing a book about this, starting with a large piece of raw land, ending up with orchards, vineyards, working gardens, but I am no sure where to begin. It would be an enourmous project just to write about it and has taken me a decade to get where I am now.

Water first, if you don't have it, will you haul it or change your mind on this property? Electricity can be generated on site at any point if grid is unavailable.

I don't know who your local building supply is, so here is mine. Check each and peruse the search strings at the left as some have rooms/offices built into the plan.

Residential post frame kits

Post frames

Garages

The good news is, I believe you can buy the plans for a few bucks and have the parts list to take to your local supplier. Your local guys would probably deliver the whole load with one truck. I've read that the big chain suppliers have crappy wood so you may want to hit up a real lumber yard. I either cull the wood myself or buy twice as much and return the crap. No matter where I go, the wood is crappy.

I'd pick the type of kit based on what you will need after the house is built. Shop, garage, studio, storage, animals, office etc. Remember to keep it fairly small so you can build it quickly. If you plan on living and working in it while you build the rest, you will need insulation. That would be kind of a waste on a three car garage. However, if the space will be inhabited later, ie office, it's done. Then again, insulation may not be a great expense depending on type and size of project. Could simply insulate the living area.

All the tools you will need will fit in the back of your Forester while you get the first building up. It's just a pain to take 20 minutes to unload in the morning and 20 minutes to put it all back in the car at night when you are dog tired. In the beginning of my current project I kept everything in the Durango until I had four walls and a door up. Then I stored all the tools inside and commenced the second story. I only have a maximum of 3 hours a day to work on it so loading and unloading was a big waste of time. I think it took me 12 hours spread over 4 days to get the floor, walls and door up on a 12'x16' shed.

When you start on the house(phase2), put your tools in a two wheel, wheel barrow. Push it from storage to work site and then it's easy to pick stuff up at the end of the day and push back to storage. Chop saw is on wheels as well. Walking back and forth carrying things on a construction site eats up a lot of time. Have your supplies close but not in the way of working. Use the wheel barrow to move a bunch of studs at once, rather than carry 2 or 4 at a time. Learn to drag or slide sheet goods rather than pick each sheet up, walk 30 feet and lay it down. A good shove and it will slide across the floor decking or you pick up one end and slide the other over floor joists and studs. Small things save time and save your back. I can pick up 200 pounds all day long, but if I try to pick up a hammer without thinking about it I'm crippled for 2 days.

There is a military manual on rigging that has a great section on gin poles and block and tackle. Gin poles are great for standing walls or unloading a trailer full of heavy stuff if you are on your own. I like to glue everything in sight, so after framing the walls on the ground, I'll glue the sheathing on the wall then stand it by myself with the poles. Poles are as simple as two 2x4's, depending on what you are lifting. I am sure pros have a better way of doing things. They do make a wall standing jack but for me 2x4's are cheaper.

Do you have friends or cheap labor available, or are you doing this solo?

I wanted to mention, if you have renters insurance for your current home, check and see how much they cover away from home. If I leave tools at the park and they turn up missing, I am covered 10% of my full coverage, as long as I am not engaged in for profit enterprise at the park. $2000 to $3000 should be plenty for any tools you have left on site. I believe mine covers theft out of my car as well. $100 to $200 a year to replace(save deductible) anything that goes missing is not bad.

Woops, I rambled.

This is what most of a 2 story 12'x16' gambrel shed looks like on a trailer.

What's it look like after it's been removed from the trailer and installed?

A few gross of these:

Building? Go for the all-metal building. You can build an apartment inside, complete with insulation and air conditioning.

Get a well. Most will steer you to a submersible pump as it is easy to install, a generator is cheaper than a windmill for short term. You could look into a wind generator later.

Fencing with gates is a must. Forget putting one in now, too hot.

Let's talk bail outs for a moment and how such a vehicle might be used to help build the ranch.

For example, there are a lot of cedar stumps that are like "starbursts" (vertical shaft about 3 feet high with shorter shafts angling out at the base) that will need to be pulled. That's beyond the Forester's capability so what else might I want to be using?
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("Sunburst!"––Hawke calling for an IR decoy to be launched, (w,stte), "Airwolf")

Just about.....though I would need a place to park it and I don't have that yet.

Speaking of such things, as I look at the auction "block", I could pick up two female donkeys and one male donkey for a total cost of about $35.....before fees and taxes, I'm sure.

Don't have a place to put them, either, and the cats and dog would raise a fit!
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(A nun bought a donkey at auction but the Bishop told her that they couldn't keep it and to sell it. The press got a hold of the story and printed "Bishop orders Nun to Peddle A**".......they buried the Bishop the next day., (w,stte), old Texas joke)

City slicker.