Welcome Preston to Pilot Valley

I would like to thank Preston for the information he has provided me about the area around Montello. Its great to know, that I wont be the only one there. Rev Michael, Geoff, Preston and I will all make it it if we stick together and learn from each others mistakes!!

New Wind and Weather Reports

Rev Mike, found some info about the wind. 3mph to 17mph. still unknown is if its constant.

Temps look better then the ranges I found previously. Guess we will have to keep a log through out the years for our own records.

Thanks for following Preston

Preston do you already live in Montello? if so email me your email address so we can chat!!

Trevor Cohen Memorial

A nice man named Trevor Cohen found out about Monkey Bone Ranch, and has decided to help us with our water fund. He will start with donating money to buy a water tank to hold our fresh water. His next donation will fund our water well project. We plan to share the well with other people who will try to live off the land and be as eco friendly as possible. Unfortunately our generous donation is due to Mr Cohen having terminal lung cancer. Due to the fact he is donating to us, we will be building a memorial in honor of him at Monkey Bone Ranch, so that his name and memory will forever live on when he is gone. Hopefully he can come see the place before he is taken away from us.

Water treatment container

Found another water container to use like a rain barrel. Its been sitting next to my house for almost a year now. Forgot I had it. It was given for free last year by a place I worked at. Its a Huge Beer Ice Tub. Has a built in garden hose connector, so it will be filled with waste water then used to water the garden or for water for the animals after its been treated. Need to find a 4th wheel, thats why I got it for free.

Free heating method

My friend michael and michael from nevada reminded me of something I saw
a while ago. You use a box to capture the suns heat, use a fan to blow
the hot air into your house, and it sucks the cold air back into the box
to heat it. Totally free way to heat the house. I remember seeing one
that heated water along the same theory. When I am in florida, I will
build one for water, one for heat. Will need to find a method for
cooling since there is a lot of hotness in florida...

Relocation for now

If I win the auction, I will be the proud owner of 1/3 acre of land in
sunny florida. Its off in the woods. I plan to set it up as I would in
nevada to see what will or will not work. Its about 90 minutes away.
Close enough to come back home if I fail out there..

Rain Barrels

Just watched on planet green how to make rain barrels. I have 2 already for my trip, but I will not be using them for rain collecting unless it rains alot in Pilot Valley. They will be used to store shower water. Plan to shovel snow in winter to fill the barrels for free shower and plant watering. Will get some more and use it for shower waste water and then use the waste water to water plant life and if i can some how figure a way to clean the waste water, use it for shower water again. Supposedly if you add some bleach to the snow or rain water, you can drink it. I do not think I will rely on that.

A new cabin plan?

Too bad not enough trees near montello to build it...

Did some math

Found an ebay auction who had an idea of the size of properties. 20
acres is a 1 mile walk around all 4 sides. 21 football fields. If you
walk around a high school track 4 times, that's the length of the
perimeter of my property. That's not as big as I had originally thought.
But when my tire blew out on expressway and I had to walk that mile to a
auto part store to get a tire iron, a mile is still a mile and its a
long ways. Over 20 minutes away...

Fencing options

Did some fencing estimates, over $2600 if I dit it myself with fence
posts, and 3 strings of barbwire. 20 acres is a lot to fence in. The
barb wire wasn't bad, it was the fence posts that cost way way too
much...

Truck shopping still

Still have not made it out to shop for a truck, never have time with
hauling people back and forth to work and running a concession stand on
weekends. im thinking maybe a 4x4 jeep might work out there, but I would
have to see the towing capacity of it. Can't really save money while
living in tampa...

My final resting place....

This is what I want to be buried in when I am dead. http://bit.ly/14YHHO

Awesome Cabin Design

This cabin looks very simple, would be great if they are cheap to make, to have a bunch of them around the property for when people come to visit or maybe have a little mini motel / hotel market.

Found a place

That claims bad credit, no down payment for trucks... got my pay stuff,
6 references and my cable bill, gonna check them out sunday or sometime
next week....

Another day

Closer to moving to montello, another day closer to being happy

Updated Dream house maybe

http://www.townandcountryplans.com/mkenzie2.html

They updated to show one made in the bahamas, they modified it to make a loft in it.

Quikcrete pricing

$3 a bag, build the structure eventually it gets wet, instant concrete
walls!!

Quikcrete building option

Found an interesting building design by the water today. Instead of
using sandbags to keep the river banks back they used bags of quikcrete.
Might work for building a house or wind barrier....

Temperatures

No one seems to have the same answers as to what the temperatures are
year round. I am starting to think, along with the strawbales around the
shed, I will dig mounds of dirt around the shed like mini mountains to
block the wind. This can be helpful in the collection of rain water too.