Going off the grid

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Mon Jul 14, 2014 7:03 pm

Lightening hit one of our larger ponderosa pines. I wasn't happy that this particular tree got hit. It was one of our nicer trees. I suppose I should be thankful that it was the tree and not the well which was located about 100 feet away. Anyway, lightening strikes are very common at this elevation. I spent a good part of the day cutting the tree and hauling off 4 loads of limbs. Sarah said that God was helping me landscape by opening up the views. :mrgreen:

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:01 pm

The lightening struck tree cleanup is complete.

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Sun Jul 20, 2014 11:08 am

I've been cleaning the trees up by removing all the dead branches. You can see how high I can reach with the ladder and pole saw.

The raking begins after the limbs are picked up and hauled. This is basically a three part process. 1) Use pole saw to cut the limbs. 2) Load all the limbs into trailer and haul to the burn pile. 3) Rake all the duff and haul off to the burn pile.

Mowing is much easier when the ground around the trees have been raked. There are decades of fallen debris and pine needles around these trees leaving, in some cases, several inches of material on the ground. The objective is to clean around the trees to help stimulate the growth of native grass.

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Sun Jul 20, 2014 12:36 pm

We are back to loading and hauling off stumps!

Down at the burn pile unloading the stumps.

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:18 pm

The water system is complete. The well is fully wired, plumbed, and functioning. We will collect a water sample and send it off to the lab shortly for an analysis.

I put a shutoff valve on the Electrical submersible pump inlet in the event that I want to isolate it from the hand pump.

I put a check valve on the hand pump inlet so it would alleviate backpressure on the hand pump. I also added a shutoff valve so I could isolate it.

The pressure tank will pressurize the system when the submersible isn't pumping. We have the pressure set at 60 PSI.

Here's the pressure switch. Again, I added a shutoff valve before the water exits the well house.

Lastly, here's the hand pump coming off the top of the wellhead. In a grid down situation, we can pressurize the pressure tank and get water wherever we need it.

BillyP · **Joined:** Sat Feb 16, 2013 11:38 pm **Posts:** 39

Did you bury the laptop in the pipe trench? Or just not made any progress since July?

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Sun Nov 16, 2014 9:27 pm

BillyP wrote:

Did you bury the laptop in the pipe trench? Or just not made any progress since July?

That's a good question. We haven't made much progress since July, but we are making progress. I did stop posting pictures and updates since there doesn't seem to be much forum activity. If there's enough interest, then I will start posting again. Otherwise, I'm just entertaining myself. :mrgreen:

WolverineFW · **Posted:** Sun Nov 16, 2014 10:11 pm

Please continue. I was enjoying the story.

TheBlueKJ · **Posted:** Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:37 pm

I was wondering what happened! I've been watching for a long time don't know what kind of input to add besides keep the updates coming!

lfhoward · **Posted:** Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:40 pm

Same here! I've been following this thread for over two years.

I'm one of those old school holdouts who doesn't have Facebook, so you can expect me to stay here on the forum. :wink:

profdlp · **Posted:** Mon Nov 17, 2014 1:11 am

I always like to know how a good story turns out in the end. Keep us informed!

Bmxer524 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 17, 2014 1:32 am

It's amazing how much interest is shown when you mention not updating lol. I know I for one can never do what you're doing(nor move off my island for that matter...), but I like seeing everything come together. Those views alone are amazing. It's pretty interesting for me too, mostly because I have no idea what half of everything is or how it all works. You can tell I never lived outside an urban environment lol. The closest I've had was property in upstate NY. And even then it was a mostly hunting property.

BillyP · **Joined:** Sat Feb 16, 2013 11:38 pm **Posts:** 39

Yes, please keep posting. I have been following this thread for over a year and find it very interesting but never made any comments. Missed it bad enough to ask what's going on

cobra_4 · **Joined:** Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:40 pm **Posts:** 53

Great progress so far! Can't wait to see more!

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2014 11:35 pm

Thanks everyone for posting. I will be sure to post more updates as soon as I'm back on the property and making progress. We did backfilled all the electrical and waterlines back in October. Since then, we've had a few mishaps and other setbacks that have dramatically slowed us down. I will try to outline some of those issues here:
1. The well house flooded not long after we finished the install. We do not know for sure what happened nor do I know the extent of the damage. Needless to say, the mishap should not have happened. To make matters worse, I didn't know when it would be repaired. The pump installer had several big projects in Arizona, so I knew he wouldn't be able to make it back out for a few months. He recently called to let me know that he will be out this way again next week to investigate the cause and make repairs.
2. I finished mowing approximately 7 acres in October when the mower suddenly stopped running. I will need to take the mower to John Deere in Albuquerque in hopes that they can diagnose and repair the problem easily before I can resume any mowing.
3. I inherited my Granddad's 1958 Ford Workmaster Tractor many years ago. The tractor has been sitting in a storage shed for the last 10 years. Knowing that I could use the tractor, I decided to take it to a friend of mine in Missouri who has experience working on these types of tractors. Due to the fact that the tractor was in poor condition, we really had no choice but to restore it from the ground up. Even though I'm looking forward to the final product, it's going to be a long process and buying parts hasn't been cheap. So far, I've purchased an engine rebuild kit, 12 volt conversion kit, radiator, fenders, hydraulic pump, rims, tires, paint, and many other miscellaneous parts. I'm in no way complaining, just stating that these things take time and money.

profdlp · **Posted:** Fri Dec 05, 2014 12:16 am

Wow, that's a lot to hit you with.

But - you've made it this far, I'm sure you'll overcome these problems and make it to the end.

BillyP · **Joined:** Sat Feb 16, 2013 11:38 pm **Posts:** 39

Those stumbling blocks always to get in the way... but you seem to be working through them well. Thanks for the update.

WWDiesel · **Posted:** Sun Dec 07, 2014 12:34 pm

Please keep posting, I for one read everyone of them and enjoy keeping up with the progress along with viewing the pictures.
I like some others am a holdout and don't do facebook or any of the social programs, although I read LOST most everyday....
I am an old southern boy and lived in the country all my life and understand all the projects you are undertaking.... :wink:

As to the well vault flood, was it due to groundwater invasion, or was it caused by a busted pipe???? Inquiring minds want to know! :roll:

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Sun Dec 07, 2014 3:19 pm

WWDiesel wrote:

As to the well vault flood, was it due to groundwater invasion, or was it caused by a busted pipe???? Inquiring minds want to know! :roll:

Groundwater invasion isn't an issue here. According to geologist who specialize in this part of the country, most of our water comes from massive aquifers. There are fissures above these aquifers where water is pushed up. When I was dowsing the property for water, we found a large fissure. Once you tap into a fissure, the underground pressure pushes water up into the well casing. So even though we didn't hit water until 280+ feet, the water pressure pushed water up to 105' feet where it remains the static water level. Even pumping 15 gallons a minute at 107' feet, we never ran out of water. So the well was producing more water than we could pump at 15 gallons per minute. The well driller is guessing that the well produces 200+ gallons per minute.

My guess is that something failed on the pressure tank, but I don't know. I haven't touched anything until the pump installer can investigate the cause.

WWDiesel · **Posted:** Sun Dec 07, 2014 9:36 pm

Just a thought,
Once you get it all sorted out and find the root cause, add a hanging bulb float switch connected in series to the control side of the motor contactor in the vault. This would kill the pump if the water level ever comes up in the vault high enough to lay the float on its side and prevent it from running.
We use this setup all the time in below ground equipment vaults housing electrical components at our plant to protect the equipment from being flooded out in case of any leak or busted pipe etc...
:idea:

Going off the grid

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