Water, Shelter, Electricity

The garage is turning out to be a huge blessing.  We wonder what we did before we had it.  Now we are able to get out of the cold wind to work on a few projects, but it's hard to accomplish much here with the cold wind.

The recent bitter cold has shattered the pipes in the pump house so we've got the pump shut off for now.  We're going to have to get someone here to help us.  The wiring in the pump house is shoddy and with all of the trash left in there (old heaters, empty clorox bottles, misc trash) I'm not comfortable with Alan crawling around.

The guy from CREC hooking up the electric was funny, though.  He looked in there and said, "ah it's just 220".  But he also agreed that the wiring needed to be redone.   He thought Alan could do it.

Up at the other pole, which is closer to the new garage, I wanted an outlet so we could start to use other equipment.  It's kind of hard to work on any improvements (or even just camp for the weekend) without a place to plug in.

I called Bob Foster at Foster Electric, Heat, and Air in Chandler, OK.  What a great guy.  He came out and hooked up exactly what we needed and let us do most of the transaction through email.

Bob had some advice about our construction plans when I mentioned building a walk out basement.  He said he's seen too many leaky basements in Lincoln County because of the red clay.   I am a little disappointed to hear that since I'm set on having a walk out basement.

We're Selling the Tulsa House

We need to be here all of the time to make any progress.  That's what Alan thinks, and I agree.  Camping is ok, but we barely have time to do anything else but set up and tear down camp.

Can we sell our Tulsa home and start building out here?

Consistent with our decision making, a thought about selling our 4,000 sq. ft. Tulsa house quickly turned into actually selling our Tulsa house.  I've emailed our realtor, Alexis with Coldwell Banker.  Connie, our realtor friend in Oklahoma City said houses were selling but not houses in the middle.  We needed to either deeply discount our house, or fix it up.

We decided to fix the house up.  Walking through the house itemizing projects created an intimidating list.  The house needed to be painted, inside and out.  The bathrooms needed an update, the flooring needed to be replaced in some areas.

Even though we are quite handy, we realized we couldn't do it all ourselves.  Especially since our company was launching a new product which requires a lot of our weekend time.

I bought some great faucets on faucetsdirect.com.  Alan is going to do that work himself.  I've already re-painted the kitchen cabinets and replaced the hardware with brushed nickel pulls.

I claimed ownership of my house on Zillow and began searching for "comps."  Our house is on a 1/2 acre lot with 40+ trees and backing up to a green built.  I needed to know how much it was worth to establish my budget for the improvement.

I searched the BBB for a contractor who had a website.  I hope that having a website means I can contact him via email.  I just don't have the time for telephone calls and doing some business transactions through email is more efficient.

I found Tyler Owsley with Sound Construction, L.L.C.

The Tractor Needs a Home

With the Kubota delivery scheduled, we've turned our attention to a garage to store it in.

We saw several buildings and a sign for "Better Built Barns."  I visited their website and discovered they were in Perkins (only 12 miles away).  We dropped in to look at the models.

We bought the 14x28 with a modification to include a mobile home door with a window to allow light in the building.  Ernest Strubhar is the owner (hope I spelled it correctly) and we worked with Jeremy.  They are wonderful people.  Jeremy is very meticulous and helped us with a lot of decisions including where to purchase gravel for a pad under the building.

We called Kenny Sexton, who lives over in Coyle, OK.  Kenny is also a wonderful person.  He's very helpful and not only took care of our gravel needs, he did some grading down by the pond so we could get across the bridge without charging us.

We're Going to Need a Tractor

Even in winter, standing there, looking at the pasture I had already begun to realize what ALDEN Ranch would look like without cows grazing.

I said "Honey, if you want to keep camping out here, we're going to need a tractor for mowing."  Well, it was either that or hiring someone.  And if you think for a second Alan was going to miss an opportunity to operate a big machine, then you don't know him at all.

After talking to a few of our experienced friends, we settled on the Kubota tractor.  We were told it was a "working man's tractor."

We bought the tractor from the nice people at Payne County Implement Company on Perkins Road near Stillwater.  They were easy to deal with and also very helpful.  They pointed out that if we planned to work the ranch as an agricultural business that we needed to get our tax exempt number before purchasing the tractor.

Steph is a natural farm hand.  I love watching her drive the tractor.  She can use the front loader better than most!

Roughing It

We were so excited about our new land that we couldn't wait to stay here.  We decided to camp out for awhile since we had no real plans of building a house here.

The only buildings on the property at this time are a concrete block pump house in serious need of repair and an old shed that was missing a door.  Both are painted barn red.

Obviously there are no facilities, and the closest town is 8 miles away.  After quite a bit of research, I figured out how to make a camping toilet.

We put the camping toilet in the old shed, installed a makeshift door with an old shower curtain, and set a lantern inside. (I really like my Coleman LED because it is bright and battery operated.)

 Since it was winter, I wasn't too worried about snakes or what could be hiding under the broken floor of the shed.

The kids were a little nervous about the whole arrangement, but they were very inexperienced with camping. I wish it wasn't true, I wish I had taken them before now, but I'm resolved to make up for lost time.

The camping toilet relies on composting concepts. I purchased biodegradable bags, a bucket, and a snap on seat. I filled up dried leaves and grass in another bucket at first. After alot more research, I'm thinking about switching to coconut fiber which is found in Kitty's Crumble Cat Litter.  It seems to be better for composting and for odor.

These are the other pieces I used for the camping toilet:

1. A 5 gallon bucket I bought from Lowes.
2. Bucket Toilet Seat Accessory
3. Biodegradable 33 Gallon Black Trash Bags
4. Biodegradable Toilet Paper
5. Hand sanitizer and paper towels (there is also wash water at the hose)

You'll want to double line the bucket and tie the bags loosely in a side knot (like cleaning staff do with waste basket liners) to keep the bag out of the way. Be sure to leave enough slack at the top so that you can easily pull the bag out and tie it off without a lot of mess.

It took the teenagers a little while to get comfortable with the concept, but when you have to go...

We figured the investment in a truck tent would allow Alan and me to camp on our own in the future. We bought a Sportz Truck Tent III for Compact Short Bed Trucks (for Toyota Hilux and Tacoma Models) for our Tacoma.  If you do this, you'll want to get the bed from them with cutouts for the wheel wells.  It is very comfortable.

Cutting the Grocery Budget? We've All Been There _ MOVED

When money is tight, the grocery budget suffers. We have to look for a way to cut corners without sacrificing our family's health. I have heard many people say that being healthy is expensive. It's not! You just have to know how to make it work.

Having cut the grocery budget many times I have developed a list of rules that keep my family healthy.

(As a matter of fact, I'm in trouble with the pediatrician because she doesn't see my youngest often enough. I explained that she hasn't been sick! But I do need to schedule her next wellness visit for good measure)

1. Don't buy canned meals. I don't care how busy you are. The fat and sodium content are not worth the convenience. The same ingredients, meat, vegetables, pasta, etc. can be placed in a crockpot in 15 minutes in the morning to save you time. If you don't have a crockpot, they are only 10.00 at walmart. You can cook nearly anything in them. If you have older children, they can help you put the ingredients in or even change the settings to low when they arrive home from school.

2. Always have a list. Then, when you are at the store, if the item you are considering isn't on the list (and it wasn't an ommission) DON'T BUY IT.

3. Order online when you can. It really helps with the rule above. I buy online from Reasor's as much as I can.

4. Include snacks in your plan. If you don't, you will buy them anyway and blow your budget. Pretzels are very inexpensive, but they don't have much in the way of nutritional content. Homemade snack mix is my family's favorite. I make several batches on the weekends. The store brand of cereal is a fine alternative. You can also vary the recipe to control the cost by skipping the peanuts, for example. Popcorn from the air popper or even the oil popper is better than microwave and less expensive.

5. Homemade drop oatmeal cookies are better than packaged sweets and very affordable to make. Sure, they do take a little time, but who doesn't have that time in the evenings or the weekends. Kids are a great help and they LOVE to make cookies.

6. Don't buy as much meat. You have to make sure the carbohydrate and protein in the meals are balanced, but typically Americans eat too much meat anyway. Fish can be a good alternative. My kids love salmon burgers that I make from canned salmon. (My mom used to call these salmon patties, but I serve them with pickles and tomato on thin buns).

7. Give up soda. That's a big one, I know. But if you have to have sweetened drinks, then koolaid lemonade and tea are better alternatives. If you don't buy soda, everyone will adjust. We drink a lot more water these days. Some of us like it cold and some of us have developed a taste for it tepid.

8. Finally, be careful about the dairy products you're buying. You want to buy milk that comes from cows that have not been injected with rBGH. You can find local sources that are inexpensive without buying the expensive Horizon products. Here is Oklahoma, Braums is a good source for milk that is free from the hormone.

As always, if you have questions or ideas, let me know.

Denise

From South Tulsa to Lincoln County

In November of 2010, we stepped onto an 80 acre parcel of land in the far northwest corner of Lincoln County. Just 12 miles south of Perkins, Oklahoma, this piece of property had been owned by the Hagar family since the Land Run. The 80 to the north was no longer owned by the family.

It's funny how your life can take a dramatic turn in such a short time. Less than 30 days earlier we stood in the parking lot of the gas station near the Wellston exit on the Turner Turnpike. We happened to be looking off to the north when I noticed how beautiful the landscape was. I remarked to my husband that we had never considered buying property out this direction, and I wondered why we didn't. He agreed we should look into it. Ever since I had known my husband, he had talked about buying land and building a house. For some time we had been considering where to purchase and build. While we had looked in the area a little closer to Tulsa, we had never really found the right opportunity. The land was more expensive there, and quite frankly some of the areas reminded him of the movie "Deliverance." However, I was committed to making this dream a reality for my husband. He had always said that he would get a truck when he got his land. I said, you need a truck first. So in the fall of 2009, we bought a black Tacoma pickup that he fell in love with the moment he saw it. Now, less than a year later we were actively looking for land. So, walking across this 80 acres towards the big pond and through the creek bed, I couldn't help but marvel how that little stop on the turnpike was going to change my life forever. I also marveled at the paw prints in the mud that I was certain were mountain lion prints. My realtor/friend, Connie, agreed and her husband teased us about it. (We were later vindicated, but that is a different story).

Within the hour, we were back at that Wellston gas station, sitting at a table with Connie.  We were making an offer on that piece of property.   The search was over, now just the details of acquiring the land (and ensuring that the shabby mobile home sitting on it was removed).

On December 30, 2010 we became the new owners of the 80 acres.  We had no idea how we were going to build here while managing the rest of our busy life.  It didn't matter.  We knew that things had a way of happening for us once we set the wheels in motion.  Maybe we could be content to just camp.