The end of my building new buildings and add on to existing buildings is nigh anyway When I bought the new place there was a nice little cabin built in 1991 and a old oak barn built in 1918. A couple of reasons that I chose this location in the SE MO Ozarks being that there is ZERO Cell Service here, it has a good deep water well and all of the Basic infrastructure were in place and most new installs that the previous owner had made in the last 5 years. Like the new well, the septic tank, the 1000 propane tank. It is at the end of a dead end road and that dead end road and bridge over the creek is my private road and bridge. The property sits in between three small mountains withe the cabin and barn at the base of the mountain that is my back yard and overlooks the cleared and open valley floor. It is not a huge open area of flat valley floor at about 5 acres total. The perfect place for me to retire to and just live the way I want to..........Well with a little work to get the property to where I want it to be. The first thing I did after getting the moving the old farm to the new place was load up the dogs and drive 1000 miles to the East Coast of North Carolina to visit a woman I had been talking to via phone and messenger for about the last year and a half. Her place is about 30 miles outside of Jacksonville NC. on the coast. and what was going to be a 3 day visit ended up turning into a Month visit and a trip back to MO. together to get one of my trailers to move some of her stuff to MO. Lorrie moved back here with me when I finally returned home. We have been building this place into what we want. Kind of surprised me that she would leave Coast where her property and homestead on the coast is to move to the MO Ozarks. That was 4 Months ago...... Amazingly she loves it here with all of the creeks, rivers, hills and little mountains. In talking everything through about our future together one point is we are keeping her place in NC and will bounce back there every 4-5 Months and spend 3-4 weeks at her place. I gotta admit that Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean is kind of nice. Way too many people there for my taste though....... And LOTS of Marines given Camp Legeune being right there. The first thing we had to build was a add on to the old barn for the rabbits. LOL I kind of went over board on the Rabbit Addition to the old barn. It ended up being 14x20 and can house a lot of rabbits. LOL half the trailer load that we brought back from NC was Lorrie's Rabbits LOTs of rabbits! It appears Rabbit is going to be a regular menu item on our dinner table The second thing to get built was the Add on to the back of the cabin. The back of it is going to be the food pantry and the two big freezers I kept. The front half a canning and summer kitchen with the washer and dryer towards the center. It ended up being 14x28 and will free up a lot of space in the main cabin...... Like the entire second bedroom that has my doomsday pantry in it right now LOL. I sold half of my propane cylinders to the folks that bought the old farm, I figured I really didn't need a dozen of them with the big set tank here. Finally the crew arrived to build the 24x50 new barn/garage and I could empty the totes with tools and my pile of tools filling up the main part of the old barn in to the new Barn. I had three big trailers full of tools and stuffs. After getting the trailers empty I sold four of my trailers including the big PJ deck over tilt trailer. And bought that little 7x16 Homesteader Cargo trailer. I had to move A LOT of dirt to raise up and level off the place I wanted the new barn built and ended up having 110 tons of Road Pack Rock trucked in. That big hole behind the barn is where most of the clay to extend the mountain base out a bit in the valley floor came from. It is not just going to remain a big hole though. Next year it will get a big pond liner and be for the other half of the trailer load that came back from NC Khaki Cambel ducks and Muscovies. It seems duck and muscovey are also going to be a featured menu item on the dinner table. Hey we did bring back 4 totes of her clothes and personal stuffs in the truck bed. What we are working on right now and will wrap up today is the Chicken Coop. It is that Pavilion Kit I bought for cheap back in the spring of 2024 to put up out at the big pond point at the old place. I ended up putting it on a trailer and bringing to the new place. It took 20 sheets of steel siding, a couple of windows, a pre hung exterior door and a dozen treated boards to turn it into a post frame 12x20 chicken coop. This is the last building project of 2025 well almost the last. The last building project is spending the next couple of weeks converting that new Homesteader 7x16 trailer into our travel back and forth to North Carolina Camper. We are going to mount a MR Cool DIY 12k BTU mini split heat pump on the tongue and in the top nose of the the trailer. I am going to rig up a 50amp breaker box inside with a 50' twist lock RV cable feeding in to it and I bought one of the big predator quiet run inverter generators to feed into it as well, it will have to ride in the truck bed though. Bought the hardwood laminate flooring for it yesterday and ordered 4 RV windows for it last night. Going to use some E Track to secure a small fridge freezer to a wall and build a fold up table and benches for the table and toss 6 feet of cabinet and counter tops in it. Not going to mess with a sink and shower in it that require a potable and gray water tank and pumps. One thing we noted in our travels back and forth so far is that there are nice camp grounds all across TN. and North Carolina that we can spend a night or two in that have facilities. And Something A LOT of loves truck stops have added is RV Parking with electric and water hook ups as well as and this is very important DOG PARKS. Poo, PoP, BB and Gizmo will be traveling in the back seat of the truck and Olaf, Elsa and Misty (Great Pyrs) will be traveling in the trailer. And Loves Truck stops seem to be everywhere along the I 40 Route across TN and NC. I expect the one at Pigeon Forge will be the one we do a overnight at on the trips. It is almost exactly half way. So far on our trips I have just been making the 1000 mile drive straight through. I AM NOT GOING TO KEEP DRIVING 1000 Miles straight through! I hate to say it but the older I get a 20 hour straight through drive is getting hard to do. I was on the fence about which new truck to buy and ended up dropping $70,000 on the 2025 Toyota Tundra SR5 with the 4x4 and some extra features and it has the biggest cab..... I mean Poo and PoP require their space and comfort when riding. I have 10,000 miles on it now and can say I love the Tundra, not quite a 3/4 ton and a lot better than a half ton and has a 12,000 pound towing capacity which is really more than I need now days. MPG is decent at 22/24 a long way from the Camry's 56mpg but the Camry was just not practical any more and the Dealership in NC offered $5000 more in trade for it than I paid for it. So I traded the Camry in on the truck and wrote a check for the $35,000 left on the truck after the trade. We bough a 2018 Chevy Equinox with low milage for $4500 and dumped another $3500 into replacing worn parts and common things to start malfunctioning at 50,000 miles So basically a new used car that gets 32mpg for our general running around and short trips. I can say the reviews of the equinox engines are accurate when it comes to oil blow by and burning. I asked my new mechanic about that and he said those engines came off the show room floor burning oil just plan on putting a quart in every 2500 miles. Other than the oil blow by it is a great little car. After all of its repairs and upgrade Lorrie drove it to NC and back on a solo trip. We made pretty good friends with one of the neighbors that feeds and waters the Ducks, Chickens and Rabbits while we are away and keeps a eye on the place. After her son moves into her place we are not going to be going back as often. Probably every 6 Months and time it for staying Thanksgiving through Christmas and again for a week or two in the summers. I am loving being retired and still relatively young. Yeah I retired in 2020 at age 52 but three years of that was taking care of a dying wife with early onset dementia and later the terminal pancreatic cancer. Which amounted to a 24-7-365 high stress job. It just ain't easy being the only care taker for a person with one terminal disease let alone two! then after she was gone 2024 was just a year from hell and all over the map. LOL 2025 had a rough start with the getting poisoned and recovering from it but turned around and I gotta say 2025 is going to go down as one of my best years on this rock. Yeah I am working my ass off building and doing things for the new place. It is a whole different critter though when you are working for yourself and building the foundation for future of the last 1/3 of your life. It also makes a big difference when you are working with a partner in crime that wants the same things and you both are on the same page 96% of the time. Our next trip to NC will be the last week of October and a 2 week stay there at Lorrie's place. Her son is going to move into her house since she has decided to make the Ozarks and here her forever home So we have about 2 weeks to wrap up the 2025 building projects and get the trailer converted to our travel trailer RV and making the trip to NC. I think we are planning on staying there for 3 weeks this trip and probably through Thanksgiving. And then spending 4-5 days sight seeing our way back home. Then settling into the first winter at NewHome and doing all of the interior stuff that needs done on all of the building projects. It has been really nice the last 4-5 Months with the Old Farm Sold, the moving everything done and settling into a nice relaxed, no real problems, mostly stress free doing things at my own pace instead of everyone else's. Ya know what retirement should be like! If I want to work on a project all day or only a couple of hours or not at all....... It is my choice and call The pension check deposits on the same day every month and the bills all auto pay 2 days later and there is no worrying about whether the bills get paid of course the only bills I have now days are the Electric bill, the Trash/2yd Dumpster bill, The Starlink and the Auto and property insurance and if the property insurance keeps going up I am going to just drop it and be self insured! All of my must pay bills come to a whopping $670 per Month, I do Verizon prepaid on my phone and just pre pay it a year in advance every December. But should probably change that to one of the ultra cheap services since the phone only works via the Starlink. Anyway it is just nice to be able to get back to the basics, be happy and pretty much my biggest worry being whether I get up early or sleep til noon LOL. I do know that after all of these projects are totally completed inside and out............. I am not going to build anything else for at least a couple of years and just live the nice basic in the middle of nowhere simple life and be happy.
Hard to believe there is any place on this planet that doesn't have mobile phone connection anymore. Hell, the wife was in isolated parts of Central Asia last week and never lost service! That lack of cell service hat certainly tells you that the population density in your area is super small. North Idaho was a bit like that when I first got here but the past decade and everyone escaping from California has changed the area...sadly. Really happy to hear that it all came together for you, financially and spiritually. I know it was a rough go...but the hard times are over and it's time to enjoy the good times. We'll be following your 'pond project' closely next year as I am still considering trying to build a small one. I'm thinking catfish.
If you're looking for cheap prepaid, check out some of the MVNO's for Verizon. Personally, I use BOOM mobile, on a 5GB/month plan. Don't need much data, since I typically have WiFi to mooch off of. Just renewed for another year, at $180/12 months. I probably don't need to tell you, but remember, ducks are basically nautical pooping machines. So if you plan on growing any food there, it's not a bad idea, every so often, to water your garden with the duck poop water, and give them some fresh water to enjoy. Everything looks great! Congratulations on a much better 2nd half of 2025!
Congratulations Pops to you and the new to us Lady!!!!!!!!! You'll stay retired for about 5 minutes because it's not in you to set back for long. Brown those ''la 'pans'' rabbits down in onions, make a gravy, season to taste and serve over rice! Rabbit meat needs to be falling off the bone! Looking forward to more of the TR adventures!
It is a bad habit I need to break The back part of that new barn is going to become my wood shop. Figure a 20x24 space will give me plenty of room to set all of the shop tools up. As far as big building projects I need to just stop LOL. That Chicken Coop when it was all said done cost around $3500 for a 12x20x8T and another $450 for the chain link and gate panel. The Rabbit add on to the old barn ended up being 14x24 and built with all treated lumber, I think the Menards receipt for its materials as like $4500ish. The Cabin Addition is a bit more complex since it involves plumbing, electric, insulation, flooring and interior wall covering but it is 14x30 and all total for all the materials $9,700. The 24x50x8T New Barn/garage/shop I had built the building and rock came to $17,000 and the concrete floor going in next year will be around another $6,000. LOL building bigger things gets into yer wallet pretty quick. I also can't build anything on the valley floor. It does flood in the spring and according to the mud rings on the trees gets around 2 feet deep. According to the neighbors the water has never stayed that high for more than 48 hours. That nice little creek I know first hand turns into a raging river for a few days during heavy rains. My bridge at the turn into my place had 3' of water going over the top of the bridge on one of my moving trips. Two little creeks come together about 50 feet before the bridge and the bridge consist of two 24" pipes that just can't handle the volume of water coming off of the the three hills/little mountains that surround the valley. The big hole I dug the clay out of behind the new barn aside from serving as a source of clay to raise and level the slope was also to catch the water that comes off the back yard mountain and divert it away from the barn and chicken coop. I watched the water in a pretty good storm last May rolling off and it hitting where the buildings are would have been a real mess. So that hole aside from being a future duck pond is a big water catch that diverts it away in 3' deep 10' wide ditch on one side and a 15" 40' long culvert overflow that is under the clay and rock in front of the barn. Without that hole and the drainage arms the Barn and chicken coop would just be levees. Part of the reason I chose this place was because there is a very limited amount of space I could build buildings on and that required cutting slope off of the Mountain base to extend out 20-30 feet along the valley floor to raise it above the high water marks and level the slope out. LOL I intentionally limited myself from being able to get big again. The goal was/is to just be a little Homestead kind of place with 5ish acres of open land surrounded by 80 acres of woods and mountain sides and creeks. I also wanted a set of natural resources plenty of trees for firewood, lots of rocks, a good over all layer of top soil in the open area, a VERY good well...... Nothing worse than a well with water that taste and smells like sewage! And a flowing creek or stream for a alternate water source. Finally land that was suitably level for building or that I could make suitable with the big tractor bucket and box blade. Pushing trees out and leveling the slope for the Barn and Chicken Coop. LOL Yeah the Kubota M5660 pushed those trees right out roots and all. The 40 feet of 24" pipe went in the trench in front of the camera and the hole to the right became a big hole when it was all said and done. The main drainage though is a big ditch that runs along the tree line and slope and runs out about 100 feet past the tractor. After I got the building area raised up and leveled out. I was finishing up covering the culvert pipe in this picture. I raised it up to connect a side drive to the new barn with the main cabin driveway and topped it all with 10inches of compacted road pack. All total 110 tons of road pack went in to it. And the end result. Exercise is important! So every morning around sun up I take the little Kubota BX25 down to the creek and hang the bucket over the edge and fill it up with rocks from the creek. Lorrie then converts those rocks into her rock projects I am setting select rocks aside to cover up that cinder block Chimney! It is functional and works great but the cinder block look just ain't working with the cabin LOL. I want the outside Chimney to match the inside wall! I am having a few ideas of what I am going to do a lot more of after all of the projects are done It could be argued that I spend too much time Porch Sitting. I never thought my Porch would be found to be offensive by a couple of the neighbors. In their opinion I should be flying confederate and gadsen flags. Screw them My Loyalty is to these UNITED STATES of AMERICA and the principles on which it was founded so I will only fly the Stars and Bars. I am not opposed to them flying their flags and even agree with the a lot of the ideology behind those flags. At the end of the day though I am a old warhorse and a American and will only fly the American Flag to make my Statement. One of the modern bridges one has to cross to get here LOL. I gotta admit it was a little tight bringing the two bigger trailers across that bridge when moving....... Like a inch on either side of the tires tight. Pretty good fishing and swimming in that little river. I am actually thinking about buying a little 1 acre lot on that river to put my old camper and hang out there fishing and swimming now and then. It is only like 3 miles from the Cabin. Would pull the Camper out in the spring though or it would float away when the water raised. No regrets at all about selling the Farm in IL and buying this rather remote place in the Missouri Ozarks. Life has been great here so far and very few complaints. Living out like this with rough gravel and dirt roads, no phone service except through the starlink wifi and the closest neighbor 1/2 mile down the road and the other 1/2 mile on the the other side of the valley.... That is probably not most peoples idea of a happy life. It is Perfection for me! Two things really surprised me though first that I found a woman from the East Coast of all places that loves living out here as much as I do! Second that there are electric lines that ran all the way out here to the end of a dead end road. And a third that I used more electric here last Month than I did at the IL farm for the same Month last year and my electric bill was 1/3 of what the bill in IL was. Drawbacks to the County I am in...... If I had to work there are almost no jobs within a hour drive. The Poverty is strong here, I believe people living below the poverty line is like 42% of the population. A LOT of very poorly educated folks. Amazingly Meth is almost non existent but Alcoholism is VERY High. The Bulk of the Counties Population lives in the town that is the County Seat with a population of like 2800 and there are a handful of little villages with 100-500 populations. It is a hour drive to a bigger down in the next county over and 90 minute drive to a actual bigger town with a 40,000 population where I have to go for Box Stores, better food options, and a SAMs Club, Rural King, TSC and such it is a 3 hour round trip drive and pretty much burns a whole day. If I want CITY it is a 3 hour trip to either STL or Memphis. About the only reason we would have to go to either is if Lorrie needed to fly back to North Carolina rather than make the 20 hour drive. Biggest single draw back is that news travels FAST in the County Rumor Mill. Everyone thinks I am rich because I wrote a check to buy this place and have been building new stuff here non stop for the last 3 Months and have a lot of new and newer vehicles and equipment.......... And Zero Debt or payments. LOL the local real estate agent and title company did not take long to spread the news about the newest person to move into the County. The neighbors out here a whopping 11 in a mile radius are not what I expected 5 are retired Army, 4 are retired State of IL employees, 2 are very poor natives that live in shacks and use the pay for electric by the day option. LOL when I got my electric turned on the Co-Op asked if I wanted to pay by the day, the week or by the Month! I had never even heard of billing by the day or week LOL. I asked How about paying by the Month with Auto Pay??? And I had to ask about why a daily and weekly??? Because we can't let a lot of folks here can't go longer without paying or they get behind and can't get caught back up. So the two really poor neighbors pay by the day or week when it gets really hot and don't have electricity the rest of the time. Yeah gotta be careful with what you tell anyone here or everyone knows all of your business. Good news is my 4 closest neighbors are retired army or retired State of IL. And pretty much the same ages as me + or - a couple of years and pretty much live the same as me and just want to live life, be happy and left alone and not bothered with all of the malfunctions in the world outside of here.
Sounds like ya found your little slice of heaven ,,, a big congrats to ya on that ,,, good to see ya back here and that you're doing well ,,, as usual ,, I enjoy you taking us along with your projects ,,,
Paw you're not retired at all, Sounds like we are buying 160 acres along the river to develop a camp ground for a little side money!
Well hey, you ran into others who are trying to escape that fucked up state. At least you have an idea that they came there pretty much for the same reasons you did. Too bad Chicago had to drag down the rest of the state into it's brand of sewage. But that's all in the rear view mirror now. Good for you T5R! You had the guts to do something about it. Sorry if I've offended anyone. But I have little use for 99.5% of Democrats, and maybe even a few Republicans. When the left so completely takes over a state like IL, NY, CA, it's pretty much ruined and there's no going back. /rant off
3500 dollars for a chicken coop --that's a lot of eggs Ha Ha Kamp it looks like you found your piece of heaven. It was fate --you had to go through hell and if you had not you would not have met the woman who is your match.
