First Victory of the New Year at Freedom Acres

For any of you that have been following along, you will know that I normally don’t go to the property on the first Sunday of each month. Since I work 6 days a week every week I normally take that Sunday to handle simple things in my life that need to get handled like getting Gracie’s nails trimmed and washing the Jeep, etc. However, this 1st Sunday of January I just HAD to go to the property.  The mission: to see if Duke Energy had finished their underground electric cable install!  I know by now that the only way I can find out in a timely manner is to go see for myself … as communication from them is … let’s just say …. minimal and only when prompted by me LOL.

So, I decided to create a have-it-all day by getting up at the crack of dawn, driving to the property, checking the property and then turning around and driving back to accomplish my life chores.  So off Gracie and I went.  It had been a rainy and cool week so far but, this day was supposed to be nice.  It was rainy when I woke and really overcast as I began driving and as I got about an hour into the hour and forty-five minute drive the sun began to come out.  I took that as a good sign. I make it a habit to make as much into a good sign as possible … so here was today’s good sign … heeheehee.

As I approached the front of the property I held my breath some and glanced at the place where the new electric pole had been dropped in between the fence and the street.  The huge cables that had been left there was gone.  I filed that away as another good sign.  I turned at the corner and drove down the east side limestone road a little way and opened the double gate that I always drive through.  Just to keep myself calm,  I made the first stop to check the rainwater collection tank.  It had filled a little more … It is probably only about 4 gallons short of the 100 gallons now.  I cheered it on and then hopped back into the Jeep and off we went to inspect any work that MIGHT have been done by Duke.

I drove past my electric station and down the path, and suddenly, big as day, I spotted a large green, metal box container sitting on a concrete slab, where there had been rolls of cable still sticking up out of the ground last week.  I stopped the Jeep and hopped out to check it out. It looked official … complete with labels and tags and warning signs on it.  By golly, I think it is a transformer!!! All I could get out of my mouth, as I walked around it taking photos and videos, was multiple versions of WHOOOOOOHOOOO!  OMG, this was SUCH a good sign!!

I then, holding my breath a little again, had to drive down the path to the interior side of the fence to check the place where there had been an open trench still with tons on unconnected cables laying in it. I hopped out of the Jeep again as I got near, and walked up the path toward the fence.  OMG x 2!!! The trench had been filled in by the fence and pole and now there was this beautiful metal encasing running all the way up the pole and connected to some technical geeky looking things at the top where the line had been led from the pole across the street.  This looked official too … so I took that as a sign that the work at the pole had been completed!! More WHOOOOOOHOOOOing ensued as I danced around and took more photos and videos.

Now it was time for the last checking point, that electric station by the home area that I had driven by at the beginning of my inspection trip.  So we turned around and back we went … me barely able to sit still in my seat as we bumped along the path in the Jeep. I parked the Jeep and walked over to the electric station (or pole and box, as Duke called it) and low and behold it now had the glass cover over the “meter” looking box and a little clip on it to hold it shut plus the copper cable that had led to it had been straightened and appeared tightened up. So, now I was doing big loud WHOOOOOOHOOOOs and skipping sound it while I took photos and videos.
I THINK DUKE had really finished the job!!

I made one last trip back outside the property to see the pole work from the outside.  I parked and got out by the road to inspect it from there.  Sure enough, everything looked completed there too.  They did leave several copper looking stakes there and their little ribbon around the front but I figured that was just trash left behind as everything inside the fence had been removed.  I also giggled at a few liquor bottles laying near by … I will trust that was just someone throwing them out of their car or truck window on the side of the road vs that the Duke guys were celebrating getting the job finished too. Bottom line is I think we have a wrap on the underground cable install!  I can’t even tell you what a monumental victory this is after 5 months of waiting to get to this point!!!!

So I wrapped up myself with a video report and let Gracie play around for a few minutes and then we hopped back into Athie, the JEEP, and headed back for our hour and forty-five minute drive home.  You know I was singing at the top of my lungs all the way back!  It was indeed the first victory of 2024 and I was gonna use it as a sign that things are going to move fast now in this first month of the year!

I posted videos, on the Freedom Acres YouTube Channel, of the rainwater collection tank weekly update, every piece of the Duke work being inspected by me, Gracie runing around a little bit, and, of course, a short end of the day report.  Feel free check it all out by clicking HERE.  Also, feel free to subscribe and you can get notified when new videos go up! 🙂

We are soooooo close now …. so what is next??? Well, for sure I can now get Jason from Guardian Fencing back to install my gate by the new electric pole so I can lock it up and tighten the security on the property again.  Also, this coming week it seems Nair (my friend & GC) will be back to trying to get the two permits approved.  Nair had a small success on Friday as someone from the county finally called her back and sent her an email with details about what they now needed and how to get that done. She is committed to getting that work done and the permits resubmitted and, if need be, go to the county building deptartment and sit until someone will work with her to move it all through.

Also, contractors will be returning from their holidays so we can hopefully firm up the concrete work getting done the minute we get county approval. The other thing to handle, once she gets the permit approval, is to schedule the delivery of 1) the residential shipping container and 2) the storage shipping container (which sees to be quiet the discussion point with the county).  It now looks like the residential shipping container will only be dropped on the ground so we will need to hire a crane service to pick it up and place it on the piers. 

I am clearly in a “whatever has to be done, let’s just get ‘er done” space. I am now thinking … “maybeeeeeee for Valentine’s Day” I can be living on the property. Meanwhile remembering to keep creating things but NOT to let myself default into the trap of setting exceptions LOL. I  am rolling with 2024, creating from a place of love, pushing anything low vibrational out of my way and wishing the same for you.  I am definitely sending Love, Joy and Freedom to you all til I come back next week!