Rainwater Collection, Permits and Waiting
Today was a doo-di-doo kinda’ day at Freedom Acres in terms of action. I checked all my markings for shipping containers on the property and cleared a little more brush out of my clearings. I also collected some more trash that had been left in areas by previous people walking through property or using it to dump small stuff in the past. LOL.
The new things that happened is that I put up the 1st rainwater collection tank. I have been roaming all around YouTube University looking at videos about rainwater collection systems. Even bought a book to get more details. As Loren, the Gardening guru, and I continue to talk one of the main topics is water and irrigation. I will have a well up by the main dwelling that we can run irrigation from, but I am imagining various rainwater collection tanks placed near different garden areas that we can use instead or in addition to.
For those of you that don’t know, Florida (aka the Sunshine State) has a lot of rain! As a kid I remember how the summer consisted of little, 10-minute, flash rain showers each day, that just broke the heat for a moment, and it was always really rainy in October (my birthday month LOL). Well … times have changed. With all the crap we have done to our climate (I’ll not rant on about this at this point), it now really pours throughout the spring, summer, on into the fall and then a little less in the winter. That means the Sunshine State now has rain year round. All of that water is perfect for watering the gardens and, with filtration, can be used in backup cases for human use and consumption.
I am a just-in-case kinda woman. I always have plan A, B and C … at least. OK, OK … truth be told, sometimes that gets all the way to the end of the alphabet, I confess. I live in a world where I have it that nothing is as it seems … which allows for lots of options. Having the ability to take Freedom Acres off grid is one of those options I am moving towards. Although it is easier to get started by hooking up to temporary electricity I am making sure that I consider building towards off grid as quickly as I can.
That will include cool things like solar panels, batteries, generators, etc. Yep, you are right I am learning all of that through YouTube University and various more technical books too. There is nothing better, to me, than learning from others mistakes and victories. I am clear I will still make my own, but I will hopefully not make the ones that I learn from others.
So how does this all connect? The well I am having drilled will initially run off a regular electric pump along with everything else. If the electricity goes then I need alternative means to get water like a solar run system. Back-up plans come into play. So, I am playing with all of this as I move forward with normal development of the property. These rainwater collection tanks will currently sere a purpose of getting water closer to growing areas without running tons of irrigation piping from the well and will eventually be part of the entire off-grid system.
Meanwhile, this week everything shifted again. The Universe’s plan to teach me patience is working really well. The well guy who said 4 weeks said, after I prompted him for an ETA at end of week 5, that it would be week 7 (week of the 26th). Remember that the well is a first step that then allows everything else to happen. So that means that other things now get pushed back or rolling forward despite the well delay.
The shipping container shell is still scheduled for delivery on June 30th. The fencing is still scheduled for the first/second week of July. Now I am praying that the well drilling can happen before the shipping contain dwelling is delivered and that the well drilling guys also really get done in week 7 so that I do not risk any damage to my new enormous fence gate (designed to be able to get BIG trucks through it). I keep reminding myself that it will all go the way the Universe says and I keep releasing all my concerns as quick as they come up.
Finally, as an update, I now seem to be in some sort of permit hell LOL. I was forewarned, by others in YouTube who had gone through this in their respected locations, that this was a tedious and challenging process. Yep, they were correct. There are state codes and permits (like the well) and there are country codes and permits. Basically there is a permit for the well, for the septic, for electricity, for plumbing … for damn near everything. As a matter of a fact there seems to be a need for permits for the permits. I even need a permit for, not only the shipping container dwelling but also for the simple shipping storage container, for example.
It gets more interesting as everyone kinda shrugs when I ask details. What do you need for the permit? Shrug. How long will it take to get the permit to the right place? Shrug. Is it county or state permitting? Half-shrug (followed by the answer of one or the other or both said with a question mark at the end of their answer). How long will the county or state take to approve it if they do? BIG shrug. What happens if they don’t? BIGGER shrug.
Okie Dokie, so we are playing some version of Wheel of Fortune now without the extra benefit of the lovely Vanna White to assist. That would clearly make it much more fun, but I don’t have that. For those of you that don’t know the reference … oops … remember I am probably much older than you so I sound like I have crazy weird references. There were a ton of game shows on TV when I was younger since we didn’t have videos games or phones we could even hold in our hands. LOL.
So, I am watching things bounce around like a badly played ping-pong game and have decided I will do everything I can to make sure I follow the proper permitting process and if a mistake is made then I will truthfully be unaware that I have made it and apologize profusely and accept what comes (like fines) short of jail time (just coz’ I definitely don’t have time for that).
As for Gracie … she got a new tie out cable that allowed her to walk further this week. But she mainly stayed in the shade, under my little camping chair, with the fan cooling her off. She is always the smarter of the two of us. Birdie, the drone, didn’t get to come out to play this week … my time was up on the property before I knew it. I promised her tons of play time as the future unfolds and she seemed OK with that and slept in her case.
As I do every Sunday on the land, I have posted videos on my YouTube Channel from the visit. Feel free to check them out by clicking HERE. Also, feel free to subscribe and you can get notified when new videos go up! 🙂
Who knows what will have happened by next week! I sure as heck don’t. In the meantime … I wish you, as always, as much freedom as possible!!
