Dumpster Diving

Yesterday day was a pretty good day. Had dinner with the fam. and did some laundry. I filled myself on burgers and they were good. My neice also pointed out that there was some stuff sitting out to the curb down back alley, so we took us a walk and discovered a nice suade sectional couch and a bunch of of other stuff in totes. So we went back to the house grabbed the truck and a few extra hands and loaded up the truck. Actually we had to make two trips. It was a pretty good score...

sectional couch - is missing on seat cushion
Palm3c - data orginazer
electic beard and hair trimmer
at least 5 bags of unopened chocolatey carmel cruch popcorn from the scouts
3 pairs of combat boots
2 pairs like new tenis shoes
2 sets of surrond sound speakers
some cloths

There was some more stuff i just cant think of it all. All in all it was a pretty good score for FREE.

I havent got much more done on the trailer. The tub surrond is all but done, just have to put the faucet handles on yet. I took the starter out of the Ford the other day but couldnt make it work again. Im going to take it out one more time and see if maybe its the solenoid. If not then ill be saving up for a new starter.

TheSurvivalistBlog.net

Ive been following this survival blog blog for several years now The Survivalist Blog. His name is M.D. Creekmore. He has bought a RV, parked it on a junk piece of land, and is living the life that he feels is the best way for him to live. Sound familar? Following is blog i have learned alot of what it takes to live off grid in a rv. All I am lacking in following in his foot steps is the piece of land. Which is what im looking for now. He has made a very nice site, nice enough that he is able to keep his reader base coming back. He also reviews alot of survival gear that many find very helpful. I have taken alot from his site and put it to work for me, aswell as sharing it with my family and friends. So for those of you reading this, if you are wondering where i started with the path i have chosen, read up on Mr. Creekmore and you will understand exactly where im going with all this. Even if you dont want to buy a trailer and find some remote spot in the woods to survive, there is enough information on his site to get you started toward the direction that you need, that we all need to follow. That direction is to simplify our lives and enjoy them more. Building our food stores and preparing of for the world that is to come, even if it never comes. Will only make your life that much eaiser as your sitting back knowing that YOU have what you need to survive no matter what happens.

Few things Ive learned

Ive learned a few things in the last few weeks:

1. Dogs have a very good internal clock. And they know when your lieing. They know that i wont let them out till 9. Every morning at a few mins past 9 they wake me up wanting out. If its after 9 and i try to tell them its to early they know im lieing and will not stop till i let them out.

2. Measure twice, cut once. Yes i knew this already but i managed to drill the holes for the new tub surround 1 inch to high.

3. You wont know that your roof leaks till it rains.

4. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, if you dont take steps to prevent it from going wrong.

5. Hot water is AWSOME! life can be so much eaiser when you have easy access to hot water. Either i need to fix my water heater or get a solar shower bag so i can take a hot shower in the rv. Trucker showers get old really quick.

Out with the nasty

Jason and I took this couch out of the trailer before he left for CAX. I have no idea how the guy got it in the trailer but we had to bust it up a little bit to get it out. So what do you do with a couch thats really nasty and has the arms busted off? You burn that sucker and relize how fast these suckers go up in flames. I lit both ends with a propane torch then put it away in the trailer. When I turned around this is what it looked like. Less than 5 min. from the time I lit it.

When it rains

Well if putting $200 into the truck didn't hurt my pocket book enough today i managed to dent it even further. I sold my tv last summer and bought a 23in. computer monitor. My plan was to get a new video card for my computer to better run the new monitor, then get a tv tuner so i would have tv again. As normal its all about money, or the lack of it.

Today when i went to power up my computer my monitor came on for about 20 min. then went blank. I started to fear the worst. This happened with my moms computer a few years ago. I turned the power off but it didn't come back on. So i did a hard reboot. It still didn't come back on. After messing with the connections i figured out that it was all hooked up good. I let it set and had some lunch. After which i tried the computer again. it booted up normal, ran for about 10 mins, then a message pops up at the bottom with some numbers that looked kind of familiar. I googled the message and sure enough it was a video card error. Just like my laptop. So i take a trip to a local computer shop and after talking to the guy we figured it was my stock video card crapping out. he didn't have any in stock so i head over to best buy to see what they have. As i stood there looking at the high priced cards i start to get sick. There's no way i can fork out over $150 for a video card. then a sales clerk comes over to "help" after telling him what i needed and i couldn't pay high dollar he asks what type of slot i got. oh boy i have no idea, but let me pull out my phone at take a look. i was smart enough to take a pic of my mother board. he says hold on he thinks hes got what i need in the back. here we go, i figure hes gonna walk out with a $200 card and say that's all they got.

After about 10 min. he walks back out with a card and says its $69.99. still more than i can afford but i do some numbers in my head and i think i can swing it. i do have the funds in the bank right now but I'm supposed to use them to pay my mom back $200 i borrowed for my fifth wheel payment. ill explain that later. so i walk out of the store with a new VisionTek Radeon HD 4350 HD Video HDMI 7.1 Audio with 512mb DDR2 memory. Very nice card indeed. but now Ive got to figure out how I'm gonna pay mom back.

Back at the trailer i tear the box open like a kid at Christmas pull the cover off my computer and get my nice new card installed in a matter of mins. all hook up and the cover back on i give her a try. She booted up, i dropped in the cd and installed the drivers. after a reboot my screen was all jacked up. My icons were huge i played with the settings for a few mins and just couldn't get it figured out. so i give a call to tech support and we narrowed it down to my VGA cable. its got to be the cable. it must of got pinched or something. so i head out to walmart this time, to try and find a cable. after an hour in walmart with the sales clerk looking too we could not find a cable so i ended up getting a HDMI cable. If you have ever bought one you know there made of freakin gold. $27.99 for a dang 6ft. cable. what a ripoff. so back home i go. feeling just a bit sicker than i did before.

New cable plugged in and wham bam thank you mam my computer is back to normal. well, so i thought. when i went to enter my password i couldn't get my wireless keyboard to connect. i tried new batteries that i took out of my headlamp and it still wouldn't connect. now I'm getting pissed and damn near smashed the freakin thing. another trip to walmart for a keyboard. i walked past them twice before the sales clerk pointed them out. i got the cheapest one they had with a cord. $19.99. i got to say it is a nice keyboard though. Microsoft comfort curve. so what the hell I'm already in the hole might as well pick up some new AAA batteries too. if by chance they work ill take the new keyboard back.

Again back home, new batteries didn't do the trick so out with the p.o.s. keyboard and in with the new. works like a dream. Now I'm back up and running. Hurray. I sat down with my check book and added all the new purchases in and, FUCK!  i spent $150 today. WTF am i to do now. no way in hell can i come up with that right now. The month is half over, I'm flat ass broke and i don't have any idea how I'm gonna make any money. So i guess mom will just have to get pissed but i wont be able to pay her back till next month. Even then it will kill me next month too. so i hope the new land lady wants to get the work she pointed out the other day done cause i need a paycheck.

Ok so now to explain the money i owe mom. you see i sold the church pew at a auction just before i left. but they only cut checks on the 1st and 15th. so i had $93.50 coming to me on the 1st. i left a deposit slip with mom so she could deposit the money in my account for me when the check came in. With having to put so much into the truck i had to wait on this deposit to make the fifth wheel payment. It was 2 weeks almost before the check came, mom was coming down here and just figured that she would just bring it with her not knowing i was waiting on it. so i asked her if she could go make the payment for me before she left and i would pay her back when she got here and i could cash the check. I have to start an acct. with a new bank cause my branch isn't around here. Well it didn't get done while she was here for 2 days so i still owe her. That should be a fun call to make. 

Took some pics of the trailer



Life so far

I have been posting on the trailer and the truck so much that i have left out the rv. As of  tonight, the rv is holding up better by far than the motorhome did. there are a few problems

1. The toilet wont stop running. hooked up to city water this could fill my black tank fast. simple fix was to just turn the water off to the toilet. i use the sink to add a little water after flushing. the shower head works well to clean the bowl of anything left too.

2. The water heater was froze solid, and in the process of unfreezing it i put my head up my own ass and lit the burner to "help" thaw it. all that did was melt the insulation on the top of the water heater. i figured it wasent a huge deal i would just have to only light it just before use. WRONG. after my brother soaked himself trying to get the drain plug back in and me half soaking myself.  i have added the water heater to the DOA list.

3. The furnace would not get hot enough to blow warm air. that was a simple fix in indiana, i just replaced it with a used unit. cost of $22. plus i still have the unit from the motorhome. but this new to me one seems to work flawless. knock on wood.

4. Front widow frame will need some majoy repairs this summer. also the side window in the front is broken. ill just patch it better than what was done.

5. Rear roof vent is broke. it wont stay down. the worm gear housing is comming apart. temp fix with vice grips is working so far. bathroom one looks like its on its way to doing the same thing.

6. Floor is rotted around the rear door steps. this will be an expensive fix. i may end up just reinventing how they mount and mounting them to the frame. just need some scrap steel.

7. The range vent fan doesnt work and the light is going soon.

Like i said, most things are minor. stuff that i expected. my biggest problem to date is the fact that i havent got the rv exactly level. its still a little high in the front but i cant lower it any further and the back is to low to get the jacks under it. so it bounces alot.

tomarrow after fixing the brakes again on the damn truck, this time the passanger caliper, i will be able to back under the rv and take the concrete blocks out from under the front legs so i can level it better.


Side note. a begal showed up this morning. tank was the first out the door and i didnt get him hooked to the cable before he went over to say high. im not worried about him and was able to get lady on the cable before she got out the door. but she ran right over and all three were sniffing each other. i went back in and let them deal with each other. to my suprise they all three were playing before long. he is very friendly, and followed me around all day. i probally screwed up and gave him some food but he looked like he hadnt ate in a few days as i could start to see his ribs. i had to stop him every time from going in the camper and the trailer. every step i took outside he was right there at my heals. even when i was working on the brakes of the truck he layed down next to me. i even had to get him out of the truck when i left the door open for just a sec. he was still out there when i let them out a few hours ago. hes got a collar but no tags. i really hope he finds his home by morning. i really cant afford to feed another dog. if he is still around tomarrow ill ask around to see if the girls know who he belongs to.  I put my dogs food inside all day but left there water bucket outside. so he has water and he did eat. im just too much of a dog lover to see him starve.

I HAVE POWER

I fianlly have power at the pole. no more running the generator to charge my batteries. the above pic is of the day i arived. notice the snow on the roof. this was taken after most of the snow melted. when we first pulled in the ground was covered.

Ok so now that i have power the fun should begin. Found out that my brother will be leaving sat. morning for cali for atleast a month, so that leaves me with the duty of fixing this place up by myself. this should be fun. i was hopeing to have some help. or at least some one to supervise. guess it will be just me and the dogs.

1-3-11

Still no power, i tried to call the power company today and there were closed for the holiday. dont they know people need power.

My brother and his buddy came over this morning to check out the truck and wouldnt you know it, it fired right up. So me and the dogs headed over to his house to work on his buddys car. after a few hours, the welding is mostly done of the car, most of its primered, i got a load of laundry done, ate dinner and headed back to my trailer. on the way home i stopped and put some fuel in the truck and then stopped and picked up some this on my shopping list from dollar general. tommarow i want to head over to harbor freight and check a few things out. as well as call the damn power company and try to get some lights turned one in this damn place.

Its cold tonight, 28F. right now. ill shut the water off tonight. hopefully i got enough propane to get me through the night. one bottle is empty and the other two are a little left in them. ill take at least the empty one in tommarow and get it filled.

1-2-11

Yesterday i came out to the trailer and was invited to an oyster feast. Today i was invited to fried chicken, cabbage, chicken and pasta somthing (my guess was chicken and homemade noodle sheets, it was good) and black eyed peas. i could really get used to this down home cooking. in the past i would pass this kind of thing up but as im starting a new adventure in life i took the leap and had a wonderfull meal. Just say yes.  thats my motto now.

I didnt get anything done today. still running on battery and generator power. the woman that owns the property and the mother of shela (the sister) and amanda (the trailer owner), i will just refer to her as momma offered to loan me the money for the deposit to have the power turned on. dont know if i like the idea of that as it will mean me paying the deposit, after paying her back of course. if i have to pay the deposit then that means im here for a year. im not trying to put roots down. and i like the idea of being able to pack up and leave if tshtf. but i guess there could be worse places to be stuck.

1-1-11 First post from inside the camper

I think its going to be hard to keep track of how many days im here. so for now on ill just use the date for progress reports.

As i sit here typing this im sitting at my computer in the camper. I still dont have shore power so im running the generator to charge my battery up for tonight. i made my first dinner, tuna noodle cassarole, in the camper. Tank and Lady are sleeping on the floor right next to me. The weather was in the 70's today so i came out to the trailer to get some things cleaned up in here. i guess its time to put to use the things ive learned from reading other blogs of people living off grid. Harbor freight has a little 800 watt generator for $110 right now that i would love to pick up. it would work great for charging the batteries and not burn much fuel. i dont know how much i could run off of it but im going to look into it. i could probally sell my snapper and get the small 800 watt, and 45 watt solar kit and be on my way to being off grid for good. but i cant run my welder off such a small generator so i cant sell the snapper.

After dinner i realized i didnt have any dish soap, so i woke the dogs and loaded them in the truck to head to walmart, which is just down the road. wouldnt you know it but the damn starter decieded to go out on the truck. this shit aint funny anymore. i cant afford $200 for a new fuckin starter. i just put over $100 into the brakes. so the next few days will be fun trying to find the warranty for the starter that Bob replaced 3-4 years ago. that is if there is one.

So the first day of the New Year is starting out with a bang.

Day 4

well its day 4 and im still crashing on my brothers couch. there still isent any power at the trailer. i did manage to get the brakes fixed on my truck after replaceing the drivers side caliper, and new front brakes. both sides were worn bad but the drivers side was down to metal. cost me $10 at O'reilleys to have each rotor turned. i hope this set lasts alot longer than the other set did. ive had nothing but problems with the brakes on this truck.

the woman who owns the trailer that im supposed to be moving into is not showing much signs of wanting to get things going. im starting to get a little pissed. the power was supposed to be turned on all ready and i really cant do anything without power. this whole move isent starting out good at all.

Made it to NC

well i finally arrived in jacksonville. the weather on the way down was horable. most of the way through the mountains it was snowing. i didnt have to much trouble with traction, not with the weight of the fifthweel and all the crap that i had loaded in it. we arrived in jacksonville to find more snow on the ground then we had in elkhart. after a short nap at my brothers we headed out to see the property. the power was shut off so i had to stay the night at my brothers.

day two hasent faired much better. the brakes on my truck are grinding pretty bad and it wouldnt start this morning. i forgot to plug it in last night and killed the battery trying to start it. its going to cost $150 deposit that i dont have. i didnt bring my rv battery cause i was using it in the bronco. so i have no power and no heat. untill i can get some power out there i cant do anything. i cant afford to buy new batteries either. so for now im stuck at my brothers till i can get power. the trailer is in really rough shape and is going to take alot of work to get it livable

The Next Adventure

With recent changes in my life, i have once again decieded to hit the road. this time ive picked up a 31 foot fifth wheel. No bartering on this one. I worked a deal with a close family friend to make payments on it. I dare say i got a good deal. It pulled great on the way home, and to my, and the last owner, suprise the brakes even work. I do how ever need to figure out why the brakes only work when i manually use the brake controler in the truck.

The front had two single beds like the motorhome did and i have already combined them to make a full size bed. i will be putting my matress from the house in there when the time comes to hit the road. the rear of the rv had a full size bed that i have pulled out and am in the process of building a work bench across the back. I wont be hauling my trailer behind me anymore. I would like to build a small 5 ft. or so deck off the back that could hold my genny and motorcycle. that will have to wait till spring though. It has already started to snow here and im not laying in the snow and welding a deck on the back. Ill just have to leave the bike here in Indiana for now, and come back for it when the weather warm.

My goal is to be out of here by the New Year, and in order for that to happen ive got to finish the bench in the back, transfer all my tools from the trailer to the fifth wheel, plum in a water tank (remove by p.o.) and water pump, and install a more realible source of heat. Until i get the fifth wheel paid off (4 months) it will be tight trying to figure out where i will park at. I wont have the money for and a rv park. I havent figured out exactly how im going to do this yet but some how, some way, it will happen.

I will also be taking both of my dogs with me this time. So that just adds to the head ache. Dont get me wrong I love my dogs, but having two Saint Bernards the the rv with me is going to limit the places i can stay at.

Well thats the plan for now. plans always change, but we wont know to what, until it happens.

94 Mitsubishi 3000GT SL

Another trade. Suprised? I think not. This time I got a deal. Traded the 79 gmc aka. Big Red even up for the car. So far Ive gotten the better of the deal. The owner of the car was a 18 year old kid and it shows. I spent the first two days cleaning the dang thing out. It needed new front tires, but i managed to trade an air compessor that i got for free, for two Firestone Firehawks SZ50 EP RFT. $318 per tire. i think i made a good trade. next thing it needed was a iac valve. $95 from advance auto, $30 for oil and filter, and next will be brakes. it needs them bad but i dont have the money as of yet for brakes. it needs a few other things like a new divers window motor, glove box, and a few other small things but over all this is a nice car. ive already replaced the busted radio with another one, it wont play cd's but at least the radio works for now, along with both front speakers. not sure about the backs as they removed the stock wires to run pre-outs for an amp.

    The GT sports a removable glass sun roof. which is cool. hehe. the exhaust is a bit loud for my taste but its in like new shape so ill live with it. i think i could easly sell this car for $5000 but for now i would like to keep it as it is much better on gas than my ford. Ill see how it handles the snow. hopefully i can drive it this winter unless the snow is too bad then ill just have to switch to the ford.

Headache Rack

Ive been toying with the idea lately of building something out of the left over steel from the motorhome. Well after months of thought, i finally figured it out. It came to me after loading a load of scrap metal and a piece hit the back window of the truck. thank god it didnt break but it gave me the idea of a headache rack. I looked at several designs and after seeing the price tags i was sure i could make my own.

What i ended up with is a custom fit rack that is exactly what i wanted. it doesent extend out past the cab and still allows me to open the back window to allow my dog to get in the bed. I will evently mount lights in the top for added visablity at night when im backing up or when i just need more light in the bed.

350 Rebuild

I picked up a used 350 thats going to need rebuilt to go into the 79. Well that is if i ever make it that far, lol.

This is were im at so far, most of the tear down is complete. Its not the best engine ive ever gotten but its got the guts to be a nice engine. The fun will begin when i get the money to start ordering parts, like a new cam, bearings, having the heads rebuilt. As with all my projects this will be a true budget build.

video-2010-06-16-305blowby

One bench done

Been working on all kinds of projects. I got one bench done. Now I just hope it sells quick.

I knew i wouldnt be able to just let the new truck sit in the yard. Ive spent the last couple days working on small things. Today I built a new battery box for it, lowered the rear of the cab by almost an inch and replaced the front core support lift blocks. What was there was a joke, so i ripped it out and fabbed up a couple 3" blocks. Now the front bumper doesent look crooked. I also tore the dash out (every gm i have ever had ive had to take the dash out) fixed a few burnt bulbs and found that the line on the back of the circut for the fuel gauge is burnt. but someone already added a new wire to the tank to replace it. the guage was reading way past full so my next step is to drop the tank and check the sending unit. ill wait to do that till after a trip to the junk yard, so i will have a replacement sending unit ready. One of the KC lights glass is broke so i put the broke one in the middle, so if/ when it burns out it will be the middle one. Checked and fill both the front and rear axles. I will do a comple oil change before i make it a daily driver.

The other day while testing the 4 wheel drive i found out that one of the front lockouts is broke. They dont sell the spicer brand anymore so ill be switching to warn or milemarkers before winter. When I go to change the lockouts ill pull the front axles and wheel bearings and repack or replace them then. An oil change is on my to do list but that will have to wait till i get some $$$ which is always an issue.

Last night I stained the first bench. It came out really good. Tonight i put on the first coat of clear, wow, it looks great. Ive been leaving the bench to work on at night so it gives it time to dry over night, and its eaiser to work on it at night than anything else.

Well thats about it for this post.