24/7 Chat About Anything

[maki2]

Ravella, just a few more "growing pains" to get through.

 

[travelaround]

Good news! My homesite cleanup will start tomorrow - probably in the afternoon. It will continue on Monday. I'm so excited to see all the old junk carried away. Today they did the home next to mine, and one other on my side of the street.

The woman who phoned me said they have a policy of leaving nothing that would be dangerous for a three year old. That means all the broken glass and nails will be gone. (Right now things like this are scattered around the site.) I've looked at other properties they've done and they look fantastic, all of them.

 

[maki2]

Travelaround, wonderful news. You should have a family picnic there to celebrate after the cleanup is done. Perhaps the little ones can plant a tree to mark the day.

 

[travelaround]

I would like that... a picnic would be fun. After the junk removal and scraping process, the soil has to be tested for toxins. I've heard only about half the cleared sites so far have passed. Those that didn't pass will have to have another scraping session.

It may be a long time before we can get a building permit as they won't be issued until toxins are gone. Also, I don't expect to have all the money I'll need for the new home for a year or two. Between now and then, maybe I'll find time for travel if I'm not working.

 

[maki2]

A scraping would not be great to have happen. That would mean a loss of precious top soil. Of course it might be localized to where your kerosene fuel tank used to be located. It could be possible to find contamination in the fuel tank areas of a rural property that is not even related to the fire. Happened a lot in the city of Seattle as at one time a lot of homes had underground and above ground tanks for heating oil which fueled the furnaces. I had a home that had an old tank in the ground that was no longer in use. I got lucky selling that house a couple of years before the authorities started requiring old unused tanks to be dug up and the soil tested.

 

[travelaround]

Oh, you missed a bullet by selling that property when you did. Good deal, for you anyway.

I'm considering having topsoil imported... maybe one or two dump truck loads. Expensive, but we want to do a lot of gardening. Also raised beds - I could buy soil for vegetables. We're not certain what the property plan is at this point but it will include all kinds of gardening, from flowers to broccoli. For that reason, getting the water system restored is a priority.

I was just over there. They're still working on the property next door. They put a water trailer in my front yard and tore up what was left of the lavender. I wonder if any of that will ever come back.

 

[crofter]

I did this at a property with expansive clay soil, which breaks the roots of plants. I had a commercial composting company haul in truckloads of the compost where I wanted to garden. Worked great.

Then I had dryland grasses hydroseeded over the rest of the area for a low maintenance yard. With hydroseeding, the grass seed comes with its own mulch and you just have to keep it wet. Don't get rid of the weeds until the second year as they help the new grass plants get started.
-crofter

 

[user 30781]

Happened a lot in the city of Seattle as at one time a lot of homes had underground and above ground tanks for heating oil which fueled the furnaces.  I had a home that had an old tank in the ground that was no longer in use. I got lucky selling that house a couple of years  before the authorities started requiring old unused tanks to be dug up and the soil tested.

The house I grew up in had an oil furnace and the tank was buried in the front yard.  All the houses on our side of the street had rock retaining walls as we were just over the top of Beacon Hill, so our yard and house level was about 16 steps above road level.  I bet someone had fun with that tank.

 

[travelaround]

Thanks for explaining hydroseeding, Crofter - I've never heard of it before.

I'm trying to let the county do their work without me fussing over what should or shouldn't be there when they get done, so long as the metal, nails and glass are all gone.

Dead burned trees will unfortunately still be there most likely unless they're in their way. I'll have to hire someone with a chainsaw to take care of that later this year after it is confirmed that the trees aren't coming back. The big apple tree was burned badly, which is sad because it was so beautiful with flowers, and good for shade.

When the scraping is done I'll post a picture. Hopefully the property will look a lot better. They'll just scrape the earth under the buildings that burned, not the entire half acre.

 

[maki2]

If the trees come down you will have some fire wood. Plan on a campfire ring in the landscaping. Good gathering place for friends and family. Strong picnic table is very useful when working on projects. Makes a good potting bench as well as on outdoor kitchen. I suspect once the land is cleaned up you wuill spend quite a few over nights there the next few years. A storage shed will be essential for garden tools and such. That is something you could start shopping for so it can be put in place ASAP, something cute and homey to use as your art studio. A shady overhang patio roof extended from it to sit under in sun or rain.There is more than one way to make it feel like your home again, a place to spend many happy and productive hours even if you are not there full time.

Planning that She Shed will keep your head in a good frame of mind. A creative outlet that is real progress towards your ultimate goal. Home away from the travel trailer.

 

[user 30781]

I set up the bed in the back of my Grand Caravan yesterday, parked it in front of my porch on one of the few level spots in our parking area, put up the window coverings and took a nap. Or tried to. I live right above a busy state highway branch and as usual, there was a lot of traffic. Our apartment is exceedingly well insulated and stuccoed so it's pretty noiseless inside, so I'm not used to the traffic noise. I know I'd be able to sleep through wind or rain or a noisy river or wind in the trees (ahh), traffic, no. At least not until I get used to it if I have to.

Also, the tri-fold Milliard 4" mattress is harder than my bed so I had trouble with that too. I got two of those cheap foam toppers from Walmart, I'm going to cut them down to 31" wide and put both of them on top with a fitted sheet over everything.

Living in the back of a minivan would not be easy for me. I have arthritis in my lower back and both hips and it was a bit difficult crawling around to do things. A van I could stand up in would be so much easier and if I ever decide to go full time, or even a lot of the time, I'll definitely look into getting one. About 3 weeks before my car died and I bought the Grand Caravan there was a perfect van for sale on Craigslist. A cargo van tall enough to stand in with AWD and a whatchamacallit already set up in back to plug tools into. I asked him a question about it and told him I was interested. Got a text from him an hour later, it sold. I don't remember if it was a Chevy or something else but it looked to be in really good shape and had about 80k miles on it if I remember right. $3,500. I've been checking Craigslist ever since and vans are going very quickly!

 

[user 30781]

I was outside in a tshirt and cotton pants today.  Just looked outside and there's snow.  SNOW!  It's March 28th!  I'm so confused.

North Central WA.

 

[travelaround]

Oh, I heard North Idaho had snow a few days ago also. I feel for you... I'm hoping for no more snow this year but I've seen snow here as late as April 28, in past years. I'm at the top of California about 20 miles from Oregon.

 

[maki2]

The official frost fee date in Western WA as far as planting gardens is May 1st. Snow is not always around in April but it snowed in mid April in Seattle in 2020.

I would not bother to return there for camping before June, too cold and too rainy . But there are of course exceptional years when it is drier and occassionaly close to 70 degrees.

 

[maki2]

Direct hit on my screen room by a large dust devil. It tore 3 of the webbing hold down tabs at the bottom corners of the wall loose. They must have put a single line of stitching close to the end of the webbing.

Thanks to the advice Brian (user name B & C) gave me I had installed three guy ropes made of ropes and bungees to the top of each vorner side, it is a 5 sided structure. That meant the structure did not collapse or blow away.

Tommorow will be 40mph gust so I will take it down before dark tonight. I can repair and reinforce it with some handcsewing. Fortunately I have the right, very strong leather sewing needle, heavy duty threwd and also some fabric scraps as well as tent seam repair adhesive for this job. It will take an hour or two of work. But too hot to deal with it tight now. Cool evening temperature and a book on tape will help get it done faster.

 

[B and C]

This seems to have been a windy year there but I guess I have never been there near this late.

Hope the repairs go smoothly!

 

[jacqueg]

I took down my Clam today. Overall, I thought it did a pretty good job withstanding winds it was not designed to withstand. But I'm gonna spend some time this summer on repairing and reinforcing all attachment points, and devising a better guy line system, a couple of the guy lines it came with tore completely through. I think I'm going to both glue and stitch my reinforcement patches.

I emailed the company asking if they would sell me fabric off-cuts for reinforcement patches and adding gear pockets and they don't do that. they did tell me that the fabric is coated 200-denier nylon. Seattle Fabrics sells something that looks very similar. they're not open for walk-in customers, but I have a fantasy that they might be willing to come out to my car and take a look.

 

[travelaround]

I spent the afternoon watching my property being cleaned up and the half-burned carport was demolished. They used an excavator to tear apart the mobile home frame. The smaller tractor is for scraping the property. They both worked at the same time and got a lot done.

The only hang-up was that not enough trucks were available to remove the rubble, so it is still there. They will have to finish tomorrow.

This is what my life looked like today. The first one is a "before" picture.







Looks like I'll have to find someone with a chainsaw to cut down the apple tree. I want to save the wood as people like to use it for their smokehouses and I think that's something my daughter would like to do.

Before they started a nice young man walked around the property and helped me transplant more roses that were coming up, and he put caution tape on a few others. He said he lived in the neighborhood when he was a child in the 1980's and the man who parked in that carport used to give him candy when he arrived home after work. Also he said he was baptized in the church down the street. [The church survived the fire, but it is not currently being used.]

 

[Deborah]

Chat about anything.

I'm parked nearby my six generation land and not on my land because I was blocked from access some years ago. Last October I realized the scope of this situation. The city needs it and the plot to get it began decades ago. All bad things happened. Tragic things and devasting things happened. This is why I live in the van since 2010.

I have an attorney now and Ive priced the land to the city, the state or the federal gov. Likely all three gov layers will pay for it.

I'm parked with permission, not far from my homeland that might as well be on another planet as far as access is concerned.

I had been camped at the coast but the campground closed.

I have come to grips and now it's priced. My attorney is handling this. In the meantime, I'm parked in my van on privàte property down alongside the hwy a mile or so away. Life is about to change for everybody concerned.

I've been living out of this van since husband died in 2010. I'm on a 8 week waiting list for therapeutic counseling nearby to discuss coping. I priced the land at the corporate value plus.

I could buy another van and continue with this lifestyle or I can buy another home place, or do both. Or start a business at my age? . I don't mean to sound redundant. I've never been faced with this level of opportunity. This will contribute to my grandchildrens inheritence according to teachings from the bible.









Sent from my moto g stylus using Tapatalk

 

[crofter]

Good to know you are finally nearing a settlement.

My parents had a similar situation in Port Orchard WA with the county taking their home. It was in good repair, but the county condemned it and turned their home into a law office for the nearby courthouse. Can't fight the gov when they want your land.
-crofter