Property Update
I’ve learned since moving to Missouri that I need to be a little bit more proactive about checking the weather forecast. We got rain so infrequently in Utah and I learned to see the signs of rain coming. In Missouri, rain comes more often and I haven’t yet learned to see the signs so sometimes it surprises me and my plans for the day get washed away. I decided to check the weather last week and was surprised to see one day with a high of 72 degrees! I thought maybe that would be a good day for us to visit our property again. I checked the forecast for that location and it was showing a high of 74. I couldn’t ask for better conditions! We had to make some decisions regarding infrastructure and building plans but we needed some information first. So we made plans and headed out for the day.
If you haven’t read the entire saga of our decision and process of moving, I would at least recommend reading this post. But, in short, we had purchased a large military structure via auction. We were told that they didn’t know if it was a full set but had three different sets they were willing to give us. We could only get two home. When I got home, I glanced inside and it appeared to be a full set. I was wrong. My son and I hauled them all the way to Missouri and we unloaded them to find that they were mostly interior doors. We honestly didn’t open every single piece because we really didn’t have enough clear space to do so. We knew there was no frame, but didn’t know if there was a full cover piece.
We’ve thrown out some ideas for temporary shelter while we build, including a metal building kit and parking our trailer inside it. However, we began to think that maybe if we had a cover for our military structure, we could just build a basic frame from timber obtained on our property. This would save us a lot of money and give us a good shelter while we build our home. I did some research and found a good frame design that would accommodate the cover. But, we needed to know IF a full cover existed, and if so, what size we had to work with. This was our main objective for the trip. It would give us the information needed to take the next step forward.
The weather was warm and amazing! It had been rainy and wet after snow so it was also a good opportunity to see where we needed a little more gravel on our road. After getting settled, we opened up the giant bins that hold the military structures and began unloading, opening and stretching out all the components to measure and catalog each piece. It is a lot of work, and in the end we found that we don’t have any cover for the main structure but we have a lot of other random pieces. I think that whoever used these last knew they were going to be decommissioned and they didn’t bother to put them away as complete kits, but just randomly put components into bins. This was a disappointment to me. I was starting to get excited about what I could put together. I had hoped that maybe they wouldn’t be a huge waste of money, time, and effort after all.
Mary had left to go back to the camp trailer to put together lunch while I finished up. When I came back to the trailer for lunch I got more bad news. Pack rats had been in the trailer. Those things are terrible! They chew on everything, destroy things, and make a big mess! The next thing was that our trailer showed signs of water damage since the last time we had been there. It really hasn’t been all that long and we didn’t see signs of water damage on the ceiling but there had obviously been water inside somehow. I’m not sure where it came in but I didn’t feel good about just leaving it there to get more and more damaged.
I knew our time there was limited but I needed a few minutes to process and reset. I was feeling frustrated by the combination of bad news. I decided to head down to the creek with Mary for a little while. I seem to be able to count on the creek to always be there for me. It was beautiful as ever and the water runs peacefully and perfectly clear. We took our shoes off and rolled our pants up to wade a little bit. It was chilly but the sun was plenty warm so it didn’t matter. I skipped some rocks and just observed as my tension melted away. Pure magic!
We put our shoes back on and went to work moving forward. One of the questions we’ve had is location. We had several potential house site locations in mind and there were pros and cons for each one. We decided to just walk around and stop at different spots to observe and weigh different options. It was good! We able to get some clarity on that and we both feel more able to move forward. Also, it was nice to really just observe the beauty of our property again. It’s been good to have a home to live in for the winter, but when we visit our own property, we realize how much more we all like it there!
I felt better, but I was still a little anxious to solve some of our trailer problems to protect that asset. We put a lot of hard work and money into that trailer and I don’t want it to just rot. We had a mint based pest repellent in our car so I took some time and sprayed in, under, and around our trailer with that. Hopefully, with some repeated applications it will discourage pests from overtaking the trailer. I think I may just need to plan another trip to go there and take some traps as well.
When we bought the camper, it came with a very large, heavy duty tarp that the owner had purchased to cover it with while he worked on the roof but then decided to sell it instead. We kept it with the trailer so we pulled it out to cover the trailer until we can figure out where the leak is coming from. Spreading the tarp over the trailer was a full family task. We boosted up two of the smaller, but able bodied children to the roof of the trailer and worked together to hand the tarp up to them. They pulled it up and over and others helped get it situated. I love it when we have tasks that get all the kids involved, even if it’s just covering a trailer with a tarp! I tied down the corners and feel like it’ll be good enough until I can get back to it and spend some more time there.
The last thing on our plan was to visit a few of the neighbors. My son and I met a bunch of neighbors back in July but Mary and the rest of the kids hadn’t. We visited with a few of them briefly and enjoyed our short visits. I really love how so many of the neighbors are so different and yet so much alike! I am really looking forward to getting to know them better and some of them have really gone out of their was to watch out for us and care for us even though they barely know us. It feels good to know they are there and that they care even if we haven’t officially moved in yet.
