The Great Off Grid Ozark Adventure: part 5

Note: This content was written out long before it was published here on the blog. So although this post is being published in early 2025, it was written several months ago. If you’re just finding this post, I recommend starting with part one here to get more background.

After returning home, we had finally started getting some good momentum on our house projects in Utah. There is always a lot to do, but we were feeling better about many of them. We continued to work toward that and selling our businesses. However, time waits for no one and the deadline for our road was approaching quickly. The old easement was expiring soon and the new one was not yet in a condition that was navigable. The neighbor whose property our easement goes through is kind and offered to allow us to continue using hers if needed. However there were several reasons we didn’t want to do that. One is because we made an agreement and wanted to hold up to that, another is that she has a dispute with the other neighbors who are supposed to be sharing this road with us and she will not allow them to use the old easement. Lastly, she let me know that she is moving and I didn’t know who would be buying her property! We began to shift our focus a toward getting that easement road functional.

Several months prior, we had purchased something called an Alaska Structure from a military surplus auction. These are large, sturdy portable shelters are used by the military. You might call it a tent, but it is larger and more sturdy than just a tent. We were excited by this because we could set up a wood burning stove in it, and spend winter in it. They are insulated and can be separated into rooms, or kept in one large space. There would be a lot more space than a trailer and we could heat it more easily. The morning that I went to pick it up, I was told that the seller didn’t know if it was complete, but they had three they could give us! It was a sweet deal! However, I misjudged how large the bins are for these and I was only able to bring two home. It was a very difficult job just to get it out of the trailer at home. The bin itself was over 8’ long, 3’ wide, and 4’ tall. They are very heavy. I’d guess about 800 lbs. Mary suggested that I borrow a larger trailer and get all three but I was anxious about hauling three of those things to Missouri! We didn’t have anywhere at home large enough to set one up so we just cracked the lid and peeked inside. We could see heavy duty vinyl, square tubular aluminum framing, and ropes. I assumed that with all that, our set was complete and we were good. I did try to contact the guy who sold them to inquire about the 3rd but he never answered his phone and I gave up after a few tries.

So in the next chapter of the adventure, We decided that my oldest son (who was 13) and I would take a trip to work on the road more. A good friend was kind enough to let us use his flatbed trailer. We loaded the trailer with tools, materials, things we wanted to keep but wouldn’t need here, our two Alaska structure bins, and we headed out to our property in Missouri. We had a good trip with no major issues except that somewhere along the pothole ridden roads of New Mexico, a ratchet strap popped open and we lost our nice cooler full of food! I’m still sad about that! Our property was beautiful! The place is covered in a flower called Bee Balm. It was in full bloom and as soon as we drove up, the scent of it filled the cab of the truck. Everything was overgrown and wild! The trail that led down to where our camp trailer was parked was barely visible. Thorns and brambles were growing everywhere. We got into the trailer and I anticipated a mouse problem. We had left some non-perishable food in the pantry since April and we thought it would attract the mice. There was evidence of mice but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I worried it might be. We cleaned up and went to work. Our first task was to unload everything. We set out a tarp to put our things on until we got an Alaska structure set up. The next challenge was getting two massive bins out of the trailer without any other equipment or tools available. We had to get creative, and in the end we got them out but it was difficult. We found out really fast that while we were used to the heat, it is different when you have nowhere to escape it, and it is very humid. I actually didn’t mind it so much but the sweat gets bad really fast!

The last time we had been on the property there was a trail/road there!

The RV was parked in a spot where there was no cell service. I had to bush wack my way up the “trail” about 150 yards to the nearest spot where we had phone service. Getting anything done took way longer than it should have. I began to feel like we were spinning our wheels.

The first major setback and disappointment came as we began to unload the Alaska structure bins. The metal frames I had seen when I peeked in, were actually door frames. These structures are made to be modular and you can use hook/loop connections to build out rooms and they have doors that just velcro right in. Well, one bin was mostly full of doors. I had assumed that those metal parts were the structure frame but they were door frames. We unpacked the other one and it was more of the same. So we had a bunch of vinyl coverings, internal doors, and no frame. What good is a structure without the frame?! Several people have suggested things like making a frame from wood, or having something custom fabricated. But honestly, at that point why not just spend the money to build a tiny house? I got in contact with the guy that sold them to us and amazingly, he actually responded to me this time. However, the news was not good. He had liquidated everything and didn’t have a frame for me.

Communication was an issue on the property as we only had phone service in certain areas and I had to stand in the weeds and full sun to call or text and even then, service was spotty. I’d get ticks and chiggars while I stood there on the phone. I finally parked the flatbed trailer in a spot with good service and started standing on it while making a phone call. One day I realized that in the camp trailer storage compartment, we had a bug net tent! I took it up there and set it up and viola! I had myself an enclosed patio with a bug net! I communicated with Mary and we began to look into alternative options. Winter was coming and we really didn’t want to live in a tiny camp trailer with all our kids cramped in there.

While we looked at options, my next step was getting some basic systems in place so that we could live on our property. We had no running water, and no power. We had a compost toilet system we had set up in April so that was at least taken care of. For water, we have a creek on the edge of our property that we could get water for washing, etc. Before you think that is unsanitary, the water in this creek comes from springs and is crystal clear. It is amazing! We don’t drink from it but it is just fine for things like laundry, washing hands, showers, etc. We just had to go down there with jugs and fill them up. We had no shower solution at first, but that wasn’t a problem because we had some good, biodegradable soap and we went down to the creek and just bathed after we had filled jugs of water. Drinking water was something we had to haul in. We had two big jugs that we would fill when we were out and about and bring back. It worked, but was an issue a few times and we probably didn’t drink quite as much water as we should have for how much we lost sweating!

We had two systems in place for electricity. The first was the 12 volt system in the trailer. We have two, deep cycle batteries to power lights, fans, etc. Those are powered by a cheap solar setup from Harbor Freight. It came with the trailer. Unfortunately, I broke the charge controller by leaving it out in the rain so the batteries in the trailer were nearly empty when we got there. The other power system was a Bluetti portable power station. I had made sure it was fully charged before we left and ready to set up. My plan was to plug the trailer into that to charge the batteries a little. However, there was a hitch there as well. The particular model I had purchased does not have an internal battery. The batteries are sold separately and are expandable. I had the battery, but I had forgotten to pack the cable that connects them. It isn’t a cable you can just get from Home Depot, it is a specialty cable. So, we had just enough battery power to get the bump out of the trailer pushed out. We used headlamps for light, and had to charge my phone in the truck. That was all the power we had!

So there we were, trying to get things done but we had basically no infrastructure available. Even getting in and out of our property was a challenge. Progress was slow, and it kind of felt as if everything was against us. I had to work on the road but didn’t have any equipment and hadn’t really had much of a chance to look. We felt a little bit stuck and extremely disappointed in our shelter situation!

To be continued…