The Great Off Grid Ozark Adventure: part 10

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.

Something interesting I noticed after all that rain, was how much life followed. Things greened up, new grass sprang up nearly overnight and started growing. The few things we planted in April started looking better, new mushrooms sprang up in the forest, small streams and our wet weather creek were flowing for days. The creek returned to mostly normal very quickly with just higher water than usual.

One of the systems I wanted to work on was water. We planned to buy a gas powered pump and a water tank that would fit in a truck or trailer to get water from the creek. I was frustrated when I drove a good distance to buy a pump and they were out of stock. They were also more expensive than I expected. Electric pumps were cheaper. I started looking into 12 volt DC systems that can run directly off solar but it started to get a little complex. I wanted a simple solution. I looked at AC pumps and they were way cheaper and had more selection. Then it hit me! We had a portable power station! Duh! Another advantage is that many of the AC pumps can take a regular garden hose where the gas one took a larger hose that was also surprisingly expensive. If we were pumping water from a well, it would justify the expense, but for creek water… nah. We were able to get all our components and set up a system in minutes. It was awesome! We honestly only used it once because it was just the two of us and we were going down to the creek almost every day so it made sense to just fill a jug or two while we were there. But when the whole family is there, we’ll use a lot more water!

We used our Bluetti portable power station for the pump and ran the water back into this IBC tote. It isn’t food grade but it had biodegradable soap in it and once we washed it out well, it was perfect for our non drinking water needs. Eventually I’ll probably build a little trailer to just keep it in because once you put water in it, it is very heavy!

This is a basic submersible pump from harbor freight. We also bought a cheap bucket and drilled a bunch of holes in it to keep debris from getting in the pump. The only problem was that the pump sucked enough water out of it that the bucket started to float even with the holes and it would start to tip over. We solved that with a few rocks. We already had the hose that we had purchased for our camp trailer.

On that note, Mary also purchased a few gravity fed water filters. Similar to Berkey, but not that brand. We had them shipped there and they arrived the day we left! We couldn’t use them, but it’s nice knowing that they are there and we’ll have a solution ready when we move. There is also a spring on the property. We dug it out until we hit solid rock. We found it early in the trip during the peak of the dry season so we know it runs year round. We’ll probably develop that spring and pipe it down the hill to the wet weather creek to a ram pump. Ram pumps work using momentum and don’t need any power. That will pump the water up the opposite side of the ravine to the house site and into a holding tank. We will likely get a well, but this might be a good backup/temporary water source. It felt like things were starting to come together! Including our winter living space.

When we realized that our Alaska Structure plan was no good, Mary and I immediately went to looking into alternatives. I let her do more of that research because she was home with wifi and I could barely make a phone call. We considered alternative framing options but were not sure how that would work. Purchasing a new frame from the company, buying a metal building kit, which we will probably do at some point anyway to put up a shop/barn/butchering station/etc. However, God solved that problem for us. Someone in a local homestead group we are part of posted asking if anyone would be interested in house sitting for the winter. My wife happened to see it and responded immediately. They began chatting and the timeline of when she is leaving and when we are coming matched up pretty well. She wanted to meet me since I was there so we met up and she asked if I would come over and see the house. It’s a small house, and it’s a bit rough. But it has a nice wood burning furnace that keeps the house warm and dry. We will help take care of a few horses which don’t really take a lot of time/attention. It isn’t as close to our property as we’d like, but it is better than traveling back and forth from Utah. It also gives us some more time to continue getting better infrastructure in.

There were a lot of ups and down on that trip, but it was worth it. We learned a LOT and connected with a lot of fantastic people. We got some basic systems in place and the day we left I had mowed part of the weeds in the pasture down and put down some seeds. I turned around and saw our shed and tractor and the mowed area and for the first time, it looked more like a farm and less like a total wilderness. We want to embrace some of that wildness. It’s part of what draws us there, but I also realize that there needs to be a balance. There needs to be some tamed places. There needs to be some safe places. Some of the things we learned to do to manage the downss and disappointments were
1. shift gears and work on another project that you can see progress on. That seems vitally important to me. I need to see progress or I start to get depressed.
2. Visit the creek! The creek was our sanctuary! It was always peaceful down there, It was refreshing, grounding, and it reminded me of why we were doing what we were doing. We could skip rocks, swim, or just sit and relax. Skipping rocks is very meditative for me so that was a good thing for us. If you don’t have a sanctuary, I suggest finding one nearby. I imagine that I’ll continue to use that as we move forward in this journey.

To be continued…