The camper has all the furniture and beds we need already, so we didn't have to keep much. We gave away a sectional couch, two dressers, a night stand, two mattress sets, a desk, and a kitchen table/chairs. I stored the baby crib, our bed frame, an antique dresser, and a small table. All of those things were more sentimental than anything, and we may need them again someday if we ever go back to a "sticks 'n bricks" home.
The property where we live now has a large barn, with an
Moving books...many many books.
The load-in:
The load-in process consisted of backing the truck to the barn wall under the loft, and using a step-ladder in the truck bed to reach the barn loft. Lifting and heaving each item up to be stored above.
The loft:
Before we could do much moving, I had to build a new fence as I said before, and create a driveway. Nothing very exciting here, just a lot of work. I drove 40 metal fence posts by-hand, through rocks and roots and whatever else was in the way. I also had to widen the driveway entrance by about six-feet, to accommodate the long RV rig.
Clearing brush from the land, and the tree limbs from the driveway:
Side-note: I bought a 1999 Dodge Ram 3500 Diesel as a tow-vehicle for the 5th Wheel.
It's a quad-cab, manual transmission, 4x4, flatbed. Setup and ready to work. It will handle any job, and will be very handy in this project and in the future.
Then...
One tragic morning, it lost oil pressure while warming-up and ruined the motor. It's currently in the shop getting a replacement motor. That's an entirely different blog post.
Because of that setback, I'm working the '01 Silverado exceptionally hard:
On the scales at the rock quarry, the whole thing weighed over 16,000 pounds. That's quite a bit for the 5.3 V8 with 200k miles to be hauling around. But, it keeps on cranking.
MOVING ON... One of the biggest issues with living full-time in an RV and in one place was having some type of permanent structure to house a washer and dryer, as well as store some commonly accessed items. We decided on a pre-made outbuilding. After looking at Lowes, Home Depot, and Craigslist, I bought one locally from an Amish family.
Girod Mini Barns on Blue River Road. Very nice family and he does great work. His prices are cheaper than anywhere, and I would trust his construction over anything that's manufactured for a big-box store.
Moving the shed was a chore. Of course this was an Amish job, so everything was manual. I learned how to work that day. I borrowed a tandem-axle trailer, and Rueben Girod and myself jacked the building up by hand, loaded it, and moved it to the new site. Rueben came along and it was just as much work getting it unloaded and set. It took us the better part of the day. We also had to deal with low-hanging branches along the driveway. Rueben climbed up on the building and rode atop the building with my chainsaw, cutting limbs as we crawled along the 1/2 mile gravel driveway.
Once the building was set, it was time to build animal pens. We have dogs and chickens currently. Also, the building was going to house my main electrical service. I installed a 100 amp panel, and ran new wiring in conduit to the REMC pole. Jackson County REMC came and inspected my install, approved it and connected to their meter.
Lots of manual labor in this whole endeavor. I haven't been to the gym in weeks; haven't needed to:
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