We headed up early morning on Saturday, trying to give the ranch roads and our access road as much time as possible to dry out. Waiting definitely helped, but our access road was still too swamped/muddy to make it through. So, we took the back way in again, which turns out might be our best possible route until spring next year when more road maintenance is scheduled.
When we arrived you could tell we had some good rain. There were traces of small streams that had flown through our home area, and some soggy areas still. We think with the winter coming, and not much heat from the sun, it could be this way for a while. Not terrible, but have to be a little more careful of where we walk.
Two good things from this though, first is we have about 1,400 gallons of rainwater collected over the past 5 months. We will gladly take that. The second good thing is with softer ground Sheralee was able to plant some trees we had been given. She planted two Mulberry bushes and two Elm trees. Very cool.
Bad news here though, Sunday morning she noticed that one of the Elm trees had been a snack for some passing four legged friend. Hmmmmm…..not sure what kind of friend though.
While Sheralee was stocking the four legged buffet, I started prepping for the loft electrical rough in. I ran 14/2 romex to the loft for 120v AC and 12v DC. The 12v DC will be for the bedside lamps, deck light, and entry way light, which is controlled on a 3 way switch up and downstairs. The 120v AC is for our bedside outlets (which have USB ports), the ceiling fan, and where the TV will be mounted above the stairs.
I drilled a hole in the container roof, near it’s exit point into the entry way. From there it goes up into the west wall and all around to where we need it. In the container, I am routing it through the ceiling and then out through the back wall into the utility shed.
Once I got both the AC and DC runs in, I then terminated our 12v bed lamps and the switches for those.
Kinda hard to see, but with the lights on, it is a little easier.
We are really happy with the way it turned out, overall. We are trying to find some weaker LED lights, but so far so good. I mean, we have lights! I retired the battery powered camping latern, once and for all.
In the utility shed, we are using a Blue Sea Systems blade distribution block.
It is pretty cool. It has room for 12 circuit runs, but I can only think of 3 or 4 we will use right out of the gate. I mounted ours where the DC runs will terminate, and that ties into the battery. The blank spot to the right is where I will be using a Load Center to distribute AC throughout the house.
That was about it for the weekend. I will continue terminating both DC and AC next weekend, hopefully getting power upstairs for phones and lights!
On other notes, here is a view of our ‘compound’ from where the new elm and mulberrys are planted.
Also, on the way out…we got to see all three of the antelop up close as they cross the ranch road right in front of us.
