Planning The Fun
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ADVENTURE LOCATION:
ROCKPORT, TEXAS
NOVEMBER 22 2024
We got the Castle put into her spot and all set up for fun and games to
begin. But forgot pho...
10 hours ago
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Progress?
Alida took a back route in to the property, but I couldn't tell where it was supposed to be. We finally went to Tennison (Sp?) Desert Trail and back tracked and found it for the second time. It turns out that there is an old barbed wire fence as my west property's boundary and the land on the other side of it is not Terlingua Ranch. (Belongs to a private individual.) The road is doable by the falcon (While dry), but I'd sure want a lot of green slime in the tires though. According to her it would be in my interest not to have the road graded, but they would do it if I wanted them to. I tend to agree since that would just turn the road to powder, but it could sure use a brush hog. Problem is they don't have one so it would have to be on me to get one. I think my brother in law is planning on bring his diesel New Holland tractor out the 17th so if he still has a brush hog for it that would be good. It does have a frnt end loader so that should do the ground work on the land.
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Great views and it gives me some great insight about buying land in west Texas and that is about what kind of access is there. Also I noticed that you actually have soil in your area and not the over abundance of rock I usually have seen; that is one fine plot of land you got.
ReplyDeleteScavenger, here's something you might like. There's a guy here that rents 20 foot shipping containers and will put them on your land. I have a lot of stuff 240 miles away in a storage building that I'm paying $109 a month for. If I rented one of the shipping containers for $90 0r $95 (don't member which) then I could move my stuff down here and have it on the land where I'll need the tools and other stuff. It should take up about half the container so I could probably add a removable insert insulated with urethane board and live in the front part long enough to get my building built. I'd also be dumping the $65 a month RV space rental.
ReplyDeleteThat's $465 a month for the RV space rent! Have I ever said I hate it because you can't edit messages on these blogs?
ReplyDeleteCongrats on get'n out to the property. That road don't need no stink'n grading....looks good from my house.
ReplyDeleteLike the idea of the rental container. Too bad it's not a 40 footer. That will get ya by for the cold weather coming this winter and save ya a bunch of bucks. A small propane heater and a Coleman lantern keep ya nice and cozy. Good deal!!!
BBob, got the heater ligned up and I have a bunch of solar lights. Should keep me out of the elliments anyway. A 40 footer would be better, but Hay... I ain't complaining. My Bro in law is planning to bring his tractor down here Wednesday with a brush hog so we should be able to take care of the road and clean up enough of the land for me to get started.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could rent to own the 20 footer? But yea it sounds like good economic sense. Obviously you don't work for our govt thinking economicly like that ;) In reality you need maybe 10 x 10 space for living, especialy if most of your day you work either away or outside. If I had land there I wouldn't care if I lived in one of my trucks and set up some tarps/tents for living and NO way I could see spending $465/month unless that included some visits by a "maid"...
ReplyDeletegreat Idea that container deal. your land looks good and flat. It would be good to be out there when it rains to see where the water goes, and then build away from it. Is there anyone out there that has a dump truck and can deliver gravel? If its REASONABLE Id put a layer on top of your road and do that as often as you can until you got a good packed road in any weather. number 6and7 stone or crush and run would do.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on getting out there your car didnt have any trouble did it?
Love the view, there's nothing there, but I bet you could look at it for hours.
ReplyDeleteI do the same when I go camping out of Sydney. Except I'm too busy making a fire, preparing food, putting up my tent, and putting things in their place.
Scavenger, I asked the guy if he would sell the containers and he said NO because he would be cutting his own throat to do that. I wouldn't mind having one for storage just for the security of it, but don't really want to build with them anymore. BTW here is another 10 acre plat catty cornered to mine or was the last time I checked. Same type soil, but the problem is that I don't know how you would get to it? There is another road to the north, but I think that plat is pretty well land locked.
ReplyDeleteOGT, According to google earth and the altitude it shows for any given point the Southwest corner is the highest point on the land. That's next to the road and at the old fence so would be easy enough to figure out. Also the lowest part shows to be about 16 feet lower than that front corner. If so you sure can't tell by looking at it. It just looks flat all the way. I notice that GE also shows what looks like drainage in to that low area so if so a dam might be a good way to collect the rain water and use John Wells idea of pumping it to a water storage container.
That road is 1 mile long and the land is at the far end of that mile so I don't think I'd ever be able to pull off affording to gravel the whole road. Wish I could though! There is a place almost straight across on 118 that sells gravel and rock, but whether they will deliver or not I don't know. I would like to do a driveway in to the land like that as well as the area I intend to build on.
pipsqeek, You're right about there being nothing out there, but that was sort of what I wanted. None of BBob's pesky neighbors at elbow distance. 10 acres away wouldn't be bad though. Might cut down on the loneliness at times and help if emergencies came up for either neighbor.
I did talk to the neighbor lady that lives where I have the red circle in the one photo and she was real nice. Didn't get to meet her husband because he was bedridden from a back problem. Anyway she said they had been trying to get the DSL and phone for three years and never had any luck. They are actually about a mile closer to 118 than John is and on a pretty darned decent road so I don't know why they can't get it. She told me I could pretty well forget it where I my land is though, but said hughes.net works good out there and you can also get a subsidized satellite phone pretty cheap there. I'll have to check in to that because it would pretty well fill in the gaps that I'll need filled in.
If your in need of something to live in while you build I found an airstream in your area. The place has been for sale for awhile but maybe the trailer can be had for cheap; check it out.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.homefinder.com/TX/Terlingua/48698317d_
how was the chili cookoff? did you get to attend much? still alot of people there?
ReplyDeleteScavenger, If they had an email address on there I might check in to that. Its way north of my land though and according to that map looks to be near to Alpine that Study Butte. That would mean closer to reasonably priced supplies and a lot more stores to choose from. Then again some of the stores in Alpine aren't exactly reasonable on prices either.
ReplyDeleteOGT, Nope I didn't go, but saw plenty of strange stuff going on around here. I didn't want to take a chance on getting pulled over. Maybe next year?
Oh... I think most of the people have already left. (At least they have around here)
ReplyDeleteYou can purchase a cargo container in Fort Stockton at Century Trailers. They will deliver it. I have an 8x40 that is 9 foot tall on my property in terlingua. I can send you a picture in email if you have an email address.
ReplyDeleteKathleen
Also you can get the satellite phone from Big Canyon TV in Alpine on 5th street. Show them your deed for $18 a month for 300 minutes.
ReplyDelete432-837-7484
Kathleen
okeefe1955, Both of those tips are great. Have any idea what the price is on the shipping containers? I've already checked with the hughes.net dealer in alpine so think I can get fixed up with that pretty quick. I sure need to get one of the phones to. Is that just a monthly rental or do you have to buy the phone to. I've found them to be very expensive.
ReplyDeleteMy email address is t.guy@tffn.net
ReplyDeletenext year lets catch a burro and ride there in style
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor in the desert bought one of those 40 footers. he ordered a refrigerated model. It does not come with the Frig equip, but is heavly insulated. He could be gone for 2 weeks in the summer at 115 degrees and when you opened it up it was cold inside, strangist thing I ever saw. I'm sure they cost more but it would save having to insulate it later.
ReplyDeleteHaven't thought about a burro! I guess I could build a cart and surely I could get in and out of there like that. Maybe even haul a little lumber. If worse came to worse get a few to hitch up to the falcon and I'd be set for anything. Between those and a few goats I wouldn't have to worry about clearing the road or the land either.
ReplyDeleteI've heard the refer vans are the way to go. I'd imagine they would be pretty expensive though.
Any thoughts about Wildblue satellite for internet? I think it is owned by Dish Network as the rival to DirecTV.
ReplyDeleteAs far as getting a container consider that with the recession there has become such an accumulation of containers in all the major ports
that they are starting to just cut them up because they are just piling up due to the recession . From what I have seen you can sometimes get a 40 footer for the price of a 20 footer. Also some containers that are damaged or just old are even cheaper; if you really want one do your homework.
Scavenger, People around here seem to be satisfied with hughes.net so I don't see any reason to try something else. They tell me it shouldn't take over a couple of days to get it installed to and they've been around for a good while. That's enough for me.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos of the land. It looks very nice. You could build, of do just about anything on a nice place like that. You might consider a good used pick-up truck, and/or small trailer. You could collect rock from just about anywhere out there, and gradually fill in the ruts in your road. The insulated container, or a used travel trailer sounds like a good economic decision. Can you get internet over the satellite?
ReplyDeleteAllen Hare, I've checked in to getting internet by satellite and the woman told me no problem. Said it would probably be installed within a couple of days. My main problem will be with powering it. She told me it would take about 100 watts and my wind generator is 500 watts so as long as there is sufficient wind to keep a battery at first and then several batteries charged then I could do it. I'm probably going to have to get a backup generator though until I can afford solar and maybe build a couple more wind generators. If the satellite is bad about having to be setup every time there is loss of power then I'm in trouble.
ReplyDelete