This took a lot of thinking and a lot of debate.
Honestly, originally we were thinking offgrid. For a lot of reasons, that seemed like a very good idea. However, for a variety of reasons we are deciding to get power to our property, and we have been getting prepared lately.
WHY ON GRID?
For one, the initial cost of going solar is more than we are able to swing at this moment. It seemed like a small monthly bill would be easier to fit into our finances than one large lump sum front, but that is not the only reason. Our neighbors @jaguarlife and @ladyjag are also building a house right now, and they are going on grid. However, to run a line all the way to their house would have cost them thousands of dollars extra, because only so many feet and poles are provided for free from the power company. By us also getting power at the same time, we have twice the distance and twice the poles to work with, which saves them thousands of dollars.
MANY HELPERS AND LOTS OF EQUIPMENT
Assembling the pole took a bit of work, so even Monster Truck the Pepper pitched in. Once all that parts were hooked up, all that was left was to erect it in place.
To get things started we used a skid steer with a trenching attachment. This is basically a giant chainsaw looking thing that can cut through earth, roots, clay and rocks. Since we were going in to the earth four feet anyway, we figured that this would be a good start.
Nest came the auger, which is also a beast of a machine. @Bluerthangreen and I purchased this attachment for his skid steer last year, because it'll come in handy for everything from digging fence post holes to planting trees.
It definitely got the job done and dug the hole deep enough for this project. I cannot imagine the time and effort that it would take doing this by hand.
@Bluerthangreen and I put the pole in its hole and began to fill in the soil around it. Unfortunately his spade shovel had previously went "flying off the handle," but he still got the job started.
Just to make sure that they played a part, I sent my @little-peppers in to finish the job. As usually, they worked thier little tails off and did a good job with their portion of the work. We are moving forward bit by bit, and are hoping to begin building in March, but we will see!
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-power-pole
Until next time…
Don’t waste your time online, invest it with steemit.com
That's so nice of you to change your plans just to help out the neighbors. Makes me admire you even more.
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Yeah, it was a tough call, but I think that we made the right decision.
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Love thy neighbor as thyself...
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Amen to that.
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Remember you can always do solar in combination later. When financing allows. OR you can work on solar a little at a time. When doing your house make allowances so that you can go solar or wind in the future. PLAN AHEAD.
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I love that idea of doing both. We are on grid, but would love to do both...just incase.
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You should also factor in solar hot water. You get the most bang for your buck. You can even build your own solar panels.
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Right, excellent point!
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I’m supporting you kids, “woouw, you can do it, come on come on kids!” hehe
They are so cute...
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Thanks for the encouragement!
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LOL, you took that last shot in the middle of the dark, because you were so slow filling in the post hole. Next time, use a BIGGER shovel!
It really takes a lot to go off grid.
And it saves so much pain in the future.
But, I cannot fault you for getting there this way.
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Thank for the encouragement, and the shovel tip!
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I prefer going off the grid but in my country there are many things that could go wrong so we just stick with a lot of alternatives.
As I type this comment, we are running the generator, but power supply is steady in the city and not my native village. Some people use inverters or solar panels as well.
We believe in if plan A doesn't work, plan B should be on standby.
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That's right. If the grid goes down, we will be able to adjust.
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So, if I go to visit you again next summer, I will be able to help you build your house?
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Absolutely!
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Awesome to see you moving forward on your future homestead!
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Yes it is!
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Looks like a big operation. Nice progress.
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Getting everyone involved and looks like the kids are enjoying the time being spent with them.
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Nice work, cant imagine life without electricity.
Can you operate all these tractors? Big thank you to the helpers.
You are just full of surprises.
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I'm learning to use the tractors and equipment!
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Nice one
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extraordinary
the smile from @little-peppers looks so excited.
regards for @little-peppers , hope he is healthy always
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Amazing
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Amazing brother keept it up
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Thanks to earth moving equipment, machines offers a lot of mechanical advantage whereby little effort is required to produced late amount of work. Going on grid is cost effective and relatively cheaper.
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It is wonderful to see a dream come true, I wish you the best with your property and a lot of courage.
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Where there is unity,their is progess@papa pepper well-done.
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The guy in the photo helped you very well at work
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Yup!
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Solar energy is quite good and a new way of creating more power than going by mechanical means.
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I just love your personality and simplicity.Good work.... Keep the ball rolling. Good work.
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I have to ask:
If you only recently started getting power to your home, then how on Earth have you been posting to Steemit all this time? With digital photos, no less!
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Next summer is going to be so exciting for you guys. One more step closer to living the dream.
Im really looking forward to following the build process.
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On grid? Whats next a machine that washes clothes or a robot that makes coffee 🙃
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Here in NZ, you can, later on, go solar, any extra power is fed back into the grid and the Power Co pay you for it( either credit or money). If there is no sun, you draw power from the grid.
Can you do similar?
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We can do similar, but they'll never pay, only credit.
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At least you get free power on cloudy days, so it would save money over a period.
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Getting everyone involved and looks like the kids are enjoying the time being spent with them.
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there is a will, there is a way .. keep trying, it will produce results .. regards steemit..
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Wise move getting the electric. Down the road you can use solar. You will have piece of mine knowing you have it.
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Wow: that was quite the job. First time I ever heard of a skid steer.
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Power to the people, um no. Power to the Peppers!!! Woo Hoo!!!
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@papa-pepper looks like things are getting serious :) Best wishes to you always. - @splendorhub
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@papa-pepper your neighbors should be grateful to have a person like you as their neighbor, good wishes for you
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Do you want to be my neighbor too @papa-pepper? If every neighbor was like you, the world would be a better place
Asking your kids to work on the land will surely toughen them up, i wish i had a farm to work on when i was a kid, i always loved the countryside
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I gave you an upvote of 3 cents to help, sorry that is all mine is worth :(
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I do not think it's a force but a passion and a high will because of it all is high strength @papa-pepper
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It's cool to see all the kiddos helping out. I would also pay for solar if I had the funds. Maybe further down the road I will.
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Our poles are going in on Monday, unless they got out there and done it today after I was at the property last, but that was near 5 pm so I doubt it. I was told if they didn't install them today it would be Monday. We are hoping it happens cause if it does we will have power next week and will be able to move. And I don't know about your state, but in my state even though they encourage solar power, you still have to connect to the grid so you can feed what you are not using back into it.
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This is awfully neighbourly of you, @papa-pepper! I love when neighbours work together to get things done. Kudos to you!
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Glad to see you are involving the whole family. Thank you for sharing and good luck on your new home.
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Pepper power gets power to the Peppers! Power on and power up! ; )
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Admirable work, God has to bless you for so much generosity, should have been magical experience, because children illuminate any place ...
regards
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wow i really appreciate your thoughts..you have changed your mind because of your neighbors..they are very lucky to have a kind neighbor like you who always thinks about other happiness :)
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good thing you have the machine doing the hard work. else, it is a tedious work to do.
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Great to see other homesteaders out there doing it a different way. I am one too
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Thank you for exhibiting Christ's goodness in your lives. Bless you
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Exceptional family, helping people is a noble job. Great, you and your kids have done the best in one shot. Not all human lives can be beneficial to the lives of others
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After people get off the grid they always comment on free electricity from the sun, but believe me that's short sighted and maybe just a little overrated. Solar is far from free, especially if you look at the big picture. It's free if someone else purchased the solar equipment. If you purchased it and plugged the cost into a formula you would see that the electricity is costing about four times as much as on grid power. I think the best solution I've seen is get on grid, then purchase just enough solar and batteries to provide your minimum comfort level for you and your Family for a day or two and that will be expensive enough.
Anyone's best bet on solar is passive solar for the time being.
It's great that you were able to help your neighbors out and benefit yourself at the same time. Your name should be associated with some pretty warm thoughts at their homes for some time to come.
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That is what we decided as well. You can always go back later and put in a small grid to keep the power bill lower. It takes a long time to pay off a grid system in terms of usage. Way to go. 🐓🐓
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I'm sure it was a hard call. But on the practical aspect, it could allow you, if in the future you produce a surplus of power, to sell back to the power company?
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We at first were bugeting in for power but have gone solar. Yes we cant alot yet but iam glad we went offgrid. The power pole is only 300 feet but the thought of a bill i just dont want. I figure i can buy a panel or battery for what the monlthy bill would be. Thanks for this post and maybe one day you might think about getting solar.
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We had our power pole put in to our property in late summer , hoping to start building in the spring ! we will eigther way , get a trailer set up with an addition untill we can slowly start to build a small house ! heres a photo of many we took when it went in , and we also built a power shack that we can use for storage as well ! Keep at it @papa-pepper ! your doing great !!👍👍👍💕😀
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