Weather notes

Just down the road from my old house.
But i don’t live there anymore.  

Sitting here in Hickory at 8am, listening to Helene sweep into western North Carolina, I feel vindicated. 

I sold my house in the mountains early this year and this morning I see that part of my road in the valley is under water and they are calling for landslides on the slope my house sits on. The state highway is impassable going west to the nearest large town. 

This is the worst rain I have seen in my 15 years living in that small town, and the basement must be at least 12” deep in runoff water right now, but I don’t have to worry.*

 I am currently in my girl friend’s brick house in the Piedmont, on level ground, with a good roof. Even so, we are right in the path of the storm too, and for sure her basement is flooded. She has issues with gutters and rain getting into the walls and there will be expensive repairs for her. 

But I have no property to care for, other than my car and a little cheap camper. I put a deposit on a bigger rv, but for the purposes of this storm, that is someone else’s problem right now. I have nothing to lose. 

That’s not precisely true, because I did buy an acre of farmland that is getting the absolute worst of the rain in the area. Luckily, there is just a driveway and a small plot of willow growing there, and nothing more.   No infrastructure to damage. So I am still good. 

Sometimes, having nothing to lose is like being lucky. 

But in reality, I foresaw and planned for this. I don’t want a house  anymore, it’s a liability. Repairs to housing are outrageously inflated these days, and cleaning up after a climate change event is going to be more expensive and more frequent from now on. 

Being able to pack up your domicile and move to a safer area easily is a smarter choice in my opinion. Even with a more expensive rv, and the perils and costs of the road, it will keep me ahead of most bad weather and the crazy heat. I like the odds. 

It’s too bad that homes have been identified as a profit center for greedy corporations and contractors. It used to be a path for middle class wealth building, but companies like Berkshire Hathaway and Home Depot don’t want us to keep that money. They are trying to own all the resources needed to live, so you have to pay them for the privilege of living.  Apparently, B-H also owns the largest rv brands as well, including Winnebago, Forest River and Airstream, so you can see where they are headed: Housing, at all levels, that is expensive, but cheaply made. 

Buy used. Do not buy new. Buy older models that were made better and fix them. Do not buy anything from corporations, ever. Learn how to make what you need. We are being squeezed like a toothpaste tube, on purpose.  Be nimble and ready for change. It’s coming in fast with the wind. 

* This is my viewpoint, not necessarily my girlfriend’s. Once she has sold her house, which is the current plan, we will own the Rv and the farm together. But connection to property runs deep. Houses are more than just shelter, possessions more than just things. It took me a good 6 years to move out of my house. 

Infrastructure Week

[ Update: see bottom of post for new layout. The feedback I got was really useful, and thanks to everyone who commented on the FB site]

Part of the plan for our Rving life was to have a home base that we can live on - for cheap -  part of the year. Spring and Fall are very comfortable in WNC, and summers are made more enjoyable due to our property's proximity to the mountains - a 45 minute drive or less.  Winter is the only season to escape. 

We are developing the 1 acre property as a willow farm. (Check out our blog on the farm development at GoodWillowFarm.blogspot.com.) That is progressing so our task now is to get the RV infrastructure in so we can live over there and not have to drive an hour and back to work on the property. So, while there's a basic driveway in now, there needs to be a drive to turnaround and parking spots for RVs need to be blocked out. Electricity will need to be put in for future buildings and rv spots.  A three bay barn is planned for storage and workshop space. Along the way, we need to start emptying Lynn's house in order to sell it next summer and go full time. There's a lot going on, but we've got a year to get it done. 

This is where we are now; the green blocks are the planting areas pictured above.

The property is mostly level other than a 4 foot drop in elevation from the street to the square parking area. The cost of putting in a driveway over that drop was too high to put in another to make a circular drive which was my first plan. So the following layout shows my updated plan, using a 3 point turn at the side of the property to allow larger vehicles to get in and out. All the drives are 12' wide.

Click to see larger photo. Each square on the
grid represents 10 square feet.

This plan shows future planting areas,  future buildings, a planned driveway and electricity access spots (brown dots).  There are 4 potential RV spots numbered, one being inside the barn, with space for some dry camp spots too. I think there's enough turnaround length but I have been wrong before - I thought a 40x40' parking area would allow a truck with a utility trailer to turnaround, but that wasn't the case.

This is an example of the barn I had in mind, just needs to be 40' in depth to handle a 30-35' class A in that center bay.  Notice the price - pretty sure it's much higher now. 

This plan also allows for some privacy and the willows will grow to be 8-12 ft in height so that will make it much more private. 

Why have 4 or more RV spots? One for us, obviously, one for guests, but also, being senior women working a farm, I am pretty sure we will need farmhands during part of the season, so some kind of housing will make that more doable. We might fix up the Airstream for a guesthouse in one of the spots. 

Regarding the utilities, only electricity is in the plans right now because it's available now at the street. The city of Old Fort is planning to extend water and sewer service to that street in the next 5 years, so we opted to skip a well and septic system. We'll use composting toilets, rainwater harvesting and bottled water until then. 

Any comments? Suggestions? I have a guy with a land mover who can start building up the new roadways and foundation areas this fall. I'd love to hear from anyone who has done something like this before!

NEW Layout - more room and a big 40-50' turn radius. The grid pattern in front of the barn is a possible area for grass block pavers. 

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