Recent content by twinfin

I ordered the wheels from Amazon. They are rated for 2,200 pounds as a set of four or, 550 pounds per wheel. Costco claims that their rack will hold up to 2,000 pounds per shelf but in my use case, the entire rack plus contents will come nowhere near 2,000 pounds total so the wheels I...

Today’s garage project was installing wheels on a heavy duty Costco storage rack. I like being able to roll the rack away from the wall from time to time in order to clean the floor underneath. The wheels have locks on them so once the rack is positioned, the wheels can be locked so the rack...

If at all possible, pour a concrete slab in the crawl space. When I was having my house built back in 2017, my builder asked me if I wanted a slab under the house when he was preparing for the foundation pour. I decided to go for it and am glad that I did. The first time you have to go under...

Up to 8” diameter trees should be a no brainer for a smallish mini excavator to get out the remaining stump. I deal with similar sized Douglas fir trees frequently with a small backhoe. It helps to probe around the perimeter of the tree with the backhoe, looking for major lateral roots to...

Good point.

Ya, I don’t like to leave stuff out in the elements either. The sun will take its toll or a rodent will come along and take a taste then no more inflatable standup board for you! Better to keep in side. 🏄‍♂️

I just finished up installing custom wall racks for storing my standup paddle boards in the garage that I also keep my Sprinter van in. I have 3 boards, all just under 12 feet and fortunately, my garage ceiling is just over 12 feet tall so I built a custom rack to store them all standing up...

Here’s my meager contribution. It’s a very small project where I brought off-grid power to my 400 square foot garage built to house a recreational vehicle but it does show the diversity of options limited only to the imagination. Since I only wanted to power occasional lighting and the garage...

For my shop, 8 feet was enough for me to get my tractor inside without Having to first take down the rollover protection bar. I’m glad I thought that through since I had the shop designed before picking up the tractor. Would have been a bummer to put in a more typical 7’ door then find out the...

Our ridge top home site does not have the room for it in a practical sense and the aesthetics of a tall building like that would detract from the views and natural features of our home site. Our well, 6,000 gallon water tanks and solar array are also tucked away, outside of site lines leaving...

Nice write up. Looks like a nice little “bugout” spot. Sorry the well plumbing bit the dust but now you know what you need to do to harden the water system against future freezes.

I’m at the 8 year mark on my solar array up at the house and they are still capable of exceeding rated output on a cold but sunny day with a little boost from “edge effect” from clouds. I expect they’ll continue to produce sufficient power for years to come. My lead-acid battery bank (also 8...

Thank you for reminding me why I fled California 12 years ago. Life is MUCH better now. :)

That’s actually a very good idea, especially the hammock!

You’ve got that right about where we are today with off the shelf solutions for power. When I first started looking into living off grid, solar panels cost about 20-30 dollars per watt! By the time I bought my off-grid property to build our (off-grid) home, it was down to about 1 dollar per...