After we made a few changes to our site plan and landscaping plan, they were approved by the Planning Department and now the Building Department is reviewing the planset! We’ll be off-grid for our energy, which is 100% electric, so the Building Department is letting us install our solar panels and build a temporary shed with a battery and inverter for our Temporary Power, rather than run a “genny.” And we’re allowed to get started on that work!
Since hearing that great news, we’ve been clearing the brush from the future ground mounted solar area and also our future driveway. Dipper, our electric tractor, is a big help, but we are still learning how to be Smooth Operators. We’ve amassed a couple tall piles of bushes already, which we’ll chip to use as mulch in our future garden.
We’ve been spending most days up on the property and it has been in the 90s or hotter up there at almost 6000′ elevation. We’re glad to have the Scamp for the bathroom and also to get out of the sun for breaks. Our neighbor to the north just received his permit and is working on his building pad. It’s fun to look over to see his progress. He recently got a Scamp to escape the sun, too. A few folks have joked that Scamps are popping up like mushrooms there!
It is an hour each way between our Tiny House Trailer and our property, so there is a lot of car charging. We’re looking forward to completing the Temporary Power, so we will be able to charge our cars and tools while we’re working. Our neighbors to the west have been super awesome about letting us charge Dipper off their excess solar power, but we’ll be happy to be completely self sufficient in our charging soon.
We are working with Unbound Solar, who cater to DIYs like us. They provide many “How To” videos and have a very friendly and helpful staff. They mostly use Iron Ridge for the ground mount racking system. Iron Ridge has a design program on their website which helps determine the vertical member spacing based on the wind, snow, and seismic loads. We have a large array because we are designing our buildings to be 100% electric and our vehicles, tractor, and Tiny House are all electric (except for the Scamp, which we plan to retrofit someday). Yup, geeks.
Due to the large array and high wind, snow, and potential seismic loads, we need to dig 72 holes for the solar foundation!!! So I did some research and picked up a Work Saver 500 post hole attachment for Dipper. The post hole digger will also come in handy for the Greenhouse’s Sonotube piers, holes for the fruit trees that Jon ordered, and more fruit tree varieties Jon has his eye on.
Sweetheart hauled the trailer down to Bakersfield to pick up the Worksaver 500 and the double flight auger that is built for sandy soil. I had to go to Bakersfield anyway to pick up a new fender for Sweetheart at Tesla Service. Yeah, I forgot I was in a Tesla instead of a 4-runner and cut it too close to a sage bush on the property, which broke the plastic fender. Doh! The hot pink duct tape is having a difficult time keeping the parts from flapping in the hot and dusty conditions and the sensor looks like an android with its eye hanging down (I can’t remember the movie I’m referencing. Aliens?). It is super awesome that Tesla sells parts now, but they don’t ship yet.
After days of carefully raking the new driveway smooth and having flashbacks of meditation retreats (sweep your garden, rake your driveway), I declared the driveway smooth enough for now (be here now) and took Sweetheart on an inaugural drive around the loop.
It feels tremendous to begin physically working toward our dream of living on our property! I’m sore, but it is a good kind of sore, you know?