Hello Everyone!
Too much to sum up, Researching land, Swamp perils, Flood zones matter & The last of the persimmons!
The day is dragging on here and I never began working on this entry aside from spelling out the daily number. By now it is late afternoon and although I should be leaning towards a nap I decided it best to peck out a few words here and see what emerges.
There is of course way too much going on for me to really 'sum things up' but overall I keep chugging along putting one foot in front of the other. That said... regardless of anything else at this moment in my life... I am very grateful that I am making the choice to think things over in detail and sort through my options in a meticulous way.
Scouting new areas is always a tedious affair and there are so many topics to cover that require solid answers... that doing the necessary research alone is downright daunting not to mention time consuming. Often I want to say 'to hell with the research' and physically go to a place just to see it for myself before committing to anything... but whoa that is problematic also!
In short, I do not mind spending so much time researching a new area and a particular piece of land but yeah it is quite the undertaking and littered with other stuff like the local history, adjacent industries, social scandals and you name it! Believe me it is all too easy to get lost while doing even some casual reading on the history of an area... and never learn anything relevant along the way.
With some of the places that I have been looking at lately I have had to consider their flood potential and whoa I am glad someone nudged me to be more aware of it when looking at places. Thankfully there are plenty of maps online to help show me what a piece of land's flood rating is and now I have a much better understanding of what to watch out for.
One of the places that I have been looking at is on a fresh water river which of course floods (from what I can tell) in excess of four meters periodically. Needless to say there is a good bit of swamp land in the area and most things are built on tall piers... but there are also plenty of ground built structures so it is really hard to tell how often the major flooding occurs.
Seriously, I am not all that keen on the idea of living on the edge of a swamp again... nor having to contend with a wider variety of venomous snakes, pests and predators than what I am already accustomed to dealing with. Also I sincerely fear losing dogs to alligators or chickens to wily raccoons so yeah it is a neat option but one that I know is an incredibly dodgy scenario if not done well from the very start... and even then it would be dodgy!
On the flip side to all that though... a river being a part of the 'front yard' is appealing not just for the ambiance but also because of it being a potential source for food, water and of course whatever debris get washed along it. Call me wacky but the idea of pressure treated lumber (from broken docks upstream) washing up on the shore... is exciting to say the least.
Anyway, not to go into everything around the appeal of living on a river and its assorted hazards/benefits but suffice it to say I would want a boat and one heck of an evacuation plan! My fuzzy idea has been to build a houseboat from scratch on two (or three) aluminum pontoons and thus bi-pass any building restrictions and more importantly be fully capable of coping with any flooding.
My brain really ran with the whole 'pontoon' notion and at this point I have been picturing attaching them to some three meter (diameter) metal culvert pipes, enclose the ends of the pipes with doors and basically call it good enough. It really is the simplest and fastest way that I can see to create that much habitable space but with all the weight I may need more pontoons and wind up building more of a barge than a boat.
I guess that the same thing could be done with a shipping container with much the same results but I like how uniform a culvert pipe is and how easy it is to weld to. Also I can make alterations to it all without worrying too much about it getting out of square from flexing say while floating during a flood.
Overall it just makes for a more uni-body approach and aside from using an old (very large) fuel tank I dunno of anything else (besides a shipping container) that would be up for the task. Sure all kinds of plastic containers could be used in lieu of the culvert (or shipping container) but I am thinking something that can weather both a flood and/or a hurricane so it needs to be very solid.
Okay, I am getting off in the weeds here with all that jazz but as you can see my problem solving mind is working the various challenges and trying to determine what is the best course, which course I want to take, and where I am going to have to compromise along the way. There are also resource restrictions (on what is actually possible) and all that... but per usual I will figure that stuff out along the way... or not!
Well, the sun is now setting and although it was not a super productive day... I did take care of some correspondences, got a big resupply of groceries ordered, researched land and took care of all the routine chores to boot. The bad weather is currently blowing in so thankfully I got all my activities done before the darkening sky began dumping rain.
There are numerous storms blowing into the area so once it starts tonight it may last for several days as one system after another moves in. If I get lucky there will be a few sunny periods... but from the looks of the radar I am unsure about counting on much sunshine and may well get cooped up in the cabin again.
On a different note, the persimmons are nearly finished dropping for the year and there are only a few left on the trees at this point. By and large I must say (again) that the increased yield of the trees was quite noticeable compared to the year before. I am also glad that I planted so many of the seeds from this year's harvest since they grow so well here and yeah I am leaving the remaining fruits for the critters!
Alright, I best get to wrapping this entry up and get on with doing the editing and posting. I really need to stay on the 'daily posting routine' if I can because otherwise it all nags at me in a very annoying way that reminds me that: I should get back on track! I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night.
https://peakd.com/c/hive-114308/created
I wish I could get our old clam pontoon boat to you, it is sitting in the woods, they have overgrown it. It is 11 feet wide and 24 feet long with 4 aluminum pontoons that have been fiberglassed over. It would be perfect for you.
That does sound kind of ideal but I dunno if I am even going to do that project.
I do not know how I would get it to you or out of the woods, the trees have grown since we put it there.