Lisa and I have dreamt of building our off-grid homestead for nearly two decades. About ten years ago we started looking for property in New Mexico. More recently we started looking for un-permitted areas to move to. We searched many areas and researched their permit and inspection requirements. Many areas allow for owner builds however there are restrictions and some hoops to jump through.
Early in 2017 we found the city of Terlingua in far west Texas in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert where you can not only buy land on the cheap but you are also allowed to build pretty much anything you like :) By May we bought our property and over the next year and a half we sold our house, closed up the datacenter and made preparations for our move. On December 19, 2019 we arrived at our property.
Thanks for stopping by :)
For questions and business inquires feel free to email us.
Or mail us at: Theodore & Lisa Pound P.O. Box 196 Terlingua, TX 79852
Why is the button flashing 😮and running it like this would it be good to running it on less then it raded for 225 once again it worked it works but I just wonder how long they would last putting them through less power then it used to
What wind generator are you using and how has it performed for the two of you? Deanna and I are considering a 48v wind turbine for our property. Thanks for any insight!
How it going? Saw the sad news about John Wells. Man, was really sad to hear about his passing. How are you two doing? Hope you are doing ok. Drop a line or post a vlog when you have a chance.
Great project. Im finally ready to start my tiny cabin myself but have zero experience i hope you dont mind the questions. What size are your colums to include gage. Same question for your girts and cee purlins. Im planing on using 4x4x1/8 colums. Any advice would be great thanks. My building is 15x26 w a 2/12 pitch
Just found your channel, going back to the beginning and working my way through! Love what you’re doing, I love seeing people take raw land and build it into their own ranch or homestead. Keep up the good work! We’re trying to do the same in northeastern AZ
I just got home from Terlingua about 16 hours ago. Went out there to go to Big Bend and stayed at Terlingua Ranch, and I absolutely feel in love with it. I’d love to get a little land out there.
I feel like an implement that scrapes soil into a large bin or wagon type thing with ability to open the bottom to dump the dirt out would save about 5 years.
I wondered what happen to you folks, good to see. I hope the weather there holds out for your own projects. I havent even begun on my place down there yet.
I don't remember doing an update video. The ones that did start to grow ended up dying mainly from freezing in our RV when we were in MN before heading down to TX. We're finally getting back to the plants.
Im into solar big time lol and wanting to start running my dryer from solar but man it takes alot it seems to run the heating element but on a sunny day it shouldnt be a problem. I have a total of 45 kw of lithium now so hopefully itll work out
Bro im not being an ass by telling you this but the running that dryer woth long cords will burn up that dryer motor really fast. It might take a week maybe a month not sure how long it will last but it will most definitely burn the brushes out on that motor fairly quick
Wow! I was in Terlingua back in 2001 after my daughter was born. It was absolutely beautiful. We did a New Mexico and West Texas trip. And Big Bend was our final stop. And it was mid April. And even in Mid-April it was in the mid 90s, at least during the day. So it's crazy seeing snow out there.
I’m seeing land is still relatively cheap out there. I’ve visited the area a number of times and have always thought how nice it would be to own a small slice of it to visit or maybe at some point have very extended stays. What are the restrictions for a 5 acre plot in Terlingua Ranch? Are septic tanks required even for tiny house structures?
No restrictions... for the most part. Septic is the only thing you'd need a permit for and (some) most people do composting toilets. Definitely not required. Depends on if it's just you or you plan to do a BnB, I'd say. Check with Brewster county if you have detailed questions.
The reason your pour turned out well was because of the type of dirt you have there..predominantly sand calcium carbonate mixture a really alkaline mixture..so what you actually have there is a huge grout floor..hopefully you left the gravel and rocks in it..one suggestion or tip is that you want to keep it damp for at a minimum 4 days..I would suggest 2 weeks otherwise it will turn into chalk in places
So cool to see your using red-iron. The cabin will be great when done. I'm planning somthing similar using rediron as well, what are the detentions to your cabin? My cabin will be 15x26, w a lean-to roof, and was thinking 10' on the front and 9' on back. Any advice?
This one is 20'x30' with a 10'x30' porch. I really like this method because you end up with very little thermal bridging since there are only a few 1.5" contact points for each wood 'stud' and you get a lot of uninterrupted insulation. We're going to be building a few more structures like this and will make some more detailed videos along the way.
Thank you for responding...this work is much more difficult than what most people think...it is definitely a labor of love. Question 🙋, what advise would you give to any one wanting to start building on raw land? I recently had a couple 👫 ask me this question and I basically told them I is hard but very rewarding if you have commitment and desire and it would hurt to have some kind of income a good truck... I'm looking forward to any new video...I'm especially interested in knowing building is welded building.
@@desertmoonlightcottage3387 Yes, it's welded. It's much easier to melt metal together than to use screws and bolts. Recommendations are hard because every situation is different. Here are some thoughts: Priority one, get power up and going whether that's grid or solar, generators are great for emergencies but a terrible sop solution. Clearing and grading land, embrace heavy machinery, it might seem like you can move some dirt around by hand and save some $$, but really in a couple hours a good backhoe operator can do what would take weeks with a shovel. Concrete seems expensive but if you price out framing, subfloor, underlayment and floorcovering it's cheaper and more durable to do a concrete floor, even with stain and sealer, unless you just hate concrete, then by all means wood is nice ;) Yes, a truck and income are helpful.
1. Be careful replacing the springs, it’s dangerous 2. The best instruction I’ve found for doing an alignment is in this link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Wab8IcOQvQw.html Take care (from East Texas).
Luckily the springs in the rear of the Pathfinder are pretty safe and you can compress them using a jack while they are mostly trapped in the mounts, no need to use a widowmaker ;) as for alignment, we ended up getting it close and bringing it to a shop but I will be learning to do it myself.
