Getting creative with homesteading and traveling while living in our RV full time. Our family of four lives full time in an RV as we choose to intentionally live counter culturally and seek self-sustainability, one decision at a time. 20 acres of raw land in northern Wisconsin (the north woods), building our future together from the ground up.
Homesteading in the summer, traveling in the winter, and finding freedom wherever God leads us.
Im confused by your 12V , 24V remark concerning using all of the solar panels or not. You can use all panels regardless if your system is 12V or 24V or 48V unless of course you do not have a charge controller.
We were referencing the limitation of our charge controller. So in our 12V configuration (determined by batteries), we can do 650 watts. In a 24V, 1300 watts. We have 1260 watts total with all 4 panels... so no point in using all four right now, basically. Eventually we'll upgrade the charge controller.
Oct 21,2024 Living Inside Of A 4 Off-Grid 154 Person Enclosed Liveaboard Lifeboats Fully Inside Of An Amphibious Ship-Bunker Tent Is Best For Surviving Freezing Snow and I'd Be Safe From The Bears and Moose That Live Here In The USA Thank You Very Much Plus Hi RU-vid I See and Love YA Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots
Before snow flies, insulate the bottom of your camper. We used hay bales around ours and tarps over the hay, and a gator heater under the rv. We also insulated the camper with an insulation blanket over all our slides. Winter is no joke in an rv, condensation was the worst. Our water lines froze from the intake, we heat wrapped it and our filter. Good luck. ❤
@@chasingretirement Welp, honest truth? We're taking off and heading south in November! We spent a winter in Colorado, and those 50 degree days sporadically saved us. Living off grid for the first time, and enduring a winter colder than we've ever experienced was too much for us this year. So we'll be hitting the road again soon. Next year though? Hopefully we'll have a better setup and be able to stay. Thanks for the tips!
Buy a tv pump and use it for a transfer pup, hook the 12 volt pump to your truck battery, it works great i used this method while i live on the desert of az.
Omg your channel appreciated on my newsfeed & I subbed immediately. However I've gotta watch from the very first upload. Blessings from South Africa 🌍🇿🇦🏡💌🙏👍
It's a yearly thing in these parts! Get use to once each yr at this time they invade by the millions into homes, businesses and you really can't do anything for them. When I was looking for a home to buy around here I thought "what in the world is buried around here! Attracting all the Flies" turns out every place I went to had them. They last a month same as the Asian beetles ( look like a ladybug) but they bite. Only tip I can give you is use the A/C as often as possible..
@@Southalabamaoutdoors Yeah, you're right, apparently it's a "thing." The ladybugs/asian beetles apparently come from the soy bean fields and they get bad when the fields have been harvested. They introduced them to help with the bugs on the crops, then they took over. Last year in Ohio in October, we had an infestation that stayed with us until MARCH! Whew!
"Lost my phone in my pants...that was a first"! 😅 Gosh I'm happy you guys are finally staying your property and staying in the camper! Exciting!!! I'm sad about the flies. We have a similar issue at home. Yuck i hate them! See you soon we hope! ✌️🇨🇦🇺🇸♥️
@@lorettaandjasonoffgrid Ugh, what is the DEAL with those flies!?! We'll figure it out. 🥴 We're so thankful, too! FINALLY! Thanks for being such a support 😘🇺🇸🇨🇦
@@thekiltedtexan2480 13 feet! We have a hand driven well going, but ran into a tough spot with clay with about 5 feet left to go. Couldn't get our tractor back there to help out (too muddy), so we resorted to fresh water tanks for now since we had a supply.
"Iits getting real", for sure, the struggles are real <- new channel name? :) I have seen with wet land, you need twice as much fill and gravel as you think. soft is soft and drying out will not help much when your soft soil is that deep. hoping for the best.
Ha, that should be the new channel name. 🤪 Man, have we learned that lesson. We found digging out the wet clay and muddy topsoil has helped tremendously. You're right - if the soft soil is deep, "drying" doesn't do much.
Yes outside showers are awesome! Lol. But I agree inside is easier. 😂 Especially in the winter! Nice work on the pad guys. Really starting to come together ❤️ You'll get there. Keep going strong. 💪✌️🇺🇸🇨🇦❤️
We do! We got it almost three years ago (back when there was a waitlist) so that we always had internet when traveling full time. We should have enough trees cleared at the property for StarLink to work well.
I talked to a guy about extending our driveway on our raw land and he said the trees are easier to knock over and push into a pile roots and all if you don't cut them down before because of the leverage you get.
Jason is finally getting around to watching and has some tips for getting unstuck. First, if you had extra weight in the bucket it would help keep you straight and you would be less likely to sway back into the bad mucky parts. Second, this tractor should have left and right brakes. So if he uses just the left in order to go left it will help. Might be good for next time you run into these types of problems. Hoping you guys have your RV out by now! Happy Labour day!
@@lorettaandjasonoffgrid Thank you, Jason!! 😃 That backhoe is TOO big for the tractor, so it definitely pulls us allll over. Also, you're right. We SHOULD have brakes. But alas, we do not. 🙄 Thanks, old tractor. 😆 Getting close!
That wet spot in your driveway that you though was a spring could very well be a clay bathtub filled with some junk material. The clay won't let the water drain, and then the junk squishes when driven over.
I'm building just north of wausau, and it has been a very wet year, I feel your pain. I just found and binged your series tonight. You should really consider renting a dozer for a month. It can strip all of the top soil and clay without getting stuck and it will blow through all of your stumps much quicker than the back hoe. I love the Fl panhandle state parks in March, too! Good luck with tonight's storms...
We're staying about an hour north of Wausau (our property is hour and half northwest)! So I can imagine you're a little muddy as well. A dozer is absolutely what we need - it's what the guy we were going to hire would use. We almost considered just selling the backhoe and getting a bulldozer instead (not helpful for scooping, though!). Really we just need to make friends with the neighbor down the road who has two. :) These storms... UGH.
3:01 😂😂😂 And also I feel your pain with the rain.. it's been terrible. And now it's dry! So weird! Omg watching you guys tag team the tractor was fantastic. Again, feel your pain. Great job using the backhoe as an extra arm. Jason does it all the time with the bucket to get out of tricky situations. Felt the relief 100x when you got it unstuck!!! PHEW! How frustrating and time wasting! 16:51 😂😂😂 Praying you can get this all resolved soon. Maybe just a few loads of gravel would help? Not sure. Looking forward to the next update! ✌️🇨🇦🇺🇸
@@thiscreativehouse the back how will be so useful in maintaining the property, but you really do need the dozer to just finish clearing the site and removing all the overburden so you can get down to some decent subgrade. Friends with dozers are the best!
@@Southalabamaoutdoors We just learned about this from a local yesterday. He called it "crusher run." Definitely going to try it out. Thanks for the tip!
@@thiscreativehouse yes!!that's what you need, when I moved up to Glidden Wisconsin I had a similar issue and had several loads brought in and leveled out well worth the extra money..spending so much time trying to get a driveway in, being always stuck will just be frustrating and wear you out before you start any building.
Goodness, and good on you for showing all the challenges. I didn't realize it has been SO wet. Not to hopeful for my second trip up to my raw land, seeing this. :) Any reason you are getting dirt, instead a large gravel? I would guess its to build a base first, then lay a barrier and then large gravel, but honestly not sure.
@@craftsoda Yes, much wetter than normal. But, we've had a super dry week. So hopefully it's better now where you are! Also yes - working on that base layer first (worked awesome last year, super solid) then will lay down large gravel. We've done some research on the barrier, and decided we won't be doing that. But we're excited for the gravel part!
@@thiscreativehouse did you find a solution for your well yet? I was looking through your uploads and haven’t seen an update. I’ll be giving mine a go again this weekend coming. Have to finish all my ground work to pour concrete on our garage + apartment before it gets cold!!
@@jpwdowiak We picked a new spot this season, and pounded it in slowly and gently with a post driver by hand. So far, we're about 11 feet in the ground, have hit a good amount of water, but still trying to reach the gravel layer (still stuck in some clay). I've been waiting to post so that the full video is start to finish, but boy, it's been SLOW this season with all of the rain we've been getting. So far, all the fittings have stayed tight, and we're not crushing any threads/haven't had to cut any pipe like last year. We're hoping to pound it in another 2 feet this week, and give the pump another try to see if we're out of the clay. Look into jetting a well with a pressure washer. Granted, you need to water and power (which is our problem), but if these last few feet don't go as planned, I think that's what we'll try!
We are very interested in purchasing this camper model. Our question is, when the AC is on in the children's room, is it cold for them and very hot in your room?
@@RVFinder There's definitely an imbalance, but not that extreme. It'll just be slightly cooler in their room than in ours. In the summer, we actually turn the vent covers to reduce air flow and it helps a lot. The biggest issue is when our dryer is running in our bedroom. It'll heat up our room, and just kick the AC on indefinitely fighting the heat from that. But that's during the day, and no one really minds it being colder upstairs.
I have the same hat! Life saver!!! Funny we have similar water issues. Uggh. What a great play set for the kids! Thats a massive wood chipp. Much bigger than ours. So.Much.Work. lol. I get it!
Lol but the bugs will be just as bad if not worse in Wisconsin! Really cool aquarium! Nora is speaking so well!!! What a doll! 🥰 Bit of a muddy mess but it will come! 🤞 Really neat that you got to see a fisher and a lynx! Lynx are not in our area and we've yet to see a bobcat!
We have a 2017 310RE. I will warn you now not to buy this RV. It has leaked since day one and even after it was in the shop for 6 months to fix the leak now it is worst than ever. The manufacturer originally cut the hole 2 inches yo big for the air conditioner seal. Now we are chasing leaks everywhere.
We always carry a small electric heater. we save a great deal on propane when hooked up to our paid electric. Slides r expensive to fix. I would reconsider any extra weight.
The main problem with your camper is that it was made by Keystone. We had a 2021 Keystone Cougar 368MBI that was junk. We now have a 2024 Alliance Paradigm 382RK. The difference in quality is astounding! Keystone never again!
And here we went with Keystone because "Keystone and Jayco are the top dogs." I'm not convinced any RV manufacturer these days is great, especially when going with the cheaper/affordable line (Montana High Country vs. full Montana model, in our case). 😅 We do always talk about how much we love those Alliances!
@@thiscreativehouse we went with Keystone because we too thought they were tops in quality. Keystone and Jayco are both owned by Thor Industries and all they care about is the bottom line. Alliance is independent and only answers to their customers. So after 2 years of research and listening to Alliance owners we decided to go with them. No company is without problems but it’s how they respond to them. I hope your’s works out for you. Safe travels!
1:48 - They make these industrial rollers meant to take enormous pressure that might help those rear end issues, you wouldn’t scrape, it would roll instead. Worth a few bucks to weld them on IMO. Edit: Re: it should have never left the factory with that unsealed. Keystone doesn’t do QC, at all. The dealerships do the QC and repairs as soon as the unit sells. I was considering a Montana 355 BR, and a Cougar and went to several RV shows. The entire line of both had glaring issues that should have been fixed before it left… but wasn’t. Edit 2: If those blinds are like household blinds, the mechanism can slip. You can correct this (maybe) by removing the blind (should unsnap, wedge out) rolling it out and back up to “reset” it.
We've seen those rollers! 👍🏼 Since the beams don't go all the way back, the rollers would be a bit far forward (wouldn't have helped us in Vermont). However they'd still help some! We wish we knew ahead of time what to check and hold the dealership accountable for. We knew the basic list, and even stayed in it one night to make sure everything was good... but it was all superficial, unfortunately. We were able to recover a few of our blinds that way, but unfortunately they're eventually breaking. Maybe the bouncing of the rig going down the road and the weight of the blinds... not sure. Thank you for the tip!
@@thiscreativehouse - Thanks! There’s another type of blind, looks like folded fabric in 4-6” folds that I’ve seen in some RV’s that doesn’t have the cheap spring roll up mechanism. You just pull the loop one way for down, the other for up.
You mentioned the bedroom doesn't heat very well when its cold. How does the bedroom cool during the summer? Does it stay pretty hot even with the AC on?
Since the back has a separate AC unit, it cools great. Still only has the two air ducts, but it's sufficient since the AC unit it right above it. Blows strong and cold. 👍🏼
Check for gaps in the insulation on the bedroom slide too. One I had when it was cold and blustery we would feel a blast of cold air if the went blew at a specific angle.
Nice to see you back creating videos! Very good information for people that are RV'ing. So expensive these days. Way to find the deals my friends! My Mom lives near St Pete's. I really need to make a visit when the weather changes again. So beautiful. 🥰✌️🇨🇦🇺🇲
Oh my, YES, one of the best areas in Florida. Unfortunately we've never made it there. The 55+ RV parks are plentiful, and we can't seem to book any of the family friendly RV parks soon enough! Some day. 😃 You do need to go visit... In the winter!
If you enjoy Florida weather and want to save money, come down to the Alabama Gulf coast area. Very affordable sugar white beaches. And not as crazy priced as the snowbird capital of Florida..I'm that guy that lived in Glidden area we've talked before
Oh yes!! That's actually a GREAT tip. We stayed near Gulf Shores last year and loved it. We have family near Jacksonville, so it keeps driving us east. But honestly staying further west in Alabama and visiting the FL panhandle is a much more feasible option!
