Month: May 2013

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Digging Up the Cache

I was invited to dinner at Charles and Caroline’s last night, with Charles telling me to use my imagination to come up with something to bring. My imagination came up with these incredibly delicious garlic/butter/sour cream/parmesan cheese/oregano biscuits. Thank you imagination!

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I headed over around 4:00 in time to dig up the cache. C&C had put tons of root vegetables into tubs and buried them for the winter. The plan was to have these veggies for dinner. The tubs they had dug up in April were great, but the ones last night were a little disappointing. The ground had warmed up, so the veggies had started to rot. The carrots were a lost cause, but the parsnips, huge beets, and few potatoes were in good shape.

Caroline set to work washing off the veggies at the outdoor sink while Charles, Laura, and I moved some plants into their stable. Then Laura asked me if I wanted something that was about to rot in her yard and which would need a little TLC. The three of us went across the street so I could check the thing out and it was exactly what I was looking for as the first piece of yard furniture. So we got it on a dolly and trundled it down here:

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YAY! 🙂 I wanted a nice big sturdy table to use as my laundry station. The boards on one side have come loose, but that’s okay because that will let me stand on the long side and I would have likely removed them anyway. The table needs major cleaning, wire brushing, stripping, and refinishing. Another project!

Charles then confirmed my property limits. OMG, this place is HUGE. 🙂 I don’t know how we got on the subject, but I mentioned that I was hoping to find more pallets and he pointed to the place next door, owned by the disagreeable man, and told me to help myself to all the pallets on the property. The guy is giving them away and had told Charles spread the word around. I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with them, besides make a bigger porch but they are oak, so they will come in handy. So today’s projects are to go to C&C’s to borrow a wheelbarrow and shovel, rake more leaves, and then start hauling pallets. And at some point, do some paid work, too, although my projects aren’t pressing and I’ve earned a day away from the computer…

We headed back down to C&C’s and Caroline let Laura and me help her prepare the veggies, then we were banished to the porch with beer. Charles and I got talking about water and he said that between myself, him, and Laura, there is enough hose to go from one of the public taps to my rig. He’s going to have the town turn on one of these taps until I can get my own. It’s not as convenient as having one on site, of course, but it’ll save me a little money to start, especially since I’ll have to pay the water bill.

The dinner bell rang and we went in to enjoy a wonderful meal: fresh asparagus from the garden in lemon pepper butter sauce, salad with biscuits, roast chicken with mashed potatoes, parsnips, beets, stuffing, and gravy. And tons of white zinfandel. YUM.

We were just finishing up when other neighbours, um, let’s call them Isaiah and Grace, came over and we all got along like a house on fire (what an odd expression). Isaiah is Laura’s former son-in-law and a farmer whose life could be a comic strip, the way he expresses his woes being so hilarious.

The subject of my utilities came up and he asked me why I’m planning to go dump in Assiniboia when the ‘lagoon’ is just a mile away. Lagoon? As it turns out, the holding tank pump out truck empties the contents into a pit about a mile from here. Not accessible with an RV, but no problem with a truck. I can just dump into a bucket once a week and go dump it out there instead of paying for the service. Sounds crazy, but simple!

I found out heaps more history about my property. As it turns out, there used to be a town garage and it was on my lot! After that, the lot was used for parties around bonfires, and then went quiet, looking for someone to take care of it.

Isaiah’s father might have a grainery for me. Now that I know the real size of my lot, I am very excited about putting one of these 14’x12′ structures on my lot. They are made of fir, which doesn’t rot, and people put a tin roof and some siding on them. They are tall, so adding a loft inside is very feasible. The plan would be to get it here this year, make it weather proof next year, and then slowly convert the interior into a cozy bunkhouse/shed/work shop. I would get it wired for electricity so that I could have the option of putting a washer and dryer in it at some point. This falls right in line with my plans for the property, except I couldn’t imagine being able to afford such a construction for several years. I’m looking at about $600 to get it here and make it weather proof, versus paying $1,500 just to build a frame from scratch for a building that size.

After a couple more bottles of wine, we all went back into the house for Laura’s apple pie with some ice cream. And then the wine hit all of us and the lateness of the hour began to make itself felt. I walked home with Isaiah and Grace, who live a few doors down, on the other side of the church, carrying home the following:

-pin cherry jelly and apple sauce (from Laura)

-garlic and green onions (from C&C)

All good stuff grown locally. Mmm!

Here’s a rough sketch of the village, to help situate you all a little. It’s about a mile wide, to give you a sense of scale. The top of the map is south.

Legend

map

Arrow=road towards the petroglyphs

P=post office (that road continues to the west, winding and wending through the hills, to join highway 2)

I=Isaiah and Grace’s house

+=church and the symbol behind it is a headstone for the cemetery (probably a half mile behind it)

E=easterly non-sociable neighbour

M=me

D=disagreeable westerly neighbour

L=Laura’s house

C=Charles and Caroline’s house (the road continues eastward as gravel towards the town of Willow Bunch)

A=the apartment building

S=the swimming hole

I didn’t put the community hall on this, but it’s between the church and the cemetery. I will update this map as if I get more landmarks, but this should help for now.

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The Only Thing That Lasts

Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin’ for, worth fightin’ for, worth dyin’ for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.

I feel like a completely different person than I was this winter, dreading my return to Canada and seeing no future for myself here. I had no idea how the property was going to work out and half expected to land here and discover that I had just bought an investment, not a place to put down tenuous roots.

My life plan hasn’t changed at all. I still want to RV a few more years and then see the world. The only thing that has changed is that I have a safety net. Should the bottom fall out, I will have this place to return to and I will be at peace with doing so.

This property will only tether me as much as I let it. Investing in a little hardscaping, like gravel, will mean having less green space to tend, or to have tended, during my voyages. Not having a proper house on it means not having to worry about pipes freezing, rodent damage, and the like while I’m out gallivanting in my RV. When I’m ready to see the world, I can weather proof the rig as much as possible, leave a friend to keep an eye on it, and take off, secure in the knowledge that I won’t have to start from scratch should I ever decide to return.

I will confess to being rather excited at the prospect of turning this property into a proper landing base. I can already see the grainery I’ll turn into a cozy guest cottage/wood working shop/laundry room, even if it takes years to amass the materials to do so. I can already taste the fresh herbs and tomatoes I’ll grow next year. I eagerly await the day I get a faucet so I can wash my first load of laundry in my Wonder Wash and hang it to dry on a clothesline I’ll install when I get back in July.

I look forward to more Friday night canasta tournaments, to watching summer grab this land and reluctantly let go of it in the fall. And I am going to eagerly await that the first nip in the air that will tell me it’s time to go south. The border crossing should be easier with my having real ties to Canada and big plans for the following summer. Next winter, meeting up at Quartzite with friends will be all the more enjoyable because I won’t be so annoyed with having to go back to Canada.

I keep getting asked how I found this place. All I can say is that when you know what you’re looking for, the options narrow down considerably. I knew what I needed and I pounced when I found it. But it is luck that it has worked out as well as it has.

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And the Survey Says…

All this discussion in the comments about my ‘land dispute’ made me pull up my land records. Well, I got quite a shock from doing so. The area was surveyed in 2011 and here’s the result, with my lot highlighted:

propertySee how it says 30.48 metres by 15.25 metres?

30.48 metres is 100′. But 15.25 metres is 50′, not 40′! I have 10′ more frontage/1,000 square feet more than I thought I did!!!!!!!!

The chain of title is clear. Vacant lot to ownership by RM to ownership by C&C to ownership by yours truly.

I went out this afternoon and started raking leaves. Here is one of about five piles of the same size:

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I’m nowhere near done yet.

I then did an informal survey to get a better idea of the property boundaries. The ones on the east side are nebulous and in under brush. But even giving or taking as much as 10′ puts me way further west than I would have expected. In fact, my rough measuring took me to almost exactly the line where the neighbours on the west stop their lawn maintenance. Once I looked for that line, it because really obvious.

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I thought my property line ended just where the truck is parked, with those trees ahead of it being of ambiguous ownership. Nope, my property line extends a little further west to just about the other trees. In fact, I am now convinced that the shed above is right or just a few feet from, the property line. Colour me gobsmacked.

Next time I see Caroline, I will ask her to confirm how much she mowed last summer as that will confirm my informal little survey.

I am SO glad the guy stopped by yesterday or I would have started work with a severely underestimated idea of my actual lot boundaries.

I took a break from all the raking midafternoon and went down the street to Laura’s to see if she wanted company. We ended up gabbing over coffee for about an hour. She has a beautiful house and property that she has lived in for 25+ years and just recently completely remodeled and redecorated.

She has all sorts of fruit trees as well as a vegetable garden. If I do spend all of next summer here, I am going to get started on a garden as I would be here for the full growing season. I definitely have the space for it!

So that’s the kind of day it’s been, never mind that I am behind on my transcription work. Sometimes, a gal’s just got to spend some time outside. 🙂

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Card Night

Yesterday, I headed over to Laura’s place to join her and Caroline for a game or two of ‘hand and foot canasta’, a weekly event.

I asked Caroline if the unpleasant man had come to talk to her about my lot. Yes. He was very rude to her and couldn’t conceive that he had essentially been taken by the guy he bought the house from. That will teach him to buy a lot without checking the survey map.

There is NO doubt of my lot’s boundaries and that it was the RM’s to sell to Caroline and Charles to sell to me. I am not in a land/property line dispute, and I doubt I’ll hear anything more about this.

Canasta was heaps of fun and even though the rules were overwhelming, I picked it up fairly quickly. I whooped my friends’ butts on the first round and then Caroline cleaned up on the second. Caroline left around 11:00 and then Laura and I chatted for a good while longer. The saying is true, “there are no strangers, just friends you haven’t met yet.”

I’ve got tons of work to do again this weekend, but I still want to get my yard cleaned up a little of all the leaves. I’ll head over to Laura’s in a little bit to borrow a lawn rake. Scratch that, Charles just brought me one. Ooh, and I’m invited to dinner tomorrow!

Here’s what I’ve come up with as to the eventual layout of my property:

rv pad

It is drawn to scale. The driveway area is 40’x20′. The RV pad area is 12’x80′. I’ve realised now that that’s too narrow as I have the plan drawn right to the property, so it’ll likely become 20’x80′ and everything else will shift over 8′. I then have a strip of grass and a 4′-wide path running down the property (I’m thinking of pavers to connect the strip to the RV pad area).

The brown square is a 10’x10′ structure, the biggest I can have without increasing my property taxes.

This sketch really helps me see the proportions and potential of this narrow strip of land. Miranda would be backed up into the corner and then another RV could back in ahead of her. There would be plenty of driveway to make it easy to come into the entrance and swing into the RV pad strip.

I have trees encroaching on the green lawned area, so leaving it as would be the least amount of work. This sketch also shows that I have more than enough space for a larger structure should I ever decide to add one.

I found a gravel calculator that puts my gravel costs at about $350, which seems very low to me, so I need to double check the math. I want to put down 6″ of material over about 2,500 square feet, and gravel is currently $7/yard. If that’s accurate, then that’s awesome! Of course, I’d also have to hire someone with a tractor to move the stuff around and pack it down to make a level surface.

The RM got back to me about my questions and the gist of it was, “You’re on your own. Ask around for someone who knows where to tap into the water lines and don’t bother asking for permits.”

I am looking at $116.25 to get water and garbage collection for three months, which is about how long I’ll be here when I get back in July. So that’s less than $250 for a whole summer.

Tomorrow, I’ll ask Caroline and Charles the name of the local handy guy who knows where all the water lines are so I can call and get an idea of how much it would cost to get a tap here. This is such a small lot that it doesn’t matter where the tap ends up at this point as I have more than enough hose to get from Miranda to any point. My thinking is to have the tap put on right at the property line so I have to run less pipe and spend less money.

Miranda being parked in the corner is not negotiable for a number of reasons. First of all, I only care about the view out of my passenger side, so it makes sense to park with the driver’s side against the treeline so I can look out over the property. I also get more of a rear view from that corner than from any other spot on the lot. Finally, the power pole is right there so I could get a metre and outlets installed right there.

This plan is going to be done in stages as money frees up. I think the order of stages will be water, shed, gravel, power.

*glances at the clock* Eep, 11:00 a.m. and I haven’t done any work today! Time to get cracking!

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Well, That Threw Me Off

Moments ago, a guy knocked on my door and the following conversation ensued:

Me: Yes?
Man: Who owns this lot?
Me: I do.
Man: Is that so? The guy who sold me the place next door told me my land extends right to those trees, so it includes this lot.
Me: That is incorrect. I have a deed duly registered with the government of Saskatchewan.
Man: Is that so? Who sold it to you?
Me: Caroline and Charles. Caroline told me this week that there were some assumptions about the ownership of this lot, but it clearly belonged to no one. They bought it, and several other vacant lots, from the RM and sold it to me.
Man: Is that so? I’m going to talk to Charles about this.

Now, I know I am the rightful owner of this land and that Caroline and Charles will set this guy straight, but that was rather unnerving!