I now hav e AC power in my driveway...

Desert Captain wrote:
Paradise in Payson update...

Op here and next Wednesday will be our one year anniversary. As noted earlier in this thread we were busy from day one making this place our own. Since we were mostly hiding out in self imposed quarantine {could not get our Moderna vaccines until February/March} working on the property 7 days a week made the time fly by and we are seeing some serious improvements.

After getting both driveways paved {80 yards of 12' wide} I waited 6 months and then had them heavily seal coated , they should be good to go for at least 5 years. The property had not been trimmed much less cleared {made firesafe} for more than 10 years according to our neighbors. In the last year we have made 26 trips to the land fill/brush pile usually filling both my 10' cargo trailer and the bed of my truck. We took 6,000# of just pine needles and oak leaves initially and followed up with a lot of serious tree trimming {we have 75 trees on .57 ac including 8 - 60'+ Ponderosa Pines, Oaks, Juniper and Manzanitas}.

Last January the heavy wet snow, 2.5 feet in one storm, took down two of my Oaks and one Juniper and damaged 9 others. From that I harvested another full cord of hardwood which has now seasoned for 7 months and will be ready for splitting soon. We have a nice fire in the wood burning stove every night from mid October through mid March.

The 38 year old kitchen got a complete makeover with walnut cabinets and granite countertops and we hope to redo both bathrooms soon. I expanded the concrete driveway 3' X 24' digging down 6" and framing it with 6" X 6" X 8' landscaper timbers. Filled that box with 3 tons of gravel and now can park the Coach 3' farther south reopening access to our attached garage. Brought in another 3 tons of large gravel and larger rocks to deal with some drainage issues.

Put in a nice garden, had a 20 X20' area surrounded by 4' of chain link. Added 80' of Elk fence 7.5' tall to keep them and the deer out {we often have both grazing and or snoozing in our yard}. Planted two cherry trees, a dwarf Jonathan Apple and Bartlett pear then added two blackberry bushes along with two raspberry and they are all growing like weeds with the bushes already producing fruit. I have high hopes for the trees next spring.

The monsoon was awesome this summer bringing us 8.5" in just over 6 weeks which put a pretty good dent in the drought. The realtors said we had a seasonal stream and it ran full often this summer but the truth is it's just a glorified drainage ditch. :B

It took no time at all to acclimate to the small town lifestyle, folks are friendly and living at 5,000" is most agreeable. Life is good!



:C

D.C. - I'm curious about how much of that leaves/brush/trees clearing you hired out versus doing it yourself?

I personally cleared hundreds of pounds of leaves off our property this past summer in order to reduce the danger of fire spreading. AS A RESULT ... I just had my very first ever hernia surgery this past Monday and am slowly trying to recover one hour at a time ... uuuggggh!

But ... living in the wilds does have it's rewards. ;)