Monday, March 12, 2012

Well, I burned up an expensive hammer drill while drilling into the existing concrete pad. I got one hole drilled to a depth of half a foot. I've decided to go with Plan B. Instead of tying the pads together with rebar, I'm going to create a concrete footer below the edge of the existing pad where the new pad will butt up to it. Both pads will "float" on the footer, and I will have an expansion joint between them. This will control any cracking of the pad--keeping it within the straight edge of the joint.

It occurred to me that I’ll need drainage in case the well casing, storage tank, or the pipes between them develop a leak. That drain system may need to drain a lot of water quickly. I’ve opted for a trench drain along the entire back wall of the shed—as the entire pad slopes very slightly in that direction. This is also the end where all the new concrete work will be added so I got lucky in that regard. The trench drain will empty out of th...

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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

As I’m preparing the ground to expand the existent concrete pad, I have many concerns. I’ve read up on how to join existing concrete to new concrete, and it isn’t at all as straight forward as I thought it would be. I’m leaning toward the method in which I’ll have to drill holes into the existing pad and insert rebar into it. This rebar will “tie” the old with the new. Nowhere have I read whether or not I need to epoxy or somehow cement the rebar into the holes that I make in the old concrete so I’m wondering exactly how this method “ties the two pads together. Other methods talk about placing an expansion joint between the two pads. I may go this route instead. Still other methods combine the expansion material and the rebar. I just know that in the end, I’ll likely have over-constructed this whole project.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

I felt a strong pull in my spirit to have a deep well dug in my backyard. I struggled with this force for a couple of months. I didn’t want to do something that I couldn’t afford to do, but I felt so strongly about getting it done. I decided to refinance my house. Without the mountain of credit card debt, I was able to increase my monthly mortgage payment by two hundred dollars a month and reduce the length of my mortgage by eight years—all while getting cash out to pay for the well.

I contacted several well digging companies in my area, and they all wanted to know why I wanted a well in my backyard. I unashamedly told every one of them that I felt it was the right thing to do for my family. One of them said that the majority of his business these days comes from people like me—people concerned about the SHTF. Another said that while he had been doing this job for thirty years he only recently learned how easy it is to contaminate city water sources. He is ...

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Monday, February 27, 2012

Just over a year ago, I decided that I was going to take advantage of a job opportunity with my current company to travel to Iraq for a year. It was a chance to make some good money in a relatively short period of time. I knew the drawdown in Iraq was quickly approaching so it was now or never. I got all of my affairs in order, but I never went to Iraq. Just two weeks before I was scheduled to depart, my father died unexpectedly. I instead headed to California to deal with the funeral arrangements. Further circumstances negated the need to go to Iraq.

My father had travelled and visited me less than a year before he died. He told me in person that he wanted to leave all of his possessions to his step-son—my step-brother, who had begun living in my father’s home recently. I told him that I would honor his wishes. It was during this same visit that we discussed the interest-free loan. He said that I didn’t have to pay it back at all—that he wanted to cons...

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

I haven’t been given another offer yet, and the organization that I work for is in a hiring freeze for now. My youngest child had also begun college so I doubt that I could afford to take the job even if it was offered.

It was around this same time that I began getting interested in preparing for tough times. God knows I have had many of those. Originally I just wanted to ensure that I never again had to use a credit card. We began by buying extra cans of vegetables each time we went grocery shopping. That was our relatively painless first step!

I watched an episode of “Extreme Couponing”, and it occurred to me that I could store food relatively cheap. I quickly learned how to use two and sometimes three coupons on each item purchased. I had my pantry full of food in no time. Then something happened. Food manufacturers saw an alarming increase in the use of coupons on many of their products as a result of that television series. They almost all a...

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