This blog could be a little squeamish for some. It involves the constant battle of all kinds of little animals when you build in their territory. Pack rats, squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, and mice in our case. They do the most damage. Then we have to watch out for weasels, hawks, and coyotes that seem to have a taste for free range chicken.

When Laurie and I first started looking for property in this area we were just driving around one day when we saw a guy coming out of his driveway on a backhoe. I stopped the truck and flagged him down when he came out onto the road. I introduced ourselves to him and asked him if he would mind answering a few questions about the area. We talked for a while and then he said “if I was going to give you guys just one piece of advice this would be it – you think these little creatures are cute and they are, but they are also very destructive”. He then went on to warn us that he had suffered over $3,000 in damage his first year in his new home. Mostly from squirrels that got into his garage and house attic. Most of the damage was in the garage. Torn up insulation and wiring. He had to remove the sheetrock on the walls and ceilings to make the repairs. Some electronic equipment was also damaged. An expensive lesson for all. I appreciated his advice.

After we bought our property the first building we put up was the barn. I had a lot of extras added like 6” of insulation in the ceiling along with a Simple Saver insulation cover which is a reinforced white vinyl used in ceilings to hold the insulation up into the rafters. Usually you just have 1½” white vinyl faced insulation in the ceiling but we wanted to be able to heat the building in the winter.

We had a trailer on the property at the time. I still remember that night. Driving 250 miles just to see our new barn. We pulled in just in time to get the keys from our builder as he was hauling the last cleanup load to the dump. Everything was shiny and new. Later I would put the concrete floor and the horse stalls in myself but for now it was beautiful, my first barn!

After spending the night in our trailer parked outside, we got up, had breakfast and went out to look at our new barn some more before we went to work on other things. I went inside and was horrified to see the insulation and simple saver cover at both ends of the peaked ceilings torn to shreds. At each wall plate, 16’ off the ground where the roof meets the walls there were four holes about 6” – 8”m long – on BOTH sides of the barn. Our Polaris Ranger RV was parked inside. Some of the wiring was chewed and there were some kind of animal pellets everywhere. We found the same evidence in the outhouse and the woodshed about 100’ away. All the toilet paper in the outhouse was shredded and little pellets all over the floor and seat.

It turns out we had a packrat, our first night in our new barn. I had never seen one animal do so much damage. I went to town and got a packet of One Bite and went to work setting bait. I climbed up the ladder 16’ to place some bait next to one of the holes in the insulation. I just got to the top and was setting the bait in place when the stupid packrat stuck his head out of the hole just inches from my face. I almost went backward off the ladder he gave me such a start. Laurie was watching me and had to laugh at what occurred because it was funny but she did admit she was glad I didn’t fall.

That animal was pretty cute. It looked like a little Chinchilla but it had to go. It took the bait and the bait did its job. Two days later we got Mrs. Packrat as well. It bothered me to go after something as cute as these animals but they just had to go. It took a whole day to repair the damage not to mention the 50 miles round trip for materials.

Since then we have declared war on all kinds of small mammals and rodents. We have had further damage from ground squirrels, chipmunks, and mice. If they approach the barn, house, or garden they have to go. I don’t hesitate any more. We actually had a ground squirrel undermine a cut and fill bank of dirt in front of the barn. Over 100’ long and 4’ back from the edge, that whole section of bank collapsed and sank about 6”. These cute little animals can do a serious amount of damage.

We don’t do it lightly or with any pleasure and it is so unpopular with many people we just don’t bring it up in conversation but if you are going to build in an undeveloped area you need to know what you are getting into and that is why I’m willing to share the less attractive side of living the way we do.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

I saw an ad in the Spokane newspaper that read “Do you have trouble with raccoons, coyotes, bear, or cougar? We don’t.”
That had my attention. We live fairly remote in the mountains. Even though we can see the highway from our place, we only have one neighbor about ½ mile away and we aren’t exactly on good terms with each other. There is no cell phone service except inside our home. We are on our own – completely.

We have two horses and chickens that run free inside twenty fenced acres. There is no one to watch the house or animals when we leave. Two years ago there was a bear breaking into homes and recreational trailers and cabins and really tearing things up and causing a lot of damage. The Game Department gave me permission to shoot it as a nuisance bear but someone else did first, just 2 miles down the road. It had previously broken into our next door neighbor’s recreational trailer twice! They live about 250 miles away and come here a few times a year to camp and relax. Imagine how they felt – twice! That bear just tore their trailer to pieces.
We have coyotes, owls, weasels, and hawks cruising through here on a daily basis. Friends of ours have seen two wolves within 5 miles. Bear, bobcats and cougar are common. In short, our home and animals are unprotected whenever we aren’t home.

We weren’t interested in a dog that was aggressive by nature but we didn’t want one that would run from danger either. We looked around and researched guard dogs, watchdogs, regular dogs and everything in between. Two breeds caught my eye. The Estrala Mountain dog which originates in Portugal and the Anatolian Shepherd which originated in Turkey. When someone local advertised dogs that were 7/8 Anatolian and 1/8 Pyrenees mountain dogs we responded right away.

When we arrived at the kennels, about 2 ½ hours away, we were greeted with a sign that read “Warning, livestock guardians dogs at work. Please do not disturb.” I wasn’t quite sure exactly what that meant so I just drove into the yard real slow. The breeder was dashing around tying up dogs. I didn’t get out until she had them all constrained. They were big and loud. Just a little intimidating. Good so far – sort of I guess.

We looked at all their dogs. One male they showed us was about 95 pounds and had a couple of scars on his face and one ear. He had apparently done battle with a cougar and won! These dogs will defend to the death. A confrontation usually results in the wild animal quitting first because they need to stay healthy in order to feed themselves. If they get hurt they will die.

We were told the sire (father) to the litter we were looking at was 150 pounds. He didn’t look like it. The breeder told me to try to pick him up to see for myself but I passed. He was still barking. The grandfather was over 200 pounds. All I could think about was the food bill.

Finally we got to see the puppies. Way better. Not so intimidating. Clumsy, happy, and lovable, they were pretty cute. Laurie seemed to be drawn to the runt. I’ve had runts before and they have been really good natured so we finally made our minds up and took him home. His name was Turk.

Livestock Guardian dogs are domesticated and make wonderful pets but only under strict circumstances. They were bred to protect sheep and goats from wolves in the mountains of Turkey. They live with the herds 24/7, not in some hut or home.  They not only will defend to the death but also help with lambing and such. They do whatever they can to care for their wards. They are not herding dogs.

One of the biggest attractions to me is the way they guard. Like I said earlier, we didn’t want an aggressive dog. When these dogs first see a threat they will stand up. Most often their size is enough to intimidate whatever predator they are watching. If that doesn’t deter, they give a little woof. If that doesn’t work they start barking and that IS intimidating. If that doesn’t do it they will start moving towards the threat. They mean business and they are fast. These animals are almost as fast as a greyhound.

I am not a dog expert. I am only sharing our experiences and research. These dogs are independent thinkers and not easily controlled. They have to be that way. Often where they come from there aren’t any owners to consult or tell them what to do. We did a lot of homework before we got Turk. I am a fairly experienced trainer (of birddogs) and still have a little difficulty with him when he is in guard mode.
On the one hand this dog is the sweetest dog I have ever owned. You almost never have to raise your voice. When it is bedtime he either goes in by himself or one of us will just say the word bed and he immediately goes into his room and goes to bed. No exceptions. It’s very cute.
But when he is on guard – when there is a threat, human or animal, it is a different story. We are working on it. We are walking a fine line here. We don’t want to deter him in any way from doing his job but if we determine there is no threat and want him to calm down then that is what he needs to do.

He is progressing nicely. Turk was probably 6 months old before we heard him bark the first time. It scared me. I didn’t know that deep loud intimidating sound would come out of this ½ grown dog. Wow! That is another feature, they don’t bark unless there is something there. Nice. When company would come he used to bark and then run behind the house and pee. Now, at a little over one year old, he barks and goes toward the threat. Still a little nervous but not bad. They say this breed doesn’t get totally into guard mode until they are mature, 3-4 years old. It is also common to work them in pairs but Turk only has us to teach him. We are learning together and are both improving.

About that food bill? When they become mature they don’t eat hardly anything. They pick a high point and just lay there all day watching. You may even think they are sleeping but they’re not. Turk has learned to watch the road over a mile away. He lets a vehicle get to within about ½ mile and then lets us know they are coming. I love that feature. Plenty of time to either load my gun or make lemonade.

Recently Laurie and Turk were out walking and spooked a fawn. The fawn jumped up and they were off. Laurie ran after as fast as she could, horrified at the outcome. Finally the fawn stopped and lay down and Turk just danced around in circles, trying to get the little fawn to play – whew! They seem to instinctually know when something is a threat or not.

This dog loves to play and needs his exercise. He also loves to run. More than any dog I ever had. He runs for the sheer fun of running. He loves to go way up the hill and then CHARGE! Down the hill as fast as he can go, paws pounding the earth and at the last second he swerves away from you, missing by inches. When he was younger he didn’t always miss. For that matter he didn’t always even get to you without tumbling head over heels. It was pretty funny. He is older now, more coordinated and very very fast. I would not want him to be after me.
A funny story about one of Turks brothers – when he was about 4 or 5 months old he ran a bear up a tree in their backyard. The owner finally got him back inside the house and waited for the bear to leave. After the bear had gone the Owner tried to get the dog to go outside but he wouldn’t. He finally realized what he had done and got scared. Too funny. They need time to develop just like anything else.

Over all, we are very happy with this breed. Turk stays outside whenever we leave. He guards the house and animals. We haven’t lost one chick this year to predators. He never goes very far. He is always where we left him when we come home. Once he knows someone they are his friend forever. He has already run several coyotes off and the occasional bird predator as well. He doesn’t mess around.  We feel way better leaving the house now than we used to. We know someone is coming to our house or in our area long before they get here. It doesn’t matter whether he is inside or outside. He always knows. Turk is always on the job and keeping his herd safe.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

We might have called this blog “after the snow leaves” instead of spring. At elevation 4200’ spring is a pretty short season. We don’t see the end of snow until the end of April and then it seems spring is only visible during the day for another month because it still freezes at night. It’s not just the snow. We have to wait for the ground to thaw as well. In short we really don’t get to go to work outside until sometime in May and by that time the “to do” list is pretty long.

As you can see by previous blogs we are already growing vegetables before spring even gets here.

We need to get the boat and gear ready for trout fishing because they only seem to bite in late May and early June and then again in the fall. We rely on those fish for part of our pressure canned food supplies we stock our pantry with the year round. Besides fishing is fun and after a long winter being cooped up it is time for something different.

The garden has to get re-leveled and roto tilled. That takes two different days before it is ready to plant. We got ours done May 15 and 16 this year. After that it is time to plant. Our garden is pretty good sized so planting is an ongoing process throughout May and June.

There always seems to be fence to repair. The deep snows tend to do the most damage to our fences every year.

We clean our chimneys of creosote and the masonry heater as well. Then we shut it down until October. We have to clean the stone face with vinegar and water.

When the ground freezes deep enough some of our gutter tight line drains freeze as well. We have to take the downspouts off and hook up temporary drains for when the snow melts off the roof all winter long. So once the ground is thawed we have to remove the temporary drains and put the downspouts back on so we can catch rainwater for our cisterns.

It’s a good time to run vinegar through the tankless hot water lines to get any mineral deposit buildup out of those lines.

We can’t forget one of our bigger tasks is wood cutting. I cut the trees down in the fall to get them to start curing and in May we start cut, split, and stack the wood. All six cords. We may not burn that much but I like to have extra just in case. You really want to get this work done before it gets too hot.

The horses, cats, and dog all need extra grooming because they are all shedding their winter coats.

Much of the equipment has been sitting all winter and the tires need to be refilled with air. I maintain all of my equipment in the fall before winter so it is ready to go on the spring but the tires still need air from sitting so long.

The winter hay area needs to be cleaned and organized. Mouse traps set in the barn when it warms up. For that matter we also usually clean the barn.

I spend about two days repairing our three mile long road from the winter thaw damage. That work is a timing issue. It has to be done after the thaw but while it is still damp and before it dries out and turns to moon dust.

It’s a good time to clean and rearrange the pantry. Take inventory of what is left over and what we will need to replenish our supplies.

This year we have to make arrangements to leave for a few days to attend the Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup, WA on June 2, and 3^rd. That only adds to our hectic spring schedule but we will find a way because we really want to go to the Fair.

All in all it is a pretty busy time for us. We have these things to do as well as our “day jobs” and running our two websites. It’s a lot of work but it’s what we chose. Why is a whole ‘nother blog.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

Winter is OVER. Spring is here. Aren’t we going backwards to talk about winter now? Not really. Now is the time some folks are getting ready to build and there are a few things they may need to know before they start and one of those things involves snow removal. Besides, some of these pictures were only taken a few weeks ago and I want to show them to you.

Some people living off grid never see any snow. Others like us get a fair amount. We live about 3 miles from the nearest paved road and that means we have to take care of our own snow removal, not only on our immediate property but also the 3 miles to pavement. From that point on the local County or State handles the snow removal quite well.

We did a lot of research on a lot of new things before we went off grid. We mostly got it right but we did have a few regrets. One of those is not keeping a clear distance all the way around the house for snow removal equipment.
I have solar panels, cisterns, and satellite dishes on one end of the house that are too close to the house to get my tractor and plow in for snow removal so it all has to be done by hand. I have a metal roof on my house so usually on the first sunny day after a snowfall we are going to have the snow come off the roof and pile up just below the eave.

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I could leave it there but if you do, it will melt in the sun and then freeze at night and eventually become solid ice. At that point it is a lot of hard work to get it out. I believe it is best to keep the immediate area around the house clear of snow.  I have gutters on my roof, footing drains below grade, and the ground is all sloped away from the house but even with that you can acquire water problems if you allow the snow to build up under the eaves.

In a fast thaw that built up pile of snow will melt and you can accumulate water between it and the house and if the ground is frozen that water has no place to go. It can eventually pond up against your siding or enter the crawl space or even become higher than your concrete slab (floor) if you have one. All in all it is just a good idea to keep the snow from accumulating at the house.

That one end of the house is all I have to do by hand. The rest is accessible with my tractor and plow. I use it to keep the snow away from the house and all of the roads on the property. I usually plow when it gets 5” deep or more. If the snow is dry it doesn’t matter how deep it is. It is easy to remove or “plow to the side”. If the snow is wet and heavy it becomes much more difficult. Any more than 5” in depth and the snow will pile up on the side of the road so high that it can overwhelm the plow by putting too much pressure on the heavy (snow piled) end of the plow. I broke my plow the first year and had to have it reinforced and welded. Wet snow can produce a lot of force against the plow so that is why I don’t let it get too deep before I start clearing snow.

I would love to have a snow blower but the three miles of road I have to keep clear is called Big Boulder Lane for a reason and I just don’t have the confidence that I could plow my road without damaging a snow blower on a rock. It would only be a matter of time.

I also discovered that first year that weight would be a factor in plowing. I have a 4×4 55 horsepower tractor which is pretty good size. I even filled the rear tires with liquid to give it more weight and stability on the hillside we live on. It weighs about 7,000 pounds. That wasn’t good enough. I was sliding all over the place with an 8’ wide plow. I had to get chains and they were expensive but when you are the only source to get back and forth from the house to the highway, you need to make sure you have a really good snow removal machine and so I got the chains. What a difference they made! Without them I was having trouble keeping the blade where I wanted and even getting back up some of the steeper hills. Now I go exactly wherever I point the plow and can even plow uphill so nothing is wasted. I plow to the left going down the hill and plow to the left again going back up. I’ve cut my time down to where I can plow the 3 miles of road in just 2.5 hours!

I know what you are thinking – why doesn’t he get a plow for his truck and stay nice and warm? Well, it is a good question. I don’t have any experience with a truck type plow but I can’t believe it would do as good a job as a 6 way tractor mounted blade that I can control instantly up or down, tilted or angled, all on a road that is rough and full of rocks. Visibility was the biggest reason I went this route. With a truck plow on pavement or a nice graveled road you can just drop it down and go. You can’t do that on this road. It’s just too rough and bumpy for a plow that you can‘t really see the bottom of the blade and what is going on. Anyway, right or wrong I made my decision and so far we are doing well with it. I can still handle a few hours outside however I do reserve the right to change my mind as I get older!

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their websites goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

Living off grid presents one set of challenges but we also live pretty far away from any services which presents another set of challenges. This article is about how we addressed both of those. In doing so we are well aware that ideas and opinions are endless and some of you will wonder what in the world we are thinking but that’s okay, someone else just might benefit from our experiences and that’s why I write these blogs.

We aren’t remote like some people but we are “out there” a ways. Our property is three miles from pavement and 20 miles from the nearest small town. We like it that way but it does present some problems. You can’t just pick up the phone and get a service tech at your house. They may not even be able to get up our driveway in the winter if it turns to solid ice. You also aren’t going to see law enforcement or an ambulance anytime soon after a call. Well, that’s the way it is but we do have some options available to us.

Emergency Services: We have an Anatolian Shepherd guard dog and he is an excellent warning system for any kind of intruder on two feet or four.
We also joined a medical helicopter service that will come to our house and get us in case of extreme emergency. The service costs $150.00 for the two for us for three years. For anything else, we can be at a local hospital or clinic within 45 minutes or so.
We built our house out of non combustible materials on the exterior. We have already been through a wild fire (FIRE BLOG) and came out completely untouched due to design of property and home. We don’t have a sprinkler system inside but we do have hoses and fire extinguishers. One of our hose bibs is inside the house.

Water: When we moved here there was an existing well and 1500 gallon holding tank. We wanted gravity flow pressure for our water system so we put a 1900 gallon tank further up the hill and use that, keeping the older tank as backup. It is kept full. We actually did have an electrical part fail on our new system and had to schedule a service tech to come replace a part. We had over 2000 gallons in reserve when the part broke so we had plenty of time to schedule the repair. We only use about 50 gallons per day so we had a 40 day supply without even trying to conserve.
The water tank has a float system built into it. When the float drops to a certain level it turns the pump on automatically and my solar power system runs the 220V pump from either the panels or battery backup supply or both. I can turn the switch off at the panel and wait for a sunny day to pump.
I have another switch between the house and well that turns off everything automatic.  I have a 220 power chord tied in to that switch that I can plug into my portable generator to pump water. I can also bypass the batteries and pump water with my big generator. Bottom line, I have three ways to pump water, all independent of each other so if anything goes wrong with the solar or either generator I still have two other ways to pump.
We also have three water cisterns that capture water off the roof of the house and barn. (CISTERN BLOG)
Heat: Our main source of heat is our masonry heater. We use that almost exclusively from October to April. Spring and fall we can use our wood fired masonry kitchen stove (HEATER BLOG) to heat the house. As a backup to those two, we also have propane (direct vent) wall heaters with thermostats to keep the house as warm as we want. Those come in handy if we want to leave the house in the winter for any length of time.

Sewer: Well, we did leave the outhouse intact – just in case…………..

Electricity: We have our solar panels (SOLAR BLOG), inverter and battery backup system for our main power supply.  Over 18 months in service and we haven’t had an electrical outage yet. If we ever do, we have a propane fired 12kw generator that will run our whole household if we need it to. If those two items fail, I have a smaller 3500 watt portable generator that we can use to keep the essentials like freezer, phone system, and an appliance or two as needed.

Phones: Many of you have read about our remote cell phone system. (PHONE BLOG)I have a full set of replacement parts on hand and worse case we have our old emergency antenna and amplifier that plugs into a 12v outlet on the car and plugs into our phone for one to two bars of reception.

Cost: We were already going to have the masonry heater, kitchen stove, generator, and a new water tank up the hill. Total cost for the helicopter service, dog, propane heaters, switches and cords – less than $2,000. What value do you put on piece of mind? I think it’s a bargain.

Winter Transportation: All wheel drive and a tractor with a snow plow should get us out of here. Failing that, we always have the two horses.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

When Laurie and I first bought this property it was for recreational purposes. We weren’t too worried about phone service when we were camping but when we decided to make it our home we knew phones would be an issue. Not only do we run our business out of our home but safety services are a factor as well – fire, ambulance, and sheriff.

We knew there was a very weak signal within ¼ mile because the prior property owners would drive down the road to make calls on a cell phone. That’s fine for emergencies but we needed something better.

We live 3 miles from the nearest paved road. There are no services of any kind in this area. TV and computer are by satellite. None of the Skype (phone by computer) type services were offered in our area. That’s right, just because you have Internet service does not mean you can use it for telephone service. That was the first thing my research turned up.

Next I looked at a radio signal phone service I had read about in the Backwoods Solar handbook/catalogue. I called them to see if they knew the person they had mentioned in the book. I was given a website address but it was an old one apparently. I spoke with a Verizon Engineer who knew what I was talking about. It is a line of sight radio wave apparatus. You would have to put a pole up in the highway right of way and you would have to be able to see that pole from the house. Verizon would connect to it. It would send a radio signal to your house to a receiver that apparently you could talk into. The engineer also told me they were usually used for emergency phone services by the government. I could never locate the equipment or anyone who had done it before and finally eliminated this item as an option. Added to that I didn’t really want to go through the legal process of getting permission to put a pole in the right of way.

I found several websites that claimed to have the equipment to get you a cell signal in remote locations but after speaking with them about my actual circumstances they all admitted their products would not work.

In that research process I finally came up with the term cell phone amplifiers or cell phone signal boosters. I also learned – you can’t boost or amplify a signal that isn’t there. One thing led to another and I finally contacted a company in Utah called Wilson Electronics. Oddly enough the person that answered the phone used to manage a Radio Shack 15 miles from here and knowing the general cell service areas etc made a big difference because their biggest concerns are people who want to “pull a signal out of thin air” and that simply isn’t possible. Because this person knew our area he was hopeful we “might” get a signal.

I looked at all the online cell service “coverage maps”. Not helpful. According to them my area could not receive a signal. Because I knew there was one ¼ mile away and because the Wilson customer service guy was pretty positive I could get a signal I decided to try it. I bought a trucker antenna and a small 12volt vehicle amplifier that plugged into the Polaris or truck cigarette lighter. The only other condition was that I needed a phone with a little female receptacle that I could plug into the amplifier direct. They had wireless amplifiers but the customer rep assured me that I would do better with hard wire. Luckily my phone had such a plug in. Not all of them do.

I was able to receive 1 1/2 to 2 bars with this setup. I would stand outside holding the antenna in one hand and the phone in another and make calls – most of the time. That was about 5 years ago. Since then they have improved the equipment substantially

In my current home setup I have an outdoor antenna that has to be 30’ high. It is connected by coaxial cable to my original amplifier and another larger amp. Those are connected by coaxial cable to an indoor antenna in the house that sends a wireless signal to our cell phones. I get up to 5 bars. If you walk outside the house our phones get ZERO bars.

So how do you KNOW a cell phone signal booster will work for you? There is a trick I will share with you but you have to try this at your own risk. This trick took me a while to find but it works great. You need to figure out how to put your phone in “field test mode”. All cell phones have such a thing. Most manufacturers won’t tell you how to do it. I found instructions online for my phone. Some phones display the signal in dB and some in dBm. -51 is strong and -105 is no signal. My phone was at -90 which is pretty weak. With my two amplifiers I get 5 bars! Just remember that the lower the number the stronger the signal. In field test mode I found a weak signal. In regular mode there were no bars so field test mode is more sensitive to signal strength.

I just now googled “cell phone field test mode” and there is a lot of info online to help you get into test mode.

The online company that makes all of the products I’m talking about is wilsonelectronics.com. Put your phone in field test mode and get your signal strength. Take that number to Wilson on the phone and they can help you figure out which system would work best for you.

I found a Wilson Products independent dealer that also does installations for people. Because he sells and installs the products he is very knowledgeable.  You can reach him at cellularoutlet.com, attention Robert.

The products are expensive but without them we wouldn’t be living here.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.