In eleven days, I will have been a HomeBox resident for 6 months, nearly all of them winter.
So, how’s it going?
For the most part, things are decent. There have been some urgent issues to resolve, such as humidity and condensation in the house, internet connectivity, package delivery, all of which are under control now. My home office, while in need of touch-up paint, trim carpentry, and a few ceiling tiles, is certainly operational, if not yet optimal. The car lives in the garage and the garage has an electric door opener.
Life on solar power has been easy – I only had to run my backup generator once and that was when I was abusing my power system by running my 500W 3D printer rig for 24h continuously, in the dead of winter when sunshine is scarce (running said printer for 8 hours is equivalent to an entire day’s energy budget). The office only uses 200W of power, so on a full battery, it would run for 75 hours (9 days) if there were zero sunshine. On all but the very most overcast days, my array can put out better than 200W. On a bright day, it tops out at 2300W — it would actually be just over 3000 if I let it, but my wiring would get hot and I don’t want that. The system was designed for 2300W which is the specification for the array. It’s great that it can produce more, except it’s not, because that overdrives my system which never expected it to push that much. I could rewire it, but really, there’s no good reason – 2300W is plenty and copper is pricey these days.
No problem with well water, either. It has been plentiful and clean-tasting.
Composting toilet matter was something I had already tried back in civilization, so it was no adjustment and I already knew it works. In winter, the compost pile doesn’t cook down particularly, but in spring it starts and in summer it goes wild, so that’s fine.
Once or twice a week I go into “the city” for building materials, groceries, shopping if needs be, and I’ll usually treat myself to a restaurant meal while I’m out. Laundry is 12 miles away but that’s really no big deal. A once-a-week visit to the coin laundry gets it done and it’s some quiet time to spend with a magazine, book, or streaming video. All good. I don’t need on-site laundry and this is certainly easy enough.
I have spent a moderate amount of money on propane for heating the office – in the coldest part of winter, that was $100/mo, but that was also before I sealed around the doors and before I realized that even in winter, if it’s sunny, I can use electric (free) heat to greatly reduce propane usage. The electric heater will drain the whole battery in just one day of use, so it’s only appropriate for when the sun is out (so there’s battery reserve in case the next day is cloudy).
Heating the house with wood has been delightful. It is more trouble, more dirty, and far less precise, but it sounds and smells good, the fire glow is lovely, and I really like the ecology of it. I dispose of cardboard packaging, junk mail, and old magazines (after I’ve scanned any articles I want to keep) in there, too. I also like that my backup heater (propane) almost never has to run except when I’m away for an extended period. There may yet be a more ecological way to get heat and hot water on demand that take advantage of the fact that while it is a tiny house on wheels, it is also parked on a homestead where there’s geothermal possibilities as well as plenty of land to set up a solar water heater and storage, etc., that could not be accommodated directly onboard a tiny house. I wanted the house to be self-sufficient as much as possible, so it wouldn’t depend on external apparatus like that, but now that I’m here, there’s no reason not to develop some for better ecology.
I am eager to have use of my workshop, which is still slowly getting built out from within. During the subfreezing winter, progress was understandably particularly slow, even by solo construction standards. As the weather warms up, it is easier to spend time on the build. Also, as things get built, doing more building gets easier because I can start putting things away, unpack more stuff, etc., making more room to work. I finally have my table saw station set up, along with my router table and thickness planer, all combined into one unit. There’s more work to be done to bring it to its final state, but it can operate now, provided there’s power. The auxiliary power system is about 2 hours away from being ready to use but there are reasons not to spend those two hours until next week, so that has to wait just a little longer. Still, with the chop station and the table saw/router/planer station operational, that’s the bulk of the machine tools I use most often (band saw and drill press and jointer still need a home) and their utility will make further building easier. That includes fabricating the trim that the office (and parts of the house, for that matter), needs.
Speaking of workshop and wood, I just ordered a sawmill! It’ll be many weeks before it is delivered, but it’s on order. This machine is basically a horizontal bandsaw on a carriage. It slices logs into boards. I have trees. I use boards. This makes a lot of sense. There’s Ash, Maple, Oak, Cherry, Walnut trees here, to name a few quality hardwoods. Some trees are already down and ready. Some are standing dead. Some will need to come down for stewardship reasons. I’m quite excited about the prospect of using wood from the land for projects. Branches and smaller limbs will be returned to the forest for recycling or become heating fuel.
In the warmer weather, I’ve started taking hourlong walks a few times a week. There’s no reason I couldn’t have been doing that in the cold weather, too, but … well … I wasn’t. I do occasionally encounter other humans as I walk, which is nice. I’ve also gotten to know the clerks at the local general store and the post office – it’s nice to see familiar faces and be recognized. A little smalltalk is only smalltalk but it is human contact, which is otherwise in relatively short supply out here.
That’s really my only complaint. I mean, it’s nice to be left alone when I want to be alone, and I do enjoy the peace & quiet, but when I want to be around people, it’s challenging, as I’ve mentioned before. I am not absolutely devoid of local contacts, but I would like to have more than 2 — and, ideally, at least one with whom I might share some snuggles and quality time by the fire 🙂 When people come out in the warmer weather, and the seasonal residents return, I’m hoping there will be opportunity for (and success with!) making more local connections. Fortunately, a handful of friends from afar remain actively engaged so I’m not totally isolated in spirit, even while fairly isolated in body.
That said, I am also settling in to a solitary lifestyle that has its own appeal. I mean, it still lacks what it lacks, but there is much here to enjoy without other humans. In particular, I have enjoyed watching the land wake up as Spring develops. I visit the frog and salamander eggs in the drainage channel and take pleasure in watching them develop. I welcome more birdsong and frogsong and other wildlife as it returns/awakens variously. The trees are budding out. Despite all the madness of the world, Spring always comes. Even if that includes 8″ of heavy, wet snow a few days ago. It is almost all melted.
It’s all coming together, slowly, but it it is. Moving is always a big, disruptive thing, even without factoring in a radical change in lifestyle and urbanization level and construction projects. Half a year in and it’s feeling pretty much like home here. I can find my way around to what I need. I recognize faces in the community. I have my routines. I’ve even had a house guest!
And it’s Spring.