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The Family Farm Home - Week 5

The family farm home is something we dreamed of and planned for many years. Only we pictured a lovely home with running water, electricity, and air conditioning. Instead, our lovely manufactured home with over 2,000 square feet, sits alone, not put together while we live in a not so delightful, uninsulated, mint green 10 by 16 foot shack behind our home. The only electricity it has is from a small generator that powers a window unit air conditioner so we don't die.

The only water we can access comes from a hose hooked up to the $1300 water tank we had to purchase. We had to pay $700 to fill it up with dirty water that has things floating in it. We have to use a portable john for our bathroom and take backyard showers with the hose. We are living it up out here. Our thanks to Palm Harbor Homes, Karnes Electric, and Benton City Water.

We ordered a $3,000 generator but they sent it to us last week without some parts so we had to send it back because they refused to just send the missing parts to us. We won't be buying anything else from that company.

Honestly, right now, I feel like our farm dream is nothing short of a nightmare. We are still waiting for the water company to hook up our water and there is a meter right across the road. We paid our $2000.00 back on August 7 so they would turn it on. The septic tank people will not put the septic tank in until the water is on so all of that is on hold for now.

This is Texas and it is 100 plus degrees Fahrenheit almost every day. We do not have air conditioning on our home or the shed yet because the electric company has not yet hooked us up. (We do have a small window unit on the shed shack now that we are powering by small generator with gasoline.) We paid the local electric company thousands of dollars on August 10. They told us they are running four months behind so we would not get electricity until the middle of November. Can this really be true? Is this my reality when I live in the United States of America and I have paid my money?

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Monday, August 26, 2019 Family Farm Home

The hotel room alarm went off at 5:30am so we could dress and get over to the business to let the dogs out and feed them and the cat. We did not have time to eat breakfast. We got to work around 6:15am and found four piles of #2 and two places where they wet the carpet. We got them all out to make potty and then David left to go to the family farm home. I got to stay for the privilege of cleaning up all of those messes. Around 7:30am, I finished cleaning and took the dogs all out for a potty break again, one at a time. Then I had to pick up the piles of #2 outside. By now, breakfast seemed a distant dream but I did pack a Hostess cherry pie which I ate with a cup of coffee.

The work crew at David's Garden Seeds® arrived for a day of work. One arrived just before 8am. Four arrived at 8:10am due to construction, and one arrived at 8:20am and gave no excuse. The rest are gone now except for a part timer who works on Tuesdays and Thursdays only. San Antonio always has construction on the roadways. I think it was worse today because it is the first day of school. You always have to leave the house early on the first day of school.

David called and said he had a tough time getting down to the family farm home because today is the first day of school. He was in stop and go traffic trying to leave San Antonio and he left work at 6:30am. Then once he got out in the country, he ran into several school buses that were stopping in front of every house. Once we get into our home, we need to move the business out there as soon as possible and get ready to hire and train a whole new crew. I am pretty sure we will lose most, if not all of our people once they experience a morning commute that takes about an hour on a good day.

Today on the Family Farm Home front, David is waiting for water to be delivered to fill up the pool so at least we will get some relief from feeling like we are on the threshold of hell out there.

Also, the internet provider is going to make another attempt at showing up to hook us up to the internet. Again, the window of time is from 2pm to 5pm with two to three hours of installation work. He will be installing the dish on the shed as we are not allowed to put anything on or in the manufactured home until it is all fixed up inside.This means a very long day at work for me. I don't have a vehicle in San Antonio and even if I did, I have no idea how to get from here to the hotel we are staying at.

They will not give us keys or the air conditioner to our own home, but the mortgage company called and said they want their first payment by October 1, 2019. I wonder if we will even have the keys by then. Did I mention it could take up to 45 days for the people to show up to put the inside of the home together?

A contractor is out at the shed right now, putting up walls and ceilings inside the shed to make it a bit cooler.

As I was typing this page, my husband told me that we have to go out yet a fourth time to the water company and have an easement form notarized. I called the water company and spoke to someone who said she gave us all of the forms that we needed to complete. After a very long and loud call, she admitted that she did not think we would need an easement form so she did not give us one. I told her we would be right out.

After a 45 minute drive, we arrived at the water company and we stood at the window for about seven minutes before someone came out to help us. The lady who waited on us the other three times did not show up for the entire time we were there. Another notary came out and helped us and apologized to us. Now how much longer before we actually get the water hooked up?

We went from the water company out to the farm where our contractors are still working on making the shed more livable since we will probably be there through my birthday in November. There was also a team from the transport company working on the outside of the home.

I called the transport company to find out when a team would come out to fix the inside of the home. I was told that they don't do that and that I had to call the manufacturer. I made two calls and was told that I would have to make an appointment with the factory for this to be accomplished. I asked for the number but was told that she would email me the information. I spelled out my email for her. That was three hours ago and still I have not received the email information so I can call. I called the person back at but she did not answer. I left a long and detailed message but so far no call and no email.

Back at the family farm home, the water delivery truck has not yet shown up and the internet service man has not shown either. It seems David and I are the only ones who are concerned. That is because everyone else is going home to water, electricity and air conditioning. We are going home to a shed. This is definitely not the way to win friends and influence people.

David said he is going to check on the status of getting our electricity at the family farm home. That is good because I am spent for the day.

On a good note, our house buyers did sign for closing on our old house today but the funding has not yet come through. I spoke with our realtor and he said he would text us when the funding comes through this afternoon.

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Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Today was quite the day. We got up, ate a good breakfast in the hotel, and checked out. On the way down to breakfast, David informed me that he heard from the Dreambox people. They texted him that they are sending me a new right swing door and a new left swing door. I only needed one and even sent them a photo of the broken piece that said which side it was. Funny how he gets an answer but nobody bothered with answering me.

We arrived at work early and no one had any accidents. We got the three dogs outside for potty time and then loaded them and Kitty into the SUV. We had to get to the property to beat  the pool water truck.

When we arrived at the family farm home, the contractors were finishing up the inside of the shed so it would not be so hot. They also put shelving up on both sides so we could be organized somewhat. We brought way too much here. We started unpacking boxes and deciding what stays and what goes to storage for the next three to four months.

Then it was time for lunch and we have no food or ice here at the family farm home (shed shack). We went to town. While we were en route, I called the manufactured housing lot again to see why I still had not received the promised email from the woman telling me who my factory rep is so I could call her and schedule the inside work on my home.

She did not pick up so I looked on Facebook for someone at the manufactured home lot in San Antonio. I found a page and sent a message. He called me and told me that I was mistaken and that the factory would call me when they were ready to finish out the home and that it might be as much as a 30 day wait before they contacted me. He also said clients are never given that information. I told him that is what I had been told the day before. He told me I was not told that. Then he began lecturing me like I was a child. If the woman had not told me that she was going to email me the information so I could make an appointment, I would have just waited. I finally interrupted him, thanked him and hung up.

If the salesman had told us on any one of the seven visits we made over there before we bought the home that it would take months before we could get into the home, they would never make any sales. If he had, we never would have bought a home from this company. I am sorry that we did.

Back to today's happenings, a water truck arrived after lunch but he only had enough water to fill our pool a little more than halfway. He left and an hour later, another truck showed up and completed the fill.

I finally remembered that we have internet here at the Family Farm Home (third world shack) so I tried connecting my phone and computer. It works! We have a dish attached to the shed.

The contractors did a lot of outside work on the family farm home and property. Then they started on a pool deck. It really looks great. The wood from our deck in San Antonio was used. Our main contractor for the family farm home jobs has been Nacho, someone we go to church with. He has done so much for us since we closed on the farm. Also helping here has been contractor Andy and Josh. Thank you all for your work.

This evening, we went to town for some gas, a new ice chest and a lot of ice. We have plenty of drinks but they were all hot and that is nasty when it is 100 degrees outside.

It is 9pm as I sit here in the shed/shack/cabin and type this. The thermometer inside the family farm home (shed/shack) says it is 72 degrees and a few minutes ago, I had to ask David to turn up the temperature a bit as I was actually cold. Then I stepped outside to go potty and there was the heat again, 89 right now but it only hit 99 today!  It feels really great in here compared to last Friday night.

David is exhausted and is already asleep on the couch. The girls are all lying down and I am tired. The horrible heat really takes a toll when you are outside working in it. I did a lot of unpacking and walking from the shed to the vehicle, unpacking.

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Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Family Farm Home

This morning on the family farm home, David received a phone call from the local water company saying they cannot set the meter until we put a marker showing where we want the meter to be. I thought they would just place it where they thought best. The electric company came out and put markers where they will be putting their poles. They did not ask for our input. So David marked a place with a blue canvas bag but it will still be a few weeks before anything happens.

Since the walls and ceiling boards have been put up, it is much cooler in the shack. Last night, we had it down to a comfortable 73 degrees Fahrenheit so we were able to sleep much better than we did last week!

Today, David is having a hitch put on his SUV in San Antonio so he can pull equipment and supplies on a trailer for the farm. On the way in, we stopped at a tree nursery outside of San Antonio. We want to get four decent sized trees to put in front of the house to provide shade and to look nice. I want to get four different types of oak trees to plant across the family farm home yard.

David got the hitch. We went to work for a few hours, leaving the animals with our contractors. When we got back to the family farm home (shed shack), we noticed that the front fence where David had tied the blue canvas bag for the water meter looked different. Then we saw three small blue flags, but no water meter yet on the family farm home property.

We came back to some sprinkling rain and wind, with overcast skies. Then at the top of the farm, we saw a beautiful rainbow. After that it rained a lot for about one minute and that was the end of that. We got more things unpacked and situated in the shack, went to town for some ice, supplies, and dinner (Sonic). Once we got the supplies put away, we went into the pool for the first time since it has been set up down here. It felt great and when we got out, the air made it seem cooler until I got dried off. Going to sleep. No contractors in the morning so maybe I can sleep past 6am without being afraid they will see me.

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Thursday, August 29, 2019

This morning, David and I stayed "home" at the shed shack family farm home. David did various chores and then worked on the David's Garden Seeds® business and I tackled the huge mountain of laundry we had acquired since I last washed clothes on Saturday. For anyone just joining me, I encourage you to start from the page Our Small Farm and catch up.

David ordered a mini washing machine from Amazon so we could wash clothes on the family farm home. Today, we took it out of the box and I got started, a few pieces at a time. It has two sections, one for washing and rinsing and the other one for spinning.

The way it works is you use a hose to fill it and put your soap in it. Then you add several pieces, up to eight pounds in weight, turn it on and let it wash. Then you unhook a hose and let it fall to the ground and put the machine on the Drain setting. It drains all of the water out. Then you put up to four pounds at a time into the spinning section and let it spin the rest of the water out.

Next, hang the hose back up on the washer, put the clothes back in the washing section, fill with water, turn on and rinse. Then drain and spin. Hang on clothesline to dry. Out here, because it is so hot (100 degrees F. and so humid today), the clothes are dry in about 20 minutes, including thick towels. That is crazy. I did ten loads of laundry and it took me seven hours. This all had to be done outside so I was hot and nasty.

No news from any of the utility or manufactured home people. David called a man about getting a large generator to hook to our home. Looks like we will buy a large one that the specialist can hook up once the home people get their act together and put the inside of our home together as well as put together some electrical wires that they left hanging below the manufactured home and deliver our air conditioning unit.

We also need to get hooked up to water so we can have our septic tank put in. I am so sick and tired of going into that horrible smelling outhouse portable potty that we have. Don't get me wrong. I am grateful to have a place to go instead of having to squat among stickers and bugs, but in this heat, it just stinks beyond measure.

David ordered a portable shower but we still have not put it together so we have not had a shower since Monday night at the hotel. Last night we took a swim but I did not feel clean at all. Today, I took the portable shower out of the box, all 50 pieces of it. Needless to say, it did not get put together today, although it is on the deck now.

David rigged up a hose shower so tonight, we both washed very well with soap and shampoo. I feel so fancy!

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Friday, August 30, 2019 Family Farm Home

Happy Friday from out on the family farm home! It is not yet 3pm but we have had a busy day already.

The man with the generator from last evening said he could not install the generator until someone from the home factory puts together a lot of electrical wires hanging underneath the home. He said they should have already been put together so they could be hooked up to electric. So David called and was told that they should have been labeled at the factory where the home was built so the men who put our home on bricks could have taken care of them. Now a schematic from the factory has to be ordered and then they will come out and take care of the wires.

Once a month our company, David's Garden Seeds® has a birthday luncheon at Salt Grass Steak House. Today was that day. We went to work for a bit and then we shut the office down early for the Labor Day holiday and went to lunch. None of our people had a birthday this month, but our pastor's wife, Carolyn, did so we celebrated her! We always invite our pastor and his wife to our luncheons. They are good friends who we enjoy being with.

When we got our dumpster three weeks ago, we were told that we would have trash pickup once every other week on Fridays. So far, including today, they have picked our trash up each Friday. I am so grateful because our dumpster has been overflowing, especially today.

Because I did laundry yesterday, our water supply was pretty low so we called for a water delivery. The water truck was here when we got back from Salt Grass and they topped off our tank! No word from any utility company yet. We will spend the balance of the day working on our business, putting together the portable shower, and getting things straightened up in our shed shack. Fun times! I will put some more photos up of this week as time allows. I do have a bunch of them.

The thermometer on the front porch in the shade shows a temperature of 101 degrees Fahrenheit and it is 76 degrees in the shed shack so the second layer of boards put up on the walls and ceiling have really helped a lot, although I would love the temperature to be cooler. I am sweating a lot in here.

Let's talk about the portable potty. It gets cleaned out by the owner once a week. It was okay when we weren't living here but now that we are, it is miserable to go in or near. I especially hate it in the night. The stars look beautiful and bright and then there is that horrifying smell that baked all day long in 100 degree weather. It is so disgusting.

I just wish the manufactured home company would come and do their job so we could get into our new home. I have lived in trailer parks and usually the brand new manufactured homes are put together in two to three days so that is what we expected when we chose a top of the line home. Boy, were we wrong. If they had told us all of this, we would have gone to another brand. So far, our home has been sitting here now for two full weeks and from the sound of it, we will be in the shed shack for many more weeks to come.

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Saturday, August 31, 2019 Busy Day at Family Farm Home

Happy Saturday! As usual it is hot and sunny on the farm. After an uncomfortable night, the man (Jorge) who owns the property next to us but does not live there yet, came at 7am to plow a plot of land for David that is 100 feet by 100 feet so that he can get started with fall planting. He was here for almost five hours.

Shortly after he arrived and started plowing, our contractor, Nacho, showed up with a few friends, all of whom go to our church, to pick up some boards to build raised garden beds for David. While they were here, they did some target practice up on the hill in the back of our property. They came back down and fixed my tilting clothesline. I was worried about it...

While Nacho was here, a crew showed up to start installing a large generator to power our new home until the electric company hooks us up in November.

Of course, just to catch you up if you are new, we cannot get into our brand new home until they put the inside of it together as it is a double wide. They told us at closing that it can take up to 45 days to accomplish this. So far, today is day 15 so we have another 30 to wait. Possibly by October, we can get into our home. Until then, we sit in the shed out behind the house and live.

The generator crew is still out there working, digging trenches, using cement and poles and a backhoe.

I washed and hung four loads of laundry to dry. During laundry, David's father called and said he and his friends Clyde and Ruth Anne were on their way out from Leakey, Texas to visit us and see our farm now that we have something on the land. They came weeks ago and saw weeds and wildflowers. Our guests brought us a delicious chicken meal from Bill Miller! It was so good and I was so happy to get my hands on that chicken. They sat on the couch here in the family farm home shed shack and visited while we sat on folding chairs at a folding table and ate. It was so good! Thank you, Dad, Clyde, and Ruth Anne!

David is taking a short nap on the couch so I thought I would get this written before I forget. This has been quite a busy day so far and it is only 3pm.

So far, the little generator is doing a great job keeping the family farm home cool but I sure wish we could have some cooler weather for outdoor tasks. There is so much to do outside. We do a little at a time and the heat zaps the energy right out of us. We normally work inside on computers so it will take us a while to get used to the heat and get a lot done.

Later, I cleaned the pool again at the family farm home. There were lots of pieces of plants and sand in there from the plowing close by. The generator guys finally finished up for the day close to 6pm. Then David and I headed into Pleasanton and had dinner at Chili's. After that,  we came back to the family farm home, showered out in the backyard with a hose, and started working inside the shed shack on our business.

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Sunday, September 1, 2019 Family Farm Home

Today was a laid back relaxing type of day, except for the heat. The nice thing was the humidity was down quite a bit today.

I started the morning by doing two quick loads of laundry and hanging them to dry. They were dry before lunch so I took them down from the clothesline and moved them into the family farm home shed shack. Then we jumped in the SUV to get something for lunch.

We noticed Jorge who owns the property next door in his truck with his wife. We got out and met her. She is a very sweet lady and once they move here, I am sure we will get along just great.

We went down the road to get some snacks at a grocery store in Devine and then some brisket for lunch. We also got ice for our drinks in the ice chest.

After we ate back at the family farm home shed shack, we did some work on our business on the computer and then we went swimming. We took all three dogs. David finally got them all to come into the water.

We went back into the shed and fed the animals, then went to Dairy Queen for dinner. We brought dinner back here and now we are watching some videos on the computer. Tomorrow is a holiday so our store is closed. I think we will chill out and stay here at the family farm home. I will try to add some photos to this page and maybe even try to edit a video or two to put up.

Here is the beautiful sunset we were given this evening. It is truly gorgeous!

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