10X16 log park type shelter

[thedoublejranch]

Bringing power in, no longer will be off the grid. Pulled permit, installed meter base load center combo all fed underground. Bringing it close to 1/2 mile, all buried. The local utility district is paid in full. Almost 30K, now the contractor who plows it under inside 3" conduit on a large roll. Uses a tractor, roll on the back, vibrating spike in the front. 700 to move his gear in place and 1.75 per foot to plow it in.

Labor and Industries signed off on my meter base install, I dug a 3 foot trench from meter base location to where transformer will be (only about 10 feet away)

Already buried feeder wire to cabin from panel inside 1" gray conduit but ends not trimmed out. Power should be in within 2 weeks of this posting.

Already bought the fridge, 4.5 CF Magic Chef, also installed new cooktop stove/oven with chatter about banning gas stoves, I just pulled the trigger.
Pilot Rock park style BBQ pit going in near shelter, added horseshoe pit, lane still needs grooming, but the basics are on. Magnetic scoreboard for hose shoes installed.
Installed new sign "Ride for the Brand", A quote I heard and liked. This was from Harriet Hagamans campaign to defeat Liz Cheney in Wyoming. A successful bid I might add.

 

[thedoublejranch]

Few more, limited to 10. I may go back in Sept to hook up to grid, otherwise, spring thaw in April.

 

[Foggy47]

^ Reminds me of an old saying: "Roughing it eloquently".

 

[thedoublejranch]

Oh, a couple of antique items I found in my constant search for any Park Service or USFS

The brass plaque is picture from seller, it is installed over my cabin door, but be darned if I can find where the picture is.

Uniform is an official USNPS unit with the felt hat. It includes the pants also, they are hanging on the hanger under the coat.

 

[thedoublejranch]

Just got power brought in no longer off the grid. Cabin is not connected yet, just meterbase and a single duplex 20A outlet. All buried about 2200 feet cost was $35K. big plans in spring, power up cabin (wire already buried right to meter base) got new fridge, its going to be nice.
Running a 50/30/20A RV power box to one of the campsites punching in a camp host sight who will also have power. Lot more pictures will come in spring. Now, we have almost a foot of snow on the ground

 

[hunts_with_stick]

Just curious. and it might not even matter, but I am curious for my own sake in case i do something similar. Are those electric costs recouped if you sell?

 

[thedoublejranch]

Just curious. and it might not even matter, but I am curious for my own sake in case i do something similar. Are those electric costs recouped if you sell?

Yes, the value went up that amount. I do have a well on the property, it has everything to build and insure a home on, legally.
No one will insure it unless you are hooked to power. So now its a suitable building lot.

 

[thedoublejranch]

OK, been a while, lots happened. Spent $34,000 bringing power in, about 3/4 mile, all underground, an underground vault and pad mounted transformer. I pulled a permit and installed a meter base, signed off, hooked up. I then tied cabin into it, added a fridge, ice-maker, electric heat (Cadet 220V unit) ran heavy service to well enclosure and to a few campsites, now have a full 50/30/20A RV hookup. Added a camp host side and installed a 30A RV hookup for my camp host. All underground THHN wire inside 1? gray conduit.
Bought a Blackstone griddle for cooking at the log park shelter.

I also had my solar well, but for another $9200, I had a local well guy trim out my well with the 220V Grundfos well pump (10GPM) with 1" pipe, bladder tank inside the well, pitless adapter, a frost free hydrant plus a stub to hook to a home later if needed. All pipe and adapter is 4 feet underground.

Now with power at the well, I have full water pressure, all manageable via the Grundfos well controller mounted on a 6X6 post, added a roof over the units per recommendations of well guy.
I have added a 1 gallon crock pot, in the morning, I can chop up some stew meat, bag of nice veggies, some beet stew seasoning from McCormicks, set it for low, head out, work all day, come in and I can smell the nice hearty stew waiting for me at dinner time. No more getting food from cooler heaven on earth.

So I put another $44K, but the value has went up that much. In fact, I have 2 20 acre lots, power is so close to the back 20, I am considering extending it further and maybe develop a building site for a retirement investment.

Painted my galvanized gates to look like USFS gates now, back and front gate.
Oh, flying my US flag and Trump flag too.

 

[thedoublejranch]

OK, fire season approaching, now I have power and full water pressure with well trimmed out, built myself a small portable towable fire fighting trailer. 275 gallons, towed buy truck or my Kawasaki Mule because of special receiver hitch tongue. Receiver on trailer and tongue slides in and is pinned, straight or a drop hitch.

Built it from scratch, gave it my own VIN number, production date, for off highway use only and built from scratch.

 

[thedoublejranch]

Tote is now off and trailer is loaded inside my cargo trailer, tote goes in back of truck, head over the 21st for its final resting place.

I was there in april and we added another 30A RV hookup to site 3, we also added a 50A/20A plug to site 2, for large RV. So 4 sites how with power hookups. Site 1 has 50A/30A/20A, site 2 is 50A/20A, camp hose site is 30A RV, site 3 is also 30A RV. Ranger station has full power, it 220V subpanel which also feeds the park shelter fans and lights.

We cleaned up the entire area of debris all around the campsite, added log stops at campsites. I brought in 20 more yards of gravel, will add 4 more campsites at the turnaround loop at the end. Pal brought his ditch witch, total game changer.

 

[thedoublejranch]

Few more pictures. Last one shows the filled in trench, guy wheel rolled it in with his tractor using front wheels, really packed it in hard. We have had a bit of rain, so we will see if the grass is coming back. After the soild is distruned, we get a plant called the woolly mullien

And once it pulled out, will go away.

 

[buckdeer1]

How many transformers did you have to put in for 1/2 mile.?I know another guy that did it to his house and I think he has 4 or 5

 

[thedoublejranch]

Just one as the location I chose which was 10 feet away from service panel. Why so close, because I was responsible for trenching from transformer to panel. LOL

The primary voltage was 29.5K, the area had a weird primary voltage, I think the norm is 28,800.
I will be retired this time next year and getting things in order before I go to my fixed income. :D
My secondary voltage based on my meter shows 245VAC

 

[bigboreblr]

The 29K is good for you. Often 13.8 is in most areas. Yould of atleast gone to 2/0, likely more. My home I lived in from 2010-2017 had a 1/4 mile of 220v. That was a pricey cable price. Talking 3 wires, not 2 and alot bigger.

Nice trailer.

That mule you have, how is it 4 wheeling. Looked at one of those closely a few years back. Price interested me. That has the air cooled motor with the CVT belt and the whole thing is a big swing axle in the back? This was maybe 2018 or so.

 

[thedoublejranch]

The 29K is good for you. Often 13.8 is in most areas. Yould of atleast gone to 2/0, likely more. My home I lived in from 2010-2017 had a 1/4 mile of 220v. That was a pricey cable price. Talking 3 wires, not 2 and alot bigger.

Nice trailer.

That mule you have, how is it 4 wheeling. Looked at one of those closely a few years back. Price interested me. That has the air cooled motor with the CVT belt and the whole thing is a big swing axle in the back? This was maybe 2018 or so.

I am not sure on wire size. it was all handled by the local public utility, it was all plowed in underground 3 feet deep, in conduit. They did put a junction vault at the fenceline, but no transformer until it reaches its final spot.




The Mule is small, only 400CC, not a lot of power for going fast, I never road tested it, just bought it, I may not have if I road tested it but looking back, it has served me perfectly, being the smallest side by side in the industry, takes little space, gets into tight areas. It has an open rear differential which is perfect for not tearing up the soil. I have the ability to fully lock the rear differential, plus of course, 4WD and it does have an LSD type front differential. But with the large soft tires, I do all my work in 2WD, open diffs and never even spun a tire, even dragging large logs. I will use 4WD on the heavier logs only to split the load on front and rear axle vs all load on one end. Being a technician by trade makes me think of these things.

It does use a swing arm rear set up. I have a 3500# superwinch in front with inside control plus a plus in hand held remote. I am going to swap the cable out to synthetic rope, have it all, just havent taken the time yet.