Carlos Romero

First day back as a freegan Sunday was a grand success, over a 100lbs salvaged from behind one store. Protein drinks and bars, cereal and granola bars and a lot of chocolate. Insured and TT&T my new farm truck, a 1981 f-150 300ci straight six 4-speed manual borg-warner T18. And got released from job duties today, I am now free to be!

I am 17 days away from quitting my under minimum wage job to take the risk of earning my own income. I'll have a cash bought used pickup truck, insurance paid off in full for 6 months and 10 acres of vacant land to camp on with a monthly mortgage under $200. I want to get into dumpster diving full-time and go on a collection spree. Going freegan again, gathering produce to compost, fuel and building supplies and selling scrap metal.Stressful transition, yes, but I have had many good days hobby diving. My best is finding a 4oz 18k gold chain and a working commercial pizza oven I sold on CL for $300 a few months ago. I love the police encounters too, always friendly and inquisitive, in return I scare off the real criminals and report suspicious items like purses.

Almost anything with a decent taproot can grow unattended after establishment, the water table is close to the surface. Be careful with nitrate starved hot peppers like habanero grown in sand, the fruit was small but much hotter than anything commercial.
A roll of %40+ shade cloth should be well worth the investment.

Right now I'm looking at vehicle and living quarters options.
Class C motor home, class B conversion van, truck and travel trailer or truck and slide-in.
Budget of 4k for the combo, Ability to pull a 2 horse trailer is a plus.

Leaning towards a heavy 80's slide-in truck camper with a 3/4 ton 80's ford f-250 long bed.
Points for standard car insurance, no extra registration or title, no extra tires, no rusty bottom,  a good farm truck, energy efficient, and freedom of movement especially when buying.
Negative would be a tiny space, bathroom/shower seems rare in older slides and being propped on a few sticks.

I have interesting ideas about using recycled wood to make a custom fitted open garage/barn with porch and composting outhouse so it does not look like an eyesore and work around codes.

I have lived in a number of travel trailers and know what to watch out for, but have never looked at sliders up close. Anybody have experience with them?

Just match the hydro to a microinverter and it'll be plug and play.
It is wind that is more difficult because of the voltage spikes gusts can cause, water is pretty constant.

I found a big dealer in miami with new 220watt panels for a little over $300, worth the drive.
Now planning for 6 panel, 250watt max for the more common 60a/1500w mppt controllers.
2 strings of 3 panels in series for a square pole mount and keeping the open voltage under 150 mppt max input.
Also adding 4 more batteries to keep under c/10 charging.

I estimate cost at $7-10k just to bring a pole to my property, while the price of solar keeps dropping.

I have noticed that small kits are outrageously priced compared to the full sized panels without even knowing what the components are. Even information seems to be scarce about off grid setups with the large modern panels. With contractors selling extra stock on craigslist, golf carts everywhere in florida and mppt chargers all over ebay I guess I'll be building a 4 panel setup near blind based only on specs.
So far stringing in series yielding 120v DC, a 40A mppt with 150v max input and 8 225ah 6v golf cart batteries in a 24v configuration.
Basing 24v on the availability of small trucker dc-ac inverters and other stuff that can be had at a truck stop. I'd rather have smaller inverters based on individual load than a oversized pure sine and use dc-dc conversion where appropriate.
$1900 for the panels and mppt and desulfate some used batteries from a dealer, recycle yard or golf course until matched.

Of the many farms I have been to, cages for chickens were non existent. They are soo cheap at the local country auctions that the few that were caught by hawks were just chucked up to natural selection and ended up a healthy and smart flock. The coop was placed in a wide open area, off the ground with a ramp going up. Opened every morning, eggs collected and shut at sunset to keep the foxes and coyotes out. They are domesticated animals and open to training, especially if faced with a life or death choice. Their wings were not even clipped.

If you can stand the heat, and survive without a normal job then north central Florida lake city/ suwannee county area. Its not too far out from civilization and has alot of small horse farms.
http://www.landwatch.com is one of my favorite search tools.

I have known and helped somebody build a large entertainment area.
Started out as a large metal roof carport, wrapped in visqueen and milled own pine with his own gas sawmill that was installed green vertically with windows and doors.  boards were random at 6-12" wide 1" thick. A year or more later thin cut strips were put up to cover the gaps created by planned shrinkage. The board ends touching ground were dipped in what I think was used engine oil mixed with copper sulphate for rot prevention. Nothing structural or engineered, it was just a 4 sided windbreak that kept out the rain.