We bought a camp!

[MadPlumbarian]

Oh yeah, I forgot, yes I’d definetly go with a water filter, a standard universal whole house filter would work, but there’s also carbon, you can also put the standard first and then the carbon filter right after it, depends on how the water is?
JR

[Grant Lamontagne]

As we are upgrading the electrical anyway we have thought about a tankless water heater and you do make some good points regarding having to heat a whole tank full each time we go.  We won't be shutting the power off to the camp as we need it for security systems and communications, but we will likely get a tank that we can shut off when we leave and fire up when we are back.

The on demand electric water heater is something that I do like the idea of, the issue then becomes electrical load as we don't have any reservoir.  The pump would have to be running at the same time as the heater, and running hard to push through the filtration system.  While I have often talked about building a water tower and having gravity fed water pressure, I was once again outvoted 1-1.

My intention was to take one of those 1,000 L totes that you can pick up for next to nothing. put in on a fifteen (or so) foot tower and have a solar powered water pump fill it up during the day- obviously with a float switch to shut it off when it's full.  This way the pump is outside so we are less concerned about noise issues and it won't need to be a particularly powerful pump as it can run for hours- it will take us a long time to use 1,000 L, or as you would call it, 264 gallons.   

Ideally I would put a valve on the bottom and a feed line about six inches up from the bottom.  That way any sand pulled from the lake would settle at the bottom of the tank and not go into the house.  Then every so often I could open the bottom valve and all the sand comes out.

But again, that plan was outvoted, so no reservoir means the on demand hot water probably won't work too well.

Def

[MadPlumbarian]

Is there anything you don’t get outvoted by .001? 
A pumps not going to run the sec you turn the water on, there should be a pressure switch that normally only kicks on between two settings, normally 30-50lbs, thus there should be a tank with a bladder full of air, as the switch hits below 30# it kicks the pump on, thus filling the tank with water and pressure, once it hits 50# it turns the pump off, then the compressed bladder keeps pushing keeping the system pressurized, until it hits 30# again, then it’s the pumps turn till it hits 50 again,, now that’s normally a well setup, but if you were to keep an above ground reservoir the pump wouldn’t need so much power to bring the water up, thus you’d only need a little something to bring the pressure up,, so there’s diff ways to do it, you just have to make sure you don’t get outvoted by that .001..
JR

[nate j]

If you do end up with the reservoir approach, remember that 1 psi = 2.31 feet of water.  So, if you’re using straight gravity feed (no booster pump), you may need a taller tower…

For example, to get to 30 psi, you need 30 x 2.31 = 69.3 feet of elevation.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Well the water tower idea is out for even more reasons then.   

We have a well on site but I think we are currently planning to take water from the lake instead. The well needs some effort to make useable again and means we have to tear up the driveway and dug under the house to run a new line to it as it's on the wrong side from where all the plumbing is.   

Plus if we have another drought like last year, most people's wells went dry.  And, the water table has yet to recover so we are looking at the well as a lot of effort for something that may not work out anyway.

Def

[MadPlumbarian]

Even if you were to drill another well you’d only have to go down like 50ft, if that, or if you were to throw a line out into the lake, the pump isn’t going to struggle cause it’s only going to be pulling horizontally rather then vertically, cause how much higher is the house, like 10ft? You could always do a dual setup, use one pump to fill up a reservoir like Nate said, but rather then putting it 60 something feet up, just put a light pump in to create the pressure for the house,, rather then going automatic to fill up the reservoir you could do it manually, thus before anything is done the first thing you do when you arrive is to turn it on for like 20min while you guys unload everything, then just turn it off and let the other pump do its job throughout the time your up there.. ? Of course you could always put up a water catchment system for all the water that hits your roof just like I did for the garden, of course I only used two 55g drums, you’d just have to keep it warm come winter..
JR

[Vidar]

We had the issue over the cabin/ house that the river/ creek wrecked the dam and water intake last year. Filled up all the piping with fine sand, and messed up the pump on the way. Ended up having to weld pneumatics to the water pipes and blow stuff out.

Until we get that properly repaired we have somewhat dirty water, so we just bought destiller for all food use. That works surprisingly well, and means I don't really have to worry about the water quality that much. So with a big lake available, or collecting tank, I'd mention that as an option for the clean water requirements.

[Grant Lamontagne]

We had a great time at the camp yesterday. It was 18C and sunny, and the nicest day of the year so far, by a huge margin. It seemed wrong to not get out there and enjoy it!

While I got some raking done, Megan decided to go and torment some fish. It was her first time fishing at the camp, and she seemed to greatly enjoy it.

It's also great, because it illustrates the difference in water level from last year.  Where she is standing in the second photo was dry land last year!   

And speaking of enjoying the camp....  Dasher appears to have had a good time too.   

That is, until he got home and ended up in the tub!   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Terrier fur is no joke when it comes to holding on to dead leaves and pine needles and stuff.

I also found evidence that the Rebels may be operating in the area.  Last year I found Skeletor's ram's head staff, so I am wondering if the Rebels are recruiting the Eternians to their cause. I'm definitely going to have to let the Emperor know that Greyskull may be a stronghold of Force power.

We also made sure to take the time to just relax in the sun, because what's the point of having a place like this in beautiful weather and not take the time to enjoy it?

Then I figured I'd still rather do some stuff, so I grabbed my trusty little Worx chainsaw and cut down a bunch of the small trees that have started growing in the yard. I hate cutting down trees for no reason, but getting rid of them has greatly increased the size of the yard.  These trees were only there to show how long the lot had been abandoned and the largest was maybe about five feet high.

There are still more that need to be cleared but I didn't have my trailer to stack trees on to haul away (we brought Megan's car because mine is STILL in the shop) and the pile of cut trees was getting pretty big.

The area in the last photo was completely covered in trees, so this really opened up a lot of space for us.

The little trees you see remaining are going to get dug up, and I am going to try and transplant them to the road side of the camp, I'm hopes they will grow up and create a better buffer between us and the road noise.

That's pretty much it for now.

Def

[ThundahBeagle]

Great to read the plumbing and electrical advice in this thread!

If you sister the 2x4's with 2x6's, with notches of that existing electrical, you will have deeper wall cavities for more and fluffier insulation then cover with...?  Great opportunity to do now while everything is wide open like that.  I just went from r13 to r19 insulation in the basement and wow.  Now I want to do the attic and everything I can.  Also removed the 1998 Therma-Flow V1-5 hot water coil in our 1986 Burnham Boiler, deleted it, and replaced it with an electric 40 gallon Rheem hot water tank.  Thought about the on demand...but went this way instead.  What a difference.  Didn't realize I had been practicing Shinto Misogi until we swapped that out.

Great place and great potential!

[Grant Lamontagne]

We managed to get to the camp for a bit on Saturday, but as the weather was going to be smurfy on Sunday we decided not to spend the night.

We managed to get a lot of brush to the dump since we can't burn it.  I had a huge pile on it- the trailer could take more weight, but even after compressing it with straps it was piled pretty high.

After dumping that stuff off we did the one thing we should have been doing, and wanting to do all this time.  We went paddling on our own lake.

I went paddling a few weeks ago at my father's place with my brother, but other than that I haven't been out in a kayak in years.  My day job and other concerns just don't really leave the time to do things I enjoy these days, so kayaking has kinda fallen by the wayside.

But, we decided to make the effort this weekend and I am so glad we did.

Our lake isn't that big- it's maybe 2kms long but makes for a nice paddle when you circumnavigate the whole thing.  That's quite the workout when you haven't been paddling for years!

We found the outflow stream, which was nice but a little too small to paddle it, so I rammed my boat in just to be sure and then had to find a way back out.   

All in all we had a great time!

Def

[kottskrapa]

Looks a bit chilly but still a nice paddle! I haven't had any time to get out yet, but soon! I have had a quick dip in the water and they said it was like 11 degrees Celsius

[Grant Lamontagne]

The water was a bit chilly but not bad.  I think it was 14C while we were out.

The wind was a bit brutal, but not bad overall.

Besides, a bad day laying is better than a good day doing pretty much anything else! 

Here are a few more pics showing my trailer loaded with brush Megan and Dash at lunch, Dash being Dash and my latest solar G getting charged the bast way I know how.   

Def

[LoopCutter]

Thank you for the update!

Great pictures

[kottskrapa]

Looks like a great day, got to love the spring!

[SteveC]

 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Looks like a great day, got to love the spring!

Yes and no.  We spent the weekend there (two nights- a new record!  ) but the black flies were absolutely brutal.  I have bites in places I don't want to tell you about, but I am sure you can guess.   

The good news is we now have a toilet there.

The bad news is that it isn't hooked up to anything yet, so it's a "looking toilet" and not a "using toilet."

So a few more bug bites in a few more unmentionable spots are in the cards, but hopefully soon we will get an electrician in to upgrade the zappy bits soon and we can continue with the setup.

And yes, we need an electrician for the toilet rather than a plumber, because it's a composting toilet, and we aren't hooking it to a septic tank.

That also means I need to climb under the camp and cut off the poo pipe because currently the toilet flange is a bit higher than the rest of the floor.  I'll have to find out what size it is so I can cap it off as well.

Despite the bugs we have a productive trip.  I was able to replace the hinges and re-hang the door on the shed so it does this weird thing where it opens now.  That's a fun new option, and I hear is all the rage with doors these days.   

We also started taking parts of the old deck (not the deck I took apart, but the previous one that had been dumped beside the shed rather than being disposed of!) to the dump along with some more brush, and the yard keeps getting larger and larger.  Gradually we are getting it cleaned up and opened up, which is nice.

We also brought the propane barbecue there so we could make food instead of having to go places and get food.  There aren't a lot of nearby places, so we mostly eat hot dogs from the local convenience store.  Now we have the barbecue there I can make my own hot dogs!

While I was cooking lunch Megan brought me a beer, because beer and hot dogs just go together, but it was a bit frustrating because I couldn't open the hood of my bug suit long enough to drink it!   

Yes the bugs were that bad, they were swarming us constantly!   

Def

[LoopCutter]

Black Flies !!!

Nasty little critters, my paternal grandmother would be bit head to toe by those bugs.
 Found a product by Avon was a deterrent. SKIN SO SOFT.

I found IRISH SPRING bar soap use in the morning kept me from me bit on fishing trips.
Even shaving some thin slices and laying on a log or coffee tin lid or in a used butter lid kept them out of the area.

Keep the updates coming. Luv the adventure.

[MadPlumbarian]

When we first bought this house the back yard was literally nothing but mosquitoes, we had some of the kids friends over since we fired up the bbq and I pretty much hugged the grill because it was the only place there wasn’t any mosquitos, the line of people coming for food looked like they were doing karate getting them off, when I mowed, I bumped the neighbors hedges and it looked like a cloud just came out! So I got something that hooked up to the hose and you just spray the yard, of course I did it when the neighbor wasn’t home so I could over spray the fence and did his hedges ,, I must say it worked.. here’s a little something for after cutting your pipe, it should be either 3” or 4”, if you want to quickly and easily close it off but no glue required you can either use a rubber plug or cap like shown, you can use a multitool/sak for the one!
JR

[nate j]

Insect repellents I have generally found to be effective:
 
40% DEET - reapply every couple hours - ‘nuff said

Osana soap - Actually works, at least for mosquitos, but needs to be used for multiple showers to build up to an effect; swapping out your regular soap with it for a single shower won’t work well.  Also, need to shower every day with it to maintain effect; if you don’t shower for a couple days at camp, you will lose the effect.

Smoke (including campfire and cigar) - need a high concentration to be effective; very localized impact