Even though we are getting electricity via a generator, the first few nights with the camper in the shop were a huge success.
We have full piped-in water instead of those "drinking-safe" hoses that are far from drinking-safe. At the in-between property, we went through three of those hoses, and all three eventually caused skin rashes after showering. It got to the point where we had to flush the water hose for 10 minutes before we could take a shower. We think the heat from the sun was baking the inner lining and causing chemical leaching of some kind. Boy, am I glad that is behind us.
A full piped-in sewer is also a thing of beauty. At the in-between property, we were piped into a septic tank using one of those flexible camper sewer hoses. However, both of the hoses we had didn't seal perfectly, so the lovely smell of roses engulfed the yard on those days without a breeze.
We moved the camper on December 1st and didn't get shore power hookup until the 12th. We burned about 5-7 gallons of gasoline per night and mostly left the generator off during the day.
I made the spontaneous decision to move the camper the night before moving it. We had a few nights in the forecast of 20-ish degree nights and I knew the garden hose supplying water to the camper would freeze. Now that we are piped in, there is no longer a worry about our water supply freezing. Since being here, the lowest outside night temperature was 19 degrees and inside the shop never got below 40.
Heating the camper is much more efficient now. Campers are just drafty—that's all there is to it. Getting the camper out of the wind and into the shop made heating much more manageable. The land between the two had full electric hookups, so we heated the camper with two radiant oil heaters. The rear room of the camper was always noticeably colder than the rest of the camper. Now, the camper heats easily with just one radiant heater and is much more consistent front to back.
day one here in the shop with the
camper and here's my sewer out water in
I've got to go get uh let's see I've got
to get a 3/4 in coupling 3/4 in 90 I
need to get a 4in t so I can go this way
for the camper but also future expansion
up uh 4 in this way and then a 4 in what
is it the those rubber boots or whatever
the rubber uh coupling fernco I think is
what they're called uh to connect to the
4-in PVC and I'm going to go straight
4in PVC at the last place we had that
flexible hose and it just it doesn't
seal as much as I wanted to seal
speaking of not sealing and you see this
mopped up bleach water disgustingness
it's not shutting all the way which
means there's some debris in there not
allowing it to close and I didn't notice
that yesterday when I flushed the line
out for about an hour before I
disconnected everything at the other
property so I just opened that and I I
got a poopsie and it wasn't fun so I got
to get this hard lined in oh gosh that's
so so so disgusting and gross we had the
the generator running all last night and
it didn't use as much fuel as I thought
it would oh Blinded By the Light it says
13 hours runtime it had some in there
last night I put 5 gallons in it and it
wasn't full and we ran it for about 14
or 15 hours now 16 hours and it's still
ran I I shut it off a few minutes ago so
that's pretty good got some Jerry
rigging going on I don't I couldn't find
any bare copper wire for my ground so
I'm using jumper cables jumper cables on
the ground into a shovel into the ground
there's that but it's a war zone out
here I've got so much work to do today
all my camera batteries are dead because
I just had so much stuff going on
yesterday forgot all about charging
everything I got so much to pick up and
clean up and uh the goal for today is to
get the water and sewer hooked up for
the camper and at that point um I can
shift gears to focus on a little bit of
stuff outside like I I want to get some
uh a couple more loads of material in
here and start filling this in so we can
actually Park on that side where the
lean to is and not have to use this
bridge but these are all temporary
things obviously as we get set up I've
got my list I got to go get some stuff
now
night number two is done so I guess this
is day
three and in this video I'm not going to
be accomplishing anything I just want to
talk about everything that we've got
going on and um just kind of check in oh
my
flashlight so day two day three night
two uh we're still powering off the
generator uh we figured out the final
hookup which on my spreadsheet I had
budgeted for
$3,000 the final hookup is
$695 not $3,000 so that's that is an
absolute happy sell on the
spreadsheet uh they still have to go
from or they're hook up from the
padmount Transformer to our our uh meter
base which I have to swap out because
the one that was installed is a
universal meter base and that's not good
enough has to be an underground uh meter
base with side posts so I got that and
I'm going to swap that out probably
today so the next few days I don't know
exactly
when uh they will come out and
install or hook up the electricity which
I'm super excited about so we can get
rid of the generator noise the generator
is
acceptable but it's kind of annoying um
it's not really annoying in the shop
it's just when you come out of the shop
on this side over here that's where we
have the generator with the cord poking
out that that mandor it's it's I mean
it's it just Echoes off that wall and it
is mind numbingly loud uh like hearing
protection loud it's crazy loud we don't
have a huge load on it because we're
using uh propane for our heat source so
we're not using we're not using the
electric water heater in the camper
we're not using the uh well we are only
turning the electric water heater on
when we want to use the the water for
the shower
whatnot um so it's not a huge load on it
and we're using propane for heat so
we're not using our electric oil heaters
so it does last quite a while but it is
annoying and I'm going to be glad when
we get it um get it all hooked up I'm
going to be glad when we get all this
trash picked up too we got just just
crap thrown everywhere and it's kind of
expected you know it's a this is still a
construction zone still trying to figure
out systems get systems put in place and
whatnot um so we've got crap everywhere
the
contractors left stuff everywhere um and
it's not just like you know metal scraps
that you're you know you're building a
metal building so there's going to be
some metal scraps here and there that
they of course didn't pick up but
there's like piles and piles and piles
and piles of screws so very wasteful
with screws I don't really care for
that and then dip containers chewing
tobacco whatever that stuff is I I don't
know what it is those little circle
containers those are everywhere and then
Coca-Cola bottles and some other trash
here just
just pick up after yourself you know
what I'm saying just just pick up after
yourself as I say that we didn't pick up
after ourselves too but you know this is
this is our land we're we're not we're
not moved in yet we are now but we
weren't when we were just tossing stuff
so um that's the electric
situation the water situation is
goodish right so water comes underneath
my feet where I'm standing and then it
goes along the side of this to that back
corner we have a yard hydrant outside
over there the yard hydrant fantastic
water pressure really good water
pressure you put a nozzle on the end of
it and the jet stream those spray
container spray things everything's got
good water pressure inside our camper we
don't have good water pressure at all
and it's it's another um 30 ft or so of
3/4 in peex so it's not a
huge it's not enough to uh for me to
expect that much of a pressure drop I
think what happened is I hard lined in
the PEC connection into the garden hose
connection on the camper and I had to
add a second rubber washer in front of
the screen that is in between those two
and I think that right there is a
bottleneck um so whatever it's still
good enough to take a shower and whatnot
but it's it's not the most amazing water
pressure and again I I I do think it is
the camper because we do have good
pressure out here so I may or may not
Tinker with that we've got so much stuff
going on that uh that's one of those
things you just kick the can down the
road uh what else sewer we finally have
sewer hard lined in to the septic so no
more those camper flexible hoses that
leak and they they they have a a smell
they let air out so when water goes
through it or stuff goes through it it
stinks the ones we both the ones that we
had previously did that anyway so now we
have a fernco rubber coupling right on
the end of the valves to flush the
camper and that is hard lined with
schedule 40 right into the septic no
more smell on that stuff thank
you uh so that's good uh that's all of
the utilities um I got a bunch of sand
delivered this is they call it sand but
it's like a clay sand mixture anyway
this stuff is easy to spread this is
what was put down um before the slab was
poured and I on one hand I really hate
buying dirt essentially but the stuff
that I have access to and basically an
unlimited supply of dirt here on the
property is basically just clay not dirt
so it doesn't spread it just grabs
clumps up into a ball and you just move
that ball of stuff it you know what I'm
saying it just it doesn't spread that
well um so I'm going to use this stuff
to at least get the lean to taken care
of and then also we've got I don't know
how well you can see it right there but
that vertical wall of concrete right
there on the side of the slab that was a
2x6 so it's 5 1/2 in which means I got
to build this up by
about 4 and 1 12 in or so still be a
little bit less than that that way when
I top this with gravel it should be at
at a nice height flush with the bottom
of the metal that's the plan these I
don't know if the whoa I just fell
back inside of a rut there's ruts
everywhere um um I don't know how well
you can see this on camera but these
ruts
are these ruts are pretty intense let me
show you all these screws and everything
that was just left behind it just screws
everywhere everywhere screws screws
screws pieces of metal pieces of metal
screws screws dip can Longhorn something
or other screw screw screw screw screw
they're just all over the place metal
screws metal screws screws screws screws
screws more screws a lot of tedious
cleaning up before I can actually do
stuff that is winnable progress you know
what I'm saying temperatures I wanted to
touch on
temperatures um I'm so glad we moved the
camper when we did even without
electricity in the in the shop right now
because it's getting cold at night here
in Mississippi uh our temperature down
went down to
204 degrees last night I put a
thermometer outside excuse me I don't
know how accurate it is but I put a
thermometer outside and this morning at
5:00 a.m. before the sun came up it was
reading 25° outside and the the shop
another thermometer in the shop now
these are I don't know if they are
accurate um overall but they're
consistent with one another both
thermometers I picked out on the Shelf
had the exact same reading at the store
when I bought them so if it it it's a
relative difference here right I don't
care if it's accurate or not it's
relative outside was reading 25 inside
was reading
44 so with no heat in the shop and it
being uh 8° below freezing outside it
was 44 inside so that's that's plenty
comfortable and the camper holy smokes
what a difference the camper stays much
warmer and much more consistent from
front to back of the camper so that was
a huge win getting the camper inside the
shop for the winter now of course next
spring we're going to try and build an
apartment um inside the shop and move
the camper outside and then we'll stay
in the apartment so it'll be even better
uh but definitely a huge win putting the
camper inside haven't done much of
anything here inside the inside the shop
not ready for my tools yet so haven't
brought them over we wanted to seal the
the floor not like an epoxy sealant but
there's another another kind that uh the
concrete company that we bought the
concrete from sells
and we were going to do that but we've
got too much crap in the way already the
temperatures aren't good for that to
begin with so we're going to kick that
can down the road and instead we're just
dealing with mud now this is going to be
a this is going to be a battle for a
while
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