Fine tuning the plans

 Now, what stuff do I want to install first on my homestead?   It may be better to start small, as opposed to trying to get everything in place all at once.

Perhaps the fence should go in first.  The purpose of the fence is not only to delineate an area, but to also block the wind.  At the very least, I would want to build out about 44 feet, according to my plans.  This would be south facing, so as to keep out the hot desert air blowing around out there.  Behind the fence can be the solarium/greenhouse, which would further block the wind from affecting the canopy, which is the most wind vulnerable structure being planned ( and partly executed ).

So, to build the fence, some thought about how to do that is going to be required.  I'd like to try what I was going to do with my canopy, which is to drill holes down about a foot, and then stick some rebar down in it.  The hole with the rebar in it can be filled with concrete.  The rebar could be the shorter variety, which means that I won't be blocking all of the wind.  Maybe about half of the wind gets blocked.  The other half will be blocked by the quonsets/greenhouses.

What to attach to the rebar?  I was thinking some of those metal panels that I was considering for the interior of the greenhouse.  They would be laid down horizontally and upward to provide about 2 feet vertical coverage.  Now, if I were to leave a space between the two panels, I could get more height.  But the rebar is only going to stick about 3 feet up, so maybe that is out.  This may be a problem, which I need to think a bit more about.  I don't want a weak structure, but I have some limitations to consider.  Like my lack of knowledge.

Some folks will say that I don't know what I am doing, and they'd be right.  But you have to learn somehow, and that is by trying it and making some mistakes.

It may be time to buy some of the first elements of an electrical system.  I could use my little generator, or I could use a battery.  Perhaps I could even buy a cordless drill and dispense with the generator and big batteries, and so forth.  That may be worth considering.  If I buy the cordless drill, I could use it until it ran out of juice, and then I would have to stop. Or I could fire up the generator and use the corded drill to do some more work.  Whatever is the cheapest and simplest is probably the best.

Here's a tentative materials list and tools list:

materials:

8 ten foot metal panels
11 four foot tall rebar
10 ten pound bags of concrete ( the same concrete I used the last time)
sufficient connectors to attach rebar to metal panels

tools:

drill (s)
bits
pick axes, maybe a big one and a small one
concrete forms  ( may be able to recycle the ones I used for the canopy )
shovels, containers and other stuff I can't think of right now

This one goes into the construction subseries of the off-the-grid posts.

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