First off Mrs. Prepper isn’t pregnant, its not that kind of addition! I mentioned yesterday that I had something else to show you… Yep, I had the second cargo container dropped off over the weekend. I took some photos to show you how these things get delivered.

#2 getting delivered

   This is actually the third container that I’ve purchased and had delivered. These last two times were obviously being placed at our current location and went real smooth. However, the first time was at another property that we owned near by. The delivery of that box was a complete disaster from start to finish. To give a little credit to that particular driver, it was a difficult road to navigate. With this in mind we had the owner of the company that sold us the container come take a look and make sure he could get the thing delivered to our site prior to coming to an agreement on the price, to include delivery. We were assured that this was going to be a little more difficult than the average but that his driver would get the job done.

Almost down

 

   I should have known that this would end badly, the driver was 4 hours late. No good reason just late? What? You don’t just show up someplace 4 hours late without a VERY good excuse… This guy did! I had driven quite a distance to be on hand for the delivery and had to be back home the same night, so needless to say I wasn’t in a very generous mood when he arrived.

  

   Well, lets get this show on the road… He walks the route before getting down to business backing the trailer up the driveway. He told me that it was a good thing the boss had sent him as he was the only driver that would be able to make such a difficult approach. He was decidedly cocky about his abilities but I didn’t really care how it got done as long as it did and quick. So he starts getting the truck lined up down on the road and then he’d back it up the drive and around the corner to where I wanted it put. He got no more than a third of the way up the drive when he gets stuck. The more he jockeyed the trailer around the worse he tore the driveway up, the more he tore the driveway up the worst he would get stuck. This sad competition went on for more than 2 hours when he finally decides that he just can’t get it up there. OH, OK – I explain that I have paid for it to be in a certain place and unless he wants to take it back with him, he needed to come up with something because it wasn’t even on my property yet… We went round and round before he decides to call a local track hoe operator that the boss knew of. The heavy equipment guy said he could come drag it up into place in the next few day but it would be about $300 dollars. The driver offered to split the cost with me, uh no! You either put it where I contracted to have it or you reduce the cost by enough for me to pay the other guy to finish your job. A few phone calls later and the boss had given him approval to reduce the bill.    

 

Containers side by side with room for the garage area...

   I thought we had this all taken care of, he would just drop the box in the approach to our driveway and the track hoe would do the rest. I told him that I couldn’t stay any longer and he was on his own. It should have taken just a short time to dump it off and he could head out as well… The operative word here was – “should have”.

 

  I called his office the next day to make sure he had done as we agreed to… I was told that the owner wouldn’t accept my call and that the driver hadn’t succeeded in dropping the load until well after midnight and only then with the help of 2 tow trucks. WHAT? It seems that he blew out the transmission when he was showing off his extensive skills… After I left, he tried to drop the box and found that it wouldn’t come off the truck in the current position. When he went to reposition everything he found that he had ruined the tranny. He apparently was able to call a tow company but had to wait for hours before they got there and even then it required a second truck to get him straightened out. He did get the delivery made roughly where he had agreed to and the track hoe put it in place, so a happy ending after all. Except for the shipping companies owner that had to replace the transmission, after reducing my price on what was a low profit product to start with.

 

   Anyway, back to my original story! You had already seen the first container at the BOL and now we have a second. My photography skills aren’t exactly professional grade but I wanted to document this second delivery. This would help me illustrate to you what was going on in the disaster delivery! 

 

   If you noticed there is a considerable space between the two boxes. I bet you can guess what my plans are… Thats right – GARAGE or barn might be a better description. I’m not currently planning to get the thing finished quite enough to call it a garage but when I get done it will provide a number of different uses for our group…

 

   First, this will provide some much needed overhead cover. We are at a distinct lack of space to get in out of the rain or beating sun for that matter. Yes, I could just go inside but that doesn’t help when the chores need to be done. Mrs. Prepper isn’t real keen on the idea of setting up the chop saw in the living room… So, I find myself outside trying to get the jobs done in between rain showers or heavy gusts of wind. I’m really not complaining about this. As I’ve explained previously, nothing at the BOL seems like the chore it would be at any other time or place! You all either know what I’m talking about or hopefully will in the near future. I would encourage each of us to have someplace like this, it has a therapeutic effect like nothing else could!

Straight shot up the driveway into the future garage

   The space I left between the boxes is 20 feet wide and 40 feet long, this will provide 800 square feet to work with. I am planning to use most of the area like I said, garage, carport, barn or what have ya… However, I have a plan to completely enclose the back 12 to 16  feet as a bunk room setup. This wouldn’t need to be fancy but just have enough room for a set of bunk beds, wood stove and a 3/4 bath. Maybe have a small table and chairs as well if I can lay it out right. I’m looking forward to this project especially as this will allow more folks come stay overnight than we currently can house! Also, Mrs Prepper has asked about a bathroom outside someplace. This would allow folks to not be coming in and out on her clean floor all through the day! Yes, I do realize that an outhouse would work well for this and I have one of these planned as too. I did build an outhouse on one of our other properties, it worked well for the 8-10 years I needed it. It was fairly snug as it was built like a small shed rather than the traditional style. I will probably go with something like this again for the next one… Don’t worry I won’t ask you to help dig it but I will show you the pictures after its done.

 

   I guess that pretty well wraps up this delivery and now you have all seen my new addition. I even gave you a peek into some of the projects that are coming up… What still remains to be seen are YOUR PROJECTS… Thats right I’m going to keep harping on you to step up and share somethings that you are doing. I hope that what I have been sharing with you isn’t just reading material but a swift kick in the butt to start getting those projects of your own going! If I can take pictures of hat I’m doing and figure out how to get them up on the interweb than you can to. Except you can even skip a step and just email me the photos and I’ll put them up for you. I will give you the whole days post to share whatever you want or just send a couple pictures and I’ll start a photo album of projects that you guys submit. Either way you know how to reach me prepper@preppernation.com.

See you tomorrow!

 

Prepper

40 long feet of prepper fun!

   Ok, I promised to get back to this topic later in the week and now its Friday so I better give this post to you, as promised. Yes, I talked Mrs. Prepper into letting me purchase a cargo container for our new land. “It’s sooo neat and all the cool kids have one, pleeaassee!” Actually, its not like that at all, Mrs. Prepper is probably into prepping 75% as much as I am! She actually asked me one time if we had a 50 caliber rifle yet and if not shouldn’t we get one just in case – I know, I know, now you’re jealous! She’s beautiful too! When you eventually see me in the upcoming videos you’ll know I tricked the poor woman for sure – sucker…

   Really how this came about was we were deliberating about what we would do for our “Well House”. This is the building, room or what have ya that holds the well pumps electrical switch and pressure tank! We get some real cold weather through out the winters here and this being a largely unoccupied retreat required a little extra forethought. We contemplated just building a small shed structure for this purpose. I’m not a big showy person at all but I appreciate aesthetics when it comes to my land. Doesn’t have to be perfect but I will always try to make my buildings somewhat symmetrical and keep all the paint colors coordinated if possible. Funny how these traits only seem to come out in me when it comes to things like this.

   We ended up deciding against the shed idea, which does happen to be the most common way the folks around here do it. We really needed secure storage, a well house, garage for the quads and tools, etc. Now, to be completely honest, I really did want to get a container but it had to make sense for our needs. Just so happens it was a logical choice for the needs currently at hand!

   I would be required to design something to maximize our usable space, while also heating and insulating the area for the well house. Just what a guy needs, a challenge, design how you want your containers floor plan laid out… Tough job but somebody had to do it.

   So, next we had to find one and for the allocated funds available. We knew that the best deals were going to be found in the port cities, Seattle, Tacoma or even Portland, depending on what the delivery cost would be from that distance? I got out the phone book and, who am I kiddin, I googled Cargo Container Seattle and with in a couple dozen links was able to secure a good price on a 40 footer. I also found that the 40 foot length is almost the same price as a 20 footer? Doesn’t make alot of sense to go with a 20 to save hundred bucks. I found a company that would deliver a guaranteed not to leak 40 foot box in “Good” condition for just about $2000 dollars. This was when the price of gas was at about the highest it got last summer. I had run the numbers for building a shed large enough to meet our needs and it wasn’t going to be all that much cheaper, materials and time factored in. Plus I could get all the buildings that I had an immediate need for, all in one.

   After making the decision based on all the practical requirements. I was then free to get excited about my 40 foot steel box with the extra secure features to make sure all my preps stayed where I put em! I am impressed with what you really are getting for a relatively small price. I wouldn’t want

this giant eyesore in my yard at home in Seattle but out in the sticks it is more like a badge of honor to have such a treasure…

   Well, right on time the truck showed up to drop the box off. I was surprised to see it came in on a trailer pulled by a 3/4 or maybe it was a 1 ton pickup truck. You would think that it might be difficult to drive around with a forty foot tail behind you but this driver made it look easy and he put the thing within a couple inches of where I told him to! Not to shabby…

   Let the fun begin! Like I said this was going to act as our well house so I had to determine how to get an insulated room inside. The logical place to put the room would have been at the back, leaving the rest wide open to use as storage. Not me brother, I put it in the middle. Doors on both sides and a storage room at the rear. I bet you don’t even have to use much imagination to understand why I wanted the storage room at the rear. Out of sight and out of mind, the neighbors minds that is… Not that we have alot of unexpected company but I’m fairly careful with the OPSEC… “If I tell you, then I have to”, you know the rest but needless to say ”Us Doomers of the apocalypse” like to keep our business and quirks, private!

   Like I was saying, I built the well room in the middle. I basically built a 12 foot section that had wall and ceiling studs and floor joists. This allowed me to bring in fiberglass insulation to try to ward off the cold and maybe keep in a little heat. It came out alright and left me enough room inside to add additional pressure tanks or what have you in the future.

   I cut holes large enough to allow the electrical conduit and water pipes to come up through the floor into the new room. This also meant I would have electrical available inside the container for lights, heater in the winter time, etc. On the down side, the container can’t be moved easily anymore because the utilities.

   I ended up with a 14 foot long by 8 foot wide garage/work room in the front portion and another one roughly the same size in the rear for storage. All door have locks to allow me controlled access. Never know what you might run across inside one of these owned by a prepper type?? More to come, stay tuned…

Prepper