What you been doing Paw-Paw?

A good friend and compadre, Wonderdawg AKA Rusty sent me an email with what he has been up to over the last year.   I was inspired by what he has done and how far he has come, and with his permission, I want to share it with all of you as well.

So without further ado, Here is Rusty and in his own words, showing what a true Do’er does!

What you been doing Paw-Paw? Seems to be a favorite question of my Grand-kids, sooooooo!

After having brain surgery 3 years ago and laying up, convalescing and becoming a severe couch potato or PC addict, I was actually doing more dying than living. Over the months I lost most of my stamina, muscle tone and just put on more pounds…..Then almost a year ago Hurricane Issac showed up and flooded my domain for several days doing extensive damage, and basically making me homeless…..Fortunately I had bought acreage a couple years before in the hills and with some inspiring words from Dio, figured it was time to get to living again…so here are some pictures of the last year…..of what 66 year old Paw-Paw been doing…

I took what insurance money and savings and material I could salvage and headed to the hills. I was determined to build me another house away from the coast and in a remote wooded area…I also made up my mind to do this by myself as I needed the goal to get the mind active again and the physical work to get my body back in condition. Both the mind and body had suffered big time from in-activity other than searching the prepper and patriot blogs and I needed a kick-start, Issac and Dio did that.

Other than my son-in-law doing some clearing for the home site, everything else was done by myself with the supervision supplied by Rufus and the other 2, 4 legged observers. Has it been tough, yes, at times downright brutal as I lived in a lean-to for 6 months in the middle of the woods during the fall, winter, spring and now summer with no power or running water.
The first few weeks, thought I was going to die, thank God for pain pills and a stubborn disposition I finally got back in shape physically. Mentally, nothing does the mind anymore good than to actually see your efforts producing something.

I was making great headway until Christmas when I took a few weeks to spend in Texas with my Daughter and her family, besides I needed a break. Unfortunately I picked up the flu bug shortly after the Texas trip and was knocked back for a month before being able to get back to building. About mid March it started raining and raining and still raining…The flu and rain cost me several weeks and now in between monsoon type rains, the summer heat of triple digits has slowed things down, but I have it finally dried in and actually living in house now instead of the lean-to. Have more up to date pictures, just not here, will post more later….still have all the inside to do yet, including wiring, insulation, installing solar system, water system, wood stove etc….

In summary, it has not only been a fantastic rehab of my physical self and mind, but extremely helpful in knowing firsthand the ups and downs of roughing it in the boonies…the stuff I was prepared for and the way more stuff I only thought I was prepared for and wasn’t….such as how time consuming it is in just maintaining wood for fire, sanitation, hygiene, etc.

Thank you Dio, for inspiring me to quit talking about it and get to doing it, even though I might not have exactly everything needed, but to make do with what I had. I am now actually beginning to move into the house that didn’t exist this time last year and my Texas kids are coming for Thanksgiving….. Then I can show them “What Paw-Paw has been doing”…

Buddy, new helper

campfire catfish

lean-to home for 6 months

clearing buikd site

my creek

my inspectors and helper

only way in or out

perimeter road

rain and more rain

Walls and rafters going up

setting up front porch

start of roofing strips, cold and wet again

wet and cold day of framing

Finally a roof is on