This week, while contemplating the spiraling down of the season and the coming of my first winter on the new property, I looked through my graphics for a suitable desktop wallpaper for my computer. What I landed upon was a few scans of 35mm photos I took in 1982 soon after moving onto a 2 acre parcel on Gillespie Butte as a caretaker:
The property had been offered to me "as is" as a place to move to after I lived in the Housetruck for eight months in the driveway of a day care center that I had remodeled. The lady who ran the day care center was "eccentric" to say the least, and her boyfriend was murderously jealous, an attribute that she used me to take full advantage of with him. I was lucky to escape with my life in the end!
After having two loads of gravel delivered to cover the muddy ruts in the driveway, I had a temporary electrical and telephone service installed. The agreement with the owners was that I could live there rent-free in exchange for protecting the property from interlopers. The old house, which was the homestead of the old man for whom two of the streets in the neighborhood were named, had been torn down after it was used in the commission of a crime while sitting vacant.
There was no indoor storage, no septic or sewer service, no water service, no toilet or shower, and as you can see, the entire homesite was covered with rubble and debris from the demolition of the house. I cleared enough of the debris away to move the Housetruck onto a cement slab, and set up residence.
Over the ensuing few months of winter, I picked up and removed all of the scrap lumber, shingles, flooring, old mattresses and big bags of garbage. All of the cinder blocks you see were thrown into a huge heap to open up the yard and expose some space for a lawn.
Water was a bit of a problem, just as it is here. The Housetruck had a functional water system with a 50 gallon fresh supply tank. About three blocks away, the City had a coin operated water station. For twenty-five cents, you could serve yourself and get either 55 gallons, or 800 gallons, depending on whether you used a 3/4" garden hose or a 2" fire hose. I filled up about once a week, which was plenty for dish and hand washing. Showering was taken care of at a variety of friend's houses, and the indoor facilities at work were always in demand.
Eventually, I had a city water service installed after finding the underground plumbing supply lines and water meter vault from the original home. I conned the utility into installing an "agricultural service" so that a sewer connection was not required.
As awful as the photo makes it look in the early days, this site turned out to be a wonderful place for me to live for the next six years. It was quiet and private, backed up against an undeveloped city park. The neighbors were friendly and the inspectors left me alone. Eventually, I purchased the 1.3 acres next door, visible in the fog above the last standing corner of the hose in the photo above.
So, when I look at these photos, I realize that I've done this before, only last time, it was a whole lot harder and there was less support structure on the property. Of course, I was 24 years younger then too...