Finally Bought Some Land II

[Ras72]

Yes, perhaps a title sequence to Jorn's thread but a little different plot (no pun intended). Still doesn't negate the fact I BOUGHT A LITTLE PIECE OF MOTHER f'en NATURE. Closed the deal Oct 28 And I'm thrilled about it.

This piece is located in the Northeast region of Asheville, NC. Just off the Blue Ridge Parkway and Elk Mountain Scenic HWY - aka cycling country! At only two acres, she's little, but elevation is 3,620ft with long range views of North and South makes for privacy not often found in a small lot. With a well, septic, and house platform already in place it makes for an easy transition into designing/building a home. Unfortunately, that's where I'm going to exercise a great deal of patience.

Ya see, the purchase of this land is the first step into retirement. Next step comes in five plus years... During this time money will be stashed away in order to fund construction. The plan is to be mortgage free in the next 6 years.

So without further ado... Fall photos of street and surrounding areas:

Elk Trail 2.jpg

Elk Trail 1.jpg

BR2.jpg

BR1.jpg

[Matthew Strongin]

You. Are. My. Hero.

[guido]

Sounds and looks like a brilliant spot and plan! Those five years will go faster than you know!

Cheers!

[72gmc]

Well done. WELL DONE! (pat on the back, muss of the hair)

I would love to be as far along as you are. I also really like the elevation of your property--there's nothing like hot summer days followed by a real temperature drop at night, not to mention good crisp air. I'm hoping for a similar situation out here in the West.

[j44ke]

Excellent sauce! I am glad this is proving contagious. The Blue Ridge is an incredible place to own property. I spent many a happy hour falling down and filling my waders with ice cold spring water while chasing 6-8" native brook trout in the streams and creeks of the Blue Ridge.

I am full of advice (well, full of it generally speaking) but I'd say smaller house is better because it makes your land bigger (and is cheaper to heat/cool,) spend money on bigger nicer windows and excellent doors, and expect your known-unknowns (well, septic, excavation) to be more than what everyone says - except you already have those things in the bag so woohoo! spend it on the windows and doors!

And bike shop. 1/2 acre for the bike shop.

Congrats! Keep posting photos.

[ides1056]

Good for you. Well, septic, and house platform is a real bonus: work you don't have to do. Find a yurt within your budget and you will be all set for the time being. Friends who had been afloat for three years asked my advice when the decided it was time to settle down and lived in two yurts for the next five.

It's a great feeling to own land. Nothing quite like it.

[rainy rider]

I install a fair number of remote weather stations for work. If you dont need real-time data there are all sorts of low power dataloggers that you could just download whenever you visit. If you need telemetry then there are some radio options that might bridge you to the nearest cell or wifi access but that is a lot more complicated.

[Ras72]

low power dataloggers

Interesting. I'm listening.

[rainy rider]

Probably need to start with what parameters you actually want to monitor. If you just want to know temperature or (unheated) precipitation then there are little units that will last 10 years on an internal battery. If you want a full blown meteorological station then the sensor choices can play a role in overall power consumption.

What parameters do you care about?

Are you a diy type are looking for a pre-packaged system?

Is accuracy really important to you or is close enough good enough? Related question: do you have a budget in mind?

[Ras72]

Thanks Rainy. Good questions.
Wish list of parameters would be temp, humidity, wind speed/direction, and rain fall. Ultimately, that could be scaled down to temp, wind speed and direction. Accuracy good enough to get me in the ballpark. Nothing too tech.
Because I'm away from this property more than 330 days per year, I want to use this data for building orientation and design reasons. So, I'm not going to split hairs.
I'm a full-on, 100%, do-it-your-own-gd-self kinda guy, but I'm very limited by lack of knowledge when it comes to electronics. So not apposed to a packaged unit.
And I'd spend up to $300 for this entertainment.

[sk_tle]

Thanks Rainy. Good questions.
Wish list of parameters would be temp, humidity, wind speed/direction, and rain fall. Ultimately, that could be scaled down to temp, wind speed and direction. Accuracy good enough to get me in the ballpark. Nothing too tech.
Because I'm away from this property more than 330 days per year, I want to use this data for building orientation and design reasons. So, I'm not going to split hairs.
I'm a full-on, 100%, do-it-your-own-gd-self kinda guy, but I'm very limited by lack of knowledge when it comes to electronics. So not apposed to a packaged unit.
And I'd spend up to $300 for this entertainment.

If you want a more "affordable" package in term of knowledge to make it run the micro:bits kits can be easier to deal with than doing it with ardunio's or a raspberry:

SparkFun micro:climate kit for micro:bit - KIT-1531 - SparkFun Electronics

[Ras72]

Thanks guys. A couple very interesting ideas.
Thinking this could be a great/fun way to learn something new. Not much to lose but a failed experiment.
I'll do a little more research and keep you posted.

[rainy rider]

I think the budget likely puts you in the diy realm. There are some packaged systems out there from companies like accurite that would fit the budget but in a quick google search I did not come across any that would not require some modifications as they are not really set up for long term data logging.

I think something along these lines would do what you want and would be fun (if you enjoy this kind of stuff) but it would be full on diy.

https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/...eather-station

There are probably a dozen more tutorials out there for Raspberrypi and arduino weather stations. If these kinds of boards are unfamiliar I might suggest looking up a local maker space and you might find some helpful people and resources who could get you started.

Hope that helps a little. I have the luxury of large budgets and research-grade instruments at work but i dont have a lot of experience with the arduino/RaspberryPi side of things. I would love to tackle something like this someday for my own back yard but a busy family and work life mean I barely have time to ride my bike these days.

[rainy rider]

That is a good find, Thomas. I had forgot about microbits. Looks like that kit has everything but humidity and the microbit itself. There are humidity sensors out there that could be added

Micro:bit Temperature and Humidity Sensing - Tutorial Australia
I would also recommend finding some kind of solar radiation shield for the temp and humidity or the sun will wreak havoc with your temp readings.

You might also find you need a bigger battery depending how long you need it to run between visits. Otherwise I think the sparkfun unit looks pretty good.

[j44ke]

Could something like this work for temp and humidity?

Robot Check

Or this for just temp:

Robot Check

And then use something from this company for windspeed?

Hand Held Wind Meter | Inspeed, LLC

[rwsaunders]

We use these HOBO units to monitor job site conditions...temperature, relative humidity, carbon monoxide, water level, etc. There are static, WiFi and cellular versions and the bottom link is to a BYOS (build your own station) device.

Data Loggers | Onset Data Loggers

RX21 | Onset Data Loggers

Weather Stations | Onset Data Loggers

[rainy rider]

I thought about hobos as we use those from time to time and they are long lasting and relatively inexpensive but $300 wouldn't go very far on a hobo weather station for the parameters that Rick was looking for. They are a good value for commercial use.

[Ras72]

Yes, those HOBOs looked promising but looks like you're in the $1k ballpark. That's a bit much for my purposes.

[Ras72]

Reviving this for a bit of an update.

During the Christmas/New Year holiday, wife and I were able to spend a little time at the property. Working as an expat and only visiting Asheville a couple times a year makes me really appreciate the beauty of the place.

Winter views (both North and South) are phenomenal.

North View 2.jpg

South View from Street.jpg

We've been working on arch drawings - driven by ridge overlay restrictions - is making it quite the prosses. But we're still on track for meeting our ultimate goal. Cheers to a 2025 move-in schedule!

Happy New Year to everyone!

[j44ke]

That would make anyone look forward to 2025. We discounted the idea of a view, figuring that the house would be largely closed in by pines. But due to some construction changes and a series of storms that took out some trees, we can now see through the pines and over the tops of the trees lower in the valley to the other side. It really makes a big difference visually - having both the ability to look around the immediate area and then a vista too. Opens things up in a way I did not anticipate needing.