The Work
Almost a decade of specialized trade, living off-grid near Grass Valley.
I build things and I fix things — welding, repairs, off-grid systems, small builds. Almost a decade of specialized trade behind my hands: welding, rigging, hydraulics, mechanical, electrical, plumbing. The easiest way to tell you who I am is to walk you through what's running.
The bus
The bus is my house and my generator and my shop, all one thing. I built it out by hand. It moves with me.
I'm still building it out while I live in it — roof gets sealed, interior gets organized, workspaces get added as I go. That's the honest state of it: a thing being finished while it's already being lived in.
The power
The bus is a power station. Fifteen kilowatt-hours of battery, a ten-kilowatt inverter that's already live, and 2.6 kilowatts of solar, wired up and running. The motorcycle charges right off it.
The motorcycle charges right off it, and there's usually power left to share with wherever I'm parked. It was giving before it was even finished — that's the whole idea.
The water
I built a 12-volt pump and an accumulator tank — wherever the bus is parked, the place gets running water on demand. From there I can put in an automatic watering system, and then my hands never have to touch it again.
You build the thing once, and it keeps doing the job after you walk away.
That's the part I care most about. I've done it for places with nothing — no pressure, no water — and a week later they're running automatically. I didn't pour a lot of hours in. I built it so it'd run without me.
The rest of it
Most of that came from gifts and salvage. Paid once in scrap, runs free forever after.
None of this is a showroom. It's a place that's getting built, by a person, while he lives in it.
How I work
Two clean lanes, and I keep them apart. One is paid: you hire me, I build or fix the thing, you pay me cash. The other is free: I give something away, no strings, take what's useful and leave the rest. I don't blur them into "you owe me one." Free is free and paid is paid.
I lead with the small, quick work — the easy things that come together fast — and let that make room for the bigger ones. I hold a half-day. About a half-day of work a day, and that's the line. It's not laziness. It's the thing that keeps me from becoming the guy who can never say no.
If you're near Grass Valley and you need something built or fixed, or you just want to come see the work standing, that's what the request page is for.