Grain Bin Glampers

4/22/23 – At the end of 2022 we purchased five 18′ x 18′ grain bins or silos from a farm auction. The farmer was retiring and selling all his farmland and equipment. This particular size of grain bin is also called a “Government Grain Bin” because of some failed government food storage program from 1933-1975. We are in the process of moving the silos from their current location 20 miles away – to the south side of camp. We are bringing in a grain bin moving expert from Iowa for the job. He’s moved over 1,300 grain bins just like this one, so we are confident they will arrive at camp in good condition. We recently put in a new drive off of CR113 so that guests will be able to drive to their silo and park next to it without disturbing the glamping tent area. Our intent is to have a lower level and upper level. The lower level will have a bathroom with a shower, a kitchen/cooking area and a hang out living room area while the upper level will be the sleeping area. It will be climate controlled, so able to be open all year! Each silo will of course have amazing views of the dunes and mountains as well as a concrete deck with a grill and seating. We are excited to get these ready for guests, and expect that to be sometime mid-late summer. We will continue to post updates as we have them. The next step is to get the electric and plumbing sleeves in, move the bins then pour the concrete. We expect that to happen in the next 3 weeks!

8/19/23 – We’ve not made as much progress on the grains bins as we had hoped back in April – it’s been a struggle. We have gotten 3 of them moved whole from the farm to camp – those are 18′ wide. The other 2 are 22′ wide so too big to move whole (we didn’t know that originally). Those last 2 had to be taken down and transported and are currently laying in a pile where they will eventually be set up again. Since Rustic Rook is a commercial property the septic for the grain bins must be engineered – that is almost done along with the septic for the vintage RVs. We also have selected contractors to preform the electrical and the plumbing work. We’re hoping to have all the underground utilities in, concrete poured, all grain bins up, and insulated before the windy and cold season hits, then renovate them during the late fall/winter/spring and hopefully open them to guests mid spring. One step at a time – pick a goal and keep moving forward and you will get there eventually.

12/7/23 – In September we got some help getting the last 2 bins down – and they were then delivered to camp in lots of pieces. They hung out for a few weeks before we were able to rent a very large crane and get them up. It took us about 4 days to put them back together again and position them next to the three 18′ bins. The first step was to put the first ring together and put the roof on it, then we attached a chain to a semi tire and lifted all up with the crane through the center hole so that we could put each of the 6 additional sets of rings on. Each ring got heavier and heavier as the metal gauge gets thicker for the bottom rings. lining up the screws was challenge sometimes, but we got pretty good at it and had 2 teams working on the inside/outside to get each screw in place. It was a fun project, with a lot of problems solving mixed in. We were super happy to have it done! After that the septic systems went in, then under ground plumbing and electrical and finally the concrete was poured inside and outside for the patio. Next step is getting doors and windows in, and interior framing.

3/27/24 – waiting for in-wall plumbing and electric and for the windows to come in. Grain bin 1 is looking good! Framing is done, openings for the windows and doors are in, the loft floor and stairs are in.

Hot Springs

Rustic Rook sits on 120ac. Our current improvements are mostly on 10-15ac. So we have lots of room to spread out and add other activities. One of the reason we picked this particular property is because of the flowing artesian well, and the broken buildings on the western side of the property. It turns out the buildings are not going to be able to be restored – we are going to have to salvage anything interesting and then burn them to clean the area up. We discovered that the flowing well also expels methane which is not unusual for this area. Methane is the primary gas found in natural gas – the same natural gas cities pipe into homes. Years ago it was very common for families to collect the methane and burn it for cooking. These days it’s uncommon that anyone uses this gas, so it’s just expelled into the air continually. Our plan is to again collect the methane as the original homesteaders did, and then use it to heat the water from the flowing well well – creating a sort of hot springs! It will be a work in progress for a while to get it all sorted out, but we hope in the next year we will be able to offer beautiful natural hot spring soaking pools for our guests to enjoy. Progress will be posted as we start the project.

Vintage Trailers

Meet Bertha – the first of a fleet of 5 vintage campers that will be available to stay in at Rustic Rook. She’s a 1968 silver eagle with all original (and still working) parts and appliances – 8 track player and all. They just don’t make them like they used to. We’re going to do some painting and renovations and hope to have her ready for guests mid. Summer.