Hi aivcho,
So, I had to start over, I blew off my network. I did write this as I did. I still have an ESP8266EX out there reporting. So:
apt update
apt install mosquitto
apt install mosquitto-clients
is all I had to do. Set the new IP on the ESP and:
mosquitto_sub -v -t 'tele/homerefer/SENSOR' | xargs -d$'\n' -L1 >> /var/log/mosquitto/refer.log &
the refer.log is filling with data!
Best, Dan.