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Adventures Click on various links, and it shows you some photos of his dome home up in the mountains of New England, and a couple pics of the building process. It's nothing fancy.... but it gets the job done, and he's been happily residing there for a few years now.
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Not sure if posting a 'wall of videos' is frowned upon, as it might mess with people with slower connections, and if so... you can just view his main page directly (links posted above).
He's got almost 300 vids, but let me post the two projects that interested me most, (a) a dome home, and (b) a cheap cabin by McCarthy, Alaska for his friend.
Some might call him a tad eccentric or colorful, but I enjoy his videos anyway, and just thought I'd sort of share for inspirational purposes. He does a wide variety of projects, one of those people that's always doing "something," but I'm partial to his building type videos.
BUILDING A SMALL LOG CAB IN ALASKA FOR HIS FRIEND:
His friends bought some land by McCarthy, AK... I guess in one of those subdivisions where the land is pretty cheap... and he goes to visit his friend, and to build a new cabin "on the cheap" for another friend nearby.
There's a part 7 and Part 8, but I'll let you find the links to those if it interested you at all.
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THE DOME HOME IN THE NEW ENGLAND MOUNTAINS:
Not fancy, but it's set on twenty-five acres and illustrates how you can set yourself up in your own place without having to spend more than a few thousand.
This seems like a neat idea, I guess most of it is kind of Geek inspired and not totally practical. Simple economics dictate this.
It's like growing your own vegetables with the idea that you will save money, if anyone has done this they probably realize that you can't. Unless you are very poor, you are better spending your time working 9 to 5, and then use the money to buy food.
The same goes for the geo & log houses. He would be smarter to work on wall street, wait a year, and then buy a cheap home made by a professional for 100K.
This idea does not seem to have anything to do with being prepared. When you think about it he probably puts himself in much more risk and is actually less safe and less prepared. His make shift house could burn down, he could slice his arm off sawing down the trees. There are so many accidents waiting to happen it not even funny, that's why a lumberjack was the most dangerous job in America.
But that is because probably the forum has less to do with preparation and more to do with trying to be self sufficient by any means possible. For the cool factor, there's nothing wrong with that. I read the forum for exactly the ideas posted above.
I think I would buy a cheap house in VT or NH. One with lots of insulation, electricity, and running water. Then retrofit it with some kind of self sustaining energy source like geothermal, a windmill, or solar. Out of the three the windmill seems like the best bet.
This seems like a neat idea, I guess most of it is kind of Geek inspired and not totally practical. Simple economics dictate this.
It's like growing your own vegetables with the idea that you will save money, if anyone has done this they probably realize that you can't. Unless you are very poor, you are better spending your time working 9 to 5, and then use the money to buy food.
The same goes for the geo & log houses. He would be smarter to work on wall street, wait a year, and then buy a cheap home made by a professional for 100K.
This idea does not seem to have anything to do with being prepared. When you think about it he probably puts himself in much more risk and is actually less safe and less prepared. His make shift house could burn down, he could slice his arm off sawing down the trees. There are so many accidents waiting to happen it not even funny, that's why a lumberjack was the most dangerous job in America.
But that is because probably the forum has less to do with preparation and more to do with trying to be self sufficient by any means possible. For the cool factor, there's nothing wrong with that. I read the forum for exactly the ideas posted above.
I think I would buy a cheap house in VT or NH. One with lots of insulation, electricity, and running water. Then retrofit it with some kind of self sustaining energy source like geothermal, a windmill, or solar. Out of the three the windmill seems like the best bet.
You have to understand that it's not about minimizing time, minimizing effort, and maximizing profit for some of us. And it's certainly not about "being cool."
The last timber frame shed I put together was completely done by hand (other than the sized timbers from the mill). No power tools were used at all. I could have saved hundreds of hours of work had I used a power chain mortiser, power circular saw, power planes, etc, rather than a T-handle auger, framing chisels/mallet, rip and crosscut saws, adze, and brace bits (all hand tools). Why did I do all this extra hand work? If I have to tell you why, it won't make sense to you anyway. It's the same with growing your own food, cutting your own wood for heat, and learning the various traditional skills to be able to do for yourself--extra work and time or not. From your post, I don't think you get it--best stick with your 9 to 5'er, buy what you need, and cross your fingers.
Speaking of crossing your fingers, as for risk, I think the way we live today in our Rube Goldberg society is far more risky than cutting timber or hewing a log.
Your post does bring to light, though, two distinctly different types of "preppers" or "survivalists." You have the camp that embraces every little technological development or gimmick that could aid in self sufficiency (the high-tech type), and you have those who look back in time to an era in which people were largely self sufficient, and seek to develop and revive those skills (the traditional skills type). I am firmly in the second camp. For me, it has nothing to do with putting as little effort into it as possible. Nothing to do with money. And nothing to do with our modern world's tech-heavy ways.
It's like growing your own vegetables with the idea that you will save money, if anyone has done this they probably realize that you can't.
Unless you are very poor, you are better spending your time working 9 to 5, and then use the money to buy food.
A stockpile of store bought food only lasts so long. Like many preppers, I have a stash I have been working on for quite some time. As you point out, the big companies have both an economy of scale advantage, and a knowledge advantage to a large extent. They can usually produce it cheaper than I can, and its probably more safely packed than I could get it with my crude home canning methods. And so like many preppers, I am largely reliant on third parties for many of my supplies.
That reliance comes with a price, however. That price is dependence, and it seems part of a quandary or catch-22 that preparedness people face. It's a trade-off that has to be balanced (I leave that for every individual to decide their own balance and utility equations... do what they think works best for them.). Rely on other people, yes... but a line has to be drawn somewhere. Dependence does not fit in well at all, with the idea of preparedness, in my opinion.
I don't think preparedness simply means "buying stuff," or have other people/professionals make stuff for you. It means being prepared in body and in mind (in the form of acquiring the skills necessary). I don't think preparedness means just throwing a wad of cash on the check-out counter or table and expecting others to give you goods or services. It means knowing how to make those goods yourself, even if, you don't make it quite as good as the professional. It's understood, recognized, and appreciated that professionals and craftsmen can often make it better than Joe Shmoe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hartford_renter
But that is because probably the forum has less to do with preparation and more to do with trying to be self sufficient by any means possible.
For the cool factor, there's nothing wrong with that.
I don't doubt there's an element of "personal satisfaction" or one might also say a certain "cool factor," per se'... especially with guys, as building and making "stuff" seems to be a fairly common desire many have.... whether it be desire to build outside "stuff" (e.g. "Honey, I think it would be cool if we had a deck, I think I'll go to Home Depot and do that this weekend.") or inside "stuff" (e.g. "Honey, I think I want to build a wet bar in the basement with mahogany wood.. I've always wanted that), but I think the statement that it's about the cool factor might somewhat trivialize the notion that all people should have certain building skills, and that we shouldn't try to pass off every task in life to a third party, having to always rely and be dependent upon others (especially when those skills pertain to essentials of survival. It's a sad state of affairs, in my opinion, if a twentieth/twenty-first century man has less knowledge in that regard than a Neolithic era man.).
There's a line (be it fine or blurry) between seeking out the help of professionals to do X, Y, Z because they can do it better, versus being a completely helpless individual who has not the skill to do a variety of common things, and having to be dependent upon those third parties. Dependence is not a good thing for any adult.
I don't think dependence fits in very well with the idea of preparedness. It's unavoidable to a certain extent as a matter of practicality, and there are certain economic advantages to relying up others and engaging in division of labor, but I don't think this necessarily absolves us of the necessity to know how to do certain things ourselves, if only as a back-up plan. Dependence and division of labor is fine under most circumstances, but when exigencies may be present, it helps to have the skills yourself. During times of exigencies, everyone else might have their own problems, we shouldn't expect they will have time to be saddled with handling out problems.
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Hire a professional if you want it done better in most cases, yes.
Hire a professional simply because one never took the initiative to acquire common skills in life, things which many might say a guy (or gal) should know as a human being, such that one has grown dependent upon third parties in very much the same way that a child is dependent upon the parent, no.
Last edited by FreedomThroughAnarchism; 03-06-2011 at 04:17 PM..
You have to understand that it's not about minimizing time, minimizing effort, and maximizing profit for some of us. And it's certainly not about "being cool."
The last timber frame shed I put together was completely done by hand (other than the sized timbers from the mill). No power tools were used at all. I could have saved hundreds of hours of work had I used a power chain mortiser, power circular saw, power planes, etc, rather than a T-handle auger, framing chisels/mallet, rip and crosscut saws, adze, and brace bits (all hand tools). Why did I do all this extra hand work? If I have to tell you why, it won't make sense to you anyway. It's the same with growing your own food, cutting your own wood for heat, and learning the various traditional skills to be able to do for yourself--extra work and time or not. From your post, I don't think you get it--best stick with your 9 to 5'er and buy what you need.
As for risk--I think the way we live today in our Rube Goldberg society is far more risky than cutting timber or hewing a log.
Your post does bring to light, though, two distinctly different types of "preppers" or "survivalists." You have the camp that embraces every little technological development that could aid in self sufficiency, and you have those who look back in time to a time that people were largely self sufficient and seek to develop and revive those skills. I am firmly in the second camp. For me, it has nothing to do with putting as little effort into it as possible. Nothing to do with money. And nothing to do with our modern world.
No need to explain to me. Doing things by hand, like building your own shed or your own 1920's wooden boat gives great personal satisfaction more so then simply going out and buying a shed or a boat.
Building a makeshift cabin in alaska, or a plastic tarp/dome in the middle of the woods with a makeshift stove seems less about being prepared then about trying to see if you can rough it as a minimalist. But it is true that he has learned a lot about doing things on his own and he is in a sense much more prepared then 99% of all people.
My previous comments aside, I wish not to foster any kind of division between different camps of preparedness people.
I also used to be of the more high-tech homestead mindset. I wanted a nice spread, solar panels galore, electric appliances just like home on-grid. Lately, I have gotten a bit more into the minimalist end of things (minimalist - but not primitivist.... I do indeed like my computer), but it's just a question of preference.... whatever floats ones boat.
The extent of my criticism in this arena is simply that it doesn't hurt to learn these skills.... and to maybe practice and hone these skills by engaging in some nice home projects.... do some things that one finds personally rewarding You learn things in the process, and save those skills for a rainy day if you ever need them. In the meantime, if somebody wants to have the finer or nicer things in life, that's okay.... so long as one has the skills tucked away and maybe practices them from time to time.
I wanted a nice spread, solar panels galore, electric appliances just like home on-grid. Lately, I have gotten a bit more into the minimalist end of things (minimalist - but not primitivist.... I do indeed like my computer), but it's just a question of preference.... whatever floats ones boat.
Same here. DW and I currently live a typical suburban lifestyle, as do our nearby grown children with grandkids. However it is becoming more evident that life in this country will probably change in the forseeable future, and likely not for the better. The retirement we had planned seems more and more remote -- not due to money (we are saving up a good deal of that) -- but due to our desire to live more simply, not dependent upon utilities or building contractors or HVAC repairmen or whatever.
We look at this as sort of an adventure, and don't really care that the kids or the neighbors don't "approve". I am blessed to have a wife who agrees to try that type of life. I expect it will surprise me, in both good and bad ways, as much as it does her, when it comes to pass.
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