Force_Multiplier
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# Posted: 26 Jun 2012 11:36pm - Edited by: Force_Multiplier
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Ok,
I've been lurking here for a little while, I bought 23 acres in SE OK a couple years ago, we moved from the family farm to town, so I needed a place to hunt. The place is great, sits in the middle of 3300 acres, only 6-7 couples live there fulltime, 10-12 more have cabins that they use, some once a year for hunting, some most weekends. We've used the land for hunting, camping, and riding quads, but that's it.
Well, that's about to change, I finally got my wife "somewhat" on board, she went down for deer season 2011, then for spring break 2012, she's finally falling in love w/ the place too, she just needs some comfort...lol... and the place is totally off grid.
First, I know everyone loves pictures, me too, and I'll get some as we go, but this will be a slow process. While the kid's have always been on board, and the wife is now, nobody, but me, seems to want to actually do any work or give up shopping, hairstylists, etc... for something they're not SURE can be built off grid, so I'll be doing this basically on my own, to include finding the spare cash... they will come around as progress is made and they can actually see it.
so, what to do..
well, I want it ready for a week or two for whitetail rifle, in the last half of Nov. I have a 5'x8' metal shipping container x8 foot tall, a 5500w generator, a 325 gallon food grade IBC tote, a boxwood stove... and a shopping list for the lumber yard (that shopping list is the slow part).
in the next couple of weekends, I need to take the chainsaw and tractor down, clear the exact spot I want the cabin and see how rocky the soil is, that'll let me plan the foundation, if digging is easy enough, I plan to use posts. then I can start on the cabin.
12x12 cabin, 8' ceiling on the main floor, 6' on the front of the loft, going to 4' in the rear of the loft w/ a shed roof. At the rear of the cabin, I'll put a water tower w/ the IBC enclosed in a small shed, w/ the stove pipe running through the corner of the shed, that should keep the water in the tank from freezing while we're there in the winter, it'll be drained when we're not there. All the electric will be run off batteries, which will be charged w/ the generator. we'll talk about this more later.
The water storage will be fed w/ a rain water system from the roof, w/ a first flush and a sand filter. it'll feed a sink in the cabin, a sink in the outdoor kitchen (another 12x12 screen house), the outhouse, and probably a faucet. It'll partially be gravity fed (primed w/ gravity, but should flow a trickle if the pump goes out) and boosted w/ a 12v pump. The outhouse will be a full three piece w/ a shower, sink, and toilet. The toilet will be a composting sawdust toilet, the shower and sink will be pretty standard, except that I'll run the hot water w/ a fire coil (copper pipe coiled and ran through a wood fire, much like an on demand gas water heater).
electric... there's no delivery out there, so propane on a large scale is out, I'm in a heavily wooded valley w/ very little wind or sun, unless I get really high up... so after talking to neighbors, doing a bunch of research, and thinking it over.... my best bet is to have an inverter and battery bank, run the generator a few hours a day to run the heavy loads and charge the batteries. This is my best choice for a balance between start up cost vs fuel usage. I'll eventually try a few other fuel sources. First a wood gasifier, then add solar/wind (maybe) and try hydro from the stream...
so, that's about it for now, when I get to go for a weekend and do some work I'll take some pics... maybe we'll even get to see some critters, there's all sorts of small game and birds, along w/ whitetail, turkey, hogs, and black bear... there's also about a 5 acre lake ( old WPA watershed ) w/ bass, perch, and catfish... plenty of wild edibles too... can anyone tell that I'd just as soon move down there full time?
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