Cabin porn .

 When life gets crazy my mind wishes for a cabin in the woods.

  I have always wanted to build an  A frame cabin .

If you plan on a container Now may be the time.

    The shipping company Hanjin has filed for bankruptcy and sent the shipping world into a panic over non-payment.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/even-businesses-that-dont-rely-on-hanjin-could-be-caught-in-cargo-crisis/ar-AAiI11c?ocid=spartanntp

   Now if they can't pay to off load I don't think they will be paying for empty's to be returned to port.  I believe these ships will be off loaded at customer's expense . But how may empty's will be scattered nation wide and abandoned? If you have dreamed of a container but its price has been out of reach the price may be dropping.

  

   Container's are versatile in use from a tiny home ,hunting shelter, a buried bunker or just storage. It may be time to check price and availability shortly.

Project knock out list. The end is near.

    Spent a few hours working on my daughters place today. I have to admit I haven't done much the last month over there. Today I did replace the utility room floor and patched a few ceiling holes.

   Did a walk around to see where I am  work wise and it isn't as bad as I thought. I think 4 days hard work next week will get the inside construction / repair finished. Once that's done it will be time to hire the electrician to do the pole and breaker box wiring.

    When that is done it still need paint and flooring but I have the material already to go. I think I will have to drop 500 more between the electrician and some luan panels . If I am right I will only be 200 over budget on the place.

   While I am doing this for my daughter it has a carrying cost that is up to 100$ in credit card payments a month. Now once she moves in and we secure her loan that goes bye bye. She will have 5 years at 232$ a month .

 

Salvaged wood.

    The rain stopped so today we went over to my daughters property . One end of her trailer was cut off because it was to far gone. Me and my son saved a lot of the wall studs saving us about 80$ and used them there. Today we cut loose and cleaned up 14  2 X8X14 that made up the floor on the scraped end. Tomorrow we will carry them to my son's place to use in the kitchen floor.

     It only took about 3 hours to remove and clean them to reuse. Now it was 2 of us working but at 16$ each x 14 it save's us 224$ so on 6 man hours we made / saved over 35$ an hour. I don't know if we will get the floor joist in tomorrow but they will be on site.

    I like to do savings to work hours . If you made 8.50 an hour and brought home 7.25 our saving = 30 hour at work pay. So we saved/ made 5 times pay . I look at life different.

A couple of pics of my sons camperstead in the snow.

      I snapped these pictures when I delivered the heater and my son back to his place.

    The snow was a wet heavy  and as the picture shows the poach wasn't built for a load. Every thing we used was scrap or found .
 
 The camper I bought 5 years ago from a man that was headed to the scrap yard to see if they would buy it as is. I gave 200$ for it and spent 2 more on floors and walls. It is a 1976 Layton .And if you notice he now has 2 15 watt panels and a 10 watt at 40 watts he is at more than enough power. A friend checked on him today and he said heater was working good and power on every thing was at 98% or full ( we have had clouds for 3 out of the 4 days he has been there).

  

A little power goes a long way.

     Ok today is the 14th day that my Son (lab rat )  has been on his own .The results are in on propane and power use for his off grid trailer . Water is from a creek so nothing on that.

   It is winter and the oven has been used for 2 to 3 hour of heat a nite and cooking 3 meals a day.The tank was a 15 lb exchange unit from wal mart and lasted 11 days. If he had used the oven less for heat I could see it lasting 20 to 25 days. Now he is eating good solid home cooked meals not heat and eat can food . It makes a difference propane use .

     Now on power he has a jump pack,LED lantern, MP3 player, radio with rechargeable AAs, cell phone and a DVD player. He has been able to keep them all charged using a single 15 watt harbor freight panel. Today we talked and he has watched 2 hours a nite on the DVD the radio or MP3 is on most of the day. His cell has stayed full .Now the one problem we see is that the jump pack will not charge above the 80% reading with the solar panel . Now we aren't  sure if  its something in the jump pack or the low amperage from the panel . All in all for just one 15 watt setup it has provided a lot of variety .The only other power he has is a solar rope light from harbor freight and 2 solar path lights from dollar tree.
    
    I went up today mainly to bring my son to the house till Monday the next few nights are going to be in the mid teens and days in the 30s he said he was fine and turned me down. He asked if I would get him Sunday week instead .

      Here is a link to the rope lights they work good I had run them inside my son moved them to the poach said to bright to sleep with:) .

http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-rope-light-68353.html


   

His wants exceed his means.

      For the last 3 months my son has been living back here at my house .He got into some trouble with the friends he was staying with and had to run home to keep from getting his butt stomped. He told a female friend her husband was cheating and the girlfriend was pregnant. It was not my sons place to interfere he got a split lip and the windows knocked out of his camper for it. They threatened to do more so I stepped in, brought him home and let it be known it needed to be ended at that .
     My temperament is well known in the area so it cooled down to just dirty looks on the road if we passed .All this took place just before thanksgiving so I let him stay through the holidays. Over the last 3 months we moved the camper cleared a 1/4 acre fixed the windows, dug a septic hole ,fixed the stove, built a porch and metal roofed over his camper. Now most of this was low cost less than a 100$ the porch and roof was sheet metal I had given to me, the wood was from a friends shop of old packing crates.
    Now I didn't mind giving my time and parted with the scrap with only a little reluctance BUT then he asked for my 12 volt pump and 3. 15 watt solar panels my 12volt DVD player ,radio, lanterns and Mr. buddy heater.
      Ok I understand it would make life in the woods more comfortable . I DONT CARE !!!!! I worked saved and bought this stuff yes I have it stored and multiple's of most of it. He has always thought daddy survival stuff was a joke something he made fun of when I wasn't around .
      Now he is my only idiot son so I did help him. 1 15 watt panel my small DVD player a 9 volt transistor radio ,3 solar yard lights and 2 dollar tree lanterns .His water is gravity fed and for heat he can use the stove oven with bricks in it. He moved back up there yesterday will go check on him Thursday . Wednesday the low is going to be 24 will be a gut check for him .
      If he acted better I would do more. Till he matures this is more than he deserves , his wants exceed his means. I feel he has his needs met his wants are his own affair !!!

A cache that holds a 1/2 ton and is livable.

     Most of us would love to have a shipping container buried somewhere as a fall back.A concrete bunker is a dream for the average prepper.Even if we have a house and a nice lot we cant put in anything this big without drawing attention.We need to think outside the box.Or in this case inside a box literally.
    
     OK if you have read my posts you know i love teardrop campers.Most teardrops are outfitted to be comfortable to sleep in and provide storage for camping gear.If you do a web search for homemade teardrops you will find a lot of plans for a 4x8 teardrop.Now what is the connection between a cache and a teardrop ?

     Imagine a 4ft wide 4ft high and 8 ft long box.This is how a teardrop starts then we add curves and a hatch make it aerodynamic to tow.Forget the curves and hatch think 4x4x8 storage crate.For what we need it takes 5 sheets plywood 10 2x4s 5 tubes silicon 2 gallons paint and a roll of 6mil plastic.Around here the cost will be 150$.I think most of us can build a crate to this size.Use the 2x4s as bands on the outside on both ends and the middle run 2 on the inside in the corners that will be the roof for strength.Caulk all seams inside and out paint  inside a light color use the rest in multi coats on the outside.Cut a hatch door in roof or side depending on how it will be buried.
    
      OK lets assume you built this 4x4x8 ugly thing.Dig a hole 5x5x9 a person can dig this hole by hand in 2 or 3 days easy (OK not easy but cheaply) get someone you TRUST to help you lower it in.Line the hole with plastic taping seams and carefully not to rip it.Once in the hole cut a 4inch hole for an air tube .Back fill the hole make a lip for the door.

     Now you have a grave with an air hole and door right?Had to get that in before comments were made.What it can be is a place that is 128 cubic feet of storage.In one end load a row of 5 gallon buckets they will go 4 wide 3 high make another row that's 24 buckets of food.Now make a shelf 14 inces off the floor add 8 buckets on top of it.OK you have 32 buckets put guns solar panel fishing rods on top I hope you stuffed the gaps between the buckets with items.You will still have 6 foot of floor space to sleep on so add a foam mat some led tap lights pillows a CD player a jump pack for a little power.

     This isn't a perfect answer but it is doable at a low price.It give you a second place for preps it is warmer and cooler than a tent it is a place to hide till trouble passes.I will not bug out to the woods but i will not fight to the death for a house.This gives me an option to hide and reclaim whats mine later and still have my supplies.Mine will be under a mower shed .

      I wrote this to make people think.Even when bugging out isn't possible plan on a fall back.We all want to thrive but never forget first we must survive.

Been think about a survival cache.

     Last weekend when I was doing BBQ a friend stopped and we got to talking.Tony is a little different but OK type he was telling m about his new storm shelter.Last year tornado's came real close to both of us.He had one of those round fiberglass ball shelters installed behind his mobile home.

     Tony was talking about using leds and adding some food to as he put it his doomsday bunker.I told him sounded like a good idea to me and made a few suggestions.Now me and him are not close enough that he has any idea that I preps.I kept my comments general but i did encourage him to move some thing in his bunker "just in case".His storm shelter cost over 7000$ but because he was in a stricken area( I wasn't) he got almost 5000$ back from state and federal sources.
     Now for 2000$ in out of pocket he got a great deal but for a survival cache bunker I would hate to know the state and feds had a record of it.His will seat 8 but it isn't set up for long term habitation It's ROUND.It did get me thinking and looking for cheaper self made choices. Here is an 8x12 on E how              http://www.ehow.com/how_8602300_do-yourself-underground-shelters.html     Not bad but not practical for me.I cant dig a  10x15 ft hole 10 ft deep by hand.Tomorrow i will tell you what i have been thinking about that any one can build its cheap and holds a Literal ton of supplies