Friday, January 30, 2015

frugal living 10


FRUGAL LIVING 10

SHELTER

RV
( note: earlier this morning, link posted to a must read article.  Scroll down past this one )
If you already have an RV ( motor home or travel trailer ), they make a great start at your junk land homestead.  If you can buy one cheaply-I wouldn’t pay much more than a grand, but that is just me- you might as well go for it because even if you move out of the thing they make great storage sheds ( if you can buy an RV cheaper than you can get a shed, I would ).  And don’t forget barter.  Usually, at least now prior to an economic freefall, a guy wanting to sell usually wants to get rid of an eyesore.  Well, the wife wants to get rid of it, so same difference.  You might be able to horse trade.  I’ve had a trailer offered to me free, just because it was nothing but an unwanted item on par with garage plastic clutter ( of course, ex #2 wouldn’t hear of it ), but don’t expect that kind of luck.  In my area, RV’s are WAY overpriced by their owners ( this is a high cost of living area, but it barely effects me other than perhaps a few percent higher grocery cost if that ), but I’ve gotten one that was suicided in and another that was given cheap for lack of a parking spot.  As a start, if you can get one cheap, they are not a bad way to start living on your land.  The question is, do you want to stay in it long term?

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If you own land in an area with harsh winters, I would not recommend you live in an RV unless you modify it.  I lived in one for four winters and since at the same time I was living on a very severe budget ( child support, only wage earner ), there was a strict rationing of heating propane.  Only when it dropped under fifty was the heat turned on, and we never ran it overnight.  We were toasty under wool and a feather comforter, but getting up in the morning was like jumping in a near frozen lake.  It wasn’t unusual to be in the teens inside and once when the outside was minus eight it was eight above  inside ( Fahrenheit, should any foreign reader subjected to the pisspoor metric system be afoot ).  And that was with the RV modified.  I’d gotten sheets of squishy foam pads and sheets of foil covered bubble wrap and covered every wall and ceiling ( and every window ) and every floor was multi-rug covered.  You should have seen how cold it was in there before I’d added that extra insulation!  So, I don’t recommend an RV in the cold weather.  Sure, you could afford more propane now, but what about when you are poorer?  Don’t plan on spending what you might not have.  Now, if you can afford some wood to go along with that RV, things are going to be a lot more comfortable.  If you add an exterior room, a walled and covered porch, basically, and use that as a better insulated room ( a fiberglass insulation 2x4 wall is so much better than a one inch foam insulation RV wall ) to sleep and relax in, and keep the RV as a kitchen/bathroom/storage area, not only will it be oh so much more comfortable, it will use far less energy to heat, also ( the heater being in the add-on room, and just heating that room and not the RV ).  The only thing to beware is your locations property tax.  An RV is a vehicle, but an added room is a structure that will be taxed.  Know and plan around that.

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21 comments:

  1. If you are all thumbs when it comes to building, and don't mind a funky dome shaped shed, check out Starplates. All you do is drill a hole at each end of a 2x4 of the length you want and bolt it to a plate. Then sheet and finish as you desire. I helped build one as a kid and went back 20 years later to find it was as solid as the day it was built. Only place I can find them is some chicken supply site, but they really have good info. I saw Home Depot had a shed kit for 700 dollars, but I think it was only 8x10. Of course to my way of thinking, I would build two sheds, one for living space, the other for cooking and storage, as money allowed of course. And eventually my very own BPOD.

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    1. The Fast Framer Universal Storage Shed Framing Kit, is another option Wrenchr2:

      http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000AXFST/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=33829040635&hvpos=1t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11371228737854682307&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_2yvpnu33zq_b

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  2. My son is living on a piece of land that floods every 10 years or so got almost 1 acre for taxes. He lives in a 400$ camper I was using as a shed .2, 15 watt solar panels propane stove and heater. For under 1000$ he has a place to live, now it is 15 miles in nowhere but it is dry, on a creek, and out of my hair! It can be done and he will tell you it beats being homeless.

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  3. Posting this link here, eventually we're going to talk about furgal firearms again I guess.

    Cheap guns are good enough
    By Massad Ayoob

    http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/ayoob62.html

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    1. I don't know-haven't we about talked it out?

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    2. Man, I'm reading you since the Bison Newsletter, you talked it out fourteen and a half times already, but you got to give your readership what it expects ;-)

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    3. Actually, what we'll continue to talk about (because we can never talk about it enough) is how Jim despises semi-auto rifles and if you don't prefer a bolt action like he does then you are an ill-informed cretin who is doomed to run out of ammo on day one of the Apocalypse.

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    4. You are lucky I wrote it up in book form, or I'd talk about it much more in the blog

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    5. Semi-auto rifle requires a lot more shooter discipline than boltie/lever/pump. If the shooter can do his job (not go pew-pew-pew in the general direction of the enemy) and aim each shot, the careful shooter should be able to equal the manual loader in precision as well as have an extra second between each shot for aiming and deciding (semi-auto aimed fire 20 rounds a minute, which can be talking guns, double-taps, or whatever works to not waste). IMHO, a FAL or M1A is lacking in only one thing: reasonable cost. 10-15 good M-1944 or M91-'30's can be had for the cost of a decent pre-ban semi-auto battle rifle, and at least 6 for a post-ban home-assembled model.

      The cost of becoming a somewhat disciplined shooter is best borne by Uncle Sam (oh, wait, Unca is where "mass fire" shooting came from) or pre-1999 ammo (IMI 7.62x51 1000 round case in cans $111 delivered in time for Y2K). Few can afford enough rounds or legitimate ammo-conserving instruction to get BP qualified post-2012, but you can get a bolt action rifle and hundreds of rounds (instead of thousands of rounds) to get qualified.

      Should a person be starting with empty hands in 2015? The Bison Prepper Strategy seems like the only one cheap and quick enough to save a persons' behind in the next 2 years (you might get some slow-collapse in 2 years) of grace offered by the mighty inertia of empire to be able to issue declarational fiat money backed with possible military/police/weaponized-bureaucrat force. You need a sturdy-simple rifle with black powder retro-capability. That means a cartridge at least as big as the -54R, if not a 338-Monster-Mag, to be able to get enough foot-pounds into a bullet to do something. You will also need a knife with an 8" blade and sturdy like a KBAR.

      Multi-generational "wearing out" of weapons? Naaaa. Out of ammo way before that. Looking for stainless-titanium falling block .45-70 to take care of that problem. Serious force-multiplier isn't guns anyway, it's explosives and cannon.

      pdxr13

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    6. Wasn't 45-70 a primer system? I think primers are more an issue than powder, at least initially.

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  4. I live in a Motorhome James. It's miserable in the winter time, and I'm in CA. I can't imagine that living in an uninsulated shed would be too much worse? If I had to choose again between a Motorhome or a trailer, I'd choose a trailer. While smog laws vary from state to state, here in CA any vehicle manufactured past 1976 must be smogged, even Motorhomes. When you sell them, you must also smog them, and it is the sellers responsibility. The "as is, no smog" clause in the bill of sale, doesn't actually hold any legal weight, so if the buyer is aware, and decides to call you on it, they're legally in the right. This means that I have to hope that my 1984 carbureted RV will smog when the time comes to sell it? Add in engine, fuel, and battery maintenance, and they are a lot of upkeep. This makes sense if you're on the road with it, but makes them a poor choice in my opinion as a stationary Dwelling. Unless of course you just want to haul it from point A to B, never register or drive it, and don't plan on selling it, then I suppose that it wouldn't matter much as long as you didn't pay too much for it.

    If I were to do over, I would have built a shed, and constructed it so that it was easy to take down and move when the time comes. I like ghostsniper's idea in the previous article about constructing a shed in stages, then hauling the panels out to your land and piecing them together there, and have often thought of this myself. The shed would only be a temporary Dwelling. I would more than likely build an earth sheltered dugout in the same fashion as the early pioneers.

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    1. Right, you don't want to move it, to avoid hassles

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    2. If you have your game together and know exactly what you want, you can fashion a jig on sawhorses and manufacture the 4' x 8' panels pretty quick and all of them will be sized perfectly. Then you pre-assemble them at your current site to make sure everything works the way it should. Then disassemble and haul to the site and can be screwed together with a cordless drill in a few hours. Weather permitting, you could even sleep in it that night. Some panels would have a window installed, another would have a door, etc. Same idea with the floor and the roof. The floor would require 2x8's rather than 2x4's and the sheathing would be 3/4" thick rather than 1/2" that is on the walls. For the roof you'd use 2x6's and 1/2" sheathing. I did a 2nd floor deck 8 years ago and used vinyl self adhesive roll roofing on it and it still doesn't leak. Just make sure you lap the stuff at least 6" from the top down. Also, the roof should overhang the walls a few inches to keep the rain from running back up to the wall and infiltrating. Fllor panels can be insulated as you build them then cover the insulation with tyvek from the bottom side to keep the critters out.

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  5. I had a big awning on my motorhome when I got it. I Staked it down, closed it in and had a good sized room for "living room" space. 2x2 walls covered in tarps with blankets hanging down on the inside make a nice area out of the wind and a small barbecue vented to the outside will keep the chill off. None of that will be taxable because it isn't sitting on a foundation.

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  6. Since you talk about be ready for anything that might bring about the day the SHTF. Why no mention about all those 1000's of major earthquakes in Northern Nevada? Having gone through the Northridge and La Habra quakes here in So Cal. I can attest to the fact that earthquakes got me off of my ass and doubled my emergency supplies of food, water, ammo and a gun or 7.
    Much more than the Red Cross and L.A. County recommends of 3 days worth. (they did last year change to a weeks worth, info to little for most of the illegals now packing 12 to 24 people in a 2 bedroom home or condo. 2 fires in the last 2 weeks showed that fact in here So Cal. Many deaths from those fires!)
    I guess there were not that many earthquakes in Happy Camp HUH?
    Love your new skin head look! Joined the Nazi Party or too many lice in the pit of doom?
    Love ya! Not in that way!!

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    Replies
    1. Every other prepper blog can yak about natural disasters. I prefer end of civilization stuff. Shant follow THAT herd!

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    2. Ah! but the end of the world be in dribs and drabs because of natural (and man made) disasters. There will simply be no real recovery from them. Just like the roman emperor getting used as a footstool (a man made disaster) caused the disintegration of that empire, it will be disaster after disaster everywhere but the capitol, until one day the capitol too succumbs and no one can ignore any longer that the emperor can not afford any clothes. THEN - after all those little disasters the former empire will embrace a new normal.

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  7. Boats. yeah, they suck in winter if you don't have some way of heating them, but you can use wood if you set them up right. And you are not going to be living in one in Minnesota during the winter for sure. But for every other need.. perfect. Cheap to license, you can live just about anywhere you can reach... if you get hassled, they are easy to move. you can carry a buttload of stuff. perfectly adapted to off grid of course.

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    1. Orlov was talking about how they wrapped the deck in plastic and then heat shrunk it for a greenhouse heat. In the winter Boston harbor I believe it was.

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    2. Most modern boats are only so-so for being permanently off grid. a small sail/row boat would work, but _anything_ with an engine gets questionable quick, and it is usually the ones with the engines that have the water distillation, heating, etc., equipment.

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