HOMESTEADING FOR MORONS 2
Have you ever camped in a Wal-Mart
parking lot overnight? That is exactly
what homesteading is like, except that instead of walking into the building for
supplies, you drive into town for them.
But everything else is pretty much the same. I will be using a travel trailer/RV in my
example, although there are REALLY much better solutions out there. Almost any solution is better than an RV,
unless you got one extremely cheap. Not
a tent, those are worse, but pretty much anything else besides that. RV’s are just easier. Not better.
Not cheaper. Just easier and
familiar.
*
The then wife wanted to move out of
Florida. I really just hated my job
there, not the state, despite those humpers really screwing me over
financially. I’m glad I moved, in hindsight,
as the state is racing against Texas to be the new California, but everyone is
like that now. Just not as bad. Even my beloved Nevada. There isn’t an escape, just a gamble on the
system collapsing before your state goes Full Retard. Anyway, I knew our future there was dim
economically. If nothing else, just
hurricane insurance was forcing rent up.
*
So I moved to Nevada, having fond
memories of it nearly twenty years previous.
This was the capital, Carson City.
A real craphole chockablock full of California rejects all looking down
their noses at the Deplorables. The only
way I could live there was to rent a trailer park space. And I’m talking about living in a really
crappy trailer. I won’t regale you of tales
on that front, just know the point there is I had to live without any of the
normal RV appliances. Bathing was whores
baths with water from the coffee maker, for instance. And I learned how to use very little
electricity.
*
Several years of that and I was
practiced on very frugal living. I read
up on everything I could on homesteading, which greatly helped, but mostly just
living in poverty ( taxes and child support were 70% of my pay, and the remaining
70% of my cut was rent ) was good training for off-grid living. After a time, as lot rent went up like
clockwork 10% a year, I knew the end was nigh as even with regular weekly
overtime and my writing income I was being squeezed. I HAD to move off grid.
*
So thank you greedy landlord. Thank you greedy whore of an ex-wife. You gave me the push I needed to move to my “paradise”
in the country. Come on! It’s high desert. I love the desert, I truly do. But paradise it is not. I have to lifeboat stock all future food
needs as the soil here is deader than a politicians soul. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I only had book knowledge. But I moved because I had to.
*
A $120 land payment and $20 in
propane ( with the occasional replacement marine battery for the solar panels )
sure as hell beat $400 a month in RV rent and electric. I could have lived on a paid off lot of land,
but it was three times the distance by bicycle.
Being closer to town was worth scrounging up the extra land
payment. I still struggled financially
for four more years, but it lacked the intensity or emotional debilitation as
before. Rent was going towards
ownership, and it didn’t have to last long ( I had a six year loan and paid it
off early. It could have been sooner, even ).
*
I over paid for my land, as it was
close to work ( six miles ) and one mile from the river. I had one already paid for, 16 miles from
town. That would have been a FOUR hour
commute! So I made payments on the close
one. But I also had a third lot, nine
miles to town. That one was one quarter
the price of the closer one, so I would have it paid off far more quickly if I
became unemployed. If I hadn’t got that
third lot, or kept the truck so long, I would have had free land in just a year
and a half.
*
So, on a minimum wage job, supporting
two wives ( without much in the way of fringe bennies ), and overpaying greatly
on land, I STILL was a grinning pig in crap financially. I could actually adequately prepare for the
apocalypse, rather than nickel and diming it as I had for the last fifteen
years. It was glorious indeed to
homestead. But I wasn’t Yuppie Scum
homesteading. I was rural redneck
homesteading. Living in an RV ( I had no
idea of the hexayurt concept which is one third the price of a stick built cube
) http://hexayurt.com/index.old.html
*
Living in an RV with a pauper’s
amount of solar panels. Composting
sewage, hauling water in juice jugs ( by bicycle once I retired the truck ),
visiting the Laundromat in town, living without a refrigerator and rationing
heat in the high desert winter ( wool is your friend, and feather comforters
your buddy ). That was the price of
financial breathing room, and I paid it gladly.
I would do it again if I had to ( easier for me to say as I’d be much
smarter with shelter, solar panels are much cheaper, etcetera ).
*
The living cheap wasn’t even a
choice. I didn’t decide to downgrade to
be able to homestead cheaper. At the
time it was simply the ONLY choice. So
the transition was barely a change. I
went from living poor in an RV in town to living poor in an RV off grid. I had already been living counting kilowatt
hours for frugal budgeting, so I merely transitioned from counting kilowatts to
counting watts. The only real struggle
was to live without a microwave or a refrigerator.
*
I now know alternatives and work
arounds I wasn’t aware of then, but everything else stayed about the same level
of lifestyle. Well, there was a LOT more
sucking up the cold, but that was living in another part of the country and not
necessarily an issue for going off grid verses on grid. The point was that I didn’t have to worry
about a real house and twenty acres and gardens and chickens and an SUV
commuting to work ( I biked to work-the 5 mpg truck was just for a single
weekend trip for water/trash/clothes washing/shopping ).
*
If THAT is your idea of homesteading,
congratulations. You will NEVER get to
homestead. You can embrace your luxury
suburban living and pretend like you’ll one day get to safety in the country,
and free of debt. You are no better than
the idiot in the city with a closet of freeze dried yak embryos and armed with
a FLIR mounted AR-15. Your safety is all
illusion. Okay, to be fair, most rural
off-grid folks also aren’t that safe.
But you are LESS safe. Enjoy that
debt slavery because you couldn’t abandon your luxuries and soft soy boy
living. And enjoy that apocalypse city
warfare.
*
Okay, I’ll finish up tomorrow with, I
promise, the nuts and bolts of actually living on your land, cheaply. There shouldn’t be any surprises. Just like camping, remember? And you can practice that now, urban
camping.
( .Y. )
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* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there
Following. If the system collapses or there is a federal and national crack up, then there will be a whole different reality for all of the so called homesteaders and squating encampment types. The reasoning here, minions, is there is way too much dependancy and attachment to the federal and stepchild state payment systems. All of those homesteads and trailerings and r.v. travelers are mostly attached like a leach mouth to a payment teat. They could not be there, exist, or have any stasis or mobility without a sum of funds direct deposited, monthly, like clockwork. A few die hards do go galt all solo financed, trust fund baby, or brainiacs bailing out like ted kazinski, without an octopussy tentacle on everything society. If there is a one second after moment, then the sequel to that is "one helluva long day", afterwards. Plan accordingly.
ReplyDeleteFunds can end, anytime. But so can the gasoline. So, right, just think of our vulnerability as being an EMP in place already and plan around that.
DeleteQuestion, no judge, as you say.
ReplyDeleteHow do you get to your 40's and remain on minimum wage?
No brag, just fact, I was making 2 or 3 times minimum in my late 20's, and never could stand any job longer than 2 years. That was carpentry and concrete construction, no experience required. I see young doods working in fast food and retail and wonder WTF is wrong with these people, are they allergic to better income?
Today, I think minimum is $7.35 so a 40 hr week would be $294 before anything is taken out, or, about $900-1000 a month. How do you live on that kind of money with housing and utility prices as they are? Not to mention vehicle costs.
Live like trailer trash, minus the crack. Why was I working minimum wage at that age? I got more money as a percentage of take-home pay because of medical insurance. No insurance available, I took home 50% rather than 25%. Hence, at twice my wage I would have seen nothing extra. Why would I have? And remember, minimum wage is job security. I've been at companies where only us managers were targeted for corporate profit.
DeleteI don't understand any of that. Maybe I've been self employed for too long. There seems to be something wrong with the math, if you earn twice the wage but don't see anything extra.
DeleteRegarding your mention of insurance, and I'll assume that meant medical insurance. I never had it. Had 33 jobs, never insurance. I believe it makes people dependent, slaves. Was talking with a guy a few years ago who was bitching that his insurance went up and he now has to pay about a thousand a month. I laughed and told him to shit can it. He looked at me terrified. He said he has to have it in case anything happens. This guy is in his 50's and has 2 daughters, one almost grown, the other one married. I asked him if his dad ever had insurance on him whan he was growing up and he said no. Then I asked whats different now and the answer he gave was nonsensical. FWIW we raised our kid to adulthood and never paid 1 cent for insurance. There were some expenses along the way and a few of them pretty expensive. But never did anyone threaten my ass and hold it over me like they owned me. Frankly, insurance would have been a service we never used. If I had succumbed to the propaganda I too would have been living like trailer trash. my 2 cents.
The divorce specified that I must provide medical insurance for the kids if my job provided it. I lived out of state, so the insurance was no good. They couldn't use it. And, they had welfare medical anyway ( divorced men somehow have all their money, but women never have any income charged against them for assistance-or at least, that was the case. I don't know now ). But the ex-wife, being the universes biggest Super Twat, enforced the requirement just to penalize me. That is how I was making $25k a year and was seeing $500 a month income. So why work the high stress job? Minimum wage at a job not offering insurance was a better choice.
DeleteI started to imagine ST's super-villain costume. Then stopped.
DeleteNow I need brain bleach.
Here, let me help :) A fat suit. Used to be, the fat was in the two correct places. It spread from there, but the two never kept pace. Double dose of bleach, please.
DeleteOK, that makes sense. I didn't have enough detail before.
DeleteI have actually thought over a similar scenario a long time ago when our son was young and my wife was on the warpath. I hired a lawyer just for my own sanity and found out how the laws worked, from the horses mouth, and then gauged my behavior accordingly. Right then I saw lawyers from a different set of eyes. Now educated eyes. I knew that if she called this marriage quits I would have no choice but to drop completely out and leave the country. I would never be her slave. My own criminal, yes. But never her slave. That's just the way I am. Loyal to the death, but fuck me over and I'll blow your ass to hell and back and not blink an eye.
Started watching the British "Wartime Farm" series the other night and last night was episode 2. This is based in England in 1939. That is the time period they are replicating. In that epi they were talking all about how important food was cause the Germans had cut all imports, no shipping was getting through to the island nation. Much fending for self, and the country. Mostly the country. They touched on the black market and how the gov't propaganda tried to polarize everybody to snitch on everybody else pertaining to holding back on giving everything to the gov't. EVERYTHING was severly limited and the rations were very meager. Gasoline had red dye put in it to resemble fruit punch for transporting past the authorities. They then filtered the petro through loaves of bread to get the red out otherwise it would have messed up the engines.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest thing was that most farms prior to the war focused on livestock because vegetables and fruits were shipped in. Essentially, the farmers grew crops to feed the animals which then fed the people. During the war they cut the middle man, harvested all the animals, and all the farms focused on vegetables and fruits. The gov't, and thereby the people, became outright beastly to one another. If that war continued for another year or 2 england may not have survived itself. You never heard this stuff in the school history books, cept the mildest versions. People are the most dangerous animals when times warrant it.
Lots and lots of propaganda disguising life in Germany, Soviet Union, Britain and America. Perhaps especially here, as we had more money to throw at it.
DeleteGreat post. I really enjoy these articles that deal with the “how to’s” of frugal homesteading. Also, thanks for that Hexayurt link, I’ll be checking it out, as I’m looking for a cheap alternative to replace my crappy RV. I have my doubts that you can build a 166’ shelter for less than a $100, so that’s probably outdated information, but I’m sure that it’s still considerably cheaper than a stick built. It would only be temporary regardless, since there’s no way in hell that I plan on trying to brave the high desert winters in anything but an earth sheltered.
ReplyDeleteAlso, any suggestions for a dude trying to go it alone, on a remote, high desert lot, as far as combating loneliness? That’s a tough one, I know, so no expectations on your being able to answer it.
The 166 ft shelter is 17 sheets of plywood. But a stick built cube is 12 sheets, and almost 1/3 the size. So even if it is not $100, it is 2.5 times cheaper per square foot. Combating loneliness? Only partial answers. I wouldn't wait more than two weeks to go into town for supplies, library books and the laundromat.That should mostly make it bearable. Barely an answer, I know. But finding a near-by hill that picks up a cell signal ( and installing a squat tower and mini-shelter ) and being social online only goes so far and is $50 a month.
DeleteThanks. It’s not an easy question to answer, so I understood if you weren’t able to provide an answer. The funny thing is, I’m probably more of a loner than practically anyone that you would ever meet. But currently, I live within close proximity to family. And even though I’m not around them constantly, just having them close by, provides enough contact, that you feel less lonely overall. But out there, I’ll truly be on my own. My cell service shows that I have service out there, though I am somewhat skeptical?
DeleteJust starting to dig into the hexayurts article now, and so far it’s looking good. Right up my alley; very simple and cheap. I’m a lot things, but a master carpenter sure isn’t one of them :D
Perhaps having a dog? Hauling that bag of chow would suck, but he might keep you sane. Sorry, I thought of it after I already posted the above.
DeleteThat’s actually a great suggestion, thanks. But I’m at the point now where I’m all “animaled out” thanks to my mothers Dr Doolittle like tendencies, and I never plan on stepping in animal shit ever again!
DeleteWhat I want to know is where the hell is that damn Cherry 2000 that the 1987 sci flick promised us that we would have by 2017? Now that would solve my problems! :D
Having just re-watched, now I'm worried that any sexbots would not be waterproof.
Deleteanonymous lots of good books libraries are fgetting rid of kipling twain and others sometimes you ge them free load up
DeleteMy library kept only oversized "coffee table books" on almost all subjects non-fiction. Except WWII which was three shelves to every thing else's 1/3. Must push Evil Nazi narrative. They got rid of about half of ALL books. Now just really bad quality crap coming in new.
DeleteHexayurt...
ReplyDelete3/4" CDX plywood at the Elko Home Depot is $37.98 per panel. Times 12 panels (tax?) is $455.76. I would paint all six sides of each plywood panel with two coats of the highest quality exterior paint available to seal it, at least $200 worth of paint. You need a foundation, at least two courses high of 8x8x16 concrete blocks, filled with concrete and anchored to the bottom of plywood (with pressure treated 4x4s screwed/nailed and glued to the bottom of the plywood). If you don't have a heavy foundation, the winds out there may blow it away. You could wrap the whole exterior with 30# roofing felt before you decided on a more permanent exterior, but two layers of 30# roofing felt would probably last the rest of your projected lifespan if you can get over the summer heat gain and the stark contrast of black against the desert landscape that would make your shelter easily stand out to anyone in the area. I would stiffen up the inside with 2x4s screwed flat against the plywood, with the insides filled with 1-1/2" rigid reflective foam insulation. With two 20 20 windows (one facing south, the other facing the most likely angle of approach by "others"), plus a custom homemade hobbit door, there's no way you're building it any less than $1500. I didn't spend too much time on the website to see how they join the panels together.
On the Elko Home Depot website it appears they're hiring part-time employees, so maybe that's something?
Desert food, infertile soil...
Don't forget to harvest sagebrush seeds this summer. Your local Indians mixed them with other seeds because the taste wasn't the greatest. Also, you can trap your local rodents (pack rats, kangaroo rats?). There was a university study many years back that I don't feel like looking up right now, but basically there was an unexpectedly high rodent population in random areas of uninhabited Nevada desert, something like 1000 rodents per acre? Use a metal rat trap.
https://www.amazon.com/made2catch-Classic-Metal-Traps-Galvanized/dp/B0190GMLUG/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=rat+trap&qid=1550193897&s=gateway&sr=8-11
The wooden ones won't weather as well, and supposedly once rodent blood is spilled on them the wood absorbs it and other rodents will avoid it because it smells like death to them. The metal ones can be boiled and then run through the smoke of a fire to kill any scent. Use tarred bank line to secure your traps to a nearby sagebrush so an off-angle impact doesn't allow the rodent to scurry away with your trap. The bank line makes it easy to dip your traps in boiling water and run them through the smoke. Don't trap any closer than 50 yards from your camp. When the rodent dies, the fleas will leave and you don't want them looking for a new home around your camp. When you initially handle your catch, use long-handled needle nose pliers so you can keep it as far away from you as possible in case any fleas are still there. Toss your catch in a metal pot with lid. Dump the still intact rodents directly into a fire to singe off the hair and kill any slow fleas. Then pull them out, gut them, and cook. Crush the bones and eat those too. Once the fires go through your area, the ant population will greatly expand. You may already have large ant populations out there. I think the large black carpenter ants taste pretty good, no gross factor.
Peace out
You can always boil insects and the fat rises to the top for skimming. Not that there seems to be that many of those, even. Good stuff-thanks.
DeleteA few years ago I read about this swedish (I think) survival dood that was heavy into the viking thing and he kept a giant cast iron vat on the fire all the time and just kept adding to it. He'd trap an animal and throw the whole thing in that kettle and boil it for days. The first time he tried a spoonful of that stuff he tripped for 3 days and had an extreme fever for a week and after that he was Ragnar complete with horns. hard core mother fucker. lol
DeleteI went back and watched the Hexayurt assembly video. No way would I trust those materials in the desert winds. Forget the taped seams and use piano hinges and/or Simpson Strong Ties for the joints with the 3/4" plywood. Maybe you could do 1/2" plywood, but I wouldn't. After everything is adjusted square and level, I'd go back with a putty knife and fill in all the gaps between the panels with wood putty, then seal the gaps with paint.
DeletePeace out
I think mostly mobility and Turd World cheapness is the factor in the design. Nothing wrong with beefing it up.
DeleteGS-so, what? Eating Forever Soup is a hallucinogen? Let's can that up and sell it. :)
Delete3/4" plywood as a structural entity, are you wacked out? As a bridging BETWEEN structural members, but on it's own? Suicidal. And you're right about those winds in open areas. Buffeting (when wind racing along a linear plane) will tear that thing apart in hours, even with Simpsons strongest along all seams. BTW, the only way you're going to anchor Simpsons to plywood is with drilled through bolts, so add that into the budget.
DeleteYa know, there's a reason why things are built the way they are these days and people that aren't in the business have no idea why. Until they get all the way into an alternative at which time it's too late. I'm speaking - structure.
Why do you suppose "stick-built" has been the most common way of constructing buildings for more than a century?
It's the most efficient way.
EVERY other method of creating a building worth living in is far more inefficient, hands down. When I see someone down talking stick built I just smh and think, "That retarded idiot hasn't the first clue."
A classic example is Dennis Weavers rammed earth house. Novices frequently think they're going to get a couple truckloads of tires and them and their friends will spend some spare time building an earth friendly domocile. Silly knaves. I saw an interview with Weaver in the late 90's and he was thoroughly disgusted with the project. He estimated that in time, labor, and materials that house cost 7 times as much as a conventionally framed house.
Now, if you're starting from the ground zero, that is, living right on the ground in a tent, that yurt thing can look attractive, and may very well be. But soon, very soon, probably just days, you're going to see the error of your ways. Same with all the trendy stuff coming down the pike.
I suggest anyone that is considering building a place to live they spend some quality time deeply analyzing the various methods that are popularized with a scrutinous eye, but remember, the problem is that if you are not already knowledgeable in construction you don't really know what to look for, and you'll most likely fall for the cheapest of tricks.
2x4's and plywood are available every where across the country right now and can be bought and constructed with the money you have in your pocket. I have described this in detail, right here, many times, but everybody just wants to take mind vacations in la la land and I guess that's because nobody is really serious about it.
The first step in my "Escape Cabin" designs series, the entry level "Economy" model, is under way. Last week I ordered and had delivered a bunk of #1 lumber in sizes 2x4, 2x6, and 2x8, in 8' and 16' lengths. A bunk is 144 sticks. I have a 40 sheets of 1/2" plywood and 12 sheets of 3/4" PT plywood on order and will be delivered on Mon. Also have the pier blocks and various other necessities being delivered too. All of that stuff will be stored in the workshop until it warms up. I bought now to avoid price increases. Soon, I'm gonna light this rocket.
Sure, alternate building methods might not be the snake oil "cures everything and cancer" we do tend to want it to be. There is danger there, granted. But it might also be a needed step moving back towards Local Material and temp structures. Not everyone necessarily will be forced to move, but ONLY building for several generations might also be limiting in its own right. Nomadism might be more common than assumed, soon.
Deletere:
ReplyDelete'Hexayurt'
You may be over-thinking shelter.
Taos architect Mike Reynolds developed his EarthShip homes from discarded used tires. For cheap and indestructible, this sounds perfect.
EarthShip YouTube videos make it sound easier than easy, cheaper than cheap, a one-time investment in a few hundred hours of labor for centuries of stability.
EarthShip structures include an integrated greenhouse with pond.
For gardens:
*** the Eden fellow in Washington (the state) uses discarded wood chips from tree-trimmers.
*** Mel Bartholomew developed his Square Foot Gardening for poor soil, deflecting detractors by pointing out his complete unneed of ground by a one-time investment in packaged potting soil, then continuously amending.
Here in Eugene Oregon, Grape Solar occasionally has a sidewalk sale of scratch-and-dent panels for thirty cents a Watt. Peripherals add to that number.
Some folks see problems with isolation.
I cherish distance from humans.
If you aren't cut-out for hermitage, stay in town.
I realize I sound harsh. Probably cranky. Definitely fed-up.
But, no, I am not working on my manifesto. Sheesh.
The Earth Ship really is perfect. And you must be young and in shape to build it. Each tire requires LOTS of compacting with a sledge hammer. I theorized that perhaps using mud would work, but have no idea. The $50 & Up Underground book will work in the place of an Earthship.
Delete"...few hundred hours of labor..."
Delete300 hours at $15/hr = $4,500.00
"...for centuries of stability..."
This is embarrassing, for many reasons, and it's obvious.
"...discarded wood chips from tree-trimmers..."
Doubtful. It is horticultural waste and by law must be treated as such, and disposed of in accordance with laws. If it has profit the professional trimmers (Asplund, etc.) already have in place company's that buy the stuff. Do it yourself trimmers don't produce enough to be worth while. Further, tree trimming frequently harbor dangerous things that will be difficult to deal with in short order.
Why would you value your own labor at any dollar amount? Not sure I see the point in that. You are doing it for you. It kind of sounds like a divorce settlement "Why, your Honor, my long suffering client labored in the home, equivalent to several domestic servants earning three thousand dollars a month, and furthermore, to replace her loving tender care with a child care service would equate to $2300 a month. And that is just the beginning! In short, Sir, I demand my client receive all the proceeds from liquidating her husbands employers corporation!"
DeleteWhy a dollar amount? It's the most common way to find value, and value is a sliding point. Remember awhile back I mentioned I was making about $100 a day working on a building and another person skoffed at that amount. Value.
DeleteBut yeah, in my prime that $15/hr figure I quoted would have been very low. Today it would be high. So I figured it as a base number and anybody can substitute as needed.
The point was though, that a few hundred hours, as Marge mentioned, still has value. Further, moving dirt is pretty hard work even under ideal conditions. That's one of the reasons for my preference to build on top of the ground rather than under. It is easier to insulate a building on top of the ground than to put the whole thing under the ground. From my perspective. And with each passing year from here on out that becomes more true.
I just looked at my digging project as how much I saved verses a backhoe-which would be about your $15 an hour.
DeleteRe: Hexayurt from above:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the input all. @peace out; I believe that the taped seam model that you saw was the portable version intended more for temporary use, such as at Burning Man. I saw mention of the use of boards to tie the panels together for the basic plywood model. The Haiti version (linked below) is intended for Hurricane winds.
I’ve looked into the Earth ships before, and wouldn’t rule one out. But as Jim has pointed out, the work involved might be beyond what this 50 something year old can realistically perform (Remember; it will likely be just me, with no help from anyone at all). I should also be clear on my hermitage status. I’m probably the biggest loner that I know of. That said, I’ve always lived near at least a few relatives. This on the other hand will be complete isolation, with no one else around for miles. (I believe that Marge has a partner? Not the same for me, and not likely in the future either). That said, I will be doing it. My main challenge will be combating said loneliness.
http://files.howtolivewiki.com/hexayurt_in_haiti_v1.1.pdf
http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_Plywood
"The Haiti version (linked below) is intended for Hurricane winds."
DeleteOh dear. It keeps getting deeper.
I have designed, and built, hundreds of buildings on islands that are capable of sustaining Cat 3 winds.
But guess what? Saying something is "intended for hurricane winds" doesn't mean what you think it does. Know what FEMA does? In areas of the country where all buildings must be capable of resisting category 3 winds there are built in exceptions.
See, high wind velocity's themselves are not the only thing that damages a building during a hurricane. Things flying off of buildings frequently do damage to adjacent structures. FEMA has rules that govern this. Some things, like 8'x8' prefabricated ribbed metal sheds for example, do not have to meet the category 3 requirement as their impact on adjacent structures is minimal. Another example: all poured concrete within the flood plain must be score cut on 48" centers both ways and shall not receive reinforcing. This is so that, in the event of a tidal surge large slabs of concrete are not lifted and floated to do damage to adjacent structures. The concrete must break up in 4'x4' pieces.
I looked at that yurt in the link. In a 150mph wind, due to Bernoulli's principle, it will instantly turn into a kite and be gone, in pieces, and everything inside will be strewn or killed.
When I read "hurricane winds" I translated that as "withstand high desert winds". It never entered my mind I'd try to ride it out in an actual hurricane. Give us SOME credit. I think all of us have exposed to enough hype and lies ( red uranium! MAGA! ) that we automatically turn on our BS detectors to "stun".
DeleteWell it DID say hurricane. But say they didn't MEAN hurricane, then how much wind did they mean? I could spend some time and figure it out, but I just don't really care. That is, the weight of the total yurt materials and the resistance of the hold-down methods, vs the measured uplift from the top of the yurt acting like an airplane wing.
DeleteBuffeting from wind may not be ample to destroy the building if the wind is light, but it has the tendency to do hidden damage within the structure and you won't know it at first. But come winter and that north wind is creeping in through all those now expanded seams will tell the story.
I think I would want to ferrocement it, both as a cheap roof and to bind it together. But, sure, as advertised it might give false hope. Probably the last thing we need more of :)
DeleteAnd to reiterate. This is likely only going to be a temporary shelter, to be used where I currently reside (family farm). Once out at the high desert permanently, I will immediately begin construction on an earth sheltered abode, so I might only need to stay in a tent for a few months, and probably would not build the Hexayurt.
ReplyDelete