WHEN YOU’RE A CARPENTER
When you’re a carpenter, everything looks like you want to nail it (
sexual innuendo optional ). A few weeks
ago I was listlessly scanning through the channels wondering why the girlfriend
was so damn stubborn about not canceling the cable, because there wasn’t crap
all on. I told her I’d put a rooftop
antenna in the same bracket as the DISH dish and use the same cable and we’d
get twenty channels for free where nothing is every on instead of fifty-five
channels where nothing is ever on, but you have to pay for that privilege. Honestly, I think she keeps it because she
likes to watch “Golden Girls” in the morning, probably because she would like
her old age to be that cool. Anyway, I
finally settled on a PBS show about some old dude who homesteaded up in Alaska
way back in the Sixties or Seventies. He
was on an isolated lake and he filmed the process from beginning to end
building his cabin and settling in, talking about how he did everything. I was fifteen minutes late watching it so I
don’t know how he financed the move or why he moved, but you could tell this
guy was a wicked talented wood worker.
He was using a two headed ax like me or you would use a file and rasp,
churning out latches and hinges for doors out of pure wood, whittling a serving
spoon from a block of wood, etc.
*
Don’t get me wrong, this guy was impressive. He stayed there for over thirty years,
through all those winters, only opting to move back down south when he was in
his eighties and didn’t want to face another winter. But what immediately raised a red flag for me
was his choice of a log cabin. Yes, he
was talented putting it up. A master
craftsman. But it was not very
appropriate for where he was at. With
the fire blasting away, it was forty inside in the middle of winter. Cozy, if you are bundled or sleeping, but not
too much fun when bathing or washing dishes.
And Alaska winters are NOT short.
I couldn’t help but wonder why he didn’t opt for a log cabin
dug-out. He used plastic sheeting for
the roof, so why not on three and a half out of four walls, also? By having an aboveground dwelling, you are
cutting and stacking and hauling wood all year long. For almost forty years. A partially underground house would use so
much less wood, plus that smaller amount would make it much more warmer
inside. It wasn’t like he had more than
one window as it was. This guy was
talented. Growing his own, hunting his
own. Why such an obvious omission? Dug-outs were well known from a hundred plus
years ago, it wasn’t like he missed out on the idea. I’m inclined to believe he was just a
carpenter and every solution to life’s problems involved more wood. But perhaps I’m wrong. It could have been he couldn’t get a
homesteading permit on a hillside for drainage?
Strange, what some people do.
END
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at
the top of the page. You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter
Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As
long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit
for your purchase. For those that can’t get the ads because they are
blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from
my Amazon Wish List once a year. *The Old Bison Blog: Over five years of work and nearly two
million words of pure brilliance: available as a free e-book, but not cleaned up or organized, at Lulu* My
monthly newsletter: search at Amazon under Kindle “Malthusian Survivalist
Newsletter”
*Contact Information* Links To Others* Top 20 Survivalist Fiction* Land In Elko* Lord Bison* my bio & biblio
*My books: http://bisonprepper.blogspot.com/2015/04/my-book-links.html
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there
*Contact Information* Links To Others* Top 20 Survivalist Fiction* Land In Elko* Lord Bison* my bio & biblio
*My books: http://bisonprepper.blogspot.com/2015/04/my-book-links.html
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there
Most people just don't think of a house as being partially (or fully) buried. Some of it is water control and ventilation and view issues, but in general I think most people in our society just don't think about it as an option. In the ground is for basements, root cellars, and coffins - not a house for living in.
ReplyDeleteI tell people I am building a house on my land and they assume I mean on top of the hills or the bottom of the valley (as IF! ha! the winds will blow anything away on the tops of the hills, and the valley gets wet enough and snow enough during the year to make flooding more likely than not.) Excavation is going to be our biggest house expense at this point.
And I will bring up that the downside to small towns far from anything else city like, is that you have little competition for things like equipment rentals - so you get charged a premium. Not so much a premium that it is worth your time to drive 2-3 hours to the next city to get a competing product, but enough so that it makes you realize how little selection you have.
Ah, the good ol days of high prices in small towns. Now, we have low prices far away from your suburbs. Adding in the cost of a vehicle, I'm not sure we actually came out ahead of the Chinese shopping bargain.
DeleteI saw the same movie a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the guy really liked chopping wood? Maybe his soil is similar to way it is here. I have to use a pick and an iron bar to bang away at the ground to get a half shovel of dirt. That's if there are no rocks. There's always rocks. When I hired a backhoe years ago it shook so bad digging that the cab snapped off the frame.
The short answer is permafrost and the frost line. The soil freezes down deep he would have been living in a natural deep freezer year round. Now that you have satellite watch gold rush this fall and you will see them scraping permafrost in mid summer.
ReplyDeletePerma-frost?
ReplyDeletePermafrost, can't or shouldn't build your house inside an ice cube.
ReplyDeleteA friend lived for several years out in the brush.. he was not all that far north in the state and still could not do underground.. he could barely get 4 feet for his outhouse hole. Permafrost. The ground is either rock hard to the point of needing dynamite, or it melts every spring and turns into mud. Add to that the moisture heaving up as it freezes. He would get the 3 foot mounds popping up around the homestead every winter. Occasionally one would happen right under the house or woodshed and lift a corner... have to move the house or try to remove the mound. Underground is not much of an option in much of the state.
ReplyDeleteHi James,
ReplyDeleteI'm a long time follower of your blog and enjoy it above all other survivalist stuff. The dugout idea would probably be the toughest way to go due to the perma frost in Alaska. It is as hard as solid rock to initially dig in and then it turns to muck when it gets up past the freezing point once you make your dugout home. Keep up the good work. Bud
I'll be honest, I forgot all about permafrost. That said, is it everywhere up there? Are some areas having it and not others. Right by a lake? I would think the water would act as a heat sink and surrounding areas would be warmer. Course, I'm guessing there. Couldn't you scrape off dirt and heap it around even if you had permafrost?
DeleteI recall reading about the city of Dawson catching on fire along the Yukon river around 1900 and even tho they had a steam driven fire engine pumper they had to dig through 10 feet of ice on the river before they hit water. The 400 ft fire hose froze up after just a few minutes in the 40 below temps and the whole town organized a bucket brigade to finally put out the fire. Building on perma frost would require the ground would not be thawed or your building would slowly sink in the resulting muck. Nature has a way of playing tricks on even the most well prepped and knowledgeable folks. Bud
DeleteAlone in the wilderness; the Richard Proeneke story.
ReplyDeleteHe headed up there in 1968 James. He was 50.
If I recall, he was actually a diesel mechanic by profession?
I saw that same special on PBS a few years back, and was awe struck at how he was able to so masterfully craft such items as door hinges, latches, locks, etc, all with simple hand tools. And he built the entire cabin with hand tools as well. Pretty amazing considering that it took place in the 20th century.
But agreed on having a better insulated shelter for such a cold area. When he mentioned that the temperature was a mere 40 degrees only 3 feet away from his stove, you know it had to be challenging to be there in the winter time.
Earth sheltered is the only thing that makes sense in my opinion, unless you live in the tropics, and even then it can humid, so it makes sense there as well.
There was a TV special on an old Cold War fallout shelter in Florida. Lasted decades, so dirt sheltered is indeed doable in tropics. The question of course is cost.
DeleteI think your referring to JFKs fall out shelter, on peanut island fl. Neat read
DeleteInsulation is cheaper now (vs. labor) than ever in human history. It's not getting "cheaper" per R-value, but it may get lighter and more compact with aerogels. Even mo-better is aerogel in a vacuum panel (expensive) but you can fit R60 insulation around your freezer and run the freezer hard-chocolate-ice-cream-cold with one 120W pv panel aboard a boat in +99 degree tropical water.
DeleteIf I was restricted to a tropical latitude, it would have altitude, like Quito Equador at 9350' ASL. Adjust baking recipes for low boiling temp ~195F of water. Not sweaty and hot, but the sun strikes down pink-skinned blue-eyed invaders when they forget a hat and don't hydrate like a dolphin.
pdxr13 +300'ASL 45 degrees N.
And the book, from amazon, of course
Deletehttp://www.amazon.com/One-Mans-Wilderness-Alaskan-Odyssey/dp/0882405136
I think the book looks interesting, thanks. And affordable too.
DeletePDX-do you have a brand name on the panels? Are they available for construction? Or is that silly? Should one just stick with fiberglass bats?
DeleteGary- I think it was just some regular guy.
DeleteIf this freezer could be had with a fancier lid and gasket system and aerogel insulation, it would be quite a cabin cooler. Your beer would be cold and G&T's would always have ice clinking.
Deletehttp://www.warehouseappliance.com/?t=Sundanzer-DC-390-Liter-14.7-Cu.-Ft.-Solar-Freezer&listing=8506876365542b833f387e
With a cheap controller/thermostat change, this "freezer" can be a refrigerator as well. Highly insulated top-loading refrigerator is very thrifty.
http://www.aerogel.com/resources/about-aerogel/
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aspen-Aerogel-SPACELOFT-Insulation-Hydrophobic-Mat-Per-Linear-Foot-5mm/380906349501
$4/ square foot is still too expensive for insulating a wall or a roof.
The math to make R30 is 15 layers of aerogel (5mm), so it's $60 a square foot. Medical super-cold freezers probably have used aerogels for a decade. This is okay on a freezer on a boat with limited space, limited power (solar/battery bank/genset) and a willingness to pay plenty for really-good life-support (cold beer and ice cubes) when in tropical waters, commercial aircraft (saving grams saves fuel, saves money), or spacecraft with "compared to what" technical requirements and cubic money budgets.
pdxr13
I'm surprised this set-up isn't discussed more by the Rawles Rangers, for their insulin dependent readers.
DeleteInsulin dependent folks aren't going to die from a lack of insulin.
DeleteThe lack of modern junk-food convenience calories will actually make them "healthier" than they are now, after a period of horrible withdrawal from diet soft drinks. Most don't heal very well, and the hard work ahead to merely eat and stay warm will cause never-healing wounds that will go bad. If they won't work, they won't be warm or eat: dead. If they impose on relatives, all of them will tend to die-off together: dead.
jmh_non-medical-professional_o.
pdxr13
Let me add this to all the comments on permafrost. Let's say that there is NO way around that issue. What if you were to build a double wall cabin, with moss in between the walls. He used a buttload of moss on the roof. See what I'm saying? It seems there are much easier answers than just cutting firewood.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention that, there is another show, Alaskan Bush People, which showed them using moss, still alive, in between the logs of their cabin. They made the point that as time went by, the moss grew thicker and the insulation value became greater. So definitely, better solutions exist.
DeleteThis whole bigger issue is why I fear there is little chance of avoiding a Peak Oil Dark Age. Not that solutions don't exist, but that people don't know about them and won't implement them. We need to be learning and passing them on "while the lights are still on" to have any hope those skills will be available when they're really needed.
And the whole "passing them on" seems to be about all we do, in digital form, and usually with the learning part skipped. Not that folks can be blamed, too busy staying solvent and sane.
DeleteRichard Proeneke, I have the movie and book- great stuff. He went to Alaska to check it out but got stuck doing the diesel mechanic on an island. He got a minor eye injury and a friend told him go to the interior as he had dreamed of. He had a friends cabin on the lake. He was a traditionalist and even made the handles for his hand tools in the bush. He made lots of things from old gas cans too. He didn't want to "cheat" and use plastic but did and felt bad about doing so. I would have used a woodstove instead of the open fireplace. His friend's cabin had one. In one scene he pulls pack some moss covering his permafrost root cellar hole. His book reads as a diary. Lots of what he ate, temperature, weather, lake ice depth and his hoping for the bush plane to land and bring news or some of the church ladies. He was tough but lonely it seemed. Great Hair! Lake Erie pirate
ReplyDeleteJust got his book and it does look a little boring ( I don't care for diary style ) so I'll save it for when I want a easy brain day. I'm interested in the details of his coping, which is why I bought the book.
Delete