Putting Lipstick on a Pig - Fixing the camp! (Photo heavy)

[Daddy Tanuki]

Yep! When I bought the place the original roof was the corrugated green fiberglass and a metal garbage can on top that had a hole in the bottom. I sent my skinny nephew up there to scope it out and he made it about 1 step before it started collapsing. So a few years ago when I got sick of being 6'5" and trying to use a 6ft tall shower, I re-vamped the outdoor shower with some 1/2" plexi on the roof.

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My first attempt to fix this shower was to use the old 120gal fresh water tank, paint it flat black, and stick that up on the roof. That worked "better" if it was summer and you let it sit full all day in the sun. Second attempt was a little camping propane heater I bought locally, a 12v pump, the small solar panel and a battery. As a proof of concept it worked.

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I bought a bigger 18l on demand propane heater that worked great... twice. The other day I threw in a different brand 1.4gal heater and it's great for summer but about 91F is all it can do with the cold ground water. It'll be good for the laundry room when my bigger heater shows up.


The last year plus has been really rough. In the divorce when all is said and done she's getting about 82% of everything, but the camp is mine! I'm living on my best friend's charity but the living situation could go away at any second due to no fault of our own, so if SHTF in my life I know I can live out here as long as I can afford propane, diesel, and food.

As for more updates, well we dropped 17 trees Sunday and I've got a brush pile the size of my cabin I need to break down and burn. The laundry room shed kit should be arriving today for me to go pick up. Hopefully later this week I'll have some help doing construction. I've got a brand new nail gun and ammo that should help make quicker work of the shed and the ground mount arrays construction.


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For scale, that pile is a little over 7ft tall at its highest point and 40ft wide and there's still a good dozen branches in the new clearing that I need to drag over once I've got space. It's gonna take me the better part of a week to get that all chopped smaller and burned.

uhmm thats winter fuel... buck it, split it and stack it.

 

[Rednecktek]

what does a sea fairing man know about land?

Was a tree climber and fort maker long before I knew about boats. ?

Uhmmm Squid? Navy showers? like 30 seconds scrub your dangly bits and get the F out? (I know you are on a civilian Ship but you cant be that soft are you?) :; :;

Nah, I get 2 songs out of the playlist, nice Hollywood showers.

gotta admit I have had pretty decent luck with the DALY's so far, I have one that does not calculate actual SOC for squat but the other three are rocking it... and if you get the newer ones they do have active balancing up to three amps...

We'll see how they do on the next project! My two showed up today.



Teaser for my next project. I think I'll use like 20 or 22awg steel for these, that 100lb of case on the last one was a bad idea.

Looks like I'm heading back ovr Sunday to get the racks finished and the laundry room started. Gotta love Order of Operation projects. I gotta get the panels out of the metal shed so I can unload all the foam and wood out of the trailer into there so I can take the trailer down to pick up the shed.

 

[Rednecktek]

uhmm thats winter fuel... buck it, split it and stack it.

No fire place inside, and before you tell me to put one in, tell me if I should lose my super comfy lounge chairs, my couch/3rd bed, or my dining room table so I have a place to stick it. It's a 2bed 1 bath 260sqft cabin, not a lot of space in there for a 3ft square clearance for a small fireplace.

 

[wme]

No fire place inside, and before you tell me to put one in, tell me if I should lose my super comfy lounge chairs, my couch/3rd bed, or my dining room table so I have a place to stick it. It's a 2bed 1 bath 260sqft cabin, not a lot of space in there for a 3ft square clearance for a small fireplace.

It just depends on how adverse you are to wasting good heat in your backyard firepit and your level of creativity.
https://www.unforgettablefirellc.com/kimberly-wood-stove/
https://cubicminiwoodstoves.com/collections/cub-cb-108

 

[cj5orion]

Absolutely,positively,no doubt about it ,don't even think about it!!!!!!
Must have a fireplace !
Lose the "3rd bed" (what the hell ya need with 3rd bed anyhow), would be my choice.
Wintertime,"cabin" in the woods,and no fireplace... unacceptable!!!!

 

[Supervstech]

Absolutely,positively,no doubt about it ,don't even think about it!!!!!!
Must have a fireplace !
Lose the "3rd bed" (what the hell ya need with 3rd bed anyhow), would be my choice.
Wintertime,"cabin" in the woods,and no fireplace... unacceptable!!!!

No way a fireplace is a big hole in the wall sucking cold air in.
Gotta have a Franklin stove, or a full insert!

 

[Rednecktek]

One of these rainy days I need to whip out the graph paper and a measuring tape and get a sketch to scale so people can understand just how much room I do NOT have in there.

 

[wme]

The cubicministove can be wall mounted or on the kitchen counter top.

 

[NCislander]

The cubicministove can be wall mounted or on the kitchen counter top.

Any small, woodburner for sure. Never ending fuel. Much agreed.

 

[Crowz]

The cubicministove can be wall mounted or on the kitchen counter top.

I searched for that stove and the wife looks up from her phone and goes "ohhh aren't they cute! Its a baby wood heater!"

 

[NCislander]

No matter the size, best heat there is. Woodburner

 

[Crowz]

No matter the size, best heat there is. Woodburner

Oh I can see it working. It was just her reaction, I nearly spit out my diet dr pepper when she said that !

 

[NCislander]

Oh I can see it working. It was just her reaction, I nearly spit out my diet dr pepper when she said that !

Small unit for sure.

 

[Rednecktek]

The cubicministove can be wall mounted or on the kitchen counter top.

I'll look that up, the kitchen counter has about 2.5sq ft of space total including the lip around the sink.

Probably dorsn't take a proper 16" round though. ?

 

[OffGridForGood]

The mini and Sardine are built for boats!! - So you HAVE to get one!

 

[brightbulb]

In today's adventure, once it stopped ACTIVELY RAINING, I got a chance to re-tackle the shower. Threw up a solar panel, a little 20Ah AGM, and some LED lights along with an on-demand propane heater.

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Sadly the drain plug shattered and the hardware store in town closed about 5 minutes after I got everything up and working. So, no shower for me.

Good thing I'm alone up here, or I would be!

Wow we built a shower closet like this on our property out here, it is propane too, only light is a tiki torch though. Need to move up to the golden age like you and add solar!! Grats man!

 

[50ShadesOfDirt]

No room internal, so I'd suggest an external wood furnace ... some benefits:

- can be placed on external wall, so you can "see" the fire through the glass, even though bulk of unit is outside
- bottom duct can feed your entire house thru ductwork
- upper opening can be utilized to feed a single room
- as an outdoor furnace, you can burn anything in it (separate burn chamber); can burn trash (helps w/ land clearing)
- super simple flue elements, as you're going straight up externally (no house elements get modified, or punched through)
- no burn ban problems, because it's part of your house "fireplace" (there is no open fire)

"You might be bad at math, if the wife gets 82% of everything in a divorce" ... don't forget the definition of insanity, or there might be more math in your future.

Nice work ... land, trees, off-grid ...

 

[cj5orion]

One of these rainy days I need to whip out the graph paper and a measuring tape and get a sketch to scale so people can understand just how much room I do NOT have in there.

Ext. Wall "pop out".
Just so many benefits it's ridiculous!
I did a homemade one once in a small RV with a 8" steel pipi bout 12" high,had to burn "slivers"...but it worked great !

At all cost...fireplace !
That's my 2 cents!

 

[rodrick]

Hell we use wood stoves in our wall tents at elk camp and that was a 10x14

 

[Rednecktek]

Well, been on the road since a little before 6am, running out of light, drill battery is flashing its last bar... I'm calling it a day.



Cross braces are in, feet are screwed on, 1/3 of the panels are sitting in place. Tomorrow I can go get a buttload of wire and run the ground and conduit. I need the dirt to keep the conduit from curling so might as well put it all in the trench at once.

Boy do these panels need a bath!

Got to chew out a Karen today who tried to lay into me for resting my eyes at a rest stop. Made my day. ?