Planning

The first step is simply to plan what it is I want to accomplish and how I can afford going about it. There is no water running through the property, so I plan to drill a well. In the short term, I want a cabin that is relatively cheap and easy to build myself. In the long run I may want a bigger house for a bigger family and a shop to run my business. Planning is important now because it is hard to change things later.

My first dilemma is a decision between building a traditional stick built cabin myself, or to use some type of shipping container cabin that I can have delivered to my property. Shipping container homes are becoming more well known and popular. A 40ft X 8 ft container is a pretty standard size, and yields around 310 sq ft of living area. A typical shipping container has to be insulated, and there are really only two options for this. Spray foam insulation or fiberglass insulation within a framed interior or exterior. Spray foam is fantastic. It creates a vapor and moisture barrier, sticks directly to the container, and adds tons of structural strength to the already strong shipping container. However it is very expensive to traditional fiberglass batts. Fiberglass isn't anything special, but requires a place for it to be put. So you'll be framing up around the container with 2x4s or 2x6's  adn enclosing it with a vapor barrier and a siding material. Basically, you are framing up a house around the container, so what is the container for then exactly?

There is another option in the world of container homes and that is choosing an insulated refrigerated container. These already have insulation in them, and they have flat sides as well because the insulation is sandwiched between two additional layers of steel. There is no thermal bridging(or very little) because the inside layer is isolated from the outside layers, and all this is done in less than 2 inches of thickness resulting in a  container of the exact same dimensions but even more appealing than the corrugated containers. Holes can be cut for the framing of doors and windows.

The nice thing about reefer containers is that they are only a few thousand more than an everyday container, and all the work is already done. I don't think you can spray foam a container for the price of just buying a reefer container that already has foam insulation in it,and fiberglass batts involve a serious amount of labor to attach them to a container. Further, a reefer container retains its dimensions and can be transported by a truck later down the road if need be.

However, transportation is often not considered in the cost. Remember that it can cost hundreds if  not thousands to pay a trucker to transport one of these things several hundred miles. If your desired location is far from a port city, it may be expensive to have your container transported to your site.

I am still wrestling with the decision between a nice compact and somewhat mobile container cabin to begin my project, or just building a stick cabin directly on my site. If I do it myself, a stick cabin twice the size of a  container cabin might only cost me 6,000-10,000 for a very basic design, while a shipping container cabin might cost as much as 6,000 just for the container and delivery to my location.  I still have several months to decide since it is winter time now and no progress will be made on the property itself until spring. But by spring I hope to have the money and the plan to move forward with building my cabin.

Introduction

It’s a liberating feeling just to think about the concept of living without care for anything except your personal needs.  Shelter, food and water, protection, social interactions and spiritual fulfillment are among the very core elements of that which we truly require in order to live. Once you stop and ponder this concept deeper you realize that you can fill your entire life just meeting these needs. The idea of self-sufficiency is a goal of many in today’s world.  Most in the U.S. don’t know any other way to live other than to work at a job, bring home a paycheck, and buy the things we need.  It’s certainly a way to do it, but far too often the jobs are fewer than the workers to fill them, and the pay is lower than that which is required to support oneself.  Many are looking for another way. The vision may be different for each individual, but self-sufficiency is the goal.

That brings me to the purpose of this blog, which is to document my journey as I seek out my personal Walden story, and to educate the reader on the details of how they might accomplish their own self-sufficiency goals.  A big part of this blog will be, in the near future, documenting my plans for a cabin, and my progress toward completing it. Other topics will include: Creating energy, acquiring food, digging a well, heating and cooling, transportation, generating an income, security, waste management, and anything else that relates to my journey. Since this blog is a current and ongoing story, it will obviously progress as I do. That means that there may be long periods of time between entries with progress, and the entries that are in-between may be technical or conceptual in nature.

So let it begin.

My Walden

In 1845, Henry David Thoreau left the security of civilized life to embark on a journey of self-discovery and self-sufficiency. He came to Walden Pond. For two years he lived a life that few lived even in his day. It was a simple life. A life free from the typical cares of civilized life. No Mortgage, no bills, no taxes(mostly). He only had to care for himself and his basic needs. He spent much of his time observing nature and experiencing his role within it. This experiment lasted two years. He wrote about his experience and titled it Walden. It has become an iconic story even to this day.

There is something intriguing about Thoreau's experience. Today, modern life seems to have overwhelmed many of us. Taxes become ever more taxing. The cost of living seems to outpace our ability to earn. In recent years, the depression has crippled an outstanding number of families. Unemployment is over 10%, and all told, the people out of work is double that figure. No one seems capable of buying a home. A $200,000 mortgage may as well be a $200 million mortgage. The American dream grows distant for more and more American's every day.

My situation is no different. A casualty of the economy, I lost my job nearly a year ago and am living with a friend...for now. I am relying on income from part time work, along with a small business I started. Additionally, unemployment benefits pick up the slack when I earn less. Basically I live on a  little more than minimum wage.I need a place of my own to live, but without a steady income, I decided that purchasing a home, and ultimately surviving, was going to have to be done without credit cards and without a loan.

About 6 months ago I started looking around for something that I felt I could afford in time. I wanted to get an idea of what I might want and how much it would cost. One blessing of this horrid economy is that property values are basically rock bottom so I would be able to get the maximum value for the least amount of cash. I primarily looks for properties that were under $20,000.  I discovered that I could find lots of undeveloped land in other states for under 20k. In fact, I could get several acres of land for that price. Finally, just two months ago, I found my gem on an internet listing. A beautiful lot on 6 acres with a view. It was located in another state about a days drive away. The asking price was only $5,900. I had been saving some money for this kind of opportunity and it just so happened that I was able to put the money together right away to purchase this lot. So I planned a trip to see the lot in person.
When I got there, I was sold. This was My Walden.