Living with Less
My family and I go camping often, and I've often wondered what it would be like to live in the great outdoors. No public power, no well, no sewer, no common "conveniences" that we have been led to believe are necessary. This is the beginnings of my "Living with Less" diary. It's sort of born of necessity. I lost my 6 figure per year IT job, and realized how much I worked and spent just to keep working. So this is our experiment in how little does one need to Live (not exist). How little does it take to be happy and well cared for.
For the next 6 months, we will be collecting rain water for drinking and washing. We will be collecting heat from the sun and from a wood fire. We will cook with wood. We will generate electricity from the sun and wind for lights, communications, and appliances. We will grow our own food for as much is practical. We will barter and do odd jobs for the things we need, but cannot make. Welcome to our journey.
Shelter
We have a 10' popup camper, and a 3 person tent. My 2 boys get the tent, my wife and I the camper. Over top the camp site will be a waterproof 20' x 40' tarp (http://www.brooklandsales.com/products/tarps.html), hung from nearby trees, with water proof cord. More on this tarp later.
We have not yet considered building a winter compatible shelter, as this is planned to be a warm weather experiment only.
Water
Remember the tarp? That waterproof tarp, stretched over the whole campsite, 20' in the air, is our water collector. It also keeps the rain and sun off our camp site below. In the center of that tarp is a hose bib with a screen connected to a garden hose, leading the water to our filter and storage tank. The tarp, 20' x 40', has an area of 800 square feet, which could collect 24000 gallons of rain water per year in our area. (800 sq. ft. x 30" yearly rainfall). (cisterns and rain water collection)
Fresh water and hot water tanks are both 55 gallon drums held up in the air with logs, for gravity feed to camper sink, and outdoor sink, and outdoor shower. By using a composting toilet instead of a flush toilet, we save over 6000 gallons of water per year, per person. Waste water from sinks and showers will be used for irrigation purposes.
Precipitation averages 40" per year, 10" being snow. I'll use 30" for my calcs. This is a high of 5.32" in June to a low of 2.05" in July. That's an average of 4" / month for the collectible months. with my 20' x 40' Tarp, I can collect 3200 gallons per month for the average month, as little as 1600 gallons in the dry months, and nothing from Nov - Feb, unless I melt snow. I need to store 4 months of water.I figure I need 20 gallons of water / day / person (4), or 80 gallons / day. My 3200 / month average gives me 106 gallons per day, so I'm storing 20 gallons per day for the dry months (6).
180 days (6 mos. ) * 20 gallons = 3600 gallons, so I'm going to put in a 4000 gallon tank, made of ferrocement. That's a 9' diameter, 6.5' tall tank (3938.483 gallons).
Heat
A flat top cast iron wood stove is ideal for cooking. With a water coil installed, it will also heat our hot water. The hot water tank is a 55 gallon drum higher than the woodstove for thermosyphoning, and painted black to absorb the suns heat as well. an auto heater core with a fan will heat the camper and the tent on cold nights. See Fire and Water
Food Prep
A picnic table is our outdoor kitchen, while the popup has an indoor kitchen and dinette. A woodstove (outdoors) with water heating coil will be our cookstove, as well as a solar cooker. Indoors we have a sink, propane stove, and a 3 way (12 volt/120volt/propane) Camper Fridge. The camper fridge is rated at 2.2kWh / day, which is very wasteful, but it's what we have. In comparison, a Sears #: 04608802000, 14.63 cu. ft. Top Mount Refrigerator (White), which sells for $549.99, uses 398 kWh / year, or 1.09 kWh / day, but no gas capability.
Toilet
A wooden bench is to be constructed, with a hole just large enough to insert a 5 gallon pail, without it slipping through. Over that is a standard toilet seat and cover. See Cabela's. After doing your business, spade in enough sawdust (from cutting wood for heating and cooking) to cover the fresh manure. When full, empty into compost bin with food scraps, and any other biological scraps such as grass clippings, paper, animal manure, leaf material, sawdust, etc. See Humanure for more ideas. This will save us 24000 gallons of water per year.
Clothes Washing
This is a sticking point. Energy efficient washers use way more energy than we have available, and are budget busters to obtain. Even an old-time wringer washer costs $675, and uses 825 watts. In comparison, a brand new Sears front loader costs $649 and uses 1800 watts. Our plan is to trade homegrown vegetables or part time work for washing and drying privileges. A clothes line still makes the best dryer in good weather.
Bathing
An outdoor shower with heated water is possible, thanks to the woodstove. A wood fired hot tub is also cheaply constructed.
Electricity
To begin with, the '82 VW Rabbit Diesel you see above is set up to run on vegetable oil. We get this from restaurants when they are done frying with it. The engine turns a 65 amp alternator, which refills our batteries in less than 6 hours, and heats our water tank to over 150F. We have a 3.5kw belt drive gen head that will be installed that will supply 110/220 vac.
Two 80 watt solar panels, two Trojan L16's, a Morningstar Pro Star - 30M controller, and a 300 watt APC inverter provide the little electricity that we need for Compact Fluorescent lights, a radio, and laptop computer and cell phone charging. A Air-X wind generator is also being looked at. Total for this configuration is under $2000.
Food
A small garden will produce enough vegetables for 4 people. If we were planning on longer term stay, we might make a small shed barn for a couple of goats, some chickens, and rabbits. This would provide us with meat, eggs, and milk, and manure for the compost bin.
Security
How do we keep away wild animals (even the two legged kind)? Guinea hens. What a racket. No ticks either.
Extras
With a few more solar panels, batteries, and another Air-X, we might be able to power the new Sears front loader washer, an electric freezer/frig and a microwave. See Six Steps To Sizing A PV System
With some planning, we could construct more permanent, all weather shelter, even with the -40 temperatures we see in this area in Jan/Feb.
