A Bushcraft Home

[BlackPacker]

Hey guys.

I've got 44 acres in the hills with a shanty little cabin and a few nice clearings. I have taken the most sheltered clearing and begun a personal campsite. As opposed to a leave no trace ethic, this is to be a permanent encampment. We broke it in this week, with four of us camped out as our well got drilled. I'm intending to get it fully developed by autumn, but my goal is to only use locally sourced materials. (From the property). I figured some of you might have something similar, or might have some neat suggestions)

Materials Available:
Tan Oak
Pine
Madrone
Manzanita
Scrap Redwood
Clay
Sand Stone
Pulverized sandstone / shale mortar
Chaparelle (coyote brush, yerba santa, etc)
Bears, Cougars, Foxes and Packrats (Yes, I need to bag all food stuffs)

Things I'm working on:
Log Benches and Tables
A burnt out log basin for washing
Woven Manzanita privacy barrier for the solar shower (No, black rubber bags aren't locally produced)
a 8 foot wide wikiup framed mudhouse for unbearably hot days.

So, any suggestions? And do any of you guys know of sites pertaining to this type of project?

 

[Lodian]

Inever heard of this sort of thing before but it sounds cool. Any pics? Things i can think of would be the likes of a log cabin or hut to store cut trees for firewood. What sort of wildlife you got?

 

[BlackPacker]

All the pics I got this week were of the well being drilled and my friends and I drunk around a campfire in the dark. So no decent pics of the site in progress. Heading back up monday to dig a trench for the line from our newly dug well. 345 feet. bleh, but will take pictures of the tentless campsite then.

Wildlife:

Mammals:
Deer
Grey Fox
Squirrel (few)
Black Bear (more than squirrels)
Bob Cats
Jack Rabbits
Bunnies
Mountain Lions
Pack Rats
Mice

Birds:
Hawks
Peregrin Falcons
Turkey
Turkey Vultures
Quail
Starlings
Skylar jays
rock dove
(other little guys)

Reptiles:
Skinks
Salamanders
Alligator Lizards
Fence Lizards
Ringneck Snakes
Rattlesnakes
Gopher snakes
Mountain King Snakes

Insects:
Wasps, Hornets
Bumble Bees, Honey Bees, Carpenter Bees
Grasshoppers
Carpenter Ants
Mosquitos
Ticks
Lots of Beetles
Brown Recluse (just one.. )

 

[fred gordon]

You are very lucky. Thousands of people would be very glad of this sort of site. Sounds as if you have most things covered. To keep the sanitation good do you have a privvy?

 

[BlackPacker]

At the moment, no privy, I dug a 4 foot trench cat hole and showed my friends how to use it. My goal is to build a straw or sawdust based composting toilet with a locking lid to keep the mice out. Once a bucket is filled up, just date it, set it in storage behind the commode, and a year later, go dump the humanure on some low trees or a structural garden (a garden growing bamboo or other non-edible, useful plants. Some people swear you can eat food fertilized with humanure, but it's not quite my cup of tea.

Thank you, I do know how lucky I am to have gotten this spot. The twisted part is, my next door neighbor to the west is a timber operation. 300,000 acres of tree farm. But while I will sometimes have to look at clear cuts, I will never have to worry about dumb neighbors building mansions, and will have QUITE the area to run around in. They actually give permits to local residents to use their property, as it lets them find out about marijuana farmers out there. Apparently, I can even hunt down there. Woo Hoo!

Another odd thing I found are a number of giant redwoods that have been fallen years ago. The outsides are rotten, but if you split them at a check, you find some BRILLIANTLY gorgeous redwood, smoothed down to a wonderful sheen. I want to go use the OxyAce torch to cut up a few old pieces of rialroad rail I've got into HUGE wedges to see what I can pry loose from a few of the 8foot wide redwood stumps in the valley below us.

 

[tommy the cat]

Have a look at Jack mountain entries on You Tube (search Bushcraft ...one word)
They go through their toilet system and composting...maybe you could contact them via their website may be of use.......not envious me I love living in a terraced house
Dave

 

[redcollective]

Thought of a treebog?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_bog

 

[Goose]

Red collective beat me to my suggestion, read the note at the bottom of the wiki entry, bog is a slang term for toilet!

 

[mr dazzler]

When I read your post I immediately thought of cord wood or stackwood buildings where you build walls with short lengths of small coppiced logs about 18 or 20 inch's long set at 90 dergees to the line of the wall and mortared in with clay/straw/sand type stuff. Folks have made saunas from this. It makes buildings that are very very energy efficient and also breathable (healthy) and cool in hot weather and durable as well
eg
http://www.cordwoodmasonry.com/Cordwoodphotos.html

 

[tommy the cat]

Good site Mr Dazzler I haven't seen that before. I would love to build a straw bale house but those look really nice too, need to read a bit more to see which is more energy efficient.
Ta Dave

 

[Dave Budd]

with luck I'm going to have a strawbale workshop with compost loo and solar shower in my woods. I've just gotta get through the legal bits and then I can start building, so by the end of the year I will have my woodland shelter, but it's a work space and not suitable for dwelling (just had to say that clearly incase the planning officer is readin )

 

[mr dazzler]

Dave just had a quick look, nice tools there mate.
I like the adze's what method did you use to attach head to haft?
From the picture its hard to see clearly, but it seems very like the one Brian Russell made for me some years ago now, from a wide piece of leaf spring, but with the addition of two other reinforcing plates welded to the head that run part way along the haft "front and back" similar arrangement to a strap hammer or stubai piton hammer (climbing gear) and with a couple rivets to fix. easy and fast to rehaft, although I love rehafting its therapuetic
those bale buildings have excellent r ratings too I think? should be snug in there

 

[bosknurft]

Hey guys.
As opposed to a leave no trace ethic, this is to be a permanent encampment. We broke it in this week, with four of us camped out as our well got drilled. I'm intending to get it fully developed by autumn, but my goal is to only use locally sourced materials. (From the property). I figured some of you might have something similar, or might have some neat suggestions)

This man did something along the lines you're suggesting. I think it's wonderfully imaginative.

 

[scottishwolf]

lucy lucky lucky man

 

[tommy the cat]

Bosnurft that site is great thats exactly the sort of thing that I am talking about......dunno about planning on that and building regs though????
dave