Wilderness cabin?
- Thread starter bb07
- Start date
Your bank manager does not decide what you earn, She/He just stashes it for you.
Didn't stop Dick Proeneke - that was rather the point wasn't it? He built the place himself.
The bank manager might be stopping me from buying the home at the start of this thread cos its a bit of money that I don't have but its not stopping anyone from building a log cabin/damp hovel in the middle of nowhere is it?
Finding the right bit of "middle of nowhere" is the tricky bit, however there are places out there and you don't have to travel as far as Canada to find them.
I think the house in the OP is ugly, but probably quite functional, I prefer Dick Proeneke's place.
Last edited:
Finding the right bit of "middle of nowhere" is the tricky bit, however there are places out there and you don't have to travel as far as Canada to find them.
I think the house in the OP is ugly, but probably quite functional, I prefer Dick Proeneke's place.
They are 2 very different sorts of home and fulfil different functions. For a holiday Dick Proeneke's place looks great but if I was choosing one of the two to live in it'd be the house in the OP.
I reckon I could live in Dick's place, the wife probably not, either way I would probably want to have inthewilderness's greenhouses and some of the other infrastructure described.
Only if you limit yourself to this country....which would be stupid as its hardly an untamed wilderness is it? I'm sure DEFRA would object to someone poaching sheep to live on. However there are still plenty of wildernesses in the world - and cheap countries to buy land in.
Not sure if there are many people on the forum in the position to up sticks, say goodbye to Wives (who would most likely prefer the comfort and security of their homes here in the UK ) and relocate to live the lonely wilderness man in then far away hills.
I understand that - I just find it desperately sad to think about someone wanting to live in a certain way to be married to a person who wants to live a different way
I'm very lucky to be married to BB - but we did talk about our hopes and dreams before we married. Thankfully there are women out there who like the simple life
I'm very lucky to be married to BB - but we did talk about our hopes and dreams before we married. Thankfully there are women out there who like the simple life
Sandbender... Nope. can't have our greenhouse or infrastructure. All comes as a package deal. Besides that would be cheating. The rustic appeal you seek would be lost.
But seriously, We don't see the point in calling anybody's home ugly. We've already established that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and your home might be ugly to the next guy and so forth. What can we learn from each other is more important.
Dick P. was a creative, unique guy. No doubt about it. It was a cabin away from home for him. It's been a long time since I watched his movies. It's a dreamy place for sure and in that day and age he did a great job of setting things up. But until you plop yourself into the situation and experience the reality, you're just dreaming. Although we didn't live in a log cabin, I can talk with some experience on the subject. Sponge baths, hacking and keeping a hole in the ice clear for water, swatting mosquitoes while trying to sleep, mice making a racket while trying to sleep, wading thigh deep snow, heading to the outhouse or hole in the ground at -40, doing wash on a washboard, getting up through the night to keep a fire going so everything doesn't freeze including yourself... etc. Been there and done that. Ok in short doses but you're kidding yourself if you think that's the way to live long term. Trust me, I was a dreamer once.
I've taken the last 4 hours to make some calculations on the latest technologically advanced calculator. According to my abacus, the following percentages are those that could live full time, year round, year after year in a spartan , rustic cabin. Men .0000000000135% Woman .0000000000000000000079% This has a margin of error of half a human.
I/we are blessed that we are out here together and have shared a similar dream. My wife loves the outdoors but did have some apprehension in coming out to be this remote. Now it's home and second nature. This thread certainly has been entertaining. As one of the responses mentioned, for all you dreamers, seize the moment and do it. Find your piece of "wilderness" and create your utopia. If you insist on minimalism and living spartan, I believe you'll be out of dodge relatively quick with a new found appreciation of some of the modern conveniences. The bankers should have no say in how you lead your lives. Costs would be minimal since most things would be made of surrounding natural products. Although it will be a tremendous amount of work and labor intensive, there will be a great deal of pride in the accomplishment. Good luck.
But seriously, We don't see the point in calling anybody's home ugly. We've already established that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and your home might be ugly to the next guy and so forth. What can we learn from each other is more important.
Dick P. was a creative, unique guy. No doubt about it. It was a cabin away from home for him. It's been a long time since I watched his movies. It's a dreamy place for sure and in that day and age he did a great job of setting things up. But until you plop yourself into the situation and experience the reality, you're just dreaming. Although we didn't live in a log cabin, I can talk with some experience on the subject. Sponge baths, hacking and keeping a hole in the ice clear for water, swatting mosquitoes while trying to sleep, mice making a racket while trying to sleep, wading thigh deep snow, heading to the outhouse or hole in the ground at -40, doing wash on a washboard, getting up through the night to keep a fire going so everything doesn't freeze including yourself... etc. Been there and done that. Ok in short doses but you're kidding yourself if you think that's the way to live long term. Trust me, I was a dreamer once.
I've taken the last 4 hours to make some calculations on the latest technologically advanced calculator. According to my abacus, the following percentages are those that could live full time, year round, year after year in a spartan , rustic cabin. Men .0000000000135% Woman .0000000000000000000079% This has a margin of error of half a human.
I/we are blessed that we are out here together and have shared a similar dream. My wife loves the outdoors but did have some apprehension in coming out to be this remote. Now it's home and second nature. This thread certainly has been entertaining. As one of the responses mentioned, for all you dreamers, seize the moment and do it. Find your piece of "wilderness" and create your utopia. If you insist on minimalism and living spartan, I believe you'll be out of dodge relatively quick with a new found appreciation of some of the modern conveniences. The bankers should have no say in how you lead your lives. Costs would be minimal since most things would be made of surrounding natural products. Although it will be a tremendous amount of work and labor intensive, there will be a great deal of pride in the accomplishment. Good luck.
"...Sandbender... Nope. can't have our greenhouse or infrastructure. All comes as a package deal. Besides that would be cheating. The rustic appeal you seek would be lost.
Pity.
That is actually day to day life for quite a few folks in this part of the world (although -40 is rare).
My house is ugly to most, including me.
No offense intended, I look forward to reading anything else you care to post on the forum.
Last edited:
No offense taken Sandbender. Our house is as unique as we each are individually. If everyone had a house just like ours I'd have to take ours down and come up with something different. We obviously don't know how life is in other countries. It's a hard life for many and we realize that.
I had someone drop me a quick email with a question. Happy to answer all questions and not at all intrusive. First, thank you so much for the kind comment. Glad you are finding this thread of interest. I figured I was putting people to sleep. The essence of the question is how did we finance this.
Let me correct one thing first. We have been in the Canadian bush since 2000. Previous to that we lived in the United States. We still lived in the woods but were accessible by vehicle. We did that for about 20 years. We were some of the earlier off grid "homesteaders" and started out about 1979.
We have never had a power bill in our adult lives. We essentially mastered many of the skills that made life this remote possible. We grew a large garden, had berry plants, canned much of our food, raised our own beef, pork, chickens and turkeys. Did our own slaughtering and butchering, cured and smoked our own hams and bacons, made our own soap etc. The whole routine. We still do that but we do not raise animals now. We fly a side of beef in and whole pig every 2 years. We still cut and wrap, cure meats, make soap etc. Learned everything we could about basic plumbing, electrical, construction, medical and mechanical.
There are a number of ways we made this all possible. Don't have kids. Saves a tremendous amount of money and gave us the freedom to do some pretty special things in life thus far. I just don't have that paternal instinct.
There are two other things that have helped us to this point. Work hard and work harder. Being a workaholic, I logged and sawmilled every day 7 days a week for weeks until I couldn't go on. Rest a day and repeat. It wasn't healthy and the move to Canada got me out of that rut. Did that routine for years on end though. My wife worked hard at her job. We lived frugally and saved every dollar we could to make the dream come true. We kept the bills to a minimum and paid them off every month. Stay out of debt. If you have to be in debt, get out of it ASAP. Don't make the banks richer.
We sold our property in The United States which helped finance life out here. We are not wealthy. There are seasonal jobs that we might take to grab a few bucks. We don't turn down a few months work if it shows up. Our bills are minor out here. The flying is the biggest bill but is generally twice a year when we come out for resupply or grab that occasional quick job. I hope that clarifies a little bit. Thanks for the question.
I had someone drop me a quick email with a question. Happy to answer all questions and not at all intrusive. First, thank you so much for the kind comment. Glad you are finding this thread of interest. I figured I was putting people to sleep. The essence of the question is how did we finance this.
Let me correct one thing first. We have been in the Canadian bush since 2000. Previous to that we lived in the United States. We still lived in the woods but were accessible by vehicle. We did that for about 20 years. We were some of the earlier off grid "homesteaders" and started out about 1979.
We have never had a power bill in our adult lives. We essentially mastered many of the skills that made life this remote possible. We grew a large garden, had berry plants, canned much of our food, raised our own beef, pork, chickens and turkeys. Did our own slaughtering and butchering, cured and smoked our own hams and bacons, made our own soap etc. The whole routine. We still do that but we do not raise animals now. We fly a side of beef in and whole pig every 2 years. We still cut and wrap, cure meats, make soap etc. Learned everything we could about basic plumbing, electrical, construction, medical and mechanical.
There are a number of ways we made this all possible. Don't have kids. Saves a tremendous amount of money and gave us the freedom to do some pretty special things in life thus far. I just don't have that paternal instinct.
There are two other things that have helped us to this point. Work hard and work harder. Being a workaholic, I logged and sawmilled every day 7 days a week for weeks until I couldn't go on. Rest a day and repeat. It wasn't healthy and the move to Canada got me out of that rut. Did that routine for years on end though. My wife worked hard at her job. We lived frugally and saved every dollar we could to make the dream come true. We kept the bills to a minimum and paid them off every month. Stay out of debt. If you have to be in debt, get out of it ASAP. Don't make the banks richer.
We sold our property in The United States which helped finance life out here. We are not wealthy. There are seasonal jobs that we might take to grab a few bucks. We don't turn down a few months work if it shows up. Our bills are minor out here. The flying is the biggest bill but is generally twice a year when we come out for resupply or grab that occasional quick job. I hope that clarifies a little bit. Thanks for the question.
Dick Proeneke's, wee cabin does have a lot of appeal to many, especially those that have seen his films. My wife, and I over wintered in a cabin very much like Dick's in the Yukon in the sixties. No matter how much wood we fed the iron stove in that cabin that winter, we still had ice on the walls in the morning....and that included getting up during the night to feed it. Insulated walls are good things, trust me. Aside from the pile of blankets, and quilts on the bed, we had six inches of blue board under the mattress, so, technically I guess we did have insulation. We did have a log wall tunnel to the outhouse, so we did not have to go outside, but the temperature was the same as outside. The privy seat was also blueboard...kept you from freezing to the seat.
Woody
Woody
Similar threads
