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Thread: Could you live in a 12'x12' cabin with no water or electricity?

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  1. #1
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    Default Could you live in a 12'x12' cabin with no water or electricity?

    This story is a little bit tree-hugger, but it's worth the read. If you haven't ever lived off the grid, you don't realize that it really is a beautiful and blessed lifestyle, and -- after a while -- you don't miss the conveniences you gave up.
    ~ grower


    Could You Live in a 12' x 12' Cabin With No Water or Electricity?

    Returning to the U.S. after a decade of aid work, William Powers finds himself in the heart of the world's richest nation, but living a subsistence life.
    May 24, 2010 |



    Editor’s Note: Why would a successful American physician choose to live in a twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot cabin without running water or electricity? To find out, writer and activist William Powers visited Dr. Jackie Benton in rural North Carolina. No Name Creek gurgled through Benton’s permaculture farm, and she stroked honeybees’ wings as she shared her wildcrafter philosophy of living on a planet in crisis. Powers, just back from a decade of international aid work, then accepted Benton’s offer to stay at the cabin for a season while she traveled. There, he befriended her eclectic neighbors — organic farmers, biofuel brewers, eco-developers — and discovered a sustainable but imperiled way of life. In this excerpt from Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream, Powers first arrives at the cabin in the cold of early spring.

    http://www.alternet.org/environment/...ricity/?page=1
    IF you are willing & obedient , you shall eat the good of the land: But if you refuse & rebel, You shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Isaiah 1:19, 20

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    That a good book--I've read it.

    By priority here is what I would like to have to be happy. If you notice, running water is 5th on the list and electricity is 6th. I made this list when I first moved to the backwoods so I could figure out what I really needed and what I could live without.

    1. Wood Stove, Chain saw and Truck--We heat only with wood with no backup. Being cold is no fun. With a wood stove, you can cook on it, warm water for showers and washing dishes, melt snow for water and dry your clothes on racks by it.

    2. Drains--Hauling out dirty water or bailing out a bathtub sucks.

    3. Propane--For lighting, cooking in summer and refrigeration.

    4. Pitcher pump--If you can pump water right by the sink, it makes your life a lot easier. Buckets get heavy!!

    5. Running water--We installed a 12 volt, RV pump when my second child came along and I was using cloth diapers. Pumping 50 gallons, heating and carrying it twice per week to use the wringer washer was hard on the body. I ain't getting any younger.

    6. Electricity--for computer, internet, movies and music.

    Every once in a while our water line will freeze or our cisterns will run out of water during the winter while we are snowed in and we go back to melting snow and filling a 55 gallon barrel with water. It really isn't a big deal if you are set up for it.

    I definitely consider everything past #1 a luxury and not a need. Number 2-6 are nice to have but I have and can live without them.
    "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. ...those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
    C.S. Lewis



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    I like hot showers and not having to do laundry by hand.

    I don't mind living that way for a week or so at a time -- especially in the summer -- but after that, it gets old, fast.

    Add farm chores to the mix and having to do everything by hand, and it can make for a long, tedious day. These writers manage to make it sound a lot better than it is.

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    Could I, of course. But I would go into internet withdrawal and I hate washing clothes by hand.

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    I did it over the fall, winter, spring of 07-08. My shack was actually 8x16 with 8x12 enclosed, and 4x8 porch/firewood storage. It was 2 miles from a paved road, at least 1000 ft higher in elevation than the surrounding area, on a ridge.

    No water, but had a creek nearby. No electricity. Had a wood stove, and plenty of insulation.
















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    chicom, what kind of oven do you use for the bread in the third picture?

    Looks good but I think I would want a little larger foot print for a cabin.. Stairs and ladders are less desirable as my knees age.
    Nessie and Bigfoot 2016. Change you can believe in.

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    Back in the mid-1970 my wife, my first born daughter and I lived in a 15' x 8' travel trailer for about three years. When my wife became pregnent with our second child, we upgraded to a 28' bunk-house style travel trailer.

    Over the past 39 years, we have lived in several trailers. In fact, in the 1990s, after my wife returned from the first Persian Gulf war, she, my four children and myself, we all lived in a 28 foot bunk-house trailer.

    When the kids got older, we had a 35 foot travel trailer that my wife and I liven in for about two years, until after the kids all went into the service.

    The plan is that, one day soon, we will fall back to living in that 35' travel trailer. And if we have too, we will live in a tent.

    Hot showers, machine washing clothes, big-screen TVs and continuously available Internet, the loss of all these things will be an adjustment that the majority of us will have long struggles with. Withdrawal from modern convieniences will be devistating to those who have made these things the main-stay of their everyday lives.

    Enjoy these things while you still can. But you'd better be prepared to learn to do without them...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Meemur View Post
    I like hot showers and not having to do laundry by hand.

    I don't mind living that way for a week or so at a time -- especially in the summer -- but after that, it gets old, fast.

    Add farm chores to the mix and having to do everything by hand, and it can make for a long, tedious day. These writers manage to make it sound a lot better than it is.
    I agree. But then, I'm getting older too. We lived for a summer (and WELL into the fall... I woke up to snow on my sleeping bag a couple mornings before we finally got into our house) in a barn and camper when I was a teen. Took baths in the pond (Ivory soap really DOES float!), washed my long hair with water heated by the sun in a hose I'd set out for that purpose.

    Didn't mind a bit... I was having too much fun with my horses and roaming the woods and fields.

    Now... not so much. But really, I think what I'd miss the most would be the computer and my sewing machines. I've used a treadle machine (have one now, in fact), but that gets very hard after an hour or two... because of old injuries, I struggle with serious leg/foot cramps at night even after only walking a few miles on rough ground. The treadle machine is like walking 10 miles on plowed fields on that bad leg.

    But sure, we COULD do it. And in fact, I'm trying to keep the woods cabin up (it needs some maintenance this summer badly) "just in case". Of course, it's 20' x24', with a full loft... my boys didn't think 12x12 would even make a good party cabin when they built it as teens. But I do love sleeping back there on summer nights.

    I'd miss the "conveniences" (what I call my "kilowatt slaves") but I wouldn't waste time fretting over it. I've always known that we're living in a Golden Age, and that it may well be ending. As long as I have hubby, I'm home.

    Summerthyme

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    Sure we could! Hubby and I have been moving in this direction since Y2K. Although, we live in a house of 1000sq. ft., off grid living is what we are after. Will be totally off grid with only a gas generator when the time comes! Everything is set! Just waiting for the kill switch to be called into play.

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    Yes I could, and have.

    Around here there are hardware stores that sell storage barn kits. An 8x 16 with a hip roof barn can make a mighty fine cabin. The hip roof barn is ideal for a sleeping loft. By purchasing it in a kit you can take the pieces into the remotest of areas to assemble it. I put one together with zero electricity other than my cordless tools.

    Chicom congratulations, I wish you all the best...

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