I'm moving to a shack, with no power, on top of a mountain!

[Wolf]

bring it ON!!!

FUUUUCK YEAH!

A bit closer to the here-and-now:

My grandparents living in Owhango around the time of "The Great Depression" - 4 kids, no electricity or phone but all the "mod cons" - proper long-drop toilet, wood-burning stove with wet-back, fireplace in the lounge, plenty of kerosene lanterns, wood-burning "copper" in the wash house, full woodshed and grandad's Matchless-with-sidecar for transport!

Fucking "lap of luxury" stuff - hot water on demand, proper stove and oven, a cool, ventilated food safe to put perishables in, bins in the kitchen for flour and sugar for baking, grandad's home-brew set-up in the shed (grandma wouldn't allow it in the house. She wasn't a wowser, it's just that the brew was an explosion risk) and a motorbike! Did I mention the motorbike?

Only a 3 mile walk into town for the kids to get to school, too. And it only snowed in winter.

[klingon]

the chix will be lining up, watch.

*klingon lines up*

Feral chicks who don't wash.

*klingon offers tri boy to sniff her armpits to prove her cleanliness*

...There is absolutely no reason whatspoever why living in such a state should not be entirely conducive of every propiety. There is firewood to heat water, so why should there be any stint of washing or shaving ?

Absolutely agree Mr Ixion.

I lived in a little shed on top of a hill in Northland for a few months (was meant to be a few years but then I got cancer and had to come down to make use of medical facilities... that's another story...

The place I lived had no power, no phone and no cell phone coverage. I used candles for lighting, a gas cooker or outdoor fire for cooking and heating water, gravity-fed rain water off the roof for drinking. Seriously, that's all you need.

The key differences here seem to be that Steam is still intending to keep his job. A lifestyle like this is very labour intensive. Cooking a meal, washing dishes, washing clothes, chopping fire wood... all take a long time. Also Steam's place looks like it will get very cold in winter, and the insulation doesn't look particularly good.

Congrats, Steam. You're going to have a wonderful time.

And for all those who are saying you'd love to try it but you can't because of [insert reason here], plenty of people actually do choose to live this way. You probably won't meet many of them on KB because they're just getting on with living. If you really wanted to do it, you probably could.

[GaZBur]

Were you doing a clean up on Saturday, is that why you dissapeared from the BSA poker run, or did you just stay at the first pub?
I haven't met you but have seen you on the road a few times- your bike is hard to not recognise even from a distance, seen it parked on George Street prior to its infamous chickening incident and been meaning to stop and say hi!

[mstriumph]

........... Also Steam's place looks like it will get very cold in winter, and the insulation doesn't look particularly good.

.................

insulation? i saw no insulation??

ahhhhhh THAT'S wat all those old newspapers lying around the floor were meant to be !!

[Wolf]

I lived in a little shed on top of a hill in Northland for a few months (was meant to be a few years but then I got cancer and had to come down to make use of medical facilities... that's another story...

Sorry to hear that the dream lifestyle was shattered in such a nasty way.

The place I lived had no power, no phone and no cell phone coverage. I used candles for lighting, a gas cooker or outdoor fire for cooking and heating water, gravity-fed rain water off the roof for drinking. Seriously, that's all you need.

That's true. A flushing toilet and septic tank are luxuries, as are wood/coal ranges and wet-backs. People these days forget that people once lived and raised families with so much less than all the stuff now deemed "essential". Rain water is quite potable (I prefer it over the chlorinated/fluoridated crap we get in town) and a decent feed setup allows decent pressure (we had crap pressure in some of the farm houses I lived in as a kid but the last place I stayed in with roof water had a proper set-up (I suspect decreasing pipe diameters to build up the pressure) that was quite sufficient).

I do love my electronic luxuries, though, such as the ability to listen to music or play on the computer - but they can be handled with low DC voltages: MP3 players run on a single 1.5V cell, a laptop can run happily off a 12V car battery (and that'd play CDs, DVDs etc), radios require bugger all power (unless you're one of those people who can't survive without a 5GW stereo surround-sound system with a subwoofer the size of a small bach...)

A lifestyle like this is very labour intensive. Cooking a meal, washing dishes, washing clothes, chopping fire wood... all take a long time.

True. Also sweeping the floor is more labour-intensive than vacuuming. Wooden floors with rugs are better than carpet - take the rugs outside and shake them out. Occasionally hang them on the line and set-to with a stout stick...

Hard to balance that with a full-time job but not impossible if you have a good routine to minimise effort (i.e. not let the dishes build up for so long that you have to spend an entire day alternating between boiling water and washing dishes...)

A small place is also better - less cleaning required (minimising on clutter and junk would also help.)

Also Steam's place looks like it will get very cold in winter, and the insulation doesn't look particularly good.

Hmmmmm. A -10 degree sleeping bag sounds like a good investment.

And for all those who are saying you'd love to try it but you can't because of [insert reason here], plenty of people actually do choose to live this way.

The trick is finding a suitable place in our overly sanitised and upgraded country within a reasonable distance of work - I'd also want to keep working and not spend all my savings on petrol and bike maintenance. I'd also need to fit it out for three sleeping spaces - one for strayj and I, one for the two boys and one for the two girls - shared family sleeping arrangements have been frowned on since our pioneering days when a modesty screen (sheet) or two strung up in the crude single-room A-frame (with, if you were lucky, saddles hanging from the ceiling beams) was sufficient.

Knew a bloke up in Hokianga who lived a few minutes' walk across the paddocks from the last property on a gravel road who had a nice, sizeable house (carried all the stuff to build it in there on his back) for his wife and tribe of kids - no 'leccy, no phone, no driveway (he'd park his battered old panel van at the "neighbour's" and carry his supplies of kero, batteries (for the radio) and candles home on his back). Good on him. He supplemented his meagre income by growing his own veges and killing his own meat.

[cave weta]

My morgage gets paid by my tennents in the House!- Im just the dopesmokin hippy in the housetruck at the end of the garden with the fabulous lifestyle and the bath under the stars!
I toured the country for 6 years with the Gypsy Fair and lived off selling handcrafts. every weekend people would say 'you are so lucky'...

It wasnt luck! I worked my arse off in a marraige and a business and an old 4 bedroom Villa and then lost the lot when I couldnt work for a year. I got chemical poisening from catalysts and solvents used in fibreglassing. so then I sold my Cappucino machine, widescreen TV and the jetski, built the truck, and drove off into the sunset! It was hard work and culture shock at first but 9 years later Ive bought a new place, built up a rocking business, made freinds all over the country and people still say " you are so lucky"

[mstriumph]

....................Rain water is quite potable .;..................

you bet
i only HAVE tank water at our place ---- have had a lot fewer colds and other infections since i moved there 10 years ago .......... it's all those dead rats and crap in the downspouts - toughens ya up!!

[cave weta]

OFF TOPIC

Hey GIXER- I sent you a PM about advertising on the site, weeks ago!
You havent got back to me!

[Wolf]

you bet
i only HAVE tank water at our place ---- have had a lot fewer colds and other infections since i moved there 10 years ago .......... it's all those dead rats and crap in the downspouts - toughens ya up!!

Never underestimate the auto-immune-boosting properties of bird- and possum-shit, eh.

[scumdog]

Here's my hippy shack, I took photos today before getting stuck into cleaning it. Bloody shambles!

As the real-estate notices use to say "A snip for the handy-man"

[ynot slow]

Great to try the alternative lifestyle.We used to stay in back country baches,some were rough as guts,but waterproof in winter,great times had in late 70's early 80's as teenagers.

Hardest thing was working out who would carry the beers,one trip we divied up one guys' pack of food,clothes and all he carried was 36 cans of double brown,the old tin 460mls cans.We were impressed as his pack was reasonably heavy,but after the first night(a 2 hour hike)in a bivouac,then the next day to the hut(another hour or so)his pack was getting lighter.

My grandparents never had a seperate hot water system until they were in their 60's when they got a gas cylinder,they had wet back whilst all their kids grew up,then us grandkids would stay,they had a huge claw foot bath,but never enough hot water to fill it lol.They still used the coal range even after the new stove was installed,and nanas' scones and roasts from the range were choice.Nana used the wringer washing machine when all her kids had automatic ones.

[Steam]

Were you doing a clean up on Saturday, is that why you dissapeared from the BSA poker run, or did you just stay at the first pub?

Actually, yes I was doing the cleanup on Saturday, it took five hours!
Ripped the filthy mouldy carpets out, stuffed junk into rubbish bags, discovered both treasures and trash, and realised bedroom bit is built on top of an old trailer, using the trailer deck as the floor.

I'll meet you in real life sometime

[Steam]

Those rats are going to kill and eat you.

I bet 3 nights.

If you last 5 weeks I'll send you a 20.

Where's my money?!!
I've killed three rats so far. They bypass the bread and muesli lying around, and they go straight for the soap. So I bait my traps with soap. Works well, madness!

[Madness]

Works well, madness!

I prefer to use Peanut Butter. Smooth Sanitarium, but not the Chinese crap.

[Headbanger]

Where's my money?!!
I've killed three rats so far. They bypass the bread and muesli lying around, and they go straight for the soap. So I bait my traps with soap. Works well, madness!

uh...In my pocket.

Next time your in this part of the country gimme me a yell and I'll shout ya a beer and a feed


How does it feel to be a mountain man?