You mentioned knowing methods of extending the availability of water from seasonal springs. Could you describe them briefly or point me in a direction to research it myself?
When I wrote that, I didn't know that springs can come from deep in the earth, from water that falls many miles away. So you might not be able to extend a spring. But there's stuff you can do to increase your ground water and extend the season of streams and ponds.
Basically, anything that slows down the surface water is great. The goal is to have all the water that falls on the land soak into the ground instead of running off. You can dig swales, which are long ditches along a slope, where the whole thing has the same elevation. Normal ditches carry water away but swales hold water so it soaks into the ground. Then you can use that wetter ground to grow bigger bushes and trees, which in turn shade the ground and keep water from evaporating and snow from melting. Over years you can build up a microclimate that's much wetter than the surrounding land.
Some terms to research would be
arid land permaculture and
keyline design. The basic idea of keyline is that you dig ditches to run water from gullies out to ridges.
Why don't you build a tipi or a yurt?
My time and energy are too limited. I think modern tents are better than tipis -- lighter, easier to put up, easier to move. The plains Indians would have used them if they'd had them.
As for a yurt, I really need a thick cordwood wall thatch roof cabin if I'm ever going to spend the winter up there, and I figure a cabin plus a yurt is more work than just a cabin. Also, the worse my temporary shelter is, the more motivation I have to build the cabin, and I need all the motivation I can get! I do not enjoy building.
Why don't you use a chainsaw? Have you heard of chainsaw milling?
I've decided for several reasons that I'd rather not use a chainsaw: They're very dangerous, I prefer slow work to fast work, the noise will attract attention, and
alkylate fuel is not available in America. Also, almost all the wood in my cabin will be round beams or cordwood. I only need a few milled boards, which I can get from pallets.
Have you looked at Mike Oehler's $50 and Up Underground House Book?
Yes. Here's a link to Oehler's
underground housing site, and I also cover this in the
September - October 2004 archive. Oehler's book was the first thing I bought after I got the land. Then I did more research and found out that his PSP method is risky and very likely to leak. Everybody wants to live in a "hobbit house," but if Bag End were real, it would have water running out the walls six months a year without sophisticated waterproofing. Also, a U-house is not breathable -- to be fair, neither are "normal" houses. Also, as Oehler admits, a U-house requires a
lot of digging, and wet soil is a terrible insulator -- the only advantage is that in the winter the stuff behind the wall is only 20 degrees colder than the inside instead of 50 degrees colder. Some people make underground houses work, but on the whole I prefer cob or cordwood.
How do you avoid building codes?
Well, I haven't built anything yet! But I expect to get away with it because the land is in a poor rural county, it's remote, I won't be using power tools, and there's a tree across the access road. No building inspector is going to think I'm building a cabin in there, unless the neighbors rat on me or the inspectors fly around in airplanes. If they do catch me, plan B is to try to get around the code by building something really small, and plan C is to just use tents until the control system breaks down a bit.
Have you considered hauling a trailer or shipping container or school bus or pre-fab shed or section of giant sewer pipe up to your land to live in?
Yes, and I've ruled it out, unless someone offers to haul something up for free. I have limited money which I have to spend on tools and seedlings, so I can't afford more than a dollar a square foot. Also, I want to learn to
make shelter, because that skill will be much needed as the empire breaks down.
Why don't you do a metal roof?
It's not so much that I want to use only
natural materials, but that I want to use materials that are already
on the land. So if I was building a cabin on an old industrial site with lots of scrap sheet metal, then I'd totally do a metal roof! Since my land has lots of cedar and tall grass, I'm doing cedar shakes and/or thatch.