CAR/TENTFirst, our recent comments. I tried the motor vehicle to charge an additional battery, as outlined in How to be Your Own Power Company: Low Voltage, Direct Current, Power Generating System
, and had no luck with it as I am too close to town ( not enough distance charging ). So, solar is all it is for power. I hate the thought of a generator
, not necessarily because it is the weakest leak with gasoline but because for the first time in my adult life I am living with no neighbors. Which means no noise. To run a generator would be like spitting in the face of the Gods. To Vlad, thanks for the shout out, and I don't recommend "The Road"
because it teaches anything survival wise ( it doesn't as far as personal skills ) but because it is the gloomiest, most depressing post-Apocalypse fiction ever. It offers a glimpse how bad it could get, which is valuable in and of itself. Just like "One Second After", 
it is a walk up call/inspiration rather than instructional. For that, I can recommend"The Frugal Survivalist"
and "How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years"
. And speaking of shout outs, I believe it was Big Bear that originally recommended the 12v LED lighting to me. Without that power saver I would have long been screwed on my solar system. Hey, this linking almost pertenant products is fun*
I'm sorry if I'm not giving you huge, earth shattering, intellecually stimulating, fare as of late. As I’ve said, November and December are the Hell months here at work where everyone wants to be generous all at once. If that isn’t bad enough, my boss who usually leaves me alone most of the time sat on a tack and suddenly took an interest in the back room. Everything had to be reorganized and moved around ( envision moving twelve foot high, twenty foot long metal shelves filled with canned food ). During the holiday season. Plus, every day during lunch someone is bringing crap in, interrupting me. I’m so friggin stressed I’ve invented a new holiday between Christmas and New Years. It celebrates the end of the holiday donations. Still trying to think up a good name. Perhaps Gnome Day ( Go away, NO MorE ). My point is that my wandering attention span I usually devote mostly to writing my drivel is totally sidetracked. I’m trying to pull something out of my butt.
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When I recommend tent or car living on junk land ( on payments ) as a better than nothing, cheap way to live after your pink slip is delivered ( since you won’t buy junk land up front for cash, put a trailer on it and stock it with wheat and 303Brit ammo ahead of time ), I’m recommending both. Not one or another. Van living is best, if possible. I’ve already covered that in detail. Tent living is close enough to free that anyone can do it. But it is better if you combine the two. A tent is cheap, but it leaks and is just one thin nylon skin between you and a bear. Most of us already own a vehicle or need to get one to commute to work, but they are very cramped. I would sleep in the van. Only staying inside during the day in bad weather. Have a tarp slung on its side as a porch with chairs and a table set up, if you are commuting to work on a bike. The tent I would use for storage so that the van or car stays uncluttered. If you have curtain climbers, they get another tent. If a bear gets them you can always pop out another one. By using the tent as storage, you avoid climbing in between boxes and crap to get to bed, plus you can quickly take off in the morning to work. If you are storing all the back issues of Big Juggs magazines, or other perishable items, sling a tarp over it.
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Just making the best of a bad situation by trying to maximize space and minimize hassle.
END
28 comments:
Hey Mr. Hohos, you got a link in Michael Panzer's "When Giants Fall" bookblog yesterday.
http://www.economicroadmap.com/2009/12/like-minded-others.html
I read "The Road" It was really depressing and offered no meaningful lessons. If you read "No Country For Old Men" you would already be tracking the authors general theme that people are just really bad and horrible things happen to almost everyone for no reason.
For a tent I would try and scrape up enough cash to buy a wall tent, a few pallets to put it on and a cot. Unless it is particularly cold in your area that setup is pretty comfortable for awhile. Then again for a few hundred bucks more a pretty beat up travel trailer might be able to be had.
You know, some of us call the car/tent thing camping and do it for fun...
If you are tenting it's a really god idea to have a set of clothes just for sleeping in, but stay away from cotton if it's cool outside. Cotton collects moisture an will make you cold. 100 weight fleece makes great jammies, don't forget some nice warm wool socks for your feet and a lightweight cap for your head too.
Cheap tents leak and blow over in the slightest bit of wind. If pitched and guyed out properly a good quality tent will see you through all but the biggest blows and rainstorms. I've slept right though storms that have swamped and blown over the tents of people camped out next to me. Watch the "on sale" section of Campmor and REIoutlet and you should be able to pick up a nice tent for $100-150. Not a bad price for something you plan on living in (and helping keep you alive) for a while.
Another tenting it trick. Fill a quart water bottle about 3/4 of the way full with hot water, slip in inside a wool sock and take it to bed with you. I shove mine down to the end of my sleeping bag to help keep my feet warm and in the morning I have a quart of warm water to do a quick wash up with.
Crap, he included everyone! Aren't I special? And, I'm not Mr. HoHo's. That is a minion. But thank you for the heads up, perhaps now a few more thousand minions will sign up and I can have my Elko missile silo, the chest of Kuggerands and the harem.
Also, Ryan, people are terrible and hideous and bastard coated bastards with bastard filling. M-good info on the hot water bottle, a 2fer on heating water.
Pitch that tent atop the van, actually. With a thin foam pad for a floor. Sleep in the tent in warm weather, and use it for your storage in cold. The elevated tent should be a little safer from all kinds of critters, and less muddy than a surface tent during rain.
I almost forgot my arsenal of HK-91's! That would have been embarrassing.
"Mommy!! Daddy!! I fell off the van roof and broke my neck. I can't move! No! No, Daddy!! Don't put me in the stew pot!!!!
Van living works for me. And the joy of moving any time, and any place is great. Oh ya I'm debt free, and have a current stash good for a year.
See Ya
Buy LED lites and set up the car/van and tent so you can read and do things at night.
Maybe a little out of context but for a few extra dollars earned in remote areas check the info at http://tinyurl.com/y94vtog
doesn't even require a name or email. Larry
Panzer had me listed in his sidebar but removed the link after I posted a Review of his book. Apparently he doesn't like honest reviews.
"I wonder how Jim manages his hair?"
oh! in case anybody cares Mr. Ho Ho wears a rug.... just look at his profile picture.
has anybody have experience with long term tent living ? really, how long is a $100 tent really going to last ? 3 maybe 4 days ?
i'm only going by what holly and burt wrote in DWELLING PORTABLY ie
do more with less. stay away from the 'finished products' in stores since they are designed to look good on the display rack or make you look good in public down at the shopping adventure trip to the mall...
frankly, i enjoyed van living, although in retrospect it was more of an extended escapist road trip. but it's no survivors life boat.
Please don't turn your site into one like Creekmore's Jim. All the links are making me dizzy. Everybody trusts you because we know you can't be bought.
4.11.44
A cheap big box store tent will last you a couple of months and will leak in the rain and blow around/over in the wind.
The current version of my tent from REI lists at $250.00. You, pretty much, never need to pay list price for a tent. They go on sale. A lot. You could probably pick mine up for $175 on sale.
My tent's about 3 years old and gets used 50-60 nights a year in some fairly challenging conditions- like on the Washington coast. So far it has never leaked or failed and doesn't look the slightest bit worn.
Buy good quality stuff, take good care of it, and it will last.
As to the question of long term tent living, it's really nice to take a hot shower and sleep in a real bed after about a week of tent living. But, I could hangout in a tent for a summer and part of the fall. More than a week in a tent in a cold, wet, winter would suck- and that's from someone who has really nice gear and like to camp. In the winter once something gets wet it is going to stay wet (at least in the Pacific North West) and that includes your sleeping bag from your bodies transpiration.
From what I've seen of other people out camping most need an RV with a generator, a microwave, a satellite dish & and a 9mm to ward off the chipmunks in order to camp.
The couple of times I haven't felt safe camping it was from camping near people that were being dumb with guns. Other than that, I've always felt perfectly comfortable and have never had any issues with anything being stolen.
I'd give most people two weeks in good weather and 3-4 days in bad weather. But then, I'm an optimist.
Wow, I suck at math. Turn that 50-60 nights a year into 20-30.
check out http://bisonsurvivalblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/tent-living.html
I quote the previous blogger (myself):
Anonymous said...
"Homemade tipis can be made all sorts of ways. A large rectangular un-cut tarp around some poles is all that a tipi has to be. The poles can be 2 8 foot 2X2's connected by a 1 foot long 2" PVC pipe. Tie the top of the poles with an old bicycle innertube, bungee cord, rope, duct tape, what have you. The poles at top don't have to be sticking out all over the place at top like an Indian tipi picture. To insulate, just build a tipi, then lay some more poles around it for spacing, and then wrap another tarp around it. This is a very warm house. For animal protection, build a cover of chicken wire and then wrap that over the outside of the tipi. You can build a fire in the tipi, which is a great advantage of the structure type. Just don't be stupid and close the vents."
I would add that if you build a fire, remember that you are living in your own chimney. Keep the door slightly open and an opening at top to let out the smoke. I have also built tipis by duct taping and tying together reflective bubble wrap insulation and then covering the bubblewrap tipi with another camoflage tarp to hide the shiny stuff.
The tipi is not heaven or a centrally heated McMansion but it's better by far than an ordinary tent and can be quite comfortable in winter if you have enough blankets and firewood. If you have a small tent set-up within the tipi, you can forgo the fire and heat the tent-within-a tent with just a few multi-wick candles.
In camp or at home I sleep best with my back against a big, warm girl.
My neighbor lived in a tipi for about 18 months while working on her house. She used a small barrel stove in the middle to heat and cook she even warmed water on it to bathe with. She was very happy to get into the house.
A good quality tent, about $250 on sale from a place like REI or LL. Beans last me about 6 months of car camping.
That's six constant months living out of a tent. Lots of setting up and tearing down -everything from tropical storms to snowstorms.
After about 6 months it might still look good, but expect it to fail any time after that.
Canvas tents last longer if maintained properly. Canvas is heavy and bulky, so not the best for traveling. However, a good wall tent with a woodstove can get you through a lot.
Thanks, SB. I've wondered how much use I would get out of my tent if I used it daily.
Jim, good thought on the tent inside a tent setup for cold weather camping (in the linked to post). I might have to rig something like that up next time I head for the coast.
A few posts back you were wondering about the shelf life of stored fats. I just picked up a copy of When Technology Fails by Matthew Stein and according to him most fats can be stored up to 5 years. He didn't give a recommended storage life for rendered Californian. It seems fitting that the title of the book can be abbreviated: WTF.
The Kuggerands won't last long once the harem finds out about them. You've been married... You know it's an either/or situation. Chicks or cash: Choose one or the other, not both.
If the ass falls out of civilization as we know it, and you are jobless and homeless, is it better to live in a van safe from weather and the crawlers and biters; or in a tent?
Jan 2007 and several times since we discussed buying a cheap van as a shelter of last resort.
http://bisonsurvivalblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/junk-van.html
http://bisonsurvivalblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/junk-van-2.html
http://bisonsurvivalblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/junk-van-3.html
http://bisonsurvivalblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/junk-land-and-van-living.html
Homelesss people in Sacramento, and a lot of other places, who have no van now live in tents.
http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2009/10/tent-villas-spring-up-in-usa.html
Another thing I have had in mind for improving a tent in wet weather is to put a plastic tarp over-it. Not only would it work to keep dry,but serves as another layer for insulation, plastic will keep the wind out. a 12 dollar tarp could make all the difference in the world.
I would still rather sleep in a van though.
Ah, This is spot on! Dispells
many contradictions I've heard
Ah, This is spot on! Clarifies
many contradictions I've heard
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