I would like to thank Vlad, a long time loyal minion who’s been with me since I was squatting in the middle of the primordial ooze
of Florida desperately swatting at my keyboard trying to sound as wise and grand as I now am, for bringing up the concept of the Dakota Hole. It is so friggin simple and wonderful that it fits right in with all the other butt simple ideas I’ve been assembling at the Bison Compound
, laboring mightily day and night to provide you with all the tools you need to inexpensively survive being put into the stewpot. Vlad, I stand before you humbled for not embracing the well known concept before. Thank you for bringing it up, as it solves yet another otherwise expensive problem. You see, this is what I’m talking about. When you get as ancient and decrepit as Vlad, practically older than dirt, as long as your mind is still being exercised you are a valuable asset to society. Okay, I don’t care as long as you are a valued asset to Bison, but society can get a free ride. I don’t hate old people. Hell, I’m not that far off from being one. I have parents I love dearly, and let me tell you they are pretty damn old. No, I just hate Old People Welfare. I’m not saying that they were not mislead and lied to, essentially believing they were doing no harm by counting and planning on Social Security. I don’t see why they should get a free ride and that younger generations must be continually screwed to provide that. I’m all for means testing so that the truly needful ones get assistance and the ones using tax money to golf in Arizona have to give it up. But all that doesn’t matter because the entire welfare system is going to crash, from starving seniors that have no other means of income to quadriplegics from Iraq that deserve our support for fighting ( it doesn’t really matter that the cause is unjust, the individual sacrifice must be acknowledged ) to outright lazy undeserving double or triple dippers that never worked an honest job in their lives. Good and bad, deserving or cheats, they are all going to lose government assistance. That is 100% guaranteed, and you can hate me for hating the system and blame me for not working three jobs to pay 90% taxes to support you, or you can take steps now to insulate yourself. *
I have had more than one person ask me why I haven’t started raising livestock to prepare for herding and a nomadic existence. Perhaps it escapes their notice that it gets pretty friggin cold here in the Great Basin
, five thousand feet elevation, and other than a few weeks when it scrapes up against the forties mark it pretty much stays winter here for six months. Keeping animals in place means shelter ( since you can’t take them to a warmer area ) and since they don’t move you need to buy them feed. And then you have to haul in water. So they’ve obviously not been listening too well as I moan and complain about paying the Ex-Wife Welfare Tax. My kids aren’t starving. I put the dear thing through school to be a pilot and she makes thirty grand a year. And the new husband provided the house so there is no rent to pay. But, since I am a male and have been cursed from birth by having a penis I am suspect and guilty and must be made to suffer, so I pay the Ex-Wife Tariff. I know you don’t care. The guys are saying, well, gee, I keep my trophy wife
and just sign over my check to her and the ladies are saying, gee, it is never the females fault for getting pregnant because who ever heard of birth control so you are guilty and deserve to pay up to 65% of your gross income you gross disgusting penis person. I won’t argue with you. Let’s just say for the sake of argument that I am an asshole and deserve punishment. But that still does not change the fact that I am bringing home very little money. Yes, I choose to earn less both because I want to focus on writing rather than a paycheck and because I think I’ve had enough stress over work in my life. Quality of life is important, and those dollars you make aren’t worth very much anyway. And, let’s not forget that the more I make on paper the less I take home in pay. I’ve made almost twenty grand a year and brought home four hundred dollars a month. I’ve done the math, so please keep your knee jerk reactions
to yourself. You benefit directly because I am forced to do everything frugally, so just be thankful for that. I’m an asshole, fine, but one who can teach you a thing or two about living on very little.*
I’ve also had people ask me when I’m going to build a rocket stove
. Granted, I’ve been in little hurry. I’ve always been one to brood over problems for quite some time. The more I think on a problem the better solution I come up with. By the time I figured out it was time to move off grid I had most of the problems figured out and theory to practice went very smoothly. Every time I make a decision too hastily I spend too much money. I keep telling people I don’t work well under pressure, but they ignore me and pretend that all forceful and unquestioned decisions are proper and just. Isn’t it the Marines who say, even if it’s wrong do something? On the battlefield, that probably works great. At work, it presents the illusion of power and greatness but I think in the end it can also waste a lot of money. Not all ways of doing things are the proper tool for the job. Some things are better with quick and decisive action and others require more thought. I’ll stick to more thought. That works much better for me. Do you think the Jim Washer was easy to come up with? Or the improvised French press coffee maker? I’ve been brooding over improvised heat
for a time, as I’ve been unwilling to spend money on the problem. The rocket stove
is simple enough, easy enough and inexpensive enough. Just Google it to find dozens of designs, a lot of them from Third World peasants that spend less in a month than you do at one stop to Starbucks. The problem is that shoring up the floor for the weight, putting in fireproofing and installing a chimney are the expensive parts. *
I knew I needed a stove. I might have little wood here other than sage brush, but you need to cook and take off the edge in your shelter after its been cloudy and twenty degrees for a week. But I didn’t want to waste too much money. Well, I know that the Dakota Hole has been brought up before but it never meet my needs at the time. Now it has fallen on fertile ground. If I’m going to construct an underground shelter
the Dakota Hole is perfect. Just dig two holes in the floor ( like such [ / , feeding the sticks into the / with the pot on top of the [ slightly elevated by stones or a iron grate to draw the air through ). No cost, other than a smoke hole and an air intake pipe. Not that I'll use it regularly until propane is unavailable, but it will be a viable option. I’ve been in this particular trailer for three years now and it fits like a worn in shoe. But it is still cold in here. It’s Sunday afternoon and thirty eight outside. For the first time in four days the sun is out so at least it is fifty eight inside. But I started out at thirty two on the inside so I’m still wearing two sweaters, two caps and a robe. And even with two wool socks
my feet are still cold. I don’t want to stay this cold six months a year too much longer. A twenty year old might have the metabolism and circulation to deal with that but it grows weary on me in middle age. By not being willing to spend the money on a stove for the trailer, this will force my hand into moving out of it. My feet will stay warm. You see, great things happen when you are such a tight wad that you don’t buy the “necessities”. You improvise, overcome and do without. I’ve been doing without and overcoming. Time to improvise a stove. END
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14 comments:
In your pit house you might have a small window hinged at one side some inches above ground level. Dig the Dakota fire pit outside within easy reach, and the horizontal air hole from inside. Control air flow with a small sliding panel, or hinged flap. You may find a deliciously soft, voluptuous mature lady with shining silver hair down to her beautiful ass willing
to visit occasionally and cook for you. :- )
Oh Great Bison, here is some FREE doomer porn to warm your dark soul:
http://www.resist.com/CWII.pdf
Written in 1995, it is surprising how many of the predictions have come true.
Wow,now it's official,poor little jimmy is losing it. What a hissy fit.
Excuses,excuses,excuses.
I can't.........it's too cold.
I can't.........I have a small penis.
I can't.........I'm broke.
It takes little to raise temp to comfort level in an earthhouse.
http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/psp.htm
Mike Oehler author of The $50 and Up Underground House Book, answers many questions.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Homes/The-Charm-of-Cordwood-Construction.aspx
Rlob Roy said that he and his wife completed their stackwoodmhouse, built a fire in fireplace, and had to leave until the house cooled to comfort level.
http://www.duffyslaw.com/current14.htm
My life with the ESkimo Stefansson
excerpt
ESKIMO HOUSING
Primitive dwellings using a simple seal oil lamp maintain temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees farenheit on the coldest winter night of fifty below zero.
Eskimo houses were constructed with a hole in the roof to allow in light. The hole which was most often left open was covered with Bear intestine. The base of the house was five to six foot thick made of earth and sod and tapered and thinned out towards the top which was about six foot square. The top had about six inches of earth on it. The center of the house was about nine feet high and the walls at the edge were about five feet high. The opening on the roof was about three foot square. 3 or 4 lamps burned continuously and one of the most important duties of the wife was to make sure they didn’t smoke or go out. The entrance to the house was a twenty to forty foot shed-covered tunnel about four feet lower than the floor of the house.
The cold air in the tunnel would not rise into the house which was kept warm by the four lamps at a temperature of sixty to seventy degrees fahrenheit even when the outside temperature was fifty below zero! They would sit with only shorts on in the house. So they would be bare below the knees and above the waist. After five months Stefansson began to enjoy the boiled fish they would eat for supper. The entryway and the hole in the roof were kept open most of the time, but especially during cooking. The only time the entryway would be covered would be to prevent a baby from falling into it or puppies coming in from outside and this was only rarely. Stefansson would usually sleep next to the tunnel entryway to get more fresh air. Each corner of the room had an elevation for sleeping that was covered by skins as was the floor. The houses at first smelled bad but soon you realized that it was the cooking of food that gave the smell to the house. The lamp is a halfmoon soapstone about two or three inches deep kept almost full and the wick is a powdered ivory (walrus), sawdust, dried moss ground in the fingers, manila rope from the whalers with a strand taken and chopped into tiny pieces. The wick is made from the powder laid in a strip which the oil soaks. A piece of fat is suspended over the flame and when the wick dries the flame gets brighter and hence hotter and more fat drips into the halfmoon lampbowl which then fills and wets the wick more which cuts down the height of the flame and this works by itself for about six or eight hours.
Stefansson claimed that the natural ingenuity, friendliness, charitableness of the eskimo was a universal trait of man and that there were really no superior or inferior races which appears to contradict a statement he made about the indians compared to the eskimo when he first encountered the eskimo after having been exposed to the indians. (This puts me in mind of the oft used phrase of Abraham Lincoln “the family of man�, DHD Sr .) The open center of the house was like a club pip on playing cards it was twelve foot square with an alcove in each corner which sometime would lead to another house. Stefansson lived in one which connected to the uncle of the Eskimo with whom he lived. The entire compound accommodated 23 people.
dakota hole-http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/the-dakota-fire-hole/
rocket stove-http://www.youtube.com/user/comradesimba
jimbo's dream mate-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Pmg3BxCCM
Hey Jimbo, when are you going to start raising livestock to prepare for herding and a nomadic existence.
Have you ever considered building a rocket stove?
Yes, I choose to earn less both because I want to focus on writing rather than a paycheck and because I think I’ve had enough stress over work in my life.
Poor baby.Poor little jimmy has had enough stress,bless his heart. You've been focusing on writing? Really? Whatcha writin a how to book ? Sex with sheep?
Let’s just say for the sake of argument that I am an asshole and deserve punishment.
Good point.Now yer talking.Sqeual like a pig boy.
obtuse???
You buy that 100 Words to Make You Sound Like a Smartass book ?
It worked.
Some things are better with quick and decisive action and others require more thought. I’ll stick to more thought. That works much better for me. Do you think the Jim Washer was easy to come up with? Or the improvised French press coffee maker?
Ever hear about google ?
campfire coffee - http://coffeetea.about.com/cs/coffeemaking/a/campfire.htm
How To Hand Wash Your Laundry -
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-hand-wash-your-laundry
poor little jimmy thinks that teotwawki is going to be a breeze. Sipping on coffee,lounging around in his clean pajamas reading books.
Showers,coffee,clean clothes,books.
Yep,that's survival. That's the way they did it back in the good old days.Smelling good is important when you are starving. Can't live without coffee.
Don't worry about producing your own food.That's not important. Who needs water?
Have you considered building you a cold frame so to eat some veggies during the winter? I know a guy that does it and he eats home grown lettuce and other greens during the winter. If it really works out and you have an abundance of greens, maybe you could build a rabbit pen and get your protein from those critters. Place them along the south side of your trailer (so to reduce the impact of the cold wind from the north) and you should be able to reduce your food bill. Butcher a few in a couple of months, dig the dakota fire hole, and have a bunny bar-b-que.
I wrote, "In your pit house you might have a small window hinged at one side some inches above ground level. Dig the Dakota fire pit outside within easy reach, and the horizontal air hole from inside. etc"
Correction to text ......
I meant to say that the window is at chest level inside the house, and a few inches above outside ground level. Thus you may comfortably stand inside
and check your food cooking on Dakota fire pit outside the house.
Anonymous said...
Have you considered building you a cold frame so to eat some veggies during the winter? I know a guy that does it and he eats home grown lettuce and other greens during the winter.
http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/psp.htm
Scroll down. See cover picture of the earth-sheltered greenhouse book. It is a walk-in cold frame, with cold sink. He lives in Idaho panhandle, This type greenhouse gives greatly extended growing season.
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