Author Topic: Living off grid, building cabins, maximising being outdoors etc. [split topic] (Read 2115 times)

Sebastian Cobb · « **Reply #30 on:** February 16, 2021, 11:48:50 AM »

A boat is a hole in the sea you fill with money.

Better to do out a big van/small bus and live in that I reckon.

A pal lived in a half-bus for a while, the inside was all made from cut up pallets, it had a woodburner. Unfortunately he had to sack it off as new MOT legislation would've made the windscreen a failure and the non-standard size and age of the vehicle meant it wasn't worth arsing about with.

Thomas · « **Reply #31 on:** February 16, 2021, 12:44:23 PM »

Someone I knew at university recently bought a van, gave it an exterior paintjob[1] and an interior cosyfication, and is currently driving around the North and Scotland. The doors swing open to facilitate the admiration of silent golden sunsets over lochs and moors. It looks incredibly peaceful.

Living in a city is useful and lively (100% less so this year), but I think you're forced to trade in a little bit of your spirit to do it fulltime. It's all I see, tarmac and walls. Slabs. Concrete. Parked cars. Trees planted in isolation from one another to trick your primate brain into tolerating bus stops. Arctic permashade across the pavements, sunlight denied entry by the shopping centres and vertical fiefdoms of offshore landlords. If ever you glimpse a blackbird or a robin, you presume it must have come to kill itself.

1.	covering up the previous owner's stickers - including 'MILF: Man I Love to Fish'.

Shoulders?-Stomach! · « **Reply #32 on:** February 16, 2021, 12:54:24 PM »

Being freezing cold in a broken down van unable to sleep for the rain on the bonnet doesn't sound all that great a flipside either, though.

The Dog · « **Reply #33 on:** February 16, 2021, 01:02:51 PM »

Why not just live in a bin?

Thomas · « **Reply #34 on:** February 16, 2021, 01:03:10 PM »

I just want to go and stand in some woods :(

If I watched The Blair Witch Project now, it'd be a twee hygge woodland experience.

Sebastian Cobb · « **Reply #35 on:** February 16, 2021, 03:36:36 PM »

Quote from: The Dog on February 16, 2021, 01:02:51 PM

Why not just live in a bin?

Closest thing you can get to an adult-sized womb.

beanheadmcginty · « **Reply #36 on:** February 16, 2021, 03:55:20 PM »

Quote from: Retinend on February 16, 2021, 11:37:23 AM

No man is an island.

What about the Isle of Man?

Shoulders?-Stomach! · « **Reply #37 on:** February 16, 2021, 03:58:29 PM »

Laughed

Buelligan · « **Reply #38 on:** February 16, 2021, 04:23:05 PM »

Saw this and thought of icehaven. https://barryandsandra.com/making-living-on-a-narrowboat-sustainable/the-costs-of-living-on-a-narrowboat/

I always thought that the bottom painting thing was horrendously expensive - and it is very expensive - but not as insane as I'd imagined. And Brum is the Venice of everywhere except Venice, so there's that.

Shoulders?-Stomach! · « **Reply #39 on:** February 16, 2021, 04:26:51 PM »

If there was anywhere in the world other than Venice where you would be likely to be stalked by a golem in a red anorak while you come to terms with the death of your child and your apparent clairvoyance, it's Birmingham.

Marner and Me · « **Reply #40 on:** February 16, 2021, 04:31:44 PM »

Quote from: icehaven on February 15, 2021, 09:42:51 PM

I'd have thought it'd have to be mobile, but I may be wrong.

Yes mobile and hope for the best

Marner and Me · « **Reply #41 on:** February 16, 2021, 04:33:36 PM »

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on February 16, 2021, 12:28:41 AM

I’ve stayed on a friends boat (in Hackney Wick as it happens), and it’s fine. It feels a lot like camping - everything’s just a bit more difficult than it would usually be (boiling all your water, making toast using a frying pan, running the engine if you want to watch telly in the evening etc).

My “bed” was the kitchen table with a roll of foam you had to do every night. It was v damp and you’re up against a window with no insulation so you’re 2 ft and a sheet of glass away from sleeping on the towpath.

It was alright for me for a week, but unsustainable long term. My buddy had to go to friends flats in Walthamstow every couple of days to borrow their shower (and the unwritten rule was to save jobbies for when you go to the pub to reduce sewage pump costs).

Would fucking love a cabin though. Place in the middle of nowhere to get plastered and go fishing. Magic.

All depends on how you kit your barge out and what insulation you put into it. My parents know people who live full time on their boats

Buelligan · « **Reply #42 on:** February 16, 2021, 04:34:11 PM »

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on February 16, 2021, 04:26:51 PM

If there was anywhere in the world other than Venice where you would be likely to be stalked by a golem in a red anorak while you come to terms with the death of your child and your apparent clairvoyance, it's Birmingham.

Oh, why's that then?

FerriswheelBueller · « **Reply #43 on:** February 16, 2021, 04:39:40 PM »

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on February 16, 2021, 04:26:51 PM

If there was anywhere in the world other than Venice where you would be likely to be stalked by a golem in a red anorak while you come to terms with the death of your child and your apparent clairvoyance, it's Birmingham.

Reported for hate speech.

Quote from: Marner and Me on February 16, 2021, 04:33:36 PM

All depends on how you kit your barge out and what insulation you put into it. My parents know people who live full time on their boats

Yeah fair point. My mate was doing it as cheap as he possibly could to avoid being priced out of London. After the boat was burgled and sank and reclaimed for scrap metal (in that order), he was priced out of London.

Marner and Me · « **Reply #44 on:** February 16, 2021, 04:44:54 PM »

Burgled and sank, or dodgy insurance claim lol

FerriswheelBueller · « **Reply #45 on:** February 16, 2021, 04:47:21 PM »

Quote from: Marner and Me on February 16, 2021, 04:44:54 PM

Burgled and sank, or dodgy insurance claim lol

Someone broke a window and nicked a guitar and the bikes off the roof, then my mate went to Portugal for a week and came back to it under a foot of water. Off to the scrapman!

I’m posting too much in here. Sorry. Ruining the serenity of the wilderness thread.

Mr Farenheit · « **Reply #46 on:** February 16, 2021, 04:54:47 PM »

Quote from: Retinend on February 16, 2021, 11:37:23 AM

Norman is an island.

No he's not!

Sebastian Cobb · « **Reply #47 on:** February 16, 2021, 06:14:15 PM »

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on February 16, 2021, 12:28:41 AM

I’ve stayed on a friends boat (in Hackney Wick as it happens), and it’s fine. It feels a lot like camping - everything’s just a bit more difficult than it would usually be (boiling all your water, making toast using a frying pan, running the engine if you want to watch telly in the evening etc).

My “bed” was the kitchen table with a roll of foam you had to do every night. It was v damp and you’re up against a window with no insulation so you’re 2 ft and a sheet of glass away from sleeping on the towpath.

It was alright for me for a week, but unsustainable long term. My buddy had to go to friends flats in Walthamstow every couple of days to borrow their shower (and the unwritten rule was to save jobbies for when you go to the pub to reduce sewage pump costs).

Would fucking love a cabin though. Place in the middle of nowhere to get plastered and go fishing. Magic.

When I was about 17 I had a summer job at Anglo-Welsh. My duties were to fill up the diesel and water tanks and empty the poo tank, then just to give them a bit of a scrub after lunch. £20 a day.

Emptying the poo tank was grim, the pump was a hand-cranked narrowboat engine with a massive flywheel on it that my twiglet arms struggled to start, and you had to stop it by flicking a lever to stop compression, which made it smoke like fuck. The pipe used to recoil as the tods went through it and the tank they all went to made ominous creaking noises in the summer.

Shoulders?-Stomach! · « **Reply #48 on:** February 16, 2021, 07:06:16 PM »

Quote

The pipe used to recoil as the tods went through it

Fucking hell. Happy pancake day

Dex Sawash · « **Reply #49 on:** February 16, 2021, 10:00:41 PM »

Quote from: Buelligan on February 16, 2021, 04:23:05 PM

Saw this and thought of icehaven. https://barryandsandra.com/making-living-on-a-narrowboat-sustainable/the-costs-of-living-on-a-narrowboat/

I always thought that the bottom painting thing was horrendously expensive - and it is very expensive - but not as insane as I'd imagined. And Brum is the Venice of everywhere except Venice, so there's that.

The number of places you will be allowed to affordably DIY a bottom paint job will continue to dwindle worldwide due to the envirohazard of all steps of preparation and application and more profitable use of waterfronts.
Canal/river use may not require the toxic heavy metal biocide load in the paint though, i have never been involved with long-term freshwater exposure.
I do love a small diesel ticking over at a few hundred rpm for up to one half of an hour. I expect I would prefer a mule-drawn narrowboat.

Buelligan · « **Reply #50 on:** February 16, 2021, 10:26:32 PM »

I agree a mule and a narrowboat would be perfect.

PowerButchi · « **Reply #51 on:** February 16, 2021, 10:49:35 PM »

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 16, 2021, 06:14:15 PM

When I was about 17 I had a summer job at Anglo-Welsh. My duties were to fill up the diesel and water tanks and empty the poo tank, then just to give them a bit of a scrub after lunch. £20 a day.

I worked from them in their Trevor Basin base when I was 14. Lasted two Saturdays. Fuck that.

Uncle TechTip · « **Reply #52 on:** February 16, 2021, 10:58:58 PM »

All the years I've walked past these boats and idly wondered what it would be like to live on one, and never once did i think "how would you go to the toilet?" Well, to the tune of £400 a year for pump-out services.

Lovely article thanks, Barry and Sandra were moored in Chester last winter and i reckon i cycled past them a few times. Billowing thick smoke into the air.

Buelligan · « **Reply #53 on:** February 17, 2021, 12:23:21 PM »

Just mulling a bit more on icehaven's narrowboat, I believe her young man[1] is a keen motorcyclist. Nothing better, wheel it down the towpath and keep it on board. Maybe even invest in a butty someday to tow behind and use as a mobile garage/rehearsal space/party space and summer guest accommodation. I'd do it in a trice.

1.

heh

Twit 2 · « **Reply #54 on:** February 19, 2021, 07:51:22 PM »

Progress. Roof nearly there. Partition walls started.

FerriswheelBueller · « **Reply #55 on:** February 19, 2021, 07:56:16 PM »

That looks well good.

Marner and Me · « **Reply #56 on:** February 19, 2021, 08:28:31 PM »

It's like that mission on RD2

touchingcloth · « **Reply #57 on:** February 19, 2021, 09:41:28 PM »

They’re all living off grid, building cabins, and maximising being outdoors etc. by the time I’ve finished with them.

Ray Travez · « **Reply #58 on:** February 19, 2021, 11:17:25 PM »

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on February 15, 2021, 07:59:02 PM

Have you watched the History Channel show Alone yet? I know there are a couple of fans on here, but I'd recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone even slightly into this stuff (or who's just into good reality TV). It's astonishing what some of these people are able to do with what's around them, and how comfortable they're able to make themselves in incredibly harsh conditions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_(TV_series)

Cheers for that, watched ep 1 tonight. It's very different to Naked and Afraid, which by contrast has a lot of drama and some quite visceral suffering. Like you say it's amazing the tools they create out of bits of stone and wood. If they were out there six months I reckon they'd have some kind of functioning computer made from moss.

Shoulders?-Stomach! · « **Reply #59 on:** February 19, 2021, 11:20:30 PM »

I hope it will feature a board about local flora and fauna.

And a Sluicing Clamp.

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Author Topic: Living off grid, building cabins, maximising being outdoors etc. [split topic] (Read 2115 times)