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Simple living in the desert

found this site linked over at survivalistboards.com:http://www.ranchocostanada.itgo.com/

Quote:

Rancho Costa Nada: The Dirt Cheap Desert Homestead

This book tells how to live cheap in the desert. It's a survival guide to frugal living, about how to live on almost nothing after quitting the job, the commute hassle, the mean boss, and all the nagging worries about rent and morgage. It's about self-reliance, independence, and a life of freedom and leisure.

"Rancho Costa Nada: The Dirt Cheap Desert Homestead," originally was published by Loompanics, a catalog publisher of quirky books that went out of business this year and sold "Rancho" rights to Paladin Press, another off-beat publisher. "Rancho Costa Nada" tells how the author bought 10 worthless acres in the California desert for three hundred smackers . For another hundred bucks, he build a comfortable little hogan out of scrap lumber and sand bags. Some ideas he figured out for himself, such as how to be his own utility district. Other schemes for frugal desert living came from half a dozen fellow homesteaders in the barren waste of the Smoke Tree Valley in Imperial County, California.

The author is no pioneer. Just an average mope without any particular survival skills or handy homesteader attributes, such as carpentry or auto mechanics. No, he was pretty raw. But he found out that by using a few simple expedients it's easy to live for almost nothing. No hardship. Whatever cash he generates (and how hard is it to turn a few bucks in Samland?) becomes disposable income. So he travels during the summer inferno and uses the Rancho as home base in winter (unless he's housesitting for somebody or on the road).

What's in this peculiar book? A description of building a tight little weather-proof hogan out of scrap lumber and sand bags. The hogan is surrounded by a wind break that forms a patio, covered by a shade ramada. Very plain, but strong enough (because of the sand bags) to withstand desert "box car winds" that can hit 80 mph.

A personal utility district based on his car's alternator. You drive the darn car. Why not use it to pump up deep-cycle batteries strapped to the floorboards. A very simple method to generate enough electricity to operate lights, fans, radio, DVD, and water pump.

Well, what about water? Drinking water has to be hauled from a public park in town, 45 miles away. Sixty gallons per week. The rest of the water comes from two sources. One of the other homesteaders, for a carton of cigarettes, will deliver up to 500 gallons of salty non-potable water from a secret well. Good enough for the evap coolers, for gardening, and for a cool bath on hot days. The other source is from the wash. Homesteaders bury 55 gallon drums in the washes, which fill up during the brief flash floods.

Transportation. Some of homesteaders of the Smoke Tree are clever mechanics who have built fleets of Mad Max sand carts and dune buggies. Some of these vehicles are used to run the nearby gunnery range at night to salvage brass and aluminum tailfins. Trouble is, these vehicles, plus the big 4WD trucks the other homesteaders favor, suck up the gas. The author has a small, gas-frugal car that he has equipped with winches and come-alongs that easily pop him out of the sand when he gets stuck in a wash.

Don't you need a refrigerator? The author gets along without one. No problem, and he explains how to do it. Other homesteaders use propane fridges, but that's another expense. So is ice. He finds that he can get along for a week (the time between visits to the supermarket in town) without the expense of refrigeration. Let Albertsons pay for it. All the cooking is done on the two burners of a simple camp stove.

Sex? Like water, you go to town for it.

The book also examines the lives of the half dozen other homesteaders who live in the Smoke Tree, mostly in trailer compounds. Some are reclusive and don't wish society. Others are prickly, and easily riled, with packs of semi-feral dogs spotted round the laager on breakaway leashes. Others are frankly eccentric. But all of the inhabitants have figured out ingenious ways to cope with a harsh enviornment.

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He has a few colorful and intriguing neighbors living only a few miles from him, the most interesting of which is the man he calls The Demented Vet. The Demented Vet makes six brief monologue intrusions into the text. He’s a severely disgruntled vet who spews wild tangents at anyone who comes to visit, not unlike the Ancient Mariner haranguing the wedding guest. One of the greatest words ever invented comes from this Demented Vet: Sapismo, or, “the infinite capacity of the narcoleptic middle class to absorb a financial drubbing from corporations and the government.” Do you worry about the 401k, health insurance, dividends on tiny stock portfolios, and the relative largeness of your car, home or bank account? If so, then you’re sapismo, just like me. Garlington includes these monologues as entertainment for his readers and as a cautionary tale for himself. He realized not too long ago that one of the unforeseen dangers of living in the desert too long, “You start sounding like the Demented Vet.” It changes you.

Re: Simple living in the desert

Worked for Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Re: Simple living in the desert

I like tales like this but overall if you have to abandon your digs all summer the scheme is 25% fail. Maybe a person could have a similar setup in a northern bad region, like Alaska, and migrate back n forth between the two.

Re: Simple living in the desert

why wait for shtf when you can live it now? sounds like a lot of fun.

Re: Simple living in the desert

As close to a hellhole as one can get. That area is utterly barren, except right along the Colorado river. What would one do there?

From Wikipedia:
The Chocolate Mountains contain the world's richest gold rift zone. "Geologists estimate that the gold contained in this zone is worth between $40 to $100 billion. These are surface gold deposits which are more profitable to mine than the one-mile deep gold deposits in South Africa."[citation needed] When the gunnery range closes in the future, and the mountains are cleared of dangerous materials remaining from bombing practice, mining will most likely begin. The gold area was owned by the Catellus Development Corporation, now part of the industrial property giant ProLogis.

I see a GIM colony starting to form...

Re: Simple living in the desert

I would not like to live where good water is scarce.

Re: Simple living in the desert

jst too hot for me and there no water .. nope not for me

Re: Simple living in the desert

From original post:

Quote:

A personal utility district based on his car's alternator. You drive the darn car. Why not use it to pump up deep-cycle batteries strapped to the floorboards. A very simple method to generate enough electricity to operate lights, fans, radio, DVD, and water pump.

So, he carries extra batteries in his car when he drives to town and charges them to and from? Hmmm... anyone ever try this? I might. How much spare capacity can an alternator produce, assuming one is not running lights, blasting stereo and AC when driving?

Here's a how-to:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5343827_char...iving-car.html

Re: Simple living in the desert

Life in the desert is quite pleasant if you are prepared. If you're not prepared you're in trouble. To prepare for the summer temperature you sit in the shade and drink water. It takes three weeks. To conserve water you STFU until evening and then you talk up a storm. Same for smoking; only at night. Desert dwellers are calm, not wanting to move around much in the day time. They are usually sociable with visitors, although their idea of "sociable" might be very different from other people's. After all, they live in the desert because they are tired of putting up with other people.

Re: Simple living in the desert

Ship everything in or die ...

Re: Simple living in the desert

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pat (Post 2019391)

Ship everything in or die ...

In Arizona, water gets "shipped" in via the Colorado. When that shipment stops, Phoenix dries up.

Tucson, however, is another story. Underground reservoirs provide plenty of water and the mountainous regions in the Sonoran desert get enough rainfall to sustain life on its own.

There are livable pockets within the desert - you just have to find them.

Re: Simple living in the desert

Quote:

Originally Posted by Juristic Person (Post 2019774)

Wells are unaffordable deep in that specific area he 'temporarily' lives in, if a well did exist the power required to pump it is beyond practical.

Unlike where you live, its a most inhospitable area for humans but large dust devils do thrive there.

Re: Simple living in the desert

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjgnome (Post 2018937)

From original post:

So, he carries extra batteries in his car when he drives to town and charges them to and from? Hmmm... anyone ever try this? I might. How much spare capacity can an alternator produce, assuming one is not running lights, blasting stereo and AC when driving?

Enough to charge a couple golf cart batteries that power a 2000 watt power inverter for me ...

Re: Simple living in the desert

Thanks, Pat. If you don't mind me asking, what do you run off those batteries? Or is that a part of a larger system?

Back to the desert theme, I am guessing sonoran desert may get 10 inches of rain/year. I have heard rooftop collection figures around 1 inch of rain on 1 sq foot of roof = 1/2 gallon.

10 inches on 1sf of roof = 5 gallons/sf of roof. 1000sf house = 100 gallons/year. Covers drinking water for 1 person. Nothing for bathing, laundry, dishes, etc.

Re: Simple living in the desert

What wells are found there are salty. Solar distillation is possible, but that takes far more than the no-tech choices he's made.

Re: Simple living in the desert

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pat (Post 2019802)

Yeah...it wouldn't be my first choice either.

.

Re: Simple living in the desert

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Originally Posted by coopersmith (Post 2017190)

http://www.solarhaven.org/

Great link! Fantastic, very practical info.

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We have over 3000 square feet of roof surface to collect rain water between the greenhouse and new straw bale house. TO FIGURE HOW MUCH WATER IS COLLECTED: approximately 600 gallons of rain water is collected for every 1000 square foot of collection area for one inch of rain. Thus one inch of rain produces about 1800 gallons of water and comes close to filling the storage tank. The new above-ground storage pool will hold about 4500 gallons.

They get about 12 inches per year X 1800 gallons = 21,600 gallons of rainwater/year in the sonoran desert. Not bad! Especially if you recycle your greywater for growing plants.

http://www.solarhaven.org/WaterStorage.htm

http://www.solarhaven.org/WaterSystem%20PlumbingX.jpg

Re: Simple living in the desert

The tiny house idea makes more and more sense to me, at least as a starting point.

http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/2009/...-adobe-casita/

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The footprint is 120 sq ft (12′ X 10′) but the thick walls reduce the interior living space to 86 sq. ft. That’s just enough for a small bed, a fold-down desk, a small kitchen counter and some shelves. The only wood in the structure is in the roof. The inside wall treatment is mud plaster made from white clay which is abundant in the area. The outside is stucco over 2 inches of rigid insulation.

I built it from adobe which was mortared with mud from the building site. The foundation is a 10″ X 10″ collar beam on top of a 20″ X 20″ rubble filled trench. This foundation system provides adequate support for the heavy walls and took only 1 square yard of concrete to make.

The total cost for the casita was a little less than $3,000. I could have saved 1/4 of that by making my own adobes. Soil from the site is ideal for adobe but I had time constraints at the time so I bought them from a nearby adobe yard.

The local power company wanted $12,000 to run a line to me so I built my own electrical plant for $1,902. My homemade system consists of 2 PV panels, 4 golf cart batteries, a charge controller and a small inverter. That provides enough electricity for the casita and the water well. The best part is there’s no electric bill to pay.

http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/wp-co.../08/gray47.jpg

Re: Simple living in the desert

whats a 120 sq foot place good for?

Re: Simple living in the desert

Quote:

Originally Posted by Popps (Post 2026258)

whats a 120 sq foot place good for?

Affordable shelter, energy efficient, debt free living. Lower property tax, too.

For many, the choice is:

A) spend 1/3 of their lives working to pay for rent or mortgage, and living in a place they don't like, because that is where they can get money to pay for that housing.

or

B) Spend 1 summer building a modest home and :36_3_16: debt slavery goodbye.

Of course, you can always add on, or use the original tiny house as a guest room, and build a larger main residence as time and resources permit.

Re: Simple living in the desert

What about using those "Vaporators" that Luke used on their farm on Tatooine?

Re: Simple living in the desert

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjgnome (Post 2027393)

Of course, you can always add on, or use the original tiny house as a guest room, and build a larger main residence as time and resources permit.

That's what my friends who built on 20 acres near Alpine did. The first tiny house is the guest house.

Evaporative coolers are icy cold in the desert and just need a small amount of power... they run a small water pump, not nearly like a well, to wet the pads and a fan. And it turns cool enough to be a little chilly most nights all summer. No mosquitos, so you don't need screens. I'd want to catch and store rain, so the roof of the bigger house and a barn would go in early. And as posted above, the gray water would be for irrigation with careful soap selection. I'd probably go pole barn style on the metal rain catcher roofs and would have to check prevailing winds and anchor them well to not be building sails. Then the sandbags could go in for more wind protection and adobe and internal finishing touches last. I think I'd want a concrete pad too.

Deserts are great for gardening where I have been. Very fertile once you dig out any caliche and no common garden bugs. But I did dig deep and got some free horse manure and straw to mix in by cleaning some stalls. Garden prep is a winter chore, but in a desert, sweat works much better than almost anyone who has not lived in a desert can imagine. You are never even damp, just cool enough, and if you hike all day in August your shirt will be salt crusted. Have plenty of salt. And you need a wide brimmed straw hat that some wind gets through, but shades your head.

Knowing where a really good spring was in the nearby mountains (most desert landscapes I have known have them) for years of really low rainfall would be good. The weather is going to get strange, probably, and you might get a year of 3 inches, or 50, so be careful not to build in the path of flash floods, but well above any washes.

Re: Simple living in the desert

OH! When you have a dozer guy out, if you do, to level your foundation area and dig any foundation trenches, have him put you in some swales to make rainwater stop off and soak in where the slope of the land favors that, and put your orchard there. It will need less gray water then.

Re: Simple living in the desert

Looks like the place where they shot "The Hills Have Eyes"

Re: Simple living in the desert

Quote:

Originally Posted by AMforPM (Post 2027562)

Yes, exactly, see post#8:

http://goldismoney.info/forums/showp...98&postcount=8

I imagine an aquaponics unit would double as an evaporative cooler. Only problem I could see would be odors if the fish wastes got concentrated. Providing fish, plants foods, oxygen & air conditioning all in one system. Hmm....

Nice to see you, AMforPM.

Re: Simple living in the desert

If you look around youll find there are 12v swarm coolers.

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Re: Simple living in the desert

Quote:

He finds that he can get along for a week (the time between visits to the supermarket in town) without the expense of refrigeration

True self sufficient off the grid living. Just go to the store once a week. What an originial outside the box visionary!

Re: Simple living in the desert

Quote:

Originally Posted by coopersmith (Post 2027829)

If you look around youll find there are 12v swarm coolers.

Micheal Snodgrass of Ditchwater Ohio tells us he's quit satisfied with the swarm cooler that installed itself last spring.

http://www.greateraustinpestcontrol....rm_300x369.jpg

+p

Re: Simple living in the desert

Thanks bjgnome. Good desert permaculture vids. I love permaculture. I used its principles on our 2 lots that were nearly bare dirt when we moved in and green and lovely now. And I have only watered new plantings, and the trees in severe drought. And that is with a very small area. But we get about 30 inches of rain here. It is dryish, but far from desert.

Some things did not work out, but most did.

Re: Simple living in the desert

AMforPM, I am curious what kind of species you have going?

Re: Simple living in the desert

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http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/wi..._the_wind.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/magnus_lars...hitecture.html

Re: Simple living in the desert

Site has lots of good links and info:

http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

Re: Simple living in the desert

http://thefieldlab.org/fun.html

Quote:

So knowing basically how evaporative (swamp) coolers worked, I designed one that would take the edge off of the summer heat.

First I built a small prototype to test the theory - it worked ok but only slowed the temperature rise inside my little hut. I doubled the fan and water flow and low and behold....IT WORKED! Not just kind of worked but REALLY worked. Using only about 2 watts of power from my solar charged battery bank and about 3 gallons of precious rainwater per day, the temperature stays below 80 degrees inside no matter how hot it gets outside! The beauty is I figured it out in only 3 days. Since then, when it is too hot to work outside I just come in, cool off and work on the computer.

Re: Simple living in the desert

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjgnome (Post 2110718)

http://thefieldlab.org/fun.html

A squirrel cage fan works best, but those require more energy.