Post by rhyla on Aug 13, 2012 20:25:11 GMT -5
Literally.
Thinking about what to do once our house in town sells. One possibility is that My family has a spot on a lake here for a float cabin (currently all we have is a half finished float.) The spot is far more remote than any land we could buy here, and it is beautiful. Only 12 minutes by boat from the docks, so it would be feasible to travel back and forth for work.
I'm trying to consider all of the things we need to have covered and sort out how to do it without land. We do have usage of some land 100 feet or so on the shore, but not ownership, which means anything built there, sheds, etc, have to be on skids so that they can be moved if need be. Below is a list of things I've been considering. What I'm interested in is if anyone can. Think of areas I'm missing.
As far as food goes:
Vegetables are easy, I've seen how other people on the lake have done floating gardens using wicking material to draw water up for the plants. we can plant winter veggies and do insulated covers over them for winter. Also plenty of stuff to forage.
Fruit: we could have a couple of small fruit trees in buckets on the float. We could potentially have a few more in buckets on the shore. I can see this being enough for fresh fruit in season, but unlikely enough to really can much for off season. Plenty of berries to forage.
Meat: hunting. Fishing. Not sure if we could or would want to keep chickens or quail or rabbits.
Milk: no place for goats, going to have to buy this and bring from town. Boo:( but not a deal breaker.
Refrigeration: we could have a small propane fridge. I'm not sure if we could run a freezer off of solar or not? Keeping meat from hunting may be problematic. We can try drying and pressure canning more. Although this is probably the biggest issue I've come across so far and need to do a bit of research on.
Water: infinite supply of good water from the lake (it used to be one of the water supplies for part of town.) Doesn't need to be boiled or filtered.
For heat, we'd have a small woodstove. We can get firewood by chopping up fallen trees. Surrounded by crown land that is unlikely to ever be developed.
For cooking there would be a propane stove and the wood cook stove. Also a fire pit out on the deck and a propane BBQ most likely.
For preserving: Need to look at the feasibility of here for where I would be doing canning. Cost of propane or if it could be done with wood over a fire. Have plans to build a solar dehydrater.
Storage: would build a smaller second float with some storage sheds on them. Also a storage shed on land on skids.
Electricity: minimal. None out there, nor will there ever be so it's what we can do for ourselves. We can set up solar and wind on a small scale to run basics. Generator for backup.
Communication: we are lucky being not too far out and in a good location we actually pick up signal from the cellphone tower so we wouldn't need to get a sat phone. We should be able to have satellite Internet so access for information which will be super important for all our little DIY projects that I actually have no idea how to do. Big learning curve. A big thing here might be the difficulty when it comes to visiting with friends and family (although I do have other family that spend most their time on the lake.) however, 12 minutes by boat isn't a huge barrier, it just takes a little more planning for us to go. Pick them up at the docks. However,mtruth is that our social life will probably suffer some. I like my peace and quiet so this is less of a problem for me than my hubby.
Septic: we can have a field on land, and pump up to it from the float. Or we can have outhouses on land. Or we could do a composting toilet. We have friends who live out of town that live with a composting toilet and outhouse, it's doable for sure.
Work and supplies: obviously we need to both be working on a similar schedule to share boat trips and we need to be a little organized for picking up supplies and such.
Obviously we'd have a ton of learning to do to be able to fix both problems with the float, cabin and boat. But otherwise, are the any major areas I'm not considering how to deal with while living on the water in an area accessible only by boat? My thought is if we're really serious about it, to do it for a year (the cabin will be there anyways as a summer retreat) so that we see what it's like trying to live there in all seasons and for a truly extended period of time. A month or two would be nothing.
I'm leary to not have/own land, but out there is closer to what I want than anything else around here and I want to be here. So if I can work everything out, even if it means making a few adjustments to what my plan was (like giving up my orchard, and not keeping goats) then I'm definitely interested.
Thinking about what to do once our house in town sells. One possibility is that My family has a spot on a lake here for a float cabin (currently all we have is a half finished float.) The spot is far more remote than any land we could buy here, and it is beautiful. Only 12 minutes by boat from the docks, so it would be feasible to travel back and forth for work.
I'm trying to consider all of the things we need to have covered and sort out how to do it without land. We do have usage of some land 100 feet or so on the shore, but not ownership, which means anything built there, sheds, etc, have to be on skids so that they can be moved if need be. Below is a list of things I've been considering. What I'm interested in is if anyone can. Think of areas I'm missing.
As far as food goes:
Vegetables are easy, I've seen how other people on the lake have done floating gardens using wicking material to draw water up for the plants. we can plant winter veggies and do insulated covers over them for winter. Also plenty of stuff to forage.
Fruit: we could have a couple of small fruit trees in buckets on the float. We could potentially have a few more in buckets on the shore. I can see this being enough for fresh fruit in season, but unlikely enough to really can much for off season. Plenty of berries to forage.
Meat: hunting. Fishing. Not sure if we could or would want to keep chickens or quail or rabbits.
Milk: no place for goats, going to have to buy this and bring from town. Boo:( but not a deal breaker.
Refrigeration: we could have a small propane fridge. I'm not sure if we could run a freezer off of solar or not? Keeping meat from hunting may be problematic. We can try drying and pressure canning more. Although this is probably the biggest issue I've come across so far and need to do a bit of research on.
Water: infinite supply of good water from the lake (it used to be one of the water supplies for part of town.) Doesn't need to be boiled or filtered.
For heat, we'd have a small woodstove. We can get firewood by chopping up fallen trees. Surrounded by crown land that is unlikely to ever be developed.
For cooking there would be a propane stove and the wood cook stove. Also a fire pit out on the deck and a propane BBQ most likely.
For preserving: Need to look at the feasibility of here for where I would be doing canning. Cost of propane or if it could be done with wood over a fire. Have plans to build a solar dehydrater.
Storage: would build a smaller second float with some storage sheds on them. Also a storage shed on land on skids.
Electricity: minimal. None out there, nor will there ever be so it's what we can do for ourselves. We can set up solar and wind on a small scale to run basics. Generator for backup.
Communication: we are lucky being not too far out and in a good location we actually pick up signal from the cellphone tower so we wouldn't need to get a sat phone. We should be able to have satellite Internet so access for information which will be super important for all our little DIY projects that I actually have no idea how to do. Big learning curve. A big thing here might be the difficulty when it comes to visiting with friends and family (although I do have other family that spend most their time on the lake.) however, 12 minutes by boat isn't a huge barrier, it just takes a little more planning for us to go. Pick them up at the docks. However,mtruth is that our social life will probably suffer some. I like my peace and quiet so this is less of a problem for me than my hubby.
Septic: we can have a field on land, and pump up to it from the float. Or we can have outhouses on land. Or we could do a composting toilet. We have friends who live out of town that live with a composting toilet and outhouse, it's doable for sure.
Work and supplies: obviously we need to both be working on a similar schedule to share boat trips and we need to be a little organized for picking up supplies and such.
Obviously we'd have a ton of learning to do to be able to fix both problems with the float, cabin and boat. But otherwise, are the any major areas I'm not considering how to deal with while living on the water in an area accessible only by boat? My thought is if we're really serious about it, to do it for a year (the cabin will be there anyways as a summer retreat) so that we see what it's like trying to live there in all seasons and for a truly extended period of time. A month or two would be nothing.
I'm leary to not have/own land, but out there is closer to what I want than anything else around here and I want to be here. So if I can work everything out, even if it means making a few adjustments to what my plan was (like giving up my orchard, and not keeping goats) then I'm definitely interested.