My adventure begins!....Just bought bug out/ homesteading land!

Good job! If you go straw bale make sure you have a good roof long eves to keep the moisture off. Have a friend that has a straw bale house and its nice. Still it will be expensive to put a roof on it because that is conventional pretty much. One draw back to straw bale is some areas can compost some of the straw. You can also could do cob or adobe. All of it is labor intensive.

My plan it so do concrete barrel domes. Build a rebar and chicken wire armature and cover it with stucco a good layer of insulation and a finish coat of stucco...

Also shipping containers can make great houses. if you can use a cutting torch and welder all sorts of possibilities. I was thinking of getting 4 or 5 and burying a couple and stacking some on top for a two story with a basement. You could insulate the containers on the outside and stucco them and they would be cool in the summer and warm in the winter and most likely bullet proof too.

www.thedailygreen.com...

You could do something like this: www.simondale.net...




For your back you should try a float tank. www.borderbuy.com...

PM me an email if you want the plans free

Update: looks like some folks beat me too some stuff before i read the hole thread gotta be quick on ATS

My preference would be Compressed Earth blocks. It involves mixing local sifted dirt with 5-15% cement mix and applying several tons of pressure for several minutes, then allowing it to cure at normal pressure for several days. It is tornado proof and very insulative when double-walled. Obviously, it requires less imported material; though it does need a press to form the blocks, and you can only build 2 stories high for most uses.

Many western states have already added them to their state building codes. In OK you'd need to finish it with a stucco exterior coat and probably some overhanging eaves.

All the baste

Originally posted by SeenMyShare
Concrete canvas......



Concrete Canvas Shelter

Basically, blow it up, soak it down and wait for it to dry.

Without Question the least labor intensive. Two UNTRAINED men, one hour set up. Shelter in 24hrs. Make in England with outlets in US. Must e-mail for Price. Bullet resistant < lol nice touch !
I'm VERY interested in these. The You tube homes are stunning but do require a great deal of work. Depending on how remote your location is City County Codes could present an issue. Personally I don't want them in my face on ANY level.

Greetings fellow Okie! Have you considered the Mike Oehler approach to building? Tornados are also my primary concern for building shelter in Oklahoma.

As for goats: Nubians are a good choice for milk goat. I once raised Nubians and found them easy to care for, sturdy, all around good animals. They did have a tendency to eat the bark off trees, though. Best of luck on your retreat shelter.

Congratulations and good luck on your new adventure OC.

Great ideas that the ATS'ers have.

Something like this perhaps. I do a lot of work in this cabin so it has an electrical system,(solar array) and a propane heating system that I only really need in deep winter(like today) and I'll be going back there later today.

It was built completely with logs taken from the land. You might notice the placement as that is so important-and you can't change it after you decide-The deck and front are perpendicular to the Winter Solstice (the suns lowest point on the Earths elliptical orbit) for warmth and the back is even with the ridge as, from a military standpoint, this gives me a 310 degree line of sight.

I built the entire thing myself except the fireplace and chimney-I hired a stone mason-and a professional installed the solar array.

If your going to have a fireplace in a building this small don't try to do it yourself. The mason installed two flues that prevent the north wind from filling the cabin with deadly smoke.

What kind of building materials do you have? I have added a weather station since this photo was taken.

reply to post by okiecowboy


Solar should be backed up with wind power. When the sun is obscured by storms chances are the wind is blowing so you will be making power all the time.

I put my own solar power system together with help from windsun.com... Was not hard at all. Plus I saved a lot of money in the process.

As for wind, you can build your own. This may help. www.scoraigwind.com...

okiecowboy
reply to post by jude11

 

Thanks for the info...I like the storage containers...but again not sure about living in a steel box in the summer. Not sure about what I am doing for power yet, but it is something to think about..
What makes the cob house something you want to do over other choices?
again thanks for the info! I will be watching those tonight.

Bury that steel container in the ground. Leave one end poking out for entrance and exit. I second the nomination for cob. Cool and natural, but you have to keep it painted so it does not melt back into the land.

reply to post by groingrinder


If you're going to put steel in the ground, you'll need to complete it using some kind of anode. That way, electrical current will dissolve it instead of rusting out your steel structure. This is always added to fuel tanks when they are buried--to inhibit rust that will damage the structure...

I suggest earthships. Made from the earth (and other recycled materials) they can be created cheaper then a normal house and with the right planning you could have an amazing home for 10k or less. Most sites that talk about them claim 45k or more is needed but my husband and I have researched enough to know you can build with less. Add the fact that most supplies can be found online for free and you're golden!

The earthships themselves are made primarily out of earth, concrete and recycled bottles. They use passive solar heating and an earth cooled air system for natural air conditioning in the summer. They stay at an almost constant 58 degrees.

On top of those benefits, you can grow the majority (if not all) of your own food. It might be a bit more difficult to do on 3 acres, my husband and I planned it all out and we will be needing about 5 acres but we also plan to make our own biol diesel so that definitely takes extra land.

Water for an earthship comes from rain, though you could have a well if you needed and all power is solar/wind.

I know that many successful earthships have been build in Mexico and I know of some in western Canada so that shows how diverse of climates they can succeed in. We are in eastern Canada and there are no earthships here right now so we will be the first.

You should really look into the earthship option. They are brilliantly designed. I'm not sure how well they will stand up to tornadoes or hurricanes but I would imagine they would do better then a normal home.

I spent every summer as a kid over in Enid. I know how hot it can get there . I agree underground is the way to go - beat the heat and tornados.

I would be hesitant to alter the land or do anything that will create signs of human activity. I think in a real SHTF situation the number one concern is other humans, desperate people will do anything.

Planting some windrows of Osage orange or something faster growing can provide both shelter from the wind and keep prying eyes away.

Given your terrain I hope you have a rifle you can hit targets out to 500 yards with.

Good luck with your project, if nothing else you'll have a camping retreat.