Nice cabins where I worked & mtn retreat I Lived Summer 2010 ( Pic Heavy )

Just thought that maybe I should first give the link to my photobucket site and let you all look at the New pics I took when I was working and Living on and near my mtn BOL / retreat.
I am Not bragging, just sharing some of what I do. Some might even find some helpful info in the following posts and pics, such as the bear board with nails...

Most of these pics might not make sense without captions or much info. But many of you have seen most of my other pics such as the Bunker thread here and some others and the many pics in links on my profile.
So here is the link to my photobucket site.
In the following couple posts I have put up over fifty pics with descriptions telling what is shown.

Some might like to look at these pics in the slideshow view here, if you have a few minutes now or later >> http://s880.photobucket.com/albums/a...summer%202010/

I for one, think these pics are beautiful in full screen and in a slideshow. Some might look ugly but those are some of the Real survival type pics.

I am sure on this good forum some of the people here, who I consider real survivalists, understand more of what I try to do on my mtn retreat than most other people.
My mtn place is not a vacation cabin site, where I simply go to escape stress and the outside world although I do that also. My mtn place does not have a fancy expensive cabin on it like most places do in the Rocky Mountains and I am sure in places all over the USA and other developed countries.

My mtn place is a Survival Retreat and what I built for little money. It is somewhere between a crude and simple dugout or cave and the fanciest bunker around such as a million dollar bunker.
I hate being in debt and I was for 3 years, paying off that land in 1990 and for a year or so a couple other times paying off a vehicle.
I think being in debt is a little like being a slave. I know it is necessary sometimes such as I did to be able to get my land. But I got out of debt as soon as I could.

Anyway, I will now try to fully explain what is in each pic and any questions or comments are welcome.

I will begin by showing the cabin where I worked from the end of July to mid October. This cabin which sets on 10 acres, is owned by a couple who live in Montana but love the mtn area in southern Wyoming.

My mtn place is half a mile down the road from this cabin. This couple said they want to retire and spend possibly months at a time here. They are 50 but maybe they will retire early. I cut down dead trees all around this cabin. And cutting up the trees into logs and stacking them in several large stacks around it. Notice the green chainsaw, ( I have 4 chainsaws but this was the newest one, just bought last May ) and the large stack of firewood which I added much more to later. There is a large firepit, partly shown on the right, to burn the slash from the dead trees.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-18-17A.jpg

Here is one of several stacks of logs about 200 feet from the above cabin. There are 2 stacks of wood behind this stack. It is mostly sub-alpine fir but also some Engelmann Spruce.
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-19-18A.jpg

This is the back of the cabin owned by the Montana people. I stacked wood in back of the cabin also. They spent 2 months with a couple other people building this cabin, the summer of 2009.
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-00-00A.jpg

Here are the steps that go up to the front door and notice the nails in the board. Before he left the Montana guy put this 3x3 foot plywood board with dozens of nails over the steps. There is also a locked gate at the top. Maybe someday I will ask him if he is a survivalist but they are definitely outdoors people.
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...3-R1-01-0A.jpg
Here is a close up of that board with the nails. The words on this board says _ "Danger Bears Welcome"
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...01-0A-Copy.jpg

Here is another cabin I worked at off and on this summer which was built by a 75 year old couple about 5 years ago. It is a 3 story cabin with the partially underground garage. This cabin is also at least twice as big as any other cabins up there. And within 2 miles there are more than 20 cabins. Most of them have no bathroom or flush toilet. Some use a port-a-potty or hire it to be taken away and some do like I do and have an outhouse.
This large cabin has 2 bathrooms with 2 showers and one bathtub and 2 flush toilets. And 4 bedrooms and a huge living room with a large dining room and nice large kitchen on the main floor above the garage. The living room and dining room floor is made of the basketball court from the University of Wyoming. The couple are retired from UW. My truck is seen on the dirt road below the cabin.
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...3-R1-05-4A.jpg

Here is the fish pond they built, which is right below this large cabin. There were 100 trout in it a couple years ago but 2 winters of extreme cold and 12 foot snowpack, killed the fish. Each trout cost $6 but I guess they did not mind too much. To some people $600 is like $6 to me. This past July they put in fifty more trout.
Also with the snowmelt from May to July the hillside behind the pond slid into the pond and 3 years ago it was 30 x 60 feet but now is about half that size. I helped build that pond with them 3 years ago. I also feed the trout when they are not up there, which is most of the time. They come up once a month but they did spend 2 weeks up there hunting elk in late October.
Pic of most of the trout below, some are over 2 feet. Mostly rainbow with some brown trout.
They have given me a couple trout dinners and even an elk steak once. It is easy to catch these trout, especially in the morning for they bite at anything that hits the surface of the water.
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...3-R1-06-5A.jpg

Another view of their large cabin possibly people can see the large wood box under their deck which contains their 5,000 watt gas generator. They have 3 solar panels but have not hooked them up yet, since putting them 20 feet up on a dead tree over a year ago. I think maybe they just want people to think they have solar. They are the least expensive solar panels available.
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...3-R1-02-1A.jpg
And showing the outside of their water system. Inside the orange insulated box is the water pump which pumps water about 30 feet and more into their cabin. The water comes right out of the hillside. They said they had the water tested and it is good so they have no water filter. Notice the white pipe for overflow.
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...3-R1-03-2A.jpg

Many many more pics in the next few posts. Only 10,000 characters allowed in one post...

This pic shows many more of the dead trees that I cut on a third guys place with a small but nice cabin and 4 acres. He is a lawyer who lives in Boulder, CO and he was the only one to pay me cash this summer. The others bartered which I will show the ATV I worked fifty hours for later. Shown also are many of the dead trees and area I worked, cutting and stacking the dead trees. This pic was taken a few hundred feet below the huge cabin shown in the previous pics.
The land shown is owned by a lawyer from Boulder, Colorado who comes up maybe twice a month from July 1st to Oct. 1st. He was the only one to pay me $ since the other guy from Montana paid me with a 1990 Yamaha ATV, which I will show that later. There are millions of dead trees around the Rocky Mountains that have been killed by pine beetles but the trees shown here were killed by something else. I think a fungus and also drought.



http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...3-R1-04-3A.jpg

Here is a pic of the inside of the garage. This shows the cow elk the 75 year old couple bagged. They used their ATV - a Polaris 550 - to pull the elk up into their Chevy 3500 truck. They had cut it up in 4 sections. When they got back I helped them hang the elk in their garage. Not too easy especially the section with the head on it. The guy cut the head off with a chainsaw. They let it hang for at least 10 days and then cut it up and ground up a lot of the elk with their electric meat grinder.
Also notice part of their firewood pile that I helped cut and later split and carried up much of that firewood up to their main floor. Which the stairs has 14 steps :(
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-16-15A.jpg


This is my dark brown Ford F-250 truck parked at the top of the Continental Divide at Battle Pass ( elevation 9955 feet )
My mtn place and bunker is about a mile east and downhill from Battle pass. I could and have walked straight down from here through the trees, to my land.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-19-19A.jpg


This pic was taken about a hundred feet above where my truck is parked in the above pic. It is a cabin that was built around 1902 when the mining town of Battle, Wyoming was booming. Maybe only a few hundred people up there but they had a mine, a couple stores, even a newspaper. I am sure people can find a good link about Battle, Wyoming history. I read a book on it about 20 years ago. This old building has a beautiful view of the Divide and the mountains in the distance. The Red Desert is around 100 miles to the west.
This old building possibly was used for a shelter but more likely for storage. Seems like someone told me maybe to store ammo since it was and still is located almost a thousand feet from the old town of Battle. No one alive today probably knows what the building truly was used for. >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-20-20A.jpg



Time to go back to my mtn Survival retreat, for even though there is over a million acres to explore in the national forest and pure wilderness, I dislike being away from my mtn place since it is a very good place to be and I feel safer there than anywhere else.
Someday I could hike the Continental Divide trail like quite a few do every year. But that takes a Lot of time and $. Where my truck is parked and the cabin is near the middle of the Continental Divide hiking trail which is more than 3,000 miles long from Canada to Mexico.

Back on my private road in the early morning with the sun hitting my hillside, which has solar panels and the bunker >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-23-23A.jpg

The tops of trees along my private road with the early morning sun and notice the small white dot in the middle of the pic, which is the moon >

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The tent I slept in all summer, until Oct. 14th actually, when the heavy snow hit, the strong wire fence is to keep the fox, bear and whatever out. It would at least slow the bear down but he never bothered me or this tent especially after he bit into a can of spray paint in mid July, I rode this blue mtn bike down to Encampment, which was not too easy with two flat tires. But I was sorta desperate and had to go get my truck which had been at the mechanic's place for a month. It only needed 8 new spark plugs and a wire which took that mechanic over a month to get to. Then he charged a dollar a minute - $90 plus parts. I had to coast my truck down to Encampment to get it to the mechanic. I suppose I should try to write a long journal of what I did this past summer.
I really like tents and have slept in them since 1977 and mainly slept in tents when on my land from June to Nov. since I bought it in 1987. A few years I did not go up there though. Which I made some $ but it was torture in the city, when I knew I had my mtn paradise just sitting up there without me >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...1-10A-Copy.jpg

Over a foot of heavy wet snow hit overnight. There was also an inch or so of ice under the snow. The previous day it was warm and sunny then in mid October 2010 this happened, the pic of my tent crushed by the heavy snow. I barely made it out for much of the snow was over the one doorway. I could have cut myself out but glad I didn't have to, for maybe I can still use this tent next year, at least for storage. >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-15-14A.jpg


A waterfall that is up the dirt road from my land about 1/4 of a mile. I got this pic while hiking out. This is a very beautiful wildflower covered spring and waterfall all summer. Doesn't look too bad even when partially frozen>

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-14-13A.jpg


My Ford F-250 truck showing the box, which I had packed full of food, clothes etc. etc. It is empty in this pic >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-26-25A.jpg


Here is my ATV which I earned when it took more than 50 hours cutting dead trees and stacking them into firewood around the Montana guy's new cabin. His cabin is about a half mile up the private dirt road which I walked to quite a few times off and on from late July to mid Oct. At the top of the driveway is my truck, where I usually park it. This driveway is steeper than it looks for I have to use 4 wheel drive to get to the top, usually backing in so the truck is facing downhill toward the dirt road.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-17-17A.jpg


A better view of my 1990 Yamaha 350 ATV which I will spray paint it more camo with flat black and olive drab green, especially the non-gray parts. I should also get new tires but otherwise it ran well. Although I only drove it 20 miles around the private road and a ways on a 4x4 road for a couple days in mid October right after I got it. Then it snowed over a foot and I was lucky to move this ATV about half a mile to a large cabin with the garage, shown earlier with the elk hanging in it. I shoveled and pushed the ATV and got it on the dirt road and then a good neighbor with a large snowmobile towed this ATV to the cabin mostly down the icy snowy road. Then he brought me back up and went a little fast with me hanging on the back of his snowmobile. I felt like I was on a bobsled.
I must use this ATV to pull logs and other work use. If I have time I will use it to also go on the many 4x4 roads and trails within ten miles of my land.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-18-18A.jpg

Right above where this ATV is parked is a large box that was in the back of my truck. It was not too easy to remove but I pulled it out with a chain tied to a tree. Then I pushed and pulled it into these trees and spray painted it with flat black. The flat black camo was the only paint I had to use for camo since the bear earlier in mid July had bit into my last can of OD = Olive Drab green camo paint. The main reason I moved this box was because of that bear. I filled this box with canned and other food and bags of clothes etc. But he did not come around or touch it.
Notice the green fence post which is hanging on the light colored plywood door. I hung it so that If the bear or whatever jiggled it then the post would fall and hit or at least scare the bear away. But no one bothered it all last summer.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...3-R1-08-7A.jpg


Here is one of a few woodpiles around my land. This is the main one where I split wood, notice the red Monster Maul which I use to split logs. It weighs 16 pounds and is wedge shaped so it splits even the largest log rounds. I also have a smaller 8 pound one which I don' t use too much. The Monster Maul can also be used as a sledge hammer.
I use buckets or usually a wheelbarrow to move the split wood to my woodsheds, which are about 100 feet from this pile of wood.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...3-R1-07-6A.jpg

Here is one of my woodsheds. I have a larger one with a window which is shown on my homepage.
This woodshed is about 20 feet from my bunker and the one I used to furnish the firewood for the 2 woodstoves in my bunker.
I stacked the firewood about 6 feet high here but I could go up to 8 feet high if I packed it full. It is also about 20 feet long. It is narrow, about 6 feet wide but that helps make it stronger and the 10 to 12 feet snowpack in the winter has not damaged this shed too much.
The white metal is part of a lounge chair which is the only place I had to put it just before the heavy snow hit. I don't waste a lot of time stacking wood neatly for I try to use much of it up in Oct and Nov. And I am the only person to see it anyway.
The two tree trunks are support columns for the shed and I cut the dead trees about 9 feet above the ground to make the columns.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...1-12-11A-1.jpg

Here is a Never seen before pic of a column, that is 8 feet high - 3 feet into the earth and I made it with Many rocks, mostly quartz and over 10 eighty pound bags of concrete. This holds up the main steel beam that goes over the one window. The window is made of hopefully unbreakable thick plastic, also obtained for free from a factory.
I think one of the only minerals stronger than quartz are diamonds. So unless people have diamond tipped bullets they won't damage this support pillar near the front door of my bunker.
I should have taken the pic when there was no snow. But when no snow I was too busy working to take many pics.
Notice the long rectangle metal which is painted with hammered black rustproof paint in the middle of this pic. This also was obtained from a factory and is about 100 pounds of pure steel. Part of the shed over the front door of the bunker is shown on the right >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...R1-05-4A-1.jpg

Here is a nice view of the outside of the bunker.


http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...ics/bagend.jpg

Whoops, wrong bunker that some real short people own, in New Zealand I think.

Here is the real pic of part of the outside of my bunker >


http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...dowstvpipe.jpg
The brown plywood covers the strong plastic window, the rock wall and logs are all from my land and carried uphill over 200 feet and cemented in place. I added a couple feet or more of concrete later to much of the roof. As well as 2 or more feet of dirt with many plants.
Notice the black steel beam in the middle of the pic over the plywood covered window. The quartz rock pillar holding up the black steel beam is to the right of the window. And the dead tree camoflages the black stovepipe. The Franklin woodstove is about 10 feet underground, below this dead tree shown above.

Below is a better view of the camoflaged shed that is over the front door of the bunker. There are many supplies, boxes of food etc., firewood and a gas generator which I don't use most of the time since I have some solar panels.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...oshed_snow.jpg

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-13-12A.jpg


Here is a closeup view of the one window on the above shed. This is made of a piece of metal that was cut into a fancy fish design. Then I painted it with rust resistant black paint >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-21-21A.jpg

This is also a never seen before pic, except if any have looked at my photobucket album.
Seen near the top of this pic is a very strong, hopefully unbreakable plastic green pallet, obtained at a can factory I worked at. They said toss it so I tossed this into my truck and many more valuable things that otherwise would have been taken to the landfill. Notice above the black door is a hard to see brownish window that really is clear and is at least one inch thick. I think it also is bulletproof but I am not going to shoot at it.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-13-12A.jpg

Lots of interesting things that I am slowly telling about in my bunker and maybe much more about my BOL - Survival retreat also. At least I think they are very interesting and I know how very valuable they all are. I hate to think how awful many $ all of it would have cost if I had not obtained and salvaged so much.
Such as in the pic above can be seen part of a very strong gray plastic sheet. Which I obtained over 100 of these gray sheets from a dumpster at the factory. They are very expensive and I don't think they are available to the public. IF anyone knows where to get some please tell.
I used all 100 plus gray sheets outside and in lining the bunker even with several sheets thick on the outside. They are even difficult to cut through and should last indefinitely underground where sunlight cannot degrade them.

Also inside my bunker is my 100 plus book survival library which is on microfiche. These microfiche are 3x5 sheets of plastic which some of the books are on only one sheets. I can hold all 100 plus books in one hand as the pic below shows the small plastic container that holds all of these microfiche. I use a Cube microfiche reader as well as a field hand held reader. I bought this microfiche survival library in 1985 and used it a lot until 1999 when I got on the net. It should last for more than 100 years unless melted.
I also have quite a few paper books mainly on survival but various topics, non-survival fiction also.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...07-6A-Copy.jpg


Below is a view out of my tent which I have on the bunk bed in the main room of the bunker, which is at least 12 feet long although the bunker is a little over 20 feet. Outside of my tent is a tv with a vcr on top. Maybe someday I will also have a dvd player but the vcr is plenty since I have taken about all of my old video tapes up there. I can run the tv for about 5 hours with the vcr. I would have to have a satellite dish if I ever wanted actual tv channels, which a couple neighbors with cabins have satellite, big screen tv etc. etc. And they are only up there maybe once a month in the warm months.
I don't watch the tv much but wanted to see how it worked, which it worked well with the 100 foot extension cord running from the solar panels. Btw, the nice vcr and Sony tv only cost $2 each at a garage sale I went to earlier this last spring.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...4-R1-10-9A.jpg

Outside the bunker about 30 feet uphill are my solar panels on a tree stump and the below pic also shows the hole I have been digging to build a partially underground cabin which will also have a built in greenhouse and 3 windows that will look across the gulch and valley to the distant snow capped Snowy Range which is about 30 miles to the east. I wanted to finish digging the hole and even put in some logs on the cabin but I had far too much to do from July to the end of October, cutting dead trees, splitting more firewood for myself and 3 neighbors with cabins, doing other odd jobs, even some hiking.
Only one solar panel is seen in this pic since I use only one panel in July and then 3 panels by Sept. when there is less sunlight.
After the yellow flowers turned to seed in late summer I spread the seeds around in more bare areas, as well as transplanting quite a few plants in other areas, as I dig the hole.


http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-24-23A.jpg

This is also a never seen before pic of a sideview of the solar panel on the tree stump. Hope everyone can see the black box which contains the rechareable Marine RV 12 volt batteries and solar control box and the inverter which I plug in my cell - tracfone, radios and I have a 100 foot extension cord running from this inverter to the bunker.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-25-24A.jpg

Close-up of concrete roof and stovepipe >
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...eteroof-st.jpg

Back trap door showing 3 foot thick rock and concrete roof. Took 250 eighty pound bags of concrete mix to make the concrete roof. >
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...ksaroundit.jpg


The new cover I made that goes over the back trap door is shown here. It is made of several heavy farm discs as well as sheets of plywood and 2x4's. I should have taken a pic of it without snow but at least I remembered to get a pic of it before I left for the winter. A foot of icy snow fell and I scraped what I could to show this one farm disc. I put four on top, 3 on top of each other for a total of 12 discs on top of the sheets of plywood. It is heavy but is extremely strong. I doubt even a grenade could damage this much less any ammo. There is also concrete under the farm discs.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...4-R1-06-5A.jpg

Here is what farm discs look like when not covered in icy snow >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...ctor_blade.jpg


A photo of my Franklin woodstove that I have had down in the bunker since 1997. I don't usually even have a fire going from June to late Sept. in this woodstove or any campfire, stove etc. except for my Coleman gas stoves for cooking.
I had about 4 large pickup truck loads to burn and I burned much of it from mid Oct. into Nov.
One piece of firewood is seen as well as one of my cooking pans on top of the stove.
A corner of the black steel front door is seen on the left >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...4-R1-08-7A.jpg


Here is some kind of strange mountain man lurking around my mtn place ;) >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...03-2A-Copy.jpg

Here is a pic of an old rusty trap I found real close to my mtn retreat. Notice the fox foot still in this trap. It is more of a fox foot skeleton now. I found it in July 1992 near a pile of logs that foxes used as a den.
I would sell this if anyone would pay enough. I suppose I could put it on eBay or somewhere.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...0-00A-Copy.jpg


Here is my sort of small pantry in the small city. I load this food plus much more into boxes and then stack it in my large pickup truck, which was shown in previous pics with the wood box in the back.
I also took at least 40 jars of peanut butter, mostly peanut butter and honey, up to my land in June when I drove the loaded truck up there. I ate all of that for it is easier than cooking a lunch. I did cook dinner, usually, although to save time and energy I did not cook everyday.
Below is my "paltry pantry" although I do have much much more food elsewhere >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...4-R1-02-1A.jpg


Showing 2 of the 55 gallon steel barrels packed with beans, rice, wheat and a few other items. Fifty pounds of pinto beans, 20 pounds or so of rice and 4 six gallon buckets of wheat. These barrels have been sealed for about 10 years and next summer I hope to start using a lot of it. I will probably mix some new food in with the old.
I also have some sealed boxes of mostly canned food in and near the bunker.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...packedwith.jpg


This is showing some of my camo and other good clothes. Also shows some of a room at my city place where I have to live/exist from mid Nov. to mid June.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...01-0A-Copy.jpg


Back to my mtn place - BOL and where I do Live from mid June to usually into Nov. for the past 10 and more years >
This is the only pic I took of my garden, which is made up of at least 20 large black or brown plastic containers. A couple other pics did not turn out for some reason.
This is showing 2 of my zucchini squash which just shows that they will grow about anywhere. My land is at 9,500 feet and it can get down to 40 degrees F. even in July and August. Got an inch of snow up there in mid August of 2009 which did not hurt the broccoli, spinach and other cool weather vegetables I usually only grow up there.

Hope all can see the zucchini and broccoli in this pic >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...3-R1-09-8A.jpg


One of several stacks of cement blocks and other stacks of salvaged materials around my mtn place that I use and will use in future building.
And plz notice the cans etc. that the bothersome bear bit into. He mostly bit into many cans of food and bags of clothes in a couple tents and sheds last October but he also bit into some in mid July. One was a can of spray paint which I think was the last can he bit into, for I did not see him anymore after he bit into that spray paint.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-12-11A.jpg

This is the back of my A-frame shed. Never seen anywhere before except on this thread and on my photobucket album.
It shows much of the lumber that the guy from Montana also gave me, also in payment of doing so awful much work around his cabin. Besides cutting down over 100 of his dead trees and cutting them up into firewood, I also helped move dirt, rocks and helped make the large - 8 foot in diameter - firepit as seen partly, some of the rocks anyway, in the first pic of this thread.
I got a large pickup truck full of lumber - many 2x4's, sheets of plywood etc. that he was just going to burn! since it was left over from last year when they built their fancy cabin.

Also the back of this A-frame shed was taken off when a large tree fell and hit the back. I never wanted to re-do the back but I did put some things to protect the inside.
Not too fancy but this shed has withstood harsh winters with up to 12 foot of snowpack since 1990.


http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-25-25A.jpg


Here is more of the roof of the bunker. These are tall stinging nettles that are in front and above the back trap door. I am almost certain they are stinging nettles since I touched one of them a few years ago and my hand stung for a few minutes. There are also yarrow, 5 kinds of grasses, dandelions, raspberries, some grouseberry bushes etc. on the roof of my bunker. Most of which came up by itself from the wild although I did transplant some bluegrass on the roof. Which with the good snowmelt and good rains, usually, in the summer, the grasses and other plants do well.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-14-13A.jpg


Another view of the roof with tall grasses and possibly everyone can see the electric fence wire across the middle of the pic. I almost never have electricity going thru the fence but cattle know what it is and stay away. Deer etc. go under it. The bear usually goes under or through it... :D
In the upper right quarter of the pic can be seen the dark green metal roof of part of the woodshed
Below the log at the bottom of the pic can be seen the main orange extension cord that runs from the solar panels to the bunker.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-15-14A.jpg

Another view of the grass on the roof, the dead tree camoflaging the black stovepipe etc.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-16-15A.jpg


Showing the small tree - a sub-alpine fir that I transplanted at the edge of the roof.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-22-22A.jpg

The next 4 pics show the spring that runs along the side of my private dirt road, more red dead trees, many of which I cut down this past late summer and a fence rail that I made from a dead tree so that people would not drive into the spring which is 3 feet deep there.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-23-22A.jpg
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-21-20A.jpg

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-22-21A.jpg


This pic shows the white quartz rocks and elk ribs that make up the letters of a sign I made in the spring in July 1995. The sign says KEEP OUT if any could not tell.

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...-R1-20-19A.jpg

And I think I have Finally put up All of the new pics that I took from June to Nov. 2010.
Any comments, questions, or anything will be welcome.

Thanks, i always enjoy looking at your pics,,,,, love that old one ! very cool , :)

Thanks Justin although not sure what old one you are talking about. I am in a hurry but you have inspired me to post many more. I can't stop :tank:


I am showing the following pics to give evidence that it is possible to build a nice cabin for little $.

People can ignore this post, IF people really like being in debt or if somehow, they have the cash to spend to fix up a shipping container and make a nice place for "only" $20,000 or I have seen one thread a few months ago about a concrete house which was maybe as strong as an underground bunker for "only" $175,000!

For the rest of us who hate to be in debt and want to pay as we go and try not to spend too many thousands of dollars the following cabin shows how.
This particular cabin is 12x14 feet with a 2nd story loft, which possibly is too small for some. But two people can live in it and do sometimes.

This is a cabin that cost a little less than $5,000. I helped build it with another guy.
For privacy, tax purposes etc. I will not say if I own this or if it is even on my land. I can live in it when I wish although one or two others live in it sometimes when vacationing.

Here is what I wish to show and explain how it was built. It could be much less expensive using only logs from my land. Which the next cabin - the partially underground cabin - will be mostly built from pine logs from the dead trees on my land and should cost me less than $1,000 and might be about as nice as the following cabin >

First showing the unloaded truck load of lumber hauled up to the mountain cabin site >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1267252633


The partially built small cabin >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1267252865


Back of the small cabin being built >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1267253125


The small but nice woodstove inside the cabin being built >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1267253198


The inside the cabin view of the woodstove >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1267253451

The small sink inside the small cabin >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1267253588


The sleeping pads and hanging electric solar powered lights in the loft of the cabin >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1267253682


Green metal roof after we got it on using scaffolds. Only 2 of us built this >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1267253301


Same small cabin in the middle of winter >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1267253929


MM Mike standing outside this small cabin Jan. 2009 >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1267253863


A neighbor's 2 story outhouse about 2 miles down the road from my mtn place, which 2 story outhouse's have been built in the snow country of the mountains for over 100 years. The snowpack gets up to 12 feet deep so the outhouses are high to be above the snow >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1267254063

The above outhouse also has a stain glass window :rolleyes: in it as well as costing more than my $2,000 bunker.

My outhouse is not nearly so fancy but it is what I have used for the past 10 plus years.
Much more I Could show but despite my having posted much more than 100 pics in several threads, I still have not shown or told Everything.
Now I will see if very many will see this post near the bottom of page 3. Just ask me anything and I will answer...

I can also show the water tanks and the pretty fancy solar setup that goes along with this cabin. And I will show pics of all of that in a day or two.
Including the tanks and all of the expensive solar panels etc. and the total cost of the above cabin it comes to about $7,000. No hired contractors to do the work though



In the pic below I show the inexpensive solar panels on the tree stump, I have near my bunker. They were bought at Harborfreight for $199 four years ago.


http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1266934616

The above pic shows the hole I am digging for my new partially underground cabin with a view of the Snowy Range to the east. And the 3 solar panels I set on a tree stump so they are about 4 feet above ground and even when it snows in October and Nov. I can use them. The deep snow above 4 feet is usually not until December.
I plan to set solar panels even up to 20 feet above the ground.

Below is the solar panel setup for the small cabin that I told about in post #52 >>

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1266935504

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1266935666


http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1266935736


Here is the solar panel box on the tree >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1266935808


And the controller box and inverter inside the cabin >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1266952138


Closeup of the lightning arrestor on the wiring box >

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1266952326

Empty cement hole - container for the solar batteries >


http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1266952420



And the 4 batteries in the cement container underground that store the energy from the solar panels >


http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1266935960


OK that is all for now. Maybe all for this year. Or until I can go up to my mtn paradise / retreat and take more....

lol, I was talking about the old storage cabin from 1902 ;)

Nice pics. Thanks for taking the time to post them.

That's more than a cabin on that first picture - that's a log mansion! Good stuff.

Thank you for the show'n tell MM, I enjoyed it.
You've put in an amazing amount of work and I'm sure it's a never ending thing, at least when it comes to your retreat. Seems that if you're gonna have a personal hideaway it helps to know how to do all the work by yourself.

That's some awesome photos. yup it's possible to build cheap. I built a cabin with nothing but nails, rocks, logs, rough cut oak and some tools. oh yea some used tin for the roof.

Cool! Thanks for taking the time to post these.:thumbup:

Great pics and great read. As my voyageur ancestor would say, Bonne Chance et la Bonne Vie!

You have an ancestor that was a voyeur!? :eek:

Thanks for all of the good comments everyone.

And a couple of you mentioned about my taking time to post all of these pics. Which it took me off and on since mid Dec. to put up all of these fifty plus pics on photobucket, organizing them, typing out all of the info etc. This took the longest of any of my other 5 pic threads. I think almost 20 hours to create this long thread since I had to re-do all of it which is also a long story.

I would not mind posting it in another group or two but not sure where. I really don't see tooo many pic threads but glad to see those that I have seen. I don't think many even have much to tell about and / or they don't want to share because of security or whatever.

I know that most people like pics and even videos. Maybe next summer I can do a video, although I don't like my voice...

Maybe I will post more later and take care in any adventures some of you might do this coming year.

If you don't see too many pictures, it's because you're not looking. There are tons of them posted. Heck, I've probably posted close to a thousand.

Thanks MntM for the pic's, as I'm using a plug in modem pic's take a long time to load, so I'm working on them. I always enjoy your postings.

Mike, you do not have to narrate a video verbally. You can just type what you wanna say.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Batch

Mike, you do not have to narrate a video verbally. You can just type what you wanna say.

---

If / when I ever make a video I would have to check into that.

And I know that I don't look at a whole lot of threads or posts in this group. I should spend a lot more time here. But in several groups that I do lurk around in, even what I have tried to see in this good group, I do not see pure pic threads, such as this is a Very pic heavy thread, although I am sure there are a lot of pics in threads when people feel like posting them.

The next thread I plan to post is a long article about a survival community, with No pics.... later, MMM

Nice pic-torial.

I wouldn't worry about your voice. My voice isn't perfect and neither are my vids, but people still enjoy them.

BTW, that is definitely stinging nettle.

It's a sharp contrast, your shelters and the "cabins" up the road. I have to hand it to you for being able to do what you've done, and to be able to post it on the WWW for others to see.

I appreciate it very much, thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rwc1969

Nice pic-torial.

It's a sharp contrast, your shelters and the "cabins" up the road. I have to hand it to you for being able to do what you've done, and to be able to post it on the WWW for others to see.

I appreciate it very much, thanks.

---

Thanks RWC.

I probably should be embarassed to even show so many pics, I have 5 pic threads, showing any of my "crude" buildings.
But I like to show what can be done and built for little money. I was only in debt 3 years paying off my mtn land - 3 and 1/2 acres, surrounded by a million plus acre national forest. I have only been in debt twice in my life paying off my land and paying off the brown Ford truck seen in the pics.

I have not been in debt for over 10 years and hope to never be again.

I do know that the people who own the nice cabin in the first pic are deeply in debt with 4 ATV's, snowmobiles and who knows what. Also a beautiful 2010 Dodge Ram truck. And the cabin cost around $100,000 not including the 10 acres they own which land is now selling for too much. 4 years ago a guy bought 4 acres for $68,000 up there!
They said they wish they could live up there during the summer but they both are tied to their jobs for the next ten years or so.

I might be cash poor but at least I can live up there from mid June to Nov. every year since 1999 and that is more important to me than having a "good" job and in debt with lots of toys and living like Most people have to do...

I mainly post during the winter when here in the city of Greeley, Colorado and someday I Hope to live on my mtn retreat permanently and let the world go to ... wherever it is constantly going...

Also I will answer Any questions about my retreat and bunker. I cannot think of any that I would not answer.

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