Starting a collective

[happyearthhomes]

We have had alot of interest by people about coming out. This is the official offer being givin now we have one rv available for the winter to a couple or group up to 4 people that don't mind housing together. the rv has three beds one being a queen size two being twins friendly dogs and pets are welcome there will be work to be done to prepare that rv for winter (I am either closing it up or letting someone use) all systems do work in it and it runs I just drove around the country in it. (I may be willing to sell it next year when the house is built for very cheap.) Your requirements for being here are as follows: 1. Support own bad habits(cigs,booze,dope)
2. Pitch in some how
3. No assholes, thieves,crazy ppl,etc
4. No one under 18
5. No hard drugs
We reserve the right to ask you to leave if you do come out and are unsuitable to the group. We are communal minded and willing to share our stuff but it will be on our terms respect and honesty is a requirement to be here. We want to live the dream but it requires work to do so we want people to share it with and hope to find them.

 

[EphemeralStick]

Glad to hear this going well! Good on you for helping that dog too, its incredible that people can be so calloused. Would love to see some pics of this.

 

[ByronMc]

We are unsure if our friend is still coming out he got a job in LA in the adult industry. .............................. too funny

 

[ByronMc]

wow,like the rules,and how straight up you are !

 

[happyearthhomes]

Thanks Byron actually the adult industry job fell thru and now he is trying to get here from L.A. as of yesterday. Got a girl coming out in a few weeks that has aqua ponics experience and other horticulture knowledge. Been trying to take pictures but my camera is jacked up gonna try today again once it gets light out. The cold weather is here and I am so unprepared for it. I've been putting off getting my furnace working cause I am nervous about running the new gas lines been trying to find the tools for the copper pipe I dont know what its called but it flares out the end of the pipe so you get a snug fit and holds the threaded head on the pipe. Been cheating and using the stove for heat it works just real inefficiently tho i have been baking a lot it makes me feel less bad about using the stove for a heat source I dunno what else to say I ll update again in a bit

 

[ByronMc]

I'd think using threaded pipe,with pipe sealer,would be best !

 

[ByronMc]

how about using a wood stove ?

 

[freeranger]

i think a cheap woodstove of some kind might be your best bet for a quick solution. the most difficult part is feeding the smoke stack out the window or a wall. but even then its quite feasible and quickly done.

 

[travelin]

too bad it is so far away because i have a little cast iron wood heater just sitting under the trees on my old farm in east texas.

i invited a person to come to the farm once. claimed to have been farm raised and could work a garden, take care of chickens and rabbits and do anything around a little farm.

truth was that the person was a welfare drone with NO practical skills or knowledge, would not listen and learn anything.

i put up with this persons presence for far too long, knowing that simply having someone on the property was a deterrent to theivery but finally had to run them off.

be careful who you let on YOUR property.

 

[ped]

What color zone are you in relatively speaking?

 

[ped]

dp

 

[happyearthhomes]

on the map where its brownish right below the missouri lable and actually really close to the state park labelled there Alley springs state park is 20 miles

 

[happyearthhomes]

I agree a wood stove would be awesome but I am trying to heat three separate rv's they all have propane furnaces that work I just need to reroute the gas lines to a single source 100 gal tank. I wanted to try building an outdoor forced air wood furnace but I just didn't get around to it this year its on my list of things to do next year(which is a huge list)

 

[dprogram]

Wow. You're a lot closer to me than I expected. I did a quick search for fittings and think I see what you may need. Brass male cross fitting ($5.99 shipped) ...it's shaped like a cross. Obviously one end would go to your large tank with 3 separate lines coming off for your RV's. A 20 ft flexible hose is $52.11 with male and female connections and the price drops with shorter hoses. I'm not sure how much you need but copper would have to be more expensive than the rubber camping type hose you'd use on a smaller RV tank and it doesn't seem like you'd need high pressure hose. Oh here's a link to the page I was looking at http://propanewarehouse.com/brassfittings.asp

 

[dprogram]

Here's a Y-splitter that could work http://www.nextag.com/Bayou-Classic-Brass-Y-783903002/prices-html

 

[freeranger]

i was reading up on rocket mass heaters. they are pretty straightforward to build and look pretty cheap. they can be a bit labor intensive, building the 'mass' part, but they are apparently incredibly efficient. 5x that of regular woodstoves. they do this by actually getting hot enough to burn off the gasses and such in the smoke that a typical wood fire releases.

the video quality on this link is crappy, but the info is really good. the process seems pretty straightforward. it seems that the only significant measurement is the cover for the upward exhaust.

http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp

 

[ped]

on the map where its brownish right below the missouri lable and actually really close to the state park labelled there Alley springs state park is 20 miles

You mean inside the blue area in the around Mark Twain national forest vicinity? I looked at alley springs and that is smack in the middle of the black zone. That's a light pollution map by the way. I've been looking for a place like this (i.e. non-goofy/cultish collective) that is also dark enough for what I need.

Is there zoning.....[yet]?

 

[travelin]

onboard rv furnaces are pretty inefficient. better to get the mr buddy heaters. that way you get the direct heat from the propane burning rather than the +/-40% that rv furnaces provide. i know they come in two sizes, one burner and two burner. they have a little electric fan that spreads the heat. fan will run on batteries or AC with adapter cord. we love ours.

one trick is to have an awning out over the furnace exhaust. that way all that exhaust heat is not entirely wasted but be sure the area around the exhaust is not closed in tighly.

in our old motorhome which sucked to heat, we would create zones with hanging blankets.

i doubt you would want to spend a bunch of money on this next, but there are outfits out there that will build removable skirting for rvs. my brother had one custom built, put a little electric heater under there on low and it melted salt lake city snow back about 18 inches from the trailer.

i mention the skirting for the idea of blocking the sides of the rvs. even haybales will work wonders. in wasington state ive seen people use that blue building foam panels and even just plywood cut to fit. makes a huge difference to not have cold wind whipping under the rv!

lining windows with something like space blankets or tinfoil helps. cover motorhome windshields inside and out and also check the cab area closely for firewall drafts and the vehicle doors for drafts. i once used the shiny backside of christmas wrapping paper to create reflector on one of the walls of my barn.

skylights in rv bathrooms pass a huge amount of heat. since they are usually above showers its hard to insulate the inside, but it is well worth taping some kind of insulation on the roof side.

thats all i got for now.

 

[happyearthhomes]

Ped ya kinda where we are and no there is no building codes or zoning that was our main reason for choosing this area we are 10 miles or so from the nearest small town pop. 500 and 20-25 from a walmart or hospital having sized town. Their is a few waste disposal codes although they are very lax its a rocky soil here with a high water table so water table contamination is a concern.
for heat i actually have all the parts and I was trying to recycle the copper pipe i took off of the three rvs since I was kinda building an rv fort. I was designating one rv as the plumbed rv (shower/kitchen) I wound up with alotta parts and copper pipe, stuff i can reuse i think I only wanted water in one rv as keeping it from freezing will be easier that way I drained or removed the plumbing from the other two but I want to heat all three using one source tank the hoses would do it I can get 12 footers at the feed store for $35 each but i worry about the hoses, my dog pack chews everything and have ruined two water hoses on me this year so i was hoping to cut costs and damage by reusing the copper pipes at least for this year. One of my ideas for building my house next year was to reuse all dc rv appliances in it instead of buying new stuff I have multiple everything from the rvs. My goal is to build the house for less than 25k and do it all without hired help which i think I can do my only hang up is in building a glass green house on it from recycled windows Here is my drawing for the house

 

[travelin]

like the house pic. check out cody lundin's house design for some good ideas.