Heating, cooling, weather and bugs

Q: What’s the difference between a full and proper modern home, and a cheap as bug out spot?
A: Heating, cooling, weather and bugs

If you can handle those four issues, in most jurisdictions, you can create a very cheap, sustainable living environment for pennies in the dollar. And the very nature of its cheapness makes it private/secret as well.

LAND

The cheapest land is the least productive, and where you cannot build a house due to local planning laws. In Australia these are typically bush blocks – many acres of gum trees down a dirt road somewhere. You aren’t allowed to chop down the trees, so about all you can do is wander around in the same bushland as national park. Therefore the land is cheap. And secluded. And not someone would come to steal or scavenge. I recommend, once everything has been delivered, to disguise any road access.

You need some flat, cleared land, not observable from the road. You need enough space for solar panels, rain capture and maybe a Starlink dish. I wouldn’t buy land where Internet access isn’t possible.

Where I live, you are allowed to clear land to build a fence – clear quite a lot. So if you buy land with multiple titles, you can build a fence between them and create some space.

For me, the land will be used on weekends, at least to begin with, so it needs to be a reasonable distance from where you normally live. This is important for when you need to bug out in an emergency.

FOOD and WATER

If the land is not suitable for growing crops, you will need to create raised garden beds. Using off-the-shelf products for this could end up being very expensive, so you need to be inventive. In a bush block, most of the land is sheltered. That means growing crops that don’t need full sunlight. For a balanced diet you might need some open land for those other crops, and maybe a little greenhouse.

For water, if there is no well or possibility for one, you need to capture it from rain. Rain is more reliable than a well, and free! The capturing part is the difficulty. Seeing as we are not building a house, that common method isn’t available. Our sheds (see below) could each capture some rainwater, and there is no reason why each can’t have their own little tank. The kitchen and shower sheds can use that water directly. But they won’t provide enough water for survival if you need to water plants as well.

My aim is to avoid all building permits and approvals, however a carport can be cheap and have a large roof. It could have multiple uses, like a dining room or living room, and have screens/blinds/tarp that roll down when walls are needed. In Samoa they do this for their homes:

To avoid a building permit you will need to know what counts as a structure for local laws. But I am thinking that having a non-permeable surface lying on gently sloping ground is not a structure. It doesn’t have to be raised to capture water. It just needs enough of a slope for water to run into an in-ground tank. A solar-powered pump to get the water out of the tank might not be too expensive. Like this:

Or, cheaper, easier and certainly not a structure, just hang a tarp from some poles or trees:

Or make “rain saucers” – barrels with upside down umbrella looking funnels feeding the water in.

THE SHEDS

This is a key part of the concept, and based around local Australian planning laws exempting small sheds. Where I intend to do this, any shed less than 10 square metres and 3 metres high is fine. That’s quite big, many bedrooms  in a house are only 3 metres by 3 metres.

Sheds are easy to deliver, and can be self-assembled. Ideally put down a concrete slab, something also just a DIY project.

Sheds can be very cheap. Remember, the title of this post mentions no heating or cooling. These sheds are not insulated and not especially structurally sound. Maybe have a couple of spare flatpack sheds in your shipping container in case a shed fails in some way.

You need a shed to contain a compostable toilet.
You need a shower shed.
You need a kitchen. This could be a better quality shed as it has a lot of value inside.
A second quality shed can be for TV / internet. A big TV can be operated inside but watched from outside.
An extra shed can be multi-purpose, and a place to escape to if the weather is bad.

A shipping container is a great idea for storing food/supplies securely, as long as local laws permit.

HEATING and COOLING

Your sheds will leak any heat and cold air…

This concept is totally without air con, so it won’t work anywhere that gets a lot of days that are 30+ degrees Celsius. For less hot days, portable fans might do.
Heating shouldn’t be necessary – just wear lots of clothing and use blankets. An open fire is an obvious choice for staying warm and cooking.

BUGS

In cold climates / winter bugs are not an issue, and food lasts longer. When it is warm/hot, that is a different story.

There are natural bug repellents you can use, or simply plant something that they prefer to you or your food.

Certainly don’t have any open, stagnant water. Mosquitoes can kill, maybe more so in the future.

MEAT?

No. No meat, no dairy. Even if you aim to be self-sufficient, your land is unlikely to be suitable for livestock (that’s why it is so cheap), animals take up time and effort, and require fencing. And, storing the produce means refrigeration. You can take meat with you on your bug out weekends, but if you end up there full-time, no meat, no dairy.

SLEEPING

In Australian the planning laws revolve around habitation. I need to ascertain (in writing, from the local authorities) how it is defined. I presume it means somewhere you sleep.

UPDATE – my council says:

Any room of a dwelling or residential building other than a bathroom, laundry, toilet, pantry, walk-in wardrobe, corridor, stair, lobby, photographic darkroom, clothes drying room and other space of a specialised nature occupied neither frequently nor for extended periods.

So basically bedrooms and living rooms.

Doing yoga for 24 hours in the bush is not “habitation”. We’ll be sleeping on a mattress of course, so the presence of that, or something usually used for sleeping – like a tent – would be evidence of habitation.

In my chosen spot, you can camp on your own land for up to 2 weeks at a time, and no more than 3 months total in a year. So for weekend bugging out, no laws broken. Erect a tent or a yurt, not a problem. When the SHTF, often planning laws will be the last thing anyone is caring about. For a tent, some sort of wooden base would suit for long-term comfort.

To be compliant when staying there full-time, has a station wagon or cheap vehicle big enough to fit a mattress. Unless there are local laws designed to stop backpackers sleeping in vans that apply to your property, I figure sleeping in a car on your own property will be allowed. Then, officially, you mostly sleep in your uncomfortable car (to conform to laws) but sometimes have the luxury of your tent or yurt. In reality, you are never in your car, but officials would need to prove it – very hard to do.

CAMOFLAGUE

Difficult. You can have your sheds under trees (not great, trees can fall down, and your sheds won’t be strong structurally), or if they are in the open some kind of army netting on the roof. But if you have rain capture and/or solar panels, they will be visible from the air. But here is the good news – Google Maps won’t update the images for your spot very often. I built a proper house in 2012 and they still show images from the year before…

There are some tips here to stop an ugly cheap shed being noticed in your garden.

CLEARING TREES

As noted above, for my bush block, chopping down native gum trees is not an option, which is why the land is cheap. Obviously there might be a way to oops the trees died – research that for yourself. But also think about SHTF when you can chop them down because of, you know, anarchy. At that time you need to plan on how to do that (electric chainsaw?), how to remove stumps, and how to make the ground fertile. That might mean legume crops to fix nitrogen. It might mean tilling the soil (or not). It might mean fertiliser. You could forget about organic principles if survival is the purpose.

SECRECY

If you are coming and going a lot, then your vehicle will create indications of a vehicle coming a going. More so in non-dry areas.

Ideally park your vehicle a long way off-site, like a mile away. That 20 minute walk is good for you, and the distance should keep your property secret. If your vehicle looks crappy enough to be abandoned / not worth stealing, better still. Park it in an abandoned way.

Otherwise, when the SHTF plant a fast-growing ground cover where you car evidence? Or leaves? Or have a natural looking barrier at your road entrance. A landslide or fallen tree. Things you could clear away with enough time, but the bad guys will find sufficiently difficult to move on.

Unless a builder constructs your carport, nobody needs to know you are there. Choose your visitors carefully.

LOCATION

You might not have much choice if money is tight, but consider the general location and what it can provide. A neighbouring forest is somewhere to flee to and stash things, and maybe hunt. A nearby river or lake is good for water, and maybe fish. A town nearby could be useful.

HOW MUCH?

This is where I cost things for my own plans (Australian dollars), and might give you an idea of what it will costs for you.

• Greenhouse $1400
• Wooden garden sheds ~$2000 each
• Waterless toilet ~$1000
• Heated shower $375 (video below)
• Old station wagon ~$2000
• Real yurt ~$1oK
• Yurt-like canvas tent ~$1,000
• Solar power
• Kitchen / cooking
• Water tank
• Shipping container $2000
• Land – up to $150K but clearly the cheapest cost per acre is major

An example of what I can buy in Victoria. $160K for 8 hectares. Covered in gum trees with some clear bits. From the sky it looks well covered, but the trees are quite sparse. 30 minutes to a major rural city.