Two Letters Re: David in Israel on “When the Only Tool You Have is a Hammer” Syndrome, and Building a Post-TEOTWAWKI Shelter

James:
G’day, just a quick comment on David’s well reasoned article. Ragnar Benson has a good set of plans and quite well written instructions on building an “A” frame cabin, from scratch, along with a list of kit you will need to make it easier contained in the book ‘Living Off the Land in City and Country’. We used it as the basis for our ‘holiday cabin’ (that’s what we tell
our friends/relatives) and it seems to work quite well even after five years of weathering the varied Australian seasons. It is a bit more involved than a simple lean to, but if you are planning a long stay, it could well be worth the effort. Ours took the two of us four weekends and one full week (call it 14 days all up) to complete.
I did like the bit about the greenhouse, can anyone guess the next thing to be built on our scrub block? As a plus, it will give us some additional rainwater catchment area. I would not have thought of the large garden shed approach, but in hindsight, it seems obvious. The shed, a potbelly stove for heat and cooking, a portable greenhouse, a means of collecting and treating the rainwater runoff, and you would be well ahead of the curve, at least in the shelter department. Cheers, – Dave

JWR Replies: Benson’s book is still in print an available through Amazon.com. But for the best price, get a copy through eBay.

Jim,
A book I highly recommend is “One Man’s Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey” by Sam Keith. It shows how to make a cabin with the most simple tools. Excellent DVD on this as well. Though Alaska is not the ideal locale for long term , this book shows what a desolate lifestyle is like. Excellent read! – Jason North Idaho