Long term Emergency Shelter

[TriangleMan]

Awesome idea! Putting it in an easily defensible position would make this perfect. :)

[az1]

Have this web site in my favorites...good common sense writing!

[cbprice797]

My phrase "long term" was just when compard to tents or brush shelters. When I was saying long term shelter it was more along the lines of having somewhere to stay out of the weather for maybe 12 to 18 months while a more permanent shelter, ie cabin, was built. Noone wants to live underground like that for many years unless they absolutely must. As for pines... the reason for them is while they do not last as long since they are soft woods they are easier to cut and they grow back much faster so will replace the trees cut down faster.

[kentuckyshiner85]

Ok here goes . The cabin cave has some flaws like the tarps, they have a bad tedence to dry rot . This is not good for a long term shelter, I woud advise that you use a pond liner it might be a little more expensive ,but would last longer. It may save your gear inside.
Now the log choice not exactly great without water sealer . pines rot very fast without something to protect them, they may only last three -5 yrs. In the original post they tell you to cover them in sealer, do it .
The yurt and the adobe aren't good ideas for visibility reasons the CC takes care of this.
You would be better off if you would put a cast iron cook stove in the CC for diff. reasons . The first that come to mind is that if you come in from hunting in freezing , snowing weather, you would need to get dry and warm fast so that hypotherma dosen't sit in . The stove would also give you a better cooking surfice also.
Be sure to plant native trees for cover . there will be people that may notice the difference passing close by in a SHTF sit. you may welcome visitors at your own risk. I wouldnt . this may include local hunters that are just trying to make just like you. Me a couldn't blame them if they noticed and tried to take a peek.so hideing it on a hill is a very good idea.
All for now. to me the CC is a good idea. P.S. my knowledge of wood come from my grandfather and his father son so forth. they are all master carpenters. I am not yet still have many more homes to build before i can claim that title.

[tarheelsman71]

Read this article about 2 years ago....

I will take some pictures of ours (we built 2 of them). We have a retreat in the mountains of NC and it is pretty nice, but 4 miles north of that retreat we have a "fall back retreat retreat." ;) It was just 50 acres of hills and a water souce. More than anything it has been a hunting property. I read this article and thought...with a couple of chainsaws, and renting an excavator we could probably do it in a couple of weekends. Ended up taking 4 weekend for the first one, and 3 for the second. We ran into a problem with digging up the mother of all rocks...twice. Had a great spot, but had to move twice as the rocks turned out to be the size of volkswagons. Thought about trying to use the rocks as a wall on one side and just couldn't make it work. Anyway we used chainsaws to chop down the trees. We made the cabin/cave 12x12x9, then added 2x6's across the floor to create a floor. 2x10's laid flat for the floor. We wanted to put in a "real" door so we bought an outside insulated door and put it in place. We spent the time to spray a lot of waterseal on the logs but since most of the logs arent really seen I dont think it is worth it. Maybe just for the logs on the front if you want it to "look" pretty. The cabin/cave is next to a major water source so we put it about 20 feet above the water line, which makes it harder get into the cabin, but the washout factor isnt a factor now. The 2nd cabin is the same size and it took only 3 weekends. No rocks, and we had a better idea what we were doing. Our next plan is to add a 12x5 deck on the front of the cabin. We now have a "hunting" cabin in the woods that justified the expense to the wives, and when the dookie hits the fan and our "retreat" gets overrun (which better not happen, but could) we will have a nice fallback location to regroup and plan how we take back our retreat. Next time I go up there, I will take a picture. I am very curious what the snow up there did to them.

[cbprice797]

Yea but if you are going to take the tiem to build a cabin might a well build it into the side of a hill as well. It will provide much more insulation and be alot easier to defend. If you can you should always build into a hillside, at least for the insulative properties alone. Transplant some trees in front and in just a couple of years you will have a great little hideout..

[Joshua877]

OK Firstly This Adobe Method can be built in any climate where you can find dirt. secondly these adobes are stronger then anything yall are living in now . . . unless you live in a bunker or some other fortafied abode Im not Joking read about Super adobe pretty cut and dry read the Q&A on the web site Im still writing my review on it and when i do i will post it in its own thread but for now I'm saying it would be a nice bit-O-knowledge to have since there is dirt where ever you could live . . . with in reason.

[rsanders]

Good article , but the title is a bit misleading. When I first saw Long term Emergency Shelter I thought it was plans for something that could be constructed in well, less time than it took to read the article itself. I did print it just in case, it never hurts to have more than one plan, and this seems to be a pretty good one, about the only thing I'd change is the one person building this shelter ,I'm going to have help if I ever need to do this. Thanks for posting this.

[avking]

Cabelas has some amazing base camp tents. Spendy and not possible to pack, but if you had transportation or pre-positioned it in some good storage crate, they would be awesome. I have stayed in them on guided hunts in Alaska and they are very comfortable. Wood stoves, sleeps 8 or 10 comfortably, well insulated and very sturdy.

[Omega Sigma]

I like the cabins for permanence, but a yurt would involve less investment in time, materials and labor and provide nearly as solid a structure.

[cbprice797]

Ok Josh here are some of my concerns with adobe. 1) Doesnot work well in a moist environment. Unless you are in the Southwest it wont evel last a full season in all likelyhood.

OK just one concern really.

[Joshua877]

Ok here comes some cool stuff. this is based on the adobe method found around the world i wont go into to much detail but here this is the name i cant post links yet so here ya go its called Calearth.org tell me what ya think.

[Centurion]

Great read however the time schedule I believe is alittle off. I think it would take more then an hour and a half to cut up an adult pine tree into three sections with hand tools. They are very sappy and generally have thick bark I believe it would take more time but I loved the article.

[Axle]

Now i really want to go make one

[Pioneer]

Good read! I thought about doing something like this, but lately, I keep thinking about another shelter being dug into the side of the mountain, lining it with the railroad ties I have, (I'll need more though) but I am thinking of making a fair attempt at going at least 50ft back into the mtn. I'll keep everyone updated when this project gets started next spring!