The Maiden Voyage of the Depression House

Fourth of July weekend we settled into our camp in the middle of nowhere and made our second residence home sweet home. As you can see from the pictures and video, Glen took an old, run-down camper we bought for $300 and fixed it up using secondhand supplies and leftovers from jobs he’s worked on (he’s a carpenter by trade). We bought some paint, hardware, and a couple windows, and created a camp on wheels.

I say camp on wheels because even though it is technically mobile, the tires are not safe to be pulling the camper, and the hardwood floor, wood stove, and other added materials have made it too heavy to haul.

So our little camp in the woods sits waiting for us to come visit and give it a homey feeling. With all the features we’ve added, it really is a fun place to stay, and we look forward to getting lots of use out of it this summer.

Why did we do it? The primary reason was because we wanted a backup home. Carpentry is not a stable source of income anymore, and instead of years worth of jobs lined up we’re looking at a few weeks of income at a time, not very comforting when you have three young children and a mortgage to pay. After looking at all kinds of options on how to address homemaking without an income, we decided to buy a camper to put on our parents’ land.

But that was the primary reason. The second reason is because, regardless of income level, Glen and I have a dream of building a small home off-grid, and it’s easier to build when you’re already living on the same property.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not chomping at the bit to dump the house, and I LOVE my electric washing machine and the running water, but neither do I want to live in my nice house until a natural disaster leads to a police state and forced relocation, or inflation prevents us from buying adequate food or paying for gas to get to work, or we’re forced to run when the government is coming after us because we’re not paying for health insurance. We keep telling those we love: draw your line in the sand and defend it with your life. It’s not just our own family we’re fighting for, it’s the principle, it’s future generations.

But I’m getting off topic now and that’s a post for another time! So we’ve had this little camp (humorously nicknamed the “depression house”) in the woods since last summer, but Glen and I had only spend one night in it and it was yet to be furnished enough to use if we really needed it. Last week we took several trips out there to bring tools, food, water, and furniture, and by the time we opened shop on Saturday it was beginning to feel like home… almost.

The general events of the weekend included Glen’s birthday party, a bonfire with friends, and a few other family visitors. It turns out we’ve got quite a few family and friends interested in camping with us this summer.

While at camp we hoped to accomplish a few things – getting the kitchen set up, building the water tower to get gravity-fed water pumped into the shower and kitchen faucet, and paint two adirondak chairs Glen’s grandfather made for the kids. I also had a couple writing goals, and Glen thought he might work on a board game he’s been designing.

Of course, silly me, you can’t expect to do much on “vacation” with three kids between the ages of four months and three and a half years of age, so only about half our goals were completed. No worries, we’ll have much more time this summer to get the work done.

Eventually our goal is to be able to pack fresh produce and a few clothes and drive away to camp, so what we are working on now is making the convenience stuff like a water source ready to go when we stay for a while.

Currently we have a camp woodstove with an oven and water tank, an ice box under the counter, a fire place with grill top, a shower stall with a chemical toilet, cupboards and shelving, a deck, sleeping areas, a screen tent for day use, four raised garden beds, and of course the water tower.

Things we need to work on are getting the right fittings together to bring the water from the tower to the kitchen faucet, building the bunk bed for the kids, get a futon for us, make curtains, paint the outside of the camper, the adirondak chairs, and probably the deck, driving the pipe for the water pump, and creating a system for handwashing laundry, including a clothes line. We also have a solar panel to hook up so we won’t have to use the generator for power. And Glen has plans for a mobile green house that we can use at home and eventually move to the camp. Plus, we are brainstorming how to transport our chickens back and forth since we don’t have a trailer hitch on our car. Ideas anyone?

My biggest concern for the first weekend was sleep, and our first night was filled with unsettling silence. The kids slept fine, but Glen only got 5 hours of sleep, and me only 3. I thought our town was rather quiet, but being out in the middle of nowhere is a whole different ball of wax when it comes to night time sounds. Anway, the second night was much better and I surprised myself with how much I got accomplished the next day.

Nap times will still be tricky for Daphney and Atlas. Sounds travel very easily in and out of the camp, and I couldn’t bring Atlas’ swing (which thankfully he’s growing out of) so I spent a great deal of time rocking him in his carseat. But we’ll try different things and get the hang of it before long.

Overall we had a good time. Cooking meat over the open flames, getting lots of sun, the boys had the whole land to pee on, we sang praises to God under the starry sky (complete with mosquitos of course), reading books, fellowship, and dreaming. Now all we need is an easy way to fill a kiddie pool with water and we’ll be made in the shade! And it only took me three days to finish unpacking at home.

Now it’s your turn! Are you thinking about how to prepare for hard times? What is your family doing to maintain as much normality as possible if the power goes out or the grocery store closes? Will you have a place to go if your employer lays you off? If we all get creative and resourceful like those living in the Great Depression had to be we’ll all be much better off.

If you have a post you’d like to share about your own worst case preparations, feel free to post it in the comments.

And now to close, enjoy this video Glen assembled of our 4th of July weekend, or, The Maiden Voyage of the Depression House, complete with a song he wrote about society collapsing, entitled Air By Coin.