Lately every time I pass a small hunting cabin up in the woods on a trail I have to stop briefly to observe it and reflect about my future in the wilderness. A simple time, one where I can enjoy the adventures of a more natural life in a place of my own free of all the distractions and tackiness of modern living. It often spurs me to see if I can somehow find more money to save and invest.

I really enjoy working with 12 volt power on my truck and would welcome the challenge of wiring a house with a simple 12 volt system. I could use boost and buck converters to power everything from my laptop to USB power ports through out. Maybe use an inverter to power a refrigerator but I want to avoid working with potentially much more dangerous 120 volts as possible. My focus would be on minimizing my consumption of power and energy as much as possible. I could build a custom highly efficient lighting system controlled by Bluetooth using common Chinese components you can order from the internet.

What I like about the hunting cabins is they are small and simple to clean. Muddy boots aren’t a problem. No hideous carpet. I’d rather have a floor you can shovel our like a barn – but maybe a gutter track is a step too far. Gawd I hate cleaning unless of course it involves hauling stuff out back and burning it. Plan to do that with a lot of junk when I have land. Everything is always dirty and needing cleaning in my apartment. I much rather have simple things to clean and a small space.

I would want to make sure that I had a well insulated building though, and an efficient modern wood stove. I like building fires and heating with wood give me such a chance. I also would want to have hot water primarily for showers but also for dishes. Got to be able to get cleaned and washed up. Paper plates are fine but hot water really helps with pots and pans. Instant on hot water heaters that run on propane are becoming common so that’s not a big deal. Having a good water supply is important as hauling water is a lot of work, but there are many ways to collect, pump purify water.

I’m totally fine with outhouses or a composting toilet system, they work fine as long as you keep them separate from water. I can always use a bucket shitter inside during the winter and dump it out in the outhouse in the morning. Shit doesn’t scare me.

I’d have a big fire pit out back for summer evenings out back enjoying the stars and so I could burn my own trash. It would be great to sit out back all summer long with starry skies. I’d crush and save up the tin cans and beer cans for recycling, maybe get a few bucks at the scrap yard and only take a small load maybe once a year to the transfer station. I hate landfills, this way I could have no part of them and get to play with fire to boot. As a single guy who doesn’t buy much in packaging it’s not like there would be that much to burn at any rate.

I can’t imagine I would ever have internet at home but I would most certainly have a smartphone for the necessary purposes and for updating my blog. I could always use a public library to connect to the internet to upload videos after work. And no I doubt I’d ever own a television as I hate staring at a screen watching a mindless program.