Hey everyone,

I’m building an off-grid structure and planned my foundation using eight concrete pier footings. I had custom metal brackets made by a welder (since I couldn’t find them in my country) to secure 6x6” posts.

The problem is that wood-frame construction is still “in diapers” where I live, so the variety of materials is very limited. For example, they don’t even sell Sonotubes here, so I’ll be using repurposed paint buckets for the footings.

The biggest issue is that the only place selling CCA-treated 6x6” posts has them all badly cracked (ones shown in photo). I’m wondering—can I achieve a similar result by laminating three 2x6” boards together? Or is there a better alternative?

Keep in mind that there are no building inspectors or local codes where I am.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Not exactly a cabin but I have always had a dream to have my own self sustaining Pueblo/cliff dwelling but it seems near impossible to find land that is actually in a canyon. I’ve looked through properties all over the four corners but can’t find anything with the right geography. In all honesty I have no idea what to google.

Bought a cabin late last year and am planning a bunch of upgrades since I can't get to it buried under ten feet of snow right now...

Previous owner had installed solar with a battery and inverter and was just running the fridge, TV, etc off extension cords.

Have already installed DC lighting throughout, and that's a major improvement over the kerosene lamps they were using. Have been looking at other things, like fans, a range hood and water pumps, and I'm trying to decide whether it makes more sense to power them off DC or AC.

There's obviously efficiency losses from conversion that would be nice to avoid, but the inverter will already be running for the fridge, and a lot of DC equipment seems kind of cheaply made and optimized for RVs or boats.

Was just curious what you guys are looking at when you're making that choice...

Thanks for having me. I’m somebody who has been forced into trailer living and has a chance to do a modified rent-to-own situation on a couple acres in Ontario Canada. I hope to eventually build a log build. What do you guys do for power and heat? (And water, but that’s secondary as I can just haul in water for a time like a cottage). Just looking for cheap options for my trailer for a winter or two.

Hey guys. Just a guy from down under wanting to ask a few questions. I’ve been looking to move to the US of A for a while and wanted to get myself a nice woodland property. Always dreamed of having a nice little secluded cabin tucked away in the woods n just living off the land. I’ve been looking at properties in Idaho recently but just wanted some opinions on if there are better locations to do what im trying to do. Thanks guys! P.S. i have already worked out the green card situation and are now just looking at places. Thanks! 😁

For context, I’m rebuilding a shed on my property into a tiny house, and because of the way my septic is already laid out, I can’t add a proper toilet to it. My question is: are there any composting toilets that aren’t butt ugly? I want to have a semi-nice looking bathroom, but every single composting toilet looks so bad. Are there any brands or types that aren’t rough on the eyes?

Edit: to answer some questions, no, I don’t mind that it’s a composting toilet. I’m actually fine with the that part, and would prefer it be a composting toilet as I plan to have a garden with some flowers out front and want to use it to fertilize them. It’s mainly just the plastic, ugly little box they’re all shaped like. Like someone said, they look like ‘a plastic medieval torture device’ lol. Also the fact that they only come in kind of ugly colors doesn’t help.

Edit 2: Thank you all for your awesome suggestions! I will be looking into them and if I find/ make something like someone suggested I’ll share! :)

Hi there! I primarily collect rainwater through a sand/charcoal filter and store in 60 gallon barrels. The water gets bleached in the barrels to sanitize, drinking is run through a gravity ceramic filter. However, the lack of minerals in the water leaves it tasting meh. What would be a good way to improve that taste? Part of me wants to just clean a few large rocks (all sandstone) and toss them in the barrels, but that seems too easy or would be ineffective. No fancy filtering systems yet, but I'm open to integrating mineral canisters into the mix if that's the best route

Thanks!

What up gang, I'm just trying to throw together a cheap, easy setup to charge tool batteries mostly. I scored a Bluetti EB3A on sale and with a coupon for $180 CAD total (regular $399+tax). I just want a cheap, portable panel that will charge this bad boy over a day or two. Don't need it to charge super fast and it's no big deal if I can't charge it for a couple of days due to lack of sun.

These are a couple I've been looking at, do you mind letting me know which looks best? Or if you have any other suggestions for reasonably priced larger panels (100-200w)? I appreciate any help as my brain is not "wired" (hahahahaaaaa) to understand all this stuff very well. I already accidentally bought an 80w panel that didn't provide enough juice and cost me $25 in losses to return. Bwomp bwomp. Any help is appreciated, thank you.

This kit with the coupon is $109+ tax right now.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0748FYFSK/?coliid=ITLZ7PSP3FRB7&colid=2CXBKWUW0MNWP&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it

This is $119 before tax.

https://www.amazon.ca/ECO-WORTHY-Charger-Portable-Generator-Controller/dp/B09RZP6X4D?crid=2BGUJYR5TJNGY&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.KDNk8WyMg74c2XwnrXZI9mv3cKF0tfy0UB0UihDw3DmUbkITNpCrfOOJ22G5fNgY0A6E0611dxJndKj9u89XeXewl6Q--HB8IRkinswgQFMnjfVqQpnbpxrVJRo6S9bAqga3yynWXojJ9qfDudLJksZKUk1obhfLpXD2mFPJpYDhjp6ybCiq5Wzr76JDRDCSYipBklmHyVKs5MqnmbDs93X0z5UAj1UoKD3B5txFq4a5QN3TjqF3S9PwnxcKanferi3S7VJVrnGCpT1o3ky2VNoD7p8oQSryZGIQVEgGf61UazDbf23SrSwegVTcdOrrxa9WqVAS3NbOHIV_mwl7STXuMIeITFXykyoLCTnE6W97nTBf_H1jeG4ZmlZCAz0OhhZH74nO6TuLVT8TRICCbapJRgjY-CJ34ewWD-dJK5sNYlhoG5H9xIIGdLjL_ZRm.l1sL1mgsH9LTwUU-nP9is0Y8Y8vkI5xcSDQIJWklyZ8&dib_tag=se&keywords=solar+panel+100w+portable&qid=1737468025&sprefix=solar+panel+100w+portable%2Caps%2C98&sr=8-5

The last one is 120w for $155+ tax right now but looks good if I can get it on sale in the near future.

https://www.amazon.ca/VEVOR-Portable-Monocrystalline-Solar-Panel/dp/B0CQK14S3N?crid=2BGUJYR5TJNGY&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.TBdjmcUfELfqMYLZ15yVfqDnypi0cSUvDEaqaLyO8yKlSrI5JTYfk5Qm6G0Pgo21MitVfAHW2AWlO0IqtrfoZ-OU96boT6BNAtg9u8srej7ccCNR0nnA-z6KqSX_Qm1YWwq7THtNj9v9bg1Yd9jcmxUg-WD9rKB8gKOqKdn73pw_yT6rM95Ja_CwOflYu7M2FXqczaKZdwPzuAcX-xScICH_Nd4QxFxCcn3FKcU1RGHpNuj0YJDXugKfsYDbGnk75xFPJihQ9yABohowOnPsdoKPhw5JXCOmLOnbVp2qs9GEiAMQmgnxmv15-_k8_SiJqbG7A-IRbvQIpAo9Ho1nbAJ7eW2fpFrygsx5AKvVZesEzRCK_uU0FSV7pBh5xXoaziGU37EabjH6f3W0v4WnlmLPHGkqNnJYPxp8VDjmA8FO3NdPZSx__WxtEjVh8H1s.p39yj8ohFgeTrnGoqlvcCi4KGplIjLRS6kNnflB_Ayk&dib_tag=se&keywords=solar+panel+100w+portable&qid=1737468239&sprefix=solar+panel+100w+portable%2Caps%2C98&sr=8-102&xpid=OyWONAdLMiRR2

Hey, me and my wife are looking for a homestead in Utah, Colorado, or Montana that needs extra hands/help. Here are some things about us and what we know and would like.

We are both in our early 20's and have 3 dogs.

We would love to live and work on a homestead, we wouldn't require any payment, just living space and essential needs for us and our dogs. We'd both like to work part time while living on a homestead, so 100% of our time wouldn't be at the homestead.

Our main goal is to learn to grow our own food, hunt, and sustain ourselves off of land before purchasing our first property, and would love to help someone else's homestead in the process.

I'll give more information if someone is interested, keeping it at a minimum on reddit, thanks everybody!

Edit: It seems I should've listed experience in the post. I have several years of landscaping work including transplanting, planting, and maintaining plants, general maintenance work, and general contracting on several farms, as well as a couple years of dog handling experience. My wife has several years of farm work experience as well, working with pigs, cows, horses, dogs, goats, sheep, chickens and more. She also road horses competitively while living as a farm hand on a competitive riding facility.

Two of our dogs are working farm dogs as a livestock guardian and a herding dog.

I am in the prepping stages for a small remote cabin and am looking at all options for heating. This won't be a full time occupied cabin, more just a weekend style getaway. Looking at small wood burning stove but am open to all options.

I found a radiant wall heater like these and was wondering if anyone had any experience with them.

I'll be setting up a solar and battery bank so I am looking to make sure something like a radiant heater fits into the calculations.

I am looking to buy a plot of land and build an off grid cabin on it. What I am wondering are what would be average costs for land, materials, labour and hooking up utilities for a from scratch project.

Looking for, 0.5-1 acre of land with a 2-3bed prebuilt log cabin. Any help/advice or direction would be appreciated

It's an old picture and there have been improvements, but I haven't taken a recent one.

Looking at going off-grid in the next 2-5 years and want to get some opinions at to regional recommendations. I am wanting to be near the US Rockies. Any particular state/area more friendly to off-griders than others?

Any and all tips, tricks, experiences welcome!

Hi yall, i will be living in a dry cabin for four months this upcoming summer in Alaska. I will have some access to a bathroom, place to charge devices, and laundry once a week but the cabin i'm staying in has no electricity or water. I was hoping you all had some tips for what to pack for my dry cabin? I don't want to buy too much there because of the heightened prices due to imports so what do you recommend that I bring? Thank you for any and all help :)

Lots of snow. If I didn’t have to haul all this beer back here it would be a lot easier. Of course, I gave my buddy my jet sled like an idiot.

So I am in the process of buying property in the New England area of the United States close-ish to Canada so cold weather winter will be a thing. It's off grid and I have a lot of heating options already but I am looking for a propane heater emergency backup option. I I'm okay with the units also requiring some sort of electricity as I know some of them use them to set timers. But I'm looking for something that I can either connect to my star link for remote use monitoring and something that I can set to a temperature as a backup heating option if the cabin gets too cold while I am not there. Basically I'm looking for something that I can set to like 45° Fahrenheit and if for some reason my other heating options fail in the cabin this will kick on if the temperature goes under 45°. Electric is fine too but those are easier to come by and I already have those options. But if something happens with my solar panel system I want to weigh to warm up the house in case I'm not there. May set up a separate solar panel system for back up heat if i cant find a great option.

From what I've read, construction loans seem to be more for traditional homes with all the standard utility hookups, electric, etc. I basically just want a shack which I'll install solar and a wood stove myself. I can understand if a bank doesn't see value in that but I could use some extra money to make it happen.

Ideally mine would be a log cabin but I'm not opposed to other options if that's somehow less likely time approved. Thinking around 12x24 or 12x28.