Oops, missed a whole bunch of replies.
Amazon has it and if you have Prime, you can save the $6.75 shipping. Of course you wouldn't get the autographed copy I assume. Looks interesting.
Yes, Amazon does have it. But they get less of the money if you buy it off of Amazon, and also you won't get the autographed copy.
Regarding the water thing. Why not run a surface (or shallow) line to the spring to carry water to a tank in the cabin. That should provide running water 8 months out of the year, with the only challenge being sustained freezing weather. That time of year, you drain the lines, and the tank too if you're not gonna be there to keep the fire going...
Sustained freezing weather for them ends up being 6+ months out of the year at their elevation (8100 MSL, IIRC). Plus, lots of expense involved in getting that happening.
Surprised they don't go geo thermal, with a well, yeah it's a pain to put in, but for a off grid setup, seems good, there's off the grid and there's chronic camping mode, not sure I could do the outhouse and no running water bit.
Geothermal would be a good solution for off-grid but again, very expensive.
There are folks who live up there who have setups that end up being not much different from someone who's on the grid. It's certainly the way to go if you can afford it, but good luck getting anything like that financed up there, so you have to have the money to spend on it.
Wood isn't free. You have to cut it, transport it, split it and stack it. I lived up in ski country for 7 years and one winter we burned 12 cords of wood. All collected, cut and split by us. You need a truck and a chainsaw and some splitting wedges, axes, sledge hammers etc. Chainsaws need almost constant sharpening and other maintenance. It was a lot of work, maybe 10 hours a week.
This is true, you do have to work for it. But when you compare the amount you'd spend on propane heat or the like, it's basically free for them since the trees are free. Got a Husqvarna Rancher chainsaw that they've had for some 20 years (well, Matt has had it that long - bought it when he moved there), an axe, and an old F-150 that does the wood hauling job. They don't do much splitting - the thing runs all the time in heating season, so they only need enough split wood to start the fire when they either come back from being gone an extended period or to start it up if it's been off for a while. Otherwise, the wood goes in as a log most of the time (obviously the trees are of the appropriate diameter for this).
I forget how many cords a year they go through, but it says in the book. Something on the order 10 sounds accurate. Yes, it's a lot of work, but also more affordable and it's part of the lifestyle they want. For me, spending that much time chopping wood is not appealing, nor would it work out. But their lifestyle is very different from those of us who would be called "townies."
