Cave living and growing in the desert.

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The Silver Surfer

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Cave living and growing in the desert.
« on: February 28, 2013, 11:51 »
I hope this is a more appropriate thread for this, I don't want to take away from new members on the Welcome thread.

So, if you have any questions about the way we live & survive here in our cave house, or what we've done to overcome the harsh environment then fire away, I'll do my best to answer.  Don't feel that you might only have a dumb question, it really might not be as daft as you think, and someone else is probably thinking it too!!!

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The Silver Surfer

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2013, 12:18 »
I'm just going to throw some pics on here showing the various things that we've built or adapted etc.  I'll try and keep it relevant to the forum but if there's something specific you want to know or see just ask.

I'll start with my very first effort at building a chicken house, apart from the hinges all materials are reclaimed, free pallets.

Photo0108.jpg
« Last Edit: February 28, 2013, 12:52 by The Silver Surfer »

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Mother-Hen

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2013, 12:19 »
How far are you from civilisation, and is everything electrical run off of your solar and wind power?
Sometimes you have to accept that somedays you are the pigeon and somedays you are the statue!

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The Silver Surfer

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2013, 12:20 »
During
Photo0128.jpg
« Last Edit: February 28, 2013, 12:22 by The Silver Surfer »

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The Silver Surfer

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2013, 12:21 »
Almost after
Photo0163.jpg

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The Silver Surfer

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2013, 12:29 »
Hi Ma Hen,

Our nearest neighbour is about 600m away, our nearest town is about 12-15 mins drive, Sierra Nevada Ski slopes about 1.5 hrs and the beaches also about 1.5hrs.

Everything is run off of our solar.  It's a bit of an amateur system, but it is completely functional.  I built and installed it myself.  At the moment we have 3 solar panels totalling 320W and a 600W inverter bought from Maplin for £35, which is meant to be for caravanning/camping occasional use, not the 24/7/365 use that it has done for 3 years.  Apart from the hoover and washing machine everything is run through that at 240V.

We've got a wind turbine being dispatched from the USA today which will potentially double our power generation capabilities.  I'm also going to get one more panel to take our solar to 480W.

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Daamoot

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2013, 13:06 »
Hi silver surfer!  What an amazing lifestyle change you've committed yourselves to!  Your cave house looks awesome and sounds like ideal living conditions.  At first I imagined the lack of windows could make folk claustraphobic but you having natural light coming through the old chimney is a great alteration.  Sounds like you have almost everything you need to be self sufficient, is that a goal of yours?  I'd love to see some pictures of your vegetable patches and orchards if you have any and congratz to bringing life back in the desert.  It must take a lot of work but sounds like a wonderful way to live!
Add me on PSN but nowadays I reach for the fork or hoe more than a controller

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The Silver Surfer

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2013, 13:16 »
Hi Daamoot,

Yes the intention is to be as self sufficient as much as possible.  If we weren't so attached to our animals I'd probably breed rabbits, chickens, pigs and goats/sheep for eating, just like most of the Spanish do in this region. 

I'll sort out more pics, but it takes a bit of messing about with them as they're large file sizes and I can only put one pic up to 128kb at a time per post.  So I have to mess about and resize pics first, but I'll get onto it.

Natural light comes into the cave by the window and door window and the skylight, I'll try to do those pics first to help you visualise it better.

Looks like that was it for the snow, about a 10cm fall in a couple of hours, now the sun's out, the sky's blue and the thermometer says 22C. Royal Marines Arctic Mittens off, T-shirt back on!

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Aunt Sally

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #8 on: February 28, 2013, 13:26 »
Have you tried photobucket TSS  -  photobucket.com/

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Agatha

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #9 on: February 28, 2013, 13:47 »
Love the chicken house!  Look forward to seeing more photos of your cave house - it sounds fascinating!

Are you fluent in Spanish?  I'm trying to learn from a friend who came to England from Ecuador via Spain, but so far the only words I can remember are food-related  ::).  Not that I'm greedy...
'The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies, but always grows and grows to an enduring and ever-increasing source of happiness.'  Gertrude Jekyll

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The Silver Surfer

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #10 on: February 28, 2013, 14:27 »
I'll give photobucket a go, will that mean I can show larger pics?

Hi Agatha,  Not fluent by any stretch, but I can certainly speak more Spanish than Brits who've been here for 8 plus years.  I can probably have a two hour conversation with a Spaniard before I start running out of Verbs!

Everyone learns at different rates and via different mediums.  What could be a total breeze for one person could be a complete nightmare for another.  For example, I learnt all of my Spanish from listening to Michel Thomas, over and over and over and over (repeat several more time) until it really sank in, my other half really doesn't get on with his methods and uses a different medium, and she's a teacher.

Some people need to listen to it, some need to write it and some need to live it before they can learn a new language.  My advice is to not limit yourself to just one book/cd/course/teacher etc etc, but try a few different ones until you find the one that works for YOU.

What I will say is that VERBS are the key to Spanish, without a doubt.  If you learn how their verbs are conjugated (I, he, she, it, we, you all) all you need to do is add the infinitive and you're good to go.  Just adding a new verb infinitive (To Have, To Want, To Need, To Speak, To Call, To Eat etc etc) to what you've learnt will automatically increase your vocab by another 8 or 9 words.

If anyone has a language question but would prefer to pm me I will keep it private.  I'm not too proud to admit that, before I started to learn Spanish 3 years ago I didn't really know what exactly a verb was and once I understood everything just became a whole lot easier, the penny dropped so to speak.  So please, anyone, don't be embarrassed, ask away I'll help if I can.

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Aunt Sally

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2013, 15:06 »
Yes, you can put them into the correct place on a post too, rather than at the bottom.

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The Silver Surfer

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #12 on: February 28, 2013, 15:08 »
So would I just paste the [IMG] code where I want the pic?

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Aunt Sally

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #13 on: February 28, 2013, 15:13 »
That's right :D

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The Silver Surfer

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Re: Cave living and growing in the desert.
« Reply #14 on: February 28, 2013, 15:16 »
I'm on it now, I'm using a friends account to start with.  Back soon!


 

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