Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

All the different ways of solving the shelter problem. To be static or mobile? Roots, legs, or wheels?
Bz5
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by Bz5 »

I have seen real world testing of an ebike with generator getting really high mpg. 120.

Less physical work means more mental work can be done. Being on the move constantly is difficult. I have been for a while with a really heavy clutch, driving this car is not relaxing, highly manual. I can only imagine on a bicycle that would make computer studies difficult.

The scheme is to do it long term. Avoiding big insurance bills and seeing terrain that would normally tucker out a human being.

Also, the further I go ainto territory, the less chance of discovery. That means I can pull this off longer. I will be doing something like this for 3 years max. I give myself 3 years to get 2 software jobs. My first initial to learn, and then the second one to trade up in funding.

Bz5
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by Bz5 »

@ the animal:

I like it when people challenge my thinking. Ultimately I have a universal human identity. I adapt and change. I want to present my thinking to people so that they can tear it the fuck down. Whatever survives is a good map to face reality with.

I need it harsh.

Also, that's so you know my thinking could be valuable to you as well.

I learned from religion not to have magical thinking.



@unemployable:

I second the implied HUGE FUCK NO on Appalachia. The people up there are basically uncontacted tribes.


I don't want this (toothless sweet home alabama) version of curare around me or my stuff.


I just want to be alone with a pair of rats and study in solitude.

This list will help me

In my thinking:

I want a really tough off road bicycle. Thru axle style, with a Bafang mid drive, and solar gear and equipment. Will probably run me another 3000 or so. That's a lifetime buy.

I also want a really nice combat shelter. Runs me another 600 bucks.

I need some high tech gear to pull this off. BOCO YOLO

The biggest reason I am doing all of this is because I like my solitude, I study the best that way. I can do this the fastest method that way.

The second reason, is a car costs WAY more to replace. I optimized my car as far as I could take it without some sort of exotic powertrain. This thing is basically a 4 wheel motorcycle at this time.

I found a unicorn with low miles that was easy to fix and then optimized it from there to make it even easier to fix.

It cost me 18000 or more.

I learned quite a bit from the project and decided to not finish it. Because of these other calcuations that you see here.

I will post the end result of the project and what I learned soon for you all to see.

And all that functionality can still be taken out in an instant by another driver. That's the biggest problem with it.

Parts take forever to arrive. Off road bicycles built right probably won't need parts for the life of the bicycle.


It just hits really home that cars have no place in the ere journey in a serious manner.

Also,

I am aware that what I have been posting here may be construed as thread hijackment, however, I have been constructing a plan similar to Canoe's for a while now. I hope he finds these machinations useful.

If what I have posted is out of line, however, i will post it in my own journal instead.

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Jean
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by Jean »

@Bz5
I once bought a car for 500.- and lived in it for 18month. It was really nice. It's expensive to repair, but cheap to replace. Just buy old cars and finish them. You're also much more stealthy than with a bicycle. You have a generator for your computer included in the car.

@Canoe
My girlfriend did this for 3 years.
There is no surprise that the keypoint was connexion. She met the right people trough a circus school. That might be something to look into in the city your targeting.

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Bz5 wrote:
Wed Nov 17, 2021 11:45 pm
I am aware that what I have been posting here may be construed as thread hijackment, however, I have been constructing a plan similar to Canoe's for a while now. I hope he finds these machinations useful.

If what I have posted is out of line, however, i will post it in my own journal instead.
I don't know how they OP feels but your posts feel fairly on topic. This forum has a long history of having no problem with thread hijacking anyway. I wouldn't worry about it.

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Take this with a grain of salt, I am not one to try unusual things (see my journal). That said, learning about programming / embedded tech and bike touring / living in solitude in the wilds seem at odds to me. Sometimes you can't do two things at once. I think you've said somewhere else that you don't want to be living in a car/in a tent/etc. forever. Maybe it would make sense to do a big bike tour and live in the woods in Hawaii for a season, then come back to the mainland and try to establish a more "normal" situation. You could carry a small laptop or similar on the bike and learn programming if you really wanted to.

Bz5
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by Bz5 »

I am answering the questions as stated. It turned into a mini essay with diagrams. Uploading at end of day.

Laura Ingalls
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by Laura Ingalls »

Aberdeen WA, come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be

Never mind me but that part of the world had been very wet and windy as of late. It would be a better summer plan

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canoe
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by canoe »

Bz5 wrote:
Wed Nov 17, 2021 11:45 pm
I am aware that what I have been posting here may be construed as thread hijackment, however, I have been constructing a plan similar to Canoe's for a while now. I hope he finds these machinations useful.

If what I have posted is out of line, however, i will post it in my own journal instead.
No worries! I'm loving it. I think we can definitely learn from each other here, although currently I'm a bit more tied down to a particular city in the short term. I actually arrived at the tent idea by going from "Maybe I should live in a car" -> "Numerous problems involving parking, bike storage, costs not actually much lower" -> "Do they have RV trailers but for bikes?" -> "Yes, but they're sorta expensive and I'd still need somewhere to park near enough to my work" -> "Tent in someone's backyard!"

I'm curious as to why you're choosing embedded systems programming in particular. Don't get me wrong, learning C is really rewarding since it doesn't hide things from you the way higher level languages do. In terms of job prospects though, it seems to me to have the following disadvantages over standard frontend or backend development, which I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on:
1. AFAIK there are fewer jobs here since it's more niche. On the other hand, there seem to be millions of JS jobs out there.
2. It seems like it might be harder to get a remote position than something more detached from hardware, since I'm assuming they'd want you to be in the same place as whatever devices you're programming.
Jean wrote:
Thu Nov 18, 2021 10:23 am
There is no surprise that the keypoint was connexion. [...] That might be something to look into in the city your targeting.
I think this is key. I've since signed a sublease on a room for December and January, and I'm hoping to use this as a home base to build connections and find something better (not to mention wait out the coldest months of the year).

By the way, if anyone is interested, I got one response to my Craislist ad: "Are you male or female?" No response after my reply.

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Mister Imperceptible
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by Mister Imperceptible »

Might be well served getting your own tent, a few years ago I was looking at these:

https://montanacanvas.com/

Which may or may not have been less of a headache than getting an RV, but I only recommend this type of thing if you have a low-pressure job and/or work fully remote. Maybe a tent is easier than living in an RV and is probably way easier than living on a boat.

I still have the old RV which has shown the ability to drive several hundred miles in summer time but I did not try to stay in it during the Northeast winter. In the end I went back indoors. I got very violent reactions from women I dated and some of the places I tried to keep it below market rates wouldn’t have me anymore. I was spending too much time moving it around anyway and then took a contract in a state with a hot enough summer that I needed to shower 2-3 times a day, which I was not doing in the RV. It’s supposed to be sold off in the spring to a guy who owns land and is getting divorced but you can DM me if interested.

theanimal
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by theanimal »

I wanted to do something similar a few years ago, but more a la @Mikebos and buying cheap land.
viewtopic.php?t=4126

I think you could do it, but I don't think it would happen via something like Craigslist. More so through your community of friends and people in the community, meaning it will be far easier in an area where you know at least a few people versus moving to a new area and trying to do it.

There was a guy in North Carolina iirc who lived in his tent full time and blogged about it. I linked to it on the forum once and I'm trying to find the link and will post it later if I do.

Bz5
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by Bz5 »

Well, I wrote the essay, and I realized that I wasn't optimizing for all criteria.

I am embarrassed to put it up here. I may at some point.

Essentially, what result it pushed out is that all my problems are social problems.

I need to finally trust and invest in flesh.

Thulsa Doom:
"Yes! You know what it is, don't you boy? Shall I tell you? It's the least I can do. Steel isn't strong, boy, flesh is stronger! Look around you. There, on the rocks; a beautiful girl. Come to me, my child... [coaxes the girl to jump to her death] That is strength, boy! That is power! What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?


It still is cheaper to live in a tent, and you better be able to if you lose your house, truck or rv. You better have that bicycle gear to make it around without a car until you get help from other humans.

Essentially it got me to understand the value of minaturizing necessary gear to only that which can be carried on a bicycle.

So that is the current project. When the gear is minimized to being on a bicycle, then when the abrupt changes happen between cars, nothing extra was acquired.

Russian doll from there.

I think that a car is needed for health reasons however. I was going to the gym in Wisconsin, and to work out of it until the winter began to become a problem. I felt great, and was showered frequently, had no trouble finding work.

That's what I learned from this mental exercise. (It's still open to more lessons, so still add them away. )

If one is to be yoked to a car, have a list of cars that you would buy that make sense.

Secondarily,

Have a list of houses that I can crash at. I have one so far. If I had twelve I could move every month.

Roark
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by Roark »

Even though I have a really good accommodation deal worked out, I decided to spend some time in a tent in a huge undeveloped forested area that is in the middle of my town this summer. I wanted to see if I could live for free if needed. Since my coworker picks me up for work, it was actually not hard. I prepped a lot of jerky before I went though, and I would have to figure out different ways to eat meat long term. I did use my ebike which I charged at the gym, library and McDonald's ($1 coffee with cream and free wifi, charging).

I purposely used "government" land because I politically object to the idea that the Crown gets to own 95% of this province, which they mainly lease to logging companies while not allowing increases in supply of housing development when we have a homelessness crisis.

Don't know if you're still considering the idea, but I would scout around on Google maps to find an isolated unseen location that is a walk from a road into the bush, but still somewhat near civilization. If you have a bike you can practice distributed living, having a locker at the gym, some stuff at your home base, some stuff left at work, etc.

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conwy
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by conwy »

@Roarke, congrats on giving it a go!

I've slept in a tent a few times on camping trips, and more or less enjoyed it, but not yet tried it for the long-term.

For the long-term, rather than a tent, I would prefer to sleep in a vehicle of some kind - a car, SUV or camper van.
  • Less likely to be bothered by police or locals.
  • More protection from irritating or dangerous animals or insects
  • More insulated from cold, heat, wind and rain
  • Easier to move if/as needed
All of the above would vary depending on your location, I guess. Some areas are safe, tolerant and temperate enough for tent living to work. It seems large parts of California meet the criteria, but I'm based in Eastern Australia.

I'm looking into purchasing a small car and potentially entering some kind of financial arrangement with a willing landlord for provision of electricity and toilet facilities.

I started to investigate purpose-built camp sites, but they all seem too far away, and I guess I've become attached to my little suburban luxuries like gyms, public pools and theatres.

chenda
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by chenda »

conwy wrote:
Mon Apr 10, 2023 9:56 am
but I'm based in Eastern Australia.
Couldn't you buy a scrappy piece of bushland for a few thousand dollars and camp on it ? Or is that not viable?

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conwy
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by conwy »

chenda wrote:
Mon Apr 10, 2023 5:01 pm
Couldn't you buy a scrappy piece of bushland for a few thousand dollars and camp on it ? Or is that not viable?
I thought about this, and maybe it's worth thinking about again, but I find it difficult for various reasons.

Firstly, for a few thousand dollars, they simply don't exist, at least not within, say, a 2-hour-plus drive from an urban centre. We're typically talking at least $50,000, more often $100k+.

Secondly, a lot of those kinds of remote areas tend to suffer from neighbourhood safety issues - young unemployed people roaming around, frequent vandalism, higher murder rates, etc. Not all are unsafe, I'm sure, but then the problem is, how do you find which ones are safe. I guess it's just trial and error? Or statistics? But how would you really know until/unless you lived there? Maybe I'm being cautious, but after having certain experiences, I don't know that I want to take on those kinds of risks that could see me hospitalised and losing large amounts of savings.

Thirdly, there's always the threat of bushfires and/or floods, which, if you followed recent news, you will see is far from hypothetical. The further you get from an urban centre the high the risk of death or near-death, due to less drainage for the water and longer response time from emergency - fire and ambulance - due to the large distances.

Fourthly, food, especially healthy food, can be hard to come by. Not only are supermarkets hours drive away but food deliveries don't cover remote areas at all.

Fifthly, there's always the problem of sewage and water. A piece of land doesn't automatically come with toilet facilities and water. I'm not sure exactly what's involved, but I guess some construction would need to be done at least to get a basic toilet operational and maybe a tap with running water. It all seems time consuming and costly, versus just renting those facilities.

The more I think about my country the more I feel that Australia is not really a continent like America with large areas where you can settle. It's more like a collection of major city centres which are extremely isolated from eachother. So living in Australia is more like living in a crowded city than like living in a vast spacious island, as people might imagine. The skills for living here are more similar to the skills for living in London or Tokyo than the skills for living in, say, rural Minnesota. This makes me wonder if I should move to the US to have a higher likelihood of realising the FIRE dream. :lol:

Maybe I should be more proactive though - break all the above problems down and see if I can solve them one by one. Maybe rural living in Australia isn't as bad as I think.

white belt
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by white belt »

conwy wrote:
Tue Apr 11, 2023 12:16 am
The more I think about my country the more I feel that Australia is not really a continent like America with large areas where you can settle. It's more like a collection of major city centres which are extremely isolated from eachother. So living in Australia is more like living in a crowded city than like living in a vast spacious island, as people might imagine. The skills for living here are more similar to the skills for living in London or Tokyo than the skills for living in, say, rural Minnesota. This makes me wonder if I should move to the US to have a higher likelihood of realising the FIRE dream.
A quick Google search reveals the population density of Australia is <10% of the population density of the USA. But the reality is that urban center and living off grid generally don't pair well together due to costs, zoning laws, politics, and other reasons. However, each region is different. The best recommendation is to find people in your region that already do this sort of thing. Have you read the works of David Holmgren? It seems like the permaculture movement is big in Australia so that may be a good place to start.

chenda
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by chenda »

conwy wrote:
Tue Apr 11, 2023 12:16 am
The more I think about my country the more I feel that Australia is not really a continent like America with large areas where you can settle. It's more like a collection of major city centres which are extremely isolated from each other. So living in Australia is more like living in a crowded city than like living in a vast spacious island, as people might imagine.
Very good points, especially the above. Australia is essentially a large desert with a few patches of green around the edges which can only support a small, highly urbanised population. Although there is going to be a trade off anywhere between proximity to essential amenities and ease of off grid living, its not going to be a very graduated trade off in Australia. That said, maybe there are some areas where it would work. Or maybe try New Zealand ? ; )

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conwy
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by conwy »

chenda wrote:
Tue Apr 11, 2023 6:16 am
Very good points, especially the above. Australia is essentially a large desert with a few patches of green around the edges which can only support a small, highly urbanised population. Although there is going to be a trade off anywhere between proximity to essential amenities and ease of off grid living, its not going to be a very graduated trade off in Australia. That said, maybe there are some areas where it would work. Or maybe try New Zealand ? ; )
Haven't thought much about New Zealand; yeah maybe that's an option. New Zealand and also Ireland seem like a sweet spot for off-grid/remote/ERE lifestyle, due to being compact, having public transport and being relatively safe, without being too cold in the winter (like Canada) or hot in the summer (like the Australian outback).

I also started pondering off-grid nomadism, owning nothing but what I can fit on a plane, and living between Australia, NZ and/or other continents. Extreme, I know, but hey, I guess that's what this forum is all about :)

chenda
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by chenda »

@conwy - yes Ireland has a lot of cheap rural property in places, like this father ted-esq house:

https://www.myhome.ie/residential/broch ... al/4691190

There's places like this all over Europe. You could even consider having two off grid homes and seasonally migrate between the two. That would potentially avoid any heating or cooling costs.

Henry
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Re: Living in a Tent in Someone's Backyard

Post by Henry »

canoe wrote:
Mon Nov 08, 2021 9:44 pm
Everyone I've mentioned this to thinks there's no way I could find such a person because it would just be seen as too weird and awkward.
I find the inversion of your statement as more problematic i.e. what type of person agrees to let someone live in a tent in their backyard? If I heard that something like this going on, I would be just as wary of the tenter as the tentee. Every story I ever heard that involved a person living in a tent in someone's backyard had a true crime connection. I'm not saying that someone getting murdered is a certainty, but I'd bet the mortgage that someone's getting cornholed. So if that's not your M.O. as either provider or recipient, I'd put that squarely on the minus side of the ledger.

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