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The 19th Century Home Retrofit, by Y. Cornelius
By now most SurvivalBlog readers have gone about your preparations for your
ideal home or retreat cabin, all storage food and tools acquired, fuel stored,
generators
ready, PV panels carefully concealed and hooked up to the battery bank. You
and your family or group are ready to handle the coming collapse, but are
you really? Are you ready to do without? Without that generator when
the fuel runs out, or a critical piece is worn out and a new one cannot be
had? At some point
your supplies will be used up, storage fuel consumed and there may not be any
to refill your tanks or more realistically you may be priced out, or it will
be too dangerous to “run-the-gauntlet” and get more. Can you manage
in your place without electricity? Can you cook with wood? Do you have space
enough to process the abundant food you grow and must preserve either by canning
or other means? Can you move throughout your buildings without being seen from
the outside?
My point, is your place set up to function as a 19th century homestead?
My wife and I bought an old New England farmhouse many years ago, it is nothing
fancy and looks like so many others in our area, it is a traditional connected
farmhouse meaning that the buildings are all linked-up, yet they have different
roof lines and are of different sizes. It is best summed up as a “Big
House,
Little House, Back House, Barn” and this is the title of a wonderful book
written by Thomas C. Hubka which details the reasons for the ways structures
developed. (If you want a leisurely read on the history of these buildings, I
highly recommend this book.) Anyway, we bought this type of farm house and have
been in the process of renovating it over many years, although the renovation
could more reasonably described as going back to the future. One of the many
wonderful things about an old house, and when I say old I mean over 150 years
old, is the ability to reuse much of the lumber in the walls, floors, and ceilings
or the masonry whether it is brick or stone, Ours is a timber frame with some
masonry on the exterior and is incredibly well built and has a brilliant house
plan. I realize that many people are not up to the task of going through this
sort of process, but you could build your current retreat or home to some of
these specs. Our home for example was built just after the War of 1812 it was
fully functional for a family of eight with room for boarders/labors and or relatives.
The kitchen is large while many of the adjacent rooms are small (less space to
heat) all the rooms are situated around two large central fireplaces and have
thimbles to allow for a small wood stove in each, the rooms can be closed off
when not in use, thus not taking valuable heat from other areas. In the basement
there is a large hole in the floor; it was a cistern, but was allowed to fill
in with junk, perhaps it was considered a “sump hole” by later inhabitants
since there was evidence of long overworked pumps in under the silt and gravel.
I have cleaned this up and now have a source of water right in the house, (this
water will still need to be treated since it is technically surface water being
only ten feet below grade), but it still offers water for cleaning or for our
animals.
There is a large “root” cellar to store food stuffs and
canned goods. (It could double as safe room or vault if needed and may well have
been at one point since the opening is nondescript and hidden from plain sight).
Also there is a summer kitchen, at first I wondered why this was necessary, it
appeared to be redundant, but further study enlightened me to the fact that this
area was a vital part the home complex. First it served to allow a large un-insulated
cook area that was necessary during the harvest time to allow heat to escape
from the constant fire in the cook stove during the canning, it was also a place
that field labors had their meals prepared and ate without having to clean themselves
up much and not dirty up the regular kitchen. The buildings between the summer
kitchen and barn (sometimes it is one long building divided only internally or
there are up to three distinct roof lines and end walls that divide them) any
how these areas were used in a variety of ways to allow a small cottage industry
to occur, in-fact these were simply work areas that were sheltered from the often
harsh and wild weather we experience. One could be for wood storage, for tools
(a sort of machine shop), or areas for processing wool from sheep. The point
is not to recreate that lifestyle but to utilize that mindset and build similar
multi-purpose structures.
Our Home:
We have “renovated” our home to fully function without electricity.
Now, we have multiple generators, a significant storage of fuels and food. I
and am currently finishing up with the PV panels and battery bank/inverter set-up,
going through all the motions to secure some sense of normalcy; but in-fact we
do
not “need” those items to exist here, they are an extra. We can heat
with wood and with a solar hot water system connected to baseboard radiators
as well as a copper coil running through the wood fired furnace [for when there
is not solar gain or during a heavy snowfall]. (The hot water moves via thermo-siphon
no electricity needed only check-valves to keep the hot water moving in one direction).
Our kitchen is “modern” but if the power is out we can cook on our
wood fired cook-stove, it is about 120 years old and with a little “TLC” is
now fully functional not to mention beautiful to look at. We can also bake in
a bee hive oven built into the massive central chimney which I rebuilt and lined
with modern flues. I left one of the original fireplaces, installed airtight
doors and an exterior air vent, while on the other side made the other fireplace
into a large wood storage container.
Overall, your retreat needs to be functional without electricity, things will
eventually break, or you simply run out. Focus upon knowing how to live your
life with little to no electricity or “conveniences”. The primary
goals must be on heating your home and preparing food without petrochemical
fuels, most modern homes are particularly horrible in this area. Change your
mindset; you cannot store enough for the really long haul.
