Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Lap Of Luxury



The New House!



Update : November 27th, 2012

My co-worker and I have decided to really take the plunge. We lost one of our other co-workers yesterday. (He relocated to Kentucky) Now instead of splitting a hotel three-ways, it is down to two. You all know my eventual plans. OK. The remaining co-worker and I have decided to buy single-person tents and go camping to amass large bounds of salary. :D I'm happy to find a like-minded individual.

Solitary tent. Inflated camping therma-rest pad. Marmot sleeping bag. One sub-freezing and snow/rain/wintry mix evening of south western PA climate. OO boy. This is living, my friends!

We have managed to get down our daily costs to $30 bucks a person. $15 for the car and the $15 for the camp site at the KOA. (We tried to just find a start park or land but the park closes at 5 and deer season is open and we dont feel like getting shot....)

In only a week, all of the fancy lightweight camping gear will break even to what we would have paid for a hotel. The flip side being we go forward with nice gear and can save further. After all the weather will eventually only get better as the season goes on and we move south.

Another amazing idea down the road would be to not bother getting a car. Instead borrowing the curteousy car from the airport for a few hours to drop by the goodwill, pick up some bicycles and use those instead. Then re-donated them back at the end of our time in the area. (When we are finished mapping) If we can manage that and find federal park land we could just it down to simply food costs.

I'm pretty sure that by the end of this mapping season I will be well prepared mentally, physically, and will the gear in order to live on the eventual acre purchased while Kiki and I build that Eco home!

Still excited. OK. Very.

Over and out.

- Cloud

6 comments:

  1. Gosh, it would be nice to be young and adventurous again! Me? I'll take my comfy, warm bed and the TV. I'm shallow that way (and old to boot) ;-)

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    1. Hah. I hear you well. At the moment, staying at a KOA, there is wifi so I can use the macbook air to stream movies. Kind of nice to sit bundled up in a bag with a wool blanket inside it, watching scary movies. :)

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  2. Replies
    1. Now that my co-worker and I have hashed out the details over the last 4 days of winter camping it is! We finally have the right bags, the padding, the tents, the cookware and a jetboil system.

      We were surprised how fast we can make popcorn in the MSR cookware when setting it on a bed of hot coals. :D

      Another week at this and we might just have it down to the point of hampton luxury while saving all that extra money for the Tiny Eco cabin dream of mine.

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  3. How are you finding the Marmot sleeping bag? I was thinking of purchasing one myself. Which one do you have?

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    1. Marmot Aspen Minimalist 40F. It's a very lightweight and comfortable bag, however, for winter camping as I am doing now, it doesn't cut it. Not when it gets to be 21F. I had to switch to an inexpensive Koeppen 0F bag. Its twice the weight and size of the Marmot. Didn't quite feel like paying several hundred for a ultra-lightweight zero bag. Although those are nice too. :)

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