Project 31

Overview

I am planning on spending an entire month (31 days) on my property this winter without leaving for any reason. During that time, I will subsist solely off of what I have at hand or can gather from my land. The entire project, including preparation leading up to the month, will be documented through this blog, photos, and videos.

Project 31 started on February 16th. Blog posts written about this project are filed in the Project 31 category.

Objectives

(Roughly in order of importance.)

• Spend 31 days on my property without leaving (and come out alive)
• Don’t burn a single drop of gasoline
• Only use renewable (solar, wind) electricity generated on my property
• Minimize propane usage to 2lb for entire month
• Use only water gathered on my property
• Only burn locally gathered wood for heating
• Cook at least 1 warm meal a day
• Limit non-recyclable and non-compostable trash to what will fit in a 1 gallon bag
• Produce at least 3 videos and 10 blog posts during the month
• Be happy and comfortable
• Write a book

The Plan

• Water – The goal is to only consume water gathered on my property. Since there’s plenty of precipitation during the winter, this should not be difficult. Gathered water will be filtered for drinking and cooking. I will have clean bottled water and jugs of city water purely as backup.
• Food – Since there is no legally obtainable food on my property this time of year, I will be brining in a month’s worth of food before my stay begins. As one of my goals is to cook at least 1 warm meal a day, my provisions will include fresh vegetables and meats, in addition to non-perishable goods. Temperatures should be low enough that refrigeration shouldn’t be a problem.
• Shelter – Hut 2.1 should be mostly completed by the start date.
• Warmth – Temperatures can drop to around 0F (-18C) in the winter, though average temperatures are right around freezing, with highs above freezing on most days. If I need heating, the current plan is to burn locally gathered wood in a cast iron stove. However, said stove isn’t yet operational as of the time of writing. If particularly cold weathers are encountered, alternatives may be employed to prevent hypothermia.
• Cooking – I will likely use the wood stove for some cooking, though I will also have a propane stove for the kind of cooking that needs finer temperature control.
• Electricity – I have a 100W solar (PV) panel, which I may augment with another 100-200W of solar panels if I can afford it. I also may buy a wind generator (again, if I could afford it), since effectiveness of photovoltaics is severely compromised by cloud cover and the short daylight hours. I will have a battery array with a capacity in excess of 4000Wh in three 115Ah 12V deep cycle batteries. Expected daily power usage should be under 200Wh, though may reach 500Wh if artificial refrigeration is required.
• Communications – I will have a cell phone, and most likely, also internet access over Verizon’s network. The intention is to only use the internet for posting blog entires, photos and videos.

Preparation

Some things I need to do before I start my month-long stay:

• Finish Hut 2.1 (insulation + chimney)
• Electrical (add more solar/wind, batteries)
• Water (more cisterns)
• Comms (internet)