Retreats on the cheap?

[Bladerunner]

In answer to your original question, and I apologise if this hacks anyone off, this is what I would do.

Buy an acre of land off a farmer with the intention of growing your own food, which is not a lie.

Build up the outer portion of the land with a soil embankment as someone mentioned previously.

Plant evergreen trees and LOTS of hawthorne to keep out nosey people and the council.

Become a freeman on the Land. Google this and also "Notice of Understanding & Intent & Claim of Right" Send your notice off to the council and make sure to include the bit about building whatever you want on your own land. This is a very powerful document and basically makes laws that just apply to you and no one else. As long as you don't break any "LAWS", they can't touch you.

Statutes and Acts are different, but there are only 4 laws that apply to living breathing human beings, everything else is a statute or act.

Then you build an "Earthship". Google it, Mike Reynolds invented them in the late 70's early 80's. Made from tyres, tin cans and bottles. Dirt cheap to build and you can build them yourself.

They collect their own rainwater, and recycle it up to 3 times, generate their own heat and you can grow bananas indoors when there is 2 foot of snow outside. Throw in a wind turbine and a few solar panels and Bob is your Auntie's live in lover.

This will get you round the planning laws (That's the bit that will hack people off, sorry) and you could probably pick up an acre of arable land for about £5,000.

A guy built one in France on Grand Designs but they didn't call it an earthship. If you want any more info on any of the above, just let me know.

Be lucky

[diamond lil]

Don't think anybody in here will really care about planning laws BR. Am off to google this because I've never heard of it.

[Technik]

That's some good info you got there Bladerunner. I will need to investigate it further. I remember reading about briefly but what has put me off is the cost - I've read somewhere that it's almost the same as a conventional house because the cost of the plans but you're saving on electricity/heating/water in long run. Is that right?
Also would I not need a planning permision to build a basement underneath it?

[Bladerunner]

You can buy Mike Reynolds books, there are three of them. The first is available for about £15 and the other two are a bit more expensive but they are all you need to build the earthship.

I intend to start with what is called an Earth hut. This is a round building made frome earth rammed tyres with a dome roof.

Earth rammed tyres soak up the suns heat throughout the day and then release it through the night like batteries. Because the earth ship/hut is partially underground it can have an ambient temperature of around 70 degrees farenheit. It is also below the permafrost level of about 4 feet.

An earth hut can be built by 4 people in one week and cost a couple of hundred pounds. A full Earth Ship can be as expensive as you want it to be.

Dennis Weaver built a 7,000 square feet earthship before he passed away. Codey Lundine who stars on Duel Survival lives in an earth ship.

Guess what? Garages have to pay to have old tyres removed. My local garage pays £1.20 per tyre. They will give you these tyres for free or some garages might pay you to take them away if you are cheaper than who they are currently paying. Offer them to take them away for 50p a tyre!

Google "EARTH HUT" &/or "Dennis Weaver EARTHSHIP". There are a few youtube vids on this. Here is a good one to get you started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9jdIm7grCY

I for one will not be seeking planning permission. Only children need to ask permission and I am not a child. For more info on Freeman on the Land and the Notice I mentioned, I strongly suggest a book called:

"Freedon is More Than Just a Seven Letter Word" by Veronica of the Chapman Family.

However, I warn you that this book willalmost certainly change your life in more ways than one.

Be lucky

[daniel1987]

You need some serious filtration for a reliable bunker.
If you are going to spend any amount of time sealed in a concrete box, there will be a build up of Co2 and the oxygen will get used up.
The easy answer is pump in air from outside, but it may be contaminated with radiation, chemical or biological agents etc. It needs to be filtered to be safe.
There are lots of ways you could in theory filter it.
Pre filters are easy to make from cloth, foam, mesh, wire wool and you can get some really good fine stainless steel mesh on ebay.
You could use various easily available filters for home appliances like a stack of Dyson hepa filters to remove fine particles. A big cylinder of activated carbon (pool filter) for removing chemicals. New oil or air filters from cars. Filter plates from cooker hoods have a partical filter and carbon. Or some water filters work with air as well like the big paper filters.
UV light, silver treated filters/material to kill biologicals. Or a cylinder full of 'Microban' plastic shavings or copper swarf will trap and kill bacterial.
Temperature might be an issue. If it was a nuke or earthquake there could be firestorms above and the air would be very hot. Also most filters don't get rid of Carbon monoxide.

The other option is to seal it air tight and remove the co2 with something like lithium hydroxide scrubbers and replace the oxygen from tanks. But that is a very easy way to suffocate if you dont know exactly what you are doing and dont have proper sensing equipment.
You also need to think about air presure. You don't want to open the hatch to emerge into a brave new world only to die of the bends!

A possible idea I have thought about is to have scuba equipment in the bunker. So only seal it air tight just before 'the event' (if you know when it is coming???) sit there all relaxed and quiet for a few hours breathing from scuba tanks.
If in doubt about the air quality being pumped in. wear a resporator and have a huge stock of filters.

Thanks for sharing that, that's some really good ideas which should help me out.

[maxilaura]

Has anyone thought of using caves as a BOL? Thinking along the lines of "since the cavemen lived and thrived in them, why can't we"?

Anyone have any suggestions?

[bulldogeagle]

i cannot see your average city dweller who has had central heating from the day they were born,living in a cave!

[diamond lil]

The cavemen lived in them but probably died of TB before they hit 30 ...

[Triple_sod]

I’m not sure ‘cavemen’ actually lived in caves, the chances are their lifestyle was very similar to today’s hunter gather tribes, small bands often on the move, setting up temporary camps. They probably mainly used caves for religious ceremonies, which explains why they’re often full of artefact’s and why latter on they started building their own in the form of long barrows.

People certainly have lived in them though and still do to this day, although it’s almost always in really warm dry parts of the world like the Middle East, Mediterranean and Turkey. I’ve been in a few in this country and I wouldn’t want to spend the night. The water that ate them out of the limestone usually still runs though so they’re pretty cold, damp places.

If I had no option but to ‘bug out’ to the wilds with no form of shelter I’d probably go for something like that

[Moony]

Has anyone thought of using caves as a BOL? Thinking along the lines of "since the cavemen lived and thrived in them, why can't we"?

Anyone have any suggestions?

You mean this sort of thing ? http://www.survivalrealty.com/2012/01/a ... -mine.html

Thats a cave, with over 11 acres for less than £38,000. Oh to have US property prices in this country !