Check this thing out! It’s a pretty rad custom setup for his mountain rock fortress near Tahoe. It’s hard to see exactly how it works but looks like he’s got a spring or a pump feeding a lot of cold water down a waterfall into a cold pool next to the hot tub and there’s also a little stream of cold water that flows around the hot tub to cool beers n such for the bathers.
Now this is what he doesn’t show but I think he’s using a metal stock tank, a kinda small one that’s probably heated with a fire below. The stone and cement work he’s done up there is impressive, I only wish he’s post more videos!
I’d like to setup something like this at Camp Taint outside the sauna, but the project is a ways out.
I used to have a 6′ round, 4′ deep Snorkel hot tub that I got used off Craigslist but I never got our water system out at the property to work so it never made it out there… My neighbor didn’t really like me running that thing in my backyard in the city so I eventually put in back on Craigslist and got twice what I paid for it. Which was still a steal for how much they cost new. Someday I hope to figure something out that doesn’t cost that much since it would only be used a few times a year.
My latest project is to find all the “smoke shacks” or “huts” hidden in the woods inside ski areas. I know there is usually at least one hidden shack or shanty built by skiers and snowboarders hidden inside almost every ski area. I know of a few local ones but have only found one so far. Don’t worry I won’t be posting the location of any. That would leave them open to destruction by the “Man” and that’s no fun for anyone plus finding them is half the fun.
I’ve seen one at Stevens Pass but didn’t bother to hike up the hill to check it out. It’s hidden in plain sight and I understand that’s it’s inside the spray painted rock I saw. A few guys were smoking in front of it when I looked up to spot the landing for a friends jump, that’s the only reason why I saw it. I have ridden right past it for 20 years.
My next smoke hut to find is the one at Snoqualmie Pass, I hear it’s 3 stories tall and has a new window. I’ve got some foggy directions so it’s going to be fun to find one day when the snow isn’t so good. Lots of people know about this one.
Check out these 2 videos below about this smoke hut in Colorado. It’s just out of bounds at Breckenridge. This one is a tree house, built with all natural found materials from the area. It must be pretty strong judging by how many people are inside it in the video.
Other Smoke Shacks from around the country.
Got a photo of your smoke shack? Is it the best around? Send it to me! I promise I won’t ask where it is. Upload photos to Solar Burrito’s Facebook Page.
Snowboarding to Colorado 420 Smoke Shack – Loveland Pass, CO
The tree bach was built by a group of friends in Palmerston North, New Zealand. It was constructed largely in the dark of the night as most of the builders had full time jobs during the day. It consists largely of donated materials or from rubbish laying around Jono’s parents farm. – The Best Hut
They just completed the custom propane heated bath tub for the tree house or bach as they call it. Also I’m really impressed with the radio controlled draw bridge! Fun stuff guys!
Mike Basich is Off the Grid in what he calls Area 241. In this final episode of the rope tow segment, Mike gets the mothership up onto his property and preps the trees with shivs. With a little help from his friends the DIY specialist gets his new rope tow system in place at a record pace and just in time for an evening debut run. Enjoy and stay tuned for more Off the Grid segments with Mike Basich coming soon!
Sad way to start off 2012. If you’ve been watching the television, you might have heard about Margaret Anderson, the Mount Rainier Park Ranger that was shot down and killed on New Year’s Day. Rangers had set up a checkpoint between the Longmire and Paradise areas in the park to ensure that drivers had the proper tires and tire chains for their vehicles.The gunman, now identified as Benjamin Colton Barnes, blew through the checkpoint and then sped toward an area called Paradise where Anderson and another ranger had parked their vehicle to serve as another roadblock. Barnes jumped out of his car and opened fire, killing Anderson and missing the other ranger.
Authorities found Benjamin Colton Barnes’ body yesterday, face down in a river in the park. Read more here.
In this follow up episode Mike dives right in with custom fabrication on the motor he must mount to his new rope tow transmission. Watch Mike grind, weld and work his way through difficulties as he creates the power plant for Area 241′s newest transporter. Using spare parts and old junk is his favorite approach, “… a lot of times you’d be surprised what is just laying around or even in the gutter of someone’s house.” Enjoy Mike’s creative ingenuity in episode 2, The Mothership!
Produced and directed by Ben Wu and David Usui,
of Lost & Found Films (lostfoundfilms.com).
THIS MUST BE THE PLACE
There’s no place like home. It’s where we live, work and dream. It’s our sanctuary and our refuge. We can love them or hate them. It can be just for the night or for the rest of our lives. But whoever we may be, we all have a place we call home.
THIS MUST BE THE PLACE is a series of short films that explore the idea of home; what makes them, how they represent us, why we need them.
We’re always on the lookout for dwellings of all sorts. If you’ve come across any curious or eccentric homes, feel free to send them along.
Stolen from one of my new favorite blogs: Cold Splinters
Cold Splinters recently spent a wonderful autumn weekend in Lumberland, New York, enjoying the property/project/fort that belongs to our extremely hospitable friends at Best Made Co.. To read more about their adventures and to see what else they’ll be cooking on a newly built outdoor oven.
Check out my friend Benji’s new camping gear company, Poler. It’s camping gear for the rest us us, rethought to just what you need. He’s got some really cool stuff. Check it out and may even buy something, he needs the cash http://www.polerstuff.com/
This is how the cabin looked on Sunday, the day we left. Sorry I didn’t get a photo when we arrived but I got it in the video below. You can see all the icicles from burning 3 loads of wood in the stove the night before. It was cold! I woke up in the middle of the night because the fire went out and I was freezing. I had a headache and was very nauseous, due to carbon monoxide I believe. We need to do something about that, not sure what now. Aaron felt fine but he was in the loft and I was by the stove on the futon. There are lots of cracks and gaps in the cabin where there is no siding and in the floor, so the cabin is not sealed up tight by any means but maybe it’s too tight to burn that much wood? I wonder if putting small vent hole by the stove to allow it to draw oxygen would work or will we have to keep a window more than cracked? The stove draws great BTW. A detector is in order for sure.
Check out that rough sawn board and bat siding that Aaron, Nate and some Vashon friends did in October. I was out of town and thought it looked great, still not done but it’s a 10 year project I’m really liking the look, we’re slowing putting the rustic back into the cabin, which has been built with mostly dimensional store bought and free materials so far. There’s even a notch in the belly band and a metal flashing piece that fits snugly and will keep the water from getting behind the siding.
Video of our Short trip. It was just over 24 hours and realize how cold it can get up here during the winter!
Front view of the roof. The deck already makes the cabin feel better and the roof just adds to that because everything below the roof and the deck will stay dry and that keeps peoples stuff out of the cabin where we have limited storage or actually no storage now. LONG SENTENCE.
The cabin’s solar system performed better than I expected for the entire trip. We arrived with the panels covered with snow so they hadn’t charge the batteries for days and it was below 20 degrees. Further reducing the power output potential is the position of the panels and the Winter sun barely gets above the trees. However the batteries were full at 12.8 volts and we used the lights and watched a movie on my laptop with no problems. The batteries were full again when we left. I think we’ll have to expand the system to having a removable inverter wired into several AC outlets on the deck. We also used it to charge 3 Porter Cable Tool Batteries during the day.
View from the underside. I like the rustic look It’s built strong to survive the winter. I’m glad we went up to attach the roof before a huge snowfall or I think it wood have collapsed. The guys had to leave in a hurry last time as they took their boat from Bellingham and had to get back before dark so they just barely attached it by toe nailing.
This is how we left the cabin on Sunday afternoon. I didn’t take a photo but there is two layers of wood below the tar paper to keep nails from poking through. We could have done this a few different ways but this is what we ended up doing since we had a lot of extra T1-11 siding we wont’ be using.
My buddy Kevin made this Camp Taint Sign out of curly maple. Don't ask about the name...
