A few years ago we purchased some vacant land in northern New Mexico. We chose that area based on a number of factors. Some of those included wide-open space, abundant sunshine, affordability and artistic history (Georgia O’Keeffe lived down the road a bit). Our long term goal is to retire there and pursue a simple artistic life. One of the main reasons we chose that piece of property is its remoteness to other neighbors and the lack of congestion that comes from urban living. Urban living has a lot of advantages like electricity, water, and corner coffee shops. We plan to work around some of these conveniences using “off-grid” practices. I have enjoyed camping since I was toddler. The slower pace of life in an environment more closely linked with nature has always been a draw. Our cabin provides all of this with far more elbow room than a tent. Add in windows, a wood stove and a comfy bed and what could be better?

Site Location and Solar Power

Our parcel of land is a bit under 42 acres and nearly all the land around us is uninhabited grazing land. In fact, the people we bought our land from still graze horses and cattle on their square mile that surrounds us. I have spent enjoyable nights there listening to the baying of cattle and cry of a lonely coyote. Our decision to go “off-grid” was simple: the nearest utility pole to our cabin is nearly a mile away. We could have paid thousands of dollars to run power poles and lines to “connect” but then those “lines” would disturb our pristine views and require a monthly payment. For a fraction of that cost, we simply installed a basic PV (Photovoltaic) system. Our cabin is small at a bit under 200 sq. feet and has modest energy needs.

I designed all of our cabin’s lighting needs to be met with 12 volt DC based LED’s. This eliminates the energy losses of converting solar DC in to normal AC current. By utilizing a lot of task lighting, the whole cabin does not need to be lit to perform basic tasks. Even so, if every light in the cabin is turned on our total lighting use is less than 40 watts. This low demand allowed us to scale down the entire PV system to a basic 80-watt panel and a single 110-amp/hour storage battery. This DC system is supplemented with a basic power inverter, which allows us to run some AC devices and even some smaller power tools. The coffee bean grinder is our most common use of 120-volt AC.

Challenges with Building the Cabin

Building in a remote location has some added challenges that many take for granted. Power, water and access to building materials top the list. For us the build began with pouring concrete footers that would support the cabin’s framing. Getting the concrete there was the easy part; mixing 1800 pounds by hand with water carried in jugs was the hard part. I completed the bulk of the framing over a couple of weeks using a generator to run my air compressor. Having compressed air allowed me to use my pneumatic nail guns which greatly sped up the build. Since then, a lot of the work has been done using smaller 18 volt cordless tools, hand nailing trim, etc. The solar system has no trouble charging the battery packs for my cordless tools, and as an added bonus the solar system is silent…that gas powered generator would drown out the subtle sounds of nature that surround us, and that is a primary reason we like living there.

Cooking, Water and Heat

In a conventional home, the turning of a knob may bring life to a cook stove using natural gas or electricity at 220 volts. Our cooking heat is provided by a couple of means depending on the season and the items being cooked. In the summer we often will cook over a campfire outdoors…grilled steaks, hotdogs on a stick and of course marshmallows for s’mores. The morning coffee is French press, with water heated on the Coleman camp stove (summer) or on the wood stove (winter). Other cooking is done in a similar manner; the only thing that we are still experimenting with is small scale baking using a Dutch oven on top of the wood stove.

All of our water is brought in using 5 gallon Nalgene jugs. Hot water for washing and cleaning is heated the same way that we heat our cooking water.

Our cabin is passive solar by design and when the winter sun is shining, the wood stove is not usually required. When the winter chill does come calling at night, we stoke it up and can stay quite comfortable with just a few logs. Our grey water is used to irrigate the local sagebrush and we use a basic sawdust composting toilet for solid waste. Since it’s portable, the sawdust toilet can be brought inside if the winter temps make its normal use in our woodshed uncomfortable. We have a small alcove in the cabin that provides privacy for this if needed.

A Work in Progress

The initial building process had us “dried in” after a months work, but I still have a ways to go on a lot of the smaller details. The build is being completed as time and money allow. Our cabin is a six hour drive from our full time home so we do not get down there as often as I would like…but when we are there time is well spent with a balance of work and play. When the time does come to live there full time, the plan is to live in the small cabin while a more elaborate (ie: running water) home is built using the same basic “off- grid” mind set.

Kevin Stevens writes for Networx.com.

Libby wishes she would have had her digital camera but was able to get these photos with their iPhone. Thank you Libby!

After buying the property outright we didn’t have the means to build anything very expensive down there. We purchased a 20’ yurt with all the bells and whistles in the spring of 2008. It feels roomy and cozy at the same time. Spending time in a yurt you are much closer to the elements and to the natural cycle of things. The yurt has withstood everything and we are absolutely thrilled with it. Read the complete post at the Colorado Yurt Company Blog.

The house is based in Northern New Mexico and was designed for the grandmother of Bill Steen’s children and Athena’s mother. The grandchildren were involved in the construction and were able to show and develop there construction talents.

Benito worked on the building from start to finish, being there from the foundations through the walls andfinish plasters. Anything that was done with wood, from the roof to the finish carpentry and furniture.

The house itself, approximately 700 sf, is a tribute to Rina’s architectural design skills. The house is simple in shape, rectangular, but tastefully divided on the inside with curving walls that transform the angularity of the outside into subtle interior sculpture. As a whole, the little adobe house is a beautiful work of art and yet at the same time, ever so practical and functional.

The wood was local, as were the adobes used for the walls. The finish plasters were simple and elegant, a medium brown blend of finely screened clay with sand and straw. For me, one of the beautiful things about Rina’s little house is that, instead of being a cheap imitation (Santa Fe style) of the old pueblo style of building, her house is a thoughtful interpretation of the past and yet very contemporary. The comfort level is high, the passive solar design requires little to no additional heating or cooling.

To view more photos of the construction and see more of Rina’s house visit Bill’s blog.

I plan on featuring Kevin’s cabin sometime in the future when he has a chance to write something up and gets closer to completing the cabin. For now enjoy this great vista he shot. Thanks Kevin!

Dugout house of homesteaders Faro and Doris Caudill with Mount Allegro in the background. Pie Town, New Mexico. The Caudills at dinner. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee.

Before industry and technology gave us sawmills and frame houses, this is how the average person lived in much of the world. The dugout or pit house, with sod roof, log walls and earthen floor, is among the most ancient of human dwellings — at some point in history your ancestors lived in one.

Especially popular among 19th-century settlers in the Great Plains and deserts of the West and Southwest, where trees and other building materials were scarce, dugouts were warmer in winter and cooler in summer than above-ground structures; just about anywhere in North America the ground temperature three feet down is 55 degrees regardless of the season.

October 1940. “Mr. Leatherman, homesteader, coming out of his dugout home at Pie Town, New Mexico.” View full size. 4×5 Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee. Another example of the dugout-style structure used for the homesteader dwellings and church in the Dead Ox Flat photos.

Photo Credit and text: Shorpy

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

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The house is located in Tres Orejas, a small off-grid community one-half hour west of Taos, New Mexico.

Situated on 3/4 acre of desert oasis with outstanding 360° panoramic views of the Sangre de Christo (Rocky Mountains) and Picuris mountain to the east and southeast, with BLM National Forest to the west.

Casa Juan Galan- a beautiful, small (one-bedroom), green solar-home.

Operates on sustainable energy: passive solar heating, off-grid electrical system with solar panels (photovoltaic) & wind generator electricity.

It’s an energy efficient, energy independent home.

Rain and snow water harvesting-catchment system provides water (about 4500 gallons of storage).

Heat is by passive solar and a wood stove. There is a small propane heater in the new bathroom. I have left for extended times in the winter and the house plants have survived on the passive solar alone (temperatures around 0 F).

The house is almost 800 square feet.

There is a tank house and next to it, a covered pavilion—which would be fairly easy to convert to a studio/office, maybe a bedroom.

The house has one bedroom which is a combination studio/bedroom with a queen size loft and a small Mexican chimenea (freestanding fireplace). It has a space to hang clothes. A clothes closet is being built as part–but separate from–the new bathroom. There is another small sleeping loft (or storage space) next to the kitchen.

The bathroom is “in process” and the septic system will be finished in the spring (or ASAP, if sold soon). I have been using a “sawdust flush” composting toilet. The bathtub is large with a shower. All greywater is designed to go to trees and plants

The hot water heater is an Aqua Star propane on demand. I have installed an efficient propane refrigerator. The kitchen stove is a small trailer-type propane 3 burner with oven. The kitchen and dining space are separated by a bar. The living and dining area are separated by a partial wall with an arch.

There are two water holding tanks. One is about 3000 gallons and is in the tank house. The other is 1500 gallons and is freestanding. Roof collection for snow and rainwater is about 890 square feet.

A solar haven with High-Speed Internet, Internet Phone and good Cellular reception available.

A great recession-proof, real estate deal!
For sale by owner Asking: $115,000
email: JuanGalan(at)TresOrejas(dot)com

Visit website for more photos and details.

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

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