Lake Development Project

In the history of man, many of wandered off the beaten path, charted their own course, went the way down the road less traveled, some only to find misery and regret. To others, though, there was a great reward for their efforts awaiting them. A banquet, a celebration in the quiet solitude of simple things. A long sought rest from the weariness that is the human condition, from the social aberration we call the social norm. It is in this pursuit that I record my efforts of what I call the Lake Property.

RESEARCH SCOPE

This research project will focus on several specific areas:

Shelter
It is the first to procure from the list of simple survival, the one in which we would most certainly die from if attempting to do without. But, it is more than simply shelter I’m trying to develop. I’m seeking to establish my own monastic cell, chiseled from the midst of the wild things, where there are no roads, where there are fewer people. It must be a place where I can be dry, a place where I can be comfortably warm, where there is enough room to move about (if but only to sit or lie, and disrobe and dress). A place where I am comfortable enough to engage in the other projects I have listed, to think, to experiment.

Food
Food is necessary for life. We can only survive for 3 weeks without food. It must be first procured, then cooked, then refrigerated. It must be good. It must be pleasing. The goal is to reap as much food as possible from what I’ve personally sown. From the lake itself. From nature around me.

Water
Thankfully, and by design, my lake property is in a part of the country where it rarely gets above 80 degrees in the summer (and for a few days only each year), and barely freezes in the winter (and for only short spells), so that gardening is plentiful nearly year around. Water, of course then, is amply available in the form of rainfall. This is my effort to collect it, process it for potability, and then treat it as greywater before returning it to the ground.

Transportation
This topic covers everything from power boats to kayaks to rowing machines to trails through the woods.

Power Generation
The property in question does not have a power source to the grid. I will be experimenting with battery power (currently using exclusively), generator power, solar power, hydro power, etc.

BACKGROUND

As a young child and into my teens, I had the fortune of spending summers and vacation on a lake in the Pacific Northwest with my family at our vacation cabin. It was an exercise in happy memory development, as I to this day have fond memories, too many to count, of my time spent on the water.

I also spent a great deal of time in the surrounding woods, on that particular ridge, surrounded on three sides by water. Forests deep and dark, full of moss and rain and wildlife, ripe for exploration.

Several years after leaving home, the family cabin was sold, and I thought those days on the lake would remain in the past. Several more years later still, and a divorce behind me, I found myself searching the real estate listings for property to buy on the lake. As serendipity seems to work, indeed I found the perfect spot, on the same ridge, surrounded by timberland, with hundreds of square miles of wilderness to explore. So, upon purchasing the property (still paying for it), I now spend my weekends on the lake of my youth, realizing long lost dreams of exploration and designing a life I’ve always wanted. This project is the record of those efforts.

PROPOSED HYPOTHESIS