Summer is slowly dying. But dying is a long way from being dead. There’s still probably another month, maybe two, before I need to start thinking the Beta Site is ‘closed for the season’. I suspect right around the middle of October it should start dropping concerning amounts of snow. That means that the ‘construction season’ will also be winding down.
How has 2026 gone for the Beta Site? Well, I didn’t get as much done as I want, but I got a bunch of things done, including some of the more expensive things.
- Got the game cameras deployed
- Had a professional and legally valid survey done
- Got the conex put in
- Established StarLink for connectivity
- Found an alternate route into the property to facilitate better access in bad weather
- Met a couple neighbors
- Got the storage tanks buried
- Got the secondary entry into the property cleaned up a bit
Expensive? Some of it…between the conex, survey, mini excavator and trailer rentals, and a few other things I’d say I dropped about $20k altogether. And that, my friends, is going to be the cheap part. Plans for 2027 are grand. Tentatively the biggest expenses will be:
- A well
- A septic system
These two things will give me the major accoutrements of civilization. I don’t mind living on 12v power, and keeping an eye open for bears…thats the price for living in the middle of nowhere and I accept. What I will not tolerate (if I don’t have to) is a lack of flush toilets. Now look, I know that in the apocalypse the ability to drop your pants and sit on a nice porcelain throne is, at best, sketchy. And I’ve gone the caveman route when I'[ve been out hunting or otherwise far from civilization. And, yeah, its no that big a deal. BUT…if I can have a nice, honest to Crom flush toilet why wouldn’t I? So those two items will be the most expensive things in 2027, I suspect.
And, of course, theres still the matter of the ‘real’ structure. I’m not living in a cargo container. I want a small-but-cozy four-season cabin/structure that has running water, heat, light, a flush toilet, internet, and all the creature comforts. Sure, I can ride out the apocalypse in a tent but if I don’t have to……. Really, something similar to this would be supermegawesome.
Other upcoming big expenses will be locking gates, water infrastructure (mostly piping water to various points on the property), fencing, gabions, sangars, decking, solar/power infrastructure, communications infrastructure, etc.
See the keyword there? Infrastructure. Its not going to be quick, and its not going to be cheap, but it does need to be done. By this time next year I want at least half of these things done. Since winter will be a time of inactivity, that will translate into a time of reduced spending..that’ll give me time to put together a war chest for jump starting things when ‘building season’ resumes, which I am scheduling as June 1 but will in all likelihood be about a month earlier.