How we Shower, use the Bathroom and Wash Our Clothes with No Running Water
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
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Hallo Kalle, I use a camping washing machine. You can fill the water in with buckets. There is a short washing program of about half an hour, and a separat for draining. It works very well for me. Even my Garden Clothes are clean, and the draining ist really good. I need 2 buckets of water to wash and another to buckets to clear. Maybe this could help you. Good Luck
If Christine gets her way, you'll have horses for her to ride to her parent's summer house for showers and laundry!
Just thought; if you hang the clothes you are going to change into by the fire before the shower, you will have heated/warmed clothes when you come back in. Food for thought anyways
I can get you running water to the house...... look at how the moonshiners use it do it grab a garden house make a small damn and the water will build pressure up and put it to the house or Hydraulic Ram Pump you can build or by these either or will work you can also youtube them as well this would be the simplest all you would need is someway to heat it like a propane on-demand hot water heater and some way to store it... just remember an old northern wood tick showed you how ua-cam.com/video/H4e6-tu0g24/v-deo.html or ua-cam.com/video/kHLxjPOYbRY/v-deo.html
Hi, first video i have watched of yours, I do appreciate the wisdom and encouragement.
This video reminds me of how my Wife and I started out years ago. We have progressed to being completely self sufficient, owning our own power generation, water wells and springs, growing and raising all our own food. Thanks for the reminder. The simple life is the best life.
Awesome! That's my dream some day.
@@zxyatiywariii8same
2 ideas for outhouse seats; you can either remove the seat itself and hang it by the fireplace, or make a seat shaped piece of Styrofoam. It never feels cold to the touch no matter how cold it is. Hello from Nova Scotia, Canada!
Excellent ideas! 😊
The styrofoam is a huge difference! I lived a short time in Alaska & we had an outhouse with Styrofoam. My friends have lived for many years this way. About 2 to 3 nights a week we heated a huge container of water on the propane stove (very spoiled) and several took it out to the steam bath. A separate little building with a wood stove, benches, containers of cold water to drink. With little kids, you put a wire fence barrier in front of the stove, just in case. We usually had our steam bath with my partner, his brother & sister-in-law (some times a few friends). The kids were old enough to stay in the cabin for abt 1/2 hour (without killing each other) so the adults had time to relax & talk before we called the kids out. They loved making "snow angels" and sometimes watching the Northern lights before going into the cabin. I just started watching these videos (1/2024). Reminded me of some wonderful times in my life. Have a wonderful new year!!
You should get a cauldron or a pata in finnish. It's basically a big pot where there's a stove under it where you burn wood to melt snow or warm the "shower" water. It's very common in saunas in finland.
Yes ... and look like a cannibal's dinner in the process of taking a bath! LOL
@@SherryAnnOfTheWest Hehe - but really, it would be practical - you can boil your sheets clean in it, and any linen and cotton clothes, if not too color-sensitive, and you can splash water around if placed in the sauna or outdoors. Of course it must stand a little downstream and down hill from the place where you fetch drinking water, but not so many steps.
BTW, if you live in such a clean environment as Kalle does, you don't get very dirty at all, which is a great plus. The cities make us dirty. 🙂
That is perfect to do laundry in to!
@DNA350ppm that is nonsense; of course, you get very dirty out in the country
@@randybobandy9828 Yes, it happens, if you work directly with the soil or with animals that are dirty. Of course if you get sweaty from other work, too, but you shouldn't, when it is so cold that there's snow and all. You then should just work in an even pace. When you make fire or something, there shoudn't be soot, it is a sign of ineffective combustion. The snow in the countryside of the type where Kalle lives, is clean, as long as there are not sources of pollution nearby.
You can coil pipes around the outlet pipe of your fireplace and create a closed system with a water tank. The heat will create a continual cycle and warm up your water. If your tank is well insulated you can enjoy a warm shower at any time of the day.
For washing clothes you can buy a special washing bag for camping. It works well and can be done in the comfort of your warm home.
Oh woe nice
I think our bodies are designed for extremes in temperature and food. We evolved in an environment to withstand seasonal changes that pushed us and we have the capacity to adapt. Food scarcity and cold/hot stress to the body has actually been shown to improve our immune system and help the body heal inflammation. A sauna in the winter will be amazing for you guys!
Yes! And the benefits of fasting, cold showers etc are starting to be better understood!
Joh! But I hate cold water. We have very mild winter in South Africa
We are indeed perfectly set up for the seasons. Our eyes are brighter in colour for improved night vision. Our skin is pale so we get more vitamin D from the sun. And when we take cold baths, our body builds up brown fat, that keeps us warm. And when we get too cold, we shiver, because vitamin D is stored in the white fat and we shiver because the body goes into the white fat. And then there's more I'd forgotten.
He could build a Swedish hot tub. I'd love one
And when we lived very basically our life expectancy was much much less... Just saying.
We circulate 5 gallon buckets which amount to 12. After a year each bucket gets put back into soil. One year is recommended for the safe break down of solid waste. The wood stoves are necessary. We have a 4 gallon hot and ready for showers. Solar for electricity. Wash days are a lot of work. Simple living is rewarding. It’s just different.There is a barrel with a manual churning device that agitates clothing with a mane attached. Looking forward to that.
This is so interesting.98% of people aren't thinking of how to get a nice hot shower in the cold frigid air of winter. And its really cool how well you adapted
You could use what many sailboats have - a foot pump that sends water up from a container under the sink and pours out of your faucet so it works "like regular kitchen sinks." Put another tube from the sink to a second container to hold gray water. Easy peasy!
You are a much braver soul than me. There's no way I would leave a warm cabin to go sit in a cold building to empty my bowels and bladder. I would just place the potty in a warm corner in the cabin, hang a curtain around it for privacy, then carry it all to the outdoor compost bin later. Sawdust and wood shavings/chips can be tossed in the corner potty to help eliminate any odors until time to dispose of the contents. I would also bathe in a galvanized steel, or heavy duty plastic, tub in front of the fireplace/stove. A hose can be connected to the bottom of the tub and a stopper inserted into the hole until time to drain it. The other end of the hose can be pushed through a hole in the wall at floor level (with a plug/stopper added to cover the hole when not in use). The bath water can also be used to wash clothes and linens before draining the tub. A brand new toilet plunger with holes drilled in it can serve as an agitator. You don't really need a lot of water to take a tub bath, just deep enough to cover your legs while sitting down. My granny would heat two gallons of water on her stove, pour it into the tub, and then add a little bit of cold water if it was too hot. Or, we would just wait for the hot water to cool down on it's own before climbing into the tub. If you absolutely feel the need to experience a shower, you can still use a small bucket to pour water over your head while sitting in the tub. A few extra buckets of water can be placed on the floor next to the tub for that purpose. But, if you must shower outside in freezing weather, at least wear a pair of rubber garden clogs or even shower thongs to keep your feet from coming into contact with the cold ground/snow/ice/dirt/grass, etc. I realize it's your life and you'll do what you want, but I just wanted to add my two cents worth of suggestions. Good luck on your building projects. And have a Happy New Year!
we have only one bathroom, wich my husband soaks his bad back for hours, ugg so i have a camper potty that i use indoors when its cold, it has a seat ,by the back door, i just open the back door if needed and i use that, way better than having an accadent lol
@@sandrajohnson5624 We also have only one bathroom. We have an understanding that if he is in the tub area and the toilet is not occupied, then he will close the shower curtain while I use the toilet. This only happens in "emergencies"; and in order to keep such emergencies to a minimum, he will ask me if I need to use the toilet before he takes a shower. And I will offer him the same opportunity. We have a potty chair in another room in the rare event we both need to answer nature's call at the same time. We also have a mobile home on our property that we use for storage, but the toilet in the mobile home is sometimes too far away to reach when "the pain hits". Then again, there's always adult diapers, a 5-gallon bucket, a bed pan, gender-specific urinals, or simply a trash can. Like you mentioned, it's way better than having an accident.
For instance, I now use a vintage basin to wash at my also vintage washstand, i don't have to wash with cold water and i'm totally clean, no troubles at all. I also have 3 kettles full of water warming up on my wood stove for when I want to wash the dishes, or myself.
Dear Kalle, I was just watching your video about having a shower/wash in winter season. Since I´ve got some experience in Finnish winters and cabins without running water, I can strongly recommend installing a sauna as first project on your water bucket list!
Why? In winter, you are anyway in the need for a warming-up place and there is nothing more efficiently warming than a sauna. So, every 2nd or 3rd day, you´ll heat up the sauna stove (that contains a huge boiler for hot water) and after having sauna, you´ll mix the hot water with cold one and wash yourself (comfortably sitting) in a warm enviroment where splashing of water doesn´t harm the building construction at all. In our cottage in northern Finland we´ve got a huge stove that carries a "ring" of water container around the stone mass, and within half an hour there is plenty of hot water - enough for up to 6 people washing themselves entirely.
After sauna, you are heat up from inside and you´ll walk to your house without freezing.
Of course, there is still the need of cold water to fill the stove´s boiler and for mixing.
I think, as soon as you got a sauna, you can be quite relaxed in planning your water project. :-)
IMPORTANT: in order to beeing able to use your sauna as a washing place, it MUST have a drain in the floor! In many old saunas in Finland, it is as simple as just a slot in the (slightly aslant!) floor.
Yes! Those are great suggestions.
Also you can just place planks top of the stone posts and let water drain from the bottom with 10mm gaps between the boards (for ventilation that takes moisture away and lets it dry even when completely wet. Also reason why old buildings last longest since it can dry even if say roof leaks).. just dont drop you phone or such under it cause that will suck to retrieve. Other option is concrete floor with drain in the lowest spot that runs under ground into hole other side of the hill compared to pond, so anything flushed wont end up into stream or pond and there end of a pipe you just put in lots of rocks under ground, maybe little earth separation fabric to keep stuff filling between rocks. Water flows there and eventually seeps into the ground, though look your local regulations regarding this since you might not get to build this no longer as new construction depending on the local code. Once it gets cold you need to drain the stove boiler, unless you build the sauna into the house it self to keep that area above freezing point, but for moisture control its better to have it separate building bit further from the house it self so incase of fire it wont spread to house it self.
@@Hellsong89 Placing the sauna in a separate building far from the house is a great suggestion. And, depending on the underground temperature in the area, a tunnel could connect the two structures. Boards or some other material could be used as flooring/walkway to avoid contacting the earth on the bottom of the tunnel.
There's so many ways to improve this set up so that it's more comfortable and safer. I guess looking "cool" is the point here.
A simple garden watering can would work better or a squeezy sports bottle. Or just bath inside next to the fire while standing in a tub like so many people have done before as documented in many memoirs. "Sponge" bath rather than pouring water. Stand in the plastic bucket outside rather than the snow. Build a wooden grate to stand on rather than snow or mud. Etc etc.
Wash tub. Growing up in Wyoming temporary can get to 20+ below. There is way better ways
I agree. Did washtubs growing up for many years
Yeah i agree. He also have power in the House. So the solutions are endless.
He could wear a pair of flip-flops instead of going barefoot.
@spottedlizard23
Thank you! Your comment is, for me, a slice of common sense I missed here, despite the drama of someone pouring water on themselves.
I saw that camping shower device that "someone" broke in a video last year and ordered one right away.
First, we used it with water we heated in a "solar" camping shower bag in the summer on sunny days. The pump device came in handy, because you can fill the warm water into a bucket and don't have to lift the water bag over your head any more so that the water can run down.
We live in a "normal" house with running water central heating and central water warming. That one warms 120 liters of water, we actually don't need so much hot water during the day. So we started using it once a week only, otherwise using a water cooker, a bucket and the camping shower device with pump. Since Putin started the war, we do not even warm our water any more once a week. Legionellae are no problem, they need water temperatures above 25 degrees to get active, we "freeze" them out.
So far, we only heated with firewood and hope we will make it through the winter, hoping it will not get too cold. People here in Germany have to try to use as little natural gas as possible, we hopefully will not have to use any, just add a sweater or a cardigan. And we still will have luxury using the camping shower device with pump in our shower. So I am glad I saw that video last year, I learned from it for life.
Nobody is forced to use little or no gas, but we are just able to do it, so why not? Others might need the gas that we don't use. A little bit of simple living in a "normal" house.
You guys will have it so nice in the sauna when you finish it. ☺️ In addition to the kiuas, us Finns often have a big water heater either connected to the kiuas or heated separately with fire. I can’t stress enough how luxurious and useful it is in cottage conditions! You’d have warm water at your dispense by just lighting a fire (and some water carrying). ☺️
Kalle, when my husband and I lived in our little off-grid cabin (23 years ago) we took plastic tote baths in the winter. We would gather water from the stream and keep it heating in a large bucket on the woodstove and voila...tote bath heaven by the heated stove:)
@tammylong5945
How do you collect the water from the floor?
We have no running water either at our cabin and we collect water from a creek that runs exactly underneath out home. The spring comes out from the ground 10 m down our front door... the trouble is when the snow set in 😁. Thanks for sharing your journey with your cabin cause every time I watch your videos I relive our story. We use a UV light filter to sterilise the water...works amazingly! Ever need suggestions just ask 👍
Aw, Kalle, I think this is one of my favourite videos of yours. I love the day to day stories and to see how you both live. I'm sure you are both very healthy from living this lifestyle.
I lived for a year in Panama in sweltering heat. No running water, no electricity. I had to walk a mile to do the dishes and laundry in the ocean. For drinking water and showering, there was a stream nearby. I built an “oven” made of rocks to cook everyday, cause there was no gas either. Whether its cold or hot, not having the basics that we take for granted gives you a whole different perspective on life.
It's so great that you have a spring crossing into your propertly! Also congrats on the new summer house, that will be such a huge help! ✨
That's one of the best things about this place 🥰
@@KalleFlodin Yes, I cannot image how good it feels! Since I tried drinking spring water at my parents place, cannot go back to the city water. I hope to one day have my own place with water spring like that ☺
In the end when you were talking about not having the motivation to do some things all the time, I could relate, today I was wearing my workout gear, preparing to go for a run and the whole time saying 'I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this' but i did it anyway and it felt great! Push through it sometimes, you will appreciate it even more. Thank you.
There's a few things that are quick to setup and would be a game changer for your cabin and would bring much more comfort. Specially in the winter.
First, it would be a great idea to buy a water tank or big water container of about 1000 liters. It's usually around 100 to 200€ and it's very easy to use. And for most cabins, the idea is to put them against a wall on the outside, and to put a very little pipe that comes inside the cabin, it's very simple to put. And then you can fill it up once and you're done for 1000 liters, without having to go outside your cabin. So you can have a good stock of water while staying warm inside, and once every 2 weeks or something like (maybe more, really depends on your water consumption), you just take a few hours, you fill it up again and you're good to go.
Standing water (and the tank) doesn’t necessarily stay clean enough to drink especially in the summer when the water would get warmer in the tank. It’d probably need to be boiled before it can be used. A Berkey wouldnt be enough at that point.
Water in the stream never stops running so bacteria doesn’t grow.
Of course you don't drink the water directly from the water tank that's obvious 😂
The whole idea is about stocking in a way that you don't need to go in and out of the cabin everytime just to pick a few liters, that's a huge waste of time and effort
The wole idea is to get a pipe through the wall so he can have a stock a water without having to go out everytime
But of course everybody knows that the water from that pipe, you then put it in a filter, like the one he have in his video (that's why I recommand it)
The kind of filter he have with natural pressure, it's doing all the work so all he need is a stock of water
So after your process in your cabin should be :
Put water from the river to the water tank > take the water from the tank to the filter > take water from filter to any use
In that way you save hundreds of hours through the years and you don't need to go outside for water in winter
(For a person having visited hundreds of cabins in the Alps or in different mountains I know pretty much what I'm talking about and it's pretty common)
For example in the beginning of that video, you can see exactly what I'm talking about :
ua-cam.com/video/JdfnRoVMnjw/v-deo.html
@@dominicpardo4783 That felt strange to me sometimes to wonder why Kalle Flodin is still strugglin after like one year or more in his cabin.
It really looks like sometimes he makes it way more difficult that it needs to be. I'm following a lot of people from different countries that are doing the same type of projects like living Off Grid and... basically it's very easy and cheap, all you need is some skills in bricolage and that's all. You just put like 2 or 3 years maximum of hard work you're done for life. And for Kalle Flodin, his cabin was even ALREADY built... so it's just a matter of a few renovations and that's it. Come some guys like Erik Grankvist built his entire cabin himself, alone and from absolutely 0 and it just took him 1 year to build 80% of the structure.
When I look at Kalle Flodin's cabin it's like... man just bring a good worker for like a week and he is going to fix and bring a lot more comfort and autonomy to the place in just a few days for a very low cost.
So... it's rather like this guy is really not smart or good at bricolage (but come on he must know the basics) or he must be really really broke but... once again, he is making it more worst than it needs to be, because it's a bad circle that you can break with so cheap and smart investments.
So yeah, more and more I watch this channel and more and more it really looks like the guy is looking like a city person that have absolutely no idea of what he is doing and is just playing the "I'm trying to leave my dream but it's so difficult and I'm so poor"... but it's start to be annoying at one point when you see on the other side, hundreds of people doing way better, way faster, with sometimes no budget.
I even know some grandmas who are living in like cabins in 1000 meters altitude and doing all themselves so... yeah it's very strange at one point. And he is making it even worse when the guy is creating more and more videos to just complain and complain and says "look how it's difficult to live in a cabin"... no it's not, some guys lives in cabin even rougher, in deep Canada or US, and completely remote, and they have been like that for 40 years, and it's just fine when you know what you're doing.
And even in this case it's not even remote.... bro you're living in Sweden wich is literaly in Europe, probably one of the most condensend continents with a city every 30 kilometers or so. I have some russian friends who are living in Sibera and they need to drive like 1 hour or more to just get to the nearest civilization. And he is always pushing the "I'm living in the middle of the woods"...yeah but it's the same as living in the middle of the fields in England, it's just not sounds as "sexy" but it's basically the same. It's not because you have just 5 minutes of driving with only woods around your house that you are "in the middle of nowhere". You're just... 5 minutes away from the main road.... that's it.
And he even show in his video like "look I'm living like 20 minutes from a very good city with everything you can dream of".... yeah sooo you're basically not living in "a cabin in the middle of nowhere", you're just living like a random guy in normal swedish country side, you can take your car and go to the grocery store in just 20 minutes like.... pretty much 80% of people that are living in european country side... My parents have exactly the same configuration in the middle of France, so nothing special at all I just don't understand.
Just take a look at a channel like Jonna Jinton, she is just killing it and buildt a huge business. Or even Martijn Doolaard in the Italian Alps, the guy have done 3 times more in a few months, with only basic bricolage skills, than Kalle Flodin since the beginning. So it's very strange to see a guy in a hamster wheel, infinitely complaining about "help me it's hard" when.... it's literaly like 4 or 6 months work and it's done. If I had the exact same property, man... I bring 2 or 3 friends and we take over the work. In about 1 week all electricity and water autonomy system is done. In 1 month all isolation is done and heating is solved. In 2 months all other systems around the house to make it work is done. All the storage inside the house, a little bit of prepping, 2 or 3 months of stock with basic stuff to avoid going out in cold winters. And after all the details would take just one month and everything is done. Even a terrible roof, if you're 2 or 3 persons it's like a one month work and that's all. And all that... with the roof included, would be less than 10k€ and the roof is the most expensive, because without it it's less than 5k€
5k€ and you're self sufficient for basically your entire life. The only thing after it's starting to plant vegetables and try to reach food autonomy, that's the only part that is constant work and is not absolutely necessary.
He doesn't keep a container because it would freeze and crack in the winter. I live way south of him but it doesn't even work here during winter. So when the temperature gets closer to -30 celsius, you will wake up to a huge bang, when the frozen water cracks the container. Ice cracks concrete if you're not careful. Plumbing in cold climates is a big thing you have to think a lot about. It's not possible to just put a random water tank anywhere and just expect it to work 😆 even his spring of moving water, which he works continuously, gets frozen over with thin ice. So for him to get running water inside, he pretty much has to do some modern plumbing with buried pipes.
@@HolyPineCone I've never heard of a metal container doing that... even in the coldest temperature so there's must be something wrong with yours... except if you're buying some shitty quality plastic stuff. But a basic metal water container is never going to crack. Some guys have containers in Siberia, just do it with common sense, you're talking about obvious details that don't even need to be explained 🤣
And of course you're not going to do you're plumbing during cold temperature... you have to do it BEFORE it's cold. Now it's too late.
You do you're exterior work in summer and your interior work in winter. That's the most basic of basics.
Guys the whole idea don't needs 300 pages of explanation and excuses about details that don't even need to be mentioned in the first place if you have a minimum of common sense.
The whole idea is just that there's a lot of different things he should do very quickly (or should have done months or years ago) that would make his life so easier but for some mysterious reasons he makes his own life harder by not doing it and he still act like he just arrived in his cabin like 3 weeks ago when he has been there for years... something is really wrong.
When you get to a cabin like that, the first thing you do is you make sure your electricity, plumbery, water and all the basics are done within the first month's because if not, you're going to consistently struggle with the rest and each task is going to take 3 times more long than it should be.
A friend of mine bought a cabin like that completely empty. The first room he did was the bathroom, the second was the kitchen. Surprise.
And in his own words about all the other rooms "the rest is luxury"
Without having watched the video: I can't even imagine. We're living in a house in the forest but with running water. We had no water for a while during the building process and even in summer it was a struggle. Not just that it was cold - which is alright in summer - but the hassle to always go and get water, it all takes so much time.
Thank you for being so raw and honest with the day to day cabin life! Just inspiring 😊
Your Cold Spring is amazing!! What a treat!! The water also gets filtered through the rocks and underground rock strata. It would be fun to see you get it tested for purity!!
Reckon it will be fantastic compared to the awful piped stuff sent through towns and cities... Our town only tests for 30 toxins yet we know there are thousands
I love the upbeat attitude behind the lack of the usual comforts and all the stories behind it, because they're so candid and genuine, this video was excellent and thank you for sharing!! I lived with a composting toilet once so I know what that means! Love the stream, I'd come up with a straw if I could! Love from Italy🤗❤
Kalle, it's funny, but I felt so relieved when you and Christine announced her parents buying a cabin nearby with running water. It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I admire your spirit, but I don't want you to freeze showering outside in the winter. Congratulations about your new neighbors!
I used to own and live in a cabin at Lake Louise, Alaska. Here in Alaska, in the cold areas like that, we usually cut a piece of styrofoam in the shape of our toilet seat. Much warmer to sit on! When I "remodeled" our outhouse, I bought a squishy soft memory foam type toilet seat (commercially made, covered in plastic for cleanliness) and wow, what a nice upgrade. I knew some people who remodeled their own outhouse, and they put an electric heater in it, which they wired to a timer that was located in their cabin. That way they could preheat the outhouse before they went out. I had plans to do the same, but after owning the cabin for ten years, we decided to sell and I never wired the outhouse. We took our laundry to town to do. Between town trips, we would just hang our used clothing outdoors, which would refresh the clothing surprisingly well. Putting a stove in your sauna would be my priority! We built a sauna and used a cheap camping solar shower (sturdy dark plastic). My husband put a hose in our lake, and would pump water up to a plastic trash can (brand new, clean) "mixing tank" and we would fill the solar shower bag with warm/hot water and then raise it with a rope that was put through a pulley at the highest point of the sauna ceiling. We purposely designed our sauna with a vaulted ceiling for the shower. We put two levels of benches in the sauna in order to get up in the high heat area as well.
@annesmith7548
Very practical, smart, and well planned.
Thank you for sharing. I smile when people say; “In cold winter. Here is -9C”. To me, literally that temperature feels like spring during the frigid cold winters of Alberta Canada when the temperatures dips into -40C and below. If it ever gets to -9, I’ll be wearing shorts ☺️
Same here..
The summer when I was twelve my father moved our family of seven into an unfinished house he was building for us.
There were five children ages 2 through 12 years of age.
We had running water, hot and cold, and a toilet.
There was a wash tub in the back room where we were all expected to bath.
The little ones fit in the tub. The adults and older children had to sponge bathe their bodies.
I could never imagine to move in the middle of the forest without a sauna or without some kind of water tank under the sink 😄 I’m always very surprised when I see how simply you actually live because you make it look so cool and it’s reeeeaally a hard work!! 😎🥰
That would be awesome to have a sauna to warm up in, and should be fairly easy to build a wood stove for it. I'm fairly sure you and Lars could make it work.😁👍
I spent my very young years in a log cabin with no plumbing and no electricity and an outhouse where at night the monsters waited. So this is bringing back memories indeed! Luckily, we had a hand pump in the yard for water, and a big metal tub on the porch for bathing that you could fill with water heated on the wood stove and then just tip over to empty. However neighbours had put next to their pump a a big old metal bathtub with a firepit underneath, so you could fill the tub, light a fire, and take a nice not bath in the middle of the forest. It helped to have two huge planks of wood in the bathtub so you didn't burn yourself :)
Lololololololololololololololol @ where the monsters waited. I hated that outhouse setup. I was like 2 seconds in and out. So grimey and in no way interesting.
This reminds me so much of our cabin in the Caribbean, it's way out there in the country side and I never miss the comfort of home with all it's comfort. Thanks for sharing 🤗😊
Have you tried sponge baths? I've been surprised with how well they work for staying clean (even with long hair).... and it's pretty comfortable to do too, since you can be inside next to the fire the entire time.
I just fill up a small metal bowl with a few cups of water, then set it on the wood stove for a minute to warm up. Then take it off and use a rag to wash with. Once the water gets cloudy, I just dump it and do it again and again.
It takes extra time.... but really not bad at all (and most importantly comfortable and uses little water).
Also taking a sponge bath using a face cloth is very good for your skin because you rub your skin, it is also good to use lemon juice in your water, when you are threw with all parts of your body soak your feet, you can be inside, been for years, you are sure to be clean. He needs to take the thing he hauls wood on he can haul up more water at a time, make it much easier.
I find it funny how many suggestions there are in the comments. Do whatever works for you Kalle and Christine! ❤
That's why I don't read the comments 😉 I'll just do my own thing instead 🙂
I do appreciate my hot showers more after this video. But I also love my cold sea swims in the winter to experience this "uncomfortable" feeling that just leaves you excited, refreshed, energised and just feeling happy afterwards.
Nice video as always.
Primary water is the best water!
Thank you! Couldn't agree more 😊
16:47 You are definitely right! We all wanted to live a comfortable life no matter which part of the world we are from. The best thing about living it is to be prepared. You want a sauna and a running water, you'll have it! But for now, you need to live with what you have and get used to it for some time. One day, you'll realize that before sitting warmly in your sauna, you used to bath outside with warm water you just made! Before washing dishes with a tap, you used to fetch water from the stream. Small step. You have to go through somethings sometime.
I like that you're not complaining, you are complementing the things the you have for now.
Happy New Year!🎉❤
I find this lifestyle fascinating to watch. You remind me of my oldest son and you make me smile. 💙☺️
Having a wood stove with a huge kettle is brilliant! Every time you make food, the water gets warm. And it warms the house as well.
Waking up in the morning and making coffe or tea? You have to know how to light the wood stove. And everyone learns, people are not stupid :-D
Have you thought about building a hot tub with a few bricks and an old bathtub? Make a fire underneath, soak and watch the stars, and even soap and soak your clothes before rinsing them in the stream? Then you only need one of these old knee-high electric top loader centrifuges we had at the public pool in the eighties. My mom forbid me to put my swim suit in it, because she feared the germs. But if you own it, you know what‘s in it.
Rinse your soap in the eiver/ stream?? Hell no
@@susanlea7759 there’s non-toxic soap that has all natural ingredients like dr Bronners soap. It’s vegan organic and cruelty-free
@@ФАКДЕМОКРАТ as a backpacker i am well aware of Dr Bronners etc. How many average folk use it?? Few. Very few. People are stupid. Work retail for just a few days and you'll be amazed at the stupidity. Then go out on a 3 night hike and see their stupidity as they destroy nature.
@@susanlea7759 yes, no surprises here. I’ve lived and worked in Yosemite for 2 years and I’ve seen it all. One time someone drove to wash his jeep in the lake, while people were swimming nearby.
Yes a hot tub would double as a bath and a wash tub to boil the clothes.
That cold spring looks so pure! I just finished watching Christine’s video and I’m so glad for you guys, it’s going to make day-to-day tasks so much easier! Lots of love to you and the family! 💙
There are lots of options for "simple water" but still require work.
water pipes are often not good because the cabins can get really cold if there isn't a fire going and pipes will freeze. On the flip side though, things like large water jugs can be set up with either a hand pump to let you pump water up from them into the sink, or gravity feed where it drops down from a drum.
Now in cabins like this, i've seen them place something like a plastic 55 gal drum on the 2nd floor... with a hose leading down to the kitchen, and they would just keep topping it off with water. they could even use it for an indoor shower, or bath.
they had a "propane" hot water on demand, hook up. so they would turn on the propane, start the heater and the water would "drop" into it, be warmed up and come out as a hot shower.
As a shower you can use a manual pressure spayer and fill it with warm water. Easy and cheap !
Thank you for this video :). I must say it takes awhile to get used to icy cold showers, time to get used to it as opposed to jumping right in! I heard of people having heart attacks from the shock. Sauna and or heat beforehand. You're so right, it is so invigorating. I used to look forward to sauna and ice cold showers at the end of the day.
Awesome video as always !
I grew up in a forest area in a house but now i live in a big city 10 thousand kilometers from home in the apartment and when I watch your videos I always get the feeling of nostalgia !
Keep it up, love your content man!
I loved this video. It was more than just seeing how you handle those necessary things. It was a life lesson about resilience.
Kalle, as a temporary solution you could get an old bath tub and turn it into an outdoor fire heated bath - what they call here a "poor man's hot tub"😄 you could use snow for water, which you have plenty😄 I think Kristine would really appreciate a hot bath 😄
Hi! I have a tip to you regarding washing clothes. First of all, I'm not paid for advertising or anything like that,
I just wanna share my experience. I live full time aboard a 31 foot sailboat in Norway, I have a washing machine made for cabins, the one I use is named Daytona Duo, but there is a lot of similar looking machines. It uses around 15 liters of hot water for the washing, and 15 liters cold water to get rid of the soap, I paid 1800 Norwegian Kroners for it in 2020
In the winter, I heat water either on the wood stove or by using a diesel heater that heats water that circulate in the hot water tank (needs about 0,7 liter diesel to heat enough water), the small hot water tank (30 liters, made for boats) also has a 750 watt electric connection that I use during summertime, then my solar panels provide enough power to heat the water.
The washing machine itself uses only 2-300 watt 230 volt that I take from the batteries charged by solar.
Thanks for making very encouraging and motivating videos for people that have found the joy of living off grid, keep up the good work!
For the laundry, you need something like a wooden baseball/cricket bat so your hands are not in the cold water! You can use it like a paddle to turn and squash the wet clothes and clean them…
Check out Amish videos on how they wash their clothes, some of the communities do not believe in electricity or modern appliances. They make and sell a nice but rather expensive washing machine:
ua-cam.com/video/ne0otNxjOTs/v-deo.html
A wooden washing dolly would be perfect.
Wow!! That is some rough living. The fresh spring water is a real plus. Very healthy living water.
Your so right “the feeling afterwards!”
the word is humility my friend. its like gold in this life right now.
I think your lifestyle and energy are incredible. I hope you achieve all your goals for your home. Congratulations! Many moons of happiness to you and yours!
I grew up in India. We had no running water either, but we had a pump or carried it from a spring as well. Because privacy was an issue my dad built a tiny shed with a concrete floor and a drain and we took bucket baths there. Dump some water over ourselves with a mug, soap up, rinse off and done. We did dishes the same way, carried the water to the sink that then drained out into the yard. We also had an outhouse.
Sauna and the bathroom would be definitely my priority above all the rest. Have a nice day !
When we lived like you guys, we had a conposting toilet too. But not this fancy 😅 my hubby made up a nice wood structure to cover a bucket and we had a toilet seat , that was the only luxury of it .
We mixed it with sawdust and composted it on our fields. I loved it tho, and mostly the fact , that we didnt have to use hundreds of liters of water just for flushing the toilet. Which is insane i think.
Glad you have this opportunity doing laundry and taking a shower in Christine’s parents summer house 💛
Going from a cold shower outside into a warm and toasty cabin is like reverse sauna. 😄
Kalle, your skills in videography and narration have just grown and grown and grown! Bravo!
Sauna stove would be my priority number one! lol
I've lived lie this for almost two years,so happy when i got away from that. Washing clothes was hard,but we had a gas stove outside to heat water in a big old metal tub. Then hang the clothes up to dry,best smell ever! We did have to bring the clothes in sometimes to dry above the fire.outhouse was full of holes but we managed,didn't take many bathes.
I've been in this small cabin for thirty-one years now. I have a sink with a cold water tap (water piped from the creek) but no bathroom or indoor toilet. So an outhouse (I use a piece of styrofoam for a toilet seat so when it's freezing cold the toilet seat isn't) down a forest path from the cabin. I wash clothes out in my yard spring, summer and fall. Winter clothes washing is done in town (65 miles down the road) and I am fortunate enough to live near a hot springs where I clean up once a week or so. Cabin life works for me and I know this cabin is more convenient and life is easier than my younger years when I lived in teepees and shacks.
Back when my late husband and i lived a similar lifestyle we had an old bathtub in the corner of our cabin, which drained outdoors, directly under the cabin and then on down the hill. We rigged up a "SunShower" (a heavy-duty plastic bag with a hose at the bottom with a sprinkler head and a closeable clamp on it.) We filled it with warm water, then pulled it up overhead via a pulley system, knelt in the tub and took our shower. It saved us from having to shower outdoors!
I needed to hear this. Doing stuff to push your boundaries. It might not feel good at the time but it always feels good after. I’m going for a walk ❤ thanks for this
My family also lives with out water, winters are the toughest. We pray God blesses us with new lifestyle always.
I totally agree with your comment about doing things that are uncomfortable and the feeling you get afterwards. I run and some days it is REALLY TOUGH MENTALLY to get up and get going, but once I am done, the feeling is priceless as you stated. Great video again!
done that.. washed, shaved, etc in the depths of a Swedish winter, getting water from a stream... these days, we have running water, after having a well drilled to 160m .. it was expensive... happy we have it now.. soon we will have showers indoors with warm water...
kalle, I lived most of my life off grid in africa, and the best solution to get water for your washing machine, and your shower is to install a wind pump, or electric, dig a sump hole for the stream water to collect in, and then pump the water into a holding tank above the ground and then draw the water with gravity, you can also buy a wachine machine that is the old fashioned type where you just need to fill it with water and it rotates on a spin, it actually cleans clothes better than the new types of machines and is more energy efficient, i also would recommend you build an underground cellar fridge for freezing your food, and keeping it cool even in summer, for saving money on electricity.
Yep Glad u enjoy this. Indoor plumbing is a wonderful thing!
Beautiful! What a wonderful life you have carved out for yourself. Your dream looks very different to my reality, and also to my dream, but I appreciate and find it inspiring all the same. Congratulations on taking the (cold) plunge to transform your life…
I’m glad you added a sink drain lol - a very memorable first date 😆
We have running water, but not for the shower, so we wash ourselves in a large basin near the stove, using a jug and a bucket full of water. Also I can never find the right water temperature! The feeling of the heat of the fire afterwards is wonderful!
You have running water in front of the house, it would be very easy to bring water to the house. The hydrophor pump and some pipes and water is in the house
11:02 Attach a metal plate to the back of your furnace/fireplace.
This will conduct heat.
To one side or the other attach a square 'boiler' or kettle.
Pour in a few buckets, and attach a detachable hose. It would be best to have the
shower on the other side of the wall, which can than also be heated for a while
by the furnace/kettle, while also providing hot water for the shower.
Alternately the furnace/fireplace's exhaust can be lead through a boiler,
using the excess heat in the exhaust for warm water, which may then be a rather large boiler.
You can easily fill it using an attachable hose straight from the spring.
After filling, detach and empty and store to prevent breaking through freezing.
Warm water is very nice, especially it doesn't cost anything more than exhaust heat.
It's a bit of welding and work, but it's so worth it.
A snall pump wil cost you like $50, but when solar powered can work for an hour
for almost nothing and keep the workload low, while filling the boiler.
We grew up with practical parents. A wood fire heated water in a suspended drum which gave us hot water for sink/shower and bath. An Aga heated another drum and allowed dishes to be done. 1960's in South Africa.
I too live without water. I use a bedside commode. I leave it in the bathroom. I heat water up in a big stew pot to take a bath. I wash my body first, then my hair. I use less water this way. When I rinse my hair, my body is rinsing at the same time. I use a wash cloth with baby soap. It rinses easier. I do all of this while standing in the tub. If I need to wash my hands, I do the dishes. I rinse everything very well. It's amazing how grateful a person can become.
I wish you a long and happy life! 🖖
I admire you guys and all others who has got opportunity to live like this beautiful places . Maybe these places are the cleanest part of the Earth. I am happy for You! 👋
Wife and I live similarly here in Northern AZ.
Our kitchen is currently outside, so that's where dishes are done.
Toilet is a Porta pot we dump into an RV portable tank. We take it to a dump station every few weeks.
Showers are normally outside. Right now we are not quite as hardy, so this time of year ours are fewer in frequency.
Will have more modern facilities as time goes on. We are living in a pop up tent camper, will be building a tiny home beginning this Spring.
Tabo and a bucket can do pretty amazing things. I reside in the Philippines where I get to deal with warmer conditions. The tabo is very useful
Hello, and thank you for the wonderful video! I too, have no modern plumbing, or septic system , since 2008, I have a bucket, and use wood shavings for toilet, and I heat water to wash myself, I thank God for everything I have! He is so good, and I feel that I have so much to be thankful for! Jill from Baudette Minnesota, USA
Hey, I'm glad I'm not the only one that talks about my system for disposing of waste (living on a boat) as though it's like watering the lawn. But I heard of a system that sounds really great to me. Basically you put a barrel in the ground with holes in the side, and then you put the outhouse over it. Then every time you go No. 2, you sprinkle lime over it. My friend said he did it for years. There were never any flies in the summertime, and one time he emptied out the barrel just out of curiosity, and it was just filled with dirt. Have you heard of that?
When I was a child I went to a preserve type place with my grandmother. Maybe it was @ 1970. We were walking around a trail, and came across an old house. Well the house had no windows or doors or roof, just the walls. We went inside and my grandmother was kind of amazed as on the back wall of the house was a little dug out trench, that she realized the original home owners had diverted a little bit of the creek to run through this little cemented in trench that ran along the back wall of the house (inside the house) and she said this was to keep their meats and dairy items cold. My grandmother said when she was young she knew a woman who said they had such a type of thing in her home when she was growing up. My mom grew up on farms and her family was very poor. They had at times a root cellar and packed ice in saw dust and at other times she said they wrapped things up and dropped them down the well outside - the hand cranked well - the type with a bucket thrown over a wench type well. In the 1960's her parents still had a hand pump well, and an outhouse. They did have electricity and gas heat, but no running water or indoor plumbing. Not till 1969..........not such fun times. I forgot why I started to tell you this. ha ha ha, getting old is great. Perhaps you can look up videos, on how people diverted water from their creeks into their houses and or to storage tanks. These have been around since the late 1700's actually - check out ram pumps, they can even pump water up a hill very efficiently - and they work on the water flowing into them from the creek so no electricity is needed:
worldwaterreserve.com/pumping-water-from-a-river/
ua-cam.com/video/O1xrnsszLfg/v-deo.html
I can't find the video, but I watched one where the young couple had a mountain spring than ran all year long. They build a box around a part of this spring, and put in a pipe with a filter that when the box got to a certain level of fullness the water would flow over the pipe with the filter and flow down hill to their property. The purpose of the box was to catch sediment in the bottom of the box and only the water that reached the pipe they were using would be water and not water and silt and twigs etc. They said they had to clean out the silt once a year. But ram jets may be worth looking into - research it. I've seen people divert water quite a long way up hill to their dwellings.
We have a washing machine inside the smaller house but now it's -11C for couple of days and washing machine has frozen and does not drain water :) Some good insulation is a must and it's in my todo list for the warm season
Years ago when I was a child we got water from a well or outside pump.We took sponge bathe in a pan of heated water on the stove We would also have a galvanized tub that you could sit in and take a bath and wash you're hair
I'm off grid as well with my family. We do a lot of similar things except when it comes to water. We collect our rainwater into 1000l tanks and 200l barrels. We treat it with bleach, then filter it.
For our showers, we use a small pump to send it through an on demand water heater. Even when the water is freezing, it gets more than hot enough.
With 4 people, dirty clothes are a major issue. We use a smaller "apartment" washer, and now, a dryer. It uses about 60l a load, and can do nearly a normal load. Since we also have a small creek, water for that isn't an issue during the hot months.
Wife and I love this life, kids are split on it. We're now on our 5th year like this, and are constantly improving life for ourselves.
living in England l suspose we can not imagen your daily live routine , people here when they go on camping holidays its a must to have electic hook up plus so many extra pleasurable things.....l suspose we have become a soft life world .....your water must taste amazing even your routine to wash clothes etc etc seems so much more purpose full , many thanks for your videos ....take care to both of you
My friend, I really appreciate the lifestyle that you are trying to have.
I can honestly tell you that you will find solutions for all your challenges and not-that-pleasant stuff after living for 1 week in Romania's countryside, where I lived for more than half of my life. And yes, with no running water and outside toilet.
What I can tell you though as a very serious warning is that you will not be able to live there for long if you won't start making use of the environment.
Make a habit of gathering dry old wood on a daily basis (which is also a way to move and do a bit of physical work with massive benefits for your physical and mental state) and build a kitchener in which you can burn the wood to heat water in a cauldron and also heat up the cabin as well (and bonus humidify the place!)
Good luck and never stop gathering wood.
I totally get what you mean when you say freezing.
I am from Iowa and we get some of the worst winters. I’m talking -23C/-10F on average and on occasion, due to wind, we can see coldsnaps anywhere from -34C to -54C/-30F to -60F.
Nothing you would want to go outside in, let alone to take a shower.
Most purest and sweetest water 🌊
Watching this video (along with other videos about water filtering and purification methods) really calmed my anxiety down, due to the recent events of what happened in East Palestine, OH.
Wow, you're amazing. I think I would take sponge baths inside. If I went outside I would wear flip-flops, Crocs, or some kind of rubber shoe. For doing small amounts of laundry, I would use a large Ziploc bag ( doing you have them in your country?) Add garment(s) and a little soap and water to bag then "zip" closed and squish it around. Empty bag into bucket, rinse if necessary, empty again into bucket, dump bucket outside, squeeze excess water from clothes and hang to dry.. It's how to do laundry at camp and works great.
maybe you need to build a shower 'tray' in the floor of your coming sauna. that way you can warm up in the sauna while you heat your water, then take a shower inside the sauna. to spray your water you could look at a hand pump sprayer solution. no batteries required. you really are a blessed man to have this lifestyle. you got a new sub today. :)
Thank you for a beautifully thoughtful video. It’s so lovely you have found your “forever home” and are carefully building it into your dream home. Thank you for sharing 🙏
When we built out house, we didn't have running water. We had 5 small kids at that time, and the "toilet" was a 5 gallon bucket with a removable seat. I hauled that bucket out of the house every day. And there was no way I was going outside to do my business! Glad I don't have to do that anymore, but you find a way.
My family used to have a big old school house with no running water. For washing we had 2 rain barrels, we took baths in the kitchen next to the wood cook stove in a round was tub We used maybe 4 gallons ,we washed our hair first, we had a bucket we kept on the wood stove with a ladle to add to rhe cold if we wanted it warner ,If I were you I might consider using a small stock t tank or wash tub in your sauna . They could be placed under a bench or hung up ,. If you have a woodstove in there you could heat your water on the stove one bucket for hot one bucket for cold to make it warm.. Then no need to freeze every time.
I put an under bed plastic bin in my bathtub. I fill an empty gallon jug with the not just right temperature water. I drilled lots of little holes in the lid and pour a little over me, soap up, and pour the rest to rinse. Then I pour the plastic bin into a refuse bucket to dump where it can be filtered. I only shower outside in the summer.
I lived without running water in Ghana for months. I would carry about 120 litres a day up 5 flights of stairs on my head. I got really fit, really fast. We had a very, very large bucket (about 300 ltrs I think) in our apartment which I used for everything EXCEPT drinking. I took bucket showers as well, and found it is not so much the amount of water that washes you clean, so much as the pressure of the water. I would sometimes snip small holes in the 500 ml sachets Ghanaians use for drinking water, and wash myself down with those. It was really effective. Of course, not being in subzero temperatures made a lot of difference. Good luck, it isn't easy 😊
Have you ever considered the hand washing machine alternative? they are very easy to use, non electric for most and work well. We used to use when camping for long periods of time. You can control the amount of water you use too. Love the lifestyle, but I would need a bathroom and an indoor shower...😄🥶
I don’t know how you do it! But you get it done! Kudos 🎉