Chronological Order

On these pages I, the Pithole Hermit, will document my adventures in developing a 3 acre lot near Pithole Pennsylvania.  I just completed purchase of the land today.  It is mostly wooded with a small clearing.  A 12 x 16 shed is already on the property and I plan on converting this to a cabin.  There is a 100 foot well with an electric pump, but not electricity to the site.  No sewage or other utilities.  I am starting with a 3500W generator, which I will set up tomorrow.  That is all for now.  Here are a few pictures of the site.  

Well, my plan to setup the generator was put on hold. After opening the box I found a motor mount was broken.  So now I have to return it and get another.  But I did do a short walk-through video of the property.  

Contacted the generator manufacturer All Power America, and they are shipping the part. Plus, the company selling it is refunding $100. Will soon be up and running.

Hey you kids, get off my land!  Just kidding.  I’m an old hermit but not yet a grouchy old hermit.  But I am well armed and former military so it is best not to sneak up on me.

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I was off a few days for a medical problem.  Will be back out at the land tomorrow.

Please ignore the photos of the windows below.  I have found some double pane, single hung new windows at 84 Lumber at a great price.  One 3 by 3, two 3 by 2’s and one 2 by 2 for $55, $47 and $38 respectively.  With the veterans discount I got them all, with screens, for under $200.  Similar single pane windows would have been over $300 elsewhere.  More pictures to come.  I plan on making a greenhouse/hotbed with the old windows.

The generator is up and running

And these are my new windows

The Pithole Paradise is starting to look lived in.

After nearly fifty years the old canvas tent finally ripped.  A lot of memories camping with my dad.  I got a new nylon tent.  Bet it won’t last fifty years.

While wandering my land I discovered the combination of moist soil and shady trees is perfect for mushrooms.  I am not very good at identifying mushrooms but there are some I know well.  Here is a Cauliflower Mushroom I found this morning.  It is edible, and some say very good, but it is just too ugly for me to try eating it.

I know.  I’m slow.  I can’t seem to handle the heat well so I have mainly been exploring and tenting.  When the temperature drops soon I’ll do more cabin work.

Okay.  Time to cover what Pithole is. Originally Pithole was just a creek near the Holmden farm in Venango County Pennsylvania. The name supposedly came from some sulfur smelling holes along the creek.  The holes or cracks probably also leaked natural gas into the air since some unconfirmed stories say people get sick or die near the holes.  These holes do exist but it is not certain they are the source of the name.  Another possibility is pits dug by native Indians, even predating the later Senecas, in order to obtain oil for medicine and rituals. Things began to change with the drilling of Drake Well along nearby Oil Creek in 1859. In January 1865 oil was struck in the Pithole area.  A town soon sprung up on the location of the Holmden farm and by the end of the year Pithole City had nearly 20,000 people. By 1868, after the oil flow slowed and many fires burned, Pithole City became a ghost town. Today a museum is located on the site and signs mark the location of previous streets and buildings.  The museum is run by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and Drake Well Museum (Pithole.com and the Pithole Hermit are not affiliated with the commission or any state entity). No buildings are left, but when I was a kid 3rd street hill was great for sled riding.  Probably not allowed anymore.  I don’t know. Anyway, site of old Pithole City is about 1.5 miles from my land.  Pithole is the largest of many oil boom ghost towns dotting the hills of NW PA.  The town of Redhot was less than a mile from my location. Two good springs are nearby.  Hengstler’s Spring on Pithole Rd and a unnamed spring on Pike Rd. Pithole on wikipedia Pithole Museum link And yes, there’s still oil in them thar hills.  Ancient remains of an old pumphouse is in the woods on the edge of my land.  And a much newer producing gas well is just down the road.

Several improvement.  First off.  The well is working. I tried it many times and it only would drag the generator down.  Then my dad came out and I went to show him how it didn’t work.  Sure enough.  It worked.

Still runs a little red but I think that will clear up.  It hasn’t run for almost five years.   I also got a compressor to run my brad gun. Plus a propane lantern and camp shower

I finally removed the windows, caulked the seems and fastened them down permanently.  I think I might have overdone the caulking.

Still some framing to do on the inside but I can do that with the windows in.

And finally.  The last window (for now) is installed.  I’m not yet sure which side I am putting the smallest one.

I used two cans of foam insulation and sealed any unwanted daylight leaking through.  Bugs, mice, moths and spiders have tried to make this their home.  Now that I’ve sealed it I also set off a bug bomb to get any stragglers.  Of course I believe this will keep them out.  There’s just no way they can find a way around it.

With all due respect to DuPont Tyvek I have gone with Prime Wrap for 1/3 the price. Also got lots of insulating board from my Uncle Bob.

Taking some time off while my daughter is back home visiting from Chicago.  Got to spend today target shooting with her.  We practiced with her Ruger .380 LCP and Kahr 9mm.  She also shot her bows and the Marlin .22.  I sighted in my 30-06.  Beautiful day at Pithole Paradise.

I removed the shelves. The OSB was in bad shape. But the yards of 1 x 4s and 2 x 4s will come in handy.

These deer sure didn’t care I was there.  And archery season opens Saturday.

With the Autumn rains here I put up a tarp for temporary storage. And covered my building materials.

Just saw a huge coyote on the road outside my camp.  Couldn’t get a picture.  I’ll be sure to keep my camera ready for the next time.

Rain quit long enough to do some cabin wrapping.

Started installing insulation and the first panel of drywall.

One corner and floor panels in.  Floor panels not yet secured.

Update: really fast delivery.  Here’s the real thing. I decided to go with a tiny wood stove instead of propane.  Really get off the grid.  On order Plus I’m moving my firewall from my house.  Ceramic tiles will be reinstalled after mounting.

Since my cabin used to be a storage shed, I need storage space.  So I got a giant waterproof bin.

Okay.  Not completely.  But the floors, walls and windows are in.  A lot of finishing work but the cabin is now better than the tent.  Tonight will be my first night staying on the cabin. Also it has been raining so much that I now have a pond on my property.

Now that I’ve started setting up the cabin it has now become a hunting camp. Pretty empty now. Here’s a short video from my archery hunting location at the back of my property. The orange hat is to meet game commission requirements of 100 square inches of orange within 15 feet of an archery stand.

A new (old) door with a latch and windows.

Made some progress on the porch roof, but I need several 8 and 10 foot 2 by 4s. Also started mounting firewall tiles for the wood stove.

The chimney is mounted and the wood stove burning.  Note I used fireboard covered (mostly) with ceramic tile.

                 

Dinner time. 

I haven’t even done the mud and tape on the drywall.  But I started painting.  Autumn leaf color.  Also put up a shelf which filled up quickly.

Now that I have picked a color I can go on with mudding and taping the drywall.  Should take a few days.

I am nearly finished painting inside.  Because of the cold weather one of the ceramic tiles didn’t stick.  I’ll try again later. And finally a quick walkthru    

Piecing together a nice floor with some  green and beige carpet, stick on linoleum and some green throw rugs. And the pneumatic brad gun did a great job securing the carpet.

 

You can’t see it very well in the photo but at 11:44am Nov 19 the first real snow of the season started. 12:05pm and the ground is already covering.

It even works outside in the Allegheny Wild

Some folks call it an Adirondack Chair but I’m going to call it an Allegheny Chair.  It’s like an Adirondack only more crooked.  It’s not yet finished since I need some shorter screws for the back slats.

What are you looking at.  You never saw horses before?

This is kind of like what the porch will look like halfway.  Most boards are not attached yet. Actually only half the framing is done.  But it is solid.

Cabin all secured for Christmas.

I’m back from Chicago.  Hope everyone had a nice Christmas.  I’m spending New Years tonight in the cabin.

Finally a break in the weather so I could get the porch deck finished.  Almost.

Now that I know the old shed has tranformed into an insulated, heated cabin that can withstand the winter weather, I can officially call it a homestead.  Lot’s of things to do such as building a greenhouse and preparing to put in a garden.  Maybe even some livestock.  Chickens or rabbits most likely but not cows.  We’ll see.  The goal is turn the place into a self-sufficient homestead. But this January thaw and heavy rain has brought up another problem. I need to dig a drainage ditch.  With the amount of ground water I may actually start a spring.

The weather held out long enough to finally finish the porch deck. Next up.  The porch roof.

The very basic start of my outdoor workshop.

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Some of you may wonder how I write and post pictures “off the grid”.  I cheat. I am off the wired grid but I still have cell service and a generator.  Cell service is sporadic and I usually need to go outside to connect.  But for writing I have these.

That is an 8 inch Ellipses tablet and a tiny Bluetooth keyboard.  And behind that is a paper notebook and a couple of pens.  I can also watch downloaded episodes of Grizzly Adams on the tablet.

I had a wreck caused by dehydration causing me to black out. (syncope) I was in a parking lot so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.  I’ll cover a problem I discovered with too much pine needle tea.  I’ll cover that later.  I have done some repairs so the car is drivable. BEFORE   AFTER

It’s sure looking like an early spring.  I hope it stays. I even cooked my lunch on the porch. Nothing fancy.  Just cream of celery soup and crackers cooked on my propane heater/cooker. I even brought my car up beside the cabin.

As I get ready to sell this land I have decided to write a semi-fictional account of getting this land and what happens after as I take to the woods to live illegally on government land.  Here’s the introduction.   The Woodsman Edward D. Clark, Jr.   “Freedom’s just another name for ‘nothing left to lose’” “It ought to have been different, but oftimes you will find, That the story doesn’t always go the way you had in mind.”      -from Jeremiah Johnson   This is the story of a man who only wished to live in nature.  But he soon learned the system today is setup to prevent exactly what he wished for.  Taxes and  a myriad of Government regulation all conspire to keep people from checking out of society.  The Land of the Free has become the land of controlling every aspect of your life.  People believe they own their land.  Wrong.  They are renting it.  Just try not paying your taxes (rent) and see how much your land belongs to you.  I can hear the comments, ‘but taxes pay for your roads and other services’.  True but you can not opt out of using these services, even if you have no car or drivers license.  You are still required to pay for those services for other people.   And in most country areas the school taxes are the highest percentage of taxes paid.  I won’t go into my thoughts on school taxes.  If I could at the time I would have home schooled my daughter.  But even when you do that you still have to pay for other people’s school if you “own” your own home.  So I just lived by the rules that were lined up against me. Once my daughter had grown and moved off on her own I decided to try for my dream of living in the wild.   I bought a few acres of land.  The land already had a 12 x 16 foot shed and a well with and electric pump.  No electricity or sewage.  The cost of the land didn’t leave me much money left to build a cabin. And the township and state codes made it too costly to make very many improvements.  I focused on the 12 x 16 shed.  At a minimal cost I insulated it, installed windows, put up drywall, built a porch and put in a wood burning stove.  I’m sure I needed to get building permits and inspections but that would have put me far over the top in funds so I just ignored them, hoping nobody would notice.  I got a generator in order  to operate the well pump.  Since putting in a sewage system based on the government regulations would have cost more than all the land initially cost, and regulations said a simple  outhouse was not legal, I made a simple composting toilet.  I think it was legal except I’m sure it needed to be inspected, but I wasn’t going to give them a chance to reject it. So I sat there living on my land, probably breaking several laws just living.  And I paid my taxes to the township who could have shut down my entire operation at any moment or at least would soon raise my taxes because of the illegal improvements I made to the land. So, since you don’t actually own the land anyway, and since having the deed requires you to pay the government rent, but not having the deed means you don’t have to pay for the roads and services, I decided to try another way to check out.  As I previously stated I have had to break laws already because I’m not rich enough to pay the government graft, I figure why not just live on someone else’s land.  Not just anybody’s land.  The government’s land.  The big problem is not being found.  Blending in to the woods has been my normal state all my life.  I can do this.  And leave no trace.  Of course writing about it is an easy way to be caught.  Therefore I will not give the specifics of where I am.  At least while I am still living in the same spot. Years ago I actually planned on doing this legally.  You can camp in national forests for 2 weeks at a time as long as you move 2000 yards every 2 weeks.  So my plan was to keep moving.  But then President Obama decided he didn’t like Americans having this freedom so he limited it to only being able to stay for 30 days total a year in any and all national forests.  Sorry Woody, this land really wasn’t made for you and me.  So that shot down that idea.  So now the only choice is the not get caught. -to be continued-      

Time to prepare a garden. This year it is only about 24ft by 24ft. There are also garden boxes around the deck.

I wouldn’t count on a very good garden this first year.  The soil is pretty rocky and I couldn’t till very deep.  Plus, even though I pre-sprayed the weeds, the area was covered with Milkweed.  Milkweed is hard to get rid of.  It is already growing back.  I don’t plan on putting a lot of effort into it this year.  If it does grow I may just let the wildlife enjoy it.  By next year I hope to bring in some better top soil.  I am amazed at how many edible wild plants are available all over my land.

The interior also evolved. The composting outhouse is also developing. Not really a composting outhouse.  This basically an outhouse with a removable holding tank.  The outhouse is designed to moved forward on skids after the back panel is removed.  This allows the storage tank to be removed for composting and a new tank put in place. The storage tank is just a 55 gallon blue poly drum.  It is partially buried but can easily be pulled out. The outhouse has been built but is not in use.  I am not sure of the township and state legal requirements so I am currently using a portable camping toilet.  I hope to replace the tank on the outhouse with an incinerating toilet which I’m sure is legal and does not need inspection.  Composting toilet are also legal in Pennsylvania but most likely require inspection.  The blue tank does not even have a hole in it yet.  But it looks cool.  When I permanently move here I will take care of residence legal requirements.  At this time the cabin is actually still just a fancy shed.  

  Two curious bruins were exploring the homestead this morning. One looked in the the window and said “somebody has been sleeping in my bed”. After reviewing the video I believe what I thought were two yearling cubs was really a mother and her yearling.  The bear who stayed back in the woods appears a bit larger than the one who came to the door.

When I am staying at the house in Titusville, I tend to eat ready made food. But cheese sausage and eggs freshly cooked and enjoyed on the porch are much better.

Yesterday I had a bunch of 1 x 4s stacked to build windows frames today. Then it rained.  All night.  So I came up with this rack to dry them quick since there only seems to be one dry, sunny day.

• Today I did a little dressing up of the inside window frames on the cabin. This is what they looked like unfinished.

Although they were framed and didn’t leak they weren’t very pretty. So I made use of the 1 x 4s I had left from when I took the shelving out of the original shed. A little measuring, cutting, routing and painting and this is the result. Much nicer.

Here’s how I stay clean at the homestead. First the shower. I still use the solar camp shower.  Just fill the bag with water, lay it black side up in the sun for a couple hours, hang it up and voila.  A hot shower.  By the end of the summer I hope to have water run from the well to inside the cabin. For laundry I just use a wash basin and hang the clothes to dry. For all washing, shower, clothes and dishes, I use original biodegradable Ivory soap.  It’s 99 44/100% pure.  What the other 56/100% is I don’t know.

I finally got a small solar panel. I have just hooked it up temporarily.  I will mount everything permanent after I test for a while. The cord is run through the windows… To the controller and the battery… And on to my voltage adapters and equipment. So far it is working great.  It even charges the battery a bit more than the ac charger at the house.