# Cabin in the boonies



## Tool (Oct 10, 2008)

My wife and I are in the process of building a cabin in the boonies. We have a regular house in town where we stay with our kids. We plan on stocking up this cabin over time in case of emergency and then after the kids are grown, we will move out there and develop our homestead there. 

So that leads me to my question, how can I keep my cabin and belongings safe when I am not there to watch it and there are no near by neighbors to keep an out for me and report suspicious activity?


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## Bearman405 (Oct 9, 2008)

Is it on private or public land?.....................when I builded my trapper/prospecting cabin it was on public land (Crown Land here). I picked a spot out of the way and build it in such away that it was hidden from view.

No guantrees that a good bush man won't find it.


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## Lowdown3 (Oct 28, 2008)

Best bet would be to bury supplies and/or put in hidden areas of the cabin. 

For a bulk of supplies consider a 20 or 40 sealand container. 

Or find a local storage rental center near the location to rent. Put some of your bulk supplies there. When the time comes your much closer to make a couple trips to retrieve your goods. 

At least the bulk of it is out of the cities and away from potential trouble. That's the important part. 

Lowdown3


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

Bearman405 said:


> Is it on private or public land?.....................when I builded my trapper/prospecting cabin it was on public land (Crown Land here). I picked a spot out of the way and build it in such away that it was hidden from view.
> 
> No guantrees that a good bush man won't find it.


You built a cabin on public land? That's legal in BC? How long can you legally stay in it? Here in Texas I think it's illegal to build anything on public land, let alone live there.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Crown land is "open" to all. I have half-a-dozen cabins that I X-country ski into. Summer supplies the cabins with whatever is needed including firewood, papers, toiletries and such. Winter-time is spent exercising - ski into each cabin and check on it.

Most of the cabins are "shared" with friends - we work together on the up-keep and stocking of the shelves. Because of the nature of the cabins, unless you are a skier and can follow the tracks, they are safe year-around.

The only rule that I know of - you cannot lock the cabins, you cannot insure the cabins - in essence, they become "public" property.


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## Fiddich (Nov 10, 2008)

I have a cabin in the woods that is used constantly. No idea who but when it was built, there was a sign posted on it that you are welcome to use it but please help out if you have something useful that is not expensive, leave it here for others to use.

This will NOT be a place I go in times of trouble as there are any number of people who know about the place and consider it Theirs. Easy to prove who built it as there are photos of the construction.

As was said before, kepp your stuff OUT of the cabin. Hidden REALLY well.


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## BigDaddyO (Nov 11, 2008)

Good luck trying to secure the place. a friend of the family had a cabin on 20 acres. I believe it was a 1200 sf house that he had built about 20 years ago. he used to spend 1 - 2 weekends a month out there. earlier this year someone broke into the house and stole EVERYTHING. i'm talking wires, pipes, Windows, Doors, Carpet, appliances, EVERYTHING... the price of scrap and salvage materials have gone up and thieves will take anything even if it's nailed down now a days.


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## chesterburrito (Nov 11, 2008)

Have a large population of dogs around the house that you have someone feed...


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## alig33 (Feb 22, 2009)

You could consider burrying large safes around the area and marking them with GPS


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## Expeditioner (Jan 6, 2009)

alig33 said:


> You could consider burrying large safes around the area and marking them with GPS


The smaller gun safes work pretty good too!


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## alig33 (Feb 22, 2009)

well you couldnt fit much in them


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## Expeditioner (Jan 6, 2009)

alig33 said:


> well you couldnt fit much in them


True though the idea is to not put all of your eggs in one basket and they are easier to conceal.


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## dukman (Mar 1, 2009)

alig33 said:


> You could consider burrying large safes around the area and marking them with GPS


Safes?? Why go thru the expense of getting safes? Also they are harder to seal up tight. If they end up finding your safe, they would take it too. Might as well save the money and use 5g buckets. At least they couldn't use a metal detector to find them. In fact, metal caches near a cabin is a bad idea. Some "treasure hunters" go all around older cabins they find or hear about with a metal detector.

If you want to make a nice fire pit, bury your caches about a foot under the bricks lining the pit. If anyone for some dumb reason wanted to take the bricks, they wouldn't think of digging deeper.

If you have the time, lets say over a summer, you can build an underground bomb shelter style cache. Use the techniques of a dug out emergency shelter, with better building techniques such as more protection from rain soaking into the ground. Maybe even cement walls and floor, not too deep, all you need is about 4' walls. You don't need a fire pit and vent. Cover the top with heavy duty wood, with vapor barrier above. Add a well concealed door, plant bushes around it, maybe even a full on evergreen garden with beauty bark. You could even cover the door with a foot of soil as long as you remember where it is... In the event that you actually have to USE your retreat in SHTF, this would still be a very useful place as a cellar.


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## endurance (Nov 26, 2008)

One idea is a shipping container. They can be well secured and even better if you can bury it (depending on you water table). Gang boxes (worksite tool boxes) are also valuable for storing a sizable quantity of material. If you want to work around metal detectors, you need to buy a 50 pound box of carpet tacks or ungalvanized washers. Every time you go to your cabin, walk 50' in any direction and start throwing handfuls of them. Anyone with a metal detector will quickly lose interest after the 400th false find.


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## TimB (Nov 11, 2008)

I wouldn't consider leaving anything of value inside a remote cabin. I wouldn't even lock it. My dads neighbor was in a hunting club some years back. The members got together and built a cabin, furnished it, and stocked it with everything they would need for a weekend or week-long hunting trip. Everything was fine for the first couple of years until someone found the cabin. At first they would break in and steal food and ammunition. When the members stopped leaving food and ammo there, they stole the blankets, pillows, pots, pans, dishes, even the flatware.  After that, they didn't leave anything or even bother locking the doors, thinking if they left it open at least they wouldn't have to replace a window or door hinges. Wrong. It must have upset whoever was cleaning them out- they burned the cabin to the ground.  Sad to say but even if you had a shipping container securely locked up, someone would go to the trouble of carrying a torch out there and cut the lock off.  As was suggested, I would cache my BO goods in several different spots and just carry what I needed for the weekend or week with me each time I went.

Tim


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## mona (Feb 28, 2009)

Get yourself a large water storage tank and bury it. Use it to store your goods that you would use. You could buy one large or several small ones. Nothing is full proof, you can only do what you can.


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## Expeditioner (Jan 6, 2009)

There are a lot of ideas out there and some are more viable than others, depending on individual circumstances, where you are located, and the type of security issue you are facing. 

Worried about "run of the mill" criminals, a safe might be the way to go. Worried about organized militia searching for your cache then polymer based containers might be a viable option.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

one way to make sure nobody casually digs up your cache is to mix up the clay/soil with water to have a semi-solid clay covering everything, then have a small bonfire/campire on it to harden it... you will definitely need to bring excavating tools to get your stuff though...


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## Skeeter (Nov 7, 2009)

Pretty sure most every one knows this,BUT, You can buy (insert diameter)" pvc pipe. Glue threaded ends on it. Put dessicant in it and store whatever you need to for great lengths of time. Totally buried= invisible. Partially buried vertically= access to the septic system.


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## sailaway (Mar 12, 2009)

Skeeter said:


> Pretty sure most every one knows this,BUT, You can buy (insert diameter)" pvc pipe. Glue threaded ends on it. Put dessicant in it and store whatever you need to for great lengths of time. Totally buried= invisible. Partially buried vertically= access to the septic system.


This is exactly what I have done with some stuff. I also like the idea of storing the bulk of stuff in a rental locker near by. I would definately keep the cabin near empty unless you knew for sure it was secure.


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## almac (Aug 25, 2009)

if i did something on crown land, i'd buy a cargo container, and build a small portable shelter in that.
they are weatherproof, durable, and quite securable.

YouTube - BATTLEBOXcivilian = Shows Way for Military Uses dynmicpara


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## gmdgarcia (Jul 6, 2010)

*Leasing land from the Gov't to build a Cabin*

Has anyone tried leasing crown land to build a cabin? (in BC)


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## Grizz (Jan 24, 2010)

At our family cabin, we only have stuff that we are going to have stolen, The bottom line is don't stock it up and store large amounts of anything there until you reside there. People will go to any means to take anything. Luckily we have never had any break in other than critters. We do stock it up come the first of summer and take stuff up as we need it. Come time to close it up we leave enough food ( I hope they like pancakes) to last a couple of weeks incase some one gets stranded in the high country. Hopefully they can survive. If they need to, just break in to the next cabin. As far as every thing else, dishes, linens, etc... we just leave it there. If we arrived and found everything missing, well they got us and off to the thrift store and start stocking up again. When the wife and i retire in a few years we plan on spending some serious time there. I would like to spend at least 1 winter in there.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

gmdgarcia said:


> Has anyone tried leasing crown land to build a cabin? (in BC)


If you would like to build a "permanent residence" on crown-land you must have permits in place to do so, have insurance on the leased portion of the land, etc.

If you are looking to build a "temporary shelter" there is no need to lease-out the land.

A temporary shelter can be a tent, a shed, a cabin that is not locked and that anyone can use, if they can find it. You cannot insure the temporary shelter against fire, theft, loss-of-use - anything. It belongs to the "crown" after construction.

In order to lease-out the crown-land for personal or business use (farm, ranch, forestry, trapping-line, oil-n-gas, etc), you have to bring a proposal to the local government first and they can direct you to the right departments to contact in order to get everything approved.

Personally - I work with Alpine-clubs to build the cabins and make them public-access, even though we put them so far into the bush that unless someone knows they are there, they wouldn't be found easily by an average hiker.


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## Sage (Nov 6, 2008)

A friend has a cabin that has been broken into in the past. They stole most everything in the cupboards, food and utinsils, etc. The interior of the cabin walls are made of plywood, so this is what he did.

He removed the plywood off of a bedroom wall and installed 2x6s instead of 2x4s. He then installed shelving and hooks for hanging pots and pans. The plywood wall now hangs on small, un-noticable wood pegs. A small shelf of books and a couple of coat hooks help the disguise.

Now stocked with can goods and utinsils, even if he is ripped off again, he can cook and eat!


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## nevada (Aug 12, 2010)

new here with a comment on beating metal detectors,cheap m.d.'s can only go a few inches down and good ones at best 24" on small stuff.if you want to bury stuff go deep and then put rusting /decomposed metal on top,it creates a halo effect that most experianced m.d. people wont bother with when they get into it and bury small bits of steel (washers,ect.) all over property making it so trashy that its a waste of time to dig there


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## james_black (Sep 29, 2009)

Lowdown3 said:


> Best bet would be to bury supplies and/or put in hidden areas of the cabin.
> 
> For a bulk of supplies consider a 20 or 40 sealand container.
> 
> ...


*This might help. *
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*OR*






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## rflood (Aug 19, 2010)

Hey almac, thanks for posting that video. Looks like a pretty simple, low footprint type structure they put together. Chances are its more than what I imagine it to be though as far as complexity. Something to think about though.


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