"Crazy" dude in Vermont who is self sufficient. Builds wicked cool stuff.

[Alex Free Market]

Okay, so I figured some of you guys might find things guy interesting.  He has a YouTube channel, and a web site... and quite a following on top of it, because he's one of those real whacky but charismatic guys. 

What I find most impressive is this guys work ethic.   If you watch many of his videos... you'll see what I mean.  He is super duper persistant... he manually labors with hand tools and ingenuity like using camsand come-alongs and such... no need for bulldozers or bob cats... be built a whole 1/2mile long driveway with a pick axe and simply hard labor for weeks... he practically does all the hard labor himself, only occasionally clling friends to help .. he never calls contractors, thus saving money.  If he is missing a door hinge, he'll be like... "You know what... I could go to town toget one... or... I could make one right now in 5 minutes..." and so he just puts ingenuity into everything he does, saving money and relying on himself... not having to go to the store for every littlepiece thats needed for a job.


His YouTube Name is JMEMantzel and this is his page:   http://www.youtube.com/user/JMEMantzel

He also has a website with additional stuff not on his YouTube page, like pictures ofhim building his very unique dome house (which he shows in a lot of his videos):  http://www.jamius.com/

I'll summarize all his videos:  He buils all kinds of weird things, some you may find interesting, somenot so much... but you guys may find the dome house and cabins he builds (from scratch... no kits... he cuts the logs himself..), and he is really into self sufficiency and living off the grid.   

He's not what you'd call a master carpenter... his stuff isn't real pretty looking... but its the fact that he does it by literally building things from scratch, low cost, little dependence on other in some cases... hardly buying anything at the store.  He even built his own lumber mill machine from basically a bunch of junk... so he doesn't have top buy lumber.. then he uses that to build stuff on his property. 


This is the house frame he built: 





Again, yeah.. maybe not the prettiest home dome, and it really doesn't have but rudiemntary plumbing or electrical in it... but its on his 30'ish acres of land, and he loves it, and it does what he wants it to do... so thats what counts.  He inspired me to want to build a dome home.


Some videos of him showing his dome house off.  Again, kind of credue building technique... but at the same time... kind of cool, and very low cast for the budget conscious:

Dome video 1: An overall tour

Dome video 2: An overall tour (part (2)
His third floor is a trampoline floor.   Sweeet!

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Then if you want to see some details of how he handles the water, electricity, heating, etc...


Dome video 3: Water Facilities in his Dome

Dome video 4: Electric systemsin the dome (solar power)

Dome video 5: Heating Systems

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Also check out the 8 part series for the small cabin in Alaska he made for a friend.   

It's small... but very cool.... he cut and trimmed the wood for the walls and frame himself from the property with only minimal lumber from Home Depot.  Good way to do things "on the cheap" if you are willing to put in the effort to have a place to call your own, without having a lot of money to spend.

You can skip the first two parts which are just him doing preliminary work, and go to part three which is where he really gets started on the project:

Part 3:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyxSSFirPQM

[AntonLee]

it's sad that people call him a crazy guy instead of looking up to him for doing everything for himself.  To each his own, but I think the guy rocks!  Thanks Alex for posting this, fantastic stuff to watch!

[Alex Free Market]

it's sad that people call him a crazy guy instead of looking up to him for doing everything for himself.  To each his own, but I think the guy rocks!  Thanks Alex for posting this, fantastic stuff to watch!

Heh... speaking of... he kind of addressed that whole "crazy" thing in one of his videos.   I think he occasionally gets mail or comments from people who ask him, "why don't you live like a supposedly normal person, to which his response is:   (to which I wholheartedly agree)

Jamie on the topic of independence: (very short and to the point)

Summarizing... he says crazy is the millions of people who are reliant on 'the grid' and who are so dependenant that as soon as a major snowstorm hits, knocking everyones power out... people are in a state of panic.  Meanwhile, he's sitting all nice and tosty in his dome hose, playing video games, basking in the sun... no panic for him.

Incidentally, I put crazy in quotes because I meant that in a good way, as in he won't conform to the norm, because 'the norm' can sometimes be bullshit.... but yea, sadly I think a lot of people actually do think that he is crazy in a literal sense.

In fact, my parents are one of those people.  When I told them I wanted to live "off the grid" in a solar powered cabin.... they were not receptive to that idea in the least.   

[Puke]

Crazy seems pretty apt. 

Eccentric for sure, but he certainly has a unique life.

All the same his dome is pretty neat.

[Toadstool]

dome....
he lives in one.
sweet.
time for me to hang out with a COOL dude...
time to make a few emails...

I digg et.

[Pat McCotter]

He also built some simple low powered gizmo that he says is good for if you live in a really hot state, it'll cool the house down a bit.  http://www.thefieldlab.org/fun.html

Yep, a swamp cooler. Only good in low humidity areas. Evaporation of the water removes heat from the air. They are a dream where they are viable.

[Scott Roth]

Yep.  Just like Scott & Helen Nearing did back in the 30's and 40's.

[Lloyd Danforth]

No!  You got it wrong.  They just went out and hung around the swamp!

[Lloyd Danforth]

Well, I didn't want to make this its own thread.... I think we need a 'pinned' thread with links people find (can you even 'pin' threads on this forum software?), but anyway.... I stumbled upon this link to a web site on self sufficiency.

http://www.thefieldlab.org/   (click on various links at top of page.)

It's to a place called The Field Lab out in Texas.  Not a ton of info on the site, but it is worth a looksy.  It's the story of a guy who wanted to get away from it all, and so he went and lived off the grid, and shows how he handles different things like how he gets his water and electricity, what he does with his sewage, etc...

He also built some simple low powered gizmo that he says is good for if you live in a really hot state, it'll cool the house down a bit.  http://www.thefieldlab.org/fun.html

It's in the right place. Self sufficiency!

[J’raxis 270145]

This guy needs to meet Rik from Henniker.