Another member, and I are discussing what it takes, and the advantages of, and the drawbacks of owning a place of your choice for hunting fishing, or both.
It's not simple, from securely, to cost, to maintenance , to taxes, and cutting grass, and more.

Any thoughts, want to share experiences, ideas?

my camp is my sanctuary. i can't imagine life without it. then again, i've had it my whole life. i highly recommend it.

If I could swing it, I'd have a camp. Even if it was just a camper trailer on a small lot somewhere, I'd do it. I still hope to be able to buy some land up north, and have a place to get away to.

I highly recommend it.

It could be as simple, or ornate as one likes, start plain, and grow from there.

A place to sit down indoors, and a cot. A covered space outside with a chair. No mud. No leaks.

Maybe someone who inheritted a lot of money will show us their 4500 SF cabin - lots of pictures please .

NOWHERE in the Southeast could a person have a cabin left unsupervised for an extended period of time , it would be robbed and destroyed as soon as the locals found out about it .

Yes it would be great to be able to have a cabin ir other things but as I've said since I was in my 20's - '' scumbag people ruin everything '' .

I love our camp / I hate our camp.

To be fair it needed some work when we bought it and it took really 2 years. After that I enjoyed it for 5 years and hunted and fished from it and now I've spent this year getting it ready to sell. Mostly just stuff I've been saying I should do.

If you're still working and it will be a weekend place pick a few to go look at on a friday after work. Do you want to drive that distance? We started with 2 hours as OK but found 90 minutes was about right after a workday.

Don't make it another house with all the stuff you have at home. Slightly minimal. Wife filled the 800 square foot place with tablecloths and crap that belonged at home.

DO make it a place that is comfortable. You want to relax when you're there and not suffer.

If someone is looking for a camp in the Panhandle of WV. We'd keep it but the countdown clock to leaving MD is counting down and it's time to sell this in prep for the move.

I've enjoyed ours.

But it's allot of work, time and money. Thankfully we have an uncle that lives close that keeps up with most of the mowing.

We really enjoy using it though.






-Jake

My cabins fun , 2.4 mile 4 wheeler ride to get to it ..with 1.9 miles of that a 15% grade..lol even the walkers dont show up ...twin clay launchers a guns and ammo make for good times !

my camp is mine. i decorate it. i decide what goes in it. its rudimentary. electric, both kinds of running water, shower, schitter, real basic kitchen and woodstove for heat. no a/c, no tv other than dvd's. deer horns and squirrel tails and critter skulls for decoration. smells like mildew, its dusty and full of cobwebs. furniture was mostly gotten from peoples curbs. mice have been known to inhabit it and the occasional black snake. pavillion out back with ripped up lazy boys and a bar and dart board. its in the woods and near a river but not much property. costs me about $1500 a year to run if nothing major breaks. wife doesn't really like it and thats fine. we have our stuff we do together and she understands the need for me and camp. took a decade or so but its all good now. i think she thought i was up there chasing women until she finally realized that i go there to get the fugg away from people. heading there thursday for a few days. going to build me some new sawhorses and split firewood for next winter. this winters wood has been seasoning in the wood crib since last year. probably drink a bottle of gin and a case of homebrew while tinkering. fugg, it don't get no better than camp.

Wabigoon, ,I recall you having a place in town? That is nice too but if you have the land with a river or lake, you should build a small place of you own. I built a 24x24 cabin with a loft. It was a good size when we built it . We had 9 guys there opening day and it puttered out till it is just my son and I and now it could easily be 16x16 . I do very little work on it but it is 30 yrs old and showing some rot and pilasters are shifting. It is on a river but can't be seen form the river. It butts to public land that is rarely hunted. The taxes are 200 bucks so I likely will keep it cause it eats very little hay. I got the 7 ac. for 3K and another 3 K and the cabin was up. That is insanely cheap to have that for 6K and only have about 15K into it so it is very cheap . Now for the downside. It is 243 miles one way. I get up there less and less, only twice this year . There is little for deer and the fishing is fair at best and nothing like Ontario. The grouse , bear hunting is good , but bear tags are 8 yrs apart. The smallmouth fishing on the river is decent. Other than that is is all but worthless to have. My I hunt 4 miles from home now, see more deer, get more deer , can hop in the car , be in the stand, back out, done with a shower and back on 24 hr. in less time I could get to my cabin. I love my cabin but it has little use except to relax and catch a few bass in the summer.

40 years ago my grandparents bought a tiny cabin on a lake in north Idaho. Really nice spot.

They paid around $20-30k.

The property is now worth +1 million.

If it were to ever be for sale the new owners would no doubt level the existing 'cabin'(which is pretty nice) and rebuild an uber house.





I hear you on the scumbags. It's not terrible bad here but you couldn't leave a nice little cabin unattended without someone trying to get in.

Jake, is that a shooting house?

Why is the stove pipe turned around?

Rain?

1 hr drive from the homestead. 30 min in I cross the mountain and lose cell service. When I cross the mountain the weight of the world lifts off my back. Usually head over and mow every Sunday. Even for a few hours it recharges my batteries. No cable, no phone. DVD player, books, a hammock on the screen porch, corn hole, grill and fire pit. Wood stove for heat, no A.C. but open the windows and turn on the fan. Only place I feel stress free.

Kitchen, I built all the cabinets and tops.

Bathroom built to look like an outhouse

Loft over the two bunk rooms.

Me and the old man built it entirely. Subbed out the insulation only. Everything else done in house by us or my crews. Spent every weekend for 4 months on it.
I will make sure it stays in the family for eternity if possible.

That is super cool....

I live the gate open and half the time I forget to lock the doors.... Guess it doesnt help the demographics of the county are 5th least populated county east of the Mississippi and 99% snow white?

We bought our place in north Idaho, where Sam references but in the Cabinet's, in 2005 when we were living in Calgary and had no where to go home. My youngest and I will be there next spring chasing bears.

Ed, how often does that place go unchecked?




You might be able to get away with once a month around here, for a while.....

No pictures but mine is a simple metal building on a 40x40’ slab. Take away 15x40’ for the garage with 10’ Garage doors on either end for equipment storage and the 10x25’ covered porch on front and back and you’re left with a 20x25’ bunk room. Concrete floor, T1-11 siding for interior walls, bathroom, tankless water heater, kitchenette, bunk beds to sleep six people (though we have never had more than 4 in it), grill and fire pit and it works great for our needs. Ceilings are something like 12’ In the bunk room so it feels bigger than it is.

Only an hour from home/office so it I use it to shower after the morning hunt before heading into the office more than i actually sleep there. Its perfect for us.

It sits near the entrance to our 350 acre property. When i bought it i had visions of leisure. Reality is that the land is 8 months of maintenance for 4 months of hunting. I wouldn’t trade it for anything and love every minute of the work, but the work and expense is significant to keep the place the way i want to.

I like cabins so much I decided to live in one.....
Built it myself. I highly recommend it....

Sam,

All of my "neighbors" live there full time and some still work full time so never an issue since purchased. The guy I bought it from worked the Alaska Pipeline project as an electrician. The place is built hell for stout. Just behind where the TV sits is 7 receptacles...

A little rainbow from a couple of years ago.

I have a 1976 Jayco 18ft trailer on 4160 ac. lease for almost 30 years . the land owner sold the rights to the state so it can not be made in to a housing development . they have timber agg. hunting and owner ship of the place we are the only ones that can lease it is my cabin

Off the grid.

Looks nice.

Is that a can of sea foam on the railing?

There's nothing like your own place to get away from the rat race. It's only 25 miles or so from home and it's quiet. Completely off grid, but with generators for power, has a sauna, rifle range, etc. Plenty of room to hunt and shoot on 120 acres of land. Go there every day.

All nice!

Water

Pics or details on the sauna if you have time?
Want one at our place bad. 15° outside, hit the sauna then some drinks by the woodstove after a day of roaming the mountains.

that don't look like Texas!

So what make a cabin from a cottage, or a house?

I'll take some pics tomorrow and get some dimensions for you at the same time. It's the building closest to the right side of the garage, but there's a storage shed in front of it in the picture.

There must be over a thousand ways to go about it.

Plumbing, wiring, the whole ball of wax.

That’s Mayhill/Cloudcroft

My take on it.
A house is large and has all the comforts of home.
A cottage usually is on a lake with a lot of other close up cottages on it.
A cabin is in the woods or on a lake but by itself and is more rustic than a cottage.
A cottage is on a jetski/powerboat lake and a cabin is on a canoe/rowboat lake.

Then there is the foundation, Basement, posts, poles, blocks, footing, many ways to do it.

Had a place in middle GA for 4 years, stayed there about 15 weekends per year and a week or three during deer season. About 1500 sq ft with a 350 sq ft guest cabin. Nested in about 105 acres, never had a break in. Another friend built a place of similar dimensions about 10 miles away, been a regular visitor for 20 years now. Zero break ins.

I live in a bit of a shack....does that count?

A shack is good...

4 of us hunted from an old Airstream trailer for about 10 years. Propane stove, a 5 gal bucket shower and the outhouse made it just dandy.

We have one in the bush.

It is a lot of work and maintenance. Especially given that it is so difficult to get to, we can't just run there for a weekend to take on a project. Things have to be planned out long in advance. And when you do go, you need to be prepared to deal with whatever you might find when you get there after the cabin has been sitting empty for months.

Great escape when we can get there. My son loves it and I love taking him there. But it would be nice if it were closer.

Guess I can't show our place(s) since we earned our money...

We've owned our place in Alabama for 4 years now, just completed construction/remodeling last year. Based on the internet data logging of our security system, we've never once even had an intruder, let alone a break and enter-er...

My wife's folks had a cabin in a Forest Service lease on Eagle Lake near Susanville CA. Had it for 40 years. They would go up there every weekend in the summer and work on the cabin. Next weekend, work on the cabin. On and on, always something that "had to be done". They passed away and the grandson sold it. Good riddance.

My wife and I had 100 acres near Atlantic City WY, we had a beautiful 10 acre patch of thick aspens where we built a one-unit RV park, complete with gravel pad and sewer dump. had my own 100 yard shooting range. Had a 34 foot 5th wheel with solar for power, we just left it up there all summer, it was our cabin in the mountains, , we would bring it down in the winter so we didn't have to worry about it. Never had any breakins in 28 years, nor did any of the other people on that particular mountain. Had to sell the whole shebang this spring due to health concerns, lot of tears shed over that deal.

Anyway, I would never build a cabin, too dang much trouble keeping it up. The trailer worked just fine for us.
We have people moving in here from California and the East Coast who buy 5 acres outside of town and build a palatial 6000 square foot log home which they ostentasously call their "cabin" any time they are talking to the locals.

This has come into my life in the last few days. Going in on it with a son/brother......no blood relative but he and his family are special to me.

He just finished a Post and Beam bard doing YouTube videos as he did.
He did buy a few logs. But the milling and building he did.
Did a great job and will do two builds on the cabins on the property.

He calls it it off grid. Lol. He is 40......I’m pushing 70. I call it “going to camp”

Thinking on Ontario. He still has a job so can work maybe a week at a time.

I’ll throw and prep the logs for the cabins. He will do the fine work.

Like wabigoon said.........many ways to go. I’ll have a more complete kitchen in mine for longer stays.

Looking at what lumber we can take into Canada.......locust sills would be nice.

Lots to look at.

that would be tough to leave. a real beauty.

One of our favorite places.....

Warm and dry is what counts.

Cut grass at your cabin???


Doooood!

Just got started on construction on ours. Currently have an RV pad with electric, water, septic. Hope to pull the trailer out in early November and camp inside the cabin. 😎

I have a few I rent, from time to time. I think my deal is better than owning.

youse guys have houses - I have a cabin! . It is only a 700 mile drive and 50 mile boat trip away...

First thing I bought once I had a job fresh out of college. Priorities! Unfortunately, we "settled" a bit away. Earning a living ucks!- retired now.....


Running water (at the river), outhouse (tarped frame) , wood heat/cooking. Splurged om a propane tank for a light, also use Coleman double nmantal linterns and kerosene lamps.



shower



I have a big black bear that thinks under the front overhang is a dandy place to bed. I'm OK with that- he keeps the more destructive ones away. We have an understanding....but he gets a might put out when we are in residence....

After many doubts I bought my cabin eleven years ago. Best thing I ever did. I use it as a refuge year round.
Besides the cost of the cabin itself, I spend around twenty thousand a year in utilities, maintenance and taxes.
So it’s not a cheap date.

This is mine. I bought the land on side job money for 3k and another 3K for the cabin in July 1989, when I was 26. It has been over 30 yrs now. It isn't much but that keeps the taxes at 200 a yr. and very little maintenance. https://imgur.com/FHBJV0d

Here is mine. Its off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. I dont get to go as often as I like but it gets lots of visitors

Or dirt floor, just piss in the corner like Abraham Lincoln.

😆🤪

For us, friends, and a good neighbor is priceless. Someone keeping an eye on things when you can't.

Hunting/Fishing Cabin...Beats a tent when it’s 55 mph wind and raining like Niagra Falls in November...😎







And a shop where the real work get’s done...Like drinking. 😉

Then there's the roofing, the kettles, the pots, black mammie, you know...the hot shït.

Ok, that's bad ass.

I have imported dry, bark free lumber. Always call ahead to Canadian customs first.

That inside outhouse is clever.

I think Las wins the cabin contest so far......


Mine is a bit rustic inside but I manage........

LOL. Have you tried building him an overhang 100 feet off in the woods to hang out, while you are there? Seems like he would appreatiate that.

See “thread” on EMP! memtb

Cabins/camps/shacks. It can be a little work but it aint all bad.

This is what happens when you fail to maintain your cabin....

Here's what it looked like when we closed on it just after 9/11/2001:



It had not been occupied since 1982.

After several years of renovation, a small tornado, and a new roof, this is what it looked like:




Am I glad I did it? You bet.

I never hooked up to the county water, even though they ran a pipe down to the place in 2003. It's easier to collect rainwater in a cistern and use that. The reason is that I can shut off the water and drain it back into the cistern and never have to worry about the pipes freezing.

As soon as we can manage it, KYHillChick and I are retiring there permanently.

Kind of interesting here to notice the differences in what passes for a cabin in different parts of the country. Some of you have posted your "cabins" that are what we here in Wyoming would call a nice home. Guess maybe we are more backwoodsy than others.

Its all in your own attitude about it, I think anyway. I have to (get to) go out and mow tomorrow. Fix a couple of things and drive back home. 3 hours each way. And it will be the best #$(*& day of the whole week.

Well, I have inherited in my lifetime less than $10,000 and that was from a great aunt and at her insistence, we spent that on furnishing a house we had just purchased rather than saving and investing it.

I bought our cabin by working my a$s off over the years so that when an opportunity came up, I could make the most of it. So, I am sorry you can't help but be envious, but not everyone had their stuff handed to them.

Our cabin is in the bush. AKA the wilderness. It is a 900+ mile drive from here into northern SK and then either a 4-5 lake canoe trip in with portages or a floatplane ride into.

That is what I worry about finding every time we fly in. There was a dead tree a ways away that I wanted to cut down this year but I was short of time and the wind was blowing the wrong direction at the time. Hoping we can get to it next year.

Slumming here would be just fine. 👍🏻😉😎

I was thinking about a family member who never helped a deceased family member [4-5 years ago] until the last month of his life - then got everything . Then built Log Mansion which he & she post pictures of and tell EVERYBODY about .
I inheritted exactly $9,995 - tax purposes gift etc. , I'm not envious of anybody - just a little irritating when someone who never did anything for anybody gets it all . And I don't need anything but a few young folks [30ish] who did A LOT over the years came up empty handed .
Carry on ...

Just bought mine 1.5 years ago. Bought a 93 acre farm with a run down mobile home as "deer camp". If anyone tells you it's easy and no work, they're not telling you the truth. In the last year, I've renovated a mobile home, had bulldozer work done, rebuilt barn doors, maintain fencing, bush hog, re-installed a back door, cut firewood and maintained a yard every 2 weeks. This is for a weekend residence and while maintaining a primary residence and family.

You're starting by out right by asking questions. There's a lot to it if it include maintaining property.

I am a cabin building fool, yes that is what some acquaintances and relatives think. It's my wife's fault because she came home from a garage sale with Calvin Rutstrum's book THE WILDERNESS CABIN.

1st cabin was a 2 bedroom built with pine logs squared up at a local saw mill. Had electricity, sand point well and hand pump and outhouse.




2nd cabin was single room 12'x16' with two open lean-to. No electricity, no running water, outhouse.


Grandad enjoying the heat from the just installed Round Oak stove.

There is a lot to it. For us, totally worth it. There are some headaches but I tend to forget all of my other headaches when I'm there. And that makes it worth it.

We looked for a long time, at many properties. We bought a fantastic property at a bargain because we were knowledgeable on the market and ready to buy. We rent ours to vacationers and to a huge degree it cash flows and provides some tax benefits. Value goes up all the time.

Painful every time to leave the place but found out by accident that blowing Shambala loudly out the pickup windows helps ease it. Even the dogs howl along.

3rd cabin, electricity, spring nearby and outhouse. 16'x20' one room with 9'x16' loft.


I even have a cabin-like home on the farm.



In addition to log cabins, I built at log horse barn.

So maybe I am not a cabin fool. but I am log building fool.

We’ll be building 2 cabins. Makes life easier.

He will film them for YouTube. He is on The tradesman Channel. The Post and Beam guy. Does a good video. No BS and shows his mistakes

In my cabin I will make some concessions to strictly conventional.......SS lagbolts......infact all SS hardware that I can find.

And a screened in porch. Love sleeping outside.

South facing solar panels on a step roof to keep the batteries charged thru the winter for the LED lights.
No frozen batteries that way.

Dry well........composting toilet instead of an outhouse..........things that make life easier.

Solar hot water for outside shower........

Wood cookstove and kerosene lanterns with propane ......my cabin will have a bigger more complete kitchen. He will need the room for family in his.

And a nice kitchen will make his wife happy when I’m not there. Or when I’m there.

More study.......keeping this thread on top.

One of my favorite websites, a lot of inspiration.
Some really cool structures and lots of different ideas on what defines a cabin.
https://cabinporn.com/

The first time my wife cleaned the (dirt) floor at our cabin it was with rake and shovel.. since then I have added a wood floor.

And a plank roof with metal roofing. When I bought the place, the roof was half pole and sod, the other half visqueen. Basically I started with 4 walls up. When I put the floor in, I had to add two more rounds - probably should have gone 3, but it's high enough unless you are 6'5 or taller. Then you have to watch your head for the cross logs.


Little things count!

Great book.

Camp/cabin is nothing more than the adult version of a kids "fort".

Dad said the worst thing we did was get rid of the falling down single wide and build the new place because now the women come.

theres a lot of wisdom in that thinking. wimmens is nice but a man needs his space.

Here is our place from the front.

A side view.

jackmountain, here are the dimensions of the sauna from camp. I'll send you a PM with pictures instead of cluttering up this post with the pictures. LMK if you want more info or pics.

The sauna is approximately 14'x10' outside. Change room is 5'x10' and sauna is 8'x10'. Interior is t&g cedar. Stove is fed from the outside of the building. Exterior is T-111 siding and it has a metal roof.

Inside:

How did you do the floor in that sauna? Drain? On a slab?

Everyone needs a cabin. I like outdoor plumbing myself

If some of those are cabins, then my house must be a line shack. Here I thought all you guys were roughing it in the mountains.

I built my cabin in the North Carolina mountains. Half dovetail notches and white pine logs. All custom work I cut all the notches with big chisels and saws.




A North Carolina pine tree and a Norwegian wood stove, and Sissel singing "O Helga Naat" on the CD, you can't beat a log cabin for Christmas.

northern_dave, the floor is made of pressure treated plywood and has several drains in it.