I see that some of what I said didn’t come across the way I intended. The first part where I talked about log cabins, cloth tents, next generations, and hand-digging wells was intended as an example of one end of a spectrum of possibilities, one that I know you’ve already ruled out. But I get the impression that many of the suggestions revolve around that same line of thinking, plus most videos you’ll find of off-grid living are young people wanting to start from scratch. I meant to convey that I think you should avoid that entirely.
Wood-cutting and heating was intended to include the middle ground between the two extremes. I live in an area with dozens of lifetimes worth of free standing dead wood from a recent fire, and lots of guys with nothing else to do but make a few bucks on the weekends selling firewood. I can buy it cheaper across the street than cutting it on my own property. The same might be true where you are, but you have to look.
You don’t need to be a 35 year-old mountain man old to cut wood any more than you do to lift weights in a gym. Cut the logs to 3 feet long instead of 10. Pick up the 20 lb dumbell instead of the 50 lb one. Also, you’ll want some sort of physical activity to do as you get older. This activity can be scaled down very easily, or hired out cheap if it’s actually too much. And if you can’t manage to move a dozen pieces of firewood per day, you’re not going to be able to lift the jerry can to fuel up the skidoo, nor be able to pick up and shift one end of it over when you get stuck in that impassible snow-in.
I’ve done all these things; it’s not a matter of being youthful enough to power through any given task in 10 minutes. Take 2 hours to do it and you’ll be surprised what even an old body can do. If you believe you’ll be fit and active enough to jump on a snowmobile once a year and power yourself through 10 miles of snowdrifts that emergency services and heavy equipment can’t penetrate, then you can handle cutting a little wood. When the snow is that bad, you’ll need far more hip and back strength and flexibility to maneuver a 650-lb snow machine through numerous awkward positions than to maneuver a 2-lb hatchet.
About the camp system… No I didn’t mean take decades to set it up, I meant set it up - quick and easy in weeks - for a couple decades of use. I also see that I assumed you’d look at the photos in detail. My bad there. If you look at them all you’ll see where the units are manufactured, what their snow ratings are, etc. These units are made for Canadian winters, right now it’s -26 C where I am, and thousands of people are sleeping in them tonight quite comfortably and their sinks will work in the morning. They are better insulated and engineered than you may assume.
All you need to do is build a simple wood ramp for access; that’s something you can do yourself. I bought a pre-fab set of wood stairs for a handicap person a few years ago; $430 for custom measurements. My dad built a simple 4-foot outdoor elevator for my mother who couldn’t even fit in a wheel chair years ago using angle iron and an electric winch for under $1,500. Very simple things to accomplish.
You said you had an easy water source that you don’t need to worry about. If you don’t, then buy a $300 plastic poly tank for your pickup and fill up the built-in water storage tanks in the modules from somewhere else over the weekend a few times a year (yes I’ve done exactly that; my previous house had terrible quality drinking water with high sodium so I just trucked it in from 45 minutes away myself for 12 years with a half-ton). Use the rain or lake water for everything else. You don’t need a septic system if you just store and haul your waste water. Camps housing thousands of workers (plus thousands of RV livers) are doing this today. If you do have a system, you’ll need the solids pumped out and a way to get a service truck in anyway.
You’ll need a power source no matter what type of house you choose. A modular system offers the advantage of being (almost) ready to just plug into whatever system you choose vs months of starting from scratch with your own house wiring and light bulbs etc… If the propane tank isn’t big enough then bring in 2 or 3. Or one bigger one. Yes, you store your long-term supplies on site. That’s what remote living is; I’m not sure you fully understand that. It’s a little ugly, hence my recommendation to plan the site out so it looks more rustic instead of industrial. Industrial works, rustic feels nicer. YMMV.
And the construction and weathering materials, and the base/foundation, and the plumbing, and the insulation, and the interior components and layout, and the ability to have it hauled in over the weekend, and the other 95% you’re ignoring, plus all the engineering and certifications to ensure it will work and the decades of tested use with hundreds of thousands of workers. Maybe that means nothing to some. I’d trust in something proven. I don’t really care; invest your money where you think it’s smartest.
I’m seriously scratching my head here… have you actually lived off-grid or needed to drive a skidoo for any distance to access remote property in the winter? I’ve done both. If your house access is so bad you need a snow machine to get out then you’ll not be hauling in or out any significant amount of supplies over drifts that a 4x4 can’t pass. I’ve owned a snow machine for years; they are great for surfing over rough terrain and hauling a bit of cargo when there is no other option. But they’ll sit idle in the garage for 9 months a year while a simple quad will work year-round to keep your access to the nearest ploughed road clear as long as you plough the snow once a week.
I can only assume from this you’re not interested in understanding what those costs actually are; as part of my job I pay for that “very, very expensive” transportation regularly. I’m trying to fight ignorance but if you want to stick to a preconceived believe that only rich companies can afford something like $750 to rig, pick up, secure, then climb a 200-foot dirt trail hill and relocate a 40-foot 8-ton trailer 10 miles away then ok. That’s what I paid privately 3 years ago when I moved up here. I also paid the same oilfield service company under $8,000 to move 2-house-hold’s of goods 600 miles in 2 shipping containers. The owner was happy for the business and asked if he could use my video on his business website. These are not Saudi-King-only services.
I’ve signed invoices for helicopters to drop off months worth of fuel, crews, willow stakes, etc. It’s only a couple thousand $ per trip. And if people have been living in your location for decades just using conventional vehicles and roads then it’s not even necessary; not even worth talking about.
Here is a good video showing a guy explaining an old-school thermal mass heating system in a cold part of the world. My point again is that so many responses here seem to be advocating for easy add-on hacks of old systems where you actually set yourself back 100 years in basic technology. I just don’t understand why people don’t look at what we already have that you can buy today and is so such much easier and cheaper. Especially for a temporary set-up where minimum labor is required.