Gary Peterson has a separate room in the same old log building as Jamie Frieze (to follow). They both shared the primitive and rustic life characteristic of the gold rush days a hundred years ago. Though Gary worked hard as Jamie, he went the extra mile with his ingenuity. He altered his primitive environment with clever gadgets and devices that modernized his home. He put in a plumbing, electrical, and heating system without modern utility lines. He traded the use of his shower to Jamie for cooked meals. Gary constantly utilizes his creativity and resourcefulness to continually improve his lifestyle. I visited Gary numerous times and he has always been willing to share information about his life and the modernization of his rustic cabin.

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I came out to Summit County from Largemont, New York, in seventy-three. It's sort of hard to recollect my feeling eleven years ago...but it was quite a change even though I was used to cold climates. The first place I stayed actually is in that incinerated cabin over there. Well, you know it was like camping. In the fall I had to be plan ahead for everything sitting around outside, get things together, and make mental maps of tires and stuff sitting around outside because I may want to dig it up for later on.

Gary's hydro-electric power source is a car alternator.

In regards to the typical municipal utilities, I provide my own utilities and am self sufficient. Actually, my water supply isn't all that complicated. The cold water line runs from my sink to all the way out at the stream. Though it travels hundreds of feet, its elevation is probably about twelve feet of head. (The height of the source of water above its outlet is referred to as 'height of head' and relates to the pressure available to the water system.) There's a couple pieces of plywood and 2X6's butted up against each other, side by side to make the dam. And in between those two pieces, there's a hole where the water pushes out of the dam into a four inch pipe. Then after a very short distance, it's adapted down to just an inch and a quarter line. It's totally graded with a downhill slope and partially buried up there. See that big old tree? There's a fitting there which reduces to a 3/4 inch polyethylene line. It's nontoxic especially designed for water. Then it goes into the bath house where the hot water heater and shower are. It reduces down to a garden hose which is 5/8, I guess. Then it comes into my cabin and there is a tee here for a line bleeder to keep the water moving. That way the water won't freeze.

This winter I had really great success with all my systems. For the first time the water didn't freeze all winter, and my freeze alarm system went off only once. The alarm warns me just before the water line freezes. It's not really a float valve, but it does depend on the weight of the water, actually. There's just enough pressure in the line to get a little bit of water to go through this small tubing, into this tin can which is balanced at the end of it. The water is bled continuously and if the water should begin freezing, the pressure reduces. Just a slight reduction in the flow would still go through the bleeder but not enough pressure to go through that small tube. The tin can has a small hole in it so that the small amount of water leaking out the bottom is refilled by the tube. There's just enough weight inside the can to hold the lever down which holds this micro-switch. When the flow stops, the water holding the can down runs out through that little hole and then tips the lever back up and sounds the alarm.

Everything powered by 12 volts.

When it sounded, I ran out there and I unplugged the reducing fitting at the big tree. I have a wire that runs up to the water head at the very top of the system. It pulls the pipe out of the water at the top of the dam so the water can run out of the pipe. It usually freezes at that fitting there, so when I disconnect the line above that point, water usually comes blasting out. Maybe I would get a little bit of slush, possibly if I had waited a little too long before I get out there. But I've always had time to open that up and let that start going so it won't freeze the big line, which is the important one. It's the one that's buried. It would be a real pain in the neck in the winter time with the cold and snow, so it's next to impossible to get that out. But I have done that before, dug up the whole thing through four feet of snow practically all the way up to the top.

A few years ago in the early stages of my water system, the line froze all the time. I'd have to go up and take the whole thing down. Drag it over here in the sunlight and thaw it out and hook it up again. What a pain in the neck. I'm really glad I have it really figured out so it doesn't freeze now.

I have a solar bathhouse for taking showers. The collector actually heats the shower water. There are no heat exchangers or anything. It's just a simple system where the stored shower water runs through the collector upwards by convection. It has two lines going out to the collector. Since the water in the tank is hotter near the top, the lower line feeds the collector with cool water from the bottom of the tank. After heating up, then the water returns back to the top of the tank.

This bath takes awhile to heat up in -20 degrees F.

If you slow the solar circulation system down, close some valves here, and get that flow reduced, the water spends a little bit more time out in the collector and so it heats up more. This produces a higher output temperature. Well, the temperature does get up there. Actually, I've only measured it with a thermometer a few years ago. The hottest I've seen was like 160 degrees or so. It gets scalding if you let the water stand out in that collector. I usually mix the hot water with cold, just about like most conventional plumbing systems.

The solar tub has an optional wood burner.

However, I don't get to use the bath house really enough. I get it running in May or early June, as soon as I dig it out of the snow each year and clear off of the collector. Some time around October, I have to drain the water out of the system every night. The water in the tank and all the lines could freeze. So it gets into the winter mode when I have to drain back a lot of this stuff. I built the tank above the ground so I could build a fire under it for heating the water. When I'm using a wood fire to heat my bath water in the winter I have to go back and forth. Outside temperatures are often -20 F. It has taken two or three hours from when I first step into the place and decided on using it...then start filling the tank and until finally finishing with my shower.

Also, I now have a totally new shower in my cabin now. It's totally new thing that you're going to have catch up on. The hassles I've had were an incentive for me to build other shower unit inside so I wouldn't have to walk outside. Its the difference between indoor plumbing and an outside privy. Well, it's a continuous upgrade you know. I really appreciated having a shower inside this last winter.

For electrical power, I have a hydroelectric system of course. My electrical system looks similar to a bicycle wheel, the actual water wheel itself. It has a five and a half foot diameter. It has a fabricated hub and spokes of wire, and then V8 and Hawaiian Punch cans at the rim riveted together with pop rivets. It not only ran all of last winter with a hitch, but its still holding up after three years. The entire system is about 150 feet from my cabin.

It's not really that far.  

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Gary eventually purchased his property from the owner and for the last several years has been trying to get approval from the county to build a new home. Gary has established North Americas's highest home/Web-based publishing company.

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