Home again, 10.16.15; off-grid on my mind

Today wasn't so busy.  Spent a little time (while on stand-by) drawing up some plans for the water tanks.  It's nuts and bolts kind of thinking.  Like how I was going to deploy the concrete cloth, and how to keep it nice and neat looking.  It may take some skills I don't have.  If you don't have skills, you just improvise.  It seems that I improvised a bit when I built my shack in April.  It remains to be seen whether or not that improvisation was effective.

The concrete cloth figures in my thinking.  In addition to that, I may want to use some stucco in order to fill in seams and such.

While I wasn't thinking about the water tanks, I was thinking about the van conversion.  Took some measurements and figured out how I may attack that project.  Most likely it will have wood outside, but particle board inside.  Weight carrying parts will have more robust wood.  Most of the stuff going into these cabinents are going to be light weight.  However, on the side next to the side doors, I'll be putting my batteries.  Batteries aren't light.

I was thinking of putting my 2-cycle gas powered generator on top of the van.  What?!?  Yes, on top.  Why?  I sure don't want it inside---carbon monoxide.  If I can secure it well enough, it should be alright up there.  So, part of the roof will have solar panels and the other part will have this generator.  It will be near the doors so the wiring won't have to go far in order to reach the batteries.

I may well rule out the wind powered backup.  Too much money.  I only wanted it for the water, but the other idea I looked at recently looks a lot cheaper.  It may be the way to go.