What can you leave in an unheated cabin over winter ?

[cbc58]

Have a general question about building an off grid 3 season cabin that will remain uninhabited (without power) over winter.  It would be vacant from December through March and the temps can get down to 15 below... 

What can you leave in it that will survive the temp drops and temp fluctuations ?  Will food items like spices and powdered drinks be ok -- or maybe people have figured out unique ways of storing things over the winter so they don't have to bring it back each spring.

Any info. or tips appreciated.

[MountainDon]

Spices, anything dry (oats, flours, seeds.....) have not suffered at all over the many winters our cabin has gone through winters unheated. Olive oil turns solid in the cold but turns liquid again when warmed with no discernable harm.

[MountainDon]

We also used to have a system for storing things like canned goods that should not be frozen. I cannot locate the particular portion of my build thread where this was detailed. So here goes a description.

I had a polyethylene tube 7 feet long  x 24" diameter. An old playground slide tunnel tube. I dug a hole to drop that into. Then I built a box unit over the upper end. I cot an XPS foam plug for the upper end. That fit inside the upper end of the 24" poly tube and had a bicycle tire tube fitted as an o-ring to air seal. The box unit was well insulated around the tube upper end and had a heavily insulated hinged lid.

I had a dozen or so 4" diameter thin wall pvc pipes, dropped in vertically. This was large enough to load with canned goods from one end. The bottom ends had a pin that kept cans from falling out. The top ends had similar pins used as a handle to raise and lower the tubes.. With the insulated lid the inside of the poly storage tube never dropped below about 50 F. The heat from that depth in the soil kept it frost free.

The humidity in the hole was high enough to cause labels to get wet and come loose. Some cans did begin to rust lightly but that was never a serious issue through one winter.

Used to have... The box top and poly tube burnt out during the wildfire in 2022.

 

[cbc58]

Thank you Mtn. Don.  I remember that post about the underground tube storage. 

 

[OlJarhead]

We keep freeze dried foods year round at the cabin like Don.

Canned goods we take there in the spring when we know it won't get too much below freezing (usually above 10F at night is fine as long as the day warms well above freezing but definitely about 20F at night) and leave until we know it will get below freezing and stay there all day.

[cbc58]

Tks. 

Would folks here know how Coleman fuel and propane in tanks (15lb tanks) hold up? 

[OlJarhead]

Just fine!

I have a 500 gallon propane tank that I fill up before winter and use to keep my super insulated back room from freezing.

Coleman fuel will last a long time.

[MountainDon]

No issues ever experienced with propane or liquid canned stable fuels, or water in the buried cistern. We used to leave 3/4 full gallon jugs of water over winter inside the cabin. Those would freeze but being only partially full and flexible never leaked. Kept them in a large tray in case a leak did happen.