Survival Skills. What’s your understanding of “Survival Skills”?
After moving to Cambodia, moving from a tech-centered city to a tropical jungle on the mountain, “Survival Skills” are no longer the same to me.
In a completely digitalized city, Survival Skills are Python, data science or lead generation.
In the uncivilized jungle, Survival Skills are building a shelter, starting a fire, collecting rainwater or bending a rebar by hand.
The former skill sets gave me anxiety, honestly. The latter peace and satisfaction that I’ve never experienced before. The greatest satisfaction comes with making due with the limited resources we have available.
Why We Need To Bend Rebar
This is the office we are building, still working on the door and windows. Wish I could show you the stone foundation. Chris, my husband, took it as an art project. Not only did he make it strong and sturdy, but also pretty.
To fix the vertical hardwood poles onto the foundation, we needed to bend 4 rebars and here comes the challenge.
How To Bend Rebar By Hand
We don’t have much machinery, but we have hand tools, a hand rebar bender, a Makita cordless drill and a Bosch laser distance measure. With these tools, we bended 4 rebars by hand in 2 steps within 10 mins so we could layout and fix the concrete / stone foundation.
What You Will See in This Video
- What tools you need to bend rebar?
- How to measure and mark bending positions?
- How to band rebars safely by hand?
- How to use rebars for a basic concrete / stone foundation?
The bottom part of the L shaped rebar sits on a concrete slab poured onto impacted gravel. Then the rest of the foundation pit was filled with cement and aggregate. The required base height was built up and sculptured with selected stones and mortar so that the pole never sits in water as termites are ferocious.
Off Grid Living & Creativity
Living off grid forces us to think outside of the box, forces us to be creative. So far, it’s been exciting and rewarding physically and mentally. I can’t wait to build the next house, plant the next tree and make something new with my hands.
Want to see how we setup an off grid solar power system, water filtering system, building a composting toilet and much more? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter on the right column or our YouTube channel.
If you have any suggestions, recommendations for what we are doing, leave us a comment. We’d love to hear your opinions.