I apologize for the somewhat lackluster blogging activity these past few weeks. But, vacation is over! I’m on my way back to Serenity Valley right now, and am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and resuming work on Hut 2.1. For the next few weeks, I’ll be pretty busy preparing for my next Big Adventure which means I should have plenty of stuff to talk about here 🙂
Laptop and a Rifle 
You might be interested in my Freeze dryer thing, if you are going for an extended period. I know you have a freezer, but dunno if it is really big enough to store 31 days of food. Freeze dried food is pretty awesome.
http://towardsabettertinyhouse.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/home-freeze-drying-machine/
As noted in the blog post I was prompted to post it due to your comment somewhere about not liking dried food 🙂
Hm, I see the stuff about puwer supply being a problem. Instead of buying more solar panels, in a situation like yours where the insolation is quite low reflectors are way cheaper. A reflector on the ground just below the collector is one way to provide some boost with no tracking system. Another can be added above the panel but then you need of course to build a structure.
There is a TED talk about a guy who used genetic algorithms to make the best passive reflector i.e. no tracking system, he could and it turned out to be a sort of set of 4 horn shapes. You can get genetic solver plugins for excel so you only have to make the model and maybe could get a suitable shape for your own panels if you coudl figure out how to do the modeling… I have one that has a 14 day full free trial somewhere but would have to dig it up, send me an email if you want a copy.
Here’s a way to finance your building that I heard abou along time ago.
Borrow a small amount from each friend, family member, reader, acquaintance. The amount needs to be so small that lending it isn’t a hardship. Keep a list of the order in which people lend you money. Promise to start paying them back as soon as your hut is done. Update lenders continually on progress. Finish hut, pay back in order.
Maybe promise that you would do the same for them in the future.
Do the math – 50 people lending $50. Would it work for you?