Led's are incredibly efficient for lighting. I use strings or Rope lights to light my house.
but your question kind of implies that you have no power. for that I would have to go with candles of some kind, really big candles burn very slowly so might be what you need.
Freezing 2000 pounds of water will take some seriously low temps for extended times. The thermal mass of water works in both directions. Meaning its hard to heat and hard to cool water compared to most things.
That said you dont need 200 pound blocks, Ice houses have been around forever. those blocks you can buy at the store will work fine you just need a lot of them.
so if you have harsh winters I would recommend you find something you can use as a large ice cube mold (maybe 2 liter bottles with the top part cut off?) and start producing them to drop into your ibc's. I also second the idea of just getting a refrigerated container instead. Look into burring it for extra insulation or at least parking it in permanent shade.
I recall reading about an icehouse that burned to the ground while the huge pile of ice inside took months to finally melt.
Dan Boone wrote: Making my food forest scooterable is a longer-term goal; but I really love the notion of repurposed riding mowers, which are a bit more rugged.
One advantage for the scooters is they are electric and thus can be charged on solar. Riding mowers are usually gas powered. I suspect there are probably a couple potential options out there, hell a good old Quad is a purpose built machine for this kind of work...figure out how to make one electric and you are set.
I like the train of thought. I have often thought that we should prepare for old age in many ways when we are younger. One idea I had is that the young should spend some time on a motorized scooter that so many old people end up in at some point in life. Mostly because you learn quicker when you are young and you dont lose those skills when you are old. So if you got used to things like scooters while young you would already have that skillset when older. Not to mention that a permaculture scooter with a little trailer on the back would be pretty hardcore.
Since you are talking about a cabin you might consider going with the rmh in the floor and heat that instead. Somewhere on this board is a thread about a yurt with and rmh floor, it was badassed
