Living in the woods...

My Side of the Mountain was a great book... Didn't they make a movie too?

 

The film was a bit different. The falcon is shot, the kid wants to study algae for reason, and very little of him actually hunting and fishing. Very lame.

 

I was a kid... I read the book much later on*.



(*also a long time ago)

 

every way of life, you will need the skills of that way of life. i grew up in forested mountains. i was able to do so, because my dad worked for the railroad.
when all the little towns along the way had stations, and they needed people to work in them.
and the trains would carry passengers, and stop there. as did intercity buses.

in today's oh so wonderfully advance world, you pretty much need ether to indenture yourself to a vehicle, live where there are a lot of other people and stores and all that (what i would call a city, whether anyone else would or not), OR you sort of need to a small bunch of other like minded people, all willing to work your asses off for each other, share and share alike, that or spend a lot of your time hungry.

there may still be places where nature is abundant enough year round to live off of it by yourself. they become increasingly scarce as human population continues to increase.

for that, you need a great deal of knowledge of the plants and animals there, and of course, to get to them in the first place, and that in turn requires even finding them.

nature gets along just fine without us. but for us to get along without us, takes just as much effort, knowledge and ability, as getting along with us.

if you like being alone as much as i do, that would be rewarding and worth the effort. if you don't, well, we live in a world with too many people who too much insist upon crowding themselves together with each other.

possible, rewarding, not easy. to sum it up in four words.

 

sagewillow,
I need help in one of my camps in May. see if you like living off grid in the woods.
PM me if interested!

 

Ahaha! I remember when this thread started.
We have one remote farm but are out southwest now getting ready for "interesting times" and enjoying the spoiled life a little indoors before we go back to primitive rural (soon)

Region dictates the skills you will need as much as income and food. Even the "green part" of the desert is way different than the Ozarks and in many ways easier, for the completely feral.
We will have room for one or two total animal lovers with skill sets. We make the place a sanctuary and niche crop, greenhouse, resell and do gong fu.
Very small, reclusive tribe too.

 

its not a thing one person can do alone. but a very small number of like minded individuals can. but then you have the same people/social challanges.

i wish there was a way for one person to be a complete hermit and enjoy the things i enjoy,
or for there not to be 'politics' even in the smallest group of even just two people.

i don't know of these things. they might exist. i just don't know of them.

but very small groups of people, can, however it is that they do it, exist very successfully in near isolation.

i wish i knew how to 'be the world' that could be counted upon not to destroy that near isolation, for all its many reasons, mostly not directly related to it.

such communities were once sovereign, and today's nations came into existence robbing them of it.

and they only tolerate what remains below their radar.

what i'd like to do, i don't know if it would, but i don't expect i ever will.

now that i do have a little retirement income, i sure wish i was back at bed spring acres with it.

 

Lot's of Rainbow travel around living the Gypsy life. There are people that bought land and obey the laws of the land, living somewhat cheaply and producing much of what the require to get by. I did read about a guy living in Canada that lived entirely off the land other than buying bread. He said baking bread was too difficult so he purchased that.

You can only stay in a National Forest for 2 weeks and it takes green energy to travel to other spots. It sucks always looking for something to come your way so having some sort of skill or many of those is useful.

The Amish do very well living off the land and each other. Not many hippies around here that aren't highly educated. It costs so much to live that it's difficult to start a dream farm. I'd love to live off growing veggies but the easy way is expensive and modern. The old ways, the ways some Amish do it is a lot of hard work. A mule or horse team plowing a field isn't going to plow a whole lot. It's dangerous not having a car too. Lot's of roads where Amish get hit in their buggies and walking has it's dangers and difficulties. But the Amish do pretty well. They don't pay taxes or collect social security.

I don't know why hippies don't form some sort of real religion, guess it gets complicated trying to organize reality into accepted beliefs.

 

Thinking about this a little more. In the states there has been talk about not even allowing people to live in RV's. There is a lot of code that restricts peoples lifestyles and living conditions. Cannot just buy some land to farm and live in a TP. It costs a lot of money to install the crappiest of trailers, sewage, electric, all that has to be to code.

If I could I'd buy some farm land and a produce truck and get growing! It's the logistics that are super complicated.

 

Wonder how sagewillow is making out now?