Exile

[Jesse]

I really want to learn how to live off the land. I want to learn how to build shelter out of materials naturally occuring in the wilderness. I want to learn how to prepare a fish I've just caught from the river over a fire. I want to learn how to make a fire without tools. I want to learn how to hunt with a bow so I don't run out of ammo. I want to learn how to skin and gut animals I hunt with my bow and prepare them over a fire. I want to learn how to preserve the food I get in the wild for later use.

I want to learn how to live completely off the grid and form a more primitive existence. If I can do this, I'd love to go to a place maybe in the mountains somewhere where nobody would ever find me. Where I could live in peace. I'd absolutely love if I could find a companion to go with me, though I doubt I'll find someone of similar mind.

Still, it's a goal of mine to one day exist in this way. Away from technology, away from politics and just live with nature.

 

[Nyktimos]

This is not a good cure for loneliness, Jesse. I think I know how you feel though. I had similar dreams once. The fact is, as much as I wish I didn't, I need people. Perhaps it's because of this need that I have so many problems with them. I've spent too much of my life keeping people at arms length for my own protection, but still wanting to interact with them on my own terms. Relying on people is scary.

 

[Jesse]

Maybe if I can't beat lonliness I should embrace it. I wouldn't mind having a good dog to take with me- like a black lab to keep me company.

I just want out of the system. I don't want to go to work 40 hours a week at some job. I want to work the land to survive, completely independent of anything other than myself and nature.

 

[cheaptrickfan]

I want to learn how to live completely off the grid and form a more primitive existence. If I can do this, I'd love to go to a place maybe in the mountains somewhere where nobody would ever find me. Where I could live in peace.
Still, it's a goal of mine to one day exist in this way. Away from technology, away from politics and just live with nature.

I daydream a lot about living off the grid. I think that anyone who's terribly introspective probably does at one point or another. There's a lot to be dissatisfied with in our current frenetic society. So much superficiality and it's so damned impersonal despite the fact that we can connect with people electronically - more people than we could have even 10 years ago, y'know? But for all that it's not as though we have the same sense of community that we'd had for generations.

If I did go off the grid I'd still have to have wireless internet. heh

I've spent too much of my life keeping people at arms length for my own protection, but still wanting to interact with them on my own terms. Relying on people is scary.

ditto to this about a thousand times.

I wouldn't mind having a good dog to take with me- like a black lab to keep me company.

A pet isn't a bad idea regardless of where you live.

 

[Jesse]

Nice, I like what you said a lot. I wouldn't even mind living in a small community of like-minded people who lived completely off the land. As long as everyone were fair and honorable. I do have a pet right now, though she's not as fit as a black lab would be for living in the wild. Oh and I'd definately go without internet

 

[cheaptrickfan]

Nice, I like what you said a lot. I wouldn't even mind living in a small community of like-minded people who lived completely off the land. As long as everyone were fair and honorable. I do have a pet right now, though she's not as fit as a black lab would be for living in the wild. Oh and I'd definately go without internet

1. How the heck did my post from that other thread make it on here?!

2. You're braver than I am if you can go without online access for a long period of time. I admit that I take breaks from time to time, but I start to go into withdrawal after a while.

3. "a small community of like-minded people who lived completely off the land."

Hello, commune in Vermont! lol

 

[Jesse]

Let me clarify, by small community I mean like 3-4 people. And I don't know how that happened with your post lol.

 

[Nyktimos]

I''m sure we can rustle up a few misanthropes for a wilderness commune.

 

[Divinitywolf]

I'm exactly the same Jesse!

I've often dreamt of living in a remote place, away from the world, away from all the complications of modern life to just live free and simply.
I hate being spied upon. I hate having my name on lists and registering for things.
I wish I'd been born off the radar, that the government had no record of me, that the world had no record of me.

 

[SophiaGrace]

I think these sorts of people are called survivalists. Ok maybe not but survivalists tend to plan for disasters and have "getaways" in case the world comes to an end for whatever reason.

Oh and whenever I hear of someone wanting to live in the wildnerness on their own i think of Robinson Crusoe and how he went mad. Towards the end all he could do was talk to his animals, make incoherent sounds. He forgot the English language! (i think...or was it French...) haha :3

It's either Robinson Cruesoe that i think of or Cavemen with long scraggly bears who act on their every animalistic impulse. DIE MEAT DIE!....<= like so :3

Personally I dont think I'd want to give up the creature comforts of society,s uch as toiletpaper and my medical supplies. Got to have Toilet Paper. No Pine Cones for me .

You could always Couch Surf Jesse. http://www.couchsurfing.org/

See the world for free! n___n

 

[Jesse]

Eh seems like I'd be around too many people. I was looking online and found an island for sale in michigan. If I can go to school like I want to then I can save up some money for a while and purchase the island and everything I need to set up an existence out there and be free.

 

[Lonesome Crow]

You can always join the boyscouts to see if you actaully like it.

 

[cheaptrickfan]

Let me clarify, by small community I mean like 3-4 people.

Well since ideally my commune would be a bunch of vegans with Buddhist leanings who love the New England weather, I doubt I'd be able to find more than 5 people to join me.

 

[SophiaGrace]

Eh seems like I'd be around too many people. I was looking online and found an island for sale in michigan. If I can go to school like I want to then I can save up some money for a while and purchase the island and everything I need to set up an existence out there and be free.

Didnt Huckleberry Finn live on an island for a while with his friend the runaway slave? :3

You could be like Huck Finn!! =D only, not with a runaway slave...

 

[ensom]

I've had similar fantasies; living in a cabin in the middle of the wilderness somewhere, with nothing but man's best friend to keep me company. However as much as people frustrate me, I realize that I do need them. A basic example, if a serious medical issue were to crop up, you'd have to drag yourself to the nearest town or risk cutting your life short.

But sometimes I look around at all of these run down buildings, crowded streets, pollution, and it makes me sick. I kind of hate what we've done to this planet.

 

[Nyktimos]

Well since ideally my commune would be a bunch of vegans with Buddhist leanings who love the New England weather, I doubt I'd be able to find more than 5 people to join me.

Sod it, I'd go for that. I'm not much interested in being vegan but for a quiet life without all the arseholes, why not. I'd happily swap old England weather for New England weather. Can we have a colony of lemurs? I like lemurs.

 

[cheaptrickfan]

Well since ideally my commune would be a bunch of vegans with Buddhist leanings who love the New England weather, I doubt I'd be able to find more than 5 people to join me.

Sod it, I'd go for that. I'm not much interested in being vegan but for a quiet life without all the arseholes, why not. I'd happily swap old England weather for New England weather. Can we have a colony of lemurs? I like lemurs.

We'd have to keep the lemurs in a hothouse in winter, they're kind of tropical critters. Could we substitute non-rabid skunks for the lemurs?

 

[Brian]

I've thought about it some. A few tools, and it would be feasible.

I think in the right terrain and soil makeup, a subterranean cave-type dwelling would work best...something going horizontally in to a slope though, as a hole straight down would gather water. But with some arrangements for a door covering and proper insulation for winter, you'd be pretty well set. It'd be temperate, harder to notice, and would require basically no maintenance.

Fish is easy to prepare. All you do to gut it is make a slice along the belly from the tail fin to the head and remove the innards, then the head from the gills up. Skewer and cook, just watch for bones

And with a day or so of labor, you could have yourself a fenced garden. And having worked in the woods a couple years I assure you there's plenty of wild berries in most climates for harvest...a day's picking this time around here will yield about 6 gallons of huckleberries.

Bows can be finicky and are time consuming to make by hand...personally I would try to become proficient with an atlatl. Basically a hand-powered spear chucker. Less maintenance, easier to replace. And of course you can build snares for small game.

Heck, you could even make beehives. Straw would probably be simplest, but I wonder if you couldn't lash some boxes and frames together from smaller timbers. Young conifers probably, since they're pretty straight.

I think the most difficult part would be clothing. I haven't the faintest idea how I would clothe myself outside of animal hides, sinew and bone needles.

Other than that, winter would really put you to the test depending on where you are geographically. But around here, winter snows in the mountains exceed 12 and 20 feet that I know of. When that happens, a lot of the wildlife heads to lower elevations...you'd have to have winter stores.

 

[Nyktimos]

Well since ideally my commune would be a bunch of vegans with Buddhist leanings who love the New England weather, I doubt I'd be able to find more than 5 people to join me.

Sod it, I'd go for that. I'm not much interested in being vegan but for a quiet life without all the arseholes, why not. I'd happily swap old England weather for New England weather. Can we have a colony of lemurs? I like lemurs.

We'd have to keep the lemurs in a hothouse in winter, they're kind of tropical critters. Could we substitute non-rabid skunks for the lemurs?

Can we attach long stripey tails to the skunks? No they'd probably get annoyed with us for that. Ok, skunks it is.

 

[Melanie]

I used to think about disengaging myself from society and living in the woods somewhere quite often. I don't think about it too much anymore because I know it's unrealistic. I would however, love to live a quiet and simple life on a farm. But, I guess farm life is nothing like my fantastical view of it. Alas, I will always be a slave to this friggen society!