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Wouldn't it be great to not need any of the "conveniences" and literally live off the land with minimal
shelter and no bathroom?
That is what this woman is striving to do. It is sort of the opposite approach most of us are seeming to be taking.
It probably helps being in a country where she is left alone. She evidently rents out her property to groups wanting that type of "experience".
Yah...I could see us living like that up in Maine, with a swirling nor'easter coming at us in January! Ya gotta have the climate that's made for that stuff! 14 inches of snow would collapse that little hut!
She might loose some customers when the mercury drops to -40, there is a 30 mph wind and the snow is 6 feet deep on the level and drifting in Montana as well.
Minimalist survival is fun, I have done it before for a couple of weeks at a time, but realistically each person needs a lot of room to try and get food and fuel for the fire and be semi nomadic because when you exhaust the resources of an area within a 1/2 day's walk of the camp, you have to move to new ground.
Agriculture and raising livestock were the way that nomadic hunter gatherer tribes found so they could raise the food they needed without following the herds or seasons and became "civiliized" or living in villages/towns/cities.
It's fun to see how well you can do with absolutely nothing, but not practical for extended periods, especially in harsh climates. I can see how she could make some good money offering that kind of opportunity to people, but for realisitic long term living, not a good option.
Key word in the video is "tropics". That sort of structure wouldn't work anywhere that had a true winter.
I find it odd that she moved there to be alone with nature, and then decided to rented it out to other people. Most people I know who truly want to be alone, don't want other people around disturbing their serenity and their land for any reason.
While I applaud anyone who chooses to life a lower impact lifestyle and tries to be self-sufficient; it's a mistake to think there is only one way to do it or that it's "all or nothing".
Confrontational Post Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that for some, the reading of this post could cause endue stress on cardiovascular functionality. It has therefore been determined that reading this post could be harmful, and worse yet, quite painful. If you've just about had a gut full of my dogma... please skip. You've been warned--I don't want to ruin your dinner.
Of course, she is turning the clock waaaay back, but I have a keen interest in the topic of "pre-crude-oil" and/or "pre-industrial-revolution" lifestyle sufficiency/techniques (notice, I did not say that I'm living that lifestyle--I wouldn't be posting here if I were). Beyond simple curiosity, my interest is not shared by many even on a forum such as this. In fact, outright hostility sometimes ensues upon my posting messages from that seemingly offensive perspective.
Once in a while, there is a "gem" buried within, but general interest of this and similar forums tends toward seeking out alternate ways of sustaining fragile technology, rather than learning to exist in the absence of such: for instance, a Rube Goldberg solution to the generation of electricity, or refrigeration, or AC, or diesel automobiles, or mechanized crop harvesting, or how to run a spreadsheet by rubbing two sticks together, is discussed endlessly rather than are the skills to efficiently exist without these higher technology lifestyle solutions.
As for your link, yes, it's a tropical setting. But folks without a bathroom or electricity have thrived well above the 30th parallel throughout history, until just recently. Did the Inuits have indoor plumbing and electricity (until recently)? I wonder how much better off a society they are now than they were 800 years ago?
Note: I don't know the answer to that. But judging from the current state of affairs in our world, I'd be inclined to entertain the idea that they may well have been better off back then. Without bathrooms and electricity.
With our technology and lifestyle comes a price. Ask any oil baron. Or Chinese manufacturer.
Last edited by MissingAll4Seasons; 09-17-2012 at 08:58 PM..
Reason: Red text reserved for mods
Yah...I could see us living like that up in Maine, with a swirling nor'easter coming at us in January! Ya gotta have the climate that's made for that stuff! 14 inches of snow would collapse that little hut!
LOL. You could just put glass all around it with screens but do everything else the same. You could have some plants growing inside in the winter including lots of sprouts.
Confrontational Post Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that for some, the reading of this post could cause endue stress on cardiovascular functionality. It has therefore been determined that reading this post could be harmful, and worse yet, quite painful. If you've just about had a gut full of my dogma... please skip. You've been warned--I don't want to ruin your dinner.
Of course, she is turning the clock waaaay back, but I have a keen interest in the topic of "pre-crude-oil" and/or "pre-industrial-revolution" lifestyle sufficiency/techniques (notice, I did not say that I'm living that lifestyle--I wouldn't be posting here if I were). Beyond simple curiosity, my interest is not shared by many even on a forum such as this. In fact, outright hostility sometimes ensues upon my posting messages from that seemingly offensive perspective.
Once in a while, there is a "gem" buried within, but general interest of this and similar forums tends toward seeking out alternate ways of sustaining fragile technology, rather than learning to exist in the absence of such: for instance, a Rube Goldberg solution to the generation of electricity, or refrigeration, or AC, or diesel automobiles, or mechanized crop harvesting, or how to run a spreadsheet by rubbing two sticks together, is discussed endlessly rather than are the skills to efficiently exist without these higher technology lifestyle solutions.
As for your link, yes, it's a tropical setting. But folks without a bathroom or electricity have thrived well above the 30th parallel throughout history, until just recently. Did the Inuits have indoor plumbing and electricity (until recently)? I wonder how much better off a society they are now than they were 800 years ago?
Note: I don't know the answer to that. But judging from the current state of affairs in our world, I'd be inclined to entertain the idea that they may well have been better off back then. Without bathrooms and electricity.
With our technology and lifestyle comes a price. Ask any oil baron. Or Chinese manufacturer.
I agree. They definitely had stronger immune systems than we do today and a fraction of the number of "diseases" that we have today. They didn't all die at age 45 like so many in the medical establish want us to think. If they lived to age 5 they probably lived to age 75 or even 95 and died in their sleep healthy. But then again everything they ate was organic and much more nutrient dense than today's organic food is. They breathed fresh air. Natural medicine was the preferred if not only mode of medicine for a long while. Stress levels were a lot lower. They didn't have electromagnetic fields zapping them constantly. There was so much about their lifestyle that was probably more healthful and easygoing than ours is today.
Last edited by MissingAll4Seasons; 09-17-2012 at 08:59 PM..
Reason: red text reserved for mods
Did the Inuits have indoor plumbing and electricity (until recently)?
No, but they did have walls and an indoor firepit
We don't have a "bathroom" per se (just the poo bucket), but we do have some minimal electricity that allows us to do larger tasks than would be possible in our climate with only two people. We don't have a fridge, but we do have a freezer (DC and only for 6 months, the other 6 it's winter).
There are all sorts of ways to become sustainably self-sufficient without necessarily knocking yourself back to the iron or bronze age. But it still doesn't hurt to learn how to do things like they were done in those eras just so could do them that way if you had to... remembering, of course, that there is always the cost vs. reward balance sheet to everything. For instance, I can certainly chop my annual firewood with an axe, but that would pretty much be the only thing I would be able to get done every summer (forget food or shelter), so I use a chainsaw instead... but I know how to forge and sharpen an simple axe and how to fell a tree and split wood with one.
I agree. They definitely had stronger immune systems than we do today and a fraction of the number of "diseases" that we have today. They didn't all die at age 45 like so many in the medical establish want us to think. If they lived to age 5 they probably lived to age 75 or even 95 and died in their sleep healthy. But then again everything they ate was organic and much more nutrient dense than today's organic food is. They breathed fresh air. Natural medicine was the preferred if not only mode of medicine for a long while. Stress levels were a lot lower. They didn't have electromagnetic fields zapping them constantly. There was so much about their lifestyle that was probably more healthful and easygoing than ours is today.
You have a time machine and made a lengthy field trip?
Dd the incantations of their "natural" medecine work well? How did they treat fractures? Stab wounds? Or do you believe that they lived in total peace and harmony, perhaps singing happy songs every evening?
Live to 95? Perhaps crippled by arthritis? Or did the healthy life style overcome genetics?
Ever read the Lewis and Clark journals? The North American Indians lived wretched lives; flea infestations were universal; eye disease caused widespread blindness.
No stress? You mean they didn't care if they ate?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisC
Confrontational Post Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that for some, the reading of this post could cause endue stress on cardiovascular functionality. It has therefore been determined that reading this post could be harmful, and worse yet, quite painful. If you've just about had a gut full of my dogma... please skip. You've been warned--I don't want to ruin your dinner.
Of course, she is turning the clock waaaay back, but I have a keen interest in the topic of "pre-crude-oil" and/or "pre-industrial-revolution" lifestyle sufficiency/techniques (notice, I did not say that I'm living that lifestyle--I wouldn't be posting here if I were). Beyond simple curiosity, my interest is not shared by many even on a forum such as this. In fact, outright hostility sometimes ensues upon my posting messages from that seemingly offensive perspective.
Once in a while, there is a "gem" buried within, but general interest of this and similar forums tends toward seeking out alternate ways of sustaining fragile technology, rather than learning to exist in the absence of such: for instance, a Rube Goldberg solution to the generation of electricity, or refrigeration, or AC, or diesel automobiles, or mechanized crop harvesting, or how to run a spreadsheet by rubbing two sticks together, is discussed endlessly rather than are the skills to efficiently exist without these higher technology lifestyle solutions.
As for your link, yes, it's a tropical setting. But folks without a bathroom or electricity have thrived well above the 30th parallel throughout history, until just recently. Did the Inuits have indoor plumbing and electricity (until recently)? I wonder how much better off a society they are now than they were 800 years ago?
Note: I don't know the answer to that. But judging from the current state of affairs in our world, I'd be inclined to entertain the idea that they may well have been better off back then. Without bathrooms and electricity.
With our technology and lifestyle comes a price. Ask any oil baron. Or Chinese manufacturer.
How do you define thrive?
State of the world? Their world was tiny but enemies and predators were there.
Would you like to never have taken a bath? To not even know what a bath is?
For both of you:
If primitive life is so good why do primitives always jump at the chance to get modern tools, e.g. knives, hatchets, steel shovels, tomahawks, canvas, eyewash, matches, guns, cooking pots, horses, and a thousand other things?
Do either of you think a village of primitives smells good?
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