I don’t like the woods that much, cool to camp in for a couple days but I wouldn’t want to live there
Moving to a rural area and realizing how fucking hard it is.
The hill I will die on: rugged individualism as strength in a post-disaster world is a lie that is sold to appeal to ego in an individualistic society, and also to prevent the formation of community.
That doesn’t apply to many existing rural communities, who of course know better.
What? You mean prepping isn’t just another form of participatory consumerism?
That too! Why not also make money from it?
It is an unfortunate truth for introverted autistic loners like me that Community really is key to survival.
Hello fellow introverted autistic loner. I hope you find a community that suits you and what level of engagement you are able to have. It may not surprise you to know there are plenty of autistic rural people lol 😅
There are fewer than 10,000 people who, if they just like weren’t around anymore, would inprove everyone’s quality of life like ten fold. I cling to the hope that one day enough of us will realize that and save the world.
Getting rid of those 10,000 people is relatively easy. The hard part is preventing 10,000 replacements from popping up.
I like enough of the civilized world that I’m still willing to participate in it, despite being relatively removed from a lot of it.
Also, living in the woods in a lot more work than people think it is and I’m lazy.
not having to shit in a hole in the ground
Shitting in a hole is not the part that concerns me, it’s dealing with the hole once it’s full.
Cover the hole with dirt and dig a new hole.
Which is a giant pain in the ass, especially if you’ve built a nice heated structure over the hole so that you don’t get hypothermia while pooping in the winter.
In that case, large container that can be tipped into the big hole periodically. You can always dig the new hole in stages rather than all at once too.
Also if manual labour is off putting to you, the whole idea is probably not something you are suited to.
Not sure how I could legally do it here but the idea I like is going half way into the wilderness. Buy some woodland but have towns nearby you could pop into for some supplies occasionally and still keep a part time job. Difficult part is legally living in your own woodland.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has to shit in the woods some time: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/610432/how-to-shit-in-the-woods-4th-edition-by-kathleen-meyer/9781984857132
I was working in sanitation and told my co-worker about my upcoming back country trip. He recommended this book. I put it on my e-reader and read it during the course of my adventure. I changed how I approach such things afterwards.
Ticks. Also, probably, my wife and progeny.
Mostly that I like the civilized world.
Like don’t get me wrong: Nature hikes? Camping? All great. National parks are a treasure. But I will freely admit I rather enjoy little comforts of modernity like “clean water just comes out of the tap when I turn it on”, “fresh food is a 15-minute walk to the grocery store away”, and “the spinny machine makes my clothes clean while I do other stuff.”
I complain about the modern world petty often, but damn some of it is nice. The other day, the dishwasher was running, the washing machine and dryer were going, the robot vacuum was doing its thing, the litter box was cleaning itself, and I was just sitting there with a beer and a good book.
Imo, either this is your answer, you’re a hypocrite, or you live in the woods.
It is impossible to gather food for yourself. We don’t live in pre-civilization or even the wild west. Everything is owned by someone, regulated, etc.
How do you expect to feed yourself? Not like you can just gather all day and get lucky hunting.
It is objectively harder to ‘live on the land’ then it was centuries ago. Borderline impossible, especially if you want to… you know live and interact with people.
I have a wife and cat to look out for, hard to do that when I can’t pay rent.
Volunteering at the native plant garden in the park. Just enough of a hit to keep me going.
I’ve given it some thought.
There isn’t enough empty land in temperate climates for someone to survive unmolested outside of civilization, and I don’t have the multitude of skills required to make it in less hospitable climates. If I could find a good source of food I might make it past the first couple weeks, but I’m not hopeful. I’ve never harvested an animal, so that’s a big barrier.
If I had a good solar system and a house on several hundred or thousand acres to get me started it might work out. Better yet if I have some seed and starter food.
Indoor plumbing. Seriously. Go without for a couple of weeks and tell me how you feel about hot showers and flush toilets.
Also, people really underestimate how difficult it would be to just fuck off into the woods. You’d need a good amount of planning and knowledge to do it. What’s edible within what time range. Where the animals are at what time of year. And if you’re up north you always gotta be laying in firewood.
Also civilization has taken over most of the good hunter gatherer/ subsistence farming spots. River valleys, estuaries, anywhere with good fertile soil. Most of the places with good desolate wilderness to fuck off into was left desolate because it’s fucking desolate.
Have you actually tried doing that? It can be challenging to say the least.
I do it for fun sometimes, but I do it fully provisioned and knowing I can always decide to bail, hike out, and go home to my nice warm bed, clean hot and cold running water (people don’t realize how huge this is), a fridge full of food that I don’t have to carry with me, devices to make the food within minutes on a whim, no bugs or potentially dangerous wild animals, etc.
It’s hard. Really, really, hard.
Yeah, modern life could be improved. There’s a lot of ways society could be better. But you think it’s tough now? Wait until literally every comfort you have is gone and you get nothing that you didn’t grow, hunt, build, or craft yourself. And that’s assuming you even have the skills to do it.
One wrong step and a twisted ankle is a death sentence. In the wild when you stop running, you die.
Without antibiotics any cut is potentially life threatening.
Civilized world has it’s perks. Water closets, supermarkets, social media.
social media
I’d argue that’s a reason to leave civilization 🤣
I had enough with where this society is going and I no longer want to be part of it. But I like:
- fine spirits
- good food
- cooking nice steaks
- eating in restaurants
- drinking in bars
- traveling to places that are exotic or interesting to me
- traveling to places where it’s just nice to wind down
- swimming in tropical waters
- hiking snowy mountains
- driving
- listening to hi fi music
- reading books
- doing video calls with friends and family
- being able to follow my curiosity and learning new things
- playing video games
- being able to take my dog to the vet
- providing my kid with good education
- keeping my kid safe from injuries and diseases
- seeing a doctor when I get sick
- access to a dentist, a pediatrician, a barber, an ER when necessary
- taking a shower
- hot tubs
- having a washing machine, a dishwasher and a refrigerator in my house
- having heating and air conditioning
And probably a bunch more stuff because of which, while I truly enjoy being in nature, I keep choosing living in a city and going to work instead. The common thing with all these items that you need money for each. The only ethical way I know of for making money is working hard and building a career relentlessly for decades. if you’re lucky. There are no guarantees.
I’m not sure if it’s worth it, but I do know for sure I couldn’t give all of the above up, as long as I have a choice.
