unvarnished, unsanded, raw lumber not even planed, fresh out of the forest, an essay for moonshadows pub.
what it takes
so as soon as we were able, i dragged my wife and child out to the forest, to live what i hoped would be a better life. and it's exactly as difficult as you might imagine.
to do it right, for me, means to do it simply, with as little ecological impact as possible, which means no double wide trailer - instead we live in 263 sq. feet, in a prefab, home-assembled dome made of sticks, eyebolts, and tarp. i like it, it's cozy, but it's not exactly antiseptic. bugs get in. mice get in. small lizards get in. the cold gets in, as does the heat.
but this is good for us psychologically, to abolish the hermetic identity, to eliminate the falacy of purity. all life intermingles. but, how do we cope? what do we really need to guard against, to protect, and how do we do it?
we need to protect our food from being pilfered and contaminated with pathogens. we need to live in an environment as free from fecal matter as possible. these are doable, not really so difficult. plastic flows like wine, in modern day america. sweeping is not hard. other than that, what does it really matter if there is an anole staring at me from my desk?
how do we stay cool in august? intellectualizing about the native americans who lived here before us only takes you so far. yes, iif you're not stupid, the heat wont kill you. but still, you have to get some work don in a day, and if you're uncompromising in your schedule, it's damn hard.
the solutions are obvious, really, it just takes some flexibility. institute siesta culture. rise earlier, for the luxuriously cool and damp dawn hours. hide from the sun. wear loose clothes of linen and cotton, and big straw hats. the lifestyle itself isn't hard or complicated, it's change that's hard. giving up fragments of what you considered yourself and becoming what is needed.
how do you stay warm in february? invest in piles of wool sweaters. animal fibers are crucial, i wont go into why - but there's nothing like them. drink tea and buy a hot water bottle. if you've never used one, you'll be amazed how long a liter of water can stay warm, and keep your toes toasty. when you go out, layer up. if you're working, pay attention to your body and shed layers as soon as you need to, relayering as soon as you stop, before you get cold.
these are the broadest and most obvious issues. from this starting point you can begin to see the truth behind old hippy platitutdes and euphemisms, like "one world." everything is very much connected. you find the irony of the rugged individualist. you may develop a ruggose texture, you may cherish your autonomy, but you have never truly been an individual. everything is connected, everything shapes everything, this lifestyle has a fractal resonance with quantum inseparability. the universe is one song, and "you" are a string on an instrument.
sounds pretty, and you still have to eat and shit. at this point, you may begin to realize there is no "away" where you can throw things. waht to do with the waste?! well, human waste is full of nutrients, wonderfull food for plants, but also full of pathogens. do some research, the answers are out there. a human-scale solution that appeals to me, is to harvest 5 gallon buckets from the waste stream, insert poop and a source of carbon (we need hyperlinks here, for humanure, and the principles of composting), seal and let it sit for a year or several. eventually the pathogens will degrade to a sufficient extent that it can be released, perhaps recomposted ina larger pile, applied to fruit trees (trees never transmit human pathogens, as vegetables occasionally will. close your loops. that is sustainability.
while we're on the subject of bacteria, an insidious, non-health hazardous form of corruption is simple rot. decay. i'm not a big fan of "waterproof" storage containers. they allow you to adopt a pose of invulnerability that is not represented by the facts. a "waterproof" container like they sell at walmart, is essentially rain-proof. unless you're living in the desert, water is in your stuff. it's in the air. its in your container. so let me warn you before you seal up your books and put them away for a decade - when you open that box, you'll be confronted with a vaguely-book shaped pile of black mold. try as you like, seal them in plastic bags, it might help, some, vacuum pack it, it'll help. some. but the water is there. and so is the rot.
but i am not as defeatist as i sound. the solution is simply to not store more than you can supervise. rotate your stocks. if you havent gotten your books out in a year or two, maybe you dont need them. if your clothes are rotting in storage, probably you have more than you need. throw them away, if necessary you can buy a new wardrobe at the thrift store for $20 with more character than anything you can get from old navy, and with zero environmental impact from primary production capacity.
the last issue that you must consider is inspiration. this lifestyle takes more involvment, theres no one telling you what to do, so you have to find what needs to be done, and then get up and do it. many jobs take much longer than you'd expected, and it takes something to get you out there digging that important ditch for the fourth day iin a row. so let yoursefl get sidetracked, within limits, by whatever takes your fancy, the cultivation of landscape and lifestyle that reminds you why you're out here. take time for art, or walking, or reading, or looking. make new trails. experiment. stay in love with the land and the life, or life will turn gray like city air, just like it does working for megacorp.
perhaps the best part of the lifestyle is that it pays to stay connected to the "why" of everything you do. this is obviously not true when you're working for the man, paying bills and struggling to keep your head above water. but out here, you wonder why, and discover, you're weeding these vegetables to your family will ahve good food to eat. you're digging this ditch to protect what youve built from flooding. you're building this infrastructure, reducing your impact, cutting your carbon, cutting this weed, planting this tree for your greatgrandchildren, for the betterment of the world,m for all of life.
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