Anybody interested in primitive living/primitivism?

[oregano]

I know we already have a survivalism thread, but this is slightly different. Is there anybody here interested in/doing a primitive lifestyle? Getting as much food off the land (or raising/growing it) as possible, rainwater and/or natural spring for water, small cabin with the bare essentials for an abode? This has always interested me, but I keep encountering setback after setback. I have an area all picked out and everything, but I simply keep getting buried under massive debt for things I can't help. I pay off one thing and along comes something else. My mom will likely have to go into an old folks home ("assisted living facility" in the US) in a few years and if I don't have it by then I will live a REALLY primitive life as in sleeping under a bridge.

 

[SusanLR]

That has always been a type of back burner dream for me.
I say back burner, because as long as I had my parents to live with we were OK. Not wealthy by any means. I worked, Dad worked, Mom took care of the household.
We lived most most of my life in a mobile home by a bay in Florida. It was about as natural as they wanted to live.

Like you, I always had a dream of one of those little tiny houses in the woods by a pond or lake somewhere. Pretty much self sustaining when I was younger and healthier.

I would still love to live like that and lived very primitive when I was 5 and 6 yrs. old with my Grandmother in the Ozark hills. Old farm house, no running water or electric.
Wood stoves. Well. Outhouse. Smokehouse. Grew and canned vegetables. My Grandfather lived the same way only 12 miles away. Mom and Dad grew up that way.
So I"ve lived as primitive as you can get those two years, outside of living in a cave.

Our family made it just the three of us though. And now that they are gone, I'm afraid I'm old enough and disabled that my next stop will be an Assisted Living also. That's why I put up with helping the senior man I rent from for now. I have part of the house to live in and he let's me drive his second car. So, for now...

 

[Chance]

I guess (in a very modern way) I do live somewhat primitive. I live about 100 miles from the closest city. Its 30 miles each way to the closest place to get gas or even a cold drink. I am surrounded by wildlife and what used to be a very simple life. I do love and enjoy things that are simple, but I don't care to have trinkets or junk laying around. I think I have a lot of me that would be called a minimalist but I have nothing to do with the pop culture that goes with it.

If I want something I work for it and go get it, but I try and make sure its functional to some extent and is something that makes my quality of life better. I do respect nature and try to give back to the land that provides me a good life, by not doing things to harm it.

Even out in the middle of nowhere life still changes fast. I have wind towers popping up all around me. They are ugly and even a little spooky looking. At first I thought it was cool but to the west of me there are now 400 of them. This brings in lots of strangers who don't care so much for the land, and I see lots of heavy equipment, and more trash on the roads these days.

I do try and transfer from nowhere Texas back to San Diego each winter if possible, which is anything but primitive. However, I love the water and the climate. I love the Pacific coast and just getting out on a boat and getting away from everything, but that is very temporary and I have to be very careful these days.

I have a cousin in Colorado and he does live a really cool primitive life. I wouldn't mind just building a cabin, barn and green house and just becoming a hermit. However, I sort of fear I would become one of those crazy people who loses the ability to interact with others and then they might put me away...

I do love growing my own food and I do a lot of that, but often I cant take care of it the way I should because work is so crazy in the summer and it gets so hot here... The one thing I really dislike is the weather here. Its so unpredictable, sometimes even terrifying, with very little notice.

I think on this subject maybe more than anything. I too want to just find a place with the right climate, not many people, and good growing conditions... Today that is asking a lot because anywhere those situations fit, there are masses of people sucking the life out of everything around.

I work at the golf resort here. The fact that is in the middle of nowhere is what draws lots of people to it, but I watch them trash and destroy that 800 acre place and it makes me sick. Many of them get here and want (even expect) all the conveniences of the city. They grip about bugs, snakes, deer tearing up the greens, the occasional skunk in the campgrounds and a million other things... I just always ignore most of it and count down the time till they leave... Which is now!!! Our season ended yesterday woooooo hoooo! Its time for some quiet times for a little while, and then the brutal winter hits and I am out of here if at all possible. : )

 

[the_tortoise]

Maybe not primitive but I dream of living in the forest in a temperate climate, building my own little cob house (sadly you need building permits everywhere -- although you can sometimes get them, it's harder than for typical builds of modern-style homes), and growing a variety of vegetables. I would ideally like to have electricity (solar panels would be good), treated water (that I didn't have to treat myself, I mean) and indoor plumbing, though.

 

[I_Forge_Steel]

I guess it depends on your definition of primitive, but I am always interested in the idea of homesteading. Even if you can't pull it off 100%, you can do things to become less dependent on the modern world. There are ways to be more self reliant no matter where you are.

 

[Nitro]

The Whole Earth Catalogs

 

[Judge]

The Whole Earth Catalogs

I sooooooooooo miss their retail stores they had so many years ago.

 

[Nitro]

I sooooooooooo miss their retail stores they had so many years ago.

I once had my original catalogs,but they got away from me.
I found these two at a flea market and had to have them.

 

[Judge]

I once had my original catalogs,but they got away from me.
I found these two at a flea market and had to have them.

They were the best computer hardware/software store in town at one time. Where I bought my first firewall..."Black Ice". And so many other non-electronics could be bought there. Lots of stuff at one point you just wouldn't likely find elsewhere.