Is it still posible?

B

benchmadebob

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May 12, 2008
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For my whole i have always wanted to live of the land. Like Dick prenoke the man from alone in the wilderness. I have always asked my self is it posible to do what he did in the present. It has been on my mind for a very long time i just want to. First because i like the solituide and i like the woods.

Also do you guys share this dream also?
 
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I have done it in the past. However times required that we had to do the work thing and had to give it up for the kids for a while. We still have our wilderness place and will soon return to it. Maybe by this summer.:cool:
 
I reckon with the right initial start up you could live a fairly 'normal' life. There's a show here in the UK called 'Grand Designs' and a guy on that was living a pretty sweet life. He owned a bit of woodland and worked that to earn himself money. He has lived on site under a tarp for years but eventually scraped the money together to build this eco house. No bills as he has water and power on the site. Check out the clip, there should be a full 1 hour show online somewhere if it interests you.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=y_i1w0mK1UI&feature=channel
 
Proenneke is one of my heroes and one day I will make the trek to his cabin. I suppose one could do what he did, but perhaps not legally since I'm not aware of any place where homesteading is still allowed. Maybe in remote parts of Alaska, but that's a very hard life. Most of the land that would be desirable to live on is now "protected" in some fashion. Even the lake where his cabin was built is now a national park. Gov't closed that loophole. You have to stay in the city with the rest of the herd.
 
Possible yes but would you want to isolate yourself?
I'm guessing you would take as many essentials as you could, with you. This says to me that we need our connection to others. Medicine, imported foods, tools, salt, sugar, flour ... our beloved blades ...
I have thought it many times but in reality I dont think I could last long.
 
He STARTED when he was 52.

He had a friend that already had a cabinand the Government allowed such things at the time

Hundreds of thousands of people did the same and survived. Not necessarily comfortable, but survived. Of course some died also.

COULD it be done? Yes

Would you be ALLOWED to do it? NO
 
I think we where all born a couple of hundred years too late. :(





"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
Honestly, I think I would be going a bit stir crazy after a while.

I love to dream about this kind of thing, but the fact is I go nuts after fairly short periods of feeling "cooped up."

So in the winter, spending a lot of time around the cabin would pretty quickly turn in to me going on long expeditions to see people. But I don't ACTUALLY like spending much time around people, so I would then immediately want to leave.

I salute people that can do this, but I know if I took a family to some isolated place for too long it would turn a little "the shining" after a bit.
 
Big Mike said:
I think we where all born a couple of hundred years too late. :(





"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
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Exactly my thoughts i wish i was born back in the times of mountain men. Thats mt dream job. lol
 
COULD it be done? Yes

Would you be ALLOWED to do it? NO
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On public land you'd normally be prohibited from building permanent structures and you'd need licenses for taking game, but otherwise sure, you could live indefinitely in the National Forest or BLM land.

On your own land you certainly could build a cabin and live just like folks 300 years ago. Stay caught up on your property taxes though. ;)

Also do you guys share this dream also?
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There's an old Zane Grey story about a desert rat prospector, Tappan's Burro.
I could be Tappan. Easily.

I once did a 21-day desert survival program in college. The professor thought I might not come back from the 4-day solo. ;)
 
I lived in a cabin with my grandpa in duckcreek utah in the late 70s for about 3 months. I can apparently eat trout, and s.o.s. for about 3 months.
 
Not sure how you would live LEGALLY on government land building a cabin.

You certainly could not survive year round legally taking game only in season.

Those days are gone and with the current political times, you are likely to have less freedom than ever in the next few years. I certainly don't see things opening up for wilderness folks anytime soon.

I think you can count on this being less and less of a reality as time marches on.

Sorry.
 
I definitely like to think that one day I'll be able to retire while still in reasonable health and live a lot more remote than I do now. I'd like to be able to get most my food from hunting, fishing, growing my own veggies and keeping a few chickens etc. I'd like to be sittin on my deck as the sun goes down , whittling some wood with my dog at my side and the smell of my wifes baking drifting from inside.......without our dreams, whats the point in living !!!!

At the same time if we can't have what we love then we should learn to love what we have !!!!
 
You certainly could not survive year round legally taking game only in season.
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I think your probably could. It seems there's always something in season - deer, rabbits, squirrels, fowl, turkeys, bear, elk, antelope... And a deer's worth of meet could last a lone man quite a long time, assuming it could be preserved. Fishing is year-round too.
 
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