An ongoing case study in becoming self sufficient in an urban environment.
Living free has two meanings for me, one the idea of having minimal to no cost of living without a reduction in lifestyle really appeals to me. Growing up in the suburbs of California's San Francisco Bay Area, I have seen the massive consumptive lifestyles, 4,000 sq ft houses with water intensive massive lawns, swimming pools that hardly get used, and multi hour commutes to work, in gridlock traffic. Escaping keeping up with the Jones - high paying jobs, that come with high mortgages, car payments, and 12 hour work days. Looks like slavery to me.
I'm also a bit of an Apocalypse nut. It blows me away how unprepared most urban Americans are. With $5 gas looming in the coming weeks, massive inflation soon to follow, throw in a large scale war, terrorist attack or natural disaster and were screwed. We have built a nation of pansys who think food comes from the grocery store or Mcdonalds but has little to no concept of how much work it takes to grow a pound of wheat for bread flour. I dont want to be one of these people! Its damn hard to grow enough food to feed yourself and family!
Over the years while fantasizing Apocalyptic scenarios, I have decided that I am a survive in place person. So many think that should something bad happen they will head for the hills, pack up their kids and shit into a SUV and ride into the safety of uncle Verns summer cabin next to the lake. Those people are going to experince huge dissapointmnt when they run out of gas on a grid locked freeway, and go hungary as the Doritos run out.
My goal is to build a self sufficent residence, that can go 6 months +, with diminished or eliminated services.
A shelter that relys on solar gain and wood heat.
A shelter that has rainwater collection abilites
A shelter that has solar, wind, and wood gasification electrical power genertion ablities.
A shelter that is aesthetically pleasing in an urban enviroment, while being secure of looters, and remaining a practical place to live.
Food
My goal is to nearly eliminate our dependence on the grocery store.
Never buy meat again. raise it or hunt it. Fish, deer meat, and Chickens
Never buy vegtables again, grow in bulk in summer months can and freeze, grow fresh vegtables year round.
Honey bees
Develop items of trade.
Transportaion
Electric vehicles for local transportation.
I think you get the idea, This blog will be a log book of my experiments in free living.
