Post-Apocalyptic Thoreau - the way he was meant to be.

Really, the idea of getting away and becoming more self-sufficient intersects with another of my long time passions. The Apocalypse. From the Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher through the Mad Max movies and then onto the Zombie uprising.

Self-sufficient. A strange concept to ponder in our current society where trades have been broken down into tasks via assembly line thinking. I doubt that I'll ever become completely so, not without vastly streamlining my life well beyond what I'm willing to sacrifice. One would have to embrace the primitive hunter-gather lifestyle and enschew all modern technology opting instead for whatever one could make with their own hands. To survive without needing to rely on the untrustworthy others.

This is the only path to true self-sufficiency. In the words of Thoreau “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” Cut down your affairs to the bare number possible to keep yourself alive. (Thoreau argues that you need to live a good life, be good for something – largely he seems to have some suggestions while leaving the reader to define exactly what that means.)

Food and shelter. Your life will be a constant search for these if you wish to live the simplest life possible with the fewest possessions. And, in the case of the apocalypse, this may be how many people are left to live. Either as hunter-gathers or as scavengers on the bones of society(I prefer the latter, but it is the more treacherous of the paths).

Bah on that noise. In this respect I don't want to simplify but rather to expand. I want to learn more about the world, to feed my curiosity(sadly I am easily distracted and quickly flit away to the next shiny object that drops in my path). I want to build myself a mountain of knowledge and save as much of the memory of humanity as possible. This is why I'm building my library. I am an introvert and a hermit, but I still want people around. People who can share the burden of learning and knowing.

Only an utter fool goes through life alone and turns away help from friendly hands. In many cases I have been this utter fool. I think I shall try to change this. I think that I will likely fail. I wonder if I could gather and set up my own self-sufficient community of Future Apocalyptic Survivors. Or does that sound like a cult? Or worse, the plot to The Village.

My Skills blog lists some of the areas of knowledge that might come in handy. My own pallet is largely useless and difficult to apply in the modern world. I'm left hoping that my experience in weaving chainmail will be a valuable asset after the collapse.

*if you wish to join kindly compose and mail an essay relating your applicable skills along with a recent headshot.

In 8^th grade we read the novel “The Girl Who Owned a City” (Objectivist Propoganda) about a plague that only left prepubescent children alive. That fired my imagination for years, until my voice changed and I began collecting my own odd assortment of body hair. Afterwards, I had to drop my admittedly silly plans of trekking to Alaska and fetching food with a BB gun. Oh well, other scenarios were always there to fill in the gap.

In recent years, I've settled on the idea of finding a parcel of land away from a population center. This is in part where the previous post comes into play. Find land, and produce food. Ok, I suppose that is easy enough, I live in America and we've a lot of space and if we get a proper apocalypse where the lion's share of our species ceases to be, well then more for me. Still, I should quite prefer to get a few years of practice in afore the end. A dress rehearsal before going on.

*I predict that the world will end soon after Sarah Palin is elected president in 2016. Soon after she'll somehow release the zombie plague while visiting a secret CDC facility. I like to imagine it will involve her tripping while trying to walk and chew gum at the same time. That leaves me with 4 years to work with. Better get cracking.

So my to do list: Find land. Build house. Gather knowledgeable companions to join me in my mad quest. If video games have taught me anything, I will meet them along the way and after a brief interaction we'll become fast friends and trusted allies. I'll need a healer, builder/mage, fighter and thief to round out my party proper. I'm working on my Mandolin skills so that I can fulfill the role of Bard.

To date I've not managed to accomplish any of these Herculean tasks. A few hurdles stand in my way.

Firstly there are the years of student loans that I need to pay off. I suppose I could follow in Thoreau's footsteps and find a wealthy benefactor to donate the land, but I am the suck at schmoozing. Though, I would love to see the business plan that sells that one. “So, you're going to collect a ragtag band of hippies, bikers, survivalists, farmers and doctors and build a settlement out in the boonies. What sort of profits are you expecting after you get started?”

Yeah. Better do this myself. Come on lotto!

Assuming I do manage to scrape up a place to homestead, I've often wondered how to go about it. And where. I've had long discussions on the subjects, as well as debating myself. Locally I'm fond of Traverse City, mostly due to a partiality to the landscape. Climate is iffy and soil is sandy. Move on.

Really, there are going to be positives and negatives to just about any local I can dream up. The north east has a cold climate and poor growing season. North west has a superior climate but is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity. Fuck the South(east) – More eloquently, the climate is far too hot for my preference, and the last decades have been dry, not to mention the bevy of overly religious folk. Religious folk are scary enough in quiet times, I fear that the end of the world will send them over the edge. The southwest is hot, dry, and hot and dry.

I of course have my preference after weighing the options. No I won't tell you. I will however move onto the last part of this muddled tirade.

Housing. As I don't plan to wander, I will need some permanent housing. Something sturdy that works with the land. Many ideas have come and gone.

For a while, I had a passing fancy for Microhomes. For those who aren't enlightened, they're a spin off of the Thoreau inspired Movement for Simple Living. Thoreau himselflived in a Microhouse. Generally to be considered a microhouse the domicile needs to be around 100 to 750 square feet. That's right, many of these places are the size of a studio apartment. Some are as small as my dorm room. Still, that should be enough space for one or two people – so long as they Simplify and slough off their unnecessary baggage.

A microhouse would be perfect. I am a hermit and need but little space and could easily get by with a mere couple hundred square feet. Mostly. Even without the imminent Palinocalpyse. I want a home that will be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. All with the least resources possible. To be honest, I've been fascinated by the concept of the underground home since I was a kid. Back then we lived near an underground home and it was an exciting landmark that we would point out on the daily commute. I don't recall that seeing the place ever got old, it was so damned exotic.

Then I found Earthships. They are a range of earth sheltered homes that were constructed of walls of earth filled tires. The creator, a raging hippie, claims to have designed for sustainability. He's been working on the project for 30 or 40 years now, learning and advancing through trial and error. Heated with passive solar, they collect rainfall for water and are outfitted with sources to manufacture renewable energy(solar panels and wind turbines). He claims that even in the harshest Taos winters that residents don't need to spend a dime on heating the home. Same goes for cooling in the summers.

*Pardon if I'm a mite obsessed with the idea, but we just had a heatwave where the temps topped 105. There have been many days this summer where I've wished my apartment was really one of these structures.

The south face of the house is a wall of windows that forms a greenhouse. The roof collects water and stores it in cisterns. These two features are combined to make a natural water treatment system as well as food production area. Fresh water > Shower > Planters(to filter) > Toilet > Outdoor Planters > Septic tank and field.

Fresh food 365 days a year from the greenhouse. Resistant to fires, tornadoes and earthquakes. These are the claims that the hippie architect makes, and I want to believe them. The houses were designed to allow the inhabitants to live their lives off the grid. The possibilities tickle both the inner hermit and survivalist.

I want to try it out.