January 14, 2019

"All in all... I prefer a campfire-roasted porcupine that I killed and butchered... slathered with highbush cranberry ketchup..."

"... foraged chickweed salad with mushrooms on the side, a hot cup of stinging nettle tea to wash it down and a handful of wild blueberries for dessert. Bugs, sticks, sand and assorted forest floor debris sometimes makes it into my vittles but... 'It’s clean dirt.'.... My toilet is a hollow cottonwood stump and I bathe with a kettle of hot creek water. Some places along the highway offer showers but they cost money and contribute to ecocide, so I clean my crotch in the creek occasionally. But personal hygiene is not a priority.... Instead of washing my clothing – layers come cheap from thrift shops – I air it out, hanging it on a tree branch for a snowstorm or two, then turn it inside out and put it back into rotation.....  My presence on this planet leaves little trace, which is how I feel it should be. While that’s pleasing to me, I also understand my withdrawal is meaningless in the grand scheme. The world needs systemic change. In my solitude and self-imposed isolation on the side of a mountain in an undisclosed location, I find it all mildly amusing."

From "Houseless in Alaska: why I opted for mountain views and porcupine dinners/Homeless implies a moral failure while being houseless – lacking a permanent three-dimensional structure – is less stress on the planet and on my brain." Just something I noticed in The Guardian this morning. It feels like something Brits want to read about America. And for some reason it makes me want to embed this video I happened to watch yesterday:



I can see that this is a whole genre. Women go on camera and list 50 things they don't buy anymore. I'm interested in frugality as an active avocation.

105 comments:

Charlie said...

You had me at "I clean my crotch in the creek occasionally".

Nonapod said...

While that’s pleasing to me, I also understand my withdrawal is meaningless in the grand scheme. The world needs systemic change. In my solitude and self-imposed isolation on the side of a mountain in an undisclosed location, I find it all mildly amusing."

If we want to reduce our envirnmental impact, the world needs much more technology, not less. We need commercial breakeven fusion to achieve near effectively clean energy generation. We need to develop incredibly efficient synthetic materials. We need highly sophisticated robots to clean up the oceans.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

While that’s pleasing to me, I also understand my withdrawal is meaningless in the grand scheme. The world needs systemic change.

It seems a brief stroll from eating porcupine and understanding that the world needs systemic change to writing a manifesto and sending improvised explosive devices through the U.S. Postal Service

Sebastian said...

Chopping masses of wood, using tree stumps and creeks for toilets, hunting and gathering for food = less stress on the planet?

Multiply by 7 billion, and poof.

Kevin said...

Women go on camera and list 50 things they don't buy anymore.

Why not include men in the series, unless it's just another way to demonstrate how woke and intelligent women are?

And if that's true, it has nothing to do with buying less stuff or living a different lifestyle.

It's just agitprop.

traditionalguy said...

Alasaka may be a wonderful life from May through September. But @-48F in the winter months it becomes a survival test. If the heater goes out, you die.

Minimalists seem to me like cheap religious ascetics escaped from their hermit caves. The latest stylish clothes are worth buying at discounted sales.

tcrosse said...

I don't buy Audi two-seaters any more.

Darrell said...

I miss hot-and-cold running creeks.

Rob said...

He says he was raised in "a lilywhite midwestern suburb." As distinguished, apparently, from the very diverse and multi-ethnic backwoods of Alaska.

Fritz said...

Porcupine ain't that bad; especially if it's a young one that's been eating grass and not fir trees. When I lived in Oregon, Douglas County had a bounty on their noses. Quite literally their noses. If you skinned the nose and brought it to the courthouse, they'd give you $5.

gilbar said...

Darrell said... I miss hot-and-cold running creeks.
come back to Wyoming!

Fernandinande said...

Women go on camera and list 50 things they don't buy anymore.

That first feperson was quite the little actress - watch it with the sound off.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I've been going to Alaska lately. I may take a job up there.

A guy told me, a woman asked him about finding a man in Alaska. He told her the odds are good. But the goods are odd.

gilbar said...

i liked: " I even get them (notebooks) as gifts; so, there's no reason to buy them"
i'm guessing that she could put "drinks" on the list too, then?

Biotrekker said...

The guy is standing next to a big pile of dead tree. I assume that he's going to burn the wood to keep himself warm - what is more inefficient than burning wood to keep one human being alive in a frigid climate? I assume his led light is powered by renewable solar power! But it required a modern industrial society to create. He exists, but much like an animal, he will leave no legacy.

Maillard Reactionary said...

He better hope some other hobo whackjob 500 yards upstream isn't washing his ass the next day he decides to fill his canteen with fresh water.

DAN said...

The woman says her watches are timeless. That alone was worth the price of admission.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

One more story. My wife sells clothes on the internet. One girl from the Bronx bought a blouse. The girl asked my wife not to ship it in a box because she was "super into ethical packaging." But also asked for expedited shipping because she wanted it before she went on vacation.

CJinPA said...

I like being frugal. Some good ideas here, midst the relentless uptalk.

My kids have too many toys they almost never used. A huge waste. We could have cut it by half, at least.

Moving from plastic tooth brushes to bamboo? What are the bristles made of? That wasn't clear.

Cutting cable and saying it encourages you to watch less, while...encouraging people to watch your program on the internet seems a tad contradictory.

Some of her ideas take time - making your own salad dressing sounds intriguing - but maybe not realistic for working families who don't sit down to eat until 7 pm as it is. (Like us.)

All in all, some useful information.

Infinite Monkeys said...

That first feperson was quite the little actress - watch it with the sound off.

I should have tried it with the sound off. She just talks and talks and talks.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Biotrekker said...

...what is more inefficient than burning wood to keep one human being alive in a frigid climate?

Yeah, this guy's lifestyle is low-impact on a per-acre basis, because he is living in an area with few people per acre. It is extremely high impact on a per-person basis.

Virgil Hilts said...

I started reading this and thought ... OMG they're finally going to publish the Unabomber's diary.

CJinPA said...

I clean my crotch in the creek occasionally. But personal hygiene is not a priority.

As with all of back-to-nature lectures, one can't help but think: What if everyone did it? You can only do it because the rest of us doing what it takes to live in close proximity, which means using soap to bathe. Soap made in a factory using energy from a coal-fired power plant and transported to me using fossil fuels.

I wish you the best, but please understand we can't all clean our crotches in a creek without serious repercussions.

pacwest said...

"Porcupine ain't that bad;"

Porcupine tastes terrible! Granted I've only ate it once in a survival situation, but even hungry as I was I won't be back for more. I mean really bad.

Bill, I lived in AK for 50 years, and noticed you were thinking of moving up there. Climate varies a lot. Anchorage rarely gets below zero. Fairbanks is cooold. The summers are almost tropical because of the extended daylight, but winters get long. If you are year round make sure to have a winter activity to keep your sanity.

Darrell said...

Shaving your women to make pillows you can sell on Etsy is a good idea.

Seeing Red said...

I’m not buying things but she’s wasting my time talking about what she’s not buying.

I was hoping for a list not listening to a gnat buzzing.

This is what people do to save money. We just never really told anyone.

Virgil Hilts said...

Re the video
51. - my webcam. If 115,000 have watched my overlong video then that's 35,000 wasted man/person-hours which is the equivalent of about 17 people working full time for a whole year. Just imaging how I can add a chunk of that productivity back to the economy by just getting rid of my webcam. So this will be my very last video. Thanks fans, now get back to work.

gilbar said...

fun quotes!
Right now, I have a bus with a wood-burning stove in it on loan for the winter,
community members are not averse to doing you favors, giving you rides or putting you to work
I don’t want a flock of freakin’ hobos descending on the area like an invasive species
and welfare cheesere
chargeable LEDs (a gift from a friend)
personal hygiene is not a priority
a mile hike to the library gets me some wifi and a battery charge.


so, he lives One Mile from the library, survives on gifts, loans and charity, Stinks! and doesn't
"want a flock of freakin' hobos descending on the area like an invasive species"

after all, More hobos would get in the way of HIS mooching

gilbar said...

does he Know about Gillette?

etbass said...

She's totally cute and enjoyable to watch. Just mute the sound.

Sprezzatura said...

mockT was houseless.

Sorta like this: http://cdn.coresites.factorymedia.com/mpora_new/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/unimog-camper.jpg

She rocks!

[she would be perfectly situated if she gave up on a writing style that sometimes veers into a silly high tea tone. Afternoon tea is just fine. Sweet tea is even betta, i.e. it's 'Murican. IMHT.]

Robert Cook said...

Did she say she would include some things she "...has never boughten"?

Virgil Hilts said...

etbass said...
"She's totally cute and enjoyable to watch. Just mute the sound."
LOL! I was thinking of that Twilight Zone episode -- "The Chaser" where the guy finally gets the gorgious woman using a love potion, but then she won't stop talking.

Leland said...

I think the new generation of people entering their 20's will buy a lot less things than we did. I think the primary reason is the lack of scarcity of many products. Almost anything you want can be purchased at your computer screen and delivered from anywhere in days if not hours. If you want something, buy it when you need it and get rid of it when you don't. Add that most leisure time can be filled with a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. You don't need much. That's why we are starting to hear about people buying "experiences".

mockturtle said...

I've been not buying stuff for many years. Amusing how she makes frugality and minimalism sound brand new! ;-D A friend who recently visited likes to go 'treasure hunting' at thrift stores and garage sales. I told her I don't go if there's nothing I need. And most the time, other than consumable goods, I don't need anything. She looked stunned. Truly, I hate to accumulate. Minimalism is more important to me than even frugality.

Robert Cook said...

"I wish you the best, but please understand we can't all clean our crotches in a creek without serious repercussions."

The repercussions certainly must be less harmful than everyone driving automobiles and using plastic products and operating nuclear plants that melt down and spilling oil by the millions (billions?) of gallons into the ocean, and our myriad other activities that pollute and despoil the environment.

Rick.T. said...

Reading the selected works of Jack London cured me of ever wanting to live in Alaska.

I'm not buying anything in the MSM anymore.

Jay Elink said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
buwaya said...

He has it seems removed himself from the gene pool.
At age 64 it doesn't seem like he has an option to get back into it.

Which is not really "natural", this voluntary hermit existence is a human social phenomenon.

And hardly novel of course. The only new-ish thing is the sort of religion it justifies itself with, and the nature of the worldly sins he condemns. The attitude is also typical.

buwaya said...

In other words, he is the sort of St. Simeon Stylites that would appeal to the modern Guardian reader.

iowan2 said...

To each their own. up thread has pointed out the silliness of this kind of living being practiced by 9 billion people. Reminds of one of the books written by Dennis Avery.
Saving the Planet by Using Pesticides and Plastic. summary is that intensive high input agriculture enables those marginal fragile areas to be uncropped. Saving them from degradation. Pour it on to those high producing acres, increasing the per acre yields. Saving marginal acres.
Enter thru the Althouse portal

https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Planet-Pesticides-Plastic-2nd/dp/1558130691/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

richlb said...

First, she's hot. Second, she must be from the midwest due to her reference to "POP" when she means "SODA".

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Thanks for the info PacWest. It is appreciated. I'd live in the Anchorage area for easy access to the airport and work various places in the bush and north slope.

No decision yet.

Earnest Prole said...

The cruelest white-woman parody would be word-for-word verbatim.

jimbino said...

Instead of giving up the backpack in favor of a purse, I just gave up weddings altogether, along with Christmas, Easter, Valentine's day, birthdays and all the Jesus, Santa and Tooth Fairy lying to kids.

Sprezzatura said...

After a bunch of comments claiming she's hot, I tried watching.

I agree that her recorded jabber style is not compelling (re the 45 seconds total (incl my skipping around) that I heard), but mute is even worse.

What is attractive about a gal that you've decided to mute so you can find her attractive?

I'm not saying that she wouldn't look good if I saw a still picture. But, if I already know that she's saying trite stuff, I wouldn't make her more appealing by ignoring that. The well is poisoned, as they say. The only solution would be to hear her talking in her normal (not for camera) voice. That could be hot. Or not.

IMHT.

jimbino said...

Funny that she said a simple watch is a "timeless" purchase.

mockturtle said...

Funny that she said a simple watch is a "timeless" purchase.

I noticed that, too. What good is a timeless watch? ;-)

rhhardin said...

The youtube lady is buying a lot of makeup.

buwaya said...

The girl is pretty enough and fairly vivacious, if rather vapid.

This acquiring stuff, or shopping for it anyway, is a girl thing.

mockturtle said...

I love Alaska and will be driving my RV up there again this summer, Lord willing. My ideal would be to winter here in AZ and summer in AK. It's a long drive, though.

Rabel said...

The houseless Alaskan is almost certainly a piece of fiction.

MikeR said...

"The world needs systemic change." Actually not. The human impact on the environment has decreased during my lifetime as technology has grown. Primitives destroy the environments they are in.

iowan2 said...

Robert Cook said...
"I wish you the best, but please understand we can't all clean our crotches in a creek without serious repercussions."

The repercussions certainly must be less harmful than


Sewage systems and the brewing of beer and fermentation of wine were perhaps the two biggest advancements to the overall health of humans ever.

alanc709 said...

Does washing your crotch in a creek prevent toxic masculinity?

Anthony said...

God, you can practically hear the air escaping from her head. . . . .

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

I bailed out early on the video. Is bleach for the hair one of the things the YouTube lady stopped buying?

Sprezzatura said...

MockT houseless in Alaska:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=6HqFvnQr9P0

The Godfather said...

The Neanderthals lived that way. Where are they now?

buwaya said...

"Does washing your crotch in a creek prevent toxic masculinity?"

I don't know, but it is generally good advice, in most places.
Though you may want to resist the urge in certain creeks - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candiru

buwaya said...

"The Neanderthals lived that way. Where are they now?"

I think modern humans minimalized them to extinction.

rcocean said...

As stated above, its impossible to go Homeless in Alaska and live through the winter.

Does he bath his balls in the creek when its frozen over?

If I ever went "Homeless" I plan on doing it in Maui.

rcocean said...

Free Advice:

Never go homeless in a place with Snow.

Mr. Majestyk said...

So how did the Guardian hear about this hermit?

rcocean said...

Campfire porcupine? How long did it take to get all the quills out?

rcocean said...

"So how did the Guardian hear about this hermit?"

Stephen Glass tipped them off.

walter said...

"I find sturdier shelter when the water I soak my false teeth in overnight freezes and I have to chisel them free before I can eat breakfast. "

Oh c'mon. Stop romanticizing things.

rcocean said...

Ever eat a pine-cone? Maybe parts are edible.

walter said...

"On my monthly ride on public transportation to the local food bank 30 miles away, I’ll pick up rice, pasta, cereal and milk, some canned goods, fruit, veggies, maybe some soup plus peanut butter and welfare cheese (I hate how much I love that stuff!)."

Meet your bus mate..

alanc709 said...

My girlfriend's husband went to Maui to be homeless, but since he's white, they bought him a return airplane ticket. BTW, we live in the Seattle area, so he might be better off, since Seattle actively recruits homeless people.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"It seems a brief stroll from eating porcupine and understanding that the world needs systemic change to writing a manifesto and sending improvised explosive devices through the U.S. Postal Service"

Profoundly true. And funny!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Re: the video

I couldn’t get past the girl and her coco nut-milk. Dang!

Sprezzatura said...

"since Seattle actively recruits homeless people."

Especially drug fiends.

BarrySanders20 said...

Nettle Tea wishes and porcupine dreams . . .

Lifestyles of the Eccentric and Houseless.

Yancey Ward said...

I watched the entire video and only had a few quibbles, her list was otherwise quite reasonable, many of which would be and are my own list of "never purchase".

Leslie Graves said...

I admire the frugalists. On the other hand, I just went on Amazon and ordered $80 worth of strings of pink lights to put outside in honor of Valentine's Day because it's well past time for the Christmas lights to come down and I just don't want to look into an unbroken sea of utter darkness out my windows every night.

ccscientist said...

Throughout history there have been hermits: Greece, Rome, always. I think it is genetic but the individuals rationalize it with the latest thing. There was a whole ascetic philosophy in roman times.

Fred Drinkwater said...

That young lady certainly convinced me that my micro minimalist approach to watching online videos remains the right one.
And it only took her 45 seconds!

n.n said...

He started his slide into depravity as an anti-porcupinist, then doubles down and advocates for picking and crushing cranberries at the peak of their youthful vigor.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Living near San Francisco, I have conversations with college age kids who extol the virtues and life of Mr. Houseless.
It's trivial to destroy their illusions, because they grew up surrounded by technical, medical, social, and economic luxury.
They're silicon valley savvy - when you point out that GPS is a 50 billion dollar bit of infrastructure employing thousands to keep it running, they get it. Similarly for Wi-Fi, vaccines, sewage, clean water, the steel in that guy's local library building, in the bus.
When you point out the tech and underlying systems in their "simple" solar powered LED light, they get it.
Modern journalism isn't fit for puppy training.

William said...

I, of course, know the proper way to skin a porcupine. Very carefully. But I don't know the proper way to campfire roast them. For an hour at four hundred degrees? Is it hard to maintain an even temperature in a campfire? I'm pretty sure we'll done porcupine is better than rare porcupine, but I don't know. ..... Why porcupines? There are some animals that don't look that tasty. Deer actually look a lot tastier than they, in fact, are. Maybe porcupines are just the reverse. Perhaps some entrepreneur can raise them for the commercial market. Maybe they're naturally low in cholesterol.

Big Mike said...

Anybody know Joe’s recipe for roast rump of skunk?

YoungHegelian said...

With the #MeToo comes Chastity. Then the Earth-Friendly guys preach Poverty, whatever they may call it.

But, don't worry --- sooner than any of us care to admit with come the last vow, Obedience, & it will be the hardest of them all.

glenn said...

Actually after the destruction of our manufacturing infrastructure and 8 years of Barrykins my guess is a lot of people don’t have any choice about their “footprint”

MadisonMan said...

Honey, can you go buy these 50 things for me?

What you would hear if the video was just a bit longer.

YoungHegelian said...

I wish you the best, but please understand we can't all clean our crotches in a creek without serious repercussions.

Now they tell me!

And I just thought I had finicky neighbors!

Henry said...

Funny to click through and read the rest. This guy is no fan of poor people.

He's the drunk uncle version of Henry Thoreau. Stay the hell away from my pond, delinquents!

MadisonMan said...

has never boughten

That word is in my vocabulary, as in, "This cake is boughten; I didn't make it by hand."

gg6 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Earnest Prole said...

That word is in my vocabulary, as in, "This cake is boughten; I didn't make it by hand."

The usage is perfectly proper.

Fritz said...


Blogger William said...
I, of course, know the proper way to skin a porcupine. Very carefully. But I don't know the proper way to campfire roast them. For an hour at four hundred degrees? Is it hard to maintain an even temperature in a campfire? I'm pretty sure we'll done porcupine is better than rare porcupine, but I don't know. ..... Why porcupines? There are some animals that don't look that tasty. Deer actually look a lot tastier than they, in fact, are. Maybe porcupines are just the reverse. Perhaps some entrepreneur can raise them for the commercial market. Maybe they're naturally low in cholesterol.


There are no quills on the belly, which gives you a place to start. You still have to be careful of the damn quills.

Why porcupines? As I noted before they’re considered a pest in serious tree growing country, hence the bounty. They can make a serious mess out of a dog, too. In a survival setting you can beat one to death with a stick, unlike a deer. I was a poor grad student, and it was free meat.

After skinning ang gutting you get about a quarter of the initial weight in meat and bones. The meat is very red, like beef. As for cooking them on a campfire, I haven’t. We usually roasted them in a stove or a crockpot.

pacwest said...

"Why porcupines?"

Because they are slow movers and you can kill them with a rock. You got the very carefully part right though :)

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I got better things to do than sit and watch some woman ramble for 19 minutes

Can't it just be a listicle to skim?

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

This acquiring stuff, or shopping for it anyway, is a girl thing.

Agree. In anthropology 101 they taught me that shopping was simply women scanning the jungle for the choicest roots and berries.

DavidUW said...

You buy stuff when you're young. Replace it when you're middle aged. Then don't replace it when you're old.
Then you die.
That's pretty much it.
Marketers have known this forever, which is why they market "stuff" to the young.
That young people "don't buy stuff" anymore is a problem for those marketers. Sorry young people that you wasted the equivalent of a house on the "experience" of a useless "-" studies degree.

alanc709 said...

Wonder how many colleges realize the dire future demographics pose for them. Especially if they insist on keeping white males out.

wildswan said...

People should notice that she has two children with a third on the way. She doesn't say that Moms need to know how to save money; she presents it as minimalism and purification. Her suggestions aren't so different from Family Circle for the last fifty years, yet it all looks very different. How to be a Mom without looking like a Republican. Another thing I noticed is how much like Ocasio-Cortez she sounded - maybe it's a new speech pattern.

walter said...

8 minutes of that unpaced youtube jumpcut ramble and I'm out.
Does she get around to shoes?
Seems like a grounded gal.
wildswan is right though..and she ain't a typical mom, image-wise.

Nicholas said...

If the YouTube babe had omitted "like" and "literally" from her monologue, it would have been considerably shorter.

Robert Cook said...

@ Ernest Prole at 8:23 PM:

Verrrrryyy interesting!

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

There's a quick and easy way out for people who are ashamed of defiling Gaea. They should take it.

Tomcc said...

I lived in Alaska for ten years. I've got no truck with anyone who wants to live as a survivalist- there's lots of room there. Also, bears and wolves gotta eat. At least he doesn't have a Youtube channel. That young woman is exceedingly annoying.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

She does get around to shoes. "Only one pair of heels" is No. 41. (Yes, I watched the whole thing.)

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

She does get around to shoes. "Only one pair of heels" is No. 41. (Yes, I watched the whole thing.)