Reviewing some of the posts

Just a great Phil Collins song to listen to while you read my post.

I read Jack London's "Call of the Wild when i was about 13. Great book for an adolescent boy to read if you want him to strike out with a pack on his back for the Yukon. Hence the quote i ended "Grandma, Hobos, Handouts, and Rhubarb Pie" with. As an anonymous person told me about the quote "True on too many levels". I couldn't have said it better. This is one of my favorite London quotes because it is "True on too many levels."

"It began to look as if I should be compelled to go to the very poor for my food. The very poor constitute the last sure recourse of the hungry tramp. The very poor can always be depended upon. They never turn away the hungry. Time and again, all over the United States, have I been refused food by the big house on the hill; and always have I received food from the little shack down by the creek or marsh, with its broken windows stuffed with rags and its tired-faced mother broken with labor. Oh, you charity-mongers! Go to the poor and learn, for the poor alone are the charitable. They neither give nor withhold from their excess. They have no excess They give, and they withhold never, from what they need for themselves, and very often from what they cruelly need for themselves. A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog when you are just as hungry as the dog."

Jack London 'The Road'

Nothing makes my blood boil like the "Haves" of our society kicking the "Have nots" when they are already down. There homeless population in the US is growing by numbers we haven't seen since the great depression of the 1930's. Tent Cities are springing up and growing across the country. My posts titled "Homeless Numbers Increasing, Tent Cities Abound", Criminalization of the Poverty Stricken Homeless", and "Homeless in St. Louis, Mo Lose Everything" are aimed at helping shed some light on this phenomenon.


This trend shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. Here's a quote from an article in The Gazette in Colorado Springs that indicates they don't have enough laws on the books to harass the homeless so they are going to make some more.

The scores of homeless people camping along creeks, trails, parks and other public property in Colorado Springs may have to find another place to live soon.

The Colorado Springs Police Department, which suffered a public relations nightmare earlier this year for its role in city-sponsored sweeps of homeless camps, is proposing a new law that would prohibit camping on public property.

The proposal was met with scorn and anguish from some of the many homeless people living in tents and under tarps along the snowy banks of Fountain Creek on Friday.

“Where do you want us to go? Out of town?” asked Chris, a 44-year-old man huddled underneath nothing more than two old sleeping bags. “Everybody hates the homeless.”

The proposed law makes it illegal for “any person to camp or to set up or occupy a tent, shack or other temporary shelter that could be used for camping on any public property.” The city also amended an existing law that bans camping “on any park property.”

http://www.gazette.com/articles/public-90297-camping-springs.html

For every person residing in a tent city it would be my guesstamation that there are about another 5 living in vehicles or more obscure areas trying to remain "out of sight" and "under the radar" of local authorities. Many of these people live in cars, vans, and campers. There is a growing segment of the population that have begun to refer to themselves as vandwellers.

One of my favorite characters from the counter culture spent many of the later years of his life as a vandweller. My post on "Nature Boy, eden ahbez" ,or ahbe as his friends called him, was one of my personal favorite posts. We will be looking at more vandwellers, rubber tramps, and vagabonds ( a positive term in my definition ) in general this month.

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Rocket Stoves

Rocket stoves are highly efficient, easy to construct, and can be easily made from many materials. All the basic principles, and the design of the rocket stove are illustrated in the diagram above. A well built rocket stove produces very little smoke due to complete combustion of the fuel. This more complete combustion means that less fuel is needed to produce more heat.


The rocket stove was designed by Dr. Larry Winiarski of the Aprovecho Research Institute. Many rocket stoves are made from 5 gal steel cans with sections of 4 inch stove pipe used to create the combustion chamber and chimney. The remaining interior of the stove is usually filled with ash or vermiculite for insulation.

Here is a video of Dr. Winiarski making a rocket stove from 16 adobe bricks in Mexico.






Commercially produced rocket stoves are available in two versions, a one door for sticks or a two door for sticks or charcoal, from StoveTec. StoveTec is a division of Aprovecho Research Institute so these stoves conform to the designs principles laid out by the Institute. I prefer the two door stove. The increased functionality is well worth the few dollar extra in retail cost.

A video ,from StoveTec, of the two door stove in operation is included below.






The design principles incorporated into the rocket stove can be utilized in more complex cooking or heating designs. A good overview of the principles can be found in the booklet referenced below.

"This document was developed by Aprovecho Research Center under a grant from the Shell Foundation to provide technical support to household energy and health projects to ensure that their designs represent technical best practice. The principle authors of this booklet include: Dr. Mark Bryden, Dean Still, Peter Scott,
Geoff Hoffa, Damon Ogle, Rob Balis, and Ken Goyer."

http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/stovesdoc/Pcia/Design%20Principles%20for%20Wood%20Burning%20Cookstoves.pdf

A good example of someone incorporating these design principles into a mass heater inside a shelter can be found at the following link.
http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp

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National Parks, BLM, and other Federal Lands pt.2

Map of U.S. public lands: Bureau of Land Management, Forest Servicd, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Parks Service.

National Atlas of the United States has a nice online interactive atlas that can be used, among other searches, for viewing maps of federal, or as i prefer to call it public, lands in the U. S..

"Lands owned or administered by the Federal government."

In the map key you will find that BLM land is represented in yellow. This map represents blocks of land that are 640 acres or more in size.

Viewing the map is the best means of visualizing the enormous amount of federal lands existing in the country.

BLM land exists in many of the western states. It is ok to camp or boondock on most BLM land. In theory there is a 14 day camping limit for one spot then one must move at least 25 miles to another spot. In practice, in the more secluded areas, there is no one counting.


Recreation.gov

"Recreation One-Stop is one of the E-Government initiatives in the President's Management Agenda to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and customer service of the recreation programs.

The Recreation One-Stop initiative is intended to enhance customer satisfaction with recreational experiences on public lands. It will improve access to recreation-related information generated by the Federal government, streamline the systems used to manage that information, and increase the sharing of recreation-related information among government and non-government organizations. The investment will include the procurement of a new contract to integrate the separate National Park Reservation Service and National Reservation Recreation Service with the Recreation.gov website. "

BLM

"The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was established in 1946 through the consolidation of the General Land Office (created in 1812) and the U.S. Grazing Service (formed in 1934). The functions of the BLM are also addressed in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). (For more details, please see BLM and Its Predecessors ). To see a comprehensive list of legislation that BLM operates under, click here . And, to see videos describing the early history of BLM, click on "Fractured Land Patterns."

The BLM is responsible for carrying out a variety of programs for the management and conservation, of resources on 256 million surface acres, as well as 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate, These public lands make up about 13 percent of the total land surface of the United States and more than 40 percent of all land managed by the Federal government. To see how BLM is organized, click here ."

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/About_BLM.html

The BLM maintains a great online photo library that can be searched by state, keyword, or both.
It's a great way to check out different areas.

http://www.blm.gov/photos/netpub/server.np?base&site=BLM&template=simplesearch.np&catalog=catalog

Our Public Lands

"Created by National Wildlife Federation™, this website provides information on public lands issues of both national and state significance. Although issues regarding all public lands are featured, this site focuses on the western states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico where the public lands conservation tradition runs deep. "

http://www.ourpubliclands.org/

About the Public Lands Information Center

"Public Lands Interpretive Association initiated the Public Lands Information Center project in response to demand for a single source of information about recreation and land use on all public lands in a state, regardless of managing agency. We realize that when you have a destination or an activity in mind, your concern is to find out where to go, when to go, what to do, and how much it will cost. But up until now, getting those answers often meant an endless goose chase of contacting government agencies and trying to pinpoint the correct agency, department, or office.

The Public Lands Information Center was developed to cut the red tape for you. We offer all you need to know about visitor facilities, surrounding areas, appropriate maps and guides, and the rules and regulations for each area. If you need more information than you get from the site descriptions, check our bookstore, our link pages, or email our staff. If you need to contact the managing agency for additional permits or licenses, we can put you in touch with the right person, and save you time and headaches."

http://www.publiclands.org/

There are also BLM websites for each state with BlM lands. They are all available through the main BLM site.

Foraging or The Earth Provides pt. 4

Scan of a John William Waterhouse 1890 oil painting
from freeparking on Flickr

The first three parts of Foraging presented a few easy to identify, widespread, edible plant species. In this part we will look at how one integrates foraging as a regular part of their lifestyle. One begins by simply "paying attention" to plants their differences and similarities. Once one begins this simple exercise, one will see a diverse community of competing and interdependent organisms where many, less observant individuals, see an homogeneous background.


A little education on the basics of botany goes a long way to making one's observations of the natural world more rewarding. There are many online resources that offer information on botany. A good primer on Basic Botany from, The University of Arizona: College of Agriculture & Life Sciences is available online. Many foragers and naturalists keep a journal where they make sketches of plants and collect leaves to identify later. If you like to take quizzes to with your course another very good primer on Botany Basics is available from Oregon State University Extension Service.


A little understanding of Basic Botany makes plant identification go a lot easier. The USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service has pictures of over 40,000+ plants online, along with profiles. A great resource they offer are downloadable, and online identification keys. The downloadable keys are great for laptops for in the field use.


A basic understanding of taxonomy is also very helpful in plant identification for one's foraging endeavors. For example when one sees a reference angiosperms one will know that it is referring to the large diverse group of plants that produce flowers. Should the reference be to Gymnosperms, with some taxonomic education, one would know that the reference is to a group of plants that produce ovules (eggs) on scales. The scales are usually arranged in cone-like structures. The largest group of Gymnosperms are the Conifers.


Since Darwin, taxonomy has attempted to organize organisms in relation to their evolutionary history. This organization scheme is known as Biological Systematics. Plants belonging to the same family will have similar characteristics. Once one knows the characteristics of an order or family understanding the plants contained therein becomes easier.


A good tool to explore the taxonomy of the plants you identify can be found here.
http://plants.usda.gov/classification.html


A basic overview of taxonomy can be found here.
http://faculty.fmcc.suny.edu/mcdarby/majors101book/Chapter_02-A_Bit_of_History/02-Explaining-Life-Classification.htm#PLANTAE


Tree of life website has an interactive tool to explore the relationships of organisms.
http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html

Drill down through a plant evolutionary tree from a site at Berkeley.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/plants/plantaesy.html

A good site on foraging.
http://www.wildcrafting.net/

Another good foraging site.
http://www.naturessecretlarder.co.uk/

Oklahoma Wildcrafting
http://www.okwildcrafting.com/

"Just twenty plants provide the majority of food eaten, yet there are thousands of other useful plants which have not reached mainstream attention. You can find details of many of them here."
Plants for a Future
http://www.pfaf.org/index.php

"The website of the Wild Man of food, Fergus Drennan; forager extraordinaire!"
http://www.wildmanwildfood.com/

We will end this post with a video featuring Steve Brill. He has been giving "wild food and ecology tours" in New York city since April, 1982. His website is at:
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/

Foraging or The Earth Provides pt. 3

Photo Public Domain wikiCommons

Plantago is a genus of about 200 species of small, inconspicuous plants commonly called plantains. They share this name with the very dissimilar plantain, a kind of banana. Most are herbaceous plants, though a few are subshrubs growing to 60 cm (23.5 in) tall. The leaves are sessile, but have a narrow part near the stem which is a pseudo-petiole. They have three or five parallel veins that diverge in the wider part of the leaf. Leaves are broad or narrow, depending on the species. The inflorescences are borne on stalks typically 5-40 cm (2.25-15.75 in) tall, and can be a short cone or a long spike, with numerous tiny wind-pollinated flowers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago

Plantains ( Plantago major) often are found in lawns and lots. It is an inconspicuous plant that is often overlooked. The leaves can be eaten raw.

Photo by Martin LaBar on flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinlabar/314786264/

"In some human cultures, acorns once constituted a dietary staple, though they are now generally considered a minor food with the exception of Native American and Korean cultures. In Korean culture in particular, dotorimuk, acorn jelly, and dotori gooksoo, acorn noodles, are eaten by some on a daily basis."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn

Acorns must be dried, then soaked in water, replacing the water several times, to remove bitter taste. It can then be ground dried and used in place of conventional flour.

"I bring all the acorns home from collecting, and dry them in the oven at pilot light temperatures or very low heat. This is just to dry them and kill off bugs.

When I get around to it, I crack the shells off, and then I soak the shelled acorns in water. Generally, I soak the acorns for a few days to about two weeks, changing the water at least twice a day. When the acorns are no longer bitter, I grind them while wet through a meat grinder.

The coarse meal is then placed in cookie pans to dry in the sun or oven. When dry, I store in large jars in the cupboard. The meal is then used in place of wheat flour in recipes, or half and half in various recipes."
http://www.self-reliance.net/acorn.html

Photo from Mgmax on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgmax/2757555007/

Lambsquarter ( Chenopodium berlandieri ) is common in many areas from urban to countryside. It is also known as goosefoot, or pigweed. It is one of the more mild tasting edibles and is good eaten raw. Many people use it in place of spinach.

"Lambsquarters is a close cousin to spinach, but far, far more nutritious. It ranks right up there with Dandelion, Watercress and Nettles as one of nature’s nutritional powerhouses. It has a mild, green flavor like our domestic greens. In fact it is a relative of Swiss chard, beets and a few exotic garden greens like orach, all in the Chenopodium family."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambsquarter

Here's a short video from Shyguyx12 showing several edibles.

Urban Farms or Survival in the City

One of the easiest ways to reduce your cost of living is to start producing the things you consider necessities yourself. Even in urban settings there are things that can be done to reduce ones reliance on the system. From growing your own vegetables and spices, soap making, beer brewing, sewing, to making your own fuel for your transportation, many things you pay cash for can be made at home.


Here is an example, from ABC's Nightline, being set by a suburban family, the Dervaes, in Pasadena CA.





Check out the Dervaes website on urban homesteading. It has lots of tips and ideas for those on the road to self sufficiency.


Urban homesteading is not new, it was, in the early part of the twentieth century, the norm rather than the exception. As a youngster in the early 70's I sat at a table where everything on the table came from the yard that was in the city limits on less than a quarter acre of land. There was a shed with a stall for the milk cow and rabbit hutches and a chicken coup on the northwest corner of the lot. The southwest corner of the lot contained the house and a small front yard with a couple fruit trees. The eastern side of the lot was all garden with all the vegetables and spices that were familiar to a Midwestern boy, and a few that weren't.


First, through ordinances designed to "improve" community life, legislation forced removal of the milk cow, later the chickens had to go. By the 80's the city had remade the community into a place that required a greater reliance on processed foods, most times transported hundreds if not thousands of miles. Many cities have successfully propagandized it's citizenry to the point that should one get a couple chickens, or want a milk cow, there are immediately complaint calls from concerned neighbors to the proper authorities.


During the great depression many families helped feed themselves and made few extra dollars by selling eggs, milk, and fresh vegetables from these urban farms. The current economic crises doesn't offer many that option due to rigid zoning laws and their enforcement. It is, however, a good time to try to counter these ridiculous infringements on personal freedom and the rights of self sustenance. Economic hardship, combined with the growing public awareness of environmental impacts and the green movement make this a good time to reverse some of this community legislation.



There are urban farms spring up like mad all across the country some are facing these bureaucratic obstacles head on. Check out:

Bad Seed Farm in Kansas City Brings Urban Farming to the Next Level

Slab City or The Slabs

Photo by ig9d9 http://www.flickr.com/photos/franz_ellers/3289453270/

Every year when the leaves loose their grip in the northern deciduous forests, and the cold wind starts sucking the green from the meadows and grasslands of the northern latitudes, a place in the southern California desert, just across the border from Arizona, begins to receive travelers. Slab City is an abandoned military base just outside of Niland, California by the Salton Sea. The military razed the buildings but left the roads and the slabs that once supported the structures.

About November the population swells from a sparse few full-timers to a few thousand residents. The year round residents number less than and hundred and are considered hardcore, as it can and does reach 120 F in the summer, . There is no electric service at the slabs, save solar panels and generators. No water service except tanks and jugs, many of these filled at a gas station or grocery store in Niland.

The place is littered with burnt out campers and bus shells from previous residents. Many people describe it as an apocalyptic scene. Despite this first impression it makes on city dwellers whose sensibilities have been entrained to the frequency and order of manicured lawns, the inhabitants of this community have a depth of connection that likely exceeds most of those more refined neighborhoods. Much time is spent conversing around campfires under the stars.

The Range is an open air stage, with lights and sound system, a hodge podge of bus seats, car seats, old couches and benches for the audience, where the locals entertain each other. The slabs also has a church, and several clubs.

A good video on YouTube called Slab City-USA.

Blog post on Slab City : Mad Max Meets Good Sam at The Slabs.

Desert Dutch has a great page on Slab City at http://www.desertdutch.org/

A page or two from the Slab City Christian Center

A recourse on Slab City would not be complete with mentioning Salvation Mountain and one of the slabs more endearing residents Leonard Knight. Salvation Mountain is Leonard's testament and tribute to his love for Jesus and his fellow humans. There are quite a few YouTube videos on Leonard and his mountain. Here is one.

Blog introduction

It is possible to live a happy healthy life without a mortgage or rent payments. Many today are, not just resorting to, but embracing alternative living arrangements that offers freedom from traditional shelter costs. Theses include but are not limited to tiny houses, cabins, RVs, Communal living arrangements, tepees, yurts, and tents.

Some of these involve a nomadic lifestyle that may not be for everyone, but certain individuals find a sense of freedom that they wouldn't give up for a million dollar mansion. We'll be looking at some of these people, their lifestyles, and their shelters.

We'll also look at lifestyles, and individuals living them, that might be categorized as homesteading or off grid living. There are people living in small cabins built without loans or mortgages and living well off the bounties of nature. Shelters made from natural materials from the surrounding terrain, caves, or scavenged materials and combinations of these methods will be included.

In today's commercial world many people forget that the earth is what supplies our needs. We will look at food. Cheaper ways of feeding ourselves a better diet. Methods of stockpiling foods. Foods that can be stored for long periods without spoilage, and the techniques used to preserve it.

The blog will discuss ways to incorporate some of these changes into your current living situation, or offer advice for those making radical changes by choice or necessity.

Lets begin by looking at an essay that offers great advice on enjoying a simpler life.

Walking
by Henry David Thoreau