After living in the bush for almost a year, I've noticed that a few things are starting to feel really weird when I go into town:
1. Driving on pavement with signs, guard rails, and painted lines on the road
2. Driving in traffic, and actually having to drive on one side of the road and not down the middle
3. Curbs and sidewalks
4. Street lights and traffic lights
5. Television and radio
6. Commercials on television and radio
7. Flush toilets & running water
8. Eating in restaurants
9. Sounds of life that don't include chainsaws
10. Supermarkets and malls
11. Central heat & AC
12. Phones
13. Clothes, cars and hairstyles as status symbols
Guess I've been living out in the sticks, roughing it, long enough to look at average "civilized life" and find it very odd. :-D
7 comments:
Sounds so wonderful!! I love seeing new posts from you two, gives me a chance to take a break and daydream of the day when my husband and I are able to start a lfie like that...
Plickety Cat -
LOL - Spoken like a true pioneer woman!
I wanted to make sure I let you know how much of a blessing I find your site to be. We're in the process of securing our land, paying off debts, and aquiring supplies for our own trek into the woods. Interaction with the families that have already established their homesteads has taught us a lot. However, I have to say that being able to travel with you as you bring it all together goes a long way toward easing some of the terror that sneaks up on me when I start to think about making the actual move.
I look forward to the day when I, too, can look at the trappings of civilized society, and feel apart from it.
This post makes me think of the first days back from a 1-year backpacking tour of SE Asia. Sitting on the 405 freeway in LA, stuck in bumper-to-bumper, bombarded by CO and billboard ads and...ACK!!! Total culture shock (after having been in the deep forest of Chiang Mai et alia)...
Having said that, considering the mayhem out here in the Old World, methinks ya'lls made your leap at juuust the right juncture. Keep Rockin' It!
Viva -- Sager
I live just a few short miles from downtown Seattle and here are the things you mentioned that feel weird to me:
1. Driving on pavement ... etc.
2. Driving in traffic ... etc.
6. Commercials on television and radio
8. Eating in restaurants
10. Supermarkets and malls
13. Clothes, car, hairstyles as status symbols
I don't even have the off-grid excuse for why those things seem very odd to me since I'm immersed in them every day. I guess that is why your lifestyle sounds so appealing to me.
I have to say "consumerism" baffles me on a daily basis.
I love following your life in the wilderness and I respect your grit and tenacity. But I would not want the same lifestyle for myself. I'm happy that we were able to accumulate enough wealth to buy the machinery and the materials to build our "cabin in the mountains". Both Sarah and I grew-up poor and spent many tough years bearly making it and it's now nice to be "well off" in our golden years. Our cabin has geothermal heat and cooling and we use rainwater as our water supply but we cut down the trees, sawed all of the lumber for our cabin (no plywood in this house) and drove all the nails with a hammer. But that's it. We also lived in a pretty nice motorhome while we did it. You have all of my respect for what you are doing.
Quinton
It's not just bush living that makes a person feel this way. I live near a small town of 700 people but on a pretty well used highway. There is a town of about 10k 20 odd miles from here - that's where the Wal-Mart, Farm Store and McD's are. I go there probably once a week for various reasons. It's pretty 'hick'...
But the first time I drove to Kansas City after living out here - and I mean I drove THRU Kansas City - all those skyscrapers, 6 to 8 lane interstates clogged with NASCAR wanna be's, so many executive women and women, malls larger than the entire town I live near..... I thought I was going to have a heart attack... I know I had a panic attack.... Ugh!!!!
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