woods bums

[snake35]

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Has anyone else ever been a professional woods bum? After a nasty divorce I spent three years living in the hills of Kentucky. I dug roots (ginseng,yellow root and blood root) and trapped the winters. I lived in a tent. Game was plentiful (I did have to bend some game laws) I put in small gardens. My monthly grocery bills was near nil. It was a rugged life,but alot of fun.

[myakka]

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Nope, I think we all have a romantisized idea of it, and the reality was probably a lot more stinky and tiresome that we think. I regularly go for three weeks at a time into the woods for work. It isn't a scout camping trip! LOL No smores and campfire songs. Lotsa hard work. i imagine that is how it is living there.

[Buggyout]

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Back in 2008, I lost my job (career), my marriage and my house in like four freaking months. I went and lived in Idaho for a few months. I didn't go very far into the woods though.

[bushwhacker208]

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I Lived off the land in the woods here in North Idaho for a summer (about 3 months) but, not for 3 years!! Wow, that sounds like an adventure though.

[longhunter]

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When I was stationed at Ft. Ord, CA we would go down to Big Sur from time to time. A couple of times we saw this guy picking kelp out of the water and asked the locals about him. They said he lived off the land up in the hills and they called him Moses. Made sense as he had the white hair and beard, robe, walking stick etc. Wish I had but never got the chance to talk to him.

[MGF]

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I've sure thought about it.

I guess there are two things that prevent me from doing it. The first is the grandchildren. Two live a long way off and i have to think that living in the woods would make it hard to travel there as often as i do. One lives close and I get to see her just about every day that I'm not on the road working. If I leave, that's not going to happen.

Another big reason though is that fact that it's essentially "illegal" isn't it? Between game laws that would make it hard to feed yourself and occupancy restrictions on public land, how could you live in the woods and feed yourself without breaking a bunch of laws?

If you own the land, you'll have property tax and stuff so you need cash coming in or they'll boot you out anyway.

My wife and I had the idea that we'd live off our few rural acres and minimize our need for cash and outside participation as much as possible. Then they decide to force a new sewer system on us for $100/month. I can crap in my weeds if I want but I still have to pay the hundred bucks.

I guess that if I could work out these few issues, I'd be gone! I'm too young to quit and too old for all the bovine excrement.

[snake35]

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You do have to break game laws. You do have to tresspass. Nothing is perfect.

[Klickitat]

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In your small gardens; what was the most animal resistant? What crops did the animals leave alone the most?

[snake35]

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Tomatoes seemed the most left alone!

[sevensix]

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The trouble with growing up having been taught responsibility and stewardship are these tenants of life follow you through life, I mean, I couldn't just leave society behind and not pay my bills, child support, association with the things I like, and pondering the future if and when my anger was ever resolved. I didn't want to jeopardize tomorrow. Court sanctions for misbehaving often have severe consequences and regret. Did not want to go there. Stay clean and avoid the law, I say. After those turbulent years I did do some time in the woods by myself, mostly in Alaska where a fella can be left alone and be respected for it, no questions asked. One memorable occasion I spent a couple of weeks in early spring in a wall tent feeding myself on left-over caribou pizza, apple pie, and coffee. When that ran out it was bacon and bread and carefully measured coffee. Temps were single-digits at night making for chilly morning "business" trips. It was adventure more than it was necessity -- purely optional; still, it was tempting to stay there and make my statement of independence and to heck with everything else. Something echoed inside me about responsibility.... Sme thingsd never change.

-sevensix