moving out

[open_life]

im thinking well have been thinking for along time to give up me home and live outside
would you ever do such a thing ?
is madness ?
i just don't like being stacked like bails of hay
under or above other people.. yep lives in a flat and it sending me loopy


any thoughts

 

[w00dsmoke]

Grow up.
Homelessness is NOT a lifestyle choice you wish to make voluntary. Don't be daft. Just move somewhere you can be outside more often or join the army, work outdoors or something like voluntary work over seas or charity work with a conservation charity over here.

 

[drewdunnrespect]

What you could do is, do you own the flat? if so you could find a plot of woodland/wilderness to live in/on and then rent out the flat for six mounths at a time and then one your living out side, two making money (the rent) and three if it the starts to all go pareshaped you still have your flat only need to find a hotel for the period of the landlords turffing out notie which is 2 mounths i think not sure.

 

[Tengu]

Thats an idea yes.

Dont burn your bridges.

I knew a couple once who sold their house to go on a years volentary work in Africa...When they came back they found that house prices were now out of their reach.

 

[korvin karbon]

Thats an idea yes.

Dont burn your bridges.

I knew a couple once who sold their house to go on a years volentary work in Africa...When they came back they found that house prices were now out of their reach.

ouch, who said one good turn deserves another.

The renting out option would be best, believe me i dont think many people grasp the realiites of being self sufficient, i for one enjoy my andrex to much to give it up.

 

[wanderingblade]

It is possible - I spent 6 months living in a tent while travelling around Europe - even in 2 foot snow in the South of Germany!

Easy enough to do if planned correctly. You can live very cheaply, work out deals with local sports centres / gym's where you can so a few hours donkey work every week in return for using the showers etc.
Local laundrette will keep your clothes clean.

Biggest problem is security of your camp - unless you want to pack up and carry your life on your back everyday you need somewhere safe to camp or at least stash your gear.

I found the best soloution to be pitch camp in a fairly 'off the beaten track' location (although I did also find good places to camp on big out of town roundabouts - they are usually covered with thick bush and have few passers by on foot) and use a big tarp to throw the tent and pack in and hoist it up into a tree. Don't even need to take the tent down, just slip the poles out of their sockets on the groundsheet and flatten it down.
Worked a treat.

Top tip for keeping nice and warm at night - other than a camp fire - 2 nice thick blankets sewn together with a space blanket sewn inside - keeps you nice and snuggly, specially on those frosty mornings when the fire has died down.

I guess the main thing is what yuo do for a living - your employers may have issues if you are the local Bank Manager and your living in the park.

 

[ZDP-189]

Grow up.
Homelessness is NOT a lifestyle choice you wish to make voluntary. Don't be daft. Just move somewhere you can be outside more often or join the army, work outdoors or something like voluntary work over seas or charity work with a conservation charity over here.

Correct, presuming one is fortunate enough to have a choice.

 

[Northsky]

Pretty heavle populated land we live in, sometimes it can get a bit like guerrilla bushcraft. Though Wandering blade seems to have got a handle on it.

 

[Big Geordie]

Quote..." I guess the main thing is what you do for a living- your employers may have issues if you are the local bank manager and you're living in the park."

Thanks Wanderingblade. I've been left with a great picture of my bank manager. And wouldn't it be a better world if the bu##ers had to go back to basics like so many of us have had to do over the years? They might be more empathetic, and less likely to rush us into more crises.

Open_life, yours is a great question which lots of us look at. Unfortunately it is too easy to make yourself homeless, and very difficult to get it back. Even the local Housing Department would refuse you because you had made yourself "intentionally homeless" By all means try it- it is a great test and challenge, but don't walk away from the security of a home which you might not get back.:umbrella:

George

 

[w00dsmoke]

Correct, presuming one is fortunate enough to have a choice.

"im thinking well have been thinking for along time to give up me home and live outside"

I think there is an element of choice here...

I was homeless for a couple of years in my younger days and in no way did I consider it a choice. I finished working for a homelessness charity a few years back and I just can't believe that folk think it's just about that. There are vast implications for anyone lucky enough to consider it a choice. And if you have to ask what they are you really should stay in your flat, or house.

 

[rik_uk3]

Never give up your home unless you really have to, try and find somwhere else to live and also try and get out more if only for the day

 

[Sniper]

Surely moving just to a different house is a much more sensible option, try and find a traditional semi-detached or similar. As others say, to do this may well cause untold and unforseen problems further down the line if you decide that living outdoors 24 / 7 / 365 is not for you. We all love the idea of living a true bushcraft existance, but we all realise it is only a dream, the reality of coping in all weathers and temperatures, along with the full on physical graft that would be needed, constantly, not to mention the concerns over security when your not "home" would wear anybody down through time. Unless you're thinking in terms of maybe a small holding which is an entirely different kettle of fish, that would be an attractive prospect for a lifestyle change.

 

[open_life]

thanks for the replys

hi
w00dsmoke

i my self spent many years homeless i was not planning to sleep on the streets with an empty cap in one hand and a bottle of cider in the other doing that would be an insult to the many that wont homes. sounds like we all got used to our taps cookers bills markets thow will still need the last one

keep em comming love to read ya thoughts

a barge would be gr8 donations excepted

 

[Opal]

Something I have contemplated if I came into a few bob, living on a barge. A gentleman who taught us on a First Aid course lives on a narrow boat, loves it.

We lived on a top landing, 60 foot or so up in the air, my mam was a barra woman so we had to carry the boxes of fruit, scales, weights etc, up the ten flight of stairs, I was born in the house.

My brothers and I lived on the rooves most of our youth, one older brother lived underneath us, they'd knock on one of the pipes if we were needed for messages. On the roof we built a den where we made our cattys and bow and arrers.

It was a great time living above everyone, if the next street raided us, we had a great vantage point raining down our armoury. It was only bommie night they dared venture on to our patch.

Yer haven't lived.

 

[Broch]

Chris Caine of Trueways fame spent some 15 years living rough - he's well worth talking to. I don't believe he would recommend it as a life of choice but I might be wrong.

It has definitely affected him (sorry Chris)

 

[korvin karbon]

Chris Caine of Trueways fame spent some 15 years living rough - he's well worth talking to. I don't believe he would recommend it as a life of choice but I might be wrong.

It has definitely affected him (sorry Chris)

I read that too, would be a good read if he wrote about it. I dont just mean the bushcrafting skills but the personal side too, i imagine that living rough in the city and living rough in the countyside is totally different. A member on frugals lived in the woods for abit before and after he got married and from the experiences he talked about it was not fun (reasons for are personal if you want to know why search frugals).

primitive living is a hobby for me, hell i still have to go more than 2 days before my crackberry addiction gets the best of me.

 

[w00dsmoke]

thanks for the replys

hi
w00dsmoke

i my self spent many years homeless i was not planning to sleep on the streets with an empty cap in one hand and a bottle of cider in the other doing that would be an insult to the many that wont homes. sounds like we all got used to our taps cookers bills markets thow will still need the last one

keep em comming love to read ya thoughts

a barge would be gr8 donations excepted

I find that very hard to believe. If you were really "homeless" then you would know what it's like to sleep rough and you certainly wouldn't be on a bushcraft forum asking for other folks thoughts on it as you'd have more than enough generated by your own experiences. I was first made homeless at 15 and after a couple of nights sleeping in the lifts of the local tower block decided that it was a bad idea then I hit the woods okay that forst time was only a few days but when I left school it was for several years. When everything that you own is on your person and you have no where to wash yourself properly, nor wash your clothes nor have the means to access anywhere that you can and you are soaked to the skin because EVERYTHING eventually gets wet or at the very least damp or worse when it freezes then the coughs start, the headaches, the fevers, you get run down and all you want to do is survive the night because you know at sun up there is some respite with the warmth of the sun. But the night never ends because you are too cold to sleep and you know if you sleep you might not wake up. You get absolutley sick of walking roads first thing in the morning for roadkill rabbit and sick of eating it. People treat you like crap, they assume everything about you that you are not so you avoid them and you eventually turn into a desprate creature living not day to day but hour by hour, minute by minute, then depression hits and dark thoughts come in...

But of course you know all that.

 

[Aaron]

Chris Caine of Trueways fame spent some 15 years living rough - he's well worth talking to. I don't believe he would recommend it as a life of choice but I might be wrong.

It has definitely affected him (sorry Chris)

Good advice I spoke quite a lot with Chris on a recent Trueways Course I did - he is barely in his 40's and already has serious re-occuring health problems from having lived rough, including painful arthritis. I can understand where you are coming from in wishing to try living outside for an extended period, but as far as a long term lifestyle choice without somewhere to go it seems like a ticket to poor health and an early grave. Another thing to ponder is that if it all goes tits up and you have burnt your bridges housing wise you may end up as a burden on homeless charities who have to care for the involuntarily homeless with thinly stretched finances.

 

[saddle_tramp]

I find that very hard to believe. If you were really "homeless" then you would know what it's like to sleep rough and you certainly wouldn't be on a bushcraft forum asking for other folks thoughts on it as you'd have more than enough generated by your own experiences. I was first made homeless at 15 and after a couple of nights sleeping in the lifts of the local tower block decided that it was a bad idea then I hit the woods okay that forst time was only a few days but when I left school it was for several years. When everything that you own is on your person and you have no where to wash yourself properly, nor wash your clothes nor have the means to access anywhere that you can and you are soaked to the skin because EVERYTHING eventually gets wet or at the very least damp or worse when it freezes then the coughs start, the headaches, the fevers, you get run down and all you want to do is survive the night because you know at sun up there is some respite with the warmth of the sun. But the night never ends because you are too cold to sleep and you know if you sleep you might not wake up. You get absolutley sick of walking roads first thing in the morning for roadkill rabbit and sick of eating it. People treat you like crap, they assume everything about you that you are not so you avoid them and you eventually turn into a desprate creature living not day to day but hour by hour, minute by minute, then depression hits and dark thoughts come in...

But of course you know all that.

Maybe theres a big difference tween someone who is forced into homelessness, and someone who makes the active choice to live a different life. I lived on the road for years, by definition of others, i was homeless, but never once considered myself to be. guess i was too busy enjoying it! I read your account, and no offence, but its hard to believe its the words of a bushcrafter, maybe back then you werent? but with what you know now, would homelessness still be a time of self pity and despair? or would you actually relish the fate? Sure theres stuff you go without, but i miss being on the road a damn site more than id miss this computer, and the tat im surrounded with.

You tell open_life to grow up, Id tell him to ignore what everyone else says and go and have some fun.

 

[w00dsmoke]

Maybe theres a big difference tween someone who is forced into homelessness, and someone who makes the active choice to live a different life. I lived on the road for years, by definition of others, i was homeless, but never once considered myself to be. guess i was too busy enjoying it! I read your account, and no offence, but its hard to believe its the words of a bushcrafter, maybe back then you werent?

I was forced into it and I was pretty good at looking after myself in the outdoors being brought up with an outdoorsy lifestyle, back then there was no "bushcraft", I had to learn pretty quick how to get by, but it was in no way fun or a lifestyle I'd like to ever consider again. Winter was awful, sure there were moments that were great, but on the whole it was a miserable grind that wore you down.You lived like a modern leprosy victim

but with what you know now, would homelessness still be a time of self pity and despair? or would you actually relish the fate?

I've lived an alternative lifestyle for a very long time, caravans, tents on beaches, huts, whatever and relished it. I've moved about a lot, had loads of different jobs, got bored moved on did something else and yeagh I loved all that, but homelessness now, no thanks.I hated it at the time and I would not wish it on anybody."Bushcraft"-yeagh of course it would help you be slightly more comfortable but not in the long term. For all the reasons above and whole lot more including the implications of homelessness, making yourself homeless without thinking it all through is just plain dumb.

If I did a homelessness assessment on someone who presented with a similar scenario who left a home with no other reason than "I can't handle it and I need to get out into the countryside" my internal alarms would ring (for a mental health assessment) and my first thought would be to try and access the support neccessary whatever that may be to enable them not to give up their tenancy/home whatever.