City living challenge

[Tengu]

I have had several people try to get me to do this.

Nothing doing.

 

[320]

for those that either have to or choose to there is a kind of bushcraft at work when their lives have gone feral.

locally we have 3 to 6 feet of snow drifted about. the temps have hovered around zero (F) for about a month.

some folks are using shelters, kitchens, etc., that would be the same as foraging in the woods, wouldn't it.

there is a group of people living in a creek bottom just west of me. you can follow their paths to the supermarket and eateries nearby. they live in squats along the creek, until they are reported or they build shelters from pallets and cardboard packing.

a fellow was coming across a parking lot yesterday, pulling his belongings and booty on a pulk made of cardboard. during the rest of the year it would be a bicycle carrying the load.

a city is full of all the things the woods are. some additional dangers perhaps but any skills you've picked up outdoors would translate to the urban environment.

you could even carve a spoon or a spork, if you wanted to.

 

[Toddy]

For those of us who are more familiar with Celsius readings,

O oF = -17.8 oC

or as close as it matters in this instance

cheers,
Toddy

 

[tytek]

For those of us who are more familiar with Celsius readings,

O oF = -17.8 oC
Toddy

The same temperature as your freezer

 

[IanGilroy_2]

The penniless and friendless part I can’t comment on.
I suppose I have been lucky in that respect. I was only homeless for 6 weeks during the summer of 2002.

My main problem was not food and shelter Croydon’s fast food outlets and supper market security staff are of a generous nature and yes and with a little Bush /urban craft skills you can find very good shelter in the oddest of places. The thing that scared the….. out of me and the others on the street was not being invisible between 11pm and 2pm, when the drunken 18-25 year old office workers got kicked out of the pubs and think they have something to prove. You learn to blend into the background b****y fast.

You also end up with a very jaundiced view of the authorities.

 

[Northsky]

City.. LIving.. now there is a challenge

 

[rik_uk3]

Surviving on our own in a forest is a romantic notion that probably everyone on this forum shares. But the reality is that it's extremely difficult. In the military I went to survival schools for a number of different environments, and lost a lot of weight at every one of them. The best thing I ever caught to eat was a small raccoon, and that was pure luck - it was up in a tree as I was wading through a swamp, and I was able to knock it down with a frog gig and hold it under water. It was a feast. Most wild foods are bland, and it's almost impossible to gather enough calories unless you're extremely well-equipped and in a game-rich environment. Even indigenous peoples, who were true experts with a tremendous amount of knowledge that's since been lost, starved to death on a regular basis.

A good common sense reply. Food wise you would be far better off in a city skip and bin raiding than relying on catching bunnies etc out in the woods.

 

[John Fenna]

The countryside of my comfort zone includes farms, villages and so on and is not just a wilderness. There are people who actualy live in the countryside as well as those who live in cities!
Casual work on farms, out of date food from village shops, the odd mooched potato or swede...there is more than just wild food and trees in the countryside!

 

[Bushwhacker]

.
There's plenty of healthy wild meat in cities that's much easier to approach than it would be in other settings. Squirrels, pigeons, ducks, rats, etc.

I wouldn't even feed my ferrets on city creatures, let alone myself.

I maybe only go into a city once a year, don't think I'd last 5 minutes on the streets.

 

[Oblio13]

It'd be a lot tougher to scrounge and pinch food from people in the countryside. They tend to know each other and keep an eye on strangers, not to mention all the dogs and shotguns.

 

[Bushwhacker]

It'd be a lot tougher to scrounge and pinch food from people in the countryside. They tend to know each other and keep an eye on strangers, not to mention all the dogs and shotguns.

In the countryside we're more inclined to help out someone down on their luck rather than just walking on by.

 

[Chatteris]

if i was forced to live homeless in a city i think i would strip down naked and run into the closest supermarket and then spend the next few years living in a nice mental institution with free food, shelter, playstation, sky tv and all the other crap that we pay for them to have.

 

[Tengu]

You wouldnt like it, the mentaly ill are given so many things to amuse them (add the Wii to your list) its not much fun.

 

[dave k]

I've been homeless, but only for a short while. I ran away from home when I was 17 and I had no where to live. I managed, but with the help of Brighton social services - they got me a place to live, emergency loan to pay for the deposit, and put me back on my feet.

People think I am an asshole when I tell beggars that if they want money, they should work for it. I've been there, I've started with only a small bag of stuff and nothing else - There is help available, you just have to get off your bottom and ask for it. The only person stopping yourself is you.

I would hazard a guess thought that it is easier to live like this in the city - which is probably why people do. There is a difference thought between doing this because you have to, and because you want to. You don't know cold until you're there at 3am with no sleeping blanket!

 

[alpha_centaur]

you wouldn't need a .22.

you'd just need some stale bread. if you sat at parkbench scattered the bread around you and waited - you 'd be able to catch pigeons in your hands while sitting down.

city vermin for dinner though, blech.

That depends how hungry you are

 

[Bushwhacker]

That depends how hungry you are

Plenty of long pig in the cities........Now where did I put those fava beans?

 

[320]

In the countryside we're more inclined to help out someone down on their luck rather than just walking on by.

is that really true where you live?

with drugs as the dominant cottage industry in most of our rural areas, urban areas tend to be safer and much friendlier.

even ten years ago that wasn't true, but now...

 

[Bushwhacker]

is that really true where you live?

with drugs as the dominant cottage industry in most of our rural areas, urban areas tend to be safer and much friendlier.

even ten years ago that wasn't true, but now...

Yes, it is really true where I live.

We don't need drugs, we have cider.

 

[Tengu]

Dave K, have you ever tried to get work when you are disabled?

(But of course, as Im a Vunerable Adult, I suppose the local authorities would take me in)

 

[John Fenna]

Wow! if Nebraska is like that I will try not to go there!
Around our way the country folk are generally quite helpful if you are seeen as trying to help yourself out of a hole.... I cannot think of a single banjo player around here.....
Good honest chapel going Welsh they are see!