Inspiration required!!!.....How do you do it....?

[PhilParry]

Call it mid-life crisis, call it sick to death of the modern world, but I'm searching for some inspiration. :sadwavey:

How DO you all manage to balance the (so called!) "real" world of modern day life against the old "traditional" life of bushcraft?

I'm contemplating running away to a hut somewhere and eaking out a near hermit-like existence!

Seriously....it might be just this time of year but I'm fed up to the back teeth of my modern IT-esque life and modern "you must be sensible" job in a modern company bored out of my mind!! :aargh4:

Any advice appreciated!!

Phil

 

[fred gordon]

Aparently there are a lot of suicides in Scandinavia at this time of year. There is an old saying in Finland that goes 'Never give a Fin a rope in February' I know what they mean.
I'm lucky in that I now live in the country and am surrounded by Bushctaft country. When I lived in a city I used to spend hours over maps and planned weekends and holidays at this time of year. In the evenings I would sit in the garden and will myself off to places I had enjoyed. It kept me sane! Did it work? I'll never know. Am I sane, who can tell. Do I howl at the moon. You bet I dooooo!

 

[Deleted member 4605]

Commitments. My wife, children and mortgage prevent me from doing anything too daft (like a career change, but I am working on that).

As for balance, I'm in no position to advise. I don't get out anywhere near as much as I'd like to, but what I do do is often viewed as too much.

How do others cope with it?

 

[gregorach]

I know exactly what you mean... Unfortunately, I don't have any good answers. The idea of quitting my job, selling my flat, and going back to WWOOFing does occur to me with some regularity, but then I remember how sick I got of always being completely skint...

Best advice I can give is to get out as much as possible and to hang on in there 'til spring.

 

[Too Much Kit To Carry]

I keep on buying new kit and playing with it indoors and imagine what it would be like to use it in the field. I try and get out as much as possilbe and I blessed by living in a rural location. I go out for a walk most nights and often end up in remote places in the dark look or listening for wildlife.

I find I don't have to go too far or out for too long to find som epeace and recharge my bateries

Give it a try tonight - you might just enjoy it

Phil.

 

[Feygan]

Best offer I can think of to help is PARKLANDS!!!! Every large town or city will have a number of resonable sized parkland areas, and many with some form of woodland. Whilst you can't indulge in much bushcraft in them, you are free to roam around, pick stuff up, sniff, touch, tase etc just about anything you can find. (make sure its a nut though and not some dogs gift to the world ) Also they are close enough that you can afford to spend a couple of hours down there without having to worry about wifes, girlfriends etc complaining that you've been gone for days again.

I think I'm lucky being single that I can come and go as I please, but with working etc I still can't get "out there" as much as I'd like. So I try to ensure that everyday I take a stroll down to the nearest large park to me and spend an hour or so looking about and almost always see something new that I don't recognise or spot some track or sign I hadnt seen before. At the end of the day anyone who has a parkland within 10 minutes or so drive really can say they don't have the time to do so, simply because the majority of city folk will easily manage to find a couple of hours to watch tv. This way you get some air in you, you educate yourself about nature, and you can ditch your tv and save on that £120 licsene fee and buy some new kit.

 

[led]

Phil, I know what you mean. My respite has been to take myself out to a little bit of woodland to kip out for the night during this cold spell. Just taking the bare minimum, no fire, stove or kit other than for bivvying. Wonderful to be under the stars watching their procession through the night, having the owls and badgers for company. Poddle back in time to do all the domestic stuff and get to work in the morning.

 

[dommyracer]

I keep on buying new kit and playing with it indoors and imagine what it would be like to use it in the field

Phil, you need help mate...

 

[hammock monkey]

I like to always have summat on the boil in terms of next trip & try summat new (sailing recently 4 days out on the ocean - good test of the howies fleece ) and just pay as much attention to whats around you as poss. there's always tons happening. watched a green woodpecker warming up an ants nest by the kerb on the way to work this morning, pointed it out to the dope i give a lift to...got a pretty blank look back...
went for a (supposedly quiet) stroll on sunday ended up tracking a fox back to his hidey-hole...after the global warming report last week it charged me up good style!
(always have at least one good book on the go too)

 

[jon r]

I know what you mean Phil!

I have a lot of freedom at the moment because i am only 17 and dont have a job. I dread getting a job and then it taking all my fredom and time to go roaming in the woods!

I have thought about how things would be living in the woods year in year out before and it sometimes sounds like it would be such a good life! But there are both pros and cons!

At least you have a roof over your head in the winters and have a hot meal each day if you go to work. Plus you have things like health care if you get seriously ill!

In the woods it doesnt matter if you're skint because you dont need money! Everything you need, the wilderness provides!

So i think a mixture of both is the best option! plan trips away!

I always dream of owning my own wood so i can do what the hell i want in it!

Jon

 

[Big Geordie]

Phil I know exactly what you mean. I was lucky when the insurance company I worked for made everyone redundant.
I got myself up to the Scottish islands and had a really chilling time. I wanted even more activity so I joined BTCV, a conservation charity which puts you on bushcrafty type courses and I planted trees and stuff most days. So far so good. They offered me a chance to go to the desert in Nevada for the summer, camping for 3 months.. it was totally the dogs do dahs..fantastic. They asked me to return for a year to rescue their ailing recycling centre. I went back intending to do as much wild camping as possible.
The centre failed to get next years funding because of politics.

Guess whats happening? I'm up to my ears in phone calls, letters, council meetings, grant applications. A pal & I will probably do a professional feasibility study, then make it work with all the community & stakeholders involved. Needless to say all my kit sits at the bottom of the wardrobe accusing me every day.....

So I suspect its really about a state of mind and respecting yourself so that you give yourself the time you need to do the things you need. This week I will get outside for a few nights cos I have promised myself. Get ready for Spring it will be fantastic.
George

 

[Seagull]

Call it mid-life crisis, call it sick to death of the modern world, but I'm searching for some inspiration. :sadwavey:

How DO you all manage to balance the (so called!) "real" world of modern day life against the old "traditional" life of bushcraft?

I'm contemplating running away to a hut somewhere and eaking out a near hermit-like existence!

Seriously....it might be just this time of year but I'm fed up to the back teeth of my modern IT-esque life and modern "you must be sensible" job in a modern company bored out of my mind!! :aargh4:

Any advice appreciated!!

Phil

Phil, I wouldn,t be too sure that "all" actually manage to balance things. Though its only human, I think, to want to believe that everyone else has got a better tasting lump of the pie.

I,m sure youve already thought about getting involved in some sort of mentally absorbing/distracting pastime, with the hope that such, would be a medium for changing the emotive bias.
The thing is, its mostly perception, and thats what I tell myself, whenever my bucket gets too full.

Its allowable to get pee'd off from time to time, as long as you see that, for what it is.

You already sound like a reactionary and I though that this was the preserve of us, for whom a "mid-life crisis" means living til past 120!

Nah, youre just practising , for a midlife crisis, I shouldnt worry about it.

Ceeg

 

[merlin]

S.A.D
seasonaly affected dissorder, just coming out of it myself, gets worse as you get older.
stop thinking about it just do it get the log cabin and worry about it when you get snowed in!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Wayland]

I took the decision some time ago to get out of management and do something I enjoyed instead.

I spent years seriously skint, nearly lost my house, had to choose between food and heating a couple of times but I survived.

Debbie, my partner hauled my a$$ out of the fire so many times I lost count but now my business is doing well enough that she has gone back to uni. to do something she wants to do too.

There are not many people who say on thier death beds, "I wish I had worked more."

 

[baggins]

I think it's quite normal for most of us to start getting narked off this time of year. I'm lucky, i work for me (and swmbo) and am always outside. But even i get cheesed off with things and just wish i was sitting infront of a fire away from everyone (except swmbo, of course ).
My plan for getting through this is as soon as i get those pangs, cancel the following weekends engagements and head into the wilds. Even if it is a campsite, it's so quiet this time of year, one night out, and i feel totally recharged.
Hope you get back on form soon,
Baggins
ps, it's going to snow over here tomorrow, so SNOW DAY!
(that will keep me grinnign for ages)

 

[merlin]

Just sold my buisiness due to it not beeing outdoor type work, but I dont seem to be able to get a start in anything remotely outdoor!!!
There is never anything going that fits the bill, I suppose its the holly grail to find that job you would do even if you were not beeing paid for it.

 

[Wayland]

That's what I do....

 

[dwardo]

Call it mid-life crisis, call it sick to death of the modern world, but I'm searching for some inspiration. :sadwavey:

How DO you all manage to balance the (so called!) "real" world of modern day life against the old "traditional" life of bushcraft?

I'm contemplating running away to a hut somewhere and eaking out a near hermit-like existence!

Seriously....it might be just this time of year but I'm fed up to the back teeth of my modern IT-esque life and modern "you must be sensible" job in a modern company bored out of my mind!! :aargh4:

Any advice appreciated!!

Phil

If i wasnt unusually sober last night i would be betting i wrote this my self and forgot about it mate !

I work as a consultant and engineer and i cant drive past a bit of woodland without contemplate its possiblility as a potential home

Also DONT carry any kit in your car as it just makes the possibilty of running away and living in said woodland for ever more easy!

Yeah so mainly beer and ignorance is the answere to your qestion.

 

[Klenchblaize]

I have no answers or even suggestions but I sure am listening as this looks set to be an enlightening thread and I really do mean that without a hint of sarcasm.

Nice post Phil

Cheers!

 

[torjusg]

I don't want to be here either, but the civilisation contains me. A few stupid choices have made me even more stuck.

But no more dispair, I have decided to work myself back to the freedom I had before I aquired a studenloan through 5 years of boring and meaningless studies.

One need goals to motivate oneself. Mine is that when I am done studing economics this spring I am heading back to the mountains I grew up. I'll try to make a living running courses, and the much lower housingcosts, abundant game and fish will help reduce my need for money also.

I may be something of a madman, but I am determined to one day live as a hunter/gatherer for the rest of my life. It may be short, but at least it will be fullfilling.

My thoughts on your situation:
It all depends on how far you are willing to go, as well as how much effort you care to put into it.