Challenge to Define

I  joined a survivalist forum and put the term Minimalist under my Avatar, which is a cropped headshot from this PCT photo taken at Lake Moreno, at the anual zero day kick off party.

A friend asked me, What is your definition of minimalism, and when did I get interested in Survivalism. The answers aren't that easy to put into words. So, after some thought and of course,  some condensing or minimizing of the ideas, here's what I came up with. Thanks for asking me, Bruce.


Definition of a minimalist to me means having the things I need without excess. For instance, I have maybe seven pair of pants, two of which are for work...do I need all of that? Probably not. How many shirts are hanging in your closet that you never wear? How much fluff -decorations line your book shelves? Its hard to come up with a specific definition. Of course it would be different for a family. For me, everything has to fit in my geo metro.

I became a minimalist while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I found the less I had, the better my experience. Many things can serve more than one purpose. Some people are accumulators and feel their self worth is measured in Stuff. Mine is measured in experiences. Marketers try to sell us so many kinds of soap, for instance, one for every task under the sun. A minimalist finds the best all purpose soaps and keeps the clutter down to a minimum.

As survivalists, the less we need for our basic comforts the more satisfied we will feel. People go into panic mode when they feel their needs are not being met or that scarcity of essential things is right around the corner. Minimalists perceive that same scarcity differently. Not everything is essential, most things are luxuries, so the level of perceived scarcity is much less threatening. Panic leads to bad decisions, and eventually disaster. A minimalist requires little, is mobile and can adapt readily.

That's basically my philosophy, in a nutshell. I've wrote about it as an ultralight backpacker at trailquest.net.

I can't say when my Wilderness Survival Interest and fascination merged with an End Of the Power grid or End of the world survivalism thought process. Surely watching and reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy several times made a huge impact, also the craziness surrounding the possible bird flu pandemic and the fact we could be quarantined in our homes for weeks.

I've always been fascinated by survival stories, and wrote a whole thing on it, called Wondering, which can be read by following a link found on my webpage at www.trailquest.net/BRindex.html

We humans have a host of book knowledge. Few have any true survival -homesteading skills. We are loosing this. I bought a book maybe 20 years ago, called Brain Tanning the Sioux Way, and it said that skill is being lost, few if any native Americans know how to tan a hide using the brains of an animal.

This made me realize, its the same for other skills and if they aren't passed on, we as a people, our whole sustainability will suffer.

So, no real answer here, Bruce, but my next step is to learn to hunt with various weapons, and actually utilize as much of the kill as possible.

NOW!

If I actually had a place to store stuff, and stopped living the life of a transient, I'd have lots of tools and materials for surviving a national or world wide crisis. I have a lot of respect for those who have left the gerbil wheel and are prepared for grid collapse. Survivalists call mulitple systems redundancies, which are back up "plans" or tools for primary system failures. That is very smart. If a person has the room and ability to do that, excellent.

Which brings up a key point of minimalism. Being able to re-purpose, re-cycle, restore the stuff we already have is an important skill for minimalists. Instead of throwing things out and buying something new, we reshape them into the things we need.

Alternate Stove Test Photos

I wrote about this stove yesterday, and told how to make it with just a salt container and motor oil. After letting it "cure" for about 4 hours, so the oil would impregnate all the cardboard, I took it outside and lit the cotton wick with just one kitchen match. Easy!

After it burned brightly for half an hour, surprising both me and my partner, I put it out with this aluminum pan. I'll test it again, using a pot support and can to boil water in. Lets see how much more burn time it will give me!

This project is inspired by the movie The Road. I also read the book by Cormac McCarthy. It will inspire you to learn how to utilize the least of all things, combining and experimenting to shape something of value.

Surviving is a journey, not a destination.

What Will the Future Look Like?

I have been reading several survival web blogs and web sites lately.

We seem to have various views of what our future, as a world, a country, a communtiy, an indivigual may be.

The acronym : TEOTWAWKI is fun to pronounce. Try it Tee-oh-Twaw-Key. Thats how I'm saying it.
I found it at : http://thesurvivalistblog.net/

He's got some great links, too, and the Winterizing a Travel Trailer was a good read. This couple went up to Stevens County in Washington State, lived in a modified 18 foot travel trailer with temps getting down to minus 3. Thats serious stuff.

Anyways, in a discourse on future urban survival, the scenario mentions eating cats and dogs.
The End of The World As We Know It (Teotwawki) will bring out all our survival instincts, and its uncertain what humans will resort to.

In the book and movie by the same title, The Road, Cormac MaCarthy shows the cannibalism and farming of human which includes maintaining life while slowing harvesting food. Pretty gross, but profound thoughts here.

We all know about the Donner's Pass Party, and reduction to cannibalism. This is not unusual historically. And if we can eat humans, we can sure eat cats, dogs, rats, insects.
Its a disasociation, I believe, that evolution has allowed for us to move forward as a species.

If I am ever reduced to eating non typical food sources, the first step is bringing that item into a generic form: killing, skinning, and cutting into pieces of standard shapes. I don't want to spend any time looking at eyes and taste buds, at fingers or fur.
Thats just me, from a point of plenty, without necessity or hunger.

Watching the distruction in Japan, first massive earthquakes and after shocks, then devastating tsunami, and worst of all nuclear disaster with long term impact, we're prompted to ask ourselves questions on survival.
How secure is my water? How are my adapting skills being developed? How long will civility hold out while people are living in cramped conditions?

I noticed families building cardboard homes inside the building for mass housing. I loved it. They found ways to feel privacy, create polite boundaries, re establish family life.

What will our future look like? Will we be able to recognize ourselves?
Interestingly, on the survivalistblog website, the question is constantly posed: What did you do to prepare today?

Interesting food for thought.

The Road-A Movie and Book Review

I watched The Road last week on HBO.
This movie is based on the novel, a Post Apocalyptic scenario which is both profound and monotonous as to be genius. Written by Cormac McCarthy and published in 2006 it contains a few more dramatic scenes than the movie. Scenes which involve infanticide, pregnant women, slaves, canabalism, farming of body parts, and catalytic destruction are so moving as to cause dreams and nightmares.
I'm still pondering all the implications.

The movie follows the book in mood and theme quite well. If you want a fuller experience, read the book afterwards. Do not be surprised at the lack of sentence structure or normal punctuation, such as quotes. Whole conversations flowing along between the man and boy fill a page, yet the normal constraints and protocol of literature are abandoned.

How fitting. I found it very much in keeping with the end of world scenario. "Old and troubling issues resolved into nothingness and night...
Darkness implacable....There is no god and we are his prophets".
These sentences are examples of McCarthy's talent.
We find ourselves on The Road, along with the man and his son, hunting food, watching over our shoulders, wearing rags, freezing, ever scared of those that follow us. I read the book in two days; I found it so gripping even after seeing the movie.

An entire semester of high school English could be taught with through this one literary work. Ethics, economy, religion, relationships, history, and creative writing, would be just a few areas of exploration.

Many times the book is much better than the movie. I would say they are nearly equal in impact. However, the book does offer more understanding of the breakdown of humanity, the scavanging of trinkets, the years of wasteland invisioned in The Road. Thankfully, we are left with a ray of hope at the very end of the novel.