Comments on: Photos of people living off-the-grid in the United States

By: FrodeSvendsen

FrodeSvendsen — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:20:00 +0000

That’s nice and all, but when one of these people come down with the flu or some other less benign sickness, I’m pretty certain they will hasten to the nearest hospital and be very thankful for modern niceties. Trust me, the hostility is a two-way street..

By: pKp

pKp — Sat, 05 May 2012 12:21:00 +0000

Hey, knowing how to manage people is an invaluable skill when living in small bands in very stress-inducing conditions. Apart from the culture-shock, I think most Fortune-500 CEOs would do very well as the God-King of a cannibalistic Death-worshipping tribe…

…that’s what they are already, after all.

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Sat, 05 May 2012 08:07:00 +0000

Off the financial grid?

Now you’re just making terms up.

By: tsol

tsol — Sat, 05 May 2012 03:30:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4s0nzsU1Wg

By: tsol

tsol — Sat, 05 May 2012 03:20:00 +0000

The Romans had them 2,000 years ago- they called them “caldarium”. Russians have “bania”. The Finns and the Scandinavians also have their own forms of saunas.

Ignorant (self-hating?) cultural assumptions are so cute.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 04 May 2012 23:16:00 +0000

You know that not everybody has hair on their legs?

By: lukasz lysakowski

lukasz lysakowski — Fri, 04 May 2012 21:50:00 +0000

Not buying the photo shot of the cave woman who has perfectly shaved legs.

By: noggin

noggin — Fri, 04 May 2012 21:32:00 +0000

I am quite familiar with the term, the practice, and in particular, the pan-cultural aspects of the tradition. It is up to octolover to provide context to his or her statement, and more significantly, describe how the woman’s skin color related to the cultural practice she enjoyed.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:42:00 +0000

Time was you had to be within arms reach to kill a man.

What cowards we were, then.

By: danwestall

danwestall — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:36:00 +0000

Well i can tell you first hand about the stone age people in this group as i was there the big ginger bearded dude! check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpZOKHzzUtA

By: donovan acree

donovan acree — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:14:00 +0000

Did anyone else notice that black and chrome wood burning stove? It is certainly well maintained indicating a skill set not found in most modern lives. The perpetual maintenance of durable quality goods is something we can learn in our modern lives that would benefit all of us.
The stove itself raises so many questions for me. How did they get it up in the hills?
How old is it? The vents on the side make me think it’s a modern design.
Come to think of it, much in that shot are modern goods – lamps, clothing, door pulls, even the lumbar used to in the interior is milled and nailed with modern nails.. How do they earn money to pay for all of that?

By: donovan acree

donovan acree — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:08:00 +0000

Not only are they rifled, they are also not flint lock. Those are percussion cap firearms.

By: Oceanconcepts

Oceanconcepts — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:14:00 +0000

I’m exactly one generation removed from approximately the bearded gent’s lifestyle. My father grew up on a subsistence farm, eating only what they raised and ploughing the land with a mule. This was out of economic necessity and a global depression, not by choice. He valued the lessons he learned by his upbringing, but no so much the malnutrition, rickets, and poverty. When inducted into the Army in WWII he had never seen a dentist and a doctor only once, when he nearly died of rheumatic fever. He was one of the best marksmen in his group, because he had grown up hunting for food with a single shot gun.

Thanks to the GI bill, he ended up helping design the Space Shuttle and put up the GPS satellites. He made sure I was comfortable with subsistence and wilderness skills- I was taking two week wilderness “walkabout” trips sans adults by the time I was 12. I don’t live that sort of lifestyle now, but the lessons are there always and I think make me more solid and stable on the earth.

That said, these photos look a bit “staged” and romanticized in the tradition of Edward Curtiss. Nothing wrong with people developing skills, having different experiences, or adopting a non-standard lifestyle. Or engaging in extended live-action role paying, for that matter, but it does seem to me that the photographer is probably misrepresenting the reality just a bit.

By: glittertrash

glittertrash — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:06:00 +0000

Doesn’t follow. Of course the “clan of the cave bear” cosplay photos are of people “trying to do something with their lives”. A hobby is a hobby is a way to be outdoors, learn interesting stuff, make things with your hands, gain appreciation for your humanness. Got jack all to do with buying Luis Vuitton duffle bags and I cannot at all see how you are making that link.

Are people so shitty about this because the blurred lines between authentic (“off-grid”) and inauthentic (“fashion photographer”, “survival skills for city people”) are making scratches over their brains? I don’t understand the venom.

By: Oceanconcepts

Oceanconcepts — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:45:00 +0000

That looks to me to be a percussion cap action, not a flintlock. A modern (early 1800′s) innovation that works much better in the rain. No pan.

By: strawboy

strawboy — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:20:00 +0000

I have to say that I know one of the people in these photos – the blond haired woman. She is for real. She used to live near me in NW Montana but has since moved and it was a treat to see her in these photos. She is not against driving or using a phone at times etc. but simply minimizes her use of “stuff.” Really cool lady, very intelligent. There are others who live like her, I have met some of them, NOT a hoax.

By: Teller

Teller — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:01:00 +0000

Won’t be more entertained today than I just was reading all y’alls comments. Like a group of lovable jackals, and I mean that with great sincerity and respect.

By: jncc

jncc — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:11:00 +0000

Proenneke’s videos are amazing.

By: jncc

jncc — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Yes, there are people out there who are “trying to do something with their lives.” There are people who are “living outside and learning skills.” Then there are people who “emerge from their sweat lodge” and decide that the best way to live lightly on the earth is set up a website and charge $6K a week to take groups of people out in the woods and show them how to stitch their pre-tanned buckskins into clothes. And then there are the people who take photos of this and present it as “people living off the grid.

I certainly didn’t suggest that there is anything wrong about “living outside and learning skills.” That is wonderful.

What is questionable, perhaps even dishonest and reprehensible, is stylized, glamorized, and inaccurate portrayals of that. The photographer is, among other things, a fashion photographer. Here’s a link to some work he did for Vuitton: http://www.ericvalli.com/index.php?/commercial-work/figaro/

I guess if you believe that this guy’s “clan of the cave bear” photos are of people “trying to do something with their lives” then you also believe that owning a Louis Vuitton duffle bag will help you land your bush plane in the Serengeti.

By: bardfinn

bardfinn — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:47:00 +0000

Living off the grid is so great. I’m the only adult in my blood family that doesn’t have diabetes, nor a body fat percentage over 25%. The floating staph infection was a bit problematic, and the gastrointestinal pain brought on by iodine water purification tablets and flourishing fungal infections, coupled with cystic acne, were a bit harsh, but I was lucky to enough to never need /serious/ medical attention while I was at Philmont.

The only real difficulty was not being able to clean my hair with any of the eighty pounds of water I had to backpack with me.

There’s nothing that says that living authentically “off the grid” involves manufacturing everything you have from the ground up. Whether you backpack is framed with an aluminum frame from a garage sale or willow, you’re still impacting the same.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:39:00 +0000

thread won.

By: bardfinn

bardfinn — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:36:00 +0000

Or telephone sanitising. Or mid-level market managing. After the incident, we could put them all on an ark.

By: bardfinn

bardfinn — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:31:00 +0000

I invite you to explore the etymology and cultural context of the phrase “Sweat Lodge”. Note, not steam bath, sauna, turkish bath, etcetera.

By: frogmarch

frogmarch — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:02:00 +0000

It’s a blanket capote, basically the ur-snuggie or protoslanket as they are made from thick wool Hudson Bay blankets or similar. Early fur traders traded blankets to Native Americans for hides, and Native Americans quickly realized that they could be made into coats that are warmer and more comfortable (don’t ask how I know this) than handsewn buckskins.

You can make one yourself from patterns available online:
http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/winter/gear/capote.htm

By: frogmarch

frogmarch — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:47:00 +0000

They are rifles, FWIW (you can tell by the octagonal barrels), reasonably accurate to about 300 yards. You’d have to be crazy or very hungry to hunt with a smoothbore musket– muskets like the Charleville or Brown Bess, the M-16 and AK-47 of the 18th century, didn’t even have sights (the thing sticking up above the muzzle of a Brown Bess is a bayonet lug).

By: Beanolini

Beanolini — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:44:00 +0000

women’s arms just like women’s legs are as hairy as mens.

No, unshaven women’s arms and legs are, in general, not as hairy as men’s.

Is it normal for women to shave their arms where you live? I don’t know anyone who does that.

By: Beanolini

Beanolini — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:28:00 +0000

dropping out to spend a lot of time hunting and gathering seems... inefficient.

It has been suggested that hunter-gatherer societies have rather more free time than industrial/agricultural societies. Especially if you can convince younger and/or female members of your group to do all the work.

By: Mister44

Mister44 — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Wha? With the Ray Dawn Chong rape scene? That movie is a classic (ly bad movie).

By: dculberson

dculberson — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:30:00 +0000

Right. So much better to never experience or learn from other cultures. Also non-white people never do that.

By: any person

any person — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:36:00 +0000

I saw that blond lady, funnily enough, at the Portland airport last year. Totally stunning woman in person, like she’s from another world. She had on a leather patchwork skirt trimmed in a million eagle feathers. She seemed straight from Clan of the Cave Bears (she did look quite a bit like Daryll Hannah, actually). I spent some time trying to find out who she was but gave up.