The Truth About Simple Unhooked Living

By Estar Holmes

Can you survive without a TV, vacuum cleaner, shower, toaster, dryer, and flush toilet? Why would you even want to try? You may be surprised to know all those those things are completely unnecessary, and I can tell you how I survived just fine without them.

Good water, healthy food, and cozy shelter are necessities in my book. I like taking care of those basics as simply as possible. This book talks about the influences that pulled me in that direction and how I fulfilled my dream of living in the country. I did it by finding the lowest common denominator between low-tech and high comfort.

Through the experience I conclude that living simply can solve a lot of problems for people, Being self-reliant and resourceful is empowering. It's just a matter of learning new ways of doing things. Nowadays, we are blessed to be able to draw upon both ancestral traditions and appropriate technologies. There is no good reason for anybody in America to be homeless or hungry.

Unfortunately, being self reliant in nature is quickly becoming illegal at a time when it's needed most. Every elemental act, from building a fire, to drinking milk, and planting a seed has a regulation attached to it. The country is no longer free when people need permits to live a humble life. It hasn't always been this way. With all the new knowledge we have today, we could be entering into a golden age. Hopefully this book will will be among those that get people moving in the right direction.

The way things are going, the system will fall apart. It's currently like castles built on sand. When it crumbles, radical simplicity will be foisted on everybody, like it or not. Those who understand what they truly need, and how to get it, will be happier.

Resist the divide and conquer mentality. We all need the same things and we're all loosing ground together. The warriors of the culture war should beat their swords into plowshares and unite to revive our liberty to a pursue simple land based existence. The grandchildren will thank us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Estar Holmes
• Release date: Apr 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476217024

Estar Holmes

Estar Holmes creates content for traditional and digital media. The Truth About Simple Unhooked Living is her first e-book. There is more on how and why she prefers to live simply at simpleunhookedliving.wordpress.com, and some fun pictures at pinterest.com/unhookedliving.

Book preview

The Truth About

Simple

Unhooked

Living

By Estar Holmes

*****

The Truth About Simple Unhooked Living

Estar Holmes

Published by Estar Holmes at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Estar Holmes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Table of Contents

Freedom to Unhook

How Then Shall We Live?

A New Dream

Getting Water

Cleaning and Storing Water

Making Every Drop Count

Going to the Bathroom Where There Isn’t One

Life Without Corporate Electricity

Good Eating Off the Grid

Staying Warm

Keeping House and Home

Small Footprints Save Lives

Epilogue: Getting to the Other Side

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Freedom to Unhook

Why do it? The legal squeeze. Simple living theory.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.—Declaration of Independence—

Do you ever think about pulling the plugs on your dependent city-centered life? Maybe you’ve dreamed of buying a few acres, growing your own food, and cooking it on a woodstove. Can you see yourself raising chickens, catching rain in a barrel, and letting the seasons dictate the rhythm of your days? You may look toward the uncertain future and wonder if a more simple land-based life could provide the security you seek for your family, and perhaps even cushion you from the fall of our great empire. If you are thinking along these lines, you probably have a lot of questions, especially if you have always been city-bound. Is it possible to be more self-reliant, and even autonomous, in this day and age? Is there any way to get set up gracefully with very little money? Yes, it’s possible, if you are willing to change your thinking and live very simply.

The theory of this book is that intentional simple living is the best way to take care of ourselves now and in the future. I tried it, and it worked out, so I thought I’d write about the journey with the pros and cons laid out.

As it turns out, you can become remarkably empowered by living very simply, without even electricity and running water, if you know what you’re doing. I did it on and off for fourteen years with the longest stretch being seven years and got pretty good at it, so I figured I’d record the details for those who are ignorant, as I once was, of the alternatives. Beginning in the fourth chapter, you will see exactly how we took care of life’s necessities, from washing the dishes and bathing, to eating without refrigeration, gardening without running water, and more. Once you know how it’s done, you may agree that radical simple living is an effective way to take control of your life, take care of your family, and leave a better world for your grandchildren. But only if the powers that be get out of the way.

You won’t find advice about expensive solar and wind technologies here, or tips on how to choose the right generator. I touch on these things because some of my neighbors used generators and solar panels part of the time. But I kept things really simple, and overall, we were able to manage our homes efficiently in low-tech, low-budget bliss.

If you have money to invest in renewable technologies, great! But you probably won’t be satisfied with what they can do unless you understand how to function efficiently with a fraction of what the average American consumes. Expecting to maintain a glutinous rate of consumption with renewable power is like trying to cram ten pounds of lard into a five-pound can. It’s a waste of time. That’s why applying the knowledge of those who intentionally dwell without pipes and wires is key to sustainability and survival. Knowing how to streamline needs and desires enables you to maintain an acceptable level of comfort with fewer resources.

There are many gadgets the unhooked prefer to do without, like microwaves, coffee makers, hot water tanks, and flush toilets, because we find them unnecessary. That doesn’t mean we go without food, coffee, or sanitation. We use other ways to provide for those things and actually enjoy a heightened sense of independence because of it. I will share tried and true techniques my simple living friends and I used, and highlight a few reasonably priced gadgets that make it possible to be comfortable without corporate power and water constantly flowing into the house. Investing in those implements and knowing how to use them is better than money in the bank these days. You will get a glimpse into the simple living mindset and learn why people pursue this strange lifestyle disdained by the modern masses. And, very importantly, I will address rules and regulations that encumber today’s unhooked living pioneers.

The bad news on the simple living frontier is that the liberty to fend for oneself is quickly slipping away in America. Pursuing radical simplicity without being clear on exactly what is permitted in your area will very likely result in running afoul of the law. There are many regulations these days that our great grandmothers and grandfathers were never forced to deal with. In fact, at this point we can’t assume to have permission to take care of ourselves in any way proscribed by the government. This is true right down to the elemental and primitive human rights of building a fire and planting a seed. There are rules about fire, water, food, and animals; rules about poop, and dwellings, and about how many like-minded people you can work out the details of your existence with on a piece of land.

All these regulations strike at the heart of our ability to be natural people living close to the earth, and there are perpetually more rules in the making. The laws vary depending on what jurisdiction you are in. Some want to control you more than others. You might find someplace lenient to sink roots, or discover some semantic loophole that provides a way through the wormhole. But local governments are constantly being pressured to implement more laws and there is absolutely nothing to guarantee that your liberty to survive will be protected anywhere in our land of the free. Therefore, a person of modest means striving to follow a traditional life close to nature can easily become hamstrung. Failure to follow the rules will incur the wrath of commissions, councils, and agencies that can levy fines and eventually take over everything you have. It’s a shame, since responsible simple living provides relief for both the environmental and economic woes that ail us. The people who are living the solution get crushed, and those better equipped to jump through hoops prevail to feed the beast.

It is quite possible that you are oblivious to the problem of the shrinking freedom to survive because you have never tried to color outside of the lines. Everything you need to live has always been delivered to a store near you by a handful of mega corporations. However, if you ever muster the courage to cut out the middlemen and lean directly on nature and people nearby, the profusion of rules will become harshly evident. To do just about anything productive today, John Doe can’t just dig in and get the job done. He must first become apprised of codes, titles, chapters, parts and subparts, subsections, clauses, references and annotations. Then, forget about chopping the kindling or cutting the hay. Sharpen the pencils and fill out some forms, get the permits, and take out your checkbook because it is time to pay the pipers. Relying on the government for permission to live is a bad pattern for free people to get sucked into.

Strangely enough, the freedom-proclaiming American people seem to find comfort in all these rules. They constantly clamor for more, and of course government agents are happy to comply. Our elected representatives make so many laws each year that they don’t even have time to read most of them. There are more than two hundred thousand pages in the ever-changing US Code alone, and a few hundred thousand more pages of state law, county policies, and municipal rules to tie our hands. It’s an unwieldy mess, as far as people who love liberty are concerned. If this profusion of laws makes you feel like you’re wrapped in a cocoon of security, you probably have not had occasion to become alarmed at loosing the liberty to exercise your natural bodily functions without a permit from the oligarchy. But you may become interested in preserving that right, just in case the day comes when you or your children need to pursue self-reliance. As this nation’s social safety net unravels due to economic and political bungling, you too may want the government to adopt a laissez faire approach when it comes to your right to be secure in a simple land-based dwelling.

You may believe all these rules are necessary for the government to protect us from each other. But hasn’t it been protecting us all along? And what have we got to show for it? Fear and uncertainty mainly, in the forms of debt crisis, climate change, water shortages, depleted soil, contaminated food, peak oil, foreclosures, unemployment, higher taxes, rising prices, homelessness, rampant disease, and wars of all kinds. Meanwhile the rich get richer and more of the former middle class sleeps in their cars. Not to be negative, but if you’re a working class hero or small business owner, you will have noticed that it’s getting more difficult to make it all the time. Real people are suffering hardships right now, and there is no indication that things will make a turn for the better. Do you feel secure and protected? To add insult to injury, you are forced to finance this supposed protection with your hard earned cash.

Radical simple living is one way for people to turn things around for the better. Those resourceful enough to pull it off should therefore be left alone. I slipped my simple living adventure in under the wire toward the end of the last century. It was still possible to pursue a bit of freedom in the country then, without receiving citations. At one point, an unhooked family invited me to build a cabin on their land and I took them up on it. I bought a good used chainsaw at the local saw shop, and cut all the required logs, lumber, and plywood with it. That and a few hand tools were all I needed to erect a safe and comfortable home. I didn’t bother with permits, plumbing, or electricity. You could say I occupied my human right to simple and dignified shelter.

The cabin was heated with the sun and a used woodstove. I cooked on the woodstove or on a propane camp stove. Water was hauled in or collected on site. During warm weather, food was kept cool with ice. It was a very cozy home and I felt like a Third World queen in it. Once the place was built, I didn’t need to spend much money at all. I had no mortgage and not many desires beyond surviving, learning, loving, creating, and being happy. These are the birthright of every human being. But can you see why this simple life represents doom and gloom to the powers that be? They don’t want people to know how content we can be without all of their corporate stuff. The elites want us to covet whatever they are selling. They need us to keep circulating their worthless Federal Reserve notes at a fevered pitch. They need us to stay engaged. They squirm when we pull away from the illusions they spin for us. They will do and say anything to make sure we keep shopping, paying taxes, and buying permits.

Alarmed right-wing conspiracy theorists pointed out a few years ago that the slow loss of our freedoms makes us a lot like frogs. A frog may be plopped into a pot of cool, refreshing water, and if the heat is turned up slowly, things will seem comfortable enough. It won’t think to jump out before it’s too late. But if a heroic frog musters the wherewithal to scramble out of the pot and do things differently, without electricity and running water for example, she can get into more hot water than before. The meticulous control over our personal lives doesn’t faze those who don’t even realize they are in the pot. Despite a few difficulties, things seem good enough. If they ever do feel some heat, rather than resisting, they pride themselves in being able to take it better than the next guy. Can you see where this is going? A lot of people will be blind-sided when the shift hits the fan.

When I made the bold flight to the country way back in ‘79, I discovered people who had already jumped out of the pot. There was quite a concentration of them in the rural Northwest. They were building cabins, feeding themselves from gardens, foraging and hunting, chopping wood, hauling water, and using outdoor privies. In addition to the new wave of simple living adherents, I found a support group of old timers who had lived simply as kids during the days before rural electrification. They remembered the old ways and reminisced about those days in a bittersweet way.

The old timers were not worried about trifles like outhouses, but somebody from on high was. They had decided that everybody needs septic tanks, and an anti-outhouse measure was passed soon after I arrived. It, and other anti-survival laws trickle down from on high, to even the most backwater local governments, through persuasive control strategies known as the carrot and the stick. We all know what the stick is. The carrot is funding, and financially strapped counties tend to cave whenever access to it is threatened, no matter what the freedom loving citizens say.

The anti-privy law banned the construction of new outhouses, but it allowed old ones to be grandfathered in. People who traditionally relieved themselves in a little house built over a hole in the ground could continue to do so. New back-to-the-land arrivals surreptitiously took advantage of this loophole, out of necessity, and constructed outhouses with old weathered wood. If the authorities did come-a-questioning, we planned to act dumb and surprised, and claim they had been there all along. (That was the good old days before Big Brother had his ubiquitous digital eye in the sky.) It’s a sad commentary on government out of control when poor rural folks have to lie just to go to the bathroom!

Nobody actually