Primitive Living and Survival Skills
Sacred Order of Survival (4 elements)
1. Shelter- to protect you against hyperthermia or hypothermia, which can be very debilitating. (days till needed: 1)
2. Water-it's core to our being.(days till needed: 2-4)
3. Fire- to purify water and warmth (days till needed: varies)
4. Food- kinda obvious.(weeks till needed: 2-4)
*This is the general order of importance, in some situations it may need to be rearranged.
Attitude is important, be cool.
Important knowledge to have:
A. Plant and Tree identification, use, preparation,etc.
B. Stone Tools - how to make and use them.
C. Fire - know the woods and become proficient at this skill.
D. Landscape - geology, geography, history, etc.
The Survival Skills stuff was based on Tom Brown Jr.'s stuff, you can look for his books.
The Possibility of Long-Term Human Existence: Vegan and Raw-Vegan by Rob Miller
The Next Step: Raw Foods - This is a guide for those ready to leave processed industrial food culture behind.
- great site on the global trends in agriculture, genetic engineering and what you can do about it. The listing of books for sale is good, ask your local library to order them if not already available.
- Welldone.
Excellent database. It's features some great essays like
The Garden of Love: A visit to
Robert Hart's Forest Garden, Why Perennials?, Why Plants?,
Vegan-Organics - The Basic
Principles, and many others. A great links section.
Edited version of The Permaculture Community by Bill Mollison.
The Suburban Lawn by Bill Mollison. On the waste of the American lawn and what to do about it.
The Phantom Treeplanters' Manifesto
Always look to the shelters of the indigenous peoples from the area that you live. They have created some excellent shelters that work really well, are free, and sustainable.
Cob - it's an essay about cob (earthen housing), it has a critique of the current constuction and housing industry.
Cob Cottage Company
Cob Builders Handbook by Becky Bee
Tunnels (free reader required)
non pdf:
Tunnels
DIY Tunneling
Squatting - Do it!
No Rent, No Government
Stories of Squatting
Mass production of clothing by techno-industrial means will not last forever so it may be of value to aquire the skills of primitive cloth making. Again, look to the earth-based cultures of the region that you wish to inhabit.
Second hand clothes can be obtained without pissing away money into the megamachine (see Steal This Book - good old yippe stuff. A survival guide for the prison that is the system. Mostly urban stuff. Some of it is dated.)
by Joseph C. Jenkins . Composting your waste into fertile soil.
Build Your Own:
The $25 (or less) Hinged Top Sawdust Toilet (The Cheap, Practical and Earth-friendly potty! )
If you really would like to keep things simple just make your deposites at the bottom of a tree after clearing away the mulch layer, clean up with leaves/moss/etc. then cover your gift of fertility with the mulch that was brushed aside. In Ojibewa, the act of defecation is considered a gifting to the earth, a return of what was taken. By using conventional toilets you not only cause environmental destruction but break the cycle of gifting. To many earth-based cultures, using a toilet is a sign of being colonized and alienated from the earth, no longer native.
