Extreme minimalism, the next step

aisy_Day said:

Mass-produced canned veggies are not minimalist. Eat fresh or can your own (requires fire and a pressure-pot).

A root cellar will help with storage of carrots, potatoes, apples and such. Sauerkraut and kimchi keep well and will help prevent scurvy.

If you want to farm/garden, then a fence will help keep out rabbits, raccoons, deer, goats, donkeys and other devastators.

Try Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest for info on organic farming in a cold climate.

Click to expand...

this is so helpful...all these resources and know-how....how do you know all this?

Eudaimonist said:

No!

Heating is heating. I never mentioned the source. As long as my apartment is warm enough to be comfortable and healthy, that's what I mean.... I could survive without a computer. I could not live without one, if living means self-actualization.

Click to expand...

I think that fundamentally, I define "living" differently than you I suppose.
I go by this definition:
Live - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

To this neo-Luddite philosophy, I say NO! This is evil of the highest magnitude!

eudaimonia,

Mark

Click to expand...

Why do we get to argue about whether something prohibits our hitting the top of Maslow's triangle thing when 1/3 of the world are BARELY getting past the SECOND level? Why do we have a fundamental right, MERELY because of where we were born and who we were born unto, to those things when others do not?

I'd consider myself sort of a moderate minimalist.

We've got a computer, and kitchen appliances that came with our apartment. Our furniture is extremely basic such that if one were to enter our apartment without knowing much about us, they'd suspect that we were just moving in. We've got a tv but no cable, so it's only used for movies and video games. We use air conditioning and heating less often than most people but still use it to some extent. We pay money for outside entertainment very often, but instead save up for a few more worthwhile experiences.

We both have cars, but they are planned to be kept for a very long time. Many places in the US are pretty lame as far as public transportation goes. In order to get to work I'd need a car or at least to carpool.

Two summers ago, my partner spent a summer living in an apartment with no furniture (including no bed and no mattress), no computer, but a tv (with no cable) and electricity and kitchen appliances. So, several months ago during our senior year, we lived sort of like that again, except I insisted that we use a bed that I have because I don't want bugs crawling on me on the floor or something like that. It wasn't bad, but I think it's better to have a computer and some really basic furniture like we do now.

To some extent unlike Mark I kind of view myself as having a debt to the world, and I intend to repay it with interest.

-Lyn

Vincent: What'cha gonna do, man? Jules: Well, that's what I've been sitting here contemplating. First, I'm going to deliver this case to Marcellus, then, basically, I'm just going to walk the Earth. Vincent: What'cha mean, "walk the earth"? Jules: You know, like Caine in Kung Fu, walk from place to place, meet people, get into adventures. Vincent: And how long do you intend to walk the earth? Jules: Until God puts me where he wants me to be. Vincent: And what if he don't do that? Jules: If it takes forever, then I'll walk forever. Vincent: So you decided to be a bum?

GQ Chris said:

Vincent: What'cha gonna do, man? Jules: Well, that's what I've been sitting here contemplating. First, I'm going to deliver this case to Marcellus, then, basically, I'm just going to walk the Earth. Vincent: What'cha mean, "walk the earth"? Jules: You know, like Caine in Kung Fu, walk from place to place, meet people, get into adventures. Vincent: And how long do you intend to walk the earth? Jules: Until God puts me where he wants me to be. Vincent: And what if he don't do that? Jules: If it takes forever, then I'll walk forever. Vincent: So you decided to be a bum?

Click to expand...

Yes! Jesus and the disciples were definitely bums.

A few random comments:

Autumnleaf said:

What I have in mind:
-Get a plot of land, perhaps 40 acres?

Click to expand...

40 acres is a lot of land. The biologically productive area per person worldwide is approximately 2 ha.

Hopefully in a place that is not too cold, not too hot, not too dry and not too wet

Click to expand...

Most places are at least one or two of those for at least some of the year.

-Get a donkey for transportation. I like them more than horses, horses move around too much on their own but donkeys just stand there and stare off into space.

Click to expand...

I don't think you know donkeys very well. As transport goes they are not quick, you sound like a big guy for a donkey to carry, and a healthy, well fed donkey is way more willful than a horse. They also hate rain.

-Plant my own food and subsist off that, probably just eat it all raw. I imagine id have to buy food in the winter or learn about canning.

Click to expand...

If you are prepared to eat seasonally and store food that stores well the winter shouldn't be a problem. For most cold-climate people in most of history, the "hungry season" is summer, just before the main harvest.

-No cows. I dont like them because they are big and scary looking.

Click to expand...

Look up Dexters. Beautiful, very small, and versatile little cows bred for crofting with a lovely nature. If anyone kept them in this part of the world I'd have one as a pet.