Living in the woods alone without food input from civilization is incredibly hard if not impossible.

Realistically you'd need like 10-20 people to help out, livestock, a field to grow cereals, large garden and a vegetable field, just to keep everyone surviving.

Great content. But how are there 50 comments and only 19 upvotes? Y'all seriously gotta upvote more so casual users dont miss good threads

Like others have said, it is really difficult. I strongly recommend reading a good book about how hard a life it really is, e.g., Crusoe of Lonesome Lake.

Also, man, warm showers are amazing.

Kids. They would hate it. I'm not going to ruin their normal life by being super weird and ditching modern society. As bad as I think things are, this is the best chance I think my family has.

I'm pretty sure I could convince the spouse to do it. She's just as burned out as I am.

Imo, either this is your answer, you’re a hypocrite, or you live in the woods.

Living in the woods needs a LOT of money

...money

I've done it, it's okay. I'm back in the civilized world now. More than anything, it's lonely out there.

I'm afraid of being alone with my thoughts.

I'm waiting for the next book in that series I like.

It is impossible to gather food for yourself. We don't live in pre-civilization or even the wild west. Everything is owned by someone, regulated, etc.

How do you expect to feed yourself? Not like you can just gather all day and get lucky hunting.

It is objectively harder to 'live on the land' then it was centuries ago. Borderline impossible, especially if you want to... you know live and interact with people.

I have a wife and cat to look out for, hard to do that when I can't pay rent.

Indoor plumbing. Seriously. Go without for a couple of weeks and tell me how you feel about hot showers and flush toilets.

Also, people really underestimate how difficult it would be to just fuck off into the woods. You'd need a good amount of planning and knowledge to do it. What's edible within what time range. Where the animals are at what time of year. And if you're up north you always gotta be laying in firewood.

Also civilization has taken over most of the good hunter gatherer/ subsistence farming spots. River valleys, estuaries, anywhere with good fertile soil. Most of the places with good desolate wilderness to fuck off into was left desolate because it's fucking desolate.

We have a cabin in the woods so I do it in the summer. I wouldn't want to do it longterm in the winter. (Canada) A couple of days and I'm ready for civilization.

The VAST majority of people simply could not cut living in the wilderness, cutting themselves off from society completely. It is an extremely difficult life. Most people wouldn't know so many critical skills you would need to even begin to think of pulling it off. Even when you look at "successful" instances of this, you find they still return to civilization to make up for shortfalls, like making sure there is enough food, using gas, complex machinery like power tools, vehicles, and generators, etc.

Lack of survival skills

I’m a spoiled brat with soft hands and no survival skills, and even if I were better equipped it sounds exhausting and dangerous.

Fucking cold winters and the effort of growing enough potato, hunting and fishing, gathering firewood all with hand tools is way too much work.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has to shit in the woods some time: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/610432/how-to-shit-in-the-woods-4th-edition-by-kathleen-meyer/9781984857132

I was working in sanitation and told my co-worker about my upcoming back country trip. He recommended this book. I put it on my e-reader and read it during the course of my adventure. I changed how I approach such things afterwards.

Chronic medical conditions that require medication.

I'd rather be dead than have to live without civilization.

Probably the civilized world.

I had enough with where this society is going and I no longer want to be part of it. But I like:

• fine spirits
• good food
• cooking nice steaks
• eating in restaurants
• drinking in bars
• traveling to places that are exotic or interesting to me
• traveling to places where it’s just nice to wind down
• swimming in tropical waters
• hiking snowy mountains
• driving
• listening to hi fi music
• reading books
• doing video calls with friends and family
• being able to follow my curiosity and learning new things
• playing video games
• being able to take my dog to the vet
• providing my kid with good education
• keeping my kid safe from injuries and diseases
• seeing a doctor when I get sick
• access to a dentist, a pediatrician, a barber, an ER when necessary
• taking a shower
• hot tubs
• having a washing machine, a dishwasher and a refrigerator in my house
• having heating and air conditioning

And probably a bunch more stuff because of which, while I truly enjoy being in nature, I keep choosing living in a city and going to work instead. The common thing with all these items that you need money for each. The only ethical way I know of for making money is working hard and building a career relentlessly for decades. if you’re lucky. There are no guarantees.

I’m not sure if it’s worth it, but I do know for sure I couldn’t give all of the above up, as long as I have a choice.

I can live without internet. without computers. heck even without electricity. But I like indoor plumbing with hot and cold running water and temperature controlled shelter. Also I would still prefer to have electricity and refrigeration/freezer. and to be honest its nice to be able to access some media. Lets face it a lot of video games are pretty cool and came out not to long ago.

Convenience. The people I could do without, but I’m a creature of habit.

About $30K-35K for the proper rolling solar punk set up, and family health issues meaning I'd be the lone survivor guaranteed after the first winter.

Mostly getting shit delivered. My current ideal spot is far enough outside town that I'm still able to get pizza delivered and have good internet... but not deal with JW's.

If you want to see what it’s like to live without modern conveniences, go to a really poor country and observe the lower-class civilians. Having been to Honduras where poor people live in the mountains (with amazing vistas) with dirt floor huts and no clean drinking water, I can tell you that it is a terrible existence. Half their children die before they make it to 10, because of parasites from the dirt which get in their feet, and contaminated water that they have to hike down and up the mountain for every day. I feel like everyone should see this at some point to reset their perspective.

A mortgage and a family.

The only woods where I could do that in my country are part of the Amazon , and the uncontacted tribes living there are not exactly friendly

I'm in the woods right now, waiting for you to come help cut firewood and get next year's garlic and potatoes in. December-Febuary I'm gonna go be homeless somewhere warmer though. For real, if you want a taste of woods life and are able to pitch in hmu. "Other people" are kinda the main thing missing from the equation atm

Clean water really.

With solar and battery tech, self-sufficient electricity isn't some impossible thing anymore. But getting clean water is the real trick. All my life I've just had to walk a few steps and turn a faucet. I took this for granted for so long until I actually looked into what it would realistically be like living off grid in the woods.

Sure you can collect rainwater, but what happens during a drought? You have iodine tablets? Where did you get them? I doubt you made them yourself in the woods lol. You'd have to live next to some freshwater stream or luck out with some kind of artesian well on the property.

Sure food could be an issue too, but you die from thirst long before you die of starvation. Idk but I guess I'm at the point of appreciating tap water lol.

Jehovah's Witnesses?

I nearly did, but didn't for two main reasons:

1. Women. I'm not a monk, and it's really hard to find a woman who wants to live in the woods, especially when you live in the woods.

2. Empathy for the rest of humanity. Can't make the world a better place from the woods.

My guy. That was the precise thing most of our ancestors struggled their whole lives to get out of.

Antibiotics

It is an unfortunate truth for introverted autistic loners like me that Community really is key to survival.

Hello fellow introverted autistic loner. I hope you find a community that suits you and what level of engagement you are able to have. It may not surprise you to know there are plenty of autistic rural people lol 😅

I don't like the woods that much, cool to camp in for a couple days but I wouldn't want to live there