A friend inherited off-grid property. I was already into the idea of homesteading and survivalism and had been building those skills sets for years. What started as a little bit of helping on the weekends turned into full time living. I didn’t think I could do it and it was hard.

But now I know what I’m capable of and how much nicer life is when you live it. I’ve been back in regular society for a few years and my phone is still on ‘do not disturb’ mode all the time.

I did it for nearly 3 years with limited access.

You get over it eventually and start living life instead of watching other people live theirs.

I can’t wait to unplug again.

This video isn’t the picture. Different stone, architectural design, etc.

I’m just happy someone else said it.

I mean…have you seen the price of a good faucet lately?

I was listening to some good EDM while gardening yesterday. Just grooving around and then saw a spot that needed a bit of hand weeding.

ACCIDENTAL TWERKING

They stick their faces in muck water and suck everything up while looking for food. Ducks can eat a lot of things.

We had pekin and they figured out a good food hack. We fed the flocks using gutters (then everyone can feed without fighting for space). But the pekins would straddle the gutter, stick their head in the feed with mouth open, and then flap forward and kick their feet to ‘ride’ the gutter and scoop up as much food as possible. It was highly effective.

They ate 10x more than a regular duck and were 5x louder and always involved with any shenanigans going down. Fuck Pekin ducks.

Not OP but totally sounds real.

Ducks are like that for sure. They will certainly claim a spot. And eggs just kinda come out the egg hole sometimes. Especially if they aren’t able to secure a nest to lay on a schedule.

I’ve seen eggs roll out while they are running past to get to their pond.

25 years ago I was writing code in a paper notebook, sometimes while riding the bus. The only computer access was at college and it was easier to work through the code on paper and then quickly transcribe it once I got on campus.

Yeah, things are a bit more complicated now, but in other ways they are sooooo much easier. The fact that people are using chatGPT to ‘program’ is just crazy from my perspective.

Vegetarian and ‘anti-establishment’ for 25+yrs

Work is hard. I’ve worked for souless corporations, it’s hard not to. Sometimes you just have to be servant class and have no other option. Just be sure that you are taking money from them without giving them any excess effort. You can always work towards other opportunities. If you want to do something else, learn to do it. You can learn so many things for free. I just recently accepted a new position with a local company that shares my values. Most of the skills that got me there were things I learned on my own over the last decade. I didn’t go to school for this, nor do I have any directly comparable job experience. Before my last corporate hustle I had a long term job with a local non-profit for many years. I also did not start that position by having the necessary experience. Don’t lose hope, there are always better opportunities in the future.

I control how I spend my money. If I don’t like a company or product I don’t give them any money. Sometimes that means I spend more elsewhere. Sometimes I just have to give up something. I do allow for guilty pleasures occasionally (chocolate).

My grocery bill is minimal because I don’t eat meat, I don’t eat a lot of processed food and I don’t over-eat. I also grow a lot of food (this time of year half or more of my meal ingredients come out of the garden).

The most important thing about HOW I LIVE LIKE THIS?

I don’t judge other people who can’t.

It requires some sacrifice and not everyone can handle that. But I do encourage everyone to try, even a little. If every single person put in effort to be 10% “better” the world would be much better.

It’s also a great name for a cover band.

Butt rock covers of gospel songs perhaps?

I usually refer to myself as Cascadian

Which is still better than reality.

Sitting in my car at the peak of a tall bridge in the middle of a crazy rainstorm.

It’s 3AM. I don’t want to go home. Ever.

Suddenly car pulls over and guy gets out and knocks on the window to see if I need any help. I tell him the car was acting up (it wasn’t) and it might start (it did). He offered to follow me home in case it died again.

If he hadn’t followed me home I might have decided to jump that night.

He probably thought he helped a stranded motorist during a crazy storm.

I used one to manage inventory at a bar. More cost effective, single developer instead of a big corporation so I could have features added. It also never harassed me to use other products, and didn’t spam me beyond letting me know when there were updates to apply.

Maybe not this particular tree, but yeah. Shelves, house framing and siding, etc. We’re a horrible greedy little species.

Goods Unite Us is another similar app, showing which companies donate to political parties. It does have some paywall issues but it’s better that nothing.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goodsuniteus.goods

I left during the first mass exodus. I miss the large active communities and the wealth of knowledge.

But I don’t eat meat, I don’t wear name brand clothing, I don’t give evil corporations any more money to than is absolutely necessary (we all need gasoline), and I DON’T GO BACK TO REDDIT.

Even worse. Many of our ancient forests were cut into boards for personal profit.