Prepping for Project 31
Ryo Chijiiwa is prepping for a 31-day isolation experiment. Ryo has 60-arces of raw land in Northern California where he’s built a tiny off-grid cabin. As you can see from this recent photo the cabin still needs some finishing touches, but I don’t think Ryo is too concerned at the moment about appearances. I suspect he’s more interested in making sure he’s ready to spend 31 days alone in the woods.
Beginning mid-February, Ryo will begin his 31-day stay. He’ll live off stored food, water, fuel, and whatever he can gather from his land. His electricity will be provided by a small solar array, just enough for lights and computer. Heat will come from a small wood stove. Additional rainwater will be collected to supplement his current stores.
You can follow along as this story of self-reliance and survival unfolds at Laptop and a Rifle.
How soft we’ve become. 31 days alone becomes an event. Even people from a 100 years ago would be laughing at us for how much we’ve forgotten.
I think 31 days is a pretty long time for a first round. Try living off the grid for a weekend at home, lots to be learned through that. I have a lot of respect for Ryo giving it a shot.
As far as soft, our whole fricken civilization has gotten as soft as we’ve become hyper specialized. Huge trade off giving up skills and diversity for progress and efficiency. Needs a bit of unwinding to right the imbalance me thinks.
I grew up living off the grid in Semora, NC (not on the map). We drew our water from an artesian well down in the pasture next to a creek at my Aunt’s house or from a drilled well at my grandma’s. We cut wood for the woodstove, trimmed kerosene lamps for night time use, and raised chickens, hogs, and vegetables to eat along with fruit trees for deserts. Washing, cleaning, cooking, and working were hard without any electicity or running water, but very pleasureable because we worked and lived with family and relatives, and occassionally friends down the road on their tobacco farm. I have much respect for anybody willing to give it a try who did not grow up with it. He will be a better man for it. But watch out! It is a way of life that gets under your skin and he will fall in love with it and not want to leave it.
It looks like he’s come a long ways since his post over at Tiny House Blog. That place looks great.
Being off-grid is easy if you set yourself up properly. It’s not like you don’t have food, heat, light etc, you just have different sources and have to actually expend physical labour instead of flicking a switch. That labour can then become part of your ‘entertainment’ and ‘fitness program’. Basic chores can take up a fair amount of time but I sure miss chopping wood when I’m in town, nothing like it for working off frustrations. It stimulates your inventiveness when you rely on your own resources and it’s amazing what you can fake up from very little if you need to. You might get a little bushed after 31 days, but it’s not as bad as a whole winter on a trapline or a season stuck in the Arctic ice or something.
Best of luck to you! Wish I had my land set up. I could use some privacy, and I have been looking for my land for fifteen years. If I was him, and could find time, I’d look for a spring or seep to make into water supply. I hear the Japanese have wooden bathtubs so maybe a wooden cistern is possible. Underground of course where it isn’t seen, poisonable or used by others. We got the “clean water” freaks back here and boy they do run the stuff down the drain. What a waste. Good luck!