I hope this is the right place to pose this question. I introduced myself on here quite a while back, but haven’t posted much, if any since. Just a bit of lurking. Recently I’ve come to the realization that I want to get serious about rewilding, and preparing for collapse. Its easy to talk philosophy and theory, but when it comes to actually living a primitive life, when all I know is a civilized life, it’s a bit scary. What I want to know is how many of you have a plan? Do you have a group of people willing to go at it together as a tribe? My wife and I have talked about moving out into the county and practicing permaculture, but even doing that with just two people seems like a lot of work and a risky undertaking. Humans need a social group. Who has plans for one?
I’ll have at least part of my close family. They’re not rewilders, but at least agree with most of what I think and appreciate nature and living on natural resources. My partner is in that boat, too. With my family and a few friends, I’ve stuck to the strategy of slowly working on anti-civ ideas to our conversations, as to not overwhelm them and make them think I’m some sort of extremist.
Aside from that, I’m struggling to get some local networking going on. It’s been slow, since the couple of people I was talking to on this site seem to have fallen off the face of the planet, and meeting others in the area and getting them to follow through with stuff is hard. To that end, I created a yahoo group a couple days ago: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rewildnewengland/. Hopefully, this can at least facilitate some communication.
My partner Fen and I have been sort of building ideas inspired by this site, tribal practices and structures we like and also looking at what sort of lifestyle we want to have. Both of us really want to fond a community to live with and to eventually start a family in that sort of setting. We have so many ideas, but what is concrete to me is that we want to be as sustainable as possible, not work any “city jobs” and we want to raise children and animals. I know that we need to be somewhere in nature, preferably near a forest and a body of water, and somewhere in the Northwest. Both of us dream of finding the perfect people to connect with and start some sort of living collective with in the spirit of rewilding.
one of my best friends and i conspire together over going primitive on some land we have access to. neither of us have the skills or whatever to come close to surviving totally primitive. we don’t come from backgrounds that had those traditions or knowledge to pass on. on the land, i’d like to plant a number of native plants – herbs, shrubs, and fruit trees on this land to help provide sustenance and an island of biodiversity to hopefully spread out as civilization does its slow fade to black.
we’re not opposed to compromise, so we’ll probably be buying most our food initially to supplement what we grow in a small garden. we probably have our fair share of illusions about our abilities, but i don’t think either of us seriously thinks we’ll be totally prim (whatever that means) in a year or even five. we do have a commitment to the process of rediscovering what it means to live well and in harmony with life-abounding.
of course, two friends don’t make a community or a tribe, so we’ll look for others as we go. hopefully we’ll find good folk to join on this path.
Starting a tribe. Or at least a family. As self-sufficient as i know how to get. Getting all my close-friends and relatives involved. Ill tell stories to my tribe of other tribes out there. I’ll reach that stage step by step. in togetherness with those around me. No hurries no bravoure nothing to prove. Step by step.
i just moved to portland and decided to look for a year/9month/something program for next year… i have no skills yet and little direction. i don’t have too many friends into rewilding (just the one that showed me this site and she’s across the country at the moment), but i hope to change that here.
i do, however, know that i want to live as sustainably as i can manage, and whether it ends up being in a city or not i want to be capable of living primitively, both to supplement city consumerism and as a spiritual path. i haven’t the faintest idea what i’ll end up doing, but i’m just started on this path and i’m hoping i’ll develop a better idea over the next few years. it’s kind of scary, honestly :o and sad sometimes in ways only a few friends understand >:(
…but exciting ;D
At the moment, my wife and 8 year old son, are both somewhat on par with me. I’m looking for likeminded people in this part of Turtle Island (america). I live in what is known as the province of Quebec (Canada), “Lac Megantic” to be more precise.
So far, among the people I know, I’m the only one who is really anti-civ. Nonetheless, some of them are somewhat aware of their/our need take their/our power back.
I want to create/be part of a network of free, autonomous, and sovereign tribes/communities of free and sovereign people who know how or are at least striving to live in cooperation with All other peoples, human and other-than-human.
this is my blog: http://liberte-freedom.blogspot.com/
Regards
Misko
It seems a lot of us are isolated in this venture. I know I’m the only one of my friends or family who believes civilzation is unsustainable, unhealthy, destructive, etc. My wife gets a bit of it, she hates the whole rat race and realizes we were not meant for this sort of life. But she has read no Quinn or Jensen(I can’t get her to read anything). My parents would love to live a simple life close to the land, but not for the same reasons.
I don’t think there are enough of us out there for everyone to expect to develope a tribe locally. At least not yet. Hopefully, as things get worse, more people will see the light.
If it makes you feel better, I had a workshop that was a minor success. A few people are really getting into it, though I think I need to make some of them read Endgame. My Yahoo group now has 10 people, and two more joining. I’m working on getting a bunch of people to go on a foraging walk in the next couple of weeks, and since someone charged money for that before and I’m offering knowledge free, I should get some response.
As with most people who have responded I am almost entirely alone in my rewilding. I have 4 people who share my beliefs, 1 being my own brother which is a beautiful thing. I do also know a handful of people who, if I managed to start one, would join my subsisting community, but obviously for reasons other then a hatred of civilized life and a desire for rewilding.
Lucky for me one of those 4 people has ownership over a 3 to 10-acre plot of land in Upstate NY, apparently only miles away from the Canadian border. She is far too busy in school to do anything with it and has expressed great interest in allowing me to do so.
So as it stands now my plan is to network locally(which in a city like Philadelphia will be no walk in the park) throughout the winter and come spring to move up to this piece of land and build shelters and begin the process of building an intimate relationship with this land base.
If all works out I’m hoping that this time next year I will have fully entered into an intimate relationship with this piece of land and will, at least mostly, rewilded myself and the tribe.
I don’t expect this to be at all easy but I believe it to be entirely feasible. Any constructive criticism is encouraged.
I’m horribly lucky in that my family has a homestead on 160 acres. Although most of it is trees right now.
But Its already really well set up, a dozen or so fruit trees, big garden, root cellar, stream, well, cistern, plenty of space for more buildings and garden and maybe a field of grain or something.
I’m studying everything i can about permaculture and am putting a food forest in down there.
I just hope we have enough time to get everything set up.
Pretty much everyone i know realizes that civilization is crashing, but very few are getting prepared.
“yeah i know we’re doomed, but i’m just going to ride it out”
I dropped out of my old life a few months ago
I’ve heard this sentiment from a number of folks, including a friend who said that he thought if shit hits the fan hard and fast he’d be able to survive – this from the guy who thinks cooking is boiling premaid fettucini alfredo in a bag. The more I try to move towards self-sufficiency, the more I realize how dependent I am on civilized society. I’m not sure many folks have really thought through what the end of civilization means.
I would think it rather fortunate if most of it is trees.
Oh well yeah, but we will probably need a bit more room for the food forest 
So, you’re going to clear some of the forest, in order to have a food forest? I’m confused…
W/o seeing what’s already there, I have to assume that the ecology there now has low biodiversity (actually somewhat common in America’s “Pristine Wildernesses”). Selective removal would likely allow better mast production for wildlife as well as allow more sunlight for herbaceous plants, vines, ground covers etc. Additional habitat can also be created by, again selectively, girdling a few trees, possibly followed up by fungi inoculation(s). If the existing forest doesn’t “clump” and/or if there’s little height variation, additional species would likely make a lot of sense, either taller or shorter (or a mix of both).
And at any rate, some (semi)-domesticated tree/shrub species make a certain amount of sense simply to ease the transition. Off the top of my head these might include any of the following: apples, currants, elderberries, elaegnus spp, pawpaws, persimmons, cane berries…
As others have noted, “Tending the Wild”, covers a considerable number of methods of encouraging “wilderness”.
The trees i was thinking about removing are all firs that my gramps planted years ago. theres just this field of firs with nothing nothing else. Nothing growing underneath, no real biodiversity there. There was no succession happening. A lot of them are diseased too.
I’ve bought Tending the Wild, now I just need to read it! 
I have been planning for the “end” for a while now. Purchased some property in the mountains, been stocking up on foods, seeds, and basic survival stuff. When I first started, EVERYBODY thought I was nuts! Well, most have come over to the “reality side” of how it is. Family and some friends, see that the world is heading in a very bad direction. IF, everybody who claims they will be heading to the hills when SHTF does, there will be about 14 of us. Realisticly, It will most likely be only 6. Everybody wants to know “when” is it time to run. Nobody is eager to leave behind their homes, jobs and civilized lives. They worry about losing their materialistic crap.
I am a follower of the Mayan calander, Bible Codes, Web Bot etc. All say February 2009 is going to be hell for the world. I plan on heading for the hills around 1/19/09. I try telling this to my clan, and they say to wait and see what happens. They just dont get waiting could be to late. Am I paranoid? No, I think cautious and realistic are more like it.
BTW, Web Bots predict 2 major earthquakes in the U.S. between December 10-15. One on the West coast, and one in the South Central states. I have informed everybody of this. If it happens, I’d bet my clan grows fast!!
Forgive my ignorance, but what is “Web Bot”?