Welcome! Hope you find some inspiration here. 
The forest calls home once againā¦
Iām Cody, 21, male. Iāve never felt at home in society. Iāve left three colleges, held nine jobs in four years, and have no idea what I want to do with my life.
Wait, yes I do, thatās why Iām here.
Iām brushing up my skills on primitive living. Unfortunately, the DFW Metroplex isnāt the most natural area, so Iām mainly just gathering information for now. My modus operandi would be a semi-nomadic lifestyle in a U.S. National Forest or BLM Land, preferably with a small group. Iād like to get some practical experience under my belt with bushcraft, hunting, et cetera, before I set off into the wilderness.
My depression has been hitting me hard, lately, especially as those around me donāt understand the whole ārewildā concept. A few days in Alaska hiking over Christmas break made me realize what I truly want.
Always looking for friends and fellow adventurers! PM me!
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Hi Cody, good to have you at this campfire. Warm yourself and share your stories, or listen to othersā.
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Is this thing on? Not sure if these forums are still active, but I hope so! Iām from Texas, but living in Bolivia right now. First got introduced to these ideas living and working on a farm outside of Waco that teaches sustainable agriculture and international development. I read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn and then the other two in the trilogy and havenāt stopped going down the rabbit hole since.
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Welcome! What books/authors are you planning on going on to next?
Welcome! Fellow Texan here!
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Shout out to the other Texan(s) here! I am currently reading Move Your DNA and working on moving towards a furniture free house. We live in the city and I am often at a desk, but trying to make more opportunities to move and not just exercise! I also just finished the MaddAddam Trilogy by Margaret Atwood. Highly recommend!
Against the Grain by James C. Scott is probably next on my list since I have it already. Trying to read what I have before I buy more!! Hard to get English books here in Bolivia so using a Kindle to read most books.
I actually looked for a thread on book recommendations to add some to my list! Lots of good new finds!
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Hey there!
Love Katy Bowman!
It is a struggle to work at a desk all day and have hope for a more sustainable future.
Have you read any Michael Pollan books?Omnivoreās Dilemma is great.
Have you looked into MovNat classes? the website will direct you to local certified instructors.
Good luck in the rabbit hole
Yes! Read (or maybe listened) to Omnivoreās Dilemma many years ago. It was very formative for me in thinking about our relationship to our food.
Iām currently living in Bolivia so probably not going to find local MovNat classes, but I do a lot of walking in normal life here. Iāve been enjoying the rabbit hole for quite a while. I find it just keeps going and thereās more tunnels to explore.
Hi everyone!
I found this forum awhile ago, but never posted, so here goes.
My name is Adeline, and I am a teenager living in a rural Ohio town. My favorite hobbies are archery and dog training, I am currently taking college classes while I am still in high school, and I hope to major in psychology. I love observing how humans and animals react to various things.
I do not play sports, but I love walking/running with or without my dogs. I have been eagerly researching ancient ways of life, and I have found it fascinating. It was interesting enough that now I have several pairs of barefoot shoes and I try to walk everywhere I can. (That can be challenging when youāre about 20 miles from the closest grocery store.)
Someday, I would love to live off-grid and own a decent plot of land, making no footprint in my environment, and being at one with my natural environment.
I am looking forward to learning more about rewilding!
Greetings everyone, I am Mikela 'Kles.
I have floated around here for some time and posted a very short intro about a year ago, but since removed it because I wanted to introduce myself in depth.
I have been loosely rewilding since about 2014 but was always a child of the wildlands until my twenties when I explored many other directions. In the end, as my 30s dawned I returned to the wildlands as a rewilder.
I am in training to become an herbalist and a wilderness emt. My husband is working towards becoming trained as a hunting/fishing guide before we move to the West (location pending). He is a mountain man, I am a rewilder, but we balance each other and made it work.
We are saving for a large piece of land to āwildsteadā - live and rewild on (reintroducing native edible plants and trees, using native and non-native animals free-range grazing to aid the meadows basically rewilding with what we have as some creatures are not in the area anymore).
We are currently dwelling in the Blackened Forest of KY for aiding family and training but dwelt around the Cibola Forest/Anasazi Desert areas for nearly 10 years. We will head west when we leave here, to a location best suited for our journey.
That is my story to date.
March 2019 Update: We have decided to not leave the Blackened Forest of Appalachia (Kentucky/Tenessee).
My husbandās clan has dwelt in this area for nearly 225 years.
Casey here.
I could actually feel my pupils dilate when I found this website. I donāt feel at home in a city, in society, yet I live in Las Vegas. I donāt think āliveā is the right word; I feel kind of stuck here, playing the game that society set up that says I have to do certain things, be a certain way, and be surrounded by noisy inconsiderate people who have been spoiled by the convenience of modern inventions to the point of having forgotten that weāre animals too. Iāve never lived in the wild, but thinking about it makes me feel strangely homesick. Cities donāt sound right, smell right, or feel right. I feel like an animal in a giant zoo enclosure, being watched by other animals who donāt realize theyāre also in the zoo.
There are things that I do enjoy about technologyā¦ First and foremost, it keeps me in touch with my child (who lives in another state) so that I can continue to have a place in his life, because mine kind of revolves around his. It has helped me find this website, so that I might put myself out there and connect with people who understand and feel some of the things I feel. A tribe. My tribe. And I do appreciate that my Amazon Prime account and my Kindle make it possible for me to be a reader and a minimalist.
But there is something so powerful about the idea of living in harmony with our environment, rather than destroying the very thing(?) that keeps us alive. Not just giving us a space to live, but keeping us ALIVE. My fondest memories of times when I felt alive are of camping, hiking, fishing, and exploring in wilderness during camping trips that my family took when I was a kid. Even though I had chores around the camp and school work (I was home-schooled for a long time), I felt a profound sense of freedom. I felt like I belonged out there, wherever we happened to be.
I am grateful for what I have and proud that Iāve been able to provide for myself in this place, but I want that feeling of freedom and belonging to be part of my daily life, not just a rare and fleeting reprieve.
I donāt want to spend the rest of my life lamenting being too terrified to leave this cage just because itās all Iāve ever known. I donāt want to miss the opportunity to find my tribe, even if it happens in bits and pieces, because Iām worried that Iām going to come off like a crackpot. I donāt want living a life in connection with nature to just be a pipe dream.
Wellā¦ That was a bit longer and deeper than Iād intended my intro to be, so thank you for reading. Iām really hoping to connect with folks here, beyond the online (no offense toward anyone or the site). It would be incredible to meet some open-minded people who are inclined to put some serious consideration into starting up a wildstead/homestead, as well as people who are generous with their knowledge and experience. 
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Hi there. I just joined the forums.
A few years ago I read Enrico Manicardiās book āFree From Civilization.ā And all of a sudden, everything began to make sense. All those years of taking mood stabilizers that I didnāt need made sense. The creeping sense of dread made sense.
I currently live and work in the Silicon Valley, about the most pro-civilization, pro-technology place on the planet. I am a mom who is the sole breadwinner for my family. I am currently trying to make/save enough to get us out of debt and on to a piece of land.
I am joining this forum to find like-minded individuals. Because even in anarchist spaces, pro-wild folks are often derided or a sub-culture of the sub-culture. I am hoping that by the time I have the money to move, I will also have some more insights and information through the sharing of ideas, experiments, and practice.
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Hi; I go by SmokeyQuartzWoman. Iām in my mid-30s and really feel the pull to leave civilization or lead a non-traditional life in some way. Iāve read some people here feel trapped by civilization and their life; and I feel that way as well. I feel like most of my adult life has been spent trying to get to the next āthingā/āaccomplishmentā and I havenāt ever enjoyed any of my experiences in college or ever since. Itās like Iāve only been existing and not living for a really long time. I escape through reading about people surviving in nature and similar things.
It was my upbringing that you get educated, then get a job, then pay bills - until you die. Thatās it. Iām already dying, it feels like.
What is keeping me from living like how I would like to? I suppose because I really wouldnāt know how to support myself except through a job. I donāt know if I would have the physical stamina for total self-sufficiency/living off of the land (due to a chronic illness). I also have parents that I feel obligated to care for as an only child; I donāt resent this at all because of our close relationship, but I do see that I wonāt be able to live as I please while still needing to take care of family in the near future.
Iām taking small steps to learn how to be more self-sufficient; I plan on getting a fishing license, soon, and I already have some fishing equipment purchased. I also would like to grow a vegetable garden.
But I really feel stuck in the ājobā mentality; I finished an MBA program last year, which was sponsored by my employer. The āaccomplishmentā was really anti-climactic and I could only feel relief that it was over, and no joy at all in the process or completion of it. Despite the MBA, I have had no luck in advancing my career since that time and it doesnāt look like I will be chosen by anyone for an MBA-type job (even entry level!) because of lack of experience. So, I am still in a dead-end job.
Sorry for the long post; there really isnāt anyone else in real life who can relate to my struggles/longings. If I would confide in anyone, Iām sure I would probably be laughed at.
I guess Iām hoping that by posting to this forum, I can find support for the small changes Iād like to make to become more self-sufficient, and also offer support to those who canāt go āall-inā for one reason or another.
Friends,
Iāve lived in many places in the north western parts of the US for my entire 32 years, from the northern-most part of the mid-west, the plains, the Rocky Mountains and the pacific northwest.
I first became familiar with the term ārewildingā from listing to an interview with Daniel Vitalis, which led me to Arthur Hainesā work. Arthurās book, A New Path, was life changing for me. Some of my other favorite books related to the topic:
-Shakti Woman-Vicki Noble
-Women Who Run With Wolves
-Herbal Recipes-Rosemary Gladstar
I grew up in a hunting-based community, although I wasnāt particularly interested in it at the time. Iāve done some basic foraging, but havenāt hunted yet. Iām more of a forager and craftswoman.
Other interests/hobbies of mine: hiking, weight lifting, neuroplasticity, nutrigenomics, taoism, meditation and behavioral neuroscience.
Iāve felt deeply connected to nature since I was very small, and have found the more time I spend outside, the better I function.
I look forward to connecting with you all!
Hi there, my name is Johannes and i am joining in from rural franconia in germany. I love hiking and taking long walks barefooted. Some times, i enjoy sleeping in the woods. At the moment i am responsible for two websites with topics on bioregionalism, ritual work, plant magic and underground music. I love to create!
Hello, Iām Patrick. I have what is becoming a non-gas or electric homestead that adjoins a very large federally owned temperate deciduous forest in southern Indiana.
I have always been drawn to the outdoors-- and at the same time very frustrated by my lack of an adequate rapport with nature. As a remedy, I joined the Army infantry at a young age, but the experience exacerbated the problem.
It is only within the last five years that Iāve began to understand the root cause; I am the genetic and cultural product of a very long-term project in human domestication.
In these initial stages, the plan is to take on a few changes at a time.
At present, I am;
(1). actively replacing my Abrahamic worldview for one more similar to pre-Christian European animist traditions
(2). taking steps to eliminate the products of modern agriculture from my diet through permaculture/plant foraging/hunting-trapping-fishing
(3). intentionally forgoing many of the so called benefits of modern civilization
I found out about this site in the comment section of a Youtube video by Toby Hemenway on the Hopewell Indians.
I am here to find out if there is anyone in my area (about 12 miles south of Bloomington) who would like to work on some of the projects listed above or run other experiments in rewilding.
Thanks and I hope everyoneās summer is off to a good start.
Hi, Iām Sophie, 54, from Sussex in Englandā¦ thank you for the thought on playing. My whole being feels dried out and cracking - I have lost my soulskin . I know that finding my wild self is the way backā¦ thoughts on āhowā others have or are doing this most welcome. I spend as much time as possible in nature, but I am looking to make bigger, more fundamental changes. Not wilding round the edges but from my core.
Greetings and welcome to all you new arrivals!
Hi im Joe, im 32. I live in Dublin, Ireland in an urban area. I only started to get into rewilding a few months ago but Iāv been Intrested in permaculture and foraging for little longer. Iv always been into outdoorsy stuff, fishing, hiking, etc since i was a child. The main aspect to rewilding I focus on would be a mix of permacutltre, foraging and wild tending. Iām learning myself about the different types of native planets, their uses, the conditions they like to grow, etc. Iv started to collect native plant seeds and i will plant the seeds in areas such as waste ground and vacant property and then forage the plants to use. I do live close to mountains with little patchs of woodland doted around (most of the land here is used fir agriculture). A long term plan for me that Iād love to do is to try help expand some of the wood land by planting native trees and other plants such as berry bushs guerrilla garden style so people could forage and to help create habitat for wild life, basically rewild the land while rewilding myself and family.
I came across this site searching the internet after i read the book rewild or die. I really like what I see. I think rewilding is something that is needed in these dark times!