Uncommon sense, technology vs. self sufficiency, and staying alive when the chips are down

The wind was howling with hellish fury. The stays’l up forward was reefed down to a little scrap of canvas, the mizzen above my head also reefed in hard. And the water. Mountains of jumbled, crazy breaking seas, 40’ from trough to peak, great rolling walls of water. The shrieking of the wind and crashing of the water against the wooden hull was numbing to body, mind and soul. Every so often the top of one of those big breaking seas dropped down on the stern of my little boat, filling the cockpit and my boots with ice-cold water. There I was sitting in the elements shrugging off the weight of wind, water and coldness, trying desperately to maintain control, hanging on to the tiller for dear life. If I had allowed my little 30’ sail boat to broach sideways in that big water we might have been rolled, or worse yet, get thrown from peak to trough, breaking the boat apart. At this point I’m done thinking what the fuck am I doing here? All I have left is “I’m only 18 years old, is the next wave going to go under me and let me live another day, or will it take me down with it?”

But hey, back to that later. I’m here to offer a perspective brought about by a lifestyle probably different than most. 30 years in remote Alaska, living close to the earth, depending for survival on the skills that flowed thru my hands into improving our everyday life. Back in the early days of internet when my partner and I were homeschooling our two boys, I would find myself thinking that we had it pretty damn good. We were connected by internet to the rest of America—the world even—yet still able to live a very remote and very free subsistence-type lifestyle. We lived in a warm and dry house that we wrested from the woods and built by hand, dragging logs from the forest using our restored 1946 GMC truck, chainsaw milling those logs into boards, one at a time. Labor intensive indeed, satisfying by all means. When the urge grabbed us we would drop the current chores and hike up to the lake for a refreshing swim, or climb a nearby peak for views of wild timbered mountains stretching on forever.

Technology- does it improve our lives, or does it degrade them? I’d hazard a guess that it’s probably a matter of degree. Somehow I doubt that having a cell phone glued to our nose is a great boon to humanity. Yet maybe crypto currencies will upset the yoke that the Fed has harnessed us with. Steemit might bring people together from around the world where we can gain from each other’s experiences and mistakes and build a better way. Reckon I just have a gut feeling that growing our own food by the sweat of our brow might just be a very valuable asset in the near future. Especially if worldwide economics unravel as it appears they might.

It used to be called common sense where folks were, through necessity, able to figure out how, and then actually build the conveniences they needed. Nowadays it might as well be called uncommon sense. I have insights and experience with self sufficiency, economics, spiritual growth, old timey ways, inventing efficiencies, milling lumber, sailing oceans, living close to earth, wild caving, boat building, mountain craft and a myriad of other subjects. Follow me along here as we explore ways to take advantage of technology as it suits us, yet still develop a sustainable lifestyle. Should be an interesting time.

And my first storm at sea in a little boat? Character building stuff, if you can survive. The life lesson learned on that trip was this: Prepare best as you can, then hunker down and deal with the situation as it evolves.

Cheers Ya’ll
Pete aka mtgoat