homeless

[bigzee]

Totally agree with Bushwhacker. In fact, there's not much food in the woods during the summer months either.

The coast is a good source of food, as are hedgerows but, if we're not talking apocolypse here, field systems would be good sources of food. Let's face it, you could live very well on potatoes, cabbages, peas, carrots etc etc etc. A few wild and cultivated fruits added in for variety and your food supply is sorted. A nice woodland base for shelter would be the coup de grace.

Martin

Ooh Mr. Moderator - are you recommending theft of agricultural produce as a way of life?

But seriously though, on that subject, I was doing a recce last month of some remote woods (with handy right of way through middle). On route to treesville the path took me down the side of a field of wheat, and with total disregard to the legal repercussions, I purloined some ears of wheat to munch on and equalize the calorific balance. Out of curiosity I tried a handful of half-green/half-golden grains, and Wow!!! what a flavour! Not the usual wholemeal floury mush, but a bit like fresh raw peas, and altogether a quite agreeable gobful of tucker. I highly recommend it (next summer obviously!)

[Bushwhacker]

Polite suggestion then: change your name to "Beachwhacker"?

There weren't any WWF wrestlers that went by that name though.

[JonnyP]

Ooh Mr. Moderator - are you recommending theft of agricultural produce as a way of life?

I don't think he was. There cannot be many homeless people who choose to live that way of life, and if you are starving then desperate times call for desperate measures. I should imagine that even helping yourself to "waste" out of a shops bin is theft in the eyes of the law. When you are down, there are always plenty of people who want to kick you..

[Martin]

Don't worry bigzee I know you were joking but, in a theoretical way, I was suggesting just that. I believe that taking food from bins is ok as long as the council haven't collected it yet, otherwise it belongs to the council and then would be theft. However, I would sooner be eating fresh produce straight out of the ground rather than food out of some bin no matter how close to its useby date it is.

Martin

[comanighttrain]

Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6

[Urbancamper]

for me i would set up a camp in the woods and make trips to town to see what i can find...

[Jimmy69]

Was hesitant to reply to this but then I thought why not...

I've been there and worn the grubby t-shirt so thought I would share a little. I must confess that it was self inflicted as I ran away from home when I was 16/17 (I’ll not go into what I was running away from if that’s ok...). First couple of nights I stayed at friends houses but I didn't want to be a bother and so I ended up sleeping on the street. Main problems I found was I couldn’t cook any food, couldn’t wash properly and sleeping was difficult from fear of being beaten up. So I lasted about a week before I thought stuff this and decided to take off to the countryside with some money I had saved up.

I’ve been into bush craft since I was little and was taught by my father and other places – it proved very helpful. My kit list comprised of a Swiss army knife that had a 3 inch folding blade and a similar saw, a woollen blanket, some mess tins and a lighter (which ran out after the first few weeks). I used to love woods as making some shelter and lighting a fire were much easier than on the open plains which consisted of bracken and a wind that would cut through you. Most of it just by trial and error and using what worked best...looking back now I think I made life hard for myself on some things. It was the middle of the summer but as a few people have pointed out, food was fairly scarce. I mainly lived on porridge oats which I could make last quite a while and when I was passing some beaches I had some shellfish. Earthworms are quite nice cooked as long as you squeeze the earth out of the first.

All in all I lasted 3 months in the wilderness of Scotland, only seeing another soul when I passed into a populated area to pick up some more oats, rice or beans. Water was never a problem taking it from burns and springs but I did boil it occasionally. Fire was a bit of a problem – early on I made a juice can stove, however because I looked quite young not many people would sell me meths. Usually just had to make a proper fire which was probably the most frustrating thing – it took a good week of practice to be able to get one going from friction alone.

If I was in that position again I would certainly head off to the mountains again – however this time I’d make sure to take a fire steel, my honey stove and a tarp. Unfortunately, as I began to realise, alone it isn’t possible to sustain yourself indefinitely. But it is certainly much more comfortable and easier than the city/town!

Sorry, I didn’t think that this would be that long...hope I didn’t bore you too much!

[Metal mug]

Was hesitant to reply to this but then I thought why not...

I've been there and worn the grubby t-shirt so thought I would share a little. I must confess that it was self inflicted as I ran away from home when I was 16/17 (I’ll not go into what I was running away from if that’s ok...). First couple of nights I stayed at friends houses but I didn't want to be a bother and so I ended up sleeping on the street. Main problems I found was I couldn’t cook any food, couldn’t wash properly and sleeping was difficult from fear of being beaten up. So I lasted about a week before I thought stuff this and decided to take off to the countryside with some money I had saved up.

I’ve been into bush craft since I was little and was taught by my father and other places – it proved very helpful. My kit list comprised of a Swiss army knife that had a 3 inch folding blade and a similar saw, a woollen blanket, some mess tins and a lighter (which ran out after the first few weeks). I used to love woods as making some shelter and lighting a fire were much easier than on the open plains which consisted of bracken and a wind that would cut through you. Most of it just by trial and error and using what worked best...looking back now I think I made life hard for myself on some things. It was the middle of the summer but as a few people have pointed out, food was fairly scarce. I mainly lived on porridge oats which I could make last quite a while and when I was passing some beaches I had some shellfish. Earthworms are quite nice cooked as long as you squeeze the earth out of the first.

All in all I lasted 3 months in the wilderness of Scotland, only seeing another soul when I passed into a populated area to pick up some more oats, rice or beans. Water was never a problem taking it from burns and springs but I did boil it occasionally. Fire was a bit of a problem – early on I made a juice can stove, however because I looked quite young not many people would sell me meths. Usually just had to make a proper fire which was probably the most frustrating thing – it took a good week of practice to be able to get one going from friction alone.

If I was in that position again I would certainly head off to the mountains again – however this time I’d make sure to take a fire steel, my honey stove and a tarp. Unfortunately, as I began to realise, alone it isn’t possible to sustain yourself indefinitely. But it is certainly much more comfortable and easier than the city/town!

Sorry, I didn’t think that this would be that long...hope I didn’t bore you too much!

Thanks for sharing your story Jimmy69. It was very interesting. And credit to you for doing so well.

[fish]

Was hesitant to reply to this but then I thought why not...

I've been there and worn the grubby t-shirt so thought I would share a little. I must confess that it was self inflicted as I ran away from home when I was 16/17 (I’ll not go into what I was running away from if that’s ok...). First couple of nights I stayed at friends houses but I didn't want to be a bother and so I ended up sleeping on the street. Main problems I found was I couldn’t cook any food, couldn’t wash properly and sleeping was difficult from fear of being beaten up. So I lasted about a week before I thought stuff this and decided to take off to the countryside with some money I had saved up.

I’ve been into bush craft since I was little and was taught by my father and other places – it proved very helpful. My kit list comprised of a Swiss army knife that had a 3 inch folding blade and a similar saw, a woollen blanket, some mess tins and a lighter (which ran out after the first few weeks). I used to love woods as making some shelter and lighting a fire were much easier than on the open plains which consisted of bracken and a wind that would cut through you. Most of it just by trial and error and using what worked best...looking back now I think I made life hard for myself on some things. It was the middle of the summer but as a few people have pointed out, food was fairly scarce. I mainly lived on porridge oats which I could make last quite a while and when I was passing some beaches I had some shellfish. Earthworms are quite nice cooked as long as you squeeze the earth out of the first.

All in all I lasted 3 months in the wilderness of Scotland, only seeing another soul when I passed into a populated area to pick up some more oats, rice or beans. Water was never a problem taking it from burns and springs but I did boil it occasionally. Fire was a bit of a problem – early on I made a juice can stove, however because I looked quite young not many people would sell me meths. Usually just had to make a proper fire which was probably the most frustrating thing – it took a good week of practice to be able to get one going from friction alone.

If I was in that position again I would certainly head off to the mountains again – however this time I’d make sure to take a fire steel, my honey stove and a tarp. Unfortunately, as I began to realise, alone it isn’t possible to sustain yourself indefinitely. But it is certainly much more comfortable and easier than the city/town!

Sorry, I didn’t think that this would be that long...hope I didn’t bore you too much!

theres a book in there i for one would buy!

[comanighttrain]

theres a book in there i for one would buy!

I agree... if you can remember it vividly, we'd love to hear more.