My main questions, food conservation? transport? communication?
Thanks 60% 3 Votes
but would that be considered %26quot;completely green%26quot;?
I have a lot to learn... Might as well become an engineer, or something. Come on people, I know I%26#039;m not thinking of everything here. 20% 1 Vote
He lived in Washington state, high in the mountains. They hauled ice cold water from the river with buckets to provide their drinking/bathing/cooking water. He owned hawks and hunted with them, to provide some of the food for his family (wife and young son).
He owned horses and would ride them for hunting and local transportation. Of course he also owned a vehicle to get around to his varrious farrier jobs.
He was my farrier back in the 1980s-mid 90%26#039;s. He had a phone answering/message service to take the calls about people wanting horses shod. When he came out to shoe the horses, he tried to always make the apointment with the person he who%26#039;s horses he was shoeing for the next time (6-8 weeks out) in a schedule book he had.
You can can food in glass jars, on propane stoves. Lots of people who are home canners opt to do it this way. Canning is a long hot process. You need to of course can the food items when they come into season. Food items that come into season during the hottest part of summer are easier to can out of doors, instead of a sweltering hot kitchen that traps the heat.
You can dehdrate food by using fine mesh screens to protect the food items from pilfering by birds and squirrels, and prevent flys from laying eggs on it. Food can also be dehydrated quiet nicely in the back of a car window (back dashboard) that is facing the sun. Cars get hot very quickly, and dry food items very quickly.
Root crops (turnips, potatoes, carrots, ect) store very well, along with some items like squashes, and certain types of apples. Soft fruit like peaches and plumbs must be deydrated, or canned.
People living that kind of lifestyle would have a high beans, rice, grains and legumes diet. Of course all of those items can be purchased in 25-50 pound sacks, and store very, very well.
For meat, the family can depend on %26quot;one meal%26quot; animals, like rabbits, chickens, fish, turkey, ducks, geese, pigeons, and young goats, sheep and suckling pigs. No refridgeration needed.
The people would probably know how to smoke meat as well, and of course build an ice house in the winter, which could carry them through part of, or all of the spring, summer months.
Eggs do not need to be kept in the cold, and will keep just fine on a kitchen counter for several weeks. Butter can keep a long time, especially if inversed into clean water. Milk is problimatic, but they should be milking twice daily, so fresh milk wouldn%26#039;t really be a problem.
My husband and I raise and preserve almost all of our own food. I know a great deal about food storage, and food preservation.
By the way, with communication, what does your family need communication for? If they are living this kind of lifestyle they obviously do not have traditional jobs. Family members can write letters, and send them via the mail! If they must have a phone, look to what the Amish do. They will not have a phone in the house. Often though they have one out at the end of their driveway. They can call someone in an emergency then. They do not however recieve phone calls.
There are wind up chargers for cell phones. There are also small solar chargers for cell phones. Just tossing out options for you.
For transportation, you have bikes. People who are really fit and have really good bikes can ride a bike about 200 miles a day. You also have horses. If a person is really fit, and the horse is really fit, a horse and rider can go about 100 miles in a day (Check out %26quot;Tevis Cup.%26quot;) Horse and rider will both need to rest a couple of days after a ride like that. 30-40 miles a day, every day, is not unreasonable on a horse, as long as the horse has at least a solid 24 hour (preferably 48 hour) rest period in the 7 day week. Of course people can also walk very long distances.
Hope this info helps.
~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years
P.S. No running water....why wouldn%26#039;t they have a wind mill to pump the water? 20% 1 Vote
communication- there id knon when you go completely green you have to talk face to face or use an instrument.
If you watch Into the wild..which is a true story you will see how he lives off the land.
if there is no shopping then where does the school supplies come from.
i would suggest that the people in your book live near a fresh water lake/river. 0% 0 Votes