Category: low-footprint living

I’m sharing this post for 2 reasons:

1) Because it might be a nice work-live situation for someone. Located in Florida.

And

2) I’m also sharing this as one example of a general trend. There are lots of people all over the country who have land and are looking for help, and there are lots of people who don’t have a place to live who are looking for a place to live.

Situations vary widely. Some you can live in your van or a bus or tent; some there are indoor accommodations. Some charge rent, some are entirely work-trade.

Note, just because a situation is rent-free or only asks a minimal money contribution, does not mean it is free of exploitation. Do your homework accordingly and make sure a situation is a fit for you and your skills/offerings.

Also: Many of us refrain from using the word “homestead,” because of its racist / colonizer associations. Many of us prefer to simply say farm, ranch, smallholding, or even just household.

That said, the Facebook group linked has almost 100,000 people, and a great variety of living situations being offered and being asked for. It’s a good place to get an overview of the lay of the land, societal-trendly speaking.

Temp 56 degrees F this morn, 60 now, but the livingroom is nicely heated by the sun. In summer we always keep the curtains drawn, but today the curtain goes UP! Probably for the first time since April or May. The room is warm even though the windows are still open.

Today, October 30, was our “curtains up day 1” for 2025. I love the lighting in this room, and the beauty from the sun & wind making shadows on the walls.

Beautiful warm sunshine, natural light. We don’t use very much artificial light in the house (not even at night — because we go to sleep pretty early, or we just watch / listen to things on our phones and we don’t need light for that).

The room feels so warm and cozy right now even though we still have the windows open. The windows of this house are generally open for all but a very few of the coldest days of the year.

The beautiful free heat and light are examples of what’s known as “passive solar energy.”

See photos here on my deep green Facebook page.

Oh my gosh, thank you! All the people who were suggesting that Jamaicans hop on a plane to evac Melissa. [Sound of eyes rolling loudly in head.] Stacey Patton’s post on this topic is spot-on, as her posts always are.

As if the entire population of Jamaica could even do that. But then also, even if they could, they would then be away from their home country, in some foreign country — something likely to leave them even more vulnerable than the hurricane itself.

(I say this even while thinking of our home as a potential evac spot for refugees of various kinds of disasters, from various places. And planning our home protocols accordingly. If our humble central Florida house can accommodate 11 Bike Week festival tourists and itinerant workers, which we did in March 2018 before the ink was dry on the title, we can certainly accommodate at least as many refugees!)

Another thing that really struck me, in the comments on various weather channel posts, was how many of us USA white ppl were making comments along the lines of, “What I’m really worried about is the animals.” Ummm, what???? Really, not the humans?

I’m not going to say I was surprised, because we EA’s as a group have a track record of worrying more about pets and other animals than about our fellow humans. (Fun fact: the ASPCC was founded after the ASPCA, when people noticed that animals were being treated better than children.)

I say this even as somebody who cherished a sweet feline companion for her 16-year life, and in one hurricane of 2017 evac’d on my bicycle with my beloved Starshine in a carrier on the back. (Fortunately we were just going a few blocks away, not to another country.)

But I would not have faulted anyone who just needed to escape the horrific Cat 5 storm in Jamaica with their own lives and could not take the animals. (And you know that would’ve been a devastating loss for the storm-afflicted Jamaicans as well, since the loss of animals likely would’ve included many animals on which their livelihoods depend.) Also, it’s possible that a lot of evac shelters don’t necessarily take livestock, pets, or other animals.

Quote from Stacey Patton’s post: “Evacuation isn’t just geography. It’s economics. It’s class. It’s colonial inheritance. The ability to flee disaster is a privilege that is built on wealth, mobility, and citizenship.”

Also please be sure and read the comment section on the OP. A lot of very important points, including how hard it is even within a country for people to evacuate.

BTW re animals — If you are one of those people who feel that humans suck, and only animals are lovable, that doesn’t mean you’re not a good person. But just recognize that if you feel that way, it’s because of the culture we’re steeped in. Supremacy culture is what sucks and needs to go. *Humans* do not inherently suck.

Supremacy culture, a.k.a. colonizer culture, not only doesn’t punish us for being shitty to each other and to the planet; it oftentimes actually rewards us for being mean, self-centered, and numbing-out our empathy.

(Some of us keep trying to tell this to our fellow Anglo/Euros in the doomer / prepper / collapse groups etc. We need each other. Humans are not inherently bad.)

PS. AND – Please watch this TikTok video from JadeThaGemini https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTM48nWQ6/

Some of my takeaways:

• Disaster-preparedness is a way of life in the Caribbean.
• Caring and community are a way of life. People come together and take care of each other there, unlike here where people fight each other over toilet paper etc.
• A lot of American people’s comments come across as disaster porn, morbid glee, performative fake caring, etc.

As she says: “Please watch your mouth when you’re talking about the Jamaicans.”

(This will only seem like a novel approach if you are steeped in the norms and values of a hyperindividualistic culture. Which I am, and which you probably are too if you are reading this.)

Oftentimes in the hyperindividualistic (western, industrialized, capitalist, supremacy) culture, we base our decisions on the perceived level of risk to ourselves.

My “novel approach” instead prioritizes assessing the risk to others.

So, for example, I don’t drive at night. The primary reason is because a car is the mode of transportation that’s most likely to hurt or kill people. (Of course, by not driving at night, I’m also safer myself.)

But what about that personal danger? Obviously we don’t want to deliberately put ourselves in danger. So how do I justify walking at night? For many people, that’s considered a very risky choice. But there are ways to mitigate that risk, and that’s what I want everyone to think about regarding their own choices.

I walk at night only in areas that I am deeply familiar with. Also, I refrain from using headphones while walking at night. Although the risk is not zero, the many benefits outweigh the risk.

Beautiful moonrises; fresh breezes; ocean and river views; spontaneous little detours to see friends (including certain trees); getting exercise without being under the blistering sun.

(That is, the benefits outweigh the risks for me. Your calculation may vary. This is just an example of a decision procedure for mapping out personal choices.)

There are other examples; I’ll come back and write them as they pop into my mind. In the meantime, you can probably think of some examples from your own life!

OK, here’s another one I just thought of as I was running errands on foot and dealing with a bunch of plastic packaging in the course of grocery shopping.

Many eco-minded people try to avoid single-use plastic because it’s bad for the oceans, harmful to living creatures, has a high eco-footprint. And in addition to doing our best to avoid single-use plastic packaging – an admittedly almost impossible task in the USA — we also communicate with government and corporations in various ways to try to reduce the volume of plastic in the world. In the course of avoiding plastic “for the sake of the overall planet,” we also reduce our own exposure to the harmful effects of micro plastics. Thus we gain a personal benefit in addition to the planetary benefit.

Then again, there are some eco-minded people who avoid plastic simply because of the danger to their own health. Nothing wrong with that, but if all we do is avoid plastic for ourselves without also working to shift the mainstream reality, we’re not helping other species and ecosystems. And as long as the mainstream status quo doesn’t change, it’s getting harder and harder for an individual to avoid single-use plastic.

It just seems to work better for me if I try to base my decisions on the collective good, and then let the personal good come along with that. Let me know how it goes for you!

Sharon has a post about the movement for a general strike in 2028. I had no idea this was even a thing. I agree with her, we should be able to plan and organize this in months, not years.

The time to strike is ongoing — now and now and now. Every day from now on, each to the best of our ability. Buy as little as possible except local community; work as little as you can manage. And help those who can’t.

Check out Sharon’s post, always worth reading, including comments section.

Even in doomer / prepper / collapse-aware circles, we still all too often find ourselves falling into thinking in terms of “… when collapse happens” — instead of recognizing that it is already happening. (How does the saying go? — The future is here; it’s just unevenly distributed.)

For about 20 years I’ve been noticing this pattern. I call it the “trying to keep one foot on the pier while the other foot is stepping onto the boat.”

Granted, it can be scary to contemplate disengaging from the extractive/exploitative/hoarding economy, with all the “goodies” it provides. Financially daunting, and also daunting in terms of interpersonal consequences.

But be assured, there is lots of support out there. I’ve noticed that more of us are on this path than we might think. Our safety lies with sharing and cooperating.

Sharon’s article (link below) encourages us to fully recognize that collapse is something that is happening right now, as we speak, and not at some hypothetical point in the future when a certain critical mass of boxes are ticked.

For me one of the most challenging aspects of navigating collapse is recognizing that the very highly funded authoritarian entities and social norms will, collapse notwithstanding, very likely continue to extend their tentacles into every area of our lives for the foreseeable future.

Collapse is not some anarchist paradise where we suddenly get left in peace to build our own infrastructure, parallel systems etc. Nope, we’ve just got to set about doing that under the current conditions, wherever we are at, right now.

Don’t expect any reduction in resources dedicated to criminalization: punishment of the homeless population; spraying of herbicides on wild plants; shutdown of your unofficial neighborhood survival enterprises such as the guy repairing bicycles out of his basement; persistence of harsh and excessive street-lighting.

So, for example, while we are turning our yards into food forest and native plant paradise, we’re still going to have to deal with code enforcement. Instead of trying to escape to “somewhere easier,” or backing down, now is the time to step it up: roll up our sleeves, practice courage, exercise creativity. Actually the time was yesterday or last year or 20 years ago, but the next-best time is now.

Further Exploration:

• “Paying Rent in the Apocalypse,” by Sharon Astyk. https://ko-fi.com/post/Paying-Rent-In-The-Apocalypse-O5O81MEJ17

A recent post on Upworthy highlighted an incident at Trader Joe’s that apparently sparked quite a debate! A customer didn’t know that washing reusable bags was a thing, and when the cashier complimented her on her reusable bags, saying she likes this type of bag and it washes so well too, the customer got confused.

Myself, for sure I wash my reusable bags. I am really not a neat freak at all, but when shopping for produce and so on, especially since I try never to accept any produce that’s packaged in plastic bags, inevitably at least some food residue might get on the inside of a bag. So yes I wash them periodically. Just a quick swish, maybe a smidge of dish liquid or baking soda, rinse and turn inside-out and dry on the line.

Even if I don’t think they need washing, I turn them inside-out regularly and air them in the sun.

But also, come to think of it reading this post, I never expect or never actually even WANT the cashier to have to touch my reusable bag either. It just seems like common sense that I would bag my own groceries. Especially in today’s germ-conscious world, where people don’t really want to touch other people’s personal items unless absolutely necessary.

Still, even though I actually prefer for the cashier not to be compelled to touch my bags (and also am frankly very fussy about how I bag my groceries so prefer to do it myself), I don’t want the bag to be dirty and then set it down on a shop counter or something. Leaving dirty residue on the counter.

Consideration for others generally seems to encourage smart practices of various kinds.

Sidenote: Those of us who are into all things eco, reuse, and so on, we get a bad rap from mainstream society for being grungy and dirty. And to some extent we probably may never live that down. But we can do our best to maintain considerate hygiene.

Also another thought regarding the fact that we get a bad rap: I think the society that believes in constant throwaway everything in the name of “cleanliness” and “neatness” should be getting the bad rap. Because look what that apparent “cleanliness” and “neatness” costs on the back end. Pacific trash gyre; villages on the other side of the world drowning in our global north debris (and choking on the fumes from burning it down to recover some scrap and eke a livelihood), etc.

So yeah if it were up to me, our fussbudget obsessive hyper-packaged society would be the one getting the bad rap. Alas, I’m not the queen of raps. (Last time I checked, anyway … )

Still, each of us can help shape the public consciousness. Whenever you see something with layers and layers of packaging and assorted fussbudget gobbledegook, make a skeptical face and ask aloud, “I wonder what the BACK end of this looks like?” Or some version of this question that suits your communication style. Even if it seems like you’re alone with no people standing around you, you never know who might be listening.

Here’s the Upworthy thread, shared on my DEEP GREEN page. (Visit the OP to read the full comment section.)