“dwelling portably, formerly known as Message Post, Sept, 2001-2005”

Printed originally in “dwelling portably, formerly known as Message Post, Sept, 2001-2005”

A tightly-printed little stapled zine, Dwelling Portably was printed in Philomath OR. I have three or four issues of it, and it would be almost two novels’ worth of typing to get them posted online in their entirety. This zine is CRAMMED with text, tiny tiny text. I’ll try to get the more interesting snippets up.

“”about Chaz’s hobo castle and Ozark land,

I don’t recommend building around campers. Building around something is much more difficult, and the result is not a new building because this old thing is in there. Better to start from scratch and, if you do a good job, you will have something worthwhile when you’re done. If I was doing it again, I would build a straw-bale house.

I now have a far better toilet system, inspired by Joe Jenkins’ Humanure Handbook. I now cover with sawdust, then compost. If done properly, the heat will kill all pathogens, and, in two years, I’ll be able to use the compost directly on my garden. Eastwind Community has successfully used this system for several years, and fertilize their extensive organic gardens. I helped collect one day.

I’m still getting inquiries regarding cheap Ozark land (from an ad several years ago). I haven’t been responding because I don’t have up-to-date info. I bought some lots for under $100 each, and there may still be some not restricted.

Rural areas in some states have fewer restrictions, especially on holdings of ten acres or more. Prices as low as $350 an acre. However, in general, the cheaper the land, the more impoverished the area. (Few jobs or local business ops.)

I don’t recommend this area to anarchistic types.

(Comment: ) I don’t recommend ANY rural area to ANYONE who did not grow up there. (If they did, they know what they are getting into.) Newcomers who are willing to conform AND are talented socially, MIGHT fit in- or might NOT- and, to discover which, will gamble years of their lives.

Bert and I live mostly in uninhabited forests; not populated rural areas. But we work for a few rural residents occasionally. All have been newcomers. (The natives usually hire only other natives.) Their friends are fellow newcomers, or city dwellers, and they drive many miles visiting each other- because their near neighbors are aloof if not hostile. (This corroborates what Chaz said previously about rural lifestyles being transportation intensive.) – Holly and Bert.

“At night I walk the streets with my notebook. I sleep in the daytime in the park with a big cowboy hat over my head to keep the sun out of my eyes. I wonder if any urban nomads tend toward night activities because sleeping spots are more available during days.” –Cowboy, Feb 1990

Places to park a car while napping.

Several friends of mine have successfully used train and bus parking lots. Station officials and police realize that people may sleep for hours in a car waiting to pick up a friend or relative. – Jane Johnson

Many insects are nutritious. They contain much protein. Yellow Jackets and meat bees can be gathered by suspending a bit of food above a coffee can of water. As the insects eat, they get heavy, fall into the water, and drown.

After enough are collected, simply boil at least ten minutes (to kill all parasites) and eat. The heat neutralizes the venom and the singers mostly dissolve.

I learned this in a wilderness survival course I recently took through Klamath Falls Community College. I’ve collected and eaten insects twice. Once was on the Yuba River north of  Sacramento. We were salmon fishing. There were many dead salmon carcasses on the bank which attracted numerous meat bees. I trapped a sandwich-bag-full in about three hours. We boiled them and added beef boullion. Not bad; kind of slimy crunchy. Eaten plain with no seasoning, they have a nutty acidic flavor. Grasshoppers, too, are not bad; remove legs and wings before cooking.  Instead of boiling, insects can be roasted in foil on a campfire, but they burn easily. –John Atkins

Encounters with police.

I often hitchhike. (I’ve never owned a vehicle nor had a drivers license.) While standing on freeways, waiting for rides, cops have stopped and warned me, in unfriendly tones, that hitchhiking was not allowed in that area. On several occasions they asked for ID. One time they took me and another hitcher to local RCHP headquarters to strip search, looking for drugs which they did not find. Another time, cops seized a new, unopened bottle of Korean ginseng capsules to test for drugs- and never returned it. They may have been sicced on us by two teen-age girls who were in front of a high school we walked by. A long-haired native guy I was hitching with, joked to the girls that he had LSD for sale.

I keep my hair shorter these days, try to stay clean and neat, and don’t voice my opinions- especially when passing through strange towns and cities.

I’ve always despised most if not all cops. I regard them as nuisances, and as threats to my privacy and freedom, I try to be polite, but I seem to run into “bad apples” who love to harass poor transients. –Bruce from BC

Stay off roads on weekend nights.

Those are happy hunting times for police anxious to fill quotas. ‘Between 9pm and 2am, on any weekend night, one out of ten drivers is impaired’, according to the National Highway Safety Administration. And even earlier; on a typical Friday  evening between 7 and 9 pm, troopers in Albany (a city of about 30,000) ‘picked up five potentially impaired motorists.’

Abstaining from alcohol won’t save you. One officer said he pulled over many people wwho ‘blew a zero’ on the breath test- but he arrested them anyway, claiming they were impaired. ‘We have a lot of people out there using drugs one way or another, whether they’re legal drugs or illegal drugs.’

After arrest, a suspect is taken to a police station where an officer certified as a ‘drug recognition expert’ administers additional tests or interrogates the suspect until (s)he admits something (eg, taking a prescription drug, or lack of sleep, or a medical problem) which the ‘expert’ can interpret as confirming impairment. In Oregon, the ‘experts’ agree with the arresting officers 86% of the time.

Of course, some of those drivers really are impaired- another reason to stay off the roads. –P&H”

I can’t type any more right now but I will try to transcribe some more later on.