Modern Hunter Gatherers

I heard this term on a podcast this week. Modern Hunter Gatherer nomad. It struck a chord when I heard it and to be honest I didn’t hear much more. My mind was too busy pondering this term. It reminded me of the summer of being homeless. Moving from place to place and eating when there was food. Living off the resources of the “modern” landscape.

The ideal the our ancient hunter gatherer lifestyle is one that resonates within many of us today. Not having to wake up every day and go to a job you hate to make money to buy crap you don’t need to fill the collective holes in our souls. Having our systems constantly flooded with fight or flight hormones from petty concerns. The constant fast pace of modern life. Even when we do get away its rushed. We hike on set paths in thick boots as fast as we can to get back to our cell phones and Starbucks. So the idea of being a strong and powerful nomad that rests and plays most the day, eats the freshest food ever and only gets really stressed when a bear wants his dinner. It’s no wonder to me when this image is gaining popularity these days.

It’s an impossible lifestyle today though right? I don’t think so. I feel it can be adapted in many ways. I’m gonna talk about ways that I’ve been close to a true modern hunter gatherer and how one could go even further with it. If some of these ideas are too extreme for you pick some small easy ones and reconnect with Grog.

The year was 2001. It was my 19^th summer and I was invincible. I was also homeless and was the best summer ever. I had no bills, no responsibilities, no job, no boss. My only concerns were eating, sleeping and finding something fun to do. My friend Mike and I were forced out of our rental house and took to living in his tiny red hatchback car. Everything I owned fit inside my backpack. It was my original Bug out Bag. We survived for about three months that way, in fact I would say we thrived that way. Much like our ancestors we spent a few hours a week “gathering” and the rest spent relaxing and having fun.

Here are the steps that we did to survive and excel at being nomadic. First is a disclaimer: Some of these techniques should only be used in emergencies situations and could be considered illegal use at your own discretion.

The two key factors that allowed us our nomadic existence were a very small car and cheap ass gas. Gas at that time was about a buck a gallon. This gave us about a hundred to two hundred mile radius of roaming. The bigger area is key some tricks. I would say we easily traveled close to 100 miles a day. I’m not sure how well this would work in today’s outrageous gas prices. If anything I would say close the travel radius over switching to a bike or foot. The car provides shelter, security and storage. Trust me being homeless without a car is a completely different situation.

Our main source of income that we gathered was a bi-weekly plasma clinic trip. Plasma clinics pump out your blood spin it and put the whole blood back in with some cold saline solution. The process takes an hour or two if you get there early enough. Selling it twice a week earn you fifty dollars. Not too bad for four hours of “work”. Now in the trappings of our modern life $50 a week would not be nearly enough to live on. But without any bills it stretches easily. On the times when we needed a bit of extra cash we would drive to stores with coke machines outside and go inside and tell the customer service desk that the machine took our money. At a buck they almost never questioned it. I don’t suggest using this technique unless it’s a dire situation.

For food we basically ate once a day. Almost always at a buffet restaurant at the cheaper lunch price. Lunch normally ran between 5-7 dollars. At lunch we would gorge ourselves knowing we would not be eating again till the next day. On a few times when cash was short we would buy cheap loaves of bread and cheap sandwich meat and make sandwiches with one or two slices of meat to each. By no means healthy food choices but staying alive is the first rule of survival.

To sleep at night we at first tried parks at night but the police took offense to parking your car and sleeping in a public park. Our next stop was interstate rest stops. These turned out to be great. No hassles and vending machines. The bathrooms are intended to wash up in which is hard to find while being homeless.

Those are the main ways we managed to become Modern Hunter Gatherers (HG). Although it was an amazing life experience I’m not suggesting for you to abandon your home and go live in your car. We can adapt some HG philosophies to our modern life to be closer to our heritage without living in the woods.

Stop buying crap you don’t need! The less you have the less money you need to make to support it. Reduce your expenses so you can reduce the amount of work you need to do. Less work equal less stress. No one would work if they didn’t need to so always try to escape the machine. Unless you make an effort to get out you in the machine till death.

Learn about wild edibles in your area. Learn as many as you can and try them. Find the one that you enjoy and try to supplement a portion of your food from gathered wild edibles. The more you can find the less you have to buy and the less money you need for food.

Start fishing and hunting. Along with the wild edibles this is to supplement your food and lessen you need to money on buying food.

Slow down. Enjoy your world its the only one you have. Take your shoes off and feel the earth beneath you and walk through the woods off the beaten path and enjoy the wild beauty of it.

With all your new activities you wont even miss not having the newest I-thingamabob. Hopefully you enjoyed my experience of being a Nomad and my examples on getting closer to your ancestors. Have any similar experiences lemme know in the comments.