Cabin Mode

I have this strange fantasy in which I own a cabin some where up in "the hills". Don't ask me which hills, I haven't figured that bit out yet. I have a vague impression of the kind of place I want, but I suspect it's loosely based on Disney films I would have seen as a child and is probably a mish-mash of locations in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Maybe also a little bit of New Brunswick.

Anyway, this cabin would be travelling distance from a small township (so I could by supplies), but would be far enough out from civilisation that it does not have electricity or running water. When staying at this cabin, I will need to use basic living skills that have been largely lost to my kind.

I will fetch water in buckets and heat things with wood. I will amuse myself with acoustic instruments (yes, probably a banjo), walks in the fresh air and reading by day light. I will till a vegetable patch and hunt for rabbits - which I will turn into stew and other rabbity-type dishes. I will also tan the rabbit hides and use them to make things like jackets and shoes. And I will make my own clothes by sewing things together with my own hands.

I will take all day to make dinner, chop firewood and bake bread. And when it gets dark, I will probably go to bed because I won't have the electric lights to encourage me to stay up reading all night.

I won't waste water because I will have to fetch it myself, using buckets. I won't waste electricity because I won't have any. I won't waste "power" because I have to chop my own firewood. I won't waste food because getting more takes considerable time and effort.

I won't be trying to find things to fill my day, or filling up my "free time" devoting energy and thought to things that don't matter, because I'll be using my energy to complete the daily tasks associated with living.

And every couple of days or so I'll ride into the township to by some little niceties, like flour, sugar, tea and toilet paper, and I'll stop at all the little local shops and chat with the local people for a while. And every Sunday or so I'll ride into town for the morning Church service. And every couple of weeks or so I'll go to a bingo night or play bowls at the club so I can remain sociable and friendly, even though I live in a cabin in the woods and heat the water for my bath with a wood stove.

And I'll make my own jam and vinegar to sell at the local markets. And maybe cider, too. And I will make this jam, vinegar and cider out of seasonal fruit that grows in the woods - which I will gather, along with wild herbs and other things I know are definitely not poisonous, in a basket that I can repair myself, because I will know how to do useful things, like gather non-poisonous food and fix baskets.

I quite like this fantasy.

I am, however, concerned about whether or not I'd survive in this cabin.

My current life-style is so "on tap", that I realise I have no idea how to do the simplest things that are part of a fetch-it-yourself existence. For example, where do you put the water, after you have fetched it from the well or creek? Surely you wouldn't store it in the buckets indefinitely, you'd have to transfer it into some sort basin or something...

How much wood do you need to power a wooden stove long enough to cook your bread and stews and boil the water for your bath? How do you skin a rabbit, anyway, and what is the most humane way to kill it in the first place? And how does that whole preserving-food-without-a-fridge thing work?

I feel like I need to be apprenticed to a cabin dweller for a while before I can consider the cabin fantasy to be anything more than a complete pipe-dream.

I have to admit, I have often thought of going "cabin mode" in my own home, just to see if I can grow some life skills: no electric lights or appliances and fetching all of my water from one external tap. I think I would have to ease into it, though. Start by switching to "natural" light and fetched water, and then cut out the appliances one by one. Get to the point where I'm only using the freezer and the flushing toilet as my "mod cons".

Will it ever work?

Will I ever bother trying?