How to heal yourself (& When I feel my best)

Live in The forest, in a toxic free environment,

Breathe deeply, preferably outside,

Bask in the light of the sun,

Eat the fruits of the wild,

Drink the water which comes from the rain,

Walk and stretch to the movement of the breeze.


I believe nature fixes our problems, ailments, and insecurities. Nature provides you with the food, the shelter, the water, the air, and the sun which you need to survive.
Like the animals, I feel my best when I eat a raw diet, mostly fruit with little greens, nuts, and seeds.
Like the animals, I feel my best when I can be in the sun, walking on the grass, climbing hills, and breathing fresh air.
Because I have eaten a vegan diet for almost a decade, I have the energy to move my body, and because of this I have maintained my weight. Because of my diet, I have mental clarity which allows me to absorb information, and also allows me to see passed the fallacies, falsities, and corruption of our modern world. Because of my diet, I believe I can live free from luxury and many other amenities this world brainwashes you to believe is necessary.

What does your diet do for you?
Why don't you eat today to feel better tomorrow? Why don't you eat the food and live the life that which gives you vitality?

Watch the short video I have posted below by Markus Rothkranz, where he discusses the healing properties of wild edibles:

Indulgence, Walk Across America, & camping items

IN several past posts I mentioned I was in another state visiting my partner's family, then I would be coming back to Kentucky in March to grow food; and I also mentioned that my partner and I had wanted to walk across America-- before we decided to visit his family.
I (think) we have officially decided to do the walk across America instead of going back to KY to garden.
I suppose our vision is to escape to a new reality. Ha, there is no escape from reality-- caught in a landslide.
I think everyone should have an experience that breaks them down then builds them back up.

My perspective of this trip across country is to leave my indulgent side behind, and live wildly and minimal material possessions. Of course we want to see America's beauty! We grew up on the poor side, so we hardly traveled with our families, now that we have some freedom still, we want to take a "vacation" on little money to no money.

Although I have a minimal approach to life, I have not experienced true survival before. I have went camping, sure, but not hundreds of miles away from my family. Nor have I ever been out of the country, or hardly any US states!
While I'm still young and have little responsibilities, I'm going to take this trip across America, going along the southern coast to California, then take the northern route back from CA to KY.

We plan to leave at the beginning of March, making our way to Georgia, then to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, then make a detour up to Arkansas, then to Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, lastly to California. I intend to stay in CA through Fall and Winter of 2014, and during Spring and Summer of 2015 I will be passing through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and back to my beautiful home of Kentucky. So I will be walking across America twice.
My partner and I realize that we are young and fortunate enough to make a spontaneous trip. I have spent my 24 years (my birthday is tomorrow), making sure I do not tie myself down to one thing, and I do not own property that which ties me down.
The little possessions I have, I hold dear to me, but I can also let them go.

My 24th birthday is tomorrow, the 19th of February. If I was 30 years old, perhaps I would not make such a journey, or perhaps I will on my 30th birthday. But, my permaculture gardens will be there when I get back. I have dedicated much time and effort (also to this blog which highlights my love of gardening); yet I want to see at least America's beauty and pleasures (and perhaps the world someday).

My idea is to head South so that I can forage for some food-- even during the Fall and Winter are apples and oranges to be picked in Arizona. I will obtain some money through the food assistance program, in order to buy dried fruit and nuts for my journey.

A couple of months ago when I was packing for this trip across America, I bought a tent, butcher knife, compass, rope, first aid kit, mushroom identification book, and several other things which I left back in KY. Now that I am in another state, I must re-purchase all of these items.
Here is a list of some camping supplies I will need/take:

-Paper (or some kindling for fire)
-Matches (or fire starter)
-Knife (or multi tool)
-Rope
-Tarp (tent or hammock)
-compass
-water treatment (lifestraw)
-first aid kit (or bandages)
-Flashlight (or other light source)
-Blanket
-pepper spray
-Additional items may include: whistle, wire saw, pot (for boiling water), toilet paper (taken from restrooms), folding shovel, mirror, and more

Give some suggestions on what I should take with me on this great walk!

How to build a raised bed for gardening (& No-till methods)

Gardening is usually maintained on solid ground, yet as we become a developed nation with little room to dedicate to gardening, we find innovative ways to grow food in smaller spaces. Smaller spaces means utilizing containers in which you can grow food.

Raised beds and container gardens are best for people with limited space, but there are many other benefits. Raised beds and container gardens are low maintenance, for example easier to water, pull up weeds, and relocate bugs. Raised beds are also easy to construct in comparison to ground gardens because there is no shoveling, tilling, or hoeing. Raised beds and containers essentially do not damage the soil or any rooting systems in the Earth. Raised beds and containers also repel many bugs and other animals from intruding and eating the vegetables unlike a normal large garden. And best of all, raised beds and container gardens can always be constructed for free with little time.

Many of my posts on gardening feature ways to build raised beds or use containers to grow food. Considering it is the middle of February, it is the best time to plan your garden layout. You can start tomato plants indoors as early as now and you can work up a spot in your garden with a tiller to plant greens and other cold weather crops as early as the middle of March. It is important to work early and think ahead when growing food.

Here are some posts that discuss topics on making your own compost and building raised beds using free materials:

• Three Ways to Grow Food & Other Plants for Apartment Dwellers (Indoors/Outdoors)
• Compost your food scraps...and get food back for free  
• What you need to know about Compost (& doing it for free)
• Raised Bed Garden Ideas & Using Free materials
• What's the best, free materials to use for raised beds?
• Free ways to decorate your yard  

Raised beds are usually constructed out of recycled or reclaimed materials or all natural materials. By constructing your own raised beds now will give you time to find the materials to fill them (dirt, compost, mulch, and other organic matter). As you can see in the picture, the best way to begin a raised bed or container garden is to find a location, then a container (5 gallon bucket, log bed, brick bed, rock bed, etc), then fill your container with the materials you see in the picture below.

Raised beds are like containers which hold your growing medium. The growing medium is just as important as the utility of the container. The growing medium must be made out of organic matter such as mulch, compost, twigs, and dirt (while compost is made up of other decomposed organic matter like food scraps and leaves).

Last Fall I had a very successful crop of beautiful and tasty lettuce that came from a container full of my own compost (seen in the picture to the left). This lettuce produced as long as three months. Make sure your container has holes in the bottom to ensure drainage of water. Then add twigs, bark, newspaper, or cardboard, then add your grass clippings, then compost, then mulch.

If you are not using a container like a 5 gallon bucket or drum, or other reclaimed material, a raised bed made out of bricks, logs, or rocks is another free, no-hassle, low maintenance way to grow food.

 Raised beds are simply beds of dirt held in by other materials to form a structure. Raised beds can be made through many creative designs. For example in the pictures below I have listed pictures of raised beds made out of all natural, free materials:

Sticks are vertically aligned and layered to hold dirt in place.



My partner built a raised bed from free pallets



Found logs hold in a garden of cabbage

Another beautiful thing about raised beds is that you do not necessarily need a structure like bricks and rocks to hold the dirt and your veggies. In fact, you can simply find a location suitable to your needs, then add layers of mulch then dirt on top of the ground. With this method, no shoveling or tilling is required. I believe, however, the best way to ensure the dirt does not drift away when it rains, at some point you need to create a structure around the dirt. Many examples of this are straw bale gardens, like in the pictures below.

Notice the straw and dirt are piled up above ground.

You can grow plants that are just as big on straw bales as you
can in the ground.

Minimal layering of dirt is needed to grow food on straw bales.

 Successful gardening is 80% preparation (or perhaps determination) and 20% weather. Start planning your gardening layout, then retrieve materials you need, then begin on prepping your garden. There are many chores that must be done before you begin gardening in the Spring, for example I have outlined what activities in the following posts: "Fall & Winter Garden Maintenance", "Garden prep (what I'm doing to prepare for spring gardening", "My Vegan Garden Calendar for 2013 (& planting days for you" in this post I detail a day-to-day gardening activity. And in the post "What vegetables to grow during the summer (May, June, & July)" I picture the harvests of my fruits and vegetables that I grew during the Spring and Summer. I also picture what I grew and harvested during the Fall in this post "What to grow during August-October".

In future posts I will be detailing what I'm doing in my garden. As you may or may not know, I am in another state, so it may take some time before I get back to Kentucky to begin gardening. Once I make it back to KY, I will chronicle what I'm doing to prepare for starting seeds indoors, and other miscellaneous activities. Stay tuned.

Semi-Permanent Debris Shelters (Minimal Living or living in the woods)

I've become obsessed with videos on constructing debris shelters, survival shelters, and creative ways to build out of readily materials within a short amount of time.

There are many types of emergency survival shelters such as Wikiups, wigwams, Tarp shelters, igloos, underground, and the list goes on. The most basic constructs are shelters formed with dead wood, then layered with an insulation such as twigs, sticks, leaves, mud, tree bark and so on.

The reason I have become interested in these debris shelters lately is because of my new change of plans.

On a personal note, I took a trip down South to visit my partner's family with him, and we have been here awhile because my partner wants to stay to make money (to buy land). However I would rather walk across America as we had intended than stay down here permanently with his family. I would also rather move back to my Grandparents' property to work on my gardens there and my gardens at my Mom's property. I know that sounds very childish like Henry Thoreau had done on his experiment in the woods. Thoreau lived on his friend Ralph Emerson's property, and lived close to his Mother.

I will say that I'm not being very responsible in obtaining land, but I do not believe in buying the land. I would rather find a secluded spot in the woods than get a job for five years to afford such a small amount of land.

My choices are limitless but I would like to live outside, away from people that talk and cause drama, away from people that don't see eye-to-eye on my own ethics. I would like to live in the woods, or in my Grandparents' yard in a debris shelter rather than my tent. Debris shelters are much warmer than tents.

A debris shelter also allows you to form a fireplace and chimney attached.

I would also prefer living in a debris shelter rather than a tent because the plastic lining of tents tend to mold, and get dirty. I would rather live in something temporarily like a debris shelter that is natural.

As I live in a debris shelter, my idea is to work on a larger scale shelter underground (like in the picture below).

My home will be in three phases: debris shelter,
then underground dwelling, then my cob home

 Below I will list some of the videos I think will help you build these shelters in a survival situation. These shelters can also be added to on a larger scale for semi-permanent dwelling.

Shelters like these are easier on our environment, they allow us to reconsider what is important in life: reading, breathing, meditating, walking. With this way of living, we let go of material, frivolous items, and spend more time in nature.

The list below consists of videos on the construction of debris huts, underground dwellings, and survival shelters. You can type in any search engine these keywords to look at more interesting pictures of these shelters. They key to learning how to build these shelters is by experience. Go outside to the nearest woods or your backyard and build you one of these shelters out of the readily available dead wood (and because it's winter, there will be plenty of leaves to use to act as insulation for your hut).

The video above "How To Build a Semi - Permanent Shelter (part 1)" which teaches you to build a debris shelter with a fireplace/chimney included, remember to watch part 2

In this video, Mike Douglas of Maine Primitive Skills School teaches you a step by step on how to pick a spot, what to use, and other information on debris shelters. Remember to watch part 2.

Here is a small tutorial on how to make a lean to natural shelter out of spruce limbs. The only tools are an axe and some twine. I do not advocate cutting down any live trees, only use dead wood.

 I have more posts on this subject with pictures of other structures which you can view here "Extreme Environmentalism", "Constructing your own home: cob building, homesteading, & free materials", "Cob building: straw, clay, & sand for building dream Earth home"

New Years 2014 Resolutions

One of my goals this year is to grow double or triple what I grew in food last year (which would equate to $1300*2). I want to start greens and other veggies indoors as early as the middle of February.

Another goal is to build a temporary shelter to live as I am working on a small underground dwelling (which I have discussed in detail here).
Another goal I have is to read one or two books a week (which isn't hard). One of my grandmas reads like one to four books a week and goes to the library consistently. I have an Aunt that reads the same way. In the last two months, I have read Wizards of Earthsea, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Slaughterhouse-five, Brave New World, A Brief history of time, The Cosmic Connection, and I have re-read Walden, Siddhartha and Kierkegaard's the Present Age. I have almost exhausted my own library, and there is not many more books I have left to read on my bookshelf. But...

I'm not so much worried about the quantity of books I read as much as I am concerned about the quality: information, knowledge, sustainability. I have a Philosophy textbook I want to tackle and get a collection of philosopher's books from the library, probably Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, etc.

On a personal note: A couple of years ago I had two years worth of horrible cystic acne during college when I was drinking and smoking heavily (and eating vegan junk food). When I dropped out of college, quit smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, my face improved dramatically. I still struggle with hormonal flare-ups during my menstruation, but the scarring is healing quickly and my skin tone is much more even. Here is a photo below. The results were immediate once I started eating high raw, fruit based diet. I think my skin would completely heal if I could live in a warmer climate where I could sweat and have constant sunshine. I also think if I lived completely on my home-grown, organic, raw fruits and vegetables and greens-- my face would look completely healed of the scars left behind.

fruit and time heals most things...you gotta have a good attitude
about life or things will never change

I hope in this New Year that I can improve my complexion of the scarring left behind. The photo from 2013 was not altered.

I know since most peoples' New Year's Resolutions are based on trivial concerns like losing weight -- I will focus the rest of this post on diet and exercise.
We are 35 days into the new year, so it is still a good opportunity to revisit subjects on diet and exercise, and committing to our goals. I have many posts on the subject of fad diets and exercise programs, please click on any of the links below:

"New Years Resolutions: Exercising, Dieting, & What you should avoid"
"P90X, Insanity, Zumba, Julian Michaels ..."
"Sensa, Atkins Diet, Hydroxycut, Weight ..."
"The Feminist's Diet & the Media still promotes unhealthy eating standards"
"Obesity: Is Smaller Portions REALLY the answer? (No!)"

I suppose my other goals include eating a clean diet and toning my body; but eating healthy and exercising come easy to me now because I have eaten a fruit based diet for three years in my nine years of Veganism. Consequently, my eating choices give me the energy to move my body and be fit.
What I have come to understand is that we are properly designed for natural eating and natural exercises to perform at our best.
What do I mean by natural eating and exercises?
Natural eating means a diet rich in ripe, seasonal, fresh, whole foods which wild animals would eat. Animals, whether they are herbivores or omnivores, eat a raw diet. Humans (domesticated animals) are the only species that eat cooked, unnatural foods like Oreos, cheeseburgers, pasta, and candy. While natural exercises include walking, hiking, climbing, constructing (building with our hands), and running.
Perhaps over using your body is too strenuous on the bones, and perhaps relaxation under a tree is the best exercise (or the best medicine).

I have recently posted Habits of really healthy people  where I discuss the proper diet for humans and the exercises we are designed for. I also note that the Low Carb doctor Atkins was unhealthy, overweight and died of heart disease while the planted based doctors are much slimmer, glowing, flexible, nimble and bright. In another post Foraging for Wild Edibles (Fall & Winter) I discuss what food sources are available in the colder months to eat naturally like wild birds, squirrels and other animals. And in this post Smoothie v. Juices v. Whole Foods I explain whole, fresh, ripe foods in their natural state are better for digestion that foods over processed or foods without their fiber. Also in the post I show you to how I eat and pictures of some of my meals. To get a more in depth view (with photos) on what I eat out of my garden and what I buy at the grocery store, go here: Garden Harvest & Grocery Hauls (Raw vegan budget) 

Whether you're vegetarian, vegan or a meat-eater, you understand the difference between the quality of a banana vs. a cheeseburger. You couldn't possibly tell me that eating a processed, fatty and greasy, high cholesterol cheeseburger is better than eating a banana (which is no fat, no cholesterol, no preservatives, high potassium, high calorie, high sugar, high carb).
Doesn't it make sense to eat a quality diet rich in fruits and vegetables and greens? I have never heard a doctor say 'eat more meat', usually just 'eat as much as you usually do'.

Overall, Emphasize and incorporate healthy eating and exercise practices into your lifestyle. Get daily sunshine and fresh air. Live in a toxic free environment. Focus your education and attention on real world matters. Read books that challenge your knowledge and understanding. Explore new places and practice new activities.
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Feel free to explore the blog Vegans Living Off the Land for more information and pictures on natural living (eating, exercising, gardening and sustainability). On the left hand side of this blog, below my lists of posts are Healthy Vegan and Raw Recipes (with photos), but for your convenience I have provided the full recipe list below:

• Salad Dressing for Every Salad (Raw Vegan)
• CHEAPEST Ice-cream EVER (Raw Vegan)
• "THE EASIEST WAY TO EAT GRAPFRUIT" JUICE
• Green Spinach Sweet Smoothie (Raw Vegan)
• Caramel (one-ingredient) Smoothie for energy and comfort
• Cabbage & Collard greens with fruit toppings (RAW VEGAN SALAD)
• Butternut Squash Recipes (low fat, winter savory dishes)
• Bean Chili with veggies from the garden
• Raw fruitarian Summer soup