A Blueprint for Survival

This, i hope, will be a fairly comprehensive thought process into a strategy for surviving within the confines of modern day life. I will cover the basics first from varying perspectives, depending upon age and culture. It will be aimed at those of you that wish to overcome the effects of the current climate, creating an environment conducive to self reliance, focussing on the family and individual alike.

Shelter

This is one of the most important things for basic survival, whether it be a tent, house, flat or a vehicle, it's home.

A young person, just starting out, without adequate finances, has limited options available to them. Staying in the family home, or perhaps renting a cheap room or apartment would seem the only options. However, this is likely to be just a temporary stepping stone until your ideal situation is reached. Rent is "dead money" and unless you have spare capital, should be avoided.

Perhaps a house or flat share would be more appropriate, although essentially your just feeding the system you're trying to escape from.

If a family environment isn't an option, then perhaps a commune type setup would work. If you have practical skills that you could use in order to participate within a cooperative environment, this could indeed work.

I looked into this some years ago, whilst living in my van, although i never actually pursued this path, there were indeed many options available, one of which was only a few miles from my location at the time. I sometimes reflect upon this option and wonder if it would have worked out. I found around 200 such "projects" (around the UK) just on my initial web search, undoubtedly there is likely to be a higher number now. Some are relatively new, whilst others are well established. It costs nothing to research those in your area, perhaps looking further afield if you are open to changing your life and are not tied to a particular location.

The other option, mentioned already, is van life. Whilst it may seem daunting at first, it's actually far simpler than you would think. Most info is obtainable online, from basic carpentry, solar installs, as well as the mechanical aspects, should you choose to be as independent as possible. You may know people with these skills, but when you are on your own, off the beaten track, with no money, it can be beneficial to at least have a few basic skills. So the key is to plan for any eventuality that may arise. Accept that sometimes you will be out of your depth, but that's often when you begin to learn first hand. Ask online, but always double check from different sources. There is a lot of bad advice, or rather it's really someone else's preference, and may not be suited to your own situation.

Living in a van, is surprisingly fluid, less about fitting in, it really is what you make of it. For work purposes, it can offer a remote working arrangement as well as an easy change of location, for seasonal or on site working, such as camping and caravan sites.

There are of course many aspects to van life, but if you find living in one place, tied to the work/bills cycle, wishing to find a little freedom, van life is a good introduction to having your own space.

Each possession you have, each choice you make, is very conscious, and often meaningful, in ways that give you real peace of mind and some sense of permanence.

From a purely practical perspective, if you are looking at saving your hard earned money, relatively quickly, van life allows you to raise the capital you need to put down roots, buy a piece of land or a property, being more conducive to your longer term plans.

If you choose later to return to living in a house or on a piece of land, you will likely use the same mindset that you discovered living mobile, where every decision counted. It etches a sense of responsibility into your psyche, perhaps regaining your much needed sovereignty, at least to a degree.

For a middle aged or perhaps an older person, living in a van may seem a little daunting, as you've become settled into your comfort zone. Health may become an issue, which in itself often dictates our lifestyle choices. However, i have seen many of the older generation that seemingly thrive on this way of life. They will often tell you that they no longer recognise their life from before, having experienced many things, met many similar people on their travels and have become very adept in their choices. Communities of van lifers will often rely on these folk for help, bringing people in need under their wing, giving them a degree of stability as well as a more balanced approach based upon first hand experience.

I often think of van lifers as like a background hum of humanity, across quite diverse cultures and opinions, every person unique, chasing their ideals and essentially carving out their own paths, often going unnoticed from the gaze of mainstream culture. Being allowed to simply be who you are is essential, whether under a roof or otherwise. However this is not always that easy when you're essentially stuck in a house or flat surrounded by noise and chaos.

It must also be noted that some areas are not that welcoming to van dwellers, seeing them as a problem rather than real people just trying to choose an alternative life experience. This, of course, reflects back to what I said about personal responsibility. Being respectful of those around you and leaving a place "better than you found it". One of the many trade offs with van life, a simple thing such as carrying spare bin bags, in order to bag up "any" rubbish, pictures before and after just in case, will put you in good stead for a relatively peaceful and accountable existence. It wasn't always the case, but fairly often I found myself clearing rubbish, as it reflects badly, not just upon who's there at the time, but people in vans in general. However, I've seen many culprits pulling over in a car emptying their fast food wrappers and plastic bottles at the side of the road, unfortunately people in vans tend to get the blame most of the time for this.

You'll never quell the tempers of the few, but if you are happy that you've at least been respectful and responsible, that's all that you can achieve.

Thinking ahead is always important, solving problems as and even before they arise is a good survival skill as you navigate van life.

Once you have sufficient funds to buy a plot of land, whether in your location or elsewhere, perhaps even abroad, you can begin to transition towards your future life, armed with everything that you learnt, practically and internally, the latter of course is never ending and necessary, whatever your situation may be.

Food, Water & Power

Perhaps the most important thing is that which we put into our body. How it was grown and its "ingredients" will likely affect our health and those of our family. I can only stress the need for research, or the very least is to support local organic farmers and growing communities. The supermarkets have subdued people to blindly trust that the food they sell is fit for consumption, and it's plainly not. Being able to grow your own food is perhaps one of the most important rights that is currently under attack. As far as i am concerned, the use of artificial fertilisers and insecticides has poisoned and effectively killed millions of people since its introduction and should be prevented at all costs. It goes hand in hand with the pharmaceutical industry, providing profits through bad nutrition and toxic poisoning of the population.

There are natural methods that can be implemented, which would rebalance and detoxify the soil and its many inhabitants. Permaculture being one such approach towards a healthier and a more naturally balanced growing practice, again having many communities set up that can assist you, at least in the early stages of your site design. Essentially, you learn by observing nature and helping promoting a healthy balance from the soil to the canopy.

Living in a house can be restricting, if renting you have to abide by the landlords regulations, as well as contributing to his mortgage on a property that you'll never own. The metered, fluoridated water supply, metered electric and gas, all keep you captured within the system. Whereas, land of your own, with well water, solar or wind power, or all of the above, will reduce any financial burden, as well as providing a healthy and sustainable source for years to come.

Although each system you create can be separate from another, they could easily be linked together, such as having a fish pond for food whilst utilizing the nutrient rich water for your plants and vegetables. A water pump can have its own battery and solar panel, running separately from your main electricity setup. If part of your land is water logged or marshy, you can also feed heat from it to your living space through the winter time and expand your living space under the higher ground for cooler temperatures in the summer. There is much online about learning to live with your surroundings naturally, so research is always necessary.

For example, whilst researching about the fluoridation of water supplies, I was met with an abundance of medical journals talking about how good fluoride is for teeth. Yet I was more interested in the other side effects, neurological in nature and longer term effects on the body as a whole. There are some 180 published papers stressing the dangers of the toxic effects of fluoride on the body, yet thanks th Googles algortihms, you are herded through the mainstream "explanation" and not the whole truth. Indeed, I regard problems of tooth decay to be essentially the result of too much sugar (another multi billion dollar industry) in our diets, causing an increase in plaque bacteria as well as other chemicals in our heavily processed diets.

Interestingly, prior to the decision (around 1945) to fluoridate the water supplies, the year before (1944), the aluminium industry was discussing how to deal with their toxic waste (fluoride) problem, as all of their sites were shown to be killing off the nature around them as well as a large quantity of health problems locally to the manufacturing sites.

Essentially, the well water wouldn't be fluoridated, apart from trace elements of fluoride naturally found in minerals and rocks. The only was to remove it from your mains water supply would be to fit a reverse osmosis system, relatively cheap compared to the long term cost to your health.

Using disabled toilets, churches and rivers, i had free water which i could then filter for drinking.

If you have your own land, you can dig a well and install an electric or hand pump, relatively cheaply, depending upon the depth of the water table.

Likewise, depending upon your location, you are free to experiment with the many ways of generating your own electricity, according to your budget. When you pump your own water and monitor your power usage, you become intrinsically connected to your equipment use, which kind of goes hand in hand with what i was saying about possessions in general. You're much more aware than you were when you were hooked up to the grid, getting your bills or watching your money disappear from your bank account every month. You're also free from increasing fuel costs and global market trends.

Internet

Whether we like it or not, the digital age has become a part of us. However, it's only really a tool for a particular job and shouldn't be used as a distraction from yourself. For research or general communication, entertainment in whatever guise that may be, as long as you accept that it can also threaten your sovereignty. I see many people, myself included, getting caught up in divisive behaviour, people imposing their beliefs, often quite vicariously, pushing narratives that can cause chaos internally and stop you from moving forwards, your own creative and empowering voice within becomes quiet.

Being fully aware and conscious of your thoughts whilst online is of paramount importance. Additionally, with the advent of AI, your ability to discern any kind of reality in content that is posted daily is negated, so secondary sources should always be sought where possible.

Internet access itself could be minimised, perhaps using "sessions" to save online content for viewing offline, that way if you use a data connection you don't run up expensive bills. That said, whilst in a van, i paid around £35 per month for a sim only (unlimited) data contract, often amounting to in excess of 700gb per month. Along with food, fuel (inc. heating) and laundry, internet access was my only other regular bill.

With respect to surfing online, your PC and mobile phone are bombarded with additionally data and tracking that can often cripple your hardware, in order to not only spy on your browsing (and thoughts essentially), but also allow rogue scripts to run in the background.

DO NOT USE:

Microsft Edge, Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox (stock browser) or Opera.

DO USE:

Brave, Mullvad, Libre Wolf (customised Firefox) or Tor (may be slow, but effective for privacy)

Similarly, Microsoft Windows has now effectively hijacked the hardware directly, incorporating practices that enable third parties to access anything processed or stored on the system. Use Linux if you wish to preserve your privacy online.

Your system will also run much smoother without all of the monitoring and tracking in the background, as well as using much less power.

Additionally, the use of Google Alexa, Microsoft Siri or any other "smart" devices will collect data, as well as your wifi network information, linking through other devices such as smart doorbells (for visual monitoring) allowing 24/7 surveillance within the home. Alongside smart TV's with mics and cameras embedded, your privacy is non-existent. Your internet traffic becomes targetted and you likely don't fully understand the nefarious uses that this information can (and will) be used for in the future.

If you need security cameras, do so for offline use, with secure online remote access only if you need it, such as when you are away.

As a sidenote for any preppers and planners out there, there is apparently a system that isn't specifically on the internet, but that can be used as a means of communication. This uses some smart devices on a separate "mesh" network and is quite massive currently. I don't know the full details but as a backup, if for example internet access becomes unavailable, you could likely still be able to send messages through this "passive" network, given the right tools.

Clothing

This is a subject worthy of research, if you are interested in your own health and that of your family. My rather limited knowledge of this topic is really only that man made fabrics are often bad for the body. Most cheap clothing is made from plastics, essentially, meaning that when you wear this clothing, especially when you perspire, you absorb particles of plastic and toxins through your skin.

Again, we have natural alternatives, such as hemp and even bamboo can be used. Obviously cotton and wool also serve as a natural material, especially in colder climates and silk for warmer climates, although cost would be a factor.

I remember burning some old clothes when I lived in the "sticks" and being horrified at how the "fleeces" melted back into an oily plastic residue. In fact I watched a video recently about a guy that used ground up plastic waste, his sealed furnace turned the waste material back into crude oil and then he refined it into gasoline for his truck. Why this process isn't done on a much larger scale is proof of the system that we are locked into. It would make plastic scrap a valuable commodity and possibly steer us towards detoxifying our environment.

Location

Whilst most of us dream of a cabin in the woods, it's often out of our reach, to a degree at least. Naturally, we are "normalised" into a particular environment and any other situation is viewed through our rather limited perception.

With that in mind, we could still "survive" within a city, as many do, if that's what we are conditioned to do. I think a change to a quieter place would likely cause problems as change can be very difficult, unless it is properly thought through in the first place.

There are some that live in vans in the city, and keep a low profile is of upmost importance. With laws dictating that you (supposedly) can't sleep overnight in a vehicle, if you're locked in and quiet, you are simply "not there", and there's little that they can do about it. Access to the driving seat for a safe getaway is probably a good plan if things do become dangerous or life threatening.

I sold my last van to a young guy that worked in a restaurant in London. He parked it outside his Aunt's house initially. It was comfortable for him as it had heating and power, a big bed and a good cooking stove and sink. I often wonder if he is still living in it, some years later, or whether it was just a stepping stone towards finding cheaper accommodation elsewhere.

When living mobile prior to selling my van, I was extremely fortunate to be able to live at my place of work. Albeit, occasionally it was necessary to vacate for landlord visits for inspection of the site, but essentially I was left to my own devices, and it served as a layer of security for the company premises.

Indeed, security is especially important, whether in rural or urban areas. Similarly, when I was staying on an industrial estate years earlier, I had a visit from the local police asking me if I'd seen anyone opposite, as they'd had a break-in. I then proceeded to take their details and promised that I would call them if anything was witnessed. Provided you are courteous, they are generally helpful (at least in the UK). Whilst it's a grey area as to whether I was allowed to park there overnight, I could see no problem. If they had asked me to move I would have done so, but ultimately they had no reason to pursue that course of action. I often parked at a dead end and next to a space that was usually occupied overnight by a lorry driver, so mutually we offered each other a degree of security.

Some places in towns are suitable, for perhaps for 2-3 nights or more, you kind of have to weigh things up. If there's no through traffic, you are noticed less and are not likely to be seen as a problem. I did have 3 or 4 other places, 3 in more rural locations and 1 on the same estate.

Living in a flat or house, whilst you are limited somewhat, you can make a few changes, such as fitting a good filter with reverse osmosis, installing solar panels on the roof or a yard, or even window film alternatives might be available. Additionally, if you have sufficient rain, collection of the water for the toilet and some washing uses would save a great deal of money over time.

Similarly with living in a van, it may be possible to join a local community garden or allotment scheme, where you can grow your own food, perhaps selling produce to make a small income, just to recoup the basic costs of the use of said land. Knowing people with land that they don't put to good use could also be a way of accessing good organic food. Although some people may frown upon you living in a van, especially when they feel crippled by bills and taxes, but there are some that openly support such ideals. In fact whilst I was living with my partner, in the van on the estate, we became friendly with a local office worker, who then offered us a place to shower and do laundry. We already had our own "system" set up that we were used to, but it was nice to at least see a little kindness from a stranger.

Living rurally opens up many more options, with more readily available land that can be used for growing your food, and of course the occasional park up if you're mobile. I had one such house, sadly rented, it had a nice south facing piece of land below the level of the house, surrounded by a native forest, so whilst it was open it was also sheltered from the wind somewhat.

I managed to build a poly tunnel on the second level down, using 60mm blue water pipes fixed into the ground using short 3 foot scaffold tubes. The crop was mainly tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet corn and squash, as well as a couple of tobacco plants, mainly for experimentation more than anything. As a side note, tobacco makes for an excellent natural insecticide.

As it was fairly hidden from view, I managed to "terrace" the otherwise steep sloping ground, edged with large granite boulders, it became a little paradise for me at that time. The site also had a small stream running alongside it, which I was able to use as a water source for the plants, growing some strawberries using pots placed in waste pipes, with the water running below and then back into the stream. It wasn't very successful, as I spent most of the day in my shop and only had the weekends and evenings to make any adjustments, but I'm sure given the right amount of experimentation and time, it would have worked out well.

This was my last house in the UK and it preceded my start to living in a van, after my business failed. I then stayed in perhaps 6 different "park ups" in the area until the arrangement to park more permanently at my workplace was realised. Some of the locations were quite unique, such as an abandoned slate quarry, an atomic power station car park, a couple of isolated places in the forest close to rivers, and various laybys that were suitable for an overnight stay. My favourite, although on fairly open marshland, was about 3 miles from the main A-road and only about 4 miles from work, it afforded a full 360 degree viewpoint surrounded by mountains and forests. As my work included doing a certain amount of delivery driving all over the UK, I often found other parkups that would be deemed perfect for a short stay. Why van lifers insist on parking in tourist areas is beyond me, as these places are full of increasing restrictions.

Most people in the area have access to land, that would otherwise be used for sheep grazing. A practice that confounded me quite alot. The sheep, like wooly maggots, prevented much of the landscape ever returning back to it's natural state, although some pockets of land could be rented cheaply for other uses.

One such example was a 6 acre site that we rented for horses (at £20 per week!), this could also have been used for growing food. It had 3 levels, with a stream often flooding the lower access level, which was my first job, draining and improving the irrigation system in place.

If the desire is there to do something, it's amazing what opportunities there are for the taking. Obviously renting land isn't ideal, but it can pay for itself, especially when you work out the savings on healthy food, free of preservatives and chemicals, as well as a good dose of fresh air, exercise and a growing sense of purpose.

It can be said that there is a lot of uncertainty in the world currently, so all we can do is control as much of our reality as we can. Securing shelter and food supply should be at the forefront of our minds. Especially given that several big companies are taking over farm land, forcing farmers out of their livelihoods through agricultural "laws" and restrictive practices, it's falling on individuals to step up to the plate and either support them or take matters into their own hands and become growers again.

As the global war on fuel makes movement less and less sutainable, it's likely that van lifers will become part of the "commune" collective, already prevalent in the US, at least until the oil supply situation is resolved.