Another serious answer...
When I was a child, as I have mentioned here before, I more or less grew up in the Adirondack Mountains. I say more or less because during the week we lived in the city, but every weekend and every summer was spent in the mountains, so I consider that to be my home.

One book that I read that had tremendous impact on me was "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George.

The storyline is that Sam Gribley was a child living in the city with his parents, and had heard about how his family owned land in the Catskill Mountains but never went there. Sam decided to run away from home and go there to live off the land on his own terms- and does so successfully. He describes how he made his own shelters, then how he made a home inside an old hemlock tree and lived there for a year, living on meat taken from a deer shot by a careless hunter who lost track of his game and on acorns and cattails and ferns- a lot of native species that I was very familiar with.

I connected with this book on a very deep level- after all, where I was living had a lot of the same features that Sam's woods had, including the Elmer Fudds that blew away deer for fun.

While I never ran off to live in the woods, I did try out some of the things outlined in that book, and learned much about woodcraft and about the animals I was sharing my home with. It helped make me far more aware of my environment, and gave me faith that if I needed to I could fend for myself in the woods- maybe a little more conventionally than he did as I would prefer to make a structure than to hollow out an old tree, but I could still do it.

One day I will own a chunk of mountain land, probably in West Virginia. At that point I will start making my own shelter out of native materials, at least as much as I can, and try to work with the land instead of against it. I'll still have my place in the city, mind you, but whenever I can I'll become Sam Gribley for a weekend...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 16 May 2008, 14:25, 5 replies)

yes!
I was given this book as a leaving present from my school in Boston, when I had to move back to the UK! Great stuff.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Fri 16 May 2008, 14:29, closed)

Click
I love nothing more than getting out of the city into forest, and once a year a rainforest.

There is something about being completely alone, but, being so close to nature that recharges me.

I am jealous that you were brought up in such beatiful surroundings

click
( KISS.ME.WHERE.I.POO Signed the sex offenders register on, Fri 16 May 2008, 14:32, closed)

Want to see it for yourself?
Here is a live webcam that shows the area where I grew up. See that lake down there? My parents' house is on that lake. I've sailed that lake in a Sunfish countless times, paddled a canoe back into its swamps more times than I can remember, have gone cross-country skiing on it and have sat at its shore for more hours than I like to think about.

Now you can see what I was talking about in last week's posting about wanting to save it and feeling heartbroken that I can't.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 16 May 2008, 14:40, closed)

Loosely equivalent.
I grew up in North East England in the 80s. During that time, all of the major industries (ship building & coal mining mainly) were reaching the end of a very steep decline to their eventual demise. Unemployment was huge and the city centres were in a serious state of disrepair.

I therefore had a similar experience to yours when I first read 'Stig of the Dump'.
(Greencloud Wanted to go fishing on, Fri 16 May 2008, 14:42, closed)

I used to love those survival type novels as a lad
Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat, The Coral Island by RM Ballantyne etc etc
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 16 May 2008, 14:53, closed)