Wizard's Log - September 17th 2026 by @cahlen on 3Speak
I'm visiting a potential new long-term Garden Hermit location where I hope to grow large amounts of food next year. But first I must survive their famously difficult Winters while living outdoors. ...
Tags: #life #lifestyle #blog #minimalisms #outdoors #camping #survival
Hey everyone, Callan here, and I want to give a little update on what's going on in my life. So the last several years, I've been living in a town where my goal was to make connections, start growing food, and organizing the growth of food in the community on other people's property. And I've basically been working on that, and it was going really well. I had lots of people that I could do work for if I needed. money and I was growing my own food and also working on other people's farms helping them grow their own food in trade for 50% of what was grown right so basically I was going where I wanted to go but I realized that where I was that when things got bad that because of the population of the area that I would be pushed out, right? Basically, I would not be, I would be seen as an outsider and someone who would not be allowed to stay, and that would be best case scenario, actually, what would be more reasonably likely would be that I would be taken out, okay? And so everything that I would have built, in the very least, would be taken away from me, and, you know, in the worst case scenario, I would not survive the situation. And so the whole point of building up a, you know, community of people growing food is so that we can survive hard situations. So if that other problem is there and there's nothing I can do about it, then basically wasting my time in that community. Got a little rooster friend here. Oh, not a rooster, that's a turkey. So, anyways, once I kind of realized that, kind of... kind of consequently, coincidentally at the same time, I got an offer from someone who was watching my videos to come check out their place as a potential garden hermit location and they have several acres of land which has good dirt, it's been all set up, it can be irrigated, and it hasn't been farmed before because the people who had the property before basically left before they, you know, the year before they were going to start farming, they were preparing for years, but then they never actually grew. So, anyways, it's like a perfect location to grow a lot of food, and also it's in the small farming town where, you know, lots of people are already farming, there's CSAs, and so it's perfect for what I'm trying to do, and also the population... What I was described before, that's like 0 % of a chance of a problem, okay? It's really about as good as it gets the opposite direction. So anyways, I came up here, I did a bunch of camping with my friend, and he brought me up here to meet these people, and they're really awesome people. They took me around the community to meet a few other people, and they're really awesome, and also... You know, some of the people I've met, like the people that I'm staying with, and also someone else who came over to visit, and, like, they're not just, like, good people, but they're also, like, very aware of what's going on in the world and very aware of how we need to prepare for it, okay? So I'm talking about, like... you know, like Jeff Berwick, the type of stuff Jeff Berwick and Max Egan are always talking about, but also the type of stuff that, like, Ben Davidson is always talking about, like, potential large-scale calculus and being prepared to survive for these things. So these are the type of people that I'm connecting with here, and so, you know, it just feels right. So, I would say it's extremely likely that I'm going to stay here. One of the issues with that is that here gets quite a bit colder than where I was before when I was living outside all year round for three years. It got down to about negative 10, negative 15, Fahrenheit, you know, so I survived that. Here, it doesn't always do this. In fact, it doesn't always get as cold as what I just said, this is the last place I get, but it can get. And, you know, I'd say every few years it will get down to, like, negative 40 Fahrenheit, okay? So, anyways, it's pretty cold. So, you know, I see that as kind of like a fun challenge to try and see if I can survive that. But the nice thing is that if it gets bad enough, that the place where I'm staying, they're happy to have me, you know, come inside and not die. That's good. So anyways, another... thing about my situation is I kind of overextended myself getting up here. Like, gas is what I didn't realize. I haven't driven in years, so I didn't really realize how expensive it was and how much it would cost to get up here. But I kind of overextended myself. And at this point, I'm basically sitting on about $100 cash and about $200 in Bitcoin thanks to you guys' donations. And so it's a little bit... Nervracking. But, you know, okay, so the Bitcoin, basically my plan is to buy 25 pound bag of oats, which you can get for about 80 bucks. Then I need a hat because I left my hat in the car, the guy who drove me up here. Bye hat. You might send it back to me, but I need a hat right now, you know what I mean? I'm gonna get some raisins. Raisins also, so oats and raisins, even organic, are really among the cheapest foods you can buy in terms of cost, right? They're like, they're like 20 cents an ounce, which is really low. I mean, it's hard to find any food that's cheaper than except like minute rice or something like that, okay. So basically, 25 pound bags of a bag of oats, a bunch of raisins. You know, that'll get me through a few months, probably two months, is my guess, okay? So what I have to do is get through the winter, and at that point, then I will be able to start finding work because everything's going to get busy around here. Right now, everything's kind of ramping down. Everyone's like, you know, harvesting their crops and, you know... getting mentally prepared for winter setting in, where not much is going to be going on around here. And so I basically have to survive that, okay? So, there's a few months, probably two months where I'm looking for work, or I'm going to be looking for work or people might need some help, but, you know, new guy in town, you know, you kind of have to get over the hump of making connections. And in my last town, it took me several years to get the clients that I had, so. Anyways, it can take a little bit to be established in a new place. But this is a place that I feel really good about setting roots down in. So anyways, the other thing, I need to get, I kind of, this is probably obvious to everyone, but I kind of realize that people feel weird when they see a guy walking through town, and he's dressed all in black. Like, for me, it's just like, oh, this is just the color that people wear. But, you know, especially you've never seen this person, they're new to town. So I'm going to buy like a $30 flannel shirt, you know, to kind of blend in a little bit more. So anyways, that's my plan. If you guys want to help with that, like, basically, cryptocurrency Bitcoin or Monero, if you go to callan.org slash gift, I can get pretty much anything that I need. And I'm going to go back to, because so many people don't use crypto. I just use crypto pretty much to buy things from Amazon. I stopped listing Amazon gift cards as an option for people who just use dollars, but I'm going to put that back up there for now because that's basically what I need help with. So if you just have US dollars and you want to help, you don't want to do the crypto thing. Perfectly happy, very happy, in fact, you get Amazon gift cards right now because, you know, like I said, that's what I need to basically survive this winter. in preparation for the next year where I'm going to be planning this big field and hopefully finding a bunch of work. And also, in the winter, I've already picked out when I'm going to be growing in this field. So I'm thinking I'm going to do, I don't remember the names of all of them, but I remember it's, I think, colored mountain corn. It grows quickly, and it's got all these nice colors, and you can handle kind of colder areas. Then there's another, there's like a pole bean. I can't remember the name. and then I'm gonna probably plant butternut, okay? So I'll do the three sisters, corn, whole beans to climb the corn, and then squash to kind of fill out the spaces and shade the soil so that it, you know, retains its moisture. So that's what I'm gonna focus on growing a large amount of. At first, to basically feed, you know, the people I care about, you know, my friends. And then, you know, maybe... at some point selling it in the community. We'll see what happens. But that part's not really, that part's not really that important to me, but, you know, it's more about making sure everyone has food. But if we've got access and people want it, then it might be good to find a place to actually sell it. So that's another thing that I need to, like, save up for, get funds for, is because it's a big field. I need a lot of seed, you know, I need, like... dozens of pounds of seeds, just corn, you know. So, you know, that could be several hundred dollars to get that. Anyways. So in other news, someone kind of challenged me, like, you should probably take a break from the plasma machine and see if there's, like, withdrawal symptoms. And I thought that was a good idea, because at the beginning, I was a little bit concerned about that, because it did seem like it made you feel really good. to the point where I thought about it a lot, and I did it at least two to three times a day. And so it's like, oh, this sounds a little bit like, you know, a substance abuse addiction. And then someone else said, you know, you should take a few days off and just see what happens. So it's been like two weeks or two and a half weeks since I've used the machine. Actually, so the place I am, they have a machine, so I use that a couple days ago just for five minutes. But basically, I don't... I haven't noticed any negative symptoms from not using it, okay? I mean, basically I was a little bit, you know, tired, I would say, when I was doing the camping, but that's because we went up, it could be because we went up to like 10,000 feet, and I was used to about 6,000 feet. So, you know, and also, by the way, when I was talking to you about the water video where I said you should do what I'm recommending, not what I actually do, which is like, with chlorine dioxide, I'll clean the water for like 10 to 20 minutes with chlorine dioxide when you should clean it for 4 to 6 hours. So I said, we'll see if I get sick. I did. I got a little bit of, like, loose stools and gurgling in my stomach for a couple of days. I wanted to let you know. that basically I was going through my bag and I had this little vial of methylene blue which just rolled out in front of me. I'm like, oh, methylene blue helps with parasites and stuff like that. And so I put some of my water, I drank it, and like 15 minutes later, my stomach stopped doing all of that, and I was basically instantly fine, right? No more problems at all after I drank, one bottle. of water with methyl in it anyway, so that's something that you guys probably want to know about. So anyways, back to the plasma machine withdrawal symptoms, which are non-existent. I feel fine energetically, and like the one thing I was worried about, maybe my shoulder wish it healed, which nothing else healed and would have needed surgery to heal, and that probably wouldn't even have fixed it. The plasma machine fixed it extremely quickly, and it's... it's not back, it's perfectly fine, right? It's as good as it was back when I was using the plasma machine. So I just want to let you guys know, there's no withdrawal symptoms, and the effects seem to be permanent, at least if you're losing it rightly. Like, I think I told you about the ballerina who had injured and had surgery on her ankle, and she would use it, and she would be able to walk better. but she would only use it about once a week when she came over to this person's place, and basically it would go back to the way it was by the time she came back, okay? So it seems like you do have to kind of keep it up, but at least in my case, after I kept it up for a while, it's now a permanent fix, so. Oh yeah, so another thing I was thinking about getting this thing, you know, I lived under this poncho, or, you know, the same model of poncho, for three years. and it held up and it was fine, even wind, snow, all that type of stuff. But I think I want to get the bigger version of this. So this is, this is a Helicon Text poncho. They make a Helicon Text Super Tarp, which is 10 by 10, which is significantly bigger, which means that you can actually get totally under it and protect it from the rain, even when it's blowing sideways. That's not the case with this thing, so. That's about $80, so that's a thing that, you know, I hope to get, and then requesting help with. So anyways, I'll keep making videos. I'm having fun making videos, and I'll probably show you the gardening process. I've got some preparation, work that I need to do. There's, like I said, there's the irrigation system, which is, like, amazing. It can basically run constantly for six months out of the year. unlike where I was before, where I only ran two days a week, and everyone was a little nervous if there was going to be enough water. But I basically, on this property, it hasn't been run out to the field for a long time, and we don't really even know how it's going to sit on the field and how it's going to flow on the field. And I want to start prepping the field before it gets cold, so it is ready for when I need to plant next year, once it starts warming up. So I need to run that, and basically there's a bunch of elm trees growing in it, so I have to... I'm going to be chopping those down. That's what I'm going to be focused on probably for the next week or so, is getting to that point. Once I can run the water, then I'll check the field, work on the field. And also, there's a tractor on this property, which the person basically said I'm welcome to use whenever I want. It was pretty cool. They showed me how to use it yesterday, and it's a little bit, you know, it's a little bit nerve-wracking because I don't want to break anything. It's not my stuff, you know, I want to be careful, but I've always wanted to work, you know, on a tractor. You know, I kind of feel like I'm, like, I always kind of wanted to be a farmer, so I'm kind of now getting to where I want to be, so I'm excited about it, but a little bit nervous about my tenuous situation. So, anyways, I've rambled all long enough. That's what's going on with me. Thanks for watching.