Living Like a Hobbit. Small House, Travel & Adventures
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 09. 2.06
Lynette Chiang is an Customer Evangelist for Bike Friday. She rides about the planet, telling people to get on their bike, preferably bearing a name that reminds one of the weekend. A career that started when she set off to see the world on two wheels and discovered that “my 'weird' Bike Friday brought precisely the kinds of people I wanted more of in my life: people who zag when others zig. Which brings us to Dan Price. A true zagger, if ever there was one. Dan lives in a 8 foot (2.44m) round subterranean hobbit hole. Seems a strange place for a Utne Award Winner, father or two, and photojournalist, to hang out, but Dan reckons most people are slaves to their work. And after authoring the handwritten book Radical Simplicity (which we reviewed here), Dan has come to some simple conclusions: “Basically, the average person spends a ton of their time working for very little money, just to survive. I spend a very little of my time working for enough money to not just survive, but do what I love - draw and travel.” He goes on, 'I've worked out it you can live on around $5000 a year. All you need is a piece of land, and a source of fresh water, and you can make a life.' Read much more about his unique life, and his hobbit house, in the engaging and whimsical story Lynette wrote for her ::galfromdownunder blog.
Heh, this guy seems to be the Thoreau of our times. Great respect for your way of living. "Why favor one kind of freedom over another?" :-)
"All you need is a piece of land..."
Well I can stop you right there...
I agree with many of Dan's beliefs. I think too many people have taken the motto of Work to Live to such an extreme that their lives end up reflecting the motto of Live to Work. People can structure their lives in different ways than those currently accepted as normal in the first world. In ways that make it possible to live a life that requires little to no income and frees an individual to do those things in life that he or she really wants to be doing. Dan seems to found one such alternative lifestyle that enables him to have the necessary freedom for him to live the life he wants to live. I could not live the way he does; nevertheless, he can and that is what matters. I consider that I too am living an alternative lifestyle that enables me to have the freedom to be me. I live off-grid in the countryside, and my yearly fixed expenses are around 6000 euros a year - but that is for me and my wife and eight dogs. And this with a relatively 'normal' 110 m2 house that has water, electricity, heating, etc. from renewable onsite resources. I still have to finish a number of things on my land to become truly self-sufficient, such as setting up a greenhouse and organic garden, biogas digester, and some other odds and ends. There are any number of alternative lifestyles that give people much greater freedom, and I believe for many much greater happiness, than what is usually considered 'normal'. Lifestyles which are better on your health, your mind, your pocketbook, the environment, and society in general. And you don't have to live in the countryside to have such an alternative lifestyle. You can lead variations of such in the city or suburbs or in a boat or, like Mongolian nomads, in a travelling yurt. The only limits are the ones placed by the mind.
I'm glad to see Dan is still doing interesting things in his life. I subscribed to his wonderful Moonlight Chronicles way back in the early 90s. He's an inspirational and sensitive guy.
And for Adam, who said:
"All you need is a piece of land..." Well I can stop you right there...
Are you suggesting that's difficult? Maybe, but note that Dan is renting his plot of land for $100/year.
Do his two kids live with him? I'm sure we won't hear about them shooting into crowds from a clocktower... BAM "Thanks dad!"
boy, this has been a secret fantasy of mine for more of my wage-slave years than I can count.
nice to see someone living the dream...maybe it's time for me to start shopping for that plot of land.
Warren,
Imagine my surprise and delight at seeing my little spiel on Dan's world on the fabulous Treehugger site. Wow! I'll post a clip of my 'tour' of his house in the next few days ... it involved swiveling around on my butt 270 degrees. A wonderful space. Actually I stumbled on your article while drooling over your Prefab house section, with all its groovy but somewhat stratospheric prices (more groovy = more moolah). And it reminded me that, hey, why not just dig an elegant hole like Dan ... which I will investigate on my little postage-stamp-sized sized lot in Hawaii ... www.galfromdownunder.com/hawaii-lot. I will be visiting Oz Dec 06-Mar 07 with my folding bike, so contact me via email if you want to meet for an interview and a ride - you'd be a great person to interview for the Bike Friday website - as 99% sustainability is that little company's biggest mission now - which is very good to see from a manufacturer in the U.S of A ...
Cheers, incredible site, but you know that.
The Galfromdownunder
It is good to see somebody making it work. We (My wife, four children and I) have decided to sell everything and buy 10 acres on the side of a mountain (more like a big hill). An attempt to get away from the slavery of the wage and become more indepedent. Before this world implodes on itself. Although, cheating initially by living in an American RV, we should be fairly well setup by the middle of next year.
wow, great to read comments from all of you treehugger fans. one thing I'd like to say is that the move to the meadow in 1991 was scary but ended up being the most important thing I have ever done. with each thing i let go of, great gifts were sent my way. the trick may simply be to have the faith to make that first leap. A friend recently wrote and said it takes years to untangle a complicated life. This is very true. He is outfitting his sailboat and will embark on a world tour to go find the best surf spots, after a long career straightening kids teeth! It all boils down to CHOICES. hobo
I think these are wonderfull style of housing here is a link to a similar type of dwelling that i think is just brilliant,http://www.simondale.net/house/