Former British punk rocker Lynx Vilden has swapped a modern lifestyle for one that resembles something from the stone age. Born in London, she now resides in the wilderness in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. She purchased a wooden cabin and five acres of land and is happy living her back-to-basics lifestyle.
We get letters now and then here at Outdoor revival HQ, asking us how to go about moving into the wilderness and making it home, it’s a hard one to answer for people because everyone is different. That’s one of the reasons this is such a good story, Lynx proves it’s doable, you’ve just got to want it enough.
After living an abusive and unhealthy lifestyle for many years in Amsterdam, she realized she had to clean up. With the support of family in Sweden, she decided to return and spend time living in the forest there.
It was a healing and nurturing experience for her, and she felt she had found her niche in life. She then went to America to travel the wilderness areas. While there she was able to attend a survival school. Here she learned how to make a fire, hunt, and build her own tools.
This is when she decided to turn her back on the modern world and live without modern conveniences. She pledged herself to the earth, vowing to protect it and live a low impact life.
She has now spent 25 years of her life living in remote areas and has eventually settled down in the North Cascades. Her wood cabin does have solar electricity, a wood-burning stove, and a satellite dish for a telephone connection, so she hasn’t given up all modern conveniences as yet.
She prefers to sleep in the “earth lodge” she made herself rather than in the cabin. Over time she has made herself a wooden store room for safe storage of wood and food over the winter months, when she may not be able to get out and about so much. For a fridge in winter, she has simply dug a hole in the snow.
Washing and drinking water comes from a nearby river and, in winter, from melted-down snow. One bathroom luxury she has allowed herself is a primitive hot tub made from a large tin drum and heated by an open fire. Nothing is better than sitting under the stars at night surrounded by snow-covered trees.
For clothes and shoes, she makes her own from the hides she collects from the animals she kills for food. She has also created a lovely fur-lined sleeping bag from those hides, which keeps her nice and toasty.
Even though it is very much off the grid, she still makes a small income of about $10,000 a year. Money from her business, http://www.lynxvilden.com where she trains students in survival skills. Much of her income goes to looking after the four horses, without which she wouldn’t be able to live so sustainably or be able to travel through the snow so well. She admits to getting lonely from time to time now that her daughter has moved away. One day she hopes she will find someone who will share her passion.
Lynx Vilden, an amazing woman.
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We live in a beautiful world, get out there and enjoy it.
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