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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Sage, I just watched this movie about some people living on the mesa in NM, 
not just like what you describe, but certainly not mainstream. .  It is a 
documentary that won some indie awards earlier this year.  If you watch it, 
there is a button on the far right bottom hand side to make it full screen, 
it isn't youtube. It is about an hour with a few, intermittent 
advertisemnets. There is even a person named Sage  : -)

Here are descriptions:

"Twenty-Five miles from town, a million miles from mainstream society, a 
loose-knit community of eco-pioneers, teenage runaways, war veterans and 
drop-outs, live on the fringe and off the grid, struggling to survive with 
little food, less water and no electricity, as they cling to their unique 
vision of the American dream…"

"Look out the window while you’re driving through the rural American 
Southwest. You’ll see the stark beauty of the landscape, but what you won’t 
see is the underground community a few miles in the distance. They inhabit 
this stunning, yet unfriendly territory. The Mesa has no access to the 
electricity grid and it’s not patrolled by a police force. There is no 
official rule of law. However, many residents are extremely patriotic and 
believe in the basic tenants of the U.S. Constitution. 

This post-modern wild west is a haven for American Veterans suffering from 
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Gulf War Syndrome. Teenage runaways are 
also drawn here for the sense of anarchy, anonymity and freedom. Fueled by 
the growth and distribution of Marijuana, the Mesa has developed an 
underground economy all its own. But marijuana’s legal status has brought 
increasing government surveillance. A recent police raid solidified 
anti-government sentiment.

 Anti-establishment beliefs are tested when a group of rebel runaways called 
“the nowhere kids” begins to stockpile weapons and steal food from 
neighboring residents. The community is challenged to find common ground in 
order to protect themselves against this dangerous faction. Residents form a 
council, and hold a hearing to deal with the thieves. This self-imposed 
government is the very thing they have come to the Mesa to escape. " 


http://snagfilms.com/films/title/off_the_grid_life_on_the_mesa/









--- On Fri, 10/17/08, eureka AT hctc.net <eureka AT hctc.net> wrote:

> From: eureka AT hctc.net <eureka AT hctc.net>
> Subject: [Homestead] Primitive Technology Living
> To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Friday, October 17, 2008, 9:37 AM
> Once, about a decade ago, when traveling in New Mexico, a 
> friend set me up to meet and spend the day with a woman 
> who would teach me about their edible plants. I was 
> expecting to meet another botanist. I drove to a remote 
> wilderness location, and the woman met me there on foot. 
> She was only a few years older than me, thin, and covered 
> with spider bites.
> 
> I followed her down into the canyon where she was living 
> in a cave. It was actually more like a small grotto, where 
> she had dug out a grave shaped hole and filled it with 
> cattail fluff to sleep in. She had made her home here for 
> two decades and raised two "love" children, one
> grown and 
> gone, the other making his home somewhere up the next 
> creek. She had learned everything she knew from a rather 
> generic book on the edible plants of north America. The 
> only time she'd gotten sick was from ergot poisoning,
> and 
> that put her in the hospital. I did not ask how she got 
> there, imagining the woman crawling out of the canyon and 
> onto the highway for help. I spent an entire day
> "grazing" 
> with her, taking notes and photographs. At the days end we 
> got into a hot spring and a large snake slithered out 
> between our feet. By that point I felt so one with nature, 
> neither of us reacted and it went on its way. I often 
> wonder if I went back if she would still be there, if I 
> could find her.
> 
> There's a certain satisfaction when completing a 
> backpacking wilderness trek, but then I have some rather 
> high technology gadgets like a whisperlite stove, water 
> purifier, goretex jacket, mountain tent etc., but it 
> always feels so good to get back to the comforts of home. 
> I think of myself as the hardy, outdoor type, but I've 
> never started a fire from scratch or called a cave my 
> home. It would be an interesting experiment for those of 
> us with land to try it sometime for a while. I would 
> undoubtedly be covered in fire ant bites.
> 
> --Sage
> Way Out in Texas
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