Day 1: The Birth of the SLP

The Subsistence Living Plan (SLP) is an effort by myself and Nate (another WT volunteer) to survive entirely off the land for one month. Although we've been discouraged by many naysayers, there's no better environment or time than here and now, unless you live on a farm.

The SLP began today (10/12) at 6:40am, right after a large breakfast of oatmeal laced with a healthy portion of peanut butter.

To give you a brief overview:

We can only consume what we, ourselves, hunt and gather for one full month. We can't buy anything to eat, be given food, or eat anything we prepared before today. Water will be taken from rain catchments scattered throughout the island. We will still be teaching every day, and so we have allowed some luxuries.

These luxuries include: refrigeration, pots/pans/utensils, and electricity.

As this first day is coming to an end, I have to admit it is already tougher than I thought. We attempted to fish, but the tide was too low once we got out to the reef -- so we went without protein for dinner tonight :(. I have faith this won't be a recurring theme though.

Also, all fishing "bait" must be something we make or catch, such as the hermit crabs we used today, or a makeshift fly tied from the radiant feathers of the chicken(s) we will attempt to catch tomorrow.

Today we harvested about 25 bananas and 7 coconuts. For dinner I boiled 3 of the bananas and drank some coconut water. The bananas here are much different from the Chiquitas back at home, but they are just as spectacular. We're waiting until half of the batch turns yellow, and half of the batch was boiled tonight. Tasted like a baked potato actually. Delicious and not nearly as bland as they look below...

If you would like a full list of our rules, to see more pictures and video, and hear what Nate has to say, also stay tuned to: http://subsistencelivingplan.blogspot.com/

Our blogs will be updated much more frequently during this next month. You will be updated here at least 3 times a week. If you've got any comments/suggestions/questions regarding the challenge, we'd love to hear them.

Cheers,

Ty