I've wanted to write a screenplay about an ornamental hermit ever since I came across this very article last year.
Garden Hermit
21–27 of 27 posts
Re: Garden Hermit
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but as discussed the Garden Hermit gets a stipend or other support from the land owner, possibly in exchange for some kind of service. I could go buy nigh-useless land in Wyoming for a pittance, but there's a reason it's a pittance: it's probably unusable for agriculture, has little or no access to potable water, has no reasonable access to any infrastructure of any kind, etc. Basically, a much much more diffic…
Is the rainfall there reasonable enough that you could collect what you needed to filter/drink and wash without being too wasteful? Are there large gas bottle deliveries that could handle heating and cooking? The hermitic relationship removes risk for the hermit buying remote land, I guess. Saves you being caught with somewhere that turns out to be a dud.
You are talking about homesteading [0] which is in some ways similar to being a "Garden Hermit".
I think these similarities are mostly superficial. The key difference being up-front cost, sustenance (food/water/shelter), and expenses.
A hermit (as described/imagined here) on someone else's property would focus solely on gardening and basic maintenance while enjoying the luxury of not paying for landscapers, electricians, builders, plumbers, etc (and enjoy the time spent not doing all of those jobs themself).
Re: Garden Hermit
#23Finally, my answer to "If there were no computers, what would you do for a living?"
Re: Garden Hermit
#24Hermit-in-residence doesn't sound so terribly different from artist-in-residence or writer-in-residence.
It seems like more of a framing issue, "garden hermit" feels like an eccentric ostentation, writer-in-residence feels like philanthropic patronage
Re: Garden Hermit
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but as discussed the Garden Hermit gets a stipend or other support from the land owner, possibly in exchange for some kind of service. I could go buy nigh-useless land in Wyoming for a pittance, but there's a reason it's a pittance: it's probably unusable for agriculture, has little or no access to potable water, has no reasonable access to any infrastructure of any kind, etc. Basically, a much much more diffic…
Is the rainfall there reasonable enough that you could collect what you needed to filter/drink and wash without being too wasteful? Are there large gas bottle deliveries that could handle heating and cooking? The hermitic relationship removes risk for the hermit buying remote land, I guess. Saves you being caught with somewhere that turns out to be a dud.
Sounds a lot like the modern variant of Walden: https://obscuredinosaurfacts.com/blog/post/2021/06/30/walden...
Henry David Thoreau would somewhat comically fit in as a particular modern day silicon valley archetype.
“I told him, that as he worked so hard at bogging, he required thick boots and stout clothing, which yet were soon soiled and worn out, but I wore light shoes and thin clothing, which cost not half so much…and in an hour or two, without labor, but as a recreation, I could, if I wished, catch as many fish as I should want for two days, or earn enough money to support me a week. If he and his family would live simply, they might all go a-huckleberrying in the summer for their amusement. John heaved a sigh at this.”
Re: Garden Hermit
#26This is amazing. I don't know whether I want one, or want to be one. As an occupation for retired gentlemen, I think it would be very appealing. We sort of had one growing up, where the family had some land in the country and my parents let a very eccentric man live in a rennovated hippie school bus parked on it, and eventually he built a network of little huts that were each beneath the area threshold where a buildi…
I wouldn't wait for retirement, I'd do it right now. Sadly I didn't grow up in an economic class where I just happen to know people with large amounts of land.
> Sadly I didn't grow up in an economic class where I just happen to know people with large amounts of land.
Rich city person?
The hermits in these stories advertised in the paper. Do what they did, they were not acquaintances with the owners.
Can you type with long finger nails?
"Mr. Hamilton agreed to pay his hermit £700 provided he lived in the hermitage seven years. His only equipment during this period must be a Bible, optical glasses, a mat for his feet, a has sock for his pillow and an hourglass to tell the time.
In addition, he had to wear a camlet robe and never under any circumstances cut his hair, beard or nails, stray from the grounds or speak to anyone."
Re: Garden Hermit
#27The modern version of this must be Twitch.
i feel this so true