Aaron Fletcher has been preparing for doomsday for 15 years. See how a nomadic shepherd thinks everyone will have to live in a post-apocalyptic world.
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00:00 Aaron Fletcher has been preparing for the end of the world for 15 years.
00:06 He chose to be homeless in his early 20s.
00:10 Now he lives in this wagon.
00:13 The whole thing is custom built to my body, to the very quarter inch of how tall this is.
00:19 And survives off sheep's milk.
00:22 Every 400 years, societies collapse.
00:26 Oh, that's good.
00:27 And we're overdue.
00:30 I spent three days with Aaron in rural Oregon,
00:34 documenting his attempt to live completely off grid.
00:38 Mmm.
00:39 Fresh sheep milk latte.
00:42 Very creamy.
00:44 Aaron says his sustainable solutions could help millions.
00:48 My entire life is a constant, ongoing experiment.
00:52 But is this way of life healthy?
00:56 Or has Aaron taken prepping too far?
01:00 Good sheep.
01:06 Yeah.
01:07 People walk their dogs through here all the time and stuff.
01:11 Mostly everything Aaron owns fits inside the cart he designed himself.
01:17 Yeah, bicycle wheels.
01:18 It's his bedroom.
01:20 Cover up.
01:21 His kitchen.
01:23 And his bathroom.
01:25 I literally sit right here and just poop into it.
01:28 And then what do you do with the bag?
01:29 And then throw it away.
01:30 In a garbage can?
01:31 Yeah.
01:32 Good sheep.
01:33 You hear her grunting?
01:35 That's her like a pig, like she's really happy right now.
01:38 Most of his diet comes from J.C.
01:41 Happy.
01:43 She's like a rebellious teenager.
01:46 Rosie.
01:47 Thank you, Rosie.
01:48 And the animal that pulls his cart.
01:50 Ramby man!
01:51 Yeah!
01:52 He knows his name.
01:53 He's just a big love bug.
01:55 Half gallon of sheep milk provides 2,100 calories.
01:59 So each sheep can feed three people.
02:02 He also turns their wool into clothing, using just his hands and a cardboard box to shape the felt.
02:09 One sheep fleece is enough to make a full hoodie.
02:12 And that hoodie is going to be thick and it'll last like five years at least.
02:17 The very smallest scraps that I have I use to make patches and to make toilet paper.
02:24 Sometimes Aaron hunts wild animals, like raccoons.
02:29 He cooks on this solar camping oven he bought online.
02:33 And they're a combination between a thermos and a greenhouse.
02:37 And I guess I'm going to be eating a raccoon for the next week.
02:41 I've eaten fox, raccoon, and coyote.
02:48 I hear paw from it's really good.
02:50 Today he's making ground lamb seasoned with foraged plants.
02:54 This is mugwort from right down the road.
02:56 And this is purslane.
02:59 The meat was a gift from a local farmer.
03:02 And he tops it all off with cheese aged on his wagon.
03:06 And it's probably the equivalent of a one year aged cheddar.
03:11 Aaron avoids using money.
03:13 Instead he works for local farmers in exchange for food or a safe place to park his wagon.
03:19 I'm advertising my main service which is farmhanding and farm sitting.
03:23 Go sheep, let's go.
03:25 Chick, chick, chick, chickens. They love fresh water.
03:28 Today he's cleaning out the chicken coop.
03:32 This is the type of job that farms and farmers really don't like to have to do.
03:38 Open up and close the greenhouse daily.
03:43 That's pretty much all I have to do in exchange for staying out here.
03:47 And it takes forever.
03:49 He uses YouTube to share his message with others.
03:52 Thank you to all my new supporters.
03:54 And his channel has started to generate a small but steady income.
03:59 I would like for people to take away from this footage that there is an alternative way.
04:05 There's a more purposeful job for you that has much more time available and much more peace.
04:12 And it's outside the artificial economies, cities.
04:17 When I'm editing I edit with just iMovie.
04:21 One handed. I edit entirely one handed with this thing.
04:24 Solar panels allow Aaron to charge his devices on the go.
04:28 This is a 150 watt A10 power solar panel.
04:31 This is my 500 watt hour battery that my subscriber sent me.
04:36 And for things like his portable freezer.
04:38 I've got them plugged into my friend's outlet here.
04:41 Aaron's latest idea is turning his sheep's milk into ice cream popsicles.
04:46 That's interesting. I put sea salt in it too.
04:53 He's headed into town to give out free samples.
04:57 People pay $5 a piece for like Haagen-Dazs.
05:00 I don't know. I just feel bad about trying to charge money for s***.
05:03 In this part of Oregon, temperatures can drop below freezing in winter and top 110 degrees Fahrenheit in summer.
05:11 That bird's cooler effect.
05:13 Since sheep don't sweat, you gotta add the sweat to them.
05:17 Once Aaron gets within city limits, it's time to whip out another piece of gear.
05:22 I'm gonna pull over right here and put their poop cups on and give them a drink real quick.
05:27 I forgot to put on their poop cups.
05:29 Why do you have to do this?
05:31 I don't have to. I just want to keep it sidewalk sanitary and not give anyone reason to vilify what we're doing.
05:37 Perfect.
05:39 Oh my gosh! Have you tried this?
05:48 That one is nothing but my sheep's milk and pear syrup that I harvested from the cut down pear trees on Foss.
05:55 It's so hard to find someone who's so open.
06:00 It makes delicious ice cream.
06:04 You want it hard or on the side?
06:06 Oh yes! Oh I'm so happy!
06:10 Okay, well if you want to try both.
06:12 Sure, thank you so much.
06:13 But Aaron's relationships with locals aren't always friendly.
06:17 He's not a very nice person. He's really aggressive.
06:21 He's always throwing tantrums and fits. He's just aggro. I avoid him. I don't know.
06:27 Aaron used to live in Ashland, Oregon.
06:30 At some point, Aaron says the local police started ticketing him for walking his animals in public parks.
06:36 I'm gonna write you a ticket.
06:38 I'm not taking the ticket.
06:39 You can do whatever you want.
06:40 No, I'm not taking the ticket.
06:41 That's fine.
06:42 Eventually, the Ashland City Council passed a law requiring special permits to bring any livestock, except horses, into town.
06:50 So if Aaron Fletcher gets a horse, he's gonna be able to walk it all over town.
06:55 That's how Aaron ended up in Talon, which is surrounded by orchards.
06:59 He built relationships with several property owners who let him stay for free.
07:04 Yeah, it's a sushi.
07:07 But just as he was getting settled, his lifestyle was put to the test in 2020.
07:13 Oh my God.
07:15 Our place is on fire.
07:17 That September, the Almeda Fire blazed through Ashland and leveled Talon's downtown.
07:24 It's in our frickin' orchard now. Come on.
07:26 And I'm making better speed than these cars trying to evacuate.
07:31 Jeep, come on.
07:34 That was really scary.
07:37 Really scary.
07:39 And if I hadn't gotten out right then, then I would have been trapped.
07:42 Like, our exit would have been engulfed in flames and we wouldn't have been able to get out.
07:47 By the summer of 2022, much of Talon's commercial center remained empty.
07:53 Many here still live in a trailer park built by the government that was meant to be a temporary housing solution.
08:00 Aaron says his way of life can offer ideas to people struggling to find a home.
08:06 And those people that are in RVs could be happier, healthier, and have more purpose
08:11 if they had a connection with the local small farmers that need their help right now.
08:17 Aaron doesn't talk about his past much, but he didn't always live like this.
08:22 Oh yeah, I was raised like everyone else on soda pop and cereal.
08:26 He left his parents' home in Kansas City when he was a teenager.
08:29 Yeah, I thought that crap was going to hit the fan back 15 years ago when I voluntarily went homeless first.
08:36 I thought it was going to happen within weeks or months.
08:41 And yeah, here it is, 15 years later or so.
08:45 At first, he hopped trains with his dog, Sam.
08:49 Come on.
08:53 And he used to dumpster dive for food.
08:56 I dumped 24 cases of unexpired hummus and six eggs.
09:03 About 10 years ago, he got more serious about sustainability.
09:07 He adopted goats, then sheep, and started trying to get all his food from local sources.
09:15 Aaron has been getting by with his way of living for years now, but I wanted to know how it's affecting his health.
09:22 So we hired a local doctor to come give him a checkup.
09:25 Hi, Dr. Duncan.
09:26 McLean Duncan runs Siskiyou Vital Medicine.
09:29 Your oxygen saturation is at 99%, which is perfect.
09:33 So now we're going to take your blood pressure.
09:36 Good. So I got 120 over 80.
09:38 Okay, I'm going to go a little bit deeper.
09:40 Okay.
09:42 He's gurgled.
09:43 Nice.
09:44 I'm taking six vials.
09:46 Holy sh--, why?
09:48 Well, because we're testing a lot of things on you.
09:51 Oh my God. You shouldn't have told me that.
09:53 You got a blanket or something we can lay down?
09:55 Yeah, where's the--?
09:56 Here, let's lay your jacket down and then have you lay down.
10:00 Yep.
10:01 There you go.
10:03 Come here, buddy. Come on.
10:05 One, two, three. There we go.
10:08 Kick his feet up. This is going to go out. There you go.
10:12 There you go, dude.
10:15 There you go, buddy.
10:18 That's all right.
10:19 Oh, wow.
10:20 There you go.
10:21 That passed out, huh?
10:22 Interesting.
10:23 That's a lot of blood, man.
10:24 Wow, interesting. I had a dream.
10:26 What dream did you have?
10:28 I don't know.
10:29 I feel pretty good about Aaron.
10:31 All exams are pretty normal.
10:33 Great vitals. He's got great-looking skin.
10:37 You know, he's a little bit thin on the body fat, but seems pretty good.
10:41 But we'll find out more in the labs.
10:50 We reviewed Aaron's blood tests.
10:52 Aside from lightly elevated cholesterol, probably because of all that milk and cheese,
10:56 he has no major health issues.
11:00 Aaron is not completely self-sufficient.
11:03 I have episodes on me going to the food bank in town.
11:06 Any food that I consume from the artificial economy,
11:09 I use it as fuel to then refocus on seeking out these weaning ways.
11:15 Shortly after we filmed with Aaron, Rosie passed away from bloat,
11:19 a common cause of death for livestock.
11:22 But then, Happy had two lambs.
11:25 Good boy.
11:27 And in a new experiment, Aaron raised money from his subscribers to buy a donkey
11:36 that would help him travel longer distances.
11:38 This is Faith, Faith the donkey-do.
11:42 So far, he's had mixed results.
11:44 The donkey caused a major crash that he caught on his cell phone camera.
11:49 No, no, no!
11:52 Oh my gosh.
11:55 I'm so lucky to be alive.
11:58 So lucky everyone else is still alive.
12:00 So lucky they didn't involve traffic.
12:03 Aaron Fletcher has sacrificed a lot since he decided to strive to become self-sufficient.
12:09 But he truly believes that this is the best way he can serve others.
12:14 That's all I can do is to try to better all of our hope for the future.
12:21 And to have help getting that hope out is even more hope.
12:26 Has anybody ever called you crazy?
12:28 Yeah.
12:30 Are you crazy?
12:35 Everyone's a little crazy.
12:38 But no one's--it's no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
12:46 And I'm obviously the least adjusted.
12:49 So I would say that I'm the least crazy of anyone that I know.
12:53 I have faith that this will become useful enough for enough people that it will have been worth my time.
13:07 I don't know if I'll ever see it. I don't really care.
13:09 If I see it, I'm just grateful that I'm doing something that's more purposeful than what I wasn't doing before.
13:21 Yeah.
13:24 [Music]