In Amish and pre-civilised societies you are never on your own for that precise reason. The modern idea of going "off the grid" as a lone wolf only works when y

In Amish and pre-civilised societies you are never on your own for that precise reason. The modern idea of going "off the grid" as a lone wolf only works when you have the leverage of modern, post-Industrial Revolution tech to help you along. Remove that, and division of labour within a community becomes the only means to reliably produce something before you grow old. If specialised, time-consuming work needs to be done, two options come to mind: - several people rotating on shifts to donate some of their respective 4 spare hours to work on the long-term project - several people working to provide nutrition and heating for themselves as well as for one other designated person who's the local manufacturing expert, and who proceeds to dedicate all their time to the long-term project. > As for the camera - no way you'll get a functioning "modern" camera with optics and an aperture and everything. I would simply build a camera obscura and use my birch bark - the biggest technical challenge there is getting a totally dark "room", which could probably be done the simplest by making a dirt hut with a wooden front and a pinhole made of birch bark coated in ash. (The thinner the hole material, the better.) If you had people to trade with, and plenty of time, I suppose it would be possible (if difficult) to make a photosensitive plate that you could use with your pinhole. That I agree with. A bellows camera on a tripod is probably the closest thing one can make with basic tools that's not fixed in place.