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