The Daily Toreador - Student Newspaper of Texas Tech

Issue date: 9/12/08 Section: La Vida

Media Credit: Kerry Lentz

Mother Nature just got a couple of new roommates.

In the eyes of two Texas Tech students, Blake Smith and Matt Thomas, apartments and dorm rooms are for suckers.

The pair opted to spend their final semester at Tech living off the beaten path in an alternative to urban abodes: a couple of tents, a dog house and a blue tarp.

For the past three weeks, the two students have been living with a dog in a field just outside of town in West Lubbock, where the three established a unique substitute to four walls and a roof.

They have no electricity or running water, but the setup seemed sufficient at keeping this week's rain at bay.

"We just wanted to do something different," said Thomas, a senior communication studies and philosophy major from Plano. "I wish we could say we were doing this for some sort of cause, but that wouldn't be true. I wish we could say we wanted to reduce our footprint, but that's not it."

Smith, a senior general studies major from Dallas, said their dwelling's net cost so far was $175, which was the price of a blue tarp that covers the encampment.

Amused by Smith's and Thomas' plans, a supportive friend donated a $750 wilderness tent in which the two sleep.

"It's like an outdoor dorm room," Smith said as he unzipped the tent, revealing two cots, a rug and a few plastic dressers, "but with less throw up."

During the tour, Ruger, Thomas' German Shepherd, went into the front yard and back as he pleased, eventually settling down in his igloo-shaped doghouse next to the tent.

The land on which they live is owned by a local anesthesiologist, Danny Hunter, who Smith said was skeptical at first, but after three visits from the students in as many days, eventually gave them the go-ahead to homestead.

"We went up to his door and said, 'We have a strange request,'" Smith said about their first attempt to persuade a man they had never met to let them set up camp on his land.

Smith and Thomas said they chose the location for its trees, which they said are necessary for blocking West Texas' wind, which Thomas said can get "out of control."

Hunter said he found the students' motives suspect, but eventually warmed up to the idea.

"You always wonder about people this day in age," he said, "but you also want to help out other people in any way you can. I thought it was strange, but I liked what they were trying to do."

Continued...

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