David Michael Oehler was born in Chicago on January 2, 1938, the son of Polly and Chet Oehler.^[1] He grew up in nearby Wilmette and had three sisters named Patricia, Gretchen, and Sioux.^[1] He graduated from New Trier High School but dropped out of college to pursue his writing career, then served in the U.S. Army before working on fishing boats.^[1] He then worked in gold mines in Alaska, joined the U.S. Forest Service, cruised around Mexico, and finally ended up in San Francisco, where he embraced the hippy movement and lifestyle.^[1]

Oehler partook in the 1960s back-to-the-land movement. He lived on a 40-acre homestead in the Idaho mountains. He wrote numerous books and appeared as a university lecturer, as well as a TV and radio guest, on topics related to self-sufficiency and housing.^[2][3]

In 1998, Oehler appeared in an episode of Louis Theroux's BBC documentary series Weird Weekends, in which Theroux visited Oehler's underground home in the mountains.^[4] Later that year, he appeared in the follow-up special episode "Weird Christmas", in which he and three others who had appeared in their own episodes (a Christian fundamentalist, a porn star, and a ufologist) met up with Theroux in New York and engaged in various activities. The episode saw Oehler being taken by Theroux to a recording studio, where he recorded a song under the stage name of Mountain Mike.^[5]

On February 2, 2016, at the age of 78, Oehler died of natural causes at his home near Bonners Ferry in Boundary County, Idaho.^[1]

• 1981: One Mexican Sunday (ISBN 978-0960446414)
• 1982: The $50 Dollars and Up Underground House Book (ISBN 978-0442273118)
• 1999: The Hippy Survival Guide to Y2K (ISBN 978-1879628175)
• 2007: The Earth-sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book: How to Build an Energy Free Year-round Greenhouse (ISBN 978-0960446407)

• Off-the-grid
• Permaculture
• Survivalism

• Oehler's underground house website
• 'Permies' permaculture website and forum