Free-Range Living

Bracing, sunny days with big cold, blue skies - just the time to be sawing some wood, a meaningful task here in the UK north midlands, given the cold conditions. The small stuff's done on the small sawbench, whilst the electric chainsaw takes care of the bigger pieces, and both ways with the advantage of free solar-generated electricity on such sunny days.

Not too much activity on the growing front - just a few pots warming for early seeds and some glass and plastic about to cover some ground for earlier crops - the winter veg crops have come on well, though.

The profit-hungry times have nearly hit the eco micro-holding here, with a clever scheme- or was it a scam?-nearly succeeding here, reminding to keep those freerange antennae fully extended!

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Modern marvel machines such as, say, a laser-beam printer perform amazing speed tasks, compared with, say, old fashioned typewriters. It's not necessarily all joy, though, much head scratching and frustration can occur when marvel machines such as computers suddenly and mysteriously seem 'to lose the plot'.

A variety of different jobs is the order of the day here on the eco micro-hoding, from hedge and tree trimming, to renovation work, to the satisfying winter task of wood sawing.

The wood being sawed is free waste wood, which helps in the battle on the domestic economy front, now that financial presures seem to come thick and fast from various sources. Maybe those that have done financially very well out of the credit-fuelled boom times could now help to 'share the pain'?  Personal debt is reported to be considerable, with more and more commentators suggesting that 'the party's over' and its 'draw in the horns time', in which case practised 'frugal living' freerangers may yet come back in vogue - ?

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A mild autumn/winter here has seemed to delay leaf fall extending the end of season 'clearing up' process, which also includes quite a bit of hedging work.

What with questionable banking practices, cases of large firms 'mis-selling' to the public and the politician expenses scandal, together with the 'austerity' measures, the individual UK citizen may never have felt so under pressure, or 'small'. It appears that a 'largist' culture could be a threat to things 'small'.

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'Work' seems to have become heavily influenced in recent times by financial aspects and/or 'control' measures, which are influences external to the individual and could then run the risk of cutting accross individual 'internal' motivation. Such a situation may work against any self-responsibility, self-motivation 'freerange' type instincts and values, helping then to explain any limitations, particularly in the longer-term, to money/control work management situations. Notions such as 'vocational' work may look outdated in such money-orientated times, but nevertheless may yet be important to individuals, although the power of money inducements to condition thinking and attitudes could be relatively strong.

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October's a time when there's not too much to do on the eco micro-holding growing-wise, and the urge is more focused on work and jobs to do to prepare for winter - predicted here to be quite severe again. Some jobs are bigger, like renovating and 'making good' the conservatory, and house painting, others are smaller such as bringing in a supply of logs, digging the last of the spuds and putting the runner bean foliage onto the compost heap.

Solar production is dipping with cloudier skies but can still be a help, as can the shortly expected load of 'waste' wood -  cunningly designed to make a hole in those allegedly inflated profits the big energy companies are raking in.

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Can a person lead an 'enriched' life whilst being materially relatively not well-off, and likewise could the reverse be sometimes true? One 'freeranger' couple , for instance, who would definitely come under the official 'poor' classification, would nevertheless consider they lead 'rich' lives.

One of the potential difficulties with a strong financial focus could be its 'narrowing' effect, limiting the scope and values of those such as freerangers' who might well want to live 'multi-dimensional lives, rating ,for instance, areas such as community, environment, relationships and personal satisfaction/fulfillment to be important. It may be useful in a strongly-geared money culture, to take measures to limit its potentially (all?) powerful effects and achieve a necessary and satisfactory multi-dimensional 'life balance'.

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Meeting life needs here from a mix of money and 'own effort' sources, means getting some sort of 'balance', as probably in many areas of life. Eco micro-holding life went quieter in the restful month of August, but now in Sept there are jobs such as house painting and conservatory renovation to get done before winter, as well as sorting out some new radiators and flushing out the new last winter log burner central heating system, besides the myriad of small jobs - mostly a 'labour of love' - which generally need doing and providing spice in life in the form of a varied programme. The new solar electric system continues to perform pretty well, the focus now settling on whether to use some of the 'free' daytime electric produced to power an electric form of transport.

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With financial follies, politicians' expenses fiddles, media manipulations, big firm selling pressures and and what's been called a 'fat cat' culture, or so it may seem to many, perhaps there's every reason for so-called 'ordinary' individuals to take whatever legitimate measures they can to protect themselves and their loved ones - to take self-responsible 'feerange' measures in fact.

Practically, many are - the strong trend in 'growing your own' may well be such an indication. Another key area could be that of effective energy use management, helping not only the self, but also under pressure 'Mother Earth',

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If western-style cultures are over-geared to money making, it's reasonable then to surmise that other potentially key areas could by default get too little attention. Various commentators have in recent times pointed to the 'demise' of community and community spirit for instance, possibly aided and abetted by the seeming 'downgrading' of things 'social' in current and recent past times. Work systems and management styles appear to have changed significantly in favour of high control regimes and away from motivationary leadership styles and adhesion to trust and belief in peoples' capacity for self-motivation and self-responsibility, a trend maybe not best suited for 'freerangers'.

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Cooler, 'catchy' weather over the last few weeks here in the UK midlands has produced a profusion of flowers but mixed results in the veg patch here on the eco micro-holding, where a measure of frugality suits. Mainline culture, though, seems more tuned into the 'pots of dosh' philosophy, with seemingly a 'greed is good' mantra. Maybe the economists' message, which could have been misunderstood, of peoples' 'profit maximisation' standard behaviour, has then overly influenced the western-style culture, and creating an 'it's all about money' climate.

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