Free-Range Living

'Extreme freerangin' ------

'In non extremis -----'

 Life on the organic eco micro holding (small smallholding) has proceeded at a sedate yet quite busy pace throughout spring and early summer - there's always something to do in the veg growing ground, produce to harvest and sundry lifestyle jobs such as mending hoes and sorting the 'logs-istics' centre to go at. There's bike rides to take in the quiet and thankfully flat-ish countryside hereabouts, looking as ever gorgeous at this time of year, as it was on a recent four day break in west Wales (see pic. below), which does have more than a few hills. Even just walking just down the lane with Hipster Pipster - he's 115 years equivalent now and can't go too far - he struggles on, erm, doggedly, though, good ol' boy that he is. The lane verges are resplendent with honeysuckle, tall grass seed heads, bracken and cow parsley - a time of plenty to be sure, and nature's surely hard to beat at this time of year ---- ?

Mixed results in the veg patch, with broad beans unusually not doing that well, and peas seemingly 'giving up the ghost' - disappointing particularly as these crops looked well early on. Better success, though, as in last month's piece, at the potato patch, even though blight hit as usual, wth a vengance. The good news, though, is that this year's two maincrop blight resistant potato varieties - Sarpo Mira and Allouette - have done the business and are still standing tall, which is good news for organic spud growing, as blight can be a debilitating problem. Beetroot, runner (climbing) beans and tomato crops are all looking ok/good and starting to come on stream now at early August, with the earlier-planted winter brassica crops (kale and purple sprouting) looking good but attracting quite a bit of butterfly attention - caterpillar genocide on the horizon ---- .The 'wild bunch' chickens have been much enjoying their renewed freedom in the paddock and orchard in the afternoons, although the blighters have made the small polytunnel into their 'country residence' - must put up some wirenetting at its front. They came a year ago after their forebears were predated by a fox, it having forced its way in through a dodgy fence, now thankfully renewed, and they've laid relentlessly for the whole twelve months - bar that is one which has gone broody and sits contentedly in the chicken house on her 'nest'.

Raspberries seem to have been this year's star, with an abundant crop for eating fresh, freezing and making into raspberry puree, a sort of exquisitly-tasting semi-liquid jam. Strawberries on the other hand have been a bit of a washout, the bed having been somewhat neglected and overgrown, with the result that new plants recently purchased have formed the basis of a new, more organised strawberry bed, along with other soft fruit plants, bringing more of that hope that springs eternal ---- . Good time of the year for stir-fry lunches, popping out onto the veg patch for potatoes, a courgette, tomatoes (red and green), beans, onions, a few greens - all into a woc with a bit of buttter and Worcester sauce, and ten minutes later, apart from a bit of butter, a free, healthy and tasty lunch.

'Freeranging in 'extremis' --- '

One of the books purchased from the 'library' from the bigger charity shop downtown was 'Swiss Family Robinson', an old classic, and interesting as such to read (inspired, apparently, by 'Robinson Crusoe'). This family had no choice other than to be total self-reliant freerangers, becoming stranded by shipwreck on a tropical foreign shore. They proved to be pretty resilient, building their own dwellings, hunting for food, organising defences and setting up their own farm - starting from scratch as it were and developing their own creative solutions to virtually all areas of their lives. It must have proved to have been an absorbing and satisfying adventure, as half the family in the end chose not to return to 'civilisation' with their rescuers, but rather to stay on their self-made rural idyll island.

A more recent example of more 'extreme' freeranging was a paper report written by a young woman who had taken time out, as quite a few seem to do, from a busy modern life and work to travel and trek simply and 'surface to breathe the fresh air', as she said. When she returned though to busy modern life and work, it proved to be problematical for her, resulting in a depressive illness. Working many hours a week in a demanding job had proved to be 'suffocating' and leaving little room for 'her own self', a feeling no doubt exacerbated by the period of time and space she'd experienced in her 'time out' freeranging period - ?

Another 'part-time' extreme freeranger acquaintance was saying downtown today that he was just back from a three week trecking odyssey in the Indian Himalayas, not only all expenses paid but wages too, in that he was the paid leader of a bunch of young adventurers. He does a paid trip a couple of times a year which fits in well with the adventure enterprise he runs - he's a full-time freeranger really ---.

'A' is a semi-hermit living in a wood in west Wales, who'd reached a point in her life when she felt things had become too complex and complicated in modern life, and she yearned for simplicity and a stronger connection with nature. She now lives very simply without too much in the way of possesions, in harmony with her animals and her surroundings. Imagine the effect of such a way of life -the quiet, the seasons, the day-to-day variations and the vitually automatic meditative reflections -against,say, a fast-paced, busy, noisy metropolis existence - ?

One more recent UK TV series has taken up the 'starting from scratch' theme involving filming a group of people fending for themselves in remote country, although from just a brief viewing, the accent did not seem to be that much on practical techniques, focusing quite a bit on interrelationships and the like, providing more 'drama', maybe,  not too much of a surprise then, given modern culture - ?  Maybe there's room for a series on freerange, low resource impact living, with the 'human interest' content provided by featuring live case-studies - actual examples of people 'living the alternative reality' - ? All sorts could be covered, from portfolio life, to providing food, low-cost/eco friendly housing, working from home, self-sufficiency (which in itself could encompass many different 'independent activity' aspects), modern/alternative work patterns, community living, frugal living, avoiding 'corporate grab', providing off-grid power, and so on. Imagine, for instance, how useful an informative feature covering, say, domestic windpower generation could be. Make a change, too, from the many programmes involving violent crime, and/or the seemingly many programmes these days espousing the competitive element ----  May not happen, though, quite yet in these 'big bucks' geared times --- ?

'Freeranging in semi-extremis ---- '  

Hardly 'extremis' but certainly out of the modern swing, D and F decided that only one of them would continue to go out to work when their family came along. They had bought a run-down cottage with a large garden and having considerable practical skills and energies, had spent a fair amount of time and energy doing it up, whilst also establishing a large vegetable growing area plus a chicken pen. These days with their family now approaching their teenage years, the regime is similar, with the acquisition of a bit more adjacent land, and with the veg growing operation if anything bigger, and with it all looking exceptionally good - 'you can't use too much compost', they say. Their property came with good sized outbuildings (ex farm buildings), part of which are filled by a large woodpile - about three/four years worth of fuel, all courtesy of local farmers' fallen trees and boughs. Enterprising people in their own style, and more into their meaningful self-sustaining and supporting lifestyle than 'chasing the dollar'.

'Freeranging  into the land of nod---- '

It was lucky perhaps to find such a classic book stuck away in a charity shop, that bastion of recycling, although on reflection, quite a few different reads seem to have come from the same source, an eclectic mix such as 'Wild Bill Hickock' (biography), Cricket Characters - Reminisces, a Scottish Island Golf Odyssey, Horse Stories, 'The Secret Life of Trees', Princess Diana's Bodyguard's story,  an American's take on living in Britain (Bill Bryson), the 'Way of the Tao', and, just the other day, lo and behold, 'Robinson Crusoe' itself. One called 'How to be a Money Magnet' somehow failed to exert too much attraction -----.  Like any library really, this place acts as a spontaneous source of reading material, providing unexpected, varied and interesting pre-sleep 'freerange' reading, at very reasonable cost, (50p per book) with the books then returned for others to enjoy. Hard copy might be a bit of a 'blast from the past', but convenient and easy just to put to one side, switch the light out and slip 'into the land of nod' - 'freedreaming' perchance ------.