Free-Range Living

'Freerange' to the Rescue ---- ?'

 'Sprung spring ----- '

   Spring has seemed to come on a bit of all of a sudden, here at the eco organic micro holding in the UK heartlands, with hedgerow leaves and blossoms coming on apace, and especially the fields of brilliant yellow oilseed rape crops, contrasting with green areas and just recently, plenty of blue skies -just the job --- Early potatoes went in the ground under plastic in early March, and then the onion sets ('baby' onions), went in at mid March - they're quite tough and will withstand conditions if it comes cold and wet. Tomato and celery plants are doing ok now at the end of March/early April in the paddock glasshouse under bubblewrap, along with lettuce plants, calabrese plants and onion plants (to plant out later to then supplement the onion sets).

All the leeks recovered from the late alium leaf miner attack - good news - and have now been dug up and 'heeled in' all together in a small trench. This move has the effect of releasing the ground they were in, for it to be then planted up with another crop, in this case home-grown broad bean plants, plus checking the growth of the leeks. so extending their season of use, as they'll take longer to go to seed. Half the bean plants from a mid February sowing under glass were planted late March, the second half early April. Quite a few are grown, for several reasons. They use mostly home-saved seed, so are a 'no cost crop', now and again a packet is bought to renew stock, they're a needed (for organic growing) restorative crop fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere into the soil making it available to boost plant gowth - how neat is that?  The crop with its waste haulms and stalks then supplies quite a bit of green material for the compost heap - and last but far from least, if picked young they provide delicious grub for fresh eating or freezing - can't be bad --- .

 A bee box has been put up on the front of the cottage where it catches the sun. This provides refuge -presumably mainly over winter? - for bees, quite a few of which apparently lead mainly solitary lives, and without them, nature wouldn't exactly work ---  A small wildflower bed has been sown, to provide flowers for nectar collection for the bees, the flowers on the broad bean plants doing a good job at this too. The aim here is to try to encourage and support wildlife and nature wherever possible, following the feeling that it's better to live with nature rather than against it, quite a strong reason too to follow the biological 'organic' system of growing, which also has the substantial long-term benefit of the on-going nurturing and improvement of the soil - a key basic resource. It's not always possible though to get it right - after cutting a hole in the perimeter paddock fence to allow hedgehogs access, they do sterling anti slug and snail work, but with then the realisation striking that the hens could then escape from the protected area of the paddock, out into the wide blue yonder, where Reynard the fox do roam ---- Ah, well, such is life, can't get it all on the button -----

Freerange is 'natural life' ---- ?

 Putting up the bee box reminded of what 'freerange' lives most creatures live, and what formidable survivors they are, all with their own developed unique strategies to 'survive and thrive'. This was also evident a few years back when a small female collie dog called 'Poppy' came to live here at the micro-holding - she came from a rescue centre and had presumably lived wild for a while prior to that, as when taken down the fields for a walk, she'd automatically hunt in the long grass and catch voles and the like. Poppy had to be taught that she could get food at home and so didn't have to put little creatures at peril. It did strike though, that she was the member of the household best geared to survive if normal food sources ran out - well her and one of the cats who's main freerange passion was to hunt little furry animals, often disappearing for hours at a time to that end.

Poppy collie was also very competitive over food with the existing resident male collie, Hipster Pipster, who's still on the go aged now 119 years in human terms. He's never been over keen on working with animals in spite of his breed - maybe the famous collie intelligence at work -looked too much like hard work ---- ? He didn't relish having a companion initially, pointedly staring at the wall rather than looking at her, but they became sort of mates over time, and when she'd got over her problem over food, which seemed to have been caused by her being put in a pen with a larger dog at the rescue kennels. She stayed a few years and then got sick and passed away, but Pop-Pops, as she was often known, is always remembered - a tough but affectionate little cookie, and with just a bit of a sad look in her eye --

Freerange humans ---- ?

 A recent report in one of the broadsheet papers indicated that 80% of the UK's population reported feeling 'powerless' in the face of so many large institutions now inhabiting modern culture (and in today's paper a report relating high anxiety levels amongst the young). The individual is basically 'powerless', being a very small entity without ability to influence on the wider stage, and given the current 'largist' cultures wherein large corporations and 'intrusive' powerful governments operate, all seemingly within a 'big is best, might is right'  mindset setting, it's maybe not over surprising that individuals are feeling vulnerable. No doubt too in the climate here in the UK in which the 'rich and powerful' are perceived to have sorted things to their own advantage (eg. advantageous tax arrangements, big pay increases, big bonuses, etc) and so-called 'ordinary folk 'kept down' (eg. now many years of pay restraint within the public sector).

Added  factors could well be the degree cultural focus has been beamed onto a 'change change' mantra (aren't periods of consolidation important?), along with changes to work practices that undermine peoples' security (eg. over 50% of staff in the UK academic sector reported to be on insecure zero hour work contracts). The so-called 'ordinary' individual, without power and too much support, would seem to have been having something of a hard time - ?

Freerange pressures ----- ?

One theory has it that UK employees collective organisations (i.e. trade unions) were in effect 'emasculated'a few years back by a government keen on gaining/retaining power, then rendering employees vulnerable in the workplace and in society (some modern firms for instance do not even  countenance worker organisations). All this in fast-paced 'change' charged national and global theatres, with seemingly hyped-up commercialsm and competitivism, resulting  in a relatively high degree of global instability - ? And then the individual is potentially 'conditioned' by probably a far greater degree of media bombardment than ever before resulting in trends such as  significant 'norming' forces, as well as  instability and insecurity induced by commercial conditioning and promoted social trends such as high personal borrowing, bringing overall domestic financial stresses and pressures.

The average plastic household debt for instance is currently apparently around £13k in the UK, much of it at high interest rates, banks charging high rates ( but paying low rates), meaning significant household financial charges on top of mortgage payments/rents. It can maybe be tempting then to see that people have been somewhat 'taken to the cleaners' by the current cultural sytem, which could well be why 'faith/trust in the system' is reported to be at an all-time low level - ?

Freerange nirvana ---- ?

 Some societies though, have different priorities. Denmark for instance, is reported to value trust and individual well-being highly, the 'proof of the pudding' it being rated as one of the happiest and 'well-being-est' societies in which to live. In this sense maybe the question is as to whether individualism and 'out-for-selfness' has been overdone, needing better balance between individual and social priorities - ? Promoting self-interest has been prominent in recent cultural times but developmental psychologists have established that individuals also have social needs - man is actually, and maybe paradoxically, 'not just an island' - ? And 'society living' has by definition, social aspects, needs and priorities - ? Maybe one of the hurdles to be overcome is the presumption that 'big is best', whch presumably gets it impetus from a size-ist slant, but then runs the risk of heading into bullying-type territory - ? 'Big' can be powerful. but it must be debatable whether it's then automatically best - it's not always completely brilliant in catering for individual needs for instance, and there's been plenty of examples in history of 'big is best' powerful regimes and organisations ultimately not proving to be sustainable. Is there too another key area of balance to be considered, that of 'quantity' v. 'quality'; some, eg. Robert Pirsig ('Zen and the Art of') considering that individuals rather than mass culture are the true guardians of 'quality', an area probably recognised and nurtured by the 'caring' approach of the Danes, for instance, but not necessarily by the essentially exploitative style of more than a few western-style materialitically-based cultures.

Freerange hoe art ----

Ah well, all such considerations very interesting, but it's probably time to get back to doing some Zen hoeing, some practical 'feet on the ground' activity, That's one thing micro-holding life seems to do ok - there's always something or other practical to go at which can help to keep 'grounded'. It may not be possible to completely escape the machinations of 'large', but at least having 'micro life' can offset them, especially it seems, if it's in a green oasis 'full of nature' such as here on the micro-holding. Righto, let's get the hoe on the go ---