Free-Range Living

'Perfection - a far-off goal - ?' 

    Now at the end of January, today the sun's shining, and being cold, everywhere's got the 'bright and fresh' feel, plus quite green countryside for the mid-winter season, with the sunshine too reaching inside the cottage, keeping the two living rooms warm by powering the air-source heat pump, courtesy of the solar panels. It takes about just 550 watts to run the pump which then squeezes air from outside to extract the heat which it then blows into the cottage - around two kilowatts of it, so the two living rooms have been heated 'for free' today - appealing to the frugal 'lean economic living' instincts ---- and good from the environmental point of view. A start to the new micro-holding season's been made, topping  the sycamore hedge by the compost heaps, the topped sticks now sitting on last year's heap, waiting to be used for pea support sticks come May/June time, after which they go brittle, then to be useful as kindling for next winter.

The woodpile looks to be somewhat depleted - ah well, just have to saw some more wood up - at least it's sitting there dry in undercover logpiles, ready for use. In one of the broadsheet papers here in the UK today, they're talking about banning the domestic burning of coal as the proliferation of wood/multi-fuel stoves and open fires is apparently contributing to poor air quality in towns and cities. Not only coal, but banning 'the burning of wet wood' - all very commendable, and it's generally not the best idea to burn wet wood (often done maybe because insufficient drying time has been allowed - ?), but how the heck could they police that? Who decides what is 'wet' and what is 'dry' - ? It might be 'wet' in the store yet dried out next to the stove itself ----

'In-perfecto ----'

Maybe it's one of those ideas that's 'perfect' in theory, but the actual consequences and practicalities haven't been yet too thoroughtly thought out - ? Another nail, too, in the 'coffin' of individual independence - ? Hope the big energy companies haven't been reading this blog, getting the idea that small-scale endeavour has to be 'sat upon' - ?  Actually they're probably realistically more concerned about some larger-scale anlysis the results of which can be seen on the net, which suggests that the growing 'off grid' trend is about to take off even more and that the future could be more 'off grid' than 'on grid' (from an 'off-grid living' net search which threw up quite a bit of interesting info).

 Whilst some might see 'off grid' living as the 'perfect' mode of eco living, and a way of redressing the balance of power of the large energy companies, there's presumably room for a variety of adaptations. At the 'eco' micro-holding here in the UK heartlands for instance, it's a hybrid system aiming to make judicious use of grid power by combining it with home solar electric production, an air-sourced heat pump heating sytem, and then combined with a woodstove which is the main heat source from mid afternoon on, using relatively cheap renewable fuel, wood, which is then cheapened further due to the fact that roughly half of the wood supply is sourced for free . The overall effect is that energy actual costs run at about 40%  of average for this size of abode, which is an appreciable reduction. It might even be a cheaper solution than going fully off grid, given that more equipment would be needed for that route involving more yearly overhead costs - ? (cost of equipment divided by expected no. of years life of it).

Grid electricity too can be sourced from suppliers offering 100% green-sourced power. It's certainly a good feeling, and satisfying too, that even at the 'micro' level, a little bit of consideration and care can being taken of 'Mother Earth', and her resources ----- .  (paper report yesterday indicated that the high world demand for consumer product and pursuit of luxury lifestyles is exhausting the Earth's environmental resources. No real surprise there then and maybe it might be a bit of a good idea to cut down consumption - even to practice a bit of frugal freerange self-responsible living - ?)

'Freerange perfect ---- '

 One of the reasons for practising a degree of self-reliant living here, besides the fact that it is pleasurable and satisfying, is to bolster and experience more fully the 'freerange' mode of independence - of thought and of spirit. With social norming seemingly having become more of a threat to independent living, and 'fast flow' mainstream modern life 'sweeping' people along, as it were, plus 'largist' corporatised life reportedly disempowering peoples' individual strength, maybe practising a degree of 'freerange living' has become more of a necessity to 'balance out' all the external pressures that can bear down on people, amplified as they can be too by so much modern media activity - ? Just recently, the actor and director Clint Eastwood, stated that over focus on 'political correctness', (presumably an element of social norming?), 'weakens people', by which he could have mean't the same as above, that is, individual strength is dissipated.

'Not being ok' is apparently a widespread current anxiety source, influenced no doubt by the aforesaid social norming trend, which presumably wouldn't help the cause of 'independent strength' too much - ? (in one of today's paper - a trend of teenage girls taking 'anti-anxiety' drugs, causing some problems). The writer Stephen Levine in his book A Gradual Awakening, suggests that people have been 'conditioned' out of their own strength and sense of being. A current website from a writer on 'freerange humans' (Marianne Cantwell) offers a self-test for assessing a person's level of perfection re.'freerange' traits , which was quite fun to tackle, although the category of 'feerange curmudgeon' was presumably off the scale ----- ( Free Range Personality/Free Range Humans )

'Relatively perfect -----'

 Interesting the notion of perfection and how achievable it is, and whether, though, it can tend to remain 'the far-off goal' - ? Sometimes it certainly needs to be fairly closely defined, as in the case of a scheme called 'total quality management' which became a trend in industry awhile back. The name itself probably didn't help a lot in that it tended to suggest going for a very high, 'perfect' level of quality, whereas it was more about identifying the level of quality needed, which in some instances may not have been particularly high, but then hitting that level of quality 'on the button' - it was more of a 'relative perfection' concept.

Prior to that, a management system called 'management by objectives' had had its moments under the spotlight. This system was thought to show considerable promise. For the period ahead, a set of objectives (i.e. aims) - which could then be made measurable - were set, then striven for in the given period, and then  - bingo!, achieved - 'perfection' arrived at. Again the theory was promising - the set objectives would give people focus and meaning in their working lives. Often, though, it was a case of 'the best laid plans of mice and men', as there was quite a bit which could go wrong, one prominent area being the level the objectives were set at. If, for instance, they were set unrealistically high, they could then overstretch a workforce causing them problems and then, not meeting the objective goal levels, resulting in employees being involved in a 'failure' scenario - hardly a motivating situation.  

'Perfect solutions -----'

Another system seemingly not quite so 'perfection targeted' has been called 'management by wandering about' (also known in the rural setting as 'the farmer's boot' management style). Nothing too fancy but with distinct advantages such as managers being in close touch with workforces and, being not secluded away in upper floor offices, in touch with what's going on. From the workforce point of view, it can be good to see that management is there and accessible, and taking an active interest. There are examples of work situations where this approach has been taken further - one firm in California featured in a radio programme for instance had fused management and the workforce into one entity by doing away with management altogether. The owner of this set-up credited this approach to his observing employees coming into work in their motors and suddenly getting a realisation that these people lived relatively complex lives which they 'solved perfectly' by themselves. In life at times, things can go awry, people get things wrong, it's surely all part of the job - and as such can be accepted, meaning that 'perfection' can indeed be at times 'the far-off goal . Then it's a touch on the tiller to get 'back on track', and bingo!, perfection hoves in sight again ----

'Imperfectly formed ----- '

On reflection, perfection's not really sought after in the eco micro-holding style of life here, in that important factors to take into account are limited available resouces (especially microholder energy) and quality of life and enjoyment, and it's the journey which seems to provides the interest and motivation, rather than the destination. Some people have got to complete a job if they start it, but here it's more to do with 'variety being the spice of life' and taking a bit of time. If it doesn't get done today, there's always tomorrow. And if it was all 'up together' and completed, what would there be to look forward to? Perfection more of a 'work in progress' scenario ----

 Micro-holding management style is relatively straightforward in that management and worker are conveniently combined in one unit. Occasionally the worker element rebels calling for a break and a restoring cuppa, and generally wins the day, with 'management' thinking 'well, he is a poor ol' aged guy', or words to that effect. There's certainly an element of 'management by wandering about' - and rather pleasant it is after decades of having to be more organised and disciplined, following too the writer W.H.Davies' thoughts :

'A poor life this, if full of care, there is no time, to stand and stare ------'