Some cold mid-winter December weather here at the UK midlands organic eco micro-holding ( small smallholding ) has encouraged the normal seasonal activity of having a bit of 'semi-hibernation', hole-ing up, resting the mind, body and the spirit ----- This harder mid-winter weather, with its frosts has hit some of the veg, but not disasterously so, quite a bit of it such as the kale being of the hardy variety, now apparently taken up too by high-end restaurants as good fodder, just as farm livestock find it so, generally in fields though ----.
Operating a small - very small - lifestyle enterprise of the self-reliance mode probably generally uses technology of the 'intermediate' variety rather than any 'techno trend' stuff, so tends to be automatically ( and thankfully --- ?), 'behind the times', but which does then give good opportunity for human involvement of the 'getting close to nature' kind. One of the big advantages is that such technology - such as garden tools such as hoes, handtools and 'moving' equipment (eg. wheelbarrows), can all be sourced cheaply or even for free, so not involving too much expense to get started, as is the same for land requirements (eg. a garden and possibly too renting an allotment (piece of ground rented on which to grow stuff).
Living relatively self-reliantly, where for instance home-produced produce and ,say, the use of cheap/free eco-friendly fuel - wood - can significantly lower living costs, can also give quite a few 'indefinable' returns such as satisfactions from physical labour, from creating, from the feeling of self-reliance and independence, from practically using skills and experience. A case-study from industry illustrates the point, after which the case for 'individual independence' is more examined, leading to a situation where it might in fact pay to not be quite 'technologically' up to scratch ----
