Free-Range Living

  'TAKING  CARE ---- ?'

 
  'Care - ful ----'

 
  The sun is brightly shining today, here on the organic eco micro-holding in the UK midlands, nearly at mid December - enough to seem to not have a care in the world - ah well, good when it happens. Quieter times lately - nice to 'power down' a bit, and good to re-charge the batteries -  if the self isn't cared for, then the whole caboodle might fall apart - ? Not that the culture seems at times to help a lot - the reverse even - may be important to take 'freerange' steps to 'self-care' - ?

The annual leaf drop has like everything else, come a month or so later than usual, depositing quite a few leaves on the ground, which have now been raked up and put on the recently started new compost heap. Some say leaves shouldn't go onto the compost heap - not sure why, when they make their own compost in the form of 'leafmould' in the local woods - ? Maybe it's to do with the fact that different leaves can rot down at differing speeds - a professional gardner working at an estate hereabouts was saying at the social club bar the other night that some leaves they do compost, but others they put in a 'leaf mound' to decompose at their own rate.

Here, the policy has always been 'bung it on', but then, 'fast compost' is not the order of the day. The 'open air' compost heap recently started won't be actually used as compost till 2015, giving everything a good spell to decompose - this coming (2014) year's compost heap to use was built in 2012. Leaves are for free, as is everything else used for the compost heap - veg. waste, tea bags, nettles, grass etc, some grass clippings, some hedge clippings and basically anything green which looks likely to rot down, all producing free fertiliser, nature's bounty, making a good product out of waste. Can't be bad,  with the advantage too of it being very suitable to small-scale operations. And as in the case of the leaves, carrying out two operations in one - clearing away 'rubbish', and making fertiliser. Double the satisfaction-----

The winter veg. such as purple sprouting, swede leaves and suchlike haven't suffered any damage to date - fingers crossed - and the celery is still sound with the absence of any real frosts. Leeks though have been a bit of a mystery, and two of the three beds don't look too clever - one in fact looks to be a write-off. There seems to be a degree of rot in them and the worst bed - the last planted -  looks as though it's been physically damaged - ?? The 'ok' bed was the first one planted, so next year - earlier leek planting. Normally the seed is sown under glass about mid-April, but the plants this year did seem to take quite a time to grow - will need to remember to sow leek seed in second half of March this next year, and hopefully, a decent crop of what is a great winter veg, and normally, very dependable.

The absence of winter veg plant damage may well link to the absence of birds - the doves and pigeons which seem to have taken up garden residence in recent years are nowhere to be seen, and there seems to be a somewhat eerie lack of birds about generally - ? Hopefully it means that the later season has provided a late abundance of natural food for them in the surrounding countryside.

'After care----'

A recent rare-ish trip to one of the meteropolis-is (metropoli - ?) which lie twelve miles east and west from hereabouts, reminded of some of the realities of non-rural life such as traffic, although to be fair both metropolis-is are not too bad in that respect - could be a lot worse - free and easy parking in both places too. Usually the smaller, comfortable-sized market town three/four miles away meets urban needs, but now and again the metropolis has to be broached. Besides 'easy and comfortable' living facilities in the local smaller town, more needs can generally be met by local suppliers, good to 'freerange' support local independent traders. An aquaintance found this worked well for him:

 'V' wanted to renew his conservatory, so initially contacted a nationally-advertising concern, who's salesman then visited him quoting a five figure price, which he deemed to be too expensive. The salesman then dropped the quote price to just under the five figure level, which still seemed relatively high to the would-be buyer. Another couple of thousand pounds were then knocked off the quote price, but by then the would-be buyer was becoming somewhat dis-enchanted. 'Well, how much do you want to pay?' was the salesman's last-ditch effort, but by this time his cause was lost, the buyer having been put off by the 'screw as much as possible out of the punter' approach of this firm. As it happened he mentioned this scenario down at his bowls club and more than one put him onto a local firm who came and gave him a 'value for money' quote and subsequently carried out the work efficiently and to his satisfaction, giving also good aftercare service.

Of course, such 'profiteering' by the bigger firm could be seen as a usual, modern 'modus operandi' in the modern 'mega bucks' culture, but this little case study maybe illustrates that it doesn't necessarily always 'bring home the bacon', or give a 'winning result' - ? Maybe taking a 'value for money' approach, whilst not bringing in short-term 'max profits', could give a more sustainable business result over the longer period, via more 'word of mouth' business, for instance, and maybe, then, 'caring' in business can in practice actually pay dividends----?

'Care - worn----?'

 Awhile back, quite a few employee suicides in one multi-national company were reported in the press, the speculative reason forwarded being the relentless and increasing levels of pressure these employees were being put under. Whilst such a scenario could be envisaged given a culture of 'max profit' making, in which profit-making can appear to be at times virtually the only priority, and an 'urgent' one at that, it still hardly seems credible in a so-called modern civilised age - presumably the application of such levels of pressure on people then indicates a 'care-less' approach to staff management - quite a way off more multi-dimensional visions of 'leadership' - ? ('leadership and motivation-based management seem to be distinctly out of fashion nowadays - ?).

Then again, any such strong focus on just profit-making presumably will then automatically work out 'one-dimensionally', and more 'humanitarian' considerations such as 'care', then get short-shrift - ? One 'barrier' might be in the form of anything 'social' having become infra-dig in modern Western-style cultures, the very word 'social' seemingly now having become a 'no-no' amongst the 'mover and shaker' classes - ?

' Care - less culture----?'

Assuming, then, the existence of ramped-up competive-ised,'self-seeking' type of modern cultures focused on following the 'profit maximisation' modern culture mantra, maybe it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that the 'care-less' mode is predominant - ? It's been said that it's a culture to suit the energetic young, naturally expending lots of energy to establish themselves, but maybe lacking the longer-term experience to be aware of life's multi-dimensions, aided and abetted by the competitive, self-focused mantras of the culture itself. An ad on Tv seemed to encapsulate the modern mood - the ad seemingly encourages people to see a guy who's lost his pet and is expressing concern and anxiety, as a 'loser' - the message presumably confirming that 'caring' is not to be a valid element in the modern, competitive culture - ?

The culture would seem also to practice/confirm a 'non-care' approach' in its treatment of staff, either, as above, putting them under increasing pressure and/or 'managing' them with the 'big stick' approach with the strong use of targets and then penalties if they're not met. In one employee survey awhile back a majority (over two-thirds) reported that they felt under-valued and un-cared for in the workplace. The negative effects of a penal system of managing  people may also be seen in traditional high-care areas: could it, for instance, seem bizzare to expect staff to exhibit high care work characteristics (such as, say, in health care ) when they themselves are experiencing low-care 'penal' work environment conditions ----?

' Care - takers----?'

 One view could be that the use of the 'penal' approach to staff management could again be said to be tending to be found in 'younger' geared and origined cultures, with competitivisation and strong 'winning' focus also then inhibiting 'care - taking' - ? Firms which operate not on the 'urgent mega bucks' principle, but rather, say on giving good value for money and good sevice, can then be seen as 'prosaic' and 'old-fashioned', even though over time they seem to do ok and to stay in business, maybe even better, dare it be said, than some more modern 'urgent profit' outfits - ?

And what about the 'human' aspect - wouldn't, for instance, having pleased and satisfied customers, and staff, offer the prospect of more satisfaction and enjoymment all round - ? Maybe, then all-out and urgent 'winning' could be a limited, even flawed concept - ? The 'older' thinking about 'negotiations', for instance, used to hold that it was better to get a 'win:win' result, with both sides getting satisfaction from the deal, and building at the same time therefore good longer-term commercial relations, than going all out on a 'win' strategy, which whilst maybe bringing a little more short-term benefit, but also may then potentially involve longer-term cost in that the other side then becomes the 'loser', unlikely maybe then to be happy to do more business in the future, or , for instance, in the case of the consumer, unlikely to re-buy in the future. Taking the longer view may actually help, then, business viability and sustainability over time -----??

 'Self - care ----'

Farmers and growers usually seem to have a decent awareness and understanding of the 'longer-term': even a relatively simple process such as wheat growing, for instance, takes time - from sowing wheat seed in the ground to getting the sale monies rolling in can take eighteen months, and nature won't be hurried - it has to be 'worked with' rather than 'against', amd maybe thereby stimulating patience - and 'care'- ?  'Taking care' -  of people, of animals, of land/property, of employees------, presumably is a common way of exercising responsibility, and one which can gives satisfactions, which then may be foregone in 'non-care' type of cultures - ?

Now's the time of year to be doing some 'care-taking' on the micro-holding, with the normal maintenance jobs such as hedgecutting, leaf clearing, green manure 'digging in' and wood sawing all well in hand. Time, soon, too, to be taking care of the micro holder, going into semi-hibernation for a week or two, resting those wearied bones and back, to then spring into action when those 'growing' urges hit in the new year towards spring. Time to sit by the woodstove and enjoy some 'inactivity' time, a bit of 'stop and think' time. Time, maybe, to remember to 'stop and smell the roses along the way' ---- ??