Free-Range Living

 'Care-taking ----- '

  The recent months of April and May have been busy-ish here on the eco organic micro-holding (small smallholding) in the UK midlands, getting stuff into the veg growing area, then nurturing the plants to help them on their way. The potato crop was helped along in the early stages, being planted under clear plastic to try to give it a head start to 'beat the blight', an air-born potato disease which wastes the tops and can then damage the crops. Since though the covers came off around mid-April, this crop hasn't had to have too much care and attention, the potato haulms (leaves) effectively suppressing the weeds - it looks a promising crop at present (early June), as does the broad bean crop, a lot better than last year with a lot stronger plants, now fully in flower - the bees love them - and having had the tops nipped off to discourage the blackfly menace.

They've had just one light hoeing to sort any weeds, which should suffice, with the useful-looking crop of peas having had much the same, plus a bit of extra care in the form of pea sticks placed along the row to give them extra growing support, as they reach about a metre in height. These handily come from the topping of the sycamore hedge alongside the compost heaps (this year's nicely filling up), to then go brittle by next winter time, to then come in useful as kindling for the fires. The place is akin to a 'life support unit' giving ample opportunity to be directly involved in meeting needs, which presumably is an active form of 'caring' in itself - ? Good too, to look after and care for what the American star Bette Midler called awhile back 'the needed green oasis'------ care for the soul - ?

'Care and attention ----- '

The beetroot bed has had to have the usual level of 'care and attention', with a good weeding and the gaps being filled by plants taken out from other areas of it ('thinnings'), to be then transplanted into the said gaps to make up a full bed. They look for awhile that they're not going to make it, but then stage a revival and go on to form perfectly good beetroot. Another crop which has had to have very little care and attention is the spring greens/cabbage crop - just  a couple of light weedings which considering the plants are over-wintered isn't an awful lot. They can be used in May as 'greens', just when there's nothing else other than heeled-in leeks to use, and then those that aren't cut, heart up into spring cabbage for use in June and July - a very useful timely crop, just have to remember to sow the seed July time. Actually they're even more useful - if after being cut, a criss-cross cut is made in the top of the cut stalk, they will re-grow to supply greens for the following winter, for use with crops like curly kale and perpetual spinach, then providing fresh greens all winter through - can't be bad. Salad crops have been ok, with lettuce, radish, spring onions and landcress (like watercress) being available from about mid May - all crops needing not too much on-going attention.

The six-year old orchard occupying the lower half of the paddock seems to have shot up this last year or two with most of the 40 -odd trees now about three metres   plus tall, and this year they were absolutely laden with blossom, now busily converting into fruit - could be a bumper fruit year ---- Apart from a mown path or two, the ground beneath and between the trees is allowed to run wild, aiming to provide a bit of a wildlife sanctuary. The new soft-fruit bed seems to be shaping up well, with most of the 35 or so new strawberry plants having now formed berries on them - some of them have in fact already ripened. Like last year, the raspberry bushes seem to have a lot of fruit forming on them, so, all-in-all, it could look like a second good raspberry year - fingers crossed - they fruit around July time, nicely following on from the strawberries.

Collecting free fuel in the form of wood from the farm up the road has been another springtime micro-holding activity - the handtruck must have delivered about twenty or so loads in stages by now, forming a decent pile, which will get sawn-up September time, to add to the bought pile now resting and drying in the wood store in the 'logs-istics' centre, having been delivered last month -  a full woodstore is a satisfying sight at the

beginning of winter. The solitary hen left after the fox struck a week or two ago has now been joined by two new mates - one black/brown and called in some quarters a 'blackrock', and now with the original name of 'Blackie', and the other a brown Warren type, now named naturally 'Beattie'. The newcomers settled pretty quickly -they got a wee bit of bullying from the resident elder'stateschicken' 'Aggie', but they all seem settled now a few days on. At the moment they're staying in their spacious, shady pen, the latest predations just a bit too fresh in consciousness - got to take care of them too. They do get grass, greens and some bread as well as their usual grub, so they're not doing too badly, and they've responded well, now laying an egg per bird per day, and quickly up to a decent size.

'Un-care ----- ?'

Whilst to many, 'care taking' may not have been too much at the forefront of modern materialistic-style cultures (although others eg. Scandanavian types do appear to espouse it more), the question still remains as to whether 'care' and 'care-taking' are still integral parts of man's make-up, as perhaps some - many?  - might attest to - ? Whilst 'fellow feeling' can seem to get short shrift in today's competitivised 'out-for-self' money-orientated 'mass' culture, it might be argued that whilst such 'fellow' feelings are not of a logic base (and 'the heart' has been underdone in today's logic and science 'head' based society -?), such feelings are real and act as 'the oil of the engine' for society, explaining maybe why there appears to be some 'over-heating' taking place - ? Recent events in the Uk show that such deeper-dimensioned human traits still exist and that Robert Pirsig ('Zen and the Art of ---') may well have been on to something when he suggested that individuals rather than 'mass society' were the guardians of 'quality' (and therefore important to accord them more importance than the level 'big' orientated 'mass' society tends to do i.e. 'small' being by definition in power terms, 'unimportant' - ?).

'Care alive and well ----- '

This was amply demonstrated in the two recent terrorists attacks here in the UK, when individuals including reportedly homeless people rushed to the aid of people stricken by the attacks, when people opened up their homes to take in disorientated people unable to make it home, and when taxi drivers willingly gave their services free to help those in difficulties. Good for them, and heartening for the rest of us, particulary in an over harsh, cold and grasping 'on the make' type of world, as many might perceive it. A year or two back in the UK, probably the biggest demonstration of individuals' 'care' took place on the death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, commonly known here in the UK as 'the Queen of Hearts'. Millions of 'ordinary' people independently and then collectively demonstrated their grief and their care that their champion had departed - them living at a deeper dimensional level than, say, just a simplistic materialistic level, which may have also been influenced by the 'over rationality' of the  'scientific age', as Prince Charles was saying a little while back.

'Wild care ---- '

'Mass' culture can of course seek to influence individuals to act in the interests of the culture rather than their own, (eg. 'living to work', as opposed to 'working to live' - ?), particularly if such a culture includes strong trending and norming influences, and some might point to the heavy commercialised modern society as just such a culture. Some people ( eg. some freerangers - ?) seek to purposefully separate themselves from any over-strong society norms via strong impulses towards self-reliance and self-responsibility, seeking to walk a path of self-discovery, and reserving the right to think and decide for themselves rather than automatically follow mass trends, objectives and norms, and seemingly taking some strenght of character, which maybe should be actively encouraged, rather than implicitly discouraged via any social commercial pressures - ? A couple of programmes on 'Freeview' channels here in the UK have been of interest in this respect : 'The Last of the Alaskans' and 'Alaskan Railroads'. These programmes feature individuals who live wilderness lives 'off grid', fending for themslves (egs. sorting fuel in the form of wood for heating and cooking, hunting and trapping for food), and generally living occupied lives involving seemingly quite a lot of hard work, as one such off-gridder stated. They eschew moderm styles of life, often doing without what many might consider these days as basics, such as, say, a TV.

Maybe living mainly solitary lives in wilderness spaces with at times quite harsh conditions such as cold, ice and snow helps form the 'sorted and settled' simple-living folk they seem to become -  maybe experiencing too an extra 'frissonce' of satisfaction and achievment in surviving and thriving in the harsher elements they take on - ? The solitude and space they experience on a daily basis presumably must have quite an effect , as exemplified by one guy in particular, cabin living alone but with his beloved dogs, almost 400 miles from the nearest town or city - that's pretty remote. His only real mode to reach 'civilisation' was/is an ancient little plane that he took off in precariously from a small shingle river bank - watching him come back into land again on this narrow gravelly strip in cross winds was a touch 'heart in mouth', to say the least. To listen though to his slow thoughtful speech and quiet self-deprecating humour was a joy in itself - a bit of a counter-balance to any frenetic, limited-dimensioned, fast-paced world ---- ?

'Animal care ------- '

The wilderness liver above had a strong relationship with his two dogs and they responded deeply to his obvious deep care for them. How people react to and with animals can presumably say quite a bit about a person, and their caring capacities - ? One visitor recently for instance here at the micro-holding had the little beautiful young snow leopard type cat ( 'Tia' or 'GG' - 'Gorgeous Girl') eating out of his hand, purring away, in no time - the first time she's ever done that - normally it's 'run away' time whenever anyone comes. This brings memories of farm advisory days quite awhile ago in the West country of the UK. One farming family, admittedly generally considered as 'eccentric' by locals, farmed the smaller Jersey type cattle, but with a different approach than most. The matriach of the family, for instance, could often be seen walking the mile down to the village centre to, say, post a letter, leading an old Jersey bull gently on a rope, which was fairly unusual on a couple of accounts. Firstly, that the retired bull was still about - most bulls once they're past it (they've had a hard life -----), are then slaughtered, with their meat used presumably in the processing chain. The second unusual feature was that this sizable so-called aggresive animal was ambling gently along at the end of a lead, as it were. Bulls are often viewed generally with suspicion and fear as potentially violent and aggresive large animals, and this breed particularly so.

This family, though, took the view that much of these animals' perceived nature could be man made, in that because people feared them they were often on the end of 'inhuman' treatment, in the way they were handled (eg. kept at bay and prodded by the front loader of a tractor). Furthermore, they often were 'de-socialised' by having to spend long periods in solitary confinement, not running with the herd, when they were essentially herd animals, and often kept in not too great conditions, people not being over-enthusiastic to go in and clean the bull pen out too often. These good people acted on their feelings about this, with the result that any bulls they had always had good treatment and particularly spent most of their time with the herd, not alienated from it. The proof of the pudding - an old gnarled so-called aggro bull that was like a pet on a lead ---- because these folk had had the wisdom and courage to go both beyond their own  boundaries and any current cultural fear levels, to take  the time and effort to understand their animals ---- Their pack - around six - of giant Mastiff-type dogs, did though engender a modicum of fear as they rushed noisily around a right-angled bend of a house corridor towards a newcomer, that person then though  being in danger of then being licked to death ----

'Care - full ---- '

Nothing too potentially vicious here at the micro-holding, although a scratch or two was incurred the other night trying to get a worming pill down 'GG''s throat - she was soon back to her old loving self though. Even those pesky blighters the slugs and snails have seemed to have left things alone far more this year - last year they decimated a lot of seedlings. Now that the logs are in store drying and that the veg patch is largely planted and sown up, the pressure's off a bit and it's time for a bit of palliative care - to the patch itself in the form of weeding and suchlike and for the micro-holders too in the form of the odd outing, particularly the one a day or two ago into a heavenly retreat with lots of amazing mature trees - care for the spirit --- and the soul ----