Free-Range Living

 

 'Husbanding ---- '

 

  There used to be more talk of 'husbanding resources', which basically mean't careful provision of, and use of, relevant and adequate resources, adequate that is to the situation. Although the term might have gone a bit out of fashion, just as the terms 'husband and wife' can seem somewhat dated in modern times, the meaning behind the term has to be still relevant - ? Here on the eco organic microholding in the UK midlands, summer, for instance, is the time to start thinking about the provision of fuel for next winter. The bought supply of wood has already been tucked away in the store in the 'logs-istics' centre , there to dry away all summer long. It's in the form of heavy oak logs this year, which will then need to be burnt with easier burning wood, a supply of which is on site in the form of the floorboards collected for free last summer. One sawing session of wood that's come to hand in the last two - three months has taken place, and there will be sawing sessions probably twice a month or so through the summer months, to then be followed by a major chainsaw session when 'Big D' comes with his giant 'cuts-like-butter' saw September time, which should then fill the woodstore to the gunnels ---- a good sight to see. Good too, somehow, to be involved in 'life processes' -  maybe 'push-button life' has distanced people too much from basic, existential matters - ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The spring foliage and blossoms seem to have been extravagant this year, making the surrounding coumtryside, and the garden, look spectacular, added to by the splendour of the many trees hereabouts. Trees weren't in over abundance on a recent sea excursion to the Norwegian fjords, and apparently only 3% of the Norwegian land area is cultivatable, but the majestic mountain and fjord scenery has its own grandeur, especially 'close up and live'. The crops back here in the veg. ground are pulling their weight, with it all looking at its best this (end of May) time of year. The potatoes look promising, fingers crossed the blight keeps off them yet awhile, as do the onions, both sets ('baby onions') and the home-grown onion plants, which being that bit later, don't seem to get hit by the alium leaf miner fly. To be fair, the onion sets do generally recover after a hit, with the help of a couple of doses of nettle juice.

The broad beans are in full flower and with sufficient flowers on the stems to have their tops pinched off, which helps deter blackfly attack and puts the growth into beans rather than stalk. Broad beans are a tough, easy to grow crop, handy for the organic grower as they are a legume, fixing nitrogen from the air into the soil, and also providing quite a bit of waste herbage when they are spent for the compost pile. They need to be picked at the 'young and tender' stage (just when there's a sheen on the pods), to maximise the flavour -old tough beans are good to neither man nor beast.

 Other crops such as runner beans, beetroot, lettuce, rhubarb, brassicas are all looking ok/good; the main problem crop this time round has been peas - out of five rows sown, only three have germinated. The conditions have been fine and the three rows that have come look well, so suspicion has had to fall on the quality of the seed, as it's unusual to get such a full germination failure. Ah well, win some. lose some, the perfect growing year probably never comes. The soft fruit -strawberries and raspberries - seem to be doing ok, likely maybe to yield like last, year when fruit was available from June through till October - never known such a bountiful year - nearly, but not quite, getting fed up with it all --- Good, though, to be able to give some to good neighbours.

 'Husband -ry' ---

Although in modern 'equality' times the term 'husband' may seem a little dated to some, it is still used in some management contexts - looking after and caring for arable crops is still for instance referred to as 'crop husbandry' and looking after and caring for farm animals is known as 'livestock husbandry', with implications of practising good management over time. Crop husbandry involves paying attention to soil conditions and the effective cultivations for those conditions, particularly as soils can vary significantly. Lighter loam and/or sandy soils can for instance be worked not too long after rain, when those farming heavier, clay-based soils would have to wait longer to be able to work their ground (the raised bed experiment here wasn't successful due to the inadequate water retention of the loamy soil, which at times needs some compression ; heavier clay soils though would presumably be suited to raised beds). The variety of seed to be used has to be considered as well as optimum conditions and timing for sowing.

Non-organic growers then have to work out effective chemical spray and fertiliser applications and timings thereof, and then of course, decisions for all growers need to be made relating to timing of harvesting and storage of the crop. If grain, for instance, is stored in a big heap when it is too wet, it will likely spoil. The husbandry then involves many decisions to be taken, and even though the traditional  domestic 'husband' role may not be so clearly defined in modern times, presumably the same efficient and effective 'domestic husbandry' still needs to take place for long-term effective domestic results to occur - ?

'Husbanding customers --- not?' 

The latest 'commercial fracas' hereabouts as reported by an aquaintance was to do with going to get some new glasses. This would-be purchaser had been seduced to use this particular national chain of opticians on receiving a promotional letter promising 25% discount on advertised prices ('luring them in'). The end price paid, though was a lot more than expected due to the assistant bamboozling with a plethora of extras such as lens thinning, anti-glare lenses, anti-scratch lenses, and so forth, which along with an unfathomable bill, thoroughly confused the customer. By the next day, though, he'd. as he said, 'come to his senses', realising he'd been had. On ringing the outfit up to enquire why he hadn't had the 25% discount, he was cheerily informed that he'd had the best deal anyway, as this was the policy of this firm. Not to be side-tracked this time, he informed them that he thought that it was up to him to decide which was the best deal for him - it was after all his money he was spending, and how could they anyway know what he could afford - ? After again not seeming to get very far, and then cutting them short, he suggested that he'd abort the purchase and wanted his money back. It was then surprisingly quick, he said, that they changed their tune, changing the prescription of the glasses to a less exotic form and offering the 25% discount ----

 As it is, he'd be now wary of using this outfit in the future, which is surely the big commercial drawback to operating 'on the make' short-term sales maximising schemes - people don't generally like to be 'done', so will 'vote with their feet' next time, and then firms have to offer all sort of deals to drum up custom. Maybe they should take the seemingly radical step for modern times, of aiming to give good product/service, value for money and good after sales servive, to then legitimately 'husband' their customers, who will then want to come back for more at some stage - and recommend such an outfit to others. It could be that there's a basic lack of respect for customers as people, which seems to have gone hand in hand with the rise in power and influence of accountants, leading the way into a concrete and 'measurable only' man-made reality, in which, as Oscar Wilde remarked, 'we will know the cost of everything, but the value of nothing' - ? Employees of a large-scale UK energy provider were recently reported remarking that their company had once been a reasonably sane and humane outfit, but had now become 'just a profit monster'.

 'Husbanding the (free-range) spirit ---- '

  Whilst it can seem like material gain is 'the name of the game' (and of course a level of 'survive and thrive' material welfare is important), it may not yet be quite as important as the business world, for instance, would have believe - ? A recent report in  UK broadsheet paper suggested that spirituality was still an important factor for around 85 - 90% of people - an interesting and significant fact in western-style 'mass culture' secular times - ? Husbanding, or taking care of, the spirit, used to be important, for instance, to so-called 'uncivilised' people such as Native Americans :

   'The man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting kinship of all creatures and acknowledging unity with the universe, was infusing into his being the true essence of civilisation. And when native man left off this sort of development, his humanisation was retarded in growth.'

    ( Chief Luther Standing Bear )
 
 No doubt such 'navel-gazing' stuff could get short-shrift in today's dynamic money-making geared world, but limiting vision and sensibilities to only measurable and some might say, superficial, one-dimensional levels, may still not be the wisest practice in the longer-term, it then leading to a too limited, 'non-free range' - ?

 'Micro-holding husbandry --- '

 A small site, such as here at the micro-holding, can still benefit from husbandry -in fact, in some ways because the operations here are mainly by hand, the care of it can at times be more attentive and applicable than in larger situations - ? The crops are still grown in line with good crop husbandry, following healthy, rotational cropping patterns, working 'with' rather than 'against' nature, and taking soil conditions into account. The site, with its considerable proliferation of trees and hedges, needs care each year to keep it vaguely in order, resources eg. fuel in the form of wood, needs to be sourced, and of course, the micro-holder, as the main micro-holding 'agent', needs to practice 'self-husbandry', to be able to 'keep on keepin' on' into ever older age --- Better get down then to the Retreat in the paddock for a bit of 'R and R', to then summon up some energy to go and stick the runner beans ----