Free-Range Living

 'K.I.S.S -----

  The long hot summer petered out around mid-August here at the eco organic micro-holding in the UK midlands, with some much-needed rain gradually getting the ground back to normal condition, the countryside though, still looking pretty green ----apart from the golden brown corn stubble land. One of the effects of the drought was that the fruit in the orchard, especially the apples, was that much smaller in size, hopefully though now 'bigging up' a bit. The sprinkler delivering water to the veg patch had had to be on quite a bit through the summer, otherwise production would have been virtually zero, with the result that crops haven't been too bad. Beans - broad and runners -have been ok/ good -the runners are still cropping nicely and with a later row now in flower, should last well into October - not bad since they've been available from early July. Some hereabouts gave up the ghost quite early, probably due to lack of moisture.Tomatoes seem to be cropping nice and steadily, more than can be said for peppers, although yellow tomatoes aren't always to ,erm, everyone's taste ------

Peas, sometimes not the easiest crop, have done ok, as have potatoes, now two-thirds dug up and which should give a supply till November/December. Probably the star turn for this year has been the beetroot, of which there's still a good bed -they should last to January time. One of the ploys to make them last well is not to thin them as young plants, rather pick them quite small (and tasty), then the others that are left come on to be picked later. Some of the young plants can be used to transplant to fill any empty spaces in the bed, a trick learnt by seeing young wilted beetroot plants for sale at a rural French market. They don't look too well for awhile after transplanting, but then pick up and 'do the biz'.

With fairly regular sawing sessions through the summer in spite of the heat and the fact that micro-holding work slowed down somewhat, the wood in the store in the 'logs-istics' centre kept piling up well, and was topped up to virtually full capacity just before the end of August when 'big D' came with his ace chainsaw and quite a bit of the wood collected  from the local farm's wastepile got sawed up, This wood had been under a cover since last summer and is now dry in the woodstore. It then gets two/three days next to the hot woodstove before being burnt so is pretty dry wood before it's used. Here in the UK they're still talking about the banning of burning wet wood - not sure though how that's defined, or how they could 'police' such a ban - ? 

The full wood store, together with a supply of smokeless fuel - used with wood in cold weather to 'boost' heat in the stove, which then runs radiators - is for sure a good sight at the start of winter - a sort of 'psychological' fuel security effect --- A supply of 'small' wood from pallets and the like has also been sawed up, which will come in useful to burn with the bigger, heavier logs to keep up a good fire. Not all of the wood from the pile from the farm has been used so there's a reserve supply in case of a hard winter - always good to have back-up. Not quite as much though as is in a field down the lane ------

-

'Wheels----- '

A change of motor has provided a 'round the houses' sort of experience, to say the least. One car seller at some distance from here advertising on the net, proved to be a massive car supermarket - cars nearly as far as the eye could see. The service though was pretty ropey , no-one seemed to be about,  so that particular mission was abandoned. The next port of call was more successful in that there was someone to deal with, but it still was a bit of a vast, unsettling operation, giving the feeling of being caught in a big net ---- The answer was to visit a smaller more local operation, still with a reasonable selection of cars, although there was still the odd hiccup, in that the chosen vehicle then proved to have no CD player. 'Old hat technology', said the salesman, 'so modern carmakers don't provide them'.

Fortunately, though, amongst the considerable array of different motor types, there was a maker that did sensibly provide one, so got the sale, which proved to be probably the right car to have anyway - more by luck than judgment then. By ditching older technology they probably don't mean to be age-ist, but that can tend to be the effect -? Imagine having to put 30 - 40 CD's onto a stick - crikey, who'd 'hoe the leeks' in the meantime ----- ?  No spare tyre either these days and apparently near 50% of flat tyres not covered, which doesn't sound over user-friendly - ? The new car is a relatively small fourwheel drive lookalike - a 'car on steroids' - with an eco engine that gives low emissions resulting in virtually no road tax, and an economic fuel consumption, It's handy for rural lane driving with its bigger wheels and higher carriage to combat the inevitable small floods and icy conditions of winter.'

'Cloying culture ----- ?'

 It's quite fortunate in a way, to have lived long enough to have experienced differing cultures, as it then gives a realisation that current culture isn't necessarily 'the b and end all' (i.e.the totality). 'Not necessarily so', as the pithy Zen Master's comment had it. The modern culture seems to have many pressures and stresses for people and has been charged, probably not unreasonably considering how the wealthy have more than prospered in recent times, with being unfair, unjust , leaving many so-called 'ordinary folks' ( is any human 'ordinary'? - surely the human is the most remarkable of 'animals' - ?) struggling in life. Here in the rich UK, for instance, a significant proportion of children are said to live in poverty and public services are said to be under some pressure, due to, it has been said, recently by the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England, to an underlying ideology seemingly committed to benefitting the already well-off, plus the 'big is best' commercial culture. In any light it hardly seems to be a postion of 'advancing civilisation' - some might well argue the reverse - ?
   
 With such difficulties for people, plus younger people reportedly struggling with 'social norming' anxiety, as well as 'competitive anxiety' and with high personal debt levels again reportedly causing significant stress for people, and the degree of apparent current 'technological thrall'- in the UK people apparently check their phones every twelve minutes - it presumably can't be  an inclusive society meeting peoples' needs over well-?  Erich Fromm, a well-known psychologist writer, for instance, questioned the levels of psychcological health in the world's first 'materialistic super power' - the USA, suggesting that superfluity of material goods was an incomplete answer to a balanced and fulfilled society-----

One of the limitations of money as a medium for measuring 'successs' surely has to be that it's relatively superficial and simplistic, and inadequate, in that it can't easily account for non-accountable areas of life (such as values, morals, personal motivation, social sensitivities, longer-term aspects, personal interest etc. ) It follows then from this sort of argument that the longer money is used as the defining element of a culture, the more simplistic and limited that society potentially becomes - the 'dumbing down' scenario. Money was invented as a 'means', a medium to facilitate easier exchange of goods and services and as such generally seems to do a grand job, but, as the argument goes, it is deficient and simplistic as a 'total parameter' for a society. It maybe that there's a learning curve involved and at some stage a wider take on the factors involved needed, in what is essentially complex rather than simple human matters - ?

 
'One-track road' - ?

 One way to 'counter' any over-pressure, stress points of a modern 'competitvely-geared' materialstic culture is to some extent reject it from a personal point of view, on the sound basis that it's set up to get strong commercial results for giant commercial firms, with governments in tow, rather than caring for its constituents, and so can be a potential health hazzard to the individual, particularly if that individual has not yet developed enough self protective facility. In terms of practicalities, this could mean rejecting, for instance, the high level of competitiveness within modern culture, which some would say is an element that's been 'hyped up' to make people into stronger and more avid consumers and customers (it appears to have worked ---- ). Is 'man' really just mean't to be 'competitive' -? What about 'social feeling/sensitivities', fellow feeling, 'generosity of spirit', compassion ---  all 'higher human qualities, so then an 'over' competitive take reduces then civilised life  --- ?'

Then there's 'money thrall, modern man, according to strong cultural signals, is mean't to be geared mainly to money making, the more of it the better - ? Again it's relatively easy to see that this suits a heavily commercialised culture focused on profit making, but whether it's always that great for individual's health is open to debate, It means that the individual is then on the 'more, more' track, rather than, say, taking time to stop and enjoy life, relationships, or all those 'non-accountable' (i.e. in money terms) values and pleasures available in life. In other words it can lead to a tramline, narrowly-focused one-dimensional life take,  unlikely then to be totally satisfactory for the complex mechanism that is the human being - ?

'Embracing the 'Kiss' ('Keep-It-Simple-Stupid') mode  --- '

  'Simplify, simplify ---- our lives are frittered away in detail ---- '   ( Henri David Thoreau)

The 'saving grace' can be that the individual or group of individuals can take matters more in their own hands, as many undoubtedly do, and follow their own innate instincts, likely then to be geared to satisfaction of their own needs - witness the  'downsizing' trend that's said to have happened, witness also individual enterprises such as that of 'Soddy's Farm', previously described in these FR pieces, where that particular small farming family ingnored 'expert' advice (representing 'wider' culture), and paddled their own canoe, keeping their small farm 'mixed' -i.e. with different assorted animals, all of which receiving very high levels of care and individual attention, and in so doing this crew stood a good chance of meriting 'the happiest crew on the planet' title --- 'Self-actualised' people too (see last month's FR blog piece}, are amongst those with the inner personal strength to see things their way and 'walk their own path', often maybe 'getting things simple' in terms of 'cutting out the c---p' and focusing on the serious bits ( like real inner security, life needs security, relationships, personal enjoyment and satisfaction etc. ---- ) There's actually quite a bit on the net about 'simple living', cutting out the dross, limiting the effect of  mass cultures and the like, so amongst individuals it could be quite a movement, but not one that maybe is heard of too much as it's not too 'flash and sensational' ----- ?

 'If you want to be free, live simply, use what you have,seek to gain contentment from where you are. Of course the world is full of novelty and adventures - new opportunities come along every day.   So what - ?'   

(Lao-Tsu)

' Unique path ----- '

Another useful reason for the individual to 'simplify down' and 'walk their own path, is, as it seems is increasingly being recognised, that such a path is the route to finding the 'real self'(natural, unconditioned), which in turn is the route to connecting to 'TAO', the universal force and energy of nature, which like the wind, can't be seen, but given the right circumstances can be felt (i.e. by the individual) And as Kunihiro Yamate states in his interestingly-entitled book 'The Way of No-Mind', 'it's only in connecting with the universal energy and feeling 'at one' with it, that the individual can be fully secure, fully fulfilled, fully satified ----' Paradoxically then, full individual 'peace and freedom' would appear to come at a position in which the individual can willingly practice obedience to the universal laws of nature ----- ?  Those that have been in that place  tend to confirm that it's an experience way beyond any other ---- ( but 'barriered' maybe to many - most?- due to the ever shifting over-complexities of modern mass culture - ?)

'Simply divine ---- '

Living with and connecting to, nature, via the 'simple' lifestyle such as here at the micro-holding, can help retain an ability to 'resist' fast-flow mainstream culture and 'see' things from a different perspective. Such is the force of the 'fast-flow' that it can be maybe easy to be 'swept along', especially if experience is relatively limited to that particular culture, which can then make it difficult to get a perspective on it. Having a  base and a lifestyle that automatically offers a somewhat different experience than the current 'cultural norm' can help to keep 'feet on the ground' as it were, to then feel more grounded, and 'anchored' against the flow. Very often it's the practicalities, and their regularity of occurance, within the self-reliant lifestyle that can do most to support 'counter culture' living - the weekly sawing session for instance which not only keeps existential living consciousness to the fore but also bolsters consciousness of the 'practical personal satisfaction' variety, in that being involved in stuff to support and enhance life can in itself make things that much more meaningful.

 And that's before the potentially ecstatic 'hoeing of the leeks ----- '