Free-Range Living

'Start of nature's cycle ----- '

March has been an east-wind coldish month here at the eco organic micro-holding in the UK midlands, which to some extent has delayed sowing and planting. The layer of woodash and couple layers of fine compost went on as planned in the latter half of February, along with some plastic sheeting put on the potato ground, to then have an 'activity lull' due to weather conditions. Things have caught up a bit now towards the end of March with half the seed potatoes in the gound, covered by clear plastic, and all of the onion sets ('baby onions') planted, to hopefully give a year's supply - good job jobbed. The broad beans are up and the job of planting quite a sizeable bed of them will follow on nicely in a few days - it's as easy planting them out -they're not fragile - as sowing seed direct into the ground and this way gets quite an early crop avoiding the losses to be had sometimes from overwintered sown beans, but still early enough to fingers-crossed avoid the blackfly menace and then grow a second crop - say leeks - afterwards on the bean ground. And as the seed was home-saved, no direct cost at all for a crop that comes in the 'hungry gap' period, fixes nitrogen into the soil and provides loads of material for the compost heap, not forgetting the delicious produce, especially if picked young and fresh -can't be too bad --- ?

The countryside hereabouts still has a winter's look about it, in spite of the mild first half of winter - there were some early daffodils about, for instance, but most of them are on usual time about now (mid-March onwards), as are the oil-seed rape yellow flowers in the local fields- a couple of weeks or so early, maybe.  Unlike some winters, there's been little sign of hungry buzzards lingering about, and virtually as soon as the two new bird nesting boxes were put up, tits were giving them the once over. Some fruit and decorative blossom is about and one or two roadside hedges are greening up, giving that pleasant feeling of 'promise' - spring and summer to look forward to -------                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

'Another of 'nature's cycles' ----- '

The new 'eco' transport, an electric bike mentioned in last month's piece, proved to be trickier than first thought - not just a case of fitting one or two parts together and 'bingo---' The first hurdle was screwing the pedals on, solved by the eventual realisation that each had different direction threads, which makes some sense in terms of keeping them tightly on the bike, but is a bit of a puzzler if such things aren't known, and not helped by the absence of written instructions. The next mystery lay in getting the handlebars to work - i.e. to turn the front wheel. After a certain amount of head scratching with zero progress, the bright idea occurred to take the contraption down to town, to the 'man who can'. Even this experienced operative took a bit of time to solve the conundrum - the required allen type of nut to tighten was actually hidden in a front handlebar stem fitting, to be released by a hidden button -  ah, the tribulations of the 'eco worrier' ---

The final hurdle was that the tyres insisted on not being happy to be blown up, and eventually it was found that sticking valves were the problem, solved by the application of thin easing oil. On its first (ten mile) run it ran out of power and had to be pushed the last mile and a half home - hopefully this will improve after several chargings, and electric bike life will run ever smoothly -----  It's actually quite a strong bike, and although 'yesterday's model', incredibly cheap, with no tax or insurance charges to pay and pretty low recharging costs - it would be maybe useful to try to find a small trickle charge solar panel to use with it. It uses though less than a hundred watts on charge up, which if done when there's solar electric production, must make it pretty well the least costliest form of motive power on the road - ? (and the classiest - ?!) With the relatively recent back-up diesel generator on site, and a reserve supply of fuel, the electric bike also represents a reserve transport form, an addition then to the self-reliance armoury. Presumably persuing a self-reliant sort of a life automatically nurtures self-responsibility, and the independent spirit - ?

'K's story ----'

One man, K, living not far from here and having useful practical skills, was a natural 'self-relianter'. He could build, he could mend and make machines, he could grow superb produce, and he took satisfaction in meeting life's needs in economic fashion. He lived with his partner in a not overlarge country cottage, keeping things simple, and not having to spend too much on fuel, having many contacts from which he obtained buckshee (i.e. free) plenty of waste wood. This he used to saw up himself, and even bagged up the sawdust to then burn on his stove - he could be quite a frugal operator. This applied too to his growing operations, making his own fertiliser in the form of compost, and using wheat from his chickens' feed bag to grow a crop to then dig into the soil ('green manuring').

One of the secrets to his growing success was to get things on the go early, but with no addditional cost. This he did by lining an old traditional wooden greenhouse with bubble-wrap plastic -it was amazing how warm it could get in there even in mid-winter, and all his early seedlings thrived with this regime. K was a useful man to know, particularly if the motor had had a bit of a crunch in the lanes. K would sort it in only a couple of days, as good as new, and at a fraction of the cost of getting it done 'professionally'. A good man , of good humour, and of independent spirit, greatly missed -----

'Bottoms up ----- ?'

Modern 'press button' 'e' life wouldn't have particularly suited K, then having to have to find stuff to do such as outings, to 'pass the time'. He preferred to get more creatively engaged with life activity, and he seemed to get quite a bit of satisfaction in so doing. Whilst against megabucks lifestyles, the low money, low environment-impact lifestyle such as K's, and  here on the organic eco micro-holding (small small holding), might look at  first glance to be pretty insignificant, that's looking at it in a 'mass, comparative' way. In terms, though, of providing a meaningful, challenging low-impact lifestyle capable of providing good levels of satisfaction for those involved in it, it's a lifestyle that's maybe far from insignificant - ? One couple not too far from here, for instance, ran a self-sufficient lifestyle on a smallholding without any main services, and on a self-generated cash economy well under the officially defined monetary 'poor' level, yet leading fruitful,  satisfying and un-deprived lives. True, there were few luxury goods or experiences, but then again, they didn't particularly need or want them -they were happy bunnies sailing their own little ship ----

''More' equals happiness ---- or not - ?'  

 The policy here is to try to avoid clambering on the 'more, more' wagon which can sometimes seem to be the flavour of the month these days - to live more, as Henry Cole of the TV programme 'Great Motorcycle Rides' is want to say, according to 'needs' rather than 'wants'. To be forever 'wanting' could seem to be something of a recipe for everlasting dissatisfaction - maybe that is why the wealthy as a group were recently reported to be not particularly happy , apparently worrying that someone else might be doing better than themselves- ? Maybe too as some have remarked, there is such a malady as 'affluenza', with 'after effects' , apparently leading to a significant rise in the affluent seeking therapy. Living life to a fixed income therefore avoiding the need to chase 'more', presents something of a challenge, in that life needs, plus a few 'wants', then need to be sorted within the confines of the budget, which in itself can 'sharpen up' the creative senses to be on the lookout for economical solutions, the solving of which can then bring its own level of satisfaction, and which also can often seem to fit quite well with aiming to live 'environmentally friendly' -------

'Creative content ---- ?'
 
Such an approach can then also lead into other ares of 'satisfaction gaining', often involving creativity, 'necessity being the mother of invention'. Growing food for own consumption is a creative act giving a variety of satisfactions - in the feeling of self-reliance, for instance, as well as the quality experience of exquisite taste due to fresh picking. Building small structures such as, say, porches and/or sheds out of recycled virtually cost-free materials has also been a satisfying experience - also 'making and doing' (and mending), as Kevin Mcloud on UK TV champions as a good source of personal satisfaction. Maybe Charles Dickens long ago was on to something -' happiness is working within budget, unhappiness is overspending', or words to that effect. Heck, having for a change some money left over last month, ecstasy could be on the horizon   -------