Free-Range Living

' Numero Uno ----'

Here in the UK , looking back over nearly eight decades, the prevailing culture - and cultures appear to vary considerably - seems to have pretty much reversed. Back along, say in the 1950's, there was a relatively marked class conciousness and a fair level of emphasis was placed on social-type priorities. It was not uncommon to hear platitudes such as  'you shouldn't be better than others'. In today's world though, social priorities appear to have taken something of a 'back seat' and the most prominent cultural priority, courtesy of such 'philosophies' such as those of the 'free market', centres more around the individual and individual gain, maybe at least partly, as a longer-term reaction to the 'heavy' social conditioning of yesteryear - ? Some, though, might suggest that there are in reality diverse priority areas, all valid, and the job is to gain a satisfactory balance between them, so say, between 'social' and individual' - ?

( research by this author amongst rural entrepreneurs (farmers) revealed that they rated sixteen areas to be important to them, somewhat contrasting with,say, a limited 'main' priotity of 'making maximum profit' --- ?)

'Changing priorities -------?

Such diversity was illustrated again here in the UK in the second world war, in that individual freedoms were curtailed - people were required to serve in the armed forces - because the national society's survival need was deemed more urgent - social needs were then prioritised over individual needs. After the war the situation changed back into the 'normal balance' situation, where social needs were met - the UK's National Health Service was for instance established - and individual needs catered for.  Farmers, for instance, had to farm 'as directed' in the war due to society's urgent need for food, whereas after the war, individual farmers could go back to making their own individual decisions, then farming as they decided/wished.'

Modern local influences ----- 

The same 'system' applies today, here at the eco micro-holding in the UK midlands, meandering along under the auspices of the aged micro-holders. Interestingly though wider social factors have in fact recently influenced micro-holding policy and practice in that more than ever food is being grown as a response to the high (18%) food price inflation in the UK.  Here at the organic micro-holding it's been quite a busy time, with hand weeding of the four broad bean rows having recently taken place, plus thinning crops such as swedes, to allow proper growth - more weed material than usual with both activities contributing well to the growing compost pile - fertiliser for two years down the line.

One of the compensations though has been going down to town on the new electric bike twice a week. It's a five mlle trip, three of which are down a cycleway that used to be a railtrack, so is pretty flat and the bike whizzes along happily, through the semi-wildernes of reclaiming nature. It may well be the cheapest form of motive power, with the solar panels here charging its battery up for free, and will contribute nicely to the aim of having a light-ish eco footprint - a drop in the ocean in terms of overall eco care, but important here on a personal basis in the cause of taking self-responsibility ------

Micro-holding progress ---- 

 The various crops are looking well, with the only sign of problems being blight on the early Pentland Javelin potatoes, but fortunately not on the later varieties. There's quite a reasonable crop of Pentland Javelin,with them having been started under bubble-wrap plastic, so the blighted tops have been scythed off to hopefully stop any further spread of the blight (yellowing of leaves, plus brown patches on them). It's very rare here that the early crop doesn't get the blight attack, but putting them in early under bubble-wrap pastic (late Feb/early March) generally ensures a reasonable crop in spite of the blight problem.

The bought wood supply arrived on the driveway late April to be then wheelbarrowed into the logstore area in the 'logs-istics' space ( a re-cycled concrete garage), there to dry further over the summer. Quite a bit of stored wood has also been sawn up, to now make a sizable woodpile, needed to feed the woodstove in the winter months, and as ever, 'warming the cockles' before then warming the bodies  ---- It's always a little surprising how much wood's needed, even though the woodstove's operational for just six hours a day. The pen that stores smaller pallet-style wood has also been filling up - useful to burn with the bigger logs to keep a good fire going.

'Birds nearly in hand -----'

Sitting in the Retreat cabin's converandory (veranda/conservatory) in the little paddock, surrounded by greenery, is a peaceful activity for 'reflected contemplation', and a good opportunity to watch the birds around the bird feeder, just 3 metres away. Today it was mainly a Greater Spotted woodpecker, a dove amd two magpie fledgings, with the normal gang of various varieties of tits not around. Yesterday it was the whole woodpecker family - Mum, Dad and three fully grown fledglings - quite a gang of exotic looking birds close up. The adult male was alternatively feeding the juveniles then chasing them away, which must have been a bit confusing for them. Better though than the brigand magpies that always look as though they're potential trouble, but then reading in the bird book that the woodpeckers 'enlarge' nest holes in tree trunks to get at the chicks  of smaller birds ---- All in aid of maintaining a satisfactory balance in nature -------

'Numero uno ---- '

'Charity begins at home', so the saying goes, and if no. 1 isn't 'ok', then presumably that will impact on that person's general wider effect ----- ? The culture here in the UK appears to have done quite a turn-around, in that, as above, back along there was strong emphasis on society priorities, with pronouncements such as 'you must always think of others before yourself' common. Plainly such a fixed 'rule' couldn't adequately cover all situations, and no. 1 mightn't get adequate attention, so then, maybe too as a reaction, the culture appeared to swing right round to 'looking out for no. 1' as the main focus. In reality, it would appear social and individual priorities exist when people are organised into societies, and so it's probably reasonably important to get an adequate balance between them - some might say for instance that the current culture is too weighted towards individual 'out for self' priorities, with the imbalance causing some problems in society ---

'Hierarchical needs -----' 

The fact that many individuals, particularly as they get older and have basically mostly 'solved' their individual needs (see, say, Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Needs' work), seek to do social and charity work, to make their contribution to society, (one of Maslow's human need areas), can maybe indicate the need to take on board the two sets of priorities, individual and social, to then get the more multi-dimensional view of 'life as we know it' - ? Undoubtedly when individuals are seeking to establish themselves, which is probably generally when they are younger, their focus will likely tend to be on individual needs, which is where urgings to 'focus first on others' might just not exactly 'cut the mustard '--- . The potential difficulties can no doubt arise when the individual 'self gain' focus becomes too fixed, too generalised and too 'mass' - some have said for instance that it can then be a 'charter for greed', and that it's contributed to one of the problems of today, that of a too imbalanced situation ------

'Whoa there -----' 

The idea of being aware of and taking notice of, social needs, can also act as a 'brake' on too strong individual foci, and as history suggests (plus current world events), some of the sizable actual problems past and present have no doubt had over narrow individual focus as a root problem - ? 

The aforementioned diverse farmer priorities, ranging from making adequate money returns to environment/countryside care, to local community contribution, to building longer-term capital and secure businesses - and so forth - probably helped to take the wider rather than narrower approach to life, with them then switching focus as one area was realised, rather than treading any automatic 'more, more' money trail.

'Micro life ----'

Small life here at the micro-holding can be insular and individual but fortunately there's still an actve rural community in this area, with people helping others out when needed, exchanging spare plants and produce, looking after neighbours houses when the housholders are away, to running local provisions schemes, to organising live music nights - and so forth - all natural and welcome activity adding to the general satisfaction and enjoyment of life for quite a few. It's been evident though that newer residents within the community often tend to 'pull up their drawbridges' having moved here , maybe, due to lack of relevant experience, they're not too aware of the benefits of community - ?  Some of those benefits were distributed recently,  there being a glut of micro-holding strawberries,  so they were 'offloaded' to the neighbours - on their part, not too unwillingly, it has to be said -----