Free-Range Living

 'Outside ---- '

    Life here on the organic eco micro-holding (small smallholding) in the UK heartlands is lead largely 'outside', providing plenty of opportunity for 'healthy exercise'. The place, whilst miniscule in size (just half an acre or a fifth of a hectare in size) acts as a sort of 'life support' module, both to the humans, the animals and the birds who all live here. There's plenty of hedges, trees and foliage so can sometimes seem to be a bit of a 'green oasis'. The paddock, for instance, is surrounded by high hedges and trees, with half of it covered by young fruit trees, and is a quiet haven within already (generally) quiet countryside. It produces quite a bit of food, on the 'permaculture' basis, which basically means that the growing system is a self-sustaining system in terms of fertility, well nearly - some 'outside' stuff such as tea bags goes onto the compost heap. The basics of this are home-made compost, growing reasonable proportions of legume crops (eg. peas, beans), which 'fix' nitrogen taken from the air, into the soil, and some 'green manuring' -growing a crop of say, grass or clover, to then 'dig in' to the soil. This system has worked ok for over thirty years now.

Now at the first half of November, outside the multi-coloured tree leaves are dropping and some of the hedges are already bare. Hedgecutting here on the micro-holding was finished just at the end of October, having taken it fairly steady - doing a bit, leaving a bit, as they say. Getting back from a four-day break in West Wales in mid October brought some not so good news. A bed of leeks looking strong and vibrant before the break now looked a bit bestraggled and 'beaten up' -on further inspection the tell-tale little brown torpedo-like pupae in the leeks told the tale - the Allium leaf miners had been at it again. More internet research revealed that the major damage to the leek plants is actually done by the fly that leaves the pupae, sucking the goodness from the plant through its outer leaves - the blighters. Allotmenteers in a town near here have taken to covering their leek plants at the backend with 'Enviromesh' to avert the Sept/Oct fly strike. Nettle juice, though, seemingly saved the onion crop, so this leek bed has had now several nettle juice applications and looks as though it too could be reviving - fingers crossed.

Outside  ---- free-range

 The new mini hen mini-flock has settled in well and has been laying well at an egg per bird per day. They are 'couped up' in their spacious pen in the mornings, the egg laying time , then let out to run in the paddock and orchard for the rest of the day, in which they must pick up quite a bit of food, as they are consuming about 80% of their theoretical level of chicken feed, which makes it quite an economical little enterprise. The straw and hay used on the floor of the pen to keep them from living in muddy conditions, has had to be renewed a few times due to it having been quite rainy in recent days, but my, they do look a picture with a bit of fresh bedding on the ground, and it's been a joy looking after them. Besides the plentiful supply of eggs there's been a good crop of beetroot to go at, onions, potatoes, leeks and winter greens, besides carrots, turnips and landcress (like watercress) for salad type lunches. The runner beans finished at the end of October, as did the homegrown tomatoes. 

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Outside ------ free air

The new air-source heat pump fitted recently is now  coming into its own, now that the weather's colder now in early winter. It apparently works by taking in air within the outside unit, then compressing it to 'squeeze' heat out of it, which it then blows into the cottage via the inside unit (like a 'fat' radiator). On economy operation, it seems to use 4-500 watts of electricity to then 'blow out' around two kilowatts of heat - certainly enough to keep the kitchen and day living room with combined floor space of around 32 sq. metres nice and toasty warm. It operates mainly in the morning , then the woodstove takes over for the rest of the day/evening. Often the solar unit will be producing anyway the electric needed to run the heat pump, so so-called 'free heat'. Not really of course because of the yearly costs attached to the installation, which work out (over an estimated ten year life) at around £175 pa. - not too bad.

Outside world -----

The sensation and sense of peace here must surely pervade ( - ?) and help in the struggle, as they say, 'to stay sane in an insane world'. There's quite a bit of strife and hardship in the world - might 'man' as 'top dog', as it were, though have to take on board some responsibility, and then act responsibly, to try to ensure a sound future - ? Some of the 'deniers' -for instance on man's adverse effect on the environment , motivated presumably by 'vested interest' - may not though be 'winning'. The United Nations, a world player organisation, has recently issued a somewhat dire warning that the weight of evidence pointing to environment degradation at the hands of man, is compelling, and that unless responsiblity is accepted and responsible action is taken, the longer-term outlook looks bleak. The idea here is to do as much as can be done on the micro small-scale to care for the planet and its environment, miniscule small of course but satisfying at the individual level on doing one's little bit, and if we all ------ ?

 Surely there can't be too many who really want to be part of the generation which screws up the planet - ?

 Some remedial and more responsible moves are afoot. The Governor of the Bank of England is moving to ensure that UK taxpayers will not have to face the prospect of bailing out irresponsible financiers  in the future. He's recently reminded that the hardships so-called 'ordinary' people are experiencing now, are due to irresponsible actions and practices of the few practising hard 'self gain', and some of it reportedly by illegal methods such as inventing 'false' products and 'fixing' exchange rates in cahoots with others, thereby robbing their own customers -?? The mind  boggles -those old bankers must be turning in their graves - wasn't 'trust' the very essence of sound banking - ?

It's hard too, for some at least, to believe, for instance, that in a so-called advanced, civilised country, that there's resistance to paying people a living wage, that employment practices such as zero hours work contracts exist without any guarantees of work hours therefore earnings (how are people mean't to manage under such conditions?), and with the emergence of emergency food banks because some people haven't enough money for food. Hard, maybe, to feel over proud of such a society - ?

'Outsiders ---- '

Some might well feel alienated, feeling that society is set up in such a way that their needs are getting pretty short shrift compared to those 'in power'. They're not having too great a life, just as the poor souls in the east who would appear to be having almost slave-like existences, (latest press reports indicate also the use of child labour) to support western lifestyles, presumably don't feel that great about theirs. Some suggest that there's been too great a focus on individual gain and wealth (at the expense of other important areas - social and environmental, for instance), in the prime western cultures and that the the ill-effects of such stark 'imbalance' will be reaped over the longer-term. Shouldn't, for instance, society  be 'inclusive' rather than 'exclusive', run for the main benefit of the few 'insiders', leaving then many feeling as 'outsiders' - ? ( a large survey of UK employees, for instance, revealed many to be feeling 'unvalued' and 'uncared for').

Outside ---- on the lane

Highly competitive, 'dog eat dog', money orientated life has, then, the argument, goes, an on-going alienating effect on people which naturally works against community and civilised social customs : society is being 'dumbed-down', de-civilised and alienated and such a process could have 'build-up' effects to the point where George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' type situation prevails (where the dominant power animals, the pigs, live the high-life, snouts in the trough, exploiting the other animals). Such an analogy may sound far-fetched to some : others are warning that there is a 'sleep walking' effect happening with concentrations of power building ever more powerful. 'We need to be careful', warned one prominent author at a writers' prize gathering, concerned that democracy itself was under threat.

Interestingly, in this small rural neck of the woods, a micro-cosm of society consisting of just eight dwelling at this end of the lane, modern social cultural effects can be detected. The more recent incomers hereabouts have not proved to be wishing to be over friendly, together with one or two hitherto unknown instances of anti-social behaviour, such as 'blanking' walking past, which has shocked some of the indigenous residents, and could be seen as 'unnatural, alienating' behaviour in itself -the non-recognition of a fellow human being. Prominent writers such as Robert Pirsig ('Zen and the Art of Motorcycling') and Gary Zukav ('The Seat of the Soul') warned some time ago of such effects produced by a cold, heartless world one dimensionally ruled by economics and money. They also alluded to the fact that in a world where logic and rationality ruled, the then lack of a tempering effect of the heart dimension would cause problems. Has the modern-cultured world lost sight of a basic, natural sequence, such as : Heart > Head > Will  --  ? The argument goes that with such an emphasis on rational logic, scientific analysis and precision and so forth, the 'Head' component has become too prominent, disturbing then a correct and natural balance, and giving false perceptions of the reality world - ? Maybe that's why today's paper carries a report that Prince Charles on becoming UK king intends to make 'heartfelt' interventions - ?

As world renowned a figure as Einstein also expressed reservations about man getting 'too much in the head' :

' We should take care not to make the intellect our God; it has of course powerful muscles but no personality'

A 'coldhearted' situation was recently exemplified by a TV advert, in which a concerned male was seen looking for his lost cat, asking people if they'd seen it. The tone of the ad then abruptly changed, labelling this caring guy as a 'loser', and suggesting that 'proper people' - 'winners' - would be doing 'better' things such as making money with the help of this firm that was running the advert. The quality of mercy seems then to be mercilessly short in such a culture --- a sign of the times- ? Of course many no doubt would not be in accord with the non-sentiments of that advert, but their voices are not going perhaps to be so easy to hear - ? It was said, for instance, that the vast outpouring of grief at Princess Diana's death was a collective statement by the silent majority at the lack of compassion within modern culture. Princess Diana herself has been quoted as 'wanting to be Queen of peoples' hearts, a position she could well have gained.

Outsider prominences -----

The notion of life outside the current culture ( 'freerange' territory - ?) has no doubt been around for quite some time, with many historically persecuted for thinking outside 'the current box' (apparently, there is still a 'flat earth' society in extistence today). In today's 'big' orientated culture, perhaps 'batting' for 'small' could be a bit of an 'outsider' activity - ?  In more recent  'round earth' times, the well-known author Colin Wilson produced his book entitled 'The Outsider', looking at individuals' alienation within a culture (Albert Camus also wrote a work entitled 'The Outsider'). Perhaps one of the most dramatic 'outsider' pieces of writing was that of the German, Wolfgang Borchert, who was a Nazi opponent then sent to the front line in the Second World War as his punishment, wounded, then when sort of repaired, sent back again to the front line, only then to be mortally wounded. He lasted six weeks though, dictating his powerful work 'Draussen Vor der Tur' ('Outside the Door') to friends before dying (recently dramatised on UK radio) -  quite a dramatic tale. Of course, considering that a governing political party can be in power via a minority vote from a populace, the potential for  experiencing various degrees of 'alienation' could be quite considerable - ?

Outside ---- this door

Only in this case to undertake the seemingly mundane (but nevertheless enjoyable) job of sawing up some wood via the sawbench -surprising how much can be sawn in half an hour. There's still some hedgecuttings to be collected and burnt - in this country area it's ok to have garden fires, which then make potash fertiliser for the veg. production via the wood ash, which also helps to keep the soil 'sweet', as they say, and here seems to have helped over time in significant reductions of soil disease such as clubroot. Some 'green manure' in the form of self-sown grass still needs to be 'dug in', and there's waste wood from the house renovation next door to be collected. Then it will be a case of 'inside' for a welcome warm by the logstove, and a bit of reflection and hopefully satisfaction experience from the events of the day.