Free-Range Living

Winter's a-coming ----' 

 Walking a short while ago in ' the forgotten corner' - a country area locally that seems always to be pretty much deserted with a quiet tranquill presence - on one of the still, sun-laden jewels of a day to be had in late autumn - quite a few this year hereabouts at the eco organic micro-holding (small smallholding) in the Uk heartlands . The brown worked soil contrasted with the still vivid greens of trees, in spite of them now losing brown spent leaves in the gentle breeze. Sitting now out in the fields perched half-way up an oak tree on a platform accessed by its own metal steps, watching birds in flight - several groups of five or six wood pigeons busily (and speedily) going about their business- wondering where they're in such a hurry to get to - ? - and then, in the warm, hazy sunshine, 'man in flight' - the faint buzzing of a light plane seemingly sky high up, dreamily swooping and curving around, mingling with white, wispy clouds ----

 The sunlit peace broken, though, on walking out to the mettled lane, by the coarse, raucous note of a loud engine - the same plane maybe, now much lower, on its homeward mission , amplified too by two tractors coming down the lane. Peace regained and walking up the now quiet greenleaf lane, to catch sight of a massive tree straddling the road, which then proved to be two trees, one either side but with the combined foliage merging to give one exceptional giant oak shape - curious, by accident or 'natural design - ?' Back to the car, for the short journey to the homestead for a welcome sit-down and a refreshing cup o' tea ---- .

'Winding down ----- '

The beans and tomatoes have lasted out well in the mild weather of late, with the winter greens veg growing on strongly too, along with late-sown Milan purple-top turnips, which give a gorgeous fresh peppery taste if picked fresh, straight from the soil. Just yesterday for lunch, a full salad picked fresh from the veg area - lettuce, spring onions, turnips and land cress -along with the fresh tomatoes, not too bad for November - ? Leeks, though, not looking great, after their now customary 'attack of the aliums' -hopefully the netle juice will work its magic --- although it is now late on in the season. All hedging now done - good job, with just some lopping of various spars and branches to do to more or less complete outside micro-holding activities for the year. Gives a feeling of finishing off the season, ready for the next phase - getting sorted for winter and possible hard/severe weather.

'Powering up ----'

 To this end, wood sawing has also been the order of the day, with a recent two-man operation - one 'feeding' and one sawing, getting quite a bit gone through, filling up the remaining space in the woodstore in the 'logs-istics centre' - a good sight , a well-filled logstore, giving a sort of 'well-being, security satisfaction' feeling. Good to know that the fuel for the winter is 'in store', and to know too that there's some insulation from any energy 'price hikes' from the powerful oligopolistic (a few powerful suppliers) energy firms. Dealing here with one of the newer, smaller electricity suppliers (no mains gas here in the countryside), has been, to be fair, a deal better than the previous couple of large suppliers -the current one even seems to recognise the individual as a human being - ?! (how about this for an 'entrepreneurial' opportunity - starting a consultancy service for large firms and financial institutions to promote 'humane-isation' of their processes - which may yet pay off over the longer-term, besides giving them something of a 'warmer glow' by being reasonable human beings themselves -?)

 More free wood too arriving on the drive, from local folk who, having gone down the common 'oil central heating' route, are happy to dispose of any surplus wood from tree felling or loppings on the driveway here - all offerings gratefully and gleefully received ---. The smaller stationary rotary saw has been in action cutting up 'smaller' wood -a lot of it from the house renovation next door - which is useful to burn in the woodstove in conjunction with the larger, more dense bought wood supply, mainly oak this year, and to turn then into the  useful fertiliser and lime substitute that woodash is.

'Shipshape ---- '

This time of the year does seem to be when it's appropriate to get things 'shipshape and Bristol fashion' (i.e. up together). The back-up generator fortunately arrived in good time and is now installed in working mode. Being diesel fuelled, it was just about twice as expensive as a petrol machine, the advantage though being that diesel fuel is storable over time, so a reserve supply can be laid in (and in this case obtained quite cheaply, being 'red' agricultural-type fuel rather than car diesel), whereas petrol can go 'stale' and then not work at all (although someone at the social club bar said recently that additives are available to prevent this). The extra cost, though, taken over, say, a twenty year  period, is fairly minimal. There is a small reserve supply of food 'just in case' of being snowed in or whatever, augmented recently by the acquisition of a 25kg bag of potatoes ( with the home supply of eggs - no shortage then of 'egg and chips' -- ?) and also extra reserve supplies of dog, cat and chicken feeds, the big advantage being that if such reserve suppplies aren't needed, then they are used as 'normal' supply. 

Fortunately the cottage heating seems to be faring a little better than for the considerable number of people that reports in one paper indicated would be in 'fuel poverty' this coming winter. The cost of bottled gas seems to have gone ever upwards in spite of lowered energy costs in other sectors, so the gas fire now just remains as a short -term reserve supply should the electric supply suddenly shut off then disabling the air-source heat pump blower, or alternatively, if it's not too cold, the halogen electric fire. With the woodstove then performing around from around 4 pm to 10 pm or so, it does mean that for the  main cottage living area there are in fact five different heat sources , or even six if the gas stove is included - crikey - could be a bit 'OTT' - ?.

The other area of needed reserve supplies are wild bird seed, fat balls and peanuts for the wildbirds, particularly as some harder colder weather appears to be on its way. The gang of sparrows who sheltered in the wall of creepers on the end wall of the cottage (and warming it with their bodyheat - ?) have had though to find 'alternative accomodation'. About a month ago there was a knock on the backdoor from a would-be passing motorist to inform that this 'wall of creepers' had 'peeled off' the wall and was now blocking the lane ---.   Although the whole area of the 'micro-holding' amounts only to half an acre (fifth of a hectare), there is a lot of vegetation on site, seemingly supporting quite a bit of bird life, so additional supplementary feed may be important, and particularly in hardier winter weather. The birds have their own feed reserves too, with hawthorn and holly berries particularly in evidence this year. Each season brings its own challenges and interest points, and adds to the spice of life that can be 'seasonal living' - waking up each day to perpetual blue skies suits some, but would be purgatory here -----.

'Colder ----- ?'

One recent UK broadsheet piece highlighted the control and power nature of the modern UK culture, arguing that values and principles then can tend to diminish because of the 'might is right' mindsets that can be inherent in such cultures. In the UK, those with the power appear to have been doing rather well, as opposed to those without much power - so-called 'ordinary people', increasing wealth gaps between those 'who have' versus 'those who haven't' (recent broadsheet paper reports that in the UK 10% of people own 50% of  the wealth, making it the most 'unequal' 'advanced' society and according to further recent newspaper reports, quite a therapy trade has built up to ease the guilt that some with wealth are feeling --- might it be good, though, not to ease it, to 'feel the feeling', and act thereon ---- ?)  A couple of very recent 'chinks of light', according to reports - under pressure the UK government has  relented in terms of its plans to hit the working poor's income with tax credit cuts, thus avoiding the charge of 'picking on the weak' to exercise power, and u-turned on the introduction of court charges levied on those accused. 

One billionaire, no less, was on TV recently suggesting himself that growing wealth inequality in western-style cultures was a recipe for longer-term problems centred around 'people alienation', and even civil unrest. The ditching of spiritual practices and the adoption of 'free market', 'out-for-self' approaches have presumably added to such a situation, in which to have power, and 'win', seems to be a main  focus (and so 'big' becomes 'beautiful'?), so presumably trust, relationships, care and 'fellow feeling' all can become casualties within the system - ? ( A 'you can't have it both ways' type of condition - ? Robert Pirsig of 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' renown was predicting such a situation some years ago now).  Apparently, 'trust' has been, according to a recent study, quite significantly eroded amongst so-called ordinary people, which may not exactly be a total surprise - ? (informed comment on this trend also suggested that 'trust erosion' was a negative factor  in terms of a country's potential for economic growth).

'Warmer ----- ?'

Some societies place less emphasis on 'competitive winning' (aren't people 'naturally competitive' enough?) and more on social cohesion, and for all the seeming current de-emphasis on things 'social', the reality is that mankind does live in groups, in 'societies', for good reasons such as collective security - maybe a 'limitation' area these days is the seeming degree of denial of such a reality -? One country that embraces collectivity, along with trust, care and relationships is Denmark, recently identified as the 'happiest' world country and one of the least corrupt - they seem to have got something going - ?

After all the violence of recent days (in France -it seems scarcely believable that unarmed, defenceless citizens can be attacked in such a manner - ?), it's good to be able to experience the quiet of the countryside hereabouts acting as a sort of 'healing balsm' to the spirit - pity it can't be bottled and sent to those suffering the after-effects of the violence -----.