Free-Range Living

'You gotta be kiddin' me !'-----

'Change of seasons --- '

  Cooler weather towards the end of September here at the eco organic micro-holding (small smallholding) in the UK heartlands brought even a light frost or two, not enough though to, say, kill off runner beans, which are still cropping steadily, with now the later sown row coming into use, nor waste the flowers in the garden, or down the lane. The woodstove's had to be lit for evenings from the third week of September, relatively early for here. A wire shopping basket of wood keeps the kitchen and living room warm, including upstairs via the heat overflow radiator on the landing, plus helps to heat the water, the solar system having heated it in the daytime, so it's relatively economic, especially as about half the wood was sourced for free.

It's always though a bit surprising how much the woodpile goes down - by Xmas it'll be around half its original considerable size. Not all the wood collected from the local farm's spoil pile last year was cut up this time in late summer, so there is a reserve supply should more wood be needed towards the end of winter, as was the case in last year's relentlessly cold winter. Being actively involved in fuel supply to heat the cottage over winter brings its own sense of satisfaction, which those with modern 'press button' systems presumably then forego - ?

 'Flue flaws ---- '

 One of the recent backend micro-holding jobs has been to sweep both the woodstove's flue and the front room chimney -the soot collected can be useful on the ground as an anti-slug barrier, for instance. The woodstove chimney though has a liner in it so the sweep head that fits onto the drain rods was too big to get up the flue and then the liner. Trying to cut it down to a smaller size was proving to be problematical until the bright idea of laying it onto a chopping block and attacking it with an axe came to mind - success ---- and the sweep job then done relatively easily. Not so though in the case of the front room chimney as a blockage was soon encountered. Ah, hang on, weren't one or two Jackdaws seen hanging round the chimney in earlier summer? True enough, they'd built their nest, a formidable affair, in the chimney, as they have done for thirty odd years, except this time they built it in the active fire chimney when in the past they'd always used the inactive chimney, now though blocked off after a chimney renovation.

Crikey, what a solid construction this nest turned out to be - it took three or four 'goes' from the bottom and a couple from the top, involving going right up on the roof, to clear this blockage. In the end burning paper had to be dropped down the chimney from the top, fingers crossed that the ensuing chimney fire wouldn't get out of hand, which fortunately it didn't. Sorry, Jackdaws, old mates, but 'fraid there'll have to now be a guard on the top of the chimney to prevent future nesting activity - they've had a good run of thirty-odd years. A local contact was saying in the local social club the other night that the same had happened to them, and they'd put a guard up, only then to be awakened early the next spring by incessant pecking noises on the guard with the birds trying to access their old nesting site ----

'Over the jumps --- '

Funnily enough, 'Jackdaw's Castle' is the name of one of the prominent jump racing stables in the UK, with the season just about to kick off. Running horses  in races over fences , sometimes referred to by its older name of 'steeplechasing', is mainly a winter activity in the UK, and some of the horses are quite magnificent, such as the now-retired 'Sprinter Sacre' who was a superb animal and champion, and carried himself as such. The term 'steeple chasing' arose in olden days when the idea was that they raced to the distant church steeple, presumably the most visable landmark on the horizon, having then to jump over anything in the way - fences, hedges, ditches, walls and so forth. Serves to remind that in so many ways, modern livers owe a debt to the past - vegetarians, for instance, and good luck to them, wouldn't though be around if it hadn't been for meat-eating ancestors ----  Visiting the sale rooms in a local town can be soothing - they're filled mainly with old artefacts, direct links to the past, and there's then a comfortable feeling of 'being at home' -------

'M-holding matters --- '

There's still quite a bit of home-grown produce - no air miles there then - available for use - potatoes, calabrese, which has proved to be a very handy summer crop, tomatoes, runner beans, courgettes, lettuce, spring onions, bigger onions, beetroot, red cabbage, carrots, swedes, celery - a 'time of plenty' ---The fruit from the orchard has had mixed results though, with some of the apples and the damsons being quite small no doubt due to the long hot summer and lack of of moisture. But then, there's a couple of other apple trees that have produced apples of decent size --- ? Ah well, the mysteries of nature ----

Then there's the home-produced eggs - the chickens, Beattie, Blackie and Aggie have been laying relentlessly, an egg per bird per day. Hopefully they're pretty contented birds, getting several and diverse feeds a day. They get their 'mash' - mainly layers mash mixed with hot water - first thing, then at lunchtime 'scraps' - stale bread, cake and the like - no such thing as 'food waste' here - with some greens, mainly at the moment spinach grown specifically for them.  Then in late afternoon they get some layers pellets, not particularly their favourite, plus some more greens, definitely their favourite. Beattie, (the Warren breed hen) has taken to going 'walk about' by flying up onto a tin roof then over to the paddock, so it looks as though they'll have to be let out of their spacious pen for some of the day, fingers crossed that reynard (the fox) is kept at bay ---- Awhile back, there was a 'chicken-less' period - the place though then somehow seemed eerily soul-less ----

'Commercial counters ---- '

The latest 'skirmish' with the commercial world - Mike Robin ('David') versus the giant ('Goliath') commercial sector (!) - has involved the car insurance sector. A prompt renewal notice arrived by post, and by e-mail, demanding a fee for the next year's insurance that was over 30% higher than the current fee - that's quite an increase, but there was no indication as to why this was to be the case ('on the make' commercial practice - ?) Not only that, but if the fee was to be paid not in advance, but monthly (as the sevice was to be used), an unjustifiable quite high interest charge would be levied.

How can interest be relevant when no money is being borrowed and the product/service is being paid for as it's being used - ? The answer is more likely to be that this is another 'on the make' move to screw more money out of the consumer (there are now one or two companies that have recognised this and don't charge interest on monthly payment schemes). It maybe perhaps easy for firms to get into 'big-itis', feeling their power, and to then get the mindset of taking advantage of the 'unpowerful', the 'small' i.e the customer - ?

Anyway, following the policy here of wanting only to deal with firms that don't 'disrespect' their (valued?) customers , who usually aren't necessarily total mugs, the firm was contacted to cancel the service, only to get a bit more 'disrespect' by being told in effect that the reasons for discontinuing the service were 'wrong' i.e the customer is being a mug -----  'They don't like it up 'em'' - and seem to struggle with any notion that they could be 'out of order' - another feature of the 'big-itis' mindset - ? ( maybe there's a good opening for someone to set up to coach, at a cost, 'humanisation' of commercial practice to firms to ensure civil commercial intercourse, and in so doing, longer-term sales and prosperity - ?)

''Large' rules --- ?'

The 'big is best', 'might is right' syndrome seemingly prevalent in modern culture, in which there's probably never been so many 'large' operators, all tending to promote a society 'in their own image' (witness the common clarion call in favour of 'economies of scale', which has though the limitation of being one-dimensionally geared), and in which they not only survive but 'thrive', reportedly practising dodgy practices such as tax avoidance on a grandiose scale, then putting the burden of taxation unfairly on 'ordinary souls' - --  History, should it be taken notice of, is though full of stark examples where 'big-ism' has come to grief ---- 

'Big-ist bullying-type' behaviour could be also to do with countering/assuaging insecurity - people feeling 'safer' being in the large grouping. This too could be a self-generating trend - i.e. the more 'big-ist' the world becomes, the more people feel the need to be in a big grouping for security, which could be one of the key factors for instance operating currently in the process of the UK leaving the 'big grouping' i.e. the EEC, especially for the 'remainers' who seem to be intent on stopping it happening, even though there was a fully democratic vote  -  'poor loser' syndrome - ?

 One sequence probably originating in the past from the East that may shed some light is that of :

                             Mass  >>>>>>    Individual   >>>>>>    Fulfillment/Spirituality (personal)

 The general idea is that when the individual is relatively inexperienced (and therefore of naturally less inner gained  security ) life is safer to be 'in the herd' conforming to the 'mass' norms and values. Then as the individual gains experience and internal strength she/he is in a stronger position to 'follow their own path', working out their own personal values which are important to them, as many experienced people undoubtedly do, even if they conflict with current social norms, (this coincides with for instance development psychologists such as Abraham Maslow with his 'self-actualisation' work). If the individual becomes 'settled and sorted', and as some would say, 'unified' rather than dualistic in nature, the door is opened for them to progress to 'the second meadows'- the 'higher planes' of personal fulfillment and spirituality. Maslow himself was apparently intrigued to find that many of his 'psychologically healthy' research subjects had positive 'peak' experiences of intense joy, fulfillment and positive energy.

'The individual counts --- '

 One potential important conclusion, especially maybe for 'freerangers', is that if this sequence is grounded in reality, it could mean that the route to longer-term well-being and fullfillment is via individual rather than organisation impulse, the implication then being that in a world increasingly influenced and controlled by large entities, there's then less scope for individual full realisation and fulfillment. The argument then proceeds along the lines that the individual who is seeking such 'self realisation' and longer-term well-being, then needs to 'distance' her/his self from the 'mass flow', then relying on innate internal guidance from within plus affirmatory communication from others on similar paths - all 'grist to the mill' for 'freerangers' - ?

 One Alaskan 'wilderness liver' freeranger featured on a TV programme has developed over the years a highly independent lifstyle, along with a formidable array of practical skills. He gets very considerable personal satisfaction from making and mending things, as well as from his beloved companions, his dog sled team. 'I'm just glad I listened to my heart when i was a young man and took up this lifestyle', he'll say.

So in this light, the notion that 'big is best' is limited at the least - ? Yes a certain amount of 'safe haven' capacity may be afforded by 'big-ism', but at a cost of 'individual fruition' - ? Another key 'cost' area would seem to be that of 'quality', (eg.s values such as loyalty, trust. compassion, work/life balances, opportunity for motivated work practice etc. etc. ), as Robert Pirsig in his rewnowned work 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' was indicating. If general focus is hard on 'quantity', as could be the modern case given the 'big-ist' trend, then by default the more fragile plant that tends to be 'quality' then gets 'squeezed out', which is why it can be important to take the multi-dimensional as opposed to the one-dimensional approach ---- 'big', just on its own, is not necessarily always 'beautiful' - ? As a generalisation then, and particularly from the 'freeranger' point of view, is it right that 'big is best, might is right' - ?

'You gotta be kiddin' me, right - ?'

 'Grounded --- '

Back to more earthy matters, always a good counter-point, it's time to do some 'green manuring' here on the micro-holding, which involves digging in the bed of weeds that's grown up over the last few weeks in what was the onion bed, to then add fertility to the soil as the green matter breaks down in the soil. An interesting aspect of the long hot summer is that a different array of weeds than normal has cropped up, of which one has been particularly noticeable with its broad leaves and good ground coverage. One visitor identified this plant as being 'burdock', never in thirty-odd years being seen here before. It has a deep tap root so presumably is suited to hot, dry conditions - ?    Just now have to find some dandelion plants ----- .