Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Riot for Austerity! 90% Reduction Emissions Project

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Riot for Austerity! 90% Reduction Emissions Project
  • Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:49:30 EDT



> I've been quite amused by this thread. We have the two super
> homesteaders, Lynda and James, doing their online dance.

If someone were an obese blob and they thought better of it and then lost
down to a normal weight, would you think of them as a 'super dieter'? If
someone
were choking and hacking their lungs out from tobacco abuse and they quit and
began to regain their wind, would you think of them as 'super non-smoker'?

The modern energy intensive, industrial process dependent, lifestyle is
scarcely as old as the oldest members of this list. Setting it aside, in as
much
as is possible, and taking up a life of direct consumption and less
consumption
seems hardly to be super anything. That is, those who are still burning
their lives away in the modern cubicle beplagued suburban lifestyle ...... I
don't
see how you do it.


What amazes

> me is that you two both have so much time to engage in the dance.

Can't speak for what might be happening on a California homestead, but I do
wonder what people think this lifestyle entails. The whole idea is to not
dash
off before dawn in a mirthless sweat trying to get it all done. It's a
change of thinking.

Early in the morning we all get the dairying done, right now that's a cow and
three goats. While Herself is milking, I am kicking up the cooking fires,
preparing the milk jugs, and putting breakfast on. In the cool of the
morning I
go to the gardens. When it gets hot, I come back. However much I got done,
that's how much gets done. During the heat I am in my cool underground
woodshop. I don't do deadlines and I don't do orders on commission.
Whatever I get
done, that's what's done. Whatever I have for sale, that's what's for sale.
Once a week or so we knock off in the afternoon and go swimming in the lake.
Once a week or so we knock off in the morning (after dairying) and get our
supper by fishing (or not!). In the evening when it's cool we mow a little
hay,
do a little other capital work, and do some work in the gardens. The
children take care of the chickens, rabbits, cats and dogs. One daughter
trains the
donkey, several of them fetch up the kids for the night against milking the
does the next day.

Incidentally during the day there is food preservation and preparation.
Never too much of anything by growing small plots of things in the garden and
staggering the crops so that half a ton of beans don't ripen at the same
time.
Cheese, yogurt, tofu, bread, beer, tortillas and all such are such old hat by
now and everyone knows every step of the process. We are talking,
discussing,
and listening to the radio the whole time. Hands go about the task almost
unawares.

In the winter wood cutting and such replaces much of the gardening and
processing.

It all goes at a very langid pace. Never any hurry. What gets done, gets
done. That's how much you have. Not the other way around of having a fond
goal
and running like the Devil to get it all done.

So how do we have time to do such things as participate in internet fora?
We've got nothing but time. When the milk is put away and seeds and tools
are
being gathered for the garden, there's no hurry. See what's going on on the
lists and blogs. When a piece has been clamped and glued, have a glass of
tea
and see what silliness is on the list now. I have all the power milling
tools
in one building and do not allow them in the inter-sanctum holy of holies
where I have my hand tools. So if a piece of wood needs resawed or thickness
planed, I must go by the house, and well, temptation being what it is, let me
see
if there's any of that gooseberry pie left and what the hell, some hot mint
tea with it and see what's happening on in the internet news.

It is what I have preached for years to, alas, an empty choir. Here we do
just about everything with hand tools. And yet we are never in a hurry,
produce
plenty and to spare, and there's all the time in the world for fishing,
playing music, blathering amongst ourselves, ...... and such foolishness as
the
internet.

Keep in mind that we also maintain this lifestyle with absolutely no cash
inputs except what our own hands and labor produce. There's no social
security,
disability, retirement, settlement, stipend, nor is there any government
assistance for fuel, food, medicine (which we almost never use anyway), or
any such.

So while I understand whence the view comes that we must be dashing about
24/7 to run a completely self-sufficient homestead, it simply isn't so. It's
much laid back and leisurely than most people's modern lives.

> Denise, however, used
> to post from time to time. Tell us, inquiring minds want to know, is
> she out tending the animals and garden or has she fled to an easier
> life?
>

See above. There IS no easier life. I suppose it's just that herself
outgrew you (all). She maintains several blogs on homesteading and
self-sufficiency. She got weary of all the whining that was the prevalent
theme on this list
a while back.



> Just asking.

I know. The faction that held that everything the Skeens had to say was from
the very mouth of Satan (only a few of whom remain, the rest migrated to
Robinson's Losers List, and even there came to odds with each other) had
waited
with bated breath for years to be present at our fall. Sorry guys. We
'glide
along like the rivers thta water the woodland'. No juicy gossop that our
vileness and nastiness has finally caught up with us and we've gone after
each
other and split up. After all this time we are still healthy, solvent,
together
..... what ARE the odds!



>
> Marie, who mainly gardens because the food tastes better and is hoping
> that liquid fuel for cars continues during her lifetime
>

Oh, they'll continue. But at an ever increasing price. </HTML>




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page