Nope, I'm not Moneyless though I feel myself pulled in a less money direction. Especially after the Teen and I kicked off the New Year by watching this: The Teen may have been gaming and had the youtube playing proximally, rather than specifically watching however, he absorbed enough of it to facilitate an interesting conversation about Mark Boyle's message and his mission. Thanks to google and a bit of research, we also had a great conversation about his background (business, for those naysayers in the audience). I love the message he's sharing - highlighting the fact that we'd likely waste less food if we grew our own and the true cost of cheap clothes. And the man can talk the business talk, which I think is good. It shouldn't be needed but truthfully, it is. Someone with a degree in business is much more likely to be listened to - and more difficult to discredit with jargon, and 'insider knowledge' - when the person has formal training but still rejected that path. If I'm such a supporter, why not go moneyless myself? It's a question I've explored a lot, and need to explore some more. Truth be told, it tempts me often. If we pulled up stakes, built a towable tiny house, and bought a truck to tow it, we could be debt free and that, my friends, is tempting. But, it's not wholly how I want to live. To sum up quickly, it's currently -15*C (5*F for those of you who live with fahrenheit) and almost knee deep snow. So, foraging here is limited, and in a tiny house, storage is limited as well. So, I would need some way to get food during the winter and I'm not a fan of relying on purchasing food for my way of life. There is the argument in favour of moving somewhere that year 'round food production/foraging is an option however, an equally strong option (or perhaps stronger) is that to pull up stakes would mean leaving the community we have here. I actually don't believe there is a realistic way to be an island, as it were. I think self sufficiency exists best in the context of community. I'm not an intentional community type, neither do I need people around me all of the time; in fact, I've been at home since Boxing Day with little contact with the outside world, including my friends and am quite content. But I also have no illusions that doing it all by myself all of the time just isn't realistic. I don't think that a single person or even a small family can grow all of their own food, make their own clothes, etc. Even Pa and Ma Ingalls couldn't pull it off in Little House. They did most of it but they still needed to trade for some things and that was when you could. I don't think my local grocery store would let me trade my egg abundance for for sugar though once upon a time, you could do exactly that. I also feel, very acutely, the call to land stewardship. In my region huge tracts of forest and farmland are being "developed". First, everything marketable is taken off them - timber, top soil, whatever. And then big houses, or huge houses, are built upon the remains. If we were to sell, the acres of trees and pasture we're protecting by doing almost nothing* would no longer be protected and at the mercy of "development". The cost of that protection is an exchange of cash until we own it outright (and then a bit more cash annually for taxes). There is something in that for me. Now, if there was a critical mass of people who share Mark's views it would be different as well. My experiences with intentional communities hasn't been all that positive. In the circumstances I've observed, the intentions ended up miles from the end result. The Woodsman has seen other examples - most notably on when touring (musically) a few years ago. They were more urban examples however, and the issues of land use and conversation weren't prevalent the way they are in forested areas. If we were to live in an urban area, I would look for a community like that - one with a shared kitchen and a community but individual space and privacy as well. My strongly developed I (introvert) just can't work well in a busy, populated, heavy social obligation community. I need quiet and space. Now on that note, watch the video while I head back out into the gorgeous wilderness with my dog.
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So, we have two freezers. In theory, I'd be able to empty one in the summer by consolidating them. This year, thanks to a pig and a quarter cow, I wasn't able to do that. In addition to the strange and random package sizes that having all of this meat brings, I also freeze in jars. So, you can imagine the organizational shuffling that has to happen in my freezer. And the catastrophic sliding around of things at times. Ugh. So yesterday, when I cleaned out one freezer in the hopes of consolidating, I was trying to find a way to keep the jars from falling whenever the support of the neighbouring jar was extracted. So first I tried the five gallon bucket method. I know that technically that means there's a bunch of wasted space but I thought I'd be able to pack stuff all around them. It was way too much wasted space that no amount of packing around could compensate for. And yes, ideally I would have defrosted and gotten rid of that snow in there but because the other freezer is pretty full too, I had nowhere to store the food while I did that. As I was puzzling until my puzzler was sore, I came up with a couple of other ideas. One is to make some broth out of some of the bones etc. that I just threw in the freezer. The other was that I remembered that I had some of those wire grid storage things that tend to be more frustration than anything else most days. So... I grabbed them to deploy. My verdict? Awesome. Now I just have to do the other one...
I wanted to send a little shout out to Joshua Becker. Sound familiar? He's the mastermind behind "Becoming Minimalist". Now, why send a shout out to him when there are so many great people writing great blogs? That's an easy one for me to answer. In addition to having a great perspective on becoming minimalist, with some really good, real life solutions, Joshua also offers a lot to people for free.
The most important thing for me, lately, are his posts on his business model and getting started as a blogger. These are the kinds of things I've been struggling with - for example, do I need to have advertising to keep my blog sustainable? It just wasn't something I wanted to do and when I saw a few bloggers I really liked head down that path, I started thinking maybe this isn't the platform for me. I just want to share what I know and hopefully, along the way, help someone out. I'd love to not pay out of pocket for the blog but I don't need to make a fortune off it either. Joshua's post about his business practices helped me find the middle road which in turn, lead me back to the original purpose of the blog. If you're interested in how to create a sustainable blog without a tonne of advertising (hint: it requires extra effort but is so worth it) or if you're not sure how to start or what the benefits are, I suggest you hit the links above. And, if you're interested in a real life experience of stripping away the excess, it's a great post for his musings, tips, and some diversity brought by the guest bloggers. Overall, it's a blog I would strongly recommend. |
AuthorI'm a 40-something writer and smallholder living in the wilds of BC with my family, our small herd of Nigerian Dwarf Goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, and cats. Archives
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