Conversations with open minds, how refreshing!

Morning temp: 59F
Afternoon high: 84F
Tonight's projected low: 60F
Humidity: 88%
Wind: E at 5mph
Moon: Waxing, close to 100%


This Morning.

1. As the month of May nears its end, we celebrate a minor success here: we have not used our clothes drier since April, nearly one month! Hanging wash out to dry on the nylon line strung across the yard has actually become a rather meditative exercise in the sunshine and wind, one to which I look forward. Before long, we hope to purchase a hand washer & ringer, which will cut electricity entirely out of the equation (though our water still comes from a centralized municple source). Moroever, the grey-water from our wash, with the help of biodegradable laundry soap, can be used to safely water the Blueberry Grove!

2. Last night we met up with one of M's sons, J., who is home visiting from his college home in Chicago. Luckily, I managed to talk not only with him but with several others we met during the evening about our Homesteading endeavors, and about the movement in general. Everyone's interest seemed peaked when I used words like, "self-reliance", "simplifying our lives", "doing more for ourselves", and even "Homesteading". As is often the case when I get to talk with bright, thoughtful folk, so doing helped me to think through my own understanding further and more clearly than I had previously. This is one reason I loved teaching.

One important dynamic that emerged in these conversations was that Homesteading is a continuum, rather than a set of absolutes. That is, one may engage Homesteading at different levels of intensity and still be a welcomed member of the movement. Some notable Homesteaders have mastered the art of self-sufficiency to such an extent that they have gone several months without spending any money whatsoever, even in the harsh Australian outback-http://www.lintrezza.com/. Others have learned to integrate lush, bountiful gardens, solar-panel energy production, and making their own bio-fuel in their garage into a typical suburban neighborhood, without infuriating their neighbors-http://www.pathtofreedom.com/. We respect and admire these advanced approaches, and would also like to suggest a gradual, incremental approach that can be made to fit any lifestyle whatsoever -http://www.urban-homesteading.com/. Basically, anything we do to increase our self-reliance, use fewer resources, save money and increase our "at home time" may start us down the Homesteading path! Each of these points is of import, and deserves a bit more detail.

i. While the Universe contains an infinite supply of wealth, riches and resources, our current civilization is not doing a very good job of making them equally and reliably available to everyone, nor are we making good decisions as to which resources to use. Clearly, 6 billion Earthlings hooked on oil as a primary power source is not avery good idea, and has created an unfortunate ecological, economic and political reality - one that we will solve, but that may take some serious discipline on everyone's part. Fortunately, some brilliant and disciplined minds are already hard at work on our behalf - http://www.cheniere.org/

Also, right now (in 2007), the money we Americans make is at an all-time low in its purchasing power. While wages have risen in terms of dollars over the past sixty years, what those dollars are capable of purchasing has plummeted. My grandfather (who had a 5th grade education), for instance, worked as a truck-driver and then as meat-slicing machine salesman and made enough money to provide for his family: a nice house in New England, two cars, a lake-side cottage for weekend get-a-ways, a college education for his daughter, and ample retirement savings on his income alone. His experience was typical in 1950, when the middle class was growing at an amazing rate. Two generations later, however, the number of families able to achieve this level of prosperity on two incomes is exceedingly rare. I do not want to paint an apocalyptic or hopeless picture here. Like our ecological difficulties, these economic circumstances simply represent a problem, which we will solve. Fortunately, brilliant thinkers are also hard at work in this arena doing just that - http://www.nesara.us/pages/home.html.

Until new, cleaner and saner realities are embraced, the benefits of using fewer resources and saving money are obvious. I think the following basic realization lies at the heart of the Homesteading movement: "I'll happily learn to cut back where I can do so with a reasonable amount of effort, for instance, purchasing as much of my food as I can from local farmer's (perhaps at real farmer's markets), since the food available at traditional grocery stores is shipped across the country (or even from other countries) and uses a tremendous amount of gasoline (nearly 60% of American gasoline consumption is used to transport food that could be - and used to be in decades past - grown locally!) and thus contributes mightily to greenhouse gases, global climate instability and all of the political amd military disasters that result from our dependence upon oil".

ii. Given these weighty considerations, it's often overlooked that the farther we go down a Homesteading path, the more calm, peaceful, "at home time" we'll get. One of the primary reasons Helen and Scott Nearing (early 20th century Homesteaders who have inspired millions around the world with their most excellent books, chiefly Living the Good Life) was to increase the amount of leisure time in their lives. They time and energy to play music, paint, write, rest, read and enjoy one another's compant and the natural world around them, and they were weary of what they called "the work treadmill": we go to work so that we can purchase things that in many cases we don't need but have been trained by advertisers to desire. But we never seem to get to the point where we have enough money and things to get off the treadmill. Sound familiar?

Once they learn to discard the "work-a-holic" tendencies learned in mainstream culture, Homesteaders are amazed at how learning to do more for themselves allows them to gradually disengage from the "work treadmill", spending greater amount of time at home, at peace. It's exciting to think what will result as Homesteading (on any level) continues to spread as a system of values, philosophy and lifestyle. Our consumption of harmful things will diminish, as our consumption of truly worthwhile things - peace, rest, health producing food, time and energy for creative endeavors and relationships - will grow!